Author: Anne S

Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
PhotoHunt, SBQ

SBQ & PhotoHunt

Anne S

I’m not really in the blogging mood of late – too much going on in my head, I think. I have a tendency to internally smother my emotions, especially with stress etc … and have been known to make myself physically ill due to it – apparently this has happened ever since I was a child. I’ve been trying to repress all the financial stress, and I’ve been managing OK, but it’s also put me a bit in ‘zombie mode’ because of it this last week. Yesterday, though, my car was looked at and nothing major is wrong, which is a huge relief. Now all I have to do is sit down today and pay all my month’s major bills (including Mr Tax Man hopefully), then I think I’ll settle down a bit emotionally again. I ended up working again last night due to a stuff-up in the roster, and they were desperate for someone to cover “my” shift (I’d taken the day off to go to Sydney), so I offered to help them out again and work. I hate the 6pm-2am shifts, and that probably hasn’t helped my mood over the last few days, as it really affects my sleep patterns. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll perk up in a couple of days time.

“Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each year and for whom? If not, why not?”

Actually, it’s only been through blogging that I’ve learnt how beautiful home stitched ornies are – and I made my first ones just in the nick of time for last Christmas. This year it was my hope to make some for gifts, but I’m not doing too well hmmm (plus my financial situation is putting a damper on my plans too, and that’s probably part of the reason I haven’t stitched as many as I’d planned to yet). Perhaps next year I’ll be more organised! I did make and finish one for Mum this year, which will be an ongoing tradition for us now. I still don’t feel very confident at finishing them, so I need to make a few more to get more confident, I think.Now on to this week’s Photo Scavenger Hunt …


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Today’s theme is “Plush” … this photo taken months ago fits the bill for me this week 🙂

An archival theme was “Cold” … I couldn’t choose between two photos, so here they both are – first J & V (my very best friend in NZ) learning how to snowboard, and second the snowy mountain ranges are compliments of the South Island of New Zealand, I just love that photo! 😀

PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt

Anne S

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Just for a change, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon of the weekly Photo Scavenger Hunt. I first saw this on Vash’s blog, and it sounds like fun. Unfortunately almost all of my photos are still in Auckland, but I’ve rummaged through the few I do have here, and have been coming up with photos that match the themes (at least in my eyes haha). I’ve decided to select the current theme’s photo each week from now on, but I’m also going to add one photo from the oldest themes each week as well until I’m all caught up 🙂 You may already have seen some of the photos, but there will definitely be some new ones coming up 😉

This week’s theme is GROWTH. I chose this photo because it means from a ‘personal growth’ perspective for me – every now and then I push myself to do something that thrills me but scares me a bit as well, and is something that I’ve never done before … hang-gliding pretty much tops the events to date!

The first theme of the Hunt was WHITE … there were a few different photos for me to choose from, but I ultimately decided on my frangipani flowers – I just love those creamy white petals, not to mention their fragrance … they will always evoke strong memories of my many visits to Fiji, and the friends I made over there, not to mention the many new life experiences.

As you can tell, there are no stitching piccies today … it’ll probably be like that for a few days now – back to work again tonight for two nights of 6pm to 2am shifts. I’ll pack a small project in a bag as well ‘just in case’, but it’s quite likely I won’t end up taking it out of the bag … but better to be prepared 😀

Uncategorized

No stitching today

Anne S

No stitching being done today, as it’s finally time to clean up a bit and do some housework. I’m off into the city later this afternoon for a small treat to have dinner with Fraze – we had to put it off a couple of weeks ago due to the fact I couldn’t even afford the train ticket to go in, let alone dinner. This week I’m still sitting on an unused train ticket that I didn’t end up needing last week, and dinner is dirt cheap at about $7 each where we’re going, so I can justify this one as a little cheap splurge. While I’m in there I’m also going to pick up a couple of fresh veges from the Queen Victoria Markets for some upcoming recipes (mainly mushrooms, but also capsicum and courgettes). My car won’t now be going into the garage until Friday morning, so I’m still limiting myself to almost zero spending until I know how much that’s going to set me back … then I’ll know what spare money I have (if any) from this pay for a bit extra food etc.

Last night I did a bit more stitching – and I now have two half-finished ornies … the Just Nan one I need to the over-one stitching, but after doing all the grapes yesterday morning, I couldn’t face it last night. Then I just have to add the beads and Kreinik braid to the Elizabeth’s Designs tree and that’s finished too. No more ornie stitching now until I get my gift piece finished … plus I really want to make up a couple of pieces into their ‘finished’ items … these last few days have been really uplifting with all this stitching and creativity – definitely just what the doctor ordered!

SBQ, Works in Progress

SBQ and a bit of Bordeaux

Anne S

Thanks for all your wonderful comments about Su’s scissor fob – I’m still blushing from all the lovely words of praise 🙂

Last night I decided I still wasn’t happy to put the needles down for the night, so did a couple of hours on Bordeaux Sampler – seeing as I didn’t do my stitching on it before Friday, I figured a couple of days late would be OK 😉 For the life of me I can never get a good photo of this one – but I just have the bottom band left and the two sides, all of which are a combination of backstitched leaves/vines and Rhodes stitch grapes, then band number two is completely finished. I’ve been looking ahead to the upcoming bands and my heart is sinking already at the sight of all the over-one grapes coming up {heavy sigh} LOL. I’d really like to get this piece finished by the end of 2007, if possible.

It’s finally time to answer the week’s SBQ before the next one comes out! Today’s SBQ was suggested by Jan and is:

“How many different brands of “complete” embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (ie, spread sheet program, indexcards, palm pilot, etc)”

That’s very easy to answer – the only “complete” collection I have is of DMC. I’m slowly adding to my over-dyed collections as I come across colours I need for projects, but I’ll never bother getting the entire collections, as I simply won’t use them all. I used to keep an up-to-date inventory on my Cross Magic database of my DMC, but since I gave about 80+ skeins to Mum as a gift to start up her own collection, I haven’t updated things … maybe I’ll get around to that again … one day 😉 Other than that all my other threads are catalogued in Cross Magic – it makes it very very handy when kitting up new projects, as I can see at a glance what I have/don’t have.

On a positive front, today is finally pay-day, and I’m sooooo grateful! I’ve only spent $15 on groceries over the last fortnight (and that was only recently seeing as it was close to payday and no more working days left, so I knew I could go without any further spending), and I’m looking forward to getting my car checked out tomorrow, and my tax bill paid, so I know what money (if any) I have left over for the next fortnight. I’m no longer stressing over it – I figure if the tax bill has to be paid in two hits, so be it … it would be really nice to get some fresh food this week, though 🙂

Finishes, Needlerolls

2nd post today …

Anne S

I’ve been on a stitching roll (no pun intended), and managed to both start and finish the stitching of my needleroll for this weekend’s SAL. I stitched Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs. I changed the wording, though, to cover the summer months ‘down under’ – instead of stitching June, July, August, I recharted the wording to be Dec – Jan – Feb (after checking out the Winter Solstice chart online) 😀 I wasn’t too sure what else to put in place of the ‘American’ flag on the top band, and I quite like it anyway, so left it as it was designed. I’ve been really keen to stitch this ever since I bought the chart, so I’m thrilled to finally have it completed. I’ll wait to do the actual finishing when I have a few needlerolls to make up. Anyway, here’s the stitching piccie:


Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs
Stitched on 28ct hand-dyed dried thyme Jobelan
with the recommended threads

That also means finish number 11 off my 50 projects challenge list – only 39 left to go woohoo 😀

Next up is to get a few more stitches into a birthday gift – now my Kreinik braid is here I need to get cracking and get it finished. Then I need to get a few more Christmas ornies stitched. Housework? … What housework??? LOL.

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes

Scissor Fob Exchange

Anne S

Phew, Su has received her scissor fob exchange from me, so I can post a piccie. For a beautiful close-up of the stitching you’ll have to pop over to Su’s blog, as mine is just done on the scanner and much less artistic 😉 I was majorly stressed over this exchange, as Su’s stitching and finishing is so awesome, and I had the huge delays with SB&B with the ‘extra goodies’ arriving. Anyway, it’s finally reached it’s destination safe and sound, and I’m very happy! This is my last exchange for a little while, though – and putting the stress factor aside LOL, I’ve enjoyed each and every one 😀



Silken Roses Scissor Fob by The Sweetheart Tree
stitched on 32ct Lavender Mist Belfast linen
with the recommended threads
but omitting the eyelets on the back and personalising
with our initials and the year

Rightio, time to have brekkie then it’s back to my stitching corner … I’ve decided to stitch Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs for my needleroll SAL, and if I have time I’ll also try and finish my Snow Fall needleroll from last month too … oh dear, I guess that means no housework again today, that’s too bad hahahaha 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

RR and Turbo Needles

Anne S

It’s been a very busy day in my household … for my needles! Absolutely nothing else has been done, but my needles have been flying since 8am until 10pm and I totally finished Wendy’s RR piece woohoo!! 😀 It means I should be able to get it in the post next week, well and truly before the Christmas rush. Here’s a scan of my winter block, as well as a very poor photo of the whole thing finished 🙂


I should have been stitching a needleroll for this weekend’s SAL, but I just couldn’t put the RR down until I’d got it all finished. Now I have to decide which needleroll to stitch tomorrow … it’s a choice between Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs, or a freebie on Classic Stitches website – ooh, decisions decisions.

Quilting

The Blue Collection

Anne S

All the blue fabric from yesterday’s post is actually for all the applique parts of the Blue Collection quilt – I’ve had this sitting in a cupboard for about 10 years (all kitted up, as I bought a block of the month with all the fabrics as well), and in my current phase of stitching from stash decided it was time I finally pulled it out and learnt how to do applique and stitch it up. All the washing yesterday was for the two big bags of yellow background fabrics – but now they’re all washed and ironed and ready to go. I’ve decided I can’t really wash the applique fabrics as some of them are only a couple of inches square – hopefully they’ll be OK if I don’t. I have to admit it probably is a bit daft to do this as my first quilt – it does seem quite complex, not to mention huge, but I keep telling myself I just have to take one block at a time, and once I’ve got the technique learned it’s just taking it slowly and working through each packet of blocks …

Last night I managed to pick up my needle finally, and put a few stitches into Wendy’s RR piece while watching the new series of The Amazing Race (which is already finished in the US, I think) – I’ll do a bit more on my days off, and hopefully have it finished within the next couple of weeks so it can be posted off to Canada well before Christmas 🙂

Quilting

Quilting and ‘stuff’

Anne S

Are things looking up for me or what today?? This morning I found $10 hiding in my rain jacket pocket that I didn’t realise was there … woohoo!! And what did I do with that $10?? I was very very naughty and went shopping and blew the lot! Not grocery shopping, though (I actually already spent most of my last $20 in my wallet at lunchtime on essential items) …

I called in on the way home to pick up my car dashboard cover that was ordered (and thankfully paid for) a few weeks ago, and while I was there called into Spotlight to see if they had any freezer paper. They didn’t, so I called into Amitie in Bentleigh, who had also just sold out … Never fear, though, they made a quick phone call for me to this little place, and they had rolls of it in stock:

I couldn’t believe my eyes – and I’ll definitely be returning there when I have some free cash … all-American goods, including some of the ‘weird’ items that I’d never heard of in my recipe books. Aha, now I’m going to look back into some of those American cookbooks and check it out … plus if there’s anything else in those books that I’ve never heard of, at least they’ll be able to tell me what the local equivalent is, if there is one 😀 Here’s the website if anyone’s interested, as they also do mail order it seems … AND they have ALTOID TINS woohoo!!!!! And I have to say they had those Halloween candy corn lollies I’ve never ever seen before – and Lipton iced tea in cans etc … I’m in heaven! 😉 (I LOVE trying new stuff where food’s concerned … it’s a whole new treasure trove to explore!)

Oh yeah, back to what I splurged my new-found wealth on … a roll of freezer paper 😀 So that means I’m now all set to start thinking more seriously about my applique quilt. I’m about to go and soak all the yellow background fabrics and the blue fabric from the first block ready to start sometime soon. It will be really nice to have a light quilt on the bed for during the summer months … of course, I’m not saying exactly WHICH summer this will get finished, but hopefully some time before I retire – so I’ve got about 25 years to get it done LOL.

Other than that, I’ve got a real pep in my step today – I love the 6am starts (strangely enough, ‘cos I’m not a morning person), ‘cos I can still do a few chores such as shopping straight from work and still have plenty of time to do a bit more when I get home in daylight … LOVE it! Back to a 10am start tomorrow, though, which is not so good … BUT it’s day 7 of work tomorrow, which means the last one, which means I then have a 4 1/2 day break YIPPEE!!!!!!!! Haha, you can tell I’m definitely more like my ‘old self’ today can’t you? LOL.

And on that note I’m dragging myself off to the bathroom-cum-laundry to get these fabrics washed 😀 Here’s the whole kit and caboodle laid out on my bed … that’s if you can see them on the blue of the duvet cover already on the bed LOL. Seeing as I literally have everything to start this thing, it’s criminal to leave it festering in a box.