Category Archives: me

October 2019 WIPocalypse

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, embroidery, family, goals, lavender & lace, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, WIPocalypse by

Hello everyone! I hope you’re well. WIPocalypse is the monthly check-in SAL hosted by Measi on her blog, and via the Facebook group – we welcome all enablers! Click on the icon to the right to learn more.

I didn’t set any real goals for October – just to keep up with the weekly prompts in #magicalstitches and try to stay sane. Achieved the first, will debate on the second!

I managed an increase in stitching with 7841 stitches overall. 1520 in Fairy Tales, 1242 in Fairy Idyll and an FO in the Marauder’s Map (985 to finish) which is now framed and ready to go in Baby Bailey’s nursery. Three of my Saturday’s were spent with Mum, as she can’t be left alone, and as she naps more and more there’s more time to kill.

SFS – despite having four FO’s I spent well more than I earned, and I’m now $76.72 in the red. If I get a couple of finishes in – or maybe 6 of the Clouds Factory people I’m doing for Aurora – I’ll finish the year in the black, even if I don’t finish the six months. I look at 2017 & 2018 and I can see the same pattern. I think as home and work pressures build, I go off and spend, altho this year I’ve been a lot cleaner than others. Or I was tighter earlier in the year, or Nora didn’t release Mira’s that I really liked earlier in the year. It’s probably a combination of all those things.

November Goals:

  • Keep up with weekly #magicalstitches homework
  • Finish some CF or Mill Hill pieces

October Question – Do you prefer to stitch on a rotation or one project at a time? Well, until this year and #magicalstitches I thought I was more a one project girl. But I quite like the rotation thing, so while I’m not going to re-join the group for 2020, I thought I would do a slower rotation (weekly rather than almost daily) and get some FO’s done. I am still toying with Stuart’s clever CYOA version of the Harry Potter books and might also start that.

WIP Wednesday #260

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, family, goals, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

Hello everyone! This last week has been a bit quieter; the work fiscal month cycles down a notch (plus my boss is away, so there’s less interruption or change to my day). At home Mum has also cycled down a notch, and is now pretty much confined to the hospital bed or the electric Laz-y-boy I brought her last year. I am hoping we will be able to celebrate Christmas together, but expecting that we won’t. Mase decided not to play cricket this summer, and we were too late for summer soccer registration, so he’s doing golf lessons. So cute to watch him carefully line himself up!

Last week’s #magicalstitches homework was a bit savage – ended up being 1400 stitches required, which is a huge leap from month 1 (which was only 300 stitches in some weeks). I am evaluating what I want to do next year, and as I don’t particularly like the books this group is moving onto, I think I will mute for 2020 and do my own thing, getting my WIP count down to something manageable. I set up a project table, thinking that week one of every month would be a Mira, week two a small, week three a Teresa Wentzler and week four/five free choice. I have 26 WIPs right now. Some are terribly small, like a plastic canvas Clouds Factory Rapunzel (15*24 stitches) and some are massive, like Fairy Idyll (247*309 stitches). 26! Huge shock.

Anyways. Each of the prompts related to the Pensive and memories, and required 200 stitches. There was a bonus for a photo relating to prompt 5, collections. Mine of course was my Mira wall that hubs is carefully curating.

  1. Purple – I had nothing to hand, so I started two CF plastic ornaments for the gift box I plan to give Aurora – Rapunzel and Ursula
  2. My Best piece – Shakespeare’s Fairies
  3. A project with a house – new start again, the original Home of a Needleworker.
  4. A project with some food item I could give – this one could be controversial – I chose Prancer!
  5. Something I collect – Shakespeare’s Fairies again
  6. Something cursed – I chose Fairy Idyll, as that over one skin has been awful!
  7. Something I don’t want to end – Shakespeare’s Fairies. I love this design.

Anyway, take care & have a lovely week.

#taskersontour Whitianga Edition

Posted in family, me, photos, travel by

Hello everyone! As promised, here’s a bit about a recent weekend getaway.

Whitianga is a coastal town about 3hours drive from home (or four, if you leave later than expected on a Friday afternoon, doh). It’s reasonably quiet and peaceful for most of the year then comes alive for the summer months, especially during Beach Hop with all the classic cars & music. For this trip we deliberately chose a quiet period, so we could have a look around the area without the hordes.

We rented a comfortable modern house in the centre of the residential district – a few minutes’ drive to the beach and supermarket, but within walking distance of several good restaurants and cafes. The area the town is on is flat, with wide streets and footpaths – really safe for cycling or pedestrians. Only Mase came with us this time, which is very odd, but it was argument free! He enjoyed being the only, being spoilt and having all the attention. This trip marked his first visit to a pub and he’s still in awe that he was allowed inside – it was lunchtime, kid! He was super polite to the staff in the hope he didn’t get kicked out, which made them laugh.

On Saturday we did the Cathedral Cove walk. This local landmark is in a few movies that you might have seen – it’s the beach where the children land in the Narnia series, below the cliffs of Car Paravel (YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUlVUvffXwk) and it’s every bit as gorgeous on an overcast day as it is on the big screen (or little, if you’re on your mobile). Of course we met people we know – the Si curse – but on the whole we got to enjoy the sound of the sea, birds and the wind in the trees as we walked. Mase mocked us for being slow both ways (yes, I am massively unfit) but spoiler alert, it wasn’t me asleep in the back seat on the way back to Whitianga!

There’s going to be a soldier’s memorial arbour there too – anyone can “buy” a tree that will be planted and cared for by the trust.

We drove home on Sunday trying to beat the incoming storm – and got home in time to unpack then listen to the hail on the roof. Ah, bliss.

WIP Wednesday #257

Posted in cross stitch, family, friends, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

Hello everyone! We had a full on end of week, with time playing at the museum (find me a little boy who doesn’t like dinosaurs), at the beach and game day on Saturday. The Massey team Mase played in won comfortably, but Sho won opposition player of the day with his beautiful tackles. Great day in our household! Sunday was very odd once we got home from the airport and had an emptier house.

The #magicalstitches homework was in three parts, to celebrate the restoration of Dumbledore to Headmaster of the school. Part one was 300 stitches on the 11th WIP in my list, as 11 Death Eaters were captured…WIP 11 was finished, so I rolled over into WIP 12, The Guardian. Part two was 300 in any colour but pink to celebrate Umbridge leaving the school. I skipped the bonus task to focus on a monthly task and knocked off 500 stitches and beads in my Christmas sleighs.

Have a good week everyone – let me know a little something you’re grateful for. Gratitude shared increases happiness all round J

WIP Wednesday #253

Posted in cross stitch, goals, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

Hey everyone! Hope you’ve had a good week.

Last week’s #magicalstitches revolved around Professor Umbridge. If you could match the options, it was 1000 stitches total or if you chose penalty stitches, 2000. Eep. But 200 stitches a night is usually achievable for me so I tried to match.

  1. The colour Pink – Fairy Idyll’s bedlinens
  2. Tea or Teacups – I found an Emma Congdon/Stitchrovia series of smalls. Originally in Cross Stitch Crazy, they’re now available on her Etsy store.
  3. Kittens – which had to be domestic cats, so Tapestry Cat came back into play.
  4. A pattern name that starts with one of the letters R.U.L.E.S – I chose Shakespeare’s Fairies
  5. A designers’ name that starts with one of the letters S.T.R.I.C.T – here I had a couple of options with Teresa Wentztler (TC or Guardian) or one of the Sandra Cozzolino designed Mill Hill Santas.

Halfway thru the week, it was confirmed that you could use the designer name or the company it was released with, and it suddenly dawned on me that hello, it’s Nora CORBETT and C is in strict. Insert facepalm mode. So as Fairy Idyll was in front of me at the time, I knocked out another block there.

Family wise it’s a bit odd. Out of mum’s day-to-day loop, so it was a shock to find out she’d been so ill she’d been prescribed antibiotics. We had the same conversation three times on Monday night when I took up her morphine allocation. Plus with the SIL constantly going on about money. Its super hard not to bite back, but that would achieve nothing. Our focus has always been to give Mum a good life, to show our gratitude physically as well as verbally e.g. the ramps we built so she could ignore steps & use her Zimmer, altering the height of her ensuite basin so she didn’t have to bend, organise car servicing etc…I couldn’t tell you how much money or time we’ve spent, but hello, it’s Mum.

Sorry for the downer end.

WIP Wednesday #249

Posted in cross stitch, family, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler, Toy Car Restoration by

Morning everyone!

Well, best laid plans and all that… to repeat from last week “This week’s challenge is two fold, and I am picking option one. You have to stitch 200 in the following categories: Air/Yellow, Water/Blue, Earth/Green, Fire/Red & Wood/Brown. I’m going to complete 1000 stitches (hopefully!) in The Guardian, as all the elements are present in this design.”

Famous last words. I did end up using Guardian for the Air portion, but that was stone cold last on my list. I started the portion I’d set aside and because it was a mix of the same threads for both full and half stitches, I simply couldn’t get my head around it early in the week. I ended up completing this on Sunday, when the house was empty of everyone but Zac & I.

In a move that probably surprises no-one, I pulled out Mermaid of Atlantis. I completed 225 stitches in the Waterlillies Umbria & Espresso threads, the 212 stitches in her fins for water; then 226 stitches in DMC 470/avocado green for that option.

For Fire/Red, all I could think of is one of the globes in Shakespeare’s Fairies, so I did 222 stitches in one of those. Found an error in the grey, boo hoo, so I did waste a bit of time trying to re-work so I didn’t have to frog. That was a fail, as it was much easier to pull out those 12 stitches!

This week is the last week that the stitch challenge applies to Goblet of Fire. I am picking Option one, as I can see pieces that fit into most of these.

  1. Harry & Cedric touch the Cup at the same time – 200 on items that are touching. Shakespeare’s Fairies are holding hands…
  2. Voldemort attacks – 200 in grey or black. SF#2’s dress is grey…
  3. Cedric dies – 100 on a tombstone or graveyard scene. I have nothing here!
  4. Harry parents appear to help him – 200 on a piece you’ve had help with. Again, SF as I needed help to find the OOP chart…
  5. Mad Eye Moody & deceit – 200 on an ingredient in Polyjuice potion. SF again, as I used this in the Polyjuice task back in February.
  6. Harry donated his winnings to Fred & George for their joke shop – 100 on something that makes you laugh…think I’ll use Cloudsfactory Labyrinth

Bonus shot of Mase the Ace – he’s fully into the Toy Car restoration. If you’re wondering, he’s cleaning the rear grill with a damp blush brush. Works a treat.

20190622_130617.jpg

05/06 WIP (short weeks confuse me) #247

Posted in cross stitch, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash by

Morning everyone! Its post a three-day-weekend (Happy Birthday Your Majesty) and I didn’t get as much stitching done as I would have hoped – we spent most of the weekend cleaning my MIL’s old house and prepping it for sale – with my SIL conspicuously absent. With over three quarters of the house and outside done, our little family is walking away. Done with the frustration around the no-show, and demands, and oh-I’m-a-victim mentality. It’s very, very toxic.

Onto the good stuff – most of us are well. Now that we can focus on our house, I’m sure the environment will improve (it’s hard to be positive and rest when all you can see is things left undone). M & Z are doing well at school; B actually went to his course for a couple of days (motivation is lacking in this one) but picked up an extra day of work) & L is looking to move back home (eep! But at least she cooks).

20190603_152052.jpgSo over Friday/Saturday/Sunday, I would have been lucky to put in 100 stitches on Mermaid of Atlantis. I had knocked out the 300 for the penalty homework but was also hoping to complete another Ultimate challenge but I only achieved that binge-watching Midsomer Murders yesterday afternoon. I ended up frogging the GAST that I had intended to carry over to her tail and am going back to the charted colours. It was just too bright, and too hard to control the light-over-scales effect.

This week’s challenge is to collect the dragon egg (the first task in Goblet). We could choose any piece, as long as we could make up a story about how it ties in. Mine is super simple! I’m using The Guardian, by Theresa Wentzler, which has a golden dragon guarding a castle. Because as any Anne McCaffrey reader knows, before you get a dragon egg, you need a golden dragon queen! Don’t even think of the chicken/egg question Elizabeth!! There’s a point for every 100 stitches, up to 10 points. I intend to get them all.

WIP Wednesday #244

Posted in books, cross stitch, family, goals, grateful, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Week in the Life by

20190513_134524Morning! Our week has been pretty good – MIL is back home (on oxygen permanently) but is more able to participate in family life, is great with her friends and we had a lovely Mother’s Day dinner (I cooked, but I left the cleaning J). Ms Louise chose flowers for both of us & did a lovely, slightly unconventional, job of it.

20190510_081046Mase had Book Week and on Friday, dressed as Calvin and Tiggr “dressed” as Hobbes. Yep, we’re all about the classics in our house! On the redeeming front, Zac is chosing to read & study To Kill a Mockingbird.

On stitching, I finished the second part of the biscornu but haven’t FFO’d it (insert chicken noises here). I did start another Mirabilia – Mermaid of Atlantis – and am planning to use this for most of the #magicalstitches extra credit challenges for the Goblet of Fire May/June months. I started with #2, as the shell chandelier/light was approved as something that might be at a fancy ball AND it was the middle of the top; now I’m working on task #1 (500 on something that could be found in the lake) with the fish, and I’m about 70 stitches off completing that challenge (I need to take an update photo), and combined with task #10 (200 stitches on a piece that has something that lays eggs) I’m working on the border, on the theory that fish lay eggs. That’s not quite at the half-way mark. Like a lot of people, I’m very motivated at the start of a piece!

This week’s challenge is WIP list based again – and as I have less than 20 WIPS, I’m allocated to option 2, 350 stitches each on WIP #1 & #7. Seven is actually the biscornu, so I have approval to jump the line to #8, which just so happens to be Raven Queen. Progress shots next week!

WIP Wednesday #243

Posted in cross stitch, family, grateful, me, stitching patterns, Week in the Life, work by

Morning! There’s not much progress this week, a bit of reverse stitching (does that sound better than frogging?) and a few days where I was too unsettled to stitch.

On Friday, instead of talking to the hospice nurse, my MIL was instead hospitalised. It’s been and up & down week, and I am trying to focus on the good.

20190506_150451

This week, I’m also doing the Ali Edwards Week in the Life project so it’s bittersweet that this may well be the last week she is in.

20190508_063521

Anyway, here’s my We’re All Mad Here progress. Here’s to a finish this coming week!20190502_103737.jpg

Te Puna Quarry Park

Posted in family, me, photos, travel by

In March, Louise made a cake for a first birthday, so we took the opportunity for a night away in Tauranga. The party was being held at the Te Puna Quarry Park, just outside the city limits, so while Lou spent time with her friends, we took the opportunity to explore.

The quarry itself ceased operations in 1979, and from 1996 a group of volunteers have worked to create natural habitats alongside art installations. There’s machinery (made safe), musical instruments, a hobbit hole, butterfly houses and more. We walked around for over an hour and probably only caught quarter of it. And the views!