Trying to take my own advice

I stitched this afternoon but two of the family are coming down with something like the flu that comes with aches - and I think I might have it too. It's always hard to tell since I feel like I have the flu permanently but my hands don't usually ache this much for no reason. I finally took a couple painkillers tonight with dinner but I think they're wearing off.

When in frustration with the universe (and my brain not working - my eyes aren't focussing properly and I'm finding it hard to think) I gave up working on froggy today here is where I got to:


Two complete eyes now, roughly 20150 stitches. Not a bad stint, not as good as last week but then my eyes were focussing and my hands weren't killing me last week! I was sick, just differently. I watched tv without anything in my hands except Koukla for a couple hours (a few of you will probably die of shock at hearing that), enjoying a This is Your Life about Shannon Noll, Spics&Specs (a sort of musical game show half comedy show that is really hard to explain), bits and pieces of US So You Think You Can Dance and the Gruen Transfer, which I love. Finally, I settled down on the couch again, picking up Mystery X. I've got a length and a half of thread in but I'm just struggling with my hands not wanting to work so I've given up for the night.

I cooked dinner tonight - I often do on Wednesday or Friday since I'm the weirdo that eats vegan twice a week (and for an entire fortnight, come this Friday, hooray for the Dormition Fast!) but I was not in the mood for anything fancy. Instead of buying normal magazines I buy recipe magazines, and not the fancy ones - the excellent budget yummy ones. I get sooo many recipes from there, and it saves me from meat&three veg every night (which, incidentally, I hate if it's done the traditional way, bland and boring. My parents disagree) because Mum likes them too. So, with 'not fancy' in mind, I pulled this chilli recipe out of July's Recipes+ magazine.

Chilli Beans with Wedges
Serves 4, prep 10minutes cook20minutes
900g frozen potato wedges (we did not eat anywhere near the whole packet and we used 750g! Also, we did tater-tots or their equivalent for my coeliac sister who can't eat wedges, and I prefer them)
1tbs olive oil (Don't bother measuring. Just plonk a bunch in, enough to fry an onion)
1 brown onion, chopped
400g can red kidney beans, rinsed
400g can borlotti beans, rinsed
425g can sweet corn kernels, drained
375g jar enchilada sauce (or chunky salsa if you are like me and can't find enchilada sauce!)
1 avocado, diced (in season here at the moment, YUM)
1/2 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
light sour cream, to serve (or use hummous if you are being vegan)

1. Put the wedges/tater tots in to cook. The magazines had instructions but they're on the packet anyway.
2. While that's cooking, heat oil in a large saucepan over moderate heat. Cook and stir onion for five minutes or until soft. Add beans (BOTH CANS, I forgot one and had to add it and reheat), corn and sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.
3. Spoon chilli into serving bowls. Top with avocado, coriander and a dollop of sour cream/hummous. Serve with whatever potato you cooked.

This is incrediby easy, quick, and really really yummy. My sister likes it, and she hates basically anything vegan I cook, though it doesn't help that I like spicy curries and she is of the view that food should not make you cry. It's also good cold as leftovers, if you have any left! I am so going to make this again, possibly in the next week or so given I'll be cooking up all my easy vegan recipes again - for 1, generally, since my family is not Orthodox and they cope with being vegan twice a week but more than that is kinda pushing it. This is quicker than almost anything else I have cooked that fits the rules for nestia, the fasts. It does have oil in it, which breaks the rules for people who keep the fasts strictly but my priest would have my head if I tried to do that...

As to the post title? I kinda...decided that I'd do something about the well known fact that everyone comes to me for advice but I can't take it myself. So I dug out the box of index cards that I use for everything from memorising Greek or Arabic vocab to test preparation to writing out prayers and Bible verses to read or memorise or both. And blu-tak (stuff you stick posters up with ) And coloured markers. And attacked the wall next to my bed :)



The top three cards are a summary of Orthodoxy quoted by Fr Thomas Hopko, I can't remember who he was quoting though. "Go to Church. Say your prayers. Remember God." I have yet to find better *grins* The others are all common sense stuff:

"Do an hour's schoolwork every day as well as lessons. Saves stress later!"

"Say morning and evening prayers regardless of the time of day" - I have a tendency to wake up at 3 and feel ridiculous saying morning prayers, especially the ones that say that say greeting the dawn etc

"Go to bed before midnight. The internet will not explode without you!"

"Get up in the morning. The sooner you're up, the better you'll feel

"Take your meds. Forgetting just makes you feel worse" (marginally, my meds make me feel sick too!)

"If you feel tired at night, sleep. Don't you think your body knows what you need?"

The final few cards are one with my schedule of medications, and two that have the prayer for an ill person (or one of them) on them. It's readable from my bed, but not really in the photo unless you go to the full size view.

I have a confession to make though - my bed doesn't usually get made (getting out of it is usually effort enough) but I wasn't going to take a photo without it made, so it got made....and i'll be in bed sleeping soon enough!

Anyway, enough. I'll ramble if I'm not careful!

Up again, sort of

Thankyou Gayle and Rosko/Harry, very much. By the prayers of the Saints...

Today is a little easier, mostly because someone who probably doesn't want me to name him here smacked some sense into me. Thankyou, S. Again I'm listening to Jars of Clay, and listening to this bit in "Oh My God" made me laugh, its me.

Sometimes I can not forgive, and these days mercy cuts so deep,
If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep.
While I lay, I'd dream we're better, scales were gone and faces lighter,
When we wake we hate our brother, we still move to hurt each other,
Sometimes I can close my eyes and all the fear that keeps me silent,
Falls below my heavy breathing, what makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder, we all have the need for wonder.
We still want to be reminded that the pain is worth the plunder.

Amen. I finally got to sleep around 4am last night, after chatting to the aforementioned friend and realising a few home truths, none of which were nice but all were true. And we fall down, and we get back up again. I have that quote by St John Climacus on the whiteboard that our former tenants put on the pantry/larder (you can walk in, it's awesome!) door -

"Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honour your patience."

I was driving with my dad in the country today, we have a place we like to go and eat at when he's home during the day, and we tend to chat along the way. I mentioned that last night's study had been on the Sermon on the Mount, holiness, fools for Christ and relics. Dad asked me if the Orthodox take was that the SotM was hyperbole, or what? I said it's a beautiful thing to strive to attain to. Just most of us fail. But that doesn't make it hyperbole, because there are people who live it. He commented that it sounded like an 'impossible possibility' (which is a good thing in my dad's language) and asked if it was connected with the above quote. Which totally made my day, because it's been there for months and noone's commented on it except my sister to say that I wrote weird things everywhere. I love that quote, its actually part of a longer section but there's only so much you can fit on a whiteboard! It's also my signature on one of my internet forums. I was told a while ago that I wasn't allowed to argue theology with my dad, so I keep things general. To not talk about what we studied in some way would be totally unnatural, so I just say things and avoid arguments, biting my tongue which is harder than words can say sometimes. And do stuff like writing quotes on the whiteboard, and showing the icons I plan to buy, and stuff.

Last night was fun, even though I ended up in a black mood when I got home. We had a bit of a chatter through it all, and when talking about fools for Christ (Saints who did crazy seeming things to cover their holiness, or to make a point, or both - its a calling, and RARE) Father informed us that we weren't allowed to go home and decide to be fools for Christ in the morning and throw rocks at the bishop. Someone was heard to murmer 'but that would be fun!' which produced giggles from the surrounding people at that section of the table. I love the stories of fools for Christ, and my sister's favourite Saint was/is one, St Maximos the Hut Burner. You can always tell when I've been sick for days, I make an effort when I get dressed to go somewhere. See?



You can't see in the photo, but I had my wonderful black beat up doc martens on, which I discovered are wonderful Church shoes because they support my ankles which makes it easier to stand. Who knew? I got home, took my coat off, and my sister (who despairs of my lack of fashion sense) squealed 'you are so CUTE! I want to keep you!' hence the photos got taken. Church clothes - please note I am wearing a *skirt* over my jeans (ok a dress) - my friend did the same last night as it was cold and we couldn't be bothered wearing a normal skirt and freezing our legs. I'm wearing a hat too - for one thing I need it in this weather for two it works instead of a scarf and is less dorky. Much as I like scarves...

I woke up a bit after 10 today after dozing for a couple hours - someone fed kitten red bull again or something and she decided to come bouncing in, bounce-thud on my legs, back and head then run away again, before repeating the process a few times. I think this is Koukla-speak for WAKE UP SILLY! I duly ignored her. I had to get up though, because my lesson yesterday had to be rescheduled. I got a 1:1 lesson with my teacher which was good - apparently I am more caught up than most of my class with the course work (YES!!) and my Mum is now allowed to supervise my timed essays and tests which she wasn't before (no immediate family) which makes life a lot easier since whenever I had to sit a test before I had to go to school with her which really knocked me around. And I might get to drop one or two of the outstanding timed essays and maybe one of the untimed, which would make life a LOT easier...we'll see. Now to get caught up with my studies of societies and all will be well :)

Lesson over, Dad and I drove out to get lunch, and sat in a park nearby to eat it, which was lovely, and then drove back to go down and pick up my sister to take her to the airport. Got there, all well...and she realised that her luggage was in the car my mum had taken to work. 40 minutes from where we were. ACK! Dad took the wheel then, and a few frantic phone calls later we got to where she works, grabbed the luggage, and drove as fast as legally possible to the airport. We made it in time, thankfully, saw her off (she's visiting a friend in Melbourne for the friend's 18th birthday and coming home Sunday), and drove home. The vigil is on tonight, but logistically it was just going to be bad, and I'm tired, and sick. Eventually I told Jeremy I'd stay home tonight and rest since we have the dance tomorrow night! So I get a quiet night in, which is fine.

I forgot to post this the other day - on the Stitch&Stash forum they run a 'UFO night' where you designate a piece fitting that description and work on it every Tuesday night (or whenever). Mine ended up being Wednesday, because I was a zombie Tuesday, and I got a lot done - here is QS A Restful Night after my work that day:


Froggy is appearing! I'd put this down in disgust in about April, because I'd gone cross country and my tension was a little off. I wasn't sure if I'd have to frog, so I figured better to put it down before I threatened to cut it up! So I picked it up, ironed it (it needed it) and put it on my tightest q-snaps, and it's being quite happy now. I'm working roughly the way I used to (before I deviated into cross country) but much faster - apparently I've got quicker, which is nice! 600+ stitches the other day, woohoo! She's still on the frame, I'd like to finish off this row before I put her down and go back to St Nicholas. Or else I'll just work on her until I get sick of her, which is what often happens with me and projects - I can't rotate on a system to save my life. If I pick up a project, it gets worked on for the forseeable future.

So now I am tired, and thinking of throwing some pasta in a pot and heating up a jar of mushroom and tomato pasta sauce for dinner. Mushroom+tomato pasta sauce is yummmy, one of my favourite Friday foods.

Glory to God for all things!

FROG!

Hello everyone.

Well, life has followed the usual Tumby pattern. Mostly I've slept in in the morning (but not as much as at home), had more cups of tea than I'd have in a week each day, had lots of quiet time and done a lot of stitching. Peaceful Paradise is growing rapidly and looks stunning, and is so much fun to stitch. I never realised that these kinds of pieces could be so fun! I'm loving stitching 1x2 on 40ct too, I hope I can find another piece to do this with.

I have a picture of PP but it is on the camera, and it's from Thursday night as the Sampler Challenge SAL started this weekend on the HAED BB. But, I will show the photo of my progress soon enough. I'll be back home soon! Fast internet, and my camera, and...yay. I've found myself mostly stitching right-way-up when I'm out of the house and leaning the frame on a table or something, and stitching upside-down when I'm at the house with my stand, as I'm working on the very top and this involves less reaching, much to the amusement of my family. Turning it right way up to take it out is always great, I get this lovely surprise of how it looks. The first two lines of text in Psalm 23 are basically done, the sun has most of one colour (of two) done, and i've been filling in lots of sky...oh and border, but border is boring. Evil border of DOOM.

Anyway, I have a photo of my fairykin and her frog, so here you are - this is taken just after the Challenge SAL (again on the HAED BB) and it is after 11 rows (16,500 stitches). Fairy is basically done, and froggy's eye GLOWS.



So, I'll end this - there's nothing much else to say, except that we went to Pt Lincoln (the closest thing to a large town that there is over here) shopping yesterday, for practical things (like my nana's carpet) but I also bought two new pairs of pyjamas, as I have killed my summer pairs, and Target not only had them cheap because of end of season, but they had a big sale on . Yay!
I think the two pairs cost about $20-$30 total, and they're really nice. We grabbed two pairs of the cheapest kind for my sister, too, because they're not bad-cheap and very cute, and she kill pyjamas even more than I do (lifespan is about six months, tops) and they were $4 a set. YAY!

Oh and I got new bathers (cossie, bathing suits, swimming trunks...) today - a black tankini with green design on it. Very cool.

A Restful Night, two pages done

I realise that I've been neglecting this blog. I guess it's been more that nothing really of interest has been happening, or that which is interesting is all Church related and most people come here for stitching and life trivia, not theology. And with the Church...theology is in everything. I'll put a link to my Orthodoxy blog in my sidebar, in case someone wants to read it. I don't just write theology, I write life-stuff there too, but most of life-stuff that isn't stitching ties in with the Church!

Here's my darling little fairykins though, and the beginning of a frog, at 15,000 stitches, and two pages done (of six, but two are partial):


She's lovely, and it's so much fun to stitch her. Amazingly, I'm almost done with her altogether! From now on it's mostly frog. Which will be nice, I love the froggy and it will be good to see her watching me, but it's kind of sad too. It's been fun working on her.

I have the dilemma of whether to switch off and work on something else, but I'm still wanting to work on her so I think I will, for the time being. Until I get sick of her and run off to work on Dance of the Graces or something :)

Row Nine

...is done! My fairy no longer looks quite so...nude, and I'm getting so close to starting the froggy. I can't wait!
Here she is:

13,500 stitches done so far. The next row of blocks goes over the page, so when I get it done I can say that I've got 2 pages done (and met my half-yearly goal, woohoo) which will be good, to say the least. Not working on it now though, Dance of the Graces is calling my name instead. So Im off to immerse myself in yummy browns.

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?

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 :)