Happy (belated) Easter

The schools here have started calling today "easter Tuesday" so maybe I'm not completely late. 

Regardless,  I do hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, whether you celebrate easter or not. We don't really, beyond having the four day weekend as an excuse to do absolutely nothing and not feel guilty about it. Or at least pretend to not feel guilty. Realistically I know that there are plenty of things around the house to be doing, but it's hard to get motivated to do them when the somewhat hoarder won't do his parts. But that's besides the point. We will just work on it being a peaceful lazy weekend and leave it at that.

Plus it was a weekend where I wasn't making a trip to Christchurch, so win!

Though I have to admit that not going to and from Mums place, my reading has slowed down. I am still working my way through the Narnia Chronicals. Finally on to the last one, but how I ever made it nearly 30 years without reading them in will never know.

The stitching bug is back in full force however. Which is surprising to me if I am being completely honest. Winter is coming you see. I can feel it in the hand is broke last year. The days are shorter, the mornings colder (we had our first frost over the weekend) and the evenings are darker. Daylight savings ends next week and I am not looking forward to the mid afternoon sunsets that that is bound to bring. 

But such as life. It's more that I haven't started going into hibernation yet, like I usually do that has me surprised. Maybe it's that I have slightly better light in the living room now. Slightly being the word. I long for the day when we are in our grown up house and these small trifles become less of a problem...

Stitching has happened though. And exciting stitching. I am trying something out. I don't want to share it just yet, for fear of jinxing the entire enterprise, but I'm excited about it and it (so far) has provided results. I promise to share when I'm more confident of it though. 

I got a page finish on my HAED. My first ever page finish on a HAED (or similar) pattern. And if that wasn't enough, I carried on and finished the partial page that was number two. 

TWO WHOLE PAGES. On a HAED! I'm so excited about that. I had talked myself into hating that style of stitching which had made me very sad. There are so many beautiful works of art out there that I was cutting myself off from.

On the theme of the full coverage beauties, tonight I dug an old 'friend' out of retirement. Dragon Lovers by Character Creations is a BAP that I have started and restarted repeatedly over the last.... gosh... 10 years? I finally restarted it yet again the year before last, this time on 20 count ivory aida. I got about two thirds of a page in, the banished it under the bed, never to see daylight again. I thought I'd give it a go though, with my new found understanding of HAEDs. Here's the starting point. 

It hasn't changed any worth mentioning tonight - bed and a book were calling far louder in the cold.

I also used the long weekend to catch up on my Pandora's Box piece by Liz Almond. I was a couple of parts behind and it was something I had been intending to keep up to date with.

Not bad for a week or so really. Admittedly not every week has such long stretches of down time, but still not bad at all. And I suppose I should make the most of it, since it's back to six day weeks for a little while. We do have the final two candidates for the job coming in for meet and greets with the team on Saturday,  so that's one step closers to get some control back over my job. It was something that was brought up at my yearly appraisal last week. All the things that are having to be left by the wayside while I pick up the slack of trying to hold down two people's jobs. But what are you going to do really. At least I got a pay rise.

I should probably stop rambling now though. Hope everyone has a fantastic week with lost of time for the things you love.

Till next time

Home Again

And with a new WIP.

The funeral went well, there was a good turn out and all that other jazz. The main thing is that I didn't drop the ashes (in a very old, post quake church that's a bigger achievement than you think, especially when your as clumsy as I am) and I remembered enough of the Lords Prayer to stumble my way through the first church service I've been to in about 20 years.

Go me.

20 years is also about how old my new WIP is. Mum used to cross stitch, back in the day. It was her that taught me. But she wasn't as keen - it hurt her eyes and gave her head aches. So she tried tapestry. Bought a couple of cushion kits that she like and started them. Only she never finished them. I have long finished all of her half started cross stitch project, so I figured if make a start on these too. 

Plus in my rush to catch my flight on Monday,  I forgot to pack a project and consequently got bored.

The one I decided to start on was the simplest of the two. Just a McKenzie Tartan cushion.

The idea, from what I can tell, is to tent stitch all the stripes one way then turn the fabric 90 degrees and fill in all the gaps by repeating the pattern but reversing the direction of the stitch. 

Figured I'd give it a go. What's the worst that can happen.

Progress...

....despite everything.

I am definatly longing for life to go back to some semblance of normal. Nanna's funeral is on Tuesday, so I fly back to Christchurch tomorrow night after work. Work is still back on six day weeks until we find some one to replace the thieving little idiot that is currently hiding from the police. Plus on top of everything, nanna's brother died six days after her. 

I did manage a couple of days stitching though, and boy did it feel good.

Heritage Stitchcraft, NZ Map, on 28 monaco, coffee dyed myself

I haven't done any of the bits inside the land - rivers, mountains and what not. I figured I would do all the coast lines first. But it is going quite a big faster than I had thought it would.

Hopefully by this time next week things will have settled a little and it will go even faster. I think I'm over the starting bug that hit me and am ready to finish something. 

Time

It's March!  Can anyone else believe that? How does that even happen?

Well, I guess I know how it happened, I just don't want to think very much about the month that's passed. Today was the first time in... gosh... almost two weeks, that I have picked up needle and thread. It's been THAT kind of month.

Before my brief and unplanned stitching hiatus I was doing quite well. I carried on some with the HAED that was oh so captivating.

I fully finished my Santa's - felted back and ribbon and everything.  

A big accomplishment for me. I tend to just shove every finish into a box. So as a reward I went on a starting binge. 

Joan Elliot Astrologer

Brookes Books stitchers ABC'S "a"

In The Company of Friends dark ABC'S "a"

I did a little more on Peg.

Brookes Books Peg the Plum Pudding Angel

And picked up my Chatelaine.

The back stitch was a killer

And then I went on holiday. And every thing changed.

While on holiday, we found out that my Nanna's cancer had returned and had infected every one of her major organs. Problems that everyone had put down to progressing dementia was in fact the spread of the cancer and so was only now being picked up after it was too late. The was on the 22nd of February. An emergency trip to Christchurch ensued, and last night, on March 3rd, she passed away, aged 85, in the company of her son and daughter. At peace at last.

And so between worry about my Nanna and my mums reaction to my Nanna, and then the work crisis of discovering my minion (the person who would usually cover my time off) had been stealing from the business.... I haven't been able to brain enough to stitch. Reading has seemed the safer bet. 

Upside I'm still ahead for my book goal this year.

And so, after all that, I picked up yet another new start, because why not really.

New Zealand Map by Heritage Stitchcraft

It'll more than likely be getting some love over the weekend. I had been planning to go up to Christchurch again tomorrow - organised time off and everything, only to find out the plans have changed and the funeral won't be till the end of the week.

And the man thinks that I am bad at organizing things. I learnt it from somewhere - just saying.

Ah well it is what it is I suppose. I just hope everything goes back to normal soon. My introvert brain is getting very discombobulated with all the coming and going. 

Hope everyone else has been having a better time of it.