Author Archives: paulainauckland

#craft31days day nine

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns by

Back at work, which meant a rest from the bath! The teen’s job today was to nail down the tiling slate & put the insulation in the walls. Partial success.

I walked while he was training then once I hit my step goal, I rewarded myself by stitching. Tonight I’ve got in about 200 stitches & back stitches. The purple is a variegated thread so that’s slower, one stitch at a time. Back stitching with wisper is not my favourite thing to do but I like the effect!

#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: