FOG

THE fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches	5
and then moves on. Carl Sandburg

I just love the fog - so mysterious and eerie!

hugs, 

Well, have a good week everyone and don't forget that during this  week I will be MIA in Queensland, see this post here if you want to know more.

Weekend Roundup....

This weekend I:

1. Helped my niece choose a dress for her first formal

     2.  Excercised hard at Water Aerobics (I hadn't been for a week and boy, did I miss it!)

     3. Had a nice catch up with DS2 (she made a quick and easy chicken and corn soup for our lunch - yum!)

     4.  Caught up on lots of TV shows recorded on my Foxtel IQ and on lots of stitching whilst TraderVic, DS1, DD and DS2 were at the footy on Saturday night.

     5. Started packing for my business trip to Qld

     6.  Went to a great 60th birthday party for Sunday lunch (the catering was organic and sustainable = delicious) and caught up with lots of people

     7.  Had lots of great cuddling time with Furio - natch!

     8.  Made home-made hommus - yum! yum! yum!  

     9.  .... and, of course, squeezed in as much stitching as I could!!!!!!!

How was all of your weekends?

Now, of course, here are some pics....

Cuddles with Furio:

Milo guarding some more washing!!!!!

A new start for the Halloween Ornament SAL 2013.  This is actually next month's stitch - the choice being Mummies or tombstones.  (No, I haven't finished May's stitch yet - don't ask!!!)

The design is called Halloween Alley from "Angelic Stitches by Velda".  It is another freebie from here.  The fabbie is actually quite a deep denim blue but the flash on the camera has washed it out.  ...and yes, I am using WDW Fiesta for the moon again - just loving that floss!  Altogether I am just using colours that go with the fabbie rather than the suggested floss colours.

... and lastly, still working on Day 3 of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas which is my Sunday SAL with Debbie and Linda.

Well, have a good week everyone and don't forget that during the week I will be MIA, see this post here if you want to know more.

 

hugs,

MIA....

.... that is what we call it at my work when we are out of the office for any length of time on business.

Well, I am going to be MIA from work, home and blogging to some degree for the next three weeks.

As you may remember, I am an educational publisher and here in Australia we are having a new Australian Curriculum implemented.  So, I am conducting Workshops around Australia to help teachers understand the new History Curriculum and to show them the fabulous resources we have published (both as hard copy books and as digital product) to help them implement the new curriculum.

Luckily for me I am not travelling on this Roadshow alone - I am going with a couple of my fabulous colleagues.

This week I am in Queensland for three days, next week it is Perth in WA for three days and the following week is Sydney, also for three days.

I will be home on the weekends in between but, that will be catch up time with all that I have missed at home during the week.

Of course, I am taking some stitching with me - haven't decided what exactly yet - and I have some pre-organised posts to upload whilst I am on the Road, but I may not have time to read and comment on all your lovely blogs and I will only be on my home email intermittently.

But please, do know, I will be thinking of you all whilst I am MIA.

Now, I cannot post without a pic or two - these are of Milo this time, I think that he thinks he is a Guard Cat!

Guarding the washing in the downstairs family/utility room:

Guarding my DMC threads (I am in the middle of putting them all on String Bows and into two big folders - my aim is to eventually have the entire DMC collection in my stash).

Have a good week everyone,

hugs,

P.S. Those ginger cakes I made last Sunday, see this post here, are still delicious a week later - so they keep well.

Halloween Ornament SAL update

.... I have been having so much fun stitching this free design from Barbara Ana (just scroll down the page a little) for my May Halloween Ornament for the SAL.  Actually this website - Cyberstitch.com/free_patterns -  is a virtual cornucopia of wonderful free designs by some wonderful designers - well worth checking out.

I now have almost two houses and a pussy cat (looking a bit like a scaredy cat).  The moon is about halfway done now, too.

hugs,

Weekend Baking....

I cooked up a storm on Sunday past...

I made Ginger Cupcakes with Lemon Drizzle icing from The English Kitchen blog.  I often bake some of her dishes - always a winner!

... and Coconut Macaroons....
The recipe is here, just from a random web search.

 I baked so much that I filled three tins worth - I will have to take some into my colleagues at work tomorrow!

And for dinner, I made Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni (recipe from the box!)

Yum!

I saved you some, so please join me in a cuppa!

hugs,

Cut Thru Castle Update #2

Well, a little bit of progress has been made (I have only had two sessions on this projects so far).  If you squint a little, in just the right light you can see a small figure taking shape - yay!

.. and I think that vertical line of grey stitching will become a sword.

hugs,

IHSW round up

I had a pretty successful IHSW even though I did not get anywhere near as much stitching time as I would have liked!

This is the "finish" of my Joan Elliott RR which will be sent off to the stitcher this week.  When it returns in about a year's time it will have seven fairies/angels in the boxes with just one left for me to do!

Edit:  Oops, I forgot to say a big thank you to Karen for taking my rather incoherent plans for the layout and poem and creating a clear pattern for me to work from.  Karen, you are truly the Queen of our RR. Thank you, lovely lady.

The fabric is actually a dusty pink and it took me ages and ages to backstitch the poem.

The poem says:

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden

They often have a dance on summer nights

I also worked on Santa's 12 Days of Christmas SAL which I do with Linda and Debbie, every Sunday (well, that is the plan, anyway).  One more Sunday and I think that I will be finished with Day 3 - yay!

Off to work in a little while.

Have a good day, everyone,

hugs,

A sophisticated evening....

Last night TraderVic and I, along with our DFs Kim and Gino, had a sophisticated evening at the Melbourne Recital Centre

Cool building, isn't it?  Apparently it has been part of our Arts precinct since 2009 but I never even knew it existed before we booked these tickets!

We saw Ali McGregor perform her show "Alchemy" - songs from the 80s and 90s performed as Jazz - amazing!  She is an Australian Opera singer and cabaret singer.  It was a really good evening out.

She performed in the Salon, which is this space:


Here is Ali performing Britney Spears' song "Ooops, I did it again" as a jazz song.  Enjoy!

hugs,

A trip down Memory Lane....

Today, I had a trip down Memory Lane with my dear cousin, Robyn,  when we went to visit my Mum and Dad. Robyn brought along a memento from her childhood, "Little Women" which had been a present from my Mum to her 48 years ago! We all had a lovely time reminiscing.  

Here are my Mum and Dad....

... and with my cousin, Robyn...

 ... and with me.

At 93 my Dad can still grow the most amazing roses - the scent was so beautiful and look at that deep red colour!

A lovely morning indeed!

hugs, 

Yiota's Cross Stitch Kit Review

Hello lovely bloggers,

I have read and heard a lot about Yiota's X-Stitch designs on various blogs around the traps, so I thought that I would buy one of her gorgeous kits for myself and then I decided to write about it for you all.

I chose Starry Night: 

Well, I was impressed right from the moment my purchase arrived (and I can tell you that it was a hard choice to make when I looked at all the wonderful designs to choose from on her website Yiota.com, which is really well set out with clear categories of designs for your browsing pleasure).  

Now, what impressed me is that it arrived in an envelope with a cardboard backing so that your kit is unlikely to get bent or damaged.  (Also, I plan to use the cardboard as backing for flat ornies - so useful and green!)

The kit arrived all nicely packaged, with everything you need inside:

Now, this is one of the best bits - the floss comes prewound on labelled bobbins!  Fantastic!

They are also neatly attached to this backing paper, so they stay together until you need a colour.  What a great idea!

 You can choose between aida or evenweave, I chose evenweave and it is a gorgeous fabric.  And, of course, a needle is included.

The instructions are nice and clear:

Lovely, large A3 patterns - so easy to read!

Next up, I had to start stitching - I just couldn't wait - and I wasn't disappointed, it was really lovely fabirc and floss to stitch with.  The floss is actually Madeira, which I haven't used before but I am finding really easy to work with.  An added bonus is that the DMC conversions are provided as well, so if that is your preference you can switch.

Just one last thing, as I was checking the flosses, I discovered that one colour I needed was missing!  But it was no worries,  as a quick email to Yiota meant that it was all solved - she is sending me the missing floss straight away, no questions asked.  How cool is that?

So, I would have to rate the whole experience as A+ and I am already checking out the website for my next kit - a William Morris design, "Quest for the Unicorn".

If you haven't checked out Yiota's X Stitch yet, I suggest you do so, you won't be disappointed.

Off to stitch some more,

hugs,