Tic Tac Toe challenge #16

At last I've finally had some free time to play with the Tic Tac Toe challenge again.  It is still my intention to catch up and make something using challenges 14 and 15.

I've gone for a diagonal row Autumn Colours, Paper Piecing and Free.  I've picked some autumn colour patterned papers, distressed the edges and layered them.  The stamped image is from SU and I've paper pieced the umbrella and dress and also used a sentiment from the same stamp set.  To finish it off I stamped some tiny leaves to try and make it look as though she is walking through/on the leaves. 

I'm also going to enter this into Darnell's NBUS challenge as neither of the two stamp sets from SU had been used until now.

Happy 30th birthday

I can't believe our baby (now grown up) girl is 30 years old.  It was her birthday yesterday and she's been having a tough time lately what with one thing or another so we invited her down for a little birthday tea.  What she didn't know at the time was that her two brothers and their families were also going to be there.  It was chaotic, loud but a very enjoyable time and so nice to have all our family together to celebrate Colette's milestone birthday. 

Colette hates the photos but I love them.  We even managed to get a photo of all the grandchildren together, not the best photo as trying to get them all to sit still was a challenge.

From left to right we have Savannah, trying to keep Lincoln from escaping, poor Harlee-Jay squashed in besides Elisha then Connor who is trying to stop Theo from escaping and finally Logan holding Sebastian.  I love them all.

First page of It's Only Forever completed

For the past week I have been trying to focus on It's Only Forever and I am pleased to say I've actually finished the first page of this design.  Only another 29 pages to go!  Having said that not all of the remaining pages have 4616 stitches on them so some will be quicker to complete than others.  

I really do like having the matching needleminder and I can now see which part of the picture I have completed.  Its like having the picture on the outside of a jigsaw puzzle box.

Having concentrated on the stitching this week has left no time for me to take part in the Tic Tac Toe challenges but it is my intention to catch up with challenges 14 and 15 tomorrow evening and hopefully get challenge 16 done in time to take part in the link up again.

Home reading

This week at home I have been reading and finished Take Mum Out by Fiona Gibson.  A thoroughly light and enjoyable read, lots of humour but with a great every day life storyline.  I will definitely look out for more by this author as its one of those books you can pick up and put down without losing the storyline.

This was one of two books I picked up at our local garden centre.  The other one is called Steps to the Gallows by Edward Marston.  After buying the book I noticed its the second book in a series and while it is probably a stand alone book as well I will try and find the first in the series before making a start on it.

In the meantime I can finally continue with the Sue Grafton alphabet series of books as I've now picked up L is for Lawless.  At the same time I purchased O is for Outlaw as I already had M and N as well as P.

At work I am still reading The Interpretation Of Murder by Jed Rubenfield which I picked up when we were in Scotland.  Although a bit slow to start with I am now starting to enjoy the book more.

In the Get Artsy book club we are reading The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes.  I have to confess I have fallen a little behind this month so need to try and catch up this week.  I have to say I'm enjoying reading non fiction books that I wouldn't usually even think of reading and it has given me lots to think about.

Tic Tac Toe challenge #13

#13 unlucky for some but I think finding the Tic Tac Toe challenge was lucky for me as it has made me create at least one card every week since it started.  I have also been lucky enough to have had two of my cards selected for Team Picks.

I was lucky enough to be able to make this card at my favourite bricks and mortar shop Scrapbook Magic today.  I've gone for the top line this week, pink, patterned paper and sequins.

The papers come from 6 x 6 paper pads from the First Edition range by Trimcraft.  I made the scallop border using a circle punch.  The sentiment is a TH Stampers Anonymous set Simple Sayings CMS155.  Clean and simple and finished off with some sequins and punched hearts.

Last week I used some flowers with coordinating dies and Jackie W left a lovely comment for me but also asked which company they came from.  If you are reading it this week they are from Clearly Besotted and the stamp set is called Fresh Flowers.  At the moment they no longer sell the dies but I think I did read that they might be bringing back some of their die sets.  I have however just looked on the Simon Says website and they sell the mini version of stamps and dies which also include an additional four flowers.

Stitching updates

The weekend is almost over and I spent most of yesterday morning at work getting the end of month filing checked, counted and packaged ready to be sent of to the pricing authority. In the afternoon it was spent putting an enormous order away as well as helping out with the dispensing.  By the time we left there was still a backlog of prescriptions from Friday's surgery collection still waiting to be dispensed - it has just been plain crazy the past few weeks and we seem to be constantly chasing our tails.

Thank goodness for relaxing hobbies.  The seaside boats received some attention during the week and we now have some houses and the large green boat is complete, I'm now working on the sea again before I get to start another boat.  I'm probably about a third of the way through this one.

Today has been miserable and wet so have I spent most of my time working on It's Only Forever.  There are a total of 30 pages to this one.  The page I've been working on has 4616 stitches of which I have completed approximately 1300 so just over a quarter of the page complete.  It doesn't look much but this is a very large piece and will measure 19.43 x 28.64 inches when finished.

As if I don't have enough to keep me going I purchased Gecko Rouges Halloween SAL in the form of a download and couldn't resist the needleminders that go with it.  Typically after I'd purchased them the fourth installment came out with another needleminder  - I will now wait until the other two installments come out and get the final three needleminders all at the same time.  Not sure if I will start it this year or put it on my list for next year.