Feather Stitching

Just in the nick of time before Christmas … the phone technician very kindly came in to visit me on his day off, just so he can try to rectify my problems before Santa’s visitations, and because it could be quite some time before my shifts allow him to come see me inbetween public holidays. Anyway, we thought we were up for a major rewriting job, then at the last moment he managed to access a line, and I have phone access again. Woohoo 😀

This is just a really quick post to let you know I’m back online again, but it will take me a while to catch up on the 460+ unread feeds, and 200+ new emails, so please bear with me 🙂 I’ll post properly when I’m a bit better organised … I don’t have much stitching to show for my ‘spare time’ – what is that about “the best laid plans…”? haha. I did do a tiny bit on the Leporello, but didn’t want to do too much as that would spoil the SAL with Jenna … but I just couldn’t resist making a tiny start 😉 So instead I put a few stitches into Bunnies in my Garden …

Anyway, I’ll post more tomorrow with piccies, as well as piccies of all the lovely gifties I’ve been receiving this week. I’ve been grinning from ear to ear all week from all the lovely items that have been appearing, and my spirits are positively soaring! 😀 More details to follow tomorrow …

Now I’m off to kick back with some egg nog (first time I’ve tried it, and I think I’m hooked!! – but this is the Aussie version, on loads of ice! :D), and an old DVD (as an aside, oh what a blessing, I can access the TV Guide online again now woohoo), and my stitching … life is good! Especially as I now have two days off, the supervisor on duty also let us Hotliners go home 1/2 hour early tonight, and I got two more Luv Ya Work awards today … life really IS good 😀

Sorry about the really rushed post yesterday – I’ve managed to book a spot at the library today, and have a whole 30 minutes to play with woohoo 😉

First up a big thank you for Christine D … sorry, but I forgot to bring your email addy with me to the library … I wanted to say thanks so much for your beautiful ornie – I love it! It’s look stunning on my little ornie tree … I’ll post a piccie as soon as I get up and running properly again. Just wanted to let you know it arrived safe and sound, and it’s awesome 😀

The way I’m going my first post after Christmas is gonna be laden with piccies haha.

Now, on to the GREAT news … I couldn’t wait until later to announce it to the world haha. Today I was told I was one of the nominees for an “Excel Award” – which is basically when people think you’ve gone ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ and given excellence in service … and I won it! I don’t know who nominated me yet, but apparently that also gets me nominated for the overall yearly award (I doubt I’ll get that though) … and the best thing of all, I get a $150 gift voucher from David Jones to spend, as well as a certificate of excellence. How cool is that? Can you tell I’m rapt?? LOL. After struggling so much financially these last two months, it’s going to be wonderful going shopping for something totally non-essential yippee … and I think I may have already spent it in my mind. I’ve been dying to get an iPod for ages, and they’ve come down in price recently, so I think that’s what I’ll get … I’m grinning from ear to ear! 😀

I also heard from the phone technician today – he wanted to come and visit this morning, but of course I was at work – he’s going to ‘try’ to get to my place late tomorrow afternoon, but no guarantees. That’ll pretty much be the last chance he’ll get before Christmas, so my fingers are seriously crossed he can make it … that would be just awesome!

Aside from that I got a whole hour of stitching done last night on the Leporello … it took me two nights gridding the fabric (not helped by Silkweaver cutting the edges on an angle, so I had difficulty getting everything in OK) … so right now I just have a tiny blue blob on the fabric – by the time I’m internet-ready again, I might have something worth seeing 😉

Rightio, better run – I still need to do some internet banking and email reading, and my minutes are counting down rapidly … (PS: Ally, I might have to check into your options of McD’s – will have to check the yellow pages to see if any of them here have internet access … I’m sure I could survive buying something to surf for a while LOL.)

Unfortunately my phone line at home is as dead as a dodo … so I can’t access emails or the internet/blogs … fingers crossed it will be fixed before Christmas, but I’m not holding my breath 😦

If this doesn’t work, and doesn’t post, I’ll try to access the internet from a library or something somewhere … what am I going to do at home now?? I guess I’ll have lots of stitching piccies to show and tell by the time I get back! LOL.

Updated:

My apologies to those of you who read the previous post and got all the info about my work 😦 Obviously that’s something I won’t be repeating … but at least I know it works!!

It turns out it’s unlikely I can get the phone line checked before Christmas, which means I won’t be able to access blogs etc very easily without going to an internet cafe or library (which is where I am now). If you need to contact me urgently regarding the RAK Registry or anything else, please try contacting Nicki (Plush) or Carol (Garden of Stitches) and they could let you know my work email address. Otherwise I’ll try to pop into a cafe or library once a week to check incoming emails.

Apologies for the quick post, but I only have 15 minutes of access allowed here, and need to pop into my ISP website to see if I can access my emails. If I don’t get chance to say so beforehand, all the very best to all of you and your families for a wonderful festive season!

I’ll quickly close saying I have received a wonderful giftie today from Carol (Garden of Stitches) … and I adore it! I’ll post properly when I get chance, but Carol will no doubt give you a taste of the contents on her blog 😀 I’m sorry this isn’t a proper thanks, but I’ll write more when I have more time 😀 (Luv ya Carol!)

Aha, I think I’ve finally worked out the very simple solution to be able to post on Beta blogs … after giving up trying to post on many blogs (some would allow anonymous comments, some wouldn’t etc) … I finally opened up a Google account, which was super simple, and it’s allowed me to comment everywhere so far … although I have to admit I’ve only made a few comments so far this morning before work. Anyway, anyone who’s still having problems commenting might want to try doing that.

After seeing Nicki’s blogs copy across just fine, I decided to bite the bullet last night and migrate mine … but apparently one of my blogs can’t be migrated yet, so I have to wait in line for longer – I don’t mind at all ;P

Nothing else to post today, really …

Except to say today I’m thankful for fresh clean sheets and bedding … how lovely is it to slip into bed when you’ve just changed all the linen? Ah, heaven 🙂

Updated to add an apology to many bloggers – I’m trying to catch up with blogs, but for some reason the last two nights I’ve been unable to leave comments on beta blogs … it just keeps rejecting my blogger ID. Anyway, I’ve opted to leave it for a day or two then I’ll try to catch up again – I don’t want to just ‘read and run’ … hopefully I’ll be able to get back to commenting again soon 🙂 I was doing so well, too – I’d managed to catch up at the weekend after getting through over 650 unread feeds! 😀

For Carina and Cindy, and anyone else who’s wondering what Babycham actually is … here’s the Wikipedia info … and the official website 😀 I was reading the History section last night, and found it very interesting, and I love the ‘product lines’ … when you run your mouse over the sparkling bottle, the cork pops out haha – I didn’t realise quite how old Babycham is, but then again I have been drinking it since I was very young hmmmm 😉

Well, it’s been an interesting day today – not anything to do with my ‘personal’ situation, but rather one for Melbourne city on the whole. As the Yahoo news team puts it … “Melbourne was shrouded in a thick blanket of smoke throughout today with levels in the city reaching 10 times the acceptable limit. Some city workers found the air difficult to breath in with others more concerned about the cause of the ominous sky.” That kinda sums it all up, really!

It really is quite eerie, and I’ve been tasting smoke all day – I had to shut off the air vents in my car on the way to work, and then by the afternoon it was so bad it was circulating through the air conditioning at work and we’ve all been complaining of headaches and sore throats. We did do a very pitiful rendition of ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ at one stage 😉 I bet the respiratory departments are run off their feet today, as it really is dreadful – even in bad weather I usually have a lovely view of the skyline on the drive home, but tonight it’s just blanketed in a thickish fog of smoke. I feel very sorry for those who are closer to the ‘action’ and have lost their homes during this disaster.

So today, I’m thankful that I’m not in the path of that fiery destruction – I really hope they get it under control soon so no more property (or worse) is lost. But I’m also truly thankful that today was the first day of an entire month (13 Dec-14 Jan) where we’re allowed to wear casual clothes to work … jeans and trainers for an entire month – I’m in heaven! 😉

Today was also dress-up today at work … apart from a few Santa hats, as usual I was the only one to be fully decked-out in my Christmas tree outfit, and we have some great ideas for my outfit for next year – including getting a load of cheap ‘flashing’ brooches/earrings to attach like lights hahaha … too funny! Two of the Supervisors tonight came and gave me a Luv Ya Work Award before I went home “for bringing some festive cheer and joy into the office” … I have to admit it is a great morale booster, and brings a smile to everyone when they see it … and that’s what it’s all about! 😀 I didn’t take a new photo this year, as I had my hands full with my plate of food etc walking from my car, so couldn’t juggle my camera as well, so last year’s photo will have to suffice 😉

That heading is what I’m going to be focusing on for a while … I’m sick of being full of misery on this blog, and I’m sure you’re sick of reading it. Anyway, after my emotional meltdown last night, I think it had a bit of a cleansing effect on me – my fighting spirit is back again, and I’m going to try to focus on the positive things in my life. There are many people worse off than me … while it may be stressful and depressing at times, I need to keep looking ahead 🙂

So today I’m thankful for all my online friends – your cheering on comments both here and in personal emails has given me a lot of strength to deal with the issues I’m facing. As the old adage goes, “a friend in need is a friend indeed” … and I really and truly appreciate you all hanging in with me while I’ve been struggling and less than positive on here.

This morning I spent some time checking out house sitting sites and self storage etc, but I’ve been thinking of leaving any major decisions until the New Year. I have Mum visiting for six weeks in February, and I’d rather have everything ‘as usual’ during that time at least … and it will give me plenty of time to get my head together.

Tonight was a different task … I’ve been sending emails to the UK, to the manufacturers of Babycham! I don’t know why, but since this morning I’ve got it in my head that I want to make up my own stocking. Why?? Because my stocking is the one Christmas tradition Mum did for me every year until I was ‘too old’ for it (I repeat for you again, Mum, I’m never ever too old for it hahaha). Such a simple thing – a stocking was waiting under the tree every year … nothing glamorous and expensive, but filled with love – Christmas just wasn’t Christmas without my stocking! What was in my stocking that made it so special? … There was always a handful of nuts in their shells (brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts etc), maybe an apple and an orange, and a couple of chocolate bars and sweeties, and the piece de resistance … a small bottle of Babycham! When I was in my teens there would be some additional treats in there too, like a pair of ‘fashion’ earrings or something similar. I don’t know why, but that stocking tradition has remained in my heart as something very very special about Christmas.

When I moved to Australia the first 8 months here sharing were abysmal for many reasons (a couple of you know those stories from personal emails, but I’m not going into it now) – when Fraze and I moved out to our own place in Box Hill, it was going be our first Christmas ‘on our own’ … by the time Christmas came, we also had Andrew living with us too – and I decided to do the Christmas stocking ritual for them … although instead of Babycham they got cans of beer haha – they also got a few ‘silly things’ like car polish and DVD cases and things. While I didn’t have my own stocking, watching the two boys unwrap everything in their own stockings was wonderful, and I really loved it. Andrew said that that was the most special Christmas he’d had, and even though he spent the rest of the day with his family, the morning with us was the most magical. I do have to admit I did feel the same way too at the time (shame the rest of our living arrangements with him weren’t quite so magical in the long run haha).

Anyway, being the first Christmas on my own, I’m making my own stocking … and I’m trying to track down whether Babycham is available for sale locally somewhere, as I’ll be treating myself as my big Christmas Day treat. We used to be able to buy it in New Zealand, so I presume you can buy it here somewhere too, and it’s pretty cheap to buy even though it’s imported. If not, then I’ll substitute with a $3.99 mini bottle of Asti Riccadonna instead … woohoo, big spender LOL. Add to that my fave Christmas song playing loudly on the stereo (ie Snoopy’s Christmas – it gets me singing at the top of my lungs every time!), and I’ll be all set! 😉

I’m actually working on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which will be a financial boost thank goodness – and someone at work actually cooks up a Christmas dinner for us all, which will be a lovely treat 🙂 I can’t believe how close it is to the ‘big day’ already …

Ooh, I didn’t realise how close midnight was either – better run and hit the hay for the night, as I need to be up early tomorrow. The Christmas tree dress is back out again ready for dress-up day tomorrow, but I have to get up early to get a ‘plate of food’ to share with everyone … so I’m making Doreen’s Apricot Slice again (cheap ingredients, and so very comforting for me, as it brings back all those wonderful happy childhood memories again – the perfect blessing for my day!).