Snowflake update

Well after all of my stashing, I thought I would continue on Snowflake - I still haven't gotten *anything* finished for *me* yet. I ran out of the Needle Necessities thread only 6 letters from the end - typical huh!

So anyway, I took a pic at that point. Then I started on the metallic backstitching - I wasn't sure how this would look - originally I thought the metallic would ruin the subtle effect that was happening with this piece - but its growing on me.

Comments?

STASHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I finally did it today - I drove the two hours each way to Katoomba to visit an actual bricks and mortar LNS. I visited Karen @ dragonflydreams.

Paul was supposed to come with me, but changed his mind at the last minute. Oh well I went by myself anyway. Karen's changed premises in the last couple of weeks and her new shop is really really well laid out! And lots of Chatelaine's on the walls. Karen is her Australian distributor - oh did I drool!

I picked up (had already ordered and paid for):
St. Sylvestre - Long Dog
Pirate Treasure - Lynne Nicoletti
Skeleton Crew - Cross-Eyed Cricket
Coffee, Chocolate & Men - Waxing Moon designs
All the Gentle Art threads for Coffee Chocolate men.

I bought today:
Why is it - Cross eyed cricket
Here be dragons - dragon dreams
Size 26 Gold plated John James petites
Size 28 Piecemaker needles

I figured it was about time I invested in some good needles and will try both brands to see which I prefer.

I also bought 4 more threads as possible matches for Paul's monogrammed birthday present. I've included a scan of the floss toss here. Any comments gratefully received !!!!!!!!!

As Paul was not with me, I only bought one skein of each and will wait until Paul decides what he wants before buying more.

The four colours in the scan are:
Distant Hills - Caron Waterlillies
Seaweed - Gloriana
Jewel of the Nile - Needle Necessities
Bejeweled - Crescent Colours

any comments?

Also seeing as I was going so far in one day, I stopped by a nearby chocolate shop and had the most heavenly hot mocha coffee that has ever passed my lips! Also I consumed a piece of heavenly flour-less chocolate and raspberry cake. I was feeling most mellow while consuming these!

Then I went further down the same road and stopped at Echo Point - a rather famous Australian tourist spot where you can clearly see the wide expanse of the Blue Mountains and the famous Three Sisters rock formation. I was planning on bringing my camera so I could practice using it, but I completely forgot it! I am so kicking myself for forgetting it!!!!

I actually walked for an hour around most of the lookouts in that area. I even walked down about a third of the very very steep stairs to the base of the three sisters, but then I chickened out and came back up! A very strenuous walk, and then just the drive home.

All in all an indulgent day out - which I really needed without spending too much money!

Sunday update

Well here we are - Sunday again. Quiet week this week - spent most of last Sunday working on Snowflake and then I didn't pick her up again until this morning. So I put a couple of hours in so I could actually show some progress this week

In other news I picked up my knitting again, finished my scarf, bought 9 more balls of feather "wool" and have started knitting squares for a bedspread. Well that's the plan right now, - if I like one of the colours enough it might end up as another scarf.

Other than that, I caught up with my reading - and my housework and unsuccessfully looked for a new house again - blah!

Have a good weekend all - I'm off to work for the afternoon.

Eurovision song contest

While knitting tonight, I had the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final on the TV. I really really loved both the Finland and the Lithuania entries.

Have a look and a listen:
Finland entry
Lithuania entry

I also love the Latvia entry from a previous semi-final - some pretty boys there! The final is on this coming Sunday night. I really want to get some of the music from the Finland group!

Scarf and Pyjamas

Today is my only day off then I work 6 days ina row, get next Friday off and then work another 6 days in a row and then I'll get three days off. Lots of work, and the overtime will be welcome.

So today I did the usual weekly clean house, do the washing etc etc then went out and spent the afternoon looking at houses. Didn't find anything appropriate again. Went to the local large shopping mall for some retail therapy and early dinner. Bought a pair of flanalette pyjamas - here's a scan of the pattern on them.

Also laybyed two bra and knicker sets. One in sheer black lace - ie its sheer in between the lace. The other set is the exact same style but its in emerald green with a cream background. Gorgeous.

Feeling better, I came home, put my pyjamas on and settled down for a quiet night in front of the telly. I decided to give my eyes a rest from the 32ct I've been stitching on and decided to finally finish off the scarf I've been working on since last winter. Its now finished - I've included a scan of the tail end of it. Its around 2 metres long. I still have an entire ball free but I think 2m is long enough.

All in all a productive evening but not a productive day

Snowflake - first real day

well I just had a great day. The neighbours disappeared off somewhere with a packed car yesterday (YAY!) and still haven;t returned.

Paul spent the day with his mum. And instead of the forecast rain, it was a beautiful sunny mild day.

Trub and I spent the whole day sitting out in the sun, reading, stitching and dozing. Magnificent!!!!

Of course the weather cooled down around 4pm and we had to come inside. Its now 8:30pm, and Paul's here and we're about to watch X-Men 2. Lovely ending to a lovely day. However I just had to show you the progress I made on snowflake today - its starting to look like an actual snowflake now :) Pity that the scanner really is NOT doing the fabric justice.

Mother's Day

OK here's mum's Mother's Day present 2006. She just rang me and had opened it, so its safe to post here now. As I had it framed while mum was here for a visit over Easter, I could not get a photo of it framed. Mum's going to send me a photo of it on her wall when she can.

She loves it - she really does thank goodness! I had the leaflet in amongst the others when she had a look through my stash when she was here, but she didn't seem very interested in it at the time. She now says that she didn't want to show too much interest because she wanted me to stitch things for myself, not for other people! Sure mum - I can spot your saves!

Anyway, the framer did a marvellous job of the framing and I think I chose just the right mat for it! You'll see when the pics come along. Actually it was good to chat to mum now she's stitching too! eg *she* mentioned that it was on 14ct Aida and how neat the stitches were, and didn;t I find all that black block work depressing ... and then she said "You know I could make something like that!" And I said "YES MUM! You CAN!"

It was sooo brilliant!

I'm sitting here typing this with a pile of charts in plastic covers on the carpet beside me - I'm doing some work updating my spreadsheet of stash - and Trouble just walked past. She stopped and turned her head around to lick near her tail. But her front right paw (the one that she's shifted most of her weight onto) is on a plastic chart, and its sloooowly sliding sideways .... I just watched, but she moved her paw just before she toppled onto her face. I giggled and she glared at me and stalked away :)

Snowflake

As the caption says, here's the first bit. I've had a couple of hectic days and busy nights, so although this is two days worth, in reality its more like a combined total of one hour. What you can see is the bottom of the large snowflake.

Moving house

Well it hurt too much yesterday to talk about it, but I didn't get the house.

Apparently I was the best applicant by far but the owner turned me down because I have a cat. Apparently the Real Estate submitted me as the best applicant on Tuesday afternoon after ringing my references, and then spent continually up until Thursday morning trying to convince the owners to accept me. They would not.

In a very small voice I quietly suggested that if the owners were so obviously anti-pet, then that should have been listed in the advertisement, so I wouldn't have even bothered to go and look at it, let alone fall in love with it. The Real Estate person was very kind, and said she has a cat around the same age as mine and she feels terrible. She simply did not envisage that the owner would be so adamant. So I hung up and cried a little and got lots of hugs from my co-workers and then went for a walk, did some retail therapy and then got on with my work.

After lunch my supervisor came up to my desk and said that he had rung the Real Estate agent to see if he could help my case. He confirmed that they told him the same story that they had told me, and it appeared to him that the Real Estate person was in genuine distress in not being able to offer the property to me. she did tell *him* that if none of the other applicants were acceptable to the owner then she would force my application through. But that doesn't sound very likely (as there were heaps of applicants) nor am I sure I would want a house under those circumstances.

So guess what I'm doing tomorrow and its not the trip to Katoomba to the new cross stitch store like I planned!

It was very nice that my coworkers rallied around like that - and nice of my supervisor to go out of his way like that too! And then to come home to a surprise kit when I had ordered a chart and wasn't sure when it was even going to arrive .... well sometimes the good compensate.

Oh and that Retail Therapy? The local woodworkers guild had a series of stalls set up in the local shopping mall (its Mothers Day in Australia this coming Sunday) and I bought a beautiful ironbark chopping board. It is a gorgeous deep red mahogany colour - simply a beautiful piece of timber - and its been crafted to have rounded edges - very organic looking and it has a slot cut out of one corner so I can put my hand through it and use it as a handle !!!!

Many hugs to you all!

Snowflake - from Moonflower designs

With all of the hassles with my neighbours and finding a new house etc etc I have been in a real stitching slump!  I haven't picked up a needle in nearly a fortnight.  I got home from work and grocery shopping tonight to find that the latest Moonflower design had arrived on my doorstop.

http://moonflowerneedleart.com/html/charts_18.html

Snowflake is truly beautiful!  I also had a note attached from the designer that stated (well I've paraphrased here) that due to her being unsure whether I could obtain the specialty threads and fabric here in Australia, she sent the leftovers she had from her model stitching of this piece.    So I have in effect a whole kit for the introductory price of the chart !!!!  And it is truly beautiful.  Although my scanner does not pick it up, the fabric has beautiful jewel tone sparkles throughout.

I've decided that right after I finish this post, and update my webshots site, I will start on this design immediately!  It is sooo beautiful!

My Neighbours

Well I was going to keep this blog completely stitching related but I'm afraid I need to rant about my neighbours somewhere. Feel free to ignore - I think I'm doing this more for the cathartic experience.

Bugger time's gotten away from me - I need to get to work. Oh well - will rant and cleanse later ...

Mum's Third Piece - Bird of Paradise

Hi I, I've been a bit busy to update - see next blog entry if you are interested.

Here is mum's third piece - a bird of Paradise bookmark kit from Cross Stitch Magic.

I've included the original pattern - will change to original cover pic as soon as mum sends me the right scan. I've cropped the pic to remove the legend in the hope it will make the pic more acceptable.

And of course here are her two progress pics.

Hugs
Mel.