Category: Travel – France

Cross Stitch, Paris, Stash, Travel - France, Works in Progress

Stitching update & Parisian stash

Anne S

I’m still battling my flu bugs, so no big updates as yet from me – I’m sure I’ll get around to it over the next weekend or two, along with a write-up of our Paris and UK jaunts … but for now this will have to suffice 🙂

Following is the latest WIP piccie of my tiger XS – it’s been hard to see the black fabric when my eyes have been blurry anyway with being sick, so progress has been pretty intermittent and slow, but it’s progress nonetheless and it’s still closer to becoming a finish … for now, though, I may give it a break and try stitching on something a bit more enjoyable and easy on the eyes and come back to this one at a later stage.

Next I thought I’d show our XS stash spoils that Mum and I bought while we were in Paris recently – this is pretty much the only shopping we did apart from picking up a couple of pairs of Clark’s ankle boots in the UK, a new luggage back-pack with wheels, and a Parisian painting … and probably the only thing that we fully intended buying while we were away.  So, without further ado, here are our spoils from Des Fils et une Aiguille in Paris (we had such a lovely time during both of our visits there that Valerie and I are going to keep in touch via email – she’s such a lovely person to visit with!).  I’m sharing a quick photo of the outside shop-front and part of the shop interior – it’s a real treasure trove of French stitchy goodness, and I am guilty of spending some substantial Euros in there!  After going here we didn’t bother going to Le Bonheur des Dames, we were happy to just spending our money in this little piece of heaven! 😀

We also went to the Marais district one day and visited Entrée des Fournisseurs which had some wonderful ribbons and trims – I only bought a few pieces of scrummy felt from there, along with one length of trim that I couldn’t resist, and some ‘knit’ cotton for crochet in a yummy teal blue.

My dear friend Nicki kindly gave me a pair of her grandmothers crochet hooks and some wool to practice with to start learning to crochet while I was away, but sadly the lighting in the apartment wasn’t conducive to any form of crafts, and truthfully we got home too late in the evenings to really have the energy to do anything but fall in a heap and quickly upload the day’s photos to make way on the memory card for the next day … this is on my list to start trying shortly, though, as I have a beginners crochet book on my Kindle all set to work my way through – fingers crossed I’ll be able to master it, as it’s something I’ve wanted to try doing for many many years!

The last ‘crafty’ items that we bought were a couple of lace bookmarks from Bruges in Belgium (we took a day-trip there from Paris, which was wonderful).  Sadly Mum took hers home before I managed to take a photo, but I’ll try to get one next time I visit home, or I’ll get her to bring it back in October so I can take a photo of it then.  Here’s my one anyway 🙂

The only other stitching I’ve done lately I can’t take a photo of as it’s for an exchange, although I can show a little snippet, I guess …

And on that note, it’s time to take my snotty head (yeah, I know, too much information right!!) and ringing ears back to bed … with a nice simple XS project to cheer me up … I managed to go back to work for a day yesterday, but it nearly killed me, so I’ve decided to take one more day pottering around at home and resting up a bit more … what better way to cheer myself up than with a tiny bit of stitching 🙂

2012 WIPocalypse, Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Enchanted Mermaid, Finished Items, Jardin Prive, Mirabilia, Paris, Stash, Travel - France, Works in Progress

2012 WIPocalypse update for March

Anne S

I started drafting a post during the week, but it seems that the WP app doesn’t automatically store a draft … so I lost the whole thing.  And today I’m fighting a dreadful head cold that I’ve been struggling with since Sunday, so it will be a lot shorter than originally planned.  But there are few things to write about, so I’ll try to get to the point quickly …

First up, though, is my stitching update for the 2012 WIPocalypse challenge.  As seems to be the norm these days, I have had absolutely minimal stitching happening over the last month – I almost need to continually do a ‘before and after’ shot so you can actually see what the progress is … I’ve always been a prolific stitcher in the past, so this is something I’m just not used to.  Anyway, here are the two pieces that have seen slight progress since last month …

First up is Bent Creek’s Winter Snapperland – the entire progress consists of two whole snowflakes and the wording … I know, hardly worth blogging about really, but I guess two snowflakes and some words are still taking it closer to a finish at some stage!

Then the other UFO/WIP to be dragged back into daylight is Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid – this poor love hasn’t seen daylight for an awfully long time … I can’t remember the last time I dragged her out to be worked on.  Anyway, she’s had a tiny bit of love in February and is getting closer to having her backstitching done on her face so she doesn’t look so dreadful (her cheek looks like it has a terrible skin disease!!).  I may also start beading as I go, which just may give me a kick in the pants to stitch on her some more.

UPDATED TO ADD:  Oops, I forgot that last month I also put the finishing stitches into Jardin Prive’s Christmas, and I hadn’t posted a piccie yet.  So, here you go, here is my first big finish for the year …

The next news is that I finally managed to catch up with my dear friend Alison to pick up my Christmas gift to myself – I basically gave Alison $100 to spend during her USA trip last year, along with a huge wishlist to choose from, and I picked it up last weekend.  It was a wonderful treat to see what goodies she managed to find, and I absolutely adore the choices she made … I can’t wait to start on the SB kits, they’re awesome!!  Thanks once again Alison, I really really appreciate you doing this for me, it was a really nice surprise!

The next piece of HUGE news is that I’m heading off on holiday … not just anywhere, but we’re off here:

Well, OK, truth be told we’re not off to see the Doncaster Rovers, but rather just the Doncaster part!!  It was very hard to find a website image that actually has the word “Doncaster” in it!! BUT more exciting for me, we’re also off to visit here, and I’m just ever so bursting with awe and excitement that I’ll be going back to visit my most favourite city in the entire world to date:

Mum’s youngest sister is basically going through her final fight with throat cancer, and Mum and I have decided to head over to spend some time with her, and my other family members, before it’s too late.  Being blunt, it’s much nicer to be able to visit when she’s alive and not to be flying over to attend a funeral.  Then after a few days visiting with our family, we’re off to fulfill one of my dreams to return to Paris once more.  I have cheap airline tickets from my employers in celebration of my 10 year anniversary with them, so we felt it was a good time to cash them in and make good use of them.  The downside is that we have had absolutely zero time to get spending money together so it will be very very budget with whatever is available on the credit cards … but very very fun!!  And it’s all happening one week tomorrow, all going well (we’ll be travelling standby so we just have to keep our fingers crossed!).

Initially I thought of taking one of the SB kits with me to start on holiday, but now I’m thinking I also may take two Parisian charts to start as well … the freebie “Souvenir de France” by Blackbird Designs, which is still available for download here …

And the other choice is “Eiffel Quaker” by Jardin Prive, which is available for sale directly from the designer as a PDF here … ah decisions, decisions.   Plus I have an exchange that is due for posting while I’m away, so I’ll be kitting that to be stitched while I’m in the UK visiting with my Aunt.

The other news that I haven’t mentioned yet is that along with my trip to see my Aunt in the UK, we are travelling by train back south to London and apparently have to pass by my dear friend’s home … which means we get to spend a night with Nicki, Martin and their lovely furbabies – it’s going to be wonderful seeing Nicki again after so many years 🙂

Exchanges, Needlerolls, Paris, redwork, Ruby Tuesday, Travel - France, Uncategorized

Ruby Tuesday … just ‘cos I feel like posting!

Anne S

Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – a very old photo scanned from the printed copy of a brasserie in Paris … my favourite city in the world.

IMG_0012

And in trying to keep with the ‘crafty theme’, here’s a redwork exchange I sent to Nicki five whole years ago in 2006 … probably one of my most favourite exchanges I’ve completed! (The photo was compliments of Nicki, she did such a wonderful job of the photography!)

Needleroll Exchange for Nicki Lampon

Ruby Tuesday

Cross Stitch, Flowers Trees & Gardens, Paris, Quaker, Scenic Sunday, Travel - France, Works in Progress

Sunday stitching & Scenic Sunday

Anne S

No housework or excitement here today – just my little size 28 tapestry needle, Vikki Clayton premium silk floss, and Season 1 of ER on DVD … can you say “happy as a pig in mud?” 😛

Not a great deal of stitching done, but it’s still one step closer to an actual finish. With any luck I’ll be finished with this one by the end of next weekend, and then soon afterwards my missing threads will have arrived so I can go back to picking up some of my older WIPs once again (although the urge to stitch a million new things is still around!) 😀

Quaker Huswif 29Aug10

And I’ll finish with something I haven’t done regularly for a while … here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – a Parisian garden.

Paris_0015 (2)

Scenic Sunday

Paris, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Queenstown, roads, Travel - France, Travel - New Zealand

Photo Hunt – Road

Anne S

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This week’s theme is “Road” and I couldn’t make a decision which photo to use, so I’ve got a whole bunch of them!  The photography quality isn’t fantastic, especially the Paris ones, as they’re scans of some prints I took years ago with a point and shoot (which Mum very kindly bought with her from home when she last visited) … but I still love ’em 🙂

First up is from one of the views we had driving from Sydney to Coffs Harbour a couple of months ago – we took a detour and drove through the native forest for a while.

Road 2

Next up are some photos I took years and years ago when I visited Paris for my 2nd time – Paris still remains my all-time favourite city in the world to date.  These are views from the Arc de Triomphe.

Road 3

Road 4

Road 5

Finally, this is a photo I’ve used before, and is the winding road up to the Remarkables skifield in Queenstown, New Zealand – it’s a bit hairy when you meet traffic coming the opposite way … the photo doesn’t quite do justice to displaying the steep drops off the side of the roads!  It is a very picturesque part of the world, that’s for sure, especially in winter when the alpine peaks are covered in snow 🙂

remarkables drive