And the winner is ......

Dah da...


Kathy A in Ontario Canada, congrats Kathy, so can you please email me your address please and I'll post it off to you altho there will be short wait as I am still finishing off.
Sorry to the other 17 of you but you can always sign up for my PIF!

And apologies for my DH's dirty nail, he is a gardener?!
My email is chs22hk@googlemail.com

PIF

I am now passing on the PIF (pay it forward) It works like this... you sign up and on the 22nd August I will get my lovely DH to pick out three names out of a hat (it will be my bowl!) and then if your name is chosen, you will receive something made by me within the next 12 months, then you pass on the PIF ... Nice idea, hey?
I will list the names that sign up for all to see..

What can you say when you receive something as wonderful as this?

I arrived back here in Coventry quite down having left my beautiful house in Essex, where you can sit in the garden and you can't see anyone else's washing, where you're not squashed in a row of houses all the same... where it is bright inside the house and a pleasant aspect out of your front and here was my post!

I was so amazed and delighted, wow my pressie from Robyn in Australia, what could it be?



And wow!All beautifully wrapped with bows and ribbon





I am completely over awed and haven't done it justice with my photos. The stitching is amazing and it has pockets and beads and lace and even pockets inside.
The quilting is fantastic, Robyn you are so clever and I can't say thank you enough. I never expected anything like this, the cross stitch chart will be a pleasure to stitch and those chocs... Roses!! yes definitely garden-ey
Thank you Robyn so much I shall be taking it every where I go to show to people and of course I shall pass on the PIF
How ever I can't match such a gift and mine will be some thing cross stitched

So sign up for my PIF and expect a stitchy some thing from me with in the next 12 months.Although I have to admit I will not be able to match Robyn's beautiful gift.#
Thank you and thank you again Robyn
Chris x

So what else is there to do when it rains and rains and rains??

So its raining (again!!) And what else is there to do except drink wonderful coffee and stitch! We sit in our conservatory and count our blessings which are many. The cafetiere is new as the other one broke and it was an anniversary present to ourselves, which was last week. We spent it at the house in Billericay and it was a wonderful week! The sun shone, we ate out on our anniversary with my two of my sons and their partners and my friend Yvonne and her partner at the restaurant where we had our reception three years ago. It was a very delicious meal both in our 'day' and last week. We all enjoyed it very much! But the whole week was fanatastic, its wonderful to have somewhere we go to for a break and if we didn't need the money we would leave it empty. It was clean-ish except the main bedroom carpet had hair dye stains on it! Grrrrrr but the tenant is paying for it plus clearing the garden, which was very over grown and new vax, new rotary line so thats ok and we have new tenants, who are taking resident next week. We are down there again this weekend till tuesday, just finishing off some bits and having a break away. It's lovely there and we can't wait to move there in 2011 (20 months to go)... Mike walked through the High St for first time he and loved it, and I having lived there for 37 years consider it home!

Had to order some floss to go with three new charts, all a secret for the mo!
And here are the flowers we received from my Emily and Kathryn my step daughters and just some of our cards

And then the week before I met up with Jenny my friend from Australia, we spent a lovely day together and had lunch in a very nice pub out in the Warickshire country side and then had coffee in the garden of her cousin in Kilsby, which a lovely garden and good company, a truly wonderful day, she is flying home this saturday. I 'd love to visit her again, so need that tenant to pay!!

She looks lovely and I am my fat self... seeing photos of me is keeping me on the food plan although last week I might have put on a pound or two, so??? It was my anniversary and Jenny was over from Oz, not every day events! LOL

Hope if it is raining where you are its the right sort of rain erum! but really that the sun is shining in your world, it is in mine altho its wet outside, its swelling my marrows and cougettes and squashes, yum yum!

Pineapple sunshine!!

I just love this sunny pin cushion I received from Lucy in Exchange Heaven. It is perfect to brighten up these rainy days and isn't the post card a hoot! I have it with our post card display on the fridge door so each time I pass it I can smile at the cheeky little pineapple faces.. Thank you Lucy, I haven't a pin cushion and it is the perfect size.

Wow what an exchange!!

This is the Alphabet exchange I received from Maddy in the Exchange Heaven Group.. isn't it amazing?? Beautifully stitched and finshed into this amazing sewing keep. It even has a little pocket sewn on the back and a scissor keep with my initial.
I am in awe and totally blown away by such a gift.. Thank you Maddy again and again!








And look at the little pocket on the back.. isn't beautiful.. so clever Maddy, Thank you again.

Summer has arrived!!

My Summer exchange has arrived so I can now show it.. it is stitched on Cream 32c linen with variegated threads from Vicky Clayton and Crescent Colours. Its called 'Once upon a Tree:Summer'and designed by Jeanette Douglas. I loved stitching it as it had lots of specialised stitches all learnt on a stitching couple of days with Sue Hawkins

Its backed with the fabic shown in the photo.

And I added some little gifts as well, Glad Rachael liked them all

And here is a corner of my summer garden, all grown from seed especially the grasses and wheat and oats all courtesy of DH bird feeding hangers!!


And some beautiful pelagoniums in our conservatory which I think are the best conservatory flowers you can have, so summery!!

And don't forget to sign up for my Blogoversay give away!

Blogoversary Giveaway...so sign up now for my giveaway!

Well I have been blogging for nearly a year, I am delighted to have kept going for all this time.. a year today to the day is when I had my knee op. I have a follow up appointment tomorrow.
It has allowed me to carry on gardening, although I don't bend it, I stand with my legs splayed like a giraff weeding and planting so I have aching muscles the next day but I can get it done which when it was very painful I couldn't.
Of course my knee and op allowed me to stitch more as I sat for three months and did nothing else!
And at that time I started this blog, so I am giving away some stitchy bits, don't know what as I haven't started yet so it will be a surprise to who ever gets them and me!!
The draw will be 14th August as I am away end of July, we are going to Essex as the tenants are changing in the house there and so we will be clearing up and gardening, no doubt!
Today I am off to see my grand children in Cambridge and my daughter said, bring your marigolds as still no dish washer, but what are Mums for???



This is my grand daughter lounging in my chair wearing the shirt she persuaded me to buy her after we had been to see High School Musical 3, well isn't that what grand mothers are for?? LOL

Only some stitching but look at what I have grown! And Nell has grown too!

A little bit done to my 'Cats' sampler but I have found it hard to stitch this this week, I just didn't want to, basically as it is those three cat heads in all blends of greys, light beige and white.. I haven't completed that section yet as I need day light for the white bits!


Then if I haven't got enough to do I have been stitching this Bothy thread design. It is something I bought quite a while ago on one of those spur of the moment moments, and goodness know what I'll do with it when it is completed!!

And this is what I do with the rest of my time, my gardening! This is the raised bed in the back of the garden and I have taken a photo to show the cut and come again salad leaves that Nic sent me as seeds with an exchange back in the sping. It also shows cos lettuce, beetroot, cabbage and fennel, quite a fertile little bit of the garden, covered with chicken wire against Nell who it seem likes lettuce< grrrr> and next doors cats< even more grrrrr> and the blooming pigeons, you can also see the beans which have shot up these last few days with the rain.
This year we have also grown some at the allotment too altho not too many as we can't eat them all, but bean chutney is easy to make and we have recipes which are yummy!



And here is our plot, too big really but we love it there! Its quiet and peacful altho less than a mile from the city centre.If you click on the pic, you'll see how big it is!!


And my sweet corn of which I am very proud!

And this is Nell, now 18 weeks old and can chew anything and does! But isn't she pretty and she is very lovable.


I have put green bean chutney on the side of my posts for those who have asked, its one my friend gave me and is delicious!

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Well I do feel proud of myself as I have exceded my June targets altho' I did not start my Blue Ribbon design I have all the floss ready to go, but look how much of Beatrice Potter I've done, last month I had only completed two motifs so I wanted to do three this month and I did more than three so I am well pleased!


I also completed the LHN sal which was 'Needleworks' I did accidently stitch the border in the wrong colour but didn't realise until I had nearly finished so I certainly wasn't going to frog all that and I like it with Almost Auburn colour, I think perhaps the darker colour would have been too dark. Fortunately I had enough of the Almost Auburn floss as I had bought more because the one I had disappeared.. couldn't find it any where and all of Nell's 'two-two's' were closely examined!!



Then I did a quick New Home card for my son Simon and Tracy as they have moved, so that was nice to stitch as an extra to my month's targets


And I have done quite a bit to my 'Cats' sampler, it is coming along nicely and in fact I am beginning to quite like stitching it altho' I have the three grey cat heads in the middle to do next and all those different colour greys, groan!!!

And I send my Exchange Heaven alphabet needle case to Edit in Spain, so I am very pleased with all my efforts for June... my weight?? Well I lost a pound and a half!! Better than gaining and this coming month I am definitely going to lose five pounds!!! Watch this space!