My name is Kaye and I am 58 years old. Unbelievably to me, at my age, I have now just embarked upon my third career - as a History Education Consultant! I love to cross stitch and quilt, especially with my kittens, Furio and Milo "helping" me. I also love to read, I have a passion for history and I have been cooking since I was about 12 - move over Junior Masterchef! So, this blog, which started out as a cross stitch blog sometimes morphs into a reading journal or a history lesson (sorry, I used to be a secondary teacher before I became a publisher and now a consultant) or a post about my cooking mojo. Whatever it is, this blog is alway about me, my family and my life here in Eaglemont, Victoria. I have been happily married for over 30 years to the most wonderful man and we are blessed with three beautiful grown up children.
I had hoped to have a finish of Day 11 by the end of this month but I think I have been distracted by a few other things going on - lol! For some reason, I am really struggling with Day 11. This is part of the Sunday SAL which I stitch with my dear friend, Linda. Maybe he will be finished by the end of September?
I am loving all of the wonderful Prairie Schooler Stitching which I see everyone else is doing on the Prairie Schooler SAL blog - so beautiful!
.... Okay, now you probably know by now that I have become a bit of a Queen of SALs (or at least that is what a few of you lovely bloggers have dubbed me) because over the past month I have started four new SAL blogs:
Well, I have had another idea for a SAL for just myself, this time ...."Friday Frolics"
The idea of Friday Frolics, is that on any given Friday, I will try to visit my vast empire of WIPs and choose one that has not had any love or attention for a while and stitch on it that evening.
So, last night was my first FF (see, I have an acronym already - lol!) and I pulled out a Nora Corbett design, "K".
The one and only other time I posted on this was way back in July, 2012!
Also I had yet another new start - this is the letter "K". Sorry the first photo doesn't do justice to the lovely green overdyed fabric I am using. I am really pleased with my progress on this - this is what I have accomplished in a week and a half!
Hmm! Pity, I didn't keep up with my burst of energy! Anyway, "K" got some love and attention last night and I have started on the fairy wings, in the top left corner - not much but at least she got a little loving attention last night.
So, what do you think of my new idea as a SAL for myself? I think it just may work and I can always tie FF in with a few more acronyms like FNSI and FNwF - lol!
Have a great weekend, as usual, I am uber busy with family and friends and lots of fun activities (a Spring Fair literally 50m around the corner, an Engagement party tonight and taking my Dear Dad out for a second birthday lunch tomorrow).
lots and lots of love,
P.S. For those of you who have emailed me lately to ask to join one of the four new SALs, I am sorry in the delay in joining you up but I am just inundated with emails at the moment. I will try to do join you up, ASAP.
.... oh dear, a few day's late... but here are this month's Smalls, some you have seen already, one is new...
Firstly, here is my latest Small finish... American Santa....
This is a freebie from I don't know where stitched on what I think is 32 ct white linen using a variety of speciality threads, colours chosen by me.
I am quite pleased with him - he is going to make a cute ornie.
Secondly, I stitched "S" for Sampler from A Stitcher's Alphabet, a Freebie from Brookes Books, as a birthday gift for a friend and colleague at work. (She loved it)
Please check out Heather's blog Stitching Lotus to see what everyone else got up to for the Smalls SAL this month.
Well, it was another busy weekend for me, with family mostly, and next weekend will be filled again with love and laughter as we are going to the engagement party of my dear friend's son and DD, DS2 and I will be taking my Dad out for a second birthday lunch! How lovely and blessed I am.
However, this weekend was FNSI and IHSW (follow the links to see what everyone else got up to) and I managed to do a little bit of this....
What will be a Christmas tree biscornu..
and that.... "B" from Brookes Books A stitcher's Alphabet....
... oh dear, I have been meaning to post this all week but have only just found the time now and it is Thursday! Friday! Saturday!!!! oh no, Sunday and another weekend is almost over - lol!
I had a bit of an unexpected long weekend last weekend (as I had worked the Saturday before) and boy, was it a beauty (except my back was playing up a bit, which is no fun! But I worked hard to ignore it).
So, Friday.....
Fabric shopping with my dear friend, Anna, at GJ's discount fabric store, which has moved to the next suburb to me, so about five mins away - they have the most wonderful collection of patchwork fabric, just right for finishing off my Smalls. Then a yummy lunch at Apte and then after I said goodbye to Anna, I went and spoiled myself with a back massage at Endota Spa which is literally about 50 m from my front door- bliss! Then, that evening it was out to dinner with friends.
Here is what I bought at GJ's, gorgeous Halloween and Christmas fabbies. But I tell you, there was so much to choose from that it was very hard to stop with just these ones.
On Saturday, it was off to the Fairfield Farmer's Market with my dear friend, Marie, where I bought lots of lovely fresh produce. We then met the husbands for lunch at M'anoushe in Station St.
Marie and I also had time to check out a new patchwork shop in Fairfield called Cutting Cloth. Oh my goodness, such gorgeous, gorgeous fabric and quilts on display but I was strong (after all I had spent all of my fabric money the day before at GJ's.)
Also, in my ramblings I walked past these shoes in the window of a shoe shop in Ivanhoe. Maybe Elton John buys his shoes here? lol!
Saturday night it was out with some other friends for another yummy dinner and then on Sunday, I took my Dad some lovely lunch and spent some time with him. I was pleased that I took the time to look after him, especially after I saw this video on FB.
Then, after I got home from spending time with my Dad, I was given the gift of some time with DS2 who was down in Victoria for some skiing but came home Sunday arvo to spend time with me and TraderVic. So, I baked up a storm, potato and leek soup, meat pie and cherry, ginger and apricot cake. Only a pic of the pie, though - DD popped over for dinner, too, but as she doesn't eat meat, she just had the soup and ate all of the pie crust! lol!
So, a wonderful weekend.
I just want to leave you with this hidden passageway in the CBD which I only discovered walking through the city the other day. Gorgeous, isn't it?
Okay, have to dash, as TraderVic, my sister and I are taking my Dad out to celebrate his 96th birthday! Woo Hoo!
... two offerings for GG this month, both of them Happy Dances - yay!
First off, I finished American Baby (just need to get it framed).
Then, over the weekend, I finished "S" for Sampler from A Stitcher's Alphabet, a Freebie from Brookes Books, as a birthday gift for a friend and colleague at work. I hope she likes it (I also baked her a cake).
I chose my own colours and it is stitched on 28 count linen.
Off to work early today, I will try to catch up on a bit of blog reading, as soon as I can.
Last night I picked up what has to be currently one of my favourite WIPs.... Ebony and Ivory by Tempting Tangles Designs. I am loving the delicateness of the whole piece.
Now, I have also been so very busy setting up my new SAL blogs - such a wonderful response to my ideas, I am so thrilled. I only have one person (a no-reply commenter) who needs to get back to me with her email address and everyone is added, I hope! If I have overlooked anyone, please get back to me with both your email and blog addresses.
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, you can check out the new SAL blogs by following the links below:
.... only a small amount of stitching to show for this FnwF. I was very tired, as I have not been sleeping well and DD was over for the evening to watch the footy with her Dad, so I found it a bit hard to get into it all, really.
However, I did manage to get a few stitches into my new start for September's Hallowe'en Ornament SAL.
Bump in the Night
Tempting Tangle Designs
from JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2015 (p. 51)
32 ct overdyed evenweave
Mixture of CC and DMC floss
I have also been busy setting up my new SAL blogs
If you want to know anything more about any of these SAL blogs, the links are below:
Can I please ask, that if you do wish to join that you send me an email with the email address you wish to use to join the SAL and with your blog address, too, please.
Also, it is taking me a bit of time to get everything organised and to set everyone up on the various SALs, so please be patient if you have already requested to join one or two or all of them! I will get there eventually (however, if in a week's time you have not been joined up, please do not hesitate to email me again!)
Have a good week, everyone,
lots of love,
Just settling down to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, while I set up the Tudor Tuesdays SAL blog. Such fun!
The utterly marvellous, wonderful stitcher and blog hop organiser extraordinaire, Jo from Serendipitous Stitching has done it again!
This time it is a Summer Postcard Blog Hop which is all about our beloved pets! Lovely!
My postcard is from Narita and I love her postcard because it is a gorgeous kitty cat!
This is what Narita had to say about her preference for dogs or cats:
Are you a Cat Person or a Dog Person?
I LOOOOOOOOVE my cats.
I've always been a Cat Person.
I have plenty. Cats are soft and snuggly and independent.
And every one of them is different.
Lately though, I've started to question myself because now I have a DOG that I really really love.
Her name is Ruby and she's 10 months old. A red Doberman.
I used to be scared of Dobermans when I was younger.
I was QUITE SURPRISED when I did several of those online quizzes about which breed would be the perfect breed for me and DOBERMAN kept coming up.
Go figure.
Well, I must confess, our girl is WONDERFUL. She's funny and sweet (loves to sit behind me in my computer chair--I'm sitting closer and closer to the edge...) and she likes to put her head on my shoulder-- her way of telling me she would like something to eat. She SUCH a character. And run. Does she EVER love to run. And can she EVER run FAST!
Oh and did I mention that she sleeps with us (in the middle, of course) AND THE CATS? Perfect.
(Except for when she's like a toddler and stretches out her legs or kicks us in the night)
So now I'm starting to wonder...
Am I a Cat Person still? Or am I a Dog Person now?
You can check out all of the other Summer Postcards at Jo's blog, Serendipitous Stitching. I wonder who will get my postcard?
I am so thrilled - so far I have over 35 people wanting to join the Christmas Ornie SAL, 24 and counting for the Prairie Schooler SAL, 8 and counting for the Americana SAL and 3 or 4 so far for the Tudor Tuesdays SAL.
Now, as you can imagine this means lots of emails and lots of time setting up the SALs on blogger, etc. So, I am a bit behind (I do work full time and this week I have to work Saturday as well!!!!!) with responding to people's emails, setting up all of the SAL blogs and adding people.
So, please be patient, I will get there.
If you want to know anything more about any of these SAL blogs, the links are below:
Can I please ask, that if you do wish to join that you send me an email with the email address you wish to use to join the SAL and with your blog address, too, please.
My Swapaway Friend, Kim (Wisdom with Needle and Thread),
and I are Tudorphiles (aka, Tudor Crazy Ladies). Anything Tudor strikes our
fancy. A few years ago, I started a “Tudor Tuesday” Facebook page so we could share any Tudor
stitching-themed pieces with other Tudor-crazed fans.
Well, Kim and I always seem to be on the
same wave-length (even though we live 9,517 miles apart). Whilst chatting on
Gmail yesterday, Kim asked me if I thought a “Tudor Tuesday” blog would be a
good idea, as some people LOVE the Tudors, as well, but don’t belong to
Facebook. My exact response was
"Hi Kim, We are SSF - I just thought of that about five mins ago!
lol!”
So – we are launching a new blog called
“Tudor Tuesdays”.It will be for Tudor
Fanatics to post about anything Tudor (on any Tuesday of the month). It can be
about books, movies, TV shows, stitching, interesting Tudor history
factoids….whatever you’d like to share with other Tudorphiles.
So – without any further adieu, let’s play!
Please join us! Simply comment here or send either Kim or I a note you’d like
to join us and discover more about everything Tudor!
P.S. You know you’re a Tudorphile when your husband and your children
refuse to go on an overseas holiday to London with you because they just KNOW
that you will drag them to see Hampton Court Palace AGAIN! OR
You know you're a Tudorphile whenever you mention
Henry VIII and you get an 'eye roll' from your daughter and husband.
They both sigh and say - in unison - "NOT AGAIN!"
.... although a bit slower than I would like but I have been busy with afternoon teas, a bad back, stitching I need to get finished and working full time!
So, if you have already signed up, don't worry, your name is written down in my little pink book and I will get around to adding you very soon plus of course, I still have the Americana SAL blog to set up as well.
If you want to check out the New PS SAL blog, please click here.
AND, watch this space tomorrow morning, as my SSF, Kim, and I have an exciting new joint venture to unveil....!!!!!
Oooh, have to sign off now or I will miss my train,
