Category Archives: cross stitch

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, steptember 2015 by

It’s been a week of huge self-imposed pressure – LEARN TO SAY NO, PAULA!! – but I feel hugely rewarded.

  • walking every day has increased my overall energy levels and I am more patient with the family. Am not noticing that clothes fit better yet. Hopefully that comes soon!
  • the team I am managing won 28-4  – I may have mentioned that already. If so, I’m not at all sorry to repeat it. Only the one problem parent & that’s rudeness. I can cope with that.
  • I finished Andie’s RR piece, the Gingerbread House from Shannon Wasilieff. She’s beading later so it is being posted to the next person today. Only 6 weeks late! I may eventually get over that.
  • I made a decent start on Keely’s piece, which is oh-so-cute. I expect to have that away by next Friday as no beading is required here either.
  • The posts are up on the Facebook group to remind the Ornament Exchange and Round Robin stitchers to post. Phew!
Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

cheery cherry blossoms

cheery cherry blossoms

Keely's choice; Angels from XS Crazy 2012

Keely’s choice; Angels from XS Crazy 2012

Hi Five for Friday!

Posted in books, cross stitch, High Five For Friday, house - gardens by

LISTENING: to Elise Joy podcasts about creativity, taking a leap, changing focus www.elisejoy.com or via iTunes and a lot more of radio than iPod – www.lifefm.co.nz

READING: I have a few I just read the first chapter of – and some I want to dive into but I just am not in the headspace. There’s a review for a gentle series scheduled for tomorrow and I’m in book 6 of another I need to schedule for next week. Any suggestions gratefully accepted – I just can’t do deep right now.

20150909_171137SHOPPING: for seeds – this is my haul from Kings this week. I’ll be able to mass plant lavender for minimal cost. And be giving away parsley. Lots of parsley.

CRAFTING: Getting into this RR. I’m thinking beads for the falling snow – and then I remember that it isn’t my piece!20150911_085354

DOING: Wrapping up the 80% portion of being a rep team manager. There are some people making it a lot harder than it needs to be – and getting texts after 11 at night is getting old. First game tomorrow!

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CELEBRATING: My first donation for Steptember! Not too late – you can view my progress here http://bit.ly/1JuNI9k  I’ve done over 100K steps since it began!

PLOTTING: I’m at 110 followers – thank you! I love hearing from you – and I said I’d do a giveaway at 111. Time to start thinking – it might have to be crafty and booky!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, round robin, steptember 2015 by

Well for today I don’t have much to show at all. I managed a few days on the wallpaper of Persephone (while bingeing on SOA). The left top corner now only needs the beads, which I will do much, much later. It’s a carrot to keep stitching along, especially as I wasn’t sure about doing the background initially.

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Then one of the NZ round robins I am organising went to custard. I have picked up the two pieces that were at one person’s house and now have THREE robins I’m stitching in. Luckily I don’t have the latest Mira one yet (probably next week) but the person hadn’t stitched much on the other pieces – one is due to be posted next Friday (not even opened!) and the other was a couple of weeks ago. Part of the issue was out of her control but I’m still disappointed.

I’ve decided to work on Andi’s piece this week (in between work, rep footy and walking) – it’s a Shannon Wasilieff piece called Gingerbread Houses. It’s available in her etsy store. I found this image on Google from another blog (mylifeisinstitches.blogspot.com which now looks like it’s been abandoned).

gingerbread SAL

I’m going to start the top left house & I’ll probably ignore the border – but the goal is to get a house done quick smart and off to Kathryn as soon as I can!

Steptember Update

Posted in cross stitch, Project Life, steptember 2015 by

Well, given that the average office worker hits about 3000 steps a day, I’m nailing it. However I’m not quite at 10K a day yet.

Wednesday – 6121 steps or 2.9km

Thursday – 7547 steps or 7.2km

Friday – 14564 steps or 7.9km

Saturday – 10470 steps or 5.3km

Sunday – 17421 steps or 9.5km

Monday (yesterday, back in the office) – 9584 steps or 5.1km

Sarah & I have plotted out some longer lunchtime walks for this week & I’m looking at taking a photo of something that catches my eye every day. A good Project Life mini theme album! Yesterday we saw this:
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and if you wish to donate or sponsor me, click here. NZ peeps, you’ll get a tax cert for next year’s refund. I’m very grateful for any donation, no matter how small. Email me your receipt confirmation and you’ll get a individual Christmas ornie too 🙂

And she’s done!

Posted in conversion details, cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

Yay for Saturday mornings with no sport.

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And a close up:

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I did change out some beads, more because I had them to hand but they fit so well on this fabric. Everything is still Mill Hill.
16603 became 03016.
18828 became 00143 (happily the packet I didn’t use for Stargazer).
In the bubble trails from her fins, I used 00150 instead of silver and 00161 instead of 02010.

I do feel a little stupid in that she’s been sitting in a bag for a year, and it was only a week to get a finish!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

So as I’m in between round robins and I felt kind of stupid having all those beads and something that was nearly a finish so…

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I finished her hair this morning. Just a tip: of you’re planning on stashing a WIP for any decent period, highlight where you get up to. That’ll save you a few hours!

Her tail is beading up quickly, as I’m only attaching them with a half stitch. All shiny!

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August WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, grateful, Mirabilia, WIPocalypse by

WIPocalypse is a monthly-ish blog hop hosted by Measi.  This moon’s task was to choose a WIP and tell the story.

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This is Mediterranean Mermaid. Long time followers will know all about her; but for everyone else, this is why she’s still a WIP.

Our youngest, Mase, often has asthma flareups. Bad ones. End up on nebuliser ones. It’s long hours, often alone as there are other children at home, so I had to have a project that was permanently packed & could go anywhere with me. Lynne suggested Jug (as in, she carries an amphorae).

But so far in 2015, and with winter nearly over, we’ve kept Mase under control. Small flares, nothing major. Poor Jug hasn’t been worked on for nearly a year (I even brought the beads earlier this year in preparation),

It’s hard to feel for her tho!