Tag Archives: Mirabilia

And she’s done!

Posted in conversion details, cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

Yay for Saturday mornings with no sport.

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And a close up:

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I did change out some beads, more because I had them to hand but they fit so well on this fabric. Everything is still Mill Hill.
16603 became 03016.
18828 became 00143 (happily the packet I didn’t use for Stargazer).
In the bubble trails from her fins, I used 00150 instead of silver and 00161 instead of 02010.

I do feel a little stupid in that she’s been sitting in a bag for a year, and it was only a week to get a finish!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

So as I’m in between round robins and I felt kind of stupid having all those beads and something that was nearly a finish so…

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I finished her hair this morning. Just a tip: of you’re planning on stashing a WIP for any decent period, highlight where you get up to. That’ll save you a few hours!

Her tail is beading up quickly, as I’m only attaching them with a half stitch. All shiny!

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August WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, grateful, Mirabilia, WIPocalypse by

WIPocalypse is a monthly-ish blog hop hosted by Measi.  This moon’s task was to choose a WIP and tell the story.

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This is Mediterranean Mermaid. Long time followers will know all about her; but for everyone else, this is why she’s still a WIP.

Our youngest, Mase, often has asthma flareups. Bad ones. End up on nebuliser ones. It’s long hours, often alone as there are other children at home, so I had to have a project that was permanently packed & could go anywhere with me. Lynne suggested Jug (as in, she carries an amphorae).

But so far in 2015, and with winter nearly over, we’ve kept Mase under control. Small flares, nothing major. Poor Jug hasn’t been worked on for nearly a year (I even brought the beads earlier this year in preparation),

It’s hard to feel for her tho!

Fabric Dye fails issue two

Posted in DIY home, embroidery by

Under advisement, I decided to try the iDye range of products. First attempt is the black. Follow recipe, even down to the time. It soaked it up a little too well.

Second is a lot more like I wanted. It’s pale & the only fault is mottling, which I think is down to either not pre-washing (I did soak) or that it was only in for five or six minutes at quarter strength.

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I think I’ll use the purple fail for Fairy Tales and without doing a floss toss, I think it should be fine for Raven Queen.

And as for the black, who knows?!

WIP Wednesday

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

I’m getting back on track! I’ve stitched every night from Sunday thru to Tuesday and feel like I’ve achieved a level of nirvana.

TC has gone away again. There is just so much exciting stuff on the telly that I found I was constantly frogging as I want paying attention. However I did get over 1000 stitches in a very short space of time. Roll on summer and the cricket!

While I’m waiting on the next Mira RR piece to arrive, I’m working on Persephone. This is where I started again on Monday:

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And this is last night:

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Lots of counting and recounting (waterlillies are so expensive here) but I can stitch and watch New Zealand beat Australia AND Jamaica at the netball with minimal frogging!

I’m also now on instagram. Follow @paulainauckland if you want to see daily updates or those little bits of my life! X

WIP Wednesday & June Goals Revisited

Posted in Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

Not much progress at all, what with family drama and commitments 😦

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If I could have a solid few hours stitching just to get the leaves complete I’d be happy, but posting deadline is Friday. I’ll need to put the threads aside to finish when this one comes back.

So the June goals were:

  • Complete Ali’s April & May prompts for One Little Word FAIL
  • Print out the last 10 days before Christmas & journal to complete my December Daily for 2014 FAIL
  • Complete my portion on Debbie’s RR (mermaids!) which will probably also double as my Small COMPLETED!
  • Complete the hair portion of Persephone (it’s a lot of confetti, more than I anticipated) COMPLETED!
  • Layout & complete my portion for the new New Zealand FB XS group RR (only four to a group, fast) PARTIAL
  • Complete Med Mermaid’s tail beading FAIL – but only because Mason wasn’t in hospital this month – so potentially a win!

July Goals will be fairly even:

  • Complete Angela’s RR portion (are you smiling still A?)
  • Complete Ali’s April, May & June prompts for One Little Word
  • Print out the last 10 days before Christmas & journal to complete my December Daily for 2014 (only five months before this starts again!)
  • Complete the skin portion of Persephone
  • Plan Mason’s SIXTH birthday

I’m not expecting the International RR parcel to arrive until early August now so a bit of a gap there – phew! I need to carve out some time to just journal & get the OLW album up to date and that DD album finished.

Yay, it’s Monday

Posted in family, grateful, league, Mirabilia by

As in, this weekend was a killer! I’ve come back to work for a holiday 🙂

On Saturday Zac was injured in his league game. The person tackling him bent his fingers back, and the result is a broken 5th proximal phalanx – or the first bone of his right little finger. He’s casted just to protect him from knocking it around but as it’s the championship series already, this is probably the end of his league season both for the club and for school. Neither of us are impressed, but it’s an accident. I can let you know that the White Cross A&E has a better selection of kids’ reading at St Lukes, with better magazines at Henderson. Should have had my eReader with me!

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On Sunday we went out to Pakuranga league club for the delayed Under 6 Gala. We only had the minimum number of players but I had a ball. These six are a great group of kids, and the family groups are funny & genuine. A big change from last year! We didn’t win the Best & Fairest trophy but I think they gained a lot of confidence & I was proud of how they played.

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So as a result, not one stitch in any WIP, which is a worry as I have to post my NZ RR this Friday. I can see some late nights in my future! And rather stupidly, I have TWO copies of a Mira on the way, as I thought one online shop had forgotten my order…so if anyone wants a copy of Mermaids of the Deep, please email me. Sale or Swap for one I don’t have is fine 🙂

Also for fellow stitchers, Chiara raises some interesting points: https://thegreytail.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/real-stitchers-dont-steal/