Anne S

Just dropping by quickly to wish everyone a very merry and bright Christmas and a wonderful New Year – I hope all your hopes and dreams come true in 2011!

Thanks for sticking around this year when I haven’t been my brightest little self – your comments have all helped to brighten my days, even though I haven’t been commenting on your own blogs much this year in return.

Have a wonderful time over Christmas – I’ll be offline for a couple of days while spending Christmas Day with friends on the other side of the city. I look forward to seeing all your news and updates on my return 😀

Cross Stitch, Stash

Feeling brighter overnight

23 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry for the grumbly post yesterday – I think my broken sleeps etc are turning me into a cranky old bat this week … and things I can normally tune out have been getting to me {{sigh}}. Never mind – my ultrasound came back clear, and now I’m just waiting for the results of the CT scan I had yesterday … fingers crossed they can actually find something, which means they can start treating something, which means I can start feeling normal again 🙂

I just managed to take a quick piccie of my stash arrival yesterday, so seeing that again this morning cheers me up no end, and it means I now have some new possibilities of chart starts, so I think I may have to review that list of 15 new starts for January haha. Anyway, here’s the stash I thought had gone AWOL (and all this is purely down to the fact that no-one locally seemed to have Kreinik #4 braid in colour 027 in stock, so I ended up going offshore … and of course I had to make the most of the postage) 😛

LHN – Sandollar Cottage (Chart 5 from Summer Seascape Series)
LHN – Joy to the World ornie
Blue Ribbon Designs – Blessed Beyond Measure (stitch start ruler with sleeve designs)
Just Nan – Hagatha’s Purple Hat
Just Nan – Screamy Mimi Tricky Tweets
Kreinik #4 Braids, GAST Forest Glade, Belle Soie silks and NPI silks

I’ve decided to only stitch 4 charts out of the Summer Seascape series by LHN, as the little couple with balloons just does nothing for me, which means I now have the whole series available for stitching and I just need to get some fabric together. I think this is going to become one of my 15 projects, and I think it will be pretty quick to stitch. I also think I need to add Katie’s Christmas gift to that list, assuming the fabric turns up in time by 15 January to join the list … hmmm, maybe by 31 December I will have made up my mind 100% … but maybe not! 😛

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stash

‘Tis the season to be jolly

22 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I am trying really hard to remind myself this week of the positive things in life this week … in particular I’m trying hard not to focus on:

the fact that other team members are allowed to go on holiday while I am working through Christmas and the New Year and having to cover their work instead of catching up on my own backlog over Christmas – bah humbug to the lot of you, if I’d known I wouldn’t be working on my own work I’d be taking the time off too and making you stay do your own damned work, just like I’ve had to do for 2 out of 3 years!;
the pile of laundry still sitting on the lounge floor from my flatmate’s Mum visiting two weeks ago – and the fact that my flatmate has now gone on two week’s leave and left it sitting there for the laundry fairies to do in her absence;
ditto the cup cake container sitting on the bench, complete with leftover cupcakes, ready for me to have to wash up and dispose of the leftover foodstuffs because otherwise the Sydney cockroaches would be having a field day;
the recycling bags overflowing with recyclable bottles and cans that are always without fail left for me to carry down to the rubbish bins (I have actually been told she does this), not to mention to empty glass bottles and jars that are just left laying around the kitchen bench … perhaps I should leave a map on the bench, because obviously the overflowing pile in the corner isn’t standing out enough to be obvious!

Ah, venting over … I don’t often get grumpy with these things, as I’m often really messy with my stitching stuff laying around etc, but I really do get peeved when food etc is left around. I’ve just got used to the fact that I will always be the one emptying trash cans and washing the shower curtain and bathmats, along with the kitchen towels and tea-towels … that’s just my lot in life … pfffft. Anyway, seriously moving on now I’ve had my rant for the evening!!!

The GREAT news that really does offset all that grumpiness is that the parcel that had gone AWOL has actually turned up in my PO Box! I just assumed that it was the latest parcel that had turned up, but then I saw the date stamp of 15 November on the parcel and I almost hyperventilated!! I am seriously excited and thrilled, as now I have my missing threads and can complete my Bittersweet Seasons WIP – perhaps I’ll take that along to finish on Christmas Day instead of the Christmas chart … hmmm …

Anyway, I’ve only just walked in the door from work and feeling totally wrecked, so I think I’ll sign off now and go and fondle my stash, as I haven’t had chance to look at it properly yet!

PS: Did I tell you, I’m excited??? 😛

Christmas, Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Quilting, Works in Progress

Christmas decorations

19 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Before I show piccies of the decorations, I want to say a heartfelt “thanks” to one of my closest stitching pals Katrina who has been spoiling me for a number of years now with a handmade ornie – each one I treasure dearly, and this latest one is absolutely no exception! (Excuse the silver lametta sitting on the top!)

Don’t you think this is just so “ME”? 😀 Unfortunately I forgot to bring the other part of the gift home with me, and it’s still sitting on my computer at work … it’s the cutest little yellow rubber ducky with little santa hat and scarf on … too, too cute! He was keeping a smile on my face all day at work on Friday. Thanks again Katrina, you have once again spoilt me rotten, and I totally adore it! I feel very blessed that the internet has enabled such a lovely friendship to blossom 🙂

Unfortunately I haven’t been in the brightest of stitching moods throughout the year, to be honest, and my own ornie plans pretty much went out the window – instead I’ve been focused on stitching whatever I’ve felt like just to keep my momentum up as much as possible and keeping the feeling of being ‘overwhelmed’ at bay. I think I’m finally coming out of that blue phase, so fingers crossed in the new year I’ll get a few more ornies stitched up and sent to some of my best online pals, as well as fulfilling some outstanding stitching commitments!

Anyway, back to the decorations, it was receiving Katrina’s ornie on Friday that made me start thinking of bringing up my ‘little’ Christmas tree from the garage instead of the huge 6ft one and having only my stitched ornies on display. Even Katie gave it the thumbs-up when I’d finished and said she really likes it, so I guess it gets the official seal of approval 🙂

Rightio, enough of the waffling, here are this year’s lounge decorations in all their glory (I personally think the tree’s a bit crowded, but I didn’t want to leave any ornies out! – I think maybe next year I need to buy a tree that’s just a little bit taller and fuller, and it’ll be a perfect size):

And this little tree (which stays up all year as a backdrop to my ornie finishes) is look a wee bit bare as it’s waiting for Mum’s 12 Days of Christmas set to be finished and added … not entirely sure that’ll be completed before Christmas, but it definitely will happen before I have to put them all away again! 🙂

The next year I also want to make a table runner for the lounge and/or the table under the tree – I bought this fabric a few months ago in readiness for when the urge of quilting creativity struck (which will hopefully be some times prior to December 2011!) – this is from the 12 Days of Christmas fabric range by Moda:

And on that note, I’m off to sip on my iced Paull’s Egg Nog (that’s the brand on sale in supermarkets over here) and perhaps do a bit of stitching … perhaps … unfortunately Bittersweet Season will continue looking like this for a while longer, as the threads I need are still lost in transit, but I do now have the threads to finish “Valentine Bird”, so perhaps that will suffice for now and may even get some of that stitching mojo back … ?

Christmas, Cross Stitch, Food, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, recipes

Christmas has arrived … finally

19 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Ever since my flatmate made a comment about my Christmas tree being up when her Mum was here visiting I just haven’t felt like putting decorations up, and definitely had the “bah humbug” feeling. On Friday night, though, I decided to put a few things out and decorated the lounge – a lot more understated than normal, and I have to say I think I really like it!

Because my flatmate is away for Christmas (she flew out today), we had Christmas morning early on Friday night and I refused to swap gifts until we at least had some sort of Christmas decorations up. I’m usually cracking the decoration boxes open on 1 December (or the closest weekend afterwards), so it’s really really unusual for me this year! Even when I lived on my own, I still had my own little tree and made myself a Christmas stocking each year – it seems a little silly, but I still bought myself a little chocolate bar and some nuts in their shells and popped a little baby bottle of champers in there (and for the first time ever something I’ve neglected to do for myself this year yet). I’m tossing up whether to approach a LNS next year and see if they will bundle up some surprise goodies from my wish list and then get someone to wrap them up for me so I can have something of a surprise in there – I was originally going to do my own 12 days of Christmas and parcel up 12 little items early in the year so I may have forgotten about them by Christmastime, but it’s not really the same, is it? haha.

Last year Katie said she was going to buying a white Christmas tree with black balls to put up this year, with a skull instead of an angel/star … sigh 😉 Let’s just say it hasn’t happened yet, and if it does happen next year then I will sit my own tree up in a different corner to be a bit more traditional!! Anyhoo, earlier in the year I found the most PERFECT gift for her … I was going to stitch her this chart and frame it up for her – I had my heart set on it, because it is just so “her” haha. As you can see, it was the Christmas tree that made it think it was so perfect!

Unfortunately I’ve had various items back-ordered for over 3 months, and the Belle Soie threads that were sent along with my other parcel goodies an exact month ago still haven’t arrived – not to mention I was really unhappy with the fabric I ordered from NZ for it, so I ended up placing an extra order for the recommended fabric listed on the chart, and that was also on back order for a while. The fabric finally left about 1 1/2 weeks ago, but the first parcel is still AWOL, and there was no insurance on the parcel {{sigh}}. I’ll wait for another few weeks, then I’ll have to save up and re-order everything again, I guess 😦 I was then in a quandary as to what to buy my flatmate, but my heart was still set on this chart, so I ended up wrapping just the chart up and saying the real version would be coming whenever I can get it together.

To say Katie was over the moon with it is an understatement! She loved it so much she’s been taking photos of the chart and showing all her friends and family and can’t stop talking about haha. The great thing now, I guess, is that I can actually stitch it in the lounge without having to hide away, so she can watch it grow each week once I finally manage to get it started 🙂 I also gave her two Jared Padalecki movies on DVD to fill her horror quota for the year (Friday the 13th and Cry Wolf).

As for what I got, I was truly spoilt – I knew in advance what I was getting, but it made it not less thrilling – I got a ticket to see Tap Dogs next month with Katie, and we’re only a few rows from the front so we can drool over Adam Garcia without squinting haha. I’ve always loved him in the movie Bootmen, which is so similar to Tap Dogs – if you haven’t seen it yet, I can definitely recommend it as a great Aussie drama/romance (but make sure the tissue box is handy) … love, love, love it! 😀

Today I actually started one of my 101 Things in 1001 Days – I’ve been playing with this list for the last month or so, and have finally published it live. Seeing as I’ve started feeling a bit more positive over the last 48 hours, I’ve started making a move to see some of the goals happen. Today’s effort was in relation to #23 in the list, which is to make something out of every recipe book I own in Sydney – considering there are 130+ books, that’ll keep me busy for longer than the 1001 days, but it’ll be fun anyway! Today’s recipe was from “Simple Delights: Coffee & Tea” book – and the chosen recipe was “Bonoffee Coffee”. Perhaps not the ‘best’ thing I’ve ever tasted, I have certainly enjoyed slurping it down this afternoon while I’ve been pottering around – here’s the full recipe if you’re interested:

BONOFFEE COFFEE

3 teaspoons instant coffee granules
150ml (5fl oz or 2/3 cup) boiling water
450ml (16fl oz or 2 cups) vanilla ice cream
1 large banana
300ml (10fl oz or 1 1/4 cups) milk
Few drops vanilla essence
85ml (3fl oz or 1/3 cup) Tia Maria
2 teaspoons drinking chocolate
Chocolate flakes, to serve (optional)

Mix together coffee and water and set aside to cool. Place all the ingredients, except the chocolate powder, in a blender or food processor and process them until completely smooth. Pour into tall glasses and sprinkle the chocolate powder over the top. Serve with chocolate flakes, if desired.
Serves 4-6.

Alas I couldn’t find any drinking chocolate in the cupboard, but I did find some Lindt chocolate shavings … score!!! haha. I even broke out the super-duper expensive hand-blown glassware to drink it out of. I was given a pair of these by my very best friend Vicki, and I’d hate to think what they’re worth today – they’re hand-blown by Hoglund Glass, and apparently are quite the collector’s item … I personally don’t care, because I adore them to death, and will never sell them, I love them too much! 😀

I really should show the results of my decorations, but I think this post is getting waaaay to long by now, so I’ll create a new post shortly 🙂

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch

What happens when you don’t stitch

18 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I still don’t feel like stitching, and have no urge to pick up a needle yet … I do, however, have the urge to do some organising of my stitching ‘stash’ in the computer!

Years ago I started scanning the JCS Christmas ornie magazines, and started creating a library of sorts within Microsoft Word. It basically has a thumbnail of each year’s ornaments listed by designer, and the details of the ornie along with magazine issue (year), scanned thumbnail and ornie title. I originally started doing this when I was going to do a personal challenge, ie stitching one ornament by every single designer that has been published – now this was a number of years ago, and there weren’t as many designers as there are today, but I still never did get very far with that challenge. I thought it would make me stitch some designs I’d never really looked at before, as often ornies are much better in real life than in the magazine … it was a good idea at the time 😛

Anyway, seeing as I wasn’t feeling up to stitching and I felt like getting a numb butt in front of the PC for a while, I scanned the 2010 magazine and updated the various pages with the latest ornies.

It’s really nice to flick through the pages for visual inspiration, and it helps to find an ornie quickly when you get that sudden urge to stitch a specific one. It might be a lot of work once a year, but it sure is worth it! 😀

Here’s a little sample of what a page looks like – alas, I’ve never been able to track down the 1999 issue, so that one is missing … but otherwise I have every year from 1997 to 2010 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

In the wars

14 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I haven’t touched a needle since the last time I posted a WIP update, so I guess that’s well over a week now … thanks to a sinus infection and some really really long stressful hours at work, I took a day in lieu off work on Friday, and an RDO (rostered day off) yesterday, and as soon as I finished work I fell in a heap and succumbed to the dreaded lurgy. I was supposed to fly down to Melbourne for a Christmas party on Saturday night (decided last minute during the week), but ended up cancelling my flight and stayed in best most of the weekend with my laptop and the electric fan going.

Back to the GP today for a top-up of antibiotics, as it seems after starting to come right on Sunday night, and feeling relatively OK yesterday, the infection has taken hold once again overnight, so I’ve got another dose of drugs to take. Add to that a couple of other health issues and I can’t say I feel too perky overall … my left index finger has been flaring up with stiffness and pain over the last few months, and this morning was so painful I couldn’t use it to push the aerosol button on my deodorant. I mentioned that while I was in the GP and it appears I have got some sort of tendonitis in that finger, so I now have my index and middle fingers taped together for the next 7-14 days, which I have to admit relieves the pressure in the index finger … but it’s going to be a right royal pain typing at work!

Then tomorrow I’m off to have an arterial ultrasound done on my lower left leg compliments of some additional pain and swelling that has been occurring over the last month or so, which has been so bad I’ve been unable to sit ‘awkwardly’ (eg cross-legged) or put any weight on it when kneeling … just something else to join the throng of ills for the week haha.

I haven’t even gotten into the Christmas spirit this year and don’t have a single decoration up yet – I was going to put my tree up on the first weekend in December until Katie made a comment that I’d better leave room for her Mum coming to visit … it kinda sucked all the joy out of something I love to do, so “bah humbug” here I sit. I may decide to put my old ‘little baby tree’ up with just my stitched ornies on it …

There have been a few things this year that have also lead to me having a ‘clinically blue’ period, which I am still working my way through – and this sort of thing is impacting on me … I just need to breathe my way through it and not let it get to me … unfortunately Erin’s death earlier this year opened the floodgates, and issues at work have opened up some old wounds and self esteem issues, it’s been an emotionally challenging year, that’s for sure! At least I’m getting an outlet every week/fortnight to vent, if nothing else, and that’s helping me to gain my confidence back and stop acting like a doormat!

Anyway, on that note I’d better go take my 2nd antibiotic for the night, re-tape my fingers up, and get a few more Christmas cards written. Unfortunately I don’t have Christmas ornies to send this year, but the least I can do is to get my cards done! Not sure when there’ll be another stitching update – I can say, however, that I have pulled a new project to start stitching while I’m away with friends on Christmas Day – I’m really looking forward to starting that one (Christmas by Jardin Privé) 🙂

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch

Crazy January 2011 Challenge

13 December, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Yep, I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and complete the Crazy January 2011 Challenge, as started by Minna. I’ve chosen designs that are a reasonable mix of designers and stitching styles, and also of medium size so that the challenge is do-able. I’m hoping that these projects will also still allow me the flexibility and time to work on some existing WIPs at the same time, plus at least one Christmas ornament a month, as that’s another challenge I’m picking up again next year.

Anyway, without any more waffling, here are the current choices for my 15 projects for January – I can’t say with 100% certainty that one or two won’t change before January 1st, but I’m relatively happy with this list so far. And here they are:

1. Waxing Moon Designs – Halloween Short Stack
2. The Goode Huswife – With My Needle (modified, without the wording)
3. From Nancy’s Needle – Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt (canvaswork)
4. The Victoria Sampler – Crimson Fire Sampler
5. Little House Needleworks – Ladybug, Ladybug
6. Dimensions kit – Tiger Reflections
7. Judy Odell – My Treasures Workstation
8. Bent Creek – Winter Snapperland
9. JBW Designs – Autumn Harvest
10. DMC – Baby Lorikeets
11. The Prairie Schooler – When Witches Go Riding
12. Just Nan – Trick or Treat Box
13. Shepherd’s Bush – Happy Pumpkin Needle Roll
14. Shepherd’s Bush – Baby Bug Ball
15. Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Raphael’s Raspberries

On the short list are also the following that I’ve love to complete sooner rather than later:

Rosewood Manor – Quaker Diamonds
JBW Designs – English Plum Pudding
Lizzie*Kate – Needle Nick
Linda Barry – Elizabethan Treasures
Northern Pine Designs – Ebb Tide
Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Golden Garden Sweet Bag
Fancy Work – Lavender Rose Sewing Case

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Melbourne, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, St Kilda

Photo Hunt – Funny

11 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Funny” and this seemed hilarious at the time of taking the photo. Mum and I hijacked my ex-flatmate’s (and at the time best friend in Melbourne) childhood toy when I moved out of our flat to live on my own. We took him (Bukta the soccer hero) down to St Kilda beach and made up a little beach hammock out of a hankie and two chopsticks – then took photos on my mobile phone and sent them to Frazier with a message saying “Dear Daddy, I am having a wonderful time on holiday with Auntie Anne in Elwood” … Mum and I howled for hours, and Frazier thought it was pretty damned funny too 🙂