Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Four sleeps to go

Anne S

In 4 sleeps time the Dragon will have landed in Oz, and I’m off on 3 weeks annual leave.  Things are hectic at work, so I’m not online at all at the moment, and probably won’t be much while Mum’s here.  I feel a bit brighter health-wise over the last few days, though, which is a great sign … perhaps it’s the excitement of only having to work until the end of this week? haha.  I did have my CT scan last week and currently awaiting 8 vials of blood to be analysed … hopefully the results will be through soon.

In the meantime I have managed to put a few stitches into LHN’s Home of a Needleworker Too … but I’m too lazy to take a progress photo – I don’t have one of the threads, so a finish will be some time away yet, but I’ll post a piccie some time next week if I get time.  Mum and I are heading off to warmer climes for a week, where there’ll be nothing to do, so hopefully that’ll mean some serious R&R and stitching time! 😀

This is where we’re heading next Thursday …

QLD1

QLD2

QLD3

Hurry up “next Thursday” and arrive already!!! 😉

(Note:  Photos are courtesy of the Tropical North Queensland tourism website)

Beading, scissor fobs

Beading – More Fobs

Anne S

Now I’m off to investigate the creation of my soon-to-be Etsy store. Here are the latest ones that I put together yesterday while Katie and I sat watching Supernatural series 4 (again), along with a couple of my favourite ones from the last two beading sessions (actually I just realised I hadn’t published those ones yet, so I’ll add the ‘group shots’ of those ones too at the bottom).

fobs 01aug09

Fob 01

fob 04a

fob 21a

fob 26a

fob 01a

fob 05a

fob 08a

fob 09a

fob 10a

fob 11a

More fobs 1

More fobs 2

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Friends & Family, Hunter Valley, JBW Designs, Prairie Schooler, Sydney

Great weekend & A bit of stitching for a change

Anne S

I’ve been offline most of the week thanks to feeling really crappy again during the week – this week, though, I’m making an appointment for a CT Scan for my sinuses and having some allergy tests done, so fingers crossed we can finally work out why this stupid sinus infection is hanging around for so many months and making me feel like death warmed up!

Last weekend, though, was a lovely treat for the month – I went to the Hunter Valley in NSW with Alison, Amanda and Sue for a stitching weekend away. Amanda kindly came and picked me up on Friday afternoon and chauffeured me – it was a lovely change for me, as I’m always the one driving. We arrived at about 7pm and walked into ‘our’ house to be greeted with a roaring log fire and dinner being prepped by Alison and Sue – the weekend was starting out on a blissful note already! The rest of the weekend didn’t disappoint either, it was a fantastic weekend away where we managed to combine some stitching (yes, we actually did do some), chatting, shopping, wining and dining, and I even made my very first scissor fob sale … to a lady vintner at one of my favourite vineyards up there (her white port is to die for in my opinion!). All-in-all it was a really awesome weekend, and hopefully we can make this an annual event, ‘cos I’m signing up for next year already!! Here’s a photo of our accommodation and home for the weekend, along with my fantastic company for the weekend 😀

Hunter Valley accommodation

Hunter Valley stitchers

The week before the retreat I managed to finish a little ornie stiching, and got the following ornie finished – it was supposed to be for the Yahoo group CYOO challenge, but I got a bit cranky during the month and couldn’t be bothered posting a photo on the board (and for once didn’t even bother doing the JCS monthly challenge one). I still hope to stitch an ornie a month, I just probably won’t be posting it on the board.

JBW Designs-Joy Love Peace
“Joy, Love, Peace” by JBW Designs
stitched on 32ct natural Belfast linen
with WDW Garnet and GAST Dried Thyme

During the weekend retreat I managed to put a reasonable amount of stitching into Prairie Schooler’s 2005 Limited Edition Santa, and during this weekend I’ve been able to put the final stitches into it after having a marathon stitching session on Saturday. The only thing I changed is to leave out the “2005” which is stitched in Black Coffee Crescent Colours below each side of the green letter blocks, and added a couple of random snowflakes instead.

Prairie Schooler-Here Comes Santa Claus 1
“Here Comes Santa Claus 2005” by The Prairie Schooler
stitched on 28ct natural Cashel linen
with kit Crescent Colours threads

Prairie Schooler-Here Comes Santa Claus 2
I love how the snowflakes lift off of the fabric – hard to see in the photo

Prairie Schooler-Here Comes Santa Claus 3

Now I’m off to try to create my soon-to-be Etsy store, as I’ve also got a whole heap of scissor fobs to load up into the store.  I had another beading session yesterday while Katie and I watched Supernatural Season 4 on DVD (that was after we had a few hours out at Miranda shopping centre where we saw the latest Harry Potter movie).  I’ll do a separate post of the latest ones that I created yesterday, plus a couple of close-ups of my latest favourites …