Finally uploaded some pics of my recent crafting activity.

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been quiet for so long, I promise that it's down to non stop crafting. :)

I have been making cards and Christmas decorations and my jars of Christmas really caught on! I have people still asking for them but I've run out of jars!!

I tried to upload the pictures alongside this text but it seems Blogger didn't like it too much so I had to add them to my gallery down the right hand side instead.

I have been asked by one of my friends, friends to make her wedding invitations and thank you cards! We have been working together for the last few days sorting out details... I'm actually really excited (as well as nervous!) It's a red and white theme so technically should be quite simple (I hope). I'll upload pics as soon as I have any. :)

Got loads more stash to have a go play with and lots more stitchy designs that would make lovely cards.... best I get on with it I think. :D xx

Stash finally arrived!

Well my parcels finally arrived from the UK. :)


As you can see I have plenty to be getting on with now! Some of this is bits that I ordered off of Ebay a little while ago too... I just need to stuck in now.

Out of the whole collection I have to say the little wooden buttons are my absolute favourite. I can't wait use them in some designs! :)

I have made a few cards from a card making kit but to me they don't really count seeings as I didn't plan them myself. I'll post a pic as soon as I have taken some.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend, 28 days until Christmas! I'm so excited. :D

Quick update... just seem to be so busy!

Well I had the craft show in Birmingham last weekend which meant a flight back to the uk to stay with my parents for the weekend and a train trip up to the NEC on the day of the show.

I went with my good friend Kerry to the show and oh boy was it fun!! :D
We shopped until we dropped and then had a coffee and shopped some more!! Card stock, glitzy bitz, peel offs and buttons talk about crafters heaven!

The show overall was fantastic but it was nicer seeings as I got to see one of my bestest friends at the sametime. Thank you for such a fab day Kerry make sure you start saving for next year because we are doing the same again next year without a doubt!! :D

I don't have any pics to show you as yet because unfortunately my huge mountain of stash is still at my parents house.... my Mum is posting it over to me next week hopefully! Kerry has already made two cards out of her goodies! I'm so jealous!! Can't wait to get stuck into mine. :)

Anyway I have been stitching a small card design most of the day (around the boys being home too which is NOT easy!) got a few more designs lined up to stitch so going to be stuck into those over the next couple of weeks... well until the rest of my goodies arrive anyway. Tee hee.

Hope you ar all having a fab weekend.

Happy crafting everyone and a HUGE Happy Birthday to Kerry, love you loads chick. xxxxxxxxxx

Completely off topic but had to show you!

Unfortunately my poor stitching has had to take a back seat over the last week. I have decided to re-start my little crafting venture and so have been researching my many crafty ideas (including candle making which looks like fun!).

Yesterday I went to my local (remember I'm in Germany) garden centre to see what bits I could get and ended up sitting all afternoon making Jars of Christmas, I've posted some pics below (again excuse the bad photography! Lol).

I just need to add tags labelled "Jar of Christmas" and they're finished! :) I have sold one already, the little girl in the jar with the red ribbon.... she was my favourite too. Just need to get more jars and I'll be making a lot more of these, they are so festive and cute. :D

I'll also be making cards, starting with Christmas ones of course, candles, various felt items for kids and anything else that pops into my mind. My husband has agreed to help me turn our celler into a workshop and even wants to have ago at some of my ideas!!

Phew, sorry for yacking on I'm just so excited!! I'll post pics of everything I create so you can see. It just means a few unstitchy pics will be appearing but I'm sure all my crafty friend wont mind. :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!! BIG hugs! xxxx

Finally finished!

Well Lickle Ted is complete at last. He really was nice to stitch and I even enjoyed all the backstitch too. :)

                                             Here's a pic, excuse the poor camera skills! Lol.

Next, I'll be working on another design from World of Cross stitch. It's an African lady with butterflies and a deer. I can't start her tomorrow because the boys have swimming lessons and we get in too late. I'll def have her started on Thursday night though. :)

Hope you all had a good weekend and that your week is going well so far too... lots of stitching and crafting going on I hope.

Big hugs xxx

I'm back!!

Hello everyone. I'm so sorry for being a bit quiet recently, I started having major internet problems which wasn't allowing me to view any of my favourite pages and then I started losing my stitchy bug, but refused to let him slip away that easily!!

I only have Lickle Ted's foot to complete and then backsitch his lower half and he is finished! :) I'll post a pic as soon as he is... I'm aiming for a Sunday finish so a couple more days and he is done.

I hope everyone else has had a better week than mine. At least it's the weekend now!! :D

Have a fab day everyone. xxxx

Pass the needle, hold the frog!! :)

Hello everyone, just thought I'd say a quick hello before starting my stitchy session (Kerry ur very quiet, I miss you!)

I'm on a mission tonight so if the frog decides to pay me another visit I'll be most upset! Can't really do a stitch count tonight because I'm aiming to get a bit of backstitch done as well (then I can scroll to the lower half of the design knowing the top half is completely finished.)  This design has lots of backstitch so going to need to concentrate extra hard.

Hope everyone has had a good week.... let the weekend begin. :D

Oh a bit off topic but I would just like to boast a tiny bit... recently a children's book I wrote was published and went on sale in August... I was informed today that Amazon have sold out 3 times now and are having to restock again! Just in case anyone wants to take a peek it's called "You're a meany!" by Rachel Douglas. I'm just sooo chuffed!!!

Anyhoo on with my stitchathon. :)

Blaady Frog!!

Well after a long and busy weekend trip back to the UK from Thursday until Monday I was really looking forward to getting back into my Lickle Ted design... when the evening finally came I suddenly realised I wasn't really in the mood but soldiered on anyway.... this turned out to be a HUGE mistake!!! :(  

After blitzing over 500 stitches, just as I was finishing up, I saw I had made a big mistake and needed to unpick well over half of what I'd stitched! Sooo gutted, managed to hold back the tears and also from throwing it across the room too! I just calmly put it down and went to bed.....

Plenty of sleep and a few hours into my day I managed to unpick the whole lot and it's now been restitched too. :D I'm so proud of myself. :)

As much as I'm itching to crack on with some more tonight alas it's swimming night for the boys and so I won't be in until after 9pm.. think i might sneak some more in tomorrow afternoon though. Tee hee.

Hope you all had a fab weekend... we're half way towards the next one already! :) xxx

Zombie alert!!

Ok so I'm finishing my current project in record time which is fab but at the same time I'm becoming a grumpy, over tired zombie, willing to bite anybody's head off if they dare cross me!! :(

I've begrudgingly come to the decision that tonight I'm going to finish the area of colour variations that I've started and then have an early night. That way I'm still getting some stitches finished but can catch up on some sleep too!

The only other frustrating thing for me at the moment is that I have a non stitchy weekend ahead of me... we are travelling back to the uk for a wedding and so will be away from tomorrow until Tuesday!! I'm going to get severe withdrawal symptoms! Hopefully give me the push I need to crack on once I'm back though. :)

So everyone have a fantastic weekend, I'll get lots of pics at the wedding to upload and show you. Mke sure you all do lots of stitching for me! :)
Big hugs xxxx

Sunday evening stitchathon (hope ur ready Kerry!)

Before I start my stitchy session this evening I would just like to say a huge THANK YOU to hippywitch for allowing me to take part in her giveaway! I think it is such a generous thing to go out of ur way to do and it has really inspired me and shown me just how nice us crafty lot are!!

Right now on with this evenings stitchathon, as usual my target is 400 stitches so fingers crossed they are done before bedtime.

I'll be back with an update in a few hours. xxx

Stitchathon update...

Well this evening I started stitching at 8:15pm due to getting engrossed in sorting out the hundreds of msgs I had on Face book! And I finished my last stitch at 10:55pm... somehow I manage a whopping 572 stitches!!! I'm so pleased with myself but I would just like to confess that this included two quite large areas of one colour which made it nice and straight forward.

Lickle Ted is really coming to life now and he looks so much nicer stitched than he does in the picture. I'm glad I decided to give him a go. :)

I hope everyone has had a nice Saturday and got everything done that they wanted to.

Will post a progress pic at the beginning of next week so you can all see how I'm getting on.

Enjoy the rest of weekend. xxx

Stitchathon update...

Well I'm really getting stuck into my Lickle Ted design at the moment, he is just so cute and coming on really quickly too!

I managed 461 stitches in my two and a half hours of stitching tonight which isn't bad at all, his face is visible already so roll on tomorrow evening so that I can get started on his body. :)

Hope you have all had a nice evening. xxx

Crafty treats

Here is a picture of a few items that I treated myself to last week. Everything is from Ebay and the most expensive item was £2! I'm love finding crafty bargains. :)

I can't wait to make the two little keyrings and the pincushion! They must go onto my "to do" list first of course. Now I must ban myself from Ebay for a while before I get too addicted!

Here he is at last!

Hedgehog by Polyanna Pickering, chart in issue 168 of World of Cross Stitching.

He really was nice and easy to stitch, all full stitches and as you can see only a small amount of backstitch to bring out a bit of detail. He measures 25x19.5cm, thats what I'd describe as a medium size design.

I love most of Polyanna P's designs and have quite a few on my "to do" list too. 

Drum roll please......

Woohoo after 511 stitches and a little bit of backstitching my Hedgehog is finally finished! He is so cute I'm very proud of him.

As soon as I get 5 minutes later I'll take a picture and add it to my gallery. Hopefully you will all like him as much as I do. :)

Now to sort the threads and material ready to start my next project!! How exciting! :D

Kerryp77, well done for getting into the petals on your Hydrangea (spelling!!), and also for getting to the half way point of the complete design! Another stitchathon later I think because I can't wait to see your finished effort. :) x

Have a great day everyone! xxx

German pancake house

Last night we were invited out to eat at a German pancake house.... I had mine with powdered sugar, cherries and ice cream, it was DELICIOUS!! I couldn't eat it all though it was way too filling! Mmm mmmmm.

Alas the evening out sadly meant no stitching again, I wish it was possible to have a busy social life AND keep up with my stitching! :(  Even having an extra hour in the day wouldn't help!

Anyway my stitchathon will continue this evening and I WILL be finishing my Hedgehog! I'm also working on a wedding design to make into a card so I'll add a few stitches to that this afternoon too hopefully.

 It's almost time to pick up TJ my 2yr old from nursery.... goodbye peace and quiet hello mini whirlwind. :)

Have a good afternoon everyone. xx

Daily stitchathon results

I didn't quite manage to hit my target this evening. I did 362 stitches tonight, thats not really too bad considering my stitching time was constantly interrupted by my children and my husband. I had to start half an hour later than planned as well so I'm actually quite pleased. :)

The design itself is basically finished, one more evening on it and I'll be able to post a pic of the completed Hedgehog! I'm already geared up in my mind to start my next project which is from another issue of WOXS, it's Lickle Ted with a star in a jar. My "to do" list is really shrinking at last!! :D

Not sure how Kerry got on this evening but hopefully she managed to get close to her target too.

Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone. xxx

Lazy Sundays

What a lovely lazy day it's been. :)

The boys have had a pijama day, the eldest playing on his XBox and the younger two building with Lego. I've given them an early bath today which means I can start my stitchathon a bit earlier hopefully! :D

Unfortunately it's time for the chilling out to end now though.... that annoying dinner time will soon be upon us which means it's time to take my place in th kitchen. I have found I can do most things I try quite well but cooking is never going to be on my "passionate about" list! Lol. Besides, it's such a waste of my precious stitching time!

Feed them, do their homework, get them to bed, leave hubby with the tv remote and the rest of the time is all mine!!

Roll on tonights stitchathon. Another 400 should be achieveable I think but it needs a few more than that to finish the design. C'mon Kerry let's get you into that pretty blue flower. :)

Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday. xxx

No stitching?????

After a long day out shopping for a wedding outfit I could really do with having a nice relaxing evening with my stitching, unfortunately my stitching isn't going to get a look in at all today because we have been invited to a house party.

Have I got so addicted to my hobby that a night out sipping cocktails is now a burden?? Wow it must be serious!

I guess I'm looking forward to this evening a little but knowing that I could have completed my design this evening if given the chance is a little depressing. :(    Nevermind I can finish tomorrow and then look forward to starting the next design on my "to do" list from Monday. :) 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Speak later if I don't get in too late!

Stitchathon results

Well I stitched from 8:30pm until 11:30pm and I managed 587 stitches in the end.... not an amazing result but still good and I've almost finished my design!! One more evening on it and my Hedgehog will be complete. :)

Now to enjoy my Galaxy choccie bar and watch a movie.... I really DO love Fridays!

Have a good evening everyone. xxx

Friday at last!!

What a long lazy day! I love Fridays and I always make sure I have absolutely nothing planned or left over to do.

My 2yr old isn't at nursery on a Friday either so its nice to be able to have some time to ourselves, today we snuggled for a nap and then went out for lunch. He was very well behaved so I just treated him and his two older brothers to an ice cream each.

That being said and done they are now all quietly tucked up in bed which means..... Stitchathon time!! My usual target is 400 stitches but seeings as its Friday I have the opportunity to go beyond that tonight. The question is can I do it?? I'm going to give it a jolly good try anyway!

Kerry77 will also be stitching along with me, I'm sure we're both going to do really well. :)

Let the stitching begin!

Stitchathon update

Well I managed 373 stitches this evening... not quite my 400 but I was rudely interrupted by a phone call from my Mum in the uk. :)

I was hoping to have the Hedgehog design finished by tomorrow evening but I can see unless I'm able to stitch until 3am it looks more like a Sunday night finish instead. Not bad really as long as I get him finished this week I'll be pleased.

I think seeings as it's a school night I better get myself up to bed or I'll be no use at all to my boys in the morning!

Evening stitchathon

Well it's that time again stitchers! From 8pm (I'm in Germany remember) onwards me and my good friend Kerry77 urge each other on by having a stitchathon. We set ourselves a stitch count target to hit within our alotted stitchy time and update each other as soon as we've run out of time or had to stop. Every target we hit gets us closer to completing our design!!

My target for this evening is 400 stitches and I'll be stitching until roughly 10:30pm. Wish me luck everyone! :)

Me so far....

Well as you've probably guessed I'm crazy about cross stitching. I've been stitching for about 7 years and have tried almost everything cross stitching has to offer.

I've completed many designs over the years, some as gifts for others and some to keep for myself. There is nothing more satisfying than adding that last stitch to your design and being able to sit back and say "I did that!"

I'm currently working on a Hedgehog design by Polyanna Pickering from one of my favourite cross stitch mags- World of Cross stitch. I subscribe to this and two other cross stitch mags - Cross stitch Gold and Cross stitch Collection. Subscribing to these has created an unbelievably long to do list and so I recently put my foot down and started working my way through it one by one.

I'll try to keep you as up to date as possible on my current WIP's and also any random ideas I suddenly come up with. I love helping people stay motivated with their work so if you need a nudge every now and again I'm your girl!!

Thanks for reading my post, and thank you to everyone who chooses to become a follower of my rambling on! :)