Oh, I've had a terrible couple of days on the stitching front... only a handful of stitches. I didn't even touch a needle today, and yesterday I only did 21(!) stitches on Scent of Enchantment. It feels like such a waste of valuable days. I'm always worried that I'm going to die before I have time to stitch everything I want to. Well, actually I think that's a certainty, because I have enough stash to last me several lifetimes, and a fairly exhaustive wishlist. So when I go for four days without doing more than a couple of threads I'm horrified! I did start a new WIP on Monday (like I needed another one...) but this one is only small. It's 'S' by M Designs, and I'm doing it on 40 count white linen and using Gloriana Desert Rose. It've only done a few threads, so it kind of looks like a weird scary eye to me. Heh.

I'm making it for my Grandmother, whose name is Sylvia. My biggest problem is going to be figuring out a way to finish it. I don't have a sewing machine, but I have no problems with hand sewing. But I've never finished anything before, not even cushion or needleroll, so I'm a bit scared. Anyone have any ideas or links?

Catherine returned safely from England, and came bearing gifts for me! 3 Flower Fairies kits: Willow Fairy, Snowdrop Fairy, and Almond Blossom Fairy. There was more, but those are the stashy gifts. I've been thoroughly spoiled. And, since she wasn't able to find most of the other kits I requested, she gave me back the money I gave her to spend, and I used it to place a $100 order from SB&B. Yay! I'm going to have a very stashy few weeks :D

Frankly, I'm going to need the stashy excitement, because work starts again on Saturday, and Uni on Tuesday, and I'm gonna be miserable again. I miss my holidays already :)

Labels: Eyecandy, Familials, New Start, S.E.X., Small talk, Stitchiness, Uni, Worky-purkey

I have precisely 2 hours until my holidays are over. Actually, that's completely untrue. Work starts again on Saturday night, and Uni starts on Tuesday, so I still have plenty of holidays left... but in 2 hours time my sister, Catherine, will be getting back from England, and I will no longer have the house to myself again. No more stitching in her big wonderful chair. No more rearranging the living room so that I can stitch and watch tv with my feet up on the coffee table. No more walking around the house naked just for the fun of it.

Le sigh.

Don't get me wrong, I love my sister, and I can't wait to have her home and all, but I'm a very solitary person, and I need alone time. I don't really know why that is, I just do. If I spend too much time around people and don't have the time to myself to just wind down, I kind of explode. I'm lucky I've just had a month to be alone, but the first week I was still at work, and I wasted the third week of it with Jamie here and going down to Canberra. You know what, I think Big Brother would be the worst experience I could ever go through. (Side note: I was watching BB tonight, and saw the housemates having a discussion about why he was called 'Big Brother'. Only one of them had a vague idea, and that was that it was "from some book". Appalling!)

On the up side, however, Catherine has told me that she has some presents for me :D, and I know that she's courier-ing some stash that I eBayed to my Aunty's house to save on international postage. I'm such a smartie!

<3 Tash

Labels: Familials, Small talk

I got back from Canberra yesterday afternoon. It's soooo nice to be home again.

I did have a lovely time with the family, we played games on Saturday night, and we didn't clean the house, and we ate lamb chops and roast veggies... it was lovely. But unfortunately I didn't get much stitching done. I took Japanese Box, but didn't even get to finish the frame of the next panel. Shocking, I know.

I did some stash shopping in the last couple of days. I went to Stitchabout and got some fabric for my HAED RR, which I might not even use because I still haven't decided for sure on the theme. It's from 28 count Lugana from Stitches and Spice and the colour is called Tundra. I stopped at Victoria House on the way down to Canberra and bought 2 skeins of Caron Soie Cristale silks because they didn't have Gloriana. Mum gave me a needle case, and some Udder Cream, because it's so hard to find around here. And I bought the Flower Fairies book at Spotlight last time they had a 20% off sale.

I did plenty of online stash shopping too. I bought a few things on eBay, a couple of which are being posted to my aunt's house so my sister can bring them home from England for me (yay for cheap postage!!) Mum ordered some stash for my birthday (all the way back in April) from Nordic Needle, but some of the items were on back order for so long that we ended up cancelling the order, so I made a replacement order from The Silver Needle. Now I can't wait for it to come, then I'll have even more stuff to show you :)

I spent the morning doing some house cleaning, and then I spent two hours moving all my stash from the box it was overflowing out of into the drawer set that used to house most of my underwear and socks. It was so exciting. I love going through my stash, I seem to find so many things I forgot I had. I'm all excited about doing Flying High again!

But of course, there are only so many hours in the day, so after all of that, I only got 400 stitches done on Scent of Enchantment. I've done all down one side, and all along the top, and I've started with the first block on the second row. It's nice now that I can see how big it actually is. The colours are amazing!

I'm having so much fun stitching it, but I'm feeling guilty because I know I'm neglecting Japanese Box, and I should really be doing some more on Fire and Ice because I don't want it to become a UFO. I think I'll get that out tomorrow to do some on it.

Labels: Eyecandy, Familials, S.E.X., Small talk, Stitchiness

Still plodding along slowly at Scent of Enchantment. I'm not really doing much. Having Jamie here is a huge distraction. Not an unwelcome one, but I'll be happy when I can go back to just stitching from dawn 'til dusk.

Today we're driving down to Canberra to visit my parents. I'll be staying there for a few days. The problem is, I don't know what to take with me to stitch. I'd love to take Scent of Enchantment, but I don't want Mum to think I've got too many WIPs, because she really wants me to finish Fire and Ice and Firefly Fairies. I think I'll take Japanese Box, because then I'll have to work on it and it definitely needs the attention.

On the way down today I'm going to stop at Victoria House so I should have some new stash to show you next time I update. I won an auction on ebay yesterday, and I'm planning a purchase from Dragonfly Dreams in the next couple of weeks, so when they arrive I'll be able to show you lots of stash pics. Yay for stash!

Labels: Familials, Small talk, Stitchiness

I finished panel 2 of Japanese Box today (yay). But no picture, because I'm too tired to take one just now. Tomorrow, I promise.

I also managed another 200 stitches on Scent of Enchantment.

I've been giving lots of thought to ideas for my HAED RR, and trying to find fabric, but of course the fabric I choose will depend on what my theme is so I really have to sort it out. I'll talk more about this tomorrow.

Jamie is here, he's asleep on the sofa. Poor tired little boy. Tomorrow he's cleaning the veranda, the oven and the car. It's nice to have a slave :)

G'night

Labels: Familials, Stitchiness

I was hoping to finish the second panel of Japanese Octagon Box today, and I nearly made it. I only have the beads left to do, but I have to go to sleep now. No photo until I've finished, I want to have the full effect all at once :)

I would stay up and attatch the beads tonight, but I need an early night because I have to be at the station in the morning to pick up my little bro who will be interrupting my holidays for a few days. I love having him over to stay, but I'm worried that I won't get any stitching done. At least he'll do some jobs for me.

I emailed a few different online stores today to chase up the dyelot I need of Slate Blue (GLO124) to fill in between the panels... hopefully someone will come through.

Has anyone ever ordered from Golden Kite? I ordered my chart 2 weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for the download. My payment's been approved, but on the download page it says 'Pending'. I think I'm going to write to them tomorrow.

Aaanway, sleepy time. Goodnight.

Labels: Stitchiness

I had a lovely stitchy day today.

I did nearly 500 more stitches on Scent of Enchantment. Then I got bored. I'm really starting to wish I had done this on 28 count. It's so holey, all I can see when I look at it now is white fabric.




















I made good progress on Japanese Octagon Box, I'm doing panel 2. It looks so grey and washed out in the photo. But IRL the colours are very green and vivid. Hopefully I'll finish panel 2 tomorrow, then I'll only have another three to do before I'm all caught up!

I don't know if I'm going to keep going with this or do a little more on Scent of Enchantment... so much stitching, so little time!

Aren't holidays wonderful? I'm thinking of calling work and asking for another week off. Would that be very terrible of me?

Labels: Eyecandy, Stitchiness, Worky-purkey

It's so hard to get a blog off the ground. I wrote my first post a couple of months ago and then forgot all about this journal. I'm still stuck over at LJ, even though I'm not updating there either. I'm just reading my friends page and talking to the cross stitch community. But Blogger looks like it's got a HUGE stitching community... so I really want to get started over here.

Anyway, in news of my life, my sister is in the UK, so I have the house to myself. I'm on two weeks holidays from work so I can stitch to my heart's content (if I can ever get off the net!)

<3 Tash

Labels: Blogging, Familials, Small talk