We got our dreamy little new home!

sign on the wall in our 'old' kitchen

We're in! 

All the wishing worked! 

Our dream has come true...

Thank you to all of you who wished for us. 

This is such a special day.

We LOVE the house,

and are so excited about turning it into a home.

 You are all welcome for tea and home baked cakes anytime.

Over the next few weeks

I look forward to sharing a window on our little place

as we unpack

settle in

and snuggle up

Joining in some creative summer fun!

Just wanted to share a couple of cool things I am joining in with this summer, in case you fancy having a go yourself.

The lovely Louise over at Dream, Inspire, Create has launched a 'Creative Color Challenge'.  It's a great idea, and gives you a bit of a steer for creating but also gives you a lot of freedom to play with juicy colours.  I will be sharing what I make over the next month right here.

Image: from Louise Gale

And Susannah Conway has just launched the 'August Break', a photo blogging challenge for the summer - so I will try to share a photo (nearly) every day in August. 

Image: from Susannah Conway

And I am also trying to keep up with learning some new techniques from the very talented Claudine Hellmuth.  Her class '@ Home with Claudine Hellmuth' is very cool.  I will share some of the things I make over there in the coming weeks too.

Image: from Claudine Hellmuth

What creative challenge are you setting yourself this summer?

Time's up! The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap round-up

Wow! 

You all blew me away. 

So much imagination, creativity and LOVE shared around the world through our little project! 

Thank you SO much. 

I had no idea it would be so much fun - 70 women from nine countries on three continents all intepreting the theme of 'time' differently, turning it into a unique stitched postcard and then sending it off on its way overseas... and waiting in anticipation for another unique stitched postcard to drop through their own letterbox.

Here is the one I made and sent to Kath in Australia...   Kath said she is going to frame it and put it up in her sewing room.  That makes me want to do a little dance...

The idea suddenly came to me when I was lying in the top bunk of a tiny cabin on a night ferry from the Greek island of Santorini to Athens.  I had an image of exactly what I wanted to create... so you can imagine my utter surprise when I got home and a package had arrived containing a copy of Noelle Oxenhandler's lovely book The Wishing Year, with this front cover:

Even the colours were similar.  How strange.  Well now is a big time for wishing in my life, so maybe it was just serendipity!

But the best bit of all was receiving a postcard myself from Susan in the US, and seeing everyone else's creations being posted in the Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap Flickr group.

Here is a random sample of some of the gorgeousness that has been carried across land and sea by friendly postmen in the past month...

Check out the Flickr group for the rest, and to see who made what.

Finally, some people wrote about the swap on their blogs.  Here is a roundup of the their little leaps of joy as their surprises dropped through the door or into the mailbox...

In the US:
Cindy here and here, Donnell, Gwinnie B, Lori, Louise, Monica (the Creative Beast), Rikki, Stella, Susan

In Australia:
Amy, Anastasia, Camille (Curly Pops), Caroline (Maika Creations), Hilary (here and here), Lex (Captain Plaknit), Nicole, Sarah, Susie (Flowerpress)

In New Zealand:
Deb, Gabrielle

In the UK:
Emma (Amoeba Handmade) Helen, me

In Germany:
Robin (Well of Creations) here and here

In Spain:
Judit (Pilgrim of the Moon) here and here

For future reference, the project details have been archived here. 

And for next time...
Quite a few people have asked when the next stitched postcard swap will be (so happy that you want to do it again!). I am planning to run the next one in October/November - watch this space! If you have a suggestion for a theme please add it in the comments below. I have a few ideas but would love to hear yours too.

Thanks again everyone, and keep stitching!