Saturday, April 29, 2006

A couple of finishes :)


The Love Tree ornament is finished ... well sort of :) I just need to put on the beads once I've gone through my stash and decided what colour to use. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it once the beading is done so it will probably sit in my finishing box for a bit :)

I also finished reading Guilty Pleasures a couple of days ago. As I predicted I went out and bought the next one in the series, The Laughing Corpse, and made a start on it today while waiting for Caitlin to finish her piano lesson.

Emirates Post was nice to me today :) I'd ordered a few things from Karen at Dragonfly Dreams during her Easter sale ... Dinky Dyes The Dreaming chart, a fat quarter of Ivory 40 count linen and some Dinky Dyes silks - Outback, Red Dust, Desert Sands, Nutwood, Nullabor and Aussie Jewels.

I was tempted to start The Dreaming straight away but I still haven't quite decided which silks to use yet so I started An Open Heart instead - lol! Not much to see yet but I plan to get a bit more done on it tonight so I'll try and post a pic tomorrow.

I've also been on a bit of stash buying spree the past couple of days! I ordered some more silks from Karen - Gloriana Red Clay - which I am planning to stitch one of my Long Dog Samplers with. Which one I'm not completely sure but at this stage I am leaning more towards St Georges. I also ordered Mirabilia's Petal Fairy and Bliss Fairy from Naomi at Stitches & Spice along with the embellishment packs and three fat quarters of 32 count Belfast - Jacaranda Haze, Peacock Fantasy and Dawn Light. I couldn't make up my mind so I just ordered all three - lol!

I guess I'd better stop procrastinating about all this stitching I should be doing and actually get down and do it - lol! On that note, I'm off to settle in front of NCIS with AOH :)

Monday, April 24, 2006

No stitching for me today ...

well, not so far anyway :)

I dropped the kids off at school and headed off to do the grocery shopping, came home, put it all away, turned on my computer, caught up on some emails and blogs, then buried myself in the book I started yesterday and that's pretty much my day :)

The book that has caught my attention, Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton. It's the first book in a series about vampires and zombies - the main character is an animator and vampire hunter. If you are not into these sorts of themes then this isn't for you :)

Luckily for my stitching it is only a short book and I should have it finished by tonight, so I should be back to my normal stitching routine tomorrow. Provided I don't go and get the second book in the series and start on that!! I am a bit of a bookworm but I tend to read in phases, and I haven't had a good reading phase for a while so I guess I'm overdue for one :)

With regards to stitching, I have this overwhelming urge to go on a serial starting frenzy and start everything I have kitted up (and even some that I haven't!) ... not good!! Hopefully after my reading binge that will have quietened down!

Before I go, thank you all for kind comments about my Love Tree ornament and Merrick as well. I appreciate them all :)

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Love Tree

Just a quick post today as we are expecting a two hour power outage today ... anywhere between 10am and 5pm!

It's almost 10am so here's my progress on the Love Tree ornament ... almost done :)



Better get this computer turned off! At least I should get a fair amount of stitching done today without being distracted by this thing - lol!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

More on Robbie and some pics :)

I'm very tired today but honestly last night's show was excellent! He was funny, chatty, entertaining and in his words "did good singing" :) We had good seats - I was glad we were up in the stand and not down in the standing areas. I am quite small so I could just imagine being stuck under someone's smelly armpit for the night and not able to see a thing -lol! Being in the stand was well worth the extra dirhams :) Okay, so you don't get the chance of getting up close to the performer but heck I'm too old for that kind of thing nowadays and there were plenty of younger and more nubile ladies to catch his eye - lol!

No pics of Robbie unfortunately as we weren't allowed to take cameras in ... not that they did a good job of stopping that though. One woman in front of us was videotaping the whole concert. Personally I'd rather watch and get into the groove than be bothered trying to get it all on film :P Each to their own I suppose :)

Anyway, this is a pic of the small WIP I started the other night ...


Love Tree Ornament by M Designs - Stitched on 'Pink Diamonds' 28ct Cashel Kiwi Sparkles from Country Stitch with 'Strawberry Mousse' Limited Edition silk by Dinky Dyes.

It's an enjoyable stitch but it is tempting me to start one of my Long Dog samplers!! I have Rosemarkie and St Georges pushing their way up my "to do" queue!! Thankfully, I don't have enough of any one of my silks otherwise I would have started one of them by now!! Instead I ordered Dinky Dyes' 'The Dreaming' and an assortment of DD silks from Karen to stitch it ... it won't take as long as one of the Long Dog designs - lol! It also gives me time to ponder what threads to use when I do get around to stitching one of them ;)

Okay, more pictures ...


Shimmer (Selina Fenech/Heaven & Earth Designs) - Progress as at 20 April 2006


Fire (Sara Butcher/Heaven & Earth Designs) - Progress as at 21 April 2006

I decided to move down on to the third page and make a start on her face :)

Back to Robbie - just took a couple of pics of my wrist band from last night with pics from this morning's paper :) So you get Robbie pics after all - lol!

These are both courtesy of the Emirates Today newspaper ...



He was boiling in that jacket but he never took it off ... except to change into a very unflattering track suit for the last two songs :)

Enjoy the eye candy - I'm off to stitch!

Just got back from the Robbie Williams concert ...

one word ... brilliant!

Now I need to go and sleep :)

Friday, April 21, 2006

Apparently I need some humour in my daily life ...

so some thoughtful soul subscribed me to a Humour Club on Yahoo Groups - a US Armed Forces one no less. Hmmmm, I have two kids, a husband and a dog ... it's a laugh a minute in this household so I don't need any more humour in my daily life thank you very much!! I unsubscribed :)

On the stitching front, I've done a little on Shimmer and Fire and started a new small WIP. It's the Love Tree Ornament from M Designs. While searching through my stash looking for some needles I thought I had (which I didn't find by the way!) I came across some of my Dinky Dyes silks and I had this overwhelming desire to stitch something with one of them - lol!

No pics today though. I need to go and take the dog for her walk and then get ready to head out to the Robbie Williams' concert. I will try to upload some pics tomorrow :)

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Woohoo!!

Robbie Williams is coming here to do a concert on 21st April and I'm going to see him!!! Tickets were sold out within a few hours on the first day of sale although another 2500 (standing only) were released last week. They are pretty much gone too now though. So when Ken got an email from a work colleague last night to say that she had two spare tickets (seats) and were we interested, my response was a no brainer!! Of course, Ken is not a fan but I rang a friend who will happily come with me :) I haven't been to a concert in ages and I've never seen Robbie live so I'm looking forward to it immensely!

I'm off to load up his CD in the disc player in the car so I can drive everyone mad singing along while we are out and about today - lol!!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Merrick



Here he is in all his glory so far :)

Just a short post tonight ... my eyes are drooping and I need to go sleep! It's been a big day!!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Spring Break

I've been a bit quiet this past week or so - I've been a little busy and I honestly don't know where the time has gone!

Things on the stitching front have been quiet too! Put a few stitches in Fire last week but nothing much to really rave over and certainly not worth taking a pic of :) The kids are on spring break at the moment and my in-laws are also here so my stitching time during the day has been fairly limited. I did dig out an old WIP the other day to take down to the pool so I could stitch while the kids were swimming. Leonie, if you are reading this you will be shocked to learn that Merrick has made a reappearance - lol! It has large blocks of colour and is easier to concentrate on instead of my over one projects. I will take a pic of my progress when I get a chance and upload later.

I finally received my fabric for The Drawn Thread's 'An Open Heart' yesterday so Carol, I will be ready to start this soon. I think I may wait until after my in-laws have gone and the children have gone back to school though which isn't until after Easter.

I also received my Limited Edition Spring pack from Dinky Dyes - lovely as usual - plus the Scentual Pleasures Dyers' Collaboration Pack from Country Stitch. Again, some really nice threads and fabric to add to my collections :)

I have a house full of kids today and the siblings are starting to annoy each other so I think it's time I took them to the pool for a swim!!! Shall take Merrick for another outing :)