Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that another year is over. 2015 has been a lovely year with wonderful family times, the birth of little Jack, some holidays, plenty of stitching and lots of special times with friends and family. Thank you to all those who have continued to visit this blog. It is a fun way to keep track of the days that certainly fly by!!
It was exciting on Tuesday as Anni Downs' new book arrived! I am heading away in a few days so enjoyed getting some of the stitcheries prepared to take on holidays.

Ma headed home on Monday but it was so special to have her here over Christmas. The great grandchildren enjoyed time with her very much. Alice visited yesterday and wanted to know where Ma was!

Ma also loved having a special cuddle of little Jack.

On Sunday, Ma and I and Paul and Jeni are heading away on a cruise to New Zealand. I am preparing lots of stitching to do and taking some books too! Looking forward to a lovely, relaxing time away on the Dawn Princess!

Lovely gifts

It has been so nice to relax over the last few days and think about other things besides Christmas. Nice to get some stitching done too. Just needed to share some lovely gifts I have received recently. Lynda from the Wednesday afternoon class came on the last day with these gorgeous crocheted and knitted decorations for me! Thanks so much, Lynda. They look great on the tree.

 Paddy popped over recently and gave me this lovely little bird decoration and this very special little cushion.

 Even the back looks great!

 Lovely to have Penny and John visiting from the UK and Penny gave me this delightful little bird for my tree.

 I was so excited to receive these lovely stars which were crocheted by my daughter, Lyndal. They are so gorgeous!

 One special gift this year came from my girls and is this gorgeous silk scarf in liberty fabric! I just know I will wear it so much!

Happy Christmas

I forgot to wish all of you a happy Christmas in that last post. I hope you have had a lovely time of celebration with your family and friends. It has been special here though I must admit to being very tired tonight! We celebrated here at home this year and had Ma come to stay, which has been a delight. She is a bit incapacitated at the moment as she has a problem with her knee that means she has to stay off that foot! Crutches and a wheel chair make life a little difficult for her. On Christmas eve we had presents and dinner with our family and Ma too. The presents were a bit of a riot as the little people were very excited.

 The little men are not easy to photograph these days so there are less pictures of them.

 Love this one of Ma and little Jack. He was such a good little fellow at his first Christmas.

Today we headed to church and then hosted Christmas lunch for us and the Lamonts too. Some of the children had a lovely swim before lunch. We had far too much yummy food!

Christmas stitching and decorations

This week is flying by. I spent the afternoon baking and organising for the festivities to come! The evening stitching ladies had a lovely dinner out on Monday night. We always have a secret Santa and the gifts were all lovely. I was very lucky to get this beautiful hanging stitched by Audrey and a little pudding too.

 Maree very cleverly made us all this folded star decoration.

 My gift was this little hanging. I used a little picture on a panel by Anni Downs and appliqued and stitched it. I added a Christmas plate to the gift too.

 These little cushions were for secret gifts too. I have one spare so might have to hold on to that one. They are a little stitchery and pattern my Natalie Bird.

 So other than that there has been very little stitching going on here. Too much cooking and organising to do. Looking forward to special times with the family in our own home this year. For only the second time in our married life, we are having Christmas at home. Ma is having Christmas with us here in Canberra, which will be very special. I will leave you with a bit more decorating.

Some days at the coast

We headed to Merimbula last Monday for a lovely few days away with friends. We stayed at the Woodbine Eco Cabins and it was such a nice relax in lovely surroundings. We had special visitors too!

Please note the joey hanging out of this one's pouch!

All of us headed out for a walk on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day out.

 Some even had a swim.

 Some went on a very long walk on Thursday! I enjoyed a visit to town, a coffee and a relax with some stitching. They did see some wonderful scenery.

 Here are some of the intrepid walkers!

I did manage to stitch one decoration for last week (one per week till Christmas) and finished it off last night. It is a lovely new design by Marg Low.