Category Archives: Journal

You Can Quote Me III – NaBloPoMo twenty

Posted in grateful, Journal, me, NaBloPoMo, OLW by

Another favourite quote reminds me to be faithful, confident I will get what I pray for. Example? I have been working for a major retailer on a maternity contract. Noises about keeping me on when it expires on Dec 30th, but nothing concrete and moving into November, I was starting to look around, nervous about paying the bills and so on. Then last Wednesday I was offered a contract. Woo hoo!

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As I seem to have got the hang of this new habit (planning blog posts, thinking ahead) I’m going to add five minutes of solitude to my mornings as the next habit. Just me, a Bible and a notebook. Very much in awe over Teresa Collins’ faith – the below is from her blog as she has been working through a huge amount of personal trauma.

because he bends down

Thinking that Faith should have been my One Little Word for 2014.

WIP Wednesday – NaBloPoMo nineteen (nah nah nah nah nineteen)

Posted in books, Journal, NaBloPoMo, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

Extra points if you get the musical reference. It came up at pub quiz last week 🙂

Tanager is progressing nicely and quickly. Too quickly as I have early signs of OOS in my right hand – need to move so that I use the mouse with my left. Surely that will help?

Tanager 2

Reading now – The Realm, the true history behind Game of Thrones by Ed West. Kicks off with the people and events at the start of the War of the Roses, Lancasters & Tudors. Still listening to Naked in Death at work.

WIP Wednesday & Cupid Stunts is on the rise – NaBloMoPo twelve

Posted in books, friends, Journal, me, NaBloPoMo, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

So. We came second last night! Yay! However we haven’t told Si (who was at the ARL Referee’s AGM) that there were only two teams J We’re planning on stringing him along for as long as we can. Bringing along the “Youf” may not have helped tho! There was a small collection of wine glasses in front of her, so maybe we have to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe. We also got the announcer in the last round, as she totally mispronounced our name.

Small start to NC188 the Scarlet Tanager. Like the other two birds, this is on 25ct white Lugana and there will be some thread changes. This is about 4 hours work, mostly while watching TV or listening to JD Robb’s Delusion in Death.

NC188 Tanager 1

Cupid Stunts – NaBloMoPo eleven

Posted in friends, House, Journal, NaBloPoMo by

Wow. Day eleven of continuous posting. Just quietly, this scheduling stuff is working for me. Yay for planning!

Tonight is Pub Quiz night. It started a couple of months ago, when Si and a few of his fellow Dockyard apprentices got together at a pub to reminisce (we’ve reached that stage of life apparently!) and by accident came third in a quiz. Now we meet every second Tuesday, wives & hangers on included (do you know how weird it is to be at the pub watching one’s own child drink?!) and the best we’ve ever come? Third. That twenty buck voucher has our name all over it! And the title? That’s our team name. Try saying that ten times fast. Points if you know the movie reference 🙂

Also today I had a moment where I thought I might have to start a Give A Little page to pay for the rates. Our property value has gone up $170K in three years (cough, choke, this is freaking stupid money!!!). That’s probably fairly median for Auckland; it’s more than the MILs or SILs raise tho. I am not looking forward to paying the huge 2015/2016 bill and the accompanying loss of council services – as I am not naive enough to believe that increased rates mean increased services. So far we are a “super city” with increased councellor and mayoral salaries and an increase in overall staff members compared to when Auckland was five or six different regions. Come back, Bob Harvey (or even Tim Shadbolt) – anything would be better than this!

Bonfire Night – NaBloMoPo nine

Posted in Journal, me, NaBloPoMo by

Let’s start off with this – I am Madam Miseryguts and I want the retail sale of fireworks banned. Not only because the freaking idiots letting them off every night for a month screw up my sleeping patterns, leave sh*t on my roof, scare kids/dogs/cats, set off fires so causing a high workload for Fire Service staff & leave the rest of us to foot the bill but because every year some backyard Rambo maims himself/someone else. One year that was nearly my brother D’s eye; I still remember blood, tears and my mother ranting (it was a justified rant and not at dad) & panicking.

If we aren’t paying for Len Brown’s personal gym at Town Hall then there is plenty of money to spend on public displays and plenty of appropriate places and vantage spots in Auckland.

Anyway, rant over. Last night we went to the FIL’s for a bonfire. FIL is a widower whose stepdaughter has JUMPED at the chance to live almost free in her mother’s old house, relegating the FIL to a small cottage on the property. This is regardless of the ammt of money FIL put in over his marriage to J (and I think he is only just realising that he’s been stiffed by the will. If it wasn’t for J snagging him, a married man at the time, there would be no house/orchard/business). I can’t stand this woman; she is mean, small minded, petty and grasping. Her husband is almost as bad and both like to blame breakages on anyone else – including my children who are so rarely there it’s a joke. So I was really looking forward to this evening. Yeah, right. Whoops, that’s another rant.

We didn’t really congregate with this D and her “friends”. We brought our own! Which sounds kind of bad, but really, no money changed hands!

I’ll leave you with this thought that I heard as part of a comedian’s soliloquy – is it unfair that we celebrate the activities of a domestic terrorist given today’s global situation? Is it just plain stupid?

It’s Called A Day Off Work. Really? – NaBloMoPo eight

Posted in books, family, food, friends, Journal, me, NaBloPoMo, Nora Corbett, Project Life by

It’s Saturday, Saturday, hey hey it’s Saturday…

Yeah, nah. Today I plan to:

  • Sleep in until the luxurious hour of seven. Usually foiled by some berk turning the lounge TV on real loud or fighting over the channel/remote or a craving for coffee.
  • Sort out my personal planner for next year. I am designing my own Project Life planning pages to fit a personal Filofax – let’s see if they work!
  • Clean the fish tank – vacuum gravel, water change, filter media change
  • Get the men to the hairdresser
  • Get some of the excess metal to a scrapyard to pay for the haircuts!
  • Download some books for next week
  • Iron some summer clothes and get the new dress off to the seamstress – it needs about 6 inches hemmed as I am a shorty
  • Download some podcasts for next week
  • Sort out threads for Arezzo so I can continue with the roses
  • Cook, then cool chicken, potato salad etc for tonight’s bonfire at the FIL’s
  • Prepare everything else I need for tonight’s meal
  • Process loads of washing in between everything else

There are no TAB odds as to how much will actually be achieved. Food and scrap metal yes as these will match Si’s priorities but the rest is family dependant. But I brought myself some time – this was written & scheduled yesterday 🙂 while at work too – tut tut!

Friday Finish – NaBloMoPo seven

Posted in Christmas, Journal, NaBloPoMo, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

One of my favourite new friends, Anne, collates a whole heap of stitching finishing techniques on her blog Feather Stitching. I find it a great resource for trying something new (not my forte at all) but also the basics. Some of the links are dead – they are mostly to other people’s blogs so have patience http://focusonfinishing.wordpress.com/tutorial-links/ another link I like is here: http://stacybinnj.wordpress.com/basic-no-glue-ornament-finishing-tutorial/

This is an exchange piece from Claire (yes, same Claire) that I received last Christmas. It’s a Teresa Wentzler freebie, designed to introduce some of the colours & speciality stitches that are involved in her larger Father Winter sampler. You can download the freebie pdf here: http://www.twdesignworks.com/Free/fworn.html Just remember to respect the designer’s copyrights and not make this piece for sale and so on.

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You Can Quote Me Part I – NaBloPoMo six

Posted in Journal, NaBloPoMo, photos by

This week’s mini-topic seems to be (by default, I haven’t entirely planned this) Pressure. I said on Tuesday that one of the tools I use to alleviate pressure is inspiration. I use Pintrest to group these in a folder I call “printables” – which also includes stuff for my personal planner.

 

Bethells Tower at Sunset

Bethells Tower at Sunset

To me, a lot of the inspiration also brings back awesome memories as well as getting my thought process back on track. My current favourite is a poem by Victoria Erickson I’ve mentioned before in the blog. Mentally I always combine this with Bethells.

If you ever find yourself empty

from something you cannot know or name,

find a stretch of ocean,

a field, or mountainside,

or even clouds or trees

Because there are a thousand simple ways

to fill your tired soul

so you can remember

how to be,

how to see,

and most importantly,

how to breathe.

 

Photo image isn’t mine; I’m not sharing that until it’s complete as I am planning it to be a gift for S. I intend to over-write a photo of Bethells Beach that I took a couple of years ago and then print this out as a wall paper panel or canvas for the house this summer. This one is also used earlier in the blog; credit goes to Summit Walter Rao. Contact details are on his blog.

 

Where do you go when it all gets too much? What’s your re-inspire place? What poem brings you peace or inspires you to more?

WIP Wednesday – NaBloPoMo five

Posted in Journal, NaBloPoMo, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

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.

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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!

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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.

Beads: Mill Hill as charted.