Autumn

Autumn has well and truly arrived here. The days are shorter, it's getting darker quicker, the days are becoming cold. I love a few things about this season.

1. It's not as cold as Winter
2. Out come the cosy clothes
3. Cosy nights by the heater
4. Cups of tea
5. Comforting morning coffee
6. Hot cross buns
7. A bigger motivation to stitch
8. Comforting stews

We not long ago celebrated Easter. To me it felt like we had just celebrated Santa coming down the chimney. My two girls woke up early excitedly with their Easter baskets in hand waiting to go downstairs for their Easter egg hunt. To their delight the Easter bunny sure had visited, so chocolate was indeed consumed for Breakfast.
My favourite hot cross buns are the mocha ones from my local bakery bakers delight. A mix of chocolate and coffee, mmmm two of my favourite things. They always bake them the week of Easter, so I made sure to get myself a pack which I had every morning for breakfast that week. Now I have to wait a whole year to get them again. To those who celebrate I hope you all had a lovely Easter too.

I have had a emotional few months. I lost my beautiful dog Matilda in early March. She was 14 years old but she was my baby and a much loved member of our family. She was quite sick in the end so it was a difficult decision to let her go. One that we made for her so she wouldn't suffer any more. I miss her dearly. Just the little things like hanging out the washing, she used to sit with me in the sun. Her feeding times, the company of a night. I have to look back on the wonderful memories we had together though. Especially the memories I have of her when she was a puppy, I rescued her from a dog shelter and we were the best of friends. It has been a very upsetting time for us all.

MATILDA (11 years old)

We are also in the middle of moving house, it's time for a bigger house now for my husband and I and the girls. It's an exciting time but also an emotional one and a very time consuming one packing up etc...but our new house is beautiful and I am so very excited to move in. Memories will always be remembered in my old house of course.
Losing Matilda and how busy it was with getting ready to sell our house entailed the start of the year with my stitching put on hold, I lost my motivation and didn't feel up to it at all even though I know it is very good therapy and has helped me through things before. It was frustrating though because I knew my baby sampler wasn't long off being finished. It doesn't help though with how much I am hating this backstitching!! I normally love back stitch but I HATE back stithcing this pattern. It is quite a challenge and hard to keep motivated. I have had a many few moments of being completely frustrated by it haha. My daughter is lucky she is loved so much, haha!
But of course I have kept up with it and I would like to show you what I am up to.

Backstitching the hair on the baby was a challenge, but it paid off, she looks so cute!!

I will be happy when I have finished his pattern though, I am itching to start something new. I have always been a fan of the Lansvit fairies which I have two of as my lovely husband bought them for me a few Christmas's ago now. He gave me....

In a sunny mood

and

In a lilac mood

But they have recently released two new fairies down below. I am in love with them of course!!!! They will be going on my wish list. I have no time to stitch them haha but even so they shall be mine. Just gorgeous, such character and fine detail. In a sunny mood will be going to my daughter Tabitha and in a lilac mood will be going to my daughter Violet (hence the colour).

In a Autumn mood

In a Winter mood

I will be sure to post pictures of my finished sampler whenever that will be. 

Until next time....happy stitching xx

2015

Happy new year to all my followers! I hope the year ahead brings everyone happiness, good health, love, peace and of course lots of stitching time.
As usual it's been a few months since I last posted. I have good intentions of being a bit more regular with my posting but it usually comes down to the fact of lack of time for me at the moment. It doesn't mean I haven't been stitching though. Maybe 2015 will be a better year for me with my posting.
Today is a rainy day here in Melbourne, my baby girl is asleep and my toddler keeping busy so I have a chance to actually post photos of my progress.
This is where I am up to on my current baby sampler. I am happy to say I have finished all the cross stitches, I am now just up to working on the backstitching as you can see and then I will be up to the birth details.

I am still in love with this pattern, and I am very happy with it. I was aiming to finish it before my daughter's first birthday in December but unfortunately that didn't happen. A few things happened in my family and it's also been a busy last few months so I didn't get as much stitching done as I would have liked. But at least now I can see an end in sight which makes it more exciting to knowing I can have another start very soon. A new start is always fun!
I also have two other stitching gadgets to show you that my good friend Gayle gave me a few months ago. She bought me a needle minder which I have never had before. Now I don't know how I lived without it of course haha.

She said she had to buy it for me after she saw the print. Hence my blog name, haha! Every now and then  I do find myself putting the needle in my mouth when changing threads and have to slap my hand to remind myself to use my needle minder. Haha.
She also very generously bought me this gorgeous scissor fob which I love and is very me. Lots of sparkle and cupcakes. She knows me well. I have 3 fobs now, these two stay on my scissors generally but I can start to swap them around with different projects.

Anyway that's all I have to share today. I will definitely post when I finish my baby sampler.

Happy Stitching xx