Obsession!

Okay, now you may (or may not - lol!) have noticed that I have not posted for other two weeks now! I have missed posting for IHSW, Gifted Gorgeousness and Friday Frolics - oh no!  I have not started either a Hallowe'en or Christmas Ornie (oops, just realised that my Christmas July ornie is stitched - phew!) for those two SALs and Tudor Tuesdays, Americana and Prairie Schooler have all been neglected!!!!!!!!!

What on earth is going on?  Well, the reason for my absence is two-fold.

The first reason is boring as anything - I have so much freelance publishing work happening that I am "chained" to my laptop working on it and once I am done for the day I do not feel like blogging - boring, I know.

The second reason is the Obsession of the title of this post.  Many of my days (not all, I have been out and about doing a few other things, too - but they get in the way of blogging, as well - lol!) since getting back from Roma have been a bit like this:

5 am - get up and start work, work through to about lunchtime

Lunchtime - catch up with a friend (stitchy or otherwise) for lunch

Afternoon - stitch on my Obsession

Late afternoon - a bit more publishing work/cook dinner

Evenings - Obsession time again


So, what is this Obsession?, I hear you ask.

Well, a number of weeks back, I happened to pick up this Mill Hill Kit from my LNS, Lazy Daisy.

For some reason, it really 'spoke' to me, so despite having lots of other WIPs on the go and a number of stitching commitments, I began it and I tell you, I have not been able to put it down since!  

I am using a gorgeous 25ct Wedgwood Lugana (sorry, for some reason it is looking a bit washed out in the pics)  that I happened to have in my stash - it is a dream to stitch on - and now I am up to the beading.  Oh, how I wish that my camera could catch the gleam and sparkle of the beads properly - it is looking so pretty already.

So, that is my confession about my Obsession.

I hope to have a finish by early next week - then Normal Transmission (ie blog posts) will resume, I hope.

Have a great weekend everyone,

I am off to take my Dear Sister 2 to the dentist to have two teeth extracted (one of them an impacted molar - ouch!) shortly but you all know what I would rather be doing! lol!

Love to you all, 

hugs, 

Sick as a dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is me!

You might remember that it was only on the 20th May that I was last MIA due to the freelance work I was doing.

Well, it was a double whammy this time.  I picked up some more freelance work (which is great as it helps pay for my stash - lol!) but then I have come down with some sort of super bad head cold virus which has moved down to my chest and has triggered my asthma.

So, I have been trying to complete this intensive work on the computer whilst I have a stuffy head, a runny nose, a sore throat, ear ache, a racking cough and am unable to breathe - to put it mildly, I am miserable!

I really need to get a better hang of this freelance work so it is a better work/life balance, I think - it is not so easy as it seems to say "oh, I work freelance at home" - there is no sick leave and the deadlines are always looming!

So, unfortunately, as usual, it is blogging that seems to suffer - I am midway through writing my Gifted Gorgeousness  and Smalls SAL post - and hopefully will get it up in the next hour and a half (when the GG link expires).

However, I have managed to get some more stitching done, which I will post about soon, I promise.

Okay, breakfast for me and then I will write that GG/Smalls SAL post.

                                                         hugs, 

P.S. Plus I forgot to tell you that our Indian Summer finished with a bang and within the space of a few days we have gone from lovely, mild, warm days to what seems like the middle of a very cold winter - One day I was wearing t-shirts, the next I have my thick, winter woolies on!  Go figure!  Plus, the other day, they were redoing the gas mains in the street and they turned off our gas - so you guessed it, no heating!  Brrr!

Normal Transmission will resume very soon.....

So sorry that I have been in absentia from my blog and yours for over ten days now but I have been immersed in some rather intensive freelance work for a publisher that has absorbed all of my time for the past week and a half!


However, it is all done for now, so I am back to visit and read all of your blogs and update all of my blogsm my stitching goals and my SALs  (although it might take me a few days to get myself fully organised!)

So, see you all soon!

hugs, 

MIA......

.... this post is going to go on this blog and all of my SAL blogs, too.  You may have noticed that I have been MIA for a couple of weeks now and I am so sorry but I cannot see that changing for a while!  I am uberbusy at work setting up a important project before I go away on leave in a week or so.  At the same time, I am uberbusy at home, trying to get organised to go away for our big trip!

Something had to give, and I promise you, it has not been the stitching but it has been the blogging!  I cannot see that changing in the next week and a half before we go, unfortunately!

Where are we going, I hear you ask?  Well, TraderVic and I are off to Taiwan for DS1 and his wife's Taiwanese wedding - why have one wedding in a year when you can have two?  We attend the wedding then we will be travelling around Taiwan for a while then it is off to a lovely resort in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo for the rest and relaxation part of our holiday  and then Singapore - should be a lovely trip if I can get everything organised, that is!

So, you will not see me on any of the blogs, I do not think between now and mid to late January, I shouldn't think.  I will try to read blogs while I am away but not too sure how much blogging of my own I will get done!

If you are a Facebook friend, keep an eye on my feed if you would like to follow our travels.

Merry Christmas to you all, lots of blessings and a Happy New Year,

See you all next year,

lots and lots of hugs, Kaye

Bon Voyage

Hi everyone, 

Sorry, I have been offline for a while but the internet is not working at home and as I am über busy at work trying to get everything finalised before I go overseas tomorrow I have had little or no time for my blog or even stitching.

I apologise to the winners of my giveaway and the Travelling Treasures, it has been madness at both work and home and that is all going to have to wait until I return at the end of March.

I will have limited visibility on FB (Kaye De Petro) and Instagram (Kaisievic) if you want some travel updates.

Below is the design I am taking away to stitch, pretty, isn't it?

See you all, in a month, love Kaye

So much to tell you all....

Well, I have had such a busy week being MIA in Perth and then catching up with my stitching on the long weekend here in Melbourne (Queen's Birthday long weekend).  So, I will probably spread some of my news over a couple of posts, if that is okay.

But first, the most exciting news about my Perth trip!  I met up with a fellow stitching blogger, Noni of Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.  I emailed her a couple of weeks ago when I knew that I was going to be going to Perth to see if she would be able to catch up with me.  Luckily, she was having some time off and was free to meet me for lunch in the window of opportunity I had before my colleagues arrived from Adelaide and we had to go conduct our Workshops.  Here we are at the cafe.

We chatted and laughed and learnt that we have lots and lots in common - we are stitching sisters from the two coasts of Australia - lovely!

Of course, being Cross Stitch bloggers we exchanged gifts:

Coincidentally, we both used orange in our wrapping!

Look what Noni gave me:

Beautiful stitched cards and notebook, a scissor fob and a dreamcatcher fob.

.... and this is what I gave Noni:

A framed bunny, some Collection Tra La La patterns and a pair of scissors and a homemade pompom fob.

Thank you, Noni, I will always treasure the time we spent together and the lovely gifts you made for me - I can't wait until we catch up again.

Here is my TUSAL report for this month (a bit late, I am sorry).

Home ORTS on the left and car/plane ORTS on the right

The tea set at the back is my DM's Royal Winton tea set, isn't it gorgeous?

I also got some stitching done this weekend:

Progress on The Faerie Queene (this is all one over one stitching on 35 ct so I need VERY good light to be able to do it)

... and a Happy Dance - Day 3 of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas - yay!

Have a great week everyone,  I am MIA in Sydney this week (read this post here if you want to know more) so forgive me if I don't post anything new all week or don't visit you much.

hugs,

P.S. I was fiddling with my blog layout and now it is a bit mucked up.  Forgive me as it will be a while before I can get it right again - so sorry.

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.