Tag Archives: journal

WIP Wednesday #289

Posted in books, cross stitch, embroidery, Journal, me, Mirabilia, stitching patterns by

Hello everyone! It’s late Wednesday and I’m about to head off to bed… My brain is very very tired. But before I do, here’s my WIP of Mirabilia Princess Elliana, definitely a work in progress with an awful lot of frogging.

This is just tonight, playing with the band above the blue (which is brown in the original). I’m still not sure about the darkest band, but I’ll wait a few days and see… The hair, collar, skin and tassel are as charted.

My second drool piece is a copy of Elisabetta Sforza’s latest. OMG.

I brought my copy of Ricamare il Mare from the most local retailer – A Stitch in Time in Tasmania! I’ll be visiting that shop when we head over to explore.

I’ll need to do a lot more practice and drop some cross stitch projects down the want to work on list. I brought a pattern today for a felt apple, each wedge being an example of a set of stitches, then the finished item becomes not only a visual guide but a practical item too – a pincushion, or with a weighted fill, a paperweight perhaps.

Anyway, have a lovely week. Take care of yourselves, physically and mentally. A challenge for you – keep a 7 day diary, just one sentence of something that makes you happy that day. I’ll share mine next week.

WIP Wednesday #240

Posted in cross stitch, family, food, goals, grateful, lavender & lace, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Project Life, scrapping challenges, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by

20190202_195150.jpgHello 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!

10 Things to Tell You – The End!

Posted in Journal, me by

Thank you so much to those of you who reached out, either on the blog, twitter or in person, and commented on their #10thingstotellyou thoughts! I loved learning little things about you.

Today’s prompt is: what will you ask me in three months? And I have virtually nothing. I’m blank. I have no short term goals, I’m a little burnt out with activity & already feeling short tempered at the idea of all the holiday things coming up.

Ugh. I guess it’s time to go to Bethells.

10 Things to Tell You #9

Posted in cross stitch, Journal, me by

This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#9 – MY MAGICAL RESET BUTTON IS… Bethells Beach, on the wild West Coast of Auckland. It’s the photo in my header, a 25 minute drive from home that winds from busy suburbia to rural farm to black sand beach. It’s feeling the wind in my hair, hearing the roar of the sea and tasting the salt on my tongue. It’s a feeling of freedom and letting go of burdens as I walk along, occasionally run, sometimes attempt cartwheels. I kick the ball back to the kids, hurl sticks or soggy tennis balls for other people’s dogs and feel God’s grace extend to every part of my body.

10 Things to Tell You #8

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#8 – SOMETHING I’M STRUGGLING WITH RIGHT NOW IS…anxiety, abandonment and feeling that I’m just not good enough. Drama at work, drama at home and the recent death of my estranged step-father kicked off so many bad feelings. I am working thru these feelings in a far more constructive way than I did in 2007 so bonus points for learning something!

10 Things to Tell You #7

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#7 – A RECENT DISCOVERY I CAN’T HELP TALKING ABOUT… we went on a wee getaway to New Plymouth on the weekend (but made it home in time to see B win an award at the referee’s dinner. I won that parenting time trial). The local i-site is at the museum, Puke Ariki, and they had a new exhibit due to open the following weekend.

But in typical ‘Naki fashion, they finished the job early so we got to see the National Geographic Top 50 Photographs. Walking down the stairs into the exhibition hall, the first thing I saw was a massive (I’m talking like 4 A0) copy of the Afghan girl. You know the one – the striking eyes.

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There’s captions and a video to tell you more about each shot. I totally recommend this exhibit, so if it’s within a drive of your home, GO. We’re going again when it’s in Hamilton later this year – it’s moving back overseas in 2019.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/traveling-exhibitions/50-greatest-photographs/

10 Things to Tell You #6

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#6 – A DEFINING MOMENT IN MY LIFE WAS WHEN…we moved to Auckland. My parents had separated by this stage and there were no adults around to share the load. I learnt to help my mother get my brothers off to school/day care, and by 14 I was pretty much fully in charge of their day-to-day life. No wonder 30 years on I’m getting tired of being responsible for others…

10 Things to Tell You #4

Posted in cross stitch, Journal, me by

This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#4 – I AM STRANGELY GOOD AT…growing weeds, if you ask Si. Pulling random facts out at pub quiz, if you ask a friend. I am not very good at remembering jokes so I’ll always have a giggle, even if it’s fourth child pulling out the same knock, knock joke.

10 Things to Tell You #3

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This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#3 – A THING THAT CHANGED MY WORLD VIEW WAS…I don’t know that I’ve ever held a different view on the world than I do now. I guess (mostly, there are always exceptions) that we down here in NZ are practical, welcoming, generous people who know that we are strategically unimportant on the world stage, but generally strive to leave the place better than we found it. Various events around the world make me shudder, but there is evil everywhere and that’s why it’s important to just BE KIND to one another, and to ourselves.