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Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Miniature blue and white violets!





As you can see my miniature blue Sajou stitching is coming along. The needle is a 28 Bohin which shows how small this stitching actually is! The scissors are new (well new to me) and are one of my most recent eBay finds. They cost the princely sum of £3.20 - such a bargain.




Last year my dear friend June gave me some violet plants which I planted into a patio pot. They were doing really well until the heavy snowfall earlier this year which I thought had killed them off but, much to my surprise, they not only recovered they are now flowering. I was expecting blue/mauve violets but they are white. Violets are one of my most favourite flowers - so tiny and delicate. I must admit I didn't know they came with white flowers!




On my trip to the AEF in Paris in February my dear friend Valie gave me this beautiful padded, hand-made pouch. She said it was for the Macbook Air which I have been coveting for quite a while. Now what is that poking out from the pouch - oh yes my new 11" Macbook Air - thank you Valie both from me and my new MBA!


Thanks for visiting
Take care


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Thursday, 20 November 2008
The day just got better!


When the mailman knocked the door this morning I didn't get overly excited as I was expecting some things I had ordered online for Christmas gifts. I signed for the packages and took them through to the kitchen. I sorted out the mail and opened a couple of letters and then turned to the packages. The first was some books I had ordered for gifts - not that exciting but the second was from Sonda in Oregon and inside was this beautiful fob which I had won on her blog giveaway. It's very pretty in lovely shades of pink and green. Thank you Sonda, I love it and maybe I now have a great excuse to buy some pink scissors!


The next package was from Anne in France as I was lucky enough to win the giveaway on her blog too and, not only did Anne send me the chart I had won, she also enclosed two tiny pink envelopes with instructions not to open them until I had read her card. So, being the good girl I am, I read the card first and then opened the pink envelopes. Inside the first envelope was a gorgeous skein of pink thread and, inside the other, a packet of lovely buttons. Thank you Anne - so sweet of you.

And then I turned to a fairly ordinary package ...
   

... and inside was a letter telling me that I had won second prize in a competition that I had entered and enclosed an iPod Touch! Oh my ... I was so excited ... I jumped around for a bit and then I just had to tell someone so I rang my son - no reply! OK so I rang my daughter - no reply! So I rang my close friend Sue who was coming to see me for a finishing class today and I think she thought I had gone mad as I babbled on about my win! I often wonder how I would react if I won the lottery but knowing now how I reacted to winning this iPod, I think I would be uncontrollable!

Sue came down later with her stitched piece which I showed her how to finish as an ornament and she made a really beautiful job of it. I suppose I should have taken a picture to post but forgot. She is now going to stitch a piece for a tiny Christmas needleroll so once she is ready we will have another finishing class.

I have been stitching some tiny Christmas needlerolls too but as these are gifts I will not be able to post photos for a while as I know the recipients read my blog. 

Thank you for visiting
Take care

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Saturday, 25 October 2008
It's a Girl!


Some new stash arrived today. My JCS 2008 Ornament mag - I must admit that I am a bit disappointed with it this year as there is nothing that immediately jumps out saying 'Stitch Me' 'Stitch Me' but I will read through it again later and maybe that will happen. Along with the magazine were two gorgeous cuts of fabric, a piece of 40ct linen in Bisque and some 36ct pearled barley linen - I have no idea what I will be stitching on these but I am positive they will not go to waste! The two skeins of threads that make an appearance in the picture are Caron Waterlilies in Peacock and Polar Ice. And yes the scissors you can see are the Chinese Dragons that I won on Ebay a few weeks back. These have pretty engraved handles but the reflection of the sun makes it difficult to see - try clicking on the picture - you can just make out the engraving.    
 

And now an update on Quaker Blackbird. As you can see I had a good run on this last night but ... why is there always a 'but'? ... I thought the fabric I was using was 36ct - it certainly had a tag in the corner that said 36ct - but alas I think it's 32ct as the design is stitching up larger than I had wanted. I will finish stitching it but I will have to re-think my finish. It certainly is a lot easier on the eyes to stitch on 32ct but I do so love the delicacy of a higher count fabric so I will probably stitch this again at some point.

I also finished the Quaker SAL with Yuko but as it needs ironing I will wait for it to be framed before I show a 'finished' picture. Yuko and I are now planning on another SAL and have chosen a LHN piece this time round. 


And now, in case you were wondering about the title of my post ...

As you know Mr Mouse passed away last Wednesday and I thank you all for your kind words and condolences. He was laid to rest in a befitting matter although some of his friends imbibed too much Apple juice at the wake and caused a riot but that is another story! 

May I now introduce to you the latest addition to the family. Ken called into 'Mouse World' (or did he say PC World?) after he finished work last night and chose from a large litter this beautiful little girl mouse who I shall henceforth call 'Milly'. Isn't Milly beautiful? Just look at her glossy white coat and that adorable little scroll button and she behaves perfectly too. She not only scrolls upwards and sideways but downwards too! I think Milly and I will be very happy together. 

Thanks for visiting - enjoy the weekend and
Take care

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Thursday, 23 October 2008
All you need is Love


Not too much stitching on my Quaker SAL with Yuko but Love is coming along nicely and it will probably be finished later today. 

Julie - the fabric - it's 36ct Edinburgh and the colour is flax.



Last night was Stitch-n-Bitch and I took along Little by Little's Quaker Blackbird. I didn't get too much done but I enjoyed what I did. 

I managed to fix Kirby's printer yesterday. It just need alignment after putting in new ink cartridges but ...

I am sad to announce the demise of Mr A M Mouse. Mr Mouse was born in 2006 and lived with his owner for over two years. He took sick last weekend when he became very erratic and refused to scroll downwards. Despite cleaning and being fed new batteries, last night he took a turn for the worse and finally ejected his batteries just after 11pm. There will be a short service at St Apples, Jobs Road, Mackintosh. No flowers by request but donations to the 'Ineeda Numouse Foundation' will be much appreciated.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Hope


An update on Faith Hope Love. As you can see I finished on Hope and have put a few stitches into Love too although they are not in the photo. I am really enjoying this SAL with Yuko although I am wondering if we should have chosen a larger project as this is stitching up really quickly and the SAL will soon be over. 

I had a call from Kirby last night - she is having problems with her printer so I am going to her house this morning to see if I can fix it. She put new ink cartridges in so I expect it's something really simple - at least I hope so. She thinks that I can fix anything - Supernan to the rescue - I really must stop wearing my panties on the outside of my trousers! I wish I could fix my Apple Mighty Mouse though as the scroll ball is refusing to scroll downwards. I've tried all the recommendations both on Apple Support and on the forums without any luck so it looks like a new mouse is the way to go.

Thanks for visiting         
Take care

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Sunday, 30 March 2008
iMacs rule!



Yesterday I set up my new iMac computer. How neat is this? I just plugged it in, asked it to migrate from the external hard drive and voila it works! Everything from my old computer is now on my new computer so all those cds I burned off were not necessary. Better be safe than sorry though. The only problem I had was pairing it to the wireless keyboard and that was all my fault. When I typed in the pass code it said to hit return and I didn't so when it didn't pair I thought that maybe the batteries needing changing and, as I didn't have any spare ones, Ken went out and picked some up from a local shop. I changed the batteries and it still didn't pair and then I read 'type in the pass code and press return' - opps why didn't I read what it said? When I hit the return key it worked perfectly!

For those of you who have not seen my old system go here . I must admit I do prefer the 'all white' appearance of the older iMac but this new system is much faster and the screen clarity is amazing.

Don't be fooled by the tidy desk - I can assure you that it doesn't always look like this. Take note of the Tiffany Apple paperweight. I told you I was mad about anything Apple and isn't this just the ultimate desk accessory for any Apple addict? It was a birthday present from Ken a couple of years ago.

Not much stitching done over the weekend except for some gift stitching. Hopefully, my package from NIAH will arrive shortly and I can make a start on Hannah Beeby. I have also joined the Quaker Inspired Quaker Animal exchange and will be stitching for that too. I have already chosen my animal and the finish. There are still spaces in this exchange if anyone else is interested.

Thank you for visiting
Take care

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Saturday, 2 February 2008
There's a thief in my home who ...


is stealing my time! He lives in the alcove in the corner of my living room. He is there 24-7 waiting and watching me. I try to pass him by with my eyes averted but one glance and he lures me over. He sits there in all his glory; glossy white; so beautiful; he knows I love him. I can tell he is sleeping by the pulsating white light but he knows I am here and he knows I cannot resist him. I only have to hit one key and he will awake immediately; the tiny green lights on the wireless router spring into action and the mail icon on the dock begins to bounce -  I have mail! Ok just 10 minutes and I pull out my kneel chair and climb on.  I delete the junk mail, answer those that just require short replies and read those longer ones that I will answer later.  I try not to look at the Safari icon; the door to the world wide web.  I glance at the clock - ok just 5 minutes more.  I click and the world opens up.  One more click and my bookmarks open up and there they are - my favourite stitching blogs - who shall I visit in my 5 minutes?  I only have time to read a couple - I click again .... and again .... and again. What a great sampler there and that scissor fob is wonderful and those WIPs are coming along at an amazing speed. A few comments here and a few comments there.   I glance at the clock and two hours have past - he's done it again - he's stolen my time!    

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