I stashed

My most recent wins on eBay: I am considering taking the Story time one to work with me at Nappy Valley, working on it during my lunch times and then hanging it in the children's section when I finish.

Or do you think that might not be appropriate? I treat kids the way I wanted to be treated when I was a kid (ie as a mini adult) and that upsets some parents ....

Story time
Scrub a dub dub
Ho Ho Ho
You are special.

I really like you are special and I think I will hang that one in my bedroom when I have stitched it.

Completed Part 8

First I want to say thanks to all who have commented on my last couple
of weeks worth of updates and blog writings and your patience while my wrist healed - thanks so much guys, you
keep my spirits buoyed.




During the last ten days I took a little time off work and lots of time
away from my unpacking and although frustrating, my wrist is now healed.




Which is a good thing - I gave myself until Sunday to finish Part 8 of
Mystery IX. As my stitching had slowed due to my wrist, I have just
spent all my spare time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday stitching on
this,
but I did finish it (including beads) at 10:45pm last night!





As I'm on dial-up I set up the pics to upload into my web-shots site and went to bed.





Now the scary part, is while I was packing this away last night, I
noticed that although we are now two-thirds of the way through the
design, we still have nearly a dozen threads still unopened, we've barely
touched the hundreds of beads and we haven't used any of the crystals
..... the rest of this design is going to be intensely sparkly! I hope
it doesn't look out of proportion to the part we have done which is
mostly threads.

Carrie's Threads

Ahhhhhhhhhh! I hate dial up!!!! I've been trying to upload these pics
for the last five hours and phone calls keep knocking me off the net
before it is uploaded!!! AARGH! I'm going to bed now and I will leave
this on to upload overnight while I am sleeping!

Update: its now morning and it hasn't uploaded - going to try again while I shower and breakfast.

Noooooo! Its took an hour and then shut down because Multiply is doing maintenance !!!! Aaargh!

Update: OK its 7:00pm - its been 24 hours that I've been trying to upload this *&^&ing post! Trying again! YAYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!!! IT WORKED !!!!!!!





rant over. Message starts:





Guess what turned up today??? I am so happy - international postage is
only a couple of days behind domestic US post!!





Are
the4se colours great ??? I thought during the recent sale, that I
would buy Carrie's thread pack for Garden stars, instead of choosing my
own green colours. They look awesome.





And I think they will do Tracey's beautiful design justice.

Father's Day

In Australia Father's Day is the
first weekend in September. Although I finished Mozart back in
February and intended to give it to my Dad for his birthday in April -
life didn't work out that way. Basically dad stayed with me for the
month leading up to his birthday so I couldn't get Mozart to the
framers.



Dad *did* see another of the composers that I was planning on doing and
he did help me pick out a frame and mat that he liked for them. So
just before I moved house, I took the frame, mat and Mozart to the
framers and got him to frame it for me. I was going to do it myself,
but well, this way it got done, and Mozart wasn't lost in the move.



(It looks like Snowflake Sampler is amongst the missing - probably in an as-yet-not-unpacked box - I hope).



Anyway, here's a pic of Mozart in the frame and matting that Dad chose,
and I will be posting him off later in the week to Dad for Father's Day.



Just thought I'd share.



(and now I'm soo tired of typing one-handed so I will go and reward myself with some dessert).



Hugs

Mel.

Sunday update

Ok, its late and its short :) As you know I hurt my wrist last week - and as you all commented - it is very very frustrating !!!!!!!!!!!!


I did do a little bit on Mystery IX part 8. Even at my slow current
speed - I should still have this part finished by the weekend.



I also discovered a huge mistake I did back in March. Two of my
triangles are slightly off centre - I certainly hope subsequent parts
don't butt right up against these - or I may have to undo and redo two
whole triangles !!!!!



Or hopefully I could fudge it .... maybe.

Happy Birthday to me!

Botheration! Don't you hate it when you have a post mostly written and then you lose it? OK here's attempt two:

Happy Birthday to me for yesterday! I turned 35.

My mum cross stitched me up a bookmark (see previous posts). My friends all emailed or rung me! (sorry Claire for not replying to your email!) My work mates took me out for lunch - oooh yummy place called BodyFuel!  Paul came over and made dinner for me that night. He also gave me some jewellery and the 2-disc limited edition of Howl's Moving Castle on DVD. This is currently my favourite movie ever! I watched again it last night while he made dinner.

We had another "discussion" and this time he actually apologised for his behaviour on my moving weekend - so may be able to salvage a friendhsip ... maybe. Will see how it goes.

After dinner we watched another DVD he brought over - Bill Bailey's "Part Troll" - I love his work! Decided that I have to go see him live if he ever tours Australia.

Today I finally got in to see the doc. My sore wrist is a type of sinuvitis - an inflammation of the tendon that came from rotating the wrist while I was carrying something heavy - or so the doc surmises. She sent me back to work with a letter stating that I'm not allowed to lift, carry, pull, push, rotate my wrist or handwrite and I am to keep typing at a minimum and in short stints. Oooh that's going to make work interesting.

Home too - glad I've got a dishwasher.

Oh and today someone brought a Book Worm into the section - has anyone seen these guys - they are sooo cute! I want an Ebola - and maybe a Syphilis - but its pink - phooey! I can see I'm going shopping next pay for one or more of these guys.

Anyway, I'll be quiet over the next few days - my wrist should be better in a week or so - but *only* if I look after it now .... so I guess I'd better do as I'm told.

Time to get Trubby some dinner anyway :)

Life is what happens ...

... when you are busy making plans.

I forget who said that. I also thought I'd stopped worshiping Loki a while ago - I guess every now and then he decides to pop back into my life for a little while.

I selected this house in this suburb because the house has a great vibe, its a good price, I can get broadband and it is sooo much closer to work.

I have recently found out that:
a. I cannot get broadband here! The company has removed all relocation costs because one of their representatives lied to me!

b. Its not closer to my work - because my boss is now moving me! I've had my 12 months in Tech Services, and I've made so many innovations and efficiency savings that he can send me out to nappy-valley and put the previous incompetent back into the position. Now that I've fixed up all of his mistakes, soothed all of the customers and suppliers alike and generally improved the service above all expectations, surely the dick head can keep it that way, right? Oh is my boss in for a big big shock!

And as my substantive position is a Branch Librarian then that is where I must be. No recognition for all the extra work I am doing at TS, all my cataloguing and filling-in (both of which the incompetent does *not*have the skills for - he simply hasn't had the training or the brainpower to use the training even if he did receive it!), the friends I've made, the fact I moved house to be closer to this location. None whatsoever.

And I don't even get my old branch back. I go out to Nappy valley and play with all the kiddies and single mums. Ooooh I'm going to warp all of their council-estate type minds! Yes I am a woman over the age of 16, I have a good job and I choose not to have children. Oooh I'll fit right in!

c. My medical issues have not resolved and now I have a sore wrist on top of it - I think I've pulled or damaged a tendon or something. It hurts to do many things and yes it is my right wrist and yes I am right-handed and yes it *is* my stitching hand.

d. I locked myself out of the house this morning, so I went and found my owner (who lives in the same street) and borrowed her set of keys to get back in. I find out that she was broken into Friday night and it was probably done by the neighbours on my left. What I thought was a family with teenage children is actually two brothers (late teen and early 20s) living there alone with their mates! Mummy owns the house but doesn't live there and basically lets her darlings do whatever they like! They are apparently the terror of the street and are regularly suspected of breaking into other people';s homes and cars - especially after said other people have had a go at them for playing loud music late in the night - parking in other people's car parks etc etc.

Can I scream in frustration please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, I do still have a job, I might be negotiating a slight pay rise based on all of the work I have done, I still love the feel and vibe of my house, I love coming home to it at night and I still have most of my health. And Trubby loves this place! She is so settled and happy compared to the last!

Oh and at least I;m not being sent to the main branch! I was Officer in Charge there this afternoon and was once again was verbally assaulted and threatened by on of the patrons - a man who is convinced he is the living reincarnation of Michael Huchence - the dead lead singer of the band INXS. Is it full moon time? I rang security - and got an answering machine. I rang my boss (the Library Manager) and got his voice mail. I rang the Council Rangers and was told to ring the Police. Then my boss rings back and Mr "Huchence" walks out the door. I gave my boss a verbal report and then followed it up with a written report.

One of the other patrons walked up to me and said "You;ve upset my friend. I'd be very careful not to do that again, you never know what my friend might decide to do - he doesn;t follow your laws". Gee really ????

Sigh! I'm off to get some dinner and get over my rant .... sorry to anyone who has read all the way to the bottom!

So should I start Part 8 of Mystery IX or part 1 of Midi Mystery II?

Mel.

Mel's Sunday update

OK it will be Sunday (barely) when these pictures finally upload.

Had a bad bad week. Very depressing and tiring on a number of fronts - but ended on a better note. Went out with friends from work last night, was supposed to go out to dinner Thursday night and I'm out for brunch before work tomorrow so I'm back in a social network and well socialising again - its been a long time since I was this social.

Also went out to dinner with Paul this evening. Although we went back to our respective homes tonight, the dinner was good and a few words that needed to be said actually got said by both sides. So we will take it from here - but that discussion was overdue so I'm glad we had it.

Also I have, as you can see by the pictures, finished Part 7 of Mystery IX tonight. Will probably start Part 8 tomorrow :)

I also have most of the kitchen, lounge, my bedroom and the bathroom set up the way I want them - so my house is mostly looking like a home :) I'll try to take some photos if I can next week and see if I can upload them.

I tried taking piccies of the birds visiting my bird feeder stations yesterday, but I'm not sure how well the piccies will come out.

Back online sort-of - and rant

Well the week has come and gone and I'm back on-line sort of.

Just before moving last week I had a horrible health scare! A truly frightening experience. We still don;t know the cause - I've taken sooo many tests ... anyway the doctor sidelined me from lifting bending or carrying anything heavy. So my friends all pitched in and moved all of my stuff for me.

According to my schedule, I was going to collect the keys to the new place on Wednesday, move as much stuff as I could over the next few days by myself in my car and then have the friends move all the large bulky furniture for me on Saturday. I had also re-jigged my finances and planned on buying some new furniture so there would probably only be one load of the fridge, two metal futon frames and my dining room set to be moved.

Life doesn't work that way! After I was sidelined my mum came up and basically finished the packing for me. The real estate for the new house didn't give me the keys to the new place until Friday and even then I couldn't move a thing in until Saturday because the carpet cleaners were there late Friday afternoon.

The previous tenants moved out on the 11th. Why had the real estate agents not gotten the place properly cleaned within the intervening two weeks? Why did they have to get so-called professional cleaners in the Thursday and Friday *after* I was supposed to have started moving in? And yes their so-called professional cleaning company was worse than useless. They mopped the floors and wiped down the outsides of the cupboards drawers etc, by did not touch the insides. Even after all of my stuff turned up, it could not be unpacked until each drawer had been cleaned first!

Anyway my fiends turned up early on Saturday and worked like troopers all day and got *all* of my stuff moved on that one day! All my friends except Paul. He turned up half way through, hungover and in a really ugly mood. Why go on a bender on the Friday night? He knew the hassles I was having getting moved and that I needed him. He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to pick fights with everybody there, getting very jealous of the the two teenagers who were doing most of the muscle work and basically running me down to each of my friends. It was a relief to all when he finally went home!

On Sunday I woke in a great deal of pain. I hadn't done much at all on Saturday but feel useless and direct people as to what furniture to put in what room. On Sunday I was supposed to clean the old place. Paul was coming over and helping mum move the rest of my old furniture out to the front kerb for the garbage collectors and mow my lawns. He rang me on Saturday morning, five minutes before he was due at my place saying that he wouldn't be coming over. He had pulled a muscle and didn't feel like doing anything. He would come over and do it in a few days.

I didn't have a few days. I asked if I could borrow his lawnmower so I could do it myself. I went over to collect it and received a rant about how bad my selection of houses was. How I had abused my friendship and used my friends. How yesterday was a debacle and he wouldn;t be putting up with my attention-seeking antics anymore. I took the mower and left.

A few seconds later a work colleague rang and asked how everything was. I blurted the whole conversation out to her. She came straight over. She and mum sent me off to work where I sat in a chair for five hours and loaned books out to people and popped pain killers.

When I got back to the old place mum and my friend had moved out all of the furniture, mowed the lawns and got most of the house cleaned for me. I took mum home, fed her dinner and put her to bed. She was exhausted!

Monday morning we finished off the house together, got the carpet cleaners in and went home to move some of the boxes around so we could start assembling my new furniture. It was all flat-pack Ikea style self-assemble units.

Tuesday I had the final inspection at the old place, handed back the keys and said goodbye to the neighbourhood forever. Went to the docs and had more tests done. Mum helped me assemble more furniture that afternoon and Wednesday and she went home Thursday morning. Thursday night the phone company finally got around to connecting my line (it was supposed to have been done Wednesday!) and I still don't have my broadband up and running - that will take another week or two yet.

I'm still unpacking and assembling furniture. Very carefully. I went to work yesterday for the morning then did some retail therapy with a hair appointment and buying some shoes and a DVD afterwards. Spent last night curled up on my couch doing some stitching on Mystery IX.

Still have more to unpack and assemble - its very slow working on your own and not being able to lift much at a time. Paul has rung a couple of time to tell me how busy his is and how his pulled muscle was self-inflicted. A few weeks ago he helped me by packing some of my non-fiction books and he started packing some in a box that was about 3 feel long, 1 foot wide and 1 foot high. I told him not to.

The phone conversation went along the lines of: You remember that box you told me not to pack with books and I still did. Remember how you told me not to move it by myself - well I did. That;s how I hurt myself.

He hasn't asked to visit, he hasn't apologised for the unkind words. He hasn't asked after my health except to say "it was probably stress and you;ll get over it".

And this morning, Sunday morning, the teenager next door had a fight with his parents at the top of his lungs, slammed the door and took off. So now I'm awake and typing :)

Its a gorgeously cold and raining day here today. I might go back to bed with a nice cup of tea and a good book. I finally got around to picking up book 1 of the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series yesterday from the library. I've never read it, but I notice most people either love or hate it - there are no ambivalent feelings - so I thought I'd see what I thought.

Happy stitching all.