I actually touched needle to thread this weekend! It was wonderful. I basically spent the whole of Saturday with my iPod catching up on podcasts and stitching. I didn't realise that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy stitching.

There have been some changes in my life in the last few months. I dropped out of uni about 2 months from the end (spare me the lecture, I know how stupid that is). Actually, I haven't dropped out, I have a leave of absence for up to two years so I can go back and complete my last semester in 2010 if I want, but I don't think I will. I made the decision that I just don't want to be a nurse... and it feels so good to just put it behind me. I feel free and happy :) I now have a regular full time nine-to-five job, no more night shifts, no more classes and assignments, no more poverty! I'm working in community health care as a "team leader", which sounds quite boring, but I'm enjoying it so far. The pay is decent, I get a phone, laptop and CAR! WOOHOO!! And I'm working with Tara and Suzi, two friends of mine I used to work with on night shifts a few years ago. It's almost perfect!

One advantage of having regular hours and no study is that I have so much free time! I have evenings! I have weekends! I can go out on Saturday nights! Amazing! So I took advantage of that and had a very productive stitching day on Saturday. I had two finishes in one day!

First of all I finished my little Snow Drop Fairy. I did a good deal of the half stitches in the background and then all the back stitching... and she was finished by 4pm.
Isn't she pretty? I think I'm in love with her. Then I was on such a role I wanted to start something new right away, so I ran to my draw and pulled out a kit called "Tree" from the Historic Needlework Guild and started and finished it by 10pm.
Hmm, unfortunately the picture is really dull and washed out. Wow, I think it takes exceptional photographic skill to get a photo to look dull and washed out at the same time. Oh well, I'll take a better shot when I've finished it. Actually all the stitching is finished, I'm going to finish it into a little pincushion and fill it with emery. I just have to photocopy the template and find some fabric that's tightly woven so that the emery doesn't leak out. I was really bummed that I couldn't finish it right away, because I was going strong and didn't want to stop!

I was meant to spend today cleaning the house, and then spend the evening stitching, but I made the mistake of turning on my computer. That's always a big mistake. The biggest timewaster in the world. But I did get to catch up on some blogs. My feed was up to almost 10,000 unread entries, so I'm pretty much just looking at pictures, but at least I'm catching up, and it's great inspiration! In future I'm going to stitch on Saturday, clean Sunday morning and then computer on Sunday afternoon, otherwise I'll never get anything done!

Gotta go to bed now. One of the drawbacks of a real job is that you have to be up early :( Oh well, I'm thinking it's a fair trade...