Hallowe'en Blog Hop and Giveaway...

Boo!!!  Now I have your attention, welcome into the cemetery of thread garden, especially if you are visiting as part of the Hallowe'en Blog Hop. The fabulous Jo is hosting this from Serendipitous Stitching. Please start at Jo's Blog from the beginning and you will have a spooky trail to follow, secretly unmasking the mysterious code from within this Blog Hop. 

Sharing my Hallowe'en Stitches
The front creepy project is from the Just Cross Stitch Sep/Oct 2013 magazine which featured many Hallowe'en ornament designs.  I stitched the Spooky Eye Chart for my very own Jack (13yo DS).  It is stitched on linen with DMC black. I chose not to add the border or lines as I didn't feel they added to it.  The cross stitch in the background is The Hallow Sampler by The Primitive Needle.  I stitched this in 2009.

A Small Giveaway

If you dare on this day please enter a small giveaway. Be a follower and leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner for a mystery prize on November 4th.

A Ghost Story

On Hallowe'en in Australia, ghost stories are shared preferably at night in the dark.  I have a true story to share at this auspicous time. I was travelling through England with my young family, near the Welsh Border at a Youth Hostel called Welsh Bricknor.  The rambling stone manor was positioned at the bottom of a lonely steep gravel driveway with no passing traffic.  The hostel was spooky with its abandoned ivy-covered church surrounded by gravestone ruins within metres of it.  I woke at 2am and visited the bathroom. The bathroom had a window onto the driveway. I heard a distant noise from outside. It grew closer and closer. It wasn't just one noise but now a group. The noise became gallops which echoed through the room. Horses thundered past.  My heart matched the gallops as I ran back to bed and pulled the cover over my ears. There was no explanation in the morning why horses would be going past, let alone at 2am. Since returning over home I have googled Welsh Bricknor and relieved to read I am not the only one who has had a spooky experience. There is a legend about a young girl  many hundreds of years ago, running away from her family castle to be with her lover. The lovers fled together on horses.  They drowned trying to cross a river.  Maybe just maybe...

I know you are after the illusive and magical letter that  will spell a Hallowe'en message, so here it is:

F

You will now make your way to this spooky corner of the web, at "This and That" blog by  EvalinaMaria  if you dare. 

Don't forget about entering my giveaway!!!

Thanks for walking with a lamp through my graveyard...

                                                                           Jan x