Do you think it's big enough?

I probably need to reword that title but it's all I could come up with at the moment :)

This is what the kids and I came home to this afternoon - lol!

Some background to this picture ... Ken came home a few days ago and said while he was running around getting our vehicles re-registered (not a simple task here!) he noticed an outdoor garden furniture place that was closing down with discounts of up to 70% off. Because we have been wanting some sort of shade structure for our back yard he went in to have a look. What you see above is the result of that look - lol! A 5m heavy duty shade umbrella ... yep five metres!! It's huge! Covers our patio area quite nicely though :). He also picked up a nice wooden setting (table and four chairs) for an unbelievably cheap price which we will probably put up on our upstairs balcony. Ken has his end of semester Arabic test tonight so he took a study day which meant he was home for the delivery.

Heather, I probably managed about 500 stitches during the HAED SAL all up myself. That's not bad progress but not as much as I would usually do. I just kept finding other things to do instead of stitching this weekend :) Anyway, Girly Gothic is back on the frame and I managed to put a nice block of stitches in her last night. I had grocery shopping and Caitlin's school trousers (had to get them made to measure) to collect today so I haven't been home much. I did do a little on her this afternoon and I'm sure I will manage a bit more after dinner tonight :) I definitely won't be reaching my goal of getting her finished by month's end though.

Oh, and I don't think I answered your comment about me wanting to learn Arabic so I'll do that now. I would like to learn some Arabic but I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to learning languages - I really struggle to retain the simplest of phrases! I think if English wasn't so widely spoken here then I would be forced to learn (and use) Arabic - at least enough to get me by. The course DH is doing is very intensive - he is learning to read, write and say it - and it just about does my head in when he tries to explain some of the quirks of the language to me :) It will help him with his work but I don't think it's the course for me. I believe there are a couple of good PC programs about so I will have to check them out next time I'm at the mall.

Now, Leonie, can you really see me as a OAATer? I must admit I have surprised myself by staying with Girly Gothic as long as I have but I have so many lined up to start when I'm finished with her, that I can see myself earning a Serial Starter blinkie before too long !

I'm not sure why I couldn't get into Small Things. I am wondering if it's the fabric (a 28 ct hand-dyed opalescent). I really hope not as it's such a pretty fabric!

Cathy and Von, thanks for your comments - you are both sweet :)

Oh, and Cathy, I'm thinking of joining the "finish 10, 25 or 50 projects before buying any more stash" too. Please note that I put the emphasis on "thinking" though - lol! Like you, most of my projects are BAPs so if I'm going to attempt this challenge then I would start with 10 and go from there :)

Right, I'm off to get the kiddos some ice cream and myself a cuppa then I'm heading for my stitching chair :)

Small Things

I give up on Blogger Photos!

Before:

by mel_w

After:

by mel_w

Didn't really do a lot - just couldn't get into it.

Girly Gothic will be back in the frame tonight :) Need to make up for lost time!

I finally got to meet Lisa yesterday too!! We didn't do any stitching but had a nice time chatting away :) Next time we'll try to put some stitches in - lol!

The HAED UFO SAL begins

I started working on Small Things for the start of the HAED UFO SAL yesterday. I had planned to divide my time between Small Things and Shimmer but I've decided to restart Shimmer. I'm just not very happy with my stitching on her and I haven't done a lot so I'll start her again on 25 ct this time rather than 28 ct.

Blogger Photos is being uncooperative again (was too good to last!) so I'll upload before and after SAL photos of Small Things on Tuesday morning after the SAL finishes.

Thank you ladies (Leonie, Anne & Von) for making me feel better about saying no to being class mum. I don't know if they have managed to find one yet but then again I haven't been hanging around the school much lately to know! All the moaning and bitching and in-school politics drove me batty last year and I just know I don't want any part of it again this year. My children are happy, they are learning and that's all that matters really :)

Bits and pieces :)

It was QS Wednesday on the HAED BB yesterday so I just continued on with Girly Gothic :) I have the outline of her right eye done, filled in some more background and started on her other ponytail. I will try to remember to take an updated pic later today.

Tomorrow is the first day of the HAED UFO SAL which goes through to midnight Monday. I don't really have any HAED UFOs as such but I do have WIPs that haven't been worked on for quite some time so I have decided to participate in the SAL. At the moment it's a toss-up between Shimmer and Small Things - both have been calling to me lately. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I could do two days on Shimmer and the other two on Small Things ... depending upon how much actual stitching time I get over the next four days, that might work out well.

I think I'm in the running for the bad parent of the year award ... again! At DD's "Hopes & Dreams" conference the other week her teacher asked if I would be interested in being the class parent. I said no (which is a big thing for me!). I am happy to help out with field trips and activities in the class room that need parental involvement but I don't think I'm suited to the role of class parent. I did it for DD's class last year (I have a hard time saying "no") but didn't overly enjoy the experience. I'm not really an outgoing social organisey type of person - I was incredibly shy as a child and still can be. Big social events scare the hell out of me particularly if they are corporate functions and you need to be on your best behaviour! I'm not good at small talk, schmoozing or mingling! Anyway, DD bought home a flyer from the Parent's Association yesterday saying that her class still didn't have a class parent so now I'm feeling bad for my child and wavering *sigh*.

It appears that I can now leave comments on non beta blogs - yay! I shall have to spend some time catching up :)

Every now and then we treat the dog to a proper spruce up and have the mobile dog grooming van pay us a visit. She gets a good pampering and at the end of each visit the Shampooch lady loosely ties a cute little bandana around the dog's neck. Because Tikki is so camera shy this is not a very good shot as I had to stand at the other end of the house and zoom in on her, but you can see the bandana :) Very cute!


Woo hoo! Blogger photos worked this time!! Obviously the trick is to add your photos first before typing anything!

She's not very happy with me at the moment because I'm heating up some left over spaghetti bolognaise for my lunch which means she misses out :) Any left overs still in the fridge at the end of the week get served up to Tikki - she hasn't done too well this week - lol!

Right, well by the time I have lunch it will be time to collect the kids from school so I'd better get on with it. I need to work out what we are going to have for dinner as well. Caitlin has a birthday party to go to this evening and DH has Arabic so it is just me and Liam tonight. Something quick and simple I think :)

Thank you :)

For all the lovely comments on my Girly Gothic progress - they mean a lot and are great motivators :) I just wish beta Blogger would hurry up and enable me to start commenting on non-beta blogs again so I can repay the compliments!!

Came across this ...

on Kim's blog :)

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

I think I'll leave it at that and go back to stitching - lol!

Update on Girly Gothic QS - Page 2 is done!

by mel_w

If I am to achieve my goal of finishing her this month, I'd better get a move on!!

He's back!

Yep, that pesky little frog paid me another visit yesterday! Thankfully I caught the mistake early and there weren't too many stitches to be ripped out :) I'm on a CSI thing at the moment and after watching CSI:Miami on TVLand and then catching a rerun of a Season 4 episode on America Plus I decided to pop one of my Season 1 DVDs in the player! No wonder the frog paid me another visit - I would have been distracted more than usual :)

Friday is a lazy day in our house - it's the first day of our weekend so we usually chill in front of the telly or potter around doing odd bits and pieces. Today I plan to continue working on GG's bodice and watch a movie or two, and maybe update the songs on my iPod so I've got something new to listen to when I walk the dog each morning :) Oh, and no doubt there will be some minor household chores thrown in like laundry and mealtimes.

No photos of my stitching progress so I'll leave you with this one instead.


by mel_w

Argh! I really do NOT like Blogger photos!!

We don't get much rain here but we do get dust storms! This is the state of my truck a couple of hours after it had been washed! See all the dust on the windscreen? Ah well, such is life here :)

Hopefully I'll be back later with an updated pic of GG!

How to lead a glamorous life

by acquiring a copy of the latest The Sims 2 "stuff" pack, Glamour Life, that's how! Yes, the reason for my lack of posts lately is that I have been sucked into the Simverse glamming up the lives of my Sims :) Sleep is highly over-rated - lol!

So, because I have done little or no stitching for a couple of days, the second page of Girly Gothic is not yet completed (tsk, tsk!). I did spend some time with her yesterday and last night and very briefly this morning so it is getting closer. The rugrats finished at noon today (and again tomorrow) for "Hopes and Dreams" conferences with their teachers. I had both of mine this afternoon and the house is clean so I should get a couple of hours in tomorrow afternoon ... if I can stay away from the computer - lol!

Rip-it, rip-it!

Yep, the delightful and charming Frog Prince paid me a visit yesterday. Not once, but twice!! In the morning I discovered that I'd used the wrong colour in her choker the night before so had to rip that out. Then last night I discovered that I'd miscalculated when gridding the page outlines and was out by about three rows at the bottom. Thankfully it hasn't affected what I've done so far but of course I had stitched a section in the bottom left hand corner hadn't I?

Note to self - do not stitch dark colours at night whilst very tired and with Underworld on the telly!

Anyway, the offending stitches have been sorted and I have restitched all that I had to pull out plus a little bit more :) Hopefully there will be no more visits from the Frog Prince for quite some time.

I am hoping to have Page 2 finished over the weekend so look for an update on Sunday.

I believe people are having trouble leaving comments? My apologies but I think it is a Blogger thing as I also cannot leave comments on non-Beta blogs. Hopefully this feature will be added soon.

In other news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Peter Brock who was killed in a rally crash outside of Perth, WA today. I have been a Holden girl ever since I can remember and I was a big fan of Brock growing up. Very sad and I feel for his family.

A quick Girly Gothic QS update ...

This was my progress this afternoon - she has a wing! I've done a bit more since this picture was taken but won't take another picture now until I've finished the second page :)



uploaded by mel_w

Yep, Blogger photos is again refusing to co-operate!

RIP Steve Irwin

I was shocked to hear the news yesterday of Steve Irwin's (aka The Crocodile Hunter) death. Whilst I wasn't particularly fond of his show he did a lot for Aussie tourism and he will be missed. My thoughts go to his family at this terrible time.

I am such a ditz - lol!

Thanks to a tip from Lisa I popped in to the local supermarket this morning after dropping the kids at school and bought myself a Philips energy saving bulb for my lamp. It works beautifully!! Honestly I don't know why I thought I had to use the specific Daylight Co bulbs?! As long as I use the correct wattage and end cap fitting I should be able to use any type really. Anyway, I still have two Daylight ones coming from Sew & So - they are in transit so I cannot cancel the order now. Now that I will have plenty of spares the Philips one will probably last forever - lol!!

As I mentioned briefly before the children went back to school today. Both of them were a little nervous as they didn't know who their teachers were or if any of their friends from last year would be in the same class. School starts at 7.40am and it is only a five minute drive away so we left home at our usual time of 7.30am. We would have been better off walking!! There were cars everywhere and we had to park off-road in the sand a little distance from the school and walk (I love my truck! I know 4x4's have a bad name but out here with all the roadworks and construction going on they are very useful!). This is the second year the school has been opened and it only went up to Grade 9 last year. This year the high school is open so there has been quite an increase in children attending, hence the increase in traffic! I'm sure it will settle down in a couple of days.

Once inside things were quite calm compared to the chaos outside :) All the class lists were pinned up on boards just outside the admin office in year levels. We found where the kids had to go quite quickly. I introduced myself to each of their teachers (they are both new to the school) and then left them to it. Caitlin looked a bit lost when I left her - one of her friends from last year and who is going to be in her class this year (according to the list) hadn't arrived yet. She will have made friends with the other girls by the end of the day though I'm sure :) Liam had three friends from last year in his class and they had saved a seat for him so he was pleased. I am sure I will hear all about it this afternoon when I go to collect them. Hmmm, maybe I should leave now - lol!

The new sofa for upstairs was delivered this morning - a nice bright cheery yellow :) I need to move a couple more things around this afternoon then I will take an updated pic. The guys that delivered it for me were very kind and took the old uncomfortable sofa bed downstairs for me as well. They ended up taking it with them as we didn't want it and were only going to put it outside with a "Free to take away" sign. K will be pleased :)

My brother sent some more photos of my nephew through today so I will leave you with this one of my niece playing big sister :)


uploaded by mel_w

*As usual Blogger won't let me upload photos so this is from Webshots.

September Goal

To finish Girly Gothic QS :) Haven't had a great track record in the past with keeping to goals so this should be interesting - lol!

HAED are having a Labor Day Sale (thanks, Anon!) which will be a temptation to purchase and start something new and of course put my September goal in jeopardy! I haven't purchased anything yet as I like to wait until the last day to make sure I catch all the new releases :) No doubt there will be something!

Thank you for commiserating with me about my lamp :) A big thank you also to Heather for offering to get me some replacement bulbs - I'm okay for now though. I have two on their way from the wonderful people at Sew & So so hopefully they should get here in the next week (but the way the mail has been going lately it will more likely be closer to two!). I have a back-up portable Ott-Lite and I am managing with that in the interim. As Anne has suggested I will just have to stitch more during the day :)

Two more sleeps and then it is back to school for the kids. I will be spending some time tomorrow making sure everything is labelled, especially the new stuff, and making sure their bags are all packed and ready to go for Monday morning. Shouldn't take too long. Then I will also at some point during the day need to set to and re-arrange the upstairs activity area. We have a new couch being delivered Monday AM and we've decided to change the current layout around.

Looks like I've got a couple of busy days lined up :)