Author: Anne S

(Updated to add this comment for Jenn … just noticed your comment about the PINN chart – if you click on the link here, you can see a clearer piccie of it. I’m happy to send you the chart once I’ve finished with it – but it might take a while before I get around to stitching it as it’s for a charity block that I might want to stitch in the future, ie no deadline as yet. Anyway, let me know, and I’ll put it to one side for you.)

I managed to get all the stitching done on my Melanie’s Exchange piece yesterday … with just a few toilet and sustenance breaks – the finishing won’t take very long, so the pressure’s off a little bit now. I just have my biscornu exchange to stitch now, then my first ever exchanges are up-to-date. Sorry but no piccies for a while 😦

Unfortunately not quite all my commitment stitching is finished, though – I still have my Batman logo to stitch for my final charity block that needs to be received by 15 May … hopefully the chart I’m going to be using isn’t far away from arriving from the good ol’ US of A – I just didn’t get around to charting it myself, and found it easier to buy one off Ebay (due to lack of time and lack of motivation) – fingers crossed it arrives this week so I can get cracking on it. Then my next charity blocks aren’t due until 15 July and 15 August, so I have a bit of a breathing space before then.

Once my Batman logo’s stitched, my main focus is on starting my Bunnies in my Garden SAL – we’re already into week 3 and I haven’t even started yet (partly because my threads didn’t arrive until last week). I know it won’t take me long to catch up, though, as I can be a speedy stitcher when it’s needed (and when I have the time available) – then I want to get back into stitching my Marine Elegance. After that it’s back to my rotation again, and starting a new SAL with Carol – the Mystery Bordeaux Sampler … she’s tempted me with her progress piccies, and I finally broke down and decided to join in.

On a different note, my debt consolidation came through officially during the week, so yesterday I spent the day paying off various debts to cut down my monthly repayments – it’s still not going to be ‘easy street’, but it will be a lot less stressful each payday, especially when I’m back on shift allowances again 🙂 I’m hoping now that I can actually put a bit of money away every month that can go towards having a holiday or something … it would be so nice being able to make more use of my 4-day breaks etc by popping off for a night or two and seeing some more of this beautiful country. But it’s early days yet, and I need to work out how much difference it’s going to make to my monthly budget, and I guess it’ll take a couple of months to work that out yet. I’ve told Mum if it all works out OK, I’m going to treat her to a holiday for her 70th birthday – and we’re going to pop off to Singapore for a couple of nights if I can afford it … otherwise we’ll pop off somewhere locally, as there are a few places on my list … Coffs Harbour, Mildura, Perth, Darwin, Port Douglas etc. She’s said if we go overseas she needs to know for her travel insurance, but if we’re staying locally she’d rather not know where we’re going, and that it be a surprise. We wouldn’t be going until Jul/Aug so there’s plenty of time to work that out …

Anyway, nothing else to report today … and no progress piccies … so, rather than waffling on about nothing, here’s another old photo I took of some gannets during a visit to Napier, New Zealand – just to add a bit of colour to my post ;P

I don’t know why, but I feel really positive today … maybe because I’ve finally beaten those revolting bugs I’ve had – apart from being a bit headachey and sinusey (but only in a small way), I feel on top of the world. I’ve been receiving the FlyLady emails for approx 8 months, but today is the first day I actually put the ‘zone’ work into action. I’ve also planned my menu for tomorrow in advance, including lunch and dinner. I used to do this religiously in the old household, to the point I think the guys thought I was a bit anally retentive about it – I had the whole week’s menus planned out in advance, had most of the food shopping done, and made lunches for us too … since moving out I’ve been very lazy with my home chores and just haven’t bothered just for me. I also only spent a quick few minutes online checking my incoming emails, then walked away from the computer to get my chores done – I’ve got a really bad habit of sitting plonked here for hours, then getting too tired to get anything done … including cooking dinner!

One of my girlfriends at work today commented that perhaps it’s because I have ‘certainty’ in my job now, that all the clutter that’s been in my brain has disappeared, and I feel more settled and in control … I think maybe that has a lot to do with it. For the last year or so, especially, I’ve been ‘on call’ with work, and haven’t been able to plan anything due to shifts changing every few weeks, sometimes with just a week’s notice – now I know I have a stable roster happening from 3 May, it’s wonderful. I’ve also managed to face a few demons regarding my old living situation and come to peace with a few issues over the last few months. You might remember that over a month ago I joined Weight Watchers through work – I still haven’t lost any weight on it … partly to do with the fact I’ve had visitors every couple of weeks, and partly the fact that I haven’t been motivated to count my points or plan in advance, and haven’t been eating enough each day … I feel back on track in that way too – I just hope it will continue.

Perhaps this is the new phase of my life on the whole becoming more ‘in control’ … the only thing out of control is perhaps my embroidery stash LOL. Mum said to me the other day, “you have enough” … Mum, I said, you NEVER have enough! She couldn’t understand what I meant, until I said it’s like your fabrics (she does dressmaking) – it doesn’t matter how much you own, there’s always another bolt of fabric that you just HAVE to have … the penny then dropped, and she understood what I meant … for me part of the joy is just poring through my stash of charts – even if I never stitch a 10th of those charts, the sheer enjoyment of flipping through them is immeasurable. When I head home next month, I’m looking to flicking through all my folders and working out which charts to bring home next … but I also might cost up how much it would be to freight them all over here, including my Inspirations and Embroidery & XS magazines and embroidery books … perhaps then is the time to have a throw-out session – I also know I want to chuck out/put up for trade some of my L&L charts, as I’ll never stitch them in this lifetime.

The great thing as well, is that Mum found my duck charts I’d been desperate for – I really want to have a duck-theme for my RR that Renee’s organising, and these charts are a perfect size (designed for an afghan) … woohoo, I have DUCKS coming!! (Yes, hard to accept, but I have even more duck charts than those Mum posted last time – duck mad? Yes, certified duck fiend!!) 😀

Can you tell I have no stitching progress to report? Yup, ‘cos I’m rambling on again … it’s already 8pm, and I still have a few things to complete for tomorrow, so I’ll sign off. Tomorrow night there is a Guild meeting on in the evening that I could go to … I wonder if I have the courage/inclination … I guess tomorrow I’ll make my mind up. I can take one of my exchange pieces to stitch there … hmmm, decisions decisions …

I’ll leave you with a photo of the Twelve Apostles, on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia (my current ‘home turf’ … but one of the rocks has since disappeared, so I guess it’s now the ‘Eleven Apostles’ LOL).

Just realised, I hadn’t answered last week’s SBQ, so here goes:

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

“For those of you that stitch while riding in the car or on the train, how do you cope with the bumps and the motion? Do you have any tips for others?”

Um, that’s easy to answer – I definitely don’t stitch in the car, and never tried it on the train … mainly because of motion sickness. I’ve stitched on a plane occasionally, but that’s it … so I can’t share any tips, I’m sorry.

Well, last night I managed to get some stitching done while watching rubbish DVD’s … ended up with a bad headache, which carried over to this morning. It’s now 3pm, and I’m only just starting to get moving on the day, after blobbing out in front of the computer for an hour. Still no stitching progress to share, as I was working on one of my exchange pieces – I’ve been doing a dummy run of something I pieced together from different sources, and it seems to look OK in the colour I’m using at the moment … fingers crossed it’ll look OK in the threads I’ve been given to use – I’m about to find out! Yesterday I also put together my first pinkeep, but I don’t have any ribbon yet, so I’ll wait until it’s totally finished before showing the piccie of it.

Rightio, nothing else to report, so I’ll toddle off and make a cup of tea to liven me up, and get a bit more stitching done while it’s still daylight.

Kali, the graphics for the progress bars are just static ones, as you say … I’ve got them saved so I just have to change the % number in the data coding, and it automatically picks up the correct image, as they’re all listed in 5% increments – pretty simple, really 🙂

Thanks for the comments for my sidebar instructions – hopefully they make sense, and I look forward to doing a blog browse soon to see what you’ve come up with ;P

And I’ll finally finish with some Ebay wins I had over the Easter break, for an unbelievably nominal amount! I feel almost embarrassed at the price I won these for, and the majority of my wins are from one seller here in Melbourne, who charges AU$5.00 regardless of the number of items you win – yikes! I’ve been avoiding Ebay like the plague recently due to finances, but I succumbed to the temptation when I saw just how cheaply they were going for – and a few of them are for my charity block stitching. So, here were my biggest steals, along with the price (in Australian dollars – and all hyperlinked to piccies I found on the ‘net):

Purple Heart – Welshy (dragon) (kit) $2.00
PINN – Beautiful Thai Salutation (kit) (to stitch for a gift) $12.50
PINN – Little Mermaid (kit) $5.50
PINN – Tibetan Mastiff (kit) $4.25
PINN – Yorkshire Terrier (kit) $2.00
PINN – Pixie Bob (kit) $2.00
Victoria Sampler – International Hearts Ireland (kit) $2.00
Victoria Sampler – International Hearts New Zealand (kit) $2.00
Shepherd’s Bush – Millennium needleroll (kit) $6.05
Victoria Sampler – Good Friends (chart) $2.25
Victoria Sampler – Rose Arbour (chart) $4.76
Victoria Sampler – Crowning Glory (chart) $2.25
Victoria Sampler – Antique Lace (chart) $2.25
Victoria Sampler – Heart to Heart (chart) $3.76
Lorri Birmingham – A Stitcher’s Needleroll (kit) US$3.99
DC Comics Super Heroes (chart – with Batman logo – I was REALLY keen to get this for charity stitching) US$7.67

I only went on Ebay to see if any needleroll charts were on offer … perhaps a good thing I did … or perhaps not, considering I’m not supposed to be buying any stash! LOL. But I figure for such a paltry sum, it was too good a bargain to miss, and I especially love Victoria Sampler charts – but I’ve paid approx $20.00 in the past for one Thea’s designs locally, so this was an absolute basement bargain! After this lot, Ebay is going back on the banned list for a while LOL.

Have to admit, though, thanks to Katrina starting the monthly needleroll SAL, I’ve been searching designs for needlerolls, and I’ve fallen in love with a number of charts I wouldn’t have otherwise seen … I also found some charts online today by Paw Printings – wow, is all I can say! Some of their band sampler/egg designs are exquisite … heck, my fingers had better get cracking and getting some stitching done so I can justify another splurge later in the year! LOL. Talking of which, back to it again for the night …

OK, it seems there are few of you out there who are wondering how to put the piccies in your sidebar, along with progress bars – so I thought I’d share how I did mine. Bear in mind, though, that I have absolutely no HTML or computer programming experience, so there may be a better way of doing it … but this way (as cumbersome as it is) seems to work for me.

The first thing I came across in my quest for setting up my sidebars when I first started blogging was Melanie’s blog – here Melanie has given us all the use of her progress bars, in blue. If you click on this link it will take you to the right page in her archives, where the graphics are kept. You just right click with your mouse over each progress bar and save each one to your own computer files. You may notice that my bars are a different colour – when I had my blog revamped you couldn’t see the paler blue anymore, so my good pal Jenna did me some new ones – thanks Jenna! 😀 So, that’s step one out of the way …

Step two is to get the progress bars to a hosting program for photos/graphics that lets you post to websites – I use Photobucket for this. You just create an account (it’s free) and start uploading your progress bar files.

Step three is to upload them into your sidebar. I’m not sure if you want to know how to upload piccies as well, so I’ll cover both just in case …

First thing you need to do is to go into your template settings in Blogger … and work out where you want your progress piccies etc to be in your sidebar. My template, for example, shows the following (I had to type the title heading info as well, to give me a separate ‘in progress’ section):

(h2 class=”sidebar-title”)In Progress(/h2)
(ul)
(center)(li)(a)Dolphins Domain(/a)(/li)
(li)(img src=”http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b193/shakatak66/WIPs/Dolphinschart.jpg” alt=”Image hosted by Photobucket.com”)
(li)(img src=”http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b193/shakatak66/Progress%20Bars/db-65.gif” alt=”Image hosted by Photobucket.com”)
(/ul)(/center)

You just have to remember, when you use the above codes, you must replace every single ( with … that’s the only way I could type it without it turning into an actual command and posting the pictures in the middle of the paragraph – I have soooo much more to learn yet! A good thing to do if you’re going to try this, is to save your template before you start (I always did a backup copy and paste into a Word document so I could reverse everything later if I really stuffed things up).

Where I’ve turned the text red above, this is the file code from Photobucket for one of my progress bars. When you upload a photo/graphic to Photobucket, there are three different codes generated underneath the photo – Url, Tag or Img. You just click on the ‘tag’ code, alt-C (copy) … then go back to your template and alt-V (paste) into the template as above, after (li). You do the exact same thing for both the photo and the progress bar, as they’re both saved in Photobucket. Does that make sense … kind of? I’ll colour in green above the Photobucket data for my actual photo, that might make more sense. Any time I want to add another progress piccie etc, I just copy and paste inside my template with the new file names.

The one thing you have to be really careful of is the sizing of the photo/graphic – if they’re too big, it throws the entire layout of your blog out. There must be a simpler way to how I do it, but I don’t know about it yet … the way I do this is to save a smaller version of the photo especially for my sidebars, and I’ve set up a separate album for my sidebar photos in Photobucket. I use MS Paint – and basically open the file/photo I want to change … I then use the Image menu – go down to Attributes and see what size the file is … the example I’ll use below is actually a file in my PC that has it’s ‘real’ dimensions of 19.70cm x 24.83cm which is obviously wayyyy to big for the sidebars. I try to get my dimensions down to approx 2cm wide, and it doesn’t matter to me what the height is, as I know 2cm will fit nicely in my sidebars. For this piccie it means I need a file that is only approx 10% of the whole size to give me the right width (1.97cm for example).

So, now I go to the MS Paint menu for Image … Stretch/Skew – and I “stretch” my horizontal measurement to 10%, and my vertical measurement to 10% and hit OK. My piccie miniaturises instantly. Then I check my measurements are OK by going back into Image … Attributes, and it’s now 1.98cm x 2.49cm – perfect! All I need to do now is to Save As … then upload it into Photobucket, and I can copy the image data code as we did above. And here’s the result …

Like I said, I’m sure there’s a much simpler way to do things – but this is the only way I’ve worked out how … and it works, so that’s all that matters to me for the time being. One day I’d like to do a basic HTML course, and work a few more things out. Hope it helps you out, though … if it doesn’t make sense, scream out and I’ll try to make it clearer … likewise, if someone knows how to do it much more simply, I’d love to know! 😀

Just a quick note to welcome my latest commenters – nice to see you, Artstitches and Judith … thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂

Going by my stat counter, there are a lot of people reading but not commenting – I’d really love to know who you are, and perhaps find some new blogs I’m not aware of … if you have time, I’d LOVE it if you could make a quick comment just to say “hi”, and perhaps where you’re from 🙂 … um, pretty please? 😀

Judith, I’m happy to help you with the progress bars in your sidebar – if you’re familiar with adding things to your sidebars, I can tell you where to find the progress bars for downloading … and if you need more help with laying out your template, I’m happy to copy mine for you to explain how it’s done 🙂 If you drop me an email, I’ll help you out as much as I’m able to (my email is shakatak at iinet dot net dot au – obviously just replace the “at” and “dot”s etc with real dots). I’m not an IT person or anything, so it would be very basic 🙂

Well, I said there would be stitching progress today … not much to show for it, though (mind you, it is only morning here yet, so I have a whole day ahead of me LOL). I thought I’d do some stitching after dinner, but had a glass of red wine, and had the exact same reaction as I did the other night … feeling really squiffy and dizzy, and I ended up going to bed at 8.30pm! There’s something in that red wine that’s not agreeing with me, so the last glassful is going down the sink today hmmm. I’ll just have to open a bottle of chardonnay instead ;P haha. Or perhaps I should just stick to the orange juice in the fridge … it might be more conducive to stitching! 😀

Hopefully I’ll have another piccie to show by the end of the day … but in the meantime here’s the sum total I got stitched last night – impressive huh? haha. This is the latest ornament I received in my Ornament Round Robin with the Ornament RR BB. If nothing else, it probably won’t take too long to stitch up …

We’ve had torrential downpours for the last 48 hours here in Melbourne (well, in my neck of the woods, anyway), and a definite drop in temperature again. It would be very conducive to stitching, except the light in my flat is appalling when the weather’s like that … but at least it’s helped give me an excuse to continue kitting a few projects up from my stash, as well as getting some housework done, like stripping my bedding etc and getting my laundry washing done. I also got a leg of lamp all de-boned and chopped up and marinating in yoghurt overnight yesterday – so tonight I have to cook it all up, for my new favourite curry recipe … this version of Rogan Josh became an absolute fave in our old flat when I made it for a dinner party for friends … just divine, and the meat just melts in your mouth! In fact, seeing as I don’t have any stitching progress to post yet again (but hopefully that’ll be changed tomorrow, as that’s going to be my main stitching day!), I think I’ll share the recipe here … rightio, here goes:

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 onions (300g), 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 always do it overnight).
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 lightly.
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

Actually, I think that’ll be perfect for dinner tonight – something warm and hearty to fight the winter chills that are in this flat! Unfortunately the ducted heating flame has gone out, and I need the landlord to come and fix it (gas heating scares the hell out of me, and I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’m not touching it!) – so my flat is like an icebox today, and I’m wrapped up in my trackpants and warmest sweatshirt and furry slippers … definitely won’t be winning any fashion awards today, but it’s comfy ;P

And the finish the post, here’s another travel piccie – this time of Government Gardens, Rotorua, New Zealand. Hope you’re all having a lovely Easter 🙂

Can’t begin to tell you how I feel tonight … I got told today that the Supervisor job had been officially announced, so I could move back to shift work as from their starting date, which is 3 May – I hadn’t realised how much the uncertainty of dates had been weighing down on me until I got given the news … I feel as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders – a weight I hadn’t realised was there! I am incredibly happy and just about giggling like a schoolgirl … it feels as though I’m finally “there”, wherever “there” is 🙂 I am sat here supping red wine at 5.30pm in celebration – so it might end up being an early night for me as I haven’t eaten anything except muesli and yoghurt and it’s going straight to my head haha. I’ve always been happy about the promotion, but there was always this niggle at the back of my mind about the loss of money etc being on day work, that I’d been trying to ignore … but at least now I know I’ll only have two pay-days coming up where the money is appalling compared to normal, then it’s back to the real world again. There’s no other way to describe it … I feel ecstatic!!! The other great news, is that I can now definitely travel to NZ for my Mum’s 70th birthday – I would have been soooo disappointed if I had to miss out on it … if I was on day shift then I would have had to stay home … I’m still going ahead with the debt consolidation, as it will give me so much more freedom to do as I please, and not have to penny-pinch day to day … it’s hard to explain, but I feel as though life is for “living” right now.

I’ve thought a few times of telling the blogging world about my earlier days in moving to Australia, which was a bit soul-destroying and emotional for me, and I may one day feel it’s the right time to talk about it, but right now it just seems as if my world is finally coming together for me … even Fraze said the same thing in an email today, that everything is really happy for me at the moment – and he’s right! Life is GOOD!! 😀

It’s funny … as I was driving to work the other morning, I was reflecting on something that my Mum said to me years ago … that in the short time of my life so far, I’ve done and achieved so many things – I’m never one to sit still and let life pass me by. In 30 years I’d done so many more things that she had done in her lifetime twice that age … and it got me thinking about it – I really do feel truly blessed in so many ways. I’ve had so many opportunities to try and experience new things – I’ve travelled quite a lot, I’ve done a few adventurous things that have pushed me as a person, and I’ve had some interesting jobs that have helped shape the person I am today … I’ve also been very blessed with the people I’ve met along life’s highway – admittedly, not every one of these relationships has ended pleasantly, but it’s all taught me something along life’s journey, and brought me to where I am today.

I’ve always been a very shy and private person … I don’t know what made me do it, but I got a part-time job as a barmaid at a rugby club at a young age, where I stayed for 3 years – Mum reckons that’s when I finally came out of my shell (and also what formed the basis for learning my very foul language haha), and I began to open up and stand up for myself. Even though I’m rather large in size, I have an adventurous spirit, and it hasn’t stopped me doing some extreme adventure activities, such as white water rafting (on a grade 5 river, but I didn’t know that at the time!), tandem parapenting (jumping off a cliff with a parachute – don’t want to do that again, as the ‘chute collapsed hmmm), jetboating, gliding, and my favourite tandem hang-gliding (which I ended up doing twice ‘cos I loved the rush so much). I still have some ‘wishes’ for the future, the main one being hot-air ballooning – my ultimate would be to do that in France somewhere, sheer heaven.

Heck, I hadn’t expected this to be a waffly post, and I’m obviously getting side-tracked, so I think I’ll stop there – I’ll just summarise saying “I feel good (na na na na na na na…..)” 😀 If I feel like continuing rambling about my life story, I’ll post about it later ;P

I’ll leave you with a photo not of Greece this time, but of me hang-gliding at Queenstown, New Zealand 😀 I got some stitching-related squishy mail today, but I’ll leave that until tomorrow when I can take some piccies 🙂