... and Georgia by Georgia.

Luckily there were no other guests in the restaurant and even more fortunate that Justin took his camera along too!

Thanks for visiting

Take care

these are the other goodies that were also in the box! Milady's Needle Quakers Rule (complete with the acrylic ruler) from my Wish List, a cut of 40ct antique white Newcastle linen, 2 skeins of AVAS in 2 shade of blue (my favourite colour), a pack of book rings (I see some floss tags in the future), some notelets and some dark chocolate. Yummy! 

A closeup view of the pinkeep ... the backing fabric and the braiding are just perfect and Valerie also stitched my initials too! I know Valerie is stretched for stitching time at the moment but she has taken the time to stitch and prepare such a wonderful gift for my birthday. I also know that she always thinks that her work is not 'good enough' but believe me the stitching and finishing on this pinkeep are perfect and I am pleased to show it off in my home! Thank you Valerie for such a thoughtful and wonderful gift.

Over the weekend Hannah Beeby made an appearance and I have stitched a further three motifs. I will post an updated picture tomorrow. I also started on a personal exchange piece but no photos of this until the new year!

Oh nearly forgot - I got some cosy black Ugg boots at Bluewater and a black top but I couldn't find a leather jacket that I liked so Ken gave me the money to either buy a jacket when I find one or to spend on stash! We had a great meal out too. 

Thanks for visiting

Take care

Last night should have been our Stitch-n-Bitch usual meeting but instead we went out for dinner to celebrate, not only the upcoming holiday, but also my pending birthday! I am ashamed to say that although I took my camera with me, it stayed in the depths of my bag and never saw the light of day (or should I say 'night'?). We went to a Thai restaurant in Sandwich and after a delicious meal - I had chicken and cashew nuts with noodles followed by coconut ice-cream served in a real coconut shell - we went back to Caroline's house for coffee and gifts. There I was met with a large box and some smaller packages and a helium 'Happy Birthday' balloon. The box, which was from all of my fellow Stitch-n-Bitchers, contained Abigail Colby's Workbasket by Primitive Traditions which, as those of you have read my Wish List will already know, has been on the said List for ages! I received not only the chart but the basket too so I am in dilemma as I want to start it - Now! But ... I need to finish Hannah Beeby and I also have some upcoming exchanges that I need to work on first. The smaller packages contained a beautiful glass drop with a tiny fairy on a dragonfly from Sue, a lovely quilted bag from June, a Moulton Brown candle (which smells heavenly) from Sylvie, lots of skeins of Vicky Clayton silk threads from Caroline and lastly, a teeny (it's only about 1" long) beaded pea-pod scissor fob from Lynn, who unfortunately could not make the dinner as the date coincided with her work Christmas do. Thank you all for these gorgeous gifts, I am blessed to have such wonderful friends.   

We also exchanged Christmas gifts but we always save these to open on Christmas Day so more about these at a later date but, suffice it to say, that stitchy friends buy stitchy gifts and we all like stitchy gifts don't we?

Tomorrow (my actual birthday) Ken has the day off so he is taking me to Bluewater (which probably means I get to choose my own present - yippee!) I have seen some beautiful black Ugg boots and a leather jacket and ... shall I go on?

Thanks for visiting

Take care 

my lovely Tommy has decided it's time to hibernate. Yesterday morning he was walking around his domain - the garden - but by 4pm he had disappeared! Now my garden is completely enclosed by a 10ft wall with acess only from the house, so there was no way that a gate had been left open or that someone could have walked in and taken him. I methodically searched all the nooks and crannies but could not find him. There was no obvious signs of him having 'dug himself down' and I was beginning to panic. Ken came home and told me not to be silly, of course he's in the garden somewhere! After another hour search we eventually found him; he had buried himself into the garden under the bamboo. Both of us had searched under the bamboo and not noticed the disturbed earth. Now it's not a good idea for him to hibernate this way in case we get a severe winter, so we had to gently dig him up, wash him as he was absolutely filthy, and then put him into his box. I miss him during the winter months as he will now sleep til mid-March.  Goodnight Sweetheart!

Thanks for visiting

Take care  

... to Valerie. The pincushion that I stitched for her, which is an adaption of a CA Wells' pattern, is on 32ct raw linen with DMC perle cotton (644) and Vikki Clayton's Mermaid silk floss. I added both her name, mine and the year around the edge. I added a few goodies in her package too.