Month: November 2006

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Round Robins

RR & Exchanges … and stuff

Anne S

Thanks for all your comments and emails of support – I’m still feeling a bit ‘blue’ (which I would normally be happy about haha), but I’m getting there slowly. Anyway, I won’t dwell on my current issues now, as I’m trying hard to keep them from my mind and not brood on things. I just wanted to post a few piccies of the fantastic exchange I just received today.

I received my scissor fob exchange from Cari, and I’m seriously blown away by her generosity … not only did I receive the most exquisite fob in my fave colours, but also a pair of “Julia” Gingher’s scissors, no less, and a VC silk in the most glorious blue … I’ve been shaking my head like a stunned mullet (there’s an Aussie saying for you) ever since I opened the envelope at lunchtime – and 6 hours later still feel gobsmacked by it all. The fob is absolutely gorgeous, and Cari’s stitching and finishing is awesome … I definitely don’t feel worthy … I just LOVE everything, and it will all be treasured for years to come – thanks again so much Cari!! 😀 I’ve taken piccies of the whole kit and caboodle, as well as trying to take a close-up shot of the front and back of the fob, so here goes:


On top of that I remembered to take a photo of the recent RR’s I’ve been participating in … this one is Lynn’s RR so far, with just one more stitcher left to go (I stitched the Winter square earlier – sorry for the out of focus photo).

And this one is the latest RR I’ve received – this is Wendy’s … and I just have to stitch the Winter square on this one before it gets returned home to Canada. I’m hoping to get some quality stitching time over the next weekend, so I’ll concentrate on getting some of this stitched up then (as well as finishing a gift piece now my missing Kreinik braid has arrived). Anyway, I thought Wendy might like to see how it’s looking so far – hopefully I can whip through the stitching quickly so it can be posted back before hitting the pre-Christmas rush.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Melbourne – the only city I know where the entire city has a holiday for a horse race! I loved the description I just found on this website (actually the rest of the page is quite a fun read – and some of the Aussie slang is great):

“Melbourne is famous for Australia’s premier horse race “The Melbourne Cup” held the first Tuesday in November at approximately 3pm at Flemington Racecourse. It is a public holiday in Melbourne, and in the rest of Australia and now in many parts of the world people stop work just to listen to this race. Horses from all over the world come here to participate.
The Queen entered a horse in this race a few years ago – it did not win. Generally it will be won by a horse that has been bred in New Zealand.”

Personally I won’t be having the day off, as I’m working (and I’ll be very grateful for it when payday comes, as it’s a double-time day which will be exceptionally handy this coming payday!!). I do have to admit to spending $2 on a non-essential item yesterday, which in 7 days isn’t bad going 🙂 It’s pretty compulsory that you get involved with this infamous horserace and I joined the throng for the work sweepstake … very high roller this betting chick 😉 Apparently the horse that got put against my name is a relatively good one, not that that will make much difference – but it’s all a bit of fun and the entire office gets behind it. My horse is called “Efficient”.

Anyway, that’s all from me tonight – just wanted to post those couple of piccies … and say thanks for all the support – it has really helped to keep my spirits up 🙂 {{hugs}}

Uncategorized

Going offline for a few days

Anne S

I’ve finally reached the end of my ’emotional rope’ today, and decided that I just want to go away for a few days and act like an ostrich, stick my head in the sand, and let the world go by. I’m OK, really, but just feel emotionally drained from all the stress I’m under at the moment.

Today was the final straw when I went out to a dead car before work – another $67 that I don’t have later, I reinstated my RACV membership and got my car kickstarted again, but obviously things are more serious and I have to take it to a true mechanic and get it looked at. It’s possibly either the starter motor or, hopefully, just the car alarm system playing up and draining the car’s resources. Today at work I just used the key to lock up and it’s been starting up fine … fingers crossed that’s all it is. Anyway, I’m not taking any chances and I’m taking public transport to work for the next week. Luckily I’m on ‘normal’ shifts for the next 8 working days, so that’s an option.

I burst into tears this morning before the RACV man came … then every time someone asked what was wrong this morning at work I got all teary again – all highly unusual for me. The financial stress has finally worn me down. So, if I’m not online for a few days don’t worry – I just don’t feel like blogging right now, and I hate being miserable online … I’ll be back again when I’ve perked up a bit.

See you again soon 🙂

Food, SBQ

SBQ with Chicken

Anne S

Today I’m cooking a roast chicken for dinner … shhhh, don’t tell Fraze, or he’ll be round on the double … this is by far the easiest roast chicken recipe ever, and without a doubt the most delicious I’ve ever tasted. Called, funnily enough, “Easy Roast Chicken”, we nicknamed it to be “Salt and Pepper Chicken”. Here’s the recipe:

SALT AND PEPPER ROAST CHICKEN

1 small fryer or broiler chicken (basically just any frozen chicken – I prefer Inghams)
Fresh ground black pepper
Fresh ground Sea salt

Preheat oven to 425F (210C). Rub chicken inside and out with sea salt and pepper. Roast in oven 45-55 minutes, basting frequently with its drippings. Chicken will be golden brown and very juicy, and leg will move easily when it is ready.

See what I mean when I say it’s easy? And it’s divinely yummy!! And the great thing about it is that this will do me for about 3 days of eating, both lunches and dinners … woohoo!! I’ve also made up a big pan of brown rice today to go into the freezer ready for lunches – one of my fave meals is rice salad with Tuna Tempters with a few chopped veges like celery, corn etc. There’s no excuse not to take lunch to work when it’s already half made up! 🙂

No stitching piccies today, so here’s the last two SBQ’s:

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

“If you were to come across a sampler chart that caught your eye and appealed to you, would you or would you not stitch it if it had a morbid or “creepy” saying on it? If not, why?”

That’s pretty easy, if I still love the design, I’d just remove the saying. If we’re thinking about HOHRH that whole design doesn’t tempt me to stitch it and has nothing to do with the saying. In fact, I’m not really into ‘historical’ style samplers etc and that’s where you’d find most of the morbid stuff, so there’s no chance I’d ever have to worry about it 😉

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Lee and is:

“How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?”

Initially I started off struggling with a blog name, and just came up with “Stitching Shack” just because Shack is part of my surname and often a nickname at work … when I sat down and started thinking about it more a few months down the track, I wanted something that would include my love of ducks … ideas that got tossed around was “On the Pond”, “Shack by the Sea” (due to my new location here) … in the end I came up with “Feather Stitching”, as well as being an actual stitch itself, it refers to the duckie side of me … and I think I still like it as it’s quite simple, a bit like me …

Finishes

A quick finish

Anne S

My decision to start something new was a good one … although I didn’t end up starting the actual stitching last night, just kitting up two things – a Christmas ornie for me, and Wendy’s seasonal round robin. Today I spent a short time stitching, after a bit of clearing out with the boxes in the spare bedroom. That poor room now looks like a war zone, but I did manage to finish my ornie while watching Jamie’s Kitchen-Melbourne. I’m loving that show, especially knowing it’s right on my doorstep. Perhaps my treat to myself once I get out of this financial tight spot will be to have lunch out there at Fifteen Restaurant … hmmm food for thought.

Anyway, just a short post, as I’m not really in blogging mood … here’s the ornie I stitched – it’s Starry Starry Night by JBW Designs, from the 1998 JCS ornie issue. Complete with the Mill Hill treasures I bought earlier in the year, this is one expensive little ornie 😉 It’s stitched on a mystery hand-dyed 28-count linen that I think came from Silkweaver in last year’s Halloween trick or treat bag. That also means one more project crossed off the 50 Project Challenge, yippee – 9 down, 41 to go 😀

Finishes

Where does the time fly?

Anne S

I can’t believe it’s November already!! I’ve been looking at all my planned stitching goals for 2006 and realised I’ve hardly touched them … oops. Can’t say I’m in a major hurry to complete many of them before year end, and will just push them into 2007 for stitching ‘whenever’. They’ll get placed into my rotation at some stage, I’m sure …

Well, today was the first day of the new pastime of packed lunches – I used to take a home-made lunch every day, but got out of the habit months ago. Last night I made a loaf of bread in my breadmaker (Wholemeal Beer and Mustard Loaf … yummo), and had a bit of a ‘ploughmans’ thing going today – I slapped some crumbly cheddar cheese and piccalilli between a couple of slices, and it was scrummy. I’d forgotten how satisfying it is to eat something that you’ve totally made from scratch (ie the bread, not the rest of it) … it’s quite a good feeling 🙂

When I parked my car this morning it made a funny noise again … and I noticed my dashboard clock was out of synch – I’m pretty sure I readjusted the clock yesterday before driving home, but can’t be 100% positive. If I did, then it means my problem still isn’t resolved, and it could be something to do with the wiring or alarm that’s draining my battery … I’ll have to check it again over the next couple of days. Mind you, if there’s anywhere I need to go to before Saturday I’ll be doing it on foot to save on the petrol! I’ll be acting quite the miser before month-end 😉 Anyway, this photo is especially for Mum – it seems the breadmaker is working just fine, and the last disasters were obviously related to the recipe itself … this one turned out gloriously!

As for my stitching, I managed to get the final stitches put into my Halloween freebie before bed, but was too tired to make it into an ornie … oh well, there’s always next year 😉 Now I’m off to scour the recipe books for something that uses tinned tomatoes (I have about 8 cans in the cupboard from a cheap sale months ago, so it’s finally time to find a good use for them) with either chicken breasts or tinned tuna. Then I’m settling in with a glass of wine straight from the fridge, with my stitching, to watch ER … a bit of personal pampering is in order (and hey, it’s all free!). I might even do something very very decadent and start a new project!! Rotation? … WHAT rotation??? LOL.