Blogging Memes

A Meme

This has been drafted up for a while now … time to let it see daylight (although I had to change my birth year to add on a number, it’s been sitting as a draft for so long!). 

As seen on numerous blogs – you just have to answer the questions and type your answer into Google Images search.  Then post a photo from the first results page.  Here are my answers:

Age you will be on your next birthday

meme 43

Place you would like to visit

meme phuket

One of your favourite places

meme paris

Your favourite object

meme duck

Your favourite food

meme prawns

Your favourite animal

meme tigetr

Your favourite colour

meme blue

Name of a past pet

meme rio 2

Where you live

meme sydney

1st grade teacher’s last name

Can’t answer as I don’t have any memory of my childhood prior to the age of 10!

Middle name

meme brooke

Bad habit of yours

meme procrastination

Favourite flower

meme frangipani

Favourite holiday

meme greece

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Piccies of finishes … and a Frangipani plant

As promised a few days ago, here are my photos of recent finishes:

lhn-winter-wonderland
Winter Wonderland by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct Golden Harvest linen by Silkweaver
with recommended threads

lhn-blueberries
Blueberries by Little House Needleworks & Crescent Colours
Stitched on 32ct cream Belfast linen
with recommended threads

Also, here is LHN’s Sampler Lady in all her topless work-in-progress glory … she’s still waiting for her blouse to be finished, the poor love – it’s a good job the weather’s still warm down here in Sydney!!! 😉

lhn-sampler-lady-wip

Next up is a photo for Mum of my wee $9.95 Frangipani tree in its pot on the balcony – as you can see it has some company in the form of fresh herbs … I just adore those blue pots!!  No flowers on the frangipani yet, but a new leaf has grown, plus it’s a wee bit taller than when we first arrived.  My other (first) Frangipani plant isn’t doing too well since having its top knocked off by Nigel and Brenda’s dog, but I live in hope it might perk up a bit more by next summer before I replace it with something else.

frangipani-plant-on-balcony

Lucky last is my ‘new’ smalls display in the new flat – complete with my Wessex sampler on the wall – this place is fantastic for all the wall hooks!!

ramsgate-home-1

And I’ll finish my post there.  Since being sick I haven’t had chance to do housework for two weeks, but once caught up I’ll take piccies of the new abode now we’re almost 100% unpacked (aside from the boxes in my bedroom of ‘unimportant stuff’).

Talking of which, I ended up leaving work early yesterday ‘cos I felt grotty (I survived an entire 1 1/2 hours!), and am now on antibiotics for about 13 days compliments of a local GP … fingers crossed it does the trick! 🙂

The other thing I haven’t spoken about is the excruciating heel pain I’ve been having over the last few months – it’s good to know my self-diagnosis was correct, and I have likely got plantar fascitis (spelling?).  I’ve been applying ice packs and anti-inflammatories when it’s been really bad, and have since bought some orthotics for padding the heel that’ve been working a treat.  Fingers crossed that my heel pains will soon be a thing of the past (or at least I won’t be woken up in the middle of the night from the throbbing pain!!).

Rightio, time to go chill out again … I’m doing my online things in short bursts …

Gifts TO BE FIXED

Awesome mail days

As mentioned previously, I received some stunning birthday gifts from my stitching friends … unfortunately the thank you emails seem to have disappeared into the ether, so I will write some more again shortly.  That will teach me for trying to use Iinet’s mail gateway while at work … every other time I’d tried to use it I’d get an error message, except that day, but obviously the work firewall or something didn’t like it!).  I’ve had most of this post drafted since 28 February, but was having uploading problems so I gave up … then haven’t touched my laptop for 2 weeks … hmmm.

Anyway, without further do, I’ll show you my birthday gifts from my very special friends – and they can be put out of their misery wondering whether they arrived.  I will write full thank you emails tomorrow, as the screen is giving me a headache (am now on antibiotics from the doctor as from today, yay!!). 

First up is Sharon’ H‘s gift – this arrived the earliest, but I kept forgetting to bring it home from work to take a photo!!  Isn’t this the cutest book you’ve ever seen?  And so perfect for a duck lover like myself … I just love it, and laughed and laughed when I first opened it!  Thanks Sharon, you’re the best!! 😀

gift-from-sharonh-feb08

Then next came Nicki L with a real bundle of joy in the mail!  (Thanks also for bringing it to my attention at work that my emails had not got through!)  Not only did Nicki send a couple of gorgeous LHN charts (which I adore), but also some threads off my wishlist and some exquisite blue quilting fabrics … my head is already thinking of projects to use these in, including the possibility of a scrap quilt or bag – the hardest decision will be deciding!  I have to admit, KarenV had sent me the chart Winter Wonderland last year, but it was high on my list for stitching, and receiving it from Nicki too was the final spur to get those needles cracking.  Thanks again Nicki for your very generous gifts, I adore everything! 🙂

gift-from-nickil-feb08

Then last, but not least, is Carol S‘s gift … the envelope was brimming to the top with exquisite goodies – my eyes got wider and wider as everything was being pulled out of the parcel!  Carol sent the most beautiful biscornu with a design by Just Nan … I can’t believe Carol used to be scared of finishing smalls, but now she is the Queen of finishing!!!  The biscornu is absolutely exquisite!  That would have been plenty enough, but she also sent an issue of JCS with part 1 of a NZ sampler in it, some choccies which arrived with perfect timing, as since then I’ve signed up for Weight Watchers again haha … some chocolate-covered Altoid mints (which are to die for!), and some lovely hand cream and quilting fabric.  Talk about being spoiled rotten!!!  Thank you so much Carol for everything – you rock!!! 😀

gift-from-carols-feb08-1

gift-from-carols-feb08

* * * * * * * * * * 

Since the above was drafted, more gifts were also received from Barbara and Katrina … I have to apologise to Katrina J, as I can’t find the photo I thought I’d taken, and I’ve since put the threads away, but she sent some gorgeous blue variegated threads … just perfect for this blue girl!  You have awesome taste, my friend, that’s for sure!! 🙂

From Barbara CL I received a beautiful friendship card, as well as some scrummy blue thread with matching silk ribbon, plus the most awesome duck ribbon for embellishing … thanks so much Barbara for your thoughtful gifts!  Once again, I love everything!!  Thankfully the guys at Customs didn’t like it quite as much as I did and they decided not to keep anything after they opened the envelope for inspection!!

gift-from-barbara-feb08

In fact, thanks to all my wonderful online friends for their generous gifts – you helped to make my birthday extra special, and I absolutely adore each and every gift!! 😀

Now it’s time to go take some more Nurofen and get into bed – I’ll get back online again tomorrow for my thank you emails and a stitching update.

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Apologies …

I’m just posting this really quickly at work before I start … I need to let a few people know their birthday gifts arrived a while ago, but it seems no-one has received the thank you emails I sent via the internet mail gateway from work (I presume the firewall prevented it from sending).  Anyway, I was hoping to post a full post complete with piccies of the gifts this last weekend, after popping out briefly in the morning to the ‘local’ shopping centre.  Unfortunately plans didn’t quite work out, and I ended up getting a massive migraine while out, and had to pull the car over on the way home to throw up!  Needless to say, I’ve been cocooned up in bed all weekend not achieving much of anything – I tried to jump online, but it made me feel worse so I gave up!

Anyway, I wanted to let the following people know their gifts have arrived safely – I’ll send proper thank you emails (again) as soon as I can.  I love everything, and feel terrible now I know you didn’t receive my original email, as that was just over 2 weeks ago now!!!

So, thank you to NickiL, CarolS, SharonH, BarbaraCL, and KatrinaJ – I love everything and will post piccies as soon as I can. 

I hope I haven’t missed anyone, but I’m still not feeling 100% today … time will tell whether I end up staying the full day at work today.  I guess I pushed myself a bit hard too early, and I hadn’t gotten over my viral bugs yet!   😦

In better news, though, I’ve managed to finish LHN’s Winter Wonderland and Blueberries on Friday night! 🙂

Rightio, off to work again …

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Still living … just

Sorry I’ve been offline, but I literally haven’t opened up my laptop at home for just over a week and a half (a week last Saturday morning to be exact!).  I’m currently posting this really quickly at work before I head off home.  I’ve been flat out at work, then got a horrendous cold so I’ve been fighting that off over the last 4-5 days … I have, however, managed to get HEAPS of stitching done by starting and almost finishing LHN’s Winter Wonderland (just have one DMC colour that’s gone AWOL for now) and LHN’s Sampler Lady (just have the blue in the blouse left to stitch – and she’s so beautiful in real life!).  I’ve also just started last night the LHN/CC Blueberries kit, so that should be finished over the next couple of days hopefully.

I intend to ignore my computer for a while longer, although I will jump in at some stage and check emails, but at the moment it’s been nice to get some selfish stitching in instead, especially while getting over my viral bugs!

If you see my Photo Hunt posts they’ve all been pre-prepared for weeks now to take me pretty much into April/May, so even though I’m not online you’ll see at least one post per week for a while!

OK, time to shut down and head off home … late, just for a change!! 😦

Cross Stitch

Stitch Pink

 Just a quick community service announcement if you’re not already aware of it … Chris has kindly donated this exclusive design from Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colours, called “Where There is Life”.  Not only the chart itself, but the fabric and threads required to complete it.  If you have chance please do visit the Stitch Pink blog where awareness of breast cancer and screening is promoted along with stitching pink 🙂

wherethereislifeprize

The draw for this prize will take place on March 15th so hop on over while you can! 🙂

Uncategorized

Change in blogging habits

It saddens me to say that I can no longer blog the old way that I used to – I just don’t spend as much time online as I used to, partly due to my working hours now I just don’t have as much free time as I used to with shift work, and partly because I’m getting out and about a lot more than I used to.  I can never seem to get on top of my blog reading anymore, and my favourite blogs are suffering because of it in that I just don’t have time to comment much anymore while I’m rushing trying to read everything.  In February I had just over 250 blogs in my blogroll that I liked to browse through, but I have to say sorry to some bloggers that I just can’t keep those numbers up anymore, and I’m starting to cull a few blogs out of the list.

 This is one of the hardest decisions I think I’ve had to make, but I want to make my online time ‘quality time’.  The blogs that will remain are mainly those that are full of inspiring stitching piccies and finishes, and those pals that I have already met and build up a close relationship with.  A few blogs have moved away from the stitching realm somewhat, into areas that I don’t have as much of an interest, so I’m not as inspired to read daily.

One thing that I notice I’m doing more and more is that because I use a newsreader, rather than going into the actual blogs themselves (unless commenting on a post), I’m finding that I’m spending less time reading those blogs that don’t show the full feed but only a summary, as it takes so much longer for the blog page to load up to read that page … so I’m tending to leave those blogs until last to read.  A couple of these blogs are in my “love to read” section too, so please don’t be offended if you get an email from you asking you if you’d be willing to change your settings ‘cos I’m selfish and want to continue reading your posts 🙂

Anyway, I do apologise in advance if your blog is removed from my blogroll, I just have to make my online time more manageable – having 1000+ unread feeds on a regular basis is quite deflating …

Rightio, that being said, I’m off to read a few blogs this morning to catch up on a tiny bit of backlog before heading out for a walk …