Category Archives: me

even more journalling

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Prompt 10: You are 6 years old! Someone has kindly given you 4 chairs covered with an enormous blanket!! It’s a tent! Tell us about your play day.

At six, I’d just become a big sister. I spent most of my playtime with Carol, the baby doll I received when Rob was born (she still only has one arm, as my cousin Sara threw it out the car window one day driving over the Kaimai’s) and my best friend Debbie.

We met at Brookfield kindergarten, hate at first sight. She hit me on the head with a hammer and I lured her to the Big Kids Slide (strictly forbidden) then pushed her down it. Her mum picked us up that afternoon and asked us about our day. From then on we were together more often than not until I moved away to Auckland. Our tents would be anything from a circus tent to a doll’s house to an escape from our brothers.

If I was by myself my imagination would take over and the tent would be Eeyore’s house in the 100 Acre Wood, to a ship on the High Seas of Narnia, to Pippi Longstocking’s House or even Dr Doolittle’s surgery.

Today my kids love “tents”. B & Z probably use theirs to hide mess, but Mase has a special space under his bed, complete with an adjustable Ikea lamp, that’s perfect for playtime. I’m a little jealous!

Mase’s lamp: http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/00201777/

more journalling

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so behind! Some prompts aren’t popping up with a lot of inspiration, or life is just taking over. I’m going to roll with it – some journalling is better than none.

Prompt 9: Jack Buchanan said that ‘everything stops for tea‘. Morning, noon or night – which beverage will make you ‘stop’ and say ‘Ahhhh! That’s better!’?

garfield coffee

This is me in the morning. I NEED at least two cups of coffee (or a V) to get going but I try not to have anything with caffeine post noon. I won’t sleep, or I’ll be very restless. This morning I woke with awful dreams (that we had been invaded, and B was conscripted, and the family separated) and I’ll blame that on the afternoon Pepsi.

Lunch – water.

Evening – depends on what is around. The other night it was obviously the vino (I’m buying that one again, no hangover!) & I’ve recently discovered Endeavour ginger ale – very dry. Stupid label placement tho. It tells a story (about the first sighting of land by the cabin boy) in two panels, one either side of the title, which would work on the flat but once the wrapper is on the bottle, you read the second half of the story before the first. #fail

Yesterday and this morning I’ve fed Emma’s three cats while she and her hubby are down at the Mountain. Even Gary, her older boy, is all smooch this visit. It’s nice to hear the purrs.

Driven to drink….

Posted in family, Journal, league, me by

image

It’s been a really long day. Started by finding out the youngest’s league game was not cancelled, so we turned up, panicked a little as we didn’t have enough kids (it’s fifty bucks if you don’t) then the opposition didn’t show. At their home ground, on the other side of Auckland. The notification was at nine am. No points for guessing what time kick off was!

And we have curtains, finally, that each recipient agrees on. Rails tomorrow, and by noon I guess I’ll be completely sick of gathering but in the plus side, I’m not sewing!

Have dinner (lasagne) made, library books exchanged (Mase thinks librarians are cool, as she found him some Cars books he now has a hold on), washing done, floors vac’d…I deserve this drink. I do wish I’d had time to catch up with Zeb or go for a walk tho.

Journal to come. I need to catch up on three prompts now, fail!

Journal, day eight

Posted in Journal, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

Prompt 8

The snowman walked in the air! Nancy Sinatra wore boots that were made for walking. Your mission today, if you choose to accept it, is to write about the last time you walked in the rain.

‘All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking’
Friedrich Nietzsche

 

2014-07-08 19.34.07

Today. That would be today.

I caught the train again today (it’s around fifteen minutes walk there, and ten on the other end) as I couldn’t be bothered to drive. Well & truly at work before I realised that I’d left my brolly behind, and then a couple of minutes later the tweets start.

Wind Warning. Thunder. Lightening (cue song in my head). Heavy Rain.

Brr. Got home before the worst of it, but I still had to pour the water out of my flats when I got home! But at least I don’t have to wash my face #panda

2014-07-08 19.33.12

something for my english friends 🙂

Excellent news: all my blood tests came back in range, except one which I shan’t worry about. I still have a well functioning liver! Months to go before I have another scan tho. And…yesterday’s step count, which roughly equals 11.1km!

2014-07-07 21.51.07

I haven’t rotated my stitching again this week – I need to go to Ribbon Rose and get some Kreinik and beads so I’ll plod along with Stargazer’s dress. I think she’s looking gorgeous.

2014-07-08 19.14.41

Mase has been practicing his writing; there will be tears when he starts school next term and is told that he can’t write everything in block letters. At least he didn’t include New South Wales in his list of favourite teams, but where are my Bunnies?! Time for bed, little man.

2014-07-08 19.18.42

 

journalling, days five & six

Posted in books, Journal, me by

Playing Catch Up!

Prompt 5
Do you love to lose yourself in a good book? Drama? Detective? Maybe you would rather watch a good film or TV programme instead? Or maybe you just prefer to read the paper with your breakfast. Write about which you prefer.

WRITTEN ON JULY 7TH
Mostly I read, and mostly I’m a book slut. There are lines drawn; I won’t read 50 Shades for example (it won’t float my boat and the grammatical errors I saw in her fan fiction made me want to hurl the laptop at her head) and the Stephen King/Dean Koontz type horror (I like to sleep) but pretty much anything else is fair game. This week I’ve slogged thru The Princes in the Tower (Alison Weir), a couple of trash books (Kitty French, Toni Aleo) and lots of magazines. Now that I am trying to stitch each night I am reading less (and eating less, woo hoo!), but it is still part of my essential everyday routine. I have a couple of eReaders left over from Whitcoulls that awful place I use to work and one goes everywhere with me. Even my youngest knows not to try to take it away from me!
Having said that, there are a few programmes or movies I’ll put the book down for. If they are book-based, they have to be true to the book – I have to be able to visualise the book in my mind and there shouldn’t be any plot gaps (looking at you here, Nora Roberts’ adaptation crew). Current list is:
• Justified – Elmore Leonard. I could listen to Timothy Olivant all day.
• Banshee – not sure if this is book related, but the cast and script are top notch. NSFW so don’t search out on YouTube. You were warned.
• Game of Thrones – George RR Martin. I love how a lot of the detail in the books has translated visually.
• Nashville – pure escapism. Dallas for country music lovers?
• Anything Pixar.
• Anything by Peter Jackson.
• Anything with Mark Whalberg in it.

Prompt 6
Think hard about your day. Tell us about one thing that you do every day.

To paraphrase Fatboy Slim & Calvin Harris – Eat Sleep Read Repeat 

Prompt 7
What can you do with an egg?

I can bake with an egg – ever since childhood an egg (by itself) is a reminder of illness. Today I’ll only eat eggs in baking or a quiche (very, very limited) and won’t touch Bacon & Egg pie. Apparently I do make a very good one, however.

I’m assuming we’re talking chicken + egg here – not the Cadbury type?

journalling, day 4

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Bethells Tower at Sunset

Bethells Tower at Sunset

Prompt 4
Let’s be real – no dreaming (well, not much!) What would be your perfect day?

WRITTEN ON JULY 6TH

If I had written this on Saturday, I would have said that it was close to my ideal day. Clear weather, kids sport & giggles, time with friends, tea in bed, reading, stitching…

I think I was only really missing the walk at Bethells Beach.

But Sunday was tense and a lot of it was not fun. Not enough sleep for Bran, which makes him loud and grumpy, and flows down thru the family (concussion related). I am angry about a range of things, the house is untidy with laundry piles and I feel that half the household isn’t pulling their weight, which leaves me even angrier. Headphones on & let’s download some books for the reader…

I have a little prompt in my journal which reminds me to Focus On Good Things, a little like Piglet might tell Eeyore. Shame I feel like Rabbit instead. Have another carrot, bitch…

Image taken from http://www.sumantwalter.com/2012/05/bethells-beach-auckland-new-zealand.html of the Surf Livesaving station at Bethells.

jOURNAL day one

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So obviously with the calendar difference my day one has started on an odd calendar day…

The prompt lives here: http://fabrilicious.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/july-1st/

Prompt 1

Take some time today to be quiet. Maybe you will have a chance to sit in the garden – or at the window – or even on the bus. Wherever you are, just take time to LISTEN.

Write about what you hear.

So closing my eyes, what do I hear? My fingers typing. Nicky Romero’s “Like Home” (Ministry of Sound Annual 2014) on my iPod. The printer in the buyer’s assistant’s area. Alex talking to a supplier. Sarah talking to a store. The clatter in the lunchroom.

And this is a relatively quiet morning too!

Journalling Prompts

Posted in books, me, project 365 by

In the aftermath of man flu I am struggling a little when it comes to creativity. So I found this little gem, and am hoping that the daily prompts kick start some thinking and more to the point, some journalling. I am woefully behind when it comes to Project Life but yay! at least found the printer cable yesterday so that excuse is now gone.

http://fabrilicious.wordpress.com/

Sign up and see what it brings you 🙂

On a reading note, I have slogged thru Julia Fox’s excellent Jane Boleyn and Alison Weir’s well researched, detail heavy The Lady in the Tower. Interesting to compare the two very different views of Jane, Lady Rochford, who supposedly betrayed Anne Boleyn and her own husband, Anne’s brother. Ewuu. However I’m not sure she is as clean as Fox portrays her, and she was certainly very stupid when it came to her role as Katherine Howard’s court.

amazon links:

You might want to read the Weir in print however, as all the Appendix notes are annoying in e format, and I have not read many at all…

 

Catching up

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

So last week I had the brilliant idea that I should follow Anne’s example and rotate stitching. So I planned a start to Stargazer, kitted up another Nora Corbett/Mirabilia (Mediterranean Mermaid) and planned on working on Tapestry Cat in week three.

It’s week three and I can’t be bothered with TC. Part of this is a reluctance to pick up the confetti like stitches, part is the flu. I have the man flu! Managed to get one of the strains NOT covered in the injection, which was not clever of me at all. Stink bro, as Gish sings…

image

Mermaid after one week

Stitching

Posted in Christmas, embroidery, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

2014 saw the start of a big creativity phase. So far, I’ve…

  • started and completed Teresa Wentzler’s Stretch (her dragon logo) and a little Christmas ornament is ready to finish as a hanging ornament. 

Stretch
  • I also added some beads to Misty, one of the TW Rocking Horses. I think she’s ready to frame now.
    detail from Misty


  • attended an embroidery class with Zeb, a new friend (who I’m sure will get me in lots of trouble and laughs in years to come). I’m fairly confident with about ten stitches now.

My StitchSmith owl. Yet to be completed. Cause I’m lazy.

  • started and completed Nora Corbett’s Santa’s Sleigh AND AM TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH IT, so much so that I have acquired six of her reindeer patterns.  
    The Sleigh, nearly completed (some beading was still to be done at this point)

  • started Nora Corbett’s Arezzo, setting the bar high in making this my first colour conversion (hate the dress colour and the lilac roses, and have made the leaves darker) and my first “over 1”, meaning over the one thread not the usual two. Squintville, here I come. Not sure if this is truly an NC or a Mirabilia design, but it’s pretty and delicate.

Nora Corbett’s Arezzo

I’ve also stitched quite a few Christmas ornaments (starting early, but there is a lot of downtime while you’re waiting at league training and for reports to run) and made a cushion cover from a Pintrest image. Check out my NYC envelope cushion!