A Lovely Gift Received!

Hello dear blogging friends! Oh my, has it really been that long since my previous post?  I trust you are all keeping well!  I am slowly winding down from a very, very busy year and I'm so happy to be blogging again.

Last month I received such a wonderful surprise from my dear friend Michelle over at Michelle's Stitchcraft Place - she sent me a lovely gift for my birthday!  Look at the pretty birthday card:

She sent me a Tralala Collection chart, a piece of 32ct linen and the sweetest little notebook:

Here is a close up of the chart - it is so cute and definitely on my 'to do' list for next year!  Thank you so much Michelle, I absolutely love the gift!

Since my last blog post the seasons have been changing!  We had a very long, cold, wet winter this year, but Spring has finally arrived (despite some heavy rainfall this past weekend and more rain predicted for this week!) and the garden is coming to life.  Here is a picture of one of the first roses to bloom - in the background you can see the first sweet peas of the season:

Here is a close up of some of the sweet peas - the scent is just heavenly!

I have not been able to stitch as much as I would have liked to over the past few months, but did manage a few small finishes (and perhaps a large start!), as well as a few other projects.  I will share some pics soon!

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

Michelle

Angelic Stitches

Hello dear stitching friends!  Finally - a post from me!  I hope you have all been keeping well as the year is quickly moving along and the festive season is fast approaching.  Would you believe that there are already Christmas decorations in some stores and that gift wrap and Christmas crackers are lining the shelves?  

I have been getting some stitching done, here is my latest offering:

This beautiful angel is designed by Joan Elliot and was featured in a Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine.  She is stitched in DMC thread and gold braid on a natural 28 count evenweave and trimmed with seed beads.

She is part of a set of four and I would like to stitch a companion piece for her, but I will leave that until next year.  I will probably try to find a frame for her so that she can be on display this Christmas!

I was also the lucky winner of a great giveaway Mary over at Colorado Stitcher had a while ago - I won the latest version of the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software.  It is going to be great fun playing with this software and processing some of my photos - hopefully I will get more scrapbooking done, but I'm sure some stitching time will be lost!  Thank you Mary for this wonderful prize!

Our Spring has been slow in arriving, with today being one of the first sunshine days of the season.  Here are some pics I took over the weekend, in between rain storms.  Our garden is slowly coming to life - here are some Inca lilies ready to open:

And guess who should be lurking behind the plants!  Lexi loves being in the garden with me, but sometimes she shows the plants too much affection and flowers and buds are lost!

Here are the first roses in bloom:

That is it for now - I have been stitching a few Christmas ornaments, but sadly no finishing has happened!  I hope to share some more stitching (and finishing) soon.

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

Michelle