Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
I managed to get part 8 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello finished today (the pincushion) – I’ve been a little hermit all weekend, and loved every minute of it. I’m all caught up with Supernatural season one, and now part-way through listening to The Kite Runner on audiobook … ah bliss 😉
I really should try to take a better photo in daylight as this one doesn’t show the colours very accurately at all …
It was a perfect Saturday – sitting up on my bed all day stitching my little heart out. I started stitching The Prairie Schooler’s “Duck” last night, and put the final stitches into it today – I just love this little fella!! It’s intended to turn him into a tin topper, but I think he’d look nice in so many different finishes I’m now undecided!
After my Duck finish, I also polished off part 3 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello – this was just a small design, but it still took me a wee while to stitch. Thank goodness for Season 1 of Supernatural to keep me company all day (thanks to Katie at work for loaning it to me). I must say I think the colour choices for this one are quite “strange” … hmmm.
I also put a couple of stitches into part 8 of the Leporello, which will eventually be the pincushion – I might even get that one finished tomorrow, as it’s quite a small piece to stitch.
… but not a single thing stitched by me!
All the following stitching is what my Mum (aka June, aka The Dragon) has stitched so far this year – she’s crazy about Christmas ornaments, as you can tell – these are a mix of well known designers (namely Prairie Schooler), magazine designs and freebies 😀
Believe it or not, there’s also a similar sized pile of ornies that are almost finished – she’s an ornie machine!!
Also, here’s proof that Mum has stitched a bookmark kit that Sharon gifted her with as we were leaving Melbourne … it still has to be finished into the bookmark itself, but all the stitching has been done now.
It’s amazing how much Mum’s stitching has improved over the last 12 months – she has only been stitching since she turned 70, and her stitching is great (and I’m very proud to now have a pile of her Christmas ornies left here to grace my tree … although I’m not too sure about the fact I have to finish-finish them haha).
Mum flew home yesterday morning, so the flat is quiet once again … I’ve brought work home the last two nights so that’s taken my mind off being sad for too long. Fingers crossed we’ll get another chance to catch up before the end of the year 🙂
Now it’s time to get a few more things done before I hit the hay for the night … Don’t expect as much stitching from me for a while as work is frantic, and it will just continue to get worse between now and the end of June – ah, I miss the days when we got paid overtime back in the call centre for the extra hours {sigh} 😉
As I mentioned yesterday, Mum and I drove down to Mittagong, Bowral and Berrima on Saturday, and had a really lovely day out. I wasn’t going to write this post just yet, but I’m up (not bright but) early thanks to Lisa coming home inebriated in the wee small hours and spending half the night in bed listening to her throwing up in the bathroom opposite … I figured now is as good a time as any to write it up!
Anyway, we started the day off by driving to Mittagong to Victoria House so Mum could see the stitched models. And we ended up coming out with a few charts from their bargain/sale bins … I didn’t take any photos of the stash, sorry, but basically Mum’s were all Christmas ornament charts, and I bought a couple of Hillside Sampling charts, a needleroll chart, and a wooden bellpull hanger for my Bent Creek Christmas wallhanging. It was nice to wander around and view the stitched models – always my favourite thing to do when visiting a new (or old) needlework shop 🙂
We then drove on a few km’s up the road to Bowral where we’d heard there was a Food & Wine Festival on … if there was, we didn’t find it, so ended up having a very non-Weight Watchers snack of meat pie and pastries from Gumnut Patisserie – this patisserie has won awards 4 years in a row, and it’s easy to see why, absolutely everything we tried from there was absolutely divine!! No piccies, unfortunately, as we scoffed them while on the road (very naughty, I know!).
From there we drove another short distance (about 8km) across country to Berrima, where I’d been recommended to visit – and we weren’t disappointed. What a lovely quaint village atmosphere – and not touristy at all, I thought. The buildings are just lovely, and we spent a couple of hours just wandering aimlessly in and out of all the shops … with the odd thing jumping into our bags every now and then 😉
A highlight for me was Mrs Oldbucks (they also have mail order from their website) – there is a room just filled with every sort of tea imaginable. I bought four as my treat for the day, then Mum bought me one more with a tea filter for my mug … I came home with Wild Berry, Raspberry & Lime, Chai Herbal Blend, Summer Blend, and Marsala Chai – I should take some photos of the teas themselves … just opening the shopping bag up to read the labels my senses are filled with an amazing smell … aaarghhhh 🙂
As well as the room full of teas, there is another long room at Mrs Oldbucks which is filled with all kinds of culinary goodies – lollies (sweets), jams, chutneys, honeys, mustards, etc etc etc … an absolute treasure trove of yummy goodies.
We also spent a little bit of time wandering through the local patchwork shop, and managed to find a fat 1/4 each of fabrics we just HAD to have … plus I bought a wire hanger with 7 hooks on it to use for hanging my scissors up (I’ll try to remember and take photos later when I unpack all my scissor fobs and scissors … yep, still unpacking! haha), plus a couple of small wire hangers that I’d been hunting for for months!
There were also a couple of lovely antique shops that we found in a side street later, but it was getting too late to call in – but I loved a few of the buildings in that wee street (I’m a sucker for old buildings).
When we turned out of the street to return home, we were greeted by the magnificent sight of loads and loads of cockatoos sitting up in the trees – I’ve seen this phenomenon before but Mum hasn’t … it was hard to take a photo, but you can see all the white specks in the trees, well they’re all cockatoos! It’s a glorious sight!! 😀
After we arrived home we decided to celebrate the end to some wonderful adventures, as we were unlikely to be tripping off again during this visit – I cooked a light chicken dinner (stir-though sauce compliments of Leggo’s haha) and we cracked open a bottle of bubbly and placed a hibiscus flower in syrup that I bought in Perth recently in the bottom of the glass (they’re so cool!! – their website has a much better photo and information if you want to check them out), and settled in for the night … a fitting end to a wonderful holiday (I’m just trying hard not to think about work tomorrow as I know I have a gruelling procedure writing session for my ‘huge project’ as soon as I walk in the door hmmm).
Mum and I spent the day out yesterday enjoying the sights of Mittagong, Bowral and Berrima, and had a great day out! Unfortunately it’s getting down to the last couple of days of Mum’s visit … it’ll be really quiet round here after she’s gone!! I haven’t had time to sort out our photos from yesterday yet, and seeing as it’s now just after midnight here I might leave those until a later time … I will, however, share the photos of my latest stitching finish …
Here is part 2 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … I had a sneak look at the finishing instructions today and nearly had a heart attack … luckily I don’t have to think about it too much for a while yet as there is still loads of stitching to be done, and I only intend to stitch these inbetween other stitching such as Winter Queen. I must say, though, that I really love this block, and in particular those little flower urns! 😀
This week’s theme is “Bad Hair” and I thought of these photos straightaway! This is the haircut that my best male friend had when I moved to Melbourne 4 1/2 years ago (crikey, have I been in Aussie that long already??!) … talk about a “Bad Hair day”!!!
Eventually I managed to talk him into getting his mop of curls chopped off, and his best friend offered to get out the shears immediately and start shearing away! The whole situation amused me no end, so I just had to capture the moment on film … and here are a couple of shots from the day’s process …
And just who IS this handsome young fella at the end of it all??!!! We all had to admit he looked 10 times better with his new haircut … and to this day he’s kept it short … of course, he will no longer be talking to me after sharing his photos on this blog!!! 😛
Here’s my latest ‘small finish’ that I put the final stitches into yesterday (this was my holiday stitching piece that had an attack of the frogs the first night):
“Christmas Tree” by Twisted Oaks Designs
from 2005 JCS Christmas Ornie magazine
Stitched on 28ct opalescent white Cashel linen
Some substituted threads – instead of NN Lemon Delight I used
Carrie’s Creation Gold Glow, and instead of DMC 349 for
the hearts I used Carrie’s Creation Scarlet
Also my progress from yesterday after finishing the ornament … I chose something already kitted up and ready to be picked up at a moment’s notice … this is the stitching of part 2 of the Stitching Leporello by Chatelaine … perhaps I will finish it today? Or perhaps not … 🙂 (sorry for the bad photo but I took it after midnight last night and can’t be bothered taking another one)
After spending an hour watching the ocean waves at Flynn’s beach, we hit the road again. Not too far out of Port Macquarie I spied the signpost for Timbertown at Wauchope, and remembered it was something that had appealed to me in the tourist brochure – seeing as the weather was relatively good at that stage, and it was coming up to lunchtime we decided to drop by … we had a wonderful time in there. Although it’s quite a small site compared to places like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, they have done a great job of it. It’s designed to show what life was like 100 years ago, and buildings have been set up like a small town with businesses and houses displaying items from that era.
We also got to see a bullock team in action pulling a two-tonne log (they were exquisite creatures, and personally a highlight for me was seeing them) – they were regularly walking through the township, with an actual show in the afternoon.
And of course there were a few more animals to delight young children (and those not-so-young, ahem).
Not to mention the odd bit of wildlife not part of the display …
There is also a steam train that runs every hour around the township and forested area … plus rides in a horse and carriage.
And a rest stop just wouldn’t be a rest stop without the infamous scones … although a baby magpie was hanging out next to us just waiting to join in the feast! (Shame he has to grow up, as he was really cute – adult magpies are most definitely NOT so cute!!) 😉
All-in-all we loved our visit to Timbertown … but unfortunately during our last minutes there the heavens started to open again.
It turned out that the remainder of the drive home was the worst drive I’ve had to do in many many years!! It was raining so hard the windscreen wipers were on full speed and still couldn’t cope – you could hardly see two feet in front of you for driving! Mum was so uncomfortable with the whole thing that she suggested we pull off and stay at a motel for the night and drive in daylight the next day (by now it was night-time) – personally I just wanted to get home to the comfort of my own bed … but today my back and shoulders are really feeling the strain of driving for almost 5 hours in the dark fighting torrential rain. My lower back, especially, is really uncomfortable and I’m not in a hurry to do any long distance driving for a day or two now … in fact it’s so bad I’ve just cancelled my ticket to see Michael Buble in concert tonight – I can’t stand the thought of driving for 1 1/2 to 2 hours to my friend’s place, then another 2 hours in a theatre seat … what a monumental waste of money, but better for my state of physical health, I think 😦
Even though the trip had its nightmares (especially the drive home again), we still had a good time away – as always we can usually make good of a bad situation and appreciate the positives … but I’m really glad to be home!! 😉
This ended up being our final day on holiday … we’d decided after such an abysmal day in Coffs Harbour that there was probably no point hanging around and thought we’d head home early instead. When we got up, though, there was blue skies and only a little bit of wind.
We checked out of our apartment then headed across the road to Flynn’s Beach, where we spent about an hour watching the huge waves crashing in – it was absolutely spectacular, and we could have spent the entire day sitting on that beach watching the ocean. Instead, we went for a walk up both sides of the beach and took some (well, actually LOADS of) photos before we hit the road back to Sydney. Here are a few photos of the waves and beach:
PhotoHunt
Feather Stitching 