I am still around

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.

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.

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.

Job news

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.

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

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

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.

I Am Still Here

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.

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.

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.

My son is awesome

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

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.

Pictures at last.

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.

Celtic Banner Update.

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

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

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

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.

Our lives are about to change.

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.

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.