Hey, photos!

I found the camera charger. Yay! And now, editing to add that I'm somewhat more awake now so now you get commentary with it.

Here's the frog'n'fairy:

I deviated from my mental parking ways this SAL, which was kind of fun. I'm still parking, sort of, but this is much faster to do it this way. The way I used to do it was...well, insane. I will probably still use that method sometimes, but I wanted to make serious inroads and I did. About 500 stitches I think, all told. I love the fronds coming through, and I'm starting to outline the frog's legs, but you can't really see - yet. Maybe next time I pick it up.

and here's Mystery X - I got heaps done while I was in Tumby but never got around to taking a photo!

It's starting to get too big for decent photos. I'll have to start taking photos of the areas I've worked on soon, rather than the whole thing! And it's only half done....wow.
I miss this piece, I'll have to get back into it again - maybe when I've got peaceful paradise done? At least when there's a lot more done on it!

And, this icon I keep talking about. It's only a start, and only the border, but it is pretty. The photo doesn't do it justice, as usual. I wasn't expecting it to 'glow' this much from the computer generated image. She's a brilliant charter, from what I've stitched so far. Instead of just being brown wood-esque stuff, this actually looks nice!

There are two 'rubies' started in there too. This one's a nightmare to park, so I'm not - just at the edges of pages, as trying to work across the A3 pages with this would be nuts. I've actually folded the pages so that they're A5, and I'm mostly working within the top left section, obviously. It simplifies things, these charts are intricate! I gridded like mad, and I've been using it a lot. This is a lot of fun to stitch, but I'm finding myself missing Peaceful Paradise so that's back on the frame tonight. I'll have to figure out a schedule.

I'm tired, and I'm slightly manic because I'm stressed. But I will be okay, I hope.

Being tired

Well, the math assignment is done, except for neatening it up and writing an introduction and conclusion, which is easy stuff and I will probably do it after dinner. I think dinner is going to be cold meat (for them) and salad, and I'll probably have a peanut butter sandwich with it. I've discovered that a sticky homemade orange marmalade we have is brilliant with peanut butter, so that shouldn't be too bad :) I have also discovered the wonders of ramen! I didn't realise it was lenten...

I went with Mum this morning (morning, ugh), and settled down to work. The first few hours I spent on my math, then in the long lesson after recess (all schools here have a break for half an hour at about 11) I sat down and did the history piece. Which wasn't too bad, and I have a 'supervisor' for the rest of the year for my subjects now. So every time I have to do something under test conditions, I just go up to school with Mum. Easy.

The afternoon was the struggle. I'd worked for hours, and my brain had had enough. Trying to write history notes just wasn't happening for me, so I went up to the library, sat in the sun and read a book. Much better.

I've got quite a bit done on the icon for the little I've worked on it, but I'm thinking I'll take it back off and put peaceful paradise back on. I miss it, and having an extra project is throwing me out of whack - so I'm thinking I'll work on it on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Church days) when I'm not working on schoolwork or something - on Wednesday and Friday I have a lot of free time so not usually an issue - and work on my current WIPs other days. This commission is beautiful, and I love working on it, but I need to find a way to make it work. I need to find this camera to take a photo!

The fabric from the other day has had its second bath now, so I'll rinse it through clean water and hang it up in a few minutes. Lovely and green, should feel cool even if it's not! The weather should finally cool down after this stupid heatwave soon though, so that'll be nice.

Oh - I mentioned the Northern Lights last night. I found a photo album on Flickr of it, so go have a look if you have a few moments - I promise it's worth it! All the historic buildings on this main street of the City (museums etc among other things) are lit up, as if someone painted them, and they change!
Here's the link. And here's a pic for a teaser:



None of that greenery is really there!
Now I'm just settled, it'll be good to have a quiet night. Hanging out fabric, writing up a neat copy of this assignment, and maybe stitching some psalms. I am looking forward to it.

First week

I've survived. Hooray! Four more to go, then Holy Week, then Pascha. Oh, goodness. It's starting to sink in now (getting called Kyriaki almost constantly by Father helps there) that I'm actually going to get baptised soon. After so long waiting... wow.

Rachel, I did see you comment about the veil. Sorry I haven't mentioned it, I keep forgetting! My camera is currently dead, and I can't find the charger. So when I do, you'll get a photo :)

My goodness.

Well, Friday didn't go to plan. Mum needed to do stuff, and needed my help, and then we went shopping for stuff...and I bought fabric...and cooked dinner...and then had to catch a train so I could get to Church for the Akathist (hymn to the Theotokos, aka the Virgin Mary), and then got home really late...

Let me explain that one. The stuff Mum needed to do is boring, so I'll leave that be. Shopping - there were a few things that needed picking up, a few exchanges needed to be made, and I bought myself possibly the cutest 20s style hat ever. I will get a photo of that, too, I promise! It's brown felt and gorgeous. Then we dropped into spotlight (think michaels or joanns) to pick up the floss for this icon as I didn't have a lot of colours in my stash and it was bugging me, and noticed that they still had the fabric I made the purpledress in...well...

I am now the owner of another yard and a half of the same fabric, in emerald green. When I get a spare moment (tomorrow is going to be WORK) it'll become a dress like the purple one! The purple one needs mending, too, so it'll be good to get my sewing machine back out.

The Akathist was beautiful, though does anyone know the meaning of akathist? It translates to 'don't sit down!!' Ow, my feet. Then we picked up vegan chinese as it was the only place open that we could eat (no mcdonalds for us lenten waifs) and went to see Father, 'cause we could. And stayed there for hours. We love him.

Saturday was sleepy and quiet. I had terrible cramps and curled up in a ball for half of it, and made soup in the other. It was good to have some downtime, and boy did I need it because...

Today I got woken up by a bouncy Troy announcing that his friends from Uni were coming to Church with us as they'd rung him. So, dragging myself out of bed and into clothes, we went to Church, then hung around to talk to these friends and one of them's wife, which was lovely, grab lunch after finding a lot of places shut (it was midafternoon) - penne napolitana, and crash at Jeremy's place for a few minutes. The guys fell asleep over their books and I stitched on St Nicholas and kept an eye on the time, waking them up in time to go to a christening, so Jeremy could chant and we could see what we were in for...and then vespers with a congregation of five, and choir of two. It was lovely. Church gives me such peace. Then we grabbed dinner at an Indian place in the city (yummy - dahl, vegetables and fried potato chickpea things, and a bucket of saffron rice), looked at the lights on North Terrace (one of the major streets in the city, all lit up with projectors on the buildings - google North Terrace Northern Lights Australia and you'll see what I mean), and came home. Now I'm dead.

Tomorrow is going to be math assignment, a history summative (source analysis, so no studying, just writing lots), and maybe some stitching when I need breaks. I'm going to school with Mum (a high school teacher), so less distractions that way. Should be good. I have to be supervised for this summative, which is why I'm going there - yay, school.

Troy's brother is home before going away again on duty in the Army, so we bought him an icon of St George to take with him when he goes - he knows enough about icons to appreciate it. We should see him this week - Jeremy and I are going to Troy's place for dinner, so they can meet Jeremy and we can catch up with Matt (brother), his sister, his parents and the nieces. Should be good.

Now though? Now I'm tired. It probably shows in the writing, but I wanted to get all this down while I could!

Slowly, surely...

The last few days have been slow. I was going to write about Lent here, but I won't - not at the top. Most people don't come here to read the religious stuff, and the fact that I'm in Lent doesn't change why everyone else comes here :) It just changes me, or at least how I think.
The fun thing is cooking. Jelly is a good thing - just find some that's vegetable derivative, add fruit, and set in plastic cups in the fridge. Fassolada is always yum, the beans are soaking now, to be made into soup tomorrow. I've discovered a wealth of yummy vegan cooking, and it's fun. It's just also hard. I used to skip meals all the time, and it was easy. Now that I have to consciously think about what I'm eating, I always feel hungry!

School is starting to actually get busy. Mum was home today, and I had a video that needed watching before class - you know how in school you'd spend a lesson watching a video? Well, we only have an hour a week for each subject in 'class', so we watch the videos in our own time. On VCDs. Mum's a history teacher, and it was a history video, so she and I watched it, and that was good. Lent is a good time to spend in Church - we have three services on weekdays (at least), as well as the Saturday evening and Sunday morning services that we always have. So Church last night - like Mass, but without the consecration, done instead with the Eucharist kept from Sunday because the rules say you can't do the consecration on weekdays during Lent, tonight was the long evening prayer service (which I love), and tomorrow is the Akathist - hymns honouring the Theotokos (Mary) for being the Mother of God. Yay, Church. I'm always so much happier having been to Church.

I have a huge amount of homework to do tomorrow though. And it really needs to get done tomorrow, Saturdays always get busy by accident, and it needs doing soon. Sundays are not for schoolwork - it just doesn't happen. I end up at Church for too much of it! I'd like to do some sewing too, but I don't think it will happen.

Here's my list:

• do math homework from textbook
• do practice Maths test
• sort out Jeremy officially being my Maths supervisor
• do the second half of the calculations for a big assignment, and then write it up as the assignment after getting Dad to check it
• do history notes from textbook (a couple chapters)
• do history notes from workbook (a few pages)
• do the questions on one page
• do history notes from the next video
• find another source for an essay on the home front during WWII
• interview my grandmother for the above essay
• photocopy the other source I found
  
• start writing it!
• write interview questions for studies of society
• ask Dmitri if I can interview him, and someone else (Father? Nikki? Despina?)
• interview people
• write notes
• draft article
• do s.o.s. homework.

And that's just the homework!
Other things:

• make fassolada
• make anzac biscuits for me, and for dmitri
• work on cleaning my room
• throw out junk
• feed + water the rats
• plan a menu so I don't end up eating pasta every night

Wish me luck!

Lent is...interesting. You wouldn't think that just changing how I eat would make such a difference, but I think part of it is that it's more than just what we eat. There's a quote from one of the Fathers (Saints of the Church who we refer to, and quote, a LOT, and yes, there are Church Mother's too), St John Chrysostom who lived in the 4th century. It says:

The value of fasting consists not in abstinence only from food, but in a relinquishment of sinful practices, since one who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meat is one who especially disparages it. Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him! If you see a friend enjoying honor, do not envy him. For let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all members of our bodies. Let the hands fast by being pure from avarice. Let the feet fast by ceasing from running to forbidden spectacles. Let the eyes fast by being taught never to fix themselves rudely upon handsome countenances. For looking is the food of the eyes, but if it be unlawful or forbidden it mars the fast and overturns the safety of the soul; but if it be lawful and safe, it adorns fasting. For it would be an instance of the highest absurdity to abstain from meats and unlawful food because of the fast, but with the eyes to feed on what is forbidden. Do you eat flesh? Do not feed on licentiousness by means of the eyes. Let the ear fast also. The fasting of the ear is not to receive evil speaking and calumnies. "You shall not receive an idle report," it says. Let also the mouth fast from foul words. For what does it profit if we abstain from birds and fish, and yet bite and devour our brethren?

Especially that last line. Just...wow. I knew this quote, and then Father read it out tonight and it's just so poignant. This season is about more than food, and I'm learning that rapidly.

Συγχωρήστε

I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning - my body was not cooperative. I did, though, and I'm glad I did. I actually had a very productive day which was nice. My Mum has hurt her back, and spent the morning sitting down, so I sorted out things for her that needed doing, dried up a sink full of dishes and put them away, and cleaned up our formal lounge room. It...well it's a formal lounge room, apparently. It has a lovely fireplace and leather sofas. On the other hand, it also has a collection of embroidery stuff that has escaped my room/couch where I stitch/basket I keep stuff in, a bed that whoever is staying at our house sleeps on (or not, in Troy's case - he prefers a sleeping bag on the floor, weirdo), my crockery+glasses+engagement gifts+stuff, a lot of random junk from varying members of my family, and a lot of mess usually as Troy sleeps there every weekend, and we often have other randoms stay the night there too. And when everyone gets paranoid about my room making me sick, I sleep there. It's a nice room, lots of big windows, but I prefer mine.

Anyway, it was a mess. And my grandmother is staying with us. So, before she came, I got rid of rubbish, a teapot, assorted glasses, mugs, pairs of socks, clothes, junk...at least it's passable now. I vacuumed the floor and stripped the bed, but forgot to remake it because Mum had a physio appointment and I had to drive her up - yay for logging more hours of driving 'practice' (I could quite competently drive on my own, I just need to do the formalities of the next few months). I had a sort of list in my mind, and we went shopping as we were early and down the street already. Well...really, Mum gave me the money and I went shopping. No-egg (egg replacement stuff, a lifesaver for cakes etc), lots of vegies, bread, peanut butter, the makings for fassolada (yes, again, though this time from the greengrocers so much nicer than usual), peaches, nectarines, bananas, and lunch meat for my mum. I took my maths coursework to Mum's appointment, and sat in the waiting room doing my homework. Eventually we figured out a list of things we'd forgotten at the supermarket and went back again.

We came home, I put stuff away (Mum can't bend at the moment) and had class. As would happen, my grandmother got there just as the class started, while my Mum was lying down and not capable of getting up easily. I don't think my teacher noticed me sorting stuff out...I hope not! Class was long and boring, and I have an assignment due on Monday. Fun stuff. I should around to doing it, maybe tomorrow. Noone knew what to cook, so I grabbed my recipe books (and the opportunity) and found a couple nestissimo recipies. We decided that grape tomato pasta looked good (and it was, btw), and I had a recipe for rice pudding made with coconut milk that I wanted to try out. So to the supermarket we went again (much to my friend Daneal's amusement, she works there), grabbed the stuff for dinner and came home to cook again. Pasta was yum - everyone but me and my grandmother added tuna to theirs. My grandmother doesn't like fish, and I can't eat it at the moment! Mm..fish...

It's starting to feel like Lent. There's just something different in the air, and I like it, I think. It's hard though. The title of my post is greek (obviously) and it says 'siychoreeste'. We said it a lot on Sunday night, it means (roughly) 'please forgive me'. I guess I'm conscious of how careless I can be, and end up hurting people. So, forgive me please if I have wronged any of you.

Speaking of Church stuff, I've got a scarf for my baptism! Background here because most people who read this aren't Orthodox. Tradition states that women wear dresses in Church, and scarves on their heads for Communion, at least. I always wear a skirt, but not usually a scarf - I don't take Communion, not being baptised yet, and it just seems awkward and like I'm trying too hard. I did the other night though, and it was nice. Helps me focus. ANYWAY, off topic Kyrie, Tradition also states that baptised converts wear white for eight days after their baptism. I've had a beautiful white cheesecloth dress (which I may or may not have to wear long sleeves and tights under if the weather stays hot through April like it is now) for months, but the problem has been a scarf - I *will* take Communion that night, for the first time, at Pascha. Wearing white. But I'm not likely to use a white scarf again. I mentioned it to my Mum, who had a brilliant suggestion. She grew up anglican, and had a lovely veil for her confirmation, white net with edging and a cross embroidered at the centre back. It's round, and still white as it's been carefully kept safe. We found it today, and it fits perfectly, so I'll sew a few narrow ribbons on so that I can tie it under my hair to keep it in place, and it'll be wonderful to wear a family heirloom of sorts for this.

Oh yes. Stitching! I got two things today. One is a gift for my sister for Easter, which I have stashed away carefully, and won't talk about here even though she doesn't read this blog - you'll find out at Western Easter when I give it to her, and the other is an icon. Well, sort of :) It's the chart for the St Nicholas icon Solaria Gallery has made. I've mentioned before that my friend Nikos wants to pay me to stitch him an icon - well, it's that one. I've been gridding the fabric tonight, and sorting out threads. Maybe in the morning I'll start stitching, we will see. The border is incredible, I think I am going to have a lot of fun stitching this.

It's late, though. I should go sleep. So I will end this, and try to post photos tomorrow of Frog'n'fairy.

Wanting to write

I'm tired, more from emotion than from actual physical activity, I think. The last few days have been hard. If this is indicative of Lent, it's not going to be the food side of things that is hard! Hopefully I will learn something though, and it will be better.

I have been happily stitching away on A Restful Night, cross country! It's slightly textured, but not in a way that bothers me, I think :) Hopefully a good press will fix it. I've got 700ish stitches done, which I'm pleased with, and have basically finished the mushroom on this side. Froggy's eye is outlined and rapidly being filled in, and there is an outline of his legs on that side now. I'll take a photo when I finish stitching for the night, or tomorrow. Not as much work as I might have liked, but I also haven't been home for a lot of this weekend. All in all, I am pleased. She is beautiful, and I will be so glad to have her finished. I am thinking about working on her until I finish the page, or go mad from confetti. One or the other! It's all gridded now, which makes it easier.

Tomorrow I have class, which I don't want to go to, and a sale at Spotlight (habadashery store) which I do want to go to. Maybe I'll get to both? I'd like to make a twin of the purpledress I wear all the time in summer in another fabric, and get some more interfacing as I am running out. And my γιαγιά is coming to stay. It's always wonderful to have her here, and she can help me fix the collar on this shirt that is refusing to play nice... :)

Today was a public holiday here, which was nice - my family was home. We had a bbq for lunch (and I raided the freezer for veggie patties) and ate a lot of potatoes, bbq'd and crispy, yum. I sat and stitched, read a bit, wasted time. I had a meeting tonight too for one of my Churches, they have a council to set up a youth group so I ended up there for some reason, and got nominated minute-taker as I can write shorthand. It was a lovely cafe, I will have to go back another time. Bindi would like it, lots of (fancy!) gluten free pasta dishes. Hopefully we'll set something up and all will go well. God willing :)

Now, I am just tired. It is only 11, and I want to stitch, but my eyes are saying no. So I think I'll go eat some more soup and fall into bed.

Κυρίε ελεήσον.

Forgiveness Sunday

Wow. It's 10:38pm as I start to write this, but it feels so much later. I'm so tired.

In the Orthodox Church, we have a few weeks of preparation before Lent, the last of which is called Cheesefare Week (and means no meat or fish, but LOTS of milk! Got to use it all up, right? *wink*) and then the last Sunday is called Forgiveness Sunday. This year, that was today.

It's an intense day, not really from the services - it's something 'in the air' I suppose. Church this morning was just a normal Divine Liturgy (Mass), though it was HOT (40*C, ugh), but with only a few people because when it's hot most people at this Church stay home. We had been asked to help at the Greek festival, but as it was so hot there were very few people there. The minute we walked in the sun we just about died, and I turn red really easily so I was beetroot coloured by the time I got to the stall! People threw cold water at me and I cooled down. Eventually we got bored, and after some yummy food and thickshakes (c'mon, last day to eat dairy - THICKSHAKE!) we dropped Troy at his house and I went back to Jeremy's house to wait the afternoon out (another four hours, ish) before Vespers. He gave me a book called Dancing Alone by Frank Schaeffer which is wonderful...but he pulls no punches so it's hard going. Very true, just...ouch! He napped, and I read, and worked on memorising Psalm 50 (51 for everyone not Orthodox) which is one of my goals for this Lent.

Vespers was...wow. We had a packed Church, and the Bishop came, and we had every greek priest from the state, I think! It was incredible. And I'm used to Vespers, but this was something new. Halfway through the service they all processed through the Church, and then went inside the altar (there's a screen in front) and shut the doors. When they came out again, they had swapped their light coloured vestments for dark ones, and it was time for Lent to begin. The music changes, too - much more solemn, and we said Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy) 40 times in a row! All the lights were turned out, and we finished the service in the dark. At the end, we lined up and the Bishop and priests were in a row, in order of rank, and we kissed each one's hand as they asked us to forgive them anything they might have done against us, and we asked the same in return. Then we went around doing the same to all our friends, and wishing each other a blessed fast!

Lent isn't as hard for us, I think. We all do it together, and it's a communal thing. Lots of chickpea curry for me, I think, and fassolada - bean soup with lots of vegies. We'll see if I still think it's 'easy' in a few weeks though!

The other thing for me is that it's a harbinger. At the end of Lent, 40ish days from now, I will make my vows before God and my Church to Orthodoxy, and be baptised. Which is wonderful, but kind of scary. As Father said tonight, this begins the time of earnest preparation.

May God help me :)

I know this is all a bit religious for my blog, even though I talk about religion a bit. It's just... so much part of my life, and today is so significant.

As we do this for all - to anyone reading this, all my friends and those I don't know, please forgive me anything I may have done to offend or hurt you in the past year, and to any Orthodox readers - have a blessed fast!

I finally got sick of sky

...and it's the 2nd weekend of the month, so I took a photo, and got out A Restful Night again :)

Here's Peaceful Paradise as of this afternoon.


I did the commentary on it last post, the only things I've added since I wrote that was some more lettering and sky.

It's looking nice, I just wish I could get the creases out. They come out, eventually - about the same time as I put it back on the q-snaps!

Oh well. I'm back working on A Restful Night and eating as much chocolate and date loaf as possible, before Sunday night. Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Something interesting happened

I promised to blog again when something interesting happened. Well, here you are.

Thursday night we went fridge-buying. Troy...well, their fridge just didn't work. At all. The freezer worked...but the fridge, if you left a lettuce in there for a weekend it turned to slime. So, I've been eagle-eyed looking out for a fridge that he could afford, or some other option for the past six months or so. On the livejournal community for my city, someone mentioned looking for a second hand fridge, and a girl said well we're trying to sell one... and put photos, specs, etc. The original person didn't want it as apparently it didn't have enough freezer space for their icecream maker, but I put dibs on it, and after borrowing my dad's trailer and Jeremy (and his car), we headed off about 40minutes down south from where I live, to buy a fridge for $50AU (equivalent pricing would be about $25US, regardless of the exchange rate). We got there, and the fridge was there - seriously 'vintage' looking, but reliable and not particularly noisy. And the freezer is quite big so I'm not sure what the other person's problem was! Problem was trying to get the massive (and heavy!) fridge onto the trailer, which didn't have a ramp attached, with just two guys (seller's fiance and Troy, Jeremy's back is currently hurt) to get it on there. Eventually after much moving of cars and trailers, and a couple boards, and a trolley... and a bit of swearing... it ended up there, and we tied it down firmly. Money paid, we then had a race to get to a place half an hour NORTH of my house in half an hour. Thankfully, it wasn't a straight line including my house but instead the long side of a triangle, so we made it in 40 minutes, but without dinner. Bible study was...itself. Good fun, great discussion, and wonderful people. Troy got given the promise of a free haircut/style (as long as he was the model for a hairdresser taking her final exam, but our friend had had his hair cut by her and it looked great), and I helped make greek cookie/cake things. I forget what they're called (even though I was told a few times), but they have lemon rind in them and they're like a fat oval cookie with nuts in the middle. Learning to make greek food is mostly done by example, and it's fun to do. And then Father decided that since it was cheesefare week (think shrove tuesday/mardi gras without meat and lasting a week) we needed icecream and sent D out with money to purchase said icecream! He came back with boxes of cornettos and magnums and we happily munched our way through them. Eventually we got kicked out (after being given a letter from the Bishop to say we could be baptised, YAY) and went home. We realised that it was 10:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner, so we started in search of somewhere that was still open and sold vegetarian food. Not a common occurance, believe me! Finally we found a service station that also had a subway, and ate salad subs, then went back to Troy's place to grab all his housemates (he lives with two other guys and a girl) and his mate, who was also there, to unload the fridge (which they were very impressed with). And then Jeremy took me home. I got inside after midnight! It was a fun night.

The last few days, on the other hand, have been slow. I have become allergic to *something* in the air, not sure what, and it's made me lose my voice, not be able to breathe properly, and sneeze a lot. So I just settled down to stitch and do some homework as I was useless for anything else!

Last night we watched Stardust, which I loved in the theatres, and Troy hadn't seen. He loved it too - it's a great movie. I filled in a lot of sky, stitched the last few stars, and added another ornament to the text. I think I stitched some text in there too, but I don't remember what. I've now started the next page down, too, as the border extends there and I had thread in my needle when I reached the end of the page, and this ornament that I added goes over the page too. It's nice to start a new page! I think the next row of pages will go quite quickly, it's all text rather than the huge blocks of sky which have slowed me down. I'm not looking forward to stitching the grass in the last row though!

God-willing we'll get to Vespers tonight (I miss it, haven't been in three weeks), and Church tomorrow. There's a Greek festival on tomorrow, and I'm helping to sell stuff, so that should be fun!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. My computer came back to life last night, too. It decided to die and refuse to come back to life a few days ago, but after removing the battery and reinserting it it decided that maybe it'd give life another shot. I immediately backed up every chart I own, as especially Chatelaines are VERY expensive to replace!

Is it a sign of mad-stitcher disease that when your laptop goes down with the data of the past four years on it, you worry about the charts, rather than anything else?

Argh (retirements)

Apparently HAED are retiring Sara Butcher's work. This isn't that surprising, but it does mean I need to do some shopping. I have a bunch of her stuff yet to be started, but I want to complete at least one 'set', and buy a few more! Her stuff is beautiful stitched up.

So here is my list (for personal reference):

• spring
• summer
• winter
• crown of creation

I have autumn already.

As to life - well, it's slow, and my illness is still playing up. Not fun. But that's okay. I'm enjoying eating large quantities of dairy for cheesefare week, and making cakes (which vanish rapidly).

I've been beavering away on Peaceful Paradise, and it's coming together well - the sky is slowly filling in, and everything else is getting done and is a lot of fun. I'm still enjoying stitching stars, and I'm close to having the lettering done for the first 'row' of pages, yay!

When something interesting happens, I'll post again.

Randomosity

The last few days have been...well, different. Saturday I spent in bed, Sunday was long and exhausting but wonderful - Judgement Sunday, the second Sunday before Lent. It was also the last day we got to eat meat before Pascha - Easter, on April 27th. I love the icons for this feast:


Everything there should make sense to most people - it's the icon for the story of the Last Judgement in Matthew 25. To those not used to Orthodox iconography, the two people with Christ (closest to Him) are the Theotokos (Mary) and St John the Baptist. I remember the first time I saw an icon of St John and wondered who it was - it seemed logically to be St John the Baptist, but he had wings! Why was he an angel? It turns out, it's a pun of sorts. Angelos means 'messenger' so it can mean angel, but it can mean another messenger too. No wings in this icon though. The men on thrones either side are Ss Peter and Paul representing the apostles, and the people bowing at His feet are Adam and Eve representing the human race.

Jeremy, Daniel and I went for lunch after Church (and we all had meat, naturally - Jeremy asked for the biggest schnitzel they had, and when the lady figured out we were Orthodox - she was married to a Greek guy - she put ham on it too) and sitting down with a bottle of red Jeremy made a toast to 'a good defence before the dread judgement seat of Christ' - a phrase from the Liturgy, one of the things we ask God for at least once every service. It was an odd toast, but a good one - and thoroughly memorable.

We had a quiz night that night at Church, and my table won, which was fun. I like quiz nights, they're a fun kind of crazy.

I've spent the last few days recovering though. Just settling and stitching. My sister bought her formal dress (formal = prom, minus the politics) yesterday and it's so sweet, rosebud pink. She looks lovely in it.

Here's my weekly update on Peaceful Paradise, anyway. Less got done this week - last week's seems to have been a marathon update!


The first two rows of lettering are totally done now, and I'm working on the rest. Again, I'm getting bogged down in the sky, but I'm alternating a length of thread in that with a length of thread on anything else and that's helping. When I'm not sick of blue I'll often do two lengths. It's worth it, I love the effect that it has with the stars - and the stars are wonderful, so much fun to stitch! The moon is new this week too. And I've just reached a point where I need to stitch an ornament amongst the text, which is nice - always good to stitch on something different. I'm not sure what I'll do if I finish everything else before I finish the sky - I think I'll just start the next page down, while finishing the sky. I learned from last time not to try and just stitch sky, I got so sick of this piece I couldn't look at it for a while!

March!

I don't know how it's suddenly become March. It was the beginning of February only recently!

I'm really not well. I spent most of today in bed, and went to bed very early last night. Tonight will probably be early too, when I've had a bath as my hair is gross. I could wear a scarf perhaps, but I think I just really need to wash my hair. I think I'll dig something 'fashionable' out of my wardrobe too, though I honestly don't know what is at the moment, since I feel terrible and it's always nice to dress up when you feel bad. Or else I'll just wear my favourite outfit and be done with it!

I haven't set goals in ages, and I don't think I'll set impressive ones this time. But it is fun to set a few and see how I go.

Stitching:

• Peaceful Paradise: finish the final two pages for the first row and make a good start on two from the second.
• A Restful Night: finish the next row, row 13
• Finish Jo's gift

Other:

• Make Jeremy's present
• Learn to cook something nestissimo other than fassolada
• Get to as many lenten services as possible
• Buy all my chocolate before western Easter
• NOT EAT ANY
• Try not to be put out by not being able to eat chocolate with everyone else
• Keep up with schoolwork

That should do me. Now I'm going to get back to stitching starts on Peaceful Paradise, and make some more inroads on the sky (again, this sky will be the death of me...)

Angel wings and making progress

I'm exhausted, pushing myself too hard I think. It's only 11, but I'm thinking of going to bed. I'm just...tired. I feel old some nights, even though I'm not even 20. I don't want pity, but every now and then it does hit me what it means to have this.

Some nights I just drag a chair before the icons and sit there with the Psalms and the candle lit, just in peace. I can't get to Church, but I am reminded of the company of Heaven, and that I am not alone. That helps. When I'm too weak to stand long enough to say my prayers it's a bitter pill to swallow.

I sound down here. I'm not, not really. Just so very tired. This too will pass. I've found the Psalms to be a comfort, and I'm trying to get seriously back into reading them.

I had class today, and this time I 'attended' lying down in bed, which helped - I was more alert because I didn't have to fight to be 'up'. With the phone by my side on speakerphone and the whiteboard on my laptop, class was in session and I understood the work, I think. I have an assignment to work on now, and so I'll need to get into working on that soon. I'm starting to get used to having schoolwork again. I'd promised to make pastitsio tonight, but didn't start it until about 5 figuring that I'd get it done in time for dinner. Heh. I forgot that bechamel sauce takes standing there and only working on it, you can't try and cook meat and bechamel sauce at the same time. So that took a while...and then I found out we didn't have parmesan cheese even though Mum had assured me that we did...so she went and bought some...and I got all the 'elements' (pastitsio is like spag bol&lasagna crossed) finished - pasta, bechamel sauce, meatandtomato stuff... and it was 8:30...and it had to cook for an hour...

We bought pizza. I'm going to bake it tomorrow afternoon, and it'll be dinner tomorrow night! It's Wednesday, but I'm not well, so the red meat will do me good. I'm being good, to those eagle eyed people who tell me that if I stick to the Church fasts when I'm sick they'll hang me from the belltower by my ankles! Lent starts soon, that'll be interesting.

Making pastitsio was fun though. If I'm well enough tomorrow I plan to do some baking, we need a bikkie (cookie) binge in the next week or so before lent begins, and I aim to provide plenty to eat! I also want to give a bunch to Dmitri's Mum for feeding us the other night when we were at his house - we had galaktobouriko (think vanilla slice, greek style) and yiros/gyros, home made and wonderful.

I'm trying to be productive. I'm sick of despondency, you can only lie in bed and glare at the world for so long.

Oh yes. I started this post because I wanted to share a picture of Peaceful Paradise, which I've made quite a bit of progress on :)


It's harder to get good photos now, and also I was losing the light, but you get the idea. It's getting BIG! I've almost got all the way across in the border now, just the diagonal section to go (but I can't reach it where the frame is) and I'm happily filling in stars, the sky, the moon (that curved line is part of it) and lettering. There are some pretty ornaments among the text that I get to stitch soon too, which will be fun :)

I especially like the stars, they are fun to stitch, and the angel is awesome. It's nice to have lettering that isn't just plain old Psalm 22 (23 to all you non-Orthodox), it's fun.

Anyway, I'm knocking off. Goodnight all!

I got tagged!

Apparently I am interesting enough to have got tagged by the lovely (and very quick stitching) Astrid.

So, here's the game.

Rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the Rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Seven weird or random facts about me:

1. I am Orthodox Christian - most people have heard of us somehow, if only that the Greek and Russians have weird but beautiful Churches. I am neither, but I attend a Greek Orthodox Church, and love it.
2. I got named for a prayer. My name is Kyrie-Eleison, which is Greek (no my parents are not Orthodox) and means Lord have mercy. We say it about fiftyzillion times every Church service, and most Orthodox people I've met find it hilarious.
3. I have two names. One is my legal 'world' name, as above, and the second is my Church name, as we take the name of a Saint when we are baptised. So my Church name is Kyriaki, for St Kyriaki the Great Martyr.
4. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This is not fun. Basically, it's like having a really bad dose of the flu, permanently. Yay.
5. I still live at home, with my family - my parents, and my younger sister, Belinda.
6. I am engaged to a lovely guy named Troy. We'll get married, eventually, when money sorts itself out.
7. I have country blood, and I'm happiest when I'm not in the city - preferably by the sea or in the mountains.

Seven people I tag:
Chiasmata, Sally, Blake, Seraphim and anyone else that wants to do it (I'm terrible at tagging)

Another week

It's Saturday night now, and I missed Vespers again. This probably isn't a totally bad thing, as I'm really not well. C'est la vie. I've finished about half of my current page on peaceful paradise now, which is fun - I got to move the frame. The angel is all done now, and looks beautiful, though she's currently covered by the frame. I'll take a photo on Monday.

The stars are the most fun to stitch I think, there are so many different kinds. It's not like the day sky where it was just mostly blue with the odd blobby cloud. Boring. This can get tedious, but it's worth it to see the glow of the stars against the background. Slowly, steadily, I am getting there. It's fun!

I have a new project too - I meant to talk about it before, but I got Father's blessing to do it first! My friend Νικος - Nikos, or Nick, from Greece, has asked me to stitch him an icon - Solaria gallery's icon of St Nicholas, specifically. This one:


And I asked Father and he said yes, so I plan to stitch it over one on 32ct...either silk gauze or jobelan, depending on what I end up deciding. Should be fun - he ordered the chart and sent it to my house tonight, and he's going to pay for materials and wants to pay me for my time, but we'll talk about 'time', when I've got it finished. I think it will be fun :) It's such an honour to stitch something holy...

Anyway, I am tired, and I need to go to bed. So I'll end now - I have Church in the morning, Sunday of the Prodigal Sun. Halfway through the Triodion, almost in Lent... Κυριέ ελεήσον.

School, Chronic Fatigue Style

Well, I just had my first lesson. And it went well. The topic is matrices, and my class seems nice enough - two other girls and two boys, and the teacher. I got most of the materials I need for this term in the mail today, and it ended up looking like this:


Why yes, that is my laptop, and my blogsite! This is my bed, too, btw. I do an awful lot of stuff from my bed or my stitching spot on the couch. The purple thing is one of my workbooks - they have the whole unit's information and excercises in them, and we just stick them in a binder and use them as needed. The teacher says to get pgs x-y done, and we do, before the next lesson.

The writing on the paper on the wall is a list of greek vocab that I'm learning. The bottom words that you can just make out are αρουραιος, arouraios (ai prounouned like eh in meh) = rat, and ναός, naos = Church. And yes my room is that colour. I like it.

When I get this mess cleaned up I'll take a photo! Lots of stuff is in boxes or thrown out now, I am being ruthless this time. I have to be, I'm not allowed clutter anymore.

Speaking of cleaning, this is what I'm working on in between attacking the pile of clothes on my floor:

This is my desk. I need to clear it off so I can use it for school! Most things on there are either junk or recognisable for what they are, the bag is full of spare dmc all in baggies according to number (if there are multiples) or 100 (if there is only one of a colour). It will find a new home, NOT on my desk. I just haven't needed a desk for almost a year, so it's sat languishing. Poor thing. I think when it's cleaned and set up it needs an icon of the Three Heirachs (patron Saints of those who study/teach), don't you?

Anyway, I'm trying to get things done. I'm very tired, and I should at least get a start on my math homework, and I need to get another assignment done tonight too.

I can has photo post?

I can!

I woke up when Mum's alarm clock went off today, so I've been up for hours. I'm glad I went to bed early for me last night, it helped. Going swimming just relaxed everything, I should do it more often. Being weightless = very good for relieving joint pain.

So, we had the Sampler SAL on the HAED BB this weekend, and I stitched Peaceful Paradise - a natural choice given my current obsession with it. My eyes are not focussing properly sometimes (a side effect of my illness that doc doesn't understand, yet) but I just rest them a lot.
Here's the after photo:

Just a little bit of sun-ray and eye left to go, and the top panel of this side will be done. And just a few letters, and the writing will be done for this page too! I've cheated a little and started the writing on the next page where it had colours, as I had the colours already in my needle when I stitched 'his' so I figured I'd be productive. I can't wait to start the next psalm, psalm 23 is lovely but I've heard it so many times it seems cliched on its own. This is staying on the frame for now, at least until next weekend which is the themed SAL (we like SALs, if you hadn't noticed) which is 'animals' this month, so froggy will be coming out to play, if I can tear myself away from my psalms! I really need to take this to show Father one day, he'd like it I think.

And in other photos:
Here's what was in the bag I showed you yesterday, my PIF gift from Sally


And here is a closeup of the little pillow scissor keeper:


Also, I realised this morning how appropriate this is - Sally, did you know that the Forget-Me-Not is the symbol for Chronic Fatigue? CFS is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, so forget "ME" not. :)

It's lovely, thankyou again. Now I'm off to try and sort out the pile of clothes on my floor, and get ready for my class this afternoon (on the phone)

PIF received!

Look what I got from the lovely Sally:


Drawn Thread's "Forget me not Scissor keep", and two skeins of the DMC satin silks. So shiny! I took a photo of the scissor keep, but it came out blurry and I didn't realise until the light was gone. So you'll get a new photo tomorrow. Until then, you get a teaser ;)

As to today.

Well, I saw the doc. Who looked at me and went oh..no...
See, last time I saw him it was October. And I'd just managed to get 'not-sick'. This lasted two months, and I've been spiralling since. So, now I have to give my rats away or keep going up to the falling down house on our property that we keep stuff in every day to feed them, and I have to have the carpet ripped out of my bedroom and relaid with floorboards, like in our living room/dining room/pantry/kitchen/hallway (it all sort of flows on from one another). I don't mind the carpet, in fact I like that, but the rats is sad - I love my girls. Champers lives down here in Bindi's room with Sosspiri, which at least means I see my favourite girl, but it's still sad. The writing has been on the wall for a while though. We changed my meds slightly, and discovered new complications, yay. So I get more blood tests and a CAT scan of my sinuses, and we'll see if I've exploded yet.

So I spent today trying to clean my room up so that we can rip the carpet up, even just to leave concrete until the floorboards are laid. I got a lot done, but my clothes need sorting (and rationalising, I have so much that needs throwing out/giving away), and my desk and the corners, and all other surfaces, are a bit...nuts, still. But the main part of my room is fixed! I'll be doing my lessons at the dinner table tomorrow though. I have my first lesson - maths, tomorrow, which should be good, and God-willing everything will come in the mail first. Yay school!

Tonight though, at about 5:30 we left and went to the beach - me, Troy, his friend Frank, Frank's gf JoJo and Nathan. After swimming for a couple hours and throwing seaweed at each other (we are adults, we promise) we went hunting for fish and chips, but at 9pm they were all shut. Oh well, we went to Glenelg (where everything shuts at 10:30) and got pasta, then icecream. Num. Frank drives like a maniac, but he's good at it, so we drifted a lot of the way home! Not exactly safe, but a lot of fun. And now I am dead, but happy. Going swimming helped, it made me feel normal again to be in the water, with all the stress off my body.

So, soon I will sleep. Today has been good.

Thankyou so much Sally, it's lovely. I've got it hanging on a doorknob at the moment.

Stitching and stuff

I've been happily working, and life's found a steady pace.

I went and sorted out correspondence school stuff on Friday, and that's set up - I now have 'classes' on the phone/internet three times a week for 15min-1hr, and work from workbooks mostly. Sounds good to me, now just to rediscover my desk! My subjects are Maths Methods (academic maths, but without the stress of the top tier math), Studies of Society (sociology YES), and Australian History (love love love history). So this should be good.

Today's the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican in the Church - the Gospel reading is really short, so I'll post it. It's a good story, even if you're not religious:

The Lord said this parable, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

And here's the icon (which I really like):


So, it's one of the three Sundays leading up to Lent in the East. This one reminds us not to be too proud of ourselves, especially in our sacrifices and fasting - which is what we do during Lent. So, a fast free week (usually we eat vegan on Wednesday and Friday), and it was a beautiful homily this morning. Jeremy's away visiting his family (his Dad just had an operation) but I did get to see Nona (godmother) Nikki, and my parents came with me and seemed to like it.

Yesterday was just sleepy. Nothing much happened, we just hung around, and today was Church, and now I'm exhausted. Troy and I have discovered that if he gets to the knots in my muscles (which are really deep down, and he has a knack for finding) that the stabbing pains don't affect me so much, and so he did that last night before sleep (I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow) but it hurt a lot and I had a pillow I was hugging tight. I'm glad he did it though.

And tonight...well, tonight I'm just resting. Veg-ing and watching tv, So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight, and I plan to settle down with my stitching and rest.

Oh yeah, I took a before picture for Peaceful Paradise, too. So this is what it looked like Thursday night:

Letter writing and other fun

Well, I can't remember if I said. So, again - Troy and I are getting baptised on holy saturday, Θεού θέλοντος (God willing), which is April 26 for us in the East. This is dependent on writing a letter to the bishop asking and explaining. I'm in the middle of writing that, and it's...eek. However, my good friend Seraphim/Salvatore has threatened to hang me from something by the ankles for stressing over it (the usual threat amongst my Church and Orthodox friends) so I'm taking a break, and letting it be Troy's turn to write a bit (we're writing it together).

I am finally sort of okay. I got sick for a few days there! But Wednesday night I gritted my teeth and got needle and thread back out, and have finished a row on A Restful Night, but the camera currently escapes me so no picture for now. Yesterday I got the Whiskey WDW out and started swapping between a length of it and a length of something else on Peaceful Paradise. Half the sun's rays are done now, all the yellow lettering I hadn't done is done, and I'm filling in some of the sun's face with the needle that's currently threaded and in my work. Other than that I've just been filing in lettering - oh and the sky's done too. I've got about a line total left on page 2 to go (two half lines) and when I've got that done, presuming the gold is filled in the sun, I can start on the other half. It'll be nice to have the other psalm in, because everyone just goes oh Psalm 23 that's nice but cliche'd. Besides, it has stars. Stars are cool.

I'm also going back to school. Tomorrow I've got an interview thingo to set things up, but fourth time's the charm, I'm determined to get my SACE (high school cert) this year. I have two subjects done, I need five. So I'm going to do three, Θεού θέλοντος, by correspondence. So that desk in my room might get some work done on it after all! They send the work, you do it, and mail it back, with a phone call once a week. Sounds just about right, because I couldn't make it to a brick and mortar school, and my health is sporadic at best, and on normal days the brainfog doesn't lift until about 5pm. Today is a good day for some reason, but I can hardly rely on it being like this! So this way I can do my schoolwork in the evenings. I need to set up a timetable of some kind, or at least a list of 'must do's for each day that get enforced. My total lack of ability to stick to rotations gives you some idea of how well a timetable is going to work out, but I need to figure something out.

It's funny, my rotation. I have one. I didn't plan it, it's just how it's working at the moment:

• Start month working on whatever the current obsession is
  
• sometime in the week before 2nd weekend of the month, start work on A Restful Night. (for challenge SAL) Work on this until bored (usually monday or tuesday after the SAL)
• pick up something else, or Peaceful Paradise
• start work on Peaceful Paradise on friday of 3rd weekend (for sampler SAL)
• work until bored
• work on whatever, from the list of WIPs
• no starting anything new unless I stitch a row of ARN and still desperately want to start it after that
• chart stashing is fine, kitting is not, except in case of above

The list:
current WIPs:

• Peaceful Paradise
• QS A Restful Night
• Mystery X

SWIPs (slow works in progress):

• Dance of the Graces
• Noon Basking
• Tranquility Mystery Sampler
• Japanese Octagon Box
• TGOSM Mystery Sampler

and way too many new starts screaming but being ignored (for now)

...except that Periphaeria mystery that is starting soon...maybe...

This one...

should be much shorter. Though I say should, because the last one was only supposed to be a few lines too! Again, the same disclaimer. Brainfog is alive and well here.

Today isn't very interesting to write about anyway. Tomorrow I'll take a photo of A Restful Night, which I didn't get to finish the row on this weekend. I actually haven't stitched since Friday, I've just been too busy and then I was sick. But I fulfilled the requirements, and that's what matters. I don't want to fail this challenge this year!

I got the last skein of floss for Peaceful Paradise today, too. It's a lovely golden brown colour, and will fill in the sun, angel's wings and halo, and some of the lettering. So when I finish off this row of A Restful Night, I'll have to get back into working on it. I miss it just enough to work on it again now, and it's the SAL weekend for a sampler this weekend, so it's about time! Maybe I'll actually get this one done in a reasonable amount of time?

Today...I got up, moped around the house for a while, got Troy up, and then went back to bed. I fell asleep with my prayer rope in my hand, and slept all afternoon. My family woke me up for dinner, and then tv was interesting without taking much effort to concentrate on. Now it is 11pm though, and my eyes are trying to close on their own, so after eating a couple pieces of crumpet toast with golden syrup and butter (yum and totally unhealthy) I am off to bed.

Oh and for those interested - you crazy also-Orthodox and anyone else who likes icons: this is my patron Saint, and there was an icon of her in this particular style but full length at the Church the other night.



It's St Kyriaki, and I got the icon from here. You can find her story here in part but it's not the full one, I just can't link to a longer version because the only place I can find it on the net has it on a page with all the other Saints for July!

This post may contain...

nuts, brain-fog, and rambling.

Hi all, I just realised I haven't posted in almost a week - again. So here I am.

As far as stitching is concerned, I've been working happily on the frog'n'fairy aka A Restful Night, and have about 200 stitches left to go on this row, before I take a picture - though if I don't get it done by tomorrow night, I'll take a photo anyway as it's the end of the Challenge SAL on the HAED BB.

I realised earlier that I haven't posted about my illness in a while. I suppose that's mostly because I just figure it's better to get on with life. With the exception of the comment in my sidebar, you'd hardly know that I have ME/CFS+FMS by my posting. I don't have it nearly as bad as some, just enough to be a pain in the everywhere - literally. As to how I've been? Well, I've had an interesting few weeks. I got really really sick for a while, perked up for a while, and then the last few days have been ok brainwise but kind of painful. Being the stoic that I am, I've stayed off pain meds as much as possible, but getting up in the morning with stabbing pains along your leg and arm bones is not fun. Especially when your fiance goes to rub your back sympathetically when you say about it when you see him, and it's THEN that you realise that he's making the pain in your back better by doing that too...wait, my back hurt before?

As far as doing stuff though, I've had a good few days. Nothing particularly interesting, besides making Fassolada which is an awesome greek bean soup - and best of all, totally vegan so therefore totally nestissimo, a word that the greeks use a lot and basically means 'allowable during the fast'. The english equivalent is 'lenten' but I'm not as fond of it, especially since it associates with Great Lent and the time before Easter is hardly the only time we fast. Us crazy Orthodox... so anyway, that was dinner on Wednesday night for myself and my sister, who declared that she doesn't like vegetable soup and then ate the whole bowl. Mmmhmmm... No complaints here though, it's nice that she actually liked my cooking! It was also my father's dinner on Thursday night (we were all out) and then Troy and I ate it again on Friday when the rest of my family were busy eating chops and vegies. Not bad for one pot of soup, that probably cost about $10AU (about $5 US) to make!

Thursdaynightgroup resumed this week too, and in true Orthodox fashion we had a liturgical service to commemorate this fact. The 'small blessing of the waters' - a short service, with a ring-in choir (much to the amusement of all present besides the choir who didn't know that they WERE the choir until 30 seconds before we started...) and then lining up to be blessed by Father by being splashed on the head with holy water from a bunch of basil he was holding. I got called a 'distracting troublemaker', what a lovely way to start the year! Father loves to tease me, and I get called trouble more than anything else, I think. The study itself was on the Gospel of Mark, which we're going to be working through for the foreseeable future except for brief interruptions for significant feasts etc (I can think of a couple that might fit 'significant' in the church calendar soon...) and we got through the first 10 or so verses, in the space of about an hour. Actually quite good for our group - we are VERY good at sidetracking and tangents, and so is Father. Study also included (by way of this) the life of St Paraskeve in nutshell form, a conversation on whether Saints feel the same pain in death as Christ felt, why Saints glowed at their martyrdom, and a few other things...I forget what. And then we hung around drinking tea and eating honey crackles and toblerone, and I talked to Daniel for ages.

I plan to get my sister to make me a 'my invisible chronic illness is more real than your imaginary medical expertise' LJ-icon that I can use there, and on forums and stuff. It's just so wonderfully snarky!

Anyway. Recently? Last night we had double-vespers again - first at normal-vespers-Church and the second at a greek church I hadn't been to before, but is BEAUTIFUL. It was the feast day of St Haralambos today and our 'day' for Church starts at vespers the night before - and this Church had the relics of this Saint visiting, along with the abbot of a monastery...so, we went :) And it was great! Except for the really really long protestant-rivalling-in-length sermon, which would have been wonderful if it wasn't in Greek. Jeremy and Troy both fell asleep, and I settled down with my prayer rope and the psalms which I snuck out of my bag and went unnoticed among the service books. Apparently it was good, and I got a summary from an older guy I knew who speaks Greek, so that was good. The bishop was there too and so we kissed his hand, and Troy and I were introduced to the abbot by Father, and he gave his blessing for our baptism and spoke to us and it was wonderful. Then we had Church this morning, and sat around talking after, and then took a lovely lady home and she invited us in for tea, which we drank middle-eastern style - in tea glasses, with lots of sugar, no milk, and sage brewed in it. YUM. And middle-eastern fairy floss which is less sweet and sticky, and more dense, and yum again.

About then I came home and crashed on the couch. I may not had done anything much for a week, but the last day-ish has just totally knocked me out. So a rest tonight, and a quiet day tomorrow, I think.

Kudos to anyone who got through all this!

A Peaceful Picture

Finally I cobbled together the charger and the cord from another charger, which miraculously fit, and I have a camera again. YAY! So here's a picture for you:



Apologies for the stray threads :)

Today's overcast and grey, but I've got a cd of chant on and I'm settled down stitching A Restful Night. It's peaceful today.

You know you've been stitching on 40ct too long

...when you go to stitch 1x1 on 32ct jobelan and think that the threads are huge!

I finally reached my limit on Peaceful Paradise, and put it down. I'll take a photo soon, it looks wonderful. I love how it's stitching up! The sky is almost done - totally done for page 1, and very close to done for page 2, and most of the lettering (sans two letters) is done for page 1, too. Half the lettering is done for page 2. I'll take a photo when I can, but sister dear has still not found the camera charger. Grr!

I was forcing myself to work on it, and then finally realised that I really wasn't enjoying it. And stitching is supposed to be fun. So, it's all packed away now and I stitched on the fairy'n'frog for a while instead. I got about 100 stitches done, and hope to get some serious stitching in tomorrow. I want to see more frog!

I have a baptism date now too. God-willing, I'll be baptised on Holy Saturday - the day before Pascha (Easter Sunday) which will be April 26 - two weeks after my birthday. We celebrate Easter at a different time, long complicated story as to why. Traditionally converts were baptised on this day, and it's nice to honour that. Troy's getting baptised at the same time, YAY! Lent is creeping up on us too. Yikes. I am trying not to think about feeding myself, but the extra Church will be good. I'm somewhat addicted, I think.

My friend Nikos has commissioned me to stitch him an icon of St Nicholas too, which is very cool. I've wanted to stitch one for ages, and for someone else to pay for the materials and for my time is so awesome! I don't mind not being able to keep it - to stitch an icon would be a great honour. So I'll ask Father's blessing, and if he says yes then I'll have a new start...more over one, but it's a Solaria chart so it'd be half over one half over two. I'm tempted to try it on 40ct...we'll see.

Rosey Dawn is calling too, and I am trying to resist the new start. If I finish this row on ARN and she is still calling though, a new start might be on the cards. I almost guarantee that I have the floss for her...yay! Dance of the Graces needs love too. I think with DOTG though, I am going to mark the stitch numbers on the fabric. There are just too many big areas of block colour that get confusing with counting.

So my stitching continues. And life goes on too, slowly.

Passage of time

Now is the last hour of January 2008, which is distinctly weird. This month has gone so fast!

I wish I could show you photos, I'd dearly love to. Unfortunately my sister has managed to lose the camera charger, and I can't take any! When I can, I'll upload them. Instead, I'll tell you my progress, which I know isn't as good but it'll have to do.

Well, I've almost finished page 1 of Peaceful Paradise (shock, horror - Kyrie's still managing to stick to one project!). I've sort of been working on two pages at once, but mostly on page 1, though more than half of page 2 is done too! All that's left to do on page one is to finish the word I'm currently stitching (righteousness), and fill in more of the sunny sky. Which is all pale blue, and very tedious, but oh well. It uses an incredible amount of floss! On the upside, it looks FANTASTIC. I estimate about 800 stitches left of the blue, but at least soon I'll have to do some counting so that I leave the outline of the sun's rays, which I'll fill in with the whiskey floss when I get it. Counting is good for breaking up tedium. The borders are in for this section half the central border is done, the top border for this side is totally done, and the side border is done to just below the bottom of the first page. So all in all, I've got a lot of the tedious bits done quicker than I would have expected. I just didn't expect the sky to be quite this tedious! These top bits are the only real 'block' stitching to be done, though there's quite a bit of grass to be filled in down the bottom scene, and the rest should go quite quickly - the writing really takes no time at all to fill in and it's good fun!

Sally asked about the loukoumia (turkish delight). Well, it was good, just sticky sweet. It's grown a hard layer on the top, but I think I'll cut that off and it should still be good. Still got half a pan left! Next time I make this, I'll make it before a Thursday or Sunday so that I'll have a mass of willing volunteers to gift the extra that I won't eat - Thursday night is my youth fellowship/bible study/group madness, and Sunday of course is Church. I'll just have to do it soon, Lent starts in March - eep. Sometime before March I need to get someone to teach me how to make fassolia, which is wonderful - beans in tomato and celery soup. YUM.

Other than that life is slow. It passes, day by day, but I've been sick for the past week. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have suspicions that it's my medication's fault. And I'm thinking of picking up a couple subjects Open Access (correspondence) because though I can't make it to school, I have a couple hours in the evenings when my brain is working, and I might be able to do some work then...work towards getting my SACE (A-levels, high school certificate, etc). Sounds good? I thought so.

Happy Australia day

Well it was Saturday, but today's the holiday. I'm still here, but I've been really really sick, so it's not really been that practical. Yesterday I went to get up and get dressed for Church...and couldn't make my brain think enough to figure out how to get dressed. At which Troy saw me in my pyjamas and sent me back to bed! So I've been stitching a little, and resting a lot.

I'm going to take a photo of Peaceful Paradise soon, with lots more work done on it, and I've made it all the way to the edge now on the left side, and the top border too. Slowly but surely I'm filling in the top section, and it's good fun. I haven't got the Whiskey thread yet, it's backordered but I should get it soon enough and in the meantime I'm just working on everything else. I've decided to work more or less page by page, because working across pages just gets confusing. The colours in this are so rich, and it's so much fun - I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

I've also been trying my hand at designing! Nothing complex though. My friend Jo, or Ιωάννα as it is in Greek, had her name day on the 7th - the feast of St John the Baptist (her name translates to Joanna, or John) and I haven't seen her since, so have got away with having a late name day present. So, I'm making my first biscornu! I have a feeling these will be addictive... anyway, I raided my fabric stash and found a piece of 28ct Toitoi (by countrystitch) and some Noosa Dinky Dyes silk. I'm stitching an Iota (Ι) on the diagonal on one half of the biscornu, and a J on the other - greek and english initials. It looked plain, so I added a backstitched heart in natural silk...which looked wrong...so i filled it in with satin stitches, and realised that it looked a bit clamshell-ish. A few threads more, it looked like a clamshell, and it matches the seagreen well. So I'm having fun, and thinking about a starfish or two on the bottom, or something...we will see. Hopefully she'll like it!

So I'm off to a bbq for Australia Day, and will take my embroidery - to be kept OUT of the way of tomato sauce, of course ;) Have fun, all!

Peaceful Paradise and loukoumia

Well...photos again. I'm not all that well, so it won't be a hugely wordy post, but you can have photos instead.

Here is what I cooked earlier tonight - loukoumia (aka turkish delight but DON'T call it that around the greeks!) which I found a recipe for cooking in the microwave - go figure :)

Okay ;) That is the before pic, all the ingredients. The loukoumia itself is in the fridge, hopefully it will turn out good!

and here is Peaceful Paradise after the Sampler SAL. I've worked on it lots today, but you'll get a new photo next Monday, unless I complete a section or something.

I'm missing the WDW Whiskey for the sun rays, angel wings and halo, and some of the lettering - God willing I'll get it soon.

Since this photo was taken there's a lot more of the sky done, along with the lettering for the first three lines finished, and I've started the border down the side. So boring, but it's satisfying to look at the progress. I've also started the next line, which has an ornament under it - yay, something new to stitch! It's a flower with a green background and it looks like fun.

Otherwise I have just been practicing my greek, which I've sorted into proper notebooks, and sleeping. And driving a little. Life goes on.

Home

Yep, I'm home. And sometime soon I'll take photos of everything.

The trip home was uneventful, I drove for 95min (1.5ish hours towards my total of 50 needed for my next license level), we ate some yummy food, totally failed to find a bakery in Pt Augusta, and I got quite a bit of stitching done, all on Peaceful Paradise.

I haven't got my stand set up yet, but it'll happen soon - it's just nice to be home and in my living room again. So much to catch up on the internet too.

We're watching the Hewitt/Jokavic game on tv too, and it's quite fun. GO AUSSIE :)

Here are some random photos for you:


This street is named for my family (small towns are like that) and it amused me.


These are the gates at the Lutheran church, Trinity symbols - I've always loved these gates.


And this is my Dad's hometown. Yep, that's the town. There are two houses (not pictured, they're not seeable from the sign at this viewpoint) but they are old and falling down, and mostly it's just scrub!

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.

Working

Well, I've made quite a lot of progress. But no photos for you, worse luck! Very slow internet here, so I'll wait 'til I get back in a week or so. Photos HAVE been taken though.

What have I been up to?

Well, when I got here I got stuck into Mystery X, and got about half of part 6 done. It's looking lovely, and very sparkly, but I got very sick (read: weak, everything aches, and very tired) so I swapped it for A Restful Night, a few days early for the Challenge SAL, #1. I duly worked on her for the weekend, and got 'her' almost done - just the bottom of her arm yet to do, and gave the frog most of one eye and the beginnings of another. VERY cute. It almost glows! I finished the row, and put a few stitches into the next before bed...and in the morning, got a package from Singapore containing a fat 1/4 of Vintage Exemplar linen. Sorry froggy - Peaceful Paradise jumped right onto the frame! I started in the centre with the border, which drove me batty but did place it nicely, and as I've moved out I've added things like the lettering, day sky and the beginning of an angel wing. I'm missing one colour - WDW's Whiskey, so I might put in a quick order for that before I go to bed tonight. It's been going well, except for some annoying frogging today - I found that about two hours' work - lots of lettering, was a stitch out. ARGH! It's duly frogged now, and I'm tempted to grid the lettering area now. Stupid frogs.

Mostly here I've been relaxing, lots of stitching and sleeping, and playing with the two girls next door who are 5 and 7 and adorable. Good fun.

Packing and stuff

The last few days have wandered their way on. The days are slow, but not miserable, though the state of the house is scaring me. Not really my problem though, and I leave tomorrow morning for my grandmother's house - my yiayia, (γιαγιά) as I keep calling her when I talk to my friends. I like being over there, though I'll miss my church family and the internet (I always do), and I'll be going to an anglican church for the first time in my catechumenate which will be interesting.

I'm going to go stay with her, and my family over there, for two weeks. I'm taking my lowery stand with me - the massive upside to these stands is that you can take them apart and tuck them into a suitcase. My big q-snaps are going to get dis-assembled too, and tucked in with the stand. Probably my other stitching bits and pieces I will take in bags on the bus with me.
The question is - which to take?

Well, I'm going to take my laptop, because a) it has a bunch of charts on it and b) I'd go mad without somewhere to type, even if I have no internet. So that helps matters.

Here's the list at the moment:

• Peaceful Paradise - Midsummer Night Designs (this is my GFJanuary project, though my fabric is taking its time to get here, grr! I'll take all the other supplies for it, and I've already made a working copy of the chart)
• Mystery X which I want to get lots of work done on
• A Restful Night which I'll take and hopefully get some progress into
• Tranquility Sampler which I'm going to have on the bus with me to work on (fits in a hoop or q-snap easily, tuck it against the window for good light)

I wanted to take Noon Basking and the Historic Countries sampler but I really can't justify it - I'm only away two weeks!

So I'm packing - everything's packed but my stitching now, so I just have to sort out the supplies and tuck them in my bag, and set things up so I can stitch on the bus easily :)

I'll blog from the town where my grandmother is when I can - there's a library, and I'll probably do what I've done before - write entries, then back-post them when I get to the library. I'll see you all then!

Edited to add: And to my Eastern Orthodox friends who read this, CHRIST IS BAPTISED!
It's Theophany today (well, technically yesterday as it's past sundown now) and most of my lucky friends got to services. I didn't but that's okay - Jeremy's sick, and I'd rather he get better than for us to have gone. There is always next year, and we DO have twelve great feasts and Pascha through the year....lol.

It's funny

for someone who really isn't that normal, I actually got to act normal tonight. I dressed up, jeans, sandals and a light breezy top Nikki found for me over a camisole, and grabbed housemate-Hannah and we went down near the beach for pasta, then walked down jetty rd to the foreshore at Glenelg with icecream. As I walked, I realised that Glenelg is really one of those places where you're constantly being looked at and checked out, and for once I wasn't self conscious about it. I was reasonably well dressed and definitely modest, but I didn't stick out like a sore thumb either. I don't want to be like everyone else, but it is nice to just blend in sometimes.

But, my body is still in a foul mood. It isn't quite as bad tonight as it was last night - I can walk without feeling like there are knives in my feet and my ankles, but my arms ache instead and that's made me not really stitch all day. This is killing me, but I've figured out that what it is really protesting against is me reaching up on my big frame to work on Mystery X. So I thought I'd take a photo, show you all where I've got to in the last few days, and pick up another piece - it will probably be Noon Basking (remember I was stitching that???) because I can put him in a nice small q-snap and curl up to work happily in DMC for the night. I guess to a degree I'm hitting burnout on Mystery X too, which is usually a good time to stop, before I actually do get sick of it and refuse to work on it for a few months (been there, done that, too many times).

So here's the photo of Mystery X - the west house is coming along nicely, and the others are growing with whatever threads I have left over in my needle when I finish working on the west house, which house they go into depending on which way up my frame is at the time (I can't work on the 'top' half of the roof of the side houses or my arms scream)


So now to unearth the chart for Noon Basking, and tackle some fractionals! I love this golden, sunny dragon :) I've missed him!

Right.

Given my progress today, I want to try something. I'll actually print this out and stick it up, so maybe I'll follow it, too!

IF I AM BORED, AND NOT WANTING TO STITCH (for whatever reason):

• go through cookingmagazine to find the recipes which will be good to cook up sometime I have to feed me/the house
• go through cookiebook to find recipies
• make cookies!
• eat
  
• pray
• clean - do a quick tidy of the areas already clean. when this is done, start work on rationalising the boxes and presents under the tree, cleaning the coffee table, and clearing off my sewing cabinet
• clean my room
• collect the dirty clothes from my room
• wash said clothes
• not waste time on the internet
• read - I have FTLOTW, and several fiction books. reading is good.
• vacuum the living room floor
• lay out moonshadow quilt
• pin moonshadow quilt
• sew - quilt needs the blocks sewn together, bindi's green dress needs finishing, my green dress needs hemming, purpledress needs fixing, bindi's red dress needs sewing, my red skirt needs sewing.
  
• redress the dolls
• plan church photostory
• blog
  
• BE PRODUCTIVE!

I've found myself very easily wasting time on the internet recently, and that bugs me. This funny part of me is saying that I should limit my net 'surfing' to an hour a day, and just check up on things like bloglines, and my usual forums, during the day. And KoL. Otherwise I waste SO. MUCH. TIME.

I lost it today

...I cleaned! My parents left on the 23rd, and this house...well, Hannah (who is house-sitting with me and always has the car) hasn't been home except to sleep, getting home at weird hours of the night...and I've been sick. And not in the mood to clean. Today, my house just started to scare me too much.

Most of the living/dining/whatever room is reasonably clear on the floor, except over by the tree which has lots of boxes left from Christmas and a few presents left, but no other rubbish/trash. I can now SEE the table, and there is nothing mouldy on it. This is an incredible improvement, believe me. All the mail for my parents that we have received is now re-addressed and in a neat pile to be re-mailed tomorrow, a notebook and my cooking magazine (and cookie book) are on the table for me to do some planning with, and the table is wiped down. The kitchen...the kitchen is still scary. I have been putting things in the dishwasher as I have used them, and put glasses etc that I've found there...but there are things going mouldy. I can't touch detergent, but Hannah has promised me that she will fix them tomorrow, and do a washup of the things that can't be dishwashed. I started to work on the top of my sewing cabinet (where the dolls are) but not much progress has been done yet. At least there's no more dirty dishes or food. My little icon corner is neat and clean, but that's normal - I can be a total mess everywhere else (my room attests to this) but the icon corner is always pristine. I am neurotic about this. Even when it was in my bedroom (which usually looks like a bomb hit it!)

I also cooked. I've been living on McDonalds at 2am when Hannah got home/pizza that Hannah brought home also at 2am/tinned soup. We heated up some pasta sauce and made pasta the other day, which was at least something more human... anyway, I stole Hannah today and went food shopping. I didn't grab much - a tub of yoghurt (Dairy Farmers has a new line out that I wanted to try and will definitely be grabbing a big tub of when I'm next at the supermarket, it's delicious), some deli meat, a jar of plum&raspberry jam (for something different), a loaf of bread, a litre of milk and the fixings for what I was making for dinner. The recipe says feeds four, so I figured I'd make it up and stick it in the fridge to eat when Hannah wasn't around for me to get stuff to cook something else. Most of what was in the recipe (oil, chicken stock, couscous, minced garlic, curry powder) was at home, but I needed to pick up a few extra things (a capsicum, some baby spinach, two tins of tuna, a carrot, some hummus and some spring onions), which I did. I was supposed to add margarine, but realised I had none when I was cooking so substituted olive oil. It worked. I also realised, as I went to cook, that I only had half the amount of couscous. About then it dawned on me that I should halve the recipe, which I duly did. Good thing, too! Feeds four? The amount I made would feed three hungry people, I think! I ate three bowls worth of it and put the rest in the fridge to eat later. It is very tasty.

The plants are all watered too - we can't use sprinklers due to water restrictions, so buckets/watering can it is. Our watering can is AWOL, so buckets! We have quite a few potplants too, and it's been HOT. It means I have a lot of watering to do at night.

Hannah laughed at me and said I'd gone all domestic...I guess I have, I spent the time I wasn't doing the above stitching on Mystery X (which is growing nicely, I have more than half of the west house's part done now, and progress on the others) and plotting making cookies. I got an awesome cookie book for Christmas, and I'm tempted to make a huge batch of cookies as gifts for everyone I know (we get to celebrate all through the twelve days, yay!) partly because it's fun, partly because I want to and mostly because I am bored with not a lot to do.

I also read some more of For the Life of the World (A. Schmemman) and am halfway through chapter 2 and enjoying it immensely. This is my current 'read this' book, this time assigned by Jeremy! I've been reading and noting The Orthodox Way (Met. Kallistos Ware) for Pater/Father, but Troy's stolen it and I was re-reading it, so I think he needs it more. Besides, I'm having so much fun with this one! Dad would like it, I think.

So...night owl Kyrie should probably go say her prayers and go to sleep, but I'm not that sleepy yet. Maybe taking my sister's (very mopey) cat to bed will help me want to sleep, she is very insistent that I should be in bed asleep and keeps trying to round me up into bed. Mrrrrp???

G'night all :)

2007 in brief

As always, doing the recap is a popular pastime among bloggers at the moment. And I've done it before, so I guess I'll do it again! Mine is of the month by month variety:

JANUARY: Spent most of the month with my grandmother and my family, started Mystery X, started the HAED Challenge SAL with From the Ashes, ended up in hospital with something minor, came home. Oh, and helped Troy move into his new house. Lots of stitching time.

FEBRUARY: Started yr 12 again, new school. Seemed to settle in reasonably well. Participated in the Challenge SAL again, but was getting frustrated by my lack of progress. Worked madly on Mystery X, but was still really behind (due to the part being huge).

MARCH: Participated in Challenge SAL, got increasingly more annoyed with it. Bought masses of fabric for dresses that I didn't have the patterns for. Helped Troy out with Uni stuff. Made some awesome kiwi+lime+coconut muffins. Finished MX's part 2, finally, almost a month late. Started and thoroughly enjoyed part 3. Started Japanese Octagon Box and SAL'd with Tash sporadically.

APRIL: Started Tranquility Mystery Sampler on 28ct linen, over 2. Made progress on JOB. Challenge SAL #4. Worked on part 3 of MX, but got attacked by beading. Got a beautiful sewing case thing from Troy's Mum for my birthday. Oh yeah, I turned 19, too. Dyed an awful lot of fabric with Peta for a quilt I was planning to make for Craft. Gave Periwinkle Fae a face. Finished part 3 of Mystery X.

MAY: Worked more on Periwinkle Fae. Got really sick, and thought it was the flu. Restarted Tranquility on 32ct linen 1x1. Liked this much better. Was sent A Restful Night by a lovely RAK Fairy (aka fudgey) as a get well present. Discovered that my muscles didn't like letting me take un-blurry photos, and enlisted Troy's help in that department. Stayed sick, which makes no sense given that it's the flu, right? Parents left for Florence for a few weeks and Hannah came to help house-sit. Started ARN. Troy's Dad disassembled my 6' off the floor bed and put my floor level bed in instead. Much smarter for an invalid. Bought Troy some clothes so that he looked respectable. Had the first set of blood tests done. Had a bath all by myself and celebrated this. MX's part 6 released and it's beautiful, and I get depressed because I'm behind.

JUNE: Tried to sort out a way to actually keep some quality of life (ie not just staying in my room all day). Mum and Dad get back. Worked on ARN a lot. Got told I had Chronic Fatigue. Saw POTC3. Had the adrenal gland tests, which were very painful, and fell asleep on Dad's office floor. Got ratlets - Amina and Jemimah. Bindi got one too, Sosspiri. Bought lots of homeware stuff for my house when we get married, as it was all on sale. Caught a train to Melbourne. Also, lots of weird stuff to do with this crazy denomination of Christianity called Orthodoxy...

JULY: Did stuff in Melbourne. Came home, went to Vespers at an Orthodox church with Jeremy...and found myself in front of an icon of St Kyriaki (who had haunted me). Then found out it was her feast day. Gave up believing in coincidence. Went to Divine Liturgy and fell in love. Went to a quiz night and came 3rd. Made progress on Tranquility. Went to the Grampian mountains with Dad. Celebrated St Elias' feast day. Cleaned my room. Went to a movie night and ate an incredible amount of pizza. Started Stretch. Made progress on JOB.

AUGUST: Finished pt1 of JOB. Started taking horrible medication, but medication appears to help so not complaining toooo loudly. Caught trains with Tait. Medication makes me sick, so start taking another medication to counteract this. Got my dolls out from their boxes that they'd been in for a few years. Got some fabric for a FFW restart. Bought lots of charts. Progressed with this whole Orthodoxy inquiring thing. Got made a catechumen on the eve of the liturgical new year!

SEPTEMBER: Restarted FFW. Worked on JOB. Attended my first ever vigil, all in Greek. A very new experience, but a good one, and got fed large amounts of soup. Made an incredible amount of food for Father's Day brunch. Started Historic Countries sampler. Visited my grandmother, acquired a clothes dryer, and attended Liturgy for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and got thoroughly lost - festal liturgies will do that. Made a couple dresses. Bought the chart for Dance of the Graces, and ordered fabric and threads. Attended another quiz night, where we won convincingly (by a couple hundred points). Made Caitlin a dress.

OCTOBER: Attended a picnic, ate a large amount of loukoumades (greek honey puffs), and souvlaki, played backgammon, and discovered that my CFS had decided to go away for the time being. Knit a dalek. Started dresses for Nikki's nieces. Bought the chart for Peaceful Paradise. Ordered everything else for it! Worked on Mystery X again. Ordered AG stuff. Got stash (stuff for Nuts About Autumn). More or less finished Mali's dress.

NOVEMBER: Got kidney stones and landed myself in hospital for half a week. Started a blog for my church stuff. Made a lot of progress on ARN. Got a new prime minister. Started work on MX again. Sort of got my license again.

DECEMBER: Got ready for Christmas, was a slack blogger, worked an insane amount on Mystery X. Got part 5 done (finally!) Had Christmas, went to a new year vigil...

and here we are again :)