Like many of you, I have received thread from a secret stitching friend and like many of you, have been wracking my brain trying to figure out who could have sent it. After all, it was mailed off in Belgium! Belgium… – who do I know in Belgium?!? Hmmm…

Then yesterday, I received a beautiful Christmas ornament from Harmien and all was revealed! The notepaper that was in with the thread had me suspecting her to begin with, but what finally gave it away was the address labels. On the back of the parcel was the exact same type of label as the address label on the thread envelope!

 Gotcha, Harmien! Did you really think you could get away with spoiling us rotten and we wouldn’t find out who you are? Thanks for bringing a smile to our faces and thanks for spoiling us, you sneaky woman you!!

Well, we had a great time in the UK and I had a lot of fun at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate with Karen and her mum. It will come as no surprise to find out that I didn’t do a single stitch the whole ten days. There was no time to stitch, honestly. Karen and I were too busy chattering. The only complaint I have is that it rained from the time we got off the plane till the time we got on the plane again. Lovely soft British weather!

In my excitement over the biscornu I completely forgot to tell you where I got it from! You can find the snowman biscornu (and loads of other great designs and innovative ideas) here. Since I discovered the blog a couple of weeks ago I have been a regular visitor there. Every time I visit I am gobsmacked at how talented the lady is and what fabulous ideas she comes up with. Her blog is a real treat!

Thanks to krisW I have located the SaBF Uncle Willy snowman and have ordered some more snowmen. As it is I am a big SaBF fan and have quite a few of their designs – just not a lot of snowman ones so I can hardly wait for that order to land in the mailbox.  The project I am currently busy with is also a SaBF design and it’s called Winter Peace. (I’ve put the Snow Buddies on the back burner for a while, seeing as I haven’t started it yet.)

Since we came back I have finished this little snowman freebie (still need to attach his wee carrot nose) by Sanman Originals called ‘Cocoa’.

Wow, this turned into a seriously long post! Thanks for all the lovely comments on my beaded (still proud of that! ) biscornu and welcome to all the new faces.

For the first time in the existence of this blog, you will actually see a ‘finished’ finish! (The PIF’s don’t count because I can’t show them yet and the exchange pieces also don’t count because I had to finish them.)  Thanks to Harmien and her absolutely idiot proof whipstitch/beading tutorial, I present to you my first biscornu. Please note the beaded finish!

From this…

To this…

I did mention the beaded finish, right? The beading is a bit wonky but otherwise I’m really pleased. Pleased that I actually got the corners lined up and pleased that I managed to do the beading, wonky or not! 

I’ll be dropping from the radar again. This time only for ten days. The Good Husband and I are off to the UK. We’re spending the weekend with my sis, then we’re off to  a week of stitching and gossip with Karen (who I’m doing the SAL with)  and attend a stitchy show, then another weekend with my sis before coming back.  (The Good Husband will be entertaining himself with bookshops and sightseeing while Karen and I stitch and chatter. ) The project we chose to do for the week is Snow Buddies by Sisters and Best Friends. Karen is an incredibly fast stitcher so she’ll finish hers and I’ll be lucky to get a third done! Speaking of SaBF – check out this adorable snowman on Glenna’s blog – I so have to find that chart and the hunt is already on!!

Thanks so much for all the input on Bucky. The verdict: the lilac buttons stay!

Take care and keep those needles going! Chat again soon.

I think I have developed a serious obsession with snowmen and I’m afraid to say that I have enough to keep me busy until next winter! Over the next couple of weeks (months?) this blog will most probably just feature snowmen. You have been warned!

Yesterday I received some of the goodies that I ordered from Mary Kathryn during the Online Needlework Show. Don’t you just love the Voodoo Doll? When we were in the States  Sept/Oct I kept a lookout for one but didn’t find any, only to come home and order one from the comfort of my home… Go figure!

Bucky is finished and even though he is supposed to have white buttons (snowballs) to juggle, I quite like the lilac buttons on it. What do you think? I started on a little snowman biscornu today. I’ve never done a biscornu before so we’ll see how that turns out. Not that I haven’t been tempted to do one before – just never thought I’d get all those weird angles right. (Not to mention that I’m not big on finishing!)

That’s it for today – thanks for visiting!

Well, we got the snow everyone was promising today. A lot. Brrr… We didn’t do our normal Saturday outing but did a bit of shopping here in town instead. 

There’s nothing like snow to put one in a Christmas mood so I picked up a couple of Christmassy things today. Got serviettes, fabulous broad ribbon (no idea what I’m going to use it for yet) and two little chia-pet type snowmen. Chia things aren’t really my cup of tea, but these are adorable! They’re very small, and I was thinking of putting one in the kitchen and the other in the main bath. Definately something different, don’t you agree?

A (bad) close-up of the little hairy snowmen!

I worked a bit on Bucky yesterday and he’s coming along slowly but surely.

What did put a damper on the day is the fact that my cellphone/mobile died. I started having problems with it a while ago and today it finally gave up the ghost. The thing that really ticks me off (beside having to be without a cellphone for a while) is that it’s less than six months old!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

We’ve been having horrible weather since Sunday and according to those in the know (or those who just pretend to know!), we’re going to have the first snow soon. Just as well that I stitched a little snowman to mark the grand ( ) occasion. Only problem is that I am keen on stitching another and another and another… I have quite a few snowman charts that I have never gotten around to stitch and today I dug them all out of the boxes which come to think of it, can’t be a good thing!

Here is the little Waxing Moon freebie stitched up – I omitted the text.

I started another little fellow today; Bucky the Snowman by The Trilogy. The ‘Deep Sea’ thread by Weeks is so much darker than on the chart, that I checked and re-checked to make sure that I’m using the right thread!

Here I am stitching away at snow chappies while I have so much else that needs doing. *sigh* I can tell you what I have on my to-stitch list that I want to finish for Christmas but it’ll just frighten you. Fortunately three of the projects have a snowman incorporated into it so I’m pretty sure that they, at least, will get done now that I am in a ’snow’ frame of mind!

For those among you that enjoy the Saturday pics, I uploaded pics of our Standard Saturday Outings here. Except for the ones I posted on here previously, there are a few more to look at in each folder. Enjoy!