Bang the gong the snowman's done ....?

Okay so poetry isn't my strong point lol!  I read it, just don't write it!

Anyhoo, just wanted to let you all know that yes, the snowman is done!  I actually finished it 2 days ago but thanks to a nasty migraine which floored me for an entire day, although eased up long enough for me to finish the stitching on this one, I am only now getting around to putting up my post about it.

So here he is, in all his snowy glory lol!  Ain't he sweet?  I so enjoyed working on this one, despite the traumas of running out of GAST Cornflower (thank you Lynda) and then discovering that I had miscounted on the "W" and having to frog the whole thing!  I got there in the end and the result is just lovely!  Can't wait to get him framed and he will be hanging in the shop (hopefully) this coming Christmas along with my other winter/Christmas themed stitched designs.  Which reminds me I need to speak to the gallery in Knaresborough to see if we can come to some sort of arrangement .....

The chart will be winging its way to Finland very shortly, to Niina - hope you enjoy stitching this one as much as I have!

I have now picked up Royal Blossoms 2007 by Just Nan - another Crazy!  Could this one be my next finish?  You'll just have to watch this space.  Having Wimbledon on the telly at the moment (my favourite time of year) helps my stitching and is probably the reason for the finishes (that and my rediscovered mojo!)  Andy is doing well and is through to the second week - he plays Gasquet tomorrow and I shall of course be glued to the sofa, needle poised, willing him onto the quarter finals.

Before I go, I just wanted to show you the bizzy lizzy (impatiens) that I grew from seed in the greenhouse and are now gracing my window seat in the lounge.  The colours are lovely and its so nice to see them all in full bloom.  I also grew some coleus from seed which are still in the greenhouse.  I am giving a lot of those away to my fellow members of the gardening club, the majority of the bizzy lizzies will go to friends as a wee reminder of their daft pal who has once again taken off into the great unknown.  I'll keep some for myself though, as a wee reminder of what a clever gardener I am (ROFLMAO!!!)  I'm really excited that my downstairs neighbour Sarah came along to our open day yesterday and has decided to join!  I hope they'll be gentle with her.

Right I am meeting Heather for a coffee and a catch up in Shawlands so I'd better get my skates on.  Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and I sincerely hope that your weather is a lot better than ours!

Thanks for popping by (again) and for all your lovely comments.  Hopefully I will be back sometime this week with a Royal Blossoms update!

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx

Another Finish .....Well Almost!!!

Hello all!  Bet you didn't expect to see me back so quickly!  Well, fired on by my finish on The Needlework Shop last week I immediately picked up the next of my Crazies in line, which happened to be Bring on the Snow by Waxing Moon.  Its a pretty easy stitch, large blocks of colour so not a lot of changing of thread going on, and I was getting along just fine until .... I realised I was running out of one of the threads - GAST Cornflower to be exact!  I had just enough to finish the "W" in snow and maybe start the "S" or so I thought ...

until I realised that I had put too many rows in on the first leg of the "W" - and this was when I was finishing off that letter so i had to pretty much frog the whole lot.  Stitching it back up of course was difficult because the thread had already been used and so was knotting if I looked at it the wrong way (lol!) and I ended up just about making the "W" with only a couple of stitches to go.   I put out a call to the lovely ladies on Friendly Stitchers and Lynda came up trumps.  I am hoping that the thread she is sending me will be a good enough match to enable me to stitch the "S" and finish the design.  I have learned that dye lots of hand dyes can differ widely!

Anyway, here is my progress to date ... I have cracked on with the rest of the design and only have a small bit of backstitching on the scarf to do and the snow and snowflakes on the "snow" lettering and then I can put this one away and concentrate on the next one which will be ....

Royal Blossoms by Just Nan.  I am stitching a lot as Wimbledon started yesterday (well done Andy by the way!) so I need something that I can concentrate on as well as concentrating on the tennis.  The next on my list is actually Blackberry Jam by the Sweetheart Tree but as I am at the scotch stitch part of the design perhaps I should wait until the tennis is over before I tackle that.

On the shop front - a shop AND a flat above may have been located, we are just waiting for the particulars to be issued by the letting agents so watch this space!  I am impatient to get moving and my tenant is impatient to get moved in; unfortunately I can't move out till I have somewhere to go to so things aren't moving as quickly as I would like.  I am however bashing on with my business plan and contacting suppliers too beef it out ... so excited about some of the suppliers I have contacted!!!

Right I need to shoot - my shift at the PDSA shop starts in 40 minutes I have have got a large hill to climb to get there lol.  Thanks for all your lovely comments as always - they really do keep me going and all the encouragement is reaping rewards in my stitching as you can see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx

I Finished a Crazy!

Yes you read that right!  Precisely 15 minutes ago I put the last stitch into my first Crazy finish - CCN's The Needlework Shop.  I am sooo proud of my finish that I wanted to share it with you all straightaway so here it is in all its glory!

The Needlework Shop by Country Cottage Needleworks

I have loved working on this one.  I took it with me when I was dog sitting the last couple of weeks and have been beavering away at it over the last week or so and i just didn't want to put it down.  It was the first one I started for the Crazy 15 Challenge so it seems fitting that it is my first finish.  Hopefully before too long it will be hanging in my own needlework shop!

Just a short post tonight.  Thanks all for stopping by.  I'm on a roll so I might even have a second finish before too long!

Hugs,

Ally xxx