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 :)

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 :)

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!

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 :)

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 :)

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!!

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!!

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 :)

A small happy dance :)

I put the last stitch in page 1 of Small Things this morning - woo hoo! Now I can move on to Fire this afternoon :)



I was up at 6.10am this morning. Nothing unusual for a Friday morning for the majority of the world except for us here getting up at 6.10am on a Friday morning is like getting up at 6.10am on a Sunday morning!!

What made me get up at the crack of dawn on a weekend? Well, I woke suddenly thinking I heard a noise downstairs. We had a few sprinkles of rain last night so I thought it might have been the dog scratching at the door because it decided to rain properly. Peeked out the window and thought yep, it's raining, got dressed, put my glasses on, bolted on downstairs only to look out the window and see that in fact it isn't raining at all - lol! That will teach me to look out the window without my glasses on!! The dog was quite happily curled up in her bed asleep so I got all excited about nothing it seems!

Anyway, I decided it wasn't worth going back to bed so I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and stitch. Hopefully I'll get some quiet time this afternoon as well and manage to make some good progress on Fire ... we shall see :)

A productive couple of days :)

Monday and Tuesday were good days! In between a few minor chores like laundry and taking the dog for walks, I managed to get to the 2400 stitches mark with Shimmer, and almost got close to finishing page 1 of Small Things :)



Yesterday I planned to stitch on Fire and possibly Snowflake but as usual other things took up my time and I only managed a few stitches in Small Things half an hour or so before picking the kids up from school. Well, actually it was only one child as the other was going to a friend's house for a sleepover :) We then had plans for dinner so no stitching for me last night. Hopefully tonight I'll manage a few stitches in Fire and then tomorrow maybe a few in Snowflake!

I actually pulled all my HAED wips out of their various hiding spots yesterday (I have six!!) and I am quite keen to get back to a couple of them. Maybe I should do that with some of my non-HAED wips as well - lol!

Right, well I'm being called for dinner (hubby cooked tonight - yay!) so I shall take my leave for now :)

Not quite the day I was planning on having!!

So much for having a peaceful day at home stitching away - ha!

Spent longer than usual chatting to another mum at school this morning which meant I didn't get home till 9am instead of 8am!! On arrival home Ken decides that my truck should go in for its 10,000 kms service (it's actually overdue). Fine but that means I have to follow him in his car and then drop him off at work. No problems.

Got home to be greeted by a maniac dog who was making it pretty clear that she hadn't been for her usual morning walk so I grab the lead and my iPod and off we go.

By the time we get back it is after 11am and I am starving as I hadn't had any breakfast! Decided to have an early lunch while in front of the computer catching up with emails, blogs, BBs etc.

Spent too much time on the computer and it had gone 12 noon when I remembered that my maid was coming in this afternoon and I hadn't finished sorting the laundry I'd done yesterday. Folded and put away what needed to be and then put the rest in the ironing basket. Then went around the house picking up and putting things away and generally tidying up. I'd pretty much given up the idea of getting any stitching done and it was almost time to go and collect the kids from school anyway!

Oh well, I should get some stitching time in tonight and since there's nothing on telly I may even get to watch Serenity!!

I did stitch last night but only on Shimmer - not much to show for my efforts though. I just couldn't get comfortable! That may have been because I was using my 11 inch Q-snaps instead of my smaller 8 inch ones. I'll switch them out tonight as I will more than likely end up stitching on her again, and see how I go about making more progress. I'll post an updated pic next time.

There was an upside to spending more time on the computer than I should have today. Made some minor improvements to my sidebar like adding links to the images I've added etc, and they actually work - lol! I have also updated my works in progress pics too :)

One last thing before I go - a big thank you to all of you who leave comments :) I really appreciate them!

Stitchy update :)

I finally managed to take a pic of my progress on Small Things this afternoon - haven't quite got the first page finished but am not far off. Didn't get a lot of stitching time in this weekend. I've been out and about today doing errands which means I can have a quiet stitching day at home tomorrow (once I've taken the kids to school and walked the dog!).

I managed to put some time in on Fire last night as well as a few stitches this morning before I headed out. She looks a bit skew-whiff in the pic but it's because I haven't loosened my Q-snaps :) I am not sure whether I will continue on her tonight though or pick up Shimmer. The latter has been neglected this week and I really want to get back to her but I am really keen to get the first page of Fire done too *sigh* ... decisions, decisions.

Tonight is NCIS night on telly so maybe I should work on Shimmer which has larger blocks of one colour (well, where I am on the chart at the moment there is!) while that's on and then go back to Fire where I am working on the detail stitches. Yes, I think that's what I will do :)

I tucked the fabric for Sea of Roses out of sight this afternoon so hopefully that will keep another start at bay ... for now - lol!! I need to get some stitches in on Medieval Town Mandala too - maybe I could devote the morning to Small Things and then put a few threads in on MTM in the afternoon?

My fabric for An Open Heart still hasn't arrived :( Last I checked it was on backorder waiting on shipment from supplier. I will check the status again tomorrow and if it hasn't changed I will send SB&B a quick email.

Oh, and I managed to find Serenity on DVD today while out doing my errands. Yay!! I found it in the DVD section in the little supermarket, of all places, where I do the bulk of my shopping!! Snapped it up in an heartbeat and I'll be watching it tomorrow for sure :) Guess I won't need to haunt Virgin every week now waiting for it to come in - lol! I bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this week too - had to go in to Carrefours to get some dog treats via the DVD section (of course!) and there it was - lol!

Now all I need to do is wait patiently for the Inspector Lynley Mysteries to come out on DVD and hope they find their way out here too :) Should think they will as there are a lot of BBC series on DVD available here.

Better go and get dinner happening!

I've been bad :)

Well, not as bad as I can be, but bad nonetheless - hee hee!

I started another project! I'm not quite sure how it happened as I was happy stitching along on Fire but it must have been the lure of the sparkley fabric, because next thing I knew I had started Small Things!! I started in the top left corner and have almost finished a wing tip. I will try and upload a pic later today.

I am also very tempted to start Sea of Roses as well - I can see the fabric I have chosen for it staring at me right now and it is making it difficult - lol! Perhaps I should put it out of sight for a while?!!

I survived shoe shopping for the kids last Friday - lol! We found something for Liam at the second store we tried but Caitlin took a bit longer because apparently it is off school shoe season here now and there wasn't much of a range. Oh, and then when we did find something she liked they didn't have her size *sigh*! Anyway, I think we hit pay dirt around the fourth or fifth store we went into so now all is well!

Caitlin has a friend coming over this afternoon and I'm taking them down to the pool. I'd better go and see which project I should take with me ... it's not as if I don't have a wide selection to choose from - lol!!

Ha! What was I thinking?!!

I did not get a chance to do any stitching on Wednesday! I was pretty much on the go all day and when I did sit down in the evening to work on Fire I nodded off before I even managed one stitch!!

Yesterday I fared no better but I did manage a few stitches this morning and hopefully some more tonight ... it depends on how tired I am! We're off shopping now - both kids need new shoes!

Awwww .... :)

aren't they cute? Looks like a certain dog has settled in to this household quite well - lol!

(Blogger is not cooperating tonight with the upload of photos so I've had to use Photobucket).

Pretty quiet day for me today ... same as most days really :) Took the kids to school, came home, filled the washer reservoir in the truck, hosed the vehicle down as well as it was really dusty, walked the dog, had breakfast and then that was about it. I did zap down to the nearest mall to go green clothes shopping for the kids before lunch though. They are having their St Patrick's Day tomorrow since Friday is part of the weekend here. As usual I bought a whole outfit for Caitlin and just a t-shirt for Liam - lol ... but then there wasn't a whole lot of choice :) Oh, and I also bought some face paint so I can paint shamrocks on their faces tomorrow morning!!

I did make a little more progress on Shimmer today as well. This is my progress after Days 5 & 6. She will be getting a little rest tomorrow as Wednesday is Quick Stitch SAL day on the HAED BB and Fire will be making an appearance instead :)


It will be interesting to see if I get any stitching done at all tomorrow though! I need to go and get my UAE driver's licence renewed which hopefully won't take long but you can never tell here!

I am then meeting a friend for coffee afterwards as I won't get to see her for a bit as she is heading back to Australia for a few weeks in a day or two. I also need to price laser printers for Ken to use when he works from home, and do a little grocery shopping. If I can get all that done and get home before lunch then I should be able to get one or two hours of stitching time in before school pick up.

Because it's the start of the weekend the kids usually on a Wednesday afternoon after school, go off and play with their friends who live down the street and I can sometimes get an hour's stitching in before starting on dinner. Not tomorrow unfortunately as Caitlin has a farewell party to go to after school and Liam has a doctor's appointment. Thankfully Ken will be home in time to take Liam as his appointment time clashes with Caitlin's party. I also don't know if I am expected to stay at the party with Caitlin either?

Guess I will find out tomorrow afternoon!

Got bored :)

Hence the new look for my blog :) It has been causing me some grief today though - not sure if it is a Blogger issue or an operator issue - lol! Anyway, I may change the look again if I still have problems!

Coffee Cup & Coaster Challenge :)

I came across this challenge on AnneS's blog this afternoon and apparently it is a popular challenge at the moment - I've seen it on a few other blogs this afternoon too. I thought I'd join in on the fun :) My challenge is a little different though in that I don't generally drink coffee - I'm more of a tea person ... English Breakfast or Green Tea with Lemon usually :)

Anyway, here are my mugs! The one on the left I use mostly for my green tea or if I don't have much time (which is usually in the mornings before the school run!). The coaster it is sitting on is from Ikea - there wasn't much of a choice when we purchased those! The mug on the right is from a set of six. The design is called "Kelim Camel" by a Dubai-based artist called Susan Walpole. I quite like camels and given that we are living in the Middle East thought these were rather appropriate :) The red coaster is again from Ikea :) They had a bit more of a choice this time! They went well with the other groovy desk accessories I'd bought ! They all went perfectly with my red office chair :) You see, when I set up my corner of the study the only chair that I liked was red so I just used that the theme for my accessorising!

Okay, now onto to stitching :) I haven't had as much time on Shimmer as I'd like the past couple of days - life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes! Tonight holds promise though and of course tomorrow also promises to be a quiet day so I should get a heap more done then :)

That's all from me for now ... need to do the taxi-mum thing and drop Caitlin's friend home!

Shimmer - Day 2

Not much else from me today - I'm in Shimmer mode - lol!

A stitchy Fire update and a new start!

It seems I caused Keryn a bit of concern with my last post title - lol! So sorry, Keryn, and thanks for dropping by!

Speaking of Fire, here's my latest progress pic. I have been working on her pretty much all week and am really pleased with how she is coming along. Fire will be getting relegated back to once a week now as I started a new project very late on Tuesday night!

Heaven & Earth released Shimmer a couple of days ago. I love this piece and I am a big fan of Selina's artwork - check out her site if you get the chance.

Needless to say, I snapped this chart up in an instant and had it printed off in a matter of minutes after receiving it in my inbox - lol! Threads and fabric were chosen, the first page outline gridded and the initial stitches were made at around 11pm on Tuesday.

It is not much but this is my progress so far. I've chosen to stitch it on Morning Mist 28 count lugana from Country Stitch. It is from their Kiwi Sparkles range. Most of the fabric will be covered so you won't see much of the underlying sparkle from the fabric but my plan is to frame it with just a peep of the fabric showing between the stitching and the mat. Of course, it is a long way off from being framed - lol!

That's about all from me this afternoon. I'm off upstairs to put in a few more stitches before Ken gets home from the office :)

A bit of fun before I go - lol!

What Your Underwear Says About You

Your underwear is probably really, really old. You're comfortable in your own skin - and don't care to impress anyone.

The Underwear Oracle