What have we been up to?

You may recall some time ago that we put our house on the market (not the one we are living in, we are currently renting, but one that we built ten years ago,) well it has sold. Now we have secured a block of land and chosen a house design to build WOOHOO!!! We will officially own the land on the 14th of May and building should begin soon after that. Before it can start though, we need to remove some trees, five all up, as they have been planted in a row almost diagonally across the block. I will post some pictures in a little while.

We went to our holiday house over Easter and had a very relaxing break. My DH has a very warped sense of humour, around Easter every year he organises for all of us to have dental check ups, he takes great delight in reminding us when this is coming up. We all came away without anything overly major happening, but the dentist has recommended that Joel sees an orthodontist as he has a quite severe over-bite.

Joel and Caitlyn started back at school yesterday, and Luke went back today. So today is the first child-free I have had for a couple of weeks and have just decided to chill today and get back into routine tomorrow.

On the 5th of April my three months probation was up at work, and even though there was no mention of it, I assumed that they would be keeping me on. Well yesterday I spoke to my manager and said that my probation was up and could I then assume that they would be 'keeping me'. He was surprised that the time had gone by so quickly, and then proceeded to congratulate me and said that it did look like they would be keeping me. Another WOOHOO!! I am really enjoying my job, it is such a great and positive environment.

As for stitching I have been concentrating (obsessing) on HAED Faery Tales, and have now managed to complete nine out of sixty pages.

When I am not working on Faery Tales, I am putting some stitches into Four Oaks Designs A Love Song. Not too much more to go on this one, I predict a finish, mmmm, by the end of the hhhhmmm, let me see, year, hehe. I am not one to stick to dead-lines, and not wanting to over extend myself LOL.

And I have also been putting some stitches into CdC, nearly done with this one also.

So that is a condensed version of what we have been up to, I hope to not leave it so long until I post again, I really love getting comments from all of you, it warms my heart when I read them, bye for now and stay safe everyone.

Times just flies!!!!

WOW two months have passed us by without a post on this blog.

The first thing that I would like to show you my readers is a wonderful gift that I received from

Anna. I won her monthly draw for March, Anna made her stitched piece into a pillow cover and I absolutely love it. The stitching and finishing are perfect, and I love the wooden star buttons that Anna embellished it with. Thank you Anna for your kindness, this is the first stitched piece that I have ever received, it will truly be cherished.

I will be posting again soon with some news and some pictures of my active wips. Hope you are all well, and getting lots of stitching done.

Firestorm.

I am at a loss for words at the destruction and heart-break that so many are experiencing. The worst fires ever experienced are wreaking havoc on areas of Victoria. Small towns have totally been burnt out. So many have lost their property and so sadly their lives. The death toll is rising, and there have been estimates as high as 300 possible deaths.
I am not going to post any pictures or links, I am sure that you have seen the devastation elsewhere.
I have had some comments from some fellow bloggers, knowing that I live in Victoria, asking about our safety. Thank you very much, we are safe. The closest fire to us is in a place called Dargo. The terrain is mountainous and the risk of it moving into populated areas is not great at the moment, it is about 100 kilometres north of us.
On the week-end we were invited to my sisters 50th birthday. We declined, as it was 5 and a half hours away and Joel and Caitlyn were tired from being back at school, if we had of gone we wouldn't have been able to get back home as the major freeway between us and Melbourne was closed.
It makes me so angry knowing that some of the fires were deliberately lit. All I can say is that there are some very sick individuals about, and I hope that they are caught and dealt with accordingly. Many of the victims didn't stand a chance. The weather conditions were perfect for the fire, incredibly high temperatures, wind gusts of up to 160 kph, extremely dry, a lot of Victoria is in severe drought.
One of my friends and her family were evacuated as their house was under direct threat, but thank goodness they were spared. Another friends parents house came to within 500 metres of being burnt and was spared also.
My heart and prayers go out to all of those that have lost their lives, their homes, their livelihood's, or are battling to survive in hospital. I am also thinking of the people who are grieving for lost ones.
I take my hat off to all of the firefighters, many of whom are volunteers, and to all of the other volunteers who are working to help make life easier for those affected.
I am in no way playing down what people in Queensland are going through at the moment, ironically floods, but my Grandma used to always say that "You can clean up after a flood, but not a fire".
Take care everyone.

Another Page Finished

This is page number 53 completed. I am still really enjoying working on this one and will continue with it. It is exciting, to me anyway (easily amused HEHE), to see what emerges as I stitch. The mermaid now has a tail and the orange blobby thing is a big fish. The white area on the right hand side forms part of the Fairy Tale of The Ugly Duckling.

In this design there are apparently 28 different Fairy Tales depicted and some remain a mystery to me. I will need to do a google search at some stage and see if I am able to learn what each one is.

The kids all went back to school on Monday, for Caitlyn, it was her first day. I had mixed feelings, but she on the other hand, just took it all in her stride. In the lead up, I kept telling her that she wasn't able to go to school as she is my baby and that she had to stay at home with me (naughty aren't I?), but she said that she had to go to school. She was so confident and comfortable with the school as she had been going with me last year to help in Joel's class room. Joel is in Year one and I think he is feeling a bit out of sorts, having a different teacher, room and so on. I am sure that he will be fine in a week or two. Luke is in Year 8 and is enjoying being able to socialise with his mates once again after having had a very long break. He finished school last year on the 5th of December, so he has had two months off school, too long in my opinion.

All this week Caitlyn finishes at 1:00 everyday and beginning next week she goes for full days, til 3:20, but she has every Wednesday off until the second term, which commences after Easter.

Well that is enough rambling from me, the housework awaits. Thanks everyone for stopping by and leaving comments. Stay safe, and I hope that you are all getting lots of stitching done.

Five weeks, no post.

Hi everyone, I am still about, just been busy.

We had a real estate inspection last week, we are renting at the moment. I went through Joel's and Caitlyn's clothes and toys, discarded what was broken or damaged and sent what they had grown out of to charities. I always seem to do this post Christmas as they seem to get so much, not just from us but from our relations also. We also managed to rid ourselves of an excess book case and some other things that we haven't used for a long time. The agent ticked everything off as good, from a list that also included fair and poor, PHEW!!, and we were able to make them aware of some minor maintenance issues. The owner came for a visit and was pleased that we were taking such good care of their house, so all is well for the time being.

Work is going well. The people are lovely and helpful. Yesterday was the first day that I was able to log-on to the computers, so I was able to do the first of 37 computer assessments. I also completed one of six modules, which forms the next assessment. I have been mainly counting business express deposits. It is amazing how quickly those cash counting skills came back, it was almost like I have never stopped. I was initially quite hesitant to answer the phone. I have had to get my head around saying not only a different town, but a different bank name also. I am pleased to say that I have been able to answer the phone without making a total fool of myself or confusing anyone on the other end, though passing on messages has been interesting!!

We had a great break at our beach house and a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Christmas day was spent with the in-laws. On the way back to the beach house we were able to go through the town where Mum is buried. I wanted to go to see her plaque, it wasn't in place at our previous visit. Well I decided that I wanted to have a Christmas drink with Mum, we had a partly finished bottle wine left from lunch in the car, but no glasses or cups available. So I went to the grave-site and stood there drinking straight from the bottle of wine :0. I am so glad that no-one saw me, HEHE, but I am glad that I was able to 'share' a drink with Mum for Christmas.

At the moment my bloglines reader sits at 542. I will not mark all as read as I am truly a sticky-nose and do not want to miss anything that all of you have been up to. So there may not be much commenting but please know that I am reading your posts.

On to the interesting stuff; stitching of course. I have been mainly working on Faery Tales and have now managed to complete 5 pages, so here are some update photos.

The first picture is of page 31 completed and the other picture is of pages 41, 42, 51 and 52.

I have also been doing some stitching on CdC and 'only' have two pages to go until it is finished. I have not started anything new as I feel that I have more that enough wips at the moment, but that hasn't stopped my from adding to my ever growing/never shrinking stash. I managed to get the JSC orni issue for '08, and some fabric and threads to start kitting up some projects.

Well must go and do some work and spend some time with the family, oh and watch some tennis, love this time of year for the tennis.

Stay safe everyone, wish you lots of happy stitching.

Great news and some wip pictures.

First of all I would sincerely like to thank all of you who stop by and leave a comment, I always have a smile on my face as I read the comments, you are all wonderful.

The first wip picture is of Faery Tales with the third of sixty pages completed. I am really enjoying this and will continue on with it as of tonight.

Next up is my progress on VOHRH, these are blocks eight and nine, having already completed ten, eleven and twelve. Not much more to go on block nine but Faery Tales is screaming to be worked on LOL.

Now for the great news, I HAVE A JOB!!!

You all know the difficulties that I have had in the past with my previous employer, well on the off chance I decided to lodge my resume with other major financial institutions, not really thinking that anything would come of it. Well to my surprise this particular bank contacted me and asked if would like to come and have a casual chat with them. That then turned into another meeting, this time to meet the area manager, which turned into another meeting today, which resulted in them offering me a position. So on the 5th of January I will be starting with them for two days a week initially as a teller, to learn their computer systems. The manager was very impressed with the experience that I have had previously and said that he can see great things for me in the future. The bank is currently looking at re-structuring their branches and there will be openings for me to move on to other things. I am so excited at the prospect of improving on my career and believe that the opportunities will be wonderful.

On Thursday we are heading to our beach house until the 4th of January, so I would like to wish everyone in blog land a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and safe New Year in 2009.

Here is the wip picture of Faery Tales that blogger wouldn't let me load earlier. This design has 60 pages. I have completed 41, 51 and nearly finished 52.

A Finish

Well here I am, I have been reading blogs and making a few comments, so I thought that it was about time that I posted to my own blog.

I have a little finish to share with all of you; (Apologies for the crappy photo, I need to work on my non-existant photographic skills)

Here is LHN Patience, from their Scripture series. Stitched on 32 ct Belfast Linen. I finished it last night while we all watched a dvd.

While I am here I also thought that I would post an update on HAED's Faery Tales. I have completed three to four rows of ten row blocks all the way to the top of the design, and going slightly off track, I have completed two, and almost a third, pages. MMMM, blogger won't allow me post a second photo, so I'll do a second post with the photo.

We have been quite busy of late. Not long after my last post, we went north to Queensland for two weeks. Took the kids to the theme parks, Sea World, Movie World and Wet 'n Wild. We had a wonderful time. We also caught up with some relations, and a special man, my Day, who was also a holiday up there.

Caitlyn and I had our birthdays while we were away, and DH turned another year older not long after we arrived home.

Dad came to stay for a week. It was hard saying good-bye, and it was strange having him stay without Mum. He is coping reasonably well. While he was here he had one bad day.

Well, I must go and tidy up a bit so that I can do some more stitching later on.

I hope that you are getting lots of stitching done, take care and have fun!

Thank You.

I just want to sincerely thank everyone for all of their kind thoughts regarding Mum's passing. It has been a month today, and though it is a difficult thing to deal with, there have been some good days.

We gave her a very fitting send off, with some 'lighter' moments, and I am sure that she would have loved it. When we saw Priscilla, Queen of the Desert last year, we all wore a feather boa, so we wore them to the funeral, mine was special, as it was the one that Mum wore. We also had a song from Priscilla, Color My World, during which we let go green and purple balloons. My three sisters, brother, Dad and I were pall bearers, even though it was a difficult thing to do, we were able to draw strength from one another and showed a sense of unity between us all.

At the viewing two of my sisters placed a dollar coin in Mums hands and proclaimed that Mum was right to play the pokies (slot machines) in heaven, it was wonderful to be able to have these lighter moments, there are a few others, but I will savour those.

I wasn't sure about going to the viewing, but I am so so glad that I did, Mum looked absolutely beautiful and so at peace.

My Dad is doing okay, he struggles when he goes to the shops in his small town, as so many people stop him to ask how he is etc, he says that when he can answer them without breaking down, he'll know that he is doing well. He and Mum were planning a trip to Queensland, to visit relations, and Dad is still going to go, he flies out next Wednesday for two weeks. It will be wonderful for him, and we will see him there as we are going to be there for holidays at the same time.

Onto some stitching news.

Suzanne had a blogaversary draw in July, and I was one of the lucky winners. I received a chart by Cherished Stitches called A Sentimental Thimble Case and a lovely note. I am looking forward to stitching this, Thank You so much Suzanne.

I also thought that it was about time that I posted a wip picture so here is my CdC, over half way now,

Some time ago, in a moment of weakness, LOL I made a small start on Miribilia's Lady of the Mist. She is stitched in green and is embellished with purple beads. I have decided to dedicate her to Mum and I have been mostly stitching on her since Mum's passing. Her skirt is HUGE, there are huge amounts of beading to be done but she will be beautiful and she is in Mum's favourite color, GREEN.

My long service leave from my job finished at the end of July, and my employer is now saying that I have failed to report for duty. They have given me until the 6th of October to report for duty, about five hours away, or they will terminated my employment status. It was initially 1st of September, but they have given me an extra month due to what I have recently been through, how nice of them (heavily sarcastic). We have the union helping us with some strategies at the moment, so we will see what happens.

Well must go now, thanks again for all of the wonderful support.

Touched my Heart

Holding Hands

This picture shows a line of little girls holding hands facing the immensity of ocean waves. Alone they might be washed away, but together they stand strong. Thank you for holding my hand somewhere along the way when I was facing a wave of my own. I hope you will reach for my hand when your own wave threatens.
All of us girls...
Old and young... Near and far...
Hold special memories of good times we've shared.
We've had our share of hard times when our friends were there to make us feel better.
We've shared...
our hearts...
our time...
our secrets...
our fears...
our hopes...
and our dreams...
Let us never break the chain of friends!