A stash happy post

I haven't done too much stitching the last few weeks, in fact I was beginning to think about filing a missing persons report for my mojo, but my inner squirrel has been merrily aquiring stash ready for the winter, and every post seems to bring more exciting goodies.

Exciting postal delivery #1
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a gift certifciate on Missy's blog. The certificate was for Down Sunshine Lane, a shop I'd never used before, but will definitely be using again, they have a great range of stock, and fast and friendly service. Here are some of the goodies I got :-
Live Laugh Love by La D Da. I'm not normally a huge fan of quaker style designs, but this one definitely called to me.
A huge bundle of threads, the ones pulled to the left are for the La D Da.
And a couple of round finishing forms. I Haven't ever tried these before but I figure it's got to be easier/neater than messing around with cardboard circles, and they will come in handy with...

Exciting postal delivery #2
The 2011 JCS Ornament Edition. The only problem is deciding which ones to stitch first. Its nearly October already you know.
And on the subject of stitching for Christmas...
Exciting postal delivery #3

This wonderful book

If anyone heard me squealing out loud with delight recently, this book is entirely the reason why.

Here are just a couple of my favourite projects from it:

Another Haitus

This one at the hands of TalkTalk, who apparently don't ListenListen. As you may know, my mother in law has been staying with us for a while as she was between houses, having moved out of her old house before her new flat was available. Anyway a couple of weeks ago she contacted TalkTalk to disconnect her old phone and set up a new line in the new flat. Obviously she called from our house and therefore from our number. Next morning I get up - no internet, half an hour later we realise no phone either, so we ring TalkTalk from a mobile.
Yes, you've guessed it, at some point they must have asked MIL what number she was calling from and she'd quoted ours so; on the authority of someone whose account wasn't registered at our address, and whose account was for a totally different phone number and area code, and who doesn't even share our surname; they disconnected our phone!

We were on the phone to them for nearly two $*&#! hours. The conversation went something like this:-
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept X.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Y.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Z.
several minutes of annoying music
and so on and on and on. They were adamant it was impossible to reconnect us to our existing number, it was "gone" and couldn't be retrieved. We were not very happy as you can imagine. At one point I actually threw the mobile across the room (at a pile of fluffy cushions, I'm not completely barking mad).
Anyway to cut a long story short, we are now with Orange.  They got us reconnected, got us our old number back (perfectly possible, you just have to contact BT, I suspect talkTalk employees are not permitted to say anything to you which would send you to a competitor), they did it quicly, easily and efficiently, and we even got faster broadband into the bargain. Orange are lovely. Yay Orange.

Anyway having been offline for a while I've got hopelessly behind on blog reading so please don't think I've been ignoring you.

On a stitching note, last Sunday was reveal day for the Monthly Challenge at Needlcraft Haven. We stitched this pretty little design of a bluebird with cherries from Le Chalet Des Perelles. Mine is stitched in Anchor threads on a hand dyed fabric from The Crafty Kitten, with a fairly boring sort of a finish as a little stuffed ornament. The album went up a bit late (see paragraph 1 above), but it is available here.

Back to work on Monday, here's hoping Autumn will be a bit less eventful than summer turned out to be.