Christmas has come & gone

Thank goodness it's all over for another year! DD got the Nintendo DS she wanted from Santa...you gotta hand it to that Santa..he sure knows what to bring! ;) The cats got a little stocking filled with toys & as usual, I got no stitching-related pressies. Oh well...can't have everything.

The tree

This is the tree as promised, with DD below. Apparently it's not as attractive to our new burmese kitten as I thought. I hung my home-made balls that have bells attached on the bottom branches for her amusement & I think that has saved us from "kitty in the tree". :)

Speaking of the kitten, Princess Crystal Pickle (Pickle for short) - she had her vaccination booster yesterday & has been asleep ever since! I was a little worried earlier & got DH to ring the vet. Apparently it's normal! I was so worried that she hadn't eaten or drunk anything, I fed water to her through an eyedropper. She wouldn't get up to eat so DH took her to the litter tray where she "did the business" & then fed her. She ate something so that was fine. Poor little Pickle!

Ornament exchange!

This is the ornie I received from Dani in Canada. I just love participating in exchanges...you never know what you might get & I've never been disappointed! Thanks Dani!!! I'm looking forward to hanging it on my tree tonight.

Speaking of which, the tree is up with lights on but nothing else. We decided to buy a fake tree this year after 20+ yrs of real ones. There are many pros & cons with the real deal. It smells good but you've gotta clean up the mess! Plus they are quite expensive these days...AU$50 & up. So we bit the bullet & bought a fake. It's quite big....crowds my stitching area but I think it's a nice one. I'll post a pic when it's all decorated & I can manage to get the kitten off it.

My ornies are actually finished!

I just finished these ornies off yesterday & am very happy with how they turned out. Well, that is, except for the cording. It's never quite right! It's never twisted tight enough or in the right colours or thick/thin enough! I got some DMC perle 3 recently in Christmas colours that I thought would come in handy for cording...it was $1/skein. Barg!!

I know I've got some more stitched ornies somewhere..I just can't find them! One of my pet peeves is putting something in a "safe" place & never finding it again. I must get myself some sort of box to put stitched ornies in as I finish them. Oh well, I'm sure they'll turn up one day! :)

I love Christmas ornaments!

Here is another ornie I just finished. It's one of those Mill Hill kits & I find they stitch up very quickly & look fabulous. They're real easy to finish too which is a bonus!

Over at the Needle & Thread Bulletin Board, we're holding a Christmas Ornament exchange. So if you're interested in signing up, come & visit us at http://p087.ezboard.com/bneedleandthread

2 more ornie finishes!

I had these 2 ornies all kitted up for my trip to the US last year. They did the trip with me but didn't get finished (although I started them!!). I just found them & decided to finish them now that I'm in my little stitching frenzy.

They are both from the 2002 JCS ornie ed I think. The first one is Lizzie Kate& the second is Heart in Hand. Both quite simple designs but I like 'em.

Another finish!

I thought maybe I should stitch this (it's SB's ornament from the 2004 JCS ornament edition) before the 2005 edition arrives on my doorstep! So I stitched it up in about 3 days. I plan to make the entire series (there's 8 of the buggers) into a wallhanging. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that until 2007 but at least I'll be ready!! :)

A small finish

I finished the needle roll I blogged about the other day. SB's Happy Day needleroll is all done except for the hemstitching & stuffing. Yee haa! :)

On Friday night, I got up from my chair & my knee hurt. So much that I could hardly walk on Saturday. It was OK on Sunday so I played tennis on Monday & now it hurts a lot & is all swollen. Oh goodie....& my doctor is in China so I can't see him until next week. Double goodie! I must be getting old; my body is falling apart. I know what he'll say: "Lose weight"!!

I've uploaded my pics of the scrapbooking I did. They're here: http://community.webshots.com/user/catcar7

Stitching & more.....

I'm finally on a roll! I discovered a long-lost needle roll kit in my DH's
car so I've been stitching it. It's an SB (duh!), Happy Day, that I bought
when I was at the retreat in Utah last year. I haven't stitched on a 32ct
for so long but it doesn't seem to be a problem for my eyes thank
goodness. I'll upload a pic when it's done.

I've also been doing some scrapbooking. We had our annual big craft
fair here in Sydney last week & I bought a book of 8x8 papers for
Christmas albums. So I scrapped my DD's santa photos from birth
to now! Took me 6 hours but I'm very happy with them. I just love
that 8x8 size! I'll have to scan them & also upload.

Has it really been that long?

I can't believe that I haven't posted here since June! In fact,
I can't even believe it's August. Anyway....I've had a cross
stitch finish since June & it's an SB one. Elisabeth's stocking
is stitched & waiting for its 'friend', Robert's stocking. These
are for my brother & his new wife (ack...I've just realised it
will be one year since their wedding in only 3 weeks!!).

So...if anyone out there reads this & is interested in SB designs,
come visit us on the SB BB at
http://p079.ezboard.com/bshepherdsbushbulletinboard

Finally....

I finally began cleaning up DD's room today. My mother came over to help cos I couldn't face it by myself! Yes, it's that bad....just like the rest of the house. When it was done, DD came home from school & rolled on the floor. There was no floor exposed before..it was all covered with stuff. So one room down, 5 more to go!

Easter

Well, Easter has come & almost gone, the eggs have been hidden & eaten & I'm doing a small happy dance. I finished Bent Creek's Kitty Cat Row today albeit with a couple of errors! I did some of the alphabet in the wrong colour but I'm sure as heck not frogging it. It's only taken me a couple of weeks to do this one so I'm one happy bunny.

We're off next week to the Gold Coast (which is in Queensland for those of you in the northern hemisphere...a bit like Florida!) for 5 nights at the Marriott resort. Should be nice. They have a pool with tropical fish swimming in it so DD should be in her glory with her flippers & snorkel. We'll also be visiting various theme parks - going a bit roller-coast mad I should think. I'm looking forward to a week of eating out!

Lazy Sunday

My daughter's birthday is on Tues so today we went bike
shopping. She got a very nice blue 24" bike & is very
happy. Apparently this one will last her until she's an
adult so I'm very happy too.

On the cross-stitch front, this week is our Aussie sort-of
annual TWBB get-together. I'm quite excited to once
again meet up with this wonderful bunch of girls. We're
spending 4 days together this time, in gorgeous apartments
in Sydney. We're going on 2 bus trips to not-so-LNS &
one other trip via train to a local LNS. Should be fun &
I'm sure we'll spend up big.

My life has been flat out in the past 2 weeks not helped
by some idiot woman who decided she liked my car so
much she hit it as she drove past! Luckily for me the
insurance will take care of it plus an added extra is they
will wash my car. We have water restrictions here in
SYD at the moment & you can't hose your car or any hard
surface. Gardens can only be watered 3 days a week in
the morning & evening which doesn't affect me at all as
my garden consists of weeds. :)

Well.....I've started

I finally decided to start one of these blog things. What
I will write is still undecided & how many people will actually
read it is another matter. Let's just see how it goes.

So first of all, being a major cross-stitch addict, I have to
share my first happy dance of the year. I just finished
Toy Gatherer by Shepherd's Bush. This is a big piece &
I'm very happy to have it out of the way. I recently
visited the US & brought back the mat (that's another story!!)
so can't wait to frame this baby & have it hanging in my
new gallery, the hallway.