~ My heart breaks ~

Dear friends, please keep the people of Christchurch and everyone in New Zealand, in your thoughts and prayers after the total devastation,  loss of life and ruin that has beset their beautiful city after yesterdays tragic earthquake.  Beautiful Christchurch.....the city of my birth.

:) Happy Australia Day :)

~ Our Hearts Go Out ~

I have actually had a few attempts at writing this blog post but each time the words I write just don't seem adequate enough to paint a picture of the horror that has beset our State over the past weeks. Queensland has been hit by massive floods with 18 people dead and 14 still missing. Brisbane the States, capital which is 100 kms from where we live has been devastated! We are very fortunate that our family has all been safe with no damage to property but thousands of people have not been so lucky. The resilience of the people of Queensland has been inspiring and although the damage will take years to rebuild the Lord Mayor said today that Brisbane's 'heart is beating again'. Our hearts go out to all those thousands of people affected by this tragedy.

~ And a Happy New Year ~

Image courtesy of French kissed Postcards

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~Edgar Guest

~ Happy Christmas Dear Friends ~

"May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!"
  ~Author Unknown

~ What a naughty blogger ~

That's me....I know it's been a while but, no excuses unless you could call a major 'stitching lull' an excuse.  Well that is what I will use as my excuse this time :))

No stitching has been done here for some time now and as I wait for the lull to pass  I  have been keeping busy doing other things. I have an extra crafty interest now since my neighbour introduced me to card making and I have to admit to being quite hooked now on paper craft . I have also discovered  You Tube and am amazed at how much stuff is available to watch on there.  So many  people sharing their talents and doing amazing tutorials etc.  So much to learn!!

Anyway, I did want to show you a couple of things.  For sometime now I have been wanting a cabinet so that I could display my stitched bits and pieces and have them behind glass as opposed to sitting gathering dust in my two tiered cake stand.

  This is how they used to be and then in their new home......

...... 

DH gave the cabinet just the right amount of shabby - just the way I wanted it.

These are the 'guard dogs' keeping watch from above......

and here are the shelves....

Ben was a little bit upset that I posted a photo of the 'watch dogs' and not him.  He makes a much better job of looking beautiful than being a watch dog :)) He does have rather an odd expression on in this one though.

I had quite a job getting him to raise his head off the floor long enough to take this photo - lazy thing lol!!

Just to prove I have at least finished something, here is my Miss Mary Mack.

I have always loved Mary and here she is awaiting framing.  I love this dark linen.  I think it is from Birds of a Feather but can't think of the name of the colour now.  I have an image in my head of framing her in a big heavy dark frame like the one I used on my  La D Da Garden Angel here I think this would suit her beautifully.

A few weeks ago, my son became engaged and I plan to stitch a sampler for him and his beautiful fiancee for their wedding.  I ordered three pieces of linen which arrived this week.  The colours are from left to right....R & R Creme Brulee, Lakeside Vintage Luna and Lakeside Navy Bean.

 Aren't they lovely.  I am planning on stitching La D Da ~ Tie that Binds which you can see here  I think the Creme Brulee is the best option.  What do you think?

Have you ever had a song or a ditty just stuck in your head for days on end and you can't get rid of it?  That happened to me recently.  DD showed me this very cute You tube video of Shirley Temple singing The Cuppy Cake Song.  I had never seen it before and thought it so cute.  Decided on making it the ring tone on my phone but wish I hadn't (since changed it again).  It was just well and truly stuck in my head until it started to drive me nuts. Anyway, here it is if you want to watch it but don't say I didn't warn you LOL!!

(Hope my background music doesn't get mixed into it. I don't know how to fix that)

Well, although it had been a while since we chatted, I did have a few things to talk about.  Hope all is well in your worlds and as always, thanks for visiting with us.


"When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish." 
                  ~ Winnie the Pooh

~ Something Old and Something Even Older ~

Well I finally took the plunge and decided it was time to be brave and attempt to finish   Black Bird Designs Flowers for Sarah  from Thank You, Sarah Tobias.  This was a SAL I did with Sandra last year and although the stitching part was duly finished, the assembly part  kind of scared me so until a couple of days back it was hidden in the drawer with my other 'finished but not yet assembled 'WIP's.  I was always concerned about the putting together part of this beautiful design as it was stitched on a very long piece of linen, something like 54 inches long, plus it was quite an open weave linen and I could foresee issues in trying to get it all nice and even.  Anyway, here are the results.  I wasn't really happy with the colours either as although I stitched it in the suggested colours, it always looked rather 'wishy-washy' to me and didn't have the aged, vintage look that I was hoping for.  So, after I had put it together, I decided to once again be brave and dunk the whole thing in some coffee!!  Still not quite right so Plan B then came into play and I gave it a  spray with Parisian Essence.  I am now  pleased with the results - not perfect but okay and I am liking the rather crumpled look and don't plan on ironing out the wrinkles as it looks a bit rustic and  lets me dream that  it perhaps is something that has been hiding away in Great Grandma's workbasket for many years. Oh and yes, there is an extra bonus....the coffee makes it smells gorgeous :)

Now onto the 'something really old'....well, kind of really old!  Back in June, I took a trip back to New Zealand to visit my dearest, longtime friend who many years ago taught me to cross stitch and is now really ill. I think the second thing I ever cross stitched was this little picture  - very simple and and nothing special except for the sentiment... Forever Friends.  I know it meant something to my dear friend even though the threads I never tidied at the back showed through.  When I was there, she asked me to take it back home with me.  So this little simple picture, now hangs with pride in my craft room and I thank you my friend for teaching me to stitch - something that has become a real passion for me and over the years has made me lots of 'Forever Friends' just like you.

While surfing some blogs this morning I came across this beautiful quote and thought of you .....