Anne S

A few stitches

5 October, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve decided to be a responsible stitcher, and not touch The Dratteds until I’ve finished one of my stitching commitments for this month – instead for the last two days I’ve been putting a few stitches into Lynn’s RR block before going to work. I’ve chosen the Winter block as I just love wintry/Christmas scenes, and love the richness of the red in the house. I probably should have stitched the Spring block, seeing as that’s the season we’re currently in down here, but the Winter one appealed to me more stitching-wise. I’m hoping to get the final stitches put into this one by the end of the weekend, ready for posting at the end of the month.

After that I just have my scissor fob exchange commitment (and I still haven’t decided on a design yet), then I’m free to stitch what I feel like … namely the Dratteds, along with an ornament or two and the monthly needleroll SAL. The poor Dratteds have been severely neglected for the last month or so – can’t wait to get moving on them again … ‘cos when they’re all finished I’m moving Egyptian Garden Mandala into their position as my focus piece, and I really can’t wait to get that back into my rotation.

Not much to chat on about today, so it’s just a short post – time to jump in the shower and start getting ready for work … geez it feels good to just have a 5-day week for a change, yippee!! 😀

Food

Curry Recipes

4 October, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

This one’s for ‘anonymous’ … I can’t be bothered hunting through my archives to find the last curry recipe, so I’m posting it anew here for you. Rogan Josh is a new recipe I found last year and LOVE it, the flavours are divine – it became my new favourite curry. Dragon’s Curry is my Mum’s recipe that we’ve been cooking for years, and still adore it … Enjoy! 😀 Now I’m off to pick up a needle for the first time in almost a week! 😀

ROGAN JOSH

1kg diced lamb
1 cup (250ml) yogurt
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons ghee
4 cardamom pods, bruised
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 medium (300g) onions, finely chopped
3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground fennel
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
3/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 cup (125ml) chicken stock
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

1) Combine lamb, yogurt, vinegar, half the garlic and half the ginger in large bowl; mix well. Cover, refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. (I do mine first thing in the morning, and leave it all day.)
2) Heat ghee in large pan, add whole spices; cook, stirring, until fragrant.
3) Add onions and remaining garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until onions are browned slightly.
4) Add ground spices; cook, stirring, until fragrant. Add lamb mixture, stir to coat in spice mixture.
5) Add stock; simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. Remove cover; simmer about 30 minutes or until lamb is tender. Just before serving, stir in garam masala and fresh herbs; heat through.
Serves 6 to 8

DRAGON’S CURRY

1.5kg chicken (we use chicken breast diced)
3 tablepoons oil or ghee
12 curry leaves
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3-4 teaspoons chilli powder
3 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 large ripe tomato, peeled and chopped
1 small stick cinnamon
2 cups coconut cream

Cut chicken into small pieces. Heat oil, fry curry leaves, onions, garlic and ginger until soft. Add turmeric, chilli powder, coriander, cumin and fry for 2 minutes. Add salt and tomato. Stir well, cover and cook until tomato is pulpy. Add chicken and cinnamon stick and stir well until chicken is coated with the spice mixture. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, or until chicken is tender. Stir in the coconut cream and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes longer.

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$50 really well spent!!

3 October, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

And not a single cent of it was on stash! 🙂 Today I went for an appointment to a nerve manipulator, and was only in there for what felt like 2 minutes before I was all fixed up and paying my $50 on the way out! And boy, oh boy, does it feel sooooo good 😀 I have the full movement back in my right shoulder blade/arm again … there’s just a slight tenderness from the pummeling it got from Joy, but it feels exquisite! She reckons I’d done a really good job of trapping my nerve under the shoulder blade, and glad I hadn’t left it much longer, as it could have led to serious problems phew! So all-in-all money very well spent woohoo!!! 😀

Just a quick post today ‘cos I don’t really have anything else to say … feel quite shattered after a long day at work (very intense brain-wise today), and heading off for an early night – it’ll be so nice to get a full night’s sleep for a change {insert contented sigh here…}.

Food, SBQ

A little bit certifiable!

2 October, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

Don’t ask me why, but last night I ended up staying up until 3.30am last night … reading blogs!!! That’s one reason I don’t have a sleep in the afternoons when I’m tired (especially on early shifts), as I can’t usually sleep in the evening, and I was just plain wide awake after 11pm. It’s strange too, that once I’d made the decision to wipe out all the unread feeds and start from scratch, that it felt like a burden had been taken off my shoulders … and I felt more relaxed and in the mood to tackle ‘a few’, which ended up being a few hundred!! I actually read through just over 650 unread feeds last night/this morning and pretty stunned I managed it. I’m left with just 89 left to go today (I’m not going into the archives), and it feels pretty darned good! That also means no stitching was done last night … oops …

Now it’s time to do the last two SBQ’s … I finally managed to do an approx count-up of finished pieces from over the years, so I can answer the questions …

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Elisabeth and is:

“How many pieces have you stitched? Out of these, how many have been for you? How many have had specialty stitches or other techniques besides cross stitch?”

According to my photo albums I’ve done about 142 pieces in total (finished ones, that is – and I might have missed a few earlier ones). Of these 89 have been either for me, or have yet to be allocated a recipient, and 53 have been gifts for others and already given away. Out of these about 70 have been pure XS, and the rest have included specialty stitches or are specific techniques such as stumpwork (4), canvaswork (8), silk ribbon embroidery (2), hardanger (6), blackwork (3), and almost entirely beaded (7).

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Sharon and is:

“When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do you take?”

That depends on how bad the errors are – if it’s something quick to fix, I’ll usually do it straightaway … if I keep doing it on the same piece time after time I’ll put it away for the rest of that day and come back to it the next day … if I’m still having a difficult time with it, and there’s no deadline, it gets thrown in a corner never to see light of day again. And that’s one great way UFO’s are born! haha. Actually my Waiting for Ships was one of those great examples … I’d frog-stitched the metallics on the tail a few times when I finally threw it in the corner and had a hissy fit with it … picked it up about 3-4 months alter, and fixed it in 10 minutes, then finished it off without any further mishaps 🙂 I have to admit, I’ve never taken an entire break from stitching for longer than a month, and always have oodles of projects on the go (also thanks to those dreaded UFO’s).

And for those of you who are curry hounds, I’ll share my new recipe with you from the weekend (and it’s not really hot, unlike normal vindaloos):

BEEF VINDALOO

1kg (2lb) chuck, blade or skirt steak (I used blade)
2 tablespoons ghee or oil
3 onions, sliced (but I ended up thinking it was too much, and halved it)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 cinnamon stick
3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup (80ml/2 3/4 fl oz) brown vinegar
1/2 cup (125ml/4 fl oz) beef stock
1 teaspoon sugar

1) Cut the steak into bite-sized cubes. Heat the ghee or oil in a large pan and brown the meat in two batches. Transfer to a plate.
2) Add the onion to the pan; cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until very soft and lightly golden. Add the spices, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 more minute. Return the meat to the pan and stir until well coated in the spices.
3) Add the vinegar, stock, sugar, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring just to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Discard the cinnamon stick. Serve with plain or basmati rice. Garnish with a little finely grated fresh ginger.
Serves 4

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Survived the weekend … phew!

1 October, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

This arvo I did something I only ever do when I’m on the point of exhaustion – had an afternoon kip … and that ‘little’ kip went on for 3 1/2 hours oops! I obviously needed it!!

Friday after work I was absolutely shattered at my 7 days straight, especially doing the 5ams, but I then came home and didn’t sit down once as I did all the housework ready for visitors on Saturday – then went out with the girls from work for dinner then dancing. We didn’t get home until 1.30am so I’d almost been up for 24 hrs at that stage hmmm. Up again at 7.30am and I spent the entire day in the kitchen aside from 1 hour when I had to pop out to the shops for something I’d forgotten to buy for my dinner party menu.

All-in-all last night’s dinner banquet was a great success … I had a few bowls of antipasto items like caperberries, bellpeppers stuffed with mascarpone, olives, etc to pick on while chatting before dinner – then dinner was an Indian banquet of all home-made curries (Beef Vindaloo, Rogan Josh and ‘Dragon curry’ – that’s Mum’s recipe haha), Basmati rice, poppadoms and naan bread, with accompaniments of yogurt raita, tomato/onion/mint and banana/coconut/Thai sweet red chilli sauce … with dessert of a cheeseboard and French Fruit Flan (homemade too). Swilled down with a couple of bottles of wine, the company and conversation was wonderful, and it was a really enjoyable evening (but another 1am finish oops). One of the girls stayed overnight and we walked down to have brekky at St Kilda with a couple of coffees, after which she headed off home, and I spent 2 hours chatting to Mum on the phone … then a quick lay down saw me sleeping for 3 1/2 hours.

With any luck I’ll lose that seedy feeling I’ve had all day (probably more from lack of sleep than an overdose of alcohol, I think) and I can pick up a needle for a couple of Dratteds stitches … then this week is a wonderful 5-day week, a lovely treat for a change 😉 Late shifts this week of 3-11pm, which is great, as I get to sleep in each day woohoo 😀

Sorry to hear the previous post about my wonderful visit with Katrina seemed to be a bit corrupted, but it looks like comments are coming through on it now, so I guess the bug has been fixed. It really was lovely to meet her, and my pinkeep is now sitting on my stitching corner bookcase on a little stand so I can see it every day 🙂

I must apologise in advance, too, but my unread blog list is really starting to get to me … every time I get the number of unread posts under 600 I can’t seem to get them to stay there … today it’s back up to 726 unread feeds, and it’s really overwhelming to see that figure every day and think ‘where do I start’, and never seem to see any real progress. So, tonight I’ve made the decision to start from afresh tomorrow … I’m wiping the slate clean for want of a better word. I’m marking all threads as read, and I’m starting afresh. I feel terrible I haven’t got around to catching up with everyone’s blogs, but I think for me it will be the best thing to do at the moment.

Rightio, off to reheat some curry for dinner – I think I’ll be living on it for the next 3 weeks, as I over-catered as usual haha.

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Stitching Smalls

#3 of 50 and a Special Visit

28 September, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

Two reasons to celebrate today (3 if you include the fact I only have one more 5am shift left this week woohoo) … I can cross off project #3 from my 50 Projects Challenge – and the final product (with those very very expensive beads LOL) went to the lovely Katrina today 😀 Yes, it’s true, we got to meet each other face to face today, and she’s even lovelier in person than on her blog, if that’s possible! 😀 It was awesome that we got to meet up and spend some time together before she flies home – and she says a big “hi” to everyone!! She sneaked in a quick blog reading session while visiting family at the weekend, but no doubt will be catching up properly when she gets home again 🙂

I had originally planned to stitch Katrina a self-designed needleroll, but my creative juices just didn’t come together in the end with my health issues etc, and the final design still needs a bit of tweaking … a quick glance over Katrina’s wishlist and I found the Cherry Blossoms Fob by The Sweetheart Tree hiding in there, which I had in my stash all kitted up for myself … it became the perfect solution. I’m still disappointed my needleroll didn’t come to fruition, but I liked how the little fob turned out, and will definitely stitch it again for myself (even with the pinks LOL).

Unfortunately dopey me forgot to pack my camera to take with me today (my brain doesn’t really function at 4am – it’s even slower than it normally is, and that’s saying something), so I couldn’t take a photo myself, but Katrina had hers, as did her Mum, so you can look forward to one down the track when Katrina gets home hopefully 🙂

I couldn’t bring a photo home with me, but I did get spoilt rotten and given a beautiful gift from Katrina too … this is a design I’ve been ogling for a while now, but haven’t gotten around to stitching it for myself yet, and now I don’t need to – I now have a gorgeous pinkeep to have on display, and it will always remind me of our first meeting, so it will always be treasured … I just love it!! But that’s not all, I also got a needleroll chart by Forever In My Heart, who I’d never heard of before … this chart is so versatile as you could use just about any colour combination, and I’ll definitely be stitching one of these soon (in fact my mind was ticking over with the thread possibilities as soon as I had it in my grubby little hands). I just love everything, thank you so much, my friend – and it was such a wonderful treat to meet you! {{hugs}}

Unfortunately it’s now onto very mundane stuff, after all that excitement, as I have to get all the housework done tonight ready for a workmate arriving tomorrow evening, then tomorrow a lot of the prep needs to be done ready for Saturday night’s dinner banquet here … can’t say I’ll be even looking at a needle, never mind using one, before Sunday (if that). When I do, though, I’m thinking of throwing my rotation out the window until I get the Dratteds done completely … I would dearly love to get the Dolphins stitched by year end, and my new idea is to stitch 10 hours on them, then stitch a Christmas ornie or needleroll (just something small and quick) or do a spot of finishing, then back to 10 hours of the Dratteds and so on, until they’re finished. If I do that, I’m hoping to have them finished by the end of October, especially if I can really put some serious work into them on my days off … well, that’s the plan anyway … but you know what they say about the plans of mice and men … 😉 LOL.

So in the words of Looney Tunes’ Porky Pig … for now, “th-th-th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!” 😉

Uncategorized

Handy tool

27 September, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

I remembered when I was using it last night, that Mum said I should post a piccie on my blog of one of my favourite tools … Mum thinks it’s awesome! This is my ‘cording weight’ … and it was very very expensive … not 😉 Basically it’s just a metal paperclip that I unbent, and added some fishing sinkers onto it … and now I have the perfect weight with a little hook to hang onto the middle of my cord when cording – works a treat! 😀 I’ll think I’ll hold off patenting the design (haha), but I thought I’d fulfil Mum’s wishes and post a piccie … especially as I have nothing else to post about today. (Excuse the shadows from the glorious afternoon sun.)

Today was my first 5am shift, and we usually have some ‘down time’ to catch up on emails etc at the start of the shift … but today it was one call immediately after another for the first hour and a half – in fact I made a coffee before I started work at 4.50am, and it was 6.20am before I was able to pick it up and take a sip … yikes! I’m not complaining, either, as I love it like that … makes the day go so much faster when you’re busy 😀 Hope the rest of the week goes as well as today woohoo!

And I heard from Jenna today that my scissors have been ordered, so in the infamous words of the Pointer Sisters, I’m running around singing “I’m so excited … and I just can’t hide it …” la la la la la 😀 Yeah, I know, that’s really sad, but I’m a bit loopy after the early morning start … I’m sure I’ll be hitting the wall of the zombie zone in about 1 hour and be struggling to stay awake, but for now I’m wired! 😉 I might even get really keen and put an hour into the Dratteds to keep awake!

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A mixed bag of all sorts

26 September, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

First of all, I have to say “yippee” to Zohrah, that the mail art arrived this time around … and relatively quickly too!! I’m very glad you like it 🙂 And I shouldn’t take it for granted that someone doesn’t read my blog just ‘cos they’ve not commented before haha … I’m just very pleased you finally managed to get your exchange in return after stitching such a lovely one for Aniza 😀

As for the Gingher scissors – for anyone who’s interested, JoAnn’s (in the US) have a 40% sale off Ginghers, including the designer series, so it’s a great time to stock up … I just got outbid 24 hours before the bidding closed on the pair I put on my blog yesterday, and I’ve opted not to stress any more over it, as I can buy it directly from JoAnn’s for an extra US$5 over my maximum bid. So thanks to my wonderful northern twin, Jenna, I’ll be ordering mine directly from JoAnn’s instead of continuing with the bidding … at least I know they’re going to be shipped officially, I think there’s always a slight worry with Ebay about goods not being sent. Now I have to stitch an extra special fob for the 4″ ones when they eventually arrive, as those two pairs will be treasured forever! If you’re really nice, Mum, I’ll let you touch them when you come over … only once though! hahaha.

As for my finances, things have looked up since yesterday … when I got a bank balance last week I got a nasty shock, as there wasn’t as much in there as I expected, but today I got a phone balance and everything’s OK – my loan repayment had been taken out last week, but wasn’t showing on the statement … phew! I also forgot I had a carton of ciggies from duty free I bought for a workmate that he hadn’t paid for yet, so that’s another $50 coming tomorrow, and to top it all off I also had 2 hours overtime last Sunday, which will almost pay the whole thing off (it comes in next week’s pay) … so today I’m MUCH more relaxed about the parking fine thing – I wouldn’t say I’m happy about it still, but not stressed about the payment side at least 🙂

Then driving home I had a SUPER surprise … I went to fill my car up as it was sitting seriously on empty (I was running late this morning, so had to leave it until the way home … which is a good thing!), and the gas cost (ie petrol) had dropped another 7c a litre since this morning … to a record breaking 110c a litre … considering I was paying 137c a litre a fortnight ago, I was doing cartwheels past the gas pumps!! 😀 Yippee!!!!! Approx $45 to fill my car instead of almost $60 {skippety skip skip skip}. A nice extra silver lining after yesterday 😀

Tomorrow arvo I’m hoping to catch up with Katrina, which will be an great highlight for the week – it will be lovely to meet her in person and catch up over a coffee or bite to eat 😀 I promise not to fall asleep in my coffee after my 5am start 😉

I’m now on 5am shifts for the next 3 days, so that’ll be interesting with my dizzy turns, but fingers crossed I’ll manage to survive everything … I HAVE to, as this weekend is also my dinner party on Saturday night – and I now have one of my work colleagues staying on Friday night as well, so we can go out for another colleague’s 39th birthday … I’m so out of practice in going out partying, I’ll need another week to recover! LOL.

Anyway, enough gas-bagging … I’d better get this little bit of finishing done, then into bed for me for 7pm 😉 Hopefully if I can get it finished, it means I can actually post a stitching piccie tomorrow 😀

Cross Stitch, Exchanges

Mail Art Exchange

25 September, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

I know Zohrah hasn’t received this yet, seeing as it only got sent out last week, but as far as I know she doesn’t read my blog, and I’ve decided to post a piccie of it anyway while I’m waiting for my dinner to reheat. Here was my 2nd attempt at the same design thanks to Mr Postman … I made a pretty crappy attempt at the buttonhole closures, and definitely need a lot more practice, but it looks OK, I think. The buttons were bought in Auckland while I was visiting in May … funnily enough, I bought 4 of them at the time … perhaps I knew something way back then!!! The names have been taken out for privacy reasons. The design was from one of the XS magazines that I can’t put my hands on right at this minute (mainly ‘cos I can’t be bothered to go looking – if anyone is desperate to know leave me a comment and I’ll track it down for you later).

(the front)

(the back)

Stash

Bloody expensive beads!!

25 September, 200625 February, 2012 Anne S

I just managed to spend $110.50 for one packet of Mill Hill petite beads … woohoo, cheap huh? In my ultimate wisdom I decide to call into my semi-LNS on the way home ‘cos I can’t find my 40123 beads for love nor money, as the LNS is on the way home and it would save money on petrol rather than me driving out of my way to a Spotlight store … or so I thought! I parked in a 1-hour parking zone, right outside the store, and I swear the parking attendant must have been walking right up behind me … I was in there for no longer than 10 minutes (had to wait while another customer was served), and walked out to a parking ticket … for $107 – I hadn’t seen the “Clearway between 4-6pm” sign … bloody hell, I feel sick … think of all the stash I could have bought in there for that money!!! Oh well, it means the next month will be a lot tighter financially … I had a good pay week last week, ‘cos I had an extra Sunday shift than I should have normally, so feeling great I socked $200 away towards my sofa bed repayments while I had some ‘free cash’ … now I’m kicking myself for being so bloody organised for a change … especially because I’ve been bidding on a scissors set on the Bay of Evil that I am totally in love with, which of course if I win will be another outlay … that was expected and was still OK, but not with the new unexpected expense!! {heavy sigh}

Even though I’m on a stash diet until my 50 projects are over, that doesn’t affect these as they’re “tools” … how could I resist these?? I accidentally came across a piccie somewhere, and fell head over heels in love … just look at the colour of these!!! Gingher Alyssa designer series scissors … they’d keep me happy for the rest of my stitching days!!! 😀 I was moaning to Mum while she was here that my Fiskars dress-making shears just don’t cut all along the length of the blade, and it’s really annoying, so when I found out Ginghers do “big” scissors too, I was reeled in, hook, line and sinker 😉

I’ve been here 3 years and I’m STILL learning about the parking rules … I’ve only ever had one other parking ticket here, while flat-hunting in this area, as I didn’t realise there was such a thing as “permit parking” in residential areas … I soon found out $50 later that in fact yes there are … filed that one way for the future too …

Stitching-wise I’ve been trying to stitch a small gift for a friend, and had been creating something myself, but I decided the creative process just isn’t coming together for me right now, and I was best to just use an existing chart … hence the reason I needed the beads (perhaps if I’d stuck with my creative idea I’d be $100 better off right now … bugger!). I didn’t have one of the threads, so substituted with a Caron Collection Waterlilies silk instead, and I just have the centre bit of one side left, which is just tiny, and the beading, then it has to be put together … fingers crossed I manage to get most of that done tonight, as I’m on 5am shifts tomorrow and need an early night, but I really want to get this finished.

Aside from that nothing much else to report – I’m still having back/neck pain, and finally decided today to get an appointment (yay, more money going out!) with a sort of physio who specialises in muscular troubles like mine … she’s a nerve manipulator or something, but hopefully she’ll be able to provide some relief, or be able to recommend a physio or someone, as this pain is really getting me down.

Geez, I’m just a bundle of joviality tonight, aren’t I? Oh well, I’ll get over it I’m sure, and be back to normal by tomorrow hopefully. In the meantime I’m heading off to the fridge to make myself a nice long Jim Beam and L&P (I still have a small collection of L&P cans left … they only come out for special occasions, and I’ve just decided tonight is one of them as a cheer me up!).