Pumpkins and Stitchy Things

A finish to show today - taking a break from the dark colours in my main project, I was after something fun and fast - I present Pumpkin & Bittersweet, from Waxing Moon Designs.  I've stitched it on a small piece of the lovely oatmeal fabric that was so very kindly RAKked to me from Marlene earlier in the year.

Not quite sure how to finish it.  We have some orange walls, or else I was thinking we could somehow hang it on the fridge door, which is dark brown.  Anyways, it sure brightened up my ORTs jar.

Otherwise, I've been doing a little shopping today, on the HAED appreciation week.  In order to boost sales at our lovely favourite mega project online store, and to show our support for actually buying the charts rather than those people who choose to ignore the copyright, a few hundred of us got together on Facebook and vowed to buy a chart (or two... or in some cases even more).

I've decided to go for Green Dragonling and also QS Dahlia.  I don't have a clue when I'm going to get round to them, but it's been so nice seeing what all the other group members have gone for and chatting about them.  It's also perked me back up to getting on with Moonlit Waters again, hooray!  I'm determined to finish page 2 this month.

Right, that's all from me for now... seeya!

Hello September

Although I've enjoyed the Olympics and the Paralympics, I'm hoping that when it's all over there will be some good TV on... it's been pretty rubbish as of late except for the sport.  Still, we are heading into Autumn TV now and Dr Who is back tonight.  It's one of my faves for a Saturday night.  And generally the schedule starts to pick up again from about nowish.

I've not done much on Moonlit Waters recently.  I set aside a day this week to have a solid day working on it and my progress was so very slow.  There was almost a tantrum.  To keep my stitching going I've been working on a Halloween piece.  Every year it gets to Halloween and I wish I'd made something to hang on the wall, but this year I am determined.  It's a small piece but is almost complete, so there will be photos soon.

Speaking of Halloween, I've been catching up on my blog reading, and it seems everyone else has also been stitching up a storm! I'm loving seeing all your work!

Just a short post today, I'm off to get some munchy lunch.
Have a great weekend.
x

TUSAL August 2012

Whoops, I'm late again.

Apologies for the picture quality, the following were taken on my iPhone.

There's a few bits of sparkle in there now, mainly because I parked the HAED this month as we have been decorating, so I discovered that the Tile 2 below had been started.  So I decided to finish it.

Tile 2 is from West End Embroidery and I bought it at the stitching show last October.  I've found it pretty challenging because I'm used to working in crosses, and I find metallic threads very frustrating as was the dark purple thread which I struggled to keep taught sometimes.

Still, it looks rather pretty.  It doesn't fit with anything in this flat at all though, so I guess it's going in a drawer.

Progress

Since the Olympics is now over, so is my husband's stint working from home.  Today he has gone into the office.  And I have done:

1. Three loads of washing
2. Prepped his bathroom ready to be painted
3. Emptied the baskets on the balcony which were full of weeds (I mean, how does that happen?)
4. Emptied the rubbish
5. A quick supermarket shop
6. Baked a cake.

I have a great big feeling of achievement - The chores will be blitzed.  And also at the moment the flat is getting a complete overhaul.  My husband is implementing the 4 year rule.  If it hasn't been touched for 4 years, it's going in the bin, recycling, or charity shop.  So much stuff we have accumulated over the last 10ish years.  I don't know where it all came from.  But we are getting there.  It seems like every cupboard in the house is like Mary Poppins' bag though - so much STUFF.

I myself reject the 4 year rule, especially when it applies to things in my wardrobe.  I prefer the 'Do I think I might need it in the next 4 years?' rule.  Perhaps someone objective should come in and go through the wardrobe for me.  I mean, at what age is it unacceptable to wear miniskirts? Or does it depend on how good your legs look in them?

Stick with me about the Cruise posts - We haven't got to the photos yet and I can't possibly post without including some of the stunning pictures!

Hello again

I'm still here.  A lot has happened in the last two weeks.  I've been on holiday, but more about that in a minute.

I've currently got a backlog of 917 posts to read.  That's not as many as I expected, but I'll be making a start on those.  Once that is done I'd like to tell you all about the last 2 wonderful weeks where I've been on a cruise ship.  Hopefully I'll have processed some photos to share.

The other news is that my first contract has ended and so I'll be looking for my next one.  Quite convenient timing really since that hopefully means I can stay at home over the Olympics and get back out there straight after.

I hope you're all well... I'll be back in a couple of days.

Where did June go?

Well.  It's July.  The summer solstice has been and gone.  We're rolling towards winter.  How did that happen?

I've a terrible feeling I missed the TUSAL this month.  But if you're interested, see last month's post.  I think I've put in about 5 stitches since then, so my pot looks exactly the same.

Our redecorating has at least now progressed to the point where the bags of books that had to come off the bookshelf are now back on the bookshelf so that we can move around the flat again without going flying (not that I need obstacles to help with that).  The picture frame is back on the wall and it looks vaguely like 'home' again.  However, I'm trying not to think about the bathroom that still needs painting (and probably re-sealing), nor the bedrooms which we said 'eurgh, that seems like way too much, maybe next year'.  (we'll see, shall we?)

I do feel slightly guilty also that my husband has done most of the work, but then I make myself feel better by saying it's really a man's job and I'm just a weak girl.  That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.  Hopefully I'm now at the end of the boring home decorating posts, and next time I'll be able to show you some stitching progress, since I can once again get to my frame. Hooray!

Whirlwinds

I feel like my feet are barely touching the ground at the moment.  It's probably about as opposite to this time last year as possible.  Then I was coming to the end of my full time permanent role and looking forward to my redundancy and some time off to relax and catch up on all the things I wanted to do.

Fast forward to now and I'm back into commuter travelling, my weekends for the next few months are packed to the brim of seeing people and doing things and to put a little cherry on top, halfway through the Jubilee weekend we decided that it would be the perfect time to paint the flat.  This was a ridiculous decision, we should have started at 8am on the Saturday morning, not 3pm on the Monday afternoon.  Whoopsie.  In the ongoing saga therefore, we've spent every evening after work doing a little bit more here and there.  Just 2 walls, a ceiling and a bathroom left to go.

But also a lot of fun things are happening.  At the start of the Jubilee weekend, I joined my photography group for a photoshoot near Bank station.  A fantastic day, but boy did I ache the next morning.  Here's my favourite:

So tomorrow, after a week of unacceptably late nights, I will have a lie in.  Hooray for my big, fluffy pillow.  And then I will catch up on the 534 blog posts that are in my backlog.  Yes, I will.  Honest, guv.