Round Robin, Birthday Cards and a new Blog

Here is Karen's Summer Themed Sweetheart Tree Band Sampler:

And a close-up of my bands: 

To be honest, neither picture does justice to the lovely yellow fabric.  I told a little story with my bands.  First you have the blue sky with white fluffy scotch stitch clouds.  Then a row of yellow sunshine above a pink hedge.  There is a floral garden with a green lawn in the middle and a little blue stream along the bottom of the bands on either side of my name.

Karen provided all the threads and beads for this design, it's like getting a little Needlework shop in a bag!

Next up is the Birthday Card I sent to Linda for her Birthday.  It's another of the WOCS Flower of the Month designs.  September is the Aster.

Stitched on 16count aida and hand coloured.

I have stitched 9 months so far but the August card has gone MIA in the post so I can't show it yet.  I'm very cross about that because it was sent to a very dear blogging friend.  Hopefully it will turn up soon.

The next Birthday is mine!!  Here are the lovely cards I received from the Needlecraft Haven Birthday Thread Exchange.  Each participant has to send a card and a skein of thread to the others on their Birthdays.  The skeins can be used to stitch the freebie design Clare chose at the start of the year for us.

The cards are hung on strings from my ceiling beams which is why they are sideways!  Here is an awkward card which couldn't be hung up and demanded to be displayed standing upright on one of the few surfaces the Small Boy cannot reach.  It's from Karen aka Stitchywoman and is a lovely example of papercraft, all concertina cut and folded.

Present-wise I received stash-money, my Dark Alphabet professionally framed (to be collected soon) and a collection of Just Nan charts as well as the usual choccies.

I also received the Gift of Time from hubby who took the Small Boy to Preschool on my day off work so I had two hours uninterrupted computer time!  I spend it designing a new blog.  I decided there are too many header tabs on this blog which is preventing people from seeing the important ones, like the Magazine Contents Page.  So, my new blog is going to be for my finishes only.  There is one entry per finish, a nice big picture of the design (so you don't need to click and wait) plus any details I have.  The intention is to have links to the freebies or the designer's website eventually.

You can comment or there is a "instant reaction" widget where you can tell me if you've stitched the design, if you have it in your stash or it's on your wishlist.  I thought about having an "I love this" option but guessed everyone would click it all the time or risk insulting me LOL.

Finally I cordially invite you all to 

Come Happy Dance with Me