Cake!

... is done.

And you know what that means? Yup, ladies and gentlemen, dust off your glitter balls because we need you out on the dance floor doing the shimmy, shimmy happy dance with me ^.^ Here's Sweet Treats with all its buttons and beads attached.

Design: Sweet Treats
Designer: Country Cottage Needleworks
Fabric: 28 count Lakeside Linens Vintage Lenti Cashel Linen
Fibers: Crescent Colours
Beads: Mill Hill Beads
Buttons: JABC Buttons

Other than that, not much stitchy news today so this will be a short post. However, I did make some progress on Little House Neighbourhood.

Only managed to finish the middle tree. I'm now working on the blue house on the left. It's stitched with Vikki silk. Other than that, do you notice anything different? Look closer...

I had opted to stitch the sheep with silk chenille also by Vikki Clayton. It sure gives their woolly coats a more realistic look, doesn't it? I think they're too adorable!
I've also joined the newly created Let's Stitch blog by Becky SC. It's basically a SAL blog with no actual theme. We stitch what we like, UFOs, WiPs, New Starts, it's up to you. It exists purely for us stitchers to encourage and support each other so that hopefully, we'll get more stitching done. Judging from the success of my Sweet Treats SAL with Jessie and Carol (it's been a pleasure, ladies!), this will definitely be a huge help to me. I have quite a number of WiPs I have in mind for this SAL and also a couple of new projects I'm looking forward to starting. (Yes, yes, I know I must be out of my mind) Maybe a few of us could even agree to stitch a design which will make it an actual SAL. We'll see. Check it out and email Becky if you're interested.
I'm overwhelmed by the number of comments I received for my last post. Once again, for those of you who have taken the time to stop by for a visit, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!
Appologies to Sherry who asked me a question regarding my Seasonal Cats and Four Seasons Chairs RR. I hope you don't mind me answering your question one post later. (I seem fond of doing that all the time :S) All the cats in Seasonal Cats are designed by the same desginer - Donna Vermillion and published by Sudberry House. I'm not sure where exactly you can find the chart. You can try contacting Renée or perhaps someone here can help out? The same goes for Four Seasons Chairs which in this case is designed by Janlynn Corporation. This one is relatively easy to find. In fact, you can buy it here. Hope that helps. Do feel free to ask more questions if you need more information.
Last but never least, here's my S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement eXperiment for those who don't know :P) for this week.

Spot Sampler Victoria by Martina, yummy linens by Sassy's Fabbys in Spun Sugar and Desert Sandstorm, Vikki Clayton Silks (of course!) and charms from A Charming Place. Remember the $10 gift certificate I was given just for mentioning their website on my blog? Well, these are the charms bought with that along with a free shipping promotion on the day these were ordered... what more could a girl ask for?

Professional Procrastinator Posting Pie!

A pie that has been baked a week ago and which should have been displayed on Monday.

Still, better late than never, right? Lastly would be cake so stay tuned for a major happy dance soon.
I've also finished (finally!) Gingerbread Cottage. In my last post of it, I showed a lot of missing spots in my project and mentioned that I was playing around with some ideas. Here is the end product.

Design: Gingerbread Cottage
Designer: Country Cottage Needleworks
Fabric: 28 count Silkweaver's Sapphire Sky Cashel Linen
Fibers: DMC & Crescent Colours
Beads: Mill Hill Beads
Buttons: JABC Buttons

As you can see, I substituted parts of the design with buttons from JABC. I gotta give the credit to Jessie who suggested that I take a look at her finished Gingerbread Cottage. Isn't hers lovely? I sorta took her idea one step further and added more embelishments. Hope you don't mind, Jessie.
My LHN Mailart to Joanne has also been sent and arrived on Wednesday so I can show you what I stitched for her.

The design on the front of the mailart is taken from Ladybugs which is published in Leisure Arts' Joy In The Journey leaflet. For $3.99, it can be downloaded here.

As for the back, do you recognize which design it came from? I'm sure most of you can guess. If not, it's a portion of Necessities Sampler. The background fabric is what I used to line the inside of the mailart with as seen here:

Now for something a little different than cross stitch. Enclosed in the mailart is also a Butterfly Card handmade by me.

The design is a freebie from Stitching Cards It's pretty simple to make but the results rather stunning, in my opinion. The butterfly is stitched with DMC E130 metallic thread to achieve the effect I wanted - shiny and colourful. To echo the butterfly theme, the inside of the card has a pop up butterfly.

I gotta admit that my handwriting isn't the best here. The word "Hi!", written in gold, looked a little messy to me. Anyway, here's a closer view:

With the card, I had also put together a kit for Spot of Coffee.

I hope Joanne likes this exchange as much as I have enjoyed making it.
The fabric for Little House Neighbourhood has finally arrived too! Woohoo! Now I can actually start on the SAL Here's the floss toss for it... Vikki Clayton silks on Picture This Plus Legacy.

While we are on the subject of Neighbourhoods, don't forget to check out the MM&IRR and MM&IRR2. I've been thinking and thinking about my Neighbourhood but can't make up my mind on anything concrete yet. Luckily actual building doesn't start until 31st December so I still got plenty of time. Gonna go think some more...
Last but not least, here's a picture on my latest acquisition. I went crazy buying fabrics on Ebay. I think I might have developed another severe addiction. Help?

Ice Cream!

Once again, I'll start off this entry with another block of Sweet Threats. Yummy, yummy 'Ice Cream'.

Two more blocks to go! Being in a SAL really helps motivate me into stitching one block per week. Jessie, how are you getting on with yours? Carol, have you gotten yours frame yet? How are you feeling? How is your knee?
This past Sunday, 31st August, was Malaysia's 51st National Day. (Happy Independance Day to all Malaysians!) Thus, Monday was a substitute public holiday. One more day to stitch. Yay! So I started something else...

Design: Spot of Spring
Designer: The Drawn Thread
Fabric: 32 count Cream Italian Linen
Fibers: DMC

I know, I know, I shoulda work on my many and ever growing WiPs but at least I finished it ^.^ I consider it a happy dance of sorts even though I still have Summer, Autumn and Winter to go.
Speaking of WiPs, I've joined the Me, Myself and I Round Robins. What am I getting myself into?!
Anyway, I'm sure most of you would have heard about it by now. If not, it is basically a Neighbourhood RR with a twist. Rather than being passed around among a group of stitchers like a round robin usually is, it will instead all be designed and stitched by you yourself. Consider it an SAL of sorts. As of Vonna's last count, there are now (Dang!) 72 of us. Construction of your neighbourhood won't actually begin until 31 December 2008. So... (taken directly from the blog) there is still plenty of time to get your permits, blueprints and waivers needed to begin construction on your neighborhood. Come join us if you're interested but be quick for there are limited spots left.
I am constantly amazed by the generosity of the stitching community. Remember Dixie? who sold me Just Nan's Patience whom I now call my friend? She saw that I had High Hopes by Just Nan on my wish list. She had just finished stitching it and instead of listing it on Ebay like she had intended, she took it upon herself to become my wish fairy and sent the chart to me...

...along with a pretty hardanger chart/card. I've never tried hardanger before but this is the perfect pattern to practice with. I have no idea how to express my gratitue, Dixie, except to say a heartfelt Thank You!
I also received a USD10 Gift Certificate from A Charming Place all because I mentioned them on my blog. Wow! I'm speechless. Thank you, Hayley. Just for the record, I'm not affiliated. Just a satisfied customer.
More things to be thankful for...(You've probably already deduced that this is gonna be a very long post, no?) Look what arrived in the mail today:

It's a LHN mail art from Joanne (no blog) in Malaysia too. She's my partner for the Mail Art Friends LHN Mail Art Exchange. Isn't her stitching pretty? Here's the back:

And here's a picture of the fabric she used to lined the inside and some stash she sent me:

Feeling envious, anyone? I know I would be if I saw this on anyone elses' blog. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm late sending my LHN mail art to her. A first for me. I got it all ready but... I can't very well send it empty, can I? The postman still doesn't want to bring her present to me so I can pass it along to her >.<>Little House Needleworks Silk Threadpacks?

I think I'm in love!
Lillie honoured me with another blog award.

This time I won't nominate anyone. There are too many blogs out there that I love. If I have left a comment on your blog before, you know that I love it. If I haven't, it's probably because I've yet to discover your blog or didn't have time to do so (which I'm profoundly sorry). Just leave a comment and I'll be sure to drop by.
To Jean who asked me to recommend some nice evenweave fabric two posts ago, (sorry I neglected to answer you last post) I've only used Zweigart's Lugana and Wichelt's Jobelan so I doubt I'm the right party to ask about evenweaves. I mostly use Linen nowadays. However, I find jobelan a pleasure to stitch on as the floss goes smoothly through and thus doesn't fray much. Hope that limited information helps?
And to everyone that complimented me on my stitching, Thank You! *Blush*
Stash-wise, I don't have much to show this week except for the fact that...

I seemed to have gone a little completely overboard with charm packs purchases from Deb. I guess now is the time to try out all the pretty finishings ideas, eh?