Post Hallowe'en Post

Did you all have a good Hallowe'en?  Lots of treats and not too many tricks?

I managed to make my little JBW cat into an ornie using some of the bat fabric Shebafudge sent me in her Giveaway.  (edit: the fabric actually came from Sarah Crafty Moo's giveaway - oops).  Here it is hanging from my Hallowe'en themed display:

That's a turtle at the bottom, he's not Hallowe'en, he just lives there in a random fashion.  He has magnetic feet and was a present from my sis to my son when she'd spent the Summer hatching turtles on a desert island.  It's a tough job but someone has to do it because the turtle-mummies are bad mummies and don't stick around to protect the babies from predators.

Here is the Large Boy's lunch on Hallowe'en:

The eyeballs are made of chocolate!

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride on DVD that day then went to the cinema to see the new Tim Burton film Frankenweenie the next day.  Three great movies although my colleagues did laugh at me when I said there was only one really scary bit where I had to hold the boy's hand, for my sake not his!!  The film is only a PG too.

I also made lots of progress on Frightful by Just Nan:

All that's left is three more ghosties in the middle, the border and the Leviathon stitches in the variegated thread provided.  Then the beads and a ghostie charm.

The Hallowe'en Blog Hop Mystery Phrase Competition is going well, lots of correct entries.  In fact 100% of the entries are correct!  Thank you to everyone who posted their picture in a timely fashion.  Apologies to those who found the link to Blue Star Stitcher wasn't working.  I changed it when the first person told me but Blogger wouldn't accept it and kept reverting to the email link!  In the end I had to delete the link and start again, Bah.

The competition is open until 00.01 hours 7th November GMT.

One nice side effect of the Blog Hop was the increase in followers for us all.  I have now topped the 300 mark and there will be a giveaway in due course.  I'm just sorting through the tut, unwanted stash, pile of goodies to see what to offer you.

I've been updating my Happy Dance blog, I now have all of 2012 and 2011 loaded and am working my way backwards through my photo albums.  I have at least 100 entries to load from 1993 to 2010 and that's just stuff I have pictures of!  It's really interesting to see the years of high output versa the low output years according to my personal life and/or state of mind!  One thing that hasn't changed much is my taste, I stitched designs back in the 1990s that I would still stitch now.  I've always leaned towards samplers and fantasy designs so I guess they are pretty timeless?

Question - has your stitching taste stayed the same over the years or how has it changed?

Finally, I know alot of my followers are fans of Downton Abbey and yes, that is how we all live in England, just like in the show, in houses just like their's.  So what do you think of this cute little mini-cushion from Sheena Rogers Designs?  A mere 6 inches square and perfect for stitching while you watch.

Click on the picture for details of how to purchase either the kit or the chart.