Tag: Uncategorized

Sorry about the really rushed post yesterday – I’ve managed to book a spot at the library today, and have a whole 30 minutes to play with woohoo 😉

First up a big thank you for Christine D … sorry, but I forgot to bring your email addy with me to the library … I wanted to say thanks so much for your beautiful ornie – I love it! It’s look stunning on my little ornie tree … I’ll post a piccie as soon as I get up and running properly again. Just wanted to let you know it arrived safe and sound, and it’s awesome 😀

The way I’m going my first post after Christmas is gonna be laden with piccies haha.

Now, on to the GREAT news … I couldn’t wait until later to announce it to the world haha. Today I was told I was one of the nominees for an “Excel Award” – which is basically when people think you’ve gone ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ and given excellence in service … and I won it! I don’t know who nominated me yet, but apparently that also gets me nominated for the overall yearly award (I doubt I’ll get that though) … and the best thing of all, I get a $150 gift voucher from David Jones to spend, as well as a certificate of excellence. How cool is that? Can you tell I’m rapt?? LOL. After struggling so much financially these last two months, it’s going to be wonderful going shopping for something totally non-essential yippee … and I think I may have already spent it in my mind. I’ve been dying to get an iPod for ages, and they’ve come down in price recently, so I think that’s what I’ll get … I’m grinning from ear to ear! 😀

I also heard from the phone technician today – he wanted to come and visit this morning, but of course I was at work – he’s going to ‘try’ to get to my place late tomorrow afternoon, but no guarantees. That’ll pretty much be the last chance he’ll get before Christmas, so my fingers are seriously crossed he can make it … that would be just awesome!

Aside from that I got a whole hour of stitching done last night on the Leporello … it took me two nights gridding the fabric (not helped by Silkweaver cutting the edges on an angle, so I had difficulty getting everything in OK) … so right now I just have a tiny blue blob on the fabric – by the time I’m internet-ready again, I might have something worth seeing 😉

Rightio, better run – I still need to do some internet banking and email reading, and my minutes are counting down rapidly … (PS: Ally, I might have to check into your options of McD’s – will have to check the yellow pages to see if any of them here have internet access … I’m sure I could survive buying something to surf for a while LOL.)

Unfortunately my phone line at home is as dead as a dodo … so I can’t access emails or the internet/blogs … fingers crossed it will be fixed before Christmas, but I’m not holding my breath 😦

If this doesn’t work, and doesn’t post, I’ll try to access the internet from a library or something somewhere … what am I going to do at home now?? I guess I’ll have lots of stitching piccies to show and tell by the time I get back! LOL.

Updated:

My apologies to those of you who read the previous post and got all the info about my work 😦 Obviously that’s something I won’t be repeating … but at least I know it works!!

It turns out it’s unlikely I can get the phone line checked before Christmas, which means I won’t be able to access blogs etc very easily without going to an internet cafe or library (which is where I am now). If you need to contact me urgently regarding the RAK Registry or anything else, please try contacting Nicki (Plush) or Carol (Garden of Stitches) and they could let you know my work email address. Otherwise I’ll try to pop into a cafe or library once a week to check incoming emails.

Apologies for the quick post, but I only have 15 minutes of access allowed here, and need to pop into my ISP website to see if I can access my emails. If I don’t get chance to say so beforehand, all the very best to all of you and your families for a wonderful festive season!

I’ll quickly close saying I have received a wonderful giftie today from Carol (Garden of Stitches) … and I adore it! I’ll post properly when I get chance, but Carol will no doubt give you a taste of the contents on her blog 😀 I’m sorry this isn’t a proper thanks, but I’ll write more when I have more time 😀 (Luv ya Carol!)

Aha, I think I’ve finally worked out the very simple solution to be able to post on Beta blogs … after giving up trying to post on many blogs (some would allow anonymous comments, some wouldn’t etc) … I finally opened up a Google account, which was super simple, and it’s allowed me to comment everywhere so far … although I have to admit I’ve only made a few comments so far this morning before work. Anyway, anyone who’s still having problems commenting might want to try doing that.

After seeing Nicki’s blogs copy across just fine, I decided to bite the bullet last night and migrate mine … but apparently one of my blogs can’t be migrated yet, so I have to wait in line for longer – I don’t mind at all ;P

Nothing else to post today, really …

Except to say today I’m thankful for fresh clean sheets and bedding … how lovely is it to slip into bed when you’ve just changed all the linen? Ah, heaven 🙂

Updated to add an apology to many bloggers – I’m trying to catch up with blogs, but for some reason the last two nights I’ve been unable to leave comments on beta blogs … it just keeps rejecting my blogger ID. Anyway, I’ve opted to leave it for a day or two then I’ll try to catch up again – I don’t want to just ‘read and run’ … hopefully I’ll be able to get back to commenting again soon 🙂 I was doing so well, too – I’d managed to catch up at the weekend after getting through over 650 unread feeds! 😀

For Carina and Cindy, and anyone else who’s wondering what Babycham actually is … here’s the Wikipedia info … and the official website 😀 I was reading the History section last night, and found it very interesting, and I love the ‘product lines’ … when you run your mouse over the sparkling bottle, the cork pops out haha – I didn’t realise quite how old Babycham is, but then again I have been drinking it since I was very young hmmmm 😉

Well, it’s been an interesting day today – not anything to do with my ‘personal’ situation, but rather one for Melbourne city on the whole. As the Yahoo news team puts it … “Melbourne was shrouded in a thick blanket of smoke throughout today with levels in the city reaching 10 times the acceptable limit. Some city workers found the air difficult to breath in with others more concerned about the cause of the ominous sky.” That kinda sums it all up, really!

It really is quite eerie, and I’ve been tasting smoke all day – I had to shut off the air vents in my car on the way to work, and then by the afternoon it was so bad it was circulating through the air conditioning at work and we’ve all been complaining of headaches and sore throats. We did do a very pitiful rendition of ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ at one stage 😉 I bet the respiratory departments are run off their feet today, as it really is dreadful – even in bad weather I usually have a lovely view of the skyline on the drive home, but tonight it’s just blanketed in a thickish fog of smoke. I feel very sorry for those who are closer to the ‘action’ and have lost their homes during this disaster.

So today, I’m thankful that I’m not in the path of that fiery destruction – I really hope they get it under control soon so no more property (or worse) is lost. But I’m also truly thankful that today was the first day of an entire month (13 Dec-14 Jan) where we’re allowed to wear casual clothes to work … jeans and trainers for an entire month – I’m in heaven! 😉

Today was also dress-up today at work … apart from a few Santa hats, as usual I was the only one to be fully decked-out in my Christmas tree outfit, and we have some great ideas for my outfit for next year – including getting a load of cheap ‘flashing’ brooches/earrings to attach like lights hahaha … too funny! Two of the Supervisors tonight came and gave me a Luv Ya Work Award before I went home “for bringing some festive cheer and joy into the office” … I have to admit it is a great morale booster, and brings a smile to everyone when they see it … and that’s what it’s all about! 😀 I didn’t take a new photo this year, as I had my hands full with my plate of food etc walking from my car, so couldn’t juggle my camera as well, so last year’s photo will have to suffice 😉

That heading is what I’m going to be focusing on for a while … I’m sick of being full of misery on this blog, and I’m sure you’re sick of reading it. Anyway, after my emotional meltdown last night, I think it had a bit of a cleansing effect on me – my fighting spirit is back again, and I’m going to try to focus on the positive things in my life. There are many people worse off than me … while it may be stressful and depressing at times, I need to keep looking ahead 🙂

So today I’m thankful for all my online friends – your cheering on comments both here and in personal emails has given me a lot of strength to deal with the issues I’m facing. As the old adage goes, “a friend in need is a friend indeed” … and I really and truly appreciate you all hanging in with me while I’ve been struggling and less than positive on here.

This morning I spent some time checking out house sitting sites and self storage etc, but I’ve been thinking of leaving any major decisions until the New Year. I have Mum visiting for six weeks in February, and I’d rather have everything ‘as usual’ during that time at least … and it will give me plenty of time to get my head together.

Tonight was a different task … I’ve been sending emails to the UK, to the manufacturers of Babycham! I don’t know why, but since this morning I’ve got it in my head that I want to make up my own stocking. Why?? Because my stocking is the one Christmas tradition Mum did for me every year until I was ‘too old’ for it (I repeat for you again, Mum, I’m never ever too old for it hahaha). Such a simple thing – a stocking was waiting under the tree every year … nothing glamorous and expensive, but filled with love – Christmas just wasn’t Christmas without my stocking! What was in my stocking that made it so special? … There was always a handful of nuts in their shells (brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts etc), maybe an apple and an orange, and a couple of chocolate bars and sweeties, and the piece de resistance … a small bottle of Babycham! When I was in my teens there would be some additional treats in there too, like a pair of ‘fashion’ earrings or something similar. I don’t know why, but that stocking tradition has remained in my heart as something very very special about Christmas.

When I moved to Australia the first 8 months here sharing were abysmal for many reasons (a couple of you know those stories from personal emails, but I’m not going into it now) – when Fraze and I moved out to our own place in Box Hill, it was going be our first Christmas ‘on our own’ … by the time Christmas came, we also had Andrew living with us too – and I decided to do the Christmas stocking ritual for them … although instead of Babycham they got cans of beer haha – they also got a few ‘silly things’ like car polish and DVD cases and things. While I didn’t have my own stocking, watching the two boys unwrap everything in their own stockings was wonderful, and I really loved it. Andrew said that that was the most special Christmas he’d had, and even though he spent the rest of the day with his family, the morning with us was the most magical. I do have to admit I did feel the same way too at the time (shame the rest of our living arrangements with him weren’t quite so magical in the long run haha).

Anyway, being the first Christmas on my own, I’m making my own stocking … and I’m trying to track down whether Babycham is available for sale locally somewhere, as I’ll be treating myself as my big Christmas Day treat. We used to be able to buy it in New Zealand, so I presume you can buy it here somewhere too, and it’s pretty cheap to buy even though it’s imported. If not, then I’ll substitute with a $3.99 mini bottle of Asti Riccadonna instead … woohoo, big spender LOL. Add to that my fave Christmas song playing loudly on the stereo (ie Snoopy’s Christmas – it gets me singing at the top of my lungs every time!), and I’ll be all set! 😉

I’m actually working on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which will be a financial boost thank goodness – and someone at work actually cooks up a Christmas dinner for us all, which will be a lovely treat 🙂 I can’t believe how close it is to the ‘big day’ already …

Ooh, I didn’t realise how close midnight was either – better run and hit the hay for the night, as I need to be up early tomorrow. The Christmas tree dress is back out again ready for dress-up day tomorrow, but I have to get up early to get a ‘plate of food’ to share with everyone … so I’m making Doreen’s Apricot Slice again (cheap ingredients, and so very comforting for me, as it brings back all those wonderful happy childhood memories again – the perfect blessing for my day!).

Today I finally open what I considered to be ‘junk mail’ … one from the NZ Inland Revenue Department – seeing as I don’t live in NZ anymore, I didn’t bother rushing to open it … today I did … and today I found a bill for NZ$50 for a late filing penalty … for the non-filing of a tax return in NZ when I reside in Australia, and have done for 3 1/2 years now – I haven’t earned taxable earnings in NZ since 2003, for goodness sake!!! … payment due 07Feb07 … With any luck I’ll get this one reversed just for stupidity’s sake, but then again it’s a Government department, after all, so anything is possible!

It’s a good job I’m a relatively strong person, or I would’ve sunk into the murky mire of serious depression ages ago … but I am definitely reaching my limits now, that’s for sure!! If nothing else, though, it’s stopped the tears and brought that fighting spirit back again (mutter mutter mutter) I must say, though, it’s starting to feel like I’m starring in some sort of comedy farce … except the sense of humour’s a bit warped and not all that funny!

Sorry, no stitching piccies – I’m just not in the stitching mood right now (plus these shifts aren’t very conducive to it).

I am, however, very grateful to see the beautiful blue sunny sky outside my windows today, followed by the cooling breeze coming through the windows (as opposed to the fiery heat pouring through on Sunday at 42C!).

The heading of this post really sums it up today … I was feeling quite good after completing my overnight shifts, and coming home for my days off work – even after only having 4 hours quality sleep each night (or ‘day’ to be more precise), I feel OK, and happy … then driving home that wonderful feeling disappeared.

After driving for a while with a slight knocking sound coming from the passenger side of the car, I drove to an open gas station that’s about halfway home and checked around the car, only to find a bloody great bolt head sticking out of the passenger side front tyre … here I was thinking my financial woes are finally going to be put to rest on Tuesday, my bills are all going to be paid, and I’m going to live it up with fresh veges on the dinner table and my stress levels will return to normal … well, so much for that idea! Now it’s likely I’m up for a brand new tyre on top of everything else … fed up? Too bloody right I am!! 😦

I did have an extra bit of excitement on the drive home, though … I saw black smoke billowing on the horizon, and thought it looked like fire smoke … sure enough, I drove past an art supply store that was billowing flames out the front – it was like being on the movie set of Ladder 49 or something, especially at 5.30am with the sky only just lightening up, the colour was quite vivid and very spectacular – I only wish I had my camera, as watching the fireman dealing with it with the flames pouring out the front was incredible!

Then to top it all off a stupid driver started reversing out really fast from his driveway, into the main road, right in front of me … I had to haul on the brakes to miss driving straight into him – between the tyre, the fire, and that moron my heartrate was definitely up by the time I got home … I was grateful just to pull into my driveway! Anyway, the bolt is still sitting in my tyre … I figured I’d drive home slowly and change the tyre etc when I can see it in daylight – and here I was thinking I’d have a relaxing day stitching on my day off … mutter mutter mutter.

Anyway, I have to say I’ve pretty much reached my limits … and can’t take much more testing of my inner strength … whoever’s doing the testing, could you just give me a passing grade, and let me get on with ‘life as I know it’ … enough already!!!!!

Sorry for the rant … it’s now 6am and I just wanted to get it off my chest before trying to get to sleep … ‘cos at the moment I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry, but I feel too tired to do either!

I really really can’t be feeling well … it’s now 6am and I’ve just walked in from work, after being up for almost 24 hours straight (the first night on doggo’s is a killer!) … anyway I’m driving home and thinking about a couple of XS charts I’d like to stitch. OK, so there’s nothing really unusual about that … BUT I’m envisaging how they’d be all stitched over-one … what the? I HATE over-one stitching – and only do it when I really really have to, so what on earth is possessing me to think I’d actually enjoy doing some of these BAP’s over-one?? If my head starts spinning around on my shoulders and spewing obscenities, at least I’ll then know I’m obviously and clearly possessed … right now I just think perhaps sleep deprivation has made me temporarily potty!

And what projects do I think would look great … I’ve already pretty much decided to stitch Graham Ross’ Rainbow Lorikeets that way, but on the way home I started thinking about By the Bay Needleart charts (such as this one), plus another Greek scene from an old magazine, and then a L&L design … crikey, I’d better get myself to bed quick smart and get some quality sleep before I do something really rash and actually start one of these things over-one!!! Someone bring me a cold compress and some Panadol, I’m obviously running a fever!!!

This time I was on the receiving end of a gorgeous RAK from sweet Auntie Isabelle, and what a wonderful pick-me-up it was after being so ‘down’! It was supposedly a “wee” treat, but I think it’s way bigger than “wee” 😉 I’m too lazy to get the camera out tonight, but I promise a piccie tomorrow – but I’ll try to describe my actual reaction to receiving this yesterday …

I opened up my PO Box to find Isabelle’s parcel hiding inside – I walked outside and saw the contents, and decided straightaway to treat myself … As you know I’ve been very VERY frugal over the last month or two, and haven’t been buying any coffees or non-essentials … well, I popped straight into the cafe next door and ordered a large cappuccino takeaway, propped myself on the brick wall/seating outside and broke off two pieces of the chocolate Isabelle had sent me … while reading the gorgeous words in the card, and drooling over the chart that was also in the parcel – one off my wishlist, a wonderful French design by Coleurs Croisees (there’s a link here to the chart, if you can’t wait until tomorrow’s piccie haha). What a wonderfully decadent and heavenly way to start the day (and in this case my working week) – thanks so much again, Isabelle, you’re a sweetheart and a wonderful friend … I feel very blessed to have ‘met’ you and it really did raise my spirits {{hugs}}.

And talking of RAK’s, as for the RAK Registry, it’s slowly getting underway. I’ve spent a fair bit of time starting up a new blog, and playing with the template layouts etc, and I’m now slowly entering in the data that I’ve received. If you want a sample look while it’s in the creating process, feel free to have a peek here. This is definitely a ‘work in progress’ at the moment, and it will take me some time to enter everything into it. In the meantime if you think there’s something else you’d like to see, or any improvements you can suggest, feel free to let me know. This is something to be used by all of us, so I want it to be as user-friendly as possible 🙂

A couple of people have also mentioned that they want my address details as well, so they don’t have to ask me for it and spoil any possible surprises down the track … oops, I hadn’t honestly thought about that side of it, I was too eager to get everybody else joined up. Not sure how I should tackle this one – either send my address to everyone that signs up (which feels a bit presumptuous), or I could list a couple of people that know my address details, along with their email addresses … not quite sure about that one! 🙂

Anyway, keep those emails coming in if you want to sign up – this is a continuing process, so there’s no deadline to joining up … it’s merely a ‘sharing of information’ among our caring stitching community 😀