Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Changing of the Guard

Anne S

As you may/may not have noticed, there is no Photo Hunt entry from me today … I’ve been working 11 hour days this week on the days when I haven’t had chiro appointments, and been too tired to forward date a post for today … then today has been spent up at the crack of dawn (does 8am count as the crack of dawn?  I think so for a Saturday! LOL) helping my flatmate Lisa pack up her belongings ready for her drive back down to Melbourne.

I just have one thing to ask … why on earth should the world decide it must have a 43C day today???  I have spent most of the day living in a pool of sweat – heaving boxes and cases and bags of goodness knows what down to the ground floor from a third floor apartment in such sweltering heat was quite frankly diabolical, and something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!  To top that off as I waved a teary goodbye to my beautiful friend and now “ex”-flatmate, I had to pick up my “new” flatmate and load up the car with all her stuff … nothing like having a 15 minute cross-over between removals!  Must say, though, we did one load of carrying stuff upstairs for Katie, and left the rest in the garage to do tomorrow …  Instead we headed off to Ikea to plan our flat’s new furniture (in particular Katie’s room) – it was worth the trip to spend a few hours in the air conditioning, and gave our carpet time to dry (we got carpet cleaners in this morning too).

As for me now, I’ve just put the desk fan on and I’m about to crawl under the sheet in bed in front of that beloved fan … and I’m going to sleep the sleep of angels – what’s betting I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow? 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Cottage Garden WIP

Anne S

Just thought I’d add a quick updated piccie of my latest WIP, as it’s unlikely I’ll get any stitching done tonight.  I have another chiro appointment after work, followed by their ‘new members’ meeting which gives you more information about what the chiropractor does and how to help manage you health outside the chiropractors rooms.  Anyway, with any luck I’ll get this finished by this weekend … worst case scenario it’ll be finished some time during the weekend anyway, as the border will likely take me a while to complete.  The colours aren’t particularly true to this piece, as the fabric is a rich creamy coloured linen.  Maybe I’ll try to get a piccie in daylight when it’s all finished 🙂

CCN-Cottage Garden WIP 20Jan09

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

New WIP

Anne S

There are some good things about feeling unwell – a few more hours in the day for stitching for one! …  I went into the GP today to pick up some antibiotics and tomorrow I go in for blood tests … and I’m soon off to the chiro for my next first appointment of three this week.  In the meantime, though, inbetween doing work from home I’ve managed to put a few stitches into my next WIP – Cottage Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks (Just Cross Stitch magazine).  I thought a nice quick project was just the trick to keep the spirits up 🙂

CCN-Cottage Garden 19Jan09

Cross Stitch, Fancy Work, Finishes, Quaker

Quaker Swan Case

Anne S

Staying home bundled up today has been great for the stitching progress.  I managed to put the final stitches into my Swan, so now it’s being placed into the ‘finishing pile’ for one day when I feel up to the challenge (and once I have some decent cardstock to use).  The top photo is the closest to the actual fabric colour.

Fancy Work-Quaker Swan Case

Fancy Work-Quaker Swan Case detail
“Quaker Swan Case” by Fancy Work
Stitched on 32ct Blue Spruce Belfast linen
with recommended GAST threads

I actually finished the beading of my In The Dark Needleroll last weekend, but won’t bother showing a photo until the actual finishing is completed.  I guess that means the Quaker Swan Case is actually finish #3 for 2009 🙂

Food, Friends & Family, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Lisa’s final farewell dinner

Anne S

Katie and I put on a final farewell dinner for Lisa last night, and it was absolutely wonderful if I say so myself!  We’d discussed having crayfish months ago (aka Rock Lobster), and I said I’d treat us for the final meal … yesterday morning I took a trip out to the Sydney Fish Markets for the first time (and fell in love with them while I was there – I think I’ll be going there once a month to buy fresh fish!), and cried at the price tag, then cried again as they got yanked out of the tank and put into a bag with their litte tails still flapping … yikes …

Anyway, the shop put them out of their misery and sliced them into halves for me, and I picked up a fresh whole snapper to keep them company, along with a couple of tuna steaks.  I will definitely be living on bread and jam for the month of February (or at least until next payday) ‘cos the bank balance was emptied out hmmm, but a promise is a promise.  Katie made Pannecotta for dessert (which I’ve never had before) – oh boy it was scrummy!

We took some photos of the evening’s menus, so thought I’d share it (sorry Mum, I know you’re sitting there as green as a shamrock with jealousy! haha).

First of all we take some fresh crafish/rock lobster, and slice them in half…

Farewell Dinner 1

Then we sprinkle with cayenne pepper and a dash of sea salt, and baste with a marinade made from garlic, oil, lemon juice and brandy.  Eventually, after a couple of extra bastings during cooking, they’ll come out looking like this…

Farewell Dinner 2

Add a bit of potato slice bake (which unfortunatey looks like it’s mashed in this photo!), and add a basic tossed salad, and you have a scrummy meal that will have you sighing with satisfaction for hours afterwards.  Katie was ooh’ing and ahh’ing for ages, saying her taste buds were in ecstasy as every element of the meal was amazing – thanks Katie, that’s a huge compliment 🙂

Farewell Dinner 3

We had great fun at the end all trying to get into the crayfish legs for that final little fleshy morsel hiding in there – lots of giggles and cursing abounded LOL.  We even cleared and set the dining table for dinner … it was lovely eating all together … it’s only taken us 12 months to use it! LOL.

Farewell Dinner 4

Afterwards Katie was sent into the kitchen to finish off the preparations of her Pannecotta desserts – and this is the result … how beautiful do they look?  And they tasted just as beautiful! 🙂

Farewell Dinner 5

We ended the night by finishing off my Christmas present of chocolate port … just enough left in the bottle to half fill three glasses for the Three Musketeers … and here’s Katie’s self-portrait of us all at the end of the meal while we were sampling our ports.

Farewell Dinner 6

All in all a really wonderful night – we’re going to miss my flatmate Lisa a LOT … both at work and at home.  She will definitely be missed, bless her.

We were supposed to all be going to Manly for lunch today with other friends of Lisa’s for their farewell lunch, but I’ve woken up with my throat being worse, and heading to my chest, so I’ve decided to sit here with a mug of Lemsip and have pulled out of the festivities.  I figure it’s probably wiser for me to have a day sat around home vegetating than being a social butterfly and sharing my bugs further.  Never mind, I still have wonderful memories from last night to keep me warm and cosy today … I might even get some more stitching done! 😀

Canvaswork, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Orna Willis, Stash

All choked up

Anne S

I have to say a HUGE thanks to the ladies who have offered me spare copies of the JCS ornie issues after I confirmed my loss.  I am incredibly touched and humbled by your kindness, and I have to say I got a bit choked up when I was responding by email today.  Words can’t express how grateful I feel … my ornie issues have always been some of my most treasured stitching possessions, so it will be awesome to have some of the copies available again to stitch from.

To top off that kindness, I also just received a comment on my previous blog post that I am the winner of Orna’s January Giveaway on her blog, so that lump in my throat just got an awful lot bigger (and separate to the current razor blade burning from my virus!).  If you don’t know Orna Willis, she is one of my favourite canvaswork designers – her designs are exquisite.  I love her use of bright and contemporary colours, and have a couple of designs kitted up ready for stitching.  I look forward to receiving my new prize, as I think it will look absolutely stunning stitched up 😀

orna-willis-prize-giveaway

Here are my fave pieces yet to be stitched (I don’t actually own the last two though … yet):

Asummerdrink_lime-02 Grace2 Asummerdrink_mint-02
equilibrium2large-midnight  ReflectionsofJoy_bright-02
peacock tales Twilight royal wisteria

And of course there’s the one piece I’ve already stitched – “Dena”, which I just adore to death! 😀

Dena

Movies, Sydney

Night out under the stars

Anne S

What an awesome night out … after my Chiro session tonight we headed into the city of Sydney, and plonked ourselves down in our seat near Mrs Macquaries Chair, at the Open Air Cinema.  What an exquisite setting it’s in … the huge movie screen sits out over the water in the harbour, with the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge sitting proudly and magnificently in the background, with the occasional bat flying overhead.  Here’s a photo of the setting from their website – just awesome!

open-air-cinema-sydney

And to top it all off we saw the BEST film – “In Bruges“.  A lot of people probably wouldn’t enjoy it (including my Mum) as it includes lots of profanity … and the humour is quite dark … but Colin Farrell was an absolute treat to watch, and we all laughed our heads off at the shocking quips and humour – highly, highly amusing!  And I’ve always been a bit of a fan of Brendan Gleeson, so it was a double treat for me!  The movie was much better than I was expecting, and I’ll be sure to add it to my DVD collection once it’s been released 😀

in-bruges

Here’s one of the earlier parts in the movie that yanked my chain … and one of the few parts with no swearing! 😉

Ken (Brendan Gleeson): Coming up?
Ray (Colin Farrell): What’s up there?
Ken: The view.
Ray: The view of what? The view of down here? I can see that down here.
Ken: Ray, you are about the worst tourist in the whole world.
Ray: Ken, I grew up in Dublin. I love Dublin. If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.

Sick humour, most definitely (it gets much worse) … but awesome viewing on the big screen!  One of Colin Farrell’s best performances in my eyes …

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Dodgey Bros R Us

Anne S

Alas, my worst fears have come to pass … it appears the one missing box that never got delivered by Dodgey Bros R Us (aka every bad filthy name under the sun you can think of … and I can think of many!) when I moved to Sydney contained some very precious items.  To be honest, I think I’ve almost purposefully not checked the final two boxes for this long because I didn’t want my fears to become reality … but the time came when I just couldn’t put off the task any longer … and my fears were well founded 😦

What has me so upset, I hear you ask?  Could it be a couple of bars of gold bullion I’ve been squirrelling away for my retirement?  Perhaps a winning Lotto ticket that still has to be cashed?  Perhaps a personalised signed photo of Tony Curtis (don’t ask! LOL), or the front door key to Jensen Ackles’ home?  No, it’s much much worse than that!  Unfortunately almost my entire collection of JCS Christmas Ornie magazines were in that box {heavy sigh}.  It’s taken me ages to get almost the entire collection together – the only one I was missing was 1999 … but alas it appears now I’m missing every one barring the 2007 and 2008 issues 😦

Luckily I’d got really organised before I placed my belongings into storage and took working copies of a fair few designs, so I can still stitch some, but it’s really heartbreaking to lose them!  I think I ‘may’ have my 2005 edition floating around in my stitching bags as well, and my Mum (sweetheart that she is) has offered to give me back the copies that I’d originally bought for her, so I may be able to replace one or two of the missing issues.

Anyway, I just had to share my woes with people who understand my despair …

Now, if I could just find those house keys to Jensen’s place that would help to ease the burden … ;P

jensen20sexy1

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Still around …

Anne S

Just not getting much stitching done.  I was at work until 8.30pm last night, and that’s likely to continue off and on throughout the next 6 weeks at work thanks to this lovely project of mine, and it’ll be made worse next Friday when 2 of my colleagues leave and my boss goes on 2 weeks leave.  How on earth they allowed annual leave during a time when we have such a massive project happening and so short-staffed I just don’t know!!!

Next Friday I also say goodbye to my flatmate Lisa as she heads off on her big drive to return to Melbourne on Saturday morning.  It’s all very sad really as we’ve become really good friends over the last few months especially.  Can’t blame her, though …

As for me, I’ve been battling health issues – I put my neck out last Friday and went to a Chiropractor … my X-ray results yesterday showed that my spine is quite a bit out of alignment in areas, and is responsible for many of my health issues.  It also showed arthritis starting to form in my neck and lower back, which would explain a lot as well.  So, $1000 later (thank goodness for Visa!!) and I’m signed up for 23 chiro sessions to hopefully reverse the arthritic degeneration and get me back on track.  I can’t say I enjoyed the bone-crunching session yesterday, albeit brief, the sound absolutely does my head in {shuddering}.  I think for my own health it is really important that I do this, especially after seeing how badly my spine was misaligned in the X-rays.  On top of that I picked up Katie’s viral infection over the weekend and have had a throat like I’m swallowing razorblades – between that and my neck on Sunday night my sleep was non-existent, so I ended up taking Monday off to catch up.  I’m still blocked up and have a sore throat, but not quite so bad … although it does make it harder to concentrate at work etc 😦

Unfortunately with all of Lisa’s farewells we’ve been organising, along with her birthday a week ago, and Christmas, and now a huge chiro bill, things will most definitely be a bit tight financially for a while now … I guess my own birthday will be a very low key one this year now, and my original plans are thrown out the window – time to put the thinking cap on again!  Hmmm … 

Geez I’m just one big bundle of joy right now.  Time to cheer up and show some stitching …  Since I woke up at 5.30am yesterday I caught up on a bit of TV viewing and managed to make a start on the Quaker Swan Case that I’ve had sitting around kitted up forever – not much to show yet, but it’s definitely a start 🙂

Quaker Swan Case WIP