Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Just a quick visit to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!

I know many of you out there feel the same way as I do this year, and can’t wait for 2010 to bring us a better year … here’s hoping all our dreams and aspirations come true next year.  I hope it is full of stitchy goodness.

This year I totally forgot about writing Christmas cards until it was too late, so my apologies to family and friends who don’t even have a card from me this year … alas life got in the way for me this year … perhaps I should start writing next year’s now! 😛

Thank you for your continued friendship and support throughout the year – I look forward to seeing you all again in 2010.

With love,

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Enchanted Mermaid, Mirabilia, Works in Progress

A bit of stitching

WOW, did you see the snow in Sydney yesterday?  Yep, I caused so many miracles yesterday, I even made it snow!  The first miracle was that I actually put needle to fabric and did a few stitches on Saturday … and in the end, more than a few, by the time last night came around!

Unfortunately my poor Mirabilia Mermaid has been neglected, and my stitching slump has seen my 10-hour rotation slot dragged out across two entire months … here’s the progress over the last two months – just pitiful!  First up on the left is how she looked on 31 October – followed by how she looked a month later on 22 November:

Mirabilia-Enchanting Mermaid 31Oct09   Mirabilia-Enchanted Mermaid WIP 22Nov09

And now, how I left her before I put her away on Saturday night – I figure I’ve pretty much completed my 10 hours stitching on her, and fingers crossed the next time I pick her up my stitching mojo will have returned a bit more and I’ll get a few more stitches done in my next 10 hours!

Mirabilia-Enchanted-Mermaid

After I put her away, I managed to get a LOT more stitching done on Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland – I’m really loving stitching on this one, although I’m not overly keen on the fabric, as it’s quite ‘stretchy’ on my scrollrods.  I do, however, really love the colour (the 2nd photo is a lot nearer the actual colour as I took that this morning in semi-daylight), and think it’s a much better choice than the ugly one recommended in the chart.  I can’t guarantee this one will be finished in 2009, as I’ll be pretty close to my 10 hours on it soon – I figure, though, that I’ll keep working on it a bit longer, as so far I’m really enjoying it … I’ll probably stop after completing both of the ‘boxes’ on the right … maybe 🙂

Bent Creek-Summer Snapperland 20Dec09

Bent Creek-Summer Snapperland 20Dec09 a

I haven’t quite met my stitching goals this year, in the fact that I have only stitched 10 out of planned 12 ornies … but who knows, maybe I can squeak in a couple of quick ones before the year’s end, heck I have a whole week left to do it in! LOL – yeah, sure … maybe not.

I think my goals this year were relatively realistic, and were as follows:

  1. Complete at least 3 of my existing WIP/UFO projects (Works in Progress/UnFinished Objects) – DONE – Completed 5 projects 🙂
  2. Complete at least 10 of my kitted up projects – DONE – Completed 11 projects 🙂
  3. Complete at least 12 Christmas ornaments – FAILED – Completed 10 out of 12 as at 21Dec09 😦

Next year I think I’ll keep the same goals, as they seemed to give me the freedom to stitch what I wanted to stitch, with a mix of both new and old projects … and I probably would have met the final goal if I’d been stitching as ‘normal’ over the last two months. 

It has to be said, though, that any amount of stitching that gets some actual stitches into fabric is a positive year, all-in-all, and I’ve had some pretty decent finishes over the course of the year, even if the last two months has seen a major decline in stitching action 😀

Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Queenstown, Travel - New Zealand

Photo Hunts – Fast & Undesirable

Unfortunately, during my ‘black fog’ blogging hiatus recently, I hadn’t realised that my “post-dated” posts had all run out, so I had a week without the Photo Hunt and other photo memes.  So today I’ve uploaded both last week’s and this week’s into one post.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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This week’s theme is ”Fast” and the jetboats on the Shotover River in Queenstown go pretty fast … I especially love being on them when they do the 360 degree spinning – great fun!!

ZQN-Shotover River_0004

Last week’s theme was ”Undesirable” and I think this is definitely Undesirable to my tastebuds! The birdlife at the Cairns bird park really love it, though … grubs, tiny fish and little titbits are a delicacy for our feathered friends – dinner’s ready, guys, come and get it!!  YUK!!!

Gross bird food

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Scary night in Sydney

I have now officially been awake for 20 hours on the trot … after getting 2 hours sleep last night I was rudely awakened by a incredibly high-pitched and desperate lot of female screaming downstairs just outside our apartment.  After considering it could be a female in distress, I decided to get out of bed and see if I could find out what all the commotion was about … only to see two cops wandering around around the garages, which is directly below my bedroom window.  The screaming still continued, however, out the front of the apartment so I then wandered round to the front just in time to see a young female being escorted/supported up the driveway by another cop and what appeared to be her father.  At this stage she was screaming at the top of her lungs at full pitch, “oh my God, he’s dead, he’s dead” … at which point my eyes starting widening!

This was now 2.45am, and the next couple of hours were spent by me playing computer games while watching the show playing out below me – the garage was turned into a crime scene, with cops coming and going out of the back corner garage.  Lights came on and went off, the garage went up and went down … eventually crime scene tape went up, and the forensics team turned up in their navy blue “Police” suits, donning sexy blue rubber gloves, and in they went into the garage with their flashlights and cameras to begin documenting the crime scene.  This basically went on for a few hours, with them finally finishing their tasks at approx 5.45am.

At this point I wasn’t sure whether to go back to bed and try to get 1 more hour of sleep before work or whether to jump into the shower … in the end I figured I’d probably feel worse for having a mini sleep, so jumped into the shower instead – I got out just in time to see the coroner’s ‘hearse’ pulling into the driveway up in front of the garage.  The next 15-20 minutes was spent watching them set up the gurney, and load the body bag up, then tighten up the straps, cover up with a cloth cover, then whisk the body off into the hearse.  At 6.30am you wouldn’t have known anything had happened – except for the tiny bit of crime scene tape that is still tied to one of the garage doors.

That’s not the way I had expected to spend my Thursday night, that’s for sure!  Initially it was very shocking, but eventually it just became fascinating to me – we’ve now nicknamed our apartment block CSI: Sydney.  While I’m not in a hurry to view a repeat performance, it was certainly interesting to watch the event play out during the wee small hours of the morning.

There still hasn’t been anything in the news yet, so unsure whether it was a suicide or homicide – there was actually a brief spurt of fireworks at about 11.30pm last night (inbetween the thunder and lightning), then there was a break and one lone big “bang” that seemed different and a lot closer than the rest, so Katie and I have been wondering whether it was a muffled gunshot from within the garage.  I certainly didn’t hear any running footsteps or anything afterwards, so perhaps it was a suicide … either way, it was very very sad to see that body rolling out of the garage 😦

Anyway, after surviving a full day’s work (well, actually 10 hours of it) after 2 hours sleep, my eyes are now little slits, and I think it’s time to hit the hay for the night!  Katie and I celebrated our own version of Christmas tonight, and had our Christmas gifts as today is the last day we’d spend together until after Christmas – it was a really lovely night, as it always is when I have a night in with Katie, and I’ve been very very spoilt with some lovely presents tonight.  I’m definitely very blessed having the flatmate and friend that I have now … I’ve had some shockers, to say the least, in the past, so this is a real treat! 😀

Crikey, every little noise outside is making me jump tonight … I think for a short time we will be more aware of our surroundings out here – and we’ll be ensuring our doors and windows are triple-locked.  I just can’t believe that so far I seem to have been the only one at our end of the block who woke up to the screaming – both Katie and our bottom neighbour slept through the entire thing! :O

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Framing, picture framing

Back briefly

Sorry I have been AWOL for a while … all I can say is that I’ve been struggling emotionally, I guess, for a number of weeks now, and I’ve been in a bit of a ‘black fog’ for want of a better way to put it.  Anyway, I have been planning a trip back down to Melbourne for about 2 months now, but it was then put on hold indefinitely after Erin passed away until I heard about when her service would be held in NZ – as that is now likely to be the middle of January, on Monday night it was all of a sudden ‘full steam ahead’ and Katie and I started making plans once again for the trip.  It’s taken me probably until yesterday before I started feeling brighter and looking forward to the trip, but now I think it will do me the world of good … getting away from home and away from the stress and pressures of work will be great.  Of course it just may make me more homesick for Melbourne and those friends I left behind …

When I get home I think I may need to take a quick visit to the GP as well … according to my hairdresser the itchy scalp I’ve been developing over the last few weeks is likely caused by stress and upheaval, as opposed to a reaction to my conditioner … I guess my body’s trying to tell me something!  Oh well, only two weeks left and I’ll get some TLC at home when I fly over to Mum and Dad’s for Christmas – something else that I’m really looking forward to.  Recent events brings it home even more that family is really important!

I haven’t picked up a needle for weeks now, so I guess that gives an idea of my mindset of late, as that’s super super unusual!  I did force myself to do a bit of home DIY, though, as I had a gift I needed to get ready for my trip to Melbourne.  Unfortunately other gifts still aren’t done, so I guess those’ll have to go in the post later. 

Here’s the results of my labours that I finished last night (just have to have the hooks/hangers screwed into the back):

P1020977

A framing job I did first, but in a ready-made mat and frame from Target:

P1020981

The gift I needed to get finished for this weekend (as it would be too hard to post) – this is for my ex-flatmate and friend Lisa for her birthday:

P1020982

Then this one is especially for me – LHN’s Hannah Purington, to match our lounge’s marine/blue theme):

P1020986

The piece de resistance – Graeme Ross’ Tiger … I’ve been waiting many many years to see this one framed!

P1020989

And, finally, the one frame that I cocked up a bit (this was my 2nd framing attempt) … the corner shifted slightly when I was tightening up the clamps and I didn’t notice – c’est la vie, I still love it 🙂

P1020993

These are all photos taken prior to adding the glass – I can’t believe it only cost AU$29 for 5 pieces to be cut, and the canvaswork and tiger pieces are decent sizes!  Anyway, I’m really quite proud of these for first attempts – it feels wonderful to be able to say “I did all that” … from the stitching to the mat cutting, frame making, and the actual framing itself.  I think I’ll be doing more in the future to give myself some more practice, and get some items out of the finishing pile.

Anyway, I’d better go get my packing done … it’s 8pm and I still haven’t even started yet!  Maybe there’s still a bit of reluctance hanging around under that black cloud, but I’m sure that’ll be shaken off by the morning 🙂