Author Archives: paulainauckland

Fabric Dye Fails issue one

Posted in DIY home, Mirabilia, stitching patterns by

So I thought I’d dye myself a piece that would be (depending on the tonal depth) be for either Mirabilia’s Raven Queen or Rose of Sharon.

I picked up some plain white 32ct linen from Spotlight – they had it marked at $13.99 pm rather than per 10cm! – cut off a section and paired it with Dylon Elephant Gray. Which is clearly not that gray.

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Almost a complete fail. I was going for a 415 tone, not part way thru 341 & 3747! But at least it’s even, no blotchy bits!
I think I’ll list it in the up cycle group and try again.

14/08 Hi Five for Friday!

Posted in grateful, High Five For Friday by

High Five

LISTENING: to the No Such Thing As A Fish podcasts. Funny & factual. I actually prefer this to the parent show which is QI. You can get the podcasts thru iTunes or at http://qi.com/podcast/

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READING: absolute crap. I need a recommend!

PINNING: Eh yeah – playing on Instagram too much instead!

CRAFTING: Small, small start to the next Mira RR. I need to get my head around stitching the “wrong” way for me, which is / then \. I’m stitching Spring Queen in the space above Winter. I must admit my OCD is itching as the person owning this piece said to plop the Queens in any order!

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DOING: Banging my head on the desk. How many ways can you tell a vendor that if they didn’t charge you for an unordered product (which we didn’t add to the order, we had them collect it) then we can’t generate a credit claim?!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

I’m getting back on track! I’ve stitched every night from Sunday thru to Tuesday and feel like I’ve achieved a level of nirvana.

TC has gone away again. There is just so much exciting stuff on the telly that I found I was constantly frogging as I want paying attention. However I did get over 1000 stitches in a very short space of time. Roll on summer and the cricket!

While I’m waiting on the next Mira RR piece to arrive, I’m working on Persephone. This is where I started again on Monday:

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And this is last night:

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Lots of counting and recounting (waterlillies are so expensive here) but I can stitch and watch New Zealand beat Australia AND Jamaica at the netball with minimal frogging!

I’m also now on instagram. Follow @paulainauckland if you want to see daily updates or those little bits of my life! X

Project Life catch up

Posted in family, grateful, Journal, me, photos, Project Life by

I’m so far behind that it’s not even funny. So yesterday I alloted myself the luxury of a half day to spend some time on what was a fab little hobby.

All in all I printed over 80 photos and slotted then into rough chronological order. There’s not much embellishment (I’m not one for fuss here, & anyway with three boys I can’t see much point other than some washi) but nearly all the journalling is done too.

I’m now only 16 weeks behind!

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Mase at 6

Posted in family, grateful by

Six years have flown by. We’ve gone from this:

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To this:

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I thought I’d pull some of the questions from my Me at 41 post way back in May. It won’t describe Mase totally – he’s stubborn but giving, has a wicked sense of humour, completes our family totally, reads like a fiend (the trouble is finding suitable books for skill/age), loves science and finding out about stuff, still sleeps with his Tigger, loves his league, loves going to school, loves helping Dad, hates cleaning his room, loves long showers. Gives great hugs.

  • WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Mason was a character in a Nora Roberts novel. Both Louise and Mum loved the name and remember this was six months before the Kardashian used the name so it was fairly rare. Joel is because the other two have middle names starting with J, but we’d run out of family names. My family is boring like that.
  • WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Last night when my big brother was being annoying. I wish he wouldn’t steal my Batman car.
  • WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Ricies, altho I’ll eat Weat-bix if the All Black cards are still in the box.
  • DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Heck no. My school shoes still use Velcro, and Mum ties my footy boots. I’m in too much of a hurry to be doing that stuff.
  • DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Like Mum, I can be. I can also be very, very stubborn and just not give up.
  • WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Anything in the freezer, except Strawberry.
  • RED OR PINK? Blue & Yellow – school and league colours
  • FAVORITE SMELLS? Nachos.
  • FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I haven’t found a sport I don’t like watching.
  • HAIR COLOR? Blonde heading to brown.
  • EYE COLOR? Blue.
  • FAVORITE FOOD? Nachos.
  • SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy happy happy.
  • LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Cars 2. Mum says it’s lame but I like it and she won’t let me watch James Bond yet.
  • HUGS OR KISSES? Both!
  • WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Whatever school puts out. Plus David Melling, Sandra Boynton, anything Cars…
  • FAVORITE SOUND? That noise B makes when I wind him up.
  • WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME IN 2015? Wellington – on the family road trip.
  • WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Auckland – the same hospital as my big sister. Mum says the weather was nice that day.

Hi Five for Friday!

Posted in DIY home, grateful, High Five For Friday by

High Five

LISTENING: to Elise Joy podcasts about creativity, taking a leap, changing focus www.elisejoy.com or via iTunes

Elises Site

READING: blogs more than books. I especially loved this one from Carol this week, about the owls in Birmingham. I think public art projects like this are the bomb. I’m looking at the Warehouse this weekend for a little owl that I can use for my own version of Tea T Owl. https://aslightobsessionwithbooks.wordpress.com/

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PINNING: Minion party ideas. See my “party theme” board on Pinterest. Yes, I know, the theme changed.

CRAFTING: Slooooooow progress on Tapestry Cat’s border, quick progress filling in her body. This is what she will look like when I’m eventually finished. Hopefully before 2020.

TC finished

DOING: Trying to catch up on six days of delivery errors while staying up-to-date with this week’s issues. I started out Monday with 361 emails, last night at 126. Plus all the reporting is done, including next week’s supplier reviews. WIN!

It’s been 14 days since my last entry…

Posted in Smalls SAL, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse, You Can Quote ME by

PeedoInstead of being all busy and achieving heaps while Si was away I was knee deep in cleaning as all three boys went down with this tummy bug. I copped it twice and was absolutely wiped out by Wednesday, when he came home. We had a very quiet birthday for Mase (he was six on Sunday) & have plans for his school friends party in a fortnight.

In this time I’ve missed a couple of WIP Wednesday’s (wouldn’t have mattered, I didn’t have the energy to read, let alone stitch), YCQM, a Smalls check-in and a WIPocalypse. It was my question this time around too!

So here we go:

SMALLS: I worked on the Reindeer Parade (Blitzen is coming along but I can’t find a decent photo) & a NZFB RR piece. This is Angela’s selection:

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WIPocalypse: Topic: What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece? I’m genuinely interested in catching up with the answers on the blogs this month. I tossed up on Saturday about what I should do now, in that gap between finishing Angela’s RR piece and receiving the next of the Mira RR, and I ended up picking up my second oldest WIP, the Teresa Wentzler Tapestry Cat. Poor old TC was my Christmas present to myself way back in 2005 or 2006 and I’m telling myself that I must finish this before she finishes charting Illuminata (race is on!) because otherwise how will I justify purchasing a new chart?!

I am trying to find a new leaf outline thread – the ones on the right in the image are as charted, the top one is the current thought. I just want them to be more defined – what do you think?

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YCQM: I’ve managed to be more Serene than not while Si was away, with the exception being the Screaming Teen’s night time antics. He just won’t stay in bed! I can’t tell you how many times he woke me by watching TV in the lounge which really, really wound me up. Now I’m back at work I am enjoying waking him up for a change.  And isn’t this the truth?

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