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!