A Bluebird has landed

A little Bluebird has landed on my Friendship Sampler.
To join the ABC's and a couple of houses, amongst the flowers.
The colours are really perfect for the summer season. They do look a lot brighter in real life! I just wish I could stitch faster! There's so much I want to stitch! I received some new stash from Katrina's stash reduction efforts - I just need to do a stashy post soon. Check out her sale blog here.

This week I received an exchange from my Blackbird Design group. This is what I received from Mayte - very pretty. You can read more about it here and here.

I received an award from Cindy Mae last week that I would like to share with the rest of you as it is all about friendship. If you read or follow this blog, please feel free to pick it up.

Thank you very much, Cindy Mae!

I have to admit to feeling very off kilter of late. Not sure why. Then yesterday we received word that a wonderful uncle had passed away. Was it "in the air"? Could I sense it coming? No idea. But I am glad I have my stitching now to keep me busy.

Thank you for stopping by! We have been enjoying, for the most part, a warm summer. We just have to remember to water the garden more often! Take care!

Two posts in a day!

I know, I'm faint with astonishment - two posts in one day! Well, the first one didn't really count!

Progress on Friendship Sampler! It felt like I was in quicksand for awhile as (1) BOAF designs usually have lots of colour changes so it was slow going, and (2) I was feeling poorly last week. Not sure why - summer bug? Fortunately by Friday, I was feeling better.

"The big picture" above

The "close-up" view. Every flower has 5 colours.

As I'd said the top border seemed to take forever last week but now I seem to be getting more the hang of it. You know, sometimes, it just takes awhile to 'get into' a project. Now I am really enjoying the colours! Speaking of colours, here are some I brought in from the garden.

First sweet peas and hydrangea of the season. Oh, the sweet smell!

See the Japanese Maple tree in the photo above? DH raised it from a seedling. What's amazing is that it's over 10 years old, and (unintentionally) this was left in a small pot for many years. Look at the little amount of soil compared to the its height! No wonder people make those into Bonsai trees! DH was re-potting a few of these today and we were amazed these (there are about 8 pots) have survived all these years with so much neglect!

Here is a photo of Mr Julius lying on one of DH's shirts. One of the things this crazy cat likes to do is to pull off any clothes he sees lying around (eg hanging on back of a chair) and wrestling it down into submission, and lying on top like a conquerer! Look at that face - can't get mad at him, can you?

Well, my friends, gotta run. I thank you so much for taking the time to visit, and leaving me comments. I don't always get to reply to you but I really enjoy knowing that you've been here, and what you think of the post, and sharing what's happening in your world.

Take care and have a wonderful week!

Some great giveaways

Just a quick post to let you know about some great giveaways!

Paulette, the ever talented (and gorgeous) face behind Plum Street Sampler, is having a Blogoversary Giveaway today on her blog. She also has a lovely new freebie chart on her post today.

Jolene is having her first Giveaway here.

Leena at Volarium is giving away this gorgeous book.
Good luck everyone! Enjoy the rest of Sunday!

Friendship indeed!

Remember when I posted for help to find BOAF's Friendship Sampler? Well, I have to say thank you to a very kind and generous stitcher, who shall remain anonymous because she is so shy (I know my friend that YOU will laugh when you read this), for enabling me to be able to stitch this lovely sampler. Thank you!

I have completed the borders, which usually is my least favourite thing to do. At least this border is easy because it has a "pattern" much like a rhythm in a dance. The black border zig zags and goes - one two three, turn two three, turn two three! You get the idea. Borders that are just straight lines just kill me 'coz I'm so bad at counting anything past ten! I'm always afraid that when I get to the corners they won't meet and yes that has happened to me so I usually try not to just do the borders first.


Now, the fun part of the stitching can begin! There will be lots of colours, flowers, alpabets, and of course 2 friends. A couple of stitchers I know are well into stitching this. Go have a look at Terri's and Cathy's lovely work.

That's not a lot of stitching to show, but I found this one that I haven't shown you yet, and that's because I wasn't sure I would keep it. Now that I have the Dainty Housewren done, I think I will have a collection of 'women' for one sampler wall.

My Needle's Work
by Little House Needleworks

I'm back at work and it's been busy and it'll keep being busy. I have this mental image of lounging in a hammock under the shady trees but that's not to be. I'm not taking any exciting overseas trips so one way of compensating for this is via this book.

I found this book at my local bookstore. Apparently Jane Webster is an Australian who has set up a cooking school at a chateau in Normandy. She uprooted her family with 4 kids and 1 husband and moved there a couple of years ago. This book is part cookbook but also partly a record of how they got to where they are today. It is filled with stories, luscious photos and the recipes look pretty darn good too - more homey fair than fancy which is to my tastes. This is a little treasure!

Note the pretty collection of dried flowers from my garden! I thought the colours really complemented the cover of the book.

Today, when I was out for a walk with my friend, we passed by a little antique shop. Usually it is closed but today the lady decided to open early so we walked in. I bought this -
- for $15. The lady said it's just a print, not an original. She said it's maybe 75 years old? I bought it for the frame but I like the picture too.

I will leave you with some more photos of my roses.

Fragrant Dream
David Austin Rose

There is a story behind this rose. I don't think you can get this rose anymore. I certainly haven't seen much in the way of reference nor seen it in the nurseries again. We bought it probably 15 years ago. It might've been an experiment. This rose was always puny and 'struggling'. When we moved to this house I decided to dig it up as it was a small thing and I felt I needed to take care of it. Somehow, in this location, something magical has happend to it and it is doing really well. The colours are an amazing apricot/peach whereas it was pale pink before, and in the next stage of its opening from what you see in the photo (I don't have one to show you) the flower is completely ruffled. It is then at the peak of being Cinderella at the ball! And, true to its namesake, it's beautifully fragrant. I'm so glad I brought it along.

Although this striped rose looks big in the photo, it's actually a minature. I don't know the name of it but it's so delicate and pretty. There is a freshness and youthfulness about it. If this was a girl, she would be maybe 12 years old in a red and white gingham dress riding a bicyle down a country lane. What do you think?

OK. Time to go and check out your blogs! Thank you for stopping by, and as always thank you for your comments! Have a wonderful week.

Did you know...?

1. Half of this year is over. Done. We're into the second half of 2009, kind of a mini happy new year, I'd like to think! Yeah, it kinda hit me this morning too. I feel like that little kid on the wagon, being pulled by the dog (the dog ain't stopping till it wants to stop!).
   
2. I have no stitching to show you (a few squiggles are not worth showing) but I am blogging anyway.
3. I found out Vilma from Examplar from the Heart (or Examplar Dames) has a blog! I found it today at the same time she posted about the chart Tulip for My Love, which I stitched for our 25th Anniversary in May. Such serendipty. But even better...
4. Check out her freebie here! Yes, I did consider for a moment NOT telling anyone about it as it was like a secret treasure but then my inner fairy godmother says 'be careful; what goes around comes around...' then rolls her eyes at me and departed ...so I had to tell you!
   
5. (in tiny whisper) the weather here is fabulous! Not too hot not too cold.
6. Although I wish I was here... (somewhere in Tuscany)
7. Instead I'm hanging out at home, but at least I can enjoy roses like these...

Ferdinand Picard Rose
striped and extremely fragrant!

Those were 7 things for the 7th month of the year. Good trick, huh? (No groaning from the peanut gallery!)

Evik has kindly graced me with this lovely blog award. Thank you.

I have tried 3 times to get a list of blogs to nominate but Blogger kept dying so I give up. I pass this on to all of you! I have added a lot of new-to-me blogs in my list so please feel free to browse from here.

Must finish this post before Blogger kills my post again. Have a great weekend and I hope to have something to show by Sunday. Thank you for stopping by. I now feel I have regular visitors who leave me comments which is the nicest thing to a virtual hug! Right back at'cha!