Silly me ...

I came to sit here and finally update my blog and was going to mention my lovely children who are outside skipping, and what a wonderful old fashioned pastime it is ... even in todays generation (hear the flowerly music in the background?) ... HA! by the time I'd signed on, started to upload pictures, they were yelling at each other and Charlotte in tears. I'm sure those with big families will hear me when I say there are different combinations at different times that get on very well, and also those combinations that are just plain hard work ... right now, the worst combination in our household is Josh (12.5yo), Rhiannon (8yo) and Charlotte (5yo) - actually it is really a Josh and Charlotte clash - his sense of rightness and perfectionist does not combine well with her 5yo wanting her own way and being very vocal and strong about getting it, no matter at what cost .... *sigh* lucky enough I do know, that six months from now they could quite possibly be getting on wonderfully as the shifting and sliding of personalities and ages changes ;)

Okay ... on to fun things ... I forgot to update my L*K Blessings and Advent Calendar SAL last time I posted ... so here are the pictures of those - as you can see I stitched one of the Advert Calendar squares the wrong way - just as well I plan to cut them out and make individual ornaments! LOL



... and an update of Sampler Gameboard - I managed to finish that bottom corner over the past week - it really feels like its starting to grow and maybe just maybe I can see the end of it getting closer (I've only been working on it since I dunno, about 2002 maybe?)


Lastly, three cards I made yesterday - Friday night at work (yes, those girls who know me, it WAS very quiet again LOL), I looked through the Split Coast Stampers website and managed to find a page with all their old sketches on it - not only do I plan on joining this wonderful site soon, I also plan on trying to do some of their challenges each week. Anyway, I printed out the old sketches got each lovely child to pick a number from 1 to 119 (the number of sketches there are) and then made myself make a card from that number they picked out (see, the kids DO come in use!) - these are the result - the "tall" card, I'm not that thrilled with - it needed some paper or something else in the background ... although I'm pretty sure one of the girls' friends would be delighted with it ;) - I don't always feel very creative, so it was a great way to have a start point and work from there.

In other family happenings - Cameron is away in Taupo with a soccer mate at the moment, he left Friday and comes back Monday (hence *really* having the two girls and Josh combination happening), I imagine he is having an awesome time, another friend's father has just been transferred up there, they're not moving for a few months (father is commuting for a while) but have bought a holiday home there which is just down the road from the friend (who Cameron is with)'s holiday home (well, garage plus caravan apparently) - so the three boys will be having a great time. Rhiannon had a kidney infection a couple of weeks ago so last week she went in for a scan to make sure there is no permanent damage - we did that Friday and will see the doctor for results on Tuesday - the radio-whatsit lady didn't say much, but did say they look good - I'm pretty sure they will be - but you always worry!

This is our last weekend before the crazy soccer season starts, all five kids are playing so it gets busy! ... as of right now we have two soccer training sessions on Monday night, two gym sessions on a Tuesday night, two soccer training sessions on a Wednesday night, one gym and one soccer session on a Thursday night ... and nothing on a Friday night, then five games plus two gym training sessions on a Saturday - welcome to our world LOL (and still haven't heard when Rhiannon's team will be training).

I think that's enough rambling for one day ... I need to go make another cute bag - this one for a friend of the two girls - it is her Birthday party on Tuesday, our spending money is kinda non existent right now, and it is at those times I love being able to put something together from my fabric stash ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Gosh, I uploaded these pictures on Monday, so I could update my blog at work - and then haven't got to it! So once again, its been nearly a week :)

These are the three squares I've stitched for the JBW Advent Calendar us NZ Gals are doing as a stitch-along - I'll try and do three of these, plus two of the L*K Blessings over the next couple of months to catch me up and give me time to do the borders when I finally get to ordering the extra threads I need.

and here are the two Blessings - see the light blue in the hat of "Charity"? I stitched most of that light blue on Sunday night and then had to unpick it on Monday ... I was so tired I felt like I was stitching under the influence ... I looked at it Monday and the stitching was awful, I'd missed a couple of holes and even funnier, had used three threads - I really think I was stitching it while asleep ... asleep with my eyes almost open LOL (I stitch Charity and Hope this month).

and here's what I've been stitching this past week - just couldn't quite put her down to do anything else! I will now though and do a needleroll for the SAL weekend - not sure which one yet though!

Have a nice weekend wherever you are, and whatever you are doing!

Progress pictures

Our little NZ group started our SAL this month ... I *hear* that a couple of ladies just couldn't only stitch two squares and stitched 4 or 5 *gasp*! LOL Here is "Family" - the start of L*K's Blessings, and 1 and 2 of JBW's Advent Calendar. I will have to do more than 2 at some stage so that the 24 are finished by November, plus start the borders - just waiting on the money to do an order to get the extra threads I will need though! Cameron tells me that "2" is wrong, because there are three gifts ... hmmmmmm.





















Not sure whether I've actually ever taken a picture of this one - Linen and Lace by The Drawn Thread - I started it a few months back and will often pick it up and take it to work with me where I only do a little bit - but it's one of those nice all kitted up ones thats easy to grab quickly.

I'm trying to be a good girl this month and stick to my rotation so will work on a HAED today (even though I'm thinking I'd quite like to carry on with Linen and Lace) - not sure whether I'll carry on with Redwitch that I started a while back or attempt to start Faery Tales, for the third time. I'll see how I feel later. I've got a sewing project I want to try today before I sit down later with my cross stitch to watch the cricket :)

As always - thanks for looking!