Lots of updates.

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.

I finished a page

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.

123 Stitch Stash

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.

WIP Update

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

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.

Blog Reading.

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.

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.

Stitching Updates.

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

Some WIP Pics

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.

Change of Plans

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.