De-cluttering, Diets and a little bit of Stitching

Well the de-cluttering has been going well lots of 'stuff' cleared out. As I have a few hobbies *cough* I ahem have quite a lot of stash. Actually to be honest a lot more than I realised! I've been busy sorting....oh my! Where to put it all *blush* it's made me realise I have far far too much 'stuff' so......now sadly I am on a diet....a stash diet to be precise I am not going to allow myself to purchase any new kits till I have made a substantial dent in what I already have *sigh*.
I did have some fun moments while clearing out, you know when you discover stuff you forgot you had. For instance my grans, great grans and great aunts doilies..I'd forgotten all about these.

 and some vintage clothing I collected over 20 years ago now...eek!

 What a state it was in all horrible and yellow having been stored in a cardboard box in various attics over the years. After a bit of googling where I discovered cardboard and old textiles don't mix! Oops! have given them all a good wash and look.......not perfect but I am really pleased with how these have turned out.

I think it was the needlework on these pieces that drew me to them in the first place it amazes me with the amount of time theses ladies would have had to spend working how they ever had the time to   make such wonderful items.

I am keeping the family pieces but the vintage stuff I will get rid of probably on ebay, now they look lovely and clean it would be a shame to shove them back into the attic! Let someone else enjoy them.

Needlework wise I have done very little as it has been very hot and sticky here. Living next to a field we have the same problem every year around this time blasted corn lice! Eugh horrible critters they get everywhere behind the picture frames inside the laptop screen they crawl over everything and we
can't sit out in the garden without being covered in the critters and they just make you itch all over. After living here for so long you'd think id be used to them by now lol. Anyone who lives near fields will know what I am talking about...roll on harvest time. Anyway to get back on track we have to keep the windows at the back of the house shut and run fans which means I can't stitch for long as things get blown around lol. Oh well it's not for ever.
I have managed to finish BBD Forget Me Not really love how this has turned out not sure how I will have this framed not that I have a lot of choice my local framer has a very limited selection, oh how I envy others with super duper framers. I have toyed with the idea of ordering frames online but I am afraid I will get the measurements wrong.

I've also started some small cross stitch kits that I bought from Atelier in France. And it's all Annettte of California Stitcher blog fault ;0) she posted gorgeous pictures of the kits and before I knew it I had some on order, go on have a wee nosey, dare you to not be tempted as well *grin*. They are lovely little kits as Annette says and a great price for what you get, the website is all in French but with google translate on hand and my very rudimentary school French it was easy to navigate and place my order. The parcel arrived very quickly and I was delighted with the little kits which are in French but very easy to understand without knowledge of the language.

You are supplied with the linen, hand dyed threads and silk ribbon for finishing. My plan is to turn all these into little lavender sachets to hang in my wardrobe. I've already bought a large bag of lavender.

These are soo pretty and fairly quick to stitch so I am hoping to have them completed fairly quickly corn lice and weather permitting of course!

We have also been celebrating someone's 8th birthday and the birthday boy announced he wanted a creeper cake from Minecraft. Those of you who have children of a similar age will no doubt have heard of Minecraft and will know what I am talking about the rest of you will no doubt be staring at the picture thinking has she flipped? What on earth is that!? Lol I am no domestic goddess but did what any mother would......google and have a bash! 

Turned out not too bad little bit wonky but the birthday boy was thrilled...and it tasted not too bad either!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your all enjoying the summer.