February Ornament

Here is my February ornament for the Montly Ornament SAL. This one is a Birds of a Feather design from an old (2000) JCS Ornament issue. Well its based on it anyway, I missed off the border and all the little metallic gold confetti stitches that were scattered all over it, and I changed the text from green to red.

Its stitched in Rayon threads, which, in hindsight, was a mistake on 40ct fabric, but we live and learn...

Birds, and killing two with one stone...

Yesterday I took part in the RSPB's Birdwatch. My tally of birds included pied wagtails, a song thrush,bluetits,robins, and blackbirds. There were some starlings too, but they're horrible noisy greedy things so I'm not letting them on my blog! We sometimes get chaffinches, goldfinches and wrens too, but not yesterday.

As for killing two birds with one stone, don't panic my feathered friends are safe (even t

he starlings!). Its reveal da

y for the

Stitch and Stash Monthly

Challenge, for which I stitched these two birds - design adapted

from "Red Birds for Peace" by Blue Ribbon Designs - and I'm calling it my January

Ornament SAL as well.

And finally:

Its a hard life being a cat...

If the snow has gone it must be spring....

...at least the sun is shining, I can see the starts of daffodils poking through, and the frogs have started spawning. The pond only thawed out on Friday and there is a big mound of spawn in the middle of it already. Randy little buggers!

A couple of weeks back Polly posted a picture on her blog of some scarves she'd knitted using Rico's Pompon yarn, and it inspired me to grab the ball I'd bought out of curiosity and try knitting a scarf from it.

It was such fun to knit, and the resulting scarf was so soft and cosy, that I promptly went out and bought another ball in a different colour, and I am LOVING this new one. I can see me knitting a few of these as the girls have their eyes on them too.

Speaking of the girls we bought the fabric for Eloise's prom dress yesterday. How old does that make me feel? Eloise has her prom this year! Anyway its a kind of peacock blue colour ~ think Anchor 170, and we are planning to overlay the skirt with black chiffon and trim it with jet Swarowskis. Watch this space as they say.

Snow!

Yes, we have snow, and here are the pictures to prove it:-

I thought this snow covered seedhead was quite picturesque

First Finish of 2010

I finished this little New Year Ornament for Naomi today.

I found the design here . I adapted it slightly as the original design was for a biscornu and I wanted to make a hanging ornament to go with the one I made her last year, so I took design elements from the front and back of the biscornu and combined them to make this rectangular design.

It also gave me an excuse to take a photo of my roses ;)

The second photo was taken at the beach on New Years Day. It was jolly cold I can tell you!

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year

This and that and Christmas ;)

I saw the recipe for these "French Breakfast Puffs" on Paulette's blog, and decided they had to be tried, so Naomi baked them yesterday morning. They were gooood, although she pronounced them fiddly to make. That might be because she isn't used to American recipes with cup measures though.

A few of you asked about the design of the stag ornaments I showed you in my last post. Its a part of a design of my own based on the carol "The Holly and The Ivy", the chorus goes:-

O the rising of the sun

And the running of the deer

The playing of the merry organ, Sweet singing of the choir

I didn't get it finished in time to release for this Christmas but watch this space ;D

Speaking of designs, I hope this works, it's just a little Christmas flower from me to you, Hopefully you can right-click and save itI'll leave you with a picture of the Nativity Scene by my front door, and my best wishes for a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all