Feather Stitching

Well, I don’t feel quite as haggard today … I felt absolutely disgusting this morning, but it was a good day at work, with some fun people on the Hotline, so it made for a more fun day. I also got my recent call evaluation done, and was told by the Quality Evaluator that I was an extremely valued member of the Hotline, and being made permanent was one of the best decisions management have ever made … awww, that’s so sweet! 🙂

Financially, things are better today ‘cos it’s payday haha … I still don’t have spare cash sitting around, and I am on a very VERY tight rein for the next fortnight, which means Sydney is most definitely not happening. One of the reasons I’ve been panicking is due to my tax return … this is the first time I’ve ever had to pay money back, and it’s just over $500 (I wasn’t too phased about doing my return because I’ve always had money refunded to me … then freaked out three weeks ago when I did my tax online, and haven’t lodged it officially until today when I went through and re-checked all my figures before hitting “send” … sure enough I have to pay boohoo). Anyway, I just assumed (stupidly) that you had to pay it before the end of the next financial year … nope, you actually have to pay it by 21 November 2006 … bl**dy hell!!! So, if I had any possible doubts about getting to see my best friend in Sydney, that sealed it! It’s a shame, ‘cos Vicki’s never in Aussie, and it’s a real hassle to visit her in New Zealand as the flights to Nelson aren’t great. Oh well, I’ll just have to save up and make a side trip the next time I’m home in Auckland … whenever that will be.

Still no stitching news … I’ve been stalking the mailbox today and there’s no parcel in there from SB&B, so no scissor fob exchange being posted yet (my final exchange) … it’s early days yet, though, so hopefully it’ll be here over the next couple of days. I’ve been feeling too flat to do any actual stitching, so no new progress to report either hmmm. Never mind, hopefully I’ll make up for it on my days off this Thu/Fri.

Thanks again for all the supportive comments recently … it means a lot 🙂

Perhaps I just feel tired after being up so early today, I don’t know … but I have to say the last week has been a struggle financially – I think having the dinner party etc recently has been an extra drain on the finances, not to mention that stupid parking fine, and I thought I was doing OK, but then the electricity bill came in, and my bank account basically went down to having $10 spending money for the next 5 days … hmmm. Fraze asked me to come into the city to have dinner with him last night, and I had to turn him down, as I simply couldn’t afford it. I said to Mum on the phone I don’t even have bread or milk in at the moment oops. That’s not to say I don’t have any food in the house … thankfully I have some frozen pumpkin soup and chicken breasts/meat etc in, and plenty of pantry items to get a meal thrown together, but it’s been an interesting few days. Today I went out and bought milk and yogurt for my breakfast muesli, and emptied out the bank account in its entirety. I got creative last night and made my own bread in the breadmaker, as I have plenty of flour etc on hand, which made a lovely accompaniment to the pumpkin soup 😀

All-in-all, it wouldn’t be too bad … I do occasionally have a month where I’ll struggle financially, then the next one makes up for it and it all evens out. I’d managed to save up a wee bit of money behind me as a backup, but of course that ended up being spent on our Hong Kong trip. Anyway, what tripped me out is that I just received a letter from my real estate agent saying the landlord had requested a rent increase, and basically I have 60 days notice before it takes effect. I’m a bit peeved because when I talked about getting a cat he asked if I would be staying long-term, I’d said as long as he didn’t increase the rent, I’d be staying … he replied not to worry he definitely wouldn’t be doing that 😦 OK, admittedly, he’s only asking for an extra $5 a week, which is only $20-25 a month, but it’s all still an extra expense, particularly with weeks like this one when I’m down to my last $10 until pay day!! That’s the main reason for the title of this post … hmmm.

The way I’m going, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get the money together to see my best friend in Sydney … I might end up having to make a snap decision during that final week, to see if there’s enough money in the kitty left over for it. It will be really disappointing, that’s for sure, but then again there’s no point getting myself into more financial ruin by going if I really can’t afford it.

It also means I’ve been considering other areas where I’m just going to have to cut back. Like a few of my fellow bloggers, I’d dearly love to send Christmas and birthday gifts to my fave online pals, and I’d already been planning a few things, but I’m realising I just can’t realistically do it financially … my gifts this next year are going to have to be quite meagre, as every time I make a financial cutback I’m offsetting any benefits by spending extra money on gifts and postage, and I just seem to be running in circles and not getting anywhere in the case of reducing debt. As much as I adore buying for gifts (and I really have loved doing it this year for my online pals), I have to be realistic about it and make some changes … and it breaks my heart to have to think that way. I guess having that small rent increase arrive has given me food for thought … and that food is giving me indigestion!!

Sorry this is such a depressing post …

On a more positive note, thanks for all your comments – I knew that little sneak preview would make you think my latest gift stitching was Sweetheart Tree … it’s actually a Calico Crossroads sampler 🙂

It’s Wednesday (aka Friday in my little world today), and I’m ever so happy 😉

Haven’t touched a needle in a few days now, and I’m itching to get a bit done, as well do a bit more housekeeping with my stitching stash – I’ve got so many charts not sorted into subjects in my folders etc, that it’s getting totally out of control, and I need some sort of order back again. The other day I bought some plastic ‘envelope’ folders, and put all of my rotation WIP’s into them, in order of stitching in a plastic tub, so every time I finish one rotation it goes to the back of the pile and I’m ready to just pick up the next one. In each of the folders I have my stitched piece if it’s small, my chart and working copy, and all the threads in flossaway bags in numerical order on metal rings … hence the reason I haven’t done any stitching recently haha. Typical of me, though, I can always find something else to fill my time rather than those things I really should be doing LOL.

In my semi-cranky mood yesterday, I decided to cheer myself up with a taste of my childhood … literally. For the first time I finally made myself a double batch of Doreen’s Apricot Slice – Doreen is my best friend’s Mum, and my adopted second Mum, and at many outings with the family Doreen would make this apricot slice … it always reminds me of those wonderful fun times of my youth. In fact Doreen’s kitchen was always filled with yummy home-baked goodies when you visited. I asked Vicki to send me the recipe a little while ago, and gave it a go. It’s not quite the same, as we don’t have Round Wine biscuits here, so I tried using Marie biscuits and they seem to have a bit more crunch to it … next time I think I’ll try plain Arrowroot biscuits, either that or get Mum to bring some in her red cross parcel/suitcase when she comes over haha. The guys at work will love me forever for making a double batch, as that means I’m taking a pile of it into work for them to munch on today too 😀 Here’s a small sampling of the pile …

I’m happy to say my order that I was moaning about yesterday has been shipped, even though there is apparently a glitch with PayPal and I still haven’t got an invoice, but I feel very grateful it has finally been resolved. It’s unusual for me to fly off the handle, and to blog about it, but perhaps we can put it down to hormones as ‘that time of the month’ is about to hit any day now, and I’m feeling a mix of emotions this week hmmm.

Anyway, time to get ready for work – I have a normal shift of 12noon to 8pm today, then two days off woohoo (I’m trying not to think about the shifts next week, it’s too depressing LOL). I’m hoping to have something stitching-related to show you by the end of the weekend 🙂

OK, OK, for everyone else it’s Wednesday tomorrow … but for me it’s Friday in that it’s the last day of this week’s working week – I have Thu/Fri off before going back into work on Saturday … and a very very bad weekend to be working 5am shifts – why? I hear you ask (I wondered what those voices in my head were!!) … this weekend the clocks go forward (yay, I love daylight saving), but it means instead of having to wake up at my normal 4am, it will actually be 3am (not yay, in fact a BIG boooooo!). I think I’m going to be totally wrecked … ooh, ooh, I just had a brainwave as I was typing this – I still have a couple of ‘luv your work’ awards that I could cash in, then I could come home an hour early and just have a 7-hour day … hmmm, food for thought …

Can I just take a brief moment to have a mini rant … you might want to skip this bit … I’ve just sent a grumpy email of complaint to a certain online store in the US, one who’s infamous for having things on backorder for months (say no more). Anyway, I’d pre-ordered the JCS Xmas ornie issue through them, as I can never find it in Melbourne (although now I know Dragonfly Dreams carries it, it’s likely I’ll pay the imported price and buy locally from now on) – we added a number of items to the list that Mum needed, and asked for it to be held until the JCS issue comes in to combine postage (that was on 1Sep) … of course it’s still got items on back order even now … anyway on speaking to Mum we decided to add a couple more items to the list (namely Flossaway bags), which meant we’d have to have two shipment parcels … not a problem. At the time I also requested an additional one or two items be added to the first shipment for the scissor fob exchange I’m sending … gave a list of items that would be options, and just asked for something that was in stock to be sent. Well, on 10Oct I was asked if I’d like to receive shipment on the first parcel, to which I replied yes, and could I make sure the exchange goodies were in there too, and please send the invoice so I can pay it immediately … today is 24Oct and to date I still have not received a single response, and certainly no invoice – I’ve sent two other chaser emails, as I was worried about the mailing dates, and still heard nothing. I very very rarely complain in writing … but today I finally put my fingers to the keyboard. I don’t even mind greatly if the goods couldn’t be shipped in time to meet my deadline, but I would have liked an acknowledgement and advice to that extent so I could have made other arrangements. As it is, it is now too late, and I’ll likely have to send two parcels over the oceans, but it’s left a rather bitter taste in my mouth that’s for sure! They were quick enough to send my monthly bits invoice (but I presume that’s automated), but I have to admit it’s still sitting unactioned in my inbox while I decide what to do with that. OK, my rant is now officially over … phew! 😉

That feels better getting that off my chest … now I can move on and go back to my happy existence and regular scheduled programming haha … BTW, did I tell you it’s Friday tomorrow??? See, that put a smile back on my face again hahaha.

Update to my rant … I’ve just heard back from the infamous ONS – apparently an invoice was sent 11Oct, which I never received, and due to personal reasons no-one has been actioning emails in the office … it’s been sitting waiting to be shipped upon payment since 11Oct – geesh, I wish I’d known about this two weeks ago!! As I just replied, I’ve always always paid immediately on receipt of any invoices, perhaps that should have rung alarm bells, and if someone could have just scanned through emails for those that are relevant … OK, I’m just going to stop ranting now and try to let it slide … maybe I need to drag out my old yoga tape LOL.

I was just sat here reflecting how life has changed since I began blogging … all in a positive way, of course! I feel so much more confident in my stitching, and within myself, and it’s been wonderful sharing the trials and tribulations of my newfound online pals, and sharing those of my own with people who think the same way.

When planning holidays and breaks away, I immediately wonder if there are any bloggers in the area I could meet up with and put a face to the name … the world has become a much smaller and friendlier place to live in 🙂

Having the blogging outlet has helped give me relief from a bad day, and I often sit here at home feeling a sense of peace with life itself. I thank those of you who have become part of my new smaller world, and am very grateful to have met you {{hugs}}.

I recently looked at my counter here and saw it hit the 20,000 mark, and marvel at how many of you come back for more to read my drivel every week, but feel grateful that you do come back and provide such wonderful support and friendship.

That’s all I wanted to post about tonight … I was just sitting here thinking how ‘at one with the world’ I feel, even though I had a tough start to the working day today, and wanted to say a heartfelt thanks 😀

To my online pals … I salute you!! 😀