Christmas 2010

At the last Friday get-together at Colours Down Under, Cathy gave these out to all of the regular stitchers.

I've been bad at documenting my presents this year and saying thank you to those who sent them. So here are my lovely Christmas gifts and the people who sent them.

Stitching update

How many months has it been this time :)

Back in July-August sometime I finished a JAR designs Christmas project as a model stitch for Colours Down Under. It was a great little project - stitched up in under a week (it took me nearly three weeks to get it beaded though!)  Unfortunately I didn't realise until recently that the batteries in my camera were low when I took photos of this one - so I'll put up a better picture when the I next see the bell pull in Colours Down Under shop.

After that, I stitched the little Inkcircles Halloween design from the 2010 JCS Halloween issue. I stitched it on a piece of Colours Down Under handyed 32ct jobelan. I have enough of the same piece to do up Inkcircles Masquerade when that chart comes in.  I originally thought that the Halloween freebie was a companion piece from Masquerade, but now I realise its actually a small piece of the whole design - oh well. 

Edit: This was completely wrong!  I received a copy of the chart as a surprise in the mail today - thank you so much Tracy!!!  And now that I can see it closely - I see there are differences, the Halloween small is indeed a complementary chart!

I stitched my version with Glow-in-the-Dark thread for the moon, but my little camera isn't good enough to photograph the luminescence, so you'll have to take my word for it that the moon looks awesome in the dark - especially as the branches look like assisi work :)

Then as a break, I started some canvas work needlepoint. Big chunky 18ct plastic canvas!  I've stitched up four of the Needle Delights Colour Delights series so far.

Tangerine was the first I stitched. I adored the different threads and the different types of stitches used!  

Cocoa took two weeks to stitch - my doctor had me on a completely caffeine-free diet for two weeks. That included no chocolate, so I stitched Cocoa instead. 

Pumpkin was so much fun - I loved that it started in the corner and radiated outwards. This was the first one that i didn't need to double check I had it the right way up.

Bubblegum (gasp its pink!) I survived :)

I've now stated Indigo. Its another concentric one like Tangerine.  I'm halfway around it and discovered that I've already turned it 90 degrees but meh - no-one will know I hope.

Each of these have had small issues, one chart didn't specify which thread to use in one of the rows, another kit had a couple of threads left out. Indigo has a Watercolour and a Waterlilies the same colour and I used the wrong one, so had to frog and use the other.  But these are small inconveniences. 

All in all - I'm having a lot of fun with these and I think I will do a heap more and eventually finish them into a wall hanging. I have a lot of different black fabric (black wool, black cotton damask etc) from my sewing days, so I thought I would use that to make the wall hanging from - each of these colours (even the indigo) will stand out on the black.

Felicitations and Salutations

Merry 25th December - whatever that means to you.

Apologies {yawn} for the brevity. I'm off to the airport shortly to collect M. Teddy tout nu.

Regardless of any religious affiliations, 25th December means I get to spend 10 days straight with my loved one.  And I'm quite OK with that :)

Hmmm driving to the airport on less than 4 hours sleep - is it love or masochism?

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As performed by the cast of Scrubs.

Needs Sound. Language is not always child-friendly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Of_mna-Rs&eurl=&feature=player_embedded

And Third One

Heh heh heh !!!

Snuck this one in under the radar didn't I

claireej

 

And this one

Also received a phone call from my Dad today.

"Joe's hanging on the wall"

I suspect this is Dad-speak for "thank you dear - I like him very much".

Phew - two presents received and well-liked.  Three to go :)
 

Christmas - getting there

Finally have all the shopping done.  Everything to be posted has been wrapped and all bar one last box has been posted.  This box will be posted express post tomorrow. 

All that's left now is to wait for one present for S to turn up in the mail and to pick one up off lay-by for A tomorrow.  Wrap both and presents are finished.

Now onto making the house habitable for three people, decorating and buying food.

The above is a treat I bought myself while at the markets this evening.  I bought exactly what I needed to for presents and nothing more - except the treat :)  It is a gluten-free chocolate cake ad I have never seen a gf done up so prettily before.  It reminded me of illustrations out of old Enid Blyton books about fairy cakes and afternoon teas :)

I forgot my phone can take pictures so I brought the cake home through a crowded market then on a very crowded tram - so it got a bit squished.  Tasted delicious though.

Time for bed.

Xmas 2008

Kay sent me such a cute cat card and a gorgeous Erte calendar!

Presents, cards, Zombie tree etc for Christmas 2008

When is a crisis a crisis?

As M. de Ours Nus is aware I've been battling a few mini-crises in the last couple of weeks.

1. My new iphone broke and I was informed it would take 4-6 weeks to fix.
2. My electricity was turned off last week because after 2.5 months my service provider had not connected my account.
3. One of my stitched projects came out a bit bigger than anticipated and the initial postage/courier quote was over $200.00

1. Was, thanks to an Apple retail store, fixed within 15 minutes the next day I had off work.
2. Was, thanks to the Energy and Water Ombudsman's office, reconnected at 8:30pm the next night.
3. Was, thanks to some advice from Australian Air Express, posted for $11.50.

So my crises have caused a slight panic and many many hours on the telephone getting the right advice and all is now well.  I kinda felt a bit silly about getting overwrought by such issues that were ultimately, resolved in a short period of time and quite to my satisfaction.

Then I get to work today. We have a whole of unit afternoon tea scheduled for this afternoon.  We meet, the manager tells us we did good, we eat.  Everyone brings a plate.

The place is in an uproar!  Person X bought their food instead of making it!  Persons P & Q both bought chocolate cakes !!!  This should have been planned better - there should have been a spreadsheet !!!!!

Huh?  I work on the assumption everyone brings what they themselves want to eat.  So if all 30 people turn up with packets of Tim Tams then I assume every one of those 30 people want to eat Tim Tams ....   How?  Why is this a crisis?

Do I need to give my section more work to do?  Less work?  Are they that overwrought with "Getting it RIGHT for Christmas (tm)"?

Hmmm - in the spirit of reducing overwroughtness this season I will no longer fret about Hector II the Zombie Christmas Tree.

Hector didn't make the transition interstate too well and most of his needles died.  He's been re-potted and fed fertilizer etc and he's starting to get new shoots.  Frankly he looks ghastly!  This is the very best picture I could take of him - all the other pics were worse.

But I'm not going to stress.  I'm not going to fret and compromise my principles and buy a cut tree.  Instead, on Christmas Eve I will bring Hector inside and pretty him up as best I can and laugh with my Christmas Day companions on how appropriate it is for us to be sharing a Zombie Christmas Tree.

I wonder if we could get Jonathan Coulton to write a song: Oh Zombie Tree, Oh Zombie Tree ...

Logistics - yer doin it wrong

The picture on the left is Verdi for my Dad.  Framed it comes in at around 8"x11".  Standard size for a gift.

The picture on the right is Coffin Buzz, a present for Jane.  This comes in at 5 times the size of a normal present.  Now I know I know I went overboard with framing but Jane is a coffee-addicted 18 year old Goth Girl and I deliberately went over the top with the frame and keeping the colours somber.

But this thing is HUGE!  Its 50cm x 63cm.  Or 19.5" x 24".  I took it to Australia Post and their response was to back away with admin speak for "no fucking way".

I think I'm going to need to courier this thing.

Now the framing of this little present did turn out to be one of only two expensive presents I bought this year ... but it just seems to get more expensive every time I think about it.

I think I need to think presents through more in future .....


Oh PS, better pictures are in Finished 2008 folder and are zoomable.

Mel's Snday Update

I can't remember the last time I did one of these :)

Well in the past few weeks I've stitched four Christmas presents, finished one WIP and started another :)

Three of the Christmas finishes are Witches as Friends, Coffin Buzz and Giuseppe Verdi.  The WIP I finished was Is it My Eyes.  Pics of all of these are in my 2008 Finishes folder.

I discussed Is it my Eyes in the BAPXS Wednesday Wobble so it screamed at me until I finished it ...also has its own folder where you can see the progress towards the finish. Folder here.

The new start is Inkcircles Croakworth but I have no photos of this yet. I started it while interstate last weekend but I've only stitched two small motifs so far.  I'd call this my travel project but I don;t travel anymore :)

Cutrrently I'm stitching on an RR for Laura and hope to have my section finished by next week so she can receive it back before the end of the year.

After that I have one more Christmas present to stitch, my engagement stitching to finish, another few parts on BoInk to modelstitch, and the first section of my RR for next year.

Work?  Christmas? Sleep?  Who needs any of those things ....

Not mention hoping no other projects start screaming for attention ....

On and I'm not mentioning a certain pre-arranged swarm of spiders either  ....

Geek Christams Cards

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/3531904/Christmas-and-holiday-cards-for-geeks-Top-11.html

I adore these!  The third image is definitely for me :)

What's scary is I understood and smiled at all of them .... and I'm *not* a Geek's Geek.

Third Present Finished

Stitched on white 28ct Cashel linen using recommended DMC threads.  Chart from an old 1990s Cross Stitch Australia magazine. 

This and the First Present need to go to the framer on Friday.

Time to see if I'm optimistic enough to start the fourth present ....

Second Present Finished

Stitched on Picture This "Echo" 28ct Cashel linen.

Stitched using recommended Crescent Colours threads.

Chart is from Moonflower Designs

Third present to be continued.

This one can wait until next pay day.  First and Third presents need to go to the framer on Friday.

Christmas Day Food

I'm hosting Christmas this year.  Christmas Day will be spent with my beloved NakedTeddyBears and my best Real Life friend Alison and possibly some other friends dropping past.

So this is all new - none of the traditions I've been brought up with are required to be included.  We have a fantastic opportunity to create new traditions.

So what do you do in your house for Christmas Day?

What foods do you prepare?
What activities do you do?

If you were in the same situation - which of your traditions would you get rid of and why?
How would you prefer to spend your Day?

Most importantly:  What foods would you serve?

And for those in the Northern Climes:
What food would you serve if it was the middle of Summer?

Deadline = Motivation

On Wednesday for some insane reason I decided to stitch some presents for Christmas for some friends whom I had no idea what else to get for them.

Some panicking, raiding of stash, quickly repurchasing a missing   chart, not quite to quickly purchasing missing threads .... and I've made a start.

I'm doing Witches as Friends by Moonflower Designs for my Alison my real life best friend, and yes she is a Pagan and proud of it.

As this is a small stitch I have it mostly finished.  Just waiting for one skein of Crescent Colours Finley Gold to arrive in my mail box to finish off the broomstick's bristles.  Then this little one is done.

I'm doing Coffin Buzz by Plum Street Samplers for her daughter Jane.  Jane is an 18 year old Goth Girl who has a passion for high quality coffee.

This is the Halloween freebie by Plum Street Samplers and although it is a monochromatic piece, I've been having a play.  I'm stitching it on Silkweaver's Boo linen.  Using Caron wildflowers Storm Clouds for the lettering.  Using Caron Waterlillies Pebbles for the headstone header and footer and then probably two Kreinik #4 braids for the other bits and bobs.

Then I'm going to start another composer for my Dad, in the same series as the Mozart piece I did a few years ago....

Both of these are still WIPs and Dad's isn't even started - but I will get there.....

Just as long as they finished in time to find a framer NEXT SATURDAY there wont be any problems ......

OK don't fall down ......

I know my reputation regarding the C-word ..... but this year I actually have to get organised and actually plan a budget.  Not being a cheapskate (well more than I have to be) but just so I can factor some into each pay as and when I can rather than just blowing out my credit cards as I have done previously.

{Yes yes I know - this is how normal people do it}.

So questions:

1. Mariann and Claire - are we doing the ex-BAPXS Christmas Card Exchange again this year?  Mariann are you happy to organise and check the list of participants to see if they all want to participate again?

2. Everyone - do you have a particular wish list or Amazon list that you want my attention directed to this year?

Yes I'm being blunt, but the success of Claire's audacity in just saying "here's my amazon.co.uk list" that made life easier for some of us and got Claire *exactly* what she wanted - well why not?

Lets use those wish lists people!    Which would be your favourite wish list for me to use?

{Deities only know that there's no way you're all getting handmade gifts this year - so direct me to the commercial sites}

Yes all of you - you responses and subsequent gift/card offerings will be ranked in terms of budgeting though - usual disclaimers regarding whims and "just because you want it aint mean you're gonna get it" still apply:) :)