Now Mum’s cruel!

After telling her this morning that some of you have been Googling for huntsman spiders, she said “ooh, do it for me too, I want to see them!” … seeing as Mum is computer illiterate I’ve had to sit here and Google it for her … the last thing I wanted was the damned things sitting on my computer screen, but she got to see them!  Funnily enough, Mum’s not overly fond of spiders either, especially those that size, so it was a big ask to get her to come to my rescue … she’s not terrfied of them, though, like I am.  Apparently I’ve been like it ever since I was small – I’d scream the place down to get them to remove a ‘money spider’ in my room (you’d be lucky if one of those is more than about 2mm in size!!).  I have to say I can deal with the little ones now as long as they’re not actually on me, but I reckon huntsman spiders are just hideous – you could put a saddle on and ride the damned things! LOL.  My apologies for not putting a hyperlink in here for you to the spiders … I only thought about that after I’d shut the site down again (very quickly after opening it, I might add!), and I really don’t want to go back in again – you’ll just have to Google it from scratch haha.  And I’m not posting a piccie here, otherwise I’ll freak every time I see my own blog 😉

Yesterday, before I went to work, I managed to get a few more stitches put into my Peacock needlecase while catching up on CSI episodes we’d been taping during the week … inbetween listening to the ‘zoom-zoom’ noises of the Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 cars zooming around the Albert Park circuit – I’m amazed how loud it sounded yesterday to say we live a couple of km away from the tracetrack!  It’s a busy week in Melbourne with the Grand Prix, the Melbourne 2007 FINA swimming championships, and (of more interest to us) the Stitches & Craft Show.  We’re sitting on the fence at the moment whether to go to the S&C Show on Sunday, but we’ll play that by ear on the day – neither of us have any money so we’re thinking perhaps it’s best to leave temptation out of it and stay home LOL.

Tonight is my last 6pm shift, thank goodness … next week it’s more civilised with a mix of 3pm and 12 noon shifts, yippee.  Only another week and a half before Mum heads back home again.  She actually offered today to fly back over while the builders are here fixing up the building if I pay for her ticket with my frequent flyer points … she’s a real sweetheart.

Well, I feel a bit more awake now so time to tackle my stitching for a bit … I got woken up from a deep sleep (no nightmares, thankfully) by fighter planes flying overhead, getting ready for the aerial display during the Grand Prix – that’ll be fun to watch over the weekend if we’re around – we were in Acland Street at St Kilda last year when it happened, and it was great to see the formations flying overhead 😀

I’ll finish with a small shot of one of the leaves right outside my lounge room window – as you can see autumn has arrived down under, and it’s awesome to sit and watch the leaves change colour each day … I’m actually thrilled I’m still here to see autumn arrive in Elwood, as my street is gorgeous with all the elm trees changing colour right up both sides of the street … very pretty 😀

I’m now backed-up with the SBQ’s from the last three weeks, so I’ll finish (I promise this is the last ‘finish’) by catching up on the questions:

28 Feb – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Danielle and is:

“Do you find yourself stitching faster when you are getting to the end of a design?”

I’d probably have to say that depends on the design itself, but generally I guess the answer would be “no” … when I get that close (for example, the Dratteds) I don’t stitch faster, but I do feel more motivated to stitch “more” on it … I just don’t want to put it down so I can get it finished in its entirety – but then when it’s finished I almost feel let down, expecting fireworks to go off in celebration, instead I feel “is that it?” LOL.

7 Mar – Today’s SBQ is: 

“Do you use your needle, a seam ripper, or something else when you have to frog stitches? Why do you use the method that you do?”

I mainly use my tapestry needle where possible, but I will use the tips of my Gingher’s to snip a few threads if it’s getting tangled etc, or just to speed up the process (I just snip the top cross of the stitch very very carefully).

15 Mar – Today’s SBQ was suggested Danielle and is:

“If you had $500 to spend on stitching-related items, what would you buy?”

Geez, there’s a loaded question … and funnily enough I would answer this one differently now then if I’d answered it a year ago.  Right now I’m relatively happy with the stash I already have, and I’m pretty well set up as far as stitching ‘equipment’ (ie ott-lite etc) – I’d probably rather spend it on a stitching retreat, or ordering the full chart and kit for another Chatelaine design or two (that’d kill most of the money in one hit anyway LOL).  The only other thing would be to buy the threads that I still don’t have to finish kitting up some of my existing stash.

Right, now I’m definitely off to stitch for an hour – then it’s off to work early to pick up my overlocker from the ‘doctors’ so Mum can sew me a top or two … she loves sewing clothes.  Dad’s Mum was a lady’s maid for Lady Winterton in Shropshire years ago, and did all the Lady’s sewing – she taught Mum how to sew … and years later Mum tried to teach me.  I used to enjoy sewing, then learnt embroidery and my passion for stitching started … I’m starting to get the urge to try clothes sewing again, but it might not be for a while yet, there’s too much stitching to be done in the meantime LOL.  Talking of which, I’m definitely outta here now – way too much yapping being done, and not enough stitching! haha.