So sorry, I have no time to post properly. Frantically busy at work - putting in long days with little time left for blogging or stitching. I am off to Sydney tomorrow for work and won't be back until Saturday night - so talk to you all on Sunday or Monday.
Sit back my little ones and listen to the Tale of a Stupid Stitcher.....
It all begins with a Happy Dance. Day 2 of Prairie Schooler's Santa's 12 Days of Christmas is finished "Yay!" I say.
Then I start to think.... "Ooh, I don't have anymore of this fabbie which I really liked stitching Days 1 and 2 on." So, off to my LNS I go, to visit the lovely Wendy of Lazy Daisy fame with Day 2 in hand to buy some more Lugana. But, when I got to pull out Day 2 to show him off to Wendy - not there! Left behind on my stitching chair! "No worries," think I, "I remember exactly what the fabric is."
...and that is where I made my mistake! After examining the cream Lugana varieties, I decided that it was definitely 25 count. "Yes, I am positive that this is it!" I declared to Wendy.
So, off I trotted home happily, with my 25 count Lugana.
Once home I decide to photograph Days 1 and 2 together to show you all. Do you see what is wrong?
Day 1 is smaller than Day 2!
"How can that be? I rather bemusedly thought to myself, "and the fabric colour is not quite the same!"
Hmmmm! What is going on? So I investigate further.
Yep, definitely smaller and a slightly different cream. Day 1 has been stitched on 32 count linen, Day 2 on 28 count Lugana - both obviously different brands as the creams are definitely not the same - and now Days 3 and 4 at least are going to be on 25 count cream Lugana!!!!!!
So, the moral of the Tale of a Stupid Stitcher is this:
Always check your fabric carefully! (and maybe take it with you to your LNS when trying to match it).
We had a bit of a family drama on Saturday (all turned out well in the end, luckily) so not as much stitching was done as I had planned to do, although I did finish some stitching for an exchange (so sorrry, no pics).
On Sunday, TraderVic and I drove up to Monbulk in the Dandenong Ranges with DS1 to pick up an amp which he had bought on ebay.
It is so pretty up there:
DS1 shouted us to lunch at The Mountain Grande Tearooms, I found this review on a foodie's blog, here.
We had a delicious lunch and devonshire tea and I also bought a pretty to hang my keys on:
But what about your stitchy progress which you can show us? I hear you say. Well, here is my BEFORE photo of Day 2 of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas:
.... and here is my AFTER IHSW photo:
I am pretty pleased with my progress - a few sessions on the train on the way to work this week and I will be done!
Last night my DF, Marie (of walking around Princes Park each Sunday morning fame) and I went to see the movie "The Sessions". It is about a man disabled by polio who despite living most of his life in an iron lung, has a keen wit, a great sense of humour and is a poet. At the age of 38 he hires a sex surrogate to help him lose his virginity. It was written and directed by a Melbourne filmmaker, Ben Lewin, himself a survivor of polio. It won some awards at the Sundance Festival. It is a beautiful, humourous, yet moving film (it brings you to tears at times) and is most thought-provoking as well. I can highly recommend it.
.... and just to finish, here is my gorgeous Furio, lying all dappled in the sun, I wonder if he dreams of being a lion on the savannah?
I was checking out the blogs of some of my new followers - hi everyone and thanks for becoming a follower - and via Angela's blog "Hooked on Stitches" (thanks, Angela) I found a couple of reading challenges which I felt rather compelled to take up the gauntlet on!
Reading Challenge No 1:
The 2013 Ebook Challenge. Encouraging readers to expand past just physical books to embrace ebooks in all forms, whether onKindle, Kobo, computer, or any other reader.
Challenge Guidelines:
This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2013 – Dec 31, 2013.
Anyone can join, you don’t need to be a blogger. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to sign-up in the comments. You can postreviews to any book site (i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, etc).
Any genre or length of book counts, as long as it is in ebook format.
You can plan your books in advance or as you read them.
When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the E-Book Reading Challenge.
You can move up levels, but no moving down.
Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2013, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
At the beginning of each month there will be a roundup post for you to add your reviews for that month. The linky will remain open for the remainder of the year, so if you forget, feel free go back and add them when you remember.
There will be a giveaway at the end of the year for everyone who achieves their goal level (or higher).
If you are interested in joining this challenge then please go to the sign up on Workaday Reads.
"So, what level are you going for?", I hear you say. Well, as of today, I have read 110 books this year which means that I am nearly at my 2012 goal of 120 books. Most of these have been eBooks.
So, I am going for Server!!!!!! I am pretty hopeful that I will be able to reach this goal of 100 ebooks. My 2013 reading goal is going to be 130 books, and I read eBooks on both my kindle and my ipad so 100 should be reachable - fingers crossed. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald:
".....so we beat on, boats against the current....."
(i.e. I am going to give it a really good try!)
Reading Challenge No. 2:
Artwork used (with permission) for the button is Anglerfish by Vlad Gerasimov.
January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013
Welcome back to the New Authors reading challenge! I’m hoping everyone is still enjoying this reading challenge as we head into our fifth year. The past couple of years I’ve tried doing little mini-challenges, but haven’t been real successful with them. For 2013, since it will be the fifth anniversary/birthday of the challenge, I want to do something, but that’s still in the works.
For those new to the New Author Challenge, the whole idea started when I first started reviewing and I didn’t know that many authors in my favored genre. So I went looking. I gave myself a goal of finding 50 new authors and ended up reading 56 that first year. I loved finding these new characters, worlds and cultures, so I want to help others find new ones as well. Since 2006, I’ve tried over 150 different authors I may not have tried otherwise and I have found some really great authors.
The idea behind this is to find new authors that you’ve never tried before, not necessarily ones that are debuting. They can be in your genre of choice or be brave and try something new. You never know what you’re going to like until you try it. If you’re looking for some suggestions, you can check out the Author page here at Literary Escapism or the 2009,2010, 2011 and 2012 Challenge pages. With over 1000 reviews posted, I’m sure there will be something there for everyone.
Here are the guidelines:
The challenge will run from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013.
Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels. Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
I want this to be an easy challenge, so you can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors. It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. If you reach your goal halfway through the year, don’t stop. Any new author you try can be added to Mr. Linky. We all want to know about your new experience.
After reading your new author, write your review and then come back here and add your link to Mr. Linky. Make sure you include your name and the author, but adding the title is completely up to you.
Bloggers or Non-Bloggers alike are welcome. You don’t have to have a site to participate. You can link up via Facebook, GoodReads or even Amazon if you’d like.
Once you reach your goal, you don’t have to stop. Any new author you try, go ahead and head back here and add it to the list. Introduce us all to whoever you find. After all, there’s no reason to stop trying new authors, right?
This reading challenge is hosted by Literary Escapism. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.
For this challenge I am going for 50 new authors. I am always on the search for somebody new to read and if I am aiming to read 130 books next year - I think it is a safe bet that at least 50 of them will be new authors.
So, wish me luck everyone!
Next post I will show you my IHSW progress - FNSI was a bit of a bust but IHSW has been much more productive so far!
hugs, P.S. Not sure why my blog post looks like this - must be all of the cutting and pasting which I did - sorry!
Imagine my joy when I arrived home to find a parcel of goodies which I had ordered from the lovely Isabella from The Primitive Hare waiting for me:
I had bought this e-pattern from her the other week - just feeding some more of two of my addictions - cross stitch and The Tudors!
Isn't it gorgeous? Here is a link to Isabella's etsy shop if you are interested in purchasing the pattern. But, of course, I had to order a piece of Isabella's special hand-dyed fabbie to stitch it on - 30 ct hand-dyed Old Salem linen and then how could I resist a pair of Anne Boleyn's own scissors???? lol!
Oh, such a joyful sense of pleasure when I arrive home!
Isabella has just posted a sweet freebie pattern for Thanksgiving, which you can check out here.
NOW, I feel that I owe a bit of an apology to my 11 Days of Kaisievic's Birthday Giveaway winners - I have not forgotten you but I have just been really busy at work and with my family and the only time I get to blog or cross stitch or organise my giveaways is when the Post Office is shut. But I will get your gifts to you soon, I promise. I hope that you all understand.
On that note, I must also say, that I am really behind in both my blog reading and my email replies to comments. Please know that I try to visit as many blogs as I can regularly but it is just an impossible task to keep up with really (a bit like the tasks of Hercules) and I do read all of your comments and appreciate them greatly. Love you all!
Just to finish off my post and to prove that we do, in fact have two furbabies, here is a pic of our lovely Milo:
Do you think that he is comfortable sleeping like that?
Have a great day, everyone - must get ready for work!
Oh dear, my last several posts have not shown much stitchy progress, but I promise I have been stitching.... as usual, a little of this and a little of that....
1. MiddleEarth Map (LOTR) SAL - 5 days of stitching a month starting on the 25th of each month:
Session 1 progress (not as much as I would have liked - sigh!):
2. Quaker Christmas II SAL with Amanda (see sidebar) - a Wednesday night SAL - this is two evening's stitching - pretty pleased with this:
3. Vanity SAL (The Dressmaker's Daughter - see Sidebar) - going slowly, also:
4. Santa's 12 Days of Christmas SAL (with Debbie and Linda - see sidebar) - Sunday night SAL. This first pic is where I was before last Sunday and the next one is my current progress. After lots of false starts (I lost the pattern twice!!!!!), I am now really on track with this - really happy!
5. Plus I have been doing some secret Christmas exchange stitching - which I can't show you - sorry!
Well, lucky me - I have had a four day long weekend for Melbourne Cup Day - the horse race that stops a nation! (I took a day of Annual Leave on the Monday) - what bliss to have four free days!
So, what did I do?
1. I, and my DYS, took my DD (93) and DM (90) shopping for some necessities at a local shopping mall and we had a nice lunch out, too.
2. I visited my DF, Marita, in hospital - she had fallen off her bike and broken her left wrist very badly, poor thing!
3. I won a special giveaway from Myra of Gr8dame's Place - she decided to have a 2nd winner to her giveaway where she is going to make a little gift for someone! What a lovely surprise - thank you, Myra!
4. I made my Xmas puddings - pic below - so now I am all ready for Xmas (well, not quite!)
Yes, that is right - they are boiled in oven bags! It is a really cool way to do it! They are boiled for four hours like a normal pudding and then, once cooled, they keep in the refrigerator until Christmas. On the day, each one reheats in the microwave for ten minutes! Easy Peasy!
5. TraderVic and I went to see the film, "Argo" - if you haven't seen it yet, I can really recommend it. It is the story of how six Americans are rescued from Iran in 1979/1980 when the American embassy is overrun by Iranians.
6. I did a little bit of shopping for me, too. I bought some nice navy blue shorts and a blue and white striped sleeveless top with big red flowers all over it. Do you like it?
7. I went for a swim - did my usual laps - I thought that I better get some exercise in!
8. I did lots of reading. I finished reading Justin Cronin's "The Twelve", another light romance and "The Hangman's Daughter" by Oliver Potzsch.
9. I was chosen by Parsley of Seasons of my mind to be her Autumn/Fall partner in an exchange for next year - how much fun will that be? Thank you, Parsley.
10. I received two lovely parcels from Jeanette of Jeanette's Place as part of our Santa Sack Exchange:
Isn't my Santa Sack looking really full - lots of lovely parcels inside. Thank you to Cheryll of Gone Stitchin' for organising the swap!
11. TraderVic and I had some of our lovely friends over for a BBQ for Cup Day - I made some homemade bread and homemade hummus: Yum!
12. ... and, of course, I stitched, but that will have to wait for the next post (this one has got long enough and my laptop is about to run out of battery!)
