I declare

 2018 to be the year of Chatelaine

I'm finishing off 2017 with Deep Blue Sea

And starting off 2018 with a new start sal with my bestie 

Hugs

Andie 

I am so sad!

I am feeling so so so sad and I just need to write about it somewhere.
I don't want to put this on facebook.*

A few days ago I got the news that a friend of my sons passed away suddenly during the night.  His wife tried to wake him and then cpr but it was too late.  He was 24, got married earlier this year and was the nicest young man you could ever meet.

Matthew loved everyone, he accepted everyone, he was zany and crazy and had an amazing sense of humor.

If I ever wondered what Jesus was like it was Matthew.  He believed and yet there was absolutely no judgment in him.  He happily sat down with the "sinners"  they all called him friend.

He was smart and fun and following his dreams.

He had so much life ahead of him.

We all kind of think like we will live until an old age and thats not necessarily true.  In the blink of an eye you could be gone!

This has made me wonder about my own life.  Am I living for God?  Can people see that in me and the way that I treat them?  Am I following my dreams?  Am I trying new things and being passionate about life?  Do my family know that I love them?  The way Matthews family and wife did?  If I die have a left behind a legacy of love?  Or a legacy of mediocre?  I want it to be love, like Matt has.

*hugs*

Andie ( who will be back to blogging about happier things soon)

* I did not want to put this on FB and make Matts family sad.  I am not his family or even a close friend, just someone who has been touched by his kindness, friendliness and the way he lived his life.  Matt was a very good friend to my son, in fact all Matts friends say "one of my best friends"  He was that kind of person.  I miss knowing he is in the world.  It really sucks

Andromeda

Nearly finished Andromeda, just beads to add to the right hand wave

I fell in love with this design when I first saw it, but not her drapery.  This is my first full conversion and I would probably change a couple things if I did it again, but overall I am happy with it :D

*hugs*

Andie

Round Robins

My rotation was side tracked when Julie's round robin arrived.

This was lots of fun as I wouldn't normally stitch a witch.

I'm back onto Fallyn now, end of rotation photo soon.

I have been teaching myself Chain Maille jewellery making and I'm thinking of trying to sell some at the local Saturday market

I have really enjoyed making them and I have more supplies on the way to make new stuff

Hugs

Andie

Still no computer

My nephew is fixing it for free so I can't complain :P 

So this update is from my phone as well 

Sunrise Laguna Mermaid 20 hours

Back to Fallyn now and then Deep Blue Sea will come out before we see Sunny again 

Hugs

Andie

2017 Goals

This year I plan to blog a lot more regularly!  Our computer is getting fixed and my daughter loaned (I say gave) me her camera  so I'm still on my phone but as soon as the computer is back I will upload better (hopefully) photos

My stitching goals for this year are:

Minimal starts!  Except for my guilt free January start, I plan to only start obligation pieces.  And finish some wips

I went through all my wips and I have 43!

My GFJ start is Sunrise Laguna Mermaid from Mirabilia

I have started a rotation that I am calling my 10 hour wind up rotation, basically 10 hours on Sunrise Laguna, 10 hours on Fallyn, 10 hours on Sunrise, 10 hours on Fallyn, 10 hours on Deep Blue Sea etc until I have my maximum amount of projects, by which time I imagine I will have a finish or two and then I will start winding up again

Here is Sunrise Laguna

I am nearly finished my 2nd round on her so I will add a new pic soon.

Here is Fallyn after I last stitched on her

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

Andie

AUDREY!!

Audrey is finished!  I was having a really bad day yesterday, and then my order from Cross Stitching Art arrived and included in it were the beads to finish Audrey :D

She is stitched on Fantasy Wings Opalescent 28ct lugana from Crafty Kitten :D

I also found these pics on the camera when I downloaded the photos :D

Gabrielle (now aged 13)

Bethany (8)

Aliyah (7)

And my sweetie :D

*hugs*

Andie

Still waiting on beads

So I can finish Audrey :)

Last week I stitched on Chatelaines Summer Mystery.  It was school holidays so not much done

Before

After

This week I'm stitching on an old wip Dawn from PR

My fabric is actually all the green, better pic next time 

In personal news my health is a bit crap.  I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes :(. Metformin made me quite unwell so they are trying something else before I have to inject with insulin 

My numbers have improved but not enough, even though I've been really careful and eating really low carb.  So I'm feeling a bit sad for myself and teary today.  It's at times like these that I find my faith wobbles a bit

*hugs* to you all

Andie 

4 Finishes

I tried to post this a few weeks ago but accidentally put it in the wrong blog so deleted it and didn't have the energy to try again lol

I'm back stitching!!  Yay!!

I've even had a few finishes :)

In Love - Cross Stitching Art Designs

On Rockabye 28count Opal Jazlyn

Silver Dragonfly - Mirabilia

Fairy Letter M for my Mum (Maureen)

Stitched on Whimsical Winter 28ct opal Lugana from Under the Seas Fabrics

And Finally Mermaid Letter M for my sister (Megan)

On the other half of the whimsical winter piece

At the moment I'm stitching to quite a large rotation but with a focus piece.

My focus piece is Audrey - Cross Stitching Art Designs

All the stitching is now done, I just need to finish the beading (I'm waiting on beads)

I've also stitched on Merchant Mermaid (but not much, I struggled a bit with this piece)

Before ⬆️

After ⬇️

Something is better than nothing I guess

This week I am stitching on Summer Mystery - Chatelaine

Here's my before pic

*hugs*

Andie 

Moving along

On....

Part 1 of Chatelaines Summer Mystery.  Still got quite a bit to go though 😄

And on Cross Stitching Arts "Audrey"

Hugs

Andie 

Wow what a week!!

Well actually a few few weeks!!

My son Christian (17) spent a night in A&E  then had his appendix out the next day.

All 3 of the girls then got a nasty case of the flu and we had to take a week off school.

This week things are back to normal.  I've started a knitting project for the meanings during school time.

This is for Aliyah.  After this I plan to make the same one for Bethany in that chocolate brown.

Here is my stitching from several weeks ago.  Sorry for taking so long to share a pic.  I didn't get much done.

But I love her so far :)

I also started Charelaines Summer Mystery but I didn't get much done before the flu hit.

I'm taking part in a NZ rr, my first piece took forever to arrive then when it finally did the next piece came the next day ;-P lol so I'm busy stitching in those for now :)

Thanks for stopping by.

*hugs*

Andie