Home & Family TO BE FIXED – Page 5

Berrima, EGA, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Stumpwork, Works in Progress

Photo Hunt & a new start

22 August, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders – my feral and miserable mood finally disappeared, plus I had reconnected with my one and only “regret” in life overnight.

I had lost contact with a dear friend (who was, in all honesty, the one true love in my life from those early days – and most definitely the one that got away, or at least that I pushed away – he was the only guys I’ve ever thought I could have married … oh how I wish I had the strength of character and wise mind back then that I do now!) – anyhoo, I got a Facebook request from an old school chum from when I was about 11/12 years old, along with links to some old school class photos, and it brought all those childhood memories flooding back, and that old regret came bubbling back up to the surface … as well as the romantic regret, more so the regret that I had lost a rare and special friendship all those years ago.

Well, I did a quick Google search and found Glen surprisingly easily. He has his own animal dermatology business in Florida, where he lives with his wife and two kids. I received an email back from him on Saturday morning touching base and telling me a little about his life since leaving home. So perhaps that has been the biggest contributor to the weight being lifted from my shoulders, or perhaps it was just coincidence … but I do know it was lovely to share a couple of childhood stories and touch base once again. Mum always thought of him as the son she never had – I’m really glad to hear he’s OK and happy, and knowing that he’s happy may just let me move on too 🙂

Anyway, for the first time in ages my mood gave me a jolt of mental energy – I had an urge to stitch something ‘new’, and put my hand into the kitted up drawers to find something … that “something” ended up being a stumpwork correspondence course from the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. I’d forgotten just how long it takes to stitch one little item in stumpwork (at least it does for me!!) – even with chunky Brazilian embroidery threads being used, it took me the entire afternoon just to stitch 1 1/2 leaves! But I have to say I really enjoyed it, and am about to go and finish off that 2nd leaf.

Here you can see the entire design – called “Gracie”, it’s a big chunky goldfish when it’s finished. The colours are eye-popping vibrant oranges/reds. The leaves are outlined with stem stitch (there is LOTS of stem stitch in this project), padded with chain stitch, then covered with sloping satin stitches. It was quite hard to stitch last night in the poor lighting, so hopefully it will be easier this morning with the natural daylight coming in as well … fingers crossed I’ll get that 2nd leaf finished by lunchtime, to give me time to do some baking (see, I told you I had energy all of a sudden! haha).

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Numerical” – here are some numerical signs outside a shop in Berrima.

And in trying to tie-in some stitching into my photo meme themes, here are a few stitched numbers:

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Mt Ruapehu, skiing, snow, Travel, Travel - New Zealand

Volcanoes for Dot

18 June, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Dot left a comment on my Santorini photo that she adores volcanoes, so here are a few more just especially for Dot!

Here is the club skifield I used to go to regularly (I used to be the Club Secretary) – this is Tukino skifield on Mt Ruapehu in the north island of New Zealand … and an active volcano! After one particularly active period we had to spend hours and hours cleaning out the club rooms … you would not believe how hard ash is to remove, and how invasive it is, it gets everywhere!! I have some wonderful memories of my times on that mountain with my skiing buddies … from back in the days when I was fit!

The photo of me here, is my first ever skiing experience – what a hoot! 😀

In the next photo you can see a wee bit of steam up at the top – this is from our ash cleaning weekend … now you know what a skifield can look like in summer (note that our skifields in New Zealand are at a higher altitude in mountainous regions, and don’t have lush trees to ski around – they’re generally beautiful wide open spaces, often with exquisite views).

And this is how we’d have to get up the mountain in the first place – no tarsealed roads here, we had to dump our cars at the bottom then pile everything into our ‘mountain goat’ trucks and take a slow drive to the top. I few times we’d have to bring the bulldozer down and clear the road ahead of us due to heavy snowfall, and one night we finally had to give up and grab our backpacks and climb the rest of the way in thigh-high snow – I remember we arrived at the top just as the sun was coming up … that was an adventure and a half!

And the next few are ‘just for fun’ … not sure I should really be posting a piccie of our R18 snowman, but it has a nice shot of the volcano behind him! 😛 This is also from my first week’s holiday at the skifield, and was the start of oh so many afterwards! This photo is of Doreen, myself and Brenda … and our anatomically proud snowman! 😛

Here he is “in progress” …

Of course he doesn’t just look gorgeous from the front, he also had the cutest butt cheeks in the world LOL. Here’s Vicki’s Dad, Ross, and our snowman surveying the view and pondering the meaning of life… (I LOVE this shot!!)

And here is where we spent most of our time – our club rooms on Tukino … this is a photo of myself and Ross, Vicki’s Dad, off to the slopes 🙂

And … lucky last … “the gang’s all here” … a mandatory group shot of us from my first skiing week – here’s one of my adopted families, that of my very best friend Vicki. Sadly, Ross is no longer with us, but we had the BEST holidays and adventures when we were growing up – I’m incredibly blessed for having known them, and they’ve helped to shape me into the confident person that I am today 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Some days just suck…

10 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Today has been a mixed bag of emotions for me – and quite frankly a day I don’t ever want to repeat … ever! I was going to put a ‘real’ mini-spit on my Facebook status, but remembered my boss and work colleagues are friends on there, so I thought better about giving any details … and I may remove this little vent in a day or two as well …

I had a major melt-down at work this morning, and have spent the day apologising for it. I haven’t truly enjoyed my job for some time now … partly due to some of the larger than life personalities I have had to work with, and in some small part due to the job itself. Anyway, one guy in particular I have major issues with … and this morning it came to a head in a major collision kinda way 😦

For about 1 1/2 years now I’ve put up with him arguing with everything I say – every time he’s asked me for work advice I’ve offered my opinion and he immediately starts arguing and questioning my response. Initially it was just downright irritating, but over time I’ve started to take it personally … and every time I interract with him I brace myself for a confrontation, because 99% of the time he disagrees with everything I have to say – and I feel as though my opinion is of no value whatsoever. Added to that fact is that I also know of an extra-marital affair he’s had – which hasn’t helped to garner any respect from me, as that’s something I’m incredibly against … but I haven’t addressed my concerns with his arguing with me, to ensure that my feelings against him haven’t been influenced by my issues with his personal affairs … even though I know it hasn’t been an influence, because I’ve been frustrated with his attitude since well before I knew about his affair.

Anyway, when I first arrived into the office this morning I was super perky and joking with my boss that I was in super early … I also found out that I’d got the secondment I’d applied for … I felt really good after my week off …

Then I had my first meeting of the day with my boss, the guy I have the issue with, and a new colleague. My boss eventually left the room to allow us to discuss a plan of attack for some work we need to complete by the end of this week … as “the guy” never pipes up first, I offered a suggestion to start the ball rolling, using the experience I’d just gained on doing a similar job over the last month or so with my latest project – no sooner had I opened my mouth and completed my first proposal, he started up with an entirely opposite viewpoint and belittled my suggestion because he didn’t see the point … after trying to explain further, he just kept reiterating his standpoint … anyway, after 18 months of build-up I finally cracked under the pressure and told him he was the most argumentative and frustrating person I’ve ever had to deal with, and that I’d had enough … I was sick of arguing and no longer gave a sh*t – that he could just tell me how he wanted to do it and I’d follow his orders. All I wanted to do was to get away from him … so I went fuming back to my desk …

Then I got called straight into another meeting with my boss, and blurted out to him that he’d best know I just spat the dummy with this guy with a few minor details of what went off. He offered to follow-up, but I said it was my issue and I was a big girl and would deal with it … so I spent the next few hours building up the courage inbetween building up a migraine to go and apologise for my outburst …

Which I eventually did … after almost making myself throw up with the stress of it all (I soooo hate confrontation and addressing personal issues), I bit the bullet and called him into a meeting room, and apologised for my outburst, but then opened up and explained how he had made me feel for the last 18 months, and that I feel on defence as soon as I walk into a room with him because I know I’m going to be personally attacked within minutes. Anyway, let’s just say we had a lengthy discussion … and I guess it’s helped to clear the air, and perhaps our communication will be more open in the future. I need to stop letting my feelings about his personal issues impact on my handling of work issues so they don’t escalate like this again – and I need to say more quickly when things are impacting on me …

He did admit that sometimes my point is the right one – and that recently when I ignored his feedback and just went with my gut instinct and did what I wanted anyway, the outcome results were all positive … (I do have to admit to driving home mentally thumbing my nose at him, because I was proven right … childish, but oh so satisfying at the time!)

I still think he’s a dick-head, and I have no respect for him personally, but I have to work with him closely even in my new role (although hopefully not as closely as we do now), and if nothing else today we accepted that we both view situations in a totally different perspective, and that I view the picture as a “whole”, and look at the larger sphere of the issue and “what could be”, whereas he looks at a tiny portion of the issue and keeps his focus there so doesn’t understand when I come to him from a whole different perspective. So from that side of things, perhaps communication will improve dramatically from here on in … workwise …

I had to de-brief my boss at the end of the day with the outcome – and I was told that I was very courageous to handle it the way I had by taking ownership of the issue and making the first move … and that he was really proud of how I handled it. I can’t say I felt particularly proud when I was losing my bottle first thing this morning, but I suppose I have learned some valuable life lessons … I know not to let emotions sit building up for 18 months, and explode in a heartbeat, but to walk away when we reach an impasse, and return to it once we’ve both calmed down …

Even as old as I am, life is all about learning, I guess … I can’t say I’m looking forward to work again tomorrow, but the weekend is only 4 days away … And even though it’s probably been good to clear the air today …

The fact still remains that today has been a day that truly sucked!! 😦

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Stashing not stitching

8 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve had the BEST time over the last couple of days cleaning out my stitching stash – while it’s not over yet, I’ve found a bunch of designs that I really want to stitch soon! And funnily enough many of the designs are non-XS … I have a major urge to start picking up some different techniques once again – some counted thread, some not so counted. For instance, I’m starting to get the urge to finish off some old stumpwork UFOs (dunno how long that will last, though LOL) … and I really, really want to stitch this one – unfortunately, though, I don’t have the Soie Cristale thread or it would have been kitted up last night (and it needs 4 whole skeins)!!! 😀 This is “Elizabethan Treasures” by Linda Barry.

I have a bunch of older charts that I might end up putting up on Ebay – I haven’t sold anything on there yet, so I’m a bit nervous about setting up the sale pages and working out postage details in particular, but it has to be done sooner or later I guess – anything that doesn’t sell over the next couple of months (either via trade/sale on my blog or via Ebay) will probably get ditched. Unfortunately the joys of living in an apartment means clutter is much more noticeable and it really is time I culled back on things that I’m just not going to stitch, as much as I still love looking at the charts. The only designs that have been safe from culling have been my Mirabilia and Teresa Wentzler designs – I have almost all of the TW designs, and even though I’ll never stitch them I do like to flick through every now and then 🙂

Since I’ve been getting all enthused about different stitching techniques, I’ve been thinking that many of the new techniques that I want to try are very do-able as pincushions, and I’ve found many projects within the Embroidery & Cross Stitch and Inspirations magazines that will fulfil that urge nicely. I thought I’d share some of the little projects that made me smile and that I’d love to attempt … and believe me, this is just teensy weensy sampling – there are many, many, many more … these are predominantly from Embroidery & XS and Inspirations magazines in my stash.

For now, I’m off to finish off Katie’s birthday cake – she’s due home tonight, and I’ve decided last minute to bake a chocolate cake for her … I must like her a LOT, ‘cos I don’t bake for anyone normally! 😉 Unfortunately, though, I didn’t check the pantry before I went shopping this morning, and I’ve run out of icing sugar … guess that means yet another trip over to the shops – luckily it’s only a 5 minute walk away 😀

And seeing as we’ll hopefully be spending most of the day watching TV tomorrow, I might even have a stitching update by the end of the weekend … maybe … 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Stitching? What’s that???

7 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Alas on my days off work this week I’ve only put a couple of hours into the border of Boo Club – since the last time I posted I haven’t put in a single stitch anywhere, so therefore no stitching update.

I also notice that I’ve also been too busy to put up my daily photos this week – thanks to Mum for reminding me on the phone that I haven’t posted all week! So, what on earth have I been doing with myself??? After trying to do this on two separate occasions after taking time off work in order to complete it, I ended up failing miserably due to illness the first time and unexpected visitors the second time … so third time is the charm … I’ve been unpacking my ‘junk’ boxes that have still been sitting in my bedroom after 2 years of living in Sydney (ahem, cough …). Here’s a sneak look at the end result – a few empty boxes (I think I’ve cleaned out 5-6 in total but didn’t think you’d want to see more photos of empty boxes LOL).

I’ve also been clearing out Embroidery & Cross Stitch magazines and patchwork magazines in an attempt to make some room – I’ve been (shock, horror) pulling out pages that interest me and putting them into a ringbinder instead … and scanning the projects into a little mini directory/photo album so I can flick through at a glance to see what takes my fancy (including those that are still intact in their magazines, such as my Inspirations issues) – some things I’m only interested in how they’re finished, but some projects I’d really love to try out … one day before I turn 100. I’ve already taken one big bag full down to the rubbish bin, and here is another one ready to go down and join its mates!

That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing this week, and have really really enjoyed it. I’ve been listening to Audiobooks and watching old DVDs at the same time and every now and then jumping online to play a game or three. Alas, the fun is about to end and it’s back to work again on Monday – and the pile of books etc will be a work in progress for some time yet, but I’ve made a huge inroad to the mess in my bedroom and it should start looking like an actual bedroom by the end of 2010 😛

The other wee job I finally finished today was to re-label my little cottage spice jars – I’ve had these for years and years sitting unused in my parents garage … when I went home for the funeral in February I brought them all home with me, and started filling them up. Unfortunately there were a number of labels that I just don’t use (such as dried garlic and onion), so I had to wait to buy a pile of batteries for my labelling machine and voila they’re all finished and ready to be used. The only one I cocked up slightly is the Mixed Herbs label – it’s a bit cock-eyed but it’ll do 😉 I just adore this little set of cottages, and it’s so lovely to finally see them out of their boxes all these years later! 😀 (Haha, I just noticed you can just see a peek of my glass leadlight duck hiding behind it!)

xxx

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Movies

Weeks Dye Works – retired threads

4 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

A recent blog post referred to the fact that WDW were discontinuing one of their threads used in a particular design, and that we should look at stocking up now while it’s still available … I couldn’t access the link that was provided as it was to the retailer’s page, so I wrote an email to WDW asking how to obtain the information. Just to put everyone’s minds at rest, the following is the response I received from Cathy at WDW this morning:

“Good afternoon Anne – we have never discontinued colors but we do retire colors. This means that we just simply take the color out of the main collection of floss. The retired colors WILL ALWAYS be available, they just simply appear on the “retired list.” We are striving to keep the order form at 1 page and in order to add new colors, we need to retire the ones that don’t sell as many as the rest.

I do apologize for any confusion. On our web site under FORMS, there are pages titled “retired colors 6-strand floss” and “retired pearls.”

Please let me know if I can further assist you. But please, do not panic as we have never discontinued any colors in our line that go away forever. Have a great week!”

Yippee, that’s great news I think – nice to know their threads only go into ‘semi-retirement’ 😀

As for my own stitching, there’s not much to show really – I managed to complete a tiny bit more of the Boo Club border last night, and another hour will see me able to roll up the scrollbars to a new section … I’ll hold off taking another progress piccie until I’ve done that and more critters have their little buttons sewn on 🙂 I’m going to continue with this one tonight, and in fact may continue until it’s finished … but who knows, tomorrow is another day 😛

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with an extremely hunky young man (very sexy, but very gay LOL), and we went to get a Robert Downey Jnr fix at IMAX in Darling Harbour – Iron Man 2. Loved, loved, LOVED it!!! OK, admittedly part of the fact is that I’ve always been a huge fan of Mr Downey, ever since seeing him blitz the screen in Charlie Chaplin … but I seriously do love these movies. A blend of humour, great characters, special effects, a fun storyline, and a lot of JDJ – what more could a girl want? This is another one to add to the DVD collection when it is eventually released – an awesome way to spend the afternoon on your day off! 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Feel better now …

28 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

It’s amazing what a night’s sleep can do for you … I no longer want to pierce someone’s heart with a steak knife, and am feeling calm and stress-free-ish for the day ahead.

While I didn’t end up stitching last night, I did a fair bit of playing mindless Facebook games … then watched Kitchen Nightmares USA on TV (a show I never watch normally) … all-in-all a very lazy and very relaxing night! (I’ll keep the Witches of Eastwick in mind Maria for the next time … because I certainly know there will be a next time – if not sooner, then in 1 month’s time! LOL).

Tonight I’ll be glued in front of the TV because Katie’s home again, so we’ll have to catch up on the shows that we both watch – I don’t watch them until we’re both home, so that’ll take us the next two nights to catch up. Then Friday night we’re off out for Katie’s 30th birthday dinner in the city, then it’s the weekend again, and then Katie’s best friend Sam comes to stay overnight before they head off to Vanuatu for a week of birthday celebrations. I’d requested the week off to go as well, but I can’t afford it, so I’m now in two minds about still requesting the week off to do some more finishing and also to sort out my embroidery book stash to clear everything out. Maybe some time out from work will be good for me too!

Rightio, time to get dressed for another day at the sweat shop … if nothing else at least I’ll get those last 19 procedures rewritten today and that’s one HUGE monkey off my back!

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stash, Sydney, The Drawn Thread, Works in Progress

Boo!

16 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Boo! Scissors Purse and Fob by The Drawn Thread is my current Work In Progress – so far I’ve managed to get almost halfway down the scissors purse, and about 1/4 of the scissor fob stitched. I’m still really tired in the evenings, so my stitching is going r…e…a…l…l…y s…l…o…w…l…y. Here’s my progress to date – once again, very washed out under the daylight bulb and even Photoshop Elements is struggling to get the colours right with a ton of manipulation! I started this one in about the middle of last year, but hated the feel of one strand of silk, and just never found a rhythm … I stopped halfway through completing the little pumpkin on the ‘flap’, and it’s only this last week that I’ve pulled it from the depths of my WIP basket and decided to give it a little bit of love again. And before you ask, yes, the “Boo” part at the top is supposed to be upside down … you see, it’ll fold over and then be the right way up again 😀

On Sunday I had a really lovely day out with my favourite Sydney ladies – Alison and Amanda … as always it was a riot, and much laughing and chattering was to be had. We went to the new craft show that was held out at Homebush at Sydney Olympic Park. I was on a stricter budget than normal, and there wasn’t too much to tempt me this time, but I still managed to come home with some great wee treasures … more in the shape of BIG floss rings for my threads (which are like hens teeth to find here!) and some more scissors (hey, a girl can NEVER have too many!!). I also bought a strand of beads that I think will be awesome as a scissor fob for the Gingher Roberta scissors … plus some necklace ‘thongs’ to put together some chunky style necklaces for myself and Katie. Hmmm, sorry about the green shopping bag that was used for the photography … not the best choice as a background to show off stitching scrummies! LOL.

And just LOOK at my favourite splurge of the day … I’ve been drooling over these Eiffel Tower scissors for the looooongest time, and that was my parting gesture to the show … and without doubt my very FAVOURITE purchase – I love, love, LOVE them, and don’t begrudge the AUD25.00 it took to procure them! 😀

Saturday was spent doing a bunch of tidying up in my pigsty of a bedroom, and tidying up my threads and stitching things – I finally grabbed a few of my kitted up projects that actually have DMC in the bags and entered all those threads into an Excel spreadsheet. It seems that these days I’m constantly putting projects on hold part-way through stitching ‘cos I’m one or two threads short, so hopefully this will help me know where to start rummaging when I’m hunting for an elusive thread! One other GREAT thing about tidying up my thread inventory is that I found the teeny tiny bag of embellishment beads for my January Accent Sampler by Periwinkle Promises … which also means I now have no excuse not to get it finished. All I need to do is to add the little beads, and my initials/year, and stitch the back-stitch border on the backing linen, and I’m all set to do the finishing … not much, right? … well, let’s just say it’ll get done some time soon either before or after I finish Boo! 😛

I’m hoping to take Friday off this week so I can run a couple of errands like FINALLY picking up a bookcase from Officeworks that I bought late last year (they didn’t tell me it had arrived then shipped it back to their warehouse again … bless them!) … which also then means I get to play DIY with my power drill (LOVE that thing!), and I also just might FINALLY finish unpacking those final boxes in my bedroom that are full of embroidery books etc … which will then perhaps FINALLY lead me to putting a bunch of my books I no longer want on Ebay … perhaps 😛

Work has been ‘challenging’ over the last couple of weeks – just for a change LOL. I’ve had it hinted from my boss that there could be a sort of new opportunity on the horizon that I should put my hand up for as it could be good for my career (and builds on the good relationship I already have with this group) … not really any different to what I’m doing now, just more focused on one area … time will tell if it actually pans out and goes ahead, and if so whether I get it or not, as there are obviously no guarantees. I have already stated openly to him, though, that I would be interested if it went ahead.

Anyway, talking of work, I guess I should hurry up and post this and get into beddy-byes … an extra half hour of sleep just could make all the difference for me tomorrow 😉

The next finish you see will hopefully be my Pin Pillow exchange piece, which is hurrying across the oceans as we speak, and hopefully won’t be too far away from its destination … 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Quick catch-up

8 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

It was a busy weekend – started by Friday night’s shenanigans being dressed up as a nun for the Sound of Music Sing-a-long. I only managed to get one paltry photo taken without the flash, while in the office, so it’s incredibly unflattering (like most photos of me) … anyway, it gives you an idea of how I wandered around Sydney train stations and streets for the evening. We had a blast, and really enjoyed our meal at Retro Cafe next door to the theatre before the show.

Saturday I went with Katie to my hairdressers for a MUCH needed haircut!! I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago due to my vertigo/virus. I am now thrilled to be sporting a fringe once again, along with a couple of inches off the length … woohoo!!! 😀

While we were there we also decided to go the whole hog and had a beauty session while the other person was having a haircut. I got my eyebrows shaped and had my … shock, horror … first EVER pedicure!!! Oh boy, was it lovely – I enjoyed every minute of the pampering. I’ve been a tad stressed at work fairly recently, so it was really good to chill out and do nothing for the morning. Unfortunately, though, I was so exhausted afterwards (thanks to an early morning start) I ended up having a nana nap in the early evening … which didn’t help with the evening sleeping ritual … I ended up getting back up at 10pm and continued stitching my pin pillow exchange piece!

Sunday saw me getting up relatively late, but the entire day was spent in front of the gogglebox clearing up the hard-drive and watching Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Fringe and Good News Week episodes … but I DID manage to get the final stitches into my pin pillow exchange, and made it up in the little pillow … now it’s sitting in its padded envelope waiting for a visit to the Post Office during the week 😀

After finishing my exchange piece, I started a new Christmas ornament from an old JCS issue that I’d already got kitted up from a couple of years ago – I made an OK start into that one while watching TV last night … and I’ll put a few more stitches into it tonight.

Tomorrow I’m heading off to my GP to check a few things checked out – my lightheadedness continues, unfortunately, so I’m going to ask to get my blood pressure checked out. I’ve also had really bad acid reflux over the last few months, so that’s also on the list … better to be safe than sorry, I guess! And on that note, it’s time to go get some soup for dinner and settle in front of the TV for an hour or two 🙂

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

Nunning and … What, more stash????

4 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

The parcels have been coming in thick and fast this week … from orders that were placed right after Christmas but finally arriving – these are all from big sales held from two separate stores … and I’m still awaiting for my recent order from SB&B with my missing thread so I can continue with Sapphire Star (gotta make the most of that postage – although I have already braced myself for a looooong wait!!!). Let’s just say that these orders are what prompted me to declare I’m going on a stash diet … ‘cos when I have a splurge I don’t do it by halves (although I don’t have one that often these days, so perhaps it does me good to have a big blow-out once a year)!!!

Back row: Heart in Hand-Snow; Imaginating-Seashell Silhouette; The Cat’s Whiskers-Queen Anne’s Lace; Laura J Perin-Halloween; M Designs-Miss Mary Mac’s Pins & Needles Pincushion
Centre row: Heart in Hand-Wee Santa 2008; Erica Michaels-Random Thoughts of Spring; Cross-Stitch & Needlework Nov 07 & Jan 10; JABC button packs-Christmas wreath & lights, SB’s Be Attitudes, Bent Creek’s Autumn Snapperland
Bottom row: Heart in Hand-Birds; LHN-Loving & Faithful; LHN-Gentle & Kind; LHN-Queen Bee; LHN-Pear Tree

Prairie Moon-Merry Xmas; Laura J Perin-Mallard Duck Collage; Shepherd’s Bush-Baby Bug Ball; Milady’s Needle-Peacocks Rule (and the ruler needed for it); GAST-Brethren Blue; JABC button pack-Waxing Moon’s Halloween Stack; WDW 30ct Guacamole linen; Shepherd’s Bush-Mummy button

The Prairie Moon design is for my friend/flatmate’s Christmas gift – she’s not quite a ‘goth’, but she loves Green Day and a LOT heavier music than I do, and she loves skulls and goth type stuff … and she joked that she really really wants to have a white Christmas tree with black ornaments on it, with a skull instead of a fairy/star on top of the tree … well, as soon as I saw the Merry Xmas chart, I just HAD to get it for her!!! Hopefully she’ll like it 😀

One of the orders above, I placed it just so I could receive the Bent Creek snapperland border accessories (ie snaps and JABC buttons for both Summer and Winter Snapperlands) – these were ordered the same night I finished stitching Summer Snapperland … alas the order just arrived this week … withOUT the borders packs – they hadn’t been ordered right from the start, even though I’d sent clarifying emails with the product code etc … hmmm, oops 😦

I picked the second of these orders up a couple of days ago, and haven’t managed to get back to the PO Box since … I’ll now have to wait until Monday before I can go back there again, as Katie and I are taking a cab into work tomorrow … ‘cos it’s Sound of Music night tomorrow night!!! … and I’ll be dressing up as a Nun and getting a little bit tipsy (I wonder if I could hide a hipflask under those voluminous skirts?? LOL). I’ll get Katie to take a photo tomorrow so I can share it with you all. Alas Katie didn’t want to come to the store to try on the outfits tonight so I had to try it on and send her photos via the mobile camera – unfortunately she tried hers on tonight when we got home and she hates it, so she’s a bit unhappy about it. I feel bad that she’s lost her $50 hire fee for nothing … but I’m really happy with my nun’s outfit (I had my heart set on going this year dressed as a nun, even if it meant getting dressed up on my own), and I’m looking forward to the night out 😀

We’ve been really tired this week, so haven’t really been online much at all – sorry Mum, I haven’t obviously uploaded the photo memes this week either – maybe over the next week I’ll load up a few advance ones so I won’t have to keep missing out 🙂

I have managed to get 2/3 of my exchange stitching completed this week, though, and hopefully should see the rest finished by the end of the weekend. Alas I can’t share until it’s finished and the recipient receives it – fingers crossed she likes it … here’s a teeny tiny sneak peak … really teeny tiny! LOL 😉