2013 Online Advent Calendar

On the 13th day of Christmas, 

my true love sent to me...

my first Christmas cross stitched ornament!!!

Happy Christmas readers!!!   A special hello if you are following the Advent Calendar Blog Hop trail organised by the fabulous Jo at Serendipitous Stitching .

Bringing Home the Tree
Little House Needleworks
40ct linen stitched with specialty threads

I am delighted to present a finish on my blog today and a first. This is my first Christmas ornament I have stitched, finally finished over the last few days in time for this post.  I enjoyed sewing my daughter's name on the back. I used the tutorial on this link by The Twisted Stitcher to finish the ornie.

The reverse side of the ornament

My Mum has always been fabulous at cooking up treats for Christmas. With a household full of chocoholics it isn't surprising that anything chocolate is a goer at Christmas. Here is her famous peanut butter ball recipe. Simple but delish. My poor daughter can only admire them from afar, as she has a peanut allergy. I will have to find her a substitute for the peanut butter.


Peanut Butter Ball recipe:

2 1/4 cups of icing sugar
1 cup (cheapest brand) peanut butter
1 1/2 cups of rice bubble
125grams margarine or butter

Method:
Combine icing sugar and peanut butter
Melt peanut butter and margarine and add to rice bubble mixture.
Roll into small balls and place on a tray and freeze.
When frozen, dip balls into melted chocolate.
Place on foil lined tray and freeze.

You can then just keep them in air tight container in fridge.

Be Very Merry this Advent Time...
                                               Jan x

Christmas Cross Stitch update...

The recent family holiday allowed me plenty of stitching time on my Christmas WIPs. Readers seemed to find it weird I did Christmas stitching at the beach.  Being an Australian, I associate Christmas with Summer so the beach was a perfect place to stitch.

Firstly, I have nearly finished stitching the wise man/king in the Shepherd's Bush Christmas stocking.  This one is called Brett but there are lots to choose from. I am making my fifth! His robe is richly coloured in the variegated thread, Razzleberry! Doesn't that name sound as delicious as it looks? The rest of the stocking will be quite quick from here as the majority of the stitching is in the wise man.

Secondly, I only have another few hours of stitching left on the Christmas ornament by Little House Needleworks called, Bringing Home the Tree.  I am thrilled with how it looks.  Mary, my daughter, will love hanging it on the tree this Christmas.

As many of you, my lovely readers and friends live overseas this is a warning that I might make you envious.  I am going to post a Spring photo.  Stop reading now if you can't cope.  I am loving my Spring garden.  I have only been at this house for 3x Springs and the gardens are what I have planted as they had been neglected prior to that. The snow-in summer, cerinthe and golden oregano are making a stunning border to one of our garden beds.  I try to garden 30 minutes every 2 days which seems to keep it in hand. Gardening is not good for the nails even though I always where gloves!

Also gardening related, I recently picked our first lemon from our Lemon Eureka tree and cooked it into Lemon Delicious.

The lemon juice was so flavoursome and I was delighted to find no pips inside.  It looks like more lemons are on their way but will take a few more months before they can be picked. I hope I run into the problem soon here I have too many lemons and have to give lots away!

Thanks for wandering through my flower beds...
                                                              Jan x

Christmas cross stitch ornament update...

My Christmas in June cross stitch fest has now become Christmas in September as I continue to plug away at this Little House Needlworks ornament, "Bringing Home the Tree". You can see my last post about it here.

I am stitching it on a 40ct linen and using specialty threads. It is slow progress despite the ornament's seemingly small size. This is my first Christmas ornie and I am surprised at how many hours it has taken me to stitch. I really need to stitch her head by the way as it bugs me seeing her headless in the photo.

Hopefully I will finish it before Christmas!!!

Have a stitchy weekend...
                              Jan x

Little House Needleworks Christmas ornament...

Stitching on LHN "Bring Home the Tree" ornament has been my main focus this week.  This ornament reminds me of the cute phrase "baby it is cold outside". Well it sure has been cold outside in Tasmania this past week so it is apt that I am stitching snow.

I think the ornament will stitch up fairly quickly from here as I have nearly finished the snow then can quickly add the smaller elements; roof tops, the girl, the sleigh carrying the tree, the dog, and finally the border.

What are you stitching on this weekend?  Are you stitching any smalls projects like this ornament?

Thanks for wandering through my garden...

                                                              Jan x

Little House Needleworks Christmas cross stitch ornament...

Happy Weekend everyone! Thanks for reading.

Since I updated last I have added more snow to the LHN "Bringing Home the Tree" Christmas ornie. The hand dyed thread is called "oatmeal" and I love how the colour is slightly "dirty" in places (hand dyed that way) just like real snow.

 

 

I have loved the quaint "cut through" drawings by Amanda Loverseed since I first came across her pictures on greeting cards five years ago. Delighted I was when I discovered these pictures have been converted to cross stitch kits by Bothy Threads.  Linda from convinced me that I had to join her Cut Thru' SAL on Mondays. In order to join this SAL I had to buy a kit (or two as it happens). This is the first - Gypsy Wagon. The kit is very well put together with beautifully organised threads and easy to read instructions/pattern.  I can't wait to make a start. It is stitched on light blue 14count Aida.

 

I hope you have found creative time for yourself over the weekend.

                                                                                                         Jan x

Little House Needleworks Christmas ornament...

Yesterday I had stitching time during the day. That is a rarity. The reason was not so pleasant as Master Jack (12) had teeth extracted under a general anaesthetic. So while I was waiting for him to return from theatre and then recover in the hospital I stitched.

I took my new small project by Little House Needleworks "Bringing Home the Tree" to the hospital.  As you can see I am using some hand-dyed threads. I had no luck getting the recommended threads locally so did a colour match with ones I could access. As this is only a small project I justified the purchase of some specialty threads as I only needed four skeins. I now have to find some remaining DMC threads from my stash to finish the stitchery. I will post my colour changes on my blog when I have finished this.

I wish there was more stitching time during the day but I know I am not the only one wishing for that. Back to chasing Toddler Tom as he wreaks havoc on my clean house.

Thanks for meandering in my bit of the garden...
                                                                         Jan x

Similar linen can be purchased here.
 

Cross stitch delights...

It was fab some of you shared your weekend projects.  I wasn't stitching "alone" which made stitching even more delightful and motivating. So how did your weekend projects go?

This is my weekend wrap which just happened to be a long weekend to celebrate the Queen's Birthday. Yay, even more time to stitch - well sort of! The rhinos came in two by two...yes they are now backstitched on the Noah's Ark cross stitch sampler by Dimensions. The next part of this sampler I will tackle is to outline the shuttered windows. You can compare my progress with the previous post here.

Block 1 of Shores of Hawk Run Hollow had more stitching time. I finished the word "Light". I am using the DMC version which is as luscious, but cheaper option than the hand dyed threads. I hope I won't regret that decision!

Finally I have started my first Christmas ORNIE!! What have I been waiting for?  Basically to get organised.  I have had the pattern and a couple of threads lying around but never started it.  It is "Bringing Home the Tree" by Little House Needleworks.  I read on a blog somewhere about a mother stitching an ornament for each child. I think this is a great idea as I know my children will totally love that idea. I have stitched a Shepherd's Bush Christmas stocking for them each (which you can see here) but they were made quite a while ago so I am ready for new Christmas stitching.

 

Today I am sharing my post in a linky party at Handmade Harbour.

 

Thanks for wandering through my garden...

 

                                                                 Jan x