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

There will be no hope for me in Sydney!

Oops, I just realised I’d started this post days ago, and I haven’t finished it off!!! …  So I’ll start off with my original post ..

Check out what I’m going to have to contend with when I move … how am I going to keep myself amused?  Check out all these lovely stores I’ll have on my doorstep in Sydney:

And I already have a few offers of people that are going to come visit me while I’m up there – I’m really looking forward to having visits from my good pal Sharon, who was my first real stitching pal in Melbourne (I’m gonna miss you heaps!).  Also one of the girls at work who is no longer talking to me ‘cos I’m leaving haha, is already planning a girls weekend away so we can see the sights during the day, go to the theatre, then party the weekend away – I’m excited already at all these upcoming social occasions, and I haven’t even moved yet!  Of course, I’m sure I’ll be visiting Melbourne occasionally at the weekends as well … it’s only 11/2 hours by plane, which is great 🙂

Now I must say today I also spent more money that I shouldn’t be spending (yeah, so what’s new lately? haha) … and it’s all the fault of Rebecca (that friend from work who’s coming partying in Sydney) and Mel – I went on a buying spree to buy some Bud Ducks for them, as Highpoint Shopping Centre have an awesome selection … well, I walked in the door and found they’d just received shipment yesterday of some brand new designs … whaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!  Yes, I have to admit, two of them came home with me … well, what’s a duck-mad girl to do???  The two that I bought for myself are these ones – International Duck and Angel Duck … how could I resist them??  The International “Mile High Duck” I just thought was so appropriate for me and my new job – travelling interstate, but also working in the travel industry … just wish my passport had all those visa stamps haha.  And I also bought some teeny weeny little ones to come travelling with me – well, I gotta have at least ONE duck in my new room right?  But then it’s not fair to let one duck make the journey all on it’s own, and it just HAD to have company!  I really LOVE the blue Angel Duck – the colour is gorgeous.  Check out these new little additions to my travelling kit:

ducks-18oct07

And there are sooooooo many more that I really really want!! I guess you could call me the Imelda Marcos of ducks!!! 😀

As you can tell, there’s also no stitching happening at the moment … I just can’t stop yapping on here instead – plus spending 2 entire hours yapping to Mum on the phone today haha.  Now I’m sat in front of the TV watching So You Think You Can Dance … perhaps I might find a needle to pick up … perhaps … 😉

Rightio, going by the TV reference to So You Think You Can Dance, I guess I started typing this on Thursday night last week …  Now it’s time to update with the latest news!

As a matter of fact there has been a little bit of needlework happening out here in Pascoe Vale South – I’ve managed to finish off another block of Snapperville, and almost managed to complete the border around as well … a couple more hours and I’ll knock that off pretty easily.  I must say after not having much stitching mojo for a while, I’m absolutely LOVING stitching Snapperville … I just don’t want to put it down!  I think the Winter Snappers will be jumping on the Q-snaps quite quickly after I make the big move up north as well – I just love these little charts! 🙂

snapperville-wip-2

As for what else is news … I’ve spoken to someone from work who moved to Sydney a while ago, to see what his flatting arrangements are now (he used to flat with the girl whose job I’m taking over), and it seems he’s just bought an apartment and prefers to live on his own for now as his partner may be joining him in the future … but he’s said it’s OK if I get desperate that he’ll never see me go without a roof over my head and has offered ’emergency housing’ if I need to while I’m searching (Brenda has family coming over in the middle of December, so I have a maximum of 4 weeks to find somewhere).

BUT, I just had a phone message out of the blue today from someone else who worked with me 3 years ago – he’d just had lunch with a friend from my office who told him my news, and apparently he’s moving to Sydney as well and wanted to know what my planned living arrangements were going to be … I’ll have a chat to him over the next few days about it, as that could be another option – but that would probably mean having to freight my belongings up north … probably …  Herc should also find out about his interview results by the end of tomorrow as well, which might be another living option (probably my preferred one overall, as Matt is quite young and a bit of a party animal, and I’m that much older and just looking for a simple quiet life) – anyway, time will tell, and at least there are a few more friendly faces in Sydney that I know from work … yippee!! 🙂

As for work itself, they haven’t approved my leave that I wanted, because it’s Melbourne Cup week and they can’t afford more people off the phones.  They’ve given me Fri 9 Nov only, which is cr*p … let’s just say I’m a bit disappointed to say the least – it just depends who you are, I think, whether they want to make an effort to help out or not … and all I’ll say is that “I’m not Greek” … one of the Managers has a bad reputation for that – she’s Greek, and has a few family and friends that work there, and let’s just say they can get away with murder … that’s one thing I’m not going to miss – the office politics!  I don’t usually let it get to me and turn a blind eye, but everyone thinks their decision is appalling due to the circumstances, especially after doing so much for the company during my time there – but there’s no point getting cranky about it, it just gives you ulcers and doesn’t change anything.  Anyway, I’ve sent an email to the “big boss” in our office stating that if I can’t be given the extra two days leave, could I please use my 8 Luv Ya Work Awards in one day (the maximum is supposed to be 4, ie 2 hours off work) … that would let me leave 2 hours early which means on a 6am shift I could be hitting the road at midday.  Now all we have to do is work out if it’s still worthwhile having Mum fly over and driving up the coast, seeing as we’re two travelling days short.  Oh decisions, decisions …

As for Muffy here, I have to admit over the last few days she hasn’t exactly been endearing herself, and while I think she’s a beautiful dog on the whole, I have had the urge to turn her into a winter coat a few times … usually at 1am and 3am when I’m answering her pleas to be let outside.  The occasional night isn’t too bad, but I had a moment there when it was 4 nights in a row, and I was feeling severely deathly because of it.  Luckily the late night shifts have been perfect, because she goes outside as soon as I get home, and today I even got a sleep-in until just after 8am … 6 1/2 hours straight sleep … sheer bliss!!  The fleas still seem to be a problem, but not quite as bad … I have managed to track down and drown 3 of the little b*ggers over the last couple of days though hmmm.  Mind you, today she woke me up again at 7am, after 5 hours sleep, and I feel dreadful … I started losing my voice at work last night and getting bunged up, so I fear I have picked up a head cold … Muffy just decided it was time I should be up, and didn’t want to go outside at all … I nearly strung her up from the nearest fence!

I went to meet the menagerie of pets at the next housesitting job on Sunday night, and it’s going to be ‘interesting’ to say the least haha.  Two dogs, two cats, two birds, and an aquarium of fish, all of which have various eating routines etc – but afterwards I can relax in the spa with a glass of wine, and watch Foxtel movies … I’ve told them I may change the locks and never leave! LOL.

Anyway, I’ll finish with a photo of a gift I received at work yesterday from groups organiser (this was for customer service over and above the call of duty for some VIP customers returning home … you can make up your own mind as to who) – I laughed at the card that came with it … that I’m allowed to hide it away when the Bledisloe Cup is on … but personally I think I’m going to pop an All Blacks beanie and scarf on old Wally and sit him on my desk – a perfect blending of my ‘two down under cultures’ 😛

wally

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

The countdown is on …

All going well, and I get some annual leave approved by work (assuming I can get 3 shifts swapped from 6am starts to 9am or 10am ones, that is), I’ll be hitting the road to Sydney two weeks on Wednesday (straight after Melbourne Cup day).  That is also assuming that Gail is still OK to come home and relieve me from housesitting duties early as well, of course …

I’m really struggling to find the time to catch up with everyone that I know in Melbourne in the short time I have left – even though I know only a handful of people, I only have a handful of days where I’m not working 4pm or 3pm shifts, meaning only a few days left to catch up.  If I had my own home, I’d offer an ‘open day’ at home for a day where anyone can come visit, but the only weekend I have free is when I’m moving between housesitting jobs, and it’s just not an option – so instead I’ll be driving to and fro to the opposite ends of the city on a regular basis until I leave.

I was hoping to catch Tannia singing last night, but ended up chatting on the phone for ages to Brenda in Sydney – but the great thing is that Brenda and Nigel are happy to put me up for a couple of weeks while I’m looking for new, and more permanent, lodgings.  There’s probably not much point organising anything else before I arrive – although I’ll be scouring the local papers for flats in the Mascot area pretty quickly on arrival 🙂

My threads finally arrived today from Dragonfly Dreams, although they were sent some time ago – Australia Post can be quite spectacularly slow for local deliveries, which is annoying.  Anyway, it means I can now probably finish off It’s Halloween this week – yay!  Yesterday, during the day, I started – and finished – one more block of Snapperville, and started another block.  I guess that means I’m approximately half-way through the stitching of that one now … double yay!! 😀

This coming week is probably the last chance I’ll get to put some stitches in before hitting the road … it’ll be interesting to see how regular working hours will affect my stitching time – the good thing about shift work sometimes is the plentitude of peace and quiet for stitching … hmmm.

Anyway, no piccies tonight ‘cos I’m too lazy to take one of Snapperville – and I’m supposed to be heading out to a ‘wedding reception’ party of one of our gay guys at work.  Kevin and Peter got married in Vancouver a few months ago, but only a few people were able to attend the ceremony, so they’ve organised a local shin-dig for us all tonight instead … to be absolutely honest I’d rather be curling up in bed early thanks to the Muffster giving me wake-up calls every night for the last 4 nights (twice in one night!) – thanks to having very broken sleep … it’s soooo hard to get back to sleep properly after being woken up at 1am or 3am! … I’m pretty shattered and so “not” in party mode.  Anyway, I’m going to jump in the shower and see if I can wake myself up a bit – it’s also awkward using public transport out in this part of town, as I don’t really know where I am, but I suppose I should at least make an effort … after all, this is probably the final shin-dig with work colleagues in Melbourne! …

I’ll close by saying it was fun seeing my Photo Hunt today … I loaded all those posts up so long ago now, even I get a surprise each week with the choices LOL 😉

PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt – Practical

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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I was originally going to use this photo for the theme of “long” as it’s a loooooong walk down the path to the lighthouse – but I changed my mind and decided it would be a good choice for the theme of “practical” … while they are beautiful majestic buildings, they serve a very practical purpose – sometimes it’s easy to forget that they were built with a purpose in mind, not just for looking wonderful on the skyline! These were all lighthouses found along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia.

long 1

Lighthouse, Great Ocean Road

Lighthouse, Great Ocean Road

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Desktop meme & more Sydney thoughts

Wow, I’m absolutely blown away by all the comments I’ve received about my move to Sydney – thanks everyone, it felt really good to read all those positive vibes.  It’s funny, but one of the girls at work the other day started saying how this could be “the big plan” for me … it does seem strange that everything that has happened recently has lead me to this opportunity, ie that my Elwood flat became dangerous so I started looking for a new place, then got put off flatting with Sheree and decided to put my stuff into storage to go housesitting … if I hadn’t got my personal belongings in storage I never would have looked at this job twice!

A few of the people at work think I’ll never return to Melbourne again … and that my career will skyrocket haha.  All I can say is that I have no plans beyond the next 12 months – and I’m not taking my personal belongings with me until I know where I want to be after that 12 months is up.  If I find I’m loving it in Sydney at that time, then I’ll look at moving up ‘formally’, but until that time I’m just going to enjoy the challenges the next 12 months will be bringing me, and so far anticipate moving back here again at the end of it all.

Another great thing is that this time I have some friendly stitching faces already in Sydney – thanks so much for your offers Tash and Gail … I’d love to catch up when I move up there.  It look me a couple of years after moving to Melbourne before I started blogging and meeting some lovely local ladies (starting with Sharon and Gina, then later on Tannia, Mel, and Junette) – so having some like-minded people already in contact is a wonderful feeling.

I must say I’m really really looking forward to having ‘all’ my stash accessible in one room again – it also means I can get back to stitching on my rotation again, and working on those BAP’s I’ve had to put in storage temporarily.  I won’t say my entire stash will be coming with me, but definitely every single one of my kitted up projects, along with one ringbinder of extra unkitted charts, and all my fabrics and threads. 

Of course the other great thing is that I’ll have Brenda and Nigel in the same city – Nigel is my best friend Vicki’s brother, and I’ve known him for just over 30 years now, and his wife Brenda for many years too.  It will be amazing having people within driving distance that know me and all my history … that’s the one thing I’ve missed here at times, and it’s easy to take that sort of friendship for granted.  Of course the other great thing is that there’s a huge kiwi contingent in Sydney, which means I’ll be able to satisfy my yearnings for L&P and Griffins gingernuts etc more easily haha.

I’ll miss shift work to a certain degree, but it will also be nice to have regular sleeping patterns again – the latest roster I’ve been working over the last 6 months has been exceptionally tiring, I’ve really hated parts of it with a passion.  As much as it will be a right royal pain driving in peak hour traffic regularly again, it will be nice to be able to watch my fave TV shows regularly, catch up with people for dinner without having to block a night in your diary 3-4 months in advance, and I could even join in some more SAL’s now.  Not to mention I could join the local Guild and have a regular stitching session each month … crikey, that would be something! 😀

I think I’ve decided what my celebratory treat to myself will be – I’ve decided to stick to my 50 project challenge until finished (‘cos after all, there’s not much left to go now), and I’m going to treat myself to a French book I saw at Crewel Gobelin when I visited in April this year.  I didn’t buy it then as it was over $50, but I really loved it, and what better treat than something that will reside beautifully on my bookshelves for years to come (unless of course it’s sold out now)?  The other thing I really want to do is to get my Friendship Quaker RR framed for my new room so I can sit it on an easel (if I don’t have a wall hook) – that would be a wonderful testament to my online friendships, and give me the warm fuzzies in my new surroundings.

I have to admit, I’m really quite excited about it all – there are so many positives, they sure outweigh the negatives at the moment.  For those of you wanting to know how far away I’m moving to … I’ve been checking a few websites, and if I take the Hume Highway route (which is very direct, and very boring driving from memory the last and only time I did it), it’s approx 9-10 hours driving time, and just under 1000 km (I’ve seen a couple of maps showing between 870-960 km).  Personally I’d love to be able to take the coastal route, and drive up with two overnight stopovers to have a sort of ‘mini holiday’ on the way … but I’ll have to see if that’s feasible.  It would also be really good to have two full days off when I arrive in Sydney to relax and chill out and get my work clothes unpacked etc as well.

Here’s a link to two driving maps … the first one up the Hume Highway and the 2nd one following the coast … I’d dearly love to do that second one.  There is a bit of tourist info about the coastal drive here as well.  Here’s a map of where I’ll be driving (approx):

map-of-australia

I’ve also tried making a Google map, but I don’t know if it will copy across OK (my first attempt definitely didn’t …):

View Larger Map

This is all Rissa’s fault … I thought it would be fun – the idea is to do a screen dump of your desktop and post for all the world to see.  Well, I’m sure you’ll not be surprised that I’ve chosen a wee duckling as my current desktop piccie … isn’t it cute?!!  I also have a piccie of a grown-up duck that I swap around and use from time to time as well, but this one remains my all-time favourite one … perhaps because of the blue background as well as the duck 🙂

screen-shot

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Freaking out BIG time!!! …

… ‘cos … I’M OFF TO SYDNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

art 2

OMG, my head is spinning off my shoulders big time!!  I got the call this afternoon offering me the promotion, and I accepted, and now it’s sinking in what I’m actually doing … OMG!!! 😛

My starting date is Wednesday 14 November, and my last day at work at this stage is Friday 9 November – and I have to pack up my car and take the looooong drive up to Sydney after work (where I would break the journey in say Albury or somewhere – or I could get a motel or something overnight in Melbourne and head up the next day).  And I have to do all the important things like get the forms to forward my mail etc (I’ll open a PO Box somewhere in Sydney for the year, and leave my PO Box in Melbourne open, I guess).

Anyway, I just thought I’d let everyone know the news – now I just have to work out how the heck to catch up with everyone that I want to before I leave Melbourne … when I have very limited time available to me compliments of some crappy shifts (such as 4pm-midnight all next week!).

I have the next two days off, so I think I’ll start making up some lists of things I need to take with me, and things I need to organise changes of address for etc – and I’ll need to find somewhere to live, which is the next critical stage, so I’ll be phoning my friends Brenda & Nigel to see if I can bunk in their spare room until I can find something closer to work (I think they’re about a 2-hour commute from the airport hmmm).  The fun thing about my new office is that it is based out by the airport, and you can see the planes coming and going out the window … it’s definitely more in the ‘hands-on’ area of the airline, it’s going to be a major challenge, and perhaps the biggest work challenge I’ve ever had to date … time will tell anyway.

Well, enough rambling, as I know that’s exactly what I’m doing … I’m going to sit now and break my rotation and work on Snapperville for an hour.  Muffy has finally settled down on the sofa next to me after going mental and jumping up and down and trying to french kiss me when I first arrived, she was so excited to see me come home haha.  Time to kick back and try not to think for an hour or so 😉

Just think, though, of all the exciting new LNS’es I will get to explore … Karen at Dragonfly Dreams, here I come!!!! 😀

In fact, I think a bit of stash enhancing just might be in order by way of celebration teehee … 50 project challenge, I hear you say … um, what’s that??? LOL 😀

Cross Stitch

Freebie alert – for autumn

I just wanted to post a quick note before I forget … I just found the most gorgeous (in my eyes anyway) autumn freebie online – and thought I’d share.  It would look wonderful in overdyed threads, and reminds me a little bit of Lizzie*Kate’s style of stitching – I love it! 😀

Swirly Autumn by Cross Stitch Happy

No stitching has been done since finishing Katrina’s RR – my seahorse is unravelling quite a bit on the sides of the fabric, so I might put it away until later when I have access to a sewing machine and can overlock/zigzag the edges of the fabric (or even better add some calico strips so I can put it in the q-snaps).  That means I should be working on Sailor’s Valentine, but I’ve got a serious case of ‘avoidance’ from starting that one at the moment, and keep looking wistfully at Snappervile.  I think perhaps it’s just not as conducive as I thought having a mini rotation while I’m housesitting – perhaps I’ll be better off just focusing on a couple of projects and being a one-at-a-timer for a while … or perhaps it’s just my brain giving me an excuse to keep stitching on Snapperville, ‘cos I was loving stitching on it, and didn’t really want to put it down .  Oh well, by the time you see another progress piccie, you’ll find out what decision my addled brain came to! 😉

I just found an old draft in my dashboard from a day many many moons ago (about 12 months in fact) … I was obviously sat in a befuddled glaze while doing much more wasteful things than stitching – web surfing! This is what I had to say:

“Today’s little web sojourn has taken me on a trip to another Melbourne supplier … this time to VicSew (Victoria Sewing Supply Pty Ltd). Has anyone ever bought anything from them before??  In a quilting magazine I saw they had some wonderful quilt hangers (something I haven’t seen too much of in actual shops) … and I just adore the Christmas one (with Christmas trees and a reindeer) – it can be found here, towards the bottom of the page.  I think it would look really cute with ornies hanging from it 🙂  I also don’t mind the sunflower one, either, although it might look a bit more tacky in real life.  I’m now allowing myself to look at the price pages yet … but I am definitely going to bookmark this one for a future session 😀 ”

Anyway, the question is still a pertinent one … and I thought I’d still ask it.

Rightio, time to pop off and get dressed – I just have time to take the old fleabag out for a walk before heading off to work for the night.  Fingers crossed my threads will have arrived today from Dragonfly Dreams, ‘cos then my stitching dilemma will be even easier – I’ll be sat finishing It’s Halloween before all else!! 😀

Then only one more sleep before I find out whether to start flat hunting in Sydney or Melbourne …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

Happy Dancing early! (updated AGAIN)

I shouldn’t actually be doing this little happy dance until about a month away, but I sneakily finished this early.  This is Katrina’s finished Friendship Quaker RR.  I told Becky it was OK to send it on to me early as she’d done her part of the stitching on it – and I thought it would be great to get my part finished early so it can be sent to Katrina with the next parcel containing Nicki’s RR, so it would also well and truly miss the Christmas mail.  I think it turned out beautifully, and I love the thread choice (well, duh, it’s blue! LOL).  I’m just sorry the photo doesn’t do it justice – I don’t know why but this camera just doesn’t seem to like taking photos of natural linens, and I have to tweak in Photoshop every time, which then means I mess around with the thread colours too, and nothing looks how it should hmmm. 

Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such

katrina's-finished-quaker-r

This has been a wonderful project with some of my closest online buddies – Nicki, Barbara, KarenV, BeckySC and Katrina.  I can’t wait to see all the finished products over the next 6-8 weeks 🙂

(Updated to add piccies of each round of this round robin to compare thread and fabric choices that everybody made)

Quaker Friendship Sampler Round Robin quaker rr becky's quaker-rr-karenv's Barbara's Quaker RR nicki's-quaker-rr-final Katrina's finished Quaker RR

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Updated (again!) to add … if anyone would like to receive this chart (Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such) please leave a comment (make sure you include your email contact) saying you’d like to have your name included in the draw, and I’ll draw a name out of the hat at the end of the month and post the chart out to the winner 🙂

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I’m on a later shift today so Muffy and I are going for a walk before I head into work.  I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Muffy (although I can’t wait to get away from the bl**dy fleas!!) – she’s such wonderful company.  She gets so excited to see you when you come home from work, and has such a wonderful personality – she curls up next to you on the sofa and stays there for ages.  Yep, definitely gonna miss her 🙂

Mind you the next place I’m going to has 2 dogs, 3 cats, some fish, and I think birds … so I’ll still be getting my animal fix over there … one reason I’m cramming as much stitching in as I can right now, as I don’t think I’m going to get much time when I’m at the next place! 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

It’s all out of my hands now …

What is, I hear you ask?  Either that or the voices in my head are getting louder than normal! LOL.  Today I flew up to Sydney for my job interview – I felt very special as I flew up in business class … but I didn’t expect to get home on time, as the flights were really full.  My boarding pass wouldn’t go through the scanner at the gate, so I half expected I’d been offloaded … but it turns out I’d been upgraded on the way home too … wow!! 😀

The interview went by in a bit of  blur, to be honest – I can’t say I blitzed it, as there were some questions in there I wasn’t expecting … but I did my best, and time will tell if it was good enough or not.  They’re calling one of my referees either later today or on Monday, and they’re hoping to let us all know by Wednesday next week at the latest.  At least I’ll know whether I need to start looking for a new flat in Melbourne or Sydney … and I’m working the next 5 days straight, so that’ll keep my mind off things 🙂

Last night I started putting a couple of stitches into the first Lanarte Sea Life piece while watching So You Think You Can Dance (I really enjoy that show) – I managed to start the seahorse, although I didn’t get too much done.  Today I’m pretty shattered as nerves got the better of me during my sleep last night (makes a change to Muffy and the fleas keeping me awake!! haha), so I think it’ll be an early night for me and Muffy tonight.  Here’s a picture of the four pieces that I want to stitch eventually, plus the tiny progress from last night.

sea-life-by-lanarte


seahorse-wip-1

I was supposed to start the Sailor’s Valentine by CA Wells next on my rotation list, but my concentration wasn’t quite ‘all there’ last night, so I daren’t start it … I thought it was better to stick to something simple instead.

Rightio, dinner has reheated, so it’s time to go and eat … plus Muffy is ready for round two of her dinner too (she’s being spoilt tonight, seeing as I had to leave her outside all day in the dreadful weather) 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Itchy and Scratchy

Yep, this household definitely fits the bill of those two characters from The Simpsons … I’m Itchy, and Muffy is Scratchy.  I doped up the base of Muffy’s neck yesterday, although the scratching is still happening today.  Apparently it can take 3 days to show the effects, so fingers crossed by the weekend she’ll be scratching less … which hopefully means that I will be too!  Yet another broken night’s sleep last night thanks to flea bites and Muffy’s evening bladder … ho-hum 😦

I decided not to bother going driving to pick up my GAST threads today, but decided instead to send away and spend my $10 gift voucher from a previous order with Dragonfly Dreams to get Karen to send a skein of the threads I need.  I figure by the time I spent the petrol on a 1-1/2 hour round trip driving session, plus the e-tag toll price, it just wasn’t worth it … so I’ve stitched as far as I can go without the gold Kreinik and two GAST threads I’m missing, and tomorrow night I’ll start my next project.  The photo is really terrible, but you can get an idea of it anyway – at least when the threads arrive it’ll only take one night to finish the whole thing off 😀

it's-halloween-wip-2