My Stash is Packed

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

Some pictures at last.

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.

Lots of news.

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.

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.

And A Forest Grew.

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.