Two little finishes

Realising it is the last day of November today has made me get myself organised and post twice in one day - wonders will never cease!!  After I finished the ornament for my SSCS exchange, I picked out one of Little House Needleworks ornaments to stitch up for myself.  Snow in Love is a cute design, and only took a couple of evenings to stitch up, and I finished it into a little pillow this afternoon.

Snow in Love by Little House Needleworks

Stitched on 30ct WDW Cocoa Linen with DMC and Crescent Colours 

After seeing all of the fabulous zipper pouches Susan over at Thimblestitch had been making, I got brave and had a go with some cute bicycle fabric.  Susan had used and recommended a tutorial at Noodlehead, and I found it very simple, not at all as scary as I thought putting in a zip would be!  Thanks Susan for the inspiration and to Anna/Noodlehead for the fantastic tutorial.

Can you believe it?  Four OPAM finishes this month for me, almost a record!!  Well then, it is the 1st of December tomorrow, and the silly season will be well and truly upon us.......

Until next time....... thanks so much for visiting with me today ............ Nicky

A weekend away

Recently we spent a couple of nights with a large group of friends at a crib(small rustic Kiwi holiday house) on the beautiful south coast of the Catlins.  This was the view from the house, so peaceful and relaxing.  Note the fence to keep any visiting seals from your front lawn .......

We were lucky enough to see a little yellow-eyed penguin, also known as hoiho, making his way back up the beach at dusk one night.   I hope you can see him in front of the rocks in these pictures.

The following morning we went for a wander, and saw where he(or maybe she!) was going to........ back to the nest behind the safety of this fence.......

We also found these penguin tracks heading back out to sea...... clearly penguins get out of bed earlier than we did!

A wonderful weekend with great friends, if only it happened more often........

Most of my stitching time in the last couple of weeks has been working on my SSCS gift for Chookyblue's exchange which has headed off on a long journey to ?????

There has been so much happening here lately.  I have recently retired from my off-farm job so that I can spend a lot more time working on the farm.  I was thoroughly spoiled with a farewell gift of a beautiful dress ring, which was a combined gift from the board members, colleagues and some of our lovely residents.  We had a fantastic meal out together, where I was treated to beautiful flowers and some very kind speeches..... felt more than a little embarrassed by it all.  I will miss my little job, but know I have made the best choice for my family.  I am looking forward to being at home with the girls during the upcoming summer holidays, without having those few days a week away from the farm.  Who knows, I might even  find some more stitching and gardening time amongst the farm work!  (I wish....)

This weekend is our local A & P show, where I will be helping out as a steward in the Craft and Flower show.... looking forward to that, it's always a great day out.

I hope you have a lovely weekend too........ will see you on the other side.......... Nicky

Friday night with Friends

Last night I joined with lots of blogging friends in Cheryls Friday Night with Friends.  I finished my Scrappy Stars for October in Terrys great Sew Along.  I have now run out of the background I was using, and will be mixing it up a bit from here on.

I also put quite a few more stitches into my SSCS exchange gift, but of course that's all got to be a secret for a little longer....

Hard to believe that it is November, when this is what it is doing outside this morning.

So much for late Spring and heading into Summer!!  It is expected to be moving on through fairly quickly though - I hope they are right about that, I got into my garden yesterday, but I think today is going to be an inside day as much as possible!

If you joined in Friday Night with Friends, I hope you had a productive evening........ and have a great weekend too................. Nicky