Moonlit Waters update

Hello all,

I thought it was about time for an update on Moonlit Waters.  I've not got as far as I expected to after a month, and the colours didn't quite come out as they actually are, but I'm still in the dark corner for now.

Hopefully lots more to update on next month, otherwise at this rate it's going to be many, many years until I get finished!

TUSAL for Feb

Blimey, where did a month disappear to?

The good news is that I've been working hard on my jobhunting and getting back to work seminars and it seems to have paid off, I expect to be going back to the 9-5 from next week... I'm sure that commuting every day will be a shock to the system.

The bad news is that stitching time hasn't been as much as I would have liked.  The HAED is progressing, a little slowly, but I am getting on well with parking stitches which means that I'm finishing most of the threads and there's not much in the way of trimmings.  

So, it doesn't look much since last month, but here's February's TUSAL!  (If you don't know what TUSAL is, there's a little linky picture on the right of this page to Daffycat's site which explains all about it)

Strange Day

Today was a bit strange.  I don't often venture into west London.  But I found myself out by Paddington.  It was fine to begin with, but it was pretty early, so I decided to go for breakfast.  There's a nice area near Paddington with some cafes and restaurants, but it took me an age to find it, and because it was really quiet and I was on my own, I felt a bit odd when people were walking behind me.

Later on, when it was a bit busier, I'd walked to a shopping centre, again the shops inside weren't open but I was being nosey and having a walk around since the main centre was open.  As I was leaving, I saw two Indian chaps.  One of them approached me, obviously put up to it a bit by his mate and mumbled for a bit before he said he was really sorry but he was a bit shy, but that he really wanted to be my friend.  I really didn't know how to take it,  I presumed it was some sort of chat up thing, but since I felt as though I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards as the wind had made my hair go crazy, I wasn't sure!

I don't think I've ever been approached like that before and I was already feeling a bit wierded out by the quietness.  I politely said I was sorry and declined, which I think was the right thing to do, but overall I just found it very odd.

I then went into Hyde Park, where dogs seemed to be following me as well!!

Just a very strange day.  I think I'll stick to East London!

Anyone else had any odd meetings with strangers like this?

The Owl

A little stitching update.

I made this for my dad, who is a huge Sheffield Wednesday fan... it only seemed right that I swapped the black that the kit came with for the Owls blue.

I bought it way back in October at the stitching show and I had such fun stitching it up - I can't believe how long ago that was, where has the time gone?!

Anyway, here's a little (a bit blurry) photo:

Superbowl and Snow

Hello!
It's been a pretty busy week on the jobhunting front and so there has been little progress on the stitching.  I've finally got myself sorted, updated my CV properly and uploaded it in a few places - don't want to go too overboard though!  I also now have a nice spreadsheet to track everything I'm doing as well so that makes things easier.

I was hoping to pose an update on the HAED, but to be honest, it's teeny tiny and mostly black and navy so far, so it would seem a bit pointless.  Perhaps when I get a little further with it.  I've still done 2000 stitches though, which is progress, but it's 25 count so the area isn't even as big as an iphone yet!

At the weekend, we watched the superbowl! This was a new thing for me, I wasn't really very sure about any of the rules etc until about an hour before it started when a lovely friend sent me a link to read up on it all.  Phew, I'm glad I did or I'd have been completely lost.  Once I understood it, I really enjoyed watching the game.  It was pretty late for us here in the UK though, and with all the ad breaks and the halftime entertainment it just seemed to go on forever and ever! Thankfully, we were watching it on the BBC so we didn't have any ads at all, which was great.  I did enjoy it but by the end I was getting a little frustrated about how long it was dragged out for.

Over the weekend we had a lovely thick covering of snow and went to play in it with our friends' 1 year old baby, who seemed very confused by it all and preferred spinning the pegs on the washing line.  The grown ups used it as an excuse to make a snowman.  Thankfully it had melted by the time I needed to get anywhere in particular but I believe we are expecting more this weekend...it's nice when it comes at a weekend and you have nothing to do except relax!

So, that's the update from the land of ricketyjo.  I seem to have spent the last couple of days trying to catch up on all the sleep I missed and trying to keep warm!  I hope you are all well :)

Tea time

I'm originally from Yorkshire.  We have a strong belief that a cup of tea solves everything.  My husband is from the midlands, and he quite likes tea too, but since we've been living in London he seems to have turned into a coffee drinker.  Don't get me wrong, I love the smell of coffee.  But it doesn't fix everything in the same way that tea does.

I'm also used to drinking strong tea.  and Decaf.  I grew up on decaf.  Probably better for me, but I'm guessing it explains why I always feel tired in comparison to all the hyped up caffeine heads.

Anyways, whilst I was in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago I decided to expand my tea horizons.  I stood staring at all the different brands and boxes for a good 15 minutes.  How did I decide which to go for? It was a miserable day and the thought of chai sounded nice.  After I'd narrowed it down this far, I used the same method I use to buy wine.  Which packaging looks prettiest?  (I know... I'm such a GIRL!!!)

Armed with my Dragonfly Cape Malay Rooibos Chai Organic (how posh do I sound?!) I came home.  My husband and I both tried some. He really liked it.  I liked it too but what I wasn't sure about was that it just will not get stronger the longer you leave the bag in (to me this is strange tea behaviour)! The next day he went and bought Dragonfly Organic Earl Grey (I'm not a fan of Earl Grey).  A week later I got Dragonfly Moroccan Mint Green Organic Tea. (*note, this post has not been sponsored by Dragonfly).  Now our cupboard looks quite funny, it has hubby's various coffees on one side and our various teas on the other.  No room for food anymore ;-)

What I like is that now when the weather is hideous outside or if I'm feeling sorry for myself or a bit poorly, I have lots to choose from.  And because a lot of it is caffeine free, I think it counts towards my 8 glasses of water a day, right?

You can look at the packaging that sucked me in and learn more about the teas here.