PhotoHuntThis week’s theme is ”Four” and here are four aircraft doing an aerial display in Melbourne.
Back briefly
Just a quick note before I hit the hay for the night … I’ve obviously been ‘AWOL’ for a while, thanks to an extremely demanding and exhausting (and not much fun, quite frankly) job … and I owe a ton of emails to some wonderfully kind and generous ladies for some exquisite birthday gifts from last month – once I send emails of thank you I’ll post some piccies of their incredible generosity.
I have been AWOL not just from blogging, but from emails as well – I have a new record of 1900+ unread blog feeds and 522 unread emails … don’t think I’ll be getting through the backlog in a great hurry!! Anyway, I have stitched in little spurts now and then just to keep my sanity – usually when I’ve fallen in a heap after a week of 12 hour shifts, and working weekends … and Katie and I have popped in our Supernatural DVD’s for the ultimate in chick relaxation … along with a bottle of something alcoholic. I swear before this year’s out, I’ll be signing up for AA meetings!!!
Following are the results of my stitching over the last month – not a great deal to show for it, but then again I’ve hardly been home long enough to put needle to fabric … and this last weekend is the first one in well over a month that I haven’t worked, and spent it all recovering from an exceptional hangover! We cut loose in a BIG way on Thursday night, and suffered well for it afterwards, but it was a great way to let off steam after being so exceptionally stressed all these weeks.
Anyway, on to the sparse stitching – then in the morning I’ll get those thank you emails shipped off, and I can do a longer post, perhaps (I have taken tomorrow off – in lieu of all the extra unpaid hours I’ve done).
First of all here’s the latest update photo of Mirabilia’s Winter Queen … starting with the last progress photo taken:
And what she looks like now (I took a full length photo as I needed to roll up the scroll bars for the, hopefully, final stitching at the bottom). I have to admit I’ve made some good headway with her, more from some serious stitching on Sunday afternoons than anything else – just to force myself to relax and chill out.
Then I had two Christmas ornie finishes last month, just in the nick of time (with 30 minutes to spare) for last month’s Christmas ornie challenge on a Yahoo group. The photos are terrible as I took them just before midnight!
Followed by Part 1 of my Quaker Friendship Round Robin that I’m stitching with a group of some of my closest online pals. Unfortunately I didn’t get Part 2 finished in time for mailing, but as I’ve stitched mine on individual pieces of fabric it doesn’t really matter.
And on that note I’ll sign off as my eyes feel like sandpaper – I’ll try to pop online again in the morning to catch up on my personal emails, and thank yous … I can’t guarantee I’ll be blogging regularly again for a while, though, as work is still feral for a while longer … plus I’ve decided to go home for 2 weeks with the family again – just what I need when I’m fed up at work 🙂
Photo Hunt – Space
Photo Hunt – Thankful
This week’s theme is “Thankful” and I have to say I have many things to be thankful for in my lifetime – friends and family that have helped be grow and become the person I am today … opportunities to experience many different adventures along life’s pathway … and the opportunity to travel and broaden my horizons and life experiences. I am thankful for all these things – thankful for the richness of life itself! Here are some snippets from my life of which I have been thankful to experience…
Photo Hunt – Warm
Photo Hunt – Nautical
Speedy internet service
Just a quick note before I tuck myself in for the night to say “YIPPEE!!!!!!!” – I bought a new modem/router off Ebay this week and it arrived tonight(thank heavens for Visa!) … 1 1/2 hours later and I’m the proud new owner of a super fast, super beautiful internet connection. I can’t believe how much faster my connection is – pages are loading up really fast in my feed reader, and I’m not making as many typos (I think) here typing this as my internet page is actually keeping up with my fingers at the speed they’re typing … ah, sheer bliss!!!
And on that note I’d really better get to sleep … I was at work until 8.30pm again tonight, and have a phone hook-up with Tuscon, Los Angeles and Auckland first thing in the morning (that’s how every Friday morning starts for me at the moment), so I’d better get some shut-eye so I’m semi-awake for the call (especially as I’m the project lead from our end hmmm).
I’ll be sleeping with a huge grin on my face tonight … partly because of the modem/router … partly because the Chiropractor untwisted my neck tonight so I feel more ‘centred’ … and partly because I managed to track down an old friend of the male persuasion in Melbourne, who I used to have a bit of a crush on (and no, that doesn’t mean there’s romance brewing … although that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love him to come and visit Sydney for a weekend haha). One of the few times in life that my Mum likes someone and so do I … you don’t need three guesses to work out who I’m talking about Mum!!! haha.
Rightio, time to sleep … happy sleep tonight after being stressed out to the max all week with work … happy sleep … happy sleep (do you think I’ve talked myself into it? haha).
Bad update photo of Winter Queen
Seeing as I’m not sure if I’ll get anymore stitching done until the weekend, I thought I’d quickly jump on and upload my latest WIP piccie of Winter Queen … for once you can see some substantial improvements in the last piccie! Can’t wait to get her finished so I can unroll her from the scroll bars and see her in all her glory … also so I can move on to something else 😉
As previously done, here’s the before and after pics:
Before (closer to the actual colours of the threads!)
After (dunno what happened to the colours in his one!!)
I think the next “major” BAP I’ll focus on after Winter Queen is finished is Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … so much for my rotation this year, I just want to keep stitching on WQ until she’s done … of course I’m female, and therefore reserve the right to change my mind on a whim! ;P
Praying for a reprieve
I have to say I’m not religious in any sense of the word … but I’m praying for a reprieve for those poor people who are suffering so badly in the tragic bushfires raging south of us here. It is heartbreaking to see the death toll steadily climb each day, and anyone who does not feel touched in some way must have hearts of stone.
Watching the news tonight had tears rolling down my cheeks. One generous soul who had lost his own property and seen so many of his neighbours properties destroyed spent 6 hours driving around the township helping living victims to safety. After saving 12 lives, he was found by his brother laying in the street in front of the local pub with his dog at this side. On asked whether he would go back to live there, he said how could he? He would be forever haunted by what he had seen – that people were normally trained to view such horrors as he had seen. I can’t even begin to imagine what he went through in those 6 hours, not to mention those other poor souls who have been at the centre of this tragedy. I don’t know what else to say … it breaks my heart …
The death toll is now sitting at 131, and the possibility to hit the over 200 mark … such devastation … such loss … such tragedy 😦
On a different note, it’s unlikely I’ll be online much over the next week or so until a new modem turns up. My modem has died a horrible death (it actually died almost a week ago now) – I just remembered on Saturday night after working all day (thankfully in air-con) that I’d forgotten to cancel my old mobile broadband account with “3”, so I’ve managed to log into my emails over the last day or two. It doesn’t have much upload/download space, though, so my online time with be very limited for a short while.
I did a whole heap of stitching yesterday on Winter Queen, but I haven’t taken a photo yet … I’ll be stitching most of the upcoming weekend, so will likely take a photo then.
In the meantime, please keep those affected by the bushfires in your thoughts and prayers. As for the mongrels that set some of the fires in the first place, I truly hope there is such a thing as karma … and hope you’re not sleeping too well with that death toll on your conscience!
Photo Hunt – Bridge(s)
This week’s theme is “Bridge(s)” and while I’m living in a city with one of the world’s most beautiful and well-known bridges, I decided to stick with the obvious – here’s Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, as viewed from a ferry coming into the harbour … you can see the Sydney Opera House in the bottom corner too 🙂
Feather Stitching 