Hearts full of love

Romantic getaways are just wonderful, aren't they?

My darling husband has been looking after a family member several nights a week

who is suffering from crippling clinical depression.

Naturally it takes a toll.

I decided he/we needed to get away from it all

and planned a night here

This is our view from the Hilton Hotel in our City,
Isn't it pretty?

The lovely staff there upgraded us free of charge

 to a corner suite as someone had cancelled it earlier that day!

I took a walk into the city centre to buy the threads 

I needed to start the Christmas pattern I bought online this week, 

but they didn't have the colour I needed.

Walking back to the hotel 

I was overcome with the colours of Autumn, 

the russet brown of the falling leaves,

the bright green and reds of the  apples in the hotel lobby.

I'd planned to stitch plenty but then my son, 

his girlfriend and a friend of theirs dropped by to see us.

( I think they wanted a peek at our fabulous suite :)

Here we are! 

My son Paul is the one in the red tee,

 and Crystal is the girl I hope someday will be my darling American daughter in law.

She is studying for her doctorate here , and lives with us.

Isn't she so pretty?

Imagine, a whole day went by without one stitch being sewn.

The next morning we woke to this sunrise

my heart filled with awe, and love.

I went and gently kissed awake the man I love most on earth,

and off we set... to Donegal.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend,

filled with beauty, but  most of all love.

Kisses and stitches,

Anita xxx

All the beautiful things

Look what arrived!

And how quickly!


A friend came to visit me once.

a good friend.

She stayed for a week.

Every night when we were having coffee,

I would see her take out this little piece of material,

and bit by bit I saw a beautiful  picture emerge.

Of a beautiful blue windmill in Amsterdam.

* Sheila, what are you doing?*

I asked one night.

She told me it was a hobby called * Cross Stitch.*

That was over thirty years ago,

and that night, she showed me what to do.

I was hooked, literally,

from then.

Over these years I've had times

( sometimes tough ) when I just didn't feel like

sewing at all.

Recently, I've just discovered the love of it again.

What has amazed me is the AMOUNT of

blogs there are out there about cross stitching.

I could happily spend all night surfing the net,

looking at the beautiful things people create.

When I got in from work tonight, this had arrived in the post.

Don't you just love the little mama bird protecting her eggs?

Zaza thank you :)

How pretty this pattern

I love the reds of Christmas

Now the only dilemma is do I start it or work on on my chickens?

Maybe I should start another poll....

Thanks Isabelle, for another wonderful project :)

Stitches and kisses to you all,

Anita  xxx

Autumn apples

Well well.

I've always had a penchant for uniqueness.

If I see a crowd of people going one way in town,

I'll search for another path.

It seems that * Kisses and stitches

 isn't *quite* the unique blog name

I was yearning for.

So, the search goes on!

I'm having a day off work today.

This weekend darling ( hubby) and I

are off on a well earned weekend break.

Thank you Groupon :)

I have much loveliness planned.

We are booked into a four star hotel in our city

 ( he doesn't know this yet)

on Friday night,

 and then on Saturday we are travelling to Donegal,

a beautiful part of Ireland with stunning views of the Atlantic ocean.

The hotel we are staying in is an old restored church,

with the stain glass windows still in place in the restaurant.

How romantic!

I plan to do nothing but read and sew, read and sew.

At the minute I'm sewing this

a pretty design I bought from the wonderful Zaza Pique.

You can see her blog over there-------> in my blog list.

This is another WIP

which I have promised myself to finish before this year has gone!

My work basket is eternally full of WIP'S!

Whatever your weekend brings, I pray it is filled with beauty and creativity and
most of all love.

Kisses and stitches,
Anita xxx

Ok ok,

this is definitely a WIP.

( A work in progress. :)

Being married to the best guy on earth,

who also happens to be a complete computer genius,

you would think I'd know a thing or two about computing.

Wrong.

I've just spent the last two hours

 ( I kid you not)

trying to adjust the header on this brand new blog.

After ( almost )

a) throwing two cups of coffee at the screen,

poking aforesaid hubby in the ribs seventeen times

 ( he is was trying  to have a lie -in :)

I gave up.

Yes, me.

I gave up.

So, here at Kisses and stitches

( that took six hours to decide on and I STILL ain't happy with it.

Sheesh.

Anyhoo, here I am.

With one sleepy ( and rather irate hubby- it was all that rib poking that did it :)

Day one.

New Blog.

I hope you will stick around.

Kisses and stitches,

Anita