Hello everyone! Can you believe it? I’m not only posting on a Wednesday, but I am living up to the “scrap” part of my name. Hallelujah for a creative pulse!I mapped out a very simple template in my notebook and when push came to shove, actually used it. And used part of my growing Ali Edwards stash. AND pushed past that “it has to be perfect” mantra that I so often am crippled by. Super happy that I got our short Sydney trip journalled.
Yes! We went to Sydney. Just Si and I, and our plans to catch up with some friends and lots of shopping and exploring. It was a much needed break from reality and allowed us to refresh from day-to-day stress and come back to the family a little bit happier. Well, I am… we crammed a lot of shopping in, with two Costco visits (cannot wait until it opens here in Auckland! My fav purchase is the Ott Lite now gracing my stitching table), Sydney Tools (even I could have cut loose with their Makita selection, let alone other stuff), Target (I like that I can buy some clothes for work that no-one else will be wearing) and other places, but the best customer service came from Peter Wynn’s Sports Score in the main street of Parramatta. We’d been there before, but this time we got talking (eep) and got a perfect something for each of the boys. On Saturday Anne (feather stitching) took me to her stitch group meeting out in Bligh Park & I enjoyed the fellowship & meeting Judy in person. It was a hysterical ride home (until we hit, literally, Judy’s drive).Stitching wise I have done the bare minimum. Fairy Tales got a few strands in while we were away (airplane cattle class is not conducive to stitching) and there’s been so much going on at home/work. I may be behind the scenes in the retail group that I work for, but Labour Weekend thru to New Years is a long silly season.
Last week was Year 7 Week 4 and about the horcruxes. Because there were 3 people to share the load of the horcrux, we had to stitch 100 on each of 3 WIPs – so Shakespeare’s Fairies, Home of a Needleworker and the Mill Hill Celestial sleighs each got 100. Then for a bonus 1 point per 100, we could chose one of those WIPs and keep going – I chose to forgo extra points and complete the Celestial Sleighs. So that’s two more ornies finished before Christmas!This week is W5 and about Travel. We have to do 100 on 4 tasks and I’ve managed to get Fairy Idyll to fit 3 of those and knocked off 150 stitches last night. My other piece has to match a Freshwater Plimpy (don’t ask) so I’ll start to bead my Mermaid of Atlantis.Anyway, must go back to work mode now. Have a great week!
Category Archives: Project Life
WIP Wednesday #240
Hello everyone! I’ve been super busy this last fortnight, stitching, walking, reading, cleaning, running around after family members & I can’t wait to take a break! One highlight was a repeat dinner with the Harpur family, who brought Aurora with them. Two weeks ago she was the length of Simon’s forearm/hand – now look at her! She’s 5 weeks here.
I didn’t post last week as my pieces were all over the show as I worked away at the various #schoolofmagicalstitchesandliterature tasks. All up, this last fortnight has seen the start & finish of Hello March (500 for words), 200+ more stitches on Nantucket Rose (enabled), 600+ on Shakespeare’s Fairies (various challenges) and 700+ on Tapestry Cat (two challenges). I have just stitched more on TC in a week than I did in all of 2018. He nearly has a tail! This is a lot of stitching but with our national holiday, Waitangi Day, I got extra walking and stitching in. And market shopping. Nom nom on the Whitestone cheeses and Selash cured meats. And perfection at the Franked stall – imported, handcrafted items from Cambodia where there is a story behind the item, & it’s helping differently abled people.
I also finished my January Project Life pages. I’m choosing to do these in a 6*8 album as it’s more personal to me, not for the family. There’s some stuff that involves others (I asked Mase to fill in the Back to School card) but they won’t get this until I’m passed. Mase does look at it, but he knows if it’s hidden journaling, it’s private to me & he’s not to read it yet.
And on Sunday, Louise & I got up early and walked around the harbour on Tamaki Drive. We started at St Helliers, went up to Achilles Point & watched the sunrise and a cruise ship come into the harbour, picked up coffee at Mission Bay and eventually got collected at Royal Akarana Yacht Club. 7.2km in all of super-quality time with my girl.
Hope you all have a lovely week!
WIP Wednesday #227
Hey everyone! I’m half-way thru my week of solo parenting and am pleased to report no casualties as yet. Not even a ding on the ute – as Si took my car away, I’m driving his brute to & fro, mostly work. I have done a heap of “one little things” around the house and spent a good portion of Sunday working on building a personal album – July-now is completed. There is a small volume of personal writing which is hidden from initial view and that’s just the way I want it. Mase is likely to pick it up from my side table to look at the pictures (I need to wean him from this habit) but he does know not to pull the tabs.
Reading wise, I ended up returning Mythos. It just wasn’t right for me. Instead I’m re-reading (as not much effort is required) the Chesapeake Shores series by Sherryl Woods (try these Elizabeth!) and listening to the 47th (??!!) In Death book, Leverage.
And stitching – some progress on the Peridots during work breaks, a wee bit on Fairy Idyll as I wait for Bran’s physio appointments, and I FOUND THE BOTTOM OF THE DESIGN in Persephone. That’s a huge finish motivator – altho I note that there’s about 3 days stitching the hem, plus 3-4 days on the confetti heavy flower trail that’s on the left plus another 3 days on the beading, but I will finish this month even if I get distracted by something else.
WIP Wednesday
Wow. After six nights of the N drug I am feeling so much better. It’s amazing how productive I can be without that constant drag feeling & mental fog. The humid weather may have disappeared for a while too, which is adding to my overall feeling of goodness.
The Project Life app is FINALLY available on android. Finally. I had my first page in minutes of downloading the app, true to the promise. As I don’t have any games on my phone (I’m so disciplined, lol) I can see that this might be my “what shall I do for the next five minutes” app. This is using the Kraft kit, one of the freebies:
Stitching-wise I am still working on Afternoon in London. I’ve finalised the threads I am using & that makes it faster. There’s been a couple of days where I didn’t do any work on it, but the last two mornings I’ve woken refreshed at five so snuck in half an hour before leaving for work (I do bring it to work but don’t often stitch at lunch, as Sarah & I walk usually) & as usual on any project, some visible progress enables more progress 🙂 plus I also want to do Paris.
Si & I are going away this weekend – five days! – & I hope to finish while we’re driving. I may have to pack a second project just in case. I will more-than-likely be social media free for that time, so have fun everyone! See you in a week!
November Goals Revised
Just to recap, the November goals were:
- Complete my portion on Lenna’s RR (which hasn’t even arrived as yet) STARTED
- Stitch the Austen bookmark for Jenna COMPLETED
- Stitch the Mysteries bookmark for Kerry COMPLETED
- Finish the arms of Persephone and back-stitch from the face down PARTIALLY COMPLETED – I side-tracked and completed all the wallpaper to the right-hand side
- Stitch a couple of Christmas ornaments including a “do not open” for my office door NOPE Just the one finish, which was technically December
- Make Mase a couple of pairs of boxers for summer jammie pants NOPE
- Send off the overseas Christmas cards – already addressed most so just have to write notes! COMPLETED!
I don’t have many goals for December. This month just gets hectic, so I like to allow myself some breathing space.
- Set up planner for 2016 with monthly layout for stitching goals & rotation notes, and Week-to-View for the normal stuff, including blog planning COMPLETED
- Work out what WIPs I am taking into “16 in 2016” COMPLETED – I only have 8 including one I need to start, so this could be pathetic!
- Stitch Lenna’s RR portion – Moonlight Laguna mermaid
- Keep up with December Daily. I’m opting to use a Heidi Swapp album in a different format from normal, and a Project Life kit that isn’t Christmas-y at all, but I thought better suited for our Summer. I’m also printing the photos on our printer here at work daily & I’ll re-print on proper photo paper later on. Better to have everything recorded than to stop like I did last year as it got too much.
- Start Mermaids of the Deep Blue so it’s a WIP to take into “16 in 2016” – technically a bit of a cheat, but there you go.
Here’s the kit image – you can see it’s not a normal December Daily at all! The designer is Cathy Z, who used to edit Simple Scrapbooks. I like her clean style.
Steptember Update
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:
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 🙂
Project Life catch up
I’m so far behind that it’s not even funny. So yesterday I alloted myself the luxury of a half day to spend some time on what was a fab little hobby.
All in all I printed over 80 photos and slotted then into rough chronological order. There’s not much embellishment (I’m not one for fuss here, & anyway with three boys I can’t see much point other than some washi) but nearly all the journalling is done too.
I’m now only 16 weeks behind!
A productive night
Tonight’s the first night of ten that I’m a solo parent. I’ve kind of been dreading it but in dime ways anticipating it.
Negatives: my feet are cold. There isn’t another adult to talk to/share the parenting job with. I’m lonely already.
Positives: the kids are helping (Mase hung his jacket up without prompting!). We can eat what we want (requests for corned beef. Tonight we had chicken ravioli). I feel that I have had space to be creative.
I hung some pics in the ensuite and for the first time all year, completed some PL pages. Three. Zac was so happy. Mase looked at the 2010 albums (he was nude a lot of the time. This was his own doing. Most of the time.). I got a lot of pleasure from their enjoyment. I need to keep this going and to that end, I’ve sorted the photos from Feb to June that I want to print.
Sunday Swim
Today’s play time at the base pool was well earned.
*pantry cleaned out and reorganized (cheap chalkboard labels from Briscoes, stampin’ up chalk pen equals revived tupperware)
*old laptop cleaned off and reset for Carol
*new laptop up and running for me, all software added and music synced
*tomorrow’s dinner cooked (roasting as I write this, but who cares if I call it in advance)
*two sets of Project Life cards culled to thirds, ready to send to my friend Paula who is about to start her PL adventure
*next year’s album purchased (half off at Harvey Norman) & I limited myself to only two card sets from there
*boysenberry checked, new shoots training to the wire on the post and fruit picked
*two Lego sets “supervisor status only”
Phew!
I’ve got the blahs
Or as I said to a group on fb, cantbearseditis. Rarely fatal, boy is it lingering today. Nearly eight at night and I’m only now posting?
I did do some catch up on December Daily last night. Re-reading the kids lists made me laugh. And three of the Twelve Days presents are good to go. That’s satisfying.
sewscrapmuse 