Author Archives: paulainauckland

#craft31days day eight

Posted in cross stitch, DIY home, family, goals, grateful, House, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns by

I’m down to 5% battery so let’s make this quick.

The bathroom is clean & clear of all the debris. 840kg worth, people. My wrist & shoulders hurt. Simon started nailing down the new tile slate tonight. With “help”.

I managed to get a decent hour or two in Fairy Idyll after everyone else went to bed. Hooray! That’s another 250+ stitches in this weekend.

Hope your weekend was as productive!

#craft31days day seven

Posted in DIY home, family, House by

I got up early this morning, mostly for coffee & to hustle the Screaming Teen out the door; he was getting picked up at 7am for a day refereeing. I got five or six threads into Fairy Idyll before the rest of the house got moving, then we got stuck into demo.

We learnt a few things.

  • Only one of the walls had the proper gib (wallboard).
  • The toilet pan was glued to the floor. No screws.
  • The cistern wasn’t fixed at all.
  • The basin carcass was also glued, not screwed.
  • The ammt of glue used to hold down the top wouldn’t fill a bottle lid.
  • Surprisingly there was insulation in the outside wall. We had our doubts by the time we got to that one.

I’d forgotten how much I hate demo. And yay! We’ll get to do it all over again with our bath before summer ends.

#craft31days day four

Posted in cross stitch, friends, goals, grateful, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns by

So no true WIP Wednesday post today & probably not for the rest of October. I’m just planning to stay on track with the #craft31days prompt.

So far I love how much progress I am getting in on Fairy Idyll. This is an older (1996!) Mira that I’ve wanted to do for ages, which is adding to my momentum & work ethic.

Tonight I took The Screaming Teen into his pt session in town. That’s an hour of sitting around; I watched some netflix (the Gaga doc) & stitched, as I’d remembered that but not my hoodie. Doh.

So today maybe 180 stitches plus a bit of BS. I’m trying to do that as I go.

Tomorrow morning my wrist is being scanned, as its not healing fast enough. 8 weeks & I still get pain when I hold something & use force, like a door handle or can opener. It’s frustrating. Hopefully it’s nothing broken.

#craft31days day three

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash by

I was pretty lazy around the house tonight. Dinner, washing, not a lot else. Some reading, some playing, some mediating. As you do with three boys in the house!

Anyway, lots more again on Fairy Idyll. Another 450+ stitches. The gold/green drape is nearly complete to the point I’ll flip this 180 & work on the post.

And yeah. That frog visited a few times. Blast.

#craft31days day 2

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, friends, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

This afternoon was wet and wild again – spring has come in like a lion! My lettuce seedlings had only been in the raised bed for a week & now they’re all scrunched up in one corner. I think I’ll be buying more this weekend 🥕 the carrot & 🥒 cucumber seedlings were still in the tray on the kitchen windowsill, so they aren’t a write-off.

I mucked around with the kids for a bit then settled in. With mum coming home to a clean kitchen & clean bedrooms comes great reward… no time limit on the wii! I grabbed a notebook as I really want to record my progress on Fairy Idyll. I’m conscious this chart is a loan, & I want to get it back to Gail as soon as I can.

So. 18 thread lengths & as I average 25-27 stitches with DMC, that’s a massive 450-486 stitches tonight. And I cooked dinner, folded washing, hung another load on the rack… really happy with the progress but I know not every night will be like this.

#craft31days This one’s all about the Smalls

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL by

Hey Heather & crew! This one’s for you… & if you want to follow along, click on the image to the right.

In September I had an amazing Smalls month, finishing an adaptation of Hawaii Santa, & two of the Florence Santa (one will be for my Lou, to go with her growing collection). And I started Jamaica Santa, again doing two at once. This is Z’s idea to ensure I have one for us, and don’t get bored with the chart & forget to do the second.

You will also see I’m using this as my kick-off to a version of #write31days, a semi-annual blogging prompt. My goal is to do something crafty every day & on most days, have this something being at least a thread on Fairy Idyll. As yesterday was the first, here’s my end point for about 6 hours overall work:

WIP Wednesday #205, WIPocalypse & SFS

Posted in cross stitch, friends, goals, grateful, lavender & lace, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, WIPocalypse by

IMG_20170927_082813Well – I *might*have blown Stitch From Stash. If I spend nothing more & have no finishes, I will end up at $16.03 at December, which is a very small amount indeed (if we are calculating the whole year, which thankfully we’re not, I’d be at -$88.49 & not in credit until April 2018!!). But it is OK, as I am happy, & unlikely to spend heaps between now and January except on the odd skein or two. Gail so very kindly loaned me Fairy Idyll!!! I have been wanting to stitch this 1996 chart for ages, & couldn’t find it for love or money. So I brought a piece of Applemint Lugana from Catherine at Countrystitch especially for it. This needs to be my focus piece until I complete her. Luckily there is plenty to hold my interest & keep me going!

 Monthly Allowance $25.00
Hospice – MLI Shepherd -1.00
Hospice – JCS pile -2.00
RR Spend -91.00
Fox Collec. Mill Hills -53.84
Countrystitch Applemint -42.60
SELL MLI Blueberry 5.00
Mia Mermaid 15.35
Hawaii Santa Conversion 10.00
Florence Santa x2 20.00
Rollover $56.12
Total Available Budget -$58.97

And this month I finished two of the Florence version of the Mill Hill Renaissance Santa’s, & then found that the Fox Collection sold them MUCH cheaper than the LNS. I’m talking ten bucks cheaper per item, people. Now, I work retail so I understand margin & if it had been only a couple of dollars, I wouldn’t have brought from the online. But overall twenty dollars is substantial.

And I also spent $91 at the LNS, on fabric, Thread Heaven (before it disappears entirely), speciality threads (Waterlillies are ten dollars each here), beads etc. Thank goodness for the finishes I had!

This month, in addition to finishing Mia Mermaid, Hawaii Santa, Florence Santa x2, I also started the Jamaica Santa for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, worked on Nantucket Rose’s tree canopy, finished Blitzen (except the ribbons) is done on my Reindeer Parade & I started Prancer. And of course I managed to work out the start point and did four threads of Fairy Idyll last night (Simon has discovered Taskmaster, & it’s hard to do a new start when you are watching something interesting and laughing you’re a$$ off). So far this month I’ve only had one day where I didn’t stitch at all.

Topic of the Month: Which floss (or colour of floss) do you absolutely adore and want to stash constantly? I’m really only buying thread as I need it. It’s too expensive to stash, but I have recently started using and loving GAST, so if I had a few extra dollars, I’d be buying that, & probably in blues. I really need to finish that Persephone in blue…

Note: SFS is a closed facebook group hosted by Stephanie (Ms Oh Sew Crafty). Registrations for the first part of 2018 will be opening up later this year. WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi over on her blog and in facebook. Click on the link to the right to be taken to the blog.

Sharing Is Caring: The Doodle Rant Is Over

Posted in me by

Let me start this by saying that I am not apologizing for my furious rant on facebook. I was angry, angrier than I have been in quite some time and my feelings have merit and I can’t apologize for that. But I fell into the trap. The trap set by those that want division in […]

via An open letter to anyone….. — crochetmyheart

SO – Farrah is a very good friend of mine. If I could, I’d be at her house everyday (but I haven’t yet convinced hubs we need to visit TX, let alone move there). And while I may not agree with everything she has to say, there are some good take-away points here that apply to anyone, be you from the US, UK, NZ, Australia – wherever. Whatever age you are. Whatever your background is. Whatever your religion is. Whatever.

  1. I can try to be better, act better, live better.   I can only try to treat my fellow humans in the manner I want to be treated….with respect and love and understanding. I may not agree with you, but you deserve at least that from me… if it’s earned.
  2. And we didn’t invent racism.  At least I didn’t. But only we can eradicate it.
  3. Protest your cause.  Peacefully.  If you want someone to respect you, try showing a little respect to them.  If you want someone to listen, try listening yourself.  If you want to make a change….

    Change yourself first.  We seldom see the ugliness in ourselves until it’s too late.

  4. And until we learn to respect, accept and love each other, NOTHING will change.  It’s our actions, not our words, that will prove to be effective.