Lots of squee-ish stuff

Where do I start?

Well, I forgot to mention that Anna the incredibly generous gave me even MORE stash before Christmas, but mum packed it all in together before I could get a chance to take a photo. More fabric, all different counts, some 32 ct jobelan to play with and a piece of the same (white) cut to the perfect size for From the Ashes, my new start for the year.

She also conned me into trying stitchbows by giving me some and I've tried them, loved them and madly ran up to cherubs to buy some more and the plastic pockets for my binder - I got a new binder for them and it's adorable, a Happy House one with butterflies on it. Most of Hope's colours are now on stitchbows, which means one less box to take to Tumby, and we'll see how many other colours we can get on stitchbows as well - I have lots.

In stitchy news I've been working away at Hope and have almost finished this page for the row of 10, which is kind of nice - I'm starting to get sick of working on linen though. I've passed the 1/4 mark for her which is awesome, she's finally starting to properly take shape.

In unstitchy news, I got a lot of very cool presents for Christmas (including the aforementioned stash from Anna and Rachel). I got my lowery stand from the parents, yay for them, even if they do keep moving my couch off of it for no good reason. Bindi gave me body shop stuff so I'd stop stealing hers, which was also nice. Troy gave me my ring *wink* but also paid for some glass bowls and a candle which I'd picked out. Peta and Greg (Troy's parents) gave me a laptop bag that I can use for school next year since I'll be carrying it with me, and it's pale blue and very pretty. The rest of it all is a little bit of a blur - I know Bronwyn (Troy's sister) and Doug gave me a sarong that's blue with dragonflies on it and too pretty to wear so it will be a tablecloth and Matt (his brother) and Athena got me an awesome basket that turns into a bag and painted me a large vase with Psalm 117 on it, and then put pebbles and a delicious smelling candle in it so that's going on my desk.

And today - well, today Troy came up to drop my display folder that has a few of my charts in it (silly me had left it at his house) and also to give me some good news - lots of it! He's been looking for somewhere to stay when he's at Uni next year, Nairne is far too far to travel everyday, and hasn't had much luck - Athena heard that a friend of hers was looking for people to share a house with and Troy rang him. Well, turns out that this house is 10 minutes walk from Uni, 5 from a main road (that the bus to my house travels down) that has the library and a few supermarkets etc on it, 20 minutes on the bus from my house and 20 minutes on the bus to the city. And $65 a week rent, which will go down if they get more people to live there. And he can move in whenever he likes. SCORE! Absolute answer to prayer, so I'm thrilled (and how much I'm thrilled has nothing on how much Troy is!) and he's got most of the furniture he'd need. He's got his bed, when his dad fixes it up with slats so it doesn't have a ridge in the middle, and a chest of drawers for clothes, a hanging rack for shirts and stuff and bookshelves. The only thing he really needs is a desk, and we can get one pretty cheaply from Ikea.

He and his mum went to Designer Direct on the way back and picked up a new pillow and U-shaped pillow for him (his old ones were so far beyond gross it's really not funny) as well as a few sets of sheets for his bed (and they match, woohoo - and don't have ballerinas on them. Don't ask.) and pillowcases etc. He's got a good doona cover and matching pillowcase that his mum found for him six months or so ago (very awesome - red corduroy and deep blue denim) so that'll do him well, and he's basically got everything he needs for uni now sans books. And a laptop - wait did I say laptop? My bad.

Dick Smith had pretty good Toshiba laptops for $800, which is an absolute steal given they've just been released, and guess what his mum bought him? He'll pay her back eventually, but it's there and it's great. He also got a really great laptop/other stuff bag at the same time - it's a backpack with a padded pocket for his laptop, so he can ride his bike to and from uni if he wants to and he can carry all his books and things in it as well.

The house is a 'nerd haven' according to Troy - they're all nerds, and the house comes complete with a 512k connection to the net and someone's xbox. He'll love it, a bunch of Christian geeks - what could be more perfect for him? He'll have his own room, and it's cook for yourself which works well for Troy given he's lactose intolerant and can't eat a lot of normal food anyway.

So now I'm sitting on the floor stitchbow-ing my floss and grinning my head off, and life is absolutely wonderful.

Christmas and stuff

Well, it's over and done with for another year. Yay!

I'll type up a 'what i got' type post later, but this one is about stitching in the new year.

As it stands, here's what I'm looking at.

Beginning of every month:
Mystery X (Chatelaine)

Second weekend of every month (May interrupt Mystery X):
HAED BB SAL - Phoenix Rising, Teri Rosario

Rotation:

• Hope Angel Virtue (HAED)
  
• Noon Basking (Dracolair)
• Periwinkle Fae (HAED)
• Froggy Frog World (HAED)

School:
two major pracs and any other stuff I do for it.


looks like a fairly good year of stitching - oh and did I mention I want to do a double wedding ring quilt for Troy and my bed? Yeah that too. Spare time? What is this thing you speak of *grin*

I love being busy.

Hope - 2 - Week 3

Well, another week done. I haven't got as much done this week as I would have liked, but that's okay - sometimes it just happens. You can see all of her neck now, most of her collar (the detail stitching on it is beautiful) an I've only got about 6 stitches in the next row of 10 to do on her hair - thank goodness for that! The confetti in it has been driving me mad. I'm almost finished this row, which I'm pleased about, and the circle is starting to get narrower again which is neat to watch - though doesn't make my stitching any narrower, because her wings continue to spread outwards. And sorry about the threads over her wing - Troy took the photo and forgot to move them.



Hope Angel Virtue - (c) HAED and Ann Massiker
Stats:
Started: Early July 2006
Total Stitches: 49,856
Full Pages: 1
Stitches Done:

• 8/12/06 - 8795
• 15/12/06 - 10,159
• 22/12/06 - 11,025

A getting married thinking post

I've just been sitting down and thinking about the practical things with getting married yada yada.

As much as I'd love to be Crystal I don't think it's going to happen - I think I'm going to have to work, and possibly full time, for at least some of the first few years of our marriage.

Electrical applicances are the things that confuse me most - I don't know what we really need and what we can live without/don't need at all?

It's cheaper to make biscuits and cakes from scratch and I quite like doing it, but is it still cheaper given I have to buy the stuff to actually use to make them (mixer, baking trays, cake tins, etc) or should I wait to get that kind of stuff?

I guess need things are: computer, internet connection, tv, radio/cd player, oven, stove, fridge, freezer, toaster, kettle, microwave, washing machine. Is there anything else we *really* need? A food processor would be good, so would a blender, and beaters - my grandmother can probably get me one of the oldschool unkillable (except by my mum!) mixmasters from somewhere so I guess that's one thing.

Out of that, we have a computer (soon to be two when Troy gets his laptop), a pretty decent radio/tapeplayer/cd player that I've had for years but still works perfectly (and has a remote!) and I guess the oven and the stove will be in wherever we live, maybe a fridge/freezer if we're lucky, ditto maybe a washing machine. Other things, the non-really expensive ones, I guess I can ask for for christmas & birthday presents, and I was thinking of asking my parents for blankets/sheets/something like that for my birthday next year. I've got to the stage where I just want practical things for christmas and birthday and stuff now - my stand for christmas, sewing cabinet for my 18th, computer for birthday and Christmas the year before, sewing machine for christmas the year before that - they're the big things that I can't buy myself and my parents are happy to buy for me as gifts. So I guess I can just ask for stuff through them too.

I don't know if I'm coming off as really materialistic in this, I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to do this whole getting married thing. I don't know what necessities really are in terms of electronics and stuff and that's hard...how do you know what to buy and what not to?

I have my china - everyday stuff, four of everything, a full dinner set plus mugs, rice bowls, a couple big salad/serving bowls and platters to match, and I have more teacups and mugs than I know what to do with.

Troy's dad will do any furniture that's able to be made out of wood - bookshelves, a table, chairs, a low table, a bed, cabinets etc, for moreorless cost price, and I can do bedspreads and curtains and things.

I'm thinking of doing a double wedding ring quilt in blue, green and cream for Troy and I, which would do a bedspread, but curtains and things are a bit harder to do now. I guess I just earmark money for it and when we settle on somewhere that we have the window measurements for I can make them up out of something that isn't too expensive.

I'm turning into a bit of a homebody, much to the amusement of my family and several friends. I've been collecting recipes up, making up cookbooks, stashing things and trying to sort these sorts of things out. I guess I just want to make this as easy for us as I possibly can.

Stash and stitchers and squee!

I caught up with Rachel and Anna today - hello!

That was fun. Much talking and stitching and fabric, thankyou so much again for catching up with me.

I may just have been converted to 32 count jobelan...Anna's giving me a piece to try 1x1 on and if I am then I'll do my From the Ashes on it, her stitching is so tiny and neat! Very inspiring. And yes, Anna, your stitching IS neat.

And I got a present for my engagement/christmas - STASH! Which came just at the right time, given I've now been forcibly put on The Wagon by Troy. All these beautiful counts of fabric to play with...yum... see below for picture. And a pair of scissors that look like an oil slick. And lots of needles. And some needlethreaders. And YAY! Thankyou again gals.


Was so nice to catch up with likeminded people and actually see someone that isn't me with an HAED chart in their hand...and q-snaps that weren't mine...and other people who are crazy enough to stitch over one!

*big satisfied smile*

oh and Anna - my sister's camera (that I take most of my photos with) is an olympus. I haven't even seen it and I know it is, I just had a mental blank before.

mmmm *flop*

Got up earlyish today to head down to glenelg with mum...and went to Jurlique to be pampered since we didn't go away like dad & bindi did a couple weeks ago.

And now I kind of feel like I'm floating.

A nap is sounding really really good now.

Hope - 2 - Week 2

Hope Angel Virtue - (c) HAED and Ann Massiker
Stats:
Started: Early July 2006
Total Stitches: 49,856
Full Pages: 1
Stitches Done:

• 8/12/06 - 8795
• 15/12/06 - 10,159
  

Hooray for confetti

I'm much slower working on my angel, but that's okay. I did finally get that hair done, and I've finished that row and got about halfway through the wing section on the next row as well. She's turning out beautifully and that hair was worth it, just incredibly frustrating. The circle has started to curve in again now, which means it's more than halfway done, which is very satisfying indeed.

My ring still hasn't got here from being resized which is annoying me, but that's what I get for having tiny fingers I guess. I'm an (australian) H.5 which makes my fingers the second smallest you can readily get. Yikes.

It cooled down today after being stupidly hot, and dad and I went out to the hot side of town to look at caravans yesterday - we saw one we liked a lot, with curved cupboards and couches and was just generally an inviting place to be. If we get one, I hope we get one like that - I'd actually like to go away in something like that. But in the process I turned an interesting shade of beetroot which worried the salespeople - I overheat very easily due to my ichthyosis and I look hotter than I am, usually. I only really start to worry when I start to get headaches, which are a sign I'm suffering real heat exhaustion, in which case I go find shade and water, quick! I think I stayed that colour most of the day, but oh well.

I took the angel off the stand yesterday to take her in the car travelling and couldn't believe how used to my stand I'd got - my neck and my back ached terribly after about five minute's worth of stitching, and I've only had it a week! Oh well, just shows I need to keep it.

Anyway I'm rambling so I'll post again tomorrow with an updated picture - yay!

More stash & small world

HAED has had a sale on the last week or so, and I finally got around to ordering a few. Troy said I could have five full size charts, but with a wishlist like mine it took me forever to choose! Here's what I got:

Sara Butcher:
Autumn
Truth
Temptation

Meredith Dillman:
Fallfire

Teri Rosario:
From The Ashes

I'd like to stitch Truth and Temptation next to one another, or framed individually but hung together. And From the Ashes is so perfect for me that I couldn't help but get it.

My next HAED BAP will still be Flight of Fish Fancy but From the Ashes is calling my name. Oh well, I'll love it and tuck it away. One of these days I'm going to have to add another slot to my rotation aren't I...hmm. Not for the next six months anyway. I can't afford to kit anything, we're saving our pennies now. I'll have a chatelaine to keep me happy, and I can work away at my other WIPs.

I've been working on Hope the last few days in between squee-ing and being too tired to do much - the excitement's making it hard to get to sleep, and I didn't sleep well most of last week. Early night tonight - I'm already dressed for bed and I'm just lying on the couch typing this before I head to bed. The confetti in her hair is driving me batty, and I'm getting irritated at the threads splitting and it's hard to count at the moment as well. The same thing happened the last few times I've had to work on her hair too...sigh. I think it's all the similar colours being confetti - looks wonderful but is horrific to stitch! I'm going to settle down and attack it again tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get it out of the way soon so I can get back into stitching the wings - they may be confetti but at least they're straightforward!

We have an engagement party tentatively planned for February, and Carole is doing us a cake and matching it to my dress - go me, who else has a $3000-a-cake wedding cake designer do their engagement cake? Should be great to see.

And I ran into Anna, an HAED BBer (nutsedge) - in my bank! She's one of the tellers there and recognised my email address when I changed my account around a bit (and got higher interest) which was really quite odd but very cool nonetheless. We chatted and giggled a bit which I think weirded out some of the people standing in line, but oh well it was great fun!

Anyway I found Periwinkle, so she'll hop back on the q-snaps when I make my goal on Hope so I can finish this page, before I get back to the frogs again. I really need to go up to cherubs and get the fabric for my dragon, but otherwise everything's organised for stitching - just waiting on the Chatelaine kit. I want it already - want to feel the silks and drool over colours and wonder at what the garden will look like.

It's 13 days until Christmas, 15 until our 3.5 year anniversary (which seems a little unimportant but oh well) and 19 until the new year. Wonder what 2007 will bring?

I got into all my courses for Year 12, which I'm pleased about. Now I just need to sort out pre-reading, stationary and a uniform and I'll be set. My subjects are Modern History, Maths Studies, English Studies and Craft Practical (YEAH! - they thought they might not have the numbers for a class) which should be good. I'd like to do a big sampler-picture for one of my major pracs, tempted to make it a wedding sampler - we'll see. But that will be good.

About that other Squee-worthy thing?

Yeah - the blue and gold one.

Well, the blue and gold one is a ring. Specifically a very very pretty sapphire, diamond and gold one. Even more specifically, my engagement ring.

Troy asked my dad for my hand last night and he said yes, so now I'm no longer his girlfriend - instead, his fiancee!

YAY! *happy dance*

EDIT: and here's some pictures for those of you that like that sort of thing *wink*

Hope - 2 - Week 1

Yay, a face! And I'm loving my new Lowery for for stitching, makes life so much easier.



Hope Angel Virtue - (c) HAED and Ann Massiker
Stats:
Started: Early July 2006
Total Stitches: 49,856
Full Pages: 1
Stitches Done:

• 8/12/06 - 8795
  

SQUEEEEE!

Ok, two reasons. One I am going to talk about, and one that I'll blog about in a while.

First one - my stand came today! And I love it. It's set up with the angel in it under one of the couches in our living room, and it's so much better than sitting with my stitching in my lap. I have to get photos, I love it. And my little bag of floss that I carry with me when I take my stitching hands on one of the levers which makes life easier, and it's close. I haven't got a steel board for the board holder yet, but that's alright I've got the chart on a tea trolley that I've comandeered instead for the time being. It's great and squee.

The other one has something to do with blue and gold but I won't say anything else yet.

Froggy Frog World 3 rows

Yeah!! Three (thirty) rows done. 9000 stitches! The last little bit was a hard slog but it ended up being worth it, finished it this morning. I'm now happily working on my angel, about 250 stitches tonight. I'm hoping to get all the work on the left wing for this 10x10 row done tonight, about 100 stitches more, and the hopefully tomorrow I'll get to work on (and finish) her face. It will be good to actually see her whole face... my mum's comment tonight was "ooh, doesn't look like cats ears anymore." I think that's a good thing?
Sorry the photo's a little dull, I tried a different technique and i'm not sure if it was worth it or not.


Stats:
Started: 20 October 2006
Total Stitches: 141,300
Stitches Done:

• 23/10/06 - 1600
• 10/11/06 - 3008
• 17/11/06 - 4726
• 24/11/06 - 5613
• 1/12/06 - 7603
• 5/12/06 - 9000
  

Argh! Glitter!

Now I remember why I was going argh glitter last time...

500 stitches of solid glitter (give or take about 3 non-glitter stitches) down, 400 to go. *whimper*
At least I'll only have one more 10x10 row of this solid glitter nonsense on the fourth page after this, after that I get to start on a flowerbud - still lots of glitter, but at least a bit of colour to break up the monotony.

On the upside, I've got the last bits of colour done now for this 10x10 row, which means I'm very close to quota for my rotation and I get to move on to the angel soon. Yay! I haven't stitched on linen in just about forever, so it will be a welcome change. Which reminds me, I really do need to do something about buying fabric for my dragon re-start.

I'm going to get a bit of a change of scenery tomorrow, going into the Uni with Dad while he works on science-y stuff and has fun with algebra and I sit in a corner and stitch. I'm taking the frogs with me, to finish the glitter, and my angel to pick up again. Should be good. This page (50 rows across two pages) has the rest of her face, and I get to start her dress down to her waist and that beautiful green scarf. Looking forward to it. I also get to finish all that we see of the extreme left and right of the circle befor the wings cover it up, which will also be very cool. Lots of sparkle in the wings, but tasteful sparkle. The sparkle in the dress is still bothering me but I'm thinking I'll be good and go with the recommended here - I was worried about the sparkle in Froggy Frog World too and apart from it annoying me every now and then in terms of the stitching of it, it looks fantastic. It will be very good to see her face! I can't wait.

We're headed to see Terry after that..., which means sitting in a waiting room for me but given I shouldn't be juggling the qsnaps of doom (17wx8h) and trying not to hit people and still mark my chart by then (a la last week) I think I'll be fine.

Got new candleholders and taper candles for the advent wreath today, which I am very pleased with - our other ones were so cheap and nasty..ugh. This year I have the proper colours (royal blue and rose) and these beautiful silver snowflake taper holders! I'll take a photo tomorrow and post them, I'm so proud. I also got a glass dish for the centre Christ candle, which gives it a bit of height and just makes the whole thing look a little nicer. I don't like greenery on advent wreaths, I'm always afraid it will catch alight, so I just put candles in holders on a platter instead. It works and it still looks nice. I liked some others that I saw (frosted glass, and you turn them two different ways to hold tapers or tea lights) but the snowflakes stole my heart, even though they're not very Australian christmas. Oh well, they're lovely.

Troy's got a job trial tomorrow for a computer company in Barker, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers, please. Fingers crossed!

I just stabbed my finger

...so I put my needle down for the night. Fair's fair, it's 12:21.
I've finished the flower for this section now, and am now working on the frond on the right hand side, which I have alwayus seen as the most boring (except maybe that entirely sparkly last page) part of this project, it's narrow with only a few murky colours. It looks good in the scheme, it's just fiddly and murky. I much prefer the purples *smile* oh well, 350ish stitches for the day is pretty good given I've been to church twice in there and I'm sick, too. Which is why I'm still up...*rolls eyes* yeah I have issues, I'll go to bed soon. I had nightmares last night, and I think I'm procrastinating because of that.

It was the first sunday of Advent this year, the sunday of Prophecy. We lit the first purple candle in our wreath today, and the readings were from Isaiah ("unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given...) and Luke (the Annunciation), and it was good. I love advent! I think Advent and Easter are my favourite seasons of the church year, something about the preparation seasons is just fun.

Froggy Frog World Week 5

Well, I haven't actually done any stitching since wednesday because life got in the way. But here's the update anyway. The total of stitches this week is rather awesome - just a bit over 2000 stitches in five days!


Stats:
Started: 20 October 2006
Total Stitches: 141,300
Stitches Done:

• 23/10/06 - 1600
• 10/11/06 - 3008
• 17/11/06 - 4726
• 24/11/06 - 5613
• 1/12/06 - 7603
  

Advent Kalender & lack of stitching & Dec goals

Yeah a few things in this post.

The chatelaine christmas things are in full swing - the first advent kalender window was to die for (a rather lovely ornament chart) and bingo has started, no words for me though :( yet!

I haven't been stitching much the last couple days, thursday due to health and friday because i did everyone's christmas shopping with mel, which was lots of fun. I am officially in love with Troy's present, but I hope he'll like it even more than I do. I'm thinking of picking up my needle later today though, and getting some work done on the frogs. I've got some spare aida, too, so I think I might grab the necessary fibres (or the ones i don't have anyway - i need to catalogue what I have, including the leftovers from caitlin's things) for the advent kalender piece and stitch it up too, so cute.

My december stitching goals are as follows:

• to finish this row on froggy frog world (easy one)
• a page on the angel
• finish off the page on periwinkle if/when i find her
• get fabric & work on dragon
• enjoy my new frame when I get it
• enjoy chatelaine kit when i get it

I'm not sure where all my rich text options have gone, might have to figure that one out.