I have been quiet!!

Received a reminder from Nicole* today that I hadn't blogged in a while - she wondered if I was still stuck behind the ironing board - lol! No, ironing is pretty much up to date (thanks to our maid who caught it up for me while watching the kids one night a couple of weeks back). I've been a bit restless and just haven't been in the blogging frame of mind. Anyway, thanks for the push, Nic, I seem to be getting into the groove of things again now :)

Okay, so what have I been up to since I last posted? Well, let's see I've continued to read a lot. I discovered The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, the Heather Wells mysteries by Meg Cabot and the first of JA Konrath's Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels mysteries, Whiskey Sour, all of which I've enjoyed. I've also started Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, from DS's bookshelf, which is also looking to be a good read :)

I have also been stitching. There was a New Start SAL on the HAED BB at the beginning of the month which is all the encouragement I needed really :) I chose Ching Chou Kuik's Dream of Purple.

My progress ...

I also participated in September's edition of the Yearly Challenge SAL with Verdure and managed to complete the first page plus a little of the second page :)



This past weekend was the Background SAL on the HAED BB and I chose to work on Molly Harrison's Fairy of the Sea. I had moved over to the top right of the chart and started on the background there a little while ago.

Before:

After:

I'm way behind on my PhotoHunt entries, so much so that I think I will stop participating in it for now. Maybe I'll just do my own random pic of the month type of thing or as and when I take a memorable or amusing pic.

Like this one ...



DS was home sick a couple of days this week with pharyngitis. On Monday, his first day off school, he'd come downstairs to talk to me but I was outside hanging out a load of washing. This is what I came back inside to :) Tikki decided she needed her rest too - lol. Oh, and DS is fine now :)

Right, time to take DD to her tennis lesson!

~o00o~

*If you haven't done so before go and check out Nicole's awesome progress on her St Nick in his Study WIP. The detail is just amazing!

The things I do to avoid the ironing pile :)

After lunch yesterday afternoon, instead of catching up on the ironing, I decided to sit down and organise my duplicate skeins of DMC embroidery floss (which is what you see in the pic above). I'd made a vague attempt at trying to sort them out not long after we arrived here two years ago but most of them were still in the original shopping bags from where I'd purchased them. So I dumped them all onto the living room rug, ran down to the local shop and bought a couple of large boxes of sandwich size ziploc bags, came home and bagged them up. I then went and entered them into a spreadsheet on my computer so the next time I kit up something and the colours I need are not in my master set, I can then check there before I go out and buy any!! It took me all afternoon to sort that mess out but it's done now :)

Next on my list is to get my master set, which is stored in a series of large floss boxes, organised. I have a bunch of bobbins from projects that have been done or I've unkitted which need to be put away. After that I can see what needs replacing and either get them from my duplicates stash or put them on a shopping list.

Unfortunately, I cannot avoid the ironing pile any longer as the kids go back to school on Tuesday and I need to get new uniform items ironed and labelled, and I guess DH would probably like some shirts and trousers for work this week too :)! I'll have some stitchy pics next post hopefully!

Back from holidays!

In fact we've been back for nearly two weeks but we've been kind of busy during that time - mostly with unpacking and laundry and playing chauffeur for me and catching up with friends and snowboarding camp for the kids.

We had a great holiday - went away with three suitcases and came back with five! Mostly stuff for the kids (games, books, clothing, etc) plus a heap of books and DVDs for me that I can't get here. In Hong Kong on the way back home we spent a day at Stanley Markets and bought ski gear for all us - good quality stuff and very cheap! We are planning to go to the French Alps during the winter break hence the need for the ski stuff.

It was nice to catch up with family and friends while in Australia and I got to meet my nephew for the first time too. He's a cutie and a livewire and is certainly going to keep his family on their toes!! My niece has grown considerably taller and is getting more beautiful by the day. She is only nine years old but is now as tall as her 12yo cousin (DS) and me (which isn't very tall really!).

I managed some stitching (mostly on a mystery WIP which is going to remain a mystery for a little while longer ... because I'm evil - lol!). The lighting wasn't very good in the holiday apartments we stayed at, so I mostly stitched early in the mornings before everyone else got up. I did buy one of those little itty-bitty clip-on craft lights and it helped a little to stitch at night but we were quite busy socialising so I mostly read.

I joined the RBL Summer Mystery Reading Challenge earlier this summer and so far have managed to read nine books! All by the same author, Kerry Greenwood, an Australian author, who I read about on the RBL site. Our apartment wasn't quite ready when we arrived in Adelaide so we went for a walk down the main shopping street (five mins away from the apartment complex) and the first store I came across was a book store - lol! The kids and I walked out with an armful of books and several dollars lighter in the purse! Anyway, getting back to Kerry Greenwood (I am easily distracted!!), I picked up the first three books of the Corinna Chapman series - Earthly Delights, Heavenly Pleasures and Devil's Food plus the first six books in the Phryne Fisher series. Wonderfully light and quick reads - I really enjoyed them. I have two or three others on the go but whether I will manage to finish them before the 31st of this month remains to be seen - especially since the kidlets are still on holidays. A little over a week to go!

Okay, children need to be feed so I'll sign off for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up on my blog reading over the next week or two although I suspect that that may have to wait until the kids are in school. I also hope to have some pics next post too - just need to download them off the camera :)

And now for something completely different ...

a stitchy update!!!

First up, my progress on Plum Gothic QS. One full page is complete and I've made good progress on the second. I have put her aside for now. We head off on holidays in a couple of days so I probably won't get to her before we go. I shall pack her in my suitcase and hopefully I'll get some time to work on her while we are away - depends on the lighting in the holiday apartment too I guess.



Next, is my progress on Verdure. It was the monthly HAED BB Challenge SAL this past weekend so it was her turn to get some attention. The SAL runs until midnight tonight and although I didn't get any stitching done on her yesterday, I am hopeful of getting some in tonight. Entirely reliant on whether I have gotten all the jobs on my list for today done or not though!!



Speaking of today's list, back to sorting out clothes to pack!

Up to date!! This week's PhotoHunt - "Shadows"

Leaf shadows cast on to my entry way wall from my palm - I struggled with this one!!

PhotoHunt Catch Up Part 2 - "Sweet" & "Fake"

DS's deliciously "sweet" cupcake birthday cake from his recent birthday :)



My "fake" camels :)



My apologies for the small pic!

PhotoHunt Catch Up - "Hair" & "Shiny"

I'm covering both topics with one pic here :) This is a photo of my son with some of his friends in their very "shiny" robes with their teacher at their recent graduation from elementary school - he's the "long haired hippy freak" (as my DH lovingly calls him *grin*) on the right without the mortar board.

Oopsie!

I had no idea it had been so long since I'd blogged!! The kidlets started their 10.5 weeks summer school holidays on June 21 and have kind of contributed to me not being on the computer as much. We will be heading off to Australia later this month for a few weeks so that should break things up a bit (I hope!). Nothing as exciting as our trip last year but still its a break from this constant heat!

I'm behind on my PhotoHunt posts so I'll have to try and find some time to catch up on them this afternoon. I've also got some stitching progress to report as well but I haven't got much time to do it right now so that will have to be another post.

Thank you everyone who left comments about my framed pieces - I still haven't hung them yet but I have decided on a spot! All we need to do now is get the house painted inside and out then they can go up :)

Bounce!

DH picked these up from the framers for me this afternoon!!


Snowflake QS


Girly Gothic QS

I'm really happy with how they've turned out!! The pics aren't great, sorry, but I was trying to avoid flash reflection on the glass. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to hang them yet but I suspect DD will want to snaffle Girly Gothic for her room!!

I managed a dozen or so stitches into Verdure last night but my plans to spend the better part of today stitching on her didn't happen. Let's hope I get a good chunk of time on her tonight!!

Summer Mystery Reading Challenge

I am and have been since I was a young child, a real bookworm. I love books and will read just about anything! My favourite types of books to read though are mystery/crime and fantasy and I enjoy discovering new authors, so it was no wonder this challenge caught my eye while reading Nicki's blog recently :) Since moving here I have found that I read a LOT during the summer months - over the four weeks we were travelling last summer I read three of Kathy Reich's Tempe Brennan series. It may not sound like a lot but when you factor in playing tourist etc I thought three books wasn't a bad achievement. We are not playing tourists this summer so I should be able to manage to read the six books required for this challenge.

Anyway, today I was scheduled to drop off DH at the physiotherapist (we are down to one vehicle at the moment, DH had a minor accident in his a couple of weeks ago and it is in being repaired), then I was going to pick up Snowflake and Girly Gothic from the framers nearby. Unfortunately, it turned out they weren't going to be ready till this evening so I had some time to fill in before heading back to the physio to collect DH. As luck would have it however there was a nicely stocked book store close by and of course I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to go in for a browse - lol! I didn't leave empty handed either (I never do!) - for the mystery challenge I picked up "Death of a Red Heroine" by Qiu Xiaolong and for fun, "The Devil Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger. I might have to schedule a trip to Borders sometime this week and have a browse through their Mystery section and see what else I can add to my challenge reading list :)

I haven't managed a lot of stitching so far this weekend - tomorrow is looking like a quiet day so I'm hoping to spend most of it making some progress on Verdure. I'll post my progress, however minimal it may turn out to be, tomorrow night.

PhotoHunters "Shoes"

I'm sure the shoes in this house breed - we always seem to have huge colonies near every main entrance door! We bought shoe cupboards to try and combat the problem but I think DH and I are the only ones who seem to understand its purpose - lol!!



Okay so the sandals are mine but I always leave a pair near the back door because I am constantly going in and out and the ground is too hot at the moment for bare feet! But they do get put away at the end of the day. The other two belong to DD. Normally there would be at least another three pair in that spot - DS and DD's Etnies (skate shoes which double as school shoes) and DH's flip-flops - but the kids are wearing their Etnies and DH had put his flip-flops away.



Put away where they belong!

HAED BB Yearly Challenge SAL

I didn't participate in last month's SAL because I didn't want to stop working on Snowflake but I don't have that excuse this month :) I'd really like to get the first page finished this weekend and maybe even a good start on the next one. We'll see. Weekends can get fairly busy around here!!



My before pic :)

PhotoHunters "Art"

Just in case you weren't aware, I like camels (no, really!!??) so when DH and I were browsing for some pictures to put on our very bare walls and came across this, there was no way that I was going to leave the shop without it!



Before I go, Happy Birthday, Mum!!

PhotoHunters "Colourful"

London cabbies aren't just black anymore - check out the bright pink one on the right!

A big thank you for all the wonderful comments about Snowflake - they are very much appreciated :) I spent a couple of days working on Fairy of the Sea but will wait until after the next time I work on her before sharing a progress pic. I picked up Plum Gothic yesterday so will spend a few days with her now.

May I present ....

Snowflake QS
Original artwork by Selina Fenech
Charted by Michele Sayetta of Heaven & Earth Designs
Stitched on mystery 25 count hand dyed evenweave from CountryStitch
Started: Mid September 2005
Finished: 24 May 2007

There were many months where I didn't stitch on her at all because I kept getting distracted by other shiny sparkly things!! Anyway, she needs a nice warm bath and an iron, then I must get her and Girly Gothic framed!!

Thank you again for the comments everyone :) I'm off to dig out a very neglected Fairy of the Sea from WIP box and work on her for a bit. I did plan to spend a bit of time with Verdure but I need a break from detail stitches for a couple of days!

Another page down!

Thank you everyone for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments - I appreciate them :)

At the risk of being boring here's another Snowflake QS update :p This is pretty much all I'm stitching on right now so until she is done there won't be much else to show stitching wise :) Hopefully the next progress pic of her will be the last one!



I finished page 2 a couple of days ago (I'm not doing the pages in order) which means I have one small page to go. I may be a little ambitious in my thinking but I'm hoping to have that final page done this week ... we'll see, there's a bit of detail stitching in that area :)

Thanks for looking!

QS Wednesday

It's Quick Stitch Wednesday on the HAED BB and I will continue to work on Snowflake. Here's my current progress ...



It was the HAED BB Challenge SAL for May this past weekend and I was supposed to be working on Verdure but I'm so enjoying Snowflake that poor Verdure didn't stand a chance! I think I may stick with Snowflake until she's either finished or I get bored with her, whichever comes first :) I will make up for lost time on Verdure then.

It is starting to warm up quite considerably over here now - ick! I have a feeling this summer is going to be very hot!!

PhotoHunters "Five"

The five men in my family!

PhotoHunters "Childhood"

I finally got my act together last week and joined the PhotoHunt - it is something I've been meaning to do for ages! Anyway, this week's theme is Childhood.



**I've been having real problems with Blogger Photos and some sites on the internet in general - probably my ISP being pernickety! Thank goodness for good 'ol Webshots!**

I love this pic :) DD had a couple of friends over for a sleepover a couple of weekends ago and they were being silly (as girls can be!) during breakfast when I took this photo.

By the way, it's Nutella on DD's friend's nose :)

TGIT (Thank Goodness It's Thursday)!

Thursday afternoon signals the start of the weekend for us and I am so very glad it has arrived this week - I'm tired and am looking forward to a nice quiet (and hopefully, stitchy) weekend.

Thank you also for all your lovely comments on my recent WIP progress pics - they brighten my day :) Details on what thread I'm using for St Georges (as requested by AnneS and Fudgey (glad you found my blog, JM!)) - I'm using one strand of Gloriana silk, colour "Red Clay" over two threads on cream 40ct linen.

Yesterday was Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand and I had a marathon baking session making Anzac Biscuits (cookies for my non-Aussie friends) - I made a batch for each of the kids to take to school plus some for DH's office and home plus another lot for a friend as a thank you. Said friend only managed to eat one and the rest she shared with her co-workers so tomorrow (I am all Anzac'd out today) I will make another batch exclusively for her :) Then I think that will do on the baking front for a while!

All is quiet in the house right now - DD is playing next door and DS is not talking to me because I nixed his sleepover plans for tomorrow night *sigh*. He wanted THREE friends to stay over and I am so not up for that this weekend! I have been at school nearly every day this week helping his group out with a major class project which is due next week - I have had my fill of 11 year old pre-pubescent males this week! I may concede and let him have ONE friend over although that will depend very much on his attitude between now and tomorrow morning!!

I guess I will go and make the most of the peace and get some stitches in - what's the bet everyone will start bugging me the second I get comfortable?!!