I have a few pieces that are still sitting around, languishing incompleted. Today’s WIP (work in progress) isn’t going to be one of those – this is the Nora Corbett Yellow Figbird (NC186). M says with all the innocence and disgust of a five y.o. “It’s GREEN!” Yes, yes it is…go save your indignation for the new CGI Bob the Builder, honey.
This one has been super quick – today is day 11. If I pick up the missing thread colour from Spotlight tonight I’ll be finished by Friday. And if it’s sunny this weekend I’ll pick up Arezzo and work some more on her. Over one on 28 count was totally stupid and overly ambitious!
Close-up of the beads; this is a design where I prefer to stitch the beads with a full cross as they are so large. Actually I do this on most pieces as I think this makes them more secure, and I like to see them vertically rather than on a lean. Also very important is to NOT carry the darker threads under a light coloured fabric. If you are a new stitcher, remember that you can flip your fabric 180 degrees and your crosses will still go in the same direction! And if you are stitching massive blocks of background, either buy that thread ensuring it’s from the same dye batch or stitch that block using one thread from each skein to get a blend.
Fabric: Wichelt Lugana, 25 count, White
Threads: DMC as charted EXCEPT 827 for the background rather than 3846. Definitely two skeins needed.
Max Pemberton: I’m embarrassed by public breastfeeding
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‘Of course, breastfeeding is only natural, but so are lots of things that I don’t want to see or engage with while I’m eating a muffin.’ Photo / 123RF
When it comes to breastfeeding in public, we are all supposed to stand up and applaud the practice. It’s one of those things that all right-thinking, liberal, sensible people embrace.
When women are shamed in some way about this – for example, this week when Facebook removed a picture posted by a female user of her breastfeeding her premature baby – there is a public outcry.
If a woman is asked not to breastfeed in a restaurant or cafe, opprobrium is poured down on the offending institution until it capitulates and embraces it along with everyone else.
I used to be wholly supportive of public breastfeeding. As a doctor, I know only too well the incredible health benefits to the baby.
But then something happened to change my mind. One of my friends did it in front of me. In fact, over the past few years, more and more of my friends have had children, and so I’ve been confronted with breastfeeding on numerous occasions.
Suddenly, public breastfeeding has stopped being an abstract ideological debate and started to become a reality.
As a result, I’ve been exposed to parts of my friend’s bodies I’d never wanted to see before and, what’s more, it’s over a pumpkin-spiced latte in Starbucks.
One minute they’re talking about who should have won The X Factor, the next they’ve got a baby clamped to their breast in full view of everyone.
I’m going to be honest – and please don’t hate me – but it makes me feel acutely uncomfortable. Of course, breastfeeding is only natural, but so are lots of things that I don’t want to see or engage with while I’m eating a muffin.
What’s more, it’s not something that can be just tolerated: increasingly, it’s one of those activities that is publicly applauded. Why do we need to celebrate other people’s private biological functions? It’s easy when strangers breastfeed in public – you just look away. The horror comes when it’s the person you’re out with, because it comes with the agonising debate about where to look.
The dilemma is either to stare at the floor, making it obvious you’re uncomfortable, or to absolutely, under no circumstances, break eye contact, in case your gaze momentarily wanders. I break out into a cold sweat every time it happens and, when I eventually confided in some (childless) friends, they, too, confessed they felt the same. Yet the social narrative that surrounds public breastfeeding is that only the heartless, cruel and ignorant do anything but adore it.
It is therefore forbidden to utter even the fact that it makes you uncomfortable. The breast-is-best lobby has become a powerful, vocal force to be reckoned with. They’re not the oppressed minority- that’s the rest of us.
I think the debate about breastfeeding has become very strange, part of a larger phenomenon where women’s lactation has become public property.
Everyone has a view on new mothers and their bodies these days. Women who choose not to breastfeed are ostracised and considered bad mothers, as though it’s anyone else’s business how they choose to feed their baby.
Having said all this, of course people should breastfeed in public if they want to. Just because I’m uncomfortable with it, doesn’t mean people shouldn’t do it. It’s my problem, not theirs. There should be more facilities for women to breastfeed in privacy when they are out and about.
I, too would rather sit at a table in a cafe if the only other option was a dirty, cramped public toilet – so I can’t blame breastfeeding mothers, even if I don’t agree with them.
I did confide in a friend a few years ago that I found her repeated public lactation a little strange. “Oh I know,” she said, laughing. “I love watching you squirm, it’s so entertaining. When you’re on maternity leave and up all hours with a baby, you have to take your entertainment where you can get it.” Maybe, after all, the joke’s on me.
Max Pemberton’s latest book, The Doctor Will See You Now, is published by Hodder.
Stolen from the Herald. I also love how Pemberton’s sharing his view, despite the expectation of rabid feral feedback that will most certainly be posted. As a society we are far too PC and not tollerant where other’s views don’t agree with our own.
Fail! Prompt four ended up posting before three! Honestly – it was written after. My time zone keeps bouncing back to default whenever I use the app version unless I check & re-save before typing the post. Wonder if I can go back and alter the time now?
Melbourne Cup day here “down under”. It’s the only day in the calendar where I plan to bet. Usually just the office sweepstake. This year it’s organised by the lovely Amanda, complete in heels and a fascinator. For a massive mad two bucks, I have #5, Protectionist. Reasonable chance with 22114, right? Apparently he’s German. It always amazes me that horses can move quite freely between countries but I can’t take the dog or cat (not that I have either) or goldfish. Photo stolen from some Melbourne paper. Love how his handler’s sneaking in a pie.
Reading “The White Horse King” by Benjamin Merkle, all about Alfred the Great. I’ve read a couple of things previously (mostly fictionalised, TBH) and this has “a ha!” moments. Like the bit about the earlier Viking raiders. They would plant the crops then sail over to England, raid a monastery or other soft target, and be back home in time to harvest. Now that’s efficient.
Sometimes I can deal with pressure like a sponge, and soak it all up. Sometimes the smallest thing will set me off. I guess everyone goes thru phases like this. After going thru a crap last six months at a previous employer, I have learnt a few things. I also know that I would rather work for someone else and be able to shut the door behind me at night.
Have a PLAN for achieving things. If I record something, I am not only more likely to do it, I’m more likely to achieve more. Plus planning allows for movement. Urgent report? Move this to do that. Easy. Take a look at the diary offering at your local stationery/big box store or try the planner link from yesterday.
Have an ESCAPE HATCH. Do something that makes you happy, be it something crafty, read a chapter, surf the web, go for a short walk. I return to work refreshed when I do one of these.
While I have been known to crank up Seether, I usually listen to something softer. (Confession? I am a closet Nickelback listener, but more of their earlier stuff. Yeah I know, such little justification!) Make a playlist of your favourites, hook up the iPod/phone, find a radio station, listen to a book. I am a bit late to the party but have discovered podcasts. BBC comedy? Yes please. Lee Mack, you need to get on there more.
Have something in your pod/office space that INSPIRES you. I have no outside windows so I have a few extra things. A huge Eiffel Tower canvas from Typo in Onehunga. Glass candlesticks with globes, turned to where my friend Jill is sailing presently or where friends who need prayer are (it will be showing Noo York for a while). A framed stitching piece (converted version of a Mirabilia mermaid’s compass). Inspirational quotes – we’ll get into some of those each Thursday. A Garfield coffee mug from L that holds my pens & pencils & stuff and makes me smile, as I know she was thinking of me when she brought it. Photos that bring back memories. Too many electronic devices.
Nine times out of ten, a toddler is cranky ‘cause they’re hungry. The same thing applies to us too. Eat lunch away from your desk for an extra mental break. And so your keyboard doesn’t get full of crumbs and yucky stuff.
What do you have around you? What do you do to help alleviate pressure at work? Do you have any other podcast recs?
I’m not my best on a Monday. Especially if one’s neighbours set off fireworks past eleven at night. $@%^%^^% So I rely on a routine, and a planner. Coffee, and chocolate. Chocolate is a better carrot for me than actual carrots, even given my ex would call me an ass. Monday means methodical. I usually record what I need to do in my work planner on Fridays as I can turn off work when I have a plan for the next day. My favourite planner is very simple and if you’re in NZ or AU is available through Office Max. Everywhere else it is available from the publisher or Amazon
0525: Alarm goes off. Roll over and DO NOT SNOOZE (I can allow myself to snooze later on in the week)
0600: leave house. Sometimes re-enter house if Z has forgotten something.
0630: first coffee at desk. Run sales reports; send F his extra report (my boss is currently travelling)
0700: Breakfast with the other early starters. Laugh until second coffee threatens to come out my nose. Kiss Z goodbye (he comes with me as he buses from my work to his school in central Auckland)
0715: run vendor’s weekly or fortnightly reports. Stitch or read while each report runs; email to appropriate vendor.
0900: weekly Sales meeting. Involves Category, Ops, DC, Marketing & Online peeps, and sometimes Call Centre and Store. Usually a bit of a laugh.
1000: start with the teas, have snack. Finish any outstanding vendor reports. Respond to any Monday vendor emails, also accounts. Then start responding to Store delivery issue emails.
1300: walk with Sarah DB to mall/library/circuit – the plan is to get out of the office!
1330: lunch. Usually leftovers, or Vita wheat with Puhoi basil feta and tomatoes, two things Simon can’t stand. On Friday it’s sushi for a treat. Work supplies fruit so that’s one less thing I have to remember.
1345: afternoons are a little more variety. More store issues, respond to new emails (I have a thing about clean email inbox).
1530 – 1600: Escape. Timeframe depends on which bus Z catches but I like to be on the motorway before 4. If I get on later I’m caught up in the factory finishes from Patiki and I hate rush hour traffic. I hate it more than getting up early. Another bonus has been the time each day with Z (although he is currently very annoyed that he has kitchen duties) and the books we are listening to. Right now it’s Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon. He likes the action and I’ve liked this author’s adult series because of the mythological aspects. However it’s gone a bit stupid for me, like too many sequels often do so I stopped a while ago.
1730: prep dinner. M & B have swim lessons on Mondays at the Base pool so are knackered when they get home. Early dinner, early bed means less tantrums. Except from whomever is on kitchen or bathroom duties.
1930: all three are in bed, usually B & Z read to themselves and M has a story. Currently David Melling, Joy Cowley, Lynley Dodd or anything Cars. New favourite is reading Thomas/Rev W Awdry with dad.
We have what is today conventionally a large family, four kids. No plans for more, BTW, please no more God! But we brought a people mover years ago when we just had two kids, & all jokes aside, it was one of the best things we ever had.
Friends of ours ended up with a PM for a South Island road trip years ago when Avis rented their booked Holden Commodore to someone else. Jonesy raved about it for ages. Children separate, no fighting, plenty of room for stuff and nice to drive.
We got a Honda Odyssey. Seven seats, sun roof, all the bells and whistles that Japan could come up with in 1998. We drove all over the North Island. Twice around the clock. League games. Netball games. Kayak trips. Two more children. Designated driver trips, listening to happy tales. All I missed was the Labrador.
But the gear box started to go last year. I avoided using it as much as I could, choosing to drive the Toy Car even when it had a leak. I tried to convince Si that we needed to replace it, but he holds onto cars for as long as he can. I was long past the love.
Then yay! Everything fell into place. And I have a new friend. And it’s an Odyssey. Again. But new shape. Again in white! But no sunroof. Or Labrador. That bit sucks.
Z and the Beast. Bye bye Beast.
Our bare patch is starting to take on its own identity. During a small break in the weather on Monday (public holiday, so of course it was raining!) Si dug a couple of holes along the inside of the new front fence and I planted the original mandarin (no idea what variety, but at least in the six months since I started nursing it in a pot the root ball has grown to be more than my fist and there are plenty of new shoots) and a Thumbelina Ruby Crunch apple that Sarah DB found for me at Bunnings. It’s perfect, so perfect – it has been pruned in anticipation of the end user wanting to espalier it along a fence, and the dude said that if I was careful, I would have fruit this coming autumn. So excited! However it is like me to jump into something. I have never espalier’d anything previously so am taking a crash Google course.
anticipating these next autumn!
my intention is that it looks like the tree on the brick wall
There are also lots more flowers on my boysenberry brulee. Nom. They are so pretty!
On the other side of the yard a heap of blue metal poles have risen. We inherited a playground from a school the boys attended with the intention that we would put it up in the back yard – then we made plans to sell the house so everything has been sitting around for years. Finally getting there – plans for three platforms. Number one is quite low (our property has a slope) and the ladder/climb wall will get you to the top. From here you will move to Two via the chain/plank swinging bridge. From Two you can skim along to Three via a Flying Fox (if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am not a PC person and my philosophy is that if the kids break an arm, so what? They’ll heal. And Bullrush is good for you. So There). Or you can exit Two via the slide. The exit plan for Three is either back to Two or the Fireman’s Pole. I expect the kids to add the Trampoline to their plans too, and this is more than likely where the broken arm will appear. This side of the house is the opposite to the living area, flanked by the ROW drive on the other side and I never had any glam plans for it at all. It seems right that the kids have their own area but I hope it doesn’t stop the Screaming Teen from moving out eventually!
As I sat in the sun on Saturday high up in the Waitakeres, I had NO desire to work on Jug. This may be why she is taking so long – sometimes I hate the way she is looking. I also wonder where she will fit in my (far too) masculine home – in a way I don’t care about when it comes to the Corbett Sleigh and reindeer (they are going up regardless). So I listened to the birdsong (at least until the chainsaws started) and took out a new start. I’ve been carrying around the beads, along with the fabric, working copy and DMC 310 for ages. And ages. Fred needs a friend, right?
much interupted, but progress (about four stitching opportunities)
Feel free to submit name suggestions. He is going to be the Yellow Figbird (NC187, in case you give a crap). Eventually he’ll end up like this, only I have changed out the background blue as per Lynne’s suggestion to be DMC 827. The charted 3846 just looks wrong when up next to Fred, so I’ll carry 827 into the next two birds as well. And does anyone know the flower? Sort of reminds me of a magnolia. Is that what it is?
Twitter peeps will know that on Sunday I spent the afternoon at a Bunnings in South Auckland working on a BBQ for charity. A good friend, Mel, is running the half marathon this Sunday for the Auckland City Mission & all the proceeds of the BBQ went to the participants’ charity pool. There were 6 of us in total – over $460 raised which I don’t think was too bad for a wet Sunday. I’ll never run any distance for charity (let’s be honest, I don’t even run for me) so this is one way I can help out. The Mission does amazing work in a field I am so uncomfortable with and sometimes I think those less glamorous charities get lost in the noise. Hardly a week goes by without someone calling for a donation for something and “traditional” charities are getting drowned out, like the SPCA. I tend to support what I see as tangible and practical, which will clearly be different from your priorities. And that’s fine.
When it comes to NaBloPoMo plans (which starts tomorrow for me, eep!) I have gone OK. There are some reoccurring themes (WIP Wednesday for one) as I think I will be more likely to finish the challenge if I have some “gimme” days. So far I have five days unplanned and I have some posts part-written already. This is because I should really be working as Sunday was the End of Month (and Quarter) here at work, and people want their reports. How unreasonable! I did escape the grind for a bit yesterday and went to Living & Giving, our gift chain, which has a store in St Lukes. Massive 40% off Ecoya (actually all candles and fragrances, with 30% off everything else but I only wanted Ecoya, along with everyone else I know) and got a pillar candle in beautiful Vanilla Bean, and two of the limited edition Pine jars to get the house smelling like Christmas. That is the one thing with an asthmatic kid – no real tree. But at least my house will smell “right” – and this will overpower the Screaming Teen’s boy room smell. Or at least that is the plan!
Reading – I finished The Lady in Red and had one of those book hangover periods where nothing was good enough. I’m not quite ready to move onto something else “serious” so I am re-reading K.S. Nikakis’ Kira Chronicles again. Nikakis’ first book of the trilogy was her debut; Mel gave it to me years ago as an ARC and I loved it so much I sulked when I had to pass it onto someone else. I have all three on my reader. Very original high fantasy with the main character, Kiraon, being a young girl. Traditional fantasy elements and it’s blood thirsty enough to appeal to two of my brats. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/n/k-s-nikakis/ unfortunately her next works are still in progress. Hurry up!
Don’t know what NaBloPoMo is? You can read about it on the BlogHer site here: NaBloPoMo Is Here! But the short version is that it stands for National Blog Posting Month – an event for bloggers that goes alongside National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Rather than finish a novel in 30 days, bloggers commit to writing or posting at least one new thing to their blog every day. That’s new content every single day. It’s quite a challenge! (I stole that bit from here: http://littlethreadcrafts.com/2014/10/28/nablopomo-is-almost-here/ )
SO I have a couple of days to think/chart/record blog posts, then the real work begins. Should be interesting!
Si was out tonight so I started to pull together my DD for this year. The big goal is not to journal every day (I can catch up) but to not spend on the papers etc. I did buy the Stampin’ Up PL 6×8 & a heap of inserts but I want to get some hand dyed fabric from Catherine for the Nora Corbett reindeer, & that needs to be matching so best that I purchase enough for six at the same time.
My cover is deliberately simple. I don’t want this to clash with other stuff on the shelf. Plus I’m not a frills person.
Then a whole heap of stuff for the inside. Mostly a variety of Project Life cards, but the filofax inserts fit too. Brads & flourishes from Kaiser, Basic Grey scraps; this is on a budget.
While I haven’t totally planned each day, I do have a basic layout. And cards will be added once the season is over and they no longer need to be displayed. So write to me, people, & I’ll return the favour.
Planning to succeed. Whoops, that sounds a bit pratty.
sewscrapmuse 