Happy days!

Hello Everyone!

Today I received my new stash!!! I was thrilled to bits to receive it so quickly; the delivery time was said to be 2-4 weeks but I got it in less than two weeks:) They must have known how desperate I've been to get my new charts and threads LOL!

So of course you  want to know what was in the parcel, right?! And of course I can't wait to show you LOL!
First of all I ordered some DMC threads.

Threads so I can finish some WIPs, and threads for some new projects:) Even though I knew that I needed more than one skein of some colours, I decided to order just one of every shade. Then I can at least make a start on my projects, and hopefully I can afford to order more threads as and when I need them.

Then I just had to order some more aida fabric in some gorgeous colour. Here in Sweden it is very difficult to get hold of colored aida, so this time I picked a lovely piece of lime green aida which I can't wait to use:) I tried to take a picture of it, but the photo wouldn't do it justice at all so you just have to imagine it lol.

Now on to the most exiting part of my new stash - my new charts!
Firstly I picked this chart by Ursula Michael:

I've seen these kind of charts around other cross stitching blogs and I really liked the look of them. And when I found this cross stitched themed one, I just had to have it!

But above all I wanted some Prarie Schooler charts, and I picked these books:

I just love them! And I also love that their blank and white charts are so easy to read! Normally I prefer coloured charts, but when they are as clear as the PS charts I have no problem whatsoever with black and white ones:)
I also bought the PS Santa from 2006 since I really liked the sewing theme:

This means that together with the two Santas that were gifted to me by the lovely Brigitte, I now have THREE PS Santas...

...and I hope to collect even more red cuties:))

I'm just soo happy about my new stash, and I can't wait to start some new projects (and perhaps finish a few WIPs)! The only thing that remains doing is to decide which PS book I'm going to pick first...
Any suggestions??

Happy Stitching Everyone!
Over here I can see a Prarie Schooler weekend coming up lol!

Annie

Easter crafts

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope all is well and that you've all had a nice Easter:))

 

I've spent a lot of time with my family during Easter, which has meant that I've had to make some Easter Cards for my loved ones. For my dad and his wife I made this card:

 

Perhaps not as Eastery as it could be, but at least it has lovely spring colours:)
I also stitched this decorative heart for my dad...

...which says 'Loved Dad' in Swedish.

For my mum who loves bright colours I put together this card...

...and for my brother-in-law's parents I made this card:

I also received a couple of Easter cards from my sister - well, what can I say, I'm the kind of sister who deserves TWO Easter cards lol! This is the first one I received on Easter Friday...



Glad Påsk - Happy Easter in Swedish:)

...and it came in a cute envelope made out of notepaper. My sister told me that she realised when she made her cards that she didn't have any envelopes to put them in, so she started to play around with a paper and came up with this solution...

Trust my creative sister to make something so nice out of nothing lol. I put my Easter card on my Easter shelf, which for once also had beautiful tulips that I received from my grandma:)

On Easter Saturday I also received this very pretty Easter egg card, and I love...

...the pretty colours and the white feather. Soo cute! This card will definitely be saved in my Easter box and brought out in future Easters to come:)

I haven't stitched much lately and it is not that I haven't wanted to, but that I've struggled to find time. Sometimes I've just been too tired, and other times I've been busy baking for myself to save money, or seeing my friends. I don't know about you other stitchers, but when I get tired I just can't stitch. It is just too difficult for my tired brain to keep up with a chart and move the needle repetitively up and down through the fabric. It always ends with my eyes closing heavily and my head nodding off to the side...
I must say that I feel a bit frustrated about my limited stitching time right now, but I hope that I'll find some time soon to bury myself in a cross stitch project. And hopefully that time coincides with the much awaited arrival of my Prarie Schooler charts I have ordered lol!

Happy Stitching!

Annie

I'm soo excited...!

Hello Everyone!

I've had nice quiet week which thankfully meant lots of time for stitching. Instead of working on a large piece though, I felt like stitching some smalls. Here are a couple of them finished:

They are from Cross Stitcher magazine issue 301 (designer: Fiona Crouch), and the best thing about these designs is that the threads were provided as a freebie gift with the magazine! Hopefully I can turn these into some nice gifts for birthdays and Christmas:)

However, the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that I have finally placed an order for a couple of Prarie Schooler charts and some other stash!!! Thanks to a month with slightly more money left over, I jumped at the chance to buy some more charts! Of course I went a bit crazy when ordering (why pay for postage more than once lol??), so the rest of the month will be a struggle financially...but I just don't care! I just can't wait to get my hands on the charts, and I order some threads too so I can start stitching at once and also finish my Cosy cushion:) The next few weeks will certainly drag before I get my treasures LOL!

Hope you're all finding some time for stitching this weekend!

Annie

A visit to Christmas Town

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're all well:)

Over here in Sweden the snow is melting away and the temperatures are creeping above zero degrees. I have yet to see any spring flowers though, and it seems way too early for Easter in a couple of weeks.

My life has continued to be filled with far too many little things like laundry days, baking (to save money) and precious time with my friends and family. Although some of it have been nice things, I have still felt frustrated that I haven't had time to do other things I enjoy such as following my favorite blogs or stitching on my favorite projects. Therefore I am determined that this week will be devoted to my stitching and blogging, thus also giving me time to relax and de-stress.

This means that I sadly haven't got much stitching progress to show you. I've only worked on Christmas Town (by Emma Congdon). This is where I was when I picked it up last week:

After a few hours stitching here and there over the last seven days I now find myself here:

Some more outlined buildings and the top border of the sky, as well as some more green on the Xmas tree... I did another colour swap though. The beige colour used in the magazine just seemed too dull to me, so I decided to use a more creamy offwhite (see the clock tower). Luckily I didn't have to do too much frogging, and I'm much happier with the new shade. Overall it doesn't feel like much progress, but I really hope to stitch much more on this project in the upcoming weeks:))

Since I haven't got more stitching to show you today, I'll leave you with pics of my precious grey-haired ten-year-old furbaby...

 ....and my other two four-legged troublemakers!

To the right side of my furbabies you can - just about - see some of my (unorganized) crafty stash pile which hopefully will find its way onto a new craft shelf soon - about time I'd say too lol.

Happy Stitching!

Annie

A stitchy round-up of the week

Hello Everyone!

First I want to apologize for not having had the time to catch up with all your lovely blogs this week. I've been busy with baking sweet goodies, seeing friends and watching LOTS of sports on the telly. I'm a huge sports fan and with a cross country skiing tour in Canada and World Championship in Biathlon and many other sports on the telly right now there just haven't been time for blog reading. Especially since I also have a Swedish BLOG about my everyday life with my dogs, and I post every day on that blog... So, all in all there just hasn't been enough hours in the day lately, but I hope to catch up with you all very soon since I miss spending time with my blogging friends!!

Anyway, moving on to stichy matters...
During the week I only stitched a few SMALLs. There was this little sewing machine...

From Cross Stitch Crazy issue 150
Designer: Diane Machin

 And I stitched this wolf...

From Cross Stitch Crazy issue 214
Designer: Durene Jones

 ...which I also posted on Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics SAL .  This is a SAL where we show the projects we work on on Fridays.

Since I hadn't found much time for stitching during the week, I wanted to get some stiching done during the weekend. Thus I dug out my Leap Year start which is going to look like this...

 

...one day far, far away in the distant future lol. Luckily my sister managed to enlarge the black and white chart for me, so now I can actually read the chart without getting an headache. I still have to add the gridlines so I'm slowly getting around to that. It takes a long time to do though since it is a large piece of aida. I have made a start in the middle though, and I chose to focus on the black windows. Mainly because they stand out on the chart lol.

With them in place it feels easier to imagine the rest of the piece. But I can tell that this is going to be a very slooow process for me. The most difficult part is holding the large piece of aida since I stitch in hand. I know - I should use a hoop but I just don't like them. So I'm going to do my best and enjoy the process of flapping around with the aida, and trying to keep my place on the black and white chart. If I can do an hour here and an hour there maybe I'll have a happy dance in about...five years time?? Oh well, at least I have started lol.

Having spent some time on my Fairytale Castle, it was a HUGE relief to pick up my recent start Christmas Town by Emma Congdon! Such a small piece of aida, and a colour chart LOL! This is where I was when I picked it up this weekend:

When I was going to stitch some orange buildings I didn't enjoy the colour the chart stated. To me it just seemed too dark and not vibrant enough for the design. So I dug through my stash and found another orange shade that I was happier with.

Above you can see the darker, original orange Anchor thread above the new orange DMC shade. It doesn't look to be much difference on the picture above, but I think it made a big differerence to the design and to my enjoyment of stitching with a brighter colour:)

This is where I stopped today:

 I'm really enjoying stitching all the bright buildings:) Yet again I don't have all the thread shades yet, but hopefully by the time I have to have them I've been able to order them:) By the way, can you spot the little street light?! It's soo cute I just had to stitch it today - I just love those little quirky details in this design!

That's it from me for now!
Hope you've all had a nice weekend with lots of time for stiching:)

Annie