Author: Anne S

Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
Blue Monday, Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Blue Monday & Just Nan Progress

Anne S

First up is Sunday night’s progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – this should be finished in another couple of nights, as the cross stitch is almost completed, then it just leaves the specialty stitches and backstitching to be done.  As more and more stitches get added, I’m remembering just why I fell in love with this piece in the first place 🙂

Just Nan-Winter in the Square 25Oct09

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Here is my choice for this week’s Blue Monday – this is a rustic-looking urn I found while walking around Timbertown, near Port Macquarie, NSW. Once again, I’m not sure whether I’ll continue doing this meme, but I’ll give it a go for a couple of weeks 🙂

Blue Monday

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Cross Stitch, Scenic Sunday, Works in Progress

Scenic Sunday & WIP progress

Anne S

I managed a tiny bit of stitching tonight while catching up on a bit of recorded TV – after a couple of episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds and City Homicide (no girlie shows for me! LOL), here is the current progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – at 1am, a crappy photo as usual … and oh boy, am I looking forward to the end of all that white stitching, pretty though it is!

Just Nan-Winter in the Square

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Here is my choice for this week’s “Scenic Sunday” – Ashcombe Lavender Gardens in Melbourne, Australia … with a little touch of spring in the air.  I’m not sure how often I’ll continue with this photo meme, but I thought I’d give it a go and make a start anyway … and seeing as it’s technically Sunday, I’m posting early! 😀

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Scenic Sunday

Uncategorized

Audible Offer & Reminders

Anne S

audible

If anyone is interested, Audible.com are offering a 14-day Free Trial for friends that I refer to them – this includes one free audiobook.  I also receive a $10 credit for anyone that stays on as a member beyond the free trial, but I’m not particularly interested in that.

If you are keen to try Audible out as an audiobook provider, this is a really good opportunity to trial the service – if you want to, please feel free to leave me a comment, ensuring you include your email address, and I’ll complete the form and send off for you.

Note, the offer ends 6 November to sign up for the trial 🙂

I have to admit I’m pretty biased towards them – I’ve been a member for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love them!  Unfortunately not 100% of the books on the site are available to Australia for downloading, but I’ve had a pretty good success rate on the books I’ve been looking for in particular.  I was stunned to be able to download Diana Gabaldon’s Echo in the Bone a week or two ago, and for a SUPER cheap price thanks to a special member’s offer (I’m talking approx $11 here for the unabridged version, which is approx 46 hours of listening pleasure!!).

Anyway, leave me a comment if you’d like to sign up for the trial, and I’ll complete the form for you 🙂

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Pay It Forward copy  Also, while you’re at it, don’t forget that the PIF (Pay It Forward) offer ends at the end of the month, and I still need one more person to make up the three – details can be found in the original blog post HERE 🙂

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And … lucky last … don’t forget to put your name into the hat if you’d like to go into the drawer to win 1 of 4 beaded scissor fobs for my 4th Blogaversary Prize Draw – just leave a comment on the original post, which can be found HERE … there are 10 fobs to choose from as your preferred winning choices.

Fob Collage

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Lastly – Have a great weekend! 😀

Ackworth Friendship Book, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Quaker, Round Robin, Round Robins, With My Needle

Ackworth Friendship Books

Anne S

I just realised that I haven’t shown a photo of the final round of our Ackworth Friendship Book/Quaker Friendship Round Robin.  Here are the final photos of both Katrina’s and my pieces – I think they look really lovely 😀

Anne's Finished Quaker Round Robin
Anne’s (my) Round Robin
“Ackworth Friendship Book” by With My Needle 
Stitched on 35ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
with Carrie’s Creation thread “Twinkle”

Katrina's Finished Round Robin
Katrina’s Round Robin

One thing that Katrina asked is for us all to provide a quote or two about Friendship – and I thought I’d share my choices here:

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go.  Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts.  And we are never, ever the same.” – Anonymous

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” – Aristotle

“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” – John Evelyn

As for me, for the first time yesterday in two whole weeks I felt closer to being back to normal healthwise, and even managed to get a fair bit of housework done during the day.  I’ve continued to potter around today to try to get the lounge back to normal, so hopefully tomorrow I will just have to run around with the vacuum cleaner and mop, and finishing cleaning the bathroom.  Then Monday it’s back to work – and unfortunately, being a week behind now, I will probably end up working late most nights – gotta love deadlines!

As you may have worked out by now, I opted for Mum not to come over – my first reaction to Mum’s suggestion was that I was worried she would catch this dratted flu bug, and comments received confirmed that that was the right decision to make.  As much as I would have loved to have been pampered for a couple of days, I’m really not much company when I’m sick and prefer to be away from people, so it seemed a lot of money to spend for a couple of days being housemaid!

Anyway, time to walk away from the computer again and get a few more things tidied away while my washing is in the machine – I may even bake a batch of muffins tomorrow ready to start eating healthily next week!  Hopefully next time I post I’ll have enough progress in my Just Nan piece to warrant a photo 🙂

Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday

Blue Monday

Anne S

Little did I know there was a “Blue Monday” weekly meme out there in blogland!  Resistance is futile … how could I possibly neglect to join in??  So, along with the weekly Photo Hunt, I’ll probably also be contributing to “Blue Monday” 🙂

Blue Monday

Then of course there is “Scenic Sunday” – gotta join that one too, right?

Scenic Sunday

Then if I feel really keen I could also join in with “ABC Wednesday” or “Ruby Tuesday” (or Wednesday/Thursday) … oh decisions, decisions … so many fun memes, so little time 😛

Ruby Tuesday

If nothing else, it means I’ll have more regular posts coming up!

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

A new blog header just for Halloween

Anne S

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Seeing as I love Halloween so much, I thought I’d build a new blog header just for this month – these are probably my favourite Halloween pieces that I’ve stitched to date … love, love, love those bright colours!

I attempted to kit up two small Halloween projects yesterday ready for stitching (Just Nan’s Scream Girls and Lizzie*Kate’s Hocus Pocus), but it turns out I’ve ‘mislaid’ half of the DMC that I need.  I basically thought “oh, sod it” last night, and just put a few stitches into Just Nan’s Winter in the Square instead.  I think perhaps if I hurry up and stitch up those things I’ve already kitted up, my DMC will miraculously appear again!  Either that or I’m going to have to do a stocktake and take a run out to Spotlight to stock up again 😦

I must say I did leave the house for an hour today, for the first time in a week – even my old neighbour on the bottom floor climbed up the stairs to see if I was OK ‘cos she hadn’t seen me out and about for so long … anyway, I did a ‘quick’ trip to the Post Office to pick up my mail and send a few more little parcels off to their new homes, and popped into the bank to deposit a couple of cheques, finishing off with a spot of ‘healthy’ food shopping for a few bits of fruit and salad items, plus 4 litres of fresh orange juice.  I’d forgotten to eat anything (although I haven’t been eating too well for the last two weeks since being ill), so I called through the McD’s drive-through on the way home to get a small burger to tide me over …  Well, within an hour of eating it I’ve had intense stomach cramps and basically been in and out of the bathroom ‘clearing it out of my system’ ever since.  I’m now looking at all this lovely healthy fibre-rich food/drink and thinking “hmmmm”…

I am supposed to be doing my final unpacking of boxes etc this week on a week off work, and I still have barely any energy to do anything – I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to stitch, as that’s all I’ve managed.  The house is a pig-sty, and every room I walk into just depresses me more.  Bless my Mum, after talking to her on the phone this afternoon after my ‘gastric attack’ she’s offered to fly over to help me out for a few days until Katie returns home (she’s been overseas for the last couple of weeks) – I have to make my decision whether I need her to do that by tomorrow … 

In the meantime, I’m going to take it easy again for yet another day – I have to admit I don’t even have the energy to really stitch now, so I may just end up taking my fed-up body into bed and cuddling up for an early night …

Cross Stitch

Halloween Giveaway

Anne S

13days

As I’m a total sucker for Halloween, I just HAD to share the fun with a Halloween giveaway that’s being offered by Missy.  If you’re a fan too, pop on over to visit the Deep Inside Missy blog, as there is a giveaway every day for the next 13 days up until Halloween.  If you click on the “13 Days of Halloween” button above, it should take you directly to the information on how to enter for the giveaway 😀

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Just thinking of Halloween makes me want to get out some more Halloween stitching – even though I’ve got Boo Club underway already, I’m itching to start another one as well … hmmm, perhaps I could put Just Nan’s Winter in the Square to one side until the next rotation … and scratch that Halloween stitching itch by starting a new Halloween one – but then the only problem is choosing which one to stitch! 

I love, love, LOVE Halloween stitching – dunno what it is about it, but I just ADORE Halloween designs … just can’t get enough of them – even though we don’t really celebrate Halloween … I just love the designs 😀

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Cross Stitch, Finishes, Quaker, Round Robin, Round Robins, Stitch-alongs, With My Needle

Final round of Quaker Round Robin

Anne S

Today saw me glued to the TV set just for a change – I’ve been stitching pretty much every hour of the day since yesterday afternoon inbetween looking up at seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy … I haven’t wept so much over a damned TV show in a long, long time, but I’ve been totally sucked into the characters (in particular Spike), and the last few days has been an emotional rollercoaster watching those DVD’s. In some ways I’m glad I haven’t seen any of the series before, as it’s been a real treasure watching one season after another, without worrying about viewing schedules or adverts! And it’s been super-conducive to my stitching, that’s for sure, particularly during my recuperation 🙂

And here’s the final piece of stitching that I’ll probably get done for a day or three – here’s the final round of our Friendship Quaker Round Robin, belonging to Katrina. I’m quite surprised at the colour of Milady’s Teal, as its a lot more grey than I would have imagined – but it looks really quite classy stitched up 🙂

Katrina's Quaker RR part 1

Katrina's Quaker RR part 2

Of course I now have to start putting all my pieces together now, but I think a trip to the fabric/ribbon store will be needed before I can start getting to work.

Before I started stitching this morning I finally got around to trying to tea-dye some linen fabric – this wee piece is for Just Nan’s Winter in the Square. The original linen (the same as I used for Autumn in the Square) was too pale, I felt, to really show up the white floss, so I opted to tea-dye it slightly. I didn’t want a particularly splotchy look, so I tried to move the fabric around a reasonable amount in the saucepan while it was stewing – the only sign of the original fabric is the odd splotch or two on the bottom edge, which is great as it’ll be hidden by the frame eventually. So that means that that will probably by my next project in my “small-medium projects” rotation slot, which I still have about 7 hours left of 🙂

Tea-dyed linen

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Lizzie Kate

One gift finished

Anne S

I decided to use a few of my rotation hours for small-medium projects (my next/current rotation slot) to slay one of the gifts that has been outstanding for quite some time.  I have had major problems getting the fabric from the US (the supplier will remain nameless at this time), but after having it on order for MONTHS, it finally arrived a wee while ago, and I’ve finally pulled my finger out and got it stitched up.  Sorry, but at 1.30am the photography is appalling for a change, and doesn’t show up the lovely Graziano checked linen…  This is a gift for my Chiropractor’s first child – all I have to do now is to frame it 😀

LizzieKate-Welcome Baby
“Welcome Baby” by Lizzie*Kate
Stitched with a mix of WDW/GAST as recommended &
DMC for the two threads I didn’t have
on 28ct pale blue and white checked Graziano linen

The next gifts I need to stitch will take considerably more time to complete, but I think I’ll make a start on those next as both birthdays are next month yikes!  There’s a good chance of getting one finished, but I’m not entirely sure about the second one…