Aussie Stitcher

My Mother In Law

2012-02-05T14:34:00.000+11:00

Sadly, on the 16th of January my gorgeous Mother In Law passed away.

She had suffered the indignity, for her,

of having been in a nursing home for 3 and a half years. She was placed in full time care after struggling with Multiple Sclerosis for around 25 years. She was only 69 and was only weeks away from celebrating her 45th Wedding Anniversary. She had the utmost faith in her Lord, and is now in His care.

My DH is handling her passing remarkably well, I know that it is his own faith, knowing that his Mum is in a better place, that gives him the strenght that he needs at this time.

R.I.P. Marg. You will always be in our hearts.

Now onto some other news.

Luke, our now 17 yo, had his trip to Vietnam just before Christmas. He had a "Good time". Like most teenage boys, he doesn't say much or go over board with details or enthusiasm, but we are still hearing bits and pieces from him.

We had a lovely Christmas, it was just us 5 for lunch with some friends calling in for an afternoon drink. And to celebrate the New Year we went to a nearby town called Lakes Entrance to see some fire works. They were wonderful, and they lasted for around 15-20 minutes.

Last week, after MIL's funeral we had a week at our holiday house, it was just what we needed after all the stress and emotions. On Australia Day FIL took all of the grandchildren (6), except Luke, to see a Disney stage show production. Luke stayed home and DH and I enjoyed some time by ourselves doing some shopping. One of the things that I bought was an ASUS tablet, using it to do this post with, and I love it.

With my stitching, I have been working on the 7 Sins but then I decided that I would like to work on The General, photos below, as I am sure that it is something that my Dad would love. I took the photos with my tablet, I was unsure how just the one photo would look, so I decided to break it into three photos. They are in order top to bottom. (If you want to see them bigger, just click!)

I have also had a little finish. It is the Travelling Stitcher by LHN, using the threads in the chart pack and stitched on cream linen either 28 or 32 ct. I am now stitching the little needle-book that goes with this piece.

Well my lovelies, I hope that everyone is well and getting lots of stitching done. I would also like to thank everyone who stops by, whether you be a follower, commenter, reader or a lurker.
Stay safe.

Seasons Greetings

2011-12-26T12:15:00.000+11:00

Even though it has been such a long time since my last post, I just wanted to pop in briefly to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012.

I WON!!!! And resistance is futile.

2011-08-14T12:43:00.002+10:00

A little while ago Dani reached the amazing milestone of reaching 1500 posts to her blog. To celebrate she offered a couple of giveaways and I was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky winners.

I was totally amazed at all of the lovely goodies that Dani included in my parcel. First of all there was a cute card with a cat that has the same colouring as Puddles, and a gorgeous zip-up pouch.

In the pouch were the following;

An ort box (Dani has posted a tutorial here), some finishing fabric, some 28 size needles, a gorgeous scissor fob with an Angel charm on it and a beautifully stitched and finished biscornu. The biscornu is pink on one side and green on the other and trimmed with pink and green beads.

Here is the green side.

And here is a close up of the stitching and the fob.

My photos do no justice whatsoever to these beautiful pieces. Thank you so much Dani for gifting me with all of these wonderful goodies and thanks also for sharing bits of your life with all of us through your wonderful blog.

Onto the second part of my post.

I am hopeless!!!!

I must be certifiably crazy!!!!

Most of you have probably seen the HAED designs depicting the 7 Deadly Sins. Somewhere on the (evil) internet I read a suggestion from someone who said that a good plan for these design would be to stitch them at the same time by doing a page of each, therefore not getting sick of doing the one lot of colours until one was finished. So what did I do? I ordered them all and thought that the suggestion was a good one, although I have tweaked it somewhat. I had enough fabric in my stash of 28ct white linen and as per the title, resistance was futile.

As for the tweaking I decided to do the partial bottom pages first. As I complete a page of the first design, Avarice, I then do a row (27x10) of the next design Envy. Then another page, another row of Envy and a row (27x10) of Gluttony. Then another page of Avarice, another row of Envy and Gluttony and a row (27x10) of Lust and so on. So at the moment I am on the third partial bottom page of Avarice and have completed two rows on Envy and one on Gluttony.

Do you remember the rotation that I posted about on my last? HAH!!! What rotation!!!!

Whenever I come up with a brilliant rotation to tackle my never-ending, and growing, list of wips I last a rotation or two and then PPPFFFTTT!!!! Rotation is GONE!!! I think I am forever doomed to be a serial starter and a not so very often finisher. Maybe I will be satisfied when I have started everything in my stash. No, I will just probably buy more.

Please help me, I am drowning in wips.

Now that I have confessed my hopelessness I am going to go and do some housework.

Take care everyone and thanks for all of your wonderful comments.

Finally an update.

2011-06-26T15:09:00.003+10:00

So, you may ask what has finally prompted me to post? Well did you see the ‘little’ previous post on MY blog? Well that was my DH!!! He has discovered my password. I am not overly happy about that, (directed to DH who I am sure will read this at some stage) however, I am grateful that it was a nice message and not something horrible. I think he owes me a stash order for this. LOL

Message to DH.

Please DH, leave my blog alone, if you want to make your own posts I would be more that happy to help you set up a blog all of your own!!!

End of message to DH.

Even though posts have been scarce I have been stitching and reading your blogs. I am using Windows Live Writer for the first time with this post, and it seems much easier that posting through Blogger, so you might even see more regular posts from me. Well here is hoping anyway.

My work situation has improved, even for the short term. I actually managed to get my sales quota for the quarter ending in March. I wish that I could say the same for this quarter as I am behind again. I had some time off over Easter, about three weeks, and unfortunately the organisation that I work for don’t adjust targets unless you have four or more weeks off from work, this totally sucks. If I happen to be placed on performance review again I know that I will not be alone as there others who are in the same position as me. I have still been looking for another job. There are always full-time positions advertised but Joel and Caitlyn are too young yet IMO for me to not be around for them after school. They are nine and seven. At the moment they go to an after school care program on the days that I work but it is nice for them, and for me, that I am at home for them on the other days.

Now for the good stuff. Stitching of course. I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the number of WIPS, and the amount of stash, that I have on the go and have tried to come up with a way to not feel so overwhelmed. I came up with the idea of selecting a few designs to concentrate on so I went to the random number generator and it selected five designs; two HAED Bubble and Gypsy Rose, Drawn Threads Sampler Game Board, Spanish Geometric Sampler by The Needles Content and Village of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings. I am really loving another HAED at the moment, Impatient Ballerina, and really wanted to keep on stitching on it so it was incorporated into mix as well. So for six nights I stitched on one of the selected designs and stitched on Impatient Ballerina for the seventh night. This worked really well and it was wonderful to see some long term wips get some attention.

I have never been very successful sticking to a rotation in the past but I will ~~attempt to~~ try hard to stick with this one.

I did have another new start as well. Another HAED. It is called The General. It may not appeal to everyone but it means a lot to me. My Dad worked on the railways and sometimes he got to work on the old steam trains. In October of 1988 there was a Steam Train festival to celebrate Australia’s bicentennial. To help commemorate this occasion the Flying Scotsman was shipped to Australia and my Dad actually drove it. One of the highlights was when the Scotsman and two other steam locomotives ran from Melbourne to Seymour. Dad was the fireman (shoveler of coal) on the engine on the right hand side in this you tube clip. I remember standing just off from the rails taking photos in a little place called Donnybrook, I don’t have any photos here sadly as they are all with Dad. So, a rather long story as to why I had to get that chart and start it.

The Flying Scotsman.

In my last post (not the one by DH) I said that I would share with you my new starts, well here they are;

First off is Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Crafts. I am stitching this on a 28ct linen which is a creamy yellow colour with DMC threads 2 over 2.

And next is my meagre start on And They Sinned. Every one of these that I have seen in progress have been started at the top, but I started mine from the bottom which is where I nearly always start my projects from. This is being stitched on 40ct Navy Bean linen, using the recommended GAST threads 1 over 2.

And last but certainly not least is my major happy dance. This is by Fouroaks Designs and is called A Love Song. I stitched this on 32ct antique white linen using Vicky Claytons premium silk in the colour of Garnet.

See that date, yes I did finish it in 2010 and yes it has taken this long for me to share this with you.

Well I must go now and do some more cleaning, the bathroom is now done.

Take care everyone.

Hello possum

2011-06-25T19:19:00.002+10:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still here. Todays effort has been to clean the bathroom. Yes real housework. Hope all is well.

LUV

Aussiesticher

OH MY!!!!!

2011-04-03T17:30:00.000+10:00

Sorry for disappearing for so long. I have been reading and commenting on blogs but not just writing on my own.
I have a MAJOR Happy Dance to share, but alas no photos yet. I finished A Love Song (cough, cough) before Christmas. It turned out great if I may say so myself. I am hoping that by mentioning it in a post that it may motivate me to take some pictures and post them on here.
I have had two new starts, so much for sticking to wips. They are And They Sinned, started last night, there is a picture on my previous post but I think this one needs little to no introduction, and Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Crafts.
I am having some issues at work at the moment. They have taken on a sales culture which is just not what I signed up for. I love serving and interacting with the customers and hopefully injecting some fun in their day, but with the added pressure of sales being introduced into my role, and being placed on performance review, I have been seriously re-thinking my work options. I have had one job interview, in a customer service role, and came third out of seven. They needed to two. They really wanted to employ a gap student, and a male, as there are currently all females in the customer service area. They had a male applicant so they snatched him up, and of course they got their gap student applicant. The interviewers had only positive things to say about me and they said that positions become available all the time and that they would let me know of any other opportunities if and when they become available.
Well I had better go, washing needs to be bought inside and tea needs to be cooked.
Hopefully (fingers crossed) I will be back soon with some stitchy photos.
Stay safe everyone and keep on crossing those X's.

I Didn't Expect to be Back So Soon!!!!

2010-12-19T18:32:00.001+11:00

WOW!!! Two months and two posts.

I received some wonderful news today. My friend rang to tell me that her husband had his first CT scan since his chemo had begun, and the tumors have gotten smaller. I am so pleased for them and they are so looking forward to having Christmas this year. He is feeling so good that he has even returned back to work on a casual basis. His oncologist was amazed at how wonderful he looks, he has gained 7 kilos back after loosing about 25.

I have taken some photos so thought that I would show some up-date wip pictures while I was here. I have been following a 'loose' rotation on these for a few weeks now and it seems to be working.

First of all is Travelling Stitcher by LHN. I have been stitching on this of a Sunday night, so it will get some attention tonight.

Next is Faery Tales by HAED. I have been stitching on this from Monday through to Thursday night. Doesn't look like much progress here, but there was a lot of confetti stitching on the yellow brown blob at the bottom, it is in fact a roof. Cinderella's castle is looking terribly washed out, scroll down to my previous post for a better of picture of this one, and to see where I was at the last time I posted.

And last of all is A Love Song. As you can see I have started working my way upwards on the last bit of border (I hope it meets up). I have been stitching on this one of a Friday and Saturday night. The thread for this comes in six strands, just like DMC, so I complete one of the motifs first and then for the rest of the six strands I concentrate on the border. This method seems to be working really well for me at the moment.

Monday is my last day of work until the I start back on the 7th of January. The kids and I going to our beach house on Wednesday and DH will meet us there when he finishes work on Christmas Eve and we will be back home on the 5th or 6th.

On my last trip to Melbourne I stopped off and visited with Bernadette. While I was there I had a 'little' shop and I was able to get most of the threads for And They Sinned (the chart I have had for some time). I have been wanting Plum Street Samplers No Sweeter Love and Paradise Lost for a while now so I thought that I would get her to order them for me as well as the fabric for ATS. I have decided to stitch it on 36ct Navy Bean from Lakeside Linens. I received an e-mail from Bernadette letting me know that everything except the fabric is in. The reason that the fabric is not in is because it is being especially dyed for "US". You see, I have enabled Bernadette to stitch ATS also. Aren't I evil? HEHEHE!!!! So I will be going to the beach house via Bernadette's to collect my order, and you never know what else I may be tempted by!!

Well I must go now and finish preparing our dinner. Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, and thanks also to my new followers. Whenever I get a new commenter or follower I like to become a follower of their blog also, if I have missed becoming a follower of anyone, please let me know in your comments. Again I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and wonderful New Year.

Competition for the Least Number of Posts Per Year!!!!

2010-11-28T17:08:00.000+11:00

See the Title!!! Do you think that I would win if anyone was to hold a competition for this? (Hangs head in shame). Even if I don't post to my blog I do read yours and of course I do stitch. And I even finish things.....occasionally LOL. Thanks for all of your wonderful comments and for not giving up on me.

This is My Needle's Work by LHN, it was a fun stitch and when I actually stitched on it, it seemed to go fairly quickly. I am so glad that my job is not 'putting things straight by 'sight'', I would be in serious trouble if this picture was anything to go by ROFL. I stitched this on 32ct cream linen with the called for threads, Crescent Colours using 2 threads over 2.

When I finished My Needle's Work I decided that it would be a good idea to have something small on the go, rather that feeling overwhelmed with all of my wips (which are mostly baps), so that I can actually finish something. So I started Travelling Stitcher by LHN also (I have lots and lots of Diane's designs). I try to stitch on this for one night every week or so. I don't do a strict rotation as rotations and I just do not mix! This is being stitched on 32ct cream linen using the called for CC threads 2 over 2.

This one is by Fouroaks Designs and is called A Love Song. I love this one, and I don't have too much to do. It is being stitched on 32ct antique white linen using Vicki's premium silk in the color Garnet, using one thread over 2.

Here is a close up of the border detail. I think that is has taken me nearly as long to do the border as it has to do the inner parts. When this one is finished I will choose another from my list of wips.

And here of course is HAED Faery Tales (click on the link to see what the final design looks like). I am stitching this one on 25ct white evenweave using DMC threads one strand over one. I have completed 23 of 60 full and partial pages.

Now for some news. As per normal we have been busy, busy, busy. Four of us are all one year older, the most significant one being Luke turning 16. He can now get his permit to learn how to drive a car. Scary? You betcha! We have down loaded the book that he needs to read but he hasn't done any yet, his birthday was only four days ago.

We have had some ~~good~~ no, great news and some not so good news. First the good; very close friends of ours had been trying for a baby for a number of years. Including numerous failed attempts at IVF. D (female of the couple) sent me an SMS to wish Luke a happy birthday and informed me that she and her DH are 15 weeks pregnant. I had to read her message three times for it to register. We are just so pleased for them, they will truly make wonderful parents and fully deserve to have a family of their own. You know, they always send our kids Christmas presents every year, and now we can do it in return. Yeah!!! We think so highly of them that they are to become the legal guardians of our kids if anything should ever happen to DH and I.

Now for the not so good news (sorry). Another very close friend who I have known for thirty years, her DH has been diagnosed as having colon cancer. He is only 42. He had all of his bowel and 5cm of his small intestine removed during surgery. His cancer is at stage 3. He had lost a lot of weight when I saw them about a month ago. But since he has started chemo and is feeling much better, more energy and an increased appetite and has even gained some of his weight back. His prognosis is not all that good but they are both incredibly positive and he is determined to beat it. He is even thinking of going back to work on shorter hours and lighter duties. Could you please keep them in your thoughts. My FIL has also been diagnosed as having prostate cancer. Even though this news is also terrible, the doctors think that it has been caught early enough and that with minimal treatment he shall continue to be amongst us for many years to come.

Sorry to end on a downer. If I don't manage to get back here before Christmas, I would like to sincerely wish you and your families all the very best for the coming festive season and a safe and prosperous New Year.

THREE MONTHS AND COUNTING!!

2010-08-21T21:28:00.002+10:00

Has it ever been a long time since I posted anything on my blog. Some of you would know that I am still around by the comments that I have been leaving on your blogs.

Like everyone with children knows life can get very busy and some things just need to move down the priority list, and I am sorry but for me one of those things is posting to my blog. You see, I would much rather stitch or read your blogs that post to my blog. Strange, I know!!!

Things continue to be busy for us: Luke has venturers (scouts), plays soccer (the season has just finished) and is working part-time at McDonalds. He wants to go to Vietnam in November 2011 as part of the organisation called the World Chall enge, hence the reason for the job. We told him that he would need to fund it himself and this is the desire of the organisers also and they in fact encourage the kids to come up with find raising ideas to cut down the cost which is approximately $6000.00. If he does have a short-fall we will of course help him but he has to make an effort. It will be a wonderful experience for him and I am excited that he is able to go. They go for four weeks, the first to acclimatise, they work in an orphanage or a school for a week, help out with a building project and they do a hike for a week. Joel has basketball once a week, cubs (scouts) and could also play in a modified soccer competition but unfortunately that clashes with basketball and since we have already paid for him to do that, that is what he will do! Caitlyn goes to Joeys, also a scout program, and will be playing soccer when it starts. She didn't do basketball as she in not old enough yet.

When I was younger, I played and loved tennis. I am pleased to say that DH and I have started playing on a Tuesday night and we are having the best time. We may not always win but we give it a good shot. Some nights the mist is so heavy that it makes the balls heavier, meaning that I can give the balls an extra hard whack knowing that they will go in for me HEHEHE!!

As for stitching I am concentrating on Faery Tales by HAED. I have completed 18 out of 60 pages. I would love to finish this 'one day' but I need the occasional break. So I'll do a little bit on one of my many other (sigh) wips or put some stitches into a smaller design just so I will have a finish in the not too distant future. The smaller design that I have on the go is My Needle's Work my LHN. So here are some wip pictures. I wish I could take better photos!!!

And here for your enjoyment, and full of cuteness is a photo of our Mr Puddles. I had left this ball of wool in our sitting room and I was in the rumpus room when he came trotting in with this hanging out of his mouth, all I could do was laugh at him.

I had some luck a while ago now. I won some wonderful HDF threads from Cathy. The threads are all in purple shades and here is a link to the post of Cathy showing her finish using these threads. Doesn't it look wonderful. I am seriously considering using one of these colors in a monochromatic design, don't know which thread or design yet!!! Thanks you so much Cathy for your generosity, I truly love the threads.

Suzanne had a bit of a de-stash and I put my hand up for a chart called Irises by Serendipity Designs. Irises were a favourite flower of my Mum's and she had many in her garden. Thank you too Suzanne for your generosity.

If I said that I will promise to update more regularly would you believe me? LOL. I will try!!!

This has turned into a long post, if you have made it to the end I thank you. I hope that you are all well and that you are getting lots of stitching done.

It has been awhile, again.

2010-05-01T13:30:00.004+10:00

I apologise for disappearing for so long, computer issues and not being able to load photos has kept me away from posting to my blog.

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments on my last post and for all of the wonderful things that you said about Puddles. I would also like to thank everyone who had become a follower. Hazel correctly pointed out that the photo in my previous post is a bi-colour kitty, not a seal point, (which is what Puddles is). I should have actually posted this photo, blogger won't let me up-load any more photos so here is a link to Puddles mum. Puddles is just like her. He is so affectionate, especially first thing of a morning, all I need to do is pick him up and snuggle with him and he starts purring so loudly. He is very playful, anything that moves is fair game, especially toes and feet. We are all enjoying having him in our family.

We have been pretty busy of late. The weekend of the 17th/18th of April we were in Melbourne for various things; Nephew's 9th birthday party, sister's 40th wedding anniversary, dinner with BIL and his partner (they have just returned back to Australia after living in Switzerland for four years) and we went to see Mamma Mia. The season for Mamma Mia had actually finished some time ago, and DH was forever berating himself as we didn't go to see it. So when it was announced that the show was returning for a limited time he quickly got us some tickets, and fortunately it happened to fall on the same weekend as everything else. Mamma Mia was fabulous, we loved it. DH particularly enjoyed the singing, you see I had subjected him to the movie and he has continually made fun of Pierce Brosnan's singing, I just tell him that I don't care how he sings, looking at him more that makes up for any missed notes! It made for an incredibly busy weekend, but it is always good to catch up with loved ones.

Now for some stitching news. I have had three finishes so far this year, go me LOL. One of them has not been photographed as yet, but I am pleased to show you the other two.

First off is Cirque des Cercles by Ink Circles. I stitched this on 28 ct Navy Jobelan using a Dinky Dyes silk called Desert Sands. It is stitched with two strands over two threads.

Blogger is being painful and won't let me arrange the photos so the close-ups are coming first.

Next is a little design by Birds of a Feather. It is called Soweth Sampler. It is stitched on 36ct linen using the called for WDW threads.

At the moment I am stitching on Faery Tales by HAED. I have made some decent progress on this and need to take a photo of it to post.

Well I must go and do some house work. Take care everyone and I hope that you all get lots of stitching done.

I am in love!!! And my computer hates me.

2010-02-23T09:43:00.003+11:00

You may ask with whom am I in love with!!! A little kitty boy has come into our lives. He is just adorable. He was born on the 8th of November and he is a Seal Point Ragdoll. We have had him for a week now and we have called him Puddles as Raggies do like water if they are in the mood. We tossed around a few other names; Jasper, Chester etc, but Puddles was the only one that we could all agree on. I did try to load some photos from my mobile (cell) phone today but I was not successful, however I will (steal) borrow a photo of his father from where we got him from. He has settled into our household really well, it is like he has been here forever.

I don't think that we could have chosen a better breed. They are well know for their tolerance and I don't think that any of us are sporting any scratches as yet. If he doesn't want to be held, especially by Joel or Caitlyn, and if they won't let him go he will just give them a little nip.

He has 'met' the dogs through the glass doors and windows. One night DH and I had just finished reading and turned out our lamps when we heard some hissing and spitting. Puddles had discovered that the dogs also existed on the other side of the window and sped out of our room. Once we realised what had happened we were ROFLOL, (in bed though). It was so funny. He has been a constant source of amusement for all of us, poor Puddles. I do love our kitty cuddles, he is so soft and he is a chronic purrer.

I have had three finishes in recent times. I started a little BOAF design called Soweth Sampler and completed it some time ago. I completed Faith from LHN Scripture series and CdC by Ink Circles. I can't find the USB cord for the camera and was not able to load pictures from my mobile earlier in the day. HOHUM (letting out big sigh). At the moment I am working on three designs; Bubbles from HAED, Lizzie Kates Double Flips and Desert Guardian by Character Creations. I have worked out a rotation with these and so far it is going well. Will post updates when I sort out the photo issues.

I would just like to thank everyone that drops by, I love getting your comments and reading them always puts a smile on my face. When we came back from our holidays early January there were over 1300 posts in my bloglines, and now they are down to to about 250. There hasn't been a lot of commenting as I have been doing most of the reading from my I-pod touch, and even though I love it, commenting can be a bit hit and miss at times.

Well I am going to go and get some kitty cuddles before I go to bed, stay safe everyone and I hope that you get lots of stitching done.

Retreat..

2009-12-16T23:14:00.010+11:00

The retreat was amazing. The owners of where we stayed were extremely hospitable and welcoming. The chef was truly wonderful, I wanted to take him home with me, seriously for his cooking. The food and accommodation were a package deal and I thought that we might have had a choice of menu items for our meals, so we were truly spoilt with the chef making recommendations and asking what we liked/disliked. The food was to die for, mouth watering steak, we had garlic prawns done in a cream sauce with rice, gorgeous tarts for morning/afternoon teas, there was some sort of Thai chicken dish. With three wholesome meals per day and morning and afternoon tea also, I never had a chance to ever feel hungry I was just 'topping up' all the time.

These are the tarts that we were given for morning or afternoon tea, I can't remember now, but they were delicious. We had to include the scissors and threads as props as it was a stitching weekend after all!

These are the other two girls who attended. Bek on the left and Gayle. They are both gorgeous girls and we had many laughs together. Gayle has a little called Caitlyn, it is spelt the same way as our Caitlyn. Given the many variations we thought that this was great. Bek is busy planning for her up-coming wedding, such exciting times ahead for her.

Here is Bernadette with her 'almost' completed Ida May Crow. Bernadette bought her shop along and we were all able to add to our stash. Bernadette is planning another retreat in May 2010 so check out the link to her shop for more details.

I haven't taken a picture of my little finish yet, soon I promise.

We will get the keys to our house tomorrow, YEAH!!! HAPPY DANCING HERE. So all that is going on at the moment is lots of cleaning and packing. DH has gone to Bendigo with the kids, who have all finished school now, to attend his Dad's retirement function. Tomorrow night after work I am getting the train to Melbourne and then on to Bendigo so that we can celebrate Christmas with my family. Once that is over we will be coming home so that we can start moving into our house on Sunday. WOOHOO!!!

I won't get a chance to post for a little while so I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, and a safe New Year.

Much love and hugs to all

Joanne.

House Photos

2009-11-22T12:32:00.009+11:00

Here are the photos of our house being built, at long last.

This is quite early in the process after the site was 'scraped' and leveled off. If you can see the steel rods sticking up out of the ground, they are for the placement of the pipes for the plumbing.

This one is of the concrete slab after it was poured. You may remember that I wrote about having some trees removed before we could begin building. Well, they caused us some problems during the site preparation for the slab. As the builders were excavating for the footings (deeper parts of the slab for stabilisation) they kept on pulling out large root systems. Our builder was concerned and waited a few days to get another opinion on the design of the slab. The original design was drafted by the company that our builder is affiliated with and they had classified and designed the slab incorrectly, ignoring a recommendation from the company who performed the soil test to determine the type of slab that had to be built. Due to the delays that all of this caused, including some pretty wet weather, our builder got the tradesmen to complete the slab on a Saturday, unheard of in the Australian building industry. This was a big surprise for us, and

we had no idea that this was happening, so no photos of the actual process. There was also a significant increase in the cost of the slab, our builder apologised to us for this, but we totally understood that if the base wasn't right, how could we expect the rest of the house to be right.

Next up is the frame. This is taken from the front. The big beam across the front is a roof support and the entry to our garage.

And this frame shot is from the back of the house. The mound on the right hand side of the photo is what is left of the trees that were taken down. We asked the 'tree men' to mulch some of the trees so that we could use it for our garden.

The house is being 'wrapped' in a type of insulation and the windows are in.

And here is the roof and the completion of the brick work. The brick layers were amazing. Only two of them, always on site early, 6:30 am, and would work until around 3:00. We would go there during their lunch break to see how everything was going and they would always be laughing and joking with one another, great to see. An acquaintance of ours said that they were the best 'brickies' around.

This is of the gyprock (walls) after it had been hung. The black pipe curling over is the water pipe to our kitchen taps (faucets). There will be an island bench here with the rest of the kitchen to the right and rear of this photo.

Looking into our rumpus room from the alfresco area. The area in the photo above is to right in this photo. These two rooms are accessed by two large sliding doors. We would have liked to have had the pillar in the middle taken out, but that would have involved changing the whole structure of the roof and would have escalated the cost considerably. Seeing what happened with the slab it was a good thing that we didn't.

I am sorry that these have taken so long. There has been much more work done on the house since these photos have been taken, so I will have to take some more at some stage and put some on here.

Next in store are some photos from the stitching retreat, and a stitchy update, and a (drum roll please) finish.

I AM SO EXCITED!!

2009-10-22T10:40:00.004+11:00

I was going to post some wip photos and house building photos, but now I can't find the camera. The camera bag is there, the usb cable is there, but not the camera. So apologies once again. (The camera is working, even though it is still doing the 'jittery thingy', DH replaced the batteries DOH!!)

I am so looking forward to tomorrow. I am finishing work early and then making way to a little place called Narbethong. What for you may ask? A Stitching Retreat!!! This is being organised by a fellow stitcher and ONS owner Bernadette. Check-in is any time after 2pm, I am hoping to arrive at around 5pm. I am thinking a which wips to take, perhaps a new start also. I suppose that I should also take some clean clothes and other stuff, toiletries etc.

I have met Bernadette on a couple of other occasions, so I am looking forward to catching up with her, but as I have only ever been to one stitching afternoon before, at Bernadette's house, I haven't met many other stitchers and bloggers. There will be 'goody bags' and stash shopping as Bernadette is bringing her shop with her.

Just so there is a photo for this post here is a picture of how our house will look when it is finished. The photo is from the National Builders website, and if you click on the link it will take you to a page where you can down load a pdf file to see the floor plan of the house. Ours is the Sandhurst 3ooE. We have changed a couple of things; taken out the hall-way behind the kitchen to the home theatre and just 'moved' the kitchen back. The door to the home theatre will then be past the kitchen. And we have added an additional 1.5 metres onto the width of the garage. The entry was huge, a room all of its own, so we made that a bit narrower and gave the extra space to the study and living rooms, but we still have the double doors at the front.

Well I must go and start packing for the weekend and try a do some house work just so that DH doesn't have so much to worry about.

Bye for now, happy stitching and stay safe.

Thank you!!!

2009-10-03T09:42:00.003+10:00

I would sincerely like to thank everyone who read my last post and left a message. You are all truly wonderful and I consider all of you to be true friends.

Pokua, thanks for the tip about the fabric for MOTM, I will certainly make sure that I am happy with the coverage before I get too far along with the design.

I have been stitching, every night as my de-stress, but I can't get my camera to work to show you any progress pictures. Joel, our 7yo, thinks that the camera is a toy and I think that he has damaged it. We have trouble turning it on, and if by some chance it does turn on the screen does this jittery sort of thing before actually turning on.

I have mainly been stitching on Impatient Ballerina by HAED, and a little on CDC by Ink Circle of a lunch time (I only work 2 days per week so progress is quite slow, but it all helps.) I have also had a new start, Spanish Geometrical Sampler by The Needle's Content. Here is a link to the completed design. The colors and silks are amazing!!

It is a week of birthdays at the moment, mine was on the 30th of September, Caitlyn (my baby) had her sixth birthday on the 1st of October and DH has his on the 5th, I am caked out!! LOL

The building of our house is coming along great after some initial delays. There was a problem with the design of the concrete slab, so our builder had to consult with another company for the fault to be rectified. Once that was all sorted out and the slab laid, the frame and roof tiles went up, and the windows were put where they had to go. Last week the plumbers and electrician were there, and the heating and cooling units were installed. The bricklayers and plasterers are due to be there in the coming week. Sorry, there are no photos due to the camera problem.

Well I must go, I am about to do an order for the latest JCS ornament issue, plus some other things, I have to justify the postage HEHE. I am going to get some threads so that I can kit a few things up.

Happy stitching everyone, and stay safe.

The Last of Our Firsts

2009-08-11T19:14:00.002+10:00

Yesterday, August 10th, marked the first year of my Mum's passing. We have had a year of firsts, first birthday, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day etc, hence my title.

Dad lives five and a half hours away by car, with no stops, but we always stop half way for a break and a meal so the trip invariably stretches out to six or more hours. On Friday night we made the trek to stay at DH's Dad's house, half an hour from my Dad's, so that we could spend some time with my Dad. On Saturday afternoon DH and the kids took me to Dads and I had a sleepover at his place. He cooked tea, quite well I might mention, he is a very capable cook. He would often cook meals for us, I am one of five, when we were growing up as Mum worked alot of nights in the kitchen of a hotel.

Dad has got a little dog, a Jack Russell called Bessie. She is such a blessing. I am sure that she is the reason that Dad gets up in the morning. We, my siblings and I, are so, so pleased that Dad has her. Bessie sleeps with Dad during the night, however when I stayed she came to me during the night and snuggled with me. Dad called her a traitor, lovingly of course, and he was glad to share her with me.

Dad has begun to attend church. I was able to go with him on Sunday morning. My three sisters joined us, albeit a little late, while my brother (church is so not his thing) waited for all of us outside. After a cuppa with the parishioners we all went to the cemetery. One of my sisters bought a bunch of balloons, in rainbow colors, for us to release. DH and the kids had arrived by this stage, and the kids took great delight in being able to release a balloon for their Nanny.

We then went to a hotel for lunch. It was a good day, and a fitting way to remember Mum.

Dad had some misgivings, he made a comment to me that he would like nothing more than for the day to be like any other, for it just to slip by quietly. But with two of my sisters that is just not possible, the bigger the fuss the better as far as they are concerned. Even to the point of 'dancing and stomping' on Mum's grave so that Mum knew that we were there. I was disgusted. I had always been taught that to even walk on someones grave was very disrespectful. I haven't spoken to Dad to see what he thought, but I am sure that he would think the same as me.

Dad spoke of how badly he treated Mum at times, but it mustn't have been all bad as they were married for just shy of 57 years. We had a very stable upbringing. I lived in the same house until I was married, and I never had to change schools, except for going to secondary school when the time came. Dad thought that Mum did a great job of rearing us kids. You see, Dad wasn't always around. He was a shift worker on the railways. I assured him that he was and still is a great influence on all of us.

Mum, I miss you so much, you were always there for us. Whenever I was unwell, you would always come to help out. I still expect you to answer the phone when I ring, or to be on the other end when I answer our phone. I love you Mum and you will always be in my heart.

Stitchy Update.

2009-07-19T11:58:00.005+10:00

So here are the update photos that I spoke about in my previous post, mind you, I have stitched more than what shows in these photos LOL. That is what I get for taking so long to post.

First off is Gypsy Rose. There is more stitched in this part, as well as some progress on the far left of the design, just me going off on a tangent.

Next up for show and tell is Faery Tales, this is the completion of this page and is of course The Ugly Duckling, sorry for the crappy photo.

Here is another photo of Faery Tales with an 'almost' complete Cinderella, and we can see the emergence of Prince Charming.

And last of all is Impatient Ballerina, there is quite a bit more done on this one.

That is it for the stitching updates.

As for the house, the builder should be given the go ahead next week, so we should start to see some progress. We have been and selected all of our colors, including a red front door and magenta glass splash backs for the kitchen. What have we done??? The color consultant suggested that we make a feature of our front door as it is a double entry door, so we did!! As for the splash backs, what were we thinking? We had a cinnamon color chosen and DH kept on referring to it as baby poo yellow, and I just would not be able to live with him saying that all the time. We had already chosen the bench tops and cupboard doors and didn't want to have to change them again as well, so we went with magenta. Everything else in the house is neutral. Neither myself or DH are 'out there' sort of people, these selections are so out of character for us, but have a couple of WOW factors really appealed to us.

Well best go and see if I can get some things around the house accomplished.

Stay safe and happy stitching.

Bad, Bad Blogger

2009-06-20T14:42:00.004+10:00

It has been some time since my last post (hangs head in shame), no excuses really, just that life gets in the way of blogging at times. I am finding at the moment that I would much rather stitch that blog or read other blogs, but when I do read blogs I do enjoy it, seeing what everyone is up to and stitching on.

There hasn't been any further developments as far as the house is concerned, the trees are still living on our block of land, but their time there is limited, they should be down next week. We are waiting on the final plans, then they can be submitted to council for approval. Is still could be a month or more before any sort of construction work begins.

I saw that a fellow blogger, Ranae, was working on a CCN project called Princess Parade. I left her a comment that I had made several attempts at ordering it but had been able to resist, you all know how weak I am and that being able to resist ordering anything for me is a major miracle. Anyway, Ranae very kindly offered to send me the chart once she had finished with it, and here it is.

Along with the chart, Ranae also included some fabric to stitch it on. And see the Cross Stitch Crazy Certified, that is the top of her note pad, is that not the cutest thing that you have ever seen? Thank you so much Ranae for you generosity, I shall truly enjoy stitching this.

In the comments of my last post Alison Gunning from South Africa left a comment regarding the jungle animal sampler that I completed for my son Luke. She asked where I got the pattern from. Alison if you are reading this, I got the pattern from a craft book which contained various crafts to decorate nurseries/babies rooms. I can't remember the exact name, sorry, it was started some time ago, Luke is now 14. I have looked for my chart but am unable to locate it at the moment. If I do happen to find it I would be more that happy to send it to you.

I do have some stitchy updates to share with you, but I will leave them for another day, in the not too distant future, I hope.

Take care everyone.

We have a winner!!!

2009-05-03T20:42:00.003+10:00

Congratulations Billie, you guessed correctly. My secret project is in fact Impatient Ballerina by Lisa Victoria, here is what she will look like when she is completed.

I noticed that Billie has already e-mailed me with her address, the package will be in the mail in the next few days.

Weekly Update

2009-05-03T15:31:00.006+10:00

No one guessed the name and artist of my new start, there is not much to go by, is there! It is a HAED design and the name of the artist is Lisa Victoria, good luck everyone. The first person to leave a comment with the correct design name will win a stitchy package from me.

Here is an update photo of the mystery project, even though the picture is a bit blurry, the colors are pretty close.

Also, there has been some work on Faery Tales, not too much as I was trying to get more done on the mystery, but every little bit helps.

This week I was called into work to do some extra hours, is it so wrong that I do not mind at all!! It is never a problem as long as it doesn't interfere with collecting the kids from school, so they make it during school hours.

Luke has been sick for most of the week, with some sort of viral thingy, so we have been dosing him up on pain relief and basically just letting him rest, I am sure that he will be off to school tomorrow.

Joel's school thinks that there is something impeding his learning and they are leaning towards Aspergers. I have done some research and just can't see where he fits, I know that the spectrum is quite large and that just one or two characteristics can have an impact on a persons life. He has a specialist appointment on Friday just to see what is happening with him.

Caitlyn is simply loving school, her teacher and her friends.

Today after church a few young families got together at a wonderful park/playground for lunch. We had a lovely time, it was great just sitting in the sun catching up with some people that we would not normally get to see much of.

Thank you to everyone who stops by and checks on us, I appreciate you all so much. Take care everyone and stay safe.

I am so Weak!!!

2009-04-26T11:23:00.006+10:00

I have succumbed to startisis. Just in the last week I was e-mailing Ranae and telling her that I was trying to avoid any new starts, well I caved. I was going through my charts and Caitlyn was sitting beside me. I came up to a particular chart and she said "Oooohhh, that one is pretty, I like it." That is all it took to convince me that I needed to stitch it. I have been fortunate since I have been blogging and have won several give aways on other blogs, so I have decided to have a competition. The first person to guess the name of the design will win a little package of stitching goodies from me.

Here is the first wip picture;

It is not the best of photos, it is stitched on white evenweave. As you can see, it is stitched over one, and it is a HAED. So all you have to do is name the artist and the design. If nobody has guessed it by next week-end I will give a further clue.

I while ago I joined the Our Friends HAED SAL, back then, rather than a new start ahem, I thought that I would pick up one of my other wips and get some stitches into it. So a search through my wip containers brought up Gypsy Rose. I don't have a before shot, but here is an after one:

and here is a picture of what she will look like when completed. So as a part of the SAL I will be stitching on Gypsy on Thursday nights.

This week I have also put some stitches on Faery Tales and here is an after shot.

I have decided do a 'sort-of' rotation. I will continue with these three wips, alternating between the new start and Faery Tales a row at a time, and Gypsy on Thursdays. If I need a break from over one stitching I will spend some time on either A Love Song or CdC. The last time I had a rotation I failed miserably, seeing that this is a 'sort-of' rotation, I just might do better!!

Louanne asked me in my comments the details of my CdC and A Love Song. CdC is stitched on 28ct navy lugana, 2x2 with Dinky Dyes silk in the color called Desert Sands, and A Love Song is stitched on 32ct Antique White linen using HDF (Vicky Clayton) silk in Garnet.
Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments on my last post, I hope that you are all well and doing lots of stitching, stay safe.

What have we been up to?

2009-04-21T11:21:00.008+10:00

You may recall some time ago that we put our house on the market (not the one we are living in, we are currently renting, but one that we built ten years ago,) well it has sold. Now we have secured a block of land and chosen a house design to build WOOHOO!!! We will officially own the land on the 14th of May and building should begin soon after that. Before it can start though, we need to remove some trees, five all up, as they have been planted in a row almost diagonally across the block. I will post some pictures in a little while.

We went to our holiday house over Easter and had a very relaxing break. My DH has a very warped sense of humour, around Easter every year he organises for all of us to have dental check ups, he takes great delight in reminding us when this is coming up. We all came away without anything overly major happening, but the dentist has recommended that Joel sees an orthodontist as he has a quite severe over-bite.

Joel and Caitlyn started back at school yesterday, and Luke went back today. So today is the first child-free I have had for a couple of weeks and have just decided to chill today and get back into routine tomorrow.

On the 5th of April my three months probation was up at work, and even though there was no mention of it, I assumed that they would be keeping me on. Well yesterday I spoke to my manager and said that my probation was up and could I then assume that they would be 'keeping me'. He was surprised that the time had gone by so quickly, and then proceeded to congratulate me and said that it did look like they would be keeping me. Another WOOHOO!! I am really enjoying my job, it is such a great and positive environment.

As for stitching I have been concentrating (obsessing) on HAED Faery Tales, and have now managed to complete nine out of sixty pages.

When I am not working on Faery Tales, I am putting some stitches into Four Oaks Designs A Love Song. Not too much more to go on this one, I predict a finish, mmmm, by the end of the hhhhmmm, let me see, year, hehe. I am not one to stick to dead-lines, and not wanting to over extend myself LOL.

And I have also been putting some stitches into CdC, nearly done with this one also.

So that is a condensed version of what we have been up to, I hope to not leave it so long until I post again, I really love getting comments from all of you, it warms my heart when I read them, bye for now and stay safe everyone.

Times just flies!!!!

2009-04-19T17:26:00.005+10:00

WOW two months have passed us by without a post on this blog.

The first thing that I would like to show you my readers is a wonderful gift that I received from

Anna. I won her monthly draw for March, Anna made her stitched piece into a pillow cover and I absolutely love it. The stitching and finishing are perfect, and I love the wooden star buttons that Anna embellished it with. Thank you Anna for your kindness, this is the first stitched piece that I have ever received, it will truly be cherished.

I will be posting again soon with some news and some pictures of my active wips. Hope you are all well, and getting lots of stitching done.

Firestorm.

2009-02-11T10:23:00.003+11:00

I am at a loss for words at the destruction and heart-break that so many are experiencing. The worst fires ever experienced are wreaking havoc on areas of Victoria. Small towns have totally been burnt out. So many have lost their property and so sadly their lives. The death toll is rising, and there have been estimates as high as 300 possible deaths.
I am not going to post any pictures or links, I am sure that you have seen the devastation elsewhere.
I have had some comments from some fellow bloggers, knowing that I live in Victoria, asking about our safety. Thank you very much, we are safe. The closest fire to us is in a place called Dargo. The terrain is mountainous and the risk of it moving into populated areas is not great at the moment, it is about 100 kilometres north of us.
On the week-end we were invited to my sisters 50th birthday. We declined, as it was 5 and a half hours away and Joel and Caitlyn were tired from being back at school, if we had of gone we wouldn't have been able to get back home as the major freeway between us and Melbourne was closed.
It makes me so angry knowing that some of the fires were deliberately lit. All I can say is that there are some very sick individuals about, and I hope that they are caught and dealt with accordingly. Many of the victims didn't stand a chance. The weather conditions were perfect for the fire, incredibly high temperatures, wind gusts of up to 160 kph, extremely dry, a lot of Victoria is in severe drought.
One of my friends and her family were evacuated as their house was under direct threat, but thank goodness they were spared. Another friends parents house came to within 500 metres of being burnt and was spared also.
My heart and prayers go out to all of those that have lost their lives, their homes, their livelihood's, or are battling to survive in hospital. I am also thinking of the people who are grieving for lost ones.
I take my hat off to all of the firefighters, many of whom are volunteers, and to all of the other volunteers who are working to help make life easier for those affected.
I am in no way playing down what people in Queensland are going through at the moment, ironically floods, but my Grandma used to always say that "You can clean up after a flood, but not a fire".
Take care everyone.

Another Page Finished

2009-02-04T10:36:00.003+11:00

This is page number 53 completed. I am still really enjoying working on this one and will continue with it. It is exciting, to me anyway (easily amused HEHE), to see what emerges as I stitch. The mermaid now has a tail and the orange blobby thing is a big fish. The white area on the right hand side forms part of the Fairy Tale of The Ugly Duckling.

In this design there are apparently 28 different Fairy Tales depicted and some remain a mystery to me. I will need to do a google search at some stage and see if I am able to learn what each one is.

The kids all went back to school on Monday, for Caitlyn, it was her first day. I had mixed feelings, but she on the other hand, just took it all in her stride. In the lead up, I kept telling her that she wasn't able to go to school as she is my baby and that she had to stay at home with me (naughty aren't I?), but she said that she had to go to school. She was so confident and comfortable with the school as she had been going with me last year to help in Joel's class room. Joel is in Year one and I think he is feeling a bit out of sorts, having a different teacher, room and so on. I am sure that he will be fine in a week or two. Luke is in Year 8 and is enjoying being able to socialise with his mates once again after having had a very long break. He finished school last year on the 5th of December, so he has had two months off school, too long in my opinion.

All this week Caitlyn finishes at 1:00 everyday and beginning next week she goes for full days, til 3:20, but she has every Wednesday off until the second term, which commences after Easter.

Well that is enough rambling from me, the housework awaits. Thanks everyone for stopping by and leaving comments. Stay safe, and I hope that you are all getting lots of stitching done.

Five weeks, no post.

2009-01-24T13:08:00.004+11:00

Hi everyone, I am still about, just been busy.

We had a real estate inspection last week, we are renting at the moment. I went through Joel's and Caitlyn's clothes and toys, discarded what was broken or damaged and sent what they had grown out of to charities. I always seem to do this post Christmas as they seem to get so much, not just from us but from our relations also. We also managed to rid ourselves of an excess book case and some other things that we haven't used for a long time. The agent ticked everything off as good, from a list that also included fair and poor, PHEW!!, and we were able to make them aware of some minor maintenance issues. The owner came for a visit and was pleased that we were taking such good care of their house, so all is well for the time being.

Work is going well. The people are lovely and helpful. Yesterday was the first day that I was able to log-on to the computers, so I was able to do the first of 37 computer assessments. I also completed one of six modules, which forms the next assessment. I have been mainly counting business express deposits. It is amazing how quickly those cash counting skills came back, it was almost like I have never stopped. I was initially quite hesitant to answer the phone. I have had to get my head around saying not only a different town, but a different bank name also. I am pleased to say that I have been able to answer the phone without making a total fool of myself or confusing anyone on the other end, though passing on messages has been interesting!!

We had a great break at our beach house and a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Christmas day was spent with the in-laws. On the way back to the beach house we were able to go through the town where Mum is buried. I wanted to go to see her plaque, it wasn't in place at our previous visit. Well I decided that I wanted to have a Christmas drink with Mum, we had a partly finished bottle wine left from lunch in the car, but no glasses or cups available. So I went to the grave-site and stood there drinking straight from the bottle of wine :0. I am so glad that no-one saw me, HEHE, but I am glad that I was able to 'share' a drink with Mum for Christmas.

At the moment my bloglines reader sits at 542. I will not mark all as read as I am truly a sticky-nose and do not want to miss anything that all of you have been up to. So there may not be much commenting but please know that I am reading your posts.

On to the interesting stuff; stitching of course. I have been mainly working on Faery Tales and have now managed to complete 5 pages, so here are some update photos.

The first picture is of page 31 completed and the other picture is of pages 41, 42, 51 and 52.

I have also been doing some stitching on CdC and 'only' have two pages to go until it is finished. I have not started anything new as I feel that I have more that enough wips at the moment, but that hasn't stopped my from adding to my ever growing/never shrinking stash. I managed to get the JSC orni issue for '08, and some fabric and threads to start kitting up some projects.

Well must go and do some work and spend some time with the family, oh and watch some tennis, love this time of year for the tennis.

Stay safe everyone, wish you lots of happy stitching.

Great news and some wip pictures.

2008-12-15T16:24:00.003+11:00

First of all I would sincerely like to thank all of you who stop by and leave a comment, I always have a smile on my face as I read the comments, you are all wonderful.

The first wip picture is of Faery Tales with the third of sixty pages completed. I am really enjoying this and will continue on with it as of tonight.

Next up is my progress on VOHRH, these are blocks eight and nine, having already completed ten, eleven and twelve. Not much more to go on block nine but Faery Tales is screaming to be worked on LOL.

Now for the great news, I HAVE A JOB!!!

You all know the difficulties that I have had in the past with my previous employer, well on the off chance I decided to lodge my resume with other major financial institutions, not really thinking that anything would come of it. Well to my surprise this particular bank contacted me and asked if would like to come and have a casual chat with them. That then turned into another meeting, this time to meet the area manager, which turned into another meeting today, which resulted in them offering me a position. So on the 5th of January I will be starting with them for two days a week initially as a teller, to learn their computer systems. The manager was very impressed with the experience that I have had previously and said that he can see great things for me in the future. The bank is currently looking at re-structuring their branches and there will be openings for me to move on to other things. I am so excited at the prospect of improving on my career and believe that the opportunities will be wonderful.

On Thursday we are heading to our beach house until the 4th of January, so I would like to wish everyone in blog land a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and safe New Year in 2009.

2008-11-23T14:16:00.002+11:00

Here is the wip picture of Faery Tales that blogger wouldn't let me load earlier. This design has 60 pages. I have completed 41, 51 and nearly finished 52.

A Finish

2008-11-23T13:27:00.004+11:00

Well here I am, I have been reading blogs and making a few comments, so I thought that it was about time that I posted to my own blog.

I have a little finish to share with all of you; (Apologies for the crappy photo, I need to work on my non-existant photographic skills)

Here is LHN Patience, from their Scripture series. Stitched on 32 ct Belfast Linen. I finished it last night while we all watched a dvd.

While I am here I also thought that I would post an update on HAED's Faery Tales. I have completed three to four rows of ten row blocks all the way to the top of the design, and going slightly off track, I have completed two, and almost a third, pages. MMMM, blogger won't allow me post a second photo, so I'll do a second post with the photo.

We have been quite busy of late. Not long after my last post, we went north to Queensland for two weeks. Took the kids to the theme parks, Sea World, Movie World and Wet 'n Wild. We had a wonderful time. We also caught up with some relations, and a special man, my Day, who was also a holiday up there.

Caitlyn and I had our birthdays while we were away, and DH turned another year older not long after we arrived home.

Dad came to stay for a week. It was hard saying good-bye, and it was strange having him stay without Mum. He is coping reasonably well. While he was here he had one bad day.

Well, I must go and tidy up a bit so that I can do some more stitching later on.

I hope that you are getting lots of stitching done, take care and have fun!

Thank You.

2008-09-10T09:14:00.006+10:00

I just want to sincerely thank everyone for all of their kind thoughts regarding Mum's passing. It has been a month today, and though it is a difficult thing to deal with, there have been some good days.

We gave her a very fitting send off, with some 'lighter' moments, and I am sure that she would have loved it. When we saw Priscilla, Queen of the Desert last year, we all wore a feather boa, so we wore them to the funeral, mine was special, as it was the one that Mum wore. We also had a song from Priscilla, Color My World, during which we let go green and purple balloons. My three sisters, brother, Dad and I were pall bearers, even though it was a difficult thing to do, we were able to draw strength from one another and showed a sense of unity between us all.

At the viewing two of my sisters placed a dollar coin in Mums hands and proclaimed that Mum was right to play the pokies (slot machines) in heaven, it was wonderful to be able to have these lighter moments, there are a few others, but I will savour those.

I wasn't sure about going to the viewing, but I am so so glad that I did, Mum looked absolutely beautiful and so at peace.

My Dad is doing okay, he struggles when he goes to the shops in his small town, as so many people stop him to ask how he is etc, he says that when he can answer them without breaking down, he'll know that he is doing well. He and Mum were planning a trip to Queensland, to visit relations, and Dad is still going to go, he flies out next Wednesday for two weeks. It will be wonderful for him, and we will see him there as we are going to be there for holidays at the same time.

Onto some stitching news.

Suzanne had a blogaversary draw in July, and I was one of the lucky winners. I received a chart by Cherished Stitches called A Sentimental Thimble Case and a lovely note. I am looking forward to stitching this, Thank You so much Suzanne.

I also thought that it was about time that I posted a wip picture so here is my CdC, over half way now,

Some time ago, in a moment of weakness, LOL I made a small start on Miribilia's Lady of the Mist. She is stitched in green and is embellished with purple beads. I have decided to dedicate her to Mum and I have been mostly stitching on her since Mum's passing. Her skirt is HUGE, there are huge amounts of beading to be done but she will be beautiful and she is in Mum's favourite color, GREEN.

My long service leave from my job finished at the end of July, and my employer is now saying that I have failed to report for duty. They have given me until the 6th of October to report for duty, about five hours away, or they will terminated my employment status. It was initially 1st of September, but they have given me an extra month due to what I have recently been through, how nice of them (heavily sarcastic). We have the union helping us with some strategies at the moment, so we will see what happens.

Well must go now, thanks again for all of the wonderful support.

Touched my Heart

2008-09-01T12:11:00.001+10:00

Holding Hands

This picture shows a line of little girls holding hands facing the immensity of ocean waves. Alone they might be washed away, but together they stand strong. Thank you for holding my hand somewhere along the way when I was facing a wave of my own. I hope you will reach for my hand when your own wave threatens.
All of us girls...
Old and young... Near and far...
Hold special memories of good times we've shared.
We've had our share of hard times when our friends were there to make us feel better.
We've shared...
our hearts...
our time...
our secrets...
our fears...
our hopes...
and our dreams...
Let us never break the chain of friends!

MUM

2008-08-10T23:48:00.002+10:00

Just to let all of you know that Mum passed away peacefully tonight. She had a heart-attack at around 5:30, and by about 6:30 all of her pain was over. It all seems to be unreal at the moment. But she doesn't have to struggle anymore.

I received the call tonight at church during Luke's confirmation, which his Nan was mentioned during his little speech.

I am going to be with my Dad tomorrow, and I am not sure when I will be able to post again.

Thanks for all of your kind thoughts and prayers over the past week.

A Mum update, and an Award

2008-07-26T14:57:00.006+10:00

I saw Mum the weekend after her stroke, and I must say that I was a little shocked, but also surprised at how well she seemed to be coping.

Her speech is slurred, but she is able to be understood.

She has regained movement in her left leg, but is not standing as yet. Her left arm is pretty much immobile, but she is able to shrug her shoulder. All in all she is making progress and some progress is definitely better than none at all.

Her spirits are amazingly high, she is giving cheek and complaining about the food she says that the food is 'S#!(' LOL. Her swallowing reflex has been affected and her food has to be the consistency of honey to prevent it going straight to her lungs, this is highly undesirable as she has a lung infection on top of everything else. She is very thirsty and is always asking for a weak black tea with a dash of cold water, or a beer LOL.

She has been dehydrated and has had a nasal-gastric tube put in place to increase her fluid intake, and the silly bugger pulled it out. It has been re-inserted, along with a trip to the hospital, she is now in a place that specialises in re-hab, for an x-ray to ensure that the positioning is correct and her right hand is now sporting a sock which has been taped on to prevent her from pulling it out again.

While I was visiting her she complained that her dentures had not been cleaned since the stroke, five days, so she asked me to clean them for her. Now, I am the only one in my family the youngest of five, that has their own teeth, and of all the people to ask, she asked me LOL. Well I gave it a shot and did the best that I could, she said that they felt better.

I would sincerely like to thank each and everyone of you that have left comments about Mum, it is so comforting to know that so many people are thinking of Mum and my family during this time. While talking to Dad on the phone one night, I told him that I had blogged about Mum and I told him about the messages that I had received, he was so touched he was actually crying and he said that it was wonderful to know that so many were thinking of us. Thanks everyone.

Ann has very kindly bestowed an award on me and my blog. On her blog she said that she was impressed with my cake decorating abilities, see previous posts where I made a Pirate Ship cake for Joel's birthday. Thanks so much Ann.

The 'rules' of the award are as follows:

1 Put the logo on your blog
2 Add a link to the person who awarded you
3 Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 Add links to those blogs on yours
5 Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I am not going to nominate any blogs, sorry Ann, but everyone who is a regular reader, or those who have left a comment regarding Mum, please accept this award from me.

My next post will include a prize, and some wip pictures.

A Gift and some not so good news.....

2008-07-16T16:02:00.005+10:00

This has taken awhile to post about, sorry Ranae.

Here is the prize that I won on Ranae's blog. It is called Offering From the Heart and it is by Ewe and Eye and Friends. The verse says "Please now accept this little gift an offering from the (heart picture)". It is a gorgeous design, and Ranae also included some DMC Pearl thread, Thank You so much Ranae. I love it, and I am looking forward to stitching it.

Now for the not so good news. Yesterday I was at a cafe having a coffee with some friends and my mobile rang. It was my Dad and highly unusual for him to call me on my mobile and in the middle of the day. He said that when he got back home from walking their little dog, he found Mum had fallen over in the bathroom, he called an ambulance and the driver suspected that Mum had suffered a stroke. Dad was so upset, understandably, and I just broke down crying. A friend called DH and he came and calmed me down, as all I wanted to do was get in the car and travel the five hours to go and see Mum.
Dad rang later that night, after he had been to see Mum in hospital, half an hour away from where they live, and said that her spirits were high and she had regained some of her 'cheek' while he was there. She has paralysis down her left side and her speech is a little slurred.
She will be in hospital for some time, as she has to have physio and speech pathology. But the best news is that there appears to be no permanent brain damage, there was no bleeding on the brain. Apparently Mum was brushing her hair and dropped her brush, and while picking it up, slipped on the mat. It is not known if the fall caused the stroke, or the stroke caused the fall. Either way it seems that she has fared rather well, Thank God. Now just the long road to recovery.
Please keep Mum in your thoughts and prayers as she begins her recovery, she is a strong and determined woman so we are hoping that these traits see her through this difficult time.

I WON, and some WIP pictures.

2008-06-25T13:50:00.007+10:00

Ranae had a competition on her blog a little while ago, and I WON!!! WOO HOO!!! Can you tell that I am excited!!!! Thank you so much Ranae for your generosity and kindness. Here is a link to the post with details of the competition and a picture of the chart, http://crazyxstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-finally-beautiful-day.html. I have e-mailed you my snail mail address Ranae, and hope that the e-mail gets sent as I have been having problems, need to get DH to have a look at it soon.

Now that I have managed to compose myself, here are some long overdue wip pictures.

The first two pictures are of HAED Faery Tales. I am really enjoying stitching on this one at the moment. I am doing the forth row of ten stitches and I can see a pathway on the top of the cliff, the beginnings of a person's coat. The second Faery Tales picture only has three rows completed and I can see the beginning of a wall, of which Cinderella and her Prince are dancing on the top, and the beginning of a ship flying through the night skies. I am assuming that the ship has Peter Pan and co. aboard. Please feel free to correct me if this is not so.

My next wip picture is of a little design that I started recently, and is a LHN design from their collaboration with Crescent Colours and is called Patience. This is a gorgeous design, and the colours in the photo are pretty true to life.

I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments about Joel's birthday cake. Yes we did eat and destroy the cake. Funnily enough not many of kids finished their pieces, it must have been the black icing putting them off combined with the chocolate cake mix that I decided on, not to worry, the chickens enjoyed it LOL.

I would also like to thank everyone who commented about Georgina and looked at her blog and left a comment there, I can't even begin to understand what her parents and siblings are going through. It just must be heart-breaking for them to see their sister and little girl going through so much and at such a young age too.

That is all from me for the moment, almost time to get the boys from school.

Hope everyone is well and getting lots of stitching done.

"Ahoy there me hearties"

2008-06-17T18:25:00.005+10:00

Well here is the cake. It was pretty easy to make, it is amazing what skewers/kebab sticks can do to hold a cake together. Joel was very happy with it and at the end of the day that is what is important. The pirates came from a toy which Joel has had for some time and I also added a treasure chest with some of Caitlyn's toy jewellery.

If you are a religious person could you please keep this young girl, Georgina, in your thoughts. She was struck down by a mystery illness over a year ago and was placed in a medically induced coma. Whenever the coma drugs were eased off, she would begin fitting. I learnt of her blog at our old church not long after she became ill and have followed her plight via the blog set up by her father and a family friend. In his most recent post her father has particularly asked for patience.

Such a long time.....

2008-06-13T22:55:00.005+10:00

Where did the rest of April and May go? Are we in June!!!!
WOW, so long between posts, huge apologies everyone.
I have been reading your blogs, my bloglines is a very manageable 72 feeds at the moment, just not posting on my own.
So what has been happening!!! Joel had his birthday on the 6th of June and is now 6 years old. He is such a delightful little man, and so funny. (His antics deserve a post all on their own). He is the class comedian and seems to be very popular amongst his peers and teachers. He had a small accident on the slide at school and managed to put a cut on the back of his head, the school rang me, I took him to the hospital emergency department, and while he was describing to the doctor what had happened he said that he had "broken his head". The doctor was quite amused at his description. All is well now, they didn't stitch his wound, just used some glue, which is still in his hair.

Joel's birthday fell on a long weekend for us in Oz, and since he has never had a birthday party before, we decided that his first year of school would be a great time to have one. So Sunday is the day, about 12 kids are coming . I just keep on telling myself that it is only for two hours. I am attempting to make him a pirate ship cake, first time for everything, and will post some pictures of it if it turns out okay!

I have been stitching and made progress on Faery Tales, A Love Song, Celtic Banner and VOHRH. I have another new start, just a small one, a LHN design from their scriptures series, would eventually like to stitch them all and make them into a quilted wall hanging, one day!

We replaced the chicken that died. The bird that we got is quite young and she is so tame. Just as well, as she decided that she like our neighbours yard better than ours and kept on 'flying' yes 'flying' over our fence. We trimmed her wing and some of her tail feathers, and she still manages to escape by first flying onto part of our compost bin and then on to the fence. Rotten bird. Where she came from she was free range so she just doesn't like being in the pen. Now we have roughly covered the pen with some bird netting and this seems to be working so far. And after the trauma of some time ago, they have started to lay again, YAY fresh eggs again.

We have been to our beach house and while we were there we took the kids to the Scienceworks Museum, they had a wonderful time. We went into the planetarium where we watched a short film about our southern skies and learnt where we could find Mars and Saturn, and some constellations.

Well I had better get to bed as I have a cake to make tomorrow, and a house to make presentable.

Hope everyone is well and getting lots of stitching done.

Sorry everyone.

2008-04-17T08:28:00.003+10:00

A few people have asked me in the comments if 'chooks' are our chickens, yes they are indeed our chickens, sorry about that.

Time to drop the children at school and kindergarten and then I have a day to me me me. It will involve some stitching, perhaps a walk and some horrid house work. Oh well, house work does need to be done sometimes, doesn't it?

Stay safe everyone.

Trouble with chooks, and Faery Tales

2008-04-16T16:57:00.005+10:00

I would like to thank all of you for your kinds wishes and comment on my last post, stitching bloggers are some of the kindest people I know, I smile inwardly every time I read comments that you make.

Last Saturday night when Luke fed the chooks, he unfortunately neglected to lock the chook pen properly, and on Sunday morning while we were at church one of them apparently became adventurous and wandered into the back yard with the dogs. Our neighbour heard all of the commotion, jumped our back fence and managed to lock the chooks away. When we came home we saw all the feathers and checked on the chooks and they were all huddled into their shelter. Our neighbour told us what he had found and we thanked him for all that he had done. We kept a close watch on them, put water and food in their shelter, but unfortunately one died through the week. The other 3 have survived the shock and are now venturing out of the shelter for food and water.

Poor Luke he felt so bad, but there was little anyone could do, so we just gave him lots of hugs and reassured him that we knew he would never do this intentionally. If you remember I was struggling with a medication change and got quite upset over the poor chooks, but am now relieved that the 3 remaining chooks are now alright. I think it will be some time before we see any eggs from them, a person at hubby's work said around a month.

A stitchy update: here is Faery Tales.

Hopefully the photos are clear enough on your monitors. In the larger photo, the brown blobby bits are the beginnings of something exciting, something other than sky and water that is LOL!! The second photo is from the blobby bits to the bottom. I have stitched ten rows from top to bottom and this totals 4530 stitches all up.

I am going to do the same with Land of Enchantment, so all you can see at the moment is lots of black tree, and then I would like to go back to VOHRH.

I hope that everyone is getting in lots of stitching, stay safe and happy.

How on Earth Did That Happen, and I have a wonderful Hubby

2008-04-06T00:51:00.004+11:00

The 'How on earth did that happen part'!!!!

Over Easter we went to our holiday house on the opposite side of Melbourne from where we now live. Some time ago, I decided that whenever we went there that I would allow myself a new start, or three HEHE. So before we left, I looked through my kitted projects and thought that I would like to start Miribilias Lady of the Mist. I did this, and all was fine until I went and paid a visit to Vicstitch. I had noticed on a visit to their website, that they were stocking some HAED and one of them was Faery Tales, which I instantly fell in love with, and it became a must have. On visiting Vicstitch I was disappointed to learn that they were having difficulties in sourcing this chart from their suppliers but were more that willing to show me the 'new' charts that they had just received, they hadn't even had a chance to load them on to their website. Amongst these charts was Land of Enchantment, and I thought to myself that if I couldn't get Faery Tales that this one would do!!!!! So another new start.

Then when we got home, I spoke to my DH about rrreeeaaallllllyyy 'needing' this chart (Faery Tales) and he said as long as it was only one chart and no other necessities, like thread and fabric, that I could get it. So that afternoon I hurriedly ordered it and thanks to the wonderful service that is HAED, I was down loading and printing, and collecting threads and fabric, which I already had, sneaky or what, and before you knew it, I had another new start. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Three new starts and all of them BAPS. Is it any wonder that I hardly ever have any finishes when I keep on starting really large projects. I do have smaller charts in my stash and do hope to stitch them one day.

Ordering Faery Tales was not the wonderful Hubby part of this post. A week or so ago I spoke to him about getting a new clothes dryer as the one we have keeps on setting off our electrical safety switch and therefore there must be a fault with it, and as it is around 13 years old I thought that it had done its job. Today he and Luke went to Melbourne to see a friend of Luke's, who had been staying with us, onto the train so that the friend could get home to Bendigo. When he comes home he drags me away from my stitching to have a look at the car, and in the back seat was a new dryer. What a man!!!

I am feeling somewhat better since my last post, but my doctor decided to change my depression medication due to some long term side affects, high blood pressure, and coming off the old medication is quite problem some as my blood pressure, hopefully returns to a lower level. Once I start the new medication on Monday, I am hoping to feel more like my old self again. Thank you everyone for your comments on my 'down' post, I really appreciate them all.

I am rather chatty at the moment, 1.30 in the morning, I should be asleep instead but having some issues due to the above. While DH and Luke were out of town today I took Joel and Caitlyn to the movies and we saw Horton Hears a Who. It was quite enjoyable, and it managed to entertain the kids for the length of the film. Joel and Caitlyn were so well behaved, the worst things that they did; Joel decided that he wanted to see the what the movie looked like whilst sitting on the floor instead of in his seat, and Caitlyn was leaning on the back of the seat in front of her, such great kids.

I think I might go back to bed now and see if I can get some sleep, good night all, and happy stitching.

Some WIP Pictures

2008-03-19T10:16:00.007+11:00

Here is a picture of A Love Song. It is by Fouroaks Designs. It was one of the first designs that I had to have when I first started looking at cross stitch on the internet. I tend to work on this when I am travelling, and when it calls to me, as it is a very enjoyable piece to stitch for me, no colour changes and it is easy to keep track of where I am up to. I am stitching it on antique white linen, I think it is 32 ct, and I am using Vicki Clayton's silk in the colour way of Garnet. I am loving stitching on this and seeing the different motifs appear on my fabric. The chart for this is divided into four parts, with the bottom portions being smaller that the top. The very left hand side of the border is where the bottom page ends. So I will say that I have done a quarter of this.

I would also like to share where I am up to on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I am trying to complete one square per month and have been successful so far except for the grave yard square, which took about two months because of the solidly stitched block. I do have breaks from this if I need to during the month by stitching on something else for a night or two if I need/want to. I am stitching this on 40 ct Lambswool linen and using Vicki Claytons silk again, this is a great conversion by Vicki and I am enjoying stitching this design with the silks.

This is a closer picture of the block that I am currently working on, nearly finished, so well on track to completion for this month.

I have been feeling a little flat lately, and my old 'friend' (or foe) depression has come for a visit. It seems to be worse when I am pre-mentrual, (sorry if this is TMI) but I am mainly putting it down to the move, and not being successful with a number of job applications with my current employer. With moving I am not guaranteed a position, but have to apply for them as they become available, I am okay with this, but I am limited to two branches which I can apply for, and need to wait until other employers move on. I asked to be put on leave with no pay while waiting to be appointed to a position, but first of all I have to use up all of my other leave entitlements. I am so not happy about having to use my Long Service Leave as I have worked for a long time to be able to have this and was hoping to use it for something pleasurable.
This is the main reason for no posts the last month or so, but I do love the stitching community and the people in it, looking at every ones pictures and reading about what they have been up to. So I have decided to let all of you know what has been going on. Sorry for the rant :(
On a brighter note, both boys have settled into their respective schools very well, and Caitlyn is enjoying her two days per week of kindergarten.
I think this is long enough and thanks for all of your wonderful comments on my last post, I really appreciate everyone for stopping by and I hope that you all get lots of stitching done.

I'M BACK

2008-01-23T22:23:00.000+11:00

I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and hopes for a smooth move. All went relatively well, apart from the removalist not doing a proper quote (instead of coming and actually 'seeing' what we have got, they relied on DH's phone description) and having to leave some items (four-six trailer (6x4 trailer size) loads) behind. The company was only an hour away from us and if they had have done their job properly it would have saved us alot of worry and extra car trips.

Apart from that, we are all well. Luke has a friend staying with us for a week, we thought that the move would have been more difficult for him as he is still on holidays, and as he doesn't know anyone yet, we thought that having a friend here would make it easier on him.

DH seems to be enjoying his job so far, he doesn't say a whole lot about it, but at least there are no negative comments. I had a phone interview last Monday for a bank position in another town which is 35 km away from us, and should hear whether I have been successful or not this week sometime.

We had a tour of Luke's school yesterday, and I am quite impressed. Luke even asked the person conducting the tour alot of questions about different aspects, when did he become so self confident? I am used to him being reserved and quiet in these sorts of situations, another reason to be proud of the person he is turning into.

I took Joel and Caitlyn to a playground today which has a fantastic slide which goes down a steep slope with steps to climb back up the slope. What did Joel do? Instead of sliding down the slide, he decided to run down the hill and his legs were going faster than he could control and near the bottom he fell and came to an abrupt halt on his face. Thankfully he only suffered a few minor scratches on his face, arms and legs, lucky boy, it could have been much worse. He is so tough, I knew he was hurting but he refused to cry in front of other people who also came to his rescue.

I have managed to find all of my stash boxes, I previously wrote that there were three but there are actually four, and have unpacked two of them. In the entrance of the house there is a cupboard and I have claimed it for storing my stash hehe. I have been working on VOHRH, A Love Song and Bubbles.

I didn't get alot done last week as I was staying with my girlfriend while I worked the last few days of my job. We had a lovely week together and had some late nights chatting. L actually asked when I was going at one stage so that she could get to bed at a reasonable hour. I had a great night out with my work colleague's and received a lovely gift. My closest colleague was off sick all week and was not able to attend, but I had lunch with her when she returned. Both she and L had me in tears when I said good-bye to them and I told L to not dare crying, but it shows what great friends that I have and L and I are already making plans for at least 2 girly week-ends a year.

My blog feeds at the beginning of the week were in excess of 14oo, and I have managed to get them down to 1174. Even if I don't comment please know that I am reading and will be commenting again once I get the feeds down to a more managable level.

I promise some photos as soon as I find the camera, we still have alot of boxes to unpack and doesn't help that they are labelled with room and 'bits and pieces', thanks to Mr Removalist.

Must go and get some sleep so that I can unpack some more boxes, read some blogs and do the normal household chores, it just never stops, does it?

Happy stitching everyone and stay safe.

My Stash is Packed

2008-01-06T17:21:00.000+11:00

I packed my stash a few nights ago ready for the move. I was able to fill 3 standard sized cartons with everything stash related; fabric, thread, charts, wips, finishing fabrics, ribbons. These are all in their own plastic tubs, containers etc. It is a bit sad not being able to look through my magazines and charts, but we should be reunited by about the 20th of January. I have kept three wips out to work on when I have a chance, VOHRH, Bubbles and A Love Song. Really enjoying these ones at the moment. With VOHRH, I have finished the second block and started the third.

The removalist van comes on Friday the 10th and will arrive at the house that we will be renting on Saturday. We will all go to the new place then, but I will have to come back as I don't finish work until the 17th, and DH starts his new job on the 14th. I will go as far as my parents and stay with them for the night on Sunday, and leave their place on Monday morning in time to start work at my normal time of 11 am. I will be staying with one of my closest friends until DH and the kids come back to help finish cleaning this house so that it can be rented to someone else. Hoping to get most of the cleaning done after work through the week, so it shouldn't take too long, and it will be easier to to floors one all of our furniture is out.

We managed to secure a lovely house to rent, three bedrooms, a study, and two living areas, bigger than what we are currently living in. It has a large garden shed for storage and comes with 4 chooks. We went there last week-end to have a look at houses and were really struggling to find something suitable, we were trying to not be too fussy, but you still need to be able to store things and live comfortably. After looking through one house and driving past two others we put in applications for all of them hoping that one would be successful. We decided to go home and twenty minutes down the road we got a phone message from a real estate agent saying that they had just had a new property listed on their rentals and thought of us. While DH was deciding on what to do I told him to turn around so we could have a look at it, and it will be wonderful. Joel and Caitlyn will need to share a room, but they are large rooms, and it will only be until we can sell our own house, which has been getting rented out near Geelong, and possibly build a new house for us.

We had a lovely Christmas, spent the day with my in-laws, and spent New Years Eve with some friends who live about two hours away from us.

Well I had better go a pack some more boxes. I am currently sorting through toys that have not been played with for a while and have almost managed to send more to charities than what we will be keeping. Of course this doesn't include what was received for Christmas, so the kids will still have plenty to play with.

I hope everyone is well and is getting lots of stitching done. My bloglines is currently at about 900 feeds, I am determined to not just click mark all as read, I may not be able to leave replies but I will still read them all. I may not be able to post for a while but will return as soon as I can.

Stay safe everyone.

Joanne

WE HAVE A JOB

2007-12-22T09:08:00.000+11:00

Hubby has accepted the position in south east (I wrote west in my last post) Victoria in an area called refered to as Gippsland. Here is a link to the local government site that covers the town that we are moving to http://www.egipps.vic.gov.au/, if you have time have a look around, it is a lovely area.

Dee asked if we had a preference for areas of Hubby's jobs. The other position would have put us both closer to our parents but in a smaller town, around the same size as we are currently in population of 8000. We would have still had the problem of Luke having to travel about an hour by bus to get to a school that we would have been happy for him to go to. But with our Gippsland choice the population of our town is 12000, and the schools have been chosen and the children enrolled, and both schools are next to one another and in town. Currently, we are around two hours away from both of our parents and the move will make it around five hours. Ideally I would like to be closer to my parents, Dad will be 77 in January, but we feel that we need to base our decisions on our own family needs.

I have been stitching but I may not be able to post very often with having to pack. DH is starting his new job on the 14th of January and my last day of work here is the 17th. So now it is me looking for a job, hopefully I can get one with the same bank. My area manager is doing some ground work for me, he is not obligated to but feels that since I started back not so long ago he would like me not to have any further leave without pay. We will see what happens after Monday when I'll be having a phone conference with my own manager and the area HR manager.

I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.
Travel safely if you are travelling during the festivities, but most of all don't forget to have fun and enjoy the time spent with loved ones.

Love and Hugs
Joanne

A Finish.

2007-12-12T16:29:00.000+11:00

WOOHOO a finish!!! This is The Drawn Thread's There's No Place Like Home. It is stitched on fabric from R and R Reproductions, I am unsure of the color or count of the fabric using the called for threads, DMC and Needle Neccesities. I changed the flag on the flag pole in the last picture from stitching to a little Australian Flag button.

Next is an update of CdC by Ink Circles.

I don't know what the diagonal line in the photo is (going from top right corner down) it is not there in real life!!! The picture is washed out due to the flash, but the coloring on the top is pretty close.

I am currently working on my second block of VOHRH, block 11 which is the school house. I have another new start, Fouroaks Designs A Love Song, another BAP, oh well!!!

Hubby and I did most of our Christmas shopping yesterday with Joel and Caitlyn with us, and I left my purse at home. We first went around the aisles and discussed what we would buy, then hubby took the kids elsewhere and waited for me to contact him by our walkie talkies. I would leave the shopping trolley somewhere nearby and we would change over, with hubby taking the shopping through the register while I took the kids to the car. We managed this manouvre three times in all!!!

Last Saturday it was my break-up party for work, but I was not able to attend as I had double booked myself. So where else did I go, to see the live production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It was truly amazing, and so much better than the movie. I went with my three sisters, my Mum and two friends of my sisters. We all had a wonderful time and one of my sisters lives around half and hour out of Melbourne and another sister organised a christmas surprise by ordering a limousine to take us all into the city. WOW, we all had the best time, sis also bought two bottles of champagne for us all to share, even though she doesn't drink.

Hubby has just been offered a position in south west Victorian. He is also in the running for a position in a town which is about an hour from here. He has been able to negotiate a slightly better salary package with the first position and if nothing comes from the second one, he will accept the first one, are you confused yet? Even though there is a short fall we will be able to manage. He had the interview for this last Friday and when the interview was finished he was told to go and enrol his children into the preferred schools. It has been horrible trying not to get our hopes up too high, but feeling rather confident with the comment that was made.

Thank you everyone for your comments and for your patience during my not so frequent blogging. This I will 'try' to rectify and post updates more frequently.

I hope you are all well and getting lots of stitching done.

Nearly a Month.

2007-11-10T10:03:00.000+11:00

I can't believe that it has nearly been a month since my last post, apologies everyone.

Coral is stitching a design of five pumpkins, and ran a competition to see who could guess which pumpkin she started first. I WON WOOHOO!!! and yesterday I received my prize, a lovely bundle of DMC threads in Halloween colors, green, orange, yellow, and a cute card. Thank you so much for your generosity Coral I really enjoyed your package. I can't take any photos at the moment as DH has the camera with him, and as we have exceeded our bandwidth our internet connection is rather slow at the moment, this should improve by Tuesday.

I have been stash collecting again!!! I was going to take photos but I can't at the moment, I will just do a quick list. I now have all the beads for Lady of the Mist, 7 pieces of hand dyes fabric from Colours down under, (they are clearing their current stock of hand dyed fabric to introduce a new range), 11 Little House Needleworks designs, (you read correctly, yes 11) I love their designs, can you tell, Prairie Schooler Spring has come and Summer Breeze, Rosewood Manor The Berries, The Cats Whiskers Red Desert Scissor Pocket with required Dinky Dyes thread, four HAED designs.

I ordered and have received some (lots of) threads from Vicky Clayton, her conversions for Carriage House Samplers Village and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, two hanks of Garnet. Her silks are gorgeous and are very pleasant to stitch with, how would I know this? I started VOHRH oh no, another wip. I am stitching it on 40ct Lambswool linen using one thread of silk over two fabric threads, I really just wanted to do a little bit, had to check the thread coverage you know, and I haven't stopped.

I need to figure out a rotation of some sort or some things just won't get stitched on. I don't want to stress too much about this as my stitching needs to be enjoyable. I have been working on CdC during my lunch break at work and it is coming along nicely. Did some work on Bubbles also, HAED project, and I am now doing one of the actual bubbles. I also need to show photos on my progress of Sleeping Beauty and Blackstone Fantasy Garden.

I received four YOU MAKE ME SMILE AWARDS, Lynn, Lelia, Suzanne, I would like to thank you for making me smile by awarding this to me, it is greatly appreciated. I read, or try, alot of blogs and they all make me smile in various ways, so I am doing the cheats way and awarding everyone the award. I know I said four awards, I just can't find the forth and sincerely apologise to whoever it is.

DH is still looking for a job, he has an interview for one on Thursday in country Victoria and Devonport has again cropped up. Apparently during negotiations the person offered the job decided against it after all, so the position was re-advertised. The consultant knows DH due to industry contacts and has offered his help with the application, and is talking of ways of getting DH there for an interview, sounds quite promising.

Study has finished for the year, had my exam on the 31st of October, received my assignment results now just waiting for the unit results to come through on the 29th of this month.

I have rambled enough for now, thanks for sticking with me, I am hoping to post photos soon.

Stay safe everyone and happy stitching.

I am still around

2007-10-07T19:47:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, we are all well again, I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes. We went on a little holiday to our beach house, we left home on the 26th of September and got back home on the 2nd of October. It was very quiet and peaceful, apart from having the children there hehe, and we did alot of nothing. DH developed a secondary infection from the flu and after visiting three different doctors in two days he finally started to get relief. He had a sinus infection and the antibiotics didn't really start to take effect until the third day.

We caught up with our neighbours down there, and are so fortunate, they are wonderful. They have three children, two boys, 10 and 8, and a daughter 6, and the play beautifully with our kids, but they also respect the fact that we are on holidays and do not let their kids over at our house very often.

As you can see by the pictures I have done some work on the Sampler Gameboard, I think I worked on this about three weeks ago. I have done other stitching, in fact I have been really naughty. While we were away I started Miribilia's Sleeping Beauty and Ink Circles Blackstone Fantasy Garden. I also kitted up Miribilia's Lady of the Mist and can't wait to make a start on it. Needless to say my rotation, which I think I have stuck with for about 3 rotations, has gone out the window. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!! This week I have been concentrating on CdC and have stitched all of the circles along the bottom row and have begun going up the right hand side.

I have received my order from Karen at Dragonfly Dream. I ordered the JCS 2007 Ornament Issue and the beads for Lady of the Mist, and two charts, Just Nan's Christmas Peace and the embellishment pack, and Lynne Nicoletti's Fairy Tale Fortune Teller. I will try to take some pictures at some stage. I am waiting on some beads still from Karen, they are on back order and she said that I should have them in the coming week. Dee was interested to know what I thought of the JCS issue: I haven't had a really good look through it yet, but at a glance there are a few that I like, though I have only ever stitched on ornament before, stitching is finished, but it is not an ornament yet. Lindy wanted to see a finished picture of Reeds Stocking, it is a Shepherds Bush design Lindy, I hope the link works for you.

Last week, after we got home from our little break away, I worked three days in a row of my new hours. I was totally shattered on Friday night, not mentally, but physically, just from standing for so long. I am so not used to this work business, hopefully it is just a matter of time until my poor feet and legs get used to it again.

At the moment I am meant to be finishing an assignment for uni, it was due on the 4th of October, I am getting so slack with uni, everything seems to be running behind. I only have to do about another 700 words, including the conclusion. It is a sociology subject so rambling and waffling are permitted.

While we were away three of us turned another year older, and two of them were significant numbers. Caitlyn turned four on the 1st of October and Dh and I turned 40 aaaarrrrrgggghhh LOL five days apart with me being the older of us. Mine was the 30th of Sept and his was the 5th of Oct. He always tell people that I (meaning me) am 'five' older than him, deliberately not including the word days, and making people think, days, weeks, months, etc, sometimes he says decades, rotton fiend. No real news on the job front for DH there are a few that he is in the process of applying for.

I haven't got any more news this time around, I think this is long enough, just wish everyone happiness and lots of stitching.

Lots of updates.

2007-09-24T13:42:00.000+10:00

We have all been sick!!! It started with Luke who has had over a week off school with the flu. Then DH last week, couldn't get out of bed on Monday of last week but has been slowly improving. The two little ones, Joel and Caitlyn, have been in and out of bed for about a week now with varying temperatures and other symptoms. I went to a work training course last Wednesday in Shepparton, 1 and 1/2 hours away from home, didn't feel to flash when I woke up in the morning, but just put it down to tiredness from looking after everyone else. I don't know how I made it home, but when I did I just went to bed. DH took Joel, Caitlyn and myself to emergency at our local hospital and luckily my doctor was on duty that night. He started making jokes about seeing all of us at once and I just told him it wasn't funny. (Not feeling very humorous at this stage). He just said it was the flu, it is going around like crazy, treat the symptoms, go home and do nothing, he gave me a week off from work.

Luke has gone to school today, we sent Caitlyn to pre-school only to get a call from them that she wasn't well enough to stay. DH took her to see the doctor and she has now developed an ear infection which is common for this strain of flu apparently. So she has had her first dose of antibiotics and should be on the road to recovery.

Through all of this I have been stitching, and here are some update pictures of Noah's Ark and Reeds Stocking.

In other work news a person resigned a couple of weeks ago, and even though my boss knows that I will be leaving eventually, I have been offered the position. So instead of my 'nice' 2 days per week, I will now be working for 4 days per week. Mondays will only be for three hours, I will have Tuesdays off, with normal length days for Wed, Thurs and Fri. I should have started these hours this week, but with being sick it was not to be.

There is nothing significant to report with regards to DH's job hunting, he has only been doing bits and pieces on the computer and phone, he hasn't been up to doing much of anything else, just like the rest of us. I am ready for us all to be well again!!! SOON!!!

I do have updates of Sampler Game Board and CdC as well, but will save them for another time.

I have had some stashy mail; I ordered a further 10 skeins of Dinky Dyes thread for CdC and also a metre of 40ct lambswool linen and have received both from Stitching Obsession. I was thinking of doing HOHRH of VOHRH, I have both in my stash, on the 40ct, using one strand of DMC.

I also placed an order with Dragonfly Dreams so that I could get my JCS orni issue, of course that was not all that I ordered, will share when it arrives.

I had better go and try and get this house sorted out a bit, I hope everyone is stitching lots.

My Middle Name

2007-09-18T09:30:00.000+10:00

I was tagged by Kim and here are my answers:

The rules:
1 You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2 Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3 When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4 At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Marie (the same as Kim's)

M is for marriage: DH and I have been married for 7 and 1/2 years. We have had our ups and downs, but more ups and it seems that the longer we are together the stronger we become.

A is for additional: as in additional pets. One day DH and I took a walk to our supermarket and we always look at the community notice board. This day there was a photo of the cutest looking dog, who was free to a good home. I said to hubby that we just have to have him so we rang the phone number, when to see the dog, and then he became ours. He fitted in perfectly with our family, is great with the kids, very tolerant of them. He was owned by a young girl and is very attached to me for this reason, and he loves lying on my lap, even if said lap is already occupied with my stitching.

R is for religion: At a particularly low point in my life I felt that I needed some sort of help, and although I had never thought to go to church before in my life, I felt that I needed God at that point. In the next twelve months I met my DH, a Christian, and have been going to church ever since. I believe that all things happen for a reason and that God had a big hand in me meeting my DH.

I is for integrity: My job as a bank employee calls for a high level of integrity. I have to ensure that I do not compromise any of my clients financial or personal information in any way, even to the point of telling DH that I saw such and such today, which of course would divulge that the person banks with my employer.

E is for excitement: I love seeing excitement on the faces of my children, seeing their expressions when they are looking forward to something, like going to the park or some such treat.

I am not going to tag anyone else, but if your blog title begins with a letter which is in my middle name, consider your self tagged and let me know so that I check out your answers.

A week ago a person at my work resigned and they have offered me the position, even though they know that I will be leaving before Christmas. So my two days a week very cushy job, has now become four days a week, starting this week. The extra money will come in handy (more stash) but I will be exhausted by the time the week end comes around.

I owe some update photos of a few projects and will try to get them done soon, my camera needs new batteries and I it won't even turn on when they are flat.

Everyone seems to be coming down with some sort of flu at the moment; Luke had been in bed since last Friday, he is up and about today and I think he will be well enough for school tomorrow, Caitlyn has had a temperature since Monday morning and didn't go to pre-school yesterday and has a terrible cold, and this morning DH woke up feeling cold and achy. Joel and I have escaped everything so far, I hope this continues. I am going on a training course tomorrow for work and I am picking up another girl on the way, I am looking forward to it and I hope that I don't come down with anything.

I had better go now, after boring all of you, I hope you are all getting lots of stitching done and that you are all well.

I finished a page

2007-09-07T18:52:00.000+10:00

WOO HOO!!Well as the title says I have finished the first page of twenty, here are the before and after pictures of HAED Gypsy Rose. I am loving this and was tempted to keep going on her after her rotation finished last week, but I don't want the others in my rotation to fall behind. The creamy color on the right is her dress, and the design is four pages wide, so there is alot of dress to get through.

The next picture to come is of CdC.

This was taken after finishing stitching on it last Sunday night. There is not much more to be done of the bottom row, but I can't see myself finishing the bottom row this week end, perhaps the next. Through the week I ordered another ten skeins of the Dinky Dyes thread and a couple pieces of fabric from Stitching Obsession. Mandy is great to deal with (no affiliation) and offered for me send her one of my skeins so that she could then send it to the Australian distributors for them to do a comparison with to ensure that I received the same dye lot. I told her not to bother, but if they are different I am planning on mixing up the lengths, do one length from one skein and then another length from another. At the moment I am going to complete the bottom circles and then start the mixing if I need to.

We haven't heard any more about the jobs in Canberra, but no news is good news, right!!!! DH was unsuccessful on a few, Devonport, Warragul and the one in an inner city suburb. Another one has come up in Ballarat and he has been making heaps of phone calls in answer to ads on various internet sites and in The Age newspaper, all I can say is thank goodness for VOIP (voice over internet phone) otherwise our phone bill would be astronomical.

I have also been tagged by Kim, it is about middle names, and you would not believe it, but my middle name is the same as Kim's. I will do mine over the week end, and if you want to know what my middle name is in the mean time, you will have to go to Kim's blog to find out. ;) LOL

Happy stitching everyone, and stay safe.

Some pictures at last.

2007-09-01T11:09:00.000+10:00

Yeah, blogger is finally being cooperative. This picture is for Ranae. This is of my fractal. The centre of it is stitched in greens and yellows, it is huge and apart from where I have gone off on a tangent with it, I have almost stitched two pages of thirty.

Here are before and after pictures after its rotation.

The next update is for CdC. I have almost finished the outside border but decided to do some filling in of the circles, the more I do of this the more I love it. I am so glad that I decided to have this as my week end stitch so that I can work on it more regularly.

Here is a closer picture of where it has been filled in. Someone on the Cirque des Cercles blog said that finishing each section was like a mini happy dance, and they were so right. I get excited finishing one section and then I just have to start the next. We all know how addictive stitching can be and how hard it is to put our needles down.

It will be my birthday soon and the other day hubby asked if I would like an LCD computer screen, of course I said yes!!! So now I am looking at every one's blog on a 19 inch LCD monitor and I am loving it.
Later today we are heading to Bendigo and tonight we, DH, Luke and I, are going to the theatre to see a production of Oaklahoma. We love the theatre and are never disappointed by the productions that Bendigo Theatre Company put on. Joel and Caitlyn are being baby-sat by a friend of the in-laws and when they are old enough we will take them also.
I hope that all of you enjoy your week end, and that you get lots of stitching done.

Stitching Updates.

2007-08-31T22:50:00.000+10:00

We have just finished playing a board game with Luke and I thought that I would post my stitching updates. The project that I stitched on last week was my fractal, and here are before and after photos. Blogger is not letting me load pictures at the moment so I will try to answer some questions. Ranae asked what fractal I was stitching. Cross stitch Collectibles offer free fractals on their site, a new one every month and this is where I got mine from. Mine is number 25 Ranae and as soon as blogger allows me to post some photos I will post one of it. Unfortunately it is only in black and white so you will need to hang aroung my blog for a few years until mine is finished to see the colors. LOL

Hazel asked who designed And A Forest Grew, it is Rosewood Manor. I have previously left a comment on Hazel's blog but thought that I would also answer her questions here, just in case she missed it.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone for their comments, I love reading them and often sit here just thinking how sweet everyone is.

I will post progress pictures when blogger decides to cooperate.

Happy stitching everyong.

Lots of news.

2007-08-31T14:36:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday there was a stitching GTG held in Melbourne. I was emailing Tannia to wish her well and she asked me if I was going to the GTG. After a bit of thought, and realising that we didn't have any plans, I asked DH if he could take me. He said yes, and I asked Tannia what the details were, address etc. It took 3 1/2 hours to get there but it was worth it, I had an amazing time. For me to walk into a house, not know the owner, or any other person there, is so far out of my comfort zone, it is not funny. I had a couple of weird thoughts of what am I doing, on the drive there, but quickly dismissed them when I thought of the other stitchers that I was going to meet.

When I walked in I immediately recognised Tannia and Marita from their blogs, and I was introduced to everyone, I am sorry I am terrible for remembering names, and met the hostess Bernadette, who wait for it, also has an ONS called The Needlework Boutique. With me I took CdC, my completed Celtic Spring and Daughters and my HAED Gypsy Rose. I was made to feel very comfortable by everyone who had lovely things to say about my work. Unfortunately Tannia, Marita and some other ladies had to leave not long after I got there. Tannia gave me the warmest of hugs as she was going. I will remember this day for along time to come. Once everyone else had left Bernadette suggested I call DH, who had taken our children to McDonalds for a play, and ask them back to her house so that our children could play with hers. Luke enjoyed playing football (Aussie Rules) with her 10yo DS, while Joel and Caitlyn played indoors with her 2 DD's.

On the job front, remember DH tried to set up an interview with another company in Canberra, he had a phone interview with them, then an 'in person' interview on Wednesday. Another trip to Canberra, and then onto Melbourne for a position with a council. The two Canberra postions are being handled by the same consultant, and has told DH of another position, and told him that he would have him in a position in Canberra before Christmas. We will wait and see. We are not stressed about DH being out of work, it is almost exciting thinking about where we will end up.

I have been stitching and owe some progress pictures, will try for later today/tonight.

Thank you to everyone for wishing DH the best for his interviews, it means alot to me.

Job news

2007-08-24T09:27:00.000+10:00

Would like to thank everyone for the comments that they have left and the well wishes left for DH for his job prospects, they are much appreciated.
The job that hubby interviewed for last Friday in Canberra contacted him on Monday to say that they wanted to talk with his referees, so that is some great news. The other Canberra position, that he was unable to organise an interview with, conducted a phone interview with him on Monday afternoon and now want to see him in person. So hubby is off to Canberra again on Wednesday, and then on to Melbourne on Thursday.

Today is his last day of work and he has been in such high spirits, I am very proud of him. This proves to me that our time here is up, and as Luke begins secondary school next year and Joel start primary school, our move could not have come at a better time.

As for stitching I am currently working on my fractual, and I feel that I have made some progress on it. I am itching to start a Miribilia after I have my next finish, but I would like to incorporate some smaller projects into my rotation as most of them are LARGE. At this stage I have Sleeping Beauty and Petal Fairy almost fully kitted, lets see what happens.

Hope everyone is well and stitching

Desert Guardian update.

2007-08-18T10:35:00.000+10:00

I have just finished the weekly rotation on Desert Guardian by Character Creations. Here are before and after photos.

Lots of confetti stitching in this one, but I am enjoying it. It is the week end, and I get to stitch on CdC. Will post a picture after the week end.

I would like to thank everyone for visiting and leaving comments, I love reading your replies to my posts. I got my assignment away, and my uni received it only one day late, I can live with that. The next assignment isn't due until the middle to late September. So I can concentrate on the course work for this topic.

Yesterday DH drove over 1000 kilometers to Canberra and back for a job interview. I think the employment consultant felt sorry for him, with the distance traveled, and even bought him lunch before the interview. We should find out next week if he has been successful or not. He is aware of another position in Canberra and tried to organise an interview for it while he was there, but it couldn't be done, so he might have to go there again next week. He'll be in Melbourne on Monday for, I think, two interviews, one is with a university, and the other is for a council. (Sorry Marita I am not going so I won't be able to catch up with you this time, I also work on Mondays).

Luke is playing his last game of soccer for the season today, I would have liked to go but I've just been so tired lately, I am sure I just need some 'earlier' nights.

I think that is all I have to say at the moment, I hope everyone has a great week end with lots of stitching.

WOOHOO!!! A Little Finish

2007-08-11T09:39:00.000+10:00

On Thursday I had a little happy dance. This is Lizzie Kates Daughters. A fun little design which I think I will make into a little pillow. Even though this empties a slot in my rotation, I am not going to start anything else at this stage, though I can change my mind if I want to!!!! HEHE

As for my exam, I felt that I did better than I thought that I would. I feel that I managed to cover most of the relevant areas even though there was some 'waffle' in between. Now just to wait for the results, I am still waiting for the return of my assignment.

Time to go, I have an assignment due OHOH on Monday. It will possibly be a day or so late, I can live with that. Bye for now everyone, stay safe and happy stitching.

It has been a while

2007-08-09T10:16:00.000+10:00

Sorry it has taken so long to get organised enough to put together a post, life just gets is the way of the things that we like to do at times, doesn't it?

I would like to thank everyone for their comments and for their kind wishes and thoughts for DH's job interviews. Still no new job, though still in the mix are; Devanport, Ballarat, a job at Melbourne University, a council in surburban Melbourne, and new ones at Warragul, one hour from Melbourne and he is still following up on a couple of others. There was one which he didn't feel that he interviewed well for which has been re-advertised. He contacted them and asked for them to trial him for 3 months, and that he would prove that he could perform the neccessary tasks required, still waiting to hear back from them.

I have an exam this afternoon, my first written one at university level. I have already seen the questions and have formulated my answers but I am still not over confident. I haven't received my assignment back yet either, just waiting to see what penalties will be applied as it was 'very' late, no doubt I will see in due course.

I have been stitching, even if it is only for an hour or so every night. I have also started to knit an afghan with six different colored stripes, eight balls of each color, and I am on the third stripe of the first lot of eight balls - I hope this makes sense, not feeling very coherent at the moment, not a good feeling before an exam.

I have made fairly good progress on Cirque des Cercles over the past two week-ends. I have also stitched on Bubbles, Celtic Banner and at the moment I am stitching on Daughters, hoping for a happy dance on this one (fingers crossed).

Here is CdC. As you can see I have been concentrating on doing the border and the outer circles, I am sure progress will seem to come to a halt once I start filling in the gaps.

Here are before and after shots of Bubbles. Not the greates of photos unfortunately, but the after shot is actually showing a second patch of lighter colors as in the before shot.

And finally here is Celtic Banner, again not much progress, but at least you can tell that it has been worked on. The left hand side border got some attention this time also.

Well I have some washing to hang out and a few other things to do before DH comes home from work to baby sit so I can do some last minute studying before my exam.

123 Stitch Stash

2007-07-26T11:20:00.000+10:00

Here is the list of stash that I received from 123stitch'

Lemon Meringue Sampler by Casey Bounaugurio

Antique Ivory Cashel, quarter yard

Yellow Creme Glass Bead for Lemon Meringue Sampler

Spring Row by Bent Creek

Ice Cream Sundae by Country Cottage Needleworks

Holly & Ivy Sampler by Country Cottage Needleworks

Flower Shop by Country Cottage Neddleworks

The Bookshelf, by Little House Needleworks

Ladybug Ladybug by Little House Needleworks

Music & Books by Little House Needleworks

Nature's Beauty by Little House Needleworks

Fairy Flora by Miribilia

Lady Of The Mist by Miribilia

Lt. Mocha Cashel (18x27)

Clay Cashel (18x27)

32 Ct. Natural Linen (27x36)

Blossom Time by Papillon Creations

Three Little Words by Papillon Creations

Here are the pictures,

There is a story (excuse) behind me getting the Lemon Meringue Sampler, especially when I saw how beautifully Michelles' looked. My hubby's favourite dessert is Lemon Meringue pie and a good friend of mine makes one that is to die for. This is the same friend that offered to have the kids on the Wednesday of the school holidays doing Luke out of some pocket money. When I picked the kids up after work she had very kindly made a pasta dish for our dinner and a lemon meringue pie for dessert. This was around the same time that Michelle had shown her finished and framed Lemon Meringue Sampler. What is a girl to do, but to get her clicky finger working. I of course had to get it and went through my HUGE list of ONS and I found it at 123 Stitch, and 'of course' I had to justify the overseas order by ordering other things. I needed some neutral fabric, had to get the beads, and the charts, well, they just 'appeared' in my cart HEHE. I blame it on my friend and Michelle ;) LOL.

Happy stitching everyone and stay safe.

I Am Still Here

2007-07-26T09:54:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, as the title says I am still here, have just been busy.

My assignment is finished WOOHOO at long last and when I last checked with my uni, it had been sent to the assessor for assessment, so should have it back in the next week or so. Hubby didn't get the job in Melbourne. It was with the Australian Cricket Board, but he has four interviews today in Ballarat, two with employment consultants and two for actual jobs. There is another in the pipeline which would mean relocating to Tasmania, this would be fine as it is located in Devonport which is where the Spirit of Tasmania (ferry between Melbourne and Tasmania) docks. It is able to carry cars as well as passengers, and as all of our families and friends are in Victoria or southern New South Wales it means that it is not too difficult to reach them, or of course we could also fly. This prospect is exciting for me as Tassie is the only state in Australia that I haven't been to, what better way to check it out while living there. But we shall wait and see.

I have been stitching and I owe a few progress pictures so here they are:

First is There is no Place Like Home, before and after. Not a huge amount of progress, but still progress. I was concentrating on my assignment so stitching had to take a back seat. Not to worry.

Next in my rotation was And A Forest Grew, before and after.

Again not much progress, the three small trees are out of position my a stitch, I didn't rip them out as the position of their neighbouring motifs is not affected, I may decide to 'fix' them, or I may just leave them.

I did stitch on CdC over the weekend and made some good progress and will post of picture of it soon. My clicky finger has been at it again, this time I put in an order with 123stitch, How fast are they? I placed my order on the 11th, it was shipped on the 11th, and I received it on the 19th. I will post what I ordered and pictures later on.

Thank you everyone for you comments, they are very much appreciated. Happy stitching.

Time for an Update.

2007-07-10T13:05:00.000+10:00

Last Friday saw the end of my rotation for The Castle.

I stitched all of the bushes that needed finishing and made a start on the castle. Teresa is quite the genius when she works out her blends. I love the way they look. But I don't know that I will ever stitch another of her designs even though there are a few that I do like. But then you never know, we can all change our minds, can't we.

On the week-end I made a start on Ink Circles Cirque des Cercles. I am stitching it on 28ct Navy Jobelan with Dinky Dyes silk in Desert Sand. Here is a picture. The fabric looks more purple in this photo and I think IRL the threads are a richer colour. Never mind, still gives all of you an idea of what it looks like. I am loving the silks they are so soft and pleasant to stitch with.

I would like to thank all of you for your support in my decision to concentrate on my studies and appreciate that you will still look forward to seeing my progress on my wips.

Hubby has a job interview on Monday for the position of Chief Finance Officer for a major sporting association in Melbourne. At this stage any job would be good. I grew up in Melbourne, but have not lived there for 10 years now, and I would prefer to be in the country. But we have to go where the jobs are for hubby.

We are all fine and into the second week of term break, finding care for the two littlies has been interesting. Wednesday last week Luke actually looked after them with strict instructions to 'actually' watch them, and not get engrossed in television shows or the computer, which he is inclined to do, as I suppose all 12 year olds do. He did a great job and was extremely pleased when he received $20 for his work. I would never let him do this if we were not so close. Hubby and I made phone calls at different times of the day to make sure they were all okay and Luke knows all of our contact numbers, and we could be home in less than five minutes. This Wednesday a girlfriend of mine has offered to have Joel and Caitlyn and Luke was disappointed as he would not get paid again. Oh well Luke, you can always help Mum with the house work.

I had better go now and hopefully get closer to finishing my long over due assignment, 700 words to go, including conclussion of about 500 words and which I generally find easy to write. Happy stitching everyone and stay safe.

What's happening in my little piece of the world......

2007-07-08T10:12:00.000+10:00

When I decided to not finish the study unit for semester one this year, I still thought that I would keep my options open and see how I felt after a couple of weeks break, and applied for special consideration so that I could have a chance to sit my exam again. I didn't think that it would be approved, but it has been. So I am having another go at getting this horrid assignment finished, 900 words to go, and sit my exam in mid August.

A few things helped me change my mind; I am so close to having the assignment and this unit finished that it seemed such a shame to not complete it. I received my course work for next semester (which begins 16th July) and the content is something that interests me a whole lot more. By completing these two units it will put me at a quarter through my studies, a milestone I have been hoping too get to. So I will not be applying to defer next semester, call me crazy, even with an imminent move in the not too distant future.

With these time constraints upon me, something has to give. As much as this 'hurts' me I have decided that I have to spend less time reading and writing blogs, and sniff sniff stitching. I will still be stitching, perhaps for only an hour a night, and will endeavour to keep posting my update photos once a week, and keeping you up to date with other general things. As for blog reading I will still try to read them, but I feel that my bloglines might get out of hand, never mind (taking deep breath) at least all of your posts will still be there for me to read when I get a spare few minutes.

As far as stitching goes for this past week; I stitched on The Castle for five nights and on the week-end I started Cirque des Cercles, it is quite fun, and those silk threads WOWZA. Now I understand how stitchers become silk snobs. LOL Will post progress pictures possibly Tuesday. Until then everyone stay safe and happy stitching.

P.S. I would also like to thank everyone that takes the time to read my blog and to leave comments. I love reading your comments and I appreciate them all very much.

WIP Update

2007-07-04T08:50:00.000+10:00

Here is Drawn Threads Game Board Sampler. A new start this rotation. I enjoyed this one. I am stitching it on 32ct Driftwood, the designer actually suggests 25ct Driftwood but the piece I ordered was too small, but I am happy with how it is looking on the 32ct.

Next in my rotation is something that I started some time ago. I wouldn't really call it a UFO at this stage as I have always intended to finish it. I asked my three sisters to choose a design each and that I would stitch it for them. I have completed one of their choices but I can't remember the details, but it was of three teddy bears sitting on and around various patch work quilts. The next sister asked for a dragon and one day I spotted a magazine with TW The Castle on the front and I just had to buy it. Not knowing what TW's were like back then and not knowing about linen and evenweave, I did this piece a huge injustice and started it on (cringe cringe) aida. I know, how could I do that???!!! Anyway, there is no turning back now, I am not going to restart it as it is almost 3/4 done. Here is a picture: sorry for the cruddy photos, I took these on my computer desk and was crammed for room. The design in the magazine is on four pages and I have nearly completed the third. In the last few days I have managed to fill in the 'empty' spaces with green and have been surprised how quickly they filled in. Well I will leave my posting here for now as I have to get ready to go to work. I start at ten today but I go back in at just before four so that I can see the balancing procedure. Work is only five minutes from home, the first time I have ever lived so close the where I work.

Bye for now, and happy stitching everyone.

Stash

2007-07-02T16:36:00.000+10:00

In an earlier post I said I was going to place an order with Stitching Obsession to get a bigger piece of navy fabric for Ink Circles Cirque des Cercles, well it arrived today. That was super quick. I, of course, had to justify my order (any excuse) and also ordered a subscription for The Gift of Stitching, and a With My Needle chart called Petit Carnet d'Ouvrages, Livre II.

I have been wanting the subcription for a while now, I have liked so many designs that have been posted to blogs in the past that I couldn't wait any longer. I usually by Just Cross Stitch every two months, but have recently found that there is not much that I would like to stitch, so I have stopped buying that, except for the ornament issue every year. I will actually save money as my subscription is less than two issues of JCS.

Here is a picture of what I got:

I have finished the rotation for Drawn Thread Game Board Sampler and will post a wip picture hopefully tomorrow. Next in my rotation is TW The Castle, I will tell you more about this tomorrow also and post a picture of where I am up to with it.

Happy stitching everyone.

Reed's Stocking update

2007-07-01T15:21:00.000+10:00

Here are my before and after pictures of Reed's Stocking. This is a fun stitch and it does go quickly. I am doing it on 18ct floba using DMC perle cottons as suggested by the designer.

I was able to purchase all of the perle cottons, for all five stocking patterns that I am planning on doing for all of us, from an ONS which was closing down earlier this year. I was sad to see the ONS close but I was happy to buy these at a reduced price.

I have also taken some pictures from the stash that I received from Jenna.

Here are LHN and CC collaborations packs; Wisdom, Goodwill and Believe.

These one's are Peace, Faith and Love and Faithfulness.

And finally these are Patience, and Tree of Life.

The threads in this picture are all Dinky Dyes silks. The middle bundle is for Cats Whiskers Blessed With Happiness, and the other color, Desert Sands which came from StitchingObsession, is for Ink Circles Cirque des Cercles.

I would like to thank everyone who left comments about hubbies job. He has still got a job until the end of August, this is when his contract runs out, so we are not panicking too much. In today's paper there are a number of suitable jobs for him, so he will be busy next week applying for them.

My job is still going well, the kids are all well so we are truely blessed in so many ways.

Happy stitching everyone.

Job News

2007-06-29T16:45:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately DH didn't get the job. I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes. Although disappointed some positives came out of the interview. Hubby had to do a power point presentation on differing investment scenarios, and the employment consultant said that DH's was the best out of the three people that were interviewed. Consultant also said that DH is heading in the right direction career wise, and that he should keep applying for this kind of job, as he is ready for this move.

I know that I owe all of you some update photos, will try for either tonight or tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Bye for now, and thanks for reading.

Blog Reading.

2007-06-28T12:39:00.000+10:00

I think that I am rather anal about my blog reading.

When I first started looking up blogs on the internet I would add them to my favourites and read through them, from the beginning, starting at the first one in my favourites. As I finished each blog it would go to the top of my blogs folder, in alphabetical order of course, and as I continued reading other blogs I would check back on the ones that I had already read about once a week to look for new posts.

As you could imagine as my list of fully read blogs grew and grew, it would take anything upto a week to read through them, let alone reading any new blogs. So then I decided to begin my own blog, and as a consequence I joined up with bloglines and thought that it could sift out any new post for me. This worked really well, and still does, except my feeds have been consistently over or around 200 for a few week now. I will determine to get them down some day. At the moment my feeds number about 185, with about 20-30 being added every day.

I guess where I am leading to with this post is that I am apologising to people when I reply to more than one post at a time, creating multiple messages within whatever system you use to track new replies. I hope that no-one feels any frustration at this 'system'J of mine.

Stitching - I finished off my week with Shepherds Bush Reed's Stocking and will post a progress picture soon. I am stitching on ANOTHER new start The Drawn Threads Sampler Game Board, what a fun design with bits of everything, border, alphabet, quick little motifs and intense little blocks of houses.

I received my order from Jenna of Ones Stars Light, it was packaged very well, and I will post pictures of this also. I received my Dinky Dyes threads from Stitching Obsession for CdC and was hoping to start this on the weekend, and make it a weekend project, but my piece of fabric is to small, unless I want to stitch it over one, NO WAY!!!! LOL So I will be placing another order with Stitching Obsession, whose postage is quick, and will make a start hopefully the next weekend.

Hubby travelled to Adelaide on Monday/Tuesday for a second interview for a job, and should hear today whether he has gotten it or not, please keep your fingers crossed for us. The job is actually situated on the outskirts of Adelaide and would be great for us, having the convenience of a state capital city nearby for family outings, and the pleasure of a larger town to live in.

I will hopefully post pictures later on today.

Stay safe and happy stitching, Joanne

More Stash.

2007-06-21T14:36:00.000+10:00

I have received my order from Stitching Obsession. Here are the pictures. I got:

Papillon Creations - Love with a Capital L

Ink Circles - I Still Do (also includes another chart for Second Chances

Ink Circles - Cirque des Cercles

28 ct cashel linen - Navy

38 ct jobelan - Forget Me Not Blue

One packet each of sizes 26 and 28 Piecemakers needles

Carrie's Creation threads for Ink Circles Blackstone Fantasy Garden.

Still to come from here are 7 skeins of Dinky Dyes silk in Desert Sand, here is a LINK. With this thread I am planning on stitching Cirque des Cercles on the navy cashel linen. I would value your thoughts on this!!

My order from One Stars Light shipped on the 15th so it should be here soon, Thanks Jenna.

I have a dilemma!!!! This is the situation with my container which I store my charts in. What to do??? What to do??? I KNOW!!! Buy a BIGGER container. LOL What I actually did was buy another container and I moved my charts to it, and kept my printed freebies in the one in the picture. But I am afraid that with all of the S.E.X. that I have been having I will still need to buy a new one in the near future. Will post more soon. Bye for now.

Progress Photo

2007-06-21T14:05:00.000+10:00

Here is Joel's 'Noah's Ark' birth sampler where I left it at the end of its rotation. This is done on aida as I started it before I learnt of linens and evenweaves, nonetheless I am still enjoying sewing it and knowing that it will be for one of my children makes it all worthwhile.

I was looking back through some of my comments and Dawn asked if we knew what sort of ball was stuck in Caitlyn's ear. Yes we definately found that out. For his job DH goes to alot of seminars. One of the sponsors from one of them were handing out maraquas (SP) and DH bought a couple of them home for Joel and Caitlyn. They were made of clear plastic and had little green and yellow balls in them, do you know were this is leading? Joel, in all of his wisdom of a five year old decided to hit one of them against my desk, and of course the inevitable happened and little green and yellow balls went everywhere. I cleaned up what I thought to be all of them, famous last words, but Caitlyn happened to find a stray one. It just happened to be a green one also, my favourite color. I hope that hubby doesn't bring any more home.

My son is awesome

2007-06-17T12:37:00.000+10:00

You may remember that Luke qualified to run in a cross country event. This post. On Thursday morning DH and Luke left home to make their way to Sydney. At this level Luke was representing his schools' district. Out of a field of 15-20 other kids Luke came 7th. Only six kids go on to the next level, but if someone is unable to go Luke, as emergency, will go. We don't care what happens after this we are just proud and pleased that Luke was able to do so well, and get this far.

As far a study goes. I have decided not to continue on with this semester. The topic is not my first love and not where I see myself headed. Because we are planning on moving, hopefully in the next six months, I have also decided to apply to defer for six months. I didn't realise that working two days a week would take so much away from my study, but I just seemed to be getting further and further behind. Joel will start school next year, so hopefully that will enable me to have more study time. In this six months I am going to concentrate my efforts on changing my course from an Arts degree to a Science degree. My real desire is to study Psychology and while psych is a more demanding course, I find it much more interesting and stimulating. I fee relieved now that I have made this decision and it is now time to move on.

As for stitching. I am enjoying Joel's birth sampler and have made some progress. The rotation finishes tonight and I hope to post progress pictures on Tuesday. Next in my rotation is Shepherds Bush Reed's Stocking, looking forward to this one, it seemed to stitch up really quickly last time.

My clicky finger has been at it again. Can't it show any control at all!!!! LOL. I will not put my new stash away until I can post some pictures. This lot came from a new ONS, for me, called Stitching Obsession, here is a link, http://stitchingobsession.com.au/index.php Mandy was lovely to deal with and I was pleased with how my order was posted. My order from Jenna has been shipped and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

That is all for now, take care everyone and happy stitching.

Stitching Updates

2007-06-12T13:20:00.000+10:00

Here is last weeks progress on HAED Gypsy Rose. I almost got this page finished and I love the way the rose is turning out, very pretty so far IMO.

Next in my rotation is Joel's birth sampler, a Dimensions Chart and Charms design of Noah's Ark.

A full picture, well almost., and a closer one to show what is left to go. There is a heap a back-stitching in this piece and I have been doing some as I go. The row of animals where the elephants are has been done, I think a couple of the fish on the right need doing as well as the horses on the ramp heading into the ark. This has been going for a while but like all of my other wips, I am still enjoying it.

I appologise for the large pictures, I forgot to resize them when I transfered them from my camera to computer. Now I know why it took longer than usual for blogger to upload them, LOL live and learn.

So that is all from me for now, bye.

Stash -yes more

2007-06-12T10:16:00.000+10:00

I finally got around to taking pictures of my stash that came from the Silver Needle.

Lizzie Kate's 12 Blessings of Christmas, each with a really cute charm. Planning on stitching these on one piece of fabric with the border pattern by LK.

These are CCN Spring Violets and Ladybugs and Bumblebees, Sisters and Best Friends Autumn Thanks, I now have the four seasons of these, and Sampler Company Heaven Doth Ask Sampler.

I also got LHN four Season of.......... charts but couldn't manage a good photo for some reason.

And from Exampler Dames, And They Sinned. In my comments Nicole asked if was going to join the SAL for this one. Not at the moment Nicole. I have quite a few large projects going at the moment and would like to incorporate some smaller designs into my rotation when I have some finishes. But thank you for mentioning it anyway.

The rotation for Gypsy Rose is over for the week, really loving this one, and next in my rotation is a birth sampler which will be for Joel. It is a Dimensions Charts and Charms pattern of Noah's Ark. I would say that I have done around 70% of this one, so the end is in sight, though it may take another 3-4 rotations unless I decide to concentrate on it for a while. Let see what happens and what I feel like doing. I only try the rotation so that everything gets a go, I am sure that some things would get forgotten other wise.

Would like to thank everyone that visits and for the comments that you leave. Stay safe and happy stitching.

Stitching Updates.

2007-06-07T14:01:00.000+10:00

I haven't done any of these for awhile - sorry about that.

The last time I updated I was giving a new start a turn on my rotation and that was Desert Guardian by Kustom Krafts.

MMMM not much stitching for a week, never mind at least I got to do some. It doesn't show up in the photo very well, but I am stitching this on a pale blue hand dyed fabric with small patches of white to look like the sky.

The next project to get some attention was my Fractal. A new one of these is posted on http://www.xs-collectibles.com/index.aspx every month. I am not sure how long ago mine was on the site, and I do not have a full color picture of it either. It is in predominately purples, blues and black, but in the centre it changes to greens and yellows. You will need to use your imagination and take my word for it until I get LOTS more stitched, how many years have you got? LOL.

Here is one photo of the whole project and a close up, and below, I hope its below, is a picture of where I finished with it on this rotation.

It is a bit sad, but I don't think that you can see any progress in the photos (sniff, sniff). It is there, I promise. Hopefully I will be able to get better pictures next time this one comes up.

Next up in my rotation is Gypsy Rose, this is one that I am really enjoying at the moment and I will post before and after photos when the rotation finishes on Sunday night.

My order from The Silver Needle arrived last week, but with everything going on I have forgotten to mention it. I have not put any of it away yet and will post pictures before I do in the next day or so.

I also want to reply to some comments from my past posts, so I will try to do this also.

Happy stitching everyone and stay safe.

Joanne

To thank you all

2007-06-07T13:27:00.000+10:00

I would like to thank all of you for your kind wishes for Caitlyn, she has recovered fully and the only downside is a small perforation in her ear drum, which the specialist has said will heal fully and should not affect her hearing at all, thank God for that.

If you recall while she was in hospital the local radio station broadcast their morning show from the play room on the children's ward and that there were lots of photos taken, well the photos have finally appeared on the web site and here is a link: http://theradio.com.au/Program.aspx?PageID=5552&ProgramID=269&Station=TheRiver_105.7FM_Albury To view to photo you will need to scroll down and click on the GM54KIDS link, Caitlyn is in the third photo. In the photo are the two presenters, the clown, our Caitlyn and another patient whose name is Cassandra. I know that the picture of Caitlyn is rather obscure with the balloon crown around her neck, and the clown nose on her nose, but hubby prefers that I don't post pictures of the kids on my blog. Unless I can change his mind this will be it I am afraid. Thought it would be okay to post this one as it is already on the net.

Yesterday it was Joel's birthday, he turned five. How did that happen? I think he had a wonderful day, cake at pre-school, he chose to have dinner at McDonald's with a cake later on at home also. He also had a cake on Monday at a different pre-school.

I will go now and get some update pictures ready for you.

What a week!!!

2007-06-01T20:44:00.000+10:00

First of all I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read my news and for commenting, it is wonderful to hear from you all.

Our week started in relative calm, barring my assignment being due on Monday and it is still not finished. I have been in touch with my lecturer for this subject and she has been great, but I have yet to notify her of our new developments. She has granted me an extension as long as I am making progress and letting her know where I am at. I am seriously in two minds regarding study at the moment, I don't know if it is just the topic I am doing this semester or whether I am burnt out. I would really like to transfer my degree to a psychology degree, find psychology more stimulating and interesting even if the demands of the course are higher. Some of my study time has been gobbled up due to returning to work, I will have to see what strategies hubby and I can work out.

Next lot of drama, our daughter Caitlyn made a comment on Tueday night, late, that it won't come out. I asked what wouldn't come out and she said the ball from my ear. It was around midnight and you might ask what was she doing up at midnight. The answer is easy; her and Joel have both had colds, which they have kindly shared with me, and stayed home from pre-school on Monday and I stayed home from work to care for them. So Tuesday came and I let Caitlyn have an afternoon sleep, and when this happens she wakes later on, even if she only sleeps for half an hour, and turns into a party animal and won't sleep until we go to bed.

Back to the story, I take her to our local hospitals emergency department. The doctor on duty that night didn't want to come in for this and instucted the nurse to attempt removal via suction, which was not successful. We went back Wednesday morning and our GP was at the hospital doing his rounds and he had a go but it was too painful for Caitlyn so he said that he would put Caitlyn under a general anaesthetic on Thursday morning, which is when he did his theatre work, and get it out then.

Thursday morning arrives and as happens when anyone close to you has surgery of any kind the levels of anxiety are pretty high. I nursed her while she went under and then went out and sat in the waiting room. Another doctor came to get me and told me that herself and our GP had tried to remove the ball, but they weren't successful, only managed to push the ball further down my little girls ear canal. I could hear her crying out in pain and that was all it took for me to start crying also. They had caused some trauma to her canal and there was a bit of blood coming from her ear. They decided that the best thing for us to do was to take her two and half hours away to Albury, where they have specialists and a much bigger hospital. So we got organised, picked Luke up from school, Joel was with hubby anyway, and we arrived in Albury at about 3 in the afternoon. Caitlyn was operated on again at 8pm that evening. They managed to remove the foreign body as they called it, and she was fast asleep back on the ward by 9pm.

Thankfully we have friends who live about half an hour from Albury and hubby, Luke and Joel stayed there while I stayed with Caitlyn in the hospital.

The next day she was made a huge fuss of as the local radio station was holding a promotion in the childrens ward. They were raising funds for new furniture for a parents accommadation room, and new cardiac machines. Two of the girls kept on taking photos of her to be placed on their web site and she was also chosen to be in the local paper which covers a huge area. At least we were able to have this bit of fun on top of all the stress that we had been through. We are all home safe and Caitlyn has not once complained about being in pain, she has been so good offering her ear for anyone to look in and doing whatever the nurses wanted her to do during her observations.

Stitching, what is that - I have managed a little bit during all the dramas, will have to post Mondays update photos another time, want to spend some time with hubby and just relax and unwind.

Bye for now.

Joanne

Naughty Clicky Finger.

2007-05-27T17:32:00.000+10:00

I am, or my clicky finger, is so naughty. In the past week or so, I have made two international orders. The first was 'mainly' to get And They Sinned, from Exampler Dames. I have wanted this for a very long time, and it is finally on its way. Of course to justify the international shipping I had to order some other things.

These are coming from here: http://thesilverneedle.com
Sampler Company - Heaven Doth Ask Sampler
Sisters And Best Friends - Autumn Thanks
Country Cottage Needlecraft - Ladybugs and Bumblebees
Country Cottage Needlecraft - Spring Violets
Little House Needle Works - Season of Rest full set (four patterns one for each season)
Q Snaps 11X17
Examplar Dames - And They Sinned (of course the whole reason for the order)
Lizzie Kate - Christmas Club FlipIt Complete Set

The next order is from Jenna at http://onestarslight.com. Jenna is an absolute delight to deal with. I have coming from here these beauties:

Eight Little House Needle Works/Crescent Colors collaboration packs, the scripture ones

Faith
Believe
Goodwill
Love & Faithfulness
Patience
Peace
Tree of Life
Wisdom (Jenna is having a sale on these at the moment)

I also thought that these would be a great way of building up my stash of crescent colors threads.
And also coming is the Silk Pack for Blessed With Happiness which is a design by the Cats Whiskers.

This will be a little while is coming as I first have to post a cheque to Jenna.

I am also waiting on a back order items from Karen at http://dragonflydreams.com.au With Needle and Thread by Blackbird Designs.

I should start stalking the postie. SSSHHH don't tell hubby, thank goodness that he doesn't read my blog.

Happy stitching everyone.

Pictures at last.

2007-05-24T20:32:00.001+10:00

Well I am finally able to show you the progress on Lizzie Kate's Daughters. Not too much more to do on this, just another flower, finish the verse which is Daughters are a special joy, and finish the border. I thought that I would have been able to finish it this time but it just didn't happen. There is always its next time in my rotation.

Next up in my rotation is for my son Luke. He asked me to show him designs of dragons and he chose (asked for me to stitch) Desert Guardian, by Character Creations. Here is a link with a picture if you would like to see it. http://www.dragonflydreams.com.au/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=2688 I will stitch on this until Sunday night as per my rotation.

This next lot of photos is something that I have been stitching on for years, possibly as long as Luke has been on this earth, 12 years. It was started when he was quite young and I was on maternity leave from work. I found this pattern and another one, which will be a birth sampler for DD Caitlyn, in a knitting and craft book that I bought. I finished the stitching last year sometime. Luke saw me stitching on Joel's birth sampler, a Dimensions Chart and Charms pattern with a design of Noah's Ark, which has a 3 stitch wide border. He asked what would his look like with a border. I told him that if he would like a border on his that I would stitch it for him. I got him to choose the style, funny enough the same as Joel's, and color. He chose DMC variations thread color number 4050, I don't think a better choice could have been made as alot of the greens in that thread were already in the design. So earlier this year I stitched and finished the border, it didn't take too long, perhaps 5-7 days of off and on stitching.

Here is the full piece. It is quite large, not sure of the exact measurements off hand. On the bottom Luke only wanted one row of stitching as there is already quite alot of green in the grass.

And here are two closer shots of each half.

Now just to get it framed. I am thinking of just a fairly plain wooden frame without any mats as there is so much detail in the design, that it doesn't need anything too fancy. And after all it for a 12yo boy, who is also very keen on telling us that he is almost a teen-ager. Where has the time gone?

Well I will leave it at that and go and continue to do that bear of an assignment of mine. Whose idea was it for me to do a Uni degree? OOHH that's right, it was mine!!!!

Bye for now everyone, and happy stitching.

Quick update.

2007-05-22T14:59:00.000+10:00

Sorry no pics yet hopefully soon if I can make some head way with my assignment.

Well I didn't finish Daughters, such a small piece, kept getting interupted by my @#$#% assignment.

But I did start Desert Guardian. The colors are not very appealing to me, but my 12yo son likes them and as the design is for him, and chosen by him, that is the main thing.

Just thought the I would do a quick post, bye for now.

Joanne

Second for the day.

2007-05-19T12:14:00.000+10:00

I haven't stitched much this week, I think I have missed 2-3 nights so far this week, and I can't remember why!!! So I don't know if I'll get Daughters finished or not.

Hubby hasn't heard anything regarding the job that the he had the interview for. He thinks that as he hasn't heard that he hasn't got it. Oh well, there will be others for sure.

This afternoon we are heading to Bendigo to see a production of Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat. The in-laws are baby-sitting our two younger ones while DH. DS and I go. I love live theatre and have seen many productions, just wish that the timing was better for me as my assignment is due on the 28th and I STILL have about 1900 words to write. I should be doing that instead of updating blog. MMMM.

Would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes for hubbies interview and for visiting.

The rotation changes on Sunday night and I will be stitching on a new start Desert Guardian by Character Creations. This one is for DS who is 12. I am doing it on a pale blue hand dyed fabric.
Will give more details later on.

Bye for now, I hope everyone enjoys their week end.

Joanne

I have been tagged

2007-05-19T11:58:00.000+10:00

I have been tagged by Lana:

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I lived in the same house that I grew up in, in Melbourne, until I got married.

2. This is my second marriage. My first husband left when our son was almost 2 and he decided that he wasn't happy any more and that he missed his freedom. He hasn't seen our son, now 12, since.

3. When hubby is away, I always leave a hall light on.

4. I had a miscarriage 5-6 years ago and fell into a deep depression which lasted for about a year.

5. I have only had one operation. On my tongue, of all places, to remove a lump which developed as a result of me burning myself on hot food. There is a possibility of the lump returning, but as yet it hasn't.

6. Our third child DD, was a surprise package, we did want another but just not when she came along, as there are only 16 months between her and DS.

7. I have only ever had two jobs. One at a newsagency while I was still at school, and the bank when I left school.

8. I met my hubby while working with his brothers wife in a Victorian country town called Castlemaine.

That is it. I think most people have done this by now, if you haven't done it, and would like to consider yourself tagged.

Celtic Banner Update.

2007-05-15T20:25:00.000+10:00

Here is my update on Celtic Banner. I don't feel like I achieved a whole lot on this during this rotation, oh well maybe next time there will be better progress. If you want to see where I started this rotation from, just scroll down a few entries.

Hubby has gone back to work tonight. He works in finance and has to present end of financial year reports as part of his job. He wants to catch up a bit as he will be away from tomorrow lunch time and all day Thursday as well. His boss has told him that is ready for the next step in his career and is driving six hours for a job interview. The interview is on Thursday morning at 9am and he wants to be fresh for the interview so he's leaving the day before. If he gets this job it means of course a move for us, but it would place us near some of the premier snow skiing fields. I am not hugely into skiing, have been twice in my life time, but I think it would be amazing, not only for hubby and I, but I can just imagine the fun that we could all have in the snow. We would only be about an hour from our nations capital, Canberra, and there is so much to see and do in the general area. Please could everyone keep their fingers crossed for us.

Back to stitching, next in my rotation is Lizzy Kate's Daughters. Here is a pic of it so far. I am sorry for the blurry picture, it looked much better through the screen on my camera. Hopefully I should be able to finish this one this week. I might replace in with something else small or I might not bother replacing it in my rotation, we will see what happens.

I would just like that thank everyone who visits and leave comments, it is wonderful to read what people write.

Well that is all for now, catch up soon.

Joanne

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T21:31:00.000+10:00

I would just like to wish all Mums a very happy Mother's Day, with lots of pampering and love from those close to them.

Today we went to Echuca (pronounced E-chew-ka) and met the in-laws for afternoon tea. We just had take-away coffee and some biscuits at a huge play ground so that the kids could play and run off some of the excess energy that they always seem to have an abundance of. It was a bit chilly temperature wise, but it was lovely being able to see the in-laws and Echuca is about half-way for both of us. We would have tried to meet my parents as well, but they are having a holiday and will be home tomorrow, so I rang and spoke to Mum this evening.

I have finished my rotation on Celtic Banner, managed to complete the band I was on, finish another little one, and start the next one. Next up is Daughters which is a Snippet by Lizzie Kate. I am planning on making a pillow and starting a smalls basket with it, that is if my family will leave it alone (the pillow that is) and not use it to throw at one another, which is what happens to cushions which I have at the moment. I should finish this easily this week and at some stage will think of another small design to replace it with.

At the moment I am supposed to be writing my 3000 word assignment for uni which is due in two weeks time, I have done about 800 words so far. The biggest hurdle for me is procrastination, blogs and bloglines on my computer and knowing what to write. My lecturer this semester has been very kind and set out a plan for each of the questions that we had a choice of answering. And she also said that it wasn't necessary for off-campus students to research topic to supply 'outside' references, just to use what was given to us in our readers. Yay for her.

Now that I have bored you all silly with my study I had better get back to it.

Again Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there, and happy stitching.

WIP update

2007-05-08T14:58:00.001+10:00

I would like to thank everyone for stopping by and for your comments. Yes we are extremely proud of DS12, he has worked hard for his achievements and deserves the recognition.

Last week I was stitching on HAED Bubbles. I stitched pages 26, 27, and almost half of page 28. Before you all faint they were not very big pages, normal width but only 20 stitches high. I did enjoy her, but I think I'll get more enjoyment when I can stitch the fairy or some bubbles.
Next in my rotation is Butternut Road's Celtic Banner. It has been a while since I stitched on this piece, but I still love it. The colours and the motifs are wonderful.

This is I where I left it the last time I stitched on it. There are four pages to this design. At the bottom is page D. It changes to page C near the bottom of the W and the E . When I made my working copy I managed to leave off two, read that TWO lines of the chart. I compared my stitched piece to the photo and it just didn't look right. When I finally looked at the original chart I realised what I had done. So the frogs visited and I re-stitched it.

Then the next time I stitched on it, I had forgotten about the frogs visit. looked at my working copy and thought I have made a mistake. So I again pulled out the stitching and again re-stitched. How I did this for a second time I will never know. Do you think I was happy when I again noticed the error? No way!!! So I ripped out the stitching, and re-stitched it and it has been smooth going ever since, thank goodness.

Here is a close up of where I am up to.

As I said in my previous post I received some stash in the mail yesterday. Here is a picture.

Told in a Garden - Amish Wedding
Kreinik Very Fine Braid #4 032 Pearl
Lizzie Kate - Bless Our Home
Just Nan - Quilted Bear
Little House Needleworks - Rose Sampler
Prairie Schooler - Autumn Leaves
M Designs - Believe Tree Ornament
Cat's Whiskers - Birds Of A Feather Dilly Bag and Blessed With Happiness
Needleprint - Ann Trump's 1797 Sampler From Ackworth
With Needle & Thread by Blackbird Designs
Country Cottage Needleworks - Geranium House and A Place We Call Home
And some freebies from Blackbird Designs: Savior Faire, Thistle Manor, Springs Notice and Blackbird Sampler.
The only thing that I haven't got yet is With Needle and Thread by Blackbird Designs as this item is a special order from my ONS.

Hubby will be home at about 10pm tonight. I expect him to be very tired and grateful to be home.

I think that this post is long enough so I wish you all well and happy stitching.

Proud Mum

2007-05-07T17:30:00.000+10:00

My DS12 ran (3 km or 3ooo m) in his schools cross country last week and came home and told DH and I that he had made it to Parkes, which is where the next level race is held, and is a six hour drive away. He came first in his age group, Under 13s, and overall for the school he came about 5th. Usually he is not really competitive so this was joyful news, but also a surprise for us.

The next dilemma, to get him there. Since he was racing on a Monday, and I had just started back at work, I was reluctant to ask my boss to change days, then as my two littlies have pre-school, kindergarten, on Mondays, I would need alternative arangements for them to be minded. I was out of the question, unfortunately, to take DS. Hubby has a work conference on the NSW coast at a place called Woollengong (SP), he left home lunch-time on Saturday and doesn't get home until late Tuesday night. The conference was already booked and paid for, and he needed to attend to maintain his accreditation. He was able to get a ride with another family who were taking their daughter and another child. Thank goodness for the kindness of others.

DS just rang and he has secured a place for him to compete in Sydney in the state championships. He said that he was the only one in his age group to compete. I told him that it doesn't matter how many kids there were, that he should just be proud of his achievements. So it looks as though we will be heading for Sydney in June.

I am so proud of him. Last year he was diagnosed with mild ADD and was put on a low dose of dexamphetamine, and it has totally turned him around from a low achiever, no confidence to someone who is more confident with improved grades. The end of last year he received a Principal's Commendation Award from school, a Scout's Leaders Award from Scouts and about 93% in his piano exam. He has done an amazing job to earn these rewards.

I hope you are all still with me after that. With regards to stitching, the rotation time for HAED Bubbles has finished, and will begin on Celtic Banner tonight. Will post wip pic of Bubbles tomorrow.

I have also received some new stash, more about it tomorrow also.

Better go and get some dinner. Bye everyone.

A quick post...

2007-05-02T16:05:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, just want to say a thank-you to everyone who has left a comment, or visited, my blog.

In my comments Carol wrote about AAFG being a magnificent stitch. I have to agree with her. Some of the motifs can be a little fiddly with a few thread changes, but over all it is a very enjoyable stitch. The chart is easy to read, and when I made a working copy, there was no need to enlarge it.

Dee said that seeing my progress on AAFG gave her incentive to work on her Four Seasons. Glad I was able to help you out Dee. LOL.

Today was my second day of work, my feet are not as sore today which is good. Though I did actually sit a bit more while I was doing training on the computer. After having had about 20 years of experience and then five years away from work, I feel like a 'new' employee because of the vast system changes. Though I must say that the changes are definately for the better. Transactions are now much faster to complete, of they will be when I get used to the computers LOL, and much more efficient, being able to perform all operations from the one work-station.

Okay enough talk about work. I just wanted to add that I love getting your comments, they make me all warm and fuzzy, and I didn't think that I would enjoy blogging so much, but the stitching community and the people in it are wonderful.

Thanks for making me feel so welcome everyone, and happy stitching.

And A Forest Grew.

2007-05-01T14:34:00.000+10:00

I would like to thank everyone who lefts comments regarding my return to work. I really enjoyed my time there yesterday, though not being used to standing for long periods of time, six hours later I was really ready to go home. The people at work are fabulous and extremely helpful. DH knows everyone there and they all told him that he wasn't to come in while I was working. LOL He came in three times all up, and each time they all told him to get out. Though I didn't mind too much, it just shows that he was concerned for me. And he also took me out to lunch.

Here is where I finished up with AAFG. The second page is now nearly complete, the tree on the bottom right hand side actually overlaps onto the next page, and the same goes for the bird and trees on the top left hand side.

The next project in my rotation to get some attention is a HAED design and is called 'Bubbles'. I don't have a WIP picture as this is a new start. Whoo hoo, I love a new start. This will be slow going as there is alot of back ground with only a few different colors, but loving it just the same, it is still stitching after all. Here is a link if you would like to look at it http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28. I thing she is just gorgeous.

Well I had better go and do some tidying up, as a girlfriend and her son are calling in later on just to catch up and have a cuppa. Her son gets married this week-end in Canberra and as she is leaving on Thursday this will be the only chance that we will be able to see other. She is a stitcher also. Yeah for me for having a stitchy buddy.

Bye for now and stay safe.

Our lives are about to change.

2007-04-29T10:12:00.000+10:00

For the past five years I have been a SAHM. When I finished work before DS J was born, I applied for a 'career break' for the sole purpose of being able to stay at home with him for longer that 12 months, which is what was allowed for maternity leave. So that meant that all up I was to have four year holiday from my job. Which, by the way is a customer service officer with one of the major Australian banks.
While I was still strictly on maternity leave I discover that I am pregnant again, this time with DD C. So when my four years was up and I was due to return to work, I asked for an additional year in lieu of the maternity leave that I would have received for DD, which the bank very kindly approved.
So after having five years away from work, I start work again for the bank on Monday. At this stage they have been able to fit my hours around pre-school hours, as they have to re-train me as all of their systems have changes. So I am going to be working on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-30 until 3-00. This arrangement will last until I am conversant with changes and until they have a more permanent position for me.
I am largely looking forward to it, as it is a break from the kids. I love them dearly but having 3 kids, 2 under five, can be trying at times.
As for stitching, I have been working on And A Forest Grew. I am really enjoying this and will post a WIP picture in the next few day. Next in my rotation is a new start, a HAED, Bubbles, will also post a link when I do the picture for And A Forest Grew.

Stash

2007-04-24T10:31:00.001+10:00

You might remember that last week the kids and I went to Bendigo so that DS aged 12 could buy a new game for his game boy, and that I might be able to visit a LNS. Well I went to two. One that I have known about for a while, and the other one, I just happened to see on our way home from our holiday.

The one that I have known about for a while is called Attic Crafts (no affiliation). Unfortunately they do not have a web site, so no link. They mainly deal with patchwork products, but they do stock some fabrics, linen and evenweave, quite a nice variety of different threads, and some patterns. This is what I was able to get from them. Some 25ct white evenweave, and two Shepherd's Bush charts; A Mother's Garden and Heart Blooms.

The shop that I spotted on the way home from holidays is called Rajmahal (again no affiliation). Here is a link http://www.rajmahal.com.au/ It is not a shop but a distribution outlet, but I was able to buy a few things. I loved the satin covered boxes. The lid inserts are removeable. Adding a stitched piece should be pretty easy. I was also able to get some braid which I thought would come in handy for finishing. One caught my interest (pictured bottom right). It is made of copper wire and is formed like springs, so as you lay it you can stretch it out or just lay it as it comes. Beware; if you stretch it, it won't "spring" back to shape. Here is a close up
Well that is all from me at the moment. School holidays have now finished for us, so things might be able to get back to normal now. Bye for now and happy stitching.

Wip Pic and Stash

2007-04-24T10:13:00.000+10:00

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and left comments, it is wonderful to know that I can share my stitching with so many others.

This is a wip picture of Gypsy Rose. It is the bottom left of the design, which is where I prefer to begin stitching from. I am enjoying working on her and this is the first time that I have stitched 1 over 1. I finished my rotation with her on Sunday night, and have now moved onto And A Forest Grew. If you would like to see what she will look like when finished here is a link; http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=637

Some WIP Pics

2007-04-20T09:27:00.000+10:00

This is There's No Place Like Home by Drawn Thread. Sorry about the blurred picture. This is where I left it the last time I stitched on it.

This is where I finished up at the end of its rotation. Hopefully the next time I pick this up, it will be finished. I am enjoying this one though, love the colors.

The next to be stitched on, And A Forest Grew. I loved this the first time I saw it and still do. I love green, but even so there can still be 'too much', and just when I get to think this, you change colors, and the change is just enough to give the WOW factor.

Alas the time on this was short. You see I went to an LNS while on holidays and I swear I was only going to purchase the fabric and the threads I didn't have already for HAED Gypsy Rose. I got home and put threads on bobbins and I just had to put in a few stitches (first time stitching 1 over 1), and I just kept going, and I am still going.

So I have decided to keep stitching Gypsy Rose until the end of its' rotation which is Sunday night. Then I will go back to And A Forest Grew for a week and so on.

2007-04-18T10:34:00.000+10:00

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and left comments. We had a lovely time away and the Easter Bunny was quite generous this year. My two younger children had quite a feast on Easter Sunday morning before we went to church. During the children's address the minister had a hard time trying to talk over DS aged five, who would just keep on talking and talking. Hubby and I could not stop laughing. Eventually the minister whispered something in his ear, we don't know what he said but DS was quiet after that. We blamed his behaviour on all of the chocolate that he had consumed, and promised to take a gag with us the next time we visited this church.

As for stitching, well I did some, and will have to share photos and more details later on. Right now the kids and I are getting ready to go to Bendigo so that DS aged 12 can get a new game for his game boy, and I might even get to a cross stitch shop.

Bye for now, WIP pics to follow soon.

Rotation

2007-04-03T23:37:00.000+10:00

Now that I have done some stitching on DH's stocking next on the WIP list is Drawn Thread's There's No Place Like Home. I will stitch on this until Sunday night and then change to And A Forest Grew.

I won't be able to post any WIP pictures until about the 17th of April as we are going on a holiday. We leave on Thursday and we are going to the coast near Geelong in southern Victoria.

Well I hope that anyone that reads this has a wonderful easter, and don't eat too much chocolate.

Reed's Stocking Update

2007-04-02T13:06:00.000+10:00

Here is where I left Shepherd's Bush Reed's Stocking yesterday. I didn't get to stitch on it last night as we had an impromptu dinner at a friends house last night. Went to drop off a DVD for them to watch and they offered for us to stay and have pizza with them. An easy decision compared with going home and trying to decide what to cook.

Change of Plans

2007-03-30T17:39:00.000+10:00

I was going to start Game Board Sampler by Drawn Thread, but when I checked the fabric that I had put aside for it, it was WAY too small (about 10cm ). So I had to re-think my next start. I went through what I have kitted up and decided on Shepherd's Bush Reed's Stocking. I have five of SB'S stocking charts as I would like to do one for each of us eventually. This one will be for DH, and when I told him he said "Thats nice." What else could you expect from a man.

I have started the stocking and will continue with it until Sunday night and I'll show a progress photo at this stage. Then I will stitch on one of my other WIPS for a week, and so on.

Well it is time that I got off this computer so that I can make a start on our dinner. Bye for now.

Celtic Spring -Finished

2007-03-29T16:14:00.000+10:00

The beading seemed to take forever on this, but I did enjoy stitching it. I have Celtics Winter, Summer and Autumn in my stash to do one day. Now what to start?

I started And A Forest Grew a little while ago, but will start something else, possibly Drawn Threads Game Board Sampler.

I am trying to think up a rotation so that some of my neglected WIPS get some attention. For now I think that I will work on one piece for a week, and then change to something else. I will establish an order so that everything gets a turn. Perhaps I will do them alphabetically so that I can keep track of which project is next by the WIP list on the side of my blog page.

Details of Celtic Spring

Started July 06

Stitched on 28ct evenweave

Pale Grey DMC 453

Used recommended threads and beads

My First Post

2007-03-24T16:50:00.000+11:00

I have been fiddling around with this template for a few days now, still lots of work to do though.
This blog will be mainly about my stitching, with snippets about my family and other goings on. I hope that you enjoy sharing in this journey with me.