My cross stitch holiday

As I switched off my work computer yesterday,  I could hardly contain my excitement that the weekend was finally here!     The first week back at work after my holiday was complete!    No getting up tomorrow (well today actually) at the crack of dawn, no plans made, just relax and make the most of not being in the office and being able to craft as much as other inconveniences (cooking/housework) will allow.

I am a bit shocked that my last post was in July last year!   I have been busy crafting since my last post although all I seem to have been doing is adding to my UFO projects! oh and buying more cross stitch stash!

Whilst I enjoyed my week away from the office, I managed to (start) and finish a couple of small  projects (pics below).    

I also took the time while I was off to get myself a bit more organised so chart designs I would like to stitch have the material and threads with them now and I have a pile of kits that are on my "to do" list.    I have been doing lots of little projects and I feel its time to start something that I can really get my teeth into.   Once I have decided what this is going to be, I will share my progress on here!

You might also  get to see a picture or two of my knitting because I have taken that up again although I am really not very good at it!

So here are a few projects I have stitched recently: -

This was a delight to stitch and was completed in just two days.    I am thinking of stitching the same design again but stitching a black cat instead of a ginger cat.  I added the border because I thought the cat and house by itself looked bare.

Another design (on the left) that stitched up really quickly.  I think the design on the right is finished and will post a pic in a subsequent post.  Unfortunately I stitched one design too close to the other (trying to save material) so I will be a bit limited when I mount the design into a card.

Finally (for now!) this design remains unfinished because I have quite simply fallen out of love with it.  This was a free kit from a magazine called Cross Stitch Card Shop and is as I guess most of you will recognize a Margaret Sherry Design.  The threads were not pre-sorted and I had trouble identifying the different shades and after making a mistake with the teacup handle managed to run out of one of the shades of pink and also had trouble identifying very light grey.  There might be the odd stitch that needs completing but other than than, it just needs the backstitch which I am not looking forward to and will no doubt save for a rainy day!