Breaking point

I should be asleep, it's mid-morning o'clock, but I've got to vent.

I'm just so sick of being sick. It sounds silly but its the only thing I can say, honestly. I wake up mid-afternoon, stay bleary eyed and flopped for a couple hours while I catch up on email, blogs and forums, play a little KoL (kingdom of loathing - I have just discovered it and it is the wonderful anti-drug for a bedridden sick kyrie), turn on KoL radio and maybe decide on what I'll stitch for the day. about five-ish i usually start stitching on whatever it is, and hang around on the net talking to people occasionally, with breaks in between to nap or just rest my eyes, take panamax every so often and eat dinner whenever its served, often in bed. Dishes put on the floor to be carried out by someone else or me next time I go out there (extra trips arent worth the fatigue) I go back to my stitching or crash on the net for a while longer, until late when I finally go to sleep because I've exhausted myself and the exhaustion wins over my anxiety about what the hell I have because noone knows and then repeat process again.

I should read more psalms, the angry ones where the psalmist bitches to God about how his life sucks, but still acknowledges the good in the universe and life. Im just so frustrated.

The girls are good though - I put Jez or Fia on my bed and they run around exploring or snuggling, and sometimes I get Champers out if I have a bit more energy - shes nuts and takes lots of keeping an eye on! Fun though. Rats are good bed-pets, they're small and dont take up much space but have big personalities and are very snuggly. Its fun being able to watch them from my bed too because theyre most active at dawn and dusk and while I don't get to see them at dawn (unless my insomnia is REALLY bad) I get to see them being adorable at dusk. Troy and I gave them lots of tissue paper that was left over from a gift I got a while ago, and they've been happily rearranging it the last few days and moving their nest around.

I guess the hardest thing is having to accept my futility at this point in time - I am so weak that five minutes out of the house is long enough for me to be dizzy and disoriented or falling asleep (or all of the above!) and basically all activities are confined to my bed and I don't like it. Im so used to being a busybody that cant stand not to be doing anything and here I am so weak that theres only a few hours a day that I can do anything. Im having to accept my invalid status and some days i can do that, some days I can't. Today has been a 'can't' day, and I've stopped feeling guilty for that too. As long as I'm not wallowing, ups and downs are natural and I wouldnt be human if this never bothered me - Id be Cousin Helen out of the Katy books (what katy did, et al) though at least she had her human side too. I think I need to reread the Katy books too! I identify a lot more with Katy than with Helen, I have to admit. I'm not a patient invalid, I want to be up and doing things and achieving things and here I have to achieve things slowly, bit by little bit. I get things done on my stitching pieces, and feel the sense of achievement and that helps, but I wish there was more...oh well.

I also hate how hard this is on Troy. He wants to look after me but this is the busiest part of his semester and everything's due so he has to do his work and it kills him not to be able to be looking after me. I hate it too, I wish that he didnt feel this way, or more honestly, that the deadlines weren't all now so he could look after me the way he wants to. Hes done it before and he's an excellent carer, the perfect amount of sensitivity and drill camp sargeant when I need it. He just takes things in his stride, at least outwardly, and its wonderful the way he seems so nonplussed in the moment when everything seems to be falling apart for me. Later he can be human and it can be my turn to hug him, but he looks after me so well. If this ends up being a permanent thing, as is my paranoia...he is so getting a carer's recognition as soon as we find that out, because he deserves to be recognised for what he does.

On a completely different note, I've spent tonight with hundreds of skeins of floss over my bed sorting them so that I get a master set of DMC from all the smaller projects I've had kitted up - I've bought skeins of floss for every colour of a lot of charts, and I can't start them all now and I've never had issues with DMC dye lots. So Ive dumped them all in together, but its a case of sorting them and stitchbow-ing them and putting them in binders. Good fun though, and a good in-bed project because ive got plenty of blank space to use on my bedspread. All those pretty colours :) stash fondling is nice. I ran out of stitchbows and sheets, so Hannah is going to buy me some more tomorrow, but I still made a good amount of progress I think. I've been taking the colours out that I need for this 10 rows across both pages of A Restful Night though, because I'm going to stick to one HAED for the time being unless I get lots of energy to work on the big ones, and I'm going to use the method I used when I was sick last year on hope where I work across the 10 rows, parking, allowing myself to stitch any stitch that was below a completed stitch and also right of one. So sort of working down and across at the same time. Its a wonderful way to deal with confetti, and also very methodical which means it's not at all taxing on my brain which isnt working the greatest at the moment. I pull the colours for the current set of 10 rows at the beginning of each, so that I dont have too many colours to sort though, and it is kind of like weaving. I enjoy it, anyway. Will be nice to see the froggy come alive, I'm a much faster stitcher now than I was then! Especially as I'm stitching on 32ct jobelan which I love as opposed to 25ct linen which I hate...lol...when I've knocked off my current WIP QSs and Red Witch, at least, I might give hope another go on the 32ct linen. We'll see. The blues in A Restful Night are also very calming - blue is my hope colour, and my calming colour, so I like working with it. And wearing it, and....*giggles* I actually don't have that much blue clothing though, I wear a lot of browns, reds, creams and pinks instead. Never green except for school (I look atrocious in most shades of it) and not yellow either unless its pale, but all of those colours lots and lots. Especially wine reds...yum.

And to finish off - a couple cats. Because everyone needs more kitty cuteness in their life.

this one is so completely me at the moment...

aaaand this is me now. Goodnight.

Cuttting down what I'm working on

The collected household are went out for a few minutes to get Subway for dinner, since I had massive bread cravings and Hannah couldn't be bothered cooking since she did roast for lunch. I just got roast vegies because I couldn't cope with meat, and I ate mine in bed. It was nice, but I couldnt eat the last potato and Champers got it instead, then ran around the cage squeaking to defend it from Jez and Sof the scavengers. It was cute.

Its one of the nice things about having my bed down here, I get to watch the girls run around the cage from the comfort of my bed.

I've got a few stitches into Tranquility, mostly red but I worked some more on the purple that runs along the bottom of the last three pages of the row. I'm getting very close to getting this motif half done, and I cant wait! I think though, when I get this section done I'll go back up the top to make it go all the way across the motif widthwise, so I can start the motif on the last page and break up the monotony. Its got two colours in it, yay! Blue and MORE of this red.

I'm getting my threads sorted slowly so that I can set up my master set of DMC, and pinching the threads for my current section on A Restful Night while I'm at it. I've come to the conclusion that I need to limit my WIPs rather drastically, and work on cutting them down. So here we are: I am not allowed any new starts unless I run out of the things I have that fit a specific category as follows:

Magazine/freebie: TGOSM White Musings Sampler
HAED QS: A Restful Night
HAED: Froggy Frog World
BAP: Mystery X
SAL: JOB
Monochromatic/motif/sampler: Tranquility

other wips by category:
m/f: Bs present, Ms present, biscornu for Yr, cake for Nana
HAED QS: Periwinkle Fae
HAED: From the Ashes, Hope
BAP: not going to be an issue for the rest of the year, but I guess Noon Basking fits here, and I should combine the HAED/BAP category for all intents and purposes as soon as Im up to date with MX if it ever happens this year
SAL: no idea, will deal with this if it comes up
Monochromatic/motif/sampler: I don't actually have anything started for this, but keeping a sampler in my rotation sounds like a very good idea.

stash:
m/f: too many things
HAED QS: red witch, cat nap fae
HAED/BAP: Convents Herbal Garden, A Most Noble Pursuit, Truth, Temptation, Autumn, Wish
SAL: as above
Monochromatic/motif/sampler: not in stash but want - blackstone fantasy garden and cirque des cercles, A most noble pursuit fits here too I suppose.

So if I stitch on whatever I feel like on a non-SAL day, which is what Ive been doing, and celebrate my achievements while setting reasonable goals, I should get there. Eventually I want to get down to only m/f, HAED QS, HAED/BAP and monochromatic. Four projects at once sounds a lot more reasonable, and m/f isnt necessarily a guarenteed.

Invalid kyrie

My lowery stand is now under my bed. My 2ft from the floor bed, as compared to six, thankyou Troy's dad.

And I feel sick again. This is not abnormal though, so I'll just ignore it.

I'm starting to accept that I'm an invalid, and just stay in bed. I doze a lot - not actually asleep, but head on the pillow and eyes shut for ages. Mostly thinking. Its hard to sleep during the day, but my brain likes having the chance to think.

Goals at the moment arent anything so lofty as keeping up with my mysteries, or finishing a chart. Goals right now are things like getting out of bed more than once during the day, doing something that requires standing up or walking rather than lying or sitting in bed, having a shower, sitting in the bathtub in old clothes while Troy washes my hair with the shower head attachment. I cant wash my hair because it makes my arms ache to have them in that position, and my hair gets really gross. I am so glad that I got my hair cut, at least its easy to manage at the moment.

I started the White Musings sampler from TGOSM last night/yesterday (I get times of day mixed up) and that was fun. I now have three rows of specialty stitches done, and it looks good. Having my lowery stand here is really a blessing, I can lie here but do something productive too, and I can just swing it to the side and go to sleep if I need it. I think I need some cute magnets for my chart holder though, the black ones are hardly nice *winks*

My room looking nice matters to me a lot at the moment, since its mostly the scenery I see during the day. The chest of drawers that serves as a nightstand for me has been rearranged, and the end part that I can get to (its quite wide) has had picture frames and my lamp arranged to section it off. Ive put things that I see as pretty or necessary there in front of it, and its fairly simple. Clutter or too many things bothers me at the moment, so I'm going to have to cut my WIP list down too I think soon. OAAT or two at most (gives me a choice) is probably the way I'm going to go, though still keeping up with SALs. All my stitching things are in a basket or my trusty carpetbag under my bed, except for my current stitching (at the moment, white musings) which is in a drawer at easy reach. My couch is currently not in my room because we had to move it to bring my bed down, but I might slowly but surely de-clutter the side of my room that has been taken over by the results of our moving things to put in bed (ten minutes a day maybe?) until I can move my desk out of my room (I can't use it at the moment anyway) and put my couch back there. I have huge floor to ceiling windows there, and either I'll move everything out so I can see straight out the window, or I'll put my couch there so I can sit in the sun and read or stitch. We have a lovely view over the valley here, so it might yet be the first option.

The photo in the frame is of me and Troy at my formal a couple years ago, the half body shot of me (waist up) and the photo of the two of us together from about the hips up. Both professional shots, and its a two photo frame and looks good.

Troy is being an angel in human form at the moment, looking after me beautifully. He has an assignment due Monday, but I think I will write a letter explaining my situation and he can get an extension for it. Even if he wasnt looking after me the way he is, hes still so stressed about it all that its getting in the way of his work. It will all be done, and he is continuing to work, but he cant do what he wants to, and needs to.

I watched scrubs this morning on Troy's laptop, he brought up the episode where its a musical. It was fun, I hadnt seen that one. I like scrubs.

Its funny what is important at the moment, and what my goals are. I dont plan for the future anymore, finally I am learning to take life day by day. Accepting what God gives me and letting life happen. I cant change my sickness, no matter what i do, so I accept it and do what I can.

I overdid it a bit yesterday I think, but it was fun. Troy and his dad took down my bed after relocating me to Troy's bed, and then Troy put me back into my new (old) bed after we remade it with my favourite green sheets. It had had icky whites on it, and things like colours mean a lot to me for some reason. We went up to Ed Harry's and bought Troy winter clothes given that he had no casual ones (all his old ones were bought by his mother on sale and for the most part XL or L at the smallest - troy is S to M, usually M...lol) and Ed Harry's is great. Cheap, and they have everything. He got a couple striped long sleeved tshirts that look great on him, kind of a navy colour in wide stripes with really narrow pale blue and pale green stripes, a teal windcheater in polarfleece that feels yum, a pair of pale grey/brown - taupe? pants that look fantastic on him and I could never wear in a million years, a corduroy jacket with polarfleece lining that he loves and lots of socks. Somehow he manages to loose socks constantly... They had a sale on socks where they were 3 pairs for $10 so we bought six. Hopefully that will last him for a while!

Then we went up to school to put in my doctor's certificates given that I've been off school almost a month, and I got blood tests taken due to the fact that they have no idea what is wrong with me. Fun fun. Blood tests don't bother me though, I've had so many of them in my life that I just talk to the nurse through them all. Then we came home and I crashed out, and later picked up my stitching. Troy fell asleep on my bed next to me and I stitched, ate tea, stitched and went to sleep. He brought me a pancake for breakfast in bed, and I've just been taking it easy today. I cant believe its 4pm though, seems so strange.

I got out of the house today

First:

(from xkcd)

Also, I met up with Anna and Rach at Riminis, and got pasta and cheesecake and coffee and it was good. Thankyou girls for a very nice night out! Much conversation with people who actually know what I'm talking about when I complain about sparklie thread or compare needle brands. Or complain about 25ct. Or...*giggle*

Anna reccomended Glissen Gloss, and is going to give me some to play with - I'll test stitch a patch, and if I like it it will get used on Froggy Frog World (and I can make some rapid progress on it!) She also recommended that I do what I've been thinking about doing - taking down my bed for the time being and putting my old bed in its place so I dont have to climb up into bed, which takes more energy than you realise until you dont have any. It also means I can put my lowery stand under my bed...and stitch in bed, when I wake up, going back to sleep when I feel like it unlike out here where I stay up regardless. Silly me. She might also have converted me over to scroll rods, if I like the ones she uses...uhoh *grins* I like drum tight tension, and I can't get that on Q-snaps. Scroll rods would mean that I dont get to swap around projects as often, or that I need to keep my smaller ones on multiple frames/do them on qsnaps but if they had the tension, then they would be good. Ugh, Birch ones are horrible! Apparently these are really good, but also expensive...we'll see. They might be worth spending money on, if I really like them. Would also mean getting the scroll frame holder for my Lowery but I don't mind. The only thing I couldnt use them on would be MX, because its already bead and crystalled, but thats ok. Would be especially nice for my big HAEDs, would make stitching much faster. We will see. I would really like to get some of the big projects back out again, and depending on what gets done tomorrow stitchywise (I also need to do some cleaning in my room or Troys dad (who is helping take apart my bed) will have a heart attack - he's a neat freak) I would like to get Noon Basking back to see the light of day. As soon as I get caught up with MX, it will be the first to come out and get stitched on! I miss it. I need to work on A Restful Night though, I will be stitching as a TOW girl because I spent today sorting threads into a master set of DMC instead. Should make life much easier for small designs, or large patches of detail, and means that I dont have to 'kit' every single project for DMC. Especially quickstitches! All those colours, and only a few stitches in each.

A Restful Night should be easier due to me having done this, too. I'd like to get some wing done tomorrow if I can, not just more background. Maybe even start some hair.

Im also seeing Terry tomorrow, so we should be able to figure out something about what's wrong with me. That would be good.

Another zombie day

Not much to write, except that I got some more done on Tranquility today and finished the third corner of Part 4. I've also got most of the cross stitching done for the fourth corner, which is nice. Then onto the deathmarch of stupid filagree! I love it, it looks fantastic, but its a pain to stitch. The beading doesn't bother me anymore, I've got quick at it, but fiddly blackwork type backstitching slows me down considerably.

Here's yesterday's goals - I got the 'if i'm sick' ones given I woke up at about 2:30.

• Alternate MX and Tranquility, as I can stitch on MX. If I can stitch on it, aim to finish corner 3 and maybe start corner 4. If I cant, aim to get half of red motif of doom done. If I can stitch on MX, no Tranquility goal - just stitch something! I finished the third corner and got most of the cross stitching done for part 4. I also finished crystalling the centre.
• Eat something within an hour of waking up tomorrow, whether Im hungry or not. There is leftover risotto, and leftover stirfry. Didnt happen. I felt sick for most of today, and took advantage of the one time I didnt feel sick to eat a huge bowl of risotto. Then went back to feeling sick.
  
• Have a shower or bath and wash my hair Again didnt happen, despite best intentions. Try again tomorrow. Showers take energy, washing my hair takes even more.
  
• Get dressed, not stay in pjs all day like I have the last few Not today, too much effort
  
• Read something offline Again didnt happen
  
• Print out TGOS Tomorrow?
• Buy star stickers for Troy Tomorrow again, hopefully
  

I'll set tomorrow's goals tomorrow, too tired tonight.

Monday recap

I know its late, but I cant sleep. Too much coke, gak. We at dinner at about 9:30pm, go us! Hannah and I are determined to eat earlier tomorrow night... It was spicy pumpkin risotto though, and very very nice. Worth the wait!

Ive decided that the cake (Buttercream Sampler I think?) from TGOS would do nicely for my Nana who loves to bake, and the adorable biscornu might go to one of Troy's lecturers who is originally from Iceland if she'd like it. I want to stitch it (its so cute!) but I dont think I'd want to keep it. Its just not my thing to keep around. And the White Musings sampler I am keeping!

Here's what I'd aimed for for today...

• JOB SAL - Start stitching day with JOB, work on it and MX on the hour rotation (I use a timer) until its finished. Aim to finish corner 3, start corner 4. I stitched an hour rotation, and I did stitch on JOB, but I alternated it with Tranquility instead. I didn't finish JOB but I have *almost* finished the ornament border cross stitching, about half of the rhodes stitches, and half the ornament.
  
• Tranquility - stitch on this when JOB part is done, or when I get sick of JOB if I decide I want to continue on to part 2. Stitched for a couple hours, finished the green motif and added some more of the purple. None of the red though, was more interested in JOB
  
• Maths - work for an hour, at least. Eh...heh...heh...
  
• English - if Hannah gets the chance, go into school and pick up closed reading and Going Home. Start Going Home. Talk to Ms Lambourne if at all possible. Hannah fell asleep at Uni, so this didn't happen.
  
• Spend a half hour in my room just neatening, if at all possible. Rope Hannah in if she's looking aimless. Get rid of all the pots/glasses/gross stuff. Mel said she would clean my room, so I didnt bother.
  
• If Troy comes up, strip and remake bed. Add blankets to it so I don't need a sleeping bag on it. Troy didnt come up, so this didnt happen either.

I think I'll set two sets of goals for tomorrow!

If I'm well:

• Call Peta and find out colours
• Alternate MX and Tranquility on the hour rotation. Aim to finish corner 3 of MX, and start corner 4. Aim to get the red motif of doom at least half done.
  
• If I get thoroughly sick of Tranquility (possible!), clean/do homework or stitch on JOB instead of Tranquility when the hour switches over.
  
• Craft - research for essay.
• Decide on silks, order them
• Print out TGOS
• Buy star stickers for Troy
  

If I'm not well:

• Alternate MX and Tranquility, as I can stitch on MX. If I can stitch on it, aim to finish corner 3 and maybe start corner 4. If I cant, aim to get half of red motif of doom done. If I can stitch on MX, no Tranquility goal - just stitch something!
• Eat something within an hour of waking up tomorrow, whether Im hungry or not. There is leftover risotto, and leftover stirfry.
• Have a shower or bath and wash my hair
• Get dressed, not stay in pjs all day like I have the last few
• Read something offline
• Print out TGOS
• Buy star stickers for Troy
  

Eh. Heh. Heh.

I forgot that when I overdo things, usually I don't get payback the day after, but the day after that.

It took me half an hour to get down off my bed this afternoon when I woke up, grabbed my power cable for my laptop, plugged it in and settled back into bed and haven't moved since.
My arms ache, as do my fingers, so I might try stitching later but I'm not sure about that.

Anna and Rach were wonderful and bought me a subscription to The Gift of Stitching for my birthday (as a belated present) which was lovely of them. I've read May's once now, and will print it off later so I can read it again :) I'm like that with magazines, I read them over and over.

I fell in love with the White Musings stitch sampler in this issue which is a mystery band sampler done in specialty stitches, in white threads (one of which is sparkly, yay) on a blue and white hand-dyed jobelan. Its 28ct, but I'm sure I'll survive *grin* Its beautiful, and Troy said I could get it since I'm feeling so miserable. So order is in, and I'll start it when I get the energy and kit. I also like the Quaker Seasonals, but I cant justify the $70 for another kit that I cant start/WIP that I really dont need to add to the pile. It will happily go on the wishlist, and when I finish something then maybe I can buy the kit and stitch it. Silks on hand-dyeds are just so pretty...and of course, I love the autumn one.

Jury's out as to whether I buy the back issues - its tempting, I'll wait until I've got a few more issues and then if I think it worth it to buy the old ones I will. Its pretty inexpensive, and it's only been around for a little while so its not too drastic to buy up all the old ones! Theres only one project that I've seen that kit is available for that I really like, and thats the dutch scissor keeper from December last year. We'll see.

The novelty is that the kits are all available from an Australian ONS, so its cheap for me to get everything (unlike normal) and it doesnt take forever in the post either. I should get the kit in the next few days, which will be awesome!

The other thing with this project is that its ideal for my Methods and Materials for Craft Practical - for CP as a yr 12 subject, you have to do a certain amount of practice/learning in your craft field that is able to be documented. Ive got some, but not as much as I'd like, and a specialty stitch band sampler is absolutely ideal, especially as I've never done any of the stitches that are in the part of it that I've got. Mr Healey will love me.

As to my plan for today...

I will try to stitch on JOB later, but I don't know how long my wrists will cope with it. I can stitch it in hand though, so I could snuggle up in bed and stitch it. At least it's over 2, and in silks, without many colour changes so it would be nice and comforting.

Mel has offered to come clean my room for $5 sometime this week, which takes that task away. Whenever I get really sick, I start needing my room to be clean because I spend so much time up here that a cluttered room is horrible. My room is really pretty, when it's neat - a striking bold colour combination that I still cant believe I came up with when I was 10, and still love nine years later. the walls are deep fuschia with an antique gold sponging over the top, and dark green brocade curtains with dark green sheets. The furniture is all dark stained pine, in a colonial style - desk (made to my specifications, I love knowing people that make furniture), tall bookshelves, chest of drawers and my bed, which is a high loft bed 6ft from the ground over my green, pink and cream couch - the only thing in my room that doesn't quite 'go' but I havent got the money to get it reupholstered. It fudges okay though, so I put up with it. It's basically paler versions of all the colours in my room. The valence over the curtains matches my bedspread, swirls of bright colours (red, rust, browns, greens, blues and pink) with gold that make up abstract butterflies amid swirls. I love my room, its just a mess at the moment with stuff on every surface that you can think of.

When Mel comes, I'll see if I can find/ask her to keep an eye out for the chart for Santa Paws by Margaret Sherry, which is small and cute and seems like the perfect project to throw in a hoop and keep by my bed for when I cant get up to stitch properly. Stitched over two on pretty green linen in DMC - easy. And adorable! I'd like it stitched for Christmas this year, and now seems as good a time as any to do it.

So now I'm going to go back to drooling over charts and things, and waiting for the kit to come. And getting up the strength/energy to get up and stitch!

This week

The last few days have been rather a write off - I've been so fatigued that its been hard to do much of anything.

My parents are in Florence now, they left Thursday, so Hannah is house sitting with us for the time being, until they get back in a few weeks time. Troy has been up this weekend, he came up Thursday night, and he might be up again tomorrow night. We'll see. He's chosen his subjects for next semester and has his timetable, and it looks good. I am very glad.

We had some of Hannah's uni friends over last night for a BBQ, and that was fun - we watched Robin Hood Men in Tights and The Incredibles, and a few people got drunk but most didn't. Troy and I stayed up far too late talking to Jay and Terri, and then crashed for the night. The upside was, the adrenaline of all the people being around made me be able to stitch, which is something I hadn't been able to do for three days. That was good! I got most of page 3 of the Tranquility Mystery done, finishing it off tonight, and it looks fantastic. Now I've started in on the green motif continuation on part 4. Bindi's lost the battery for the camera, so Hannah will bring hers from home tomorrow and I'll take photos of everything or get her to.

Troy's advice for me with how I'm feeling is that I should sleep when I'm tired and eat when I'm hungry, no matter how nonsensical the times feel. My body is telling me what it needs, and I need to give it to it - so if I go to sleep at 3pm and wake up at 4am (heh) so be it. I'm going to try sticking to this, and see how it goes. I also need to see Terry again, so I will make an appointment tomorrow.

I've been thinking about a plan for the week, and it goes something like this:

goals for this week:

• get part 4 of MX done, and start part 5
• stitch on JOB for the SAL, and get most of part 1 done if not all
• catch up at least two pages of Tranquility (finish page 5 - top row of pages)
• stitch on A Restful Night for the SAL, and get three 10x10 blocks filled in.
• sort out my DMC, and put all that aren't spares for a particular project in binders to create a master set of DMC so that I can stitch easier.
  
• get two exercises of my Maths done - I'm guessing to finish 5C but there might be a 5B.2 or something in there so I will check
• get something done for each of my subjects, at least an hour a day of schoolwork
• Call f-MIL and find out B and M's favourite colours, then decide on silks, order.
  

So, a plan for this?
Monday

• JOB SAL - Start stitching day with JOB, work on it and MX on the hour rotation (I use a timer) until its finished. Aim to finish corner 3, start corner 4.
  
• Tranquility - stitch on this when JOB part is done, or when I get sick of JOB if I decide I want to continue on to part 2.
• Maths - work for an hour, at least.
• English - if Hannah gets the chance, go into school and pick up closed reading and Going Home. Start Going Home. Talk to Ms Lambourne if at all possible.
• Spend a half hour in my room just neatening, if at all possible. Rope Hannah in if she's looking aimless. Get rid of all the pots/glasses/gross stuff.
• If Troy comes up, strip and remake bed. Add blankets to it so I don't need a sleeping bag on it.
• Call Peta and find out colours
  

Tuesday

• Alternate MX and Tranquility on the hour rotation. Aim to finish corner 4 on MX, start part 5.
  
• If I get thoroughly sick of Tranquility (possible!), clean/do homework
• Craft - research for essay.
• Another half hour in room - try to get clothes sorted at least into clean/dirty. Get rid of dirty ones.
• Decide on silks, order them
  

Wednesday

• Alternate A Restful Night and MX on a 2hrs then 1 hr rotation (2 on ARN, one on MX) so I get a bit of a break from MX in between
• Half hour in room - try to clear off couch, start dresser
• History - read stuff from Mr Zadey, note, start essay if possible
• Print out B and M's charts, see if I have fabric for them - if I dont, order some.
  

Thursday

• MX and Tranquility, hour rotation. If tranquility goal is finished by now and I'm sick of it, A Restful Night can continue today on the hour rotation. Aim to finish one side of part 5.
  
• English - continue reading Going Home, note
• An hour of Maths, if possible.
• Half hour in room - continue dresser, put stuff in drawers
  

Friday

• MX and Tranquility, hour rotation. Aim to get at least halfway done on side two of Part 5.
  
• Half hour in room - put stuff in drawers, start desk
• finish Maths to end of 5C
• Look for a recipe that looks like fun to cook in a magazine

this is only if I don't get better sometime this week, but the way I'm feeling right now I doubt that's going to happen. I'm still dizzy, and very fatigued - my head doesn't work properly and neither does my body. Everything aches and I'm sleepy, even though I woke up at 3pm and its only 8:30.

I guess we'll see how I go?

My life at home

Part of me is really seriously wondering if I could do my schoolwork semi-by correspondence.

At the moment my teachers are emailing me information to do with my course and the work I've missed, and apart from history...

Maths I definately could, and Im going to do something about it too since there's no point in me going to class when I could do what we do in class (work from textbook) from home quite happily, and show the teacher every now and then. I'm going to get my maths out tomorrow and try to get at least one exercise done, and show the teacher when I get back to school.

As to what I actually did today - quite a bit actually.

Mum called me at some horrible hour - 9.15am I think, which had me tumbling down off my bed (I sleep on a loft, 6' from the floor) to grab the phone and then crashing back onto my bed again for the next fifteen minutes or so. I had a doc's appt this morning, and saw Terry, who is my fantastic GP and even though Im a zombie he wanted to talk...so after a mostly braindead conversation on philosophy and sociology (yes, all in a normal docs appt for Kyrie and Terry) for an hour I got out with a doc's cert for today and tomorrow. I'd taken Champagne to see him, because he likes my girls and gets put out if one of the doesnt come with me - which was fine, except then mum wanted to go shopping....

I got dragged around the mall after a cup of white hot chocolate from Hudsons for three hours, almost falling asleep on couches in varying department stores while mum looked for a new suitcase (they're going to florence on thursday) and finally got to Supré where I got three 3/4 length tshirts (brown, black and cream) and a black cardigan because all my winter basics seem to have died or shrunk. And came home.

I crashed on the couch not asleep but pretty much braindead for an hour or so, then picked up the tranquility mystery and got a fair chunk of the blue motif on pg 3 done - a couple hours' work, and part of the green motif too once I got far enough over the blue to connect with it. I love the blue one, but its nice to be able to swap colours and change things up a bit. The blue and the green are both subtly variegated, and its nice.

I've also decided on B & M (future bro&sis in law)'s birthday presents - their bday is on the same day, but two years apart. I've been thinking along these lines for a while but havent seen anything I liked/could afford - but i discovered Passione Ricamo's Arabesque alphabet and its perfect. I'll find out their favourite colours from my f-MIL and then order some silks from HDF so I can start them. I think they'd be fun to stitch, and will look gorgeous.

At about 5:30 I got sick of the plain colours, and swapped my small frame for the massive one that has my chatelaine on it, and slogged away on the corners through the news, current affairs, news again, it takes two (which tries to be dancing with the stars but fails, but is reasonable enough to watch) and all saints (which I thoroughly enjoyed). By the end of it, I'd finished the second corner and got 3/4 of the way through the third. I am very proud.

So tomorrow will be maths, I think, but I might try to get some Chatelaine done too - even if I just finish a corner, though finishing the part altogether would be awesomeness. It's also Wednesday, so Periwinkle gets to come out and play. Sounds like fun!

I'm alive, just

Whether I'll get to school tomorrow or not remains to be seen. If I still feel like I do now tomorrow morning, there is no chance.

I've been working on the mockup for my dress, and I'm definately glad I made a mockup! I'm not even sure that I'll actually wear this one, but it's been an eye-opener to sew anyway. If I still want a dress like this hand dyed when I'm done with my two winter-weight ones, I'll make it then. This one has a couple funky things...and it has holes along one sleeve where I accidetally overlocked a tuck into a sleeve. Yes, Kyrie does very silly things sometimes.

...like setting a sleeve in perfectly, overlocking and pressing it - and then finding out that she sewed it in upside down. ARGH! Thank goodness for my Hannah-friend who actually likes unpicking, for whatever crazy reason. She did that and I plonked myself down onto the floor to cut the last few pieces.

I've got quite a bit of the white cotton left over, and it's too thin to really use for much but it will make a lovely petticoat if I have enough - I think I do. So I'll cut that out and sew it up when I'm done with the dress mockup, and then I can wear it under my (good) dress when it's done.

I've never really worked from a pattern like this before - my grandmother taught me dressmaking and we make our patterns from scratch! Or basic shapes etc ie my semicircle skirts. It's been an eye-opener, but it's been fun. The second sleeve was when I realised just how much I'd learned - the cuffs are gathered and then sewn onto the sleeves, then overlocked and pressed, the bottom 1/4" pressed in, then the whole thing folded in half, pressed, and then a seam sewn across the 1/4" pressed in and the seam from before. The first one follows the instructions, but took me ages and looks a little odd, but passable - the second took me no time at all and looks really professional and neat! I cant wait to see it in the purple and caramel rather than just boring white. The proper fabric should be easier to use, too, since this fabric is so thin and flimsy its hard to use.

I've got a few stitches into From The Ashes this weekend, but nowhere near what I would like to have done. I guess that's what happens when you get sick though.

I've been toying with the idea of an hour based rotation, but for now I just want to concentrate on getting caught up with my mysteries and following my SALs. HAEDs are nice, but I really want Mystery X caught up, and Tranq sampler being caught up would be nice too.

Ive decided that when I find the last connector for my Q-snaps - it disappeared when someone cleaned up *smacks head* and have two small frames that are 8"x10" I'll use one to keep my Tranq sampler on permanently until the end of the year, and I'll use the other for whatever BAP I'm working on or the SAL pieces, if they need it. At the moment I swap my Tranq sampler for my SAL pieces and any other BAP I have the whim to work on, though I should really stop doing that. I want to get caught up, and stitching on other things is really not useful!

I slept until 4:30pm on Wednesday, so I didnt get to stitch on A Restful Night until Thursday. At which point I stitched lots on her, though it doesnt seem it to look at it. Mostly background, though I have bits of shoes now too which is quite fun. I havent actually got it kitted up, but I have a lot of other pieces kitted up that have the same colours so I'm pulling colours from them. I'm thinking very seriously about creating a master DMC folder with all the colours on stitchbows, in order, with gaps left for the ones I dont yet have, and all the spares in their respective bags for the specific projects. Then when I've got something small like a QS I dont have to 'kit' the thing I can just pull the colours I need, as I need them. It would definitely make life easier with A Restful Night!

Even if I just pulled the colours from a master set that I was working with at that point in time (I tend to stitch within a row of 10x10 blocks, or a page) and put them in a stitchbow sleeve to carry around for my QSs on Wednesday and From the Ashes on that SAL weekend - that would make sense wouldnt it?

Hmm. I'll keep musing on that one. It's very tempting.

So, tomorrow is Monday. I would very much like to do the following:

• cut out belt pieces for dress
• make belts
• sew up bodice (and belts in) for dress
• maybe sew pocket pieces onto each skirt piece
• stitch at least 4 hours on From The Ashes
• stitch at least 3 hours on Japanese Octagon Box
• get better!
• have a bath to try and soak out the aches
  

Still a zombie

So I'm still a zombie, but I'm not dead yet!

I finally got around to printing the chart for A Restful Night, and I'll start it tomorrow for the QS SAL. Hopefully I'll get a couple stitches into Periwinkle as well, but I'm not holding my breath. I think I'll work on Periwinkle for odd weeks of the month, ARN for the even - does that sound fair? I want Periwinkle finished first, as I have looots of Nadia's Faes to stitch, but I want this froggy to be enjoyable, a nice, steady stitch. I'm *very* tempted to stitch this one in 10 row blocks across the top, to see the picture slowly come out, like a typewriter - like I did with Hope. With pieces that take up the full fabric with no gaps, and no glitter, it's possible and it's fun! So it will mean uncovering wings and feet, then hair, and a face, and mushrooms and a body, and eyes, and a mouth, and legs, and a branch! I'm not normally a fan of CC Kuik's stuff - it's nice, just not my thing, but this froggy and fairy call to me and I'm so grateful for Jeannie-Marie (aka fudgey) for sending it to me.

Anna gave me the fabric today at the bank, and some of hers to overlock while I do mine (repayment in trade for the fabric) so I'll overlock the lot tomorrow, along with the fabric for my tranquility mystery which I have *still* not overlocked - bad kyrie!

Troy's happy, unsuprisingly, its another frog, and I'm happy because its so completely adorable.

I went into the uni with dad today because I needed a change of scenery from the house. I met angela, who promptly gave me home-made chocolates (which were great!) and complimented my stitching, and exhausted myself thoroughly. It was worth it though. At home I plonked myself in front of the tv and stitched to It Takes Two (which was as abysmal and hard on my ears as last year, except for the last pair that I cant remember the name of - she did Gwen Stefani really well) and All Saints, and bits of the budget wrapup and a documentary on eco building in China. I didnt achieve all of the goals I set myself for today, but I did achieve a few things stitchywise:

• I finished the red and the yellow motifs that were carry-overs from the last page, and began the blue one - got the first swirly column done, its so pretty! Ive been admiring this motif ever since week 3 was released.
  
• I printed off A Restful Night, and got the fabric
• I got a crazy amount stitched on Froggy Frog World while at the uni.
• I beaded 3/4 of the centre of Mystery X - well, crystalled. All the beads were in, but now Ive got it on the massive Q-snaps I figured that I could add the crystals since I dont move the frame very far these days!
• I also moreorless finished the second corner of part 4, all except the second leg of the blue&purple border corner. It's partly done, but my eyes gave out on me. Oh, and it needs the crystals too. I added the crystals to the first corner and they look GORGEOUS!

Anyway, enough ramblings - I'm zombie-ish now, so off to do mindless things like stare at chart and sleep (and dream of stitching!)

Page 2!

Well, being sick is good for one thing - getting stitching time. It is NOT good for motor control as far as not shaking is concerned, so here is a thumbnail photo of pg 2 - troy will take a better photo when he's up next, cropping out later pages, for my records but just admire the thumbnail ok? the bigger one is really really blurry...and this was the best of all the ones i took...using all the different settings to try and minimise the shaking...

gah.



on the upside, that big red motif is mostly done (there's only a small part of it in the next page) YAY!!! It's quite a nice motif, I just detest stitching it. onward to page 3...

Commitment to Loveliness

Ive been meaning to jump in on this for a while, so finally I have! You pick five things to aim for in a week that will add to your and the people around you's lives, and try to work on them.



Here is my list for this week:

1. Meet my weekly goals for my stitching
2. Wash my hair really well, and use the treatment on it each time
3. Spend an hour working on my room
4. Spend an hour cleaning up my stitching chaos
5. Overlock my and Anna's fabric for stitching

Photo post

Okay, finally got my paws on the camera to take stitchy photos.

First, here's periwinkle after Wednesday:


with more wing, including quite a bit of glitter

and here's the tranquility sampler, page 1:


I finally managed to get a vaguely good photo - the camera is being spaz today and refuses to focus.
it looks so much better since the restart. Looking at the two next to each other, its just amazing.

OOH! RAK

Some naughty little fairy decided to RAK me, and sent me this:



ribbit!

I love it, and so does Troy.

Now...here's the current status of my QS spot in my rotation:
current: periwinkle
then:
cat nap fae - tate
red witch - dillman
restful night - kuik

hmm....I might be able to rejig that somewhere...but I want to stitch them ALL!

This is where I stitch

I was bored so I took photos of the place where I stitch, and all the things around it.

This is the view from behind my chair:

the little maroon bag (it's batik and gorgeous, given to me by an indonesian exchange student) holds all my spare silks for the tranquility mystery, and my marking highlighters and (some) of my spare needles. The red ribbon hanging down off the arm is attached to my scissors.

and this holds all my spare charts, threads, beads, frames, projects......and my uber-awesome lamp, not. It does the job though, not great but better than nothing.

I have never been accused of being neat or organised, but I can find everything on there when I need to.

this is a closeup of whats on the frame on my lowery stand:

it's my WIP of Mystery X part 4

and this is to the right of me:

it also sometimes ends up on the footrest at my feet (I usually sit crossed legged, tailor's seat - its just comfortable for me) wherever is most useful. This way I can use my timer (its a beautiful bell note to let me know when an hour is up) and check the net throughout the day

I love my stitching spot - it's nice having everything to hand. Finally (with the exception of an OTT lamp) I have everything the way I want it.

The places that ache on my body are...

my neck
my throat
my legs
my fingers
my hands
my shoulders
my head
my eyes
my jaw when i eat
my back
pretty much everywhere else?

Im not sure what's wrong with me, but it's really knocked me for six. I just feel horrible and lethargic, and using any muscle hurts. I've been ignoring the ones that allow me to stitch though, because it's better than being bored and able to concentrate on the pain. Distraction is useful. I've got two hours each on Mystery X and my Tranquility Mystery restart today, which has been good, and i'm almost the top way along the first purple motif (ie almost half finished it) which is fun. It looks so delicate and lacy stitched over 1, I'm very glad I restarted. The other just didn't look right, and I hated stitching on it because of the fabric, hence the restart. This time its on 32ct cream linen and it looks lovely. It will be much more reasonable sized to hang on the wall this way too! The other one was going to be enormous. Im hoping to catch up on this soonish, stitching two pages a week at least instead of one so I can stitch the new pages as they come. Im only four pages and a bit behind....lol...and make that five and a bit tomorrow as there's no way that I will finish this page in the next 24 hours.

I've got 57 of those 10x10 squares on periwinkle done now, which Im rather proud of, another three from when I posted about her last night. She's tucked away until next wednesday though, unless she screams really really loudly before then. Fortunately enough, tranquility, the frogs and mystery X are all screaming louder at the moment, especially Mystery X - part 5 is GORGEOUS so I want to get this done quick! I've part 4 almost halfway done though, so it shouldnt be too long until I get to work on the walls of part 5.

I'll post a picture of periwinkle soonish, when I get my hands on the camera and more importantly drag myself out of this chair!

Periwinkle Fae

I was taking a break from stitching, and counted up all the 10x10 square on periwinkle that were completely stitched - either blank ones, or complete stitching, or a mixture of both, and then cut all the ones I could get to from the edges out. I got 54!

So, I've got at least 5400 stitches done on her. Thats quite a cool thing to think about, and it's 17% of the whole thing DONE! Very cool, especially since a lot of the remaining 10x10 squares have only a few stitches in them left to do.

I haven't finished stitching on her for the night yet, but I'll post a picture when I am done. It's pretty much been wing today, though I have done a little more of the defining outline between her hair and the wing as well. Lots of blues, almost whites and purples. And glitter!

yayness for mail

I got mail yesterday!

Troy's birthday present (devil sticks (juggling toy) from threeworlds) arrived, as did the patterns I ordered from commonsense - the dress I bought fabric for a few months ago, and also a set of patterns for three different petticoats - I love ruffly ones, and full skirts don't look right in winter without them. The patterns are on huge sheets of paper though, so I need to cut them out so I can actually use them! The unfolded patterns take up half our living room floor.

So I've got the fabric for the dress mock-up, and I'll have a crack at it either this weekend or when my grandmother is here to give me a hand. Should be fun!

And I also got the fabric for my tranquility mystery restart. So I'm off to measure it up and get a few stitches in!

Goals for May

whee...it's that time of the month again.... (no not THAT ONE!)

Last Month:

Stitching:

• catch up part 3 (almost done) and part 4 (small) of mystery X caught up part 3, 1/4 done on part 4
• get stuck into hope and try to get at least something done! no, but did stitch on FFW instead
• stitch on from the ashes during the SAL yes, was good fun!
• participate in at least 2 QS SALs yes, three!
• keep up to date with the tranquility mystery nope, i've decided that i hate the fabric so i'll restart it when I receive it (should be monday/tuesday)
• get everything set up for taking my dragon to school and working on him there yes, so I'll be taking him to school soon

Life:

• clean and archive my room well, the cleaning is a WIP...not a UFO...lol
• get blankets and sheets for my birthday present - yay for practical presents, and yay for my parents! no, actually - decided I needed an overlocker, which I got! yay parents
• enjoy my and Troy's birthdays yup
• get everything together for Troy's present by his birthday! yes, all done
• try and stitch every day not every day, some were slump type days
• enjoy the holidays very yes

This Month:

Stitching:

• stitch a page on one of my challenge pieces (ffw, from the ashes, hope)
• catch up parts 4&5 of mystery X
• get at least some of the tranquility mystery done - catch up to the beginning of the month, if possible
• stitch something on Noon Basking
• finish part 1 of JOB
• stitch in at least 2 of the QS SALs

Life:

• stay up to date with schoolwork
• not go mad
• clean up my room
• do something about the whiteboard for my room idea
• get to church at least twice

I have a new strategy

I've been finding it hard to get my Mystery parts done, and they seem to eat into my stitching time because I procrastinate against them rather than being excited.

So, here's the latest strategy:

• Work each day on one corner/quarter of the design, when it's done stitch something else for the rest of the day
• take a break (stitching something else) the next day if a break is needed
• the something else works on a 10 hr rotation which is Froggy Frog World, Hope, From the Ashes, one of my other SAL pieces

Im not a perfect little rotationer, I'll get odd and let pieces that are in my rotation scream at me so I'll pull another project out when I'm supposed to be working on one occasionally, but it keeps me happy.

This is as close to a rotation as I think I will be able to manage this year with two SALs going - I love these designs, but I don't think I'll do the big Mystery next year. Maybe one of her other designs (a sampler mystery, or a box, or a quilt or something) but not the massive one, I want to be able to stitch for myself on rotation again. Or else I'll stitch it (if it really calls to me after a couple months worth of WIPs) but stitch it on a rotation like everything else. I've got so many BAPs that I already have, that it seems silly to start yet another Chatelaine. I've still got Convent's Herbal Garden (MII)'s kit packaged up sitting on my shelf waiting to be started! Deary me...I'm hopeless arent I!

Updatingness

Firstly, and most importantly:

it is RAINING! PROPERLY! for someone in the middle of the worst drought australia has seen EVER, this is absolutely wonderful.

ahem.


Okay, stitching. I've finally finished page 2 of the Tranquility Sampler, and here it is:

YAY all that red thing is done - at least for that page.

Also stitched on JOB for my SAL with Tash, though I forgot it was Monday (oops) and stitched it on Tuesday instead:

I've finished all the cross stitching for the panel, and have started adding the details. The bird is incredible, and the picture does not in any way do it justice, amd the pine cones and everything are pretty awesome too. This whole piece is so awesome - Martina is a genius. It's going to be so great to have it done and displayed!

And stitched on my lovely Periwinkle too, and gave her part of a wing - there are sparklies, but they're not very obvious.



Now that it's raining and it's a lazy day (I woke up at 12.30) I'm going to settle back with some Strawberry Rooitea and stitch on the sampler a bit. I like all of the motifs on this page, except the last bit of red which I am in the process of finishing up, so it should be fairly quick and enjoyable.

Part 3 is DONE!

Look! Look!

All that beading!

SBQ and today's to do list

Are you on "The Wagon?" If so, how long have you been on and how
"serious" are you about it? If not, have you considered it?

Yes, I am. Troy put me there, and won't let me off until either I finish a BAP or he gets to buy a sword...yes, I'm marrying a geek. And yes I said sword. At least he has decent taste in them, some of the ones he likes are really pretty. They're just expensive - $500ish US!!

How serious? Well, I'm determined to get a few things FINISHED, and I really need to stop buying stash. So my exemptions are that I can use birthday money, and that I can buy gifts or things necessary for completion of already owned projects. So I can buy floss for current projects, and it also means I can kit up/buy fabric for charts I already own, but Troy's the failsafe - I have to ask him first! It saves me a lot of money...goodness knows I have enough charts kitted up and I haven't got anywhere near starting them. It is fun to kit though. At least I have Periwinkle Fae who will be done soon-ish given how fast she's stitching up, and a QS to stitch for my friend Meg (QS Cat Nap Fae - awesome, means I get to stitch that adorable chart twice since I want it too, and she picked the chart) and QS Red Witch already kitted up so it will keep me busy, and allow new starts periodically.

I need to make a To-Do list for today, a few things really need doing. This way I can post my progress! Hey, it works for stitching (and some of this is stitching related)

• finish the beading on part 3 of mystery X (#$*&#*#*$ lol) - done!
  
• enjoy finally starting part 4
• stitch something on Tranquility Mystery
• stitchbow-ify the last few threads for periwinkle fae QS
• organise my projects into little bags of their own
• raid the house for calico bags for ^
• spend at least some time in my room consolidating the chaos (I cant walk in there at this point in time)
• go through clothes with Troy and get rid of anything that doesnt fit/I wont wear
• ditto shoes
  

QS Periwinkle Fae

I haven't got a decent photo :( but oh well. It doesnt want to play nice.



Yay she has hair now! And the beginning of a wing. I've figured out that one strand of the DMC light effects works beautifully over one on 32ct, so she's got a little bit of sparkle in her eye but you can't really tell. There's lots of sparkle in the wing though, so it will be easier to see then.

I really should post more often

Sorry, I know its been more than a week!

I'll list the projects I've worked on, and comment on each of them, since I can't think of any other way to do it!

Mystery X:
I got thoroughly fed up with the beading, and haven't really stitched much on it this week - bad Kyrie! I'm so close to finishing part 3, but I have other pretties to distract myself with and I haven't worked on it since that picture until today. now another of those beaded borders is almost done, and I've half frogged the one that I wasn't happy with. Frustrating, but worth it. If I work at it this afternoon and tonight, I might even get it done today! Part 4 is gorgeous and not big - mostly backstitching, with some corners in the same beading pattern as these borders, and a little bit of cross stitch. Shouldn't be hard, and will look great. I'm very curious as to what part 5 will be - Troy's mum and I reckon it will be a hedge between the corners and above the borders, but we'll have to see!

From the Ashes:

I worked on her for the SAL, which was most enjoyable until I finished the top 30 rows and discovered I didn't have a lot of the threads I needed for her wing - *sigh*. I did do a lot of the background confetti though, and filled in some of the solid colour background as well, and stitched most of the wing that I could leaving the gaps to be filled when I get the floss. This new method I've discovered for stitching her seems to be working really well, which I'm very glad of! It's sad to put her away for the time being, but hopefully I'll get a chance to work on her again before the next SAL, if when I get my threads.

Tranquility Mystery:
I've got almost all of page 2 done, except for some of that massive red thing - I like the design, I hate stitching it. I am going to have to grit my teeth and get it done too! I really need to catch up on this... the yellow motif is my favourite of all of them so far, and I love the yellow colour too!


Japanese Octagon Box:
I got my finishing kit from Judy the other day, which was very very fun, and I got the old key from Martina as well which meant that I could stitch on the grass this monday. I frogged all the incorrect stitching, and added some more, and it looks wonderful. Photos really do not do justice, but I will try.


apart from all this, I also did lots of fabric dyeing for prac 1 for craft this year too - with Peta (future MIL) and was MUCH FUN! We got dye everywhere and the acid ate the foil off her reflector thing that she puts in her car....but it was worth it, even the clean up! See?


Also, I've discovered somewhere that sells 100% cotton sheeting...white, 2.5m wide, for about $7/m which is GREAT, and I bought 4m. 2m of that got used for the dyeing, and 2m I have kept because I will use it to make the mockup of my dress, the patterns for which should be sent today by the people I ordered them from - I sent them an email inquiring and they're sending them *now*, about 3 weeks later!!! grr. Oh well. I will get them and then have fun making the dress. What Peta and I have decided is that I'll make a proper mockup, with long sleeves, then cut the sleeves short, make an underdress, and dye both. I want the underdress a solid colour, but the overdress dark at the bottom shading up to light at the top, thinking a turquois-y blue with a dark blue underdress or a deep pink with a purple underdress, and then stitch cutwork dragonflies all over it. Sounds like fun! I can't see the point of making a dress, even a mockup, that I wouldn't be able to wear, so I'll get a nice summer dress out of it too. And dyes mean that if I buy some nice ribbon we can dye the ribbon too to match the dress...*grins*

I also want to use the sheeting to make underthings for the doll I've been meaning to dress for years. It's cotton, so it should be good! It's also good for petticoats, which I may have to do something about. I love the rustle and feel of petticoats, and they look good under full skirts.

Oh, and if you're wondering what I look like while stitching, here I am:


I was putting a hoop on the aida for the samurai that Troy has just started stitching. He's almost finished something else too (just needs to finish the backstitching) and when he does I'll post it :) it looks really good!


EDITED: to add photos

Beading! Gak! And other things.

I've been working on my mystery X wip...and the beading keeps going and going and going...
See? This has the beading a little more than half done...


I stitched the beads in the outside borders all in the same direction, but even when I sacrificed four beads on each side it still buckles, so I'm thinking about unstitching them and restitching them.

I also did some more work on Japanese Octagon Box for my SAL with Tash and got some more border and some more grass done - but the colours looked strange, and I went on the board only to discover that there are two colour keys and I was using the wrong one - didnt have the first one - and the group has been deleted! Ack. I think I will be begging Martina soon... Anyway I went from there to working on the border a little bit, but I didn't get as much done this week as I would have liked.


Tranquility Mystery has the first part done now too:



I've started the next page, but no photos of that yet - I want to try and get it finished on time this time!

From the Ashes is on the frame this weekend coming too, for the Challenge SAL - it will be good to get into it again.

Oh and I got the fabric for my restart of Froggy Frog World too - 32ct Carol's Meadow Jobelan by Silkweavers. Should be fun, it's gorgeous fabric.

And I got a birthday present too...from Peta (Troy's mum) who is an excellent future MIL :) she has a beautiful needlecase that she made and I've been envious of it since I first saw it, all beaded crazy patchwork with pockets.

Imagine my surprise to open an early birthday present that was this:

Weekend & Japanese Octagon Box

Well, this was a fun weekend. Two new mystery parts, and a new start. How could I not enjoy it?

I didn't get as much done on the tranquility mystery as I'd like, but I did get about 1/3 of the purple motif done. This is my carry around project, so I'm not working on it at home (chatelaine mystery takes priority, then one of my other BAPs - hope currently) but hopefully I'll get page 1 done this week. I'll work on it Thursday night if I have to to get it done before Friday night when page 2 will be released.



and I had my SAL with Tash on Japanese Octagon Box yesterday. I finished the tree and got some more done on the black border, and started the green. The bottom green - such a pretty one, called renaissance green, is all done and I started the next one. It stitches up wonderfully quick, which is a relief - I tend to think of chatelaines as being long-slog but worth it projects instead!
Here's this week's picture:

What I've been up to

Well, got the tranquility mystery printed out and started, with one of those elements of the purple motif done. I need to get stuck back into and get the rest done, but I really really need to get the chatelaine done so the tranquility mystery can wait and get done sometime this weekend.

Martina released Part 4 of Mystery X early this month, and it's gorgeous - another small part, which I am glad of, because I'll be able to get caught up and get something done on my poor neglected other projects. More crystals for this part too, which is fun - even though I don't put mine on until the end I can put them on the fabric and enjoy the sparkliness.

Part 3 is almost done - I might get it finished this afternoon, we'll see. I would like to get the stitching done this weekend anyway, even if not the beading - beading can be done while watching tv this week. And then those gates - yay!

JOB will be out on monday again as well, which will be fun, I'm enjoying that tree.
I'm looking forward to seeing Tash's progress too.

Goals for April

Right. I'm very not good at this goals thing, I think. I'm going to try and be reasonable this time, though I do have the holidays - two weeks of stitching, yay!

Last Month:

Stitching:

• catch up the Mystery, with part 3 done - almost. Pretty much just need the beading done, now, and I might attack that today.
  
• stick to the new rotation - eh, heh! I think I'm rotation impaired.
  
• stitch along with Tash when I get my JOB stuff - yes! Once, because that's the only chance I've got to do so.
  
• not start anything new except JOB - nope, started the tranquility mystery, but no new starts now for a long time.
  
• stitch in the HAED QS SAL with periwinkle at least twice this month - yes, second and fourth weeks
  
• stitch in the 2nd weekend SAL with From the Ashes - yep, and achieved more than I expected.
  
• experiment with cross country on From the Ashes - yep - great! I'll continue this way.
  
• think about getting new fabric for frogs...anna and waychie (who have actually seen them), do you think they're worth starting over on jobelan with white silk? Or should I just stick with them as they are? - ordered, a pearly grey. It's in the mail.
  
• not buy ANYTHING else! - fail. mystery. but at least it wasn't expensive...
  

Life:

• keep my room relatively clean - lol. um.
  
• actually pray my rosary at least once each week - nope, which annoys me.
  
• get fabric together for quilt for school (find it all!) - still planning, so we'll see.
  
• get fabric for quilt that's still needed (solid colour fabrics) - see above
  
• keep up to date with school - yep, all up to date.
  
• try to get to bed at a reasonable hour each night - yes and no. No 3am crashes at least.
  

This Month:

Stitching:

• catch up part 3 (almost done) and part 4 (small) of mystery X
• get stuck into hope and try to get at least something done!
• stitch on from the ashes during the SAL
• participate in at least 2 QS SALs
• keep up to date with the tranquility mystery
• get everything set up for taking my dragon to school and working on him there

Life:

• clean and archive my room
• get blankets and sheets for my birthday present - yay for practical presents, and yay for my parents!
• enjoy my and Troy's birthdays
• get everything together for Troy's present by his birthday!
• try and stitch every day
• enjoy the holidays
  

Two Chatelaine updates

I've got two pictures this time!

One is my Japanese Octagon Box which I am SAL-ing with Tash on, and this is my progress over the weekend - my first tree, with all its branches:




And here is Mystery X, almost half done, except for the beading. I will do that at the end - I just did one section to see what it will look like! I couldnt get a good close-up picture though, sorry about that. They just turn up blurry due to the amount of glitz. The beaded flowers look like butterscotch - its all a bit easter egg coloured isn't it!



I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and happily adding flowers. Now to get it done before the 1st so I'm up to date!

Having fun with part 3

No photos, though they might be fun - maybe tomorrow.

Because part 2 ended up being so monotonous near the end, I've been having fun with the largely detail-stitched part 3. Its basically an overlay over what I've already stitched, with some detail on the corners and little rectangles of beads as borders around this central swirly design. Finally it's starting to look properly victorian, and it's gorgeous! Martina is so clever.

So far I have:

• two of the corners done (a little tiny bit more green - 3 stitches per corner, six silver algerian eyelets and some purple on the outside)
• one of the four purple boxes done - the top one, and the second one started
  
• six beads in the purple box just to see how they looks - the two coloured beads arent the same size and it creates an interesting effect
• the pink tulips in the top right hand corner complete with stems and leaves
  
• the stems and leaves for most of the inner section in the TR corner done (3 big and 3 small to do)
• 3 tiny tiny Jessica stitch flowers in the same section

Generally, I'm just playing. But its fun. Its a quick part to stitch up, I give it a week at most to get done.

...next time I take this in to school, I am going to blow my craft teacher's socks off. FUN!

Part 2 Finally Finished!

It's DONE! That neverending green is DONE!

See?



The photo doesnt in any way do it justice though, it's so sparkly and beautiful, but it gives you some idea. The holes in the green create a lacy effect, and they'll all get filled in with beads to make flowers this part. Four kinds of flowers this time: jessica stitches, beads, satin stitch-type things and ones done in backstitch. Sounds like fun!

I'm so glad to get this done, it's beautiful but it's been hanging over my head and getting in the way of my doing any other stitching, pretty much. Now it's done and I can get part 3 done (much smaller part) and I'll be up to date and stitching on something else!

Muffins!

The weather today looks something like this:

And I had no meds last night, so had to pick some up today and didnt think it safe to go to school given that.

So, I made these:

Kiwi, lime and coconut muffins.

...actually that's only half. The other six vanished hot out of the oven!

Im keeping these 6 for dessert tonight, but they taste too good to leave alone.

Not stitching related, but mm...good.

Now back to my regularly scheduled Chatelaine!

Mystery X WIP again

Here we are, almost 3 weeks since the last update. I love, love, love update photos - this green is driving me NUTS! Its so good to see that I've actually made progress.

When I get this bit of green on the left done, I'll be 3/4 done as far as the green is concerned, yay yay yay! All the colours are done except the green, and the beading for part 1 is done (all the pearl coloured beading in the centre) and I'm using the gold beads as incentive - I get to bead 10 beads for every length of thread that I use. My beading needle is bent though - what does everyone reccomend for beading needles? I'm just using a 28 petite at the moment, but its a bit short.

Anyway, I love it but it's frustrating. Can't wait to do part 3, with all the specialty stitches and beads - and what's more, NO MORE GREEN!

From the Ashes after Challenge SAL #3

I did a few stitches on periwinkle yesterday, but my mood was very very down and it was hard to focus on anything. Mostly yesterday I read, which was the only thing I could focus to do. I'm much better today though - not 100%, but better.

Helped Troy out with iambic pentameter for a creative writing lecture he has today last night - that stuff is confusing! Finally we sorted it out and he wrote his prescribed piece of 2 stanzas, 8 lines. His was about an eagle.

Anyway, I realised that I hadn't posted a picture of my weekend's progress on From the Ashes. I tried a cross country method this time, except for the wing in which I used my usual method - it's confetti so it made sense. Basically, I filled in all the secondary colours - all the random dots that there weren't much of any colour of, and then started filling in the background. I didn't get to finish filling in the background this time, but at least that will be an easy bit to start with next time I pick her up. I think I'm going to learn to hate that one colour of browny-yellow...there's so much of it!

So here she is:


From The Ashes - (c) HAED and Teri Rosario
Stats:
Started: 12th January 2007
Total Stitches: 166,600
Stitches Done:

• 12/3/07 - 2613
  

2 Dresses in Potentia...

Okay, so I went to spotlight.

And spent way too much money.

I don't use spotlight usually, except for dress fabric - I like to support LNS's but where on earth do you buy dress fabric other than spotlight!?!

So, I bought that black flannel. And it looks like this:
(a little washed out, thanks to the flash)

And after much calculation, we got 3 metres of it, and measured it so I can cut the sleeves with the edge of the detail for the cuffs. Going to look gorgeous. Here's the detail:
(a little blurry - no flash!)

And I also bought another dress...inspired by the photo I posted in the last entry. Here are my colour choices - this one was much cheaper! 2m-ish total between the two fabrics, but the fabric is much wider, and it's a heavy calico. The pale colour is for the hem and cuffs.


I also bought zips, flannelette for a petticoat (pale purple) and thread, but it's the boring kind of thread so I'm not taking photos of all that. You can see it when I post pictures of the in progress - or finished! dresses.

My grandmother's coming over soon, so fingers crossed I get my pattern soon, and can make them!

Wheee stitching!

Okay, I did a lot today.

Basically, I've had a basket in the corner of our living room with in progress projects that aren't cross stitch in it for years. This has included clothes that need altering, most of a quilt that just needs the blocks sewn up and borders added, varying small cross stitch projects/pre-discovering linen projects, doll clothes, etc etc.

We're getting a floating floor to replace the carpet that the mould ate. It's going to look beautiful. But we had to take the skirting boards off so that they can put the floating floor in, because they wouldn't do it for us. So that's what dad did today, while Troy knocked the nails out of them once he'd prised them off. And I organised this 'basket' - really a basket, a large box, and the surrounding floor.

Here's what I got done today:

• Put cloak (made, needs hem stitched - on panne velvet (both sides) so will take a while) away in room to be done later
• Decided that beautiful full white skirt with gold leaf design on it that rats got to is not ruined, even though i thought it was 12 months ago when i first put it in the basket. Hung it back in wardrobe, to be worn soon - I LOVE this skirt! It has a few holes, a bit moth eaten, but it's *so* full that you can't see them unless you look.
  
• Ripped a ragged hem on blue dress that got eaten by the rats about 5cm from the bottom because mum moved my rat cage over near the wardrobe - I'd never worn the dress, and she was so apologetic that she went out and bought me a new one - different though. Ripped a ragged hem on the underskirt too, to match. It looks great over jeans (a little short for me to wear it otherwise, comfortably) and I will take photos.
• Finally gave up on altering the bodice on a white tiered dress with bands of crochered lace between the tiers with drawstring at neck and waist. Basically, it looked like a nice skirt that fit my waist well, and a sack up top. Pinned and pinned and pinned and finally decided there was no way of altering it, so cut the bodice off and am now wearing it as a beautiful white skirt. Will also take photos.
  
• Dug up a beautiful Australian sampler that I stitched on 14ct aida back a couple years ago - beautiful, but I never finished stitching the backstitched border. It's 3/4 done! However, I can't find the thread so I'll go to cherubs tomorrow and pick up a skein of 988 to finish it with, then wash it and show it as a happy dance *grin* It really is gorgeous, even if I *did* have to unpick and restitch those parrots and trees a thousand times...
• Folded and repacked large amounts of fabric that I've collected - silly things, like a large rectangle of bright blue panne velvet that I was given but have no use for, and a huge (like 3m) piece of sheer mottled blue fabric - originally curtain fabric, that I bought at spotlight a couple years ago for $1/m and I always meant to use it as overlay on a dress but never got around to it.
• Fit everything left over into my basket and threw out the extra box!

So now what is left in my basket is:

• The aforementioned fabric
• All the pieces cut for a victorian dress for a doll I made forever ago *except* the bodice and a sleeve, which are currently somewhere - location unknown. Last I knew it had been washed because someone got pie on it - dont ask, but after that I havent seen it in a while. It will turn up. Or I will buy new fabric. One of the above.
• The blocks, and a few rows sewn up of a quilt called Moonshadow that I started two and a bit years ago, all grey and black fabric but with jewel tones that leap out. Looks stunning, just needs some dedicated space to lay it out in and a couple spare days to sew it together in. Maybe in the holidays after easter? Might be able to ring in a few family members to help me!
• Random felt that is there for goodness knows what reason
• Stencils of bugs that I bought a couple years ago for a specific project and am keeping, for reasons unknown - I guess in the off chance that I might want to use them again.
  
• A pair of harem pants that are missing the bells that tied one of the cords - mum found them when washing but they've since disappeared and I'm not throwing them out until it's been a year since they were lost.

The sampler that I did ages ago (the year on it says 2005) is hanging up to try and hang the creases out, and I'll wash it with orvus very carefully when I've finished the border. It's white, but it got carted around a fair amount and so it's grubby. I nicknamed it my teatowel while I was working on it, since the dimensions are about the same! It's actually part of a pair of samplers - they were supposed to be stitched on the same piece of fabric but it would have looked horrible, and I started the matching one but never finished it. I dug it out too. I might try and finish it - make it a requirement to work on it for five hours every time I finish a milestone on one of my other projects maybe or something. I'm getting the first one framed anyway, since it looks fine on its own, and when I finish the other one it will be framed to match. It's all cross and back stitch, but the charting is magnificent - especially in this one section that has four trees in it, all different kinds - one looks like red autumn lace! Beautiful, even on aida.

I went to spotlight the other day looking for fabric for a dress pattern that I ordered - I wanted to make a simple, old style dress - long skirt, fitted waist with ties at the back, button/zip down the back, square neckline and long sleeves but moderned-ed up a bit. But do you know how hard it is to find dress fabric these days? Out of everything in that store, there was *one* bolt of fabric that would be warm enough for a dress, that wasn't hideous or obviously designed to be mens pants fabric. And it was on a rack that said $7.70/m which isn't too bad. Black flannel, with an embroidered detail around the hem about 30-40cm wide in autumn variegated colours, and plenty more in the plain black above where I'd have to cut it for the skirt to make the bodice and sleeves out of.

...get to the counter and ask for 3m of it, which should be plenty, and the assistant said 'you do realise that this is $27/m' don't you?

$27/m!!!!

*dies*

needless to say, I didnt buy the fabric.

*but* on the radio I heard that they have a sale on on tuesday, so I might go back if they still have the fabric. They should. I hope anyway...

It still ends up being $64.8 for the fabric, but I guess I could live with that. I've bought dresses for that amount before, and they were summer, cotton ones. It's just so frustrating that there is no decent dressmaking fabric around anymore, and when you find it it's so expensive.

Here's one version of the dress, though I won't have the contrasting colours on cuffs and hem:




I plan to make it with the black fabric, and ask Troy's mum to dye me some ribbon to match the colours in the embroidery to use on the cuffs and waistband, and maybe the collar if it needs it, to break up the black.

Seeing it done in the calico makes me want to do one in a lighter fabric too, with a flannelette petticoat underneath to keep warm with or something. It's gorgeous!
I just realised that this post was enormous, so I should probably shut up now.

Periwinkle Fae - week 1

Look! Periwinkle :) She's back. And now on a hand-dyed 32ct jobelan which I *love* from silkweavers, thanks to Anna.

I love her eyes - that one eye took me 3 straight hours of stitching and has about 20 colours but it's worth it.



Periwinkle Fae QS (no background) - (c) HAED and Nadia Tate
Stats:
Started: 1st March 2007
Total Stitches: 20872
Stitches Done:

• 8/3/07 - 1078
  

Look at this!

I have a lovely pile of floss...


and here's a side view:


that's everything I need for Sara Butcher's Truth, Temptation and Autumn. And now my fingers are itching to start them, but I'm going to have to be good - at least I don't have fabric, or I might have!

EDIT: silly me, I forgot to say - that's thanks to the lovely Nicole, who picked it all up for me :) Floss fairies are wonderful. Thankyou Nicole!

In other fun news, Tash and I are starting a Japanese Octagon Box SAL on Mondays as soon as I get my kit. Can't wait - more silks! Mmmmmm....

Goals review and new goals

March's goals:

Stitching:

• keep up with Mystery X (even with that enormous part - eek!) - didn't happen. still working on it now, though getting close - just a bit of the dark blue&green, and the pale green to stitch - and the beads
  
• stitch beads for part 1 - this didn't happen either, though i'm starting to stitch the beads now along with the threads I'm working with (I rotate through the colours, a length at a time so I don't get in a rut)
  
• stick to rotation - sacrificed this one to try and keep the other two. I'll try to do better this month.
  

Life:

• get all homework done, on time - yes! For the first time in my life, it's week 5 and i'm completely up to date. Week 6 actually, and I haven't missed any assignments.
  
• not miss meds AT ALL - yep. Not having a repeat of what happened to make me make this a goal last month!
  
• start taking my lunch to school - no, not this time. Which is frustrating, but it will happen, eventually. Eventually being the operative...
  
• get a bedtime, and stick to it - heh. well, bedtime I got. sticking to it is the hard part. Stitching gets in the way especially.
  
• clean my room - nope, though Mel's said she'll do it for me when she comes up Tuesday.
  

This Month:

Stitching:

• catch up the Mystery, with part 3 done
• stick to the new rotation
• stitch along with Tash when I get my JOB stuff
• not start anything new except JOB
• stitch in the HAED QS SAL with periwinkle at least twice this month
• stitch in the 2nd weekend SAL with From the Ashes
• experiment with cross country on From the Ashes
• think about getting new fabric for frogs...anna and waychie (who have actually seen them), do you think they're worth starting over on jobelan with white silk? Or should I just stick with them as they are?
• not buy ANYTHING else!
  

Life:

• keep my room relatively clean
  
• actually pray my rosary at least once each week
• get fabric together for quilt for school (find it all!)
• get fabric for quilt that's still needed (solid colour fabrics)
• keep up to date with school
• try to get to bed at a reasonable hour each night