RIP Pecker

.....Pecker being one of our chooks, if you didn't know her. She was put to sleep by the vet after suffering from a virus and complications. She was one of our family for over 4 years, and will be sadly missed (I know she was only a chook but she was a nice chook!). A new addition to keep the remaining chook, Ginger, company is most likely to arrive tomorrow-hopefully the place she will come from will have some tips about integrating a new chook with an old one. The picture provided was one of the few I could find, and was taken and modified by Luke years and years ago for a school project.

Going back a couple of weeks, I celebrated my 40th birthday with a bbq with family. Unfortunately, both my Mum and my brother and his family were unable to attend due to illness, but we still had a lovely day. Here's one of the few photos from the day (artistically shot by my daughter).


I've been getting some crafting done also (tennis and cricket season is ideal for this) and here's some finishes. The advent calendar was finished in 2008 (not the best photo, but I was wanting to pack away Chistmas decorations). The other two were ornaments I started in 2008 but finished this year.

This is "Sing Noel" by Primrose Needleworks from The Gift of Stitching Ornament Issue 2008. I changed the colours somewhat to make them less pastel.

This ornament is called "Christmas Delights" by Cats Whiskers Design Studio and is from The Gift of Stitching Ornament Issue 2007. I used a Needle Neccessities green (#139).
There should be many more ornaments here during the year as I will be trying to stitch an ornament a month-starting next month, so I'm working on finishing up a few I started last year. I will also have a finishing spree, where I plan to actually make these into something.
I've also re-entered into the model stitching world, now that I feel my arm can withstand stitching to a deadline. I'm currently stitching on a mystery sampler for The Gift of Stitching magazine, so I won't have any pictures anytime soon on that.
This week looks ideal for crafting of any kind as the forecast temperatures for the first week back at school are for 41C, cooling down to 39C on Friday-blah! Uniforms are organised, shoes are bought, stationery has arrived (it gets home-delivered and didn't arrive until about 2pm yesterday) and hairs are cut. I just need to label Luke's books and we should be ready..........well except for the early mornings-just as well it will be a short week!