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

Joining In .....

I am a sheep .....

The Rules:
A.) Go to http://musicoutfitters.com/
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs IN THE US of that year (the top link).
C.) Green the songs you like,  Red the ones you REALLY hate.

So I simplified the rules ..... anything not green or red I can't remember or don't care about or simply don't know.

I graduated High School (Secondary school, college, what have you) in 1989.

1. Look Away, Chicago
2. My Prerogative, Bobby Brown
3. Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Poison
4. Straight Up, Paula Abdul
5. Miss You Much, Janet Jackson
6. Cold Hearted, Paula Abdul
7. Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler
8. Girl You Know Its True, Milli Vanilli
9. Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird, Will To Power
10. Giving You The Best That I Got, Anita Baker
11. Right Here Waiting, Richard Marx
12. Waiting For A Star To Fall, Boy Meets Girl
13. Lost In Your Eyes, Debbie Gibson
14. Don't Wanna Lose You, Gloria Estefan
15. Heaven, Warrant
16. Girl I'm Gonna Miss You, Milli Vanilli
17. The Look, Roxette
18. She Drives Me Crazy, Fine Young Cannibals
19. On Our Own, Bobby Brown
20. Two Hearts, Phil Collins
21. Blame It On The Rain, Milli Vanilli
22. Listen To Your Heart, Roxette
23. I'll Be There For You, Bon Jovi
24. If You Don't Know Me By Now, Simply Red
25. Like A Prayer, Madonna
26. I'll Be Loving You (Forever), New Kids On The Block
27. How Can I Fall?, Breathe
28. Baby Don't Forget My Number, Milli Vanilli
29. Toy Solider, Martika
30. Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul
31. The Living Years, Mike + the Mechanics
32. Eternal Flame, The Bangles
33. Wild Thing, Tone Loc
34. When I See You Smile, Bad English
35. If I Could Turn Back Time, Cher
36. Buffalo Stance, Neneh Cherry
37. When I'm With You, Sheriff
38. Don't Rush Me, Taylor Dayne
39. Born To Be My Baby, Bon Jovi
40. Good Thing, Fine Young Cannibals
41. The Lover In Me, Sheena Easton
42. Bust A Move, Young M.C.
43. Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Great White
44. Batdance, Prince
45. Rock On, Michael Damian
46. Real Lov, Jody Watley
47. Love Shack, B-52's
48. Every Little Step, Bobby Brown
49. Hangin' Tough, New Kids On The Block
50. My Heart Can't Tell You No, Rod Stewart
51. So Alive, Love and Rockets
52. You Got It (The Right Stuff), New Kids On The Block
53. Armageddon It, Def Leppard
54. Satisfied, Richard Marx
55. Express Yourself, Madonna
56. I Like It, Dino
57. Soldier Of Love, Donny Osmond
58. Sowing The Seeds Of Love, Tears For Fears
59. Cherish, Madonna
60. When The Children Cry, White Lion
61. 18 And Life, Skid Row
62. I Don't Want Your Love, Duran Duran
63. Second Chances, .38 Special
64. The Way You Love Me, Karyn White
65. Funky Cold Medina, Tone Loc
66. In Your Room, Bangles
67. Miss You Like Crazy, Natalie Cole
68. Love Song, Cure
69. Secret Rendesvous, Karyn White
70. Angel Eyes, Jeff Healey Band
71. Patience, Guns N' Roses
72. Walk On Water, Eddie Money
73. Cover Girl, New Kids On The Block
74. Welcom To The Jungle, Guns N' Roses
75. Shower Me With Your Love, Surface
76. Stand, R.E.M.
77. Close My Eyes Forever, Lita Ford
78. All This Time, Tiffany
79. After All, Cher and Peter Cetera
80. Roni, Bobby Brown
81. Love In An Elevator, Aerosmith
82. Lay Your Hands On Me, Bon Jovi
83. This Promise, When In Rome
84. What I Am, Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians
85. I Remember Holding You, Boys Club
86. Paradise City, Guns N' Roses
87. Iwanna Have Some Fun, Samantha Fox
88. She Wants To Dance With Me, Rick Astley
89. Dreamin', Vanessa Williams
90. It's No Crime, Babyface
91. Poison, Alice Cooper
92. This Time I Know It's For Real, Donna Summer
93. Smooth Criminal, Michael Jackson
94. Heavan Help Me, Deon Estus
95. Rock Wit'cha, Bobby Brown
96. Thinking Of You, Sa-fire
97. What You Don't Know, Expose
98. Surrender To Me, Ann Wilson and Robin Zander
99. The End Of The Innocence, Don Henley
100. Keep On Movin', Soul II Soul

Make sure you are sitting down

before you click on the LINK ....