News

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

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

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

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

So, a rotation:
here are my projects.

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

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

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

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

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

It's very windy today

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

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

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

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

I miss A Restful Night, too.

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

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

Loukoumades!

Mmmmmm food.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*dies happy and full of loukoumades and souvlaki*

Goals for October

Well... lets just say I didn't achieve what I wanted to, stitchy-wise. I did quite well with my life ones though, especially the ones pertaining to Orthodoxy. I'm being a lot more conservative with them this month!

Last month:
Stitchy goals:

• Make progress on FFW during the Challenge SAL this month Didn't happen. At all.
  
• Participate with same in the background SAL - ugh, a whole weekend of stitching glitter! Good for me though. Didn't happen either, I'm not in the world's best mood with that piece. Maybe I'd be better off buying the print.
  
• Finish pages 1 and 2 of A Restful Night Sadly, no. Life got in the way.
  
• Finish part 2 of JOB, make progress on part 3, try to finish and start part 4! This didn't happen either
  
• Participate in JOB SAL each week to achieve the above. ...no.
  
• Make progress on White Musings Yes, actually. Not a whole lot, but a bit.
  
• Start *gulp* the new mystery sampler This one I achieved!
  
• Make progress on MX, aim to get the main part of the house done Nope
  
• Finish the motifs on page 6 of Tranquility Bloody frogs...
  
• Buy stitchbows and stitchbow-ify another binder's worth of my master set Nope
  
• Overhaul my 'what threads I have' list for the above Nope
  
• Start a list for the fibres that I have, unused (non DMC) or are left over from kits ...nope.
  

Life Goals:

• Attend DL twice, more if possible Every single week, yay!
  
• Stick to the fasts I've been sick. If I fast when sick, I get in serious trouble with my Spiritual Father. Hence, no.
  
• Read a book on Orthodoxy Yuppers, The Orthodox Way by Bishop (now Metropolitan) Kallistos Ware
  
• Meet with Father Yep
  
• Get rid of boxes, or sort them and put them under my bed Uh...no not really.
  
• Get desk out of room It's still there
  
• Argue some more with Centrelink No arguing whatsoever. I just haven't been bothered.
  
• Work towards getting my licence again Yes :) I got the book again, and now I just need to do some more reading and retake the test.
  

This month:
Stitchy goals:

• Finish part 1 of Historic Countries Sampler
• Finish part 2 of above
• Finish pages 1&2 of A Restful Night (carryover from last month)
• Make progress on one other WIP

Life goals:

• Attend DL at least twice on Sundays
• Make the spidery gift
• Get all my clothes AWAY and pack the heavy winter ones in boxes for the summer
• Finish godsister's dress on time
• Make a bag for church
• Buy damask fabric for a new semi-circle skirt for church
• Finish green dresses

That sounds achieveable, right?

Lots done

But not enough to meet my monthly goal. Oh well.

Stitchy update: My second stag is now almost done, with just half of his antlers left to go. Everything else on him is done, and he looks very regal. The second (and last!) four-sided stitch block is done too, along with the area above it - zig-zag running stitch which looks very 3D and pretty. I'm not quite sure which motifs I'm going to pick next - I work on two at a time, a length of thread in each (breaks up the solid colour motifs). I'm thinking of going with the motifs next to the stag, the top right ones, and just working down now. This side is going much quicker, so hopefully it will be done soon to start part 2 - it comes out (or should) tomorrow!

I'm going to a picnic tomorrow too! An outdoor Divine Liturgy in the wine region about 40min from my house, and a picnic after - mmm Greek picnic, I'm not going to be able to move when I get home tomorrow from all the food! Classic Jeremy though - he only rang me about half an hour ago to tell me! Labour day, so public holiday Monday. And two Liturgies in two days - lucky me!

...he's picking me up at 7:50 tomorrow morning. I am trying not to think about that hour of the morning. It is a horrible idea, but it will be worth it.


Now... off to do a goals recap. Not looking forward to this one...

My fingers are starting to hurt from stitching

So I'll post for a while instead, give them a break before I wear a hole in them!

I forgot to mention the other day - god-sister-creature has asked me to make her a gothic-y medieval dress for a party she's going to. Ever wanting to be helpful (and also because I couldn't resist the chance to make said dress) I said yes. Well, I then had to convince her to come with me to buy a pattern and fabric, because I don't like the idea of making something that the other person doesn't like, and we got a beautiful wine red damask for the dress itself, which is a wide A-line (I think) with fitted sleeves that flare out into bells at 3/4 length, and a black satin ribbon for the trim. Very pretty. It promptly got cut out, and has been taking over our living room floor for the past few days, except for when I had to pack it up for the football yesterday when we had people over. There was 3.6m of fabric! It's nuts. Beautiful though.

I have the front done, panels sewn together and trim added, along with the loops to thread lacing through, but no neck facings yet as I'll add them when the front and back are sewn together at the shoulders. I sewed the back sections together into pairs, but then in the morning I realised I'd sewn the pieces together wrong - the right side and the wrong side on the one side, argh. So, much unpicking had to happen, and I haven't fixed it yet! Tomorrow. It's coming together well though, I think.

I misread the instructions for how to finish the sleeve edges too, but I like how it turned out so I'm keeping it. Much neater, in my opinion.

I dragged myself out of bed this morning when I wasn't feeling at all well, dragged an even more unwilling Troy out, and took my never-experienced-Orthodoxy friend Hannah (who got called Anna and Anne, much to her confusion, by everyone) to church, as Jeremy had to take his godmother.

Was worth it. Oh yes, it was worth it. We got asked to do the readings at the beginning, which was confusing as we stumbled our way through, but Jeremy came and rescued us and we settled into it and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it clicked for Troy today! He read the Liturgy with me during the arabic, and listened and prayed during the english. He's been struggling with the liturgical side of things for a while, and he's always had issues focussing in church services in general. But...the joy as it all clicked in and the two of us joined in the Liturgy was just wonderful. We're home, just settling in before we can be called residents :)

Hannah enjoyed it too, almost more for aesthetics than anything else but I don't mind. I like that she didn't hate it, and she wants to visit St Nectarios' in a couple weeks, so if I can borrow a lift off a parent this weekend (Jeremy might be going to the UK, lucky) then in a fortnight maybe we can go there with her. She'll love Father Silouan, I think.

So I'm very pleased. It's been a good day - I've been working on the Historic Countries sampler again, I've finished the rice stitch block, and one of the two four-sided stitch sections, and my stag now has everything from his neck down done. This one is going much faster than the last one!

So now I've settled in to watch the news, and it's Aus Idol tonight too so I'll spend the night stitching I hope.

Stitching progresses

Well, it has...

I've been working on Historic Countries Sampler the last few days, and it looks beautiful. The backstitched section is done now, and I've made progress on the rice stitch section (which is a lot of fun) and the stag, which now has three and a bit legs.

The footy grand final was on today too...*sigh* we lost, miserably. But c'est la vie, I suppose.

Hannah's coming to church with us tomorrow, which should be fun - lets see how many people try to talk Greek to her :)

So, I'm going back to what I'm working on. Life is steady - nothing really seems to be changing much, it just keeps going. This is okay, but it worries me - something might happen to change that and I'm not sure how I'll react!

A photo! About time!

I know, I know, stitchy blogs aren't fun without photos. But I lost the camera, and then I didn't have anything that I saw as worthy of a photo. But I finished the first half of Part 1 of the TGOSM historic countries sampler (minus the gold braid that I don't currently have), so here's a photo for you all!



It's a lot more washed out in the photo, which is a shame, and the white on the lady and the man's socks doesn't show up properly. Oh well. It's stitched 1x2 with Dinky Dyes silk, on 32ct cream linen, and it's mostly cross stitch with the exception of the diamondy design which is solid queen's stitches, the checkerboard which is algerian eyelets and the blackwork design in the middle. I'm enjoying stitching it, most days, but I do get a bit fed up with it at times.

I've had an interesting day. Dad and I drove down to Hallet Cove and he went for a walk along the cliffs while I sat in the car in the surf life savings club's carpark, watched the waves and worked on A Restful Night, who has been feeling neglected. I hadn't realised how much I missed her until I got her out to play again today! I finally finished the left wing, and got a lot more hair done today (all confetti, ugh) and she looks beautiful. Dad had a specialist appt at the hospital too, so I tagged along and sat in the waiting room to stitch purely for the change of scenery, it was just so nice to be out of the house.

I am feeling very tired now though. My body is achy, especially my arms - I desperately wanted to get this bit of the sampler done tonight or I would have quit a few hours ago. I will possibly pay for it tomorrow, I'm not sure.

So, photo is up. Please admire the pretty, I am!

Confusing

Life is so weird at the moment. I woke up at a strange time this morning, with the sharp ache inside my bones. A few prayers to anyone I could think of later, I sat up and tried to forget it on the internet, but eventually just gave up and lay back down to try to sleep.

I had the strangest dreams involving children, my old boss and a greek festival. No, I don't understand it either.

My memory is scrambled though, I can't remember what was a dream and what was real. I give up?

I have a book. I will try to read it. Hopefully it will make more sense!

Not a bad day, all up

I got goal #1 done, and started on #5!

I sat down and worked through the first lesson, and it wasn't hard. I don't know that I took it all in, but I did get a lot of it and I can always go back to look at it later. It mostly involved the alphabet (which I already know), and transliterating into english characters. Easy enough stuff, but good practice for me as I was a bit rusty. The two passages that I had to translate characterwise were Genesis 1:1-4a from the Septuagint, and John 1:1-4. They correspond, it's beautiful :) Both starting with "En arche..." - "In the beginning..."

I copied out the vocab list for Lesson Two, but I'd had enough - my attention span was flagging. So I quit for the day, and I'll try again tomorrow.

As far as #5 is concerned, I tracked down a lot of the books, but have yet to buy them. On the other hand, Dad went into the Catholic (!!) bookstore in town and bought me 'The Orthodox Way' which was one of the books, along with another one by Metropolitan Kallistos and one I've never heard of which I'll ask Father about on Thursday. Mmmmm tasty books. Of the list, which he gave me an order to read them in, TOW was the first, so I'll sink my teeth into it. I usually read theological books twice - first I devour them, and second I read them slowly to get the gems out. I've started the first run, but not got very far yet. Maybe tomorrow :) I love books!

Dad's cousin John was here tonight, which was nice. It's both of their Name Day on Wednesday, which is kind of neat, and we had a chat about that, and he and Dad talked and I listened and stitched. Working on this TGOSM sampler still, I got a lot done on the skirt of my lady and most of the blue working on the top bordery bit. And some green on that too. I'm so close to finishing this half that I can taste it, and God-willing (and health permitting, though they're sort of the same thing sometimes) I will finish it off tomorrow and start the second one. It stitches up quick and easily, and that's nice. Definitely a change!

I got a message to tell me that my fabric for Dance of the Graces shipped today, which is good, and I've been in contact with my floss fairy. So hopefully soon I'll have the stuff and I can start it! I don't like that I'm not finishing things, but it's nice to have a bit of variety. Just six days left of the month now, less than a week. Scary thought, I'm not sure where this year has gone.

I'm also curious to see what the new parts of the Chatelaine and TGOSM mysteries are. The Chatelaine I have absolutely no idea on as we just finished up a section - a border maybe? TGOSM will be a country or culture, but all the same it's mysterious and I can't wait to find out!

I do think that I need a proper finish sometime soon though. So I'll have to get back into White Musings, and get it done, so that I can do a complete finish HD. I haven't had one in a long time!

I'm catching up with my godsister on Wednesday, we're going fabric and pattern shopping for this dress. That should be fun too! Mm...new dressmaking project...also tasty. Which reminds me, I really should just grit my teeth and finish Bindi's dress. All it needs is the zip (why I'm procrastinating) and a hem, the hem being the easy bit. I need to sew the bodice back onto my green dress too, but that's less of a priority.

It will all happen, right?

*not-bounce*

And as I predicted, I'm dead tired physically today. But that's okay.

I'm trying to get myself into some kind of structure. I've got so much I could be doing, and I waste so much time. So - Greek.

I have a textbook, and it's great. So I'm planning to spend an hour on it each day, at least, and try and get through a 'lesson' or chapter each week. We'll see how that goes, I really want to learn Greek, and it bugs me that I don't know as much as I want to.

So, plans for this week. I haven't set weekly goals on Mondays for a while, so here goes:

1. finish lesson 1 of Greek
2. work on JOB sometime
3. begin to frog the green motif on tranquility that I messed up
4. convince Dad to get ink for our printer
5. order books that Father recommended
   
6. finish mystery part before the end of the month
7. work on ARN at some point
8. clear dresser
9. work on cleaning room again

Okay, we'll try this. Fingers crossed!

*bounce*

I am going to be dead tomorrow. And I am under strict orders to be good, and sleep in tomorrow, from Father Silouan and Jeremy!

But it was worth it. :)

I woke up early today, about 7, even though I didn't need to leave until 9:45. Finally deciding that I couldn't get back to sleep, I got up, had a shower and got dressed. About 9:45, when Jeremy usually gets there, Troy - who was dressed and ready to go - started feeling really ill. Jeremy finally turned up at 10:15, and by then Troy was feeling really really sick. He was told to stay home, and Jeremy and I screamed off to try and get to church vaguely on time. Jeremy later remarked that it's God's providence that he was late, or Troy would have been out and sick and miserable. It turned out that Abouna (Father Nicholas)'s car had broken down and Jeremy had had to rescue him to take him to church and then come grab us/me.

There was almost noone there when we got there anyway, just one lady chanting and Father. Jeremy jumped in to chant, and I settled into my place for Orthros and the Liturgy. Liturgy over, most of the regulars had run off straight after Communion so no coffee hour today. We grabbed Abouna again, and went to the markets held at the drive-in to grab some vegetables and eggs for him, and then to St Nectarios to find out what Father Silouan was doing. He had a baptism this afternoon, so we wandered off again to Scuzzi's in North Adelaide (yum) for lunch. I got my favourite again, and we ate - long Orthodox prayers in a restaurant is definitely new.

After escaping from there we went to find Nikki's house as we were taking her with us that night, and Abouna lives near the church who was holding the quiz night. Picking her up, we chatted all the way (about an hour and a half I suppose) to Abouna's house, and then to church.

We ended up on a table with just the our of us - Jeremy, Nikki, I and Andrew, another St Nectarios' friend. Father joined us, but much, much later. We launched into it, and had great fun, especially with the religion questions - we didn't miss one! And I answered one I didn't know that I knew on feast days, so I was pleased. We ended up winning by about 150 points which was nuts, and won the usual - a bottle of wine and something useful. :)

In our case it was a bottle of Shiraz that looks nice, lindor chocolates, and an icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary for those who don't speak Orthodox). Mine is now hanging on my wall next to my bed (there was already a hook there), but I asked Mum tonight and it turns out that the wall above my junk-covered dresser faces East...hehe. There is nothing hanging there, and its a beautiful space, so I'm going to attempt to clear the surface and set it up for my morning and evening prayers.

We came home, listening to a beautiful CD of the Liturgy in English that Jeremy has - it has all the Resurrection Troparia one after the other, with pauses in between, and we were listening to them and chanting along. I love today's:

You descended from on high, O Compassionate One; and consented to burial for three days, that You might free us from suffering: O Lord, our life and our resurrection, glory to You.

That's the 8th tone (tune, rhythm and key, of 8 total). I don't know if Jeremy's trying to teach me to chant, but it's fun anyway. I'm starting to learn, and chant along quietly where I stand.

So I've had a wonderful day except for Troy getting sick which is not wonderful :( I am hoping that he gets better soon.

Progress!

I might not make having the first half done by the end of the week, but I'm going to be close!

I got the first (big, involved) snowflake done, and the second smaller one too. And my man is all done except for half a shoe and his hat, which will be done in the next few minutes. I'm hoping to get serious progress into the top ornamenty band and the lady tonight, and we'll see how we go.

I'm also being seriously tempted by the Chatelaine Christmas Mystery for this year.

From the yahoo group:

The color scheme will be utterly elegant, subdued and feminine :

Shades of cream, pearl, white, gold and silver with a few pale and muted pastels....
sparklies and beads in matching transparent and and metallic colors...

Ornaments and rich work with a little bit of "Angel" as decor.... but not more in means of info ;-)
That is just the teaser to have you imagine a bit of the overall color idea.

Imagine the soft and shimmering silks on a background of unbleached linen, or on an old blue or even black background..

Oh dear. Sounds exactly like my cup of tea. And Dad just said that he'd pay for it, as long as it's not too expensive...uhoh... *grin!*

Let's get a few things done first Kyrie!

But I seem to be able to keep up with this TGOSM mystery, which I'm pleased with, and I'm going to try and make that the goal each month and keep to my focusses otherwise, we'll see how I go. The other thing is that the Christmas one is released towards the end of the month, so it's not quite as much to get done at the beginning of each month like the ones I've got. I'd like to make MX my focus when I get ARN done I think though, I just really want it done - so beautiful.

Anyway, back to attacking this thing :) It looks wonderful!

I am terrible

...and weak. I bought Selina Fenech's Dance of the Graces when it was charted by HAED...it's just stunning.

See?


and now, a floss usage chart (for a floss fairy) request of Fudgey off, and fabric (30ct burro linen jobelan from Passione Ricamo) ordered... oh dear. I predict a new start. Soon. But it's just incredible, and it looks like a chart which I will actually enjoy stitching - I find glitter backgrounds just a pain, and I want to work on the frogs but the glitter seriously gives me a headache, and I've got to the point where I just don't like working on them. It's sad, as I really like them, but I think I will just have to buy the print at some point.

On the other hand, I've been thinking seriously about the Angels project again - the Faith Hope and Love ones by Ann Massiker. I want to do them all on 32ct Days Gone By by silkweaver, I just need to figure out the dimensions and actually start them again. It will happen, I can't start yet another new project yet but it's there lurking in my mind.

On the other hand, my stag is now finished as are the queens stitch blocks, and my man has a lot done on him. I might get my floss fairy to pick me up a card of PTB to use on this sampler, as I couldn't get the kreinik and I hate the stuff anyway. Or maybe I should just ask them to get the kreinik. Not sure. Anyway, the man doesnt have the gold on him that he should but otherwise he's doing well.

So I'm back to working on my two current motifs, the man and the first snowflake!

Hmm...

It is the 19th of September. That means there are 11 days left in the month.

That means, in order to achieve my stitchy goals for the month I need to:

• take part in the background SAL this weekend, which may or may not happen
  
• do 4150 stitches-ish on A Restful Night
• do half of the current panel on JOB
• do a lot on MX to get the house done
• do a lot on tranquility
• go to the LNS, buy stitchbows, stitchbowify thread

in the next week and a half.

This would have been possible when I was well, perhaps. I'm not sure if it still is, and I really should try and set more realistic goals! Aim high and all that, but I haven't stitched a whole lot this month.

Here's my plan for the rest of this week:

• work like mad on TGOSM sampler, aim to have it half done
  
• work on JOB at some point, try to get a chunk of the panel done
• try to get to the LNS for stitchbows
• work on ARN, try to get it done at least to the end of the current (8th) row, try for half of next
• try to get to Tranquility

If I can do that, then I can have some hope towards the rest.

Bindi's dress progresses, it's almost done! All it needs now is the zip down the back and the button to fasten it, and a hem. The sizing chart must have been wrong, because I made the arms too big, but I just took it in at the sides and it's fine now. I had to chop the excess out of the seam allowance though, as they were really bulky, and took a chunk out of my finger too. Ouch. Oh well, it looks beautiful.

I'm also thinking about buying this cute little lady:

Her name is Julie, she's 10 years old, and an American Girl doll from 1972-6ish. And absolutely adorable. I've got two of these already - Felicity (1774) and Amanda (modern) - Amanda's a lot like my alter ego. They're 18" tall, and gorgeous, and kind of addictive.

Amanda needs new clothes too - I'm thinking about a dress made out of scraps from Bindi's dress in the same style as Bindi's dress, I'll see if I can pull it off. The print is small enough that I could get away with it, but I'd have to create the pattern small enough, and flatten the bust. And I want to buy her some jeans and stuff like that when/if I get Julie, and a summer outfit for Felicity who currently only has winter clothes from when I was younger and first got her.

No stitching stash for a while in that case, but that's alright - I'm happy stashwise at the moment.

It's Wednesday - The Chaser's War on Everything in on tonight, yay! It also means that tomorrow is Thursday and I get to go out, which will be good.

Anyway, back to working on this stag. I want this sampler caught up!

Dressmaking fun

I actually ended up having quite a productive day. Bindi was home sick, and the dress is for her, so I took her measurements and cut the dress out that I bought fabric for the other day.

This is the dress style:


I'm making the long pink one, but it's pale green instead.

I weirded Bindi out by sitting there on the floor cutting (we have a floating floor which is excellent for cutting) the dress out, listening to Orthodox Chant, and singing the Trisagion:

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy on us

and absentmindedly putting the scissors down to cross myself each time.

My family already think I'm mad though, so that's alright!

The dress is mostly done now. The bodice was fiddly, but I got it done, and it's all done except for the gathers at the bottom which join onto the midriff section and the zip at the back, which I'll put in when the dress is sewn together since the zip goes down into the back of the skirt. The skirt itself is done too, just needs to be gathered at the top to be joined to the bodice and hemmed at the bottom when it's done - they say to hem it before you join the pieces, but I can't see the sense in that - how do you know how long to hem it?

Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow, and I can fix the gathers on my green dress and hem it and the purple one and I'll be pleased. My godsister wants me to make her a medieval dress too, so we're going to Spotlight soon to grab fabric and a pattern and I'll make it up. If other people comment on it and she mentions that I made it, maybe a few people might pay me to make them one...we'll see. It'd be fun to be paid to do this!

Either way, I see a lot of dressmaking in my future. Embroidery is wonderful, but it's so much fun to watch something come together this quickly.

My parents and I went to dinner tonight at my favourite pasta place in North Adelaide, where I got my favourite - again - pasta, their Zingharella which is wonderful. Chilli and honey butter sauce and prawns... yum. I had a really good chardonnay with it, which was nice since I never order wine when I eat out. I'm glad I did, it was delicious. Tonight was a beautiful mild night, and we sat outside.

I've come home to crash now though. So, so tired. I think I'll say my prayers soon and sleep.

Still sick

But my body thinks that waking up early is practical. I think its annoying, because I run out of things to do much earlier in the day this way.

My body is back to doing the aching all over thing, and muscle bands, and ow. And it took me a whole day to respond to someone on a forum yesterday - granted, they did break it into 9 parts as it was so long! It tired me out halfway through and I slept part of the afternoon, with the curtains open and music on. My body makes no sense.

I'm constantly hungry at the moment, but have no appetite. I do not like this, it worries me.

I haven't stitched in a few days. I might this afternoon, hopefully...I miss it. My stag needs work, he needs a head. I'm just hoping that the pain in my arms fades a bit, it's starting to hurt just to type.

I don't like days like this. Lord have mercy.

Sick

I've been really sick today - I woke up, fed the yowling cats, and crashed back into bed, and my body wasn't happy with me. About 11:30am I woke up again, this time with crazy muscle pain - I've been almost able to forget the fibromyalgia aspect recently...NOT today. Anyway, I got up deciding that I may as well grin and bear it, and found that someone I know online had sent me a link to a copy of the Akathist (a kind of hymn) to St Nectarios, which is here. Orthodox people often ask him to pray for us for healing, and my church is named after him! I had the spare time, so I thought - why not go through it? I got to the end, not expecting anything, but suddenly realised that the pain was gone, completely. Doxa to Theo - glory to God. It's still not back, though I'm starting to feel tired so my body is aching a little. Completely different though, which was very, very nice!

I've just had a lazy day. Troy and I watched Save the Last Dance this afternoon, and I stitched, and got a lot done on the TGOSM mystery, carrying on from where I left off yesterday. I've now got another row of four-sided stitch done, and a whole chunk of a block of queens stitches - solid queens stitch blocks! Very strange, but has a very awesome effect. I like it, an interesting texture, it's done in pink and a greeny-blue. The stag now has all four legs and a tail, and I'm working my way up his body towards his head. The whole sampler is stitching up very quickly, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It's nice to know that I'm actually quite a fast stitcher - usually I do such intricate, colour changey things that I don't make a huge amount of visible progress - this it all comes together so quick and simply, and it looks great. I think I am going to enjoy this mystery!

With the mystery, I planned to do half of this section, then the other half, but I've got it centred on the Q-snaps and I'm reaching the edge-ish with the stag, so I'm going to have to move the Q-snaps to continue leftwards. I think what I'll do, if I don't have a reason to take the fabric off the snaps beforehand, is work as far left as I possibly can, and then when I run out of space work in the other direction until I need to move the snaps for some reason. The chart is pretty good though - more or less all the motifs are on one page, so there's no real reason to swap across pages much. I'm going to do as much on this page as I can before swapping though, it will just keep it simple.

Ive got church tomorrow, though I forgot to ask Jeremy which service we're going to...oops...so I'll just get up and ready as if it were the one we need to be ready at 8 for, and if he comes an hour later he comes an hour later. Troy will just play his computer game and I can stitch for an hour, no problem.

I have to link to an awesome WIP of Chatelaine's MX that is actually caught up, too - here! It's Margit's from the yuku board, and I'm so, so looking forward to getting mine caught up to this point. Its 3/4 done, and I love the weeping willow trees - the whole thing is just incredible, I'm so glad I'm stitching it.

No Title Tonight

I can't think of one. So, none it will be!

I've been a bad blogger recently. Mostly because since Monday morning I've had no internet, being at my grandmother's house. Nine hours away, and she doesn't have a computer from this century, let alone the internet...her computer was purchased in 1995, and she's yet to upgrade!

I got a package that I thoroughly enjoyed opening last week, lots of beautiful Dinky Dyes silks for the new TGOSM mystery sampler. Which I promptly went to Spotlight and bought fabric (at a stupid price) for. I couldn't get enough for the chatelaine as well, as there wasn't enough on the roll, but when I finish up this month's part on the sampler (I'm determined to stay up to date on this one) I'll tack outlines for the pieces that I can fit on the piece I got and I'll buy some more when I need it. This months chatelaine piece is nice and small - a clover cutter case, so I'm not too worried about it, but I'm going to try and keep up with the chatelaine each month too.

For those who don't get TGOSM (and should, it's awesome and cheap!) the twelve parts of the sampler each focus on a different culture/country's style of needlework and history. There's a big article with information on it all, and then a chunk of the sampler. This month's is Germany, and gorgeous. My Dad likes it, because it's a lot like what my Grandmother (his Mum) used to stitch. The central motif in this section is a heart with flowers growing out of it, with two stags either side and then other motifs beyond that - borders, and a couple in court dress on the left, with more borders and a man carrying grapes on the right. Add to that some sections of specialty stitches, and snowflakes at the bottom, and it's very pretty.

So far I have the flowers done, part of one stag, half of a blackwork section (flowers, very pretty), a section of algerian eyelets done in two colours and a band of four-sided stitch done in white. It looks great - no pictures yet as I have no camera, my sister took it with her away for the weekend. I'm looking forward to the other parts!

I worked on my other pieces a little while I was away, but mostly on this.

I was over with my grandmother since we had to visit my grandfather (on the other side, two died a few years ago)'s house to collect up the last few things before we sold it. Finally. Long story, which I won't go into here. Anyway, I got some fantastic books on dressmaking (including some that show, really clearly, how to make your own patterns), a dryer, a tv cabinet, and a TV!! It's quite big, too, and it is going to live at Troy's house until we get married as the house currently has no TV, and we've got one here. I also got some random pots and pans, and a steamed pudding basin, and a little baby saucepan for making chai with. In return I did a bit of cleaning, and kept my aunt company.

We went to visit my great uncles and aunt as well, which was enjoyable - I love visiting them, they have a farm with one of the classic Australian stone houses, with the kitchen separate from the house so as not to heat it up in summer, etc. My great aunt is wonderful, a grand old country lady, so we have lemonade and tea and cakes and sandwiches and.... whenever we go to visit her. Dad played guitar and sang with my great uncles (who used to be in high demand when they sang with my grandfather at country shows, dances and rodeos back in the day) and then I jumped in and Dad and I sang a Carpenters song. If we'd had the music we would have sung stuff by The Seekers...shame, I love that stuff, it's what my voice naturally likes.

We came back yesterday, and I went from the car trip straight to Jeremy's work, where I got changed and we went to church for Divine Liturgy as today is a feast in the church - The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. So we had the DL, which was beautiful, but different - I'm not used to the differences on feast days yet, and I got a stalk of blessed geranium from the wreath that the Cross was laid on during the Liturgy. It's now in water in my room, and I plan to plant it when I get the chance. We had a study afterwards, and got fed, and came home.

I've been sick today though. It's been sneaking up on me, and then today it decided to sink its teeth in. I'm not enjoying it, but it'll pass.

Dressmaking again

Yep, its that time again. Mum and I went down to spotlight yesterday and bought 3m of a beautiful green fabric with white flowers embroidered on it, in one of the two shades of green in the world that I can wear. I am pleased. I can't, however, get a photo of it that shows the true colour. It's a springy pale green, and this is probably the best colour photo I have - Kringles decided that she wanted the fabric (my sister's neurotic but darling cat)

Sorry about the random objects around it - I needed to get the photo before she saw the camera and freaked out - cameras are thing #329082910321 on the list of things Kringles is petrified of.

Here's a picture that shows the design, its just really dark:


I'm making the purple dress I made a few months ago - remember this one?


But as that was made in 100% cotton (which creases like mad but hangs nicely and is very cool - and cheap) this one will drape a bit differently, it's polyester. I'll be interested to see how it comes out. I'm also going to taper the skirt a bit, as the pattern just gives it as two rectangles - makes it very comfortable at the bottom, but bulky at the top.

My sister has also claimed a dress in potentia in this fabric (good thing there was still plenty on the roll when we left last night!) but I'm thinking I'll do a lined bodice with buttons down the front and no sleeves on that one. We'll see, I'm going to find a pattern if I can when I go to get more fabric but if all else fails I'll just modify this one.

I love dressmaking, and people keep suggesting that I do it professionally...I don't know. Maybe one day! I'd also like to make some skirt and top sets and stuff, and learn to make pretty blouses and things to wear with jeans. And maybe I'll tackle a denim skirt...denim just scares me. I really want a long denim skirt though, makes a change from jeans and I can wear all my jeans tshirts with it.

Anyway, back to it. I'll post photos at some point - either in progress, or at the end, depending on how long it takes me! The last one only took about 3hours total, so we'll see if I can beat that this time.

A good stitchy day, if nothing else

Today's been very slow. As usual, my body decided that it still hated me when I woke up. Noticing this, I decided to sleep as long as possible, but a string of phone calls by different people, all looking for my dad (who wasn't home, and hadn't taken his mobile (he always forgets it) and no he hadn't told me when he was getting home - wonder how long until he pays me to be his secretary) kind of interfered with that. Finally I gave up at about 10ish, and dragged my laptop up onto my bed again.

I've discovered that cyberspace is an incredible place to waste time. Seriously. I don't think I got off the net for another two hours, despite almost noone being on (and the one person who was on was only on for about twenty minutes), and then read a book for a couple hours, and plonked myself on the couch.

Like I said, slow. But I did settle down to work on A Restful Night, and got 300 stitches done, which I'm very pleased with, especially since most of them were confetti - major confetti! I've finally finished the head of the grass stalk that she's holding, which looks incredible but has more colours than I like to think about in it. Aside from that, and finishing up listening to GP Taylor's Shadowmancer (which I thoroughly enjoyed, almost more in audiobook than I did in book form a few years back) I didn't do much for the rest of the day, though I did get referred to sewandso... and realised that buying from them was cheaper than buying from Australia...

Remember that Waxing Moon chart I bought that I'd decided to do in just plain DMC and buy the buttons only? Somehow that all flew out the window when I realised that WDW and GAST (which I've never had reason to use before now) were both variegated threads. Drat... 20 pounds later and I've got a nice big fat parcel being sent over to me. At least I can keep most of each skein (there's quite a few colours and it's only a small design) for later projects...right? I told my sister how much I'd spent offhandedly, and she went 'mmhmm' like she normally does to any talk of stitching (or Orthodoxy) and then a beat later 'you spent WHAT???!!!'

The reaction was priceless, and made my day.

I'm loving working on A Restful night at the moment. I've only got another 200ish stitches left before I'm 35% done, which is very encouraging, though I feel like it should be more since I've only got another 18 rows of the current pages left when I'm finished with this row of blocks.

Much as I love my HAEDs though, I think I should make something else a focus when I finish her. I'd like to keep a QS in my 'rotation', and I still plan to do Cat Nap Fae next for Meg (I promised her it ages ago) but I think I'll keep it for QS Wednesdays and other random 'screaming' times. It's only 2pages, really, with a few rows left over as change (about 10?) so it shouldn't take too long, and it's nice and small, just big enough to tuck into a letter and send to New York to its recipient. On the other hand, it has a lot of glitter thread. Yetch. Definitely subbing glissen gloss for the kreinik, and I might leave the sparkle until last, we'll see. Most of the sparkle seems confined to the sky though, so it's about 1/2 page worth at most. Thank goodness for small mercies? She's adorable, I'm just not so fond of sparkle.

On the other hand though, I have so many things started and not finished. And I really can't justify starting something new as a focus - if I start something new it will be in the background, and not as a reward for finishing - not this time, I've got enough started already!

Candidates include:

• White Musings - about 25% done. This is, of course, if it's not finished by then - and if I aim to get at least a few rows a week done, it will be.
  
• Froggy Frog World - 1000 stitches done of goodness knows how many (20 pages!). This would keep Troy happy, but I couldn't keep it as focus indefinitely. Maybe if I set the goal for it being focus at four pages or something, it might work.
• Noon Basking - unsure as to how much done. I'd really really love to get back to working on him seriously, he's so beautiful. He's currently winning. He's also not as big or as complicated as most of my others, even though I used to think he was really big - he's not. The chart's just complicated, but I'm used to reading it now.
• Mystery X - About 4.5? parts of 12 done. Again, hard to keep as focus, though it might be fun to try and catch up again. Those houses are beautiful, and I really want mine caught up.
• Japanese Octagon Box - 1.5 parts of 12 done. Would be fun, but I'm SALing with Tash and I'd kind of like to keep it as a SAL piece. Especially since the borders start to drive me nuts after a day or two's work!
• Tranquility Mystery Sampler - I really have no idea. 5%? This one would be a fantastic candidate, it's beautiful with lots of colour changes between monochromatic designs. And its something completely different. On the other hand, I'd only really be able to work on it if I was concentrating, given my tendency to get really really frustrated with it if I have to frog.
  
• TGOSM countries mystery - not started - yet! I'm planning to keep this one as one of my screamers for a while, knuckling down on it every now and then. It seems pretty straightforward, and I really like it - and it's stitched over 2 in Dinky Dyes. How could I not love it?
  

So, any votes/opinions/advice welcome :)

By the way, here is White Musings with five rows done (the top row is being cut off by my q-snaps) and row 6 half done:

I'm off to take my medication, and hopefully my body will settle down with it now and not feel sick. Wish me luck!

Another photo post

Wheee...photos!

The menu for Father's Day was as follows:

• Pineapple, apple and mint juice
• Chive omelette with smoked salmon
• Brunch bake
• Potato has with bacon
• Feta and tomato topped mushrooms
• Barbecued asparagus with pistachio and lemon dressing
• Bread and butter pudding

Yum...

And here are photos:

This is the first plate - the omelettes, mushrooms and asparagus.


And this is (L->R) Me, my dad, and my sister Bindi


Brunch bake - chipolatas, tomatoes, and capsicum, baked together and delicious. There was supposed to be turkish bread in it too, but Bindi has coeliac disease so we left it out and ate it on its own.


And finally, see - bread, juice, oil, empty plates!

We didn't get a chance to get pictures of the rest - everyone just wanted to eat it.

In other photos:

A non-blurry photo of FFW, taken by my sister. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand the art of this - like moving gridding threads out of the way!


And best of all - A Restful Night, with 7 rows (10,500 stitches) done. Look at that sweet little face!

Feeling like death

My body hates me again.

It's probably due to the fact that I spent all of yesterday morning making food for lunch, but I think it was worth it. I made an absolutely crazy amount of food, but we enjoyed it. And I got photos, so I'll post them when my sister's camera decides to play nice again - I've also got a non-blurry FFW picture!

Dad's been feeling sick so he claimed the couch where I usually sit to stitch (and has my frame) yesterday, so I pulled out JOB and got an early start on it. I had to do a bit of frogging, but mostly it came out right, and I'm pleased. Yesterday's work saw a lot more of the grass/sea bit, even more tree, and a lot of black border. Now all of the ornament border down the bottom is done, and I took the bottom snap off for a while to work on the very bottom edge and made progress there. So the borders are almost done for this panel, which I'm pleased about, and I'm thinking that when I finish the black borders for this I'll put my lengths of black every other thread length into the next panel over, getting it ready to work on when I finish panel 2. I'm also tempted to alternate the 'border length' bit, and make it a black one time when I do it and then the slate blue for the ornament borders/gold for the same alternating times until they're done as well. This panel is coming together well, and I'm very pleased with it. I hope to finish the picture's cross stitching for this panel today, and maybe start on the specialty stitches for the pine needles and the backstitching for the reeds. I've decided that I'm going to leave all 3D stitches on this until the end, or at least until they are no longer likely to come into contact with the qsnaps - ie, can start filling in the rhodes stitches for part 1 when the qsnaps are on a part of the piece to the right of it. I'll probably leave them all until the end though, just like the beading.

I'm being tempted to leave the beads and crystals for the successive parts of MX off
now too, until the end, since it's starting to encroach on the edges of the frame. I'll add the beads for part 4, since there's only one corner's worth of it left unbeaded, but the houses and gardens can wait to get beaded until the end.

Speaking (typing?) of MX, I think I'm going to have to set a dictate that Fridays I will work on it. It's a beautiful piece, but I don't work on it nearly often enough, and I'd like to get at least somewhat caught up. If I could keep at least one side of it somewhere near current, that would be awesome. The latest part is just beautiful - and what's even better, it covers the mark on my fabric that has been there since very early in my start...I don't know what it is, and you can barely see it, but it bugs me and I'm glad that it gets covered with stitches! The only thing that is bugging me at the moment is the rhodes stitches in the wall, which I don't really understand - they're fiddly, and I'm not enjoying them.

I plan today that I'll work on A Restful Night a bit, see if I can get 300 stitches done in any reasonable amount of time, and then jump back into JOB. If ARN isn't going anywhere fast, I'll just stick to JOB and make some progress.

It's grey today. Very grey. And cold. I'm hoping that with some heating on my spirits will lift somewhat!

I have pictures!

Finally found the camera, so here I am.

I had a vigil at the Greek church last night - Six hours of church service, and it was great. And I've never enjoyed chicken soup so much as at 1am after the vigil. Was fantastic.

And here: pictures!

First up, Japanese Octagon Box:

The edge of the fabric is a little frayed from trying to hold it in my old q-snaps, but I think it'll be okay. It wont matter by the time I get to making it up into the box anyway.

I've almost got part 2 half done, and I'm loving the stitching. It's just beautiful. This panel has another tree in it, but no leaves on it this time, and a bonsai tree in the bottom part.

And here's my Froggy Frog World after the SAL:

about 1000 stitches, sorry for the blurry photo. It seems impossible to get a clear one, I'll try again later.

Goals for September

Okiedoke, it's that time again!

Last Month's Goals:

Stitchy goals:

• reach the 70 row mark on A Restful Night Nope, but getting there. Another 700ish stitches to go.
  
• stitch present for Ariel Nope, ended up giving her a candle and some tea instead!
  
• enjoy my stitching Always!
  
• finish part 1 of White Musings, make progress on part 2 Haven't touched it much, if at all.
  
• finish page 6 of Tranquility No, pesky frogs interfered.
  
• stitch something on Mystery X Yes, lots! The 'north' house is looking great.
  
• stitch on Froggy Frog World for the Challenge SAL (even though I've bowed out, I can still SAL, and the frogs need love) I didn't get my fabric soon enough, but I did stitch it for the New Start SAL instead.
  
• finish part 1 of JOB, make progress on part 2 This one went so well! I almost got half of part 2 done.
  

Life goals:

• clear the surfaces in my room ie desk and chest of drawers Yup, and they're still fairly clear. The boxes need sorting though.
  
• find something that isn't a suitcase to hang my 'pull on' clothes ie dressing gown, jeans on I'll give myself this one - this month its been the end of my bed instead! Suitcase is now out of my room.
  
• stay positive Most of the time.
  
• get to Divine Liturgy at least twice Oh yes! And going again tonight...
• read a book on Orthodoxy Nope, had no new ones. I am pretty sure that this will change soon if Father Silouan has anything to do with it...
  
• look into moving desk out of my room No progress whatsoever. It will happen.
  
• try to keep the floor at least vaguely clean Yeah, not too bad.
  
• get rid of stuff I really don't need, be ruthless This is progressing, but slowly.

This Month:

Stitchy goals:

• Make progress on FFW during the Challenge SAL this month
• Participate with same in the background SAL - ugh, a whole weekend of stitching glitter! Good for me though.
• Finish pages 1 and 2 of A Restful Night
• Finish part 2 of JOB, make progress on part 3, try to finish and start part 4!
• Participate in JOB SAL each week to achieve the above.
• Make progress on White Musings
• Start *gulp* the new mystery sampler
• Make progress on MX, aim to get the main part of the house done
• Finish the motifs on page 6 of Tranquility
• Buy stitchbows and stitchbow-ify another binder's worth of my master set
• Overhaul my 'what threads I have' list for the above
• Start a list for the fibres that I have, unused (non DMC) or are left over from kits

Life Goals:

• Attend DL twice, more if possible
• Stick to the fasts
• Read a book on Orthodoxy
• Meet with Father
• Get rid of boxes, or sort them and put them under my bed
• Get desk out of room
• Argue some more with Centrelink
• Work towards getting my licence again
  

SB&B stash

I think I love SB&B - people complain about them, but I always have long wait times for stash anyway so the wait times don't really bother me.

I got a package today...ooh fun!

My stash haul is as follows:

The Lord's Prayer - My Big Toe
Wings of Courage - Dragon Dreams
Nuts About Autumn - Waxing Moon.

All just the charts for now - buttons/fabric/silks/floss can come later!

Most of Wings of Courage is in DMC anyway, and the Nuts About Autumn one has a DMC conversion and I can't justify the GAST prices when I have the DMC already.

In other news, Centrelink is being annoying, but that's normal. And I got books from the library today, which was wonderful, I havent had fiction to read (that I don't already own) really for aaages.

I've been happily stitching for the past few days. The weekend was the New Start SAL, and I got around 1000 stitches done - not bad, given I'm sick and have been busy. It's tucked away again until 2nd weekend SAL next month, now. Lots of sparkle, but it looks good. I'm liking the glissen gloss a lot, Anna.
Yesterday's piece was JOB, to make up for not stitching it on Monday, and I got a huge amount done - I never expected to get that much done! I was starting the new panel, and I got most of the black border done (all but a fraction of the bottom part of the outside border, and the inner border on the oval shaped border), along with all of the blue and gold cross stitching and backstitching at the top, the continuation of the pine tree from the other panel - so pretty...and I finally figured out how to do queen's stitches properly, while doing the LAST ONE! Not going back to frog them, they look fine. If they still bug me when I go to make the whole thing up, I'll fix them then. I also started the new tree and got a lot of grass done. Basically I've been working on the principle of one length of black thread, one of colour, one of black, etc etc and I made a huge amount of progress. Very pleased, if I keep this up I might finish the panel next week! Now that would definitely be something. I might pick it up again sometime this week, too, if I get the urge/want to stitch something that isn't ARN. Mostly I just need to do solid stitching in this panel, and that's soothing.

And today's was A Restful Night. She has a face now! All of one, except the very bottom of her mouth and chin. She's so sweet, so, so sweet. My eyes got tired (my body has decided it hates me again today) so I put her down, and I'll try to work on her again tomorrow, and get the hair done for the row. I've started her shoulder now too, which is fun. It's nice to be making progress again, I'd hit a slump with her.

I got Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men in book form, and A Hat Full of Sky in audiobook (squee!) form from the library today, so I'll read Wee Free Men and then I can listen to A Hate Full of Sky while stitching one day. Sounds like heaven to me!

My body is in a bad mood, so this is enough - I'm going to bed. I'll just finish with this, given what day it is in the church calendar - The Beheading of the Forerunner and Baptist, John (John the Baptist).

The memory of the just is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord's testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner; for thou hast proved to be truly even more venerable than the Prophets, since thou was granted to baptize in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for the truth, thou didst rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in Hades: that God hath appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and granting us great mercy.

It's windy today

And I mean really really windy. I live in a part of the world that still has a lot of massive gum trees that have been there for hundreds of years, and they're waving and whipping around, and I can see them out of my window.

The weather has decided that it likes being spring, so spring it will be. It's nice to have the window open and not need an overhead light on as well, and to see the sky out of my window. I'm back in bed again, having a fatigue-y day. The brain fog is there, but not horrible. I just can't move much!

Troy and I got to my room again, and my dresser is pretty much clear now (which is very nice) and the big boxes that have been on my desk obscuring my view out of my window are now on the floor or under my bed. I'm trying to sort a box every day, and hopefully they will all be empty or put under my bed soon enough. Which reminds me, I need to find the vailance (or however you spell it) for my bed, green cotton is much nicer to see than the stuff under my bed.

I get restless sometimes, and want to attack my room, and change everything. I know this isnt practical, and I know it's just being irrational, and that I love my room (all deep hues, pinks and greens) but sometimes I just get frustrated and want to attack things. To be able to do something, anything! I feel so useless a lot of the time and I really don't like it.

I've been working on a new start...well, sort of new start. I restarted Froggy Frog World, which, when I calculated, is actually only four times as big as A Restful Night. It's very pretty, and I'm enjoying it, but I haven't had as much done on it as I would have liked. It's the New Start SAL at the HAED BB which is why I started it, but I've only got a few hundred stitches done.

Its been a long weekend. Not much has happened, but I'm still worn out. We went to St Nektarios' church yesterday, which was nice - different! Usually we got to an Antiochian church, St Elias', but the priest was in Melbourne, so went to the church we attend study at, and got to see Father Silouan in something other than black! That was different, and it was nice to see him. As we went up for a blessing and a piece of antidoron from Father, he told us that we had beautified the church by our attendance. I love Father Silouan, he always makes me smile.

It was a memorial yesterday for a man named Elias' grandfather, so we had fish and salad for lunch afterwards, which was really nice, and aniseed flavoured biscuits. I'd complimented one lady's cake after attending paraklesis a few weeks before, and she was at the door, and greeted me with a flurry of rapid greek. I caught my name in there, and she told me in that wonderful Greek way to eat aaaanything I wanted, and kept trying to feed me.

I've just been resting in my bed the last while, with nothing much else to do. I'm just resting, mostly calm. There's not much to do.

...and Father Silouan has offered to be Troy and my Spiritual Father...yay! We're going to arrange to talk to him sometime, and sort out catechumenate.

Father grinned at us yesterday and said: 'this is the order. Become Orthodox, marry, then get a house! Not any other order'. I grinned back and told him to tell my mother (who thinks we should get married protestant and then get become Orthodox) that. One day she'll understand.

Q-snap squee!

One of my plans in my entry where I planned out the rest of the year's stitching (or tried to) was that I needed a new set of q-snaps. So, I dutifully went to ABC stitch and bought them.

A set of 8inch q-snaps, and spare 11inch extender arms. And oh my goodness!

I now have tranquility on them, and I love them. I need to roll the excess fabric hanging at the bottom up, but otherwise...wow.

They're my new 'everything else' set. MX has its own dedicated set of 17inch qsnaps, and A Restful night has a set of 8x10 (I think) qsnaps. The other 'set' I have was made up of the leftovers from what I wasn't using, but wasn't very effective.

But my goodness. JOB will fit on this set perfectly, tranquility fits widthwise but not lengthwise (which is fine, it doesn't need to) and pretty much anything else will fit on it. It's a beautiful size, and the clippy things (aren't I technical!) are tight. Anna told me that dishwashing the clippy things will tighten them back up, so I'll have to do that with the ones I've got - I never realised that they were getting loose until I used this set and went WOW!

Today's stitching plans look like trying to get a length of thread into each of the motifs that I'm currently working on (the cream leaf and the green flowery one on pg 6) on Tranquility, putting a minimum of 100 stitches into A Restful Night, and trying to get some gridding done on Froggy Frog World. At least overlocking and 'gridding' (I only do the horizontals) the first two rows of FFW anyway, ready to restart them tomorrow. Yay frogs!

It is a beautiful day here today, quite mild, with a very blue sky. And green grass. And yellow soursobs. I am glad to be alive today.

(this contrasts with yesterday, in which I was sick as a dog)

Oh, and I'm now officially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, too. This takes the collection of chronic illnesses to four! Go me :)

And Rachel - thanks for the comment, yeah it's nice to know that it's not just me with my dolls :)

I'd love to see the Kit movie, but it won't come out here. Maybe I should buy Kit now...I'm so very tempted. Kit, some clothes for Amanda, a stand for each of Kit and Amanda, and maybe an outfit for Lissie... oh dear. I'm going to need a wishlist. Gak.

Randomosities

Today's not been too bad - my brain was less alive than yesterday, but that's probably because I stayed up and I shouldn't have. Blake has given me somewhat of a 'plot bunny' with Amanda - make her Orthodox. Which I could. Can't you imagine her in Divine Liturgy with a headscarf, and a candle?

In other news, I got a lot of stitching done on A Restful Night yesterday, and another 100 or so today. She's beautiful, with ever more of her face emerging. I got Tranquility back out too, and I've started on the green motif on page 6 again, after getting a chunk (almost half of what's on this page) of the cream motif done.

Dad I went down to Hallet Cove, where I looked out the window and sat in the sun, and listed the colours needed for the first four rows of ten of Froggy Frog World ready for Friday, when the New Start SAL starts. Then we headed over to visit family friends, who liked my dress (I wore the purple one) and caught up, which was fun.

...and Dad and I thought seriously about planning my wedding for late January/early February.

That bit is fun!

I need to give my mailman chocolate

We got a new mailman recently, and I love him. He brings all packages, and anything that looks like it could get bent, to our door - the last one stuffed everything in the box. Blech.

But this one brought me two packages today, see?

Number 1:

Which is so much more beautiful than I imagined. I look forward to seeing it on my wall each day next year!

and Number 2:

I ordered the fabric - 30ct white linen jobelan from Passione Ricamo for Froggy Frog World - we have a New Start SAL this weekend, so I'm restarting them then...though, I've been thinking...and it might be something else...we'll see.

But, with that, I got the fob you see there - which is just stunning, and I love it. So I'm happy!

I went to see the doc today, and the fish oil I've been taking is making my skin go nuts, so I'm off it completely for a week and then back on it but one tablet three times a day instead of three. Ant I've got an antidote to the medication I've been taking, which should sort things out. Oh, and my forms are all filled in for Centrelink, so I just need to take them in now. Fingers crossed!

Oh and here are my dolls, Felicity and Amanda:

Felicity is from 1774, and Amanda...well, I'm not quite sure when she's from yet. I'm sure I'll find out soon!

Oh and since there's lots of photos already, here's one more - my Troy, who is so good to me:


And in stitchy news, I've passed the 30% marker on A Restful Night!

Doldrums

Everything is just so blah at the moment!

I saw doc informally on Saturday, and he said to start taking this stuff which was an antidote to the symptoms that my poison-kill medication is giving me. Yay. So now I'm taking stuff to combat the stuff that is combating the poison in my system.

What was that about she swallowed the cat to eat the bird that ate the spider that ate the fly?

In happier news, this has basically lead to me not taking the stuff, due to misunderstandings as to when I'm meant to take the antidote. And I now know it definitely is the stuff's fault, since I now feel a thousand times better.

We got to the rat cage today too, and my room. I can see my floor again! I also made progress on my desk, you just can't see it because other stuff took the place of the stuff I removed. Cleaning makes me sick, and wiped me out for a while.

It's pretty much a decided thing that I have to find a new home for the rats. I am not happy about this, but I've stopped fighting the invevitable. I am, however, fighting selling them, or giving them away to anyone I don't know. I do NOT want my girls ending up as science experiments, unloved, or snake food. Troy's promised me a kitten at some point, and that helps a little - I could have a kitten keep me company, I just love my girls.

I got my dolls down too! I have two American Girl dolls, a PM Felicity (PM meaning made before Mattel took over) and a more recent American Girl of Today/Just Like You doll. The AGT looks like me at ten, with the same colour hair and eyes, and bangs. I hated mine, but they look cute on her, and her name is Amanda. They've been packed away in storage for years, but I've been thinking about seriously collecting again recently, and sewing for Amanda. And maybe getting another doll - either a JLY or Kit, I think. I like Kit. But Amanda would like a friend too...and Felicity would like Elizabeth...and I don't have the money to buy multiple $100 dolls! I've had a great time today brushing out their hair and adding conditioning spray to it to stop it looking so flyaway, and redressing them. Much as I love my stitching, it's nice to have a break, and something that takes a different kind of thinking. My thoughts on my dolls:

• I really want a new doll. But until I've decided which one, I'm not going to entertain the thought.
• Amanda desperately needs more clothes. I need to make her some, and she needs basic things like jeans and sneakers.
  
• Amanda also desperately needs hair stuff. She has lots of it, and nothing to do with it.
• Felicity needs new outfits, but less desperately...I'm just working on her collection. Her birthday dress (pink and spring-y) is tempting given we're coming up to spring, but so is her Tea Gown, Summer Dress, and what used to be her school outfit. Gak.
• Felicity, however, does desperately need her underthings. Her dresses just don't fall right without pocket hoops, and this didn't bother me when I was younger. Now I know more about history, and costuming, it bothers me greatly.
  
• I need a stand for Amanda. Felicity has one, Amanda doesn't.
• Amanda needs a bed. However, I hate their current one, and I haven't liked the previous couple either. But Troy's dad would probably make me one, so I'm going to ask him.
  
• I am tragic! This is so much fun, and I'll be 20 next year. Oh well!

I get to see Doc properly tomorrow, and hopefully Troy will come with. And he is talking to someone about this whole caring for a chronic fatigue sufferer thing tomorrow - thank goodness. He really needs to vent, and he's the only one who hasn't been able to see it!

So, room is clean, I have a new food magazine to read, and Troy's given me the latest Anita Blake book (which is actually supposed to be quite good, contrasted with the last few) to read which I am looking forward to. I have stitched, but not much - fifty stitches or so on her wings today. I'm just finding it hard to do much at all at the moment.

Especially since my body woke me up at 3am this morning. And refused to let me go back to sleep.

Ever feel like your body has decided that mutiny is a good idea?

A Meme, because this one looked like fun

Steal it if you like, the catch is that you can only use one word to answer each :)

1. Where is your Cellphone? Floor
   
2. Relationship? Engaged
   
3. Your Hair? Temperamental
   
4. Work? Non-existant
   
5. Your sister? Herself
   
6. Your favorite thing? Troy
   
7. Your dream last night? Weird
   
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
   
9. Your dream car? Goes
   
10. The room you’re in? Bedroom
    
11. Your shoes? None
    
12. Your fears? Confusion
    
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Well
    
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Jeremy
    
15. What are you not good at? Wellness
    
16. Muffin? Donut!
    
17. One of your wish list items? Charts
    
18. Where you grew up? Adelaide
    
19. Last thing you did? Blog
    
20. What are you wearing? Pyjamas
    
21. What aren’t you wearing? Shoes
    
22. Your pet? Rats
    
23. Your computer? Laptop
    
24. Your life? Strange
    
25. Your mood? Sick
    
26. Missing? School
    
27. What are you thinking about right now? Food
    
28. Your car? Non-existant
    
29. Your kitchen? Mess
    
30. Your summer? Delightful
    
31. Your favorite color? Blue
    
32. Last time you laughed? Yesterday
    
33. Last time you cried? Wednesday
    
34. School? Forget
    
35. Love? Always

Not a lot to say

I've been feeling rather sick the last few days.

Our camera is also throwing a hissy fit, so it is going back to get fixed (it's only a few months old) and then I will take photos of things.

I really haven't been stitching much. I've just been feeling flat, and when I have been stitching it's been in the car or somewhere else, out, and Stretch. He is looking lovely though - he has a head now, and part of his body, and I just need to backstitch the 'mane' from his head and that will pop and come to life.

My medication has been making me sick, too - it gave me horrible cramps when I took it up to the full dose on Wednesday night, and then last night it made me physically sick, so I am not sure what to do with it. I've just felt nauseous instead the last few days - fun! Seeing the doc on Monday, so I'll ask him then. I'm feeling particularly bad tonight, so we left the medication that makes me sick off tonight - I just couldn't cope, and it would be enough to set it off.

I'm very mopey, which isn't good, but I'm sure it will pass.

I caught up with Tait, a friend of mine, today, which was fun. We caught trains! We started off at the cafe up here and had lunch, talked, and walked to the gardens, and then caught the train into the city, and swapped trains to the noarlunga line to go see the sea. We talked all the way there, and all the way back, and then after buying donuts from the place that makes wonderful ones, we caught the train to his place to get stuff as he was going to youth group up here tonight. I was planning to, but I got home and collapsed in a chair and Troy and Mum wouldn't let me go anywhere. Smart people. So I'm headed to sleep soon, and hopefully will feel better tomorrow!

I say Amen and it's still raining...

I have discovered (via Anna W) another Casting Crowns song that I love. It's from the album Lifesong and it's called Praise You In The Storm which is a kind of overused phrase, but beautiful song.

Here are the lyrics - they're Christian, if you don't want to read them just scroll down.

I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

It's a lovely song musically too.

So where have I been?

Friday I went down to Goolwa (where we keep our boat) with my Dad, and we didn't go on the boat (it was blowing 25-30 knots!) but we drove around and enjoyed the view. We went down to Beacon 19 which is the furthest into the Coorong that you can drive, and Dad went for a walk in the sand dunes while I sat in the car, listened to the radio, and flipped through my Greek book. Thursday night was wonderful, and I got mobbed and fed by Greek little old ladies which was wonderful. I never knew there were so many 'fast-friendly' desserts! We also got conned into joining in a choir practice, for a song we'd never heard before - in Greek. Written in Greek. 8 full pages of it!! Jeremy and I both read biblical Greek, though is is better than mine, but singing it? Not to mention, there are several nuances that are different between ancient and modern greek. Oh well, we got into it - and it was FUN! It was an ode of some sort to the Theotokos, but I'm not sure beyond that.

Friday night was sleepy - we watched better homes and gardens on TV, I stitched, and I fell asleep. I tried the medicine again, and swallowed it all this time, so that's good.

Saturday was just long. I really didn't get much done thought I made muffins - two lots, gluten free for Bindi (who was very appreciative) and normal for the rest of us, donut muffins again. This lot came out a bit mutant though so I hope the next lot don't. They taste good anyway, just look weird!
Sunday was even longer, but good. I was up early for Divine Liturgy this morning, which was good except I need to learn to shut up when I'm talking (I talk too much when I'm nervous and occasionally blurt things I regret - just embarassing) and Troy got told off for having his hands in his pockets - lol. Jeremy came up for lunch, and ate salad (with mushrooms, since he can't have meat) and bread while the rest of us at the same, and fish. He brought a bottle of pink by the same people that make yellow (it's pink champagne stuff) which was YUM though Dad didn't like it because it wasn't sweet enough. I liked it. I went to fishgate with everyone else tonight, which was fun, and everyone now knows that I'm going Orthodox thanks to my Dad saying so while he was on a panel tonight and they were all asked to give their name and a random fact...lol. We went down to Glenelg after church for the annual FishGate pizza night aka Jen's birthday - she always has it at the pizza place, and always invites half the church. Much pizza, and it was fantastic, though I somehow managed to cut my mouth on the pizza - go figure? Anyway that was nice and I came home to crash.

Yesterday was another out of the house day. Dad went in to the University for a meeting with a colleague and I sat down at a spare desk with Stretch and outlined his head, and gave home some more body. He looks good, I need to take another photo of him. We caught the train home, with a few donuts from the awesomeness hot donut place in the train station, and got home to find Mum about to go down to the mall to pick up my jeans that I had taken up, and my medication to help my sleep cycle settle down. While picking up my jeans I fell in love with a short dress/long top (it ties in back so I suppose it's a dress) and got it too. It's pale pink, with short sleeves, made in an all over lace stuff - like cutwork, where the background between the massive flowers was cut out. Anyway, it's beautiful, with little fabric covered buttons on the short sleeves, and larger ones down the front of the bodice, and a round neck. It finishes about mid thigh, and I'll wear it over jeans - it looks great, I'm just waiting for warmer weather now. It's basically a-line, and I've figured out how to make it, so I need to go to Spotlight soon for fabric shopping - I want more calico for another dress like my purple one, though I'll change the skirt to make it less bulky at the waist, and I want fabric to make another of the dress I bought yesterday for myself, and one for Bindi who has told me she wants one too.

And today..today is just blah. I feel dead, but I am lying on the couch looking out the window at the beautiful blue, sunny sky, so all is not lost :)

Stitching has been mostly on Stretch and Mystery X this weekend, and MX now has two of four of the gates on the last corner done, and considerable progress done on the north house and side garden. I am pleased! Photos to come for both of those.

I feel like a 'proper' CFS sufferer now...

Somewhere between all the medications, and my Mum getting me up at 7am (what kind of sadists are my mother and my doctor?) and how I feel, I guessed it's validated now.

As usual, my diagnosis is refusing to fit any normal (even for CFS) pattern, which is annoying but not unexpected. None of my other diagnoses (and I've had a few!) have been normal, so why should this one be?

I had lunch today - which is quite radical for me, but mum had left me a plate with a salmon pattie from the other night and some salad and lime&ginger mayonnaise (yum) in the fridge, so I pulled it out and ate it. And then dutifully took my fish oil pills, and now I'm sitting here with a frozen fruche thing - creme fraisch, but all moussed and then frozen. It tastes good anyway, its raspberry flavoured. I've also eaten two mini mars bars and a handful of marshmallows because they were there and my blood sugar feels like it's three stories below ground, though they haven't seemed to help. Oh well, at least they tasted good!

My eyes have been being weird, and refusing to focus properly, which has been irritating me, and made stitching yesterday very difficult. Because of this, I dug out Noon Basking who has been languishing, and worked on him for a while. Mum and I have decided that his name is now Ethelred, because he needed a name, and he seems to like it. I restarted him, after having stitched his first incarnation while very sick in the head after a nervous breakdown. He was also my first attempt at blends, stitching on linen, and fractionals! You can imagine how that went... so I restarted him. He looks much better this time around!

And yes, yes, here's a picture:


No, I didn't do all that today. From about where the backstitching currently ends, down, is what I did today. I think he's beautiful. Very, very yellow. The blues in the border mellow him down a bit. I hadn't realised how much I missed him until I worked on him again - its easy, and soothing. Maybe I should work on him more often!

Now I'm going back to put in a stint on A Restful Night. Wait and see - 40 stitches left to go, hopefully I'll have a new update photo this afternoon!

Urk.

Disclaimer: this is going to be a 'and then I did...' post - if you don't like it, the back button is near the top of your screen.

I woke up today at about 1 to Dad calling me to wake up. Finally, at about 2pm, I crawled out of bed to the living room to watch The African Queen with him - my body has just been very very unhappy with me recently.

We went to see the doctor, and got my test results back. The CAT scan was clear, which was surprising, but we now have the basic facts to work from.

I have to document each day with my symptoms, and Mum is going to get me some large sheets of coloured card to make up poster type charts from. And is going to get the charts themselves (that were printed off) blown up so that they fit, and we can easily add to them. I can't cope with the number system (0 bad 10 good) so we sat down and devised a system of words for the corresponding numbers. This way we can do a chart and monitor my symptoms.

And I have horrible stuff to take - it has the consistency of sand, and doesnt believe in dissolving. I found this out the hard way - they say take it with pineapple cordial. We couldn't find any, but we used tropical. All was good, until I got to the bottom of the glass and found it all sedimented there. I drank it...and threw up. We're trying again tomorrow. It should either make my symptoms worse, in which case I have to take other tablets to counteract that, or make me feel better without getting worse. Otherwise, it's not doing anything and we're back to square one.

We're taking Troy from now on though - he needs to be learning this stuff, since he's taking on the primary carer role as soon as we're married. Which hopefully will be soon! I'm talking to Father tomorrow night, we'll see how that goes.

Oh any my eyes won't focus properly. Which means over one is out, for a while - I'm going to get Noon Basking back out, but first I'm going to struggle through the last 40 stitches of this row on A Restful Night so that the row is done. C'est la Vie, right?

A More Awake Post

Here I be.

I was very sleepy when I posted that yesterday, hence the brevity. Maybe I should post half asleep usually?

Today has been somewhat long - tiring, but not too bad. It was lovely going to the boat, and seeing the sea again. It was far too windy for sailing though - blowing a gale, so we just watched the scenery and ate food from the bakery. Was good. I came home and collapsed into bed, then came out onto the couch to stitch. I finished part 1 of JOB:



and worked on A Restful Night. Her hair and wing are now done for the row, it's just a case of finishing up the background. If I push, I'll get it done tonight, otherwise tomorrow.

I have an appt with my doctor for CFS tomorrow, which should give me the results of my CAT scan, and maybe some more ideas to try. We'll see!

A Better Stitchy Day

was had today by me. I worked on A Restful Night this afternoon, which was good for keeping my mind off my physical state (still miserable) and got her second eye completely done - she's stunning, and worked on her hair a bit. Then I switched to JOB, and I have part 1 completely done except the rhodes stitches (leaving until last) and a tiny bit of backstitching, which I'll finish off tomorrow for completeness' sake and post a picture when I have. It looks simply incredible.

I'm very pleased, and Dad and I are going down to the boat tomorrow. I like car trips, scenery while not having to move - my idea of heaven when I feel this sick. Should be good, I plan to take stretch or ARN.

Plan for rest of year

I know, I know, I'm fickle, and I never stick to these, but I'm going to try this time. Hey, I've stuck with my stitching style for a few months so far!

So here are the goals:

• finish QS A Restful Night
• start and work on QS Cat Nap Fae for Meg
• finish White Musings
• make significant progress on Tranquility Sampler
• make progress on Mystery X
• make progress on Froggy Frog World.
• get half the panels of Japanese Octagon Box done
• finish Stretch (for Troy since I didn't get him done for Ariel)
• make progress on Noon Basking
  

and here's the plan:

• keep QS A Restful Night as focus until it's done, with my Monday SAL on JOB, and monthly SAL on FFW
• then, make White Musings focus until done, continue with SALs but add QS CNF on wednesday for the SAL on the HAED BB
• if I get thoroughly sick of White Musings, swap it out for a month with either Tranquility, Frogs or Noon Basking
  
• possibly rotate these four BAPs month by month, seeing how I go. Otherwise, rotate by working on them until I get sick of them and then move on to the next one. Continue in this fashion until at least one of them is done!
• when White Musings is done, I may start another magazine/freebie SAL piece
• when frogs are done (heh), I may start another big HAED
• when Tranquility is done, I may kit up and start A Most Noble Pursuit
• when Noon Basking is done, I may kit up and start The Fortunate Traveler
• when QS Cat Nap Fae is done, it's fair game what I start next as long as it's a HAED
• set a day to work on Mystery X each week when I start feeling a little better
  

I may NOT:

• start anything else until at least November unless it's already stated above
• start any more freebies or gift stitching unless White Musings is done and it can go in that slot, or its a good travel piece (over two mandatory, or else done in one colour of thread entirely) to replace Stretch
• get sucked into any more SALs, unless one of my current pieces fits into it
• buy any more Chatelaines unless it's the last month before they get 'put away' for a year or so and I really like them
• buy kits for said Chatelaines if I buy them
• start Convents Herbal Garden even if it really screams at me
• buy more HAED charts unless they are going OOP and I really adore them

One exception:

• I *might* start another HAED, but this is a definite might. And I better have A Restful Night at least done by then...

Other plans:

• stitch MX one side at a time. For as much of the chart as I have at the time. I have part 4 just about done, but parts 5, 6, 7 and 8 are being done for each side all together.
  
• flat out attack White Musings when I get to it. It's not hard, it just gets tedious occasionally when I get sick of a stitch. If this happens, just go down to the next/previous row until I finish/get sick of that one, and keep going. There are 24 of the things, it's not like I don't have variety.
• not be afraid to swap around on my BAPs. Work on White Musings fairly solidly until done (really shouldn't take very long) then work on whatever current WIP calls loudest, until sick of it, then swap
• stitch JOB one panel at a time, finishing everything in it before starting the next one
• not stitch the rhodes stitches on JOB now until the whole thing is done, they make Q-snap positioning awkward, and they're easier to do in hand anyway - ditto beading.
• BUY A NEW 8x10 or something set of Q-snaps!! I really need some, swapping my current small piece (JOB, whatever freebie, QS, probably my big HAEDs until they get big enough) is getting really irritating. ARN really needs her own until she's done, and then I think JOB will get its own permanent set until it's done. The other set can be shared around with White Musings, random freebies, yada yada this is now done.