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.

Hello possum

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!!!!!

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!!!!

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!!!!

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!!

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 Challenge, 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.

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.