Chatelaine progress

So here's a little more progress on Misty Morning Vineyard from Chatelaine. Photography just does it no justice!

Also some progress on Egyptian Garden, hopefully you can see the detail in the beaded centre and the 1x1 fishies!

HAED progress

Another mermaid from Heaven and Earth designs. This is from a painting by Selena Fenech called "Sea of Roses"

I am stitching it 1x1 using full cross stitches on the recommended 25ct lugana fabric.

Christmas...it's nearly here!

Rich dug us out & we ventured to Sherwood Pines to buy our tree & here it is!

Also, I have been experimenting baking bread & mulling wine. The bread is made with vine ripened tomatoes & parmesan cheese & tasted amazing! The mulled wine recipe was one from Jamie Oliver which my best friend recommended. Previously I have used sachets of spices for convenience but would recommend going the extra mile... the results are out of this world. Full marks Jamie!! You can cut & paste this link - unfortunately the clickable link I tried to post is not showing up.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/jamie-s-mulled-wine

Snow!

We're still mid "deep freeze" in Mansfield with the daytime temperatures barely reaching -5C but thankfully now, at least our snow has all but disappeared. We were buried under 2 feet of the stuff a couple of weeks ago though so here's a few pics. The chickens were throughly miserable & refused to come out of the shed at all.

Our little ex-Batt Princess Layer sadly died in November. In previous snow falls she had been the only one to venture out.

My Wedding

On 28th August 2010 I got married to my lovely hubby Richard...so technically I'm now Ang_B!

The day could not have been more perfect & all of our guests have commented on what a beautiful wedding they thought it was. Thankfully all the effort & planning seems to have paid off!

I was also very proud of myself for having dropped 32lbs since January through a combination of (strangely enough...) diet and exercise! Running to be more precise...me!!!....not something I thought I would ever say! In January, with a little encouragement from my best friend, we started running - I could barely manage 30 seconds without stopping. By June we were running 6+ miles in one go. My sister and I even ran 9 miles one day. Next year I plan to run a half marathon...so it's amazing what can be achieved with persistence!

Wedding stitching

Here is my little boy Aidan holding the ring pillow which I made for my wedding. It is from the "Hardanger Chart Collection" from Col's Creations. I purchased the kit from Sewandso.co.uk
I did modify the design slightly to add our initials & the date of our wedding in the centre. The whole thing took approximately 2 weeks from start to completion & I was thrilled with the result!

First ever HAED finish

I finished this earlier in the year. It is called "Violet and Gold" and is by Molly Harrison & subsequently charted by HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs).

I can't pretend that I enjoyed stitching her since the colour changes virtually drove me insane - Honestly 85 different colours in a single 10 x 10 square ?! However, hopefully my effort was worth the end result.

Adding together the time I actually worked on her I would say it took approximately 8 months, although in real terms this was spread over more like 3 years!!