Sleepy

Yep, I'm tired. I haven't had a break, really, in ages. Even when I tried to have one the other day I ended up working - I cleaned (my room now looks about half as bad as it did) and I stitched...now I just need to sleep.

Unfortunately, Dad's got company in the morning, and I need to be up. So at about 10 I'll be up and presentable and eek!

On the other hand, Mali's dress is almost done. It needs hemming, and the zip put in, but those can't be done until she's tried it on. What cane be done (I think!) is the fabric rose, ribbons and rosettes adding (easy) and the sash. Shouldn't take me too long. I'm going to put the caftans and Moesha's outfit together with a different coloured thread and nice big tacking stitches, just to make sure it all fits. It's so easy to rip out and resew then, and Nikki's said she'll take me down to try them on the girls sometime soon.

And my hand hurts. Urk. So I'm going to rest it - not much, if any, stitching tomorrow. We'll see what else I can do instead.

The Orthodox Way is next to me, I got it back off of Dad for the night. Yay :) Now I get to start the process of noting it, eep.

Slowly I'm getting there. I think. :)

Edited to add: I sewed the last major seam just then (well, finished, it was half done) and you don't want to know HOW many pins I put in to get the gathers right...

And I give you (with the exception of hemming, sash and fabric rose):

Mali's dress!

Ever get the feeling that you need to do some cleaning?

My room currently looks like this:

That is not a good thing. That's the view from the doorway.

It doesn't get any better as you move around, either.

Same position, turned 90 degrees. That's my bed and my dresser, and yes those are icons over next to the little chest of drawers (that I still need to paint).


And that's the view from my bed. Right. Let's attack this!

Rest Day

I'm tired. I've been working very hard the last few days, and last night it hit me - I need a day off. So, I'm taking one :) I'm typing this from my bed, and I'll probably get up, sort out some of the chaos that is my room's current state (I should take a photo, it's atrocious) and do some stitching, but I'll take it easy. I might swap pieces too as I'm starting to feel a little burned out on Mystery X - give myself a day on something else and then come back to it.

I did make progress yesterday - the side garden of the house is completely done, and I've done most of the dormer window too, and finished that half of the roof. I started part 9 (with the trees, yay) as well, so that gives me even more space to 'grow' out into. Mostly I'm not going to make it a goal to finish this side's part of part 9 before I move on, but it does mean that I can use the colours in it which is a nice break from the houses. The trees are a very different kind of stitching, it's nice. Just the roof to finish off though, and one side garden. I'm getting close to getting to move on to the next house - YAY. Here's a photo:


I got to play secretary too. My parents are buying a new car since our other one keeps breaking (it's about 11 years old so i guess this is fair) and Dad was doing the ring around yesterday to get prices, and gave them his mobile number to call back on. So I was answering the phone in the classic secretary manner while he was on the other phone, and they're all convinced that he's a businessman with a personal assistant now! I've played PA in a couple different ways
for him - typing, taking dictation, phone calls etc for him now, and I enjoy it. I like the way I'm living at the moment - I'm busy, with all my different projects, and helping Dad, and I still have time to do my own thing. I set my goals, and my limits. I'm not getting paid much, but it's a start and I'm enjoying it.

I should go back to school next year, but for some reason I'm unsettled about it. I'll talk to Father about it when I see him next, and see what he thinks.

It's funny though. We have these ideas of success - as I was saying to Dad last week, I feel satisfied and happy with where I am in life - successful, and I've got no career, no power, no money. But I have a trade, of a sort, that I enjoy, and am good at. I am reading, I am being useful, I am being a servant of others....and I'm going to get married and have a family, and I can continue this trade then. Even if I never finish high school, I will be a success, I think. My sister is freaking out about her yr 12 scores and while I understand that...yr 12 marks don't a successful person make. It's not going to ruin your career and life if you don't do perfectly on your high school leaving! Oh well. It's taken a lot of bitter pills for me to come to realise this, and I don't always accept it even then. Kyrie eleison.

I worked on Mali's dress yesterday, and it's looking good. I've found a couple mistakes but they were easy ones and have been fixed now. I might do some work on it today, if I feel like it. Otherwise it can wait until tomorrow.

So today...today, I hope to get something done on my room and to do some stitching. And to relax.

Recap

Well, best intentions, huh? I'm a screamer, I admit it. Hence, not long after I posted that entry on Monday night I put DOTG down and picked up Mystery X. But, it is finally starting to come together, and look good. I am pleased :)

Here's the whole thing:


And here's just the North house:


Just the flowers to finish off on that side garden, and I'm thinking I'll do the roof (and maybe the tree?) of part 9 while I'm at it too. So more sable thread - yum, I like it.

I have a photo of my stash for Nuts About Autumn too, see? All those pretty harvest colours, yum.


I worked on the dresses a bit yesterday too. Mali's dress is half done - the skirt is made, the underskirt and ruffle are made but not sewn together, the bodice is done and the sleeves are hemmed, but need the casing and elastic put on them. It'll happen :) Moesha's top is half done too, it looks huge...fingers crossed it fits, if all else fails I'll take it apart and cut it down. Not hard to do, it's probably the easiest thing I've sewn in a while.

So that goals list:

• Fill in the gaps on Dance of the Graces with the thread I was missing up until today Got distracted by Mystery X
• Reach the 1300 stitch mark on it too See above
• Sew together dalek Nope, still need a needle
  
• Sort out Peaceful Paradise fabric Yes. And the fibres too, hopefully :) It's in Jean's capable hands now
  
• Figure out how big my fabric for the Angels needs to be Not yet.
  
• Not start anything new!! Easy one
• Spend at least half an hour on my room. It is really really scaring me I did something towards it...
  
• Check that I don't have fabric for Nuts About Autumn in my stash I really need to do this
  
• Coerce parents into taking me fabric shopping See above
  
• set up sewing machine and start Mali's dress Yes :) And Moesha's outfit too!
  
• Read and note at least a few pages of TOW Bad Kyrie
  
• Eat lunch - this is serious, I've been really bad on this one recently I actually did. Rice crackeres.
  
• Find out total allowance from parents to spend on dolls (parents pay for sister's horse so they give me equal amount to spend on whatever, fair's fair - it usually goes on stitching or dolls) This will probably happen to day if I can drag my Dad away from his paper
  
• Decide on doll order See above, though I did figure out what to ask for for Christmas (and my Dad will be relieved as it's not a computer)
  
• Order dolls See above.
  

So all in all not too bad.
Today I'll be less ambitious:

• Make serious progress on Mystery X
• Get Mali's dress almost, if not completely, finished
• Finish Moesha's top
• Sort out dolls
• Read and note some TOW
• Sort out fabric for NAA
  

Dalek plushies

Well, it's not hot today. It's been about 20*C, so quite nice. Mild enough inside to wear my purple dress, but I needed a jumper (sweater to you Americans) outside, when I dared to venture out - it's been stormy and raining.

I got my Sew&So order - ABOUT TIME! Some idiot must have put the clearly marked "air mail" package in the sea mail, that's the only explanation I can give. This is the fibres and buttons for Waxing Moon's Nuts About Autumn, to those who have forgotten/never heard in the first place. Beautiful, I haven't seen hand dyed cottons in real life before and these are lovely. And the buttons! Oh...to use a Bindi-ism, SQUEE. They are tiny little acorns and absolutely adorable. Expensive when you think about how much I paid for them vs how big they are but they are so cute that I think they were worth it. Now to rummage through my fabric stash to see if I have a piece of 28ct that suits it, or else I'll have to go to Spotlight (horrible fate) and pick some up. It's just plain fabric, and my LNS has a terrible range of fabric, so Spotlight it is.

Which reminds me, I've been meaning to get a piece of fabric for my Angel Virtues for a while. I should order it.

I need to contact Jean at Needle Little Love about the fabric for Peaceful Paradise too.

I am forbidden to start anything new. I am, I am. But Nuts About Autumn is screaming at me and it's little...*sigh*

I have finished knitting my dalek, too. Everything but the base, which will be knit when it's stuffed. The appendages are adorable - the plunger is the cutest. I need to dig up a needle big enough for the wool tomorrow, and then I'll sew them on and stuff him. I will have a very happy Bindi then! It shouldn't take me too long to knit the base.

For all my good intentions with my list, I found it too unwieldy. So I might go for daily goals instead.

Tomorrow I aim to:

• Fill in the gaps on Dance of the Graces with the thread I was missing up until today
• Reach the 1300 stitch mark on it too
• Sew together dalek
• Sort out Peaceful Paradise fabric
• Figure out how big my fabric for the Angels needs to be
• Not start anything new!!
• Spend at least half an hour on my room. It is really really scaring me
• Check that I don't have fabric for Nuts About Autumn in my stash
• Coerce parents into taking me fabric shopping
• Set up sewing machine and start Mali's dress
• Read and note at least a few pages of TOW
• Eat lunch - this is serious, I've been really bad on this one recently
• Find out total allowance from parents to spend on dolls (parents pay for sister's horse so they give me equal amount to spend on whatever, fair's fair - it usually goes on stitching or dolls)
• Decide on doll order
• Order dolls

Hmm...that should keep me busy!

Still Stitching

Well, I need to make Jeremy's spidery gift at some point, but otherwise life is starting to get somewhat under control.

I've put Mystery X aside for a bit - yes I know I'm terrible, and I've been working on Dance of the Graces, and thoroughly enjoying it. It looks beautiful, and I'm most of the way across the first page (first row of blocks) already. I did my calculations and it turns out that 1% is 2,216 stitches!!! Yikes! I think I'll be marking each % this time. 1% is just about halfway across the top row. On the other hand, there's an awful lot of background so it should go quickly. I think I am going to get very sick of the a colour, there's LOTS of it.

I started Mali (Nikki's 3 yr old niece)'s dress last night - Nikki and I cut it all out, and it looks lovely. So cute! I'll cut Moesha's stuff and the caftans tomorrow, hopefully - it will depend on how well my foot is doing, I don't really want to grub around on the floor with a sore foot. It hurts!

I started the Count of Monte Cristo last night too and I'm enjoying it so far, I'm up to chapter 3.

We got to Liturgy this morning - at St Nectarios', was wonderful to get to church and I like that one a lot.

The rats are in a clean cage, and I should be ordering a nice fat American Girl order today. Life is good, even if it is really really hot!

I have had such a great day.

I know that the Immovable comes down;
I know that the Invisible appears to me;
I know that He who is far outside the whole creation
Takes me within Himself and hides me in His arms,
And then I find myself outside the whole world.
I, a frail, small mortal in the world,
Behold the Creator of the world, all of Him, within myself;
And I know that I shall not die, for I am within the Life,
I have the whole of Life springing up as a fountain within me.
He is in my heart, He is in heaven:
Both there and here He shows Himself to me with equal glory.
- St Symeon the New Theologian

I've had an eventful day. Somewhere in there I sprained my foot, ate sushi, got hot chocolate spilled all over me, walked into a beautiful Orthodox church (the church of the Nativity at Port Adelaide) which has icons EVERYWHERE and is generally incredible, helped Nikki buy fabric and patterns for dresses, ate spinach cannelloni, went to study, got told by Father to keep talking (goodness knows why), and got brought home.

Oh and I got a massage with tiger balm on my sprained foot from Nikki, and a package full of thread (the fibres for Dance of the Graces). And I got a small pair of circular needles for the dalek.

I've been being so good working on Mystery X...but Dance is calling...ack! I might have to get a few hundred stitches in tomorrow (if I stay home) but focus on MX at least until this house is done...

*sighs* I wish I wasn't such a screaming rotationer.

Oh and Elias found my blog by accident searching for Father's number. Hi Elias!

And Andrew gave me back my triquetra necklace...and I told him about how much the jeweler wanted to sell me a new chain for my cross for...and he laughed so much that it hurt and offered to fix it for free. I love Andrew, I think. He brought his violin but I didn't have my flute, but when we next have study this will be rectified. He also gave me The Count of Monte Cristo to read, and added me to his facebook.

I will go to sleep happy tonight.

Going up

My house is growing a roof. Slowly but surely :) I think that's the motto of this piece! I showed my friend Tessa my progress tonight and she's sure I'm mad, but as I told her I'm happily mad!

Here is my progress:


The side garden is mostly done now, which I'm pleased about, and the other side garden is starting to grow. The roof is going very quickly which is satisfying, to say the least, and the frieze is done now. The windows are almost done too - just a tiny bit left to do on that last window.

I've run out of space on the q-snaps right under the edge of the photo, so I've parked my thread for the chimney and I'll finish it when I have to move the q-snaps. These are so big that it's such a pain to move them and I won't do it until I have to. I'll just get the rest of the house done, move on to the next (will be the west house) and eventually I'll have to move them and the chimney will get done then.

Anyone know where I can get an even bigger set of Q-snaps? No, don't answer that...lol...

The last few days have been uneventful. Dad and I went into the uni yesterday and I worked in his office, we went down Rundle St for lunch which was greek and I got a kind of sausage I forget the name of, but it was pork with orange and garlic and really really good. I worked on Tranquility, making progress, and knit a lot of dalek until I realised that I really need a set of circular needles with smaller cord linking them because of all the decreases I've done. I'll get them tomorrow at spotlight. All of his body is done, and now I'm doing the bit with the instrument panel and where the plunger and gun attach. He is very cute. Lots of colourwork but I'm settling into it and enjoying it. I like having another kind of work to swap to, and I'm thinking I might knit a pair of socks next (I never have and I want to try) and keep them on the couch next to me for when I need a break. I"m less likely to waste time that way - I currently take breaks by surfing the net which is hardly productive.

Anyway, I'm tired. I better knock off for the night.

Houses

I've been hard at work today, working on MX with the SAL in the MX (surprise surprise) forum.
It's sticky and muggy and I'm wearing my purple dress because I couldn't be bothered wearing anything that fit closer. I knew I made these dresses for a reason!


Here is my 'north' house, upside down since it's the only way I can reach to work on it. Working on massive Q-snaps is definitely an experience, I'll say that much.

The photo's a bit washed out but it'll do. I'm really pleased - most of the main house is done, I'm finishing up the last window, and the frieze should get done early into my stitching time tomorrow.

For anyone interested, I have sections 1-4 complete, and the part I'm working on now is sections 5-8 together since they're all part of the houses, and I'm working a house at a time except for the occasional few stitches into the 'west' house when I have leftover thread - I'd always rather put the leftovers into the piece even if I can only put a few stitches in and then 'park' the thread, I lose less thread this way. The 'south' house also has quite a bit done on it, but I'm leaving it alone for the time being to focus on this house. Each of the houses is slightly different, too, and the side gardens for each are different.

I am trying to think about the logistics of working on the last few parts. I'm starting to get to the edges of my q-snaps and that's worrying - it means I'll probably have to move them a bit to get the last few parts done. Means no more beading or rhodes stitches so that I can put cloth over the already worked sections and move the frame around...sigh. I dont like doing that. The houses are chock full of rhodes stitches so I'm thinking I'll do any beading that lies within their general area, but I'll leave all the rest until I know it's safe to add. I'll leave the rhodes stitches off the roof too while I'm working on the houses, for the same reason.

There's just something about the way the light plays on the silks and the metallics and the crystals and the beads...this piece is incredible.

Speaking of Chatelaine-y things, I'm thinking I'll try a hoop on JOB again and see how that goes. I love the piece, it's just frustrating me no end at the moment!

Dalek progress continues - I've been doing a row or two every time I needed a break from stitching. I am now at the beginning of row 21, and there are two rows of bobbles in now. He looks good.

Mmm...zzzzz...*dozes off in a chair* I am so tired.


Kyrie eleison emas...and I am off to bed.

oh - joke that probably only Orthodox people will get but I liked it anyway: My name is Kyrie-Eleison, which means Lord have mercy in Greek and we say it a zillion times each church service. Someone the other day joked that with Kyrie-eleison as a name I needed to name my first child Doxa te Theo (glory to God)

...maybe you had to be there?

Hmm

Well...rotation. Not sure about that the next few days...there are some ladies having a SAL to get caught up on MX on the Chatelaine board and I might be joining in with them. Bleh, maybe I'm just a screamer after all...the minute I pick up a different project I get addicted to it!

I've been working on MX recently anyway, and got a bit done. I'm pleased, anyway. Slowly, slowly - there are more of the #*$(#& bricks done anyway - I HATE them but they look wonderful. Sodding things. Most of the frame of the house is done now for my North house, and I'm steadily adding garden and filling in rhodes stitch 'bricks'. People admire it anyway so I get to smile and say 'yes, it's mine' every time someone notices it. I think I need to keep it out on display even when I'm not working on it!

I'm still wanting to join the Christmas mystery, so I might wait and see what happens there - I want the materials list before I join I think.

I need to get the fabric for my skirt and Bindi's dress washed tomorrow night, and I plan (God-willing) to work on MX tomorrow, and put an order in for some doll stuff if I can. Other than that...Bindi and Mum are back to school tomorrow so things should be much quieter for a while.

I started the dalek, too...too many times, ugh. It took me three attempts to realise that doing a provisional cast on onto circular needles was a bad idea, and then after using straight needles and knitting the first three rows I realised that I'd cast on 144 not 114 stitches. AAARGH!! And I fail at getting provisional cast on stitches back on to the needles after ripping out knitting...so I started again.

Finally, I'm now partway through row 9, and I've completed the first row of (adorable) bobbles. It took me a while to figure out how to do them, but they look great and they're kind of fun. The dalek itself is a lot of fun to knit as well! I'll have to do more stuff like this sometime...and I really should learn how to knit socks at some point. I didn't realise how much I missed knitting - I did it obsessively before it was 'cool', and I've been somewhat resisting picking it up again because of the coolness factor. Oh well, it's fun!

EXTERMIKNIT THE DOCTOR!

What I did today - that can wait until tomorrow. I can't be bothered writing it all now, I'm tired.

On the To Do List front:
This is what I have achieved since last posting it:

• Order Orthodoxy books (got #2 and #3 from The List that Father gave me by Nicholas Cabasilas)
  
• Find a crochet hook and learn the provisional cast-on to start dalek

Aaaaaand here's the list:

• Continue going through magazines to find the recipes I've made and liked and copy them into my recipe notebooks, and copy out every lenten-friendly one that looks nice that I can find into that notebook for Mum's sake every Wednesday and Friday so that she doesn't have to keep feeding us vegetarian fried rice for lack of things to cook.
• Get parents to fix/buy a new printer
• Put the zip in and hem Bindi's green dress
• Regather and reattach skirt for my green dress, and hem it
• Clean my room
• Sort out school stuff with Hamilton
• Put each of my stitching projects into a large baggie so that I have everything at hand when I need it
• Make up a folder for Dance of the Graces
• Buy more stitchbow sleeves and binders to put them in
• Stitchbowify remaining DMC for master set
• Sort out fibres for Peaceful Paradise
• Pull the DMC needed for Stretch that aren't currently in with him from spares
• Go through TGOSMs that I haven't listed in my 'to stitch' list
• Decide on a to stitch list from the JCS Ornie issue
• Stitch an hour a day on whatever my rotation piece is at least
• Wash red dress and skirt fabric
• Clean off my dresser to make it a proper icon corner
• Get copies of the morning and evening prayers printed out
• Cut Bindi's dress
• Cut my skirt
• Knit dalek #1
• Get a small art notebook and start sketching Amanda clothes
• Finish row #9 of A Restful Night
• Read and note The Orthodox Way a second time for Father
• Get a notebook to write all my Greek that Nikki's teaching me in
  

urgently:

• Figure out what cut of linen to get from Jean for Peaceful Paradise
• Sort out the fibres for ^ (means emailing her)

To Do List update:

I have been busy.
So far, this is what I have achieved from my list:

• Finish this row of A Restful Night
• Get wool/cotton for daleks
• Get Mum to print me out a colour copy of the front page, and black and white copies of the rest of the chart (sort of - I did it instead and the front page isnt in colour but it'll do)
• Hassle Sew&So until I find out what happened to my order (again, sort of. I got a response and now the ball's in my court - I need to get to the post office and check that it's not there, otherwise I need to contact them again)

So, the list as stands (with additions)

• Continue going through magazines to find the recipes I've made and liked and copy them into my recipe notebooks, and copy out every lenten-friendly one that looks nice that I can find into that notebook for Mum's sake every Wednesday and Friday so that she doesn't have to keep feeding us vegetarian fried rice for lack of things to cook.
• Get parents to fix/buy a new printer
• Put the zip in and hem Bindi's green dress
• Regather and reattach skirt for my green dress, and hem it
• Clean my room
• Sort out school stuff with Hamilton
• Put each of my stitching projects into a large baggie so that I have everything at hand when I need it
• Make up a folder for Dance of the Graces
• Buy more stitchbow sleeves and binders to put them in
• Stitchbowify remaining DMC for master set
• Sort out fibres for Peaceful Paradise
• Pull the DMC needed for Stretch that aren't currently in with him from spares
• Go through TGOSMs that I haven't listed in my 'to stitch' list
• Decide on a to stitch list from the JCS Ornie issue
• Stitch an hour a day on whatever my rotation piece is at least
• Wash red dress and skirt fabric
• Order Orthodoxy books
• Clean off my dresser to make it a proper icon corner
• Get copies of the morning and evening prayers printed out
• Cut Bindi's dress
• Cut my skirt
• Find a crochet hook and learn the provisional cast-on to start dalek
• Knit dalek #1
• Get a small art notebook and start sketching Amanda clothes
• Finish row #9 of A Restful Night
  

How's that look?

More *bounce*

Hoo boy, I am hyper.

The reasons for this:

• I have a great pattern for 18" (ie American Girl) dolls which has basic patterns for a long sleeved shirt, a dress, a pinafore (jumper) dress, leggings, pants, a jacket, a sweatshirt and a beautiful coat. Oh and some boots. This will be used as a foundation for a wardrobe for Amanda, modifying each of the patterns to make 'real' clothes. $15 for all that's not bad!
• I have fabric for Bindi's dress - red, the same as godsister-creature's
• I have more of that fabric for a semi-circle skirt for me
• I have another 1x1.45m piece that got cut by mistake to turn into something
• I will be washing red fabric tomorrow to get the excess dye out
• I have gold yarn (sparkly!) and black for daleks, and a grey blue for the 'eyes', and a new pair of circular needles and some straight ones.
• I ate way more sushi than is good for me for lunch
• I found more of the scarves like my wine red one for sale (best head-wrap scarf ever) and bought a cream and a chocolate brown one
• Bindi got her Molly out and we had fun re-dressing her and I fixed (hooray for leave in conditioner spray) and braided her hair, and decided that she desperately needs a new sweater - hers got left in the sun and is all faded but we can get a replacement part
• We spent the evening at Nikki's before fellowship and it was fun
• Fellowship was wonderful, on Spiritual Guidance, and then we got talking after
• I have a blessed cross necklace and an icon of Christ now thanks to a beautiful lady named Thainii (that's what it sounds like, probably not how it's spelled)
• I get (God-willing) to go to Vespers Saturday night.
• I get to go to St Nectarios this weekend, God-willing
• Father has promised to lend me books after church

ummm...I think that's it.

I generally feel very high on sugar. I'm pleased, and very happy.

I am going to go crash now, I think!

Hmm

I feel...down, for the first time in a while. Finally everything hit me at once and I'm back to reality. Was nice to be high while it lasted.

Today has just been...ugh. I got up and was that kind of hyper-happy where you have too much energy but no motivation to do anything. So I stayed in bed and wandered around the internet, and then got up when my uncle got here to talk to him.

Mum went up to school (it's the school holidays here) to take some *cough*two large bags and more full*cough* books back to the school library, and I took Amanda and borrowed the printer. I now have copies of the charts for the motif that I messed up on Tranquility (yay!) and all of the chart for Dance of the Graces, albeit in black and white. I am pleased. I also got a neat joke called "The Lesson" which is borrowing from the Beautitudes which I am going to show Father tomorrow night, hopefully he'll like it. The librarian and the receptionist both liked Amanda, and I sat her on the library desk and sat down to read so the librarian gave her a book to read, opened it, and positioned her so she could read. Aww, bless :) Neither of them found it weird that a 19 year old girl would be playing with dolls, and they liked Amanda a lot.

I got the second Keladry book in Tamora Pierce's Tortall series' out as well, they didn't have the third (sniff, but I'll get it eventually and I own the fourth) and the four books in the first Emelan quartet. Yay books! Good easy to read ones too.

We came home and ate lunch which for me was peanut butter and honey sandwiches which were very good, and then went to pick up Bindi from the uni library where she's studying for her exams. We meant to go to spotlight and get fabric and yarn, but on the way there I got agonising cramps...and two neurofen plus and an hour later they hadn't eased. So Mum bought an iron instead (we really needed a new one, ours is EVIL and burns stuff/doesn't work at all) and we went home. We're trying again tomorrow.

I had a cup of raspberry leaf tea and it helped.

And Troy got mad, taking out on me the anger from a friend making him very very very angry last night. I didn't know this at the time...much chaos ensued. I know he's not mad at me but I'm still kind of emotionally blergh because of that. And then I went to this reenactment group tonight which was fun, but none of the people who would be friendly with me interest wise were there, just the fighting people (and Troy ran around hitting people with sticks - sorry, staffs, wooden swords and spears, and had a great time) but it was a long slow thing for me.

So now I'm just...flat. I've got about 150 stitches done today, all mushroom, and it looks wonderful, but I wish I could get out of this funk.

And I'm hungry and it's late.

Yuck.

Return of the Fairy

It's only been a month since my last photo of this...sigh.

Anyway, here is my beautiful little girl and her mushroomy friends.


80 rows, so 12,000 stitches. Aren't those mushrooms wonderfully radioactive looking?

Lists

I've got to the point where I have a lot of time, and energy to do things with that time, so I waste it. Not useful. So I thought I'd start doing what I did at work - making a list, and then rolling over the undone things to the next day along with anything new that comes up.

Today has been slow. I spent some time cleaning, and a lot of time sorting my spare DMC into little baggies - it's all done now, yay! Now just to get some more stitchbow sleeves and binders for my master set and I'll be set... I also found a binder with the plastic sleeve kind of cover, so I might have to get a printout of Dance of the Graces (the artwork) and slip it in the front to use that when I get my floss for it.

It's Dad's birthday today, so we're having dinner, and mum spent the day cleaning. It's a bit weird being able to see our floor! All the random chaos from my dressmaking is sorted now too, or for the most part anyway, and the spare pieces of fabric have been cut into useful pieces with all the rest thrown away, and then they were folded and stacked.

Felicity is now dressed for spring in the rose gown too, and perched on top of our piano. Her bed is currently in our living room against the wall near the piano, and people have been commenting on her (I'd just put her to bed and left her be) so I thought well, I'd make her bed and dress her up to put her on display. Amanda (modern doll) is on a stand on my sewing cabinet in her purple dress.

So, lists. Tomorrow I am hopefully going to Spotlight to buy fabric for sister-creature's medieval gown, and wool/cotton for daleks, and I plan to pick up a pattern for some 18" doll clothes to make both for Amanda and my old faithful teddbear from when I was a kid's dress is disintegrating so she can have a new one too. I have lots of spare fabric from the green dresses, and it's a lovely small design so it will suit Amanda beautifully.

So the current to do list is as follows:

• Continue going through magazines to find the recipes I've made and liked and copy them into my recipe notebooks, and copy out every lenten-friendly one that looks nice that I can find into that notebook for Mum's sake every Wednesday and Friday so that she doesn't have to keep feeding us vegetarian fried rice for lack of things to cook.
• Finish this row of A Restful Night
• Get wool/cotton for daleks
• Get parents to fix/buy a new printer
• Put the zip in and hem Bindi's green dress
• Regather and reattach skirt for my green dress, and hem it
• Clean my room
• Sort out school stuff with Hamilton
• Put each of my stitching projects into a large baggie so that I have everything at hand when I need it
• Make up a folder for Dance of the Graces
• Get Mum to print me out a colour copy of the front page, and black and white copies of the rest of the chart
• Buy more stitchbow sleeves and binders to put them in
• Stitchbowify remaining DMC for master set
• Sort out fibres for Peaceful Paradise
• Hassle Sew&So until I find out what happened to my order
• Pull the DMC needed for Stretch that aren't currently in with him from spares
• Go through TGOSMs that I haven't listed in my 'to stitch' list
• Decide on a to stitch list from the JCS Ornie issue
• Stitch an hour a day on whatever my rotation piece is at least

How's that? Nice list to work from...

Nudey fairy!

I'm almost finished 80 rows (8 rows by my usual count, I work in rows of blocks) of A Restful Night, and she's stunning. But she does look like shes posing for a nude photo, you can't tell that she's wearing any clothes. That will all get sorted out next row, but it's very amusing in the meantime! I have about 200 stitches left to go and I plan to have another stab at it before I go to bed but I doubt I'll get it finished tonight. In the morning.

I did stick to rotation - I worked on JOB all morning and I got the grass cross stitches done and a lot of the 'clouds' in the sky, and LOTS of the frame. Tedious, but progress. My problem is not with the design - it I love. I just hate the fabric, it doesn't want to fit in any of my frames. I tried a hoop before and it drove me nuts because of the rhodes stitches, but I've stopped adding them until I'm done and I've made significant progress since then, so maybe it's worth trying again. Or maybe I need to be more patient and get the fabric to sit right in the frame! It fits but I can never get the fabric 'straight' and it's so irritating...oh well. It's done for this week anyway unless I get the urge to work on it after half a day of my rotation piece, which is possible...not probably though. I can't wait for the next bits...on other pieces of fabric, better luck with them perhaps!

That's what I've decided, too. I'll work on my rotation piece for at least half a day, and then continue with it if I want to or switch to whatever's screaming, but I have to work on the rotation piece for at least that half day. That way I'll make progress but I won't be sitting fuming and not stitching because I want to stitch on whatever's screaming at me from the WIP basket.

I've somehow acquired lightning speed powers, too. I don't know how many stitches I've done today, but most of a page worth of this row! My goodness, I didn't realise just how slow I'd got while I was sick. I'm so enjoying my stitching again, and I've finished all of the fairy for this row too - and I'm not getting fed up with confetti stitched purple background this time...no, working on another fluro mushroom! This one looks slightly less glow in the dark. It's fun, and a nice change from all the blues, though I will be glad to be finished with the row. It's just so satisfying to finish a row, and it's been a while. If I keep this speed up and work on a row a week at least for the next while...I'll get her done soon. Only 14 rows to go, 3 and a half months if I only get one row a week done and I should get more than that. But we know how I am, very likely to get sidetracked.

I am very much enjoying her though.

Today has been very slow, very quiet. I got up late, and had an empty-ish house - my sister was home but holed up in her room and my parents were both out, and I just pottered around and stitched. I sorted my spare DMC and I now know which I have multiple spares of, and they're lying on the floor over near the tv. Our cats pretty much ignore thread and it's not in anyone's way so it should be there in the morning, and I'll put each of the colours I have multiples of in a baggie and then the others in baggies grouped by whatever 100 they're in. Sounds like a plan, and its better than them all shoved in a Michael's bag like they were! We watched Aus Idol tonight and they STILL haven't got rid of Carl which annoys me intensely though we did get to hear Jacob (who left) sing Let it Be again. Dad and I both like that song, which I find amusing given his comments about Mary worship and the Theotokos lately (long, frustrating story) so it was good to hear it again. He did it well, I think. And then we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was also on TV and my sister gave me heaps about how I'm going to have one. Oh no I'm not. Greek Orthodox yes. BFGW - no. It will be interesting, actually - usually they have weddings between Greeks or one Greek one something else. Not two something elses! We'll probably compromise somewhere along there. And we'll get Father to say the Liturgy in english if at all possible. He'd like the chance to do that, I think.

Oh I almost forgot. I also got a package from Needle Little Love - yay STASH! I got a beautiful chart, Peaceful Paradise by Midsummer Night Designs (which I love to bits) and the JCS Ornie issue (yay) and some needles. I like stash packages.

Unfortunately *dramatic sigh* I need to do another order now...she's got a special on fabric and it's the only way I'll be able to afford the Lakeside Linen to do Peaceful Paradise on!

...I could always order the floss I need too...

...uhoh...

someone hide my credit card? :)

*smiles*

I really can't think of anything else to title this.

Jeremy asked me in the car this morning on the way to Liturgy how I was. I responded "good" but Troy, not having heard me, said "hey, Jeremy asked you a question"
"She answered, but I was hoping for a more detailed answer!"
My response to that was to retort that it's easy when you're sick, you say how you're sick. When I'm not...well, I'm good!

I had an enjoyable day. Nikki had told me she was going to pick me up from Liturgy, but she ended up coming for half of Orthros (the service before the Divine Liturgy (think mass) itself that flows into it) and the Liturgy which was nice. We were at St Elias', and she usually attends St Nectarios' so it was good to have her come visit! We went back to her place for lunch and I measured up her nieces for baptismal gowns, Troy had fun with them in the backyard, and we went down to Fishermen's Wharf to the indoor markets to have a look around. Most enjoyable.

I got another chunk done on A Restful Night, too. I seem to have my pre-illness speed back, which is wonderful, and I've finished the first page's worth of this row plus about 100 stitches more. And maybe I'll get a few stitches done before I go to bed, too.

She looks somewhat like she's modeling for a nudie shoot as you can't see any of her low neckline or sleeves and an awful lot of bare shoulders, arms and chest! Very pretty.

So, a weekend over. Tomorrow JOB is up in the rotation, and Mum is hoping to get the house cleaned up. Goodness knows my room needs attacking, it's a disaster.

Also, I've got commissioned again. The baptismal gowns for Nikki's nieces (which she's paying me for) and another of the medieval dress for sister-creature, who is the same size so I can essentially make a carbon copy, yay. Hopefully this one will be quicker as I won't have to puzzle out the idiotic instructions!

Here is godsister-creature modelling hers (with a pinned hemline, I haven't seen it hemmed as she was taking it home to do herself)

from the front (she refused to smile:


and the back:


the photos are a bit washed out, go here to see a photo of the dress on a hanger and see the colour.

Sister-creature also wants one of these:

from here. And I want to knit one. So, a deal has been made.

Sounds like fun!

Progress

I finished the dress, and I have photos but the camera is dead so you'll have to wait, sorry.

I got a few more stitches into Dance of the Graces, but not many - I'm missing so many colours that I'm going to wait until I get the floss fairy package, and then get stuck back into it.

So instead, I bought lots of stitchbows and stitchbow-ified a lot more of my floss for the Master set - I'm into the 3000s now, working on the 37-- which is good, it means most of my set is in there now. Now I just need to give all the binders their own shelf on my bookshelf! I've been working on A Restful Night today instead of Dance of the Graces, and she's looking beautiful so I'm very pleased. I passed the 35% mark too, yay! It's all confetti at the moment which is frustrating but it will pass and it looks fantastic.

I took Stretch with me up to Troy's parents' place last night, and got LOTS done, so it's looking great. I got a significant amount done on the wings, and when I add in the colours I was missing it will really start to look like it's coming together.

It's been a good stitchy weekend so far :)

News

Fun news #1: the medieval dress is 90% done. FINALLY after a massive argument with the facing and the bias ribbon I've used for trim everywhere else that didn't want to go on the neck...I took it up to my new favourite habadashery shop and talked to the lady there who's a professional seamstress. We finally decided that taking the facing off (which was PAINFUL - there was two lots of top stitching to hold the bias ribbon on, stitched through the facing, the front, the seams joining the front panels, the seam allowances...etc + the seam itself + the understitching for the facing and seam allowance) and simply binding the neck with bias ribbon after strengthening it with vilene tape was a better idea. So I got some ribbon that was twice as wide, and did so - it looks beautiful now, and it has one sleeve mostly in - I messed up part of it so I'm going to resew the unpicked bit in the morning, and then set sleeve number 2 in and hem it. Then it's done!

And it fits a human being - I stole my sister for a mannequin as she is the same size as my godsister, and it looks good :) I am pleased.

Exciting news #2: as far as we can tell, as of Monday (yes, sudden) I don't have chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia anymore. I can think, I can walk, I can RUN, and I am eating everything in sight. And waking up at a normal hour. And I think I could probably cope with a proper rotation again now...so I will have to think one up.

I was weak, I started Dance of the Graces. And noone is surprised, right? Our printer is on the blink so I just printed out the first six pages (the top row) at the library ($1.50, ouch) and I'm using my computer for the colour key. I'm missing most of the colours for the background though, as far as I can tell, so I'm adding bits and pieces but I won't start it *properly* in my usual obsessive way until I get the floss fairy parcel :) It does looks beautiful though, what I have in already.

So, a rotation:
here are my projects.

• Dance of the Graces
• QS A Restful Night (I want this as a focus, and it's part of a SAL on Wed)
• Historic Countries mystery (I want to keep up with this)
• Mystery X
  
• Tranquility Mystery Sampler
• Japanese Octagon Box (SAL on Mondays)
• White Musings (this needs finishing)
• Noon Basking
  

If there are more I'll add them later. I'm thinking I'll work on a daily rotation - I don't mind the idea now, I spend so much time stitching. So:

Sunday: free choice, if I get the chance to work on anything at all
Monday: JOB, at least for half a day, free choice for the other half
Tuesday: Historic Countries sampler
Wednesday: QS A Restful Night
Thursday: Historic Countries sampler
Friday: Mystery X (I miss it)
Saturday: rotate from the following list, each saturday-

• White Musings
• Noon Basking
  
• Dance of the Graces
• Tranquility Mystery Sampler
  

How does that look? I won't start tomorrow, as I'm going up to Troy's place to stay the night and spend time with his folks, and I won't get home until Saturday afternoon. But next week perhaps :) I need to get disciplined and actually work on my SAL pieces!

It's very windy today

But a beautiful sunny day, even though it's overcast.

I have exciting news, but I can share it yet.

I got a parcel today! It's the fabric I ordered from Passione Ricamo for Dance of the Graces. What's everyone's bet one whether I can hold out until my floss fairy's parcel gets here? I have all the floss already....*giggle*

If I *do* start it though, I need to get up to the library with a USB so that I can print the chart as our printer is currently on the blink/out of ink/both. I can't wait, its such a beautiful chart with very soothing colours.

I miss A Restful Night, too.

I'm still working away at this Historic Countries sampler. Hopefully I'll get part 1 done very soon, so I can get into part 2 (specialty stitches rather than big motifs, YAY!) but I miss all my other pieces. I wish I stitched faster. Maybe if I spent less time on the internet I'd get more done!

I've found myself wanting to work on all my other WIPs again recently - a LOT. So I will probably break my resolve and work on something else before I get these finished, but I don't think it will matter too much. I'm somewhat sick of all this massive motif stitching, but that's okay. It will get done. It will.

Loukoumades!

Mmmmmm food.

I went to an outdoor Liturgy and picnic with one of the churches today - my goodness, I can't move now. So full. And very tired as well.

We let at 7:45, ugh. Jeremy turned up - with Fr. Silouan! Was surprising, but not that surprising I suppose - it's a long way to go and carpooling makes sense. It was Father's car, and it stalled a few times on the way but it got us there :) We got there at 8:30...we forgot. 8:30 Greek time, meaning 9am normal time!

We stood (and then sat when Jeremy figured I would be stubborn and not sit down until everyone did) and talked to Frs Silouan and Kon, and then Jeremy joined the choir and I sat down in the congregation. It was...Liturgy. :) Divine Liturgy is always wonderful, and this one was all in Greek - I figured out how much I've learned in recent weeks, languagewise and in familiarity with the Liturgy itself. I could mostly figure out where I was, and a lot of the hymns are getting familiar now.

A little old lady mistook me for a kid and tried to push me up to take communion - finally after much protesting and wishing I spoke Greek to explain why I couldn't take communion to the lady who was chattering excitedly in Greek at me, she went away.

Ena, duo, tria, tesera, pente, exi, efta, okto, ennia, deka. I can count to ten in Greek now, when I can remember what the word for nine. I was counting loukoumades, the little old ladies selling them when Fr and I went up to get a couple plates worth smiled at me. It was fun.

I really, really need to learn Greek. Maybe I should do something serious about that?

I spent the afternoon playing backgammon with a new friend, Despina, and her family of 8 kids and two parents, who taught me how to play (and I promptly beat, then lost, then beat, then lost - and both wins were flukes) and messing around with everyone, and talking.

I think I had a smile or a grin on my face the whole time I was there.

On the way home we had a chat in the car, and now I'm just so, so tired.

I can say a few phrases now, and I'm starting to learn to understand the rambling Greek :)

*dies happy and full of loukoumades and souvlaki*