Anne S

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

Ackworth Friendship Books

24 October, 200925 February, 2012 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 (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 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 🙂

Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Tied

24 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Tied” – the first photo is a restaurant sign in Fiji with the pieces of the fish Tied up with twine, followed by a photo of a boat Tied up in the harbour.

Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday

Blue Monday

22 October, 200925 February, 2012 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” 🙂

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

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 😛

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

21 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

j0382564

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

20 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

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 😀

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 😀

HTR052

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

Final round of Quaker Round Robin

20 October, 200925 February, 2012 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 🙂

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 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Lizzie Kate

One gift finished

18 October, 200925 February, 2012 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 😀

“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…

Pay It Forward

17 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

Pay It Forward copy

I’ve been a looooong time signing up for any of the rounds of Pay It Forward (PIF) due to personal circumstances … but I came across Ronel’s PIF round at the perfect time, and I’m feeling really keen to start joining in and getting some little gifties off to people over the next 12 months.

I think everyone knows how it works by now, but if not, here goes – I will send a stitched gift to three people some time over the next 365 days. Those three people then need to commit to offering the same on their own blog … and so the goodness and caring continues 😀

The closing date for entries is 31 October – if there are only three people wishing to sign up, then all three will be the confirmed winners – if more than three people want to sign up, then I will draw three names out of the proverbial hat 🙂

Please remember to leave an email address, and also your blog details.

I’m really looking forward to choosing something for each person 😀

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the meantime I’ve been doing a bit of my own version of Paying It Forward, and sending a number of little RAK’s (Random Acts of Kindness) around the world – I’ve heard that another few have been received in the UK, Melbourne (Australia), New Zealand, the Netherlands and Singapore. If you want, you can click on each link to the relevant blog post that the recipients have made … as I don’t think I took any photos myself! 🙂

There is still a pile of padded envelopes waiting to be posted out, but the last lot cost nearly AU$80 in postage, so I thought I’d stagger the postings a bit 🙂

Beading, Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

Another round of Boo Club

17 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

My little needles have been turbo-charged over the last couple of days – and today is the first day that I’ve woken up and actually thought through all the housework that needs to be done etc … signs of this blasted bug finally getting out of my system. While I’m still quite wheezy and trundling through the tissues, I feel much brighter within myself, and ready to start getting out of my stitching chair for more than 5 minutes at a time – yippee 😀

In the meantime I’ll leave you with a latest photo of my progress on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club – here are parts 1-4, which leaves me with just 9-12 to go (although in honesty I’ve almost finished part 9, with the exception of the broom handle).

Time to put my rotation to one side briefly, though, as the final round of our Friendship Quaker RR has arrived on my doorstep so I really need to get cracking and get that one finished soon! Mind you, I also have two little gifts that are well overdue being stitched, so those will have to be slotted in as well – oh so many things to stitch, so little time 😛

I’ll finish up with photos of a beaded fish that I made once at a class in Melbourne. I’ve never been able to take a good photo of it, but now my Panasonic Lumix has a fantastic macro setting, I thought I’d give it another shot while it was just sitting there! You probably can’t tell, but it’s hollow all the way through to the tail – I just adore this little fella …

I really need to get the instructions out again and brush up my beading skills so I can get these little guys out of the ‘filleted’ stage and into the finished stage, which will knock off another two UFOs! (UnFinished Objects for those of you who are searching for actual UFOs in this post) In this photo you can clearly see how the little fishies are constructed … I only hope I can work out how to do the beaded stitch once again, as it’s been quite some time since I took the class! 😀

Animals & Insects, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Free Week

17 October, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Free Week” which means we can choose any photo we want – my choice this week is one that I recently re-found again in my pile of print photos, which I’ve been scanning into digital copies. I absolutely adore this shot – it’s almost as if it’s following the stages of the little giraffe’s life span from childhood, to teenship, to adulthood. I know it’s actually three different giraffes walking together, but the symmetry has always struck me … and there goes my choice for the week. I think it’s actually harder to choose “anything” than an actual theme!