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.