Someone Precious

Yesterday at work one of our regular customers came in carrying a fabric bundle.  I knew who was in the bundle as I have met her before.

She is a baby wombat. Her mother was hit by a car and died, and Precious was found in her pouch (Wombats are marsupials which means that they give birth to live young and they are nurtured in  pouches). When I first saw her she had no fur, and was extremely vulnerable,  but due to the care that she is receiving she is thriving. 

Thanks, and an Update.

Thanks for the comments regarding Dad and for my stitching.

When Dad was put in hospital last week, it was decided to fit him with a pace-maker to stabalise his heart-beat.  He had a couple of unsettled days in the hospital but seemed to settle down when he was taken back to the re-hab hospital. Yesterday he was placed into a nursing home in Bendigo and we are hoping that that will be the last of his moving around.

DH and the kids are heading to Bendigo as I write this post, the boys have both got appointments to see their pediatrician, and they are going to see Dad as well.

In between studying and work and house hold tasks I have managed to complete another row of stitching on Emergence.

I hope that you are all having a good week and wishing you all a great weekend with lots of stitching.   Take care everyone. 

DISAPPEARED AGAIN!!!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter.  Ours was lovely, though the lead-up has been a little rough.
About a month ago my Dad suffered two small brain bleeds, or mini strokes, and couple of weeks ago he had another three.  The first two affected his sight and the others have left him with some cognitive impairments.  We saw him on the Saturday before Easter and he was just gorgeous.  So pleased to see us and quite emotional, due to the impairments.
His sight has improved enough for him to be able to walk around independently, but he will never go home and he will never drive a car again.
Tonight my sister rang and said that Dad is being moved back to the hospital, he has been in a re-hab facility, as his heart rate has dropped and he can be monitored more closely at the hospital.  It just seems that he gets to a "good place" and there is another set back.

As for stitching there has been some, just not as much as I would like as I am back studying.  This current unit is on Cognition.  I am enjoying it, learning how memory works and about perception.  When I do get to do some stitching, usually coinciding with television watching, I have been stitching on one of my many HAED.  This one is called Emergence and is by Jen Delyth.  This is how it will look 'one day'.
 
And here is how mine looks at the moment.

When I ordered that chart there was an issue with one of the pages for the the Celtic knot on the bottom left hand side.  Some of the design was totally missing.  I contacted the owners of HAED and they were very good and replied promptly.  This time the symbols were different and the next time they seemed that the whole colour sequence would be different.  So I am thinking that I will stitch mine without the knots in it.  I am enjoying this one, and the colours are amazing. 
Well I had better go and do some studying, this assignment will not write itself.  I hope that you are all well and stay safe.

Stitching Retreat

I am going on a stitching retreat in July on the 19th, 20th and 21st.

I went last year to the same place with like minded people and had an absolutely fabulous time.

We stayed at this place in Hepburn Springs and it was so relaxing.  

We have one vacancy available and I thought that I would put it on my blog to see if any other bloggers would be interested in going.  Check out the web site, and if you are interested and would like more information just send me an e-mail, the address is in my profile.

Seasons Greetings

Thanks for the comments everyone, I really appreciate them. 

 We are busily getting organised for Christmas. Most of the gift shopping has been done, and this year I don't need to do food shopping as we are having lunch with my family at one of my sister's houses. 

 Joel and Caitlyn finished school today, to much fanfare, they have both done very well this year. Sadly for Luke, and due to an undiagnosed illness, he has failed the second half of the year. There are a few options open to him, but as his health has now returned he is hoping that his part-time employer, McDonalds, will put him on fulltime so that he has something to do while he considers the options that he has. 

As you can see by the picture I have managed to complete the bottom row of pages on Gypsy Rose. I am enjoying stitching on her at the moment and will stay with her until I feel like having a change. She was one of the first HAED that I started.

This picture shows what I have accomplished on the beginning of the next row.
Well seeing that it is close to 11:00pm, it is time for bed. I don't think I'll have any other updates before Christmas, so I would just like to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy 2013.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!!!!!

HELLO!!!!!

Is there anybody still reading my blog?

Oh my, it has been an incredibly long time since I have posted on here.  I have been keeping up to date with all of you, just haven't been leaving any comments.

I would like to thank everyone who left a comment on my last post regarding my MIL's passing, your caring thoughts were truly appreciated.  Even though the pain eases we all still miss her.

There have been some momentous happenings for us.  I am now the mother of an 18 year old!!!  Luke turned 18 on the 24th of November.  About a week before his birthday I looked at him and told him that he really was only 15, and he just shook his head, totally shattering my world LOL.  He is able to obtain his drivers licence now and will be having his first driving lesson with a driving instructor next week.  In Australia our learner drivers must complete 120 hours (Luke falls into this, but it has since changed to 200 hours) of driving before they book in to be assessed. Luke is only a couple of hours away from completing this requirement.

He has a little car of his own.  We bought it for him, he is paying us back, and he has been doing all of his driving in it.  We thought that by doing it this way we have control a say in what he drives, and he is also very familiar with it.

Our other news is that I have gone back to university to continue my degree.  I had been thinking for a while that I would like to get back into it and just happened to check their web site and saw that enrolments for the second semester were closing in about a week.  So I applied and was accepted back in.  In October I sat the exam, passed it, and I have now completed 7 units out of 24.  The uni now run three teaching periods per year (trimesters) giving me the chance to complete extra units if I want to.

One thing that never changes in my world is my need and desire to stitch. As you can see by the following photos I have been working on one of my many HAED wips Gypsy Rose. I don't think this chart is available anymore, if you would like to see what she will look like when finished, one day, just google the title with the artists name, Jessica Galbreth, and you should be able to find it. I have been working others but didn't take any progress photos, so hopefully if I don't go MIA again, they will appear in due course. I am trying to post this using my tablet and I am having all sorts of problems!!!! I'll go now and start to get organised for the coming week. I hope you are all getting lots of stitching done, take care and stay safe.

My Mother In Law

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

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.

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.

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.