Its starting to look like Christmas....

Sorry the picture is on its side but for some reason I dont seem able to rotate it !! Well any-way I was bullied by my family on Sunday 2nd December into putting up the christmas tree so up it went. But that was on the grounds that we can take it back down again the day after boxing day. I LOVE Chrsitmas but the decorations being up for ages drives me insane. Last year I threw away all the old shoddy decorations that we had had about 10 years and in the January sales brought some new ones. So when we opened the Christmas box we where all oh yes I remember now. But we did have to make a trip out to buy some more and in the process spent about £100 as we got new lights as well.

This is our new angel for the top of the tree and yes she is glass. My son picked her and I think he made an excellent choice. We had our old angel for a good many years but she was too big and metal so getting her to stay at the top of the chirstmas tree was always a challenge.

They are some of our other new Christmas tree decorations. The elephant is hand made by a lovely lady also called Clare...she has a business called Just elephants (http://www.justelephants.co.uk/) you should check it out. She makes all kinds of themed elephants as well as other felt animals.

They are just some of our other decorations that we have got hanging from the living room ceiling. My 6 year old son asks me every morning how many days have we got till Christmas and when I tell him he says 'Oh thats still too long'. I think he will still say that when I say 2 days to go !!
I doubt I will get time to blog again before Christmas so I wish you all a very merry christmas x x

My obsession with heaven and earth designs

Well today I received some heaven and earth design charts through the post from another cross stitcher...they are ones that she won't stitch as her tastes have changed. So I got out of my craft cupboard my purple wallet that I keep my heaven and earth charts in.

Here they all are....I have 15 hard copies. So I then looked at the saved files I have got on the pc and I have 14 charts on here as well ! So that is 39 charts in total...plus 3 that I am working on. Some of these charts have 45 pages in them...actually quite a few of them do as I seem to get drawn towards the BAP's (big ass project). My lovely man has also ordered me the 'name' chart as an xmas present...and I have a wishlist of 10 on the heaven and earth designs website. I will never be able to stitch them all in 10 lifetimes but I know my collection will get bigger and bigger. There is one lady in a online group that I belong to who has over 200 of the charts. I have got a way to go till I get till that level but I wouldn't be surprised if I got there one day.

Fabric....

Well I love fabric and I know I am not the only one out there who does. I have recently been given a sewing machine by my friend and I will learn to use it properly (when I have time). I do use the fabric's for making my 'hoop art' and for backing christmas decorations etc. However I have a little collection going on that I thought I would share with you. I have brought the fabric's from various places such as facebook pages, websites, and off cuts from shops. Right well here goes

So that is my little collection of fabric, I like to look at them as they are so pretty ! Hope you enjoyed having a look at them as well.

Glimpse of a Unicorn

Well I have spoken about Heaven and Earth designs quite a lot so thought I would share my progress on one of their charts that I have. The artwork is by Anne Stokes and the very talented Michele Sayetta has converted it into the cross stitch chart. Their website is https://heavenandearthdesigns.com/ if you like cross stitching then I suggest you pop on over and have a browse. The good thing about Heaven and Earth charts is that there are no fractional stitches involved and no back stitch !!
Glimpse of a unicorn is a huge 47 pages and is 450 x 675 stitches....so yes that is  303750 stitches in total. It is going to take me years to complete but it will all be worth it in the end.

So this is how the finished design should look:

and this is what mine looks like so far.... I have nearly completed pages 1 and 2 and have started on page 7. I started on page 7 as that is under page 1.

 I use a hoop to help hold the fabric whilst stitching and here is my 6 year old son holding the hoop up (so you can get an idea of how big it is)

Here he is holding up the fabric so you can see how huge it is going to be once completed.

I am stitching it a bit faster now as I have changed the method that I use. I now highlight the bits that I have done on the chart using different colours each day so I can see how much I have done. This helps to spur me on

Also instead of picking a colour and whizzing all over the place I now see each 10x10 square in its own right. So I complete 1 10x10 square at a time and use the 'parking' method for my threads. I really cant work out how to explain parking...but there are lots of guides out there. Basically  when I have finished with the particular thread I have got in that 10x10 square I look in the next 10x10 square down and find where that colour is needed next. I then pull up the thread in that bottom left hand hole and leave it hanging there for when I need it.

Here is a close up of the 10x10 squares..you can see the page is gridded.

I also have another 2 Heaven and earth designs on the go...another huge one and a small one. I also have files stored on the oc of charts that I have brought or been RAK'd (random act of kindness) and have also got lots of their charts in my craft cupboard. There is a huge 50% off sale at the moment but I am resisting tempation as I have promised myself I will not buy another chart until I have got 1 of mine finished.

Happy stitching...crafting...etc x 

Recent finishes

Hello well I thought I would share with you a couple of my recent finishes.

I completed this last night it is a DMC kit called....wait for it....The Dalmation ! I am going to take it to the framers this week (a lovely man called Richard whose shop is called La Pittura based in Norwich). It will then go on my son's bedroom wall next to The Fox Terrier I completed for him from the same DMC range.

I finished stitching these coasters a few days ago but completed them this morning, i.e cutting the paper to hide the back of the stitching and putting the coasters together. I am going to take these with me to a craft fair I am having a stall at on the 10th November. Of course the top picture is of the front of the coasters and the second picture is of the back of the coasters.

I am now off to enjoy some stitching time of my own and wait for the food shopping to be delivered. Hope you all enjoy/enjoyed your Sunday  x x

My Cross Stitch Threads...

Well before I share all my cross stitch threads with you I thought I should say sorry for my blog silence. It has taken me a while to get used to working more hours and fitting every-thing in has been quite hard. But hopefully I am back to a routine and will be blogging on a regular basis. So I thought I would show you my boxes etc of cross stitch threads. I like DMC threads best of all as I find them the easiest to use and the colour range is fantastic. But I do have a couple of boxes of odd threads that I have either been given or purchased from charity shops.

These are the DMC threads I need for working on a Heaven and Earth Designs chart called Glimpse of a unicorn.

And these are the ones that I need for working on a different Heaven and Earth Designs chart called Old World Map

 This is my portable sewing box which I brought from the PACT charity shop that I volunteer in for a couple of hours a week. As you can see from the top photo it is pretty and in the second photo you can see the tray that is in it. It is perfect for keeping my button making things in it as well as my tin for scraps of floss, snippers, scissors and a packet of chewing gum. In the bottom of the box are loads of odd threads, great to use when I am working on small projects like christmas decorations. I take this sewing box with me when I go to Stitch and Bitch which is held at Biddy's tea room in Norwich every other Tuesday.

This tin I also brought from the PACT charity shop, it came in stuffed full of these threads. So of course I couldn't resist purchasing it. I have not used any of the threads yet as I am wading through the other ones in my sewing box !

This is the rest of my collection of DMC threads..all in number order. I love the way they look in the storage boxes..so colourful ! I get most of my DMC threads and storage boxes from a lady called Donna who has a fantastic website which is http://www.cross-stitch-heaven.co.uk/ .

Lastly I just had to share my lovely needle case. I brought this from a lady at one of the Clutter City craft fairs.

Hope you enjoyed my little collection...now to decide what to show you all next time ?

Found these photos 

Hello, sorry I have not posted for a while but the summer holidays have been jam packed with doing lots of things to keep the children amused and just have not had the time. I will miss the relaxing of the summer holidays as school commences for us on Thursday and I am back to work then as well. It won't take long to get back into the routine (hopefully).

I was having a look through my cross stitch album on the p.c and thought I would share a couple of my completed pieces.

This dinosaur height chart was completed a few years ago now and took me about 2 years to complete as it was huge. It was meant to be for my son's bedroom, but once I had actually managed to complete it - it took longer than I expected - there wasnt a place for it on his bedroom wall. I got this chart from The World Of Cross Stitching magazine and it was spread across 2 issues.I think in the end I sold it on ebay for a really cheap price as I had no where to store it at the time and I didnt want it to get ruined !

This cute fox terrier was completed around 1 year 6 months ago and this did end up on my son's bedroom wall as he loved it so much. This was stitched from a  DMC cross stitch kit and I am working on one to go of it called 'Dalmation'. There do seem to be a few more in this DMC range but they are old kits so are not in the shops any-more. I am always leeping my eyes peeled for the other ones at car boots sales, charity shops and of course ebay.

I love these 'Newtons Law' designs and have a few kits stashed away as well as charts. This isn't a very good photo of the completed cross stitch but thought I would just share it with you. This was probably completed about 1 year ago.

Well that is it for now on the photo front...I really should treat myself to a decent camera !

x x x

Just a quick one ...

Here is my completed crochet blanket...it is the first one I have ever made ! I have tried to crochet so many times before but just never quite got it. My good friend told me to try chunky wool and a bigger crochet hook. She also showed me what to do and here it is

My daughter has claimed this blnaket..she wraps it around her at night time ! I am now working on a stripey blanket which my son has already claimed as his !

x x x

2nd week of the summer holidays

So we have had my step daughter over from new Zealand so we have been having lots of fun with her and my other two children. We went out for the day to Great Yarmouth and for some reason the girls decided to wear lacy knickers over their trousers....

yes they did get lots of strange looks ! We also went into a place called Amazonia where they have lots of different reptiles as well as some furries.

We then had lunch at a chinese buffet....

We did also have a game of crazy golf but about half way round a big storm rolled in and so I didnt get a chance to take any photos of that. It was really funny thought trying to play crazy golf when it was raining really hard... the thunder and lightning then started. So we quickly ran round the course to the last hole.

On a crafty note my crochet blanket has grown lots and I am on my second ball of wool. My daughter has claimed it but she wants it big enough to cover her whole body so I think I am going to need another 2 balls of wool to get it that big. I have also been working on a heaven and earth cross stitch design which is coming along nicely.

Until next time x