My prizes and princesses!

I just pressed buy now on my computer! It appears that I have just bought two more books!

Scandinavian needlework and Made in France....


I really really really really really must have needed them :)

On another note the prize that I won in Donna's giveaway arrived.  Luckily it didn't have to come too far :)

I have spent most of today at my nieces christening and have arrived home to a lovely package.  My sister expresses her craftiness in cake making and she made her daughters christening cake....

Each smoke cloud coming from the train has a letter of her name in silver, she is called Ebony and here she is..

She has two older sisters, Layla (5) and Naomi (2) and here they are...

And here are some pics of my giveaway prizes...

I am a very happy bunny today :), and don't forget to put your name down for the stitch St nick exchange (deadline Sunday!)

I've got POST!!!

This morning my little parcel arrived from Sara with her Lizzie Kate exchange piece inside!  What can I say?  Its absolutely gorgeous and I love it.  It is so tiny too - mine is massive in comparison - and very delicate and lush.  She  also sent me a postcard that she made (and posted about on her blog) and two skeins of variegated thread! And such beautiful colour choices too.

I wasn't going to post until I had finished a little piece I started yesterday evening but I just couldn't wait to let you all see how lovely our exchange has been :), thank you Sara for making it a wonderful experience.

So all this week I have hardly picked up my needle due to the realisation of an oversized pile of WIPs.  I have spent the week however with two needles (knitting). I have only made one very small thing (a Christmas tree and pot) which needs finishing but I am all out of stuffing. I really just practiced casting on and adding stitches etc.  As after all, practice makes perfect!

Then last night I was still mulling over my mini-mid-week-rant and decided to stitch a quotation that I like and then add some decoration around it.  I didn't have any lettering pattern so I have stitched it free-hand.  I know people usually only use one strand but I have opted for two in a very dark blue. I also wanted to add some small motif and searched through some books I have. I found a nice butterfly design in a book called Cross Stitch Art Nouveau by Barbara Hammett which is based on the art of Emile Galle.  I also decided to change the colours of the butterfly too - this is definitely becoming a habit :) - and I intend to backstitch an outline that is not in the original.  This is my progress up to last night.........

The pictures aren't that great - Oops! - but the writing says (I haven't added the dots to the 'i's yet) .....

"In my heart, I think a woman has two options: she is either a feminist or a masochist." 

It is a quote by Gloria Steinem.

I hope to get it all finished this weekend in between life of course! :)

Underneath my header....

Ok, so my blog header has underneath it a small statement regarding my love of flowers and my occasional compulsion for feminist rants.  I have a confession to make about this. Actually I have two. 
But before I make them I should say to any of my followers that this isn't about cross stitch.
The first is that the rants aren't exclusively feminist rants and they often digress into rants about society and the media's treatment, representation, manipulation and expectation of young girls and women. Is that feminism?
I suppose it is. But growing up I was under the impression that if you were a feminist then you were a shaven haired dungaree wearing lesbian man bashing political harpee! How many stereotypes are in that? And it was always something that you were made to feel embarrassed about. Suffice to say none of my friends ever outed themselves as feminists. If you are wondering, I am not a shaven haired dungaree wearing lesbian man bashing political harpee and I would go as far to say that neither are most feminists. I hate to say this but could this image have been  created by men (not all men)? 
The second thing is that it was only about 6 months ago that I was able to say out loud (via an email) that I considered myself to be a feminist. When I said this I did feel a great deal of relief and was surprised when my friends said that they too were feminists and one even subscribed to a particular feminist blog.  Why were we so embarrassed to say that as women we supported equal rights for women? I don't hate men.  I just believe that everyone should be treated equally. 
A few months ago I was reading an article about a woman in California who had advocated for the women's vote, Susan B Anthony. She had tirelessly campaigned for it and believed strongly in equality. When women were given the vote she was so disappointed....why? because women voted for who their husbands told them to vote for.   I think she was right to be disappointed, women had laid down their lives, gone on hunger strike, been arrested and ostracised and all so that women could have a voice and stand up and be counted and we blew it. I think I can forgive us for doing that, after all it was all so new and we had never had to make decisions before, everything was consulted with the Mr.for generations. 
But here we are in the 21st century (over 100 years since the Suffragette movement) and we still do not have equality. It seems crazy that women are responsible for populating the earth but often don't realise how influential they could be in bringing about change.  If you are brave enough and your blood pressure can handle it, enter the search term feminist/feminism into google/YouTube and see how your views compare to others.  What do you think is acceptable sexism? Are women making a big deal about nothing? Do you think we are equal...enough?
I apologise if this is all a bit too serious and honestly, my rants tend to veer towards the treatment of women and female characters in TV shows, usually TV shows that I love and hate in equal measure. But I do believe in gender equality and it all starts with how we treat ourselves and expect to be treated. 
p.s Sorry if this isn't a post you wanted to read, If you want to avoid posts like this in the future then remember that any rants at all will have this font :)   
p.p.s I don't know what I am apologising for!