As promised a little peek at my next project

As my order from Bothy Threads won't be here for a few more weeks, I thought I'd start another cross stitch project.  I was going through some of my old cross stitch magazines and found a project I would like to try in this one.

It's a snakes and ladders set; except this one is vines and ladders.  Also as I can sew, I can make this up quite easily after I have done the cross stitch.

I looked up Debbie Harding whose pattern this is, and she has a website here.

It's going to be quite a large piece, my piece of Aida, is 20 inches square.  I bought Michaels own brand "Loops and Thread," Aida cloth and will say it's quite rough, but will work perfectly fine for this project.

This was taken after working on it on Friday.

The # 55 & 66 squares are totally finished, back stitch and all.  This is also my first time doing blackwork, which is the background stitching (orange and yellow stitching)

I keep all my threads I am using in that metal tin.

It's an old Crabtree and Evelyn tin.

This is the back of my work (later on Saturday).  It's not perfect but it's reasonably tidy.  I was always taught the back was as important as the front.  You won't see the back of it when finished as it will be covered in fabric.

I am hoping to have this project finished by mid April, as my goal is to sew a couple of squares per day.  Realistically though doing one a day is something I can achieve.

SPAM..........

not the meat, but the annoying messages from people with nothing else better to do than promote all sorts of crazy things........

I moderate all my messages, as I know for a fact as soon as I switch off the moderate button, I will be inundated with crazy messages.

At the moment they are coming in fast and furious.  No idea if Blogger is trying to stop them, but I hate them.

If you have a blog do you moderate your comments all the time due to SPAM?

By the way the pattern for the little birdies was in this magazine:

Someone was asking..........

Fast and easy Easter Gift

Well it's fast and easy now that I have altered the pattern 😏

I picked up this magazine on the weekend.

The reason I picked it up was for the little finger puppets in the bottom left of the photo:

They looked cute and I thought the two birdies would be great as a little gift to put into the kids' Easter bags.  So I knit the first one and this is how it turned out:

Even on my fingers it was big.  Now granted I was using a slightly different gauge yarn, but when I did knit one in the right gauge yarn it still was big.  The one on the right is the right gauge yarn.  So I knew I was going to have to alter the pattern so it wasn't too bit for little fingers.  You can see my first small finger puppet in the photo below.

I ended up casting on 14 stitches instead of the 24 and knitting 14 rows instead of 24 rows.  I used Patons Canadiana yarn.

The beak was 4 rows by 4 rows.

Although a bit fiddly they have turned out super cute.

The extra large pair I am keeping so when I Facetime the grand kids we can do the nursery rhyme together.  I still have a couple more pairs to knit, but they knit up in no time flat.

Now the nursery rhyme these are for is:

Two Little Dicky Birds:

Two little dicky birds, sitting on a wall.
One called Peter, one called Paul.
Fly away Peter, fly away Paul.
Come back Peter, come back Paul.

Coobie's.......

This post is for the women only......well I guess some men may find it useful???😏

I am in love with a new to me product, Coobie Seamless Bra's  I was reading a magazine when I was getting my feet done and saw an ad for them.  I have been struggling with slipping straps on my regular bras and it was getting annoying.  So I thought I would give these a try.  They are in the States and were going to charge me not only shipping and handling, but customs and duty fees for being in Canada.😟  Then as luck would have it they were featured on Zulilly Canada, so I decided to give them a try.

I think I paid less than $75 CDN for three bras and I love them.  I got this style in grey and white:

 and this style in beige:

I do prefer the grey and white one over the beige lacy one, but all are super comfortable.  No more slipping straps and easy to put on and take off.

This is not a sponsored post, I just like this product.

By the way just checked Zulilly and they are still available in various countries, including Canada, States, UK and Australia.

Oh and another thing I love now is the magazine I was reading when I saw the ad for the bras, Dr. Oz The Good Life  Lots of interesting info in it.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE USED TOO OR NEED UNDERWIRES, YOU WILL BE SURPRISED AT HOW MUCH SUPPORT THEY GIVE YOU.  I WAS/AM AN UNDERWIRE GIRL AND THEY ARE OKAY.  WELL WORTH TRYING IN MY OPINION.

Stinking cute or what?

I really enjoy a magazine called Pretty Patches and in the March edition there was a pattern for Archie The Alien.

I decided to make one for our new granddaughter who is due in June, in some of the fabric scraps from her room.  I will share with you in another post everything from the nursery.

 She is so stinking cute isn't she?

Now we don't know the sex of the other baby due later this month, but in case it's a boy (mother thinks it will be, I don't) I made another Alien from the scraps of fabric from one of the two quilts I made for that grandchild.

Now if the baby is a girl, I will give this one to Our Little Man, as it is very boyish.

Don't they make a cute couple......

Our Little Princess......

well she was 3 in January and so grown up for her age.  She loves her little brother and is a great help to her mum.  Her favourite colour is pink and then says Our Little Munchkin's favourite colour is purple.........whether Our Little Munchkin has said that is another thing...LOL  She should be a lawyer when she grows up, as she can argue the hind legs off a horse!!  Love her to bits though........just try not to argue with her...LOL  Again don't have a current photo, but will take one next week when I see her.  Like her brother I made her an apron, love this fabric and you will see more of it over the coming days.

Actually this is Our Little Munchkins apron, but Our Little Princess' is the same, I just made the binding to match on hers though.  The link for the pattern is on yesterday's post.

I also decided to make her a bunny bag, from the March issue of Pretty Patches magazine.  The fabric I used was leftovers from Our Little Munchkin's original nursery things.

 I personally found this bag a bit long, and if I made it again I would change up a few things.

 I followed the pattern to the letter.

I made a matching pink change purse to go with it for her.

See Archie The Alien, you will see my version of it, in another post  I am really enjoying Pretty Patches magazine.  I buy it in Chapters and it is a British magazine and quite expensive though at $13.99, but lots of neat things in it.  I am still using my gift cards I got for my birthday to buy them.

Is there a magazine you buy every month?

Lots of reading in store for me.......

Book Outlet was having a good sale the other day so I ordered a number of books; actually 14 in total and I paid around $50 for them all.  A couple are for Christmas presents, yes I am starting the buying for Christmas 2015.  They ship to both Canada and the States.

I had also ordered a one year's subscription to Canada's Style at Home, which I think was either $12 or $15 for twelve issues.  The first one came on Friday.  Love to guess which is the high or low room; got it wrong this time.

Ages ago, probably a year or two ago I bought some Martha Stewart Alpaca Blend yarn at Michael's in the hope's I would learn to knit.  I found it the other day, so decided to knit myself a winter hat:

 You would think we had cats, with all the Alpaca bits floating around when I am knitting it.  I just love the feel of it though.

Update on Our Little Munchkin.  She has a cough, she is wheezing, she is poking at her ears and has a runny nose; she has a head cold.  Dd takes her for her 18 month check up on Wednesday so if it does get worse, they will maybe do something about it then?  As the nurse said on Thursday, she's at daycare and this is how it goes.  She is building up immunity and when she starts school she will not be as sick as other kids you haven't been in daycare.  Meanwhile the poor thing is sick every month.