Okay ...

who stole the last month and a half of 2007?!!! Boy, those last few weeks went by in a blur!

Since it has been a while I have lots of updating to do which I will get to this week. We only just got back from our winter holiday last night and I'm still unpacking and ploughing my way through two suitcases of laundry!

The kids are back at school tomorrow (they were supposed to go back today but since we didn't get back till late I gave them an extra day off) so after an essential shopping trip for groceries in the morning and some more laundry, I should be able to sit down in the afternoon and get this sorely neglected blog up to date!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas or however you celebrate the season and here's to a great 2008!

Back soon!

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 :)

Just call me slack!

Sorry I haven't posted for so long - I've gotten out of the irregular habit I had before I had the problems with my wrist and fingers!!

Anyway, I have seen the specialist about my wrist and it turns out that the tingling in the fingers isn't anything to do with the cyst - apparently it would be different fingers. I'm still none the wiser about the tingling but as it seems to be gradually going away (only in the tips now) the doc thinks I may have damaged a nerve in my elbow doing something at the gym or leaning on it too hard. I do tend to rest my chin in that hand and then lean on my elbow when I'm reading at the computer or at the table. If it hasn't settled then I need to go back and see the specialist so they can investigate further.

As for the cyst, I got the doc to aspirate it anyway - it only took a few minutes. I had to wear a pressure bandage for a couple of days and I had a mighty bruise but other than that it seems to be fine now. I do think it will come back as there seems to be a bit of a lump there but it may just be that my skin hasn't settled from the original one.

Thanks for the well wishes. I will try and get into regular blog posts again but with the holidays coming up I may still be a bit sporadic with them for a few more weeks.

No stitching to speak of but I have finished a book - "The Sultan's Seal" by Jenny White. Nicely written but I found it confusing and I'm still not sure who did what! Maybe I'm just missing something or I need to reread it ... not for a while yet though. I've just started Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - not sure what I think of it yet - it is still early days :)

Better go and sort dinner out!

I've been playing again :)

See, I told you I wasn't happy with the look of my blog :) I went back to what I had before and then played around with the colours and added a couple more things to my side bar.

Annette, thanks for your tip :). I used to use Panna whatsmacallit templates before I switched to Blogger Beta but for some reason I get error messages whenever I try to use them now. Not knowing enough about HTML I can't work out where the errors are. I think its a beta thing and if I revert back to my classic template then I could use them but then I can't use the page layout elements that come with beta ... and I really like that feature :) Anyway, I think I might head to Borders next week (now that we have one here - yay!) and see if I can find myself a basic teach yourself HTML book and have a play. I may then steal borrow DH's PowerMac and have a fiddle with PhotoShop and see what I can come up with :).

I actually went to bed early AND before DH last night (which just doesn't happen usually). I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I slept for 10 hours straight!! Very definitely not me at all - I am lucky if I average five hours a night, six is a bonus, and usually I wake at least once or twice during that time. Still, I've had a headache free day today so I guess the sleep was what I needed.

In between headaches I did manage a few stitches in Snowflake QS and even managed some frogging!! I'd used the wrong colour in a dozen or so stitches the last time I worked on her it seems, so they had to come out. They are restitched with the correct colour now so all is well :)

HAED are having a Veteran's Day Sale and they have also released three new Selina Fenech charts - Keeper of Secrets, Guardian and Small Things (Coloured). Arghhh! I'm quite partial to Keeper of Secrets but I ordered a couple of charts earlier this week (Plum Gothic QS and Midnight Orchard QS) so I think I will be good and just put her on my wish list for now. There will be other sales :)

Yes, I know I've changed the look of my blog ... again!

I'm not completely happy with it - I want something different. The standard Blogger templates are a bit dull, and the other templates I used to use won't work. I'm not sure if it's a Blogger beta thing or if it's just me. One day I will get html savvy!! I'm thinking of changing my blog name too.

This is a short post as I've been struggling with bad headaches on and off the past couple of days so I'm trying to stay off the computer for a little bit. I just wanted to come and say a big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by and left wonderful comments about Girly Gothic. I'm hoping to add Snowflake QS to the finished list by the end of this year (which isn't all that far away!!).

Fish Lasagne

Anne L asked for the recipe for my tuna mornay which Liam calls fish lasagne. I am not sure why he calls it that as there is no pasta or tomatoes involved :)

Anyway, here's the recipe ...

Tuna Mornay Casserole (or "Fish Lasagne")

The link will take you to the recipe I base my dish on. It only serves two so I usually double the quantities and add the following ingredients:

1 small tin of corn niblets
1 small tin of Cream of Broccoli soup
a pinch of Italian Herbs
a pinch of cayenne pepper or a pinch of curry powder (add more if you like a bit more of a kick!)
a little ground black pepper and sea salt if desired

After Step 9 I add the corn and soup, mix well and then continue on with the rest of the recipe to Step 12 where I add the extra herbs above as suggested. Continue on from Step 13. I usually cook mine in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Be careful when eating as it will be piping hot!!

There you have it - enjoy!

Today was a quieter day. Stitched a little on and off then Caitlin and I made brownies after lunch which she and Liam then decorated.

We've had two power outages this evening, the first one just as I was about to start cooking dinner. The power came back on just long enough for me to actually start the cooking process when it went out again! I'd just re-lit all the candles when the blasted thing came back on again - lol! Talk about Murphy's Law!!

Thank you, Lisa, Carol and Leonie, for your comments of concern for Caitlin. She is just fine today - her only complaint being the "disgusting" antibiotics she has to take :) She has her friend sleeping over and Liam has gone down the road to sleep at his friend's house so all is well.

Tikki however hasn't moved out from under my desk all evening. I don't think she liked the power going off and the kids running around with torches, nor the fireworks that were going off a little distance away during the first black-out! Not even a treat of some egg and milk has lured her out - lol! She'll come out when I go to stitch though - she's my little shadow :)

I'm off to grab a cuppa and then go stitch in front of the telly :)

I'm here ...

I just haven't felt like being on the computer much. Of course you would think that my stitching output would reflect this but sadly not really :) At least I don't think so anyway.

I have had two new starts in the last couple of weeks - one only a couple of days ago for the HAED BB New Start SAL. I love a new start but it's not good for my aim of finishing Girly Gothic by the end of this month though. I may still make it - it depends if I can put this new start down after Monday and pick up GG again. I would say I'm almost done with page 3 but there is quite a bit of detail stitching in her hair to be done yet. I will post some updated WIP pics later this week.

I must go and start dinner preparations - a good old fashioned (with my own twist!) Tuna Mornay ... or as DS calls it "fish lasagne" - 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 :)