Melbourne

Just another day in St Kilda (picture heavy!)

Anne S

We thought we’d wander down to the waterfront at lunchtime to watch the last of the aerial displays that are meant for the Australian Grand Prix audience … but in the nearby suburbs we get to share in the excitement as well.  We’ve had jets and choppers buzzing overhead the flat the last two days, but we wanted to get a bit more up close and personal so went for a short wander.

To our surprise St Kilda was packed (well actually that’s no surprise for a weekend with barely a cloud in the sky and blue skies everywhere, but it was more packed than normal) … we were soon to find out why … not only did we get to see the aerial displays flying overhead, but we also found ourselves in the middle of the audience for the FINA world swimming championships with an open sea swimming event happening right on our beach – there was also a free beach party happening with music pumping on the foreshore, and a trapeze group performing.  Not only that, it was Sunday so the open air craft stalls were out on the promenade … we spent loads of time there today, in fact pretty much the entire day.  After all the excitement of the entertainment we sat and had brunch, followed by a bit of grocery shopping and a tub of berries and gelati to eat on the way home … it was sheer bliss, and probably one of the most enjoyable days of Mum’s stay to date.  We finished off with a quick trip to Spotlight for some machine sewing threads, and now we’re blobbing out with a glass of chilled Chardonnay while perusing our photos from the day along with this evening’s TV Guide … ah bliss 😀

Mum has helped me choose a selection of photos from today’s events to show the wide variety of things we got up to today, in order of it all happening …

 


Mum wondering who’s stolen her bike!  Just kidding – I just thought she looked funny standing in the middle of all the bikers (she was actually watching the big screen of the swimming and the trapeze show next to it) 😉

So, all-in-all a fun-filled day in St Kilda!  We now both look exceptionally healthy and glowing … not just from the Chardonnay, but from the lovely light dose of sunburn we’re both sporting haha. 

I’m halfway through the top part of the Peacock needlecase, but I won’t bother posting a progress piccie until it’s all finished.

Quilting

Not much stitching being done

Anne S

 It’s been a very slothful St Patrick’s Day here in Elwood today … Mum’s been sat at the sewing machine, and I’ve been sat next to her playing with a quilting program on the computer.  Here’s what we came up with for my upcoming quilting challenge with Isabelle   I LOVE the colours … I just have to find fabrics to kinda match my expectations haha.  It will make it easy just to print off the piccie and take it with me to the quilting store later … I already have the navy/turquoise fabric we bought a couple of weeks ago, which is what this quilt is based on.  Crikey, I wish the CA Wells class would hurry up, ‘cos I’m almost bursting at the seams wanting to start this among other things LOL.

The quilt I’ve come up with is based on the Winter Carnival quilt by Marianne Elizabeth in The Quilter Magazine Jan 2007, but has some changes to the colour usage in the blocks, and in fact no longer really resembles that quilt whatsoever!:

Uncategorized

My ducks are coming home

Anne S

I heard from Vash that my Ducks RR is finally completed and they will be winging their way homeward to the Southern Hemisphere soon – it was wonderful to see a piccie of the completed RR on Vash’s blog today … and I immediately did a mock-up to show Mum how I was thinking of framing them when they get home.  I thought I’d share it here too, seeing as it will be a while yet before I can afford to do the framing … but I couldn’t wait to start dreaming about what it will look like.  The colours are obviously not exact, as I’d need to find a matboard and frame what will pick up the colours in the stitching, but it’s more of the concept of what it will look like … kinda 😉  I used the photo that Vash posted (hope that’s OK Vash) – aren’t they beautiful?  Vash has been in a stitching slump due to personal reasons, so I’m appreciative she managed to get them finished during trying times.  I’ll post again when they’ve actually been received 😀

We’re having a slow start to the day today – I only managed to get 5 hours sleep thanks to a ringing phone and the aerial display of the fighter jets, so I feel a bit jaded (I didn’t get to bed until 4am) … I have the weekend off, though, and any day off work is a good day   I’m hoping to get one side of the Peacock needlecase totally finished, then I thought I’d have a break and stitch one or two over-one grapes on the Bordeaux Sampler … I’ve been missing my weekly SAL with Carol and Leslie dearly, so I thought an hour or two tonight wouldn’t go amiss to have a break from the CA Wells projects …  It’s given Carol an opportunity to catch up now, though, and I think she may just have overtaken me this last week 😉

PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt – Drink

Anne S


|

This week’s theme is “Drink” … and these two photos suit the theme down to the ground! The first photo is my extensive cocktail booze collection, with my Aunt posing for a joke as if she’s working through the collection. Every time Mum comes over to visit me she brings another two bottles from my collection rather than buying duty free … I’m slowly getting them all ‘home’ – so, who’s up for a cocktail party? LOL.

This photo cracks me up … just the look on wee Danial’s face is a delight … and a look that you don’t normally get until your teenage years when looking at a can of beer!! He looks like he’s just found a pot of gold!! LOL. This was taken at my Dad’s 70th birthday.

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Melbourne, Works in Progress

Now Mum’s cruel!

Anne S

After telling her this morning that some of you have been Googling for huntsman spiders, she said “ooh, do it for me too, I want to see them!” … seeing as Mum is computer illiterate I’ve had to sit here and Google it for her … the last thing I wanted was the damned things sitting on my computer screen, but she got to see them!  Funnily enough, Mum’s not overly fond of spiders either, especially those that size, so it was a big ask to get her to come to my rescue … she’s not terrfied of them, though, like I am.  Apparently I’ve been like it ever since I was small – I’d scream the place down to get them to remove a ‘money spider’ in my room (you’d be lucky if one of those is more than about 2mm in size!!).  I have to say I can deal with the little ones now as long as they’re not actually on me, but I reckon huntsman spiders are just hideous – you could put a saddle on and ride the damned things! LOL.  My apologies for not putting a hyperlink in here for you to the spiders … I only thought about that after I’d shut the site down again (very quickly after opening it, I might add!), and I really don’t want to go back in again – you’ll just have to Google it from scratch haha.  And I’m not posting a piccie here, otherwise I’ll freak every time I see my own blog 😉

Yesterday, before I went to work, I managed to get a few more stitches put into my Peacock needlecase while catching up on CSI episodes we’d been taping during the week … inbetween listening to the ‘zoom-zoom’ noises of the Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 cars zooming around the Albert Park circuit – I’m amazed how loud it sounded yesterday to say we live a couple of km away from the tracetrack!  It’s a busy week in Melbourne with the Grand Prix, the Melbourne 2007 FINA swimming championships, and (of more interest to us) the Stitches & Craft Show.  We’re sitting on the fence at the moment whether to go to the S&C Show on Sunday, but we’ll play that by ear on the day – neither of us have any money so we’re thinking perhaps it’s best to leave temptation out of it and stay home LOL.

Tonight is my last 6pm shift, thank goodness … next week it’s more civilised with a mix of 3pm and 12 noon shifts, yippee.  Only another week and a half before Mum heads back home again.  She actually offered today to fly back over while the builders are here fixing up the building if I pay for her ticket with my frequent flyer points … she’s a real sweetheart.

Well, I feel a bit more awake now so time to tackle my stitching for a bit … I got woken up from a deep sleep (no nightmares, thankfully) by fighter planes flying overhead, getting ready for the aerial display during the Grand Prix – that’ll be fun to watch over the weekend if we’re around – we were in Acland Street at St Kilda last year when it happened, and it was great to see the formations flying overhead 😀

I’ll finish with a small shot of one of the leaves right outside my lounge room window – as you can see autumn has arrived down under, and it’s awesome to sit and watch the leaves change colour each day … I’m actually thrilled I’m still here to see autumn arrive in Elwood, as my street is gorgeous with all the elm trees changing colour right up both sides of the street … very pretty 😀

I’m now backed-up with the SBQ’s from the last three weeks, so I’ll finish (I promise this is the last ‘finish’) by catching up on the questions:

28 Feb – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Danielle and is:

“Do you find yourself stitching faster when you are getting to the end of a design?”

I’d probably have to say that depends on the design itself, but generally I guess the answer would be “no” … when I get that close (for example, the Dratteds) I don’t stitch faster, but I do feel more motivated to stitch “more” on it … I just don’t want to put it down so I can get it finished in its entirety – but then when it’s finished I almost feel let down, expecting fireworks to go off in celebration, instead I feel “is that it?” LOL.

7 Mar – Today’s SBQ is: 

“Do you use your needle, a seam ripper, or something else when you have to frog stitches? Why do you use the method that you do?”

I mainly use my tapestry needle where possible, but I will use the tips of my Gingher’s to snip a few threads if it’s getting tangled etc, or just to speed up the process (I just snip the top cross of the stitch very very carefully).

15 Mar – Today’s SBQ was suggested Danielle and is:

“If you had $500 to spend on stitching-related items, what would you buy?”

Geez, there’s a loaded question … and funnily enough I would answer this one differently now then if I’d answered it a year ago.  Right now I’m relatively happy with the stash I already have, and I’m pretty well set up as far as stitching ‘equipment’ (ie ott-lite etc) – I’d probably rather spend it on a stitching retreat, or ordering the full chart and kit for another Chatelaine design or two (that’d kill most of the money in one hit anyway LOL).  The only other thing would be to buy the threads that I still don’t have to finish kitting up some of my existing stash.

Right, now I’m definitely off to stitch for an hour – then it’s off to work early to pick up my overlocker from the ‘doctors’ so Mum can sew me a top or two … she loves sewing clothes.  Dad’s Mum was a lady’s maid for Lady Winterton in Shropshire years ago, and did all the Lady’s sewing – she taught Mum how to sew … and years later Mum tried to teach me.  I used to enjoy sewing, then learnt embroidery and my passion for stitching started … I’m starting to get the urge to try clothes sewing again, but it might not be for a while yet, there’s too much stitching to be done in the meantime LOL.  Talking of which, I’m definitely outta here now – way too much yapping being done, and not enough stitching! haha.

Uncategorized

I love my Mum!!!

Anne S

It is now almost 3.30am, and Mum has just gone back to bed after I woke her up at 2.45am … I don’t know what I would have done without her tonight, but I can say I would have been sleeping in the car for the night!

I finished work at 2am, and got home just before 2.30am, only to find a not-so-lovely huntsman spider sitting waiting for me right above the security entrance door into the building. My pulse rate quickened a lot, but I ducked off to my car and grabbed my can of surface spray from the glove box (yes, I am such an arachnaphobe that I carry a can in my car!), returned to the building door and stood at a safe distance and sprayed that sucker!  Everything was going swimmingly as it ran off away from the door, but then the ‘little’ bugger doubled back and ran underneath the door!  For me that then put me in a terrible quandary – I literally stood rooted to the spot for 15 whole minutes, and was so worked up I was nearly in tears when I considered trying to open the door not knowing where the damned spider was!  After another 5 minutes I decided I had two choices … either sleep in my car for the night and deal with it in the daylight when the surface spray would hopefully have done its job, or wake Mum up at that ungodly hour to come to my rescue …

I almost headed off to my car to tuck myself in for a few hours, when I thought that Mum would be really worried when she woke up and I wasn’t home … after a while I just dialled that home phone from my mobile and woke her up.  I feel so bad I had to do that, but my phobia is just so great that I honestly couldn’t bring myself to get through that door any other way!  Another 10 minutes later and she arrived with broom in hand to let me in, saying she hadn’t seen it anywhere … feeling brave, I walked in the door, only to spy it sitting on the inside of the bottom step on the stairs – half a can of surface spray later and it was stunned enough to let me do a panic run past it, trembling like a leaf … I don’t know how the hell I’ll deal with the body later, but I don’t want to think about it right now.

When we got upstairs I just wanted to cry and my heart felt like it was about to beat itself right out of my chest … I even made Mum put her hand on my heart to feel how fast my heart was pounding and she couldn’t get over it!  I know I’m a big wuss-puss where huntsman spiders are concerned (in fact ALL spiders), and my body literally goes into ‘terror mode’.  No doubt I’ll be having nightmares all night tonight … but at least now my heart rate has returned to normal, and Mum my saviour has settled down again to try to get back to sleep.  I have to admit, though, I’ll always freak out a tiny bit when I got through that door now hmmmm.

On a different note I had an interesting ‘treat’ when I got into work … a big poster of my face saying “you’re a star” etc up on the wall by the main Supervisor’s desk – a publicity photo from the eXcel service awards … I felt so embarrassed, but quite proud at the same time.  I’d better get used to it, as apparently it’s going to be up all year long!

Rightio, time to go and try to get some sleep … I don’t know why, but I’m expecting it to take some doing tonight! ;P

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

Squishy mail & lovely visits

Anne S

Well, tonight I ended up having a reprieve from work … we had a wonderful visit out today, but driving home it took us over 1 1/2 hrs to get home from Eltham, and by the time I got home I was feeling decidedly squiffy again, so I called in work and said I’d be staying home for the night 😦  We even had to stop off at a local Dairy (stop giggling my fellow Aussies, that’s our Kiwi equivalent of your Milk Bar … I still can’t get used to calling it a Milk Bar – for you Brits out there, it’s the equivalent of the ‘corner shop’) so I could buy some ginger drink to try to quell the queasiness.  Anyway, that’s enough of me moaning … on to the brighter moments of the day 🙂

Before I do that, though, I just realised I haven’t written anything about our weekend social night out with Sharon and Pete … We went round there for dinner on Saturday night, and had the most wonderful time – dinner was divine and the company excellent.  I took my stitching with me but we were enjoying ourselves so much it came out briefly for a show-and-tell, but not a single stitch was done.  I also received a wonderful birthday gift voucher for Bustle & Bows from Sharon, and very touched with that generous gift … unfortunately the gift I gave Sharon wasn’t quite as good … unfortunately I’d chosen a chart I knew she loved, but she’d just bought it for herself as a kit … oops 😦  I already know what I’m doing next time, and think I’ll be safe with that choice 😉  Before we knew it it was almost midnight, and I felt like we’d just arrived – as always a definite pleasure and both Mum and I enjoyed ourselves immensely 😀

Back to today – we caught up with another fellow blogger and Melbournian for a beautiful lunch and stash drooling.  We drove over to visit Gina today, albeit half an hour later than we planned due to a visit from the real estate agent (which I’ll talk about soon), and then because I took a wrong turn and had to consult the Melways … because of supposedly going to work for 6pm we had to cut short the visit, as we knew the drive would take a while to get home – we would have loved to have stayed longer … next time we definitely have to choose a non-working day so we can have more time 🙂 Thank you again Gina for a lovely day out – it was great to finally visit and see that infamous collection of linens … and see your Indian first-hand 😀  Mind you, if I’d known I’d start feeling sick again on the way home, we wouldn’t have had to hurry off 😉

The other highlight of the day was the wonderful mail I received – firstly Becky’s piece for the Quaker Friendship RR … it looks gorgeous in real life, and I’m looking forward to adding my little bits to it in round 2 of this RR 🙂

Next up was my order from One Star’s Light – my Cat’s Whiskers charts and 17″ Q-snaps … and I have to agree with everyone else that Jenna’s extra attention to detail is lovely with everything individually wrapped in beautiful tissue paper and wax seals … even Mum’s drooling over the Alyssum scissor keeper, and I can see her extra birthday gift being something stitched this year (she already has the main part of her gift in some Gingher scissors etc).

Last, but certainly not least, is a wonderful RAK from Linda … she very generously sent me her copy of Just Nan’s Dragonfly Scissor Purse, and I’m just over the moon about that – I was seriously drooling over Linda’s blog every time she put a progress piccie up, and I’m thrilled that I now get chance to stitch one of these beauties!  That was enough on it’s own to have me grinning from ear to ear, but she also sent another chart from my wishlist, M Designs’ Snow Wonderful – I fell in love with this after seeing this on another blog, and yet again Mum’s eyeing it up too because of the snowmen and snowflake!  Linda also sent another chart which I hadn’t seen before – Winter Getaway, and I just love the little cabin scene, so it will definitely be stitched up as well.  Thanks again, Linda, I truly adore everything 😀

On a different note, we had a visit from the new real estate Property Manager, and she was dumb-founded by the cracks … I’m really impressed by her attitude – she took loads of photos and said she was calling the landlord immediately as the cracks were very serious.  As I said to her, I’m happy someone from the agency is finally taking me seriously, as my previous chasing phone calls were doing nothing at all.  Within an hour we had a phone call from her saying the landlord wants to visit tomorrow morning, and she’s trying to get someone from the Body Corporate out here immediately as well, because it’s that serious!  Hallelujah!!!  It will be interesting to hear what they have to say tomorrow! 😀

And to finish this very lengthy post, here’s the progress to date of my CA Wells’ Peacock Needlecase … not too much to show, but I’m not touching any other stitching until this one is finished in its entirety.  I’m feeling a bit brighter than when I first got home, so I just might be able to get a thread or two into this tonight … fingers crossed 🙂  Which is exactly where I’m heading now … off to watch House and Medium with Mum … aside from the squiffy tummy, it doesn’t get much better than this 😉

Uncategorized

Life’s reminder that I’m kinda blonde!

Anne S

Just a really quick post to say “g’day” and show that I’m actually alive.  Sorry I’m so absent from commenting on blogs etc at the moment, and I’m sooooo far behind on reading it’s not funny.  I’m only generally reading blogs and catching up on emails etc after Mum’s gone to bed, which isn’t ideal time-wise, and now I’m back at work again it’s even harder.

I have to say that while I’m loving having Mum here it is really distracting … you can just about guarantee that as soon as I start to concentrate on something or remember something I need to do, I get called way with a question or conversation from Mum, and it all goes out the window!  Thank goodness I’m still switched on at work, because my brain switches off as soon as I walk in the front door at home!  The ultimate one last week was posting off my Friendship Quaker RR to Katrina … already a couple of days late in posting, I was chatting to Mum when scrambling to get a pile of items together to take to the post office (including a couple of RAK envelopes) … I heard from Katrina today saying there was something missing from the envelope … the threads!!  Yep, in a major blonde moment I’d actually put the fabric into the envelope and left the threads sitting here on top of the chart etc … geesh!!  I keep thinking of all the things I need to do while I’m driving into work on my own, so I think I’m going to have to start driving with a pad and pencil next to me to quickly jot them down while I remember LOL.

Stitching-wise it’s been a slow week – I’ve managed to start the Peacock Needle/Scissorcase by CA Wells, but haven’t managed much progress.  I’ve already frogged the satin stitch edging on side one only to realise I didn’t think about doing any ‘sequence stitching’ … I’ll just have to leave it as it is, and if I have time and enough thread left over at the end then I’ll frog it again and restitch it.  Tonight, though, I’ve been laid up on the sofa as I’ve been dizzy and wanting to throw up all night since driving home … fingers crossed it’s just a 24 hour bug as tomorrow’s an important day – the real estate agent is coming to check out the cracks etc (hallelujah!), then we’re off to visit Gina before I start work at 6pm (my least favourite shift).

And on that note I’ll hit the hay for the night – I just thought I’d drop a quick note into my blog before I settled down … you’ll have to wait for progress piccies because I don’t have the energy to do it right now.

Hope in the meantime you’re all healthy and happy 😀

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Bye-bye Etui for a while

Anne S

Yes, I’ve reached the milestone where I can comfortably put the Pyramid Etui away for a short while – thanks to some kind soul who left a comment that as long as you have the smaller pyramid, base, and one large set of triangles/diamond completed for the class, it will be fine, as that gives you an opportunity to try all the finishing techniques out.  My apologies to the kind soul who said that, as I can’t find the comment again now, but it definitely did put my mind at rest regarding my deadlines for getting the stitching all finished!  I just have 3 more of the larger triangles/diamonds left to go.  Thanks to everyone who’s left hints and tips for me with this project – it’s been really really helpful! 😀  Here are all the pieces laid out together for now: 

Next up is the stitching on my CA Wells Peacock needle/scissor case – I love the colours in this one, and looking forward to making a start on it today.  We’re off to dinner tonight with a close blogging buddy, and my new start will be joining us – I’m sure Sharon won’t mind, although I can’t guarantee there’ll be any stitching done on it, as we’re usually too busy chatting … but best to be prepared ‘just in case’ ;P

Now I have a huge thank you to a couple of fellow bloggers who have been sending me some treats through the mail.  I’ve been off work for the last couple of days (I took an extra few RDO’s – rostered days off – as I still had plenty up my sleeve, and work wanted me to use them up … such hardship LOL), so haven’t been near my PO Box at all as it’s near work – we made a special trip out yesterday to clear the mail, and there was an unexpected parcel sitting in there for me!

Tracy sent me a RAK parcel brimming with goodies – she stitched me a gorgeous pillow roll in blues (I forgot to take a piccie of the backing fabric, but it’s really scrummy – and I just love the little kitty cat at the bottom) … isn’t it gorgeous?  But that’s not all … she also send a packet of Kiwi Snifters yummo (and it got cracked open as a chaser to my morning Weet-bix this morning haha), and the most divine beaded scissor fob ever!  I can’t stop playing with it … the colours and the beads keep attracting my attention and I have to keep touching it!  It’s already sitting on the scissors that I’m currently using, and I’m looking forward to having an excuse to keep fondling it during my stitching session today 😀  Thanks again Tracy – as I said in my email, you’ve made my week! 😀

 

Next up is some extra pretties that Nicki sent me earlier, and I just realised I’d forgotten to take a piccie – Nicki and I did a trade for a chart (A Cherished Box by Cherished Stitches), plus she sent me a partial skein of TTG Silk ‘n’ Colors for my Etui, so I knew they were on their way … but I got a surprise when I opened the envelope as my goodies had some extra company – I also received some divine Dinky Dyes silks and the most scrummy ribbons (yep, I have to say turquoise is pretty much my favourite of all the bright blues!) … that was a wonderful surprise, and I love everything! 😀

Lastly I’ll finish by saying, yet again, that I love WordPress … this time it’s to do with my Photo Hunt post – sometimes lately I struggle with online time (at the moment it’s more to do with having Mum here, but other times it’s to do with my shifts), and I’m pressed to get my Photo Hunt post done each Saturday.  From memory with Blogger you can publish a ‘forward’ post, but I’m pretty sure it just posts straightaway with that date on it … anyway with WordPress you can write your post, set a future date for posting, and the post publishes at the exact date and time you set.  I tried doing it for this week’s Photo Hunt post and it worked perfectly – I’d actually found the photos during this last week, and I already have next week’s post done this way as well while I was in ‘photo hunt mode’ … yep, luv ya WordPress! 😀

Uncategorized

Photo Hunt – Architecture

Anne S

This week’s theme is “Architecture”, and for the first time in weeks I’ve been in the position of having loads of shots to choose from.  Here are a couple of my favourites …

First is this shot from the gardens at the back of the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tsai Temple in Hong Kong – I just love how the traditional buildings share the built-up skyline in the background.  This was one of our favourite places in Hong Kong from our visit last year. 

The second shot is of the Government Gardens in Rotorua, New Zealand – I love the architectural style of this building, it always looks so majestic in the gardens.