Category: Crafts – Needlework

Stash, Works in Progress

WIP updates

Anne S

I was originally going to post a piccie once I’d got my latest project entirely finished, but it’s been slow going so I thought I’d post a progress piccie instead. This is the first time I’ve ever tried doing nun’s stitch, and I’m amazed at how slooooooowly that wee stitch goes … can’t say I’m a huge fan, although it looks OK. I still have to add the little bead eyes and do a broad chain stitch across the centre fold line – then I have to do the little separate name label before putting it all together … and being ‘finishing challenged’, I’m going goggle-eyed reading the instructions already – hopefully it will all slot into place once I have the actual finished articles and lining etc in front of me! This is “Bumble the Bee’s Wax Pocket” kit by Moss Creek Designs … I just love the little bee 😀 I wasn’t so fond, however, by the over-one stitching hmmm.

In fact, seeing as I’m not a great over-one fan, I’m definitely getting plenty of experience with my current/future projects … this one, plus the Bordeaux Sampler (all the verses plus the next band has oodles of over-one grapes), and the Lavender Rose Sewing Case (next on my list of smalls to stitch, seeing as I missed the SAL) … I’m either going to enjoy over-one more after all that practice, or detest it further … only time will tell …

And seeing as it’s almost Friday, I can finally post a progress piccie of the Bordeaux Sampler with my start of band number 2 … I haven’t touched this since coming home from Hong Kong, so I caught up a bit by putting 4 hours into it earlier in the week – and it’s time to get it back into a regular stitching slot each week. I’m looking forward to seeing Carol’s progress too 😀

Other than that, I have another mail art to be done as the original one went AWOL … have to admit, this is definitely not a stitching highlight for the week 😦

I do have to admit to a slight lapse off the Wagon last week too – just realised I’d forgotten to post a public announcement of my lapse, as well as a piccie of my spoils … Ashleigh was selling off a bundle of her stash on Ebay, and I’ve been dying to try some of the Periwinkle Promises little cushion kits, so I couldn’t resist trying some at a reasonable price to see if I like them … and after receiving them, I think I see more of them arriving on my doorstep in the future … after I’ve been on the Wagon a bit longer 😉

Now it’s off to bed for the night after a very inactive day … mind you, I can see the lounge room floor again, so I obviously got a bit of housework done today ;P

Works in Progress

Baggage disaster …

Anne S

Today I finally unpacked one of my favourite embroidery pieces that was professionally framed, that Mum brought with her on the plane … although well packaged with a couple of layers of foamcore and bubblewrap, the airline still managed to play football with it, and we heard the sickening sounds of tinkling glass as I started unpacking the wrapping today 😦 Yep, my glass is in shattered ruins … and it’s not covered by the airline, and Mum’s insurance excess would be $75, so probably not worth claiming it back … it’s quite fitting that the SBQ came out recently about framing with glass vs non-glass (which I still haven’t gotten around to answering … blogs have been a low priority over the last two weeks again due to visitors and shifts etc hmmm) – I have to admit, I prefer to see embroidery without glass, but I know there are pros for using glass (as well as pros for not using it). Both Mum and I sat looking at my Wessex piece and both thought the same thing at the same time … the embroidery looks so much better without the glass! So, thanks to the airline, my Wessex piece will likely no longer have glass covering it 🙂 I just hope by the time we clear all the glass away that it hasn’t damaged any of the embroidery itself …

As I mentioned earlier, Mum’s flight was delayed by 5 hours in total, so we had a quiet night in on Saturday night – then Sunday we went out shopping and bought all sorts of goodies … including a VERY big purchase, except I have 19 months to pay for it thanks to Harvey Norman’s 19 months interest free and no downpayments at the moment – Mum agreed it was a very worthwhile investment, and thanks to my debt consolidation I’ll be able to make regular monthly repayments so I don’t have a big outlay at the end of the 19 months … the big purchase was a new lounge suite!! I’m so excited about it!!! No need to guess what colour it is haha … the salesman said “you’d like the same colour as the floor model?” – a resounding “NO!” from both Mum and I, then we cracked up … yep, of course it’s coming in blue! Actually it’s a very close match to my el cheapo recliner I currently stitch in. You have no idea how good it feels to have this on order – it’s made in Aussie, so we have to wait approx 4-5 weeks for it to be made up, but it has a 2.5 seater sofa bed and two chairs … AND the best thing is that for an extra $249 you get a 5-year cover for damage … including pet damage and spills (woohoo!!), at which time they’ll recover it for free … considering the new inhabitant that will be joining this household soon, I thought it was a good option haha. My current lounge suite was bought for $150 at a garage sale, and Fraze managed to somehow rip one arm of the chairs while it was under his care, as well as the sofa being the most uncomfortable saggy thing to sit on, with the sofa bed bars digging into you … I can’t wait for my new one to arrive!!!

As for the rest of the week, I’ve been working late shifts, so not much happening – managed to get my week’s stitching into Bordeaux Sampler the night that Mum arrived, and I’ve decided to post my piccie two days early, as I’ll be heading off to Hong Kong tomorrow night, and might forget to do it before I fly out (we’re supposed to post progress piccies each Friday). I just have the little red ‘cluster’ to the left of the lettering to finish, then band one is all done for me – looking forward to seeing how Carol is coming along with hers 🙂


The remaining stitching time I’ve had this week has been very sporadic, but I’ve managed to get a few stitches into my last charity quilt square – it’s due 15 August, so I’d better get cracking when I get back home again (good job I’m still on annual leave for the next two weeks haha).


I’m thinking of packing a Shepherd’s Bush needleroll or two or a Christmas ornie to take with me to stitch at the airport etc – not sure whether we’ll get much time to stitch while we’re away, especially as it’s only for 4 nights … one always has to take something ‘just in case’ though, right? LOL. I was laughing today because the first thing I’ve thought about is what stitching to take – I haven’t even started thinking about clothes etc for packing … a girl has to have her priorities!!!

And on that note I’d better sign off … we’re meeting Fraze tonight for dinner then he’s staying here the night – and he’s due to finish work soon … better go chuck my jeans on and start getting ready – scotch fillet for dinner, yummo!! 😀

Stash, Works in Progress

Bordeaux Sampler

Anne S

I’m supposed to post my update piccie on Fridays, along with Carol, but I’ve decided to cheat and put it up a day early, as I may be busy tomorrow. I managed to get a good night’s stitching (4 whole hours) into this last night, and I just have the over-one lettering and bottom band plus the rhodes grapes in the side borders to do, then part one is all finished yippee! 😀 I’m soooooo tempted to sit and do some more tonight, which would probably see part one finished, but I’m going to resist the temptation. For our SAL I said I’d stitch for one day/night or a total of 3 hours each week, depending what my shifts were like, so I guess I’ve already stitched my quota on it for this week … I have to admit, though, I really enjoyed stitching on it and I’m looking forward to finishing part one next week some time 😀 (mind you, I’m not a huge fan of over-one stitching, so that lettering band might be slow going).


I also have more stash to report – this is yet again from an order that was made a number of weeks ago, in a 30-75% off sale from Margaret Lee’s website … I never had confirmation of the final cost, or that the order was complete, so I totally forgot all about it … I was surprised to come home to a LARGE box with a postage cost of US$29 (ahem!!), just for a few charts, fabric and two pairs of scrollbar side frames – there was a long piece of ‘plastic bag’ stuff filled with air to fill out the box … would it not have been better to just parcel the damn stuff into a flatter box to save postage? It’s not as if a couple of charts etc are breakable! Oh well, the main reason I placed an order was because they had selected aida fabric on sale at 50-75% off, and I wanted to order some for Mum’s stitching stash, seeing as she’s still on a mad Christmas ornie stitching spree (go Mum!!). Still, that extra US$20 spent on postage costs has really marred the savings on the other items … oh well, c’est la vie! At least you have some more fabric, Mum 🙂

The charts in this haul were The Gathering Room by Little House Needleworks (not in the photo); Those Darn Accessories by Hillside Samplings; A Little Blackwork by Drawn Thread; Sitting Pretty by Valerie Pfeiffer; Birdie Holiday by Lizzie*Kate; Stitching Friends by Lizzie*Kate; Honey Bee by Elizabeth’s Designs; Life’s a Stitch by Lizzie*Kate; Bluebells and Violets by Shepherd’s Bush; and Teenie Hardanger III by The Sweetheart Tree.

For Mum … I also got the following aida for you – 14ct lambswool, 16ct antique ivory, and 16ct navy. This lot was all pre-Wagon spending 😉

Now it’s time to get the washing out of the machine and hang it out before settling down for the night – it’s day 6 of work today, and I feel pretty wrecked (especially as I was stitching until midnight last night oops haha), so I thought I’d give myself a good start to the weekend, by getting some housework out of the way quickly … now I’m going to be self-indulgent while watching Big Brother (sad, but true, I do enjoy it!), followed by Medium and Lost … ah, bliss! 😀

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Stash, Works in Progress

Stitching update

Anne S

I had to take a day off work yesterday just to get some stitching in … well, actually it was because I felt like cr*p, and couldn’t face work – my sore throat turned into a bit of laryngitis on Tuesday night, and I hardly slept at all. When I woke up yesterday morning I felt really groggy and as though I’d been run over. This morning I still feel pretty rough – I’m more blocked up in the nose, and my throat is sore again, but my voice isn’t quite as laryngitis-like. Fingers crossed I’ll be OK to get back to work again tomorrow. It does mean, though, that I managed to get a bit of stitching done – and a bit of frogging too ;P I still have two stitches to fix up in the vines that I noticed I managed to miss yesterday, and they’re easily added in – but I’m slowly catching up to you, Carol 😀 I’ll continue to get this panel finished (the whole of part 1), then I have to get my ducks RR done to get in the mail by 1 July … then it’s “Dratteds, here I come!!!” 😀

Just a quick post today, as my concentration at the computer isn’t great – I tried catching up on some more blog reading yesterday, but I ended up reading most things three times, and gave up. Off to have another Lemsip Cold & Flu, then cuddle up under my blanket again in my not-so-glamorous PJ’s for the day …

(Updated) Crikey, I just realised that I hadn’t posted piccies of my previous stash arrivals … for some reason I thought I’d already done it, but just checked back in my blog posts, and lo and behold nothing was there! Oops – I’d forget my head these days if it wasn’t permanently attached!! Anyway, here are the piccies of stash I received as gifts from some very generous ladies – thanks so much again Cathy and Nancy – your generosity is amazing, and I love everything (I know I’ve sent personal emails already, but just wanted to reiterate it now) 😀 Unfortunately blogger is, just for a change, having a hissy fit about adding more photos, so I’ve had to use Photobucket, which of course means you can’t click for a bigger piccie, sorry 😦

Here are my wonderful spoils from Cathy:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
And my wonderful spoils from Nancy:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Works in Progress

Just blogging for the sake of it (updated)

Anne S

I don’t really have anything to say … just wanted to try and get back into the habit of blogging more regularly. Managed to get some blog reading done over the last two days, but many many more to go yet – hopefully by the end of the week I’ll definitely be caught up. Apologies if I’m not leaving many comments, but I’m enjoying reading everything.

Even though the curtains don’t reach the floor, I’m loving them – even just having them up gives the place some more colour and warmth … and eventually I’ll just sew some more fabric on the bottoms to help keep the cold out. I also picked up the same curtains in the sales for the main lounge window, but it’s a lot wider and more awkward to get to, so I need to wait until I’ve got an accomplice to help me … hopefully they’ll be up on 20 June, ‘cos Fraze is visiting – yup, yet another job for you Fraggle! 😀

I did a dopey thing yesterday … went with my little parcels to the Post Office before work, only to find they were closed – it was a public holiday in Australia, and I didn’t know hmmm. So I rocked up to work in my business clothes, and everyone else was in jeans 😦 Good job I took a decent coat and scarf, though, as we had two separate fire alarms go off and we had to evacuate the building twice on a very cold day in Melbourne … brrrrrrrr. It’s funny, when I lived in Auckland I owned a full-length wool coat and scarf etc, but wore it about a dozen times … since moving to Melbourne I now have a nice selection of scarves, gloves and hats – and along with my coat I actually NEED them. It has looked quite miserable a few times over the last two weeks – very bleak looking and grey all day 😦 So my lovely blue curtains help to hide the bleakness, and I get to look at some beautiful colour instead 😀

Today I’ve decided I need to start my rotation again – I honestly have a tangible physical and mental URGE to pick it up and get back into my routine … so this morning I am putting my Bordeaux Mystery Sampler (which is no longer a mystery ‘cos we have all the parts haha) onto my scroll bars, and I’m putting a few stitches in before work … after 10 hours on that, I’ll be back to picking up the Dratteds (aka Dolphins Domain) and I honestly can’t wait!!

(Updated) And just to show I really did make an effort this morning, here’s the proof of my labour … not much to show for it, but it’s a start none-the-less 🙂 I’m on 3pm shift starts all week, so it gives me a bit of time in the mornings to get a few things done – today I decided to have some “me” time for stitching instead of housework 😀 Mind you, I’ve been struggling with a bad throat and chest the last three days, so perhaps it was also a bit of pampering needed to perk me up too … I have my fingers crossed it doesn’t escalate into a full-on cold 😦
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Works in Progress

I’m still alive …

Anne S

Sorry if a couple of you have been worried that I haven’t been blogging, but I’m still around – this week’s shifts have taken its toll on me, and I haven’t had the time or energy to pick up a needle until briefly last night. I’m now off out to have brunch with a couple of girls from work, for one of their birthdays, then it’s an early night for me ready for my 6am shifts this week. Not sure how much time I’ll have for blogs or stitching this week, as Rox and her partner arrive from NZ on Tuesday for about 3 nights, and Fraze is here as well … I’m trying hard to catch up on blogs when I can – my apologies if it’s been a while since I’ve commented on your blogs, but I’m really behind since my last visitors were here, and I’m struggling to catch up again.

Anyway, I’ll sign off this brief post with my stitching progress from last night – I finally dragged out my Marine Elegance to work on. Unfortunately I got out of the rhythm of stitching this one while waiting for my PC#12 to arrive, and I’ve only just had the ‘head space’ for picking it up again. I only managed to get the four-sided stitches done between the sections, and just over a third of the buttonhole stitching on the edges … still have a long way to go yet to get this finished, but that’s my challenge before I touch anything else … the only exception to that is my charity quilt blocks which need to be done shortly. We’ll get there with this one, Cathy 🙂

Stash, Works in Progress

Good mail day!

Anne S

It was a semi-decent stitching day for me today – the temperature dropped to about 25C during the day and was fantastic for sleeping last night. I actually woke up feeling human today, and couldn’t wait to pick up a needle again! I managed to catch up with assignment 3 of the Apricot Elegance SAL from the Stitching Smalls Yahoo group … I was surprised, though, with the colour of the pearl cotton I’m using – on the skein it looks quite turquoisey, but when you stitch it up on that fabric the mint/pale green shows up more. I had my heart set on using a brightish turquoise for my filling stitches etc, but now I’m a bit stumped, as the colours just won’t go! Oh well, it means we’re off to the LNS tomorrow to try to find a colour that will substitute. Even though it wasn’t my ‘perfect’ choice of colour, I have to admit that I really like it … it now reminds me of Monet’s waterlily paintings, which I adore 🙂 It just means I might not be able to finish this week’s assignment yet, until I decide on colours.

Usually on my days off, I don’t go anywhere near my PO Box, as it’s a 1/2 hour drive away … but I knew I was expecting some parcels, so curiosity got the better of me today and we took a trip out for a couple of hours to grocery shop and collect mail. And what a wonderful lot of surprises were awaiting me! I had some fabric from Country Stitch from their sales, as Linda is selling off all her plain colour linens etc and will just be selling hand-dyeds from now on – the two stash expenses I haven’t given up yet have been my FOTM clubs with both Country Stitch and Silkweaver. Anyway, my last FOTM of plain linens arrived from Linda late last week, but my mail today was ‘extra’. I also received my December FOTM from Silkweaver last week, a lovely colour called “Desert Sky” – a very nice neutral colour 🙂

The other exciting mail was some fabric from Dawn, that she dyed herself – and it is the most scrummy colour turquoise … serious drool material! Thanks Dawn, for a fantastic trade – Dawn got a Mirabilia chart, and I got the fabric … me thinks I got the better deal! LOL. Thanks again Dawn! 😀 And then last, but certainly not least, I received a chart from Karen – Quaker Huswif by Sampler Cove, that was on my wishlist … Karen, you’re a sweetheart – thanks again so much! I won’t be starting this one for a while yet, so I have plenty of time to drool over it in the meantime – and there are week-by-week SAL instructions on the Legacy BB, which will come in mighty handy when I do start it 🙂

I forgot to mention that I also had a nice surprise at work about two weeks ago – one of the guys that I’ve only just recently started working with on the Hotline, was watching me XS at work on the late shifts a couple of times, and mentioned that his Mum had left some stitching ‘bits and pieces’ after she’d passed away, and he’d try and find them for me. So, a few days later he trotted into work and gave me a few packets of needles and DMC threads, plus a piece of natural linen, and some beige/tan aida and hardanger fabric. Also a magnetic chart holder, and two charts – one of them is a chart full of alphabets, which is going t0 be oh so useful – how wonderful! I have to admit that I probably won’t use the beige/tan aida as it is, but I’m thinking of practising my dyeing on it. I felt very very touched that he thought of me – as he said, he’d rather it went to someone who would appreciate it, than just throwing it out … thanks Craig! 🙂

Rightio, off to watch the some more of my mail … “The Notebook” on DVD from Homescreen – what a dreadful night we have instore for us again … a bottle of chilled Marsanne wine, stitching and DVD’s – just awful! 😀

Melbourne, Works in Progress

Still alive …

Anne S

… but not getting much stitching done! Been very very tired this week, and ended up with dizziness and throwing up compliments of a 24-hour virus (which also knocked Mum out yesterday too) – that meant a day off work yesterday, but back in again today. Sat here in a pool of sweat, with a temperature of 41C (if I’ve worked out the temperature correctly, that’s approx 109F!!) – seeing as we don’t have air conditioning in the flat, there will be no stitching done tonight/tomorrow!

I’ve been getting a lot behind with blogging yet again … having Mum here has upset my usual routine a bit (although I’m still loving having her here) – and she sees my time on the computer as being ‘time wasted’ … I may wait until she’s back home before I get back into the swing of things again with blogging …

One thing I’ve been loving over the last week or so, and that’s that the rainbow lorikeet population has been increasing in its fly-overs at the end of the day. There was one day during the week that there was a flock of what must have been at least 100 lorikeets – it was incredible! These are the most amazing birds to look at, although they fly over with the speed of a bullet, and an incredible squawking racket! They’re a really beautiful sight to behold 🙂 That’s one thing I love about being in Aussie – the amazing bird life. It amazed me to be driving down the road on the main roads, to see Gallah’s feeding on the median strips – and this morning we had a couple of sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking on the next door neighbour’s roof – just wonderful!

As far as my stitching’s been going, the only progress I’ve had is on my Le Jardin Silk Sampler – I just have 1 hour left before I finish my 10-hour slot in my rotation (I’m trying hard to get back into the rotation habit again!). Now I’m off work for a few days with Mum, so some more sightseeing is on the menu (although, we’re praying for an easing off in temperatures). We’re supposed to be going to Melbourne Zoo tomorrow during the day, followed by an open air jazz concert at the zoo in the evening … at an expected 42C again, though, we might only go to the zoo for a short time, and hide indoors for the rest of the day LOL.

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

There is an Angel out there …

Anne S

… and her name is Tobie!! I hope Tobie doesn’t mind, but I have to share something that happened to me today … Work today has been exceptionally difficult, in that I started at 4am – that means the alarm went off at 3am … and I’ve really really struggled to get through my day until 2pm this afternoon. They were needing people for overtime from 4am-7am to help with handling ex-London calls … deciding I really need the money for my birthday dinner, I put my hand up … never, ever again will I do that! My rostered 5am starts are bad enough, 4am is just WRONG! LOL.

So, today I left work like a rat up a drainpipe as soon as the clock hit 2pm … I felt like death warmed up, and probably looked it too! Anyway, my PO Box is a short 5 minute walk from work (I figured that was a more stable address than my home living situation when I first moved here, so that made more sense having one near work … but I digress …) – I made my daily pilgrimage to post my mail, and pick up the day’s bills … only to get the surprise of my life – sitting in that little PO Box was a parcel … thinking it was my Silkweaver FOTM finally arriving, I thought ‘that’s nice’ and wandered out the PO again. Then I started looking at the envelope thinking it was quite large for SW – then I looked more closely … it was NOT from SW – it was from an angel in the name of Tobie. Now I have to admit I knew a gift was coming from Tobie … which you can see from the following piccies:


Before (my current snippet ‘bag’)

After (my new, beautiful snippet bag!)
However, that envelope seemed awfully large for a little snippet bag (and if you haven’t seen these on Tobie’s blog beforehand, you’re really missing out!) … Sure enough, Tobie didn’t stop there – inside that envelope/parcel was a little stitcher’s treasure trove, and my jaw hasn’t been removed from the floor ever since I opened it! Inside was the snippet bag (in a beautiful blue, of course!), along with a kit of the Thistle Bag from M Designs (which was on my wishlist) – not only that, but also the fabric that is suggested on the chart (a lovely Lakeside linen) … but she didn’t even stop there – tucked inside the snippet bag was the most adorable hand-dyed threads by an Oklahoma designer called Windy Hill Designs … WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know what I did to deserve all that spoiling, but I feel very very blessed. Thanks again, Tobie, from the bottom of my heart! You’re a real sweetheart!! {{hugs}}


I did manage to pick my jaw up for 1 1/2 hours tonight, though, to take me 1/4 of the way through my 10 hour rotation slot for a new piece – Le Jardin Silk Sampler from some 1998 JCS magazines … just to prove it, here’s the progress piccie – not too much to show for it though – I think I was so boggle-eyed with tiredness tonight, I was stitching at about half speed haha. And I’m an hour late getting to bed, so I’ll be moaning again tomorrow when the alarm goes off at 4am … {groan}

Works in Progress

‘Blue Elegance’ update

Anne S


I finally managed to finish this week’s stitching assignment for my Blue Elegance piece (officially “Apricot Elegance” by Cindy Valentine) – I’m using Blueberry Watercolors thread on 28ct Cashel linen in an unknown blue colour from my stash … I thought it was quite ‘chunky’ on the 28ct linen, but I’ll keep persevering with it as I think the colour really blends well with just a bit of subtle shading. I’ve really enjoyed stitching this piece so far – it’s a nice change to stitch with some chunky threads and having something that grows so quickly!

The rest of the week has gone in a bit of a blur really … I finished my night shifts at 5am Monday morning, but only managed to get 4-5 hours sleep again … and was back at work again for 11am Wednesday – feeling very tired and very cranky! LOL. The only way I can explain it is that it’s like going from Australia to London (totally opposite time zones) to work for 3 days, then flying home to Australia again and going straight to work off the plane! Usually we get 4 days off after the night shifts to recover, but because I was covering the Hotline for two separate staff members, I ended up with split shifts and only 1 1/2 days off to recover … never ever again! I’ve felt like death all week – then Fraze came to stay on Thursday night (which was lovely to have his company as usual) so I didn’t get quality sleep again – now it’s my weekend and I feel like a train wreck 😦

Mum made me laugh last night – she knows I hadn’t been feeling great, so I walked in the door to the following greetings – first of all a bourbon and L&P all ready to add ice (sheer nectar!) … and the 2nd thing is she’d lined up my ‘lounge ducks’ in a row on the floor along with Bukta in front of the TV, saying they’d been having a lovely time watching cricket with her as a family night in – she’s a crack up! I swear she’s going through her second childhood! LOL. Poor Bukta (on the left) belongs to Fraze … it’s his childhood toy that we’ve tormented dreadfully since I moved to Aussie. It’s a long story how it all happened (and it was initiated by his best friend Scott), but we decided Bukta was a closet transvestite and dressed him in a dress, made him boobs, and a wig and he feels so much happier … you had to be there at the time, but it was hysterical to see Fraze’s face when he saw him (we attacked Bukta while he was at work). When I moved out I told Fraze I’d really miss Bukta in his little pink outfit (it never got removed, ‘cos it made us laugh) … so Mum and I hijacked him to play a joke on Fraze – we took him for a walk up to the beach here and I made him a little hammock out of chopsticks and a handkerchief … then we took a photo of him and sent it to Fraze from Bukta saying he was having a lovely time on holiday at the beach with Auntie Anne … we howled ourselves silly! And to this day Bukta still resides happily here – I keep telling Fraze to take him home, but he says he likes it here! So he sits permanently on top of my computer desk keeping my printer company 😉Can you tell I haven’t done much stitching this week? Not much to show at all, really – hence the other pictures haha. I don’t have much energy today, so stitching will be the best thing for me to chill out, I think (actually, I was told by Mum that’s my best relief, so I have to put a DVD in and get stitching – gee, I’m gonna miss her when she goes back home!). Am trying to talk Mum into staying an extra couple of weeks to the middle of February so she will be here for my birthday. I wasn’t going to do anything this year, but seeing as it’s a “decade” birthday, we’re going to go out to Dracula’s for dinner – it a theatre restaurant, and is fantastically funny! It’s not cheap, but it’ll be a good way to say goodbye to the dirty-30’s and hello to the naughty-40’s 🙂 The food is usually pretty good, and the show is absolutely side-splitting … then there is a big group going “grape grazing” the next day, which is a wine tasting tour on buses – they’re trying to talk me into going to that as well, so it will be a very unforgettable weekend all round if that’s the case! haha. Anyway, enough driveling on about nothing – off to wake up and try stitching again …

But a quick reply for Cathy … yup, I really do work for an airline, and yup you guessed the airline correctly! 🙂 We’re apparently the ony airline worldwide that has a call centre open 24 hours a day/7 days a week – aren’t we lucky? LOL. I worked for them in Auckland for 3 years, then moved to the ‘mother country’ where I’ve continued to work with them for another 2 1/2 years so far … and most of the time love it! I’m an international consultant there, but also do relief cover on the Supervisor (staff assist) Hotline, where we help consultants out finding information when they get stuck, taking escalated calls (not my fave part of the job), and trouble shooting … it can be very interesting, to say the least! 🙂