The Mousetrap and the Melbourne Fringe Festival

... I have been really busy lately.  As you all know we had our big move workwise which has been a huge deal and then I have had lots of things happening on the social side.

Last weekend, my DF, Lisa and I went to see Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap".

This play has been running in London's West End for 60 years now (the longest running play) and to celebrate has been on tour.  

Well, it was so much fun - just what you would expect from an Agatha Christie play.

If it turns up on tour in your town or city I can recommend going to see it.  (... and yes,  I guessed whodunit, but I am not telling!  They made us promise not to.....)

Last week I also went to the Melbourne Fringe Festival, 

this festival has been running for 30 years now and is a chance for independent artists to showcase their work and talents.

My DS1 has co-written,  directed, produced and acted (a very small part) in a comedy show for the festival: 

Choose your own comedy: The A-Z of Paul D'Agostino:

He and his friend, Paul (above) have put this comedy show together and it is really good - I am so proud of them.

We went on Thursday night with his god-parents and then we are going again tomorrow night with a big group.  But as no two shows are alike, it should be another good night of entertainment.

That is enough from me for now - lots to do this Sunday:

• walks to go on 
• supermarket shopping to do
• a little bit of work work to do
• a book to finish reading, 
• blogs to stalk visit
• and, of course, LOTS OF STITCHING TO DO!

Don't forget if you would like to be in the draw for my PIF 2, please comment and tell me so on this post, here

Lots of Stitchy hugs,

A lovely surprise!

I had such a lovely surprise when I arrived home from work tonight.  I found that lovely postman of mine had brought me those lovely parcels.  It was another PIF - one which I had totally forgotten that I was going to be a recipient of - from Cathy Moore from Bits n' Bobs.  Look at the wonderful presents she made and gave me, she knows me so well - they are all kitten-related!   I feel so blessed to have such lovely bloggy friends.  Thank you so much, Cathy! You are so lovely!  ... and such a talented stitcher.

Now, having received this PIF - I now need three more "volunteers" to be recipients of PIFs from me.

So, who would like to receive a special handmade gift from me sometime over the next 12 months??????

Remember,  the PIF only works if the recipients are then willing to PIF to three other stitchers each, once they have received their gifts.

If you are interested, please write a comment on this post letting me know and then I will have a drawing of names if I have lots of victims willing volunteers.  I will  keep the PIF open for about a week and I will post anywhere in the world.

I also had another Halloween Happy Dance this weekend:

Alphabet Cat from JCS Halloween 2012.  I think that it is so cute. I have made it for a friend at work who has two cats who could be twins of Furio and Milo.

See you later,

Thank you, a few answers and a new SAL

.... thank you so much everyone for your kind comments about my new haircut.  I had quite a lot cut off so it was quite a big decision.  I am very pleased with my new "do" but it is lovely to get some validation from my lovely bloggy friends.

..... also, I see that I have some great NEW bloggy friends, thanks for following me - I always love to make new friends in blogland and I promise that I will check out your blogs when I get the chance, if I haven't done so already.

Re the Travelling Pattern, I forgot to tell you - when I finish it will be travelling on - so watch this space for a chance to win the TP.

Oh, dear, or Oh Whoopie! I have joined another SAL.  This one is a Gingerbread SAL hosted by the lovely Agneta - you can check it out further via the cute SAL button on my sidebar.

... and lastly, there were quite a few questions about where I work and what I do for a living, so here are some answers for you:

I work for one of the largest publishing firms in the world.  It is a global company with offices in over 60 countries around the world.  We publish both trade (novels, cookbooks, etc) and educational publications.  I was a teacher of History, English, Geography and also a teacher-librarian for about 28 years before I was headhunted by my present employer to work on publishing History books for the new Australian Curriculum.

The new offices brings together around 470 people from the Trade division and the educational publishing division under one roof in a purpose-renovated 5 Green star heritage building - cool, hey!

Thanks for visiting,

hugs,

FNSI, Our brand new office and a Travelling Pattern

Well, unfortunately, I did not get too much stitching done last night for FNSI.  Not surprising as I have had a very BIG week, but more of FNSI in a minute!

First, I need to tell you that my company has moved offices! The company has brought the educational and trade publishing divisions under one roof.
So,  no more driving through heavy traffic to Port Melbourne for Kaye!  Yay!

Now I:

1. walk out my front door,
2. take the "long" trek of about 50 metres to the Eaglemont train station, 
3. catch the 8.25 train
4. find a comfy seat, take out my stitching and then 30 minutes later
5. I alight at Southern Cross Station in the city,
6. make the even "longer" trek of 500 metres to my brand new office!

Enjoy the pics:

The office was once an old Railways Goods Shed:

historic Goods Shed South.

Built in 1889 for £72,943 17s 5 1/2d, (almost AUD$8 million in today’s money) Goods Shed No. 2 was a Victorian Railways building. 

Its original length spanned over two city blocks, stretching 385 metres in length making it the largest railway shed ever built in Melbourne. The building lay derelict for over 30 years and became redundant in the 1980s, later being bisected by the Collins Street extension which created the North and South side. 

As I walk across the Collins Street extension I can see my new office and this very large bird overlooking us.

 Here is the new foyer:

... and everywhere there are flatscreen TVs, which on the first day welcomed us to the new office.  Do you like the slogan - "Creativity lives here"?

 Here are some pics of various ares of the building:

Everywhere there are breakout areas where people can sit - each area is characterised by a gorgeous rug.  One day, I am going to roam the large building taking pics of each different rug design.

 Some of my very happy colleagues:

My new desk, with all of my stuff waiting for me to unpack.

Cool new meeting rooms:

One of the lunch areas:

The space age-looking board room!

 It is a very long building!

One of the new kitchens: (there are several, as there are about 470 people in the new office space)

 Cool new fridges:

A sound studio:

 The "cafe": comfy couches surrounded by free books for us to read:

I hope that you have enjoyed my tour of our new office. However, it is quite a big thing to have moved us all in this way - a bit unsettling, in a good way but still meant that I am really tired this weekend.

During the week, TraderVic and I went to see the Napoleon Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (no one quite knows how the State of Victoria can have a National Gallery!).

The exhibition was fantastic - so much to see!  Paintings, beautiful china, and so much more!  If it ever comes to your city, do pay it a visit.


Travelling Pattern:  I have been lucky enough to win the Lizzie Kate Little House Needleworks Summer Garden Travelling Pattern passed onto me by Mouse.  The Rule with this TP, is that you have to choose your backing fabric first and then choose your thread colours based on the backing fabric.  If you follow the link you will see Mouse's lovely finished design. The Travelling Pattern originally started with Myra, thank you Myra for starting the TP and thank you Mouse for choosing to pass it onto me.

This is the fabric which I have chosen for my backing fabric, now I just have to wait for the pattern to arrive:

I hope that you like it - it is a reproduction fabric from my old quilting stash.

Now, it is time for my FNSI update.  I didn't get much done as I have had such a big week, but I felt like working on Mary Wigham.  She is my go-to project when I feel like being soothed.  Such a pleasure to stitch.

This is what I got done last night (above) and below is my overall progress.  

Lastly, I was feeling down (we had some trouble with DFIL) this morning - so I made an impromptu trip to the hairdresser and had all of my hair chopped off!  (Well, not quite all, but you know what I mean).

Anyway, I am making corned beef with white onion sauce and Dutch Cream potatoes for dinner tonight so I had better get the meat on to cook.  Have a great weekend everyone.

hugs,