Mystery bead a long progress

I realised this morning that I'd not shared any progress pics of the secret bead along I've been doing.

I did start it on Dec 1st and kept up for a few days then had to put it aside to finish the trees then a thread broke that meant having to undo a fair bit to fix it so it got put aside again while I did Mum's present so got behind :( 

Now those projects are finished and Christmas is over I'm back on it but of course still behind because the bead a long ended on Christmas eve! 

This is days 1-9

also day's 1-9 but the other side of it

and this is days 10 & 11 with day 12 started, it's also just past the point I was at when the thread broke 

I've decided that as long as I get it to day 16 or more tomorrow I'll still add the 2014 plaque that came with it as I will if completed 2/3 of it in 2014.

Keep your fingers crossed for me but it should be OK as I have no new year plans this year

Christmas presents

Lucy got another skull bookmark for her collection

And my Mum got the companion needlecase to last year's gift

Penguins and stash

I finished stitching the penguins on Sunday morning and my Mum made the stocking up for me because my machine was put away with Lucy and Teejay being here.

No pic of that tho because I forgot to take one and it's packed ready to go home tomorrow but you all know what a stocking looks like anyway :)

I got some new stash this year:)

This is from Ursh who was my advent exchange partner

And this was off my fella.

Both will be started in Jan as part of Gifted Gorgeousness

A late TUSAL from me

I finally remembered to take pics of my ort containers this evening for the final TUSAL of the year :)

I've only really added orts from Toy Gatherer, Skating Penguins and a few from Reindeer Stables since last time out

And my beading orts with lots of green in it from making the trees

Advent Blog Hop

This is my first time taking part in the advent blog hop or indeed any blog hop organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and hopefully it won't be the only/last time!

I don't have much in the way of Christmas stitching which is a bit daft when you think it's my favourite time of year but I do have one that is out all year round and it's this one......

Under the Evergreen from my favourite designer Teresa Wentzler and unusually for a TW it's all in whole crosses.

Now for part 2 of the blog hop, the best present I ever received.

Well it won't be the empty box my Mum gave me one year or the one empty box my fella gave me a couple of years ago, or the head/shoulder make up thingie I had one year as a kid.

I think I'm going to go with the viv for Baby and Baby herself that I given in 2012 by exh and Mel although the handbag (red suede and black leather) from fella last year and the new winter coat that my parents have given me this year were in the running for the title (I was in need of a new coat and so I have it early)

Family ornaments

Every Christmas I make an ornament for my parents, both girls, both grandson and the last few years my fella as well and I try to make them the same one but different this year I went for a tree from Threadabead

Apart from no 4 it was a lucky dip as to who got which tree

Tree 1 went to Lucy

Tree 2 went to Mel

Tree 3 went to my fella and it's my favourite one

Tree 4 went to my parents and was the only one planned

It's exactly the same pattern each time but everyone turned out different esp on the bottom branch 

Stitch from Stash December report

I've not spent a single penny this month not even the rest of the bonus budget so I'm quite pleased about that so I don't really have anything to write about this month.
I have continued to find new homes for some of my unwanted stash and plan to carry on next year.

New starts from stash = None
PHD's worked on = Skating Penguins and Toy Gatherer
£ spent = a big fat zero
Budget left = £144.64.  £124.64 carried over and £20 for Dec
Bonus Budget left = £19.33


Over the course of the year I have spent £95.36 on stash from my budget not including the bonus budget for Nov/Dec that averages out to just £7.94 a month!

We have a break now until the new Stitch from Stash starts on Jan 1st so you never know I may invest in Peacock Cypher so that I can finally use the silk pack for it that was gifted to me by Daffycat several years ago!

I'd like to thank Mel of Epic Stitching for all she has done for all of us taking part this year and I hope she doesn't have any grey hairs from it :)

More penguins

Another quick update on them taken this morning.

These 2 guys are ready to back stitch now and then I just have to finish the one above them

Penguins update

Just a quick update this evening on Teejay's penguin stocking.

I have 2 complete penguins left to do and the one on the right to finish off and I've already made a start on them 

Stitching updates

I never got round to posting an update from last weekend on Toy Gatherer so here it is.

There won't be one this next week because I've decided to take the weekend off from it so that I can finish Teejay's stocking before he arrives on Thursday.  My stitching time will be a lot less when he gets here and I won't be able to work on it in the day while he's about.

This was how it looked on Saturday morning, it's a little further on now

Ornament Exchange

I took part in the annual ornament exchange over on Needlecraft Haven again this year opening day was Dec 1 and here I am 10 days later only just getting round to posting it.

This is the beauty I received from Dusty 

And the one I sent to Ursh

couple of close up for you

Penguins progress

Now that December is here I'm spending all my stitching time on weekdays working on Teejay's stocking and this week I finished off the top 3 penguins, got the band done along with his name and made a start on the next 5 but one of them was just to finish the thread off

The plan for next week is to finish those 4 and hopefully make a start on the last 6

A bit of useless info for those in the UK.

The outside bit of the Iceland Christmas ad was filmed in my local store in August.  It very odd to go into town on a Wednesday afternoon and see Christmas trees everywhere!

Toy Gatherer progress

Here's how I got on last weekend

This weekend I'm hoping to finish the shirt but now I've said that I bet I won't

November progress & December goals

For November I said
Finish my weekend project   Done
Decide for certain what's next at weekends  Done
Get Teejay's stocking half done   Not quite I have 6 out of 16 finished
Finish at least one other project   Done, I finished Flower Tender
Keep selling stash  A few more package have gone out
Post every day for NaBloPoMo 2014  Done

For December I would like to
Finish Teejay's stocking
Finish something else
Decide on my Jan 1st start
Keep selling stash

I stitched for 91 hours and 15 minutes in November, had 2 new starts and 4 finishes 2 of which were new starts and I stitched every day :)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL and I made it

I've signed up for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL next year being hosted by Jo of Seredipitous Stitching 

The whole idea of it is to stitch up some of those kits/ charts us stitchers have been given as gifts/RAK's etc over the years or to use those lovely threads and fabrics that have been gifted and then to post progress on the 15th of the month.

I have several things I was planning to do next year that were gifted to me so I signed up to help me keep going

Wander on over and join in the fun, the doodah over on the right should take you to the sign up page or you can use the link above

And this post means I've made it to the end of NaBloPoMo and for the second year running I've not had to resort to posting pics of my completed TW's :)

Happy Dance

Late on Thursday evening I finished Flower Tender :) it's my 23rd finish of the year and the last of the larger Pocket Dragons I have, it was also my Jan 1st start this year.

As with the other two it's stitched on 30 count white Murano with DMC, it's does have a plague under it on the chart but I was never sure if I was going to stitch it or not and decided that I prefer it without in the end

If anyone has the one's that came out in kit form please let me know

Couple of beading finishes

For the last few years I've been wanting to make a couple of little festive pendants for myself to wear in December and yesterday I finally got around to making one it just needs stiffening which is on the list for tomorrow

When I finished the Celtic knot a few weeks back I wanted to do some earring to match it but size 15 delica's don't come in the colours I used so I had to do something else instead and this is it.

Stitch from Stash November report

I've been using the bonus £ this month and have given a few things a new home.

1 X Crescent colour and a DMC both to finish projects and 2 Daffodils kit's both from Heritage, the large one is the last of the floral panels I wanted to get to get and I got it for less than £10 on the bay of evil (aka ebay).

New starts from stash = Ornament for an exchange that I can't revel, Dragon Rampant coaster, Whoops fob

PHD's worked on = Splendor (finished), Skating Penguins, Toy Gatherer, Flower Tender (finished about 30 mins before I came on line)

£ spent = 0 from budget

Budget left = £124.64.   £104.64 left and £20 for November

Bonus Budget left = £19.33

Toy Gatherer progress

Not much progress this last weekend as I ended up being fairly busy with other things but all progress is good

Mystery Bead a long

A couple of months back I was on facebook and a post popped up from Jean Power about an upcoming secret christmas kit/bead a long she was doing in Dec.

Because I'd been selling some stash off I had a healthy paypal balance and so decided to sign up.

The pack arrived a few weeks back

And inside 

All I know is that it's a double sided ornament and it's based around snowflakes and sparkles so very me in theme :)  Instructions will be sent out daily from Nov 30 and I'll probably post about it every few days

Penguins progress

Last week I worked on Teejay's stocking and got 3 more penguins almost done and had I not been feeling off one evening I would of had them finished :(

I'll be back on them full time next week so I can get it finished for Christmas

TV watching cat

A few days ago I was catching up on some of the older things on the sky box and Rosie was glued to Cat Watch 2014, makes a change to Columbo which is a favourite of hers 

TUSAL time

Yes folks today is the New Moon and so it's time to post pics of rubbish once again :)

I've added orts from Skating Penguins, Splendor (aka Mel's Rose), Ho Ho Ho, an ornament, Toy Gatherer, Dragon Rampant, sampler fob and Flower Tender

And my beading orts

Find out about TUSAL

Goodie Bag exchange

I finally got round to taking a pic of the goodie bag exchange from last Saturday!

The theme this time was Saints and after much head scratching on my part and getting no where Lucy had the bright idea of St Anthony

It's difficult to put lost items in a bag so all my items were to try and help things not to get lost

This one escaped the pic

This the one I received from Clare's Mum based on St Anne and I have to say I was a little gobsmacked by some of the items esp. the tattered lace cat

Summer Kimono progress

I've had a hard time putting this one down but I've had to so I can get a couple of Christmas ornaments done for exchanges but I'll be back on it as soon as I can be

Celtic knot

I finished this several weeks ago and at the time I did take a pic but it was awful and I deleted it and being me forgot to take another one.

I wore it on Saturday and realised I hadn't posted it so here it is :)

It's from a recent issue of Bead and Button but I don't have which one to hand although I'm thinking it was September /October time.

I really enjoyed it and hope to do more of them in the future

Weekend progress

I'm quite pleased with my progress this weekend and it's going quite quickly or it at least it feels like it is hopefully that will last and I'll be done sooner than I think, a girls allowed to dream!

Flower Tender update

Last week after stitching the coaster and fob that went wrong I pulled out Flower Tender to work on for the rest of the week and I got most of his wings done.

I'll be back on him next week and with any luck I'll have him almost finished

Ornament finish

I forgot to post this yesterday :(

We have a raffle at the meet up and the money raised pays to keep the BB ad free for however long the £ will pay for and we all take something along to donate as a prize.

This was my donation, Santa tube ornament from Threadabead 

I forgot to take a pic of the exchange bag I received today so hopefully I remember to do that tomorrow

Coaster finish

Today at the meet up we had a special visitor from the USA and unknown to her everyone going stitched a coaster as a memento of her trip here.

This was mine, Dragon Rampant from issue 17 of Mary Hickmott' s New Stitches