Winter City Cats and birthday stash

Yes! Winter City Cats is complete.

I managed to stitch all the white yesterday. I thought that it might be nice if that would happen, but I didn't hold out much hope. But then I just flew along. It's amazing what an extended LOTR sitting can do :D

On Sunday it was my birthday and I received a few stitchy gifts from my mum...

I got some lovely charts :D At the top we can see a cute chart from Barbara Ana Designs. On the left is 'Bluebird of Happiness' by Blackbird Designs (this ticks all my dream design boxes *lol*). And finally on the right, yes, we have the famous Snooty Parrots Sampler from Barbara Ana Designs *squeee* I'm so happy to receive this! It's one of the nicest samplers I've seen in a while.

I was also lucky enough to receive a collection from all my friends in work. I really wasn't expecting this as my team of girlies had  got me some Vivienne Westwood earrings, so I was very shocked indeed. I got a joint card from everyone on my last day and when I opened it on my birthday a bunch of money was in there too Y___Y (moved to tears..)....so I decided to get all the recommended fabrics and threads for my two new samplers :) I got some beautiful threads from Gentle Arts. For Bluebird of Happiness I have 30 count Korty's Special Blend from R&R Reproductions and for Snooty Parrots I have 40 count Vintage Exampler linen from Lakeside Linens. I'm not going to lie....I'm slightly intimidated by 40 count...I keep looking at it and having a bit of a flap *lol* I got all my materials from The Patchwork Rabbit, a new shop for me, and I am delighted by the service! Karla has just been super :) I'll definitely be going back.

Continuing with birthday treats (it was a big birthday ^^) tomorrow my mum and I are going to the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts show in Manchester. We used to go every year when it was at Aintree but since it's move to Manchester we haven't been (public transport is expensive!). But this year we got sent some complementary tickets so we decided to be brave and drive there D: We have google maps so I'm sure we'll be fine *lol* It's not really good for stitching goodness (mostly card making) but it should be a nice day out and we are also going to stop off at Hobbycraft on the way home.

Today I'm going to start the February block of Once Upon a Time - it's a special one! I can't wait to share it with you ^^

♥