Santa Is On His Way!

Just a quick post as I've been meaning to update for a couple of weeks, but time seems to have run away with me somehow.
I have no progress pics to share yet I'm afraid. I have been stitching but again just haven't got around to taking photos. I've finished the page on HAED QS Alisha which I'm really happy about, and have made progress on the next page on my Personalised Sampler although don't think I'm going to get this page finished before the end of the year which I had hoped for. I'm also doing quite well with Winter Whites, although that definitely isn't going to be finished this year.
I can however show a pic of what I stitched for Sally's birthday earlier this month. It is a design from this year's JCS ornie issue and was my first attempt at a mini cushion using my sewing machine! Although I was scared making it up I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and Sally says she loves it so that's the main thing.Well, we are just about ready for christmas here. David is working today so Erin and I have been getting the house ready for our visitors tomorrow, whilst watching various christmassy films. David is bringing home a chinese takeaway for us tonight and that's when the festivities will really begin lol. Unfortunately he's also on call tomorrow so we have decided that we are having a buffet tomorrow when my family come so that if he's called in it won't ruin everything, and he can still eat when he gets back if need be. Then we are going to have our christmas dinner for just the three of us on Monday when we can enjoy it fully.
I'm afraid that I got way behind on blog reading and commenting recently and this week have just felt really overwhelmed so I have commented on very few this last few days. I'm sorry if your blog is one I have missed, but I have decided to cut myself some slack and am going to start afresh with blog reading after christmas.
I'd like to thank all of my blog readers and commentors for their friendship and kindness throughout the year, and for their enabling as well lol. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year filled with everything that they have wished for all year.

Christmas Stitching, Heaven..., And A Wonderful Gift

I've been waiting to start the LHN Winter SAL that Sally and Chris organised for what seems like forever, so was really happy when the 1st December finally arrived (nothing to do with starting to open my yummy Cadbury's Santa Advent Calendar of course lol). I was so excited on starting Winter Whites that I went a bit crazy and ended up skipping allover the place, just to get as many colours going as I could and see how it looked, and I'm loving it so far.It was a real chore after my two nights stitching on it to more on and pick my personalised sampler back up at the weekend, and then when it was QS Alisha's turn on Monday I was still sulking and Winter Whites was still calling lol. However I do have update pics of both, although I'm afraid they're not great as all the snow we still have here seems to have sucked the colour out of them and they look quite harsh.I don't know if it's the fact that I'm loving Winter Whites so much, or that my rotation is getting a bit stale for me. I do know that part of the problem is I've been really tired this last week with both DH and DD being ill, and none of us seem to be getting a full night's sleep, so some nights I really don't feel like stitching but have picked it up because I've not wanted to miss a rotation night. I'm going to stick with it a little longer, but am thinking that I may need to tweak things and maybe say rather than have set nights for set things, do a couple of nights on each project, then move on, so it doesn't matter if I miss a night's stitching as long as I get two nights in.
And last but definitely not least, I was extremely lucky to win a giveaway on Andrea's blog for one of her beautifully stitched xmas ornaments. I didn't know what the ornie I was to receive was going to be, but when I opened this the day it arrived it was as if it had been chosen just for me. Two years ago we took DD to Lapland to see Santa early in December and on returning I stitched a Prairie School ornie for our tree as a reminder. Ever since then I've grown to love Prairie Schooler designs more and more and this one will be treasured and help us remember Lapland again (and Andrea confirmed that DD was right when she said the reindeer has to be Rudolph!). I hope Andrea doesn't mind that I used one of the pics of the ornie from her blog as it's much better than any I could take and shows the true colours.That's it from me for now, off to cook tea then once DD is in bed it's Winter Whites night for me again, and I can't wait!!! Thanks for all your visits and lovely comments, I truly appreciate each and every one.

Giveaway Winner!

Happy 1st Day Of Advent everyone!
DD was up before the alarm this morning she was so anxious to open the first window in her Hello Kitty Advent Calendar lol. DH opened his Stig calendar as well and both proceeded to eat their cheap choc at 7am. Me being a good girl opened my Cadbury's (yummy choc) calendar and have left my cracker shaped choc on the side to have later when my evening choc craving hits.
So, time to announce the winner of my giveaway. I used a random number generator which gave me the number 2, and on looking at the comments the winner is....

JANE!!!!!

Congratulations Jane, can you please email me your full address, along with your favourite colours, and I will be sending you a surprise something in the next few months, hopefully sooner rather than later but definitely in the New Year.
And just before I go, I had a new start today, LHN Winter Whites for the LHN Winter SAL that I'm doing with Sally, Chris, Lesleyanne, Claire and Hazel. I've been wanting to start this for so long, and have had it kitted and ready to go for a couple of weeks. I almost started it yesterday as I've had a terrible couple of days with several crisis' around here and I really needed a pick me up, but I was good and waited til about 9.30am today lol. My attention span is obviously not great as I'm skipping about allover the place with it right now, playing with the colours and just getting a feel for it, but I'm loving it so far and think it's just what I needed. Will hopefully have a pic to show next post.