The Longer I Leave It

The harder it gets for me to do a blog post!
I've been meaning to post for over a week, and the more I think about it the more overwhelmed I get because I have so much to tell you all about. I really think I need to start posting more often with shorter posts and see if that works any better.
So, what have I got to tell you?! Well, the weekend before last was my Birthday and although I wasn't really looking forward to it it ended up being a wonderful weekend and I was thoroughly spoiled. We went to some friends for a couple of hours at teatime on the Saturday where I ended up drinking far too much champagne, then on for a slap up meal in a restaurant I've wanted to try for ages. It was gorgeous! Then on Sunday, my actual Birthday, after I'd opened my wonderful cards and pressies from family and friends David made me a scrummy breakfast. After an afternoon nap which was needed because of the festivities of the night before lol, we then went to my mum's who cooked a fab Sunday dinner and I had more cards and pressies to open there.
Pressie wise I was extremely spoiled this year. I received some new running gear, Davina McCall's new fitness DVD, clothes, perfume, books, a special hand warmer to keep my hands warm seeing as since I've lost all my excess weight they're SO cold all the time lol and David got me an extra surprise of the Kettleworx Ultra DVD set with my own baby kettlebell. I've been using the kettlebells at the gym with my personal trainer and although they are hard work the results have been amazing, so I wanted these for when I can't get to the gym eg during the school holidays or when my PT sessions are finished.
Sally my surrogate sis also sent me this gorgeous stitched pillow which is just perfect and has been added to my basket of smalls which are displayed on my stitching unit in the lounge. I hope Sally doesn't mind that I pinched the pic from her blog as my pics just never seem to look that good.My friend Amy also sent me a pair of the new Dinky Dyes Love scissors in hot pink, but I completely forgot to take a pic of them til after I'd uploaded all the other pics (duh!).
So, onto stitching. Although Sally and I are on the wagon until 1st Feb (can't be here soon enough!), I have had new stash because I bought it with my Christmas money I still had left and then some of my Birthday money I received, as well as the proceeds of selling some stash from my for sale page and doing a trade with Sally, plus her gifting me with one lol. I have received:-

LHN Winter Sheep Ornie - trade with Sally
LHN Fa La La Ornie - trade with Sally
LHN Snowy Pines Ornie - Sally was gifted this and gifted it onto me after stitching it
LHN Joy To The World Ornie - bought from Sally
LK Snowman '10 - bought from Sew & So

I also have on order the LK Winter Fab Fob kit which is winging it's way to me from the US as we speak, and will hopefully arrive later this week or early next.
So as you can see I haven't done too badly, but of course I still want more lol. But isn't that always the case? Currently I'm drooling over a Dimensions Christmas Village ornie kit which I saw stitched up on a blog, but I keep asking myself, do I really need more christmas stitching?
And onto actual stitching, I have TWO finishes to share! The Kelmscott Tombstone Angel Hornbook I started on 1st Jan as a SAL with Sally. It didn't take long to do the stitching but I only just got around to making it up over the weekend. The colours in the pic are a bit washed out, they are more vivid in real life, but it's dull here today so couldn't do any better. It's stitched on 40ct cream (I think) linen with an unknown HDF red and black variagated mini spool 1x2.
And my most enjoyable stitch for a long time, LHN's Winter Whites! I started this as a winter SAL on 1st December last year with Sally, Chris, Lesleyanne, Hazel and Claire and I think most of them finished their pieces way back, but I've been taking my time and enjoying stitching on it thoroughly in between my other wips and I got there in the end. I added a rich dark red to the recommended colours which I'm pleased with the result of but I wish I hadn't stuck with the Wisper called for for the two cute sheet. Big mistake! It was a nightmare to stitch with on the 40ct and the last sheep I really had to force myself to do. I know it would probably have been much easier say on 28ct, but I don't think I'll be testing that theory out for a while lol.Both the hornbook and the LHN charts have now been added to my For Sale/Trade page, along with a couple more things I've finished with, so please take a look and let me know if you're interested in any of them.
I've made more progress on my personalised sampler and HAED QS Alisha but haven't taken any pics of those this time. Shock horror, I even pulled out HAED Cabin In The Woods and stitched some on that. Not much progress, but I want to try to keep putting in at least a few stitches on this here and there.I also made a new start on Sunday, just a small one, but still. I started JBW's A Very Merry Spring. I'm using a variagated thread by HDF called pastel rainbow which I thought was a perfect spring choice, on 28ct white evenweave. I only put in about a dozen stitches just to get it going, but will hopefully do more soon. Sally and I also have a new SAL planned to begin next week. I am going to start LHN's Winter Band Sampler and Sally is stitching LHN's Belle Pepper, then we're going to swap charts and do the opposite at some point lol. So I made a working copy of my chart the other day and will start to kit that up later in the week.
Well, I think that's everything finally! Sorry this post has been so long, like I said, I'm going to try posting more often with smaller updates and see if that works any better.
Thanks to everyone who comes to visit and those who take the time to leave me a comment, they mean a lot to me.