Poppy and Daisy growing up :-)

So my lovely kittens Poppy and Daisy are getting bigger, they're 15 weeks old now and seriously cute! Took some pictures this week to keep track of them growing up as they're getting big so quickly. They get up at 5am every morning because it's so bright outside they think' it's daytime so why are you still in bed?' so they start walking all over me and purring really loudly in my ear. It's impossible to get annoyed though when they look this cute so I end up getting up with them, I'm hopeful when the mornings get darker in the autumn or they've just grown up a bit and got lazier that they'll stay asleep longer!  This was them having a great time with the brown paper, bubble wrap and tissue paper from a parcel that arrived at the the end of last week (it was fab birthday presents!) They were far more interested in the wrappings than anything inside, lol! 

Guess cats are not that different from us as they seemed really pleased with the bubble wrap in particular and spent ages popping the bubbles by jumping on it :-)

Then to sleep, after all the excitement of the wrappings they were worn out. Daisy went to sleep with a friend on the cosy blanket :-)

Poppy has claimed the beanbag with another blanket on top, looks very comfy.  Awww, aren't they lovely!

It's my birthday :-)

So I enter the last year with a '3' in the front today and it's been a great day........ I've spent the whole day opening fabulous presents and gorgeous cards and just had a great big slice of Mississippi mud cake, yum!

I can't believe how many gorgeous presents I got today! I've been taking pictures to show you just how great they are. So here they are.........

These were all from my fab friend Steph, aren't they so cute! I love the Hello Kitty Momiji doll, very cute and so many beautiful presents made for me is lovely. Here's the stitched cushion and the biscornu closer up...

I love the flower print aida the Hello Kitty biscornu is stitched on, it makes it look even prettier :-) Thanks Steph I love my pressies!

These ones are from my lovely friend Chris, she knows I love Fizzy Moon and got me lots of fab stuff......

Love the bear!! Such a lovely hanging cushion and a fabulous box with a stitched lid and she even stitched the gift tag for the present! These were fabulous enough but look what was inside the lovely stitched box too...

Pretty notepads, charms, threads and lovely pendants and more Fizzy Moon with a gorgeous pair of fridge magnets, a wall plaque and a lovely pen too! Such a lovely gift I had great fun going through the box and seeing all these pretty things. Thanks so much Chris, I love them all :-) 

This was from my boyfriend's Mam and Dad....

A lovely gardening set with stakes and gloves and all sorts of pretty things, some smelly stuff and earrings and the gorgeous butterfly jewellery box which is made of silk and stunning!

Got a lovely surprise from another friend Jeanne when I got an email with vouchers for the Creative Poppy website to buy cross stitch charts, love that website and will be going there to shop in a moment, thanks Jeanne :-)  I got money from my parents and boyfriend so I can but loads of crafty stuff too, perfect! 

Here's my cards, the sun had moved round and the pictures aren't so good (that's my excuse for rubbish photo's anyway!)

Now I'm off to spend my vouchers and then stitch, thanks to everyone again it's been a lovely day :-)

Ami swap time and a few finishes too....

 So I guess I was pretty good at kicking myself up the bum and getting motivated again after such a lazy start to the week :-) I managed to get a couple of things totally finished, namely the Dolly Mama's tote bag and the custom ordered star cushion. I also realised I was nearly out of stitched cards again (where do they all go so quick!) so I'm on a bit of a card making binge too with three stitched so far ready to mount up and more to stitch.
Here's the cushion.......

It's for my neighbour to give to his girlfriend, he wanted it in crushed velvet and one side red, one side black. Think it turned out pretty good, drawing up the pattern was the trickiest part and it proved my hoarding talent is worthwhile too as I dug out my protractor which I haven't used since geometry classes at school over 23 years ago to space out the five points evenly!

While I had the sewing machine out I figured I might as well do the bag too and get another thing finished off :-) I used a black poly/cotton  fabric which is fairly thick, the sort of fabric you'd use for a jacket, so it'll be good and strong. I used another layer of the same to line it too so should hold up to a lot of use!
Here it is.........

It's ami swap time too! Got my parcel this morning and here's what Steph sent me this month, bit of a cat theme, wonder why.........lol! So there's a big fluffy cat in the most fabulous fluffy wool with a very cute little coloured bell collar, so sweet! Then there's the two little kitty's in the bed too,  very cute and I love the pink fluff around the bed :-)

It's my birthday tomorrow so there were some presents that I have been good and left wrapped up and a knitted cake, love it!

I've been totally spoilt again, thank you so much Steph for another great swap :-) I sent a Hello Kitty (there's them cats again!) and a teeny panda to Steph and here they are.....

Love this monthly ami swap, it's always great to get a parcel full of surprises from the postman :-)

Catching up on the week......

Hello!!! Here's the new flowers this week, love flowers from Aldi as they last three weeks so I can totally justify buying them :-) Been a bit lazy this week, not been keeping the blog as updated as I'd planned and just not very motivated generally for some reason. Think the weather isn't helping at all though as still got gale force winds here, we seem to have been getting them for about three weeks now and I'm a bit bored of it! Seem to have spent a lot of time running in and out and picking up big planters in my yard when they get blown over, I just hope the plants will recover after their battering. Anyway, I'm trying  to get myself motivated and kick myself up the bum a bit!

For the stitching this week I've finished three flowers on the strip for my kitchen blind, here's a picture of it.

I'm guessing it'll take around fifteen flowers to be long enough. Inbetween the flowers is backstitched stalks which on the pattern have tiny white stitches for flowers on them but I didn't think the white would show up enough so I plan to add beads to them instead but I'll wait until the stitching is finished first so I can roll it up on the frame as I go. Also stitched something else this week but can't say as it's for a present and I've been making ami's too also for anther present so I can't say any more and will post pictures when they're all in their new homes :-) I have a cushion to make this week for a custom order and want to get the Dolly Mama bag done too.

Daisy and Poppy are growing a lot! I need to get some more pictures of them as they're growing so fast, Poppy seems to be changing colour a bit too, she was all really dark brown but now there's patches of ginger and white starting to come through from underneath, it's very pretty! They're all gangly and there back legs seem to be a bit too long for them which is funny as when they walk they catch up to the front and end up walking a bit sideways like a crab, lol!

Finished Dolly Mama....

So I have decided now that this is finished I'm making a tote bag from it, needs washed and ironed first though. Love these designs :-) I went to the big craft shop on Tuesday and got some black fabric to use for the bag and a lot more stuff, went a bit daft, lol! I bought a big stash of 14ct and 18ct aida and a couple of metres of blue and white gingham as I'd decided to make a blind for the kitchen window. For the blind I'm going to stitch a strip for the bottom of a chain of Gerbera's in bright colours, started the first flower in purple yesterday but it might take a little while as the window is almost 2 metres wide so a lot of flowers to go yet!

Took Poppy and Daisy to the vet this morning for their last vaccinations so they're now asleep after the trauma of it all wore them out :-) They are so different in the carrier it's funny, Daisy will just sit down and chill out and Poppy act's like she's being taken to her execution with wailing and reaching through the bars on the door and generally making a right fuss! Anyway they're sorted out for the next year so YAY!

Not a lot happening at the moment really, weather is blowing a gale so I'm waiting for that to drop as I have some sunflower plants waiting to be planted outside. Don't want them getting blown to bits straight away so hopefully in the next few days they can go outside as they're getting too big for their pots on my bathroom windowsill.

Flower heart

Finished off the latest heart hanging this week. This is a freebie chart from here http://www.madame-la-fee.com/index.php There are some pretty ones on this French website. It seems that in trying to find smaller stuff to stitch over the top of kittens heads while they sleep I appear to be stitching a lot of hanging hearts! I guess now I've run out of walls for my stitching I've started on the doorhandles, lol!

Started stitching a Dolly Mama's kit a couple of days ago and almost finished it now, just have to finish off the border! Such a quick stitch and great fun to do with all the bright colours. I'm now thinking I might make it into a tote bag but haven't settled on anything yet as I originally thought I'd make a cushion........the bag sounds pretty good though!

I decided I hate the voiles in my kitchen window yesterday, just one of those 'why the hell did I put them there!' moments :-) I want to make some sort of cafe curtain/half blind type of thing to cover the top half and leave the bottom uncovered as we aren't overlooked. I'm going to buy a big piece of evenweave or linen this week and plan to stitch something bright and colourful along the bottom, maybe some bright flowers or butterflies...... Should be fun!

Finished my little flower shop :-)

Finished this little bag charm flower shop this afternoon :-) It's so sweet! I love how it worked out and have three more little shop charts to try out sometime too, now I know how good this turned out they're on the list of must do's! This is the front.....

the first side, love the little bike........

the back........

the second side......

After making up the house I attached a twisted cord and two little bells and a clip fastener to add to my bag or keyring, haven't decided yet :-)

Flowers everywhere......and a couple of finishes

Another bunch of gorgeous flowers! The pookies seem to like living next to flowers :-) I found this gorgeous little watering can with this pretty plant in it at Asda this week, isn't it lovely?

It's been a bit of a mad week this week, little Daisy wasn't well with a limp and she was trembling and just wanted to sleep. Took her to the vet and it turned out she was affected by the vaccinations she'd had last week and had a bit of cat flu! There was me thinking the vaccines were meant to stop the diseases not give them to them, lol! So she's been on kitty Ibuprofen all week to lower her temperature, which was 104! Today she seems totally back to normal and is fighting and playing with her sister Poppy just like always. So happy and very relieved! When they are only 11 weeks old it's worrying, they are so tiny it just seems unfair to be ill!

A couple of finishes this week, small stuff stitched over kittens heads when they're asleep on my knee :-)
Firstly a seaside heart, I loved this pattern when I got it ages ago and have been meaning to get round to stitching it so this seemed like a good opportunity. I'm going to hang this on a door handle in my living room.

Also just finished a biscornu today, this blue bird design is from The Floss Box and really pretty colours, a nice simple stitch too. I have no idea where this is going to live yet!

I also stitched a couple of birthday cards but they're not going to be on here until after they've been given so it doesn't spoil the surprise :-) Started a little flower shop today, it's a 3D house that'll be a bag charm/keyring, I love making 3D stuff :-) I'll post pictures when it's finished.