Winners

First of all the winner of my Blogversary Giveaway is Conny. I used a randomiser to create the list and then asked Son to pick a number between 1 and 20, he picked 19 (his age) thus making Conny the winner. Husband acted as an independent adjudicator.

1 Mainlely Stitching
2 Angela P
3 Jo
4 Broken Fairy
5 Patti
6 Always Smiling
7 Daffycat
8 Maggee
9 Lynda
10 Dera Dera
11 Nina
12 Karen
13 Stitching Kath
14 Deb
15 Jeanie
16 Hazel
17 Lula
18 Sally
19 Conny
20 Lisa

Thanks to everyone who took part, better luck next time.

I have also been lucky enough to be given a Friendship award by Patti . Thank you for thinking of me.

I have to nominate 8 other peoples blogs as part of the award so the 8 additional winners are:

Barbara at Mainley Stitching - I love your mix of family life and stitching. How you ever find time to stitch amazes me.

Anne-Marie at Orts & Ends - I suspect Pantoef is about to become the new star of your blog.

Angela at Hooked on Stitches - The flat fold queen.

Nina at Between Crosses with Nina - Your stitching is beautiful.

Paulette at Plum Street Samplers - Another great mix of family and stitching. This site should come with a bank account health warning, her samplers are beautiful.

Andrea at The Craft Room - More beautiful stitching, with stitches that look oh so perfect.

Elisa at Old Ragged Threads - More inspirational stitching.

Sally at Stitchyangels Treasures - Anyone who tackles as many Haeds as you do deserves an award, just looking at the chart of a small one is enough to send my head into a spin.

As ever it's hard to pick out just 8 as all the blogs I read are great, if they weren't why would I read them.

This reminds me that I really must update the blog list on my sidebar. I have to admit I use it as my way of speeding up looking at my favourite blogs as if your blog is on there I can tell instantly if it has been updated or not. Am I the only one who does this?

Everyone Has Been So Generous

As you may have noticed my blog has been somewhat neglected over the last month but it is for a good reason. After Husband and I attended the sales and marketing course we decided to go for a new image and complete relaunch for his company. Over the last few weeks I have been been doing a lot of research and writing to helping him redesign the website. We have also designed a new logo to go with the new look and just sent the final design for the new flyers off to the printers. The next job is a new company brochure but that will have to wait for a little while.

We launched the new website earlier today so at long last I can catch up with my blog. I might even get time to do some sewing as well, or maybe that's just me getting carried away!!

Well I might have disappeared from the world of blogging for most of this month but I certainly haven't been forgotten. Over the last few weeks so many nice things gave happened to me but before I tell you all about them I must say a massive thank you to everyone involved and apologise for appearing to ignore you.

The first nice thing to happen was when Karen has given me not one, but two awards. Thank you so much Karen for thinking about me and I'm so sorry it has taken me a month to acknowledge them via my blog.


The first award which was given to me on the 26th February says. "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers. When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. I am to choose eight friends to share this with."


The second award which she gave me on the 4th March asks you to list your top 10 blogs. Now I have to be honest I don't have a top 10 set of blogs as I like all the blogs I read equally, some of which are on my blog list and some of which aren't. Each blog appeals to me for different reasons and picking my 10 favourites is a bit like trying to say I like one child more than another, which obviously I don't. Now this isn't a habit I intend to get into but on this occasion as I know if you have commented on my blog or registered as a 'follower' of my blog I visit your blog on a regular basis please consider yourself as one of my favourite blogs.

Next Helen let me know that I'm going to be running the bank in her village that she stitching for the Me Myself and I Round Robin blog. Apparently I got the job because I was the first to apply but I thought it might have been because I promised to lend money to small businesses and not take a big bonus!!

The next treat was when Sally sent me this wonderful biscornu she stitched as a PIF for me.




She knew that I'm developing a passion for Shepherd's Bush designs and so she stitched me Woolpack Sheep and I absolutely love it. It's my first biscornu and my first Shepherd's Bush design. Thank you so much Sally.

When we had finished quizzing on Thursday the landlord of the pub gave me a heather for my garden.


Only the day before I had been thinking that it would be nice to have some more heathers in the front garden and then one appears out of the blue. It will be planted in the front garden next week.

Then yesterday morning the postman knocked on the door with a parcel for me to sign for. I hadn't ordered anything so I had no idea what to expect. It was a free copy of the OFC's Photographic Annual.


Apparently Peter who set up the OFC and a few other OFC members had decided I should have a copy. Now I'm not sure what I did to deserve a free copy, when everyone else had to pay for their copy, but it really made my day. I don't know who the 'others' are and as I only know of one OFC member who reads my blog I'm hoping Peter got my email saying thank you and has passed my thanks on to the relevant people.

So as you can see I have been completely and utterly spoilt over the last month or so and I don't know what I did to deserve it but thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone involved.

One other thing that was shared with me was my father-in-laws cold. We invited him to dinner last week and he had an appalling cold and cough which he has very generously passed onto me. That I'm not so happy about LOL!!

Now I know I've said this before and nothing has happened, but if I whisper it may be it will:

'I'm off to do some sewing'

Don't tell anyone.

A PIF & An Award

I have edited this post to add the award given to me on one of the post's earlier comments.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be picked as one of the lucky recipients of the PIF that Sally ran on her blog. As it isn't that long since I ran a PIF on my blog and in an attempt to avoid loads of them running at once Sally agreed to me delaying passing the PIF but now it's time for me to pass the PIF on.

If you would like to receive something handmade by me within the next 365 days, please comment on this post to say that you are interested. If there are more than three takers I will draw three names. If, like the last time I've offered this, there are not enough takers or there are none at all I will pick people at random to receive something made by me. I will do the draw on Sunday 15th February (GMT). If you are one of the chosen three, in return, please post the same offer on your blog.

This PIF is open for everyone!

Chris has given me an award. Thank you so much Chris it's nice to know people like my blog enough to give me an award.

Normally I'd give an award it's own post but I don't want anyone to miss out on the chance to sign up for my PIF so I'm tagging the award onto the PIF post.

As part of the award I have to list 5 of my addictions and pass the award onto 5 other people.

My 5 addictions are:

Hills - I never tire of looking at them, no matter how small they are and always want to know what the view is from the top of them.

Walking - I need to walk, when I don't get out walking I get depressed.

Books - I love the anticipation of opening a new book and the joy of revisiting an old favourite. Husband never worries about me going in clothes/shoe shops, they hold no interest for me, but he knows I can spends hours and a small fortune in a book shop.

My car - It means I have the ability to go and do what I want, when I want and don't have to rely on others.

My computer - It has brought many wonderful people into my life and enables me to stay in touch with those that matter to me.

The recipients of the award are:

Karen

Jennifer

Stephanie

Conny

Sharon

In selecting the blogs I'm passing the award onto I have tried to pick blogs/people who haven't yet received this award in order to spread a little happiness, a little further. If your not on my list please don't be offended, I love all the blogs I follow and comment on.

Awards Come Flooding In

Well the weekend started so well and ended with disaster.

On Friday and Saturday I was nominated twice for the I Love Your Blog award by Elisa and Redwitch. Thank you both so much.

The rules are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on their Blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other Blogs.
4. Put the links to those Blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the Blogs of those you've nominated.

My nominations are:

Jayne - The View From Bag End
Becky - BeckyBee's Stitching Hive
Hazel - Quietly Stitching
Karen - Little Cat Blogs
Stephanie - In Stitches
Helen - Stitchery Nook
Rachael - Rachael's Stitchabilities

The first two blogs have been picked because they are the ones that inspired me to start my own blog. I know Becky's is possibly the most visited cross-stitch blog about but it is an absolute inspiration. Without Jayne's blog I would never have even got involved in the world of blogging. Whilst her main blog is gardening related if you check out her other blog, The Other View From Bag End, you'll see that she too is very handy with a needle and thread.

Hazel's is included because she has given me so much advice in translating the acronyms used and explaining how SAL's etc work. So it is nice to be able to say thank you.

The rest are blogs that I enjoy looking at and haven't been nominated for the award recently. There were one or two others I was considering nominating but they have recently been given awards, so, I decided to give the awards to blogs that hadn't had one recently.

Much of the weekend was taken up with the Olympics, catching up on my website and housework. I had planned to spend Monday evening stitching and was just taking a load of washing downstairs, to put on before I settled down to stitch, when disaster struck. As I walked into the dinning room I noticed a strange pattern on the table which I quickly realised was rather a lot of water. The shower in the bathroom had leaked. This isn't the first time and we have known it needed doing, but our temporary fix has now packed up, so we are going to have to bite the bullet and get it sorted.

To explain briefly, when we had the extension added three years ago the work loosened the bathroom tiles, eventually (2 years later) the shower started to leak through the back of the tiles via the loose grouting. In addition the day before we got married (three years ago) Husband was cleaning the bathroom and dropped a glass saucer into the sink. The saucer was fine, but it made a hole in the sink, which as it's fitted into a run of units and a rather expensive worktop isn't a straight forward replacement job. Despite all of this I did still marry him the next day!!!

Last week Daughter also managed to drop hair dye all over the bathroom carpet and I can't get it off. To put it mildly the bathroom needs a lot of work doing on it. We have been putting it off for a whole host of reasons but now we have got to get it done.

I am really not looking forward to it as I got so fed up of workmen in the house when we completely changed the layout of the house and had a two storey extension added. The original 6 months and it will be finished before we got married, ended up dragging out for 2 years and way past our first wedding anniversary. Whilst I can now say it was worth it and as nice as the various workmen were, I hated the lack of privacy and the constant stream of people in and out of the house. This is the main reason I've put up with the frankly, very grotty but clean, I hasten to add, bathroom for so long, but now needs must.

Having mopped up and put the chairs out to dry I really wasn't in the mood to sew. Today I plan on working on the Jayne's Attic Monthly Challenge which I doubt I'm going to get finished in time for the reveal day on Saturday. The stitching I'll get done but finishing it into something is unlikely. We will just have to see how I go.

Needless to say the Olympics has completely undone all my good work fitness wise so today I'm also getting back into the gym but first I need to contact everyone about their awards.