Last blogpost of 2010 - picture heavy

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  I thought you might like to see some of the stash/hand-crafted presents I recieved. The threads are from Clare and Karan, and the beautiful stained glass angel is from Barb (her very talented husband made it)

This wonderful exchange gift came from Suzanne (no blog). The little frog is sitting in my study now, keeping his friends away!

Neither stash nor handcrafted, but so exciting that I had to include it was this gift from the girls. David Tennant. Patrick Stewart. Shakespeare. Whats not to swoon over?

And here is a picture of some of the crafty things I gave as presents, which I couldn't show before Christmas

The scarves are knitted with Rico Pompom, and the sets of coasters are made from upcycled denim and fabric scraps, and were inspired by this tutorial

Finally it only remains for me to wish you all a Very Happy and Healthy New Year

Happy Christmas and a gift for you

Wishing You All a Very Happy Christmas

Here is a little Christmas Rose chart for you. Left Click to save/print.
Enjoy!

Once upon a time ...

...there were three little ornaments.

This little ornament was stitched for me by Julie for our ornament exchange. Isn't he just fabulous? As you may know I love penguins, so this was perfect for me. He's backed with penguin fabric, and he even had a secret pocket on the back with a chocolate in it. He's still got a secret pocket on the back, but its kind of empty now...

This little ornament is the one I sent to Julie.

Its adapted from a design on the Chronicles of Frimousse blog.

And finally this little ornament is a free design from Sue Hillis. I saw a finished version of this on Dani's blog on Monday, and immediately knew that I had to stitch it for Naomi. No sooner the thought than the deed and here he is. He's backed with the fabulous skull and cross bones bandana print he's photographed on, and I added a little coin charm to look like a bit of pirate swag (and not because I hadn't got him quite centred on the ornie. Oh no! Definitely not because of that...)

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

If you've been reading this blog for a while you will know that our local florist has a fun Christmas floral design class every year. Here is my effort from this years class, gerberas, lysimachia and gloriosa lilies arranged in "Christmas puddings" carved from oasis and wrapped in organza (very nearly at the expense of my sanity I might add)
In case you've ever wondered at the hulking great wooden behemoth in the back of these pictures by the way, its a speaker. 
A very large speaker.
A very large speaker that produces sound below the range of human hearing.
Don't ask, its a guy thing.
On the stitching front, I've finished and sent the ornament I was making for my private exchange with Julie, so I can show that as soon as I hear it has safely arrived. I've also stitched some Christmas gifts for friends, but since some of them read this they'll have to remain under wraps for now.