This has been a difficult week at work for me. Deadlines are hovering and there have been some long days with barely time to grab lunch, which makes me stressed, tired and a bit grumpy. I've been getting home, eating dinner and dropping asleep on the sofa at about 9pm.
Thankfully, this weekend has been really sunny and bright, and I was glad to get to Friday, and I sure will be happy to get to the long 4 day weekend at the end of next friday. We were thinking about heading out of London, but I think there will be a lot of nice things happening for the Jubilee (certainly lots of flags are popping up all over!) , so it'll be good to stick around. We might even get around to a bit of DIY...we are still trying to make our little flat more homely after about 4 and a half years. The walls have prints and photos up now, so we are getting there.
I hope you're all having lovely weekends...stitchy updates soon.
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Sunday, 20 May 2012
TUSAL - May 2012
Hello everyone,
It's TUSAL time again... I feel like I've actually made a little progress this time. I've got a few projects on the go at once at the moment - one very small magazine freebie for travelling to and from work when I actually manage to get a seat, one project that I stitch on longer train journeys (the butterfly one), and then a new small one which is a needle case that I bought from Ham House yesterday when I was silly enough not to take my stitching out for the day and ended up on an hour and a half tube journey with nothing to do. Then of course, I have also made some progress on Moonlit Waters.
So anyway, here's my TUSAL jar as it stands in May.
It's TUSAL time again... I feel like I've actually made a little progress this time. I've got a few projects on the go at once at the moment - one very small magazine freebie for travelling to and from work when I actually manage to get a seat, one project that I stitch on longer train journeys (the butterfly one), and then a new small one which is a needle case that I bought from Ham House yesterday when I was silly enough not to take my stitching out for the day and ended up on an hour and a half tube journey with nothing to do. Then of course, I have also made some progress on Moonlit Waters.
So anyway, here's my TUSAL jar as it stands in May.
Until next time...
Jo
Monday, 7 May 2012
Moonlit Waters update - Page 1 finished!
Hello there,
Well, I feel pretty good today. I've been working quite solidly this weekend on Moonlit Waters. Since it's been a bank holiday, my goal was to finish page one and I just put the final stitch in that page, so I'm pretty happy that there's still a little bit of the evening left. There has been a lot of black and navy and purple in page 1, but from the look of page 2 we get to move onto some other colours, which is great.
I'm finding the HAED a lot of fun, but I'm not stitching exclusively on it. I guess it's my 'home' project, but I have a few others on the go whilst I'm travelling. I even managed to put some stitches in on a tiny project during my tube journeys, which is quite nice. This does mean that since I've gone back to work, progress is slower than I would like, but not really anything I can do about that.
I'm finding working a block at a time quite a good way to do things, not as difficult as I thought and I'm pretty happy to say that there hasn't been much unpicking so far (touch wood). I think it's easier to keep track of the confetti in a 10x10 square and much more manageable that way.
Anyways, here's a picture of Page 1:
Ah well, one page down... 35 to go!!!
Thanks for dropping by,
Jo
Well, I feel pretty good today. I've been working quite solidly this weekend on Moonlit Waters. Since it's been a bank holiday, my goal was to finish page one and I just put the final stitch in that page, so I'm pretty happy that there's still a little bit of the evening left. There has been a lot of black and navy and purple in page 1, but from the look of page 2 we get to move onto some other colours, which is great.
I'm finding the HAED a lot of fun, but I'm not stitching exclusively on it. I guess it's my 'home' project, but I have a few others on the go whilst I'm travelling. I even managed to put some stitches in on a tiny project during my tube journeys, which is quite nice. This does mean that since I've gone back to work, progress is slower than I would like, but not really anything I can do about that.
I'm finding working a block at a time quite a good way to do things, not as difficult as I thought and I'm pretty happy to say that there hasn't been much unpicking so far (touch wood). I think it's easier to keep track of the confetti in a 10x10 square and much more manageable that way.
Anyways, here's a picture of Page 1:
Ah well, one page down... 35 to go!!!
Thanks for dropping by,
Jo
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Smash
This TV show started here in the UK on Sky Atlantic a couple of weeks ago and I have to admit, by the first ad-break I was pretty hooked. I love the big numbers being belted out, and it's a really fab cast of people that I like to watch, the two lead actresses are really brilliant and I love how they are playing them off against each other to cast one as Marilyn Monroe.
The downside is that I now want to go and watch a load of shows in the west end... it's such a great feeling just to get lost in a show for a couple of hours, when the songs make your body tingle - and this show is doing a great job of helping me to relax and clear my mind.
The downside is that I now want to go and watch a load of shows in the west end... it's such a great feeling just to get lost in a show for a couple of hours, when the songs make your body tingle - and this show is doing a great job of helping me to relax and clear my mind.
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Liebster Award
Hello everyone,
Well, it has been utterly miserable here. For weeks, the sky has been grey and I've been rained on every day that I've left the house, it has been most unpleasant. It also makes me feel grumpy and like hibernating.
However, two things have cheered me right up - the first that I have 50 followers on my little blog now... I never thought I'd get even 5, so this is so lovely... and I love to read other peoples blogs to motivate me, your pictures are all so pretty and uplifting!
The other reason I'm smiling is because two people have given me the Liebster Award! They are the lovely Emma at xxxstitching and Beverly at weestitchy.
Liebster is a German word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster Blog Award is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.
The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.
Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to.
Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.
Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don’t know about you.”
So here we go...
It's not that I can't pick 5 blogs, but I'd rather pick a couple that I find really outstanding and whose posts I particularly love to catch up with... I don't know if this means I don't satisfy the conditions or not, but oh well, it's meant to be fun right and to point people at new blogs to follow...so here are my top picks...
1. http://charbellastitching.blogspot.co.uk/ - I've really loved watching the progress on Faery Tales, and I find it very motivational because I've just started my first HAED - there are people who actually manage to make a ton of progress, so maybe one day I will get mine finished!!
2. http://cathycrossstitch.blogspot.co.uk/ - her latest post on stash collections really struck a chord with me - I have dabbled in different crafts and have decided Cross Stitch is where I'm happiest. But each craft seems to need so much stash. Even though you could in theory stitch a project at a time and have only one little packet at a time, why then do I have 4 boxes full?
And my five random facts:
1. My right thigh is numb from an operation I had 10 years ago on my hip.
2. I dont like shopping for shoes or handbags. Jackets and boots are my bag, baby!
3. Although I always said I'd move back up north at some point, London has really grown on me. I'd be happy to stay.
4. I love to look at fashion blogs. Even though I'm not very fashionable. Must try harder...how do these people know how to accessorise properly and it seems to have completely passed me by?
5. I have a stuffed wombat called Wozza. That was also the nickname of my first boyfriend. I didn't name the wombat, funnily enough, but it makes me laugh when I think about it.
Well, it has been utterly miserable here. For weeks, the sky has been grey and I've been rained on every day that I've left the house, it has been most unpleasant. It also makes me feel grumpy and like hibernating.
However, two things have cheered me right up - the first that I have 50 followers on my little blog now... I never thought I'd get even 5, so this is so lovely... and I love to read other peoples blogs to motivate me, your pictures are all so pretty and uplifting!
The other reason I'm smiling is because two people have given me the Liebster Award! They are the lovely Emma at xxxstitching and Beverly at weestitchy.
Liebster is a German word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster Blog Award is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.
The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.
Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to.
Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.
Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don’t know about you.”
So here we go...
It's not that I can't pick 5 blogs, but I'd rather pick a couple that I find really outstanding and whose posts I particularly love to catch up with... I don't know if this means I don't satisfy the conditions or not, but oh well, it's meant to be fun right and to point people at new blogs to follow...so here are my top picks...
1. http://charbellastitching.blogspot.co.uk/ - I've really loved watching the progress on Faery Tales, and I find it very motivational because I've just started my first HAED - there are people who actually manage to make a ton of progress, so maybe one day I will get mine finished!!
2. http://cathycrossstitch.blogspot.co.uk/ - her latest post on stash collections really struck a chord with me - I have dabbled in different crafts and have decided Cross Stitch is where I'm happiest. But each craft seems to need so much stash. Even though you could in theory stitch a project at a time and have only one little packet at a time, why then do I have 4 boxes full?
And my five random facts:
1. My right thigh is numb from an operation I had 10 years ago on my hip.
2. I dont like shopping for shoes or handbags. Jackets and boots are my bag, baby!
3. Although I always said I'd move back up north at some point, London has really grown on me. I'd be happy to stay.
4. I love to look at fashion blogs. Even though I'm not very fashionable. Must try harder...how do these people know how to accessorise properly and it seems to have completely passed me by?
5. I have a stuffed wombat called Wozza. That was also the nickname of my first boyfriend. I didn't name the wombat, funnily enough, but it makes me laugh when I think about it.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
STEPS @Sheffield Arena
Last weekend, I went to see STEPS. (there was much ribbing in the office about this and the fact that since I went with my family, I must have been taking someone aged about 11).
As much as I liked them 10 years ago, for some reason, I had never seen them live before - perhaps because there hadn't been anyone for me to go with at that time. I'd watched the Sky TV show about them all getting back together and putting their differences aside, and well, I must admit that some members came across much better than others. It seemed like there was a huge amount of pressure for them to reform, and pull a stage show together in a matter of only a few months.
However, it was clear from the offset that this was something the fans really wanted. The Sheffield show, and I'm sure many of the others were sell outs. I had pretty good tickets, fairly close to the stage on one of the sides of the arena. And to me, Sheffield is one of the best arenas, because wherever you are, the view is pretty good. And the crowd is always amazing.
What a show it was. Clearly the budget had been thrown out of the window and it was pretty spectacular staging. On top of that, the routines were huge amounts of fun, and for anyone who had known the dances to a Steps song back in the day, they were given the chance to brush off their dancing shoes and join right back in again.
But then there was the singing. They sang live. They each did a solo. Lee's rendition of Moves Like Jagger was pretty cool indeed. Lisa surprised me by her solo, because she proved to me that actually, her voice is pretty good. And Claire. Well, Claire brought the house down. You know one of those roars of approval from the audience that sounds almost respectful. Throughout the whole song. It's hard to describe, but amazing to experience and she left the stage with tears in her eyes and a happy glow on her face.
But all in all a really fun night out, it was a massive party from start to finish, and I've not been to an arena show with an atmosphere like that since the Spice Girls. I hope they are back for a while yet, because I think this is a band with a lot of life still in them.
As much as I liked them 10 years ago, for some reason, I had never seen them live before - perhaps because there hadn't been anyone for me to go with at that time. I'd watched the Sky TV show about them all getting back together and putting their differences aside, and well, I must admit that some members came across much better than others. It seemed like there was a huge amount of pressure for them to reform, and pull a stage show together in a matter of only a few months.
However, it was clear from the offset that this was something the fans really wanted. The Sheffield show, and I'm sure many of the others were sell outs. I had pretty good tickets, fairly close to the stage on one of the sides of the arena. And to me, Sheffield is one of the best arenas, because wherever you are, the view is pretty good. And the crowd is always amazing.
What a show it was. Clearly the budget had been thrown out of the window and it was pretty spectacular staging. On top of that, the routines were huge amounts of fun, and for anyone who had known the dances to a Steps song back in the day, they were given the chance to brush off their dancing shoes and join right back in again.
But then there was the singing. They sang live. They each did a solo. Lee's rendition of Moves Like Jagger was pretty cool indeed. Lisa surprised me by her solo, because she proved to me that actually, her voice is pretty good. And Claire. Well, Claire brought the house down. You know one of those roars of approval from the audience that sounds almost respectful. Throughout the whole song. It's hard to describe, but amazing to experience and she left the stage with tears in her eyes and a happy glow on her face.
But all in all a really fun night out, it was a massive party from start to finish, and I've not been to an arena show with an atmosphere like that since the Spice Girls. I hope they are back for a while yet, because I think this is a band with a lot of life still in them.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
TUSAL April 2012
These months go by quite quickly when you're not paying attention. And here we are, it's TUSAL time again. You know the drill - if you want know what what the TUSAL is, there's a little graphic on the right hand side of the page that you can go and click. It'll take you to Daffycat's Blog.
Progress this month has been almost nothing on Moonlit Waters, but I have been out and about travelling at weekends quite a bit visiting family, so I've been working on my travelling pattern.
So, here's my jar update, and my travelling pattern photograph. It's coming on quite nicely, I'm pretty happy with the progress on it.
Progress this month has been almost nothing on Moonlit Waters, but I have been out and about travelling at weekends quite a bit visiting family, so I've been working on my travelling pattern.
So, here's my jar update, and my travelling pattern photograph. It's coming on quite nicely, I'm pretty happy with the progress on it.
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