Christmas Ornaments, Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Lizzie Kate, Stash, Works in Progress

Still in the land of the living

Anne S

Sadly a number of shocking migraines and some late working hours have seen my stitching mojo fly out the window over the last month … yesterday, however, I decided to catch up on last week’s recorded TV shows (seeing as I didn’t switch the TV on at all during the week) and managed to put a few stitches into a commitment piece – I need to quickly get this one finished so I can get it framed for a birthday gift.  I managed to do a fair bit last Saturday just before I started getting a throw-up migraine, and after yesterday’s efforts I can almost see the end in sight.  There are still a bunch of bears to stitch on the left-hand side, but at least I’m about 2/3 finished now.  It’s the first time in ages that I’ve stitched something that requires such a lot of back-stitching … not my favourite part of stitching, but it sure does make those blobs of stitching look wonderful once it’s done, and I’m glad to have got the first 2/3 of back-stitching completed before tackling the last section of the design!  This is one of my Crazy January Challenge projects:

Here's how it looked back on 10 January
How it looked at the end of last weekend
How it looks now - a day in bed stitching in my PJs was worthwhile!

Last Monday I received an absolutely awesome ornie from my good friend Carol for our HoE Lizzie*Kate ornie exchange.  I love the reason why Carol chose to stitch this one, as moose are indigenous in NH this is a wonderful personalised ornie with a taste of Carol’s home.  I absolutely love it, and the stitching and finishing are as always perfect!  Thank again Carol for another fantabulous exchange that I will treasure! 😀  I apologise in advance for the quality of all the photos today, as they had to be taken with my iPhone thanks to a flat camera battery that I just keep forgetting to charge up!  Sadly moose ornie didn’t come up at all well on the iPhone 😦

My Lizzie*Kate ornie exchange received from Carol - I love it!

I also heard a while back that Joke had received the ornie I had sent to her – unfortunately I was late in posting, so I sent a little extra beaded scissor fob to apologise for the delay.  I can’t remember taking a photo of the fob I sent, but you can see it in Joke’s post if you want to see it.

Lizzie*Kate ornie exchange sent to Joke

The only other thing I have to share is a wonderful surprise parcel in the mail I received from Orna Willis – I’ve been a fan of Orna’s canvaswork designs for years now, and have been a follower on her blog  since she started it up.  Orna has recently been having giveaways of thread/embellishment packs for some of her followers (just chosen randomly from the list of followers), and I was surprised one day to see my name up in lights on the blog … I had won one of the giveaways.  I just had to take a photo of the way that everything was packaged up, aren’t they lovely in their own special little tin?  I should probably take a photo of the contents separately as there are lots of little treats hiding in that tin, but I’ll do that on the day that I take them out to put them away 🙂

And that probably covers all the stitching news that I have.  Nothing else has been happening really except for work, work, and more work – it’s been quite difficult trying to close off and start pieces of work for my current job while learning my new job one day a week, plus still attending many meetings and having to teach a work colleague aspects of my job.  Hopefully after next week I’ll start getting back into a normal routine of only one job, although sadly 2 hours travelling time each day will probably eat most of my week’s stitching time that I normally have … it just means that I’ll have to plan my weekends so I can at least get ‘some’ stitching in every weekend 🙂

One great thing about working in the city now, though, is that last Wednesday after work I wandered over to the city swimming pool and did a workout in the hydrotherapy pool.  My leg has been giving me a lot of pain lately so I knew I needed to make an effort to get those exercises happening again – and by the time I was ready to get on the train most of the peak hour people had gone home already … mind you, it meant not getting home until 9pm but what the heck, it felt good! 😉

Auckland, Food, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt: Greasy

Anne S

 

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This week’s theme is ”Greasy” and this meal from a favourite el cheapo dining place in Auckland (“Kiwi Country”) should taste greasy with that deep-fried chicken, but it never ever does.  One of the things I miss from working in Auckland city centre is picking up the occasional lunch from here.  It’s located in a little side street, downstairs below street level, and is a real little goldmine – my Mum keeps up the family tradition now and occasionally visits with a dear family friend, and of course we pop in ourselves when I’m visiting Auckland.  My mouth is salivating already at that chicken dipped in chilli sauce and that succulent crispy salad – yum!

Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, sculpture

Photo Hunt: Wrong

Anne S

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This week’s theme is ”Wrong” and you can call me a philistine if you want, but I just don’t ‘get’ a lot of contemporary art … like this example at the McClelland Gallery in Frankston, Victoria. Quite frankly it just reminds me of pile of intestines, and that to me is just plain “wrong” (I have no idea what it was supposed to be, but I’m sure it has a lot of meaning to someone who is more cultured than I am).

Canberra, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, sculpture

Photo Hunt – One

Anne S

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This week’s theme is ”One” – here is one beautiful piece of sculpture at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, with one solitary pigeon sitting on his shoulder.

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I don’t think I’ve written about our trip through Canberra as yet – I really should do that, as the trip to the Australian War Memorial really affected me and we ended up spending over 3 hours there and still not seeing everything!

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

“It won’t happen overnight, but it WILL happen”

Anne S

And so went the words of the Pantene shampoo advert … which has been very true of the latest change in my life.  Many of you may remember that I applied for a new job about a month ago … well, after two interviews and a skills test it turns out that the words are in fact correct … it didn’t happen overnight, but this week I found out that it DID happen!!

Which means that the last few days have seen me going rapidly from this:

(which is supposed to display the emotion “excited” haha)

to this:

(yep, that is definitely a “scared” emotion happening there!)

And pretty much every emotion inbetween!

It turns out that the delay in telling me about my acceptance is that there was another position that has become available within the same group, which is actually better than the other one that I applied for – I assume I was getting offered the other job anyway as my current boss had already had the discussion about release dates two weeks ago now, but since then this other opportunity came up (which I was offered) and I get to continue using my current airline experience with the new role while still getting the opportunity to learn new ones.  This makes the transition even easier because I have the comfort level of not just a bunch of people that I really like to work with, but also still knowing a fair bit about the business side of the position – double bonus!!

It means big changes are afoot, though, as I will no longer be able to hop to work in the car (I currently live and work relatively close to the airport), sadly it means having to do public transport once again and do the daily commute into the city each day.  But even here there are large bonuses – being within 5-10 minutes walk from Darling Harbour and being able to get back into hydrotherapy at the city pool will be awesome – not to mention more places to buy lunch and socialise with people from work that I already love to bits.  I’ll be honest and say it’s not my perfect job, but then again the one I’m doing now isn’t either, but the benefits of this new job far outweigh the negatives and it’ll be really nice to have a work challenge to get the brain active once more!

The funny thing is that I actually wasn’t job hunting at all, ‘cos I was kinda settled in my current job and relatively happy – but one of the Managers I’ve worked with a lot from that side of the business called me to tell me about it and recommended that I apply.  I figured what the heck, it doesn’t hurt, and it’s the first time I’ve actually been tempted by a new job that much … and I guess the rest is history!

We’ve also just heard that one other team member from our team has just got a new job as well, plus we’ve got one new team member who’s only been with us for a week, so I’m thinking they’ll be playing pretty tough on a release date, but I’m happy with that … it’s just nice to know it’s all over now and I don’t have to stress waiting for that ‘call back’.  It may mean longer hours at work and less time for relaxation at home but that just means that I have to work harder to ensure I keep that work/life balance happening and spend my free time more wisely … and the extra $8,000 a year they’re willing to pay me won’t go astray either ;P

So, there you go … that’s the major news for the week … it’s all a bit exciting, and frightening, and joyous, and terrifying, and … I can’t wait! 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Indigo Rose, Lizzie Kate, Sweetheart Tree, Works in Progress

Stitching for stress relief

Anne S

Last Sunday I managed to start getting a mini migraine in the afternoon … stressing out about my 2nd interview on Monday, I think – which means most of the plans I had on Sunday afternoon went down the drain … which is where my day’s baking went as well, ‘cos it was a total flop!  We were putting on morning tea for a work colleague who left on Tuesday (this is the one I had issues with last year, although we actually get on OK now – we’ll never be the closest of friends, but we had a working relationship that was OK).  Anyway, I have to say my baking Sunday/Monday was a total disaster … I think my head was too stressed out about my 2nd interview that I had on Monday – I felt physically sick during the interview, and I know I didn’t do my best in there, but it’s too late for that now, and the chips will just have to fall where they may.  I was supposed to hear something back by last Thursday, but so far no news either good or bad.

I haven’t particularly touched a needle for the last few weeks, but this weekend I’ve made up for lost time – it’s all I’ve been in the mood for!   I’ve superglued my backside to my mattress, and sat up in bed with needle in hand and clearing old DVR recordings … it’s been really enjoyable.  Following are the results of my stitching efforts.

First up is a new WIP that I started a couple of weeks ago – it took me 4 whole nights just to stitch one pumpkin and the border, so this one has been sloooooow going – this is a 2nd hand chart so I don’t have the embellishment pack, and I can’t find my little black Mill Hill petite beads so this one’s now sitting in a pile waiting for them to turn up … I lost all motivation when I realised I couldn’t finish it quickly.  Never mind, it’ll get completed ‘one day’ …

P1050067

 

Next up is a piece that I stitched up slowly over the last week – an Indigo Rose freebie – not my usual style, but it was really enjoyable stitching it up.  I can’t say I was too thrilled stitching all the queen stitches (definitely not my favourite stitch), but eventually when I got into a rhythm with them it seemed to fly along (helped by watching Rescue Special Ops on TV to make the time go fast).

Indigo Rose-Four Little Strawberries
“Four Little Strawberries” freebie by Indigo Rose
stitched on 32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen
with recommended DMC threads

Then there is this weekend’s productivity – three Christmas ornaments by Lizzie*Kate.  This is probably what has finally got me back into the swing of stitching again – it feels great, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last!

LizzieKate-Noel Tiny Tidings XIV
“Noel” by Lizzie*Kate
from the chart Tiny Tidings XIV
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Silkweaver ~ colour Golden Harvest
with recommended Weeks Dye Works threads and embellishment pack

LizzieKate-Mistletoe Tiny Tidings XIV
“Mistletoe” by Lizzie*Kate
from the chart Tiny Tidings XIV
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Silkweaver ~ colour Golden Harvest
with recommended Weeks Dye Works and DMC threads and embellishment pack
but substituted GAST Butternut Squash

LizzieKate-Christmas flip-it
“Christmas flip-it” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen
with recommended GAST threads except substituting DMC white for Whitewash
and using DMC 898 for bird beaks and legs instead of DMC 310

The rest of the weekend has been spent guzzling a bowl of Tiramisu that I made on Saturday night – I’ve been craving some for months, so I finally pulled my finger out and made a half-serving of it … and took a wee plate full down to my elderly neighbour yesterday.  I suppose all-in-all it’s been a productive weekend – not quite the productivity that I had planned for, but what my body and mind needed, I think 🙂