Category: Uncategorized

Haven’t been posting due to spending time with the Dragon (aka Mum) – she arrived bright and early on Thursday morning, and I ended up with both Fraze and Mum as visitors that night … Mum crashed out early on the sofa, while Fraze and I howled out loud watching Chris Rock’s HBO special on DVD, and having a few bevvies. Friday morning I woke up with a painful headache, mainly because Fraze and I woke up with the teeming rain at about 4.30am – and got up to chat for a while with Mum. At about 5.30am I hit the hay for another hour, then Fraze had to go to work while Mum and I spent the day out shopping at Queen Victoria markets until about 3pm … after a sushi ‘lunch’ I crashed out badly until 7pm, managed to stay awake for another 2 hours, then hit the hay yet again until 4am before work! So, all-in-all, no great stitching progress made …

The good news, though, is that I finally finished my gift piece … not quite how I intended it to look – I was whip-stitching the edges with beads, but the shade of the beads didn’t really suit it, so a-frogging I went … I ended up just leaving the whip-stitching plain, and got it finished and stuffed tonight. That means I can finally get it in the post tomorrow – yippee!!!

That now means that I can resume scheduled programming, aka my rotation … so the Dratteds are back on the floorstand, and ready for their 10 hours worth. I’m on 5am’s all week, so that’s a good one to get stitching done. It also means I should be able to get back to blogging again – can’t wait to see what everyone’s been up to 🙂

No stitching done tonight (or last night) – zip, zilch, nada … not one single stitch! So much for getting my gift piece finished … I have to admit, I was so over-tired last night, that I just vegetated for the night, went to bed early, and slept through the entire hour of my alarm this morning! Yikes!! So I was late for work, which very very rarely happens – in fact I think that’s happened twice in the 2 1/2 years since I moved here … must have been my body’s way of saying it needed more rest! Have to admit the early morning shifts, as much as I love them for whatever insane reason, I struggle after a few days of them – but tomorrow is the last one, then I have two days off yippee … but then I have 7 days of 5am shifts {heavy sigh} LOL.

I opted not to stitch on my gift piece last night/tonight mainly ‘cos of its history – it would be just my luck that I’d stitch something wrong and have to frog-stitch for yet another night … I wasn’t taking any chances! haha. I also spent a while chatting on the phone last night to a friend in NZ who gave me the news that she’s expecting another baby – it was lovely to catch up after such a long time.

Next week I dust off the Christmas tree ‘dress’ to wear into work … next year I think I’ll have to put some money aside and buy some portable lights for it – I think that’d be a hoot! I wore this to work here last year, after one of the Supervisors found out I had this wee outfit back home in NZ, and I had to order Mum to bring it over with her on one of her trips … I have to admit, it’s a real morale booster – I usually go out and buy big bags of lollies and hand them out round the office. So, that’s the piccie I’ll leave you with – a Merry Christmas photo from me to you (taken in the office last Christmas). I won’t have any stitching progress to post over the next couple of days – my mate Fraze just surprised me with a phone call tonight to say he’s decided he’s going to come round and stay with me tomorrow night (I suppose I should be glad for 24 hours notice LOL) – then Mum arrives early Thursday morning … I still hope to get my gift in the mail by Monday though 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your week, if I don’t get chance to catch up before then … Thanks for the visits and lovely comments – you guys all rock!!

A quick post before I head off to bed ready for my 4.50am wake-up call … I’m breathing a heavy sigh of relief and contentment tonight for a couple of different reasons:

1. Mum will be here after only 5 more sleeps
2. I only have one more week of phones before I’m back on the Supervisor Hotline for 6 whole weeks (until the end of January)
3. I received some lovely mail today (more later)
4. I don’t have to wear business clothes for a whole month – as we now have casual dress right up until the middle of January … welcome to 5 weeks of trackies and jeans yippee! (especially good for those late/early shifts)
5. For the last 2 nights I have been overjoyed to witness flocks (?) of rainbow lorikeets – my favourite Aussie birds – flying over my little flat on their way to roost at the end of the day … it takes my breath away, and is such a joy to witness (I’m a big softie at heart)

and, last but by no means least …

6. I got all the stitching done on the front of my little gift piece tonight!!!!!

Yep, it’s true – it’s all ‘finished’ … I just have to do the actual finishing, and it’s ready to go in the post. I’ve scanned a photo of it, but I can’t unveil it until it reaches its recipient – as usual, though, the scan doesn’t do the piece justice with those lovely sparkles … but I can give you a little sneak preview of how blending filament should actually look … ie shiny!! 😉 I have to admit, I’m glad I persevered with it – it does look pretty cool once it’s finished … can’t wait to show you!

As for my mail, today I received some trade fabric from Karen – and it’s the most gorgeous hand-dyed Belfast by Silkweaver called “Fern” … totally scrummy – thanks so much for that, Karen … hopefully you’ll find your return trade OK once I get it in the mail:)

I also received my FOTM from Country Stitch, which was a bit more disappointing (just normal linens, not hand-dyeds), and something I’m probably going to cancel from next month. Unfortunately my recent stash splurges were a bit of a stuff-up, in that I worked out the conversion all wrong, so ended up spending a LOT more than I should have … so now I’m having to make a few budget cuts to offset it. Oh well, such is life … At least I have plenty of stash to keep me going in my days of poverty LOL – and I can always live on tuna for a couple of weeks hahaha.

Which reminds me – my last stash haul from SB&B has finally been shipped … it left on the 5th, so with any luck it will be here within the next week … woohoo!!! Then I can enjoy drooling over it, and get the guilt over and done with before Christmas LOL 😉

So, tonight I’m heading to bed with a smile on my face – all-in-all it’s been a good day. Hope your weekend is going well too 🙂

Well, the heading is aimed towards my lovely gift piece … I managed to frog stitch all that blending filament and the backstitching – but it took me all night! BF is a pain in the butt to remove anyway, without it being nice and crinkly 😉 Then to top it all off, I managed to stitch my first big replacement piece of stitching … and found I was one row out in counting – I think I’m doomed with this piece! The air round here last night matched my decor beautifully … it was very very blue! LOL. Never mind, I’m on 6am shifts this week, so hopefully I can get a few stitches in each afternoon in daylight. I have to admit, I’m usually really careful when I’m ironing, and usually do have a towel underneath it, and a cloth over the top … I was just feeling so under the weather I just wasn’t thinking. Never mind, by hook or by crook I’ll master the damned thing before the week is out! haha.

Thanks everyone as always for your comments – they’re always so welcome 🙂 And an especially big howdy to my cousin Anita, a new reader all the way from Canada – it’s so nice to see you! {{waving}} You’re right, Anita, I’m usually appalling at keeping in touch, so popping in here is a nice way to see what I’m up to … especially as you’re a stitcher too, ‘cos that’s usually all I talk about 🙂 I’m teaching Mum a bit more about emailing and the internet when she comes over to visit next week … so there may be blood on the carpet – either hers or mine hahahaha – no, she’s actually pretty good ‘cos she writes everything down 🙂

I’ve also decided I need to brush up my minimal French (by minimal, I mean I know about 4 whole sentences … “Comment ca va?”, “Je m’appelle Anne”, “je ne comprends pas”, and “je parle le francais petit peu seulement” haha – but there are some wonderful blogs out there written entirely in French … and Google translater really isn’t earning it’s salary at all – I can barely understand the english versions, never mind the french ones! So, perhaps I have a new task for 2006/2007 … improve my language skills LOL.

Rightio, enough dawdling on the computer – off to the “infamous project” … let’s see if I can actually do some stitching that will remain in the linen for more than 60 minutes haha.

Crikey, my fingers feel as though my arms have been cut off … they haven’t touched a needle … or needlework … all day! In an attempt to find my rotary cutter to cut the fabric strips etc for my ornaments, I ended up unpacking all the yet-unpacked bags and boxes in my bedroom … 3 wine boxes and about 6 various sized bags – yikes! And after all that, I still hadn’t found my cutter … but boy, oh boy, my bedroom looks a bit better for it – you can actually walk round BOTH sides of the bed now LOL. As for the cutter, I had a brainwave while I was unpacking – and lo and behold, when I looked into one of the big unpacked boxes in the spare bedroom, there it was …

I also found some quilting things that I really must add to my UFO list too hmmm – a wallhanging quilt of golliwogs that I did as my beginners introduction to quilting – but I hate the design, so it doesn’t enthral me too much to get it finished … but it only needs the binding to be done, and it’s finished – maybe I’ll give it to a charity or something … As for the others, one was a patchwork quilt for my best friend’s son – and the other is a quilting bag for my mat boards etc … it would be nice to get that finished – maybe I’ll enlist Mum’s help with that one while she’s here, as she’s the sewing guru, and that’s all that’s left to be done with it, I think.

I also finally managed to remember today to put a money order I’ve had sitting around for a while actually into an envelope, to send to Lauren Sauer at Forget-Me-Nots In Stitches – I fell in love with her design “Never Enough Berries” in the Fine Lines magazine, then found it had only the pindisk in that issue, and that the magazine is no longer being made … b*gger! The good news is that I decided to contact Lauren directly, and she’s making the chart in all four parts available for sale directly from her – so I’m finally going to the Post Office tomorrow/Friday to post it off to her (as well as check my mail – you never know, miracles may have happened over the last few days since I’ve not been at work – my Stitching Bits & Bobs backorder may have arrived!! … yeah, OK, that might be pushing things a little bit haha). Anyway, here’s the Never Enough Berries chart, seeing as I have nothing else to offer today in the way of stitching progress:

Sorry, but I gave up trying to upload the photo using Blogger today – I’ve used Photobucket instead, but that means you can’t click and enlarge sorry 😦

The night is still young, though – so I may still get chance to pick up a needle yet 😉

And now for something different … taken from Sharon’s blog:

You reflect the wisdom of the spirit. You shine as
a wise and anicent sage who values intellect
among the most. Your spirit brings guidence to
those around you. You have accomplished your
strength with age and time. Don’t let your wise
advice go to waste. Share it with all who are
willing to listen.

Reflections of the Spirit?

Well, I’ve had a fantastic stitching night/morning – and managed to almost complete another Christmas ornament … thinking I had all the buttons etc on hand, I figured I might as well get this one stitched before I start my first ever ornamentifying session … well, that was the plan! As you can see from the piccie, there is just one thing missing – the snowman’s carrot nose!! The one that turned up is too small, so now I’m not sure what to do – I can either place an order locally and hope to heck it turns up before Christmas … or satin stitch something instead (but I think I’d prefer to use a button) … or I could try buying some Fimo and make my own … has anyone tried to do this? Oh well, it still looks pretty good – it’s the first time I’ve changed the threads around to use what was in my stash … instead of using Crescent Colours (of which I don’t own any), I used Gentle Art Sampler Threads that I already had … instead of CC Apple Fritter I used GAST Cherry Wine, instead of CC Sassy Brass I used GAST Summer Meadow, and instead of CC Toasted Marshmallow I used GAST Oatmeal. The rest of the threads were as listed. It is a design by SamSarah Design Studio from the 2005 JCS Christmas Ornament issue. It was stitched on a small ‘Kiwi Pearls’ – a hand-dyed linen from Country Stitch. I’m pretty pleased with it all-in-all … just wished I could’ve finished it today …

Another great reason to have Mum come over for a holiday is that she’s bringing me black canvas for an upcoming project in the New Year – two canvaswork pieces by Jen’s Jems, a NZ designer … here’s a scan of the main threads being used – yup, they sure are bright!!! Hurry up and come over Mum, I’m dying to get starting on one of them!! 😉

Thanks for everyone’s comments about Mum’s tree – I’ll post one of my little baby one once it’s finished … I feel great today, so I might try and get a bit more done tomorrow – I had the Christmas tree lights on last night in the lounge while watching DVD’s … it was lovely 🙂 In fact I was enjoying myself so much, I nearly died when I looked up from my stitching and saw it was 2am!!! As for my migraine, thankfully it’s disappeared in its entirety – I’m not that good, Carol … I only stitched when my migraine was at its calming down stage – I started stitching which is what sent it over the top … so I just lay down and slept for a few hours, then tried again at night 🙂

It’s been a great relaxing couple of days – with a very eclectic mix of DVD’s to listen to while stitching … League of Gentlemen (very sick English comedy series – hilarious but twisted sense of humour!), Tears of the Sun, Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Men in Black 1 and 2 … yep, a woman of variation, that’s me 😉

Hope everyone is having a good week …

(Edited to add Christmas tree piccie)
Well, here it is – I decided to just bite the bullet and get it finished so I can get the box of ornaments off the sofa … here’s my baby version of Mum’s – kinda like a ‘mother and daughter’ set of trees haha. It’s a bit dark ‘cos I tried to get the lights showing up – looks quite cute in the corner of the room 🙂 I guess it must nearly be Christmas – it’s starting to really feel like it! 😉

I’ve been plagued with another migraine last night/today so that’s put the brakes on getting much stitching done – I did manage to get a couple of hours done, though, and did the stitching on a Mill Hill Christmas ornament – just need to do the beaded tassel and finish it off … another one of the finishing pile for later in the week 🙂 Instead today I’ve done exciting things like tidying the kitchen up and doing the dishes … and something a bit more fun, like getting the Christmas tree half-finished. It’s only a small one, so didn’t take very long at all … lights are on, and so is the tinsel and angel … just the Christmas balls and it’s finished. It’s only 4ft in height, so my soon-to-be-finished Christmas ornies won’t fit on it until I can afford a bigger tree – so they’re going to be hung from the window sill, from a ‘teddy chain’. It’s definitely feeling more festive now there’s a bit of decoration in the flat – even though I’m living on my own now, I was still determined to put my tree up … I adore Christmas trees – and I always swore my Mum’s tree was the best in the world … I used to start nagging for her to put it up as soon as 1 December came – and Dad used to love sitting in the dark, with just the tree lights on … one of my fave Christmas memories :))

Here’s Mum’s tree – that puts mine to shame …

Well, especially for Karen & Isabelle, here is the first progress piccie of Summer into Autumn that I started today. I was so over-tired this morning due to broken sleep, I frog-stitched the top band a sum total of 3 times and it’s such simple stitches!! Anyway, there are some things I don’t like about it, but some things I love about it … The dislikes are more to do with the kit itself – the threads are cut so darned short, they barely manage to stitch across the bands – for example just the short 4-sided bands and smyrna crosses I was left with literally one inch of thread in the needle! That’s spoiling the fun of stitching it a bit with me, ‘cos halfway across the band I’m focusing more on whether I’ll have enough thread to finish, than on the stitching itself 😦 I would have preferred to cut the threads myself to a reasonable length. Also, I’m not sure how I feel about the single strand coverage with the cross stitches – but with it being a kit, I daren’t increase the threads to two strands, as I won’t have enough thread to finish … I haven’t decided yet, but I may yet stitch it again with my own threads just to compare it later – and see how it looks with the 2 strands giving it a bit more concentrated colour.

On the positive note, though, the little bands are really fun to stitch – and they’re so tiny! Now I know what you meant when you were stitching it, Karen – the bands are only about 2 inches wide, with a nice mix of stitches and techniques. Don’t know whether I’ll match Karen’s finishing time of 5 days, but I might come close 😉

Well, time to think about getting to bed … it’s 1.44am, and I’ve only been home from work about 10 minutes, but I’m feeling pretty shattered – and I’ll be having another wake-up call in about 5 hours, from who I have affectionately nicknamed the “Bin B*stards” … it’s rubbish collection day, and the garbage trucks stop right outside my window at about 7am – mind you, it’s better than the last place I lived in … they came at 5.10am every week like clockwork, which is when they got their nickname! LOL.

Hopefully I’ll be able to put some more time into SIA tomorrow, as I still have 8 hours left in its rotation 🙂 Ooh, before I sign off, my order arrived from Nordic Needle today … some pretty stash enhancements – only missing size 10 short beading needles, which are still on backorder, but they sent me 2 x canvaswork charts by accident, so I’ll have to send the spare one back – fingers crossed they’ll reimburse me for the postage … Anyway, I’m a bit tired to post the stash contents today, so I’ll leave it for later 🙂

Managed to get a bit more of them done yesterday, but I’m ready to move on … they’re now being taken off the floorstand ready for the next slot in my rotation. It’s supposed to be my ‘finishing’ slot, but I had a pretty rough sleep last night, and my eyes are like road maps, so I think I might wait and leave that slot until the next time when I can concentrate better … and swap the next two slots around. That means I get to stitch on ‘free choice’ … and today’s choice is … The Drawn Thread’s Summer Into Autumn :)) I’ve got 6 days of 5pm-1am at work this week (yuk), but then I’ve got 5 days off, so I’ll be more energised to do my finishing work then I think.

Thanks for all your comments about the Dratted’s – I have to admit, they’ve grown on me again, and I’ve been enjoying watching them grow … still can’t wait until they’re finished, though 😉 Gina, in this case they’re definitely being framed – but not to hang on my walls … I offered my best friend as a wedding gift for her and John to choose a chart out of my stash, and I’d stitch it for them – and this is the one they agreed on. Little did I know back then just how hard I would find this one to stitch, and my joke of them getting it for their 10th wedding anniversary is starting to look like reality LOL. I’ll probably just send a money order or something to them, so they can get it framed locally, rather than me trying to organise framing for them (they live in the South Island of New Zealand). Hopefully they’ll be pleased how it finally turned out.

Thanks for the link to the stitch clips, Carol … I have to admit I own a set, and absolutely love them! Unfortunately, though, when I first had the Dratted’s on my scroll bars I only had a short sidebar available, and my floorstand has a clamp that sits on the left hand side of the sidebar, right where the little clips went, and it wouldn’t clamp properly (kept slipping) … hence the reason I laced it instead, which gives me really good tight tension. Can’t remember where I read about doing that – somewhere online, anyway 😉

I have to admit, I’m getting much more time for stitching since moving out on my own – at the last flat I was in, I did almost all of the cooking etc, while now I cook every now and then and the rest of the time just have to defrost (if I cook casseroles etc I just eat one meal then freeze the rest) … amazing how much time that frees up LOL. And Mum commented yesterday that while she’s here on holiday I should get even more stitching done, ‘cos she’ll be helping out with the housework etc … love ya, Mum!!