Sunday January 10, 2010

Ok, it's been 2 months, I'd better update with something! I've been busily stitching away, never lost that mojo, just the blogging one. Sorry folks.

As you can see by the photo (those who know me anyway) I had my hair lopped off a month ago. It's all the fault of Rene la Frog! She's an online buddy from my Yahoo group ILCS. She had hair about the same length as mine, and she looked so good when she got hers cut off! I'm not happy with mine though, and will be growing it back again.

DH took a trip up to Queensland for a week in November, to attend a surprise 60th birthday party for his older sister. I missed him while he was gone, but DS kept me company most of the days he was gone. A couple of weeks after he got back, he and I both went to Dapto for a special visit. We presented his sister with her birthday present that I stitched for her. It was well received. It was up on her wall that very night, lol. It was nice travelling, the countryside was still so brown, drought conditions still prevail, but going up through the mountains towards the coast, everything was lush and green. It made a lovely change to what I see every day here!

The trip down the other side of the mountain, at Macquarie Pass, was absolutely terrifying to me though! It seemed like we made the 15km descent in about 2 seconds flat! Aaaarrrggghhh!!!

I'm not fond of the Pass at all.

Healthwise, things are going pretty much the same as usual, I go into hospital at the end of this month for a day procedure, hopefully the results will be ok. It's a procedure I should have had done 10 years ago, with the family history of certain cancers. But, it's all booked now, just want to get it over with.

On the stitchy side

I'm stitching on 2 projects at the moment, both BAPs. L&L's Angel of Grace is going slowly, I'm up to a heap of white at the moment. I pick it up once every couple of weeks, to keep DH happy.

The main piece I'm working on is my Mystic Stitch pattern - Chrysella. I'm about 7.5% done on her, which doesn't sound like a real lot, but parts of the actual picture are starting to show up! It's surprising just how much background there is in a 24 page pattern! I'll try to get photos later.

Making things easier now is my new Q-snap frame. I ordered it between Christmas and New Year, and it arrived in the mail the first postal service after the New Year. Now that's FAST!!!

Talking of the New Year, I'd like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year, I hope it's a lot better than last year was for you all.

Wish List

Well I've finally done myself a Wish List. It's only from the one website so far, Mystic Stitch. This link goes to my wish list, not the Mystic Stitch site! The site is here. The patterns are so beautiful, it was hard controlling myself. The main thing that slowed me down was knowing the size of all the pieces, and knowing that if I bought every one that I wanted, I'd never get even half of them stitched!
I hope I haven't broken any copyright rules by publishing the pictures, I'm sure someone will let me know if I have, then I'd remove the pictures, and just make a written list, with a link to the site of course!
I hope you enjoy looking through them. My DH even liked the one called 'Disconnected'. He's originally from England, so if you look at the picture, you'll see why he liked it!
I managed to buy one of the kits off eBay last week, and it arrived in yesterday's mail. It is 'Chrysella', and it will be started not too long after I finish my 'Angel of Grace'. I still have at least 3 weeks of solid stitching to go on Angel, so Chrysella is now in a safe place.
Have a good week everyone!

Happy Hot November!

Okay, we're now into November, 2 days in a row 37 and 38 deg Celsius (about 98F).

As promised, here is the photo of my current WIP, Angel of Grace, by Lavender & Lace. If you click on the picture it will "bigify", as one of my ILCS group friends likes to say. I'm really enjoying stitching on her. She's being done on 32 count Belfast Linen, 2 over 2, with DMC threads only.

Got a phone call from the DS today, his laundry bag is full. So I popped down town first to get some felt, to make my eyeglass case with the wolf 'bookmark', then around to his place to get his laundry and bring it home to wash for him tomorrow. I know, we spoil him!

Nothing else happened here in the last couple of days, so will sign off.

Love and hugs to all

Vicki

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it

okay, it's only been a couple of days, but I'm feeling a little bit talkative right this minute. (That may change at any time! lol)
I've started a new stitching project (of course), this time I'm doing Guardian Angel, by Lavender & Lace. I'll take a piccy of it later tonight.
I have a couple of Barbara Baatz Angels ready to go all bar the Kreinik threads. Having trouble finding them at a decent price online, especially the shipping costs to Australia. I might have to just bite the bullet and head into Parkes, the next town over, and see if the lovely Vanessa at the LNS can order them in for me. Of course that will mean an extra trip into Parkes when they arrive!
On the Education front, I'm finally making a bit of headway with my Cert 3 in Information Technology course. The module I'm on, part 2 of assignment 3, I had to install Windows 7 on a computer at Tafe, and it sort of put me out a bit, and I forgot how to do my research for the other assignments! However this past week, I'm back on track. Got a lot of research done, a lot of writing and typing, and DS Tom even did some typing for me yesterday. He's so fast! One little typing test he did, he got up to 123.6 wpm!!!! Freaky!
He should go for a job as a typist! Way beats my 67 or so wpm. And it would be indoors, which he wants, as he burns very easily in the sun. I would love it if he could get any job at all....
I heard from my DM the other night, so now I know she's out of hospital. I didn't find out she was even in hospital until I read it on Facebook! Not good! I phoned my sister up, as she lives in the same town as Mum, and had a go at her about that. My stepfather thought he'd lost her this time, when the doctors and nurses were talking about putting her on life support! Apparently she's having trouble with her breathing. She went through a bad time with cancer over the last year and a bit, or is it longer? I totally have no concept of time. She also has emphysemia (sp?). If we get bad colds or any other virus, we don't go anywhere near her. I love you Mum!
I might not be able to get to Dubbo to visit as often as I'd like, but my love goes across the miles permanently to you.
Okay, starting to get a bit soppy here, so signing off for now.
Everyone have a great day, and to those who celebrate Halloween, enjoy!

27 October, Post #3

I almost forgot to take pics of this one! I can finally show it on a blog, as my SIL doesn't know about this blog yet, and won't know about it until after her birthday on 22 November! This is for her 60th birthday, and she asked me to do a stitched piece for her, with no special theme in mind. I had bought this pattern not too long before her request, and both DH and I thought it would be perfect for her. I hope she really likes it.

I changed the wording at the top from 'Our Country Home', as she lives in a coastal city. So I thought 'Home Sweet Home' would be much more appropriate.

Stitching 27/10/09

Continuing from my previous post earlier this afternoon, I've taken a couple of pictures as promised.

This is my finished Shades of Pink and Gold, a Semco kit that my younger sister Judy gave to me for either Christmas or birthday, I can't remember which. I don't normally do flowers, but then again, I don't really have any theme I stick to yet. I was thinking of making it into a footstool cover, but I now think it's too pretty to have feet on it all the time :) What do you think?

The next picture is a Wolf bookmark. I got the pattern from Artecy. There were a lot of confetti stitches in this one, but the end result is pretty good, I think. Thank you, Artecy for the pattern.

I joined Artecy a short while back, and I think it was worth every cent! They have the most beautiful patterns, ranging from small motifs, to huge art works! I love going through their patterns, and know I'll never have the time to do all the ones that I want to do in this lifetime or the next.

Tuesday, 27 October 2009, my first Blogger Blog!

Hi there! I have another blog, but have decided to go Blogger as well for now. I'll see how it goes and possibly stop using the other one, which is http://ausswan.multiply.com/
Anything I've posted before today will be left on Multiply. I've done some stitching in the last week or more since I wrote on the other blog, I'll post pictures very soon.
We've had some upset and joy, illness, recovery, in the last week and a bit.
Saturday before last our dog, Rex, who stays at our son's home, was stolen from his back yard. He is a gorgeous little dog, and we thought he was taken to be turned into a fighting dog or something. But Monday, I had a little poster made up, and put it in the window of our local takeaway, Roberty Bob's. Come 5pm, I got a phone call from a man who said he'd seen a dog just like our photos, sitting on the front step of the hospital, way over on the other side of town. So we all jumped in the car, raced over to the hospital, searched the hospital grounds, calling out to Rex, asked everyone we saw if they'd seen him. Just as I was headed out to the car again, where DH and DS were waiting by then, I saw a black dog in a neighbouring street, following a man across the road. I pointed up the street, and DS jumped out of the car, closely followed by DH. They went up the street maybe 2 houses up, and what do you know? It WAS our Rex! I immediately went back to the hospital, thanked the staff there for offering to keep an eye out for us, then we went to the store, bought him a new collar, as both collars he'd been wearing were gone. We also got a chain and a couple of padlocks for his gate at home! Yay! Happy ending for that one!
On the health front, I had a bit of scare the same weekend. I had a severe dizzy spell in the shower Friday night, didn't think too much of it at the time. Went off to bed that night, early. Next morning I was still extremely dizzy, felt like I was walking on a slant. A couple of other things were wrong, but I'm not putting what they were here, not till I get it checked by the doctor, which I can't do till next month. DH and DS were a bit worried about me, I ended up spending almost all day in bed, which is highly unusual for me. Not one 'x' was stitched that day, which is also unusual. On Sunday I was fine again, but it certainly was scary! If it happens again, it will be up to the hospital to get it checked out! Been okay since then, so hopefully it was a one off.
My goodness, I've rambled on a bit, and no pics to show just yet....
I'll have to get off my butt and take a couple of pics, to show what I'm all about!
Love ya's, bye for now!
Vicki