Some WIP Pictures

Here is a picture of A Love Song. It is by Fouroaks Designs. It was one of the first designs that I had to have when I first started looking at cross stitch on the internet. I tend to work on this when I am travelling, and when it calls to me, as it is a very enjoyable piece to stitch for me, no colour changes and it is easy to keep track of where I am up to. I am stitching it on antique white linen, I think it is 32 ct, and I am using Vicki Clayton's silk in the colour way of Garnet. I am loving stitching on this and seeing the different motifs appear on my fabric. The chart for this is divided into four parts, with the bottom portions being smaller that the top. The very left hand side of the border is where the bottom page ends. So I will say that I have done a quarter of this.

I would also like to share where I am up to on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I am trying to complete one square per month and have been successful so far except for the grave yard square, which took about two months because of the solidly stitched block. I do have breaks from this if I need to during the month by stitching on something else for a night or two if I need/want to. I am stitching this on 40 ct Lambswool linen and using Vicki Claytons silk again, this is a great conversion by Vicki and I am enjoying stitching this design with the silks.

This is a closer picture of the block that I am currently working on, nearly finished, so well on track to completion for this month.














I have been feeling a little flat lately, and my old 'friend' (or foe) depression has come for a visit. It seems to be worse when I am pre-mentrual, (sorry if this is TMI) but I am mainly putting it down to the move, and not being successful with a number of job applications with my current employer. With moving I am not guaranteed a position, but have to apply for them as they become available, I am okay with this, but I am limited to two branches which I can apply for, and need to wait until other employers move on. I asked to be put on leave with no pay while waiting to be appointed to a position, but first of all I have to use up all of my other leave entitlements. I am so not happy about having to use my Long Service Leave as I have worked for a long time to be able to have this and was hoping to use it for something pleasurable.
This is the main reason for no posts the last month or so, but I do love the stitching community and the people in it, looking at every ones pictures and reading about what they have been up to. So I have decided to let all of you know what has been going on. Sorry for the rant :(
On a brighter note, both boys have settled into their respective schools very well, and Caitlyn is enjoying her two days per week of kindergarten.
I think this is long enough and thanks for all of your wonderful comments on my last post, I really appreciate everyone for stopping by and I hope that you all get lots of stitching done.

I'M BACK

I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and hopes for a smooth move. All went relatively well, apart from the removalist not doing a proper quote (instead of coming and actually 'seeing' what we have got, they relied on DH's phone description) and having to leave some items (four-six trailer (6x4 trailer size) loads) behind. The company was only an hour away from us and if they had have done their job properly it would have saved us alot of worry and extra car trips.

Apart from that, we are all well. Luke has a friend staying with us for a week, we thought that the move would have been more difficult for him as he is still on holidays, and as he doesn't know anyone yet, we thought that having a friend here would make it easier on him.

DH seems to be enjoying his job so far, he doesn't say a whole lot about it, but at least there are no negative comments. I had a phone interview last Monday for a bank position in another town which is 35 km away from us, and should hear whether I have been successful or not this week sometime.

We had a tour of Luke's school yesterday, and I am quite impressed. Luke even asked the person conducting the tour alot of questions about different aspects, when did he become so self confident? I am used to him being reserved and quiet in these sorts of situations, another reason to be proud of the person he is turning into.

I took Joel and Caitlyn to a playground today which has a fantastic slide which goes down a steep slope with steps to climb back up the slope. What did Joel do? Instead of sliding down the slide, he decided to run down the hill and his legs were going faster than he could control and near the bottom he fell and came to an abrupt halt on his face. Thankfully he only suffered a few minor scratches on his face, arms and legs, lucky boy, it could have been much worse. He is so tough, I knew he was hurting but he refused to cry in front of other people who also came to his rescue.

I have managed to find all of my stash boxes, I previously wrote that there were three but there are actually four, and have unpacked two of them. In the entrance of the house there is a cupboard and I have claimed it for storing my stash hehe. I have been working on VOHRH, A Love Song and Bubbles.

I didn't get alot done last week as I was staying with my girlfriend while I worked the last few days of my job. We had a lovely week together and had some late nights chatting. L actually asked when I was going at one stage so that she could get to bed at a reasonable hour. I had a great night out with my work colleague's and received a lovely gift. My closest colleague was off sick all week and was not able to attend, but I had lunch with her when she returned. Both she and L had me in tears when I said good-bye to them and I told L to not dare crying, but it shows what great friends that I have and L and I are already making plans for at least 2 girly week-ends a year.

My blog feeds at the beginning of the week were in excess of 14oo, and I have managed to get them down to 1174. Even if I don't comment please know that I am reading and will be commenting again once I get the feeds down to a more managable level.

I promise some photos as soon as I find the camera, we still have alot of boxes to unpack and doesn't help that they are labelled with room and 'bits and pieces', thanks to Mr Removalist.

Must go and get some sleep so that I can unpack some more boxes, read some blogs and do the normal household chores, it just never stops, does it?

Happy stitching everyone and stay safe.

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

WE HAVE A JOB

Hubby has accepted the position in south east (I wrote west in my last post) Victoria in an area called refered to as Gippsland. Here is a link to the local government site that covers the town that we are moving to http://www.egipps.vic.gov.au/, if you have time have a look around, it is a lovely area.

Dee asked if we had a preference for areas of Hubby's jobs. The other position would have put us both closer to our parents but in a smaller town, around the same size as we are currently in population of 8000. We would have still had the problem of Luke having to travel about an hour by bus to get to a school that we would have been happy for him to go to. But with our Gippsland choice the population of our town is 12000, and the schools have been chosen and the children enrolled, and both schools are next to one another and in town. Currently, we are around two hours away from both of our parents and the move will make it around five hours. Ideally I would like to be closer to my parents, Dad will be 77 in January, but we feel that we need to base our decisions on our own family needs.

I have been stitching but I may not be able to post very often with having to pack. DH is starting his new job on the 14th of January and my last day of work here is the 17th. So now it is me looking for a job, hopefully I can get one with the same bank. My area manager is doing some ground work for me, he is not obligated to but feels that since I started back not so long ago he would like me not to have any further leave without pay. We will see what happens after Monday when I'll be having a phone conference with my own manager and the area HR manager.

I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.
Travel safely if you are travelling during the festivities, but most of all don't forget to have fun and enjoy the time spent with loved ones.

Love and Hugs
Joanne

A Finish.

WOOHOO a finish!!! This is The Drawn Thread's There's No Place Like Home. It is stitched on fabric from R and R Reproductions, I am unsure of the color or count of the fabric using the called for threads, DMC and Needle Neccesities. I changed the flag on the flag pole in the last picture from stitching to a little Australian Flag button.

Next is an update of CdC by Ink Circles.

I don't know what the diagonal line in the photo is (going from top right corner down) it is not there in real life!!! The picture is washed out due to the flash, but the coloring on the top is pretty close.

I am currently working on my second block of VOHRH, block 11 which is the school house. I have another new start, Fouroaks Designs A Love Song, another BAP, oh well!!!

Hubby and I did most of our Christmas shopping yesterday with Joel and Caitlyn with us, and I left my purse at home. We first went around the aisles and discussed what we would buy, then hubby took the kids elsewhere and waited for me to contact him by our walkie talkies. I would leave the shopping trolley somewhere nearby and we would change over, with hubby taking the shopping through the register while I took the kids to the car. We managed this manouvre three times in all!!!

Last Saturday it was my break-up party for work, but I was not able to attend as I had double booked myself. So where else did I go, to see the live production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It was truly amazing, and so much better than the movie. I went with my three sisters, my Mum and two friends of my sisters. We all had a wonderful time and one of my sisters lives around half and hour out of Melbourne and another sister organised a christmas surprise by ordering a limousine to take us all into the city. WOW, we all had the best time, sis also bought two bottles of champagne for us all to share, even though she doesn't drink.

Hubby has just been offered a position in south west Victorian. He is also in the running for a position in a town which is about an hour from here. He has been able to negotiate a slightly better salary package with the first position and if nothing comes from the second one, he will accept the first one, are you confused yet? Even though there is a short fall we will be able to manage. He had the interview for this last Friday and when the interview was finished he was told to go and enrol his children into the preferred schools. It has been horrible trying not to get our hopes up too high, but feeling rather confident with the comment that was made.

Thank you everyone for your comments and for your patience during my not so frequent blogging. This I will 'try' to rectify and post updates more frequently.

I hope you are all well and getting lots of stitching done.

Nearly a Month.

I can't believe that it has nearly been a month since my last post, apologies everyone.

Coral is stitching a design of five pumpkins, and ran a competition to see who could guess which pumpkin she started first. I WON WOOHOO!!! and yesterday I received my prize, a lovely bundle of DMC threads in Halloween colors, green, orange, yellow, and a cute card. Thank you so much for your generosity Coral I really enjoyed your package. I can't take any photos at the moment as DH has the camera with him, and as we have exceeded our bandwidth our internet connection is rather slow at the moment, this should improve by Tuesday.

I have been stash collecting again!!! I was going to take photos but I can't at the moment, I will just do a quick list. I now have all the beads for Lady of the Mist, 7 pieces of hand dyes fabric from Colours down under, (they are clearing their current stock of hand dyed fabric to introduce a new range), 11 Little House Needleworks designs, (you read correctly, yes 11) I love their designs, can you tell, Prairie Schooler Spring has come and Summer Breeze, Rosewood Manor The Berries, The Cats Whiskers Red Desert Scissor Pocket with required Dinky Dyes thread, four HAED designs.

I ordered and have received some (lots of) threads from Vicky Clayton, her conversions for Carriage House Samplers Village and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, two hanks of Garnet. Her silks are gorgeous and are very pleasant to stitch with, how would I know this? I started VOHRH oh no, another wip. I am stitching it on 40ct Lambswool linen using one thread of silk over two fabric threads, I really just wanted to do a little bit, had to check the thread coverage you know, and I haven't stopped.

I need to figure out a rotation of some sort or some things just won't get stitched on. I don't want to stress too much about this as my stitching needs to be enjoyable. I have been working on CdC during my lunch break at work and it is coming along nicely. Did some work on Bubbles also, HAED project, and I am now doing one of the actual bubbles. I also need to show photos on my progress of Sleeping Beauty and Blackstone Fantasy Garden.

I received four YOU MAKE ME SMILE AWARDS, Lynn, Lelia, Suzanne, I would like to thank you for making me smile by awarding this to me, it is greatly appreciated. I read, or try, alot of blogs and they all make me smile in various ways, so I am doing the cheats way and awarding everyone the award. I know I said four awards, I just can't find the forth and sincerely apologise to whoever it is.

DH is still looking for a job, he has an interview for one on Thursday in country Victoria and Devonport has again cropped up. Apparently during negotiations the person offered the job decided against it after all, so the position was re-advertised. The consultant knows DH due to industry contacts and has offered his help with the application, and is talking of ways of getting DH there for an interview, sounds quite promising.

Study has finished for the year, had my exam on the 31st of October, received my assignment results now just waiting for the unit results to come through on the 29th of this month.

I have rambled enough for now, thanks for sticking with me, I am hoping to post photos soon.

Stay safe everyone and happy stitching.

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.

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.

My Middle Name

I was tagged by Kim and here are my answers:

The rules:
1 You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2 Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3 When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4 At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Marie (the same as Kim's)

M is for marriage: DH and I have been married for 7 and 1/2 years. We have had our ups and downs, but more ups and it seems that the longer we are together the stronger we become.

A is for additional: as in additional pets. One day DH and I took a walk to our supermarket and we always look at the community notice board. This day there was a photo of the cutest looking dog, who was free to a good home. I said to hubby that we just have to have him so we rang the phone number, when to see the dog, and then he became ours. He fitted in perfectly with our family, is great with the kids, very tolerant of them. He was owned by a young girl and is very attached to me for this reason, and he loves lying on my lap, even if said lap is already occupied with my stitching.

R is for religion: At a particularly low point in my life I felt that I needed some sort of help, and although I had never thought to go to church before in my life, I felt that I needed God at that point. In the next twelve months I met my DH, a Christian, and have been going to church ever since. I believe that all things happen for a reason and that God had a big hand in me meeting my DH.

I is for integrity: My job as a bank employee calls for a high level of integrity. I have to ensure that I do not compromise any of my clients financial or personal information in any way, even to the point of telling DH that I saw such and such today, which of course would divulge that the person banks with my employer.

E is for excitement: I love seeing excitement on the faces of my children, seeing their expressions when they are looking forward to something, like going to the park or some such treat.

I am not going to tag anyone else, but if your blog title begins with a letter which is in my middle name, consider your self tagged and let me know so that I check out your answers.

A week ago a person at my work resigned and they have offered me the position, even though they know that I will be leaving before Christmas. So my two days a week very cushy job, has now become four days a week, starting this week. The extra money will come in handy (more stash) but I will be exhausted by the time the week end comes around.

I owe some update photos of a few projects and will try to get them done soon, my camera needs new batteries and I it won't even turn on when they are flat.

Everyone seems to be coming down with some sort of flu at the moment; Luke had been in bed since last Friday, he is up and about today and I think he will be well enough for school tomorrow, Caitlyn has had a temperature since Monday morning and didn't go to pre-school yesterday and has a terrible cold, and this morning DH woke up feeling cold and achy. Joel and I have escaped everything so far, I hope this continues. I am going on a training course tomorrow for work and I am picking up another girl on the way, I am looking forward to it and I hope that I don't come down with anything.

I had better go now, after boring all of you, I hope you are all getting lots of stitching done and that you are all well.

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.