Here again

I did exactly what i used to hate other bloggers doing! Disppeared! I really cannot believe i havent posted a blog post in over a year. That pretty much sums up my year, it flew by!! I took up a new position for a national charity and with my new job came less time to write a blog, keep up with blogs and as for stitching? Well, theres has been very little of that over the last year! I cannot even remember where i kept my blog feeds. Im sure i switched to Bloglovin when Reader went but now i cant find anything there. Ive restarted again on Feedly but now im trying to remember and track down the hundreds of blogs i used to follow! Its a lot easier to read blogs now i have a decent phone with decent apps!

I always used to worry when bloggers disppeared that something bad had happened, or they'd got sick etc etc It wasnt the case here. Ive generally just been super busy. I work, i ferry the boys about to all their different clubs, i run, i lead a running group, im chair of the parent council, i take exercise classes, we go to church. Life is busy busy busy!

2014 has been a great year! Im just trying to think back to all the things that have happened this year. I had some big personal achievements; i walked the West Highland Way (96miles) in June, i ran my first ever half marathon in October and i climbed Goatfell in Arran for the first time too. My eldest boy started school!!! He has lost 4 baby teeth! My youngest boy turned 3! We had a great 2 week holiday to Florida back in March. My husband started a new job.

I always stitch the boys an ornament for Christmas and at least i still managed to do that this year! Minecraft and Minions

If anyone out there still reads my blog let me know so that i can be sure to put you into my new Feedly. Cheers x

Cheesey Christmas Jumpers

Happy Christmas to all! Thanks to everyone/anyone that reads my blog!

Christmas 2010

All the big build up to Christmas and......i get sick!! Can you believe that?! Nothing too bad, just a cold but it really wiped me out. It started coming on on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day i was in bed by 9pm (and had had 2 naps during the day as well) and last night i was early to bed too (then wide awake at 5.30am). So, that was really annoying.

However, we still had fun. We had a lovely meal Christmas Eve. Here are the highlights in photos of Christmas Day.

Yes, Caleb got a kids Mini Cooper S from my parents and it does actually drive like a real car!! He even spent about half an hour cleaning it, is this a sign of things to come?!

Boxing Day we were in Ayr and Caleb got to meet his little friend Charlie who is my sister's nephew on the other side of her family. Good times.

What a great few days. Caleb has been on top form and enjoyed all the festivities very much! We're looking forward to a quiet-ish couple of days now before Matthew goes back to work on Wednesday.

Christmas Star and DeBloAdMo complete!

My final Christmas stitching finish. I was hoping to get it made into an ornament before Christmas but that is definitely not going to happen now! Its JBW's Star from this years JCS Christmas edition.

Im off work today so i got up when Caleb got up 6.30am and got him ready for nursery and Matthew took him on his way to work. Then i went back to bed **BLISS** Now its 9.30am and im just up. Lovely! I am feeling slightly guilty thinking of all the things i could have done in that time but nevermind, it's Christmas. The 2 of them wont be back til 1.30pm so ive got time to make it look like i've been busy LOL

This morning i need to wrap presents and bake cookies. Im going to bake gingerbread men for the family (i always do that for them) and shortbread for my neighbours. Then i need to tidy up a bit more because we have our annual Christmas eve tradition of having a Chinese meal tonight with my family. We're not going to a restaurant this year, mum and dad, my sis and her hubby are coming here and we'll get takeaway.

Tomorrow we'll be at my parents all day. Sunday we'll go to church and then we are off down to Ayr to my brother-in-laws parent's house for the day. Looking forward to the busy-ness and excitement of the next few days! I love this time of year.

So in conclusion to DeBloAdMo here is how we filled each day of advent with advent activities

Day 1 - Hang up advent calendar

Day 2 - Message from Santa Video

Day 3 - Make paper snowflakes for bedroom window

Day 4 - Decorate Christmas tree

Day 5 - Decorate the house

Day 6 - Make Christmas cards

Day 7 - Make paperchains

Day 8 - Christmas display at the Garden Centre with Gran and Pappa

Day 9 - Wintery walk to get holly and pine cones

Day 10 - Make an Elf e-card

Day 11 - Make Star Shortbread

Day 12 - Wrap presents

Day 13 - Have a special friend round to play

Day 14 - Finish Salt dough tree ornaments

Day 15 - Christmas display at the Garden Centre with Gran and Pappa

Day 16 - Make Robins

Day 17 - Visit the library to get Christmas books

Day 18 - Go to Isla's 2nd birthday party

Day 19 - Go to Christmas Service at Church

Day 20 - Go buy and eat cakes

Day 21 - Wrap the door

Day 22 - Christmas display at the Garden Centre with Gran and Pappa

Day 23 - Watch Baby Einstein Santa DVD and deliver presents to friends

Day 24 - Have family round for Chinese food and Christmas Eve fun!

Yeeaaahh!!! We did it!! There were a few days i didn't manage to blog but on the whole, i did pretty well. I enjoyed thinking of activities we could do everyday (with help from Lori and Rebekkahs's blog) and enjoyed writing my blog again too. Great idea Lori!!

Now all that's left to say is Happy Christmas to everyone who reads my blog!! I hope you have a lovely day!

Decorated tree

Advent day 4. The Christmas tree was decorated by the 3 of us today. Its Matthews job to do the lights then Caleb and I decorated. We bought a small tree this year as our other one is just too big now Caleb has so many toys around the place. We need a new house!! This place is getting cramped.

I love getting all the decorations out! I forget what we have. We've a few lovely things with nice memories attached...a silver heart we got the first year we were married, an ornament i stitched for Caleb's first Christmas and so on. I love it. Im stitching Caleb an ornament every year with a personal message on the back. You can see last years here. This years is still a work in progress.

One of my favourite things to open is my snowman tin which has all my handmade stitchy gifts inside. I have made some lovely friends through blogging. I have a lovely santa Donna stitched for me which i made into a pillow sitting on the couch, the tin itself is under the tree and was actually a gift from Michele as well as a snowman figurine i display every year, the little pillow under my tree was made by Karen, a beautiful little santa ornament Clare stitched with the most immaculate stitching is hanging on the wall alongside a little set of mitts Kathy stitched for me last year. And Hazel, the gift you made when Caleb was born has been hung across one of the windows in our living room since the day it arrived (nearly 2 years ago!) I love handmade gifts, they mean so much as i appreciate the time and effort that goes into even the smallest item. So thank-you all, for your kindness, friendship and comments on my blog :-)

Christmas 2008

Thanks for all the Christmas wishes/emails etc. I meant to get on here before Christmas to wish all my blogging friends a Happy Christmas but never got round to it! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

For those that have been wondering, there's no sign of baby yet. Im due one week tomorrow!! Im fed up now - tired, swollen, uncomfortable in all positions etc etc At my last appointment with my midwife, baby still hadnt dropped into my pelvis so she thinks i will be late. I really hope i dont have to be induced but i have to say, it really doesnt feel like its gonna come out soon!

We had a nice Christmas. On Christmas eve i ended up having to venture to the shops for some last minute things. Then i came home and baked 2 banana loafs and some gingerbread men. In the evening we went out for a Chinese meal with my family which was the best Chinese food ive ever had! Christmas day was spent at my mum and dads house with my aunt and uncle and my Gran. My sister was at her in-laws this year. On boxing day, my mum and dad came to mine and i cooked a Shepherds pie and then we watched my favourite Christmas movie - Elf. Yesterday, DH and I walked for an hour and then i came home and slept for 2! I was pretty wiped out all day yesterday actually.

I slept so badly last night that we skipped church this morning. Today i plan on getting some baby things organised. I dont feel like baby is gonna come soon so ive been delaying all the things i really need to do, like pack my hospital bag, sort out the baby's crib/clothes etc etc Thats what this week holds in store!

Christmas gifts

I had a lovely Christmas and i hope you all did too. It's been fun reading about how you all celebrated the holiday. It was especially exciting reading Barbara's news! Congratulations again Barbara!

We went to a hotel for our Christmas lunch and it was soooooo nice. To start i had Duck Parfait, then i had soup, then a rack of lamb (with all the trimmings), lots of different puddings and then cheese and biscuits (which i was too full for). I decided not to have the traditional Turkey this year and im glad, the lamb was just amazing!

I got so many great presents this year too. DH did good, he bought me an MP3 player, Felicity season 2 boxset and some CDs. My sister and her DH bought me some perfume that i love and have wanted for ages; Stella McCartney Peony and they gave me a gorgeous hand-made necklace. My mum and dad got me loads of great things, in particular lots of quilting stash - a big cutting board, a new rotary cutter, these books...... and that was just some of their gifts!

My in-laws in Canada had asked me what i wanted and i had given them a big list of floss i don't have. I didn't expect them to get me so many!! It's great because floss is so much cheaper over the Atlantic. I can pay 70p if i was to buy it at a local shop. Online i can get it for about 45p but in Canada it's about 50cents i think, so a much better deal!On to stitchy gifts.....on Christmas eve i was so excited to receive my first exchange gift from the SBEBB. This was for the Specific Designer Exchange. Myrna stitched me this beautiful pinkeepand included so many lovely gifts too. LHN's Necessities Sampler which was on my wishlist, some silkweaver fabric, scissors and lovely fabric. I was spoilt! I can't wait to start the Necessities Sampler :) Myrna, thank-you so much for all these lovely gifts! I was thrilled and it was a great package to receive and open on Christmas eve!I also received this lovely package from my friend Lesley just before Christmas. Lesley stitched me this quaker strawberry from the JCS 2006 ornament issue. So pretty and such lovely finishing!

Lesley was also so kind as to include these charts as well, which i love! Thank-you so much Lesley. I really appreciate you sending me all this. That was lovely of you. Can you tell i love LHN?! I have so many charts in my collection now!Im hoping to get in lots of stitching this holiday! Ive finished the stitching on the piece for the Birthday exchange and also for the SBEBB Winter House exchange. Next, i need to work on the SBEBB Winter quaker and then Lizzy's RR. Then im going to limit myself regarding exchanges so that i can work on some wips/ufos. Im also thinking about a big new start for January.....like Vonna, i have also been inspired by Lizzy's RR that i am currently working on (see here) and im thinking of stitching all of LHN's Dear Diary series onto one big piece of linen. Lizzy's RR looks great already and there's only 2 on at the moment. More on that next time.....

Happy Christmas!

I bought this shirt for my nephew for Christmas! Cute eh? So is everyone ready for Christmas? I finished work yesterday and am not back until the 4th January! WOooo Hooooo!!! Cant believe i have to go back in on a Friday (my boss wouldn't let me have the Friday off) but i wont think about that now, i have 2 weeks holiday! Ive got lots of stitching planned!!! We also got Sky Plus installed last week so now instead of 4 TV channels we have hundreds, im loving it! I especially love being able to pause/rewind TV, it's such a novelty at the moment :-)

We're going out for Christmas dinner this year to a lovely hotel near here. Will be a nice change. I can only remember one other time in which we ate out for Christmas. There will be 9 of us going. Its the same hotel where my sister was married and the food was so good at her wedding so i have high hopes for Christmas dinner too!

I have only one other gift to buy and then im done my shopping. I left it pretty late this year, Christmas seems to have snuck up so quickly. Havent wrapped anything yet, will do that on Christmas eve. I wish you all a very Happy Christmas!!!

Now for a Christmas meme i stole from Cindy's blog

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial one this year

3. When do you put up the tree? 12 days before Christmas

4. When do you take the tree down? 12 days after Christmas

5. Do you like eggnog? Never had it

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Bike

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No but i'd quite like one

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad

9. Easiest person to buy for? My sister

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A Canada towel

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf - it's so funny!!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December, im never very organised

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably but i cant think of any specific examples

15. Favorite thing to eat and drink at Christmas? Christmas dinner / mulled wine

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear lights

17. Favorite Christmas song? Merry Christmas by Shakin Stevens

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Nope

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Busy shops!

23. Favorite thing about the Christmas holidays? Relaxing, being off work

24. Most memorable gift? Love any gifts!

25. What’s the one thing you seem to never get done at Christmas time? Make my own gifts/ornaments

Happy Christmas!

Finishing weekend

I had a good "finishing" weekend. I stitched this Debbie Draper Designs freebie when we were in Canada in June and finished it as a wee pincushion on Saturday for the Cross Stitcher's Lottery. I wonder who'll win?!

I also made the squares that Donna stitched for me into a pillow and it is on display in my lounge. A perfect Christmas decoration! I don't know if you can see from the photo but the fabric is green with gold sparkles and matches Donna's sparkly linen perfectly.

Speaking of Christmas decorations here is a picture of my Christmas tree this year. Next year i definitely want to have more ornaments stitched for my tree and for around my home. I must start keeping things for myself!! A couple of my friends and I meet up on Sunday evenings and we're going to try and make at least one Sunday a month Christmas stitching time! I wanted to stitch The Prairie Schoolers 12 days of Christmas as 12 separate ornaments but only managed to complete 1 (which you can see here)!! How pathetic ;-)
This isn't a great picture bu these are my favourite decorations - the lights in my front window. DH hates putting them up but they look so great (which you probably cant tell from this picture LOL)Have a good week!

Good mail day

I received my Fair and Square Exchange today from Peg. Thanks Peg it's lovely! I was so excited when i received a comment on my last post from Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks!! Diane if you happen to read my blog again, i love your designs and thank-you so much for leaving a comment, it made my day!!

Today i received this....Yes, i know it's last years edition but in the past ive always just used internet freebies for Christmas ornaments. I was never sure where i could buy single issues of this magazine over here but recently Andrea gave me this link to a place that sells them in the UK. Yeah! There's quite a few designs in here i will be stitching for Christmas!

Next week i have to go away to a conference for 3 days. I really hate going away for work. Im going with my boss and was hoping to travel seperately but no, we are going together. A 4 hour car journey. Im dreading it already. It's just far too much boss-time for my liking. Not only that but it's 3 days of small talk and it's not like your working day finishes at 5pm as there are social things we have to attend in the evenings. Im going to hate it, i know because i had to go last year as well :( The one positive of the whole experience is that the hotel we are going to looks amazing!!