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Monday 8 April 2019

8th Blogaversary on the 8th

It's my 8th Blogaversary today!  Where has the time gone?


That's me when I was 8.  Once again you can just see my little brother to my right wearing pink and green.  That was a very fetching mustard and green knitted tanktop,  My little sister was at the other end wearing a brown/orange toned dress with a blue ribbon trim.  In the 1970s it was All The Colours For All The Children.  None of this pink/blue nonsense we have now.

We'd had a fairly stable homelife that year.  I moved into the Juniors at School and Mrs Butler's class.  I actually saw her earlier this year and recognised her so it was nice to let her know what an influence she had been.  I read my first Charles Dicken's story in her class - A Christmas Carol.

How has the blog done over the past year?   Readership has held steady, my pageviews have increased but comments have decreased.  I suspect that this is connected to the way people read blogs now.  It's much harder to comment using a mobile device.  If you are a regular silent follower, why not make this post your first comment?  It would be amazing to push those comments to 20,000 by this time next year!

Here are my blog stats:
*
8 years
865 posts
645 followers
17,952 comments
1,000,909 pageviews
WOW

Yes, I burst through the 1,000,000 mark this week!

I'd also like to wish my Blog-Twins Susan and Calamity Jr a very Happy Birthday too!

What have I been working on recently?  I had a quick look back at last year's Blogaversary post and all the pieces there have been finished which is encouraging.

So far this month I have worked on my Hallowe'en and Christmas pieces.  The Christmas piece is very close to a finish but here's a photo when I had just started:



This is a Dragon Dreams design and the fabric is actually Reed Green not grey.

I added some bats to my spooky conversion of The Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace.  They were a freebie found at this blog - Brigitte Dadaux


I took this little Just Nan Butterfly Lace along to my Crafty Coffee Morning last week and got the purple finished and all this white border too:

stitched on 32 count lavender linen

Having worked on my Christmas and Hallowe'en pieces for 3 days each, this is where I would usually pick up my Chatelaine but I decided to do something different this month and work on another of my "19 in '19" choices. As we are close to Easter I chose Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett.   The first picture is with my TUSAL jar so I can link up with Daffycat for this month.


I worked hard on her hair and face for two days.  The frog had attacked her last year so it was nice to get this part finished.  Lots of different colours and blended threads too.

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha

Hasn't she got a sweet face?



Last year I asked you all what was your favourite blogging or stitching moment of the last year so it seems like a good idea to revisit that question this year.  Leave a comment and let me know.

A new blogging year also seems like a good opportunity to launch a new blog.  I've been showing my painted rocks recently and everyone seems to enjoy seeing them so I thought I would start a specific rock blog -  Serendipity Rocks UK.  It's still a work in progress, I'll be adding posts over the next two weeks so make sure you follow using a Reader so you see them all, or just pop back from time to time.  I decided on a blog rather than Instagram or Facebook because I can add Labels to the posts and find specific themes if I want to.


Finally, I will be hosting my Annual Easter Treasure Hunt on Good Friday the 19th April. If you would like to take part this year, just leave a comment here. The week before Easter I will send you a letter of the alphabet which will form part of the mystery phrase. On Good Friday you will post that letter along with a photo of something seasonal that you have stitched (could be Easter or Spring or just something cheerful and sunny or floral). We all hop around like little bunnies to find the Mystery Phrase!





31 comments:

Vickie said...

I absolutely love the picture you shared of yourself Jo!

Katie said...

Happy 8th Blogaversary. I'm sure thankful to have found your blog. I love all the fun SALs you come up with and look forward to seeing every new idea you start. Beautiful progress on your WIPs. Yes her face is adorable indeed. Here's to another wonderful year of blogging. I'll be here cheering you along.

Quilting Tangent said...

Love the orange fabric for the Halloween cross stitch. Love seeing all your projects thoughout the year. Happy 8 years.

AnaCristina said...

Happy Blogaversary!!!

Tiffstitch said...

Happy Blogoversary! To another many happy years of blogging! I think my favourite moment of last year was showing off my completed AAN Spider Banner, that was so fulfilling and everyone was so nice with their comments.

Faith... said...

Happy Blogaversary! You have some milestone achievements there. When I first saw your picture there I thought you were going to say that was you eight years ago! LOL

Gathering Eggs is gorgeous and her face looks fantastic. The moon and bats were a nice addition to the alphabet.

Looking forward to reading your blog for many more years.

Barb said...

What a pretty little fae on Gathering Eggs. It looks like you had to change colors a bit. Congratulations on your blogaversary. Eight years is a great achievement!

MartinaM said...

Congratulations to your blog birthday. Already 8 years, great. Very nice WIP's, I like the girl well, it really has a cute face.
Martina

butterfly said...

Congrats Jo,
You are amazing always helpful thank you.
Love your photo.
Gathering eggs is looking wonderful ,I must pull my one back out again to work on .
Have a lovely week hugs .

Kay said...

Congratulations on your first eight years of blogging, here's to many more. x

Kate said...

Happy 8th Blogaversary - this is quite a milestone!

Clare-Aimetu said...

Happy 8th Blogaversary 🎉 thank you Jo for all you do in blogland. You look very cute aged 8 😀

Beth in IL said...

Happy Blogsversary! I love all the Hops and SALs you run each year. I love watching progress on Mappes...Guess that is my favorite stitching thing of the year.

Linda said...

Happy 8th Blogaversary Jo. All your projects look great.

Linda

Julie said...

Happy 8th blogoversary.... I think we all wore those colours in the 70's, my brother had lots of hand knits in strange colours by my gran.
She certainly has a lovely face and the bats look right at home on the Halloween.

A Patchwork of Crafts said...

Wow another year! And I will be happy to participate in the Easter hop, sewing for it now and will be finished in time I am sure. Sadly with the removal of the + on blogger my followers are down to 3 everyone else vanished. Hope your new blog goes well

Cathy said...

Happy Blogoversary!!! You are so creative with all of the SALs, Treasure Hunts, Blog Hunts, etc. I really enjoy your blog and your stitching! And now we have a new blog to enjoy!

Ariadne said...

Happy 8th blogoversary. My most favourite moment of 2018 was the alphabet fabric book I made. AriadnefromGreece!

Carol said...

Congratulations on 8 wonderful years of blogging, Jo! You amaze me at the number of posts you have done--very impressive :) And I'm so excited to see that Gathering Eggs is growing--that little girl does have a lovely sweet face :) Have fun with your new painted rock blog!

diamondc said...

Hi Jo: The photo of you is adorable, so cute.
Happy Blogaversary, I forgot mine last month.
My favorite moment of 2018 was when I finished my class project from Jackie Du Plessis.

Catherine

Mini said...

Many congrats on your 8th blog birthday . Thank you for all you do for the blogland.

You look so cute in that picture.

Lovely progress on your WIPs.
My favourite moment was when I gifted a project to my best friend and she started crying. She was overwhelmed with the gesture.

The Crafty Princess said...

Oh my giddy Aunt where does the time go??? I swear it hasn't been a year since your last Blogaversary! Happy 8th though and CONGRATULATIONS on cracking over 1 million page views. You're a blog star stunner!!

My fav blogging moment was joining in your Halloween Blog Hop. It's the one time a year I actually post on time LOL! So well done you for running that.

xoxo Alicia

Christine said...

Happy Blogoversary!
You're so brave putting your childhood photos up, I'm not at all sure the world is ready for 60s/70s me
Love the flight of bats on the spooky alphabet

Karrin Hurd said...

Happy Blogoversary! Love your stitching!

RJ said...

Happy 8th anniversary JO. Your numbers are amazing. YOu have done such a wonderful job with your blog and you have helped so many of us when we get stuck with a blog problem. I personally thank you so much for all of your help.

I love all of your new stitching. I'm always amazed at how much you get done but love it all. I have not been on the computer this past March. Came down with a terrible flu that put me in bed. It literally took away every bit of energy. I'm finally starting to feel better and I'm trying to catch up with everyone. Hope you have a wonderful week. RJ

FlashinScissors said...

Happy 8th Blogoversary Jo!
Lovely stitching, as always, and I love those bats and the moon you added.
It’s always great to visit your blog and find out what’s going on!
Thank you for all you do and especially in the way of helping us all to meet other bloggers too!
I’ve really enjoyed the numerous blog hops you’ve organised.
Here’s to many more blog posts!
Hugs,
Barbara xx

Mia said...

Happy Blogaversary Jo!!!!!!!!!!!

Mary's Thread said...

Congratulations on your blogaversary !!! That is a real accomplishment! Aside from your impressive stats you must count the unquantifiable impact you’ve made fostering the blogging community and we are lucky to have you! I love the Nora Corbett piece, it is very sweet!

rosey175 said...

Congrats on surviving eight years of blogger insanity and a million page views! I'm pretty sure my 8-year-old photo would involve a background of laser lights hahaha. Didn't the 80s have a rainbow of color too, only... neon. Maybe that was early 90s! Love gathering eggs fabulous shawl sense.

Favorite moment of the past year? All the blog hops, of course! I felt especially successful with the Halloween one! And maybe rewiring Serendipity.

Leonore Winterer said...

8 years! What a great time. And a great picture - I sure like the 70s kids' fashion!
I'm glad that even with the rise of facebook and flosstube and instagram, some people still stick to blogs, I so enjoy following yours - and I so value all the SALs and blog hops you host to bring us bloggers together! Your rock painting block will go to my reading list, I love seeing those little pictures.

Rachel said...

Belated happy blogoversary Jo! With so many blogs having fallen by the wayside over the last couple of years it's good to see you're going nowhere and continuing the amount of SALs and Blog Hops you run.
It's hard to pin down one favourite blogging/stitching moment in the last year so I'll just say it's the friendliness of the whole thing through the encouragement and comments we both give and receive. Without those, stitching wouldn't be quite as much fun. :)