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  ....

Personal Stuff

Ok its time I faced up to some realities.

First up is finances.  If I want to start getting myself out of my current financial mess, I will have to look at my expenditures.  I cannot affect the major items like rent, but I can affect the "everything else".

I will not be able to attend The Great Get Together or visit Mariann next year.  I simply cannot afford to incur the further debt that International Travel would entail.  I apologise to everyone, and most especially to Mariann :(

In a similar vein I'm going on a stash diet.  From now until September 2009 I will be stitching from my stash. 

Similarly I'll be cutting back my RAKs and presents.  This is the one that hurts my pride and my ego the most.  But I know you are my friends and I know you understand.  Its myself I still have to convince. So I figure if I state it upfront, then I can't cheat or lie to myself.  Any and all RAKs and presents from here on in will be simply a card and a couple of skeins of floss or fabric or a chart (all from my stash). 

I'm not looking for sympathy, I just need to face my situation and start dealing with it. Not hiding from it, overspending and whinging like I have been :)

In an effort to address this further I have set up a new blog under ID Gothtigger2009.

In that blog I will be writing thoughts and ideas and progress towards my health.  Specifically starting with my finances and my body weight in an effort to start dealing with my depression.

Any of you are welcome to friend that blog if you want to read along, offer encouragement or even better some advice :)

I'm really really sorry I have to do this.

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.

Again for the Knitters

You know the Cricket has hit a quiet period when the commentators start discussing the relative merits of cable stitched vests over machine made .....

I Can Has Beanbag!

Stephen posted me a couple of BeanBag covers a while ago with the comment, "set one of these up for Trubs - she'd love it".

So today while out I bought some beans and filled one Bean Bag.  Well alright I got it absolutely everywhere and I suspect I'll be finding stray beans for years .... 

Anyway finally I got it filled and the area cleaned up and I sat down back with my stitching.  It took less than 5 minutes before I could take this picture .....

When she gets up I'll rearrange the beans a little to make it more comfortable for her ....

TGIF !

I have been astonishingly productive today.

I am aware of this fact due to the number of people informing me how astonished they are!

• My office no longer resembled a bombsite.
• Noticeable progress on most projects has been made.
• Some possibly controversial suggestions/recommendations/actions have been accepted very positively.

Scared now.

Going home for a weekend of watching the cricket.  Couch Sloths Unite!

Hmmm ....

Guess which project I was stitching when I left to answer the phone.  Is this now an occupational hazard whenever I answer the phone to Mr N T Bears?

Fourth Present Finished

Everything to go to the framers is now completely finished.

there's still a fifth present to go - but that one doesn't need framing.

No pics as the intended recipient reads this blog.

For the Knitters .... again

http://www.thedevilspanties.com/d/20081124.html

Edited to include this one for the rest of us :)

http://www.thedevilspanties.com/d/20081117.html

Tagged

Well seeing as I've been tagged multiple times again - I figured I'd better join in :)

Here are the rules:

• Find the 6th folder in your photos folder and then the 6th photo in it.
• Pray that you remember the details ;)
• Post it on your blog
• Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.

I think everyone has been tagged on this one - if you haven't then "Tag" you have been now!

Sixth folder for me is 2008 Finished Stitching.  Sixth photo is the framed Mayet I gave to Denise for Mother's Day back in May.

testing

My Week

Ever had weeks where you wish you could redo parts of them?

That's my week this week.

Maybe I should stitch this one up as a reminder to myself to think more before I act.

New Theme

Does this theme work?  Does it look better?

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.

Michel de Montaigne

Last week I threw out a quote I liked from a 16th Century Philosopher Michel de Montaigne.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her. Michel de Montaigne

As is the way of life, today I read a blog entry providing more insights into Montaigne.

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001792.html

Have a read - I love Lorcan's style - and shall definitely have to hunt down a biography of young Michel now .....

Curse of the Missing Floss

Not only did I have to wait nearly a week for a missing thread to turn up for Project 2 .... now I've just run out of DMC 3371 for project 3.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick some up on the way home from work on Thursday.

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?

Tagged??? WTF ????

OK it appears I got tagged by Mariann's friend Milly's friend Cherie.

Cherie do I even know you ????

Oh well this tagging thing is as you've seen on everyone's site is 6 random facts about me.  People who know me will understand why I've chosen these six quotations :) :) :)

1. I'm a woman of many moods and they all require chocolate. Forever in My Heart Cross Stitch Design
2. Librarians are the secret masters of the world They control information. Don't ever piss one off. Spider Robinson
3. There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends. Homer
4. When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her. Michel de Montaigne
5. Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. Mark Twain
6. I have eaten eight kinds of meats; I'm a true Renaissance man. Homer Simpson
   

First Present Finished

Stitched on Silkweavers "Boo" 28ct Cashel linen.

Lettering: Caron Wildflowers 074 "Storm Clouds"
Tombstone header and footer: Caron Waterlilies 011 "Pebbles"
Large Motifs: Kreinik #4 Very Fine Braid 001V Antique Silver
Small Motifs: Kreinik #4 Very Fine Braid 4002 Pixie Dust

Chart is a freebie from Plum Street Samplers:
http://plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com/plum_street_samplers/2008/07/index.html  {Scroll down to 25 July posting}

Threads and fabric were all my own choices. Click the Zoom In to see the sparklies :)

Second present waiting on one thread.
Third present started last night.

Twitter

I've been twittering for a while thanks to Claire and I mostly use it as another chat site between a couple of us or send out small group messages.

Yesterday however I noticed that Stephen Fry was on Twitter and allows anyone to "follow" him.  So I did.

Like anything technological, Mr Fry has taken to it like well ... me to chocolate. He is currently in Madagascar shooting an episode for a TV series that's a follow up to the book "Last Chance to See".  He is in the wilds of Madagascar with virtually no phone or internet reception, but he still manages to take pics on his phone and every now and them upload them via Twitter.

Last night he posted some gorgeous pics of Civet Cats and Baobab trees.  Along with some trademark wry comments :)

If you are on Twitter, I suggest you look up stephenfry and follow him.

2 New Items on My Amazon Wish-list

(This blog entry was automatically generated by Multiply's Wish-list Cross-posting feature.)

Below are items recently added to my Amazon wish-list. If you are familiar with anything below and have any comments or alternate suggestions, please leave a reply.

Click here to see my full and current wish-list.

---

The Graveyard Book Manufacturer: HarperCollins Price: $10.08 Learn More

---

Anathem Manufacturer: William Morrow Price: $14.94 Learn More

I shoulda stood in bed

And I didn't even mix carrot juice and radish juice ....*

Ever have one of those days?

• Went down to the basement to see progress on stocktake and got grease and oil all over my favourite white work shirt
• My dearly beloved monthly reminder of my status as viable female turned up in a flood in  the middle of a three hour webinar.**
• After cleaning up as best I could I went out to get supplies and lost a $20 note out of my pocket.  The last of my food money for the week .....
• Raided the rent money, bought supplies and bought lunch and I'm now back at my desk staring at my lunch thinking "I don't want to eat that".

There are some months that I really should be locked up for three days. 

If I really was an Evil Overlord all women would get three paid leave days per month.  Trust me its better on those around us that way.

I want to scream and yell and pound the walls in frustration, but being a professional at work, no-one knows there's anything different to normal.

Oh well - off to the next meeting in a couple of minutes.




* obligatory Bugs Bunny quote
** why menstruate when you can't provide viable eggs?  Stupid body!

Test Blog

Mel, just for you and me...I need a page I can put a reply or two on to see if it works ok.

One for the knitters .....

Or for those who can't see the picture:  http://comics.com/herman/?Page=1

Look for comic dated 2008-11-10.

On target

Wonder how many copies of tonight's User Friendly will be sent to the Australian Communications Minister ????

I'm in an alternate dimension ....

Outside in my little front courtyard I have a glass bowl of birdseed - trying to tempt birds to come into the area.

My cat is sunning herself out there in the garden.  Trubs goes orgasmic in pure sunlight.

There are birds coming to and from the food - not concerned in the slightest that there's a fully grown cat less than a metre away.

There's a fully grown cat, completely ignoring all the juicy plump pigeons that are landing less than a metre away from her ....

Yet if *I* walk past the front window or out the front door, the birds scatter and the cat stares at me accusingly.

This state has been ongoing for over two hours now .....

I think I'm obviously missing something that's going on in the natural world around me ......

Christmas Stitching

From a series of Composers charted in early Cross Stitch Australia magazine.

Finished 19 November 2008.

Christmas Presents this year. Works in progress.

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 ......

My Kingdom for some needles

Caron Wildflowers are too thick to go through the eye of some John James petites size 28 needles.

My kingdom for some size 26 needles.

Or maybe just some more patience.

Off to stitch some more !

A day in the life of ...

Like any child, I always wondered if my life would make a good story - the answer is no.

The bits that aren't boring appear so contrived that I, as the reader, would have thrown the book against the wall*.

Take this morning as a case in point. I had a meeting a suburb away, so mindful of my desire to shed body fat and reduce my fuel budget, I walked there. I walked along a major arterial road for 30 minutes. About 10 minutes in, I noticed that I had overtaken one particular moving van three times. I was witnessing morning hour peak traffic for the first time. Every time a tram stopped, the cars had to stop. Every time the lights changed for a smaller road to feed in, the cars on the arterial road stopped.

Both times I mostly kept going because I was on the footpath and I could cross the smaller roads as soon as the cars moved on; I didn't have to wait for the lights to change. I actually started to pull ahead of the traffic at one point where I was one set of traffic lights in front of the moving van. He actually noticed this and was starting to exhibit signs of road rage and frustration. He went through two red lights just as I reached my destination.

The contrived portion of this story? My appointment was with Vic Roads - I now have a Victorian Drivers Licence.

This afternoon I was driving around in the middle of a storm. I learned that Victorian (or maybe just Melbourne) drivers have a different set of rules when its wet. It appears when it starts to rain, we ignore all the rules regarding right of way, traffic lights and when to pull out in front of other vehicles. You see in the wet it appears the only rule is get out my way or get hit. He with the cheapest car goes first.

I discovered today, I am no longer the terror of the highways I once was. I haven't been caught speeding in over 7 years. And compared to Melbourne drivers - I'm a yellow bellied coward!

I've become a responsible driver ..... even a sedate driver. My mum would be happy - if she believed it .....




* Actually I've only ever done this once. It was a murder mystery set in Ancient Rome and the writer described the banquet as containing brown sugar !!!!

We know Knitters like this ....

I swear that last panel is referring to Tracy's mum !!!

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1267

My Only comment on the US election

http://www.pvponline.com/2008/11/04/smithjones-08/

Kindly forwarded to me by

nakedteddybears

 

OK life is back to normal!

Was talking with Alison on the phone this evening and asked her what she wanted for Christmas.  After the usual "you don't have to get me anything" she finally relented and said she'd LOVE something small stitched by me.

So I figured great - I'd always been meaning to stitch a version of this up for her.  I hunted high and low and found suitable fabric, and I still have all the threads from last time .... great.

THREE hours later and I still haven't found the chart.  Something tells me I may have given it away ....

So I figured I would do Fanta Cat's The Spirit Within instead.  I have the chart and I actually have the fabric!


I don't have ANY of the threads ....



{sigh}  Life is back to normal.

Wedding Dresses

Stephen sent me this LINK

with the comment: No. That's all I'm saying.


Do I dare admit that I actually like the red one ?????

You know these remind me of the dresses Sisu was hunting down for me to wear at the Great Get Together ......

Awwww ......

So cute - and even child friendly :)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VaM9mrnOMJo

Tell me you didn't have a smile on your face after watching that :)

Post Engagement Announcement

In the last couple of days, since Stephen and I announced our engagement, I have been shocked and hurt by the number of nasty people who have come out of the woodwork to attack us.

A recent ex of Stephen, a long term ex of his, my ex-husband and friends and sycophants of all of these. They have spewed bile, nastiness, guilt trips, attacks on our self esteem and just general snideness.

This has gotten me down - mainly because I was naive enough to think that our engagement had to do with us, not them.  I know Stephen is coping with this much better than I am; I've spent most of today in tears.

But I've come to realise, they're just indulging in Schadenfreude or something like it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2NUQ_oa3JSU

You Tube's not playing nicely with embeds tonight.

I'm off to bed - I hope you enjoy the video - yes there is a bad word or two for those with small children.

You've been tagged

Each blogger starts with 10 random facts/habits about themselves (current).
Bloggers who are tagged need to blog about their own 10 random facts/habits.
At the end of your blog, tag 10 people and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them that they've been tagged and to read your blog .....

1. I'm scared stupid at the thought of sharing my house.  To the point where I'm having nightmares about it.
2. I impulse buy on Amazon sales and xstitch sales and then have no money left for food.
3. I DETEST owing money to family or friends.  I detest giving anybody the opportunity to try to guilt-trip me.
4. Chocolate is my comfort food and my addiction.  I eat it daily.
5. I decided when I was 5 years old that I would never have kids.  I haven't wavered from that in the 30 plus years since.
6. I've been a supervisor/team leader/Manager at work for over 10 years in various organisations. I still get knots in my stomach dealing with people and would prefer to work on my own.
7. I will be devastated when Trouble dies of old age.  I check on her every time I wake up during the night to make sure she is still with me and still breathing.
8. I suffer from depression and mild anxiety.  I have every since puberty.  I have only gotten close to actually committing suicide once.
9. I suffer incredible amounts of low self-esteem and really don't understand why people put up with me.
10 I cherish each and every one of my friends of family who can know these these things about me and still want to talk to me anyway :)


Hmm - well that ended up being more depressing than anything else - oh well. No point tagging - everyone in my network has probably already been tagged anyway.  Time to go read what other people have written - thanks Jim for the exercise :)

Mel's Sunday Update

Morning all,

Well as you know I'm now engaged :)  It seems so unexpectedly different now its "officially announced".  Scary even.

Anyway - as per expectations, I've been doing some engagement stitching.

A while ago I asked for help in transferring these colours:

DMC   334 Pale Indigo Blue
DMC 3042 Lilac
DMC 3053 Tweed Green
DMC 3779 Pale Terracotta

into hand dyed threads.   As there were large swatches of the same colour being used, I wanted a more mottled look to the background rather than the flat uniformity of DMC.

 As per some suggestions, I went directly to the source and contacted Carrie of Carrie's Creations.

The next day the seriously talented Tracy of Inkcircles visited Carrie and the pair of them came up with a couple of colour ranges for me to choose from; from a faithful rendition of the original pastels, to the "more Mel" palette to a funky Halloween combo.

As you can see from the picture above Stephen and I chose the "more Mel" colour palette :)

Amethyst
Sea Green
Lavender
Monarch

These threads arrived on Thursday in Tracy's RAK package :)  So this is why Tracy knew my news before everyone else :) :) :) :)

I've been stitching feverishly Thursday night, Friday night and all day yesterday to get all the cross stitches done.

I had one false start - I originally started this on the opalescent Silkweaver fabric fabric Wandering Ivy.  Unfortunately the pink was far too garish so I unpicked and started again on ordinary white Wichelt linen.

The backstitching was supposed to be done in DMC310 Perle 5.  Instead I chose to do it in three strands of Carrie's limited edition Dark Seaweed.

Unfortunately I don't think the wording stands out enough on the darker colours - so I am considering ripping out the part I had already done, and replacing it with something completely different - like perhaps a gold metallic?

I've left this to ponder on for a day or so and gone back to working on the border of BoInk instead ....

However as an aside, this has helped me kit up Croakworth!  Tracy RAKed me with Croakworth in the same package.  I've decided to do Croakworth on the Silkweaver Opalescent Wandering Ivy, stitched with predominantly Carrie's Limited edition Dark Seaweed, with touches of Sea Green.   Its all here together thanks to the engagement stitching.  Now just to hope that two skeins of Dark Seaweed on 2 over 2 on 32ct is enough to do all of Croakworth .....

Hmm I think I thus have my next project lined up too .... well after Mariann's Hardanger kit and .....

Nooo - not enough time ..... why do I need to go to work for 40 hours a week?  And housework - why does the housework need to be done?  And the washing and the cooking and ......

Engagement stitching

This is how I believe it would look on the wall and I just don't think there's enough colour difference. So I'm going to have to frog the Dark Seaweed and re stitch it. I was thinking perhaps a metallic gold?

For Better or For Worse
My Mark Designs