Day of the Frog

Hullo Hullo lovely people, hope you've all had satisfying weekend. I myself have been as lazy as possible to eek the last out of my leave. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to tomorrow.

As I think I mentioned last time, I was off to the optometrist. I spent the afternoon Friday trying on pair after pair of glasses to narrow down my choice of new facial accessories. My eyes have changed as I thought they would have, but not for the worst as I was expecting. Turns out I'm getting less blind: 1 point in one eye and a full 2 in the other. I'm Stoked!  I've been told for years, by various people, that the amount of time I spend reading and cross stitching will damage my eyesight - more fool them!

 To celebrate my improved vision, I had a new start and a sneaky finish. Which if I'm being honest, I'm a little surprised about given how much time I spent frogging stitches this weekend.

New start first, a temperature book mark...

I saw this idea on another blog, and thought I'd give it a go myself. I've been watching with great interest all the people doing the stitch a day Challenge,  and while I love seeing the progress, it wasn't really something that I could see myself doing. The temperature record tickled my fancy however. 

If you've never seen them before, the idea is that every day you record the daily temperature. One mine, that amounts to six stitches, a three by two block. Each temperature relates to a colour - the same as on most weather maps - and each of those colours relates to a dmc floss. I'll post the colours that I use once I get all the kinks worked out.

I spent most of the weekend working on my geek culture piece.

I was doing pretty good too, until the frog came to town. Apparently even when following a pattern, my spelling ain't that great. I have a sneaky feeling I might have made a slight hole in the fabric while frogging - turns out one over one is a mare to u pick.  On a brighter note though, I made it up to the top row and it looks like I will have plenty of boarder to rechart the bottom portion of the pattern where the lack of width of my fabric will become an issue.

So since I was mad at that one, I put it in time out and pulled out a smaller piece.

And finished it.

To be fair, it is supposed to have a lot of back stick detailing - lace work around the cloth and corners. And I did do half of it. And then ripped it all out again. It just looked so clunky and messy. I much prefer it like this.

So first finish of the new year. That's pretty exciting-  at least I think it is.

Oh and I think that I forgot to mention that I had a go at making my own needle minder.

I can see why every thinks they are so great - defiantly a convert.

Hopefully I can keep that up once I go back to work. Tomorrow. Drag.

But that's the price we pay for adulthood, isn't it.

Ah well, maybe it won't be so bad. Hope your weeks all take you in the directions you want.

Till next time. 

Addictive Qualities

Hullo Hullo lovely people, hope this last week has seen you all happy and well. Mine has seen me on holiday from work, so it has been fantastic. I love my job, I really do, but some times it is necessary to not leave the house for a week and stitch and read the hours away.

Leaving the Man to think I'm crazy - but I'm weirdly okay with that.

The only blemish in the week (beyond the storms) has been Mums illness. She had been on the mend after a weekend in hospital a few weeks ago, but it would seem that that was merely a brief respite from it all. She didn't sound at all like herself on the phone last night, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about her. Since Nanna died last year, it's only her and my uncle left in Christchurch. I don't regret moving to Dunedin, I think that was the best thing I could have done for me, but I do wish I could do more for her while she's sick - especially since it has delt with it for so long by herself and it doesn't seem to be showing signs of slowing.

But enough with the doom and gloom, the week has been glorious none the less - I could really get used to the whole not working thing. If only I didn't need the money. But I do, so I best make the most of it.

I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't leave the house. I came home from a botched appointment last Friday  (people telling me one date and writing down another do not make me happy) and have not stepped out of the gate since. I will have to today, to go to the optometrist, but that's okay. That's in my best interest in fact.  I think I'm going to need new glasses. While the headaches haven't started, I don't feel quite right when reading. Oh well, if I do I do - it's been.... four years since they've changed. Not a bad run really.

And it hasn't stopped the stitching - which is almost all I've done this week - adding to the blissful nature of the week. I stitched on three projects this week, one of the obsessively for a few days. I'm not going to tell you the times that I tracked - but if I actually cared I would probably scare myself.

First up I did a bit more on my Book of Ink Circles

 Still not sure on the colours, but the colours I'm not sure on have changed. It was the orange I was primarily worried about, now it's the yellow.... but I'm not hating it so that's the main thing. I still want to carry on - though I have absolutely no idea what I'll do with it when it's done. It's also making me think I would like to do some other Ink Circle patterns. Which if I stop to think about it, is probably why designers give freebies...

Then came the addiction. The HaED.

Or one of them at least. Mini Universe in a Jar, artwork by Randal Spangler. I swear that HaED patterns have some forms of drug infused into them. I went from hating them to not being able to get enough of them so quickly that it's frightening.  I seriously could not put this down. There was one day that I even didn't have dinner because I was focusing so intently on it. Like not having to work, stitching these is something I could definitely get used to.

I will admit I got a little burnt out on the HaED though. I had intended to push through for a second page finish,  but I couldn't. My choices of replacement are slightly limited though. I decided to reorganize my stash and as result I am now waiting on a fairly chunky 123 stitch order. When that comes in I will go through my process with you all. But until then, as I say, limited choices. So I went with my newest WIP.

Even doing it one over one like I am, I will be cutting it close with the fabric. Hopefully just on the width. Don't know what did with the calculations-  think I must have missed allowing for a boarder. I'm going to work my way to the top row and hope to heck there's better allowances there - since I'm going to have to rechargeable the bottom couple of rows that are the widest. Am very glad I started in the middle and didn't just presume I left a boarder. Hopefully I can make this work. This is the third give I have started this piece and I really really love it - it just seems to be cursed.

Reading has been how I spent the rest of my time (including most of the night) though I don't have much to show for it. I am reading Atlas Shrugged at the moment, and as I mentioned last time, it's slow going. I love it, but it's slow going. It's making it hard to stick to my 69 pages a day goal - I can't remember the last time I was this slow to read a book, but I'll get there eventually. I'm about 60% through I think.

I did take a brief break from it to read something a bit lighter. Both to give me a buffer in my book and page goals, as well as to give my brain a bit of a rest.  It was a children's book in fact.

Though it was a dark and creepy and terrifying children's book. Not a bad romp - it reminded me a lot of Coraline. Defiantly not for all children - but I grew up on Goosebumps books..... that probably explains a lot about me now that I think about it...

Now that I've wasted most of my morning trawling the interwebs I best be off to the eye docs. And them two and a half more days of holiday before going back to the real world. If I remember, I'll fill you in on any progress for the weekend, otherwise I'll be back end of next week, or when I finish Atlas - whichever comes first.

Till next time...

  

*cough cough*

Hullo Hullo everyone, hope you are all well on this rainy Friday evening.

Not as much progress on this end as I could like. My scratchy sore throat turned into the most annoying cough I've had for a while that kept me up all the nights.  Funnily enough that made me a tad tired and made it had to concentrate. But, huge silver lining to that - I spent two nights after work bobinating a pile of floss that I had been ignoring for MONTHS. So winning there, yay,

 I have to admit that it is a little surreal to be full of the cold at the moment. One of my jobs at work this week was to process two crates of these bad boys...

...which you have to admit are the most summery thing you can get (at least I think they are). The cherries are summery, mean while I'm full of the cold, and it's close to snowing out side.... it is truly a bizarre sensation. 

I'm sorry, I always seem to talk about the weather, but it is just so unseasonably cold at the moment.

Your here for the stitching though. Two projects worked on again this week. A little more done on Dalek Victory.

This one I've got sitting next to the bed. When I get home from work, I tend to shower, put on the pj's and crawl into bed - it's warmer and the bedroom gets the afternoon light. Because I ended up bobinating this week, there's only really a little black been added - but progress is progress.

Meanwhile, in the living room, the boarder of doom is finished!!

Really really looking forward to starting in on the filling in on this one. If for no other reason than  to see how the colours turn out. This is the first project that I ever picked out my own colours for. I'm still not 100% sure about a couple of them, but we are soo far past the point of no return, so it'll be interesting to see it taking shape from here on out.

As with the stitching, not much reading got done either. I am still over my aim of 69 pages a day, but I have slowed down a little.

I did finish one book...

This is another between the books novella in the Artifact Hunters series. Probably my least favourite of the series so far, but I think that was more because it followed my least favourite character than any thing else. I did love that it was set in an alternate New Zealand - thats not something I have seen before, which was nice. Overall I gave it 3.75 stars.

The slowing down on the reading is probably due to what I picked up next - Atlas Shrugged, by Ann Rand. I am enjoying it, it's just slow going. I think reading so much 'pulp' fiction, I've lost the nack of reading older  literature. But it's not a race.

Other than that, not much to report. Still a little unwell - getting very sick of coughing. I do have next week off work though, and I am planning to do absolutely nothing, so hopefully the rest will kick the rest of the bugs out.

Fingers crossed.

Till next time

Finally, The Weekend

Hullo Hullo everyone, and congratulations on making it to Friday. For a lot of people (though not everyone-  jealous) this was the first full week back at work. And boy did I feel it. I don't know if it was the working last weekend, the Man being on early shift (and the resulting 3am alarm) this week or the sore throat I've had for days. Or a combination of all three. Whatever, I'm glad it's the weekend.

I feel like I got a good chunk of stitching done this week. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but I'm trying out a new thing this year. At least it's new to me. I'm tracking the time I spend on each project (and reading) to get a rough idea of how long I devote to each - as well as to prevent the past habit of not touching a project for a full year. Or more.

So, according to my handy dandy spreadsheet, this week has been quite productive. I worked on two projects; one older one and one newer.

The newer, and larger of the two being Shakespeare's Fairies by Mirabilla.

I only started this nearer the end of 2016, once my stitch bug had started to return, but I don't quite know what I was thinking when I chose the fabric. It was making me nervous that it wasn't going to be big enough,so I had to work my way to the edge. There's still three columns needed for beads, but it will fit. Just. I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with so narrow a margin, but I'm not frogging nearly a whole half of the piece.

Plus I really like how it looks on the fabric. 

A narrow margin will be fine.... right?

The second project I worked on was a definite oldie - Dalek Victory, dredged out from the dark depths on the box. I don't think I worked on it at all last year. It had been lumped in the "full coverage too hard" basket. But I like full coverage now (go figure).

It's been so long that I have no idea where I got this - beyond somewhere on the interwebs - or who it's by, but I am definitely enjoying it this time around. I am deviating from my ' normal' method though. Because this one is so much smaller, I'm going to give one colour at a time cross country per page a go. Just to see.   

That's all to report for the week. Not sure what the weekend will bring. Supposed to be catching up with a friend tomorrow, but beyond that I don't imagine much will get done. I should prably try and stop this cold from getting worse. Don't won't to be sick for my holiday after all. I have another week at work and then nine days off. Apparently I have too much annual leave owing. But I am definitely okay with that - I plan to be as lazy as possible.

So on that note, until next time...

Three Books In

Hullo Hullo everyone, hope you are all well this evening. I have the distinctive scratchy throat of a summer cold brewing, but that's nothing that will slow me down.

Thought I would just drop in briefly with a quick reading wrap up. I realise that eleven days into the month is an odd number for such a thing - but whatever. I'm here now. 

As I think I mentioned, I am leaving my goal on good reads at 75 again this year. It's a number that seems far more manageable now that I have surpassed it. And I'm doing good so far. 

Well as far as I can tell with only a couple of weeks as evidence.

Three books have been devoured so far in 2017 - yes, one of them was a novella, but still, it was over 100 pages sounds still feel it's a decent effort. Although decent efforts don't seem as difficult when this is your summer...

Yes, those people are wearing jackets and woolen hats. In January. It's a little bit sad. Just really hoping now that the professional aren't lying to us when they say summer will arrive, just later than usual.

But we are not here to talk about the weather, we are here to talk about books.

My new start for the new year, reading wise, was by a favourite author of mine - why not start on a high after all...

...and it was classic Stephen King. Creepy happenings in a creepy small New England town; great characters that you really feel for; addictive action that keeps you turning page after page. This one had vampires! I gave this one 4.5 stars. I really do love King.

Second up was an ebook.  I'm going to preface this by saying that there are probably going to be a fair few ebooks this year. Mum got me started with BookBub. If you've never heard of BookBub click on the link at your own risk - free and stupidly cheap ebooks lie within its depths. Needless to say I now have a rather large supply of kindle books....

...this being one of them.

Young adult books can be hit or miss for me.  This one was defiantly a hit. It's time travel romance, which if you know me, you know my love for Outlander, so that genre is right up my alley. It takes place in four different periods of time: 18th century England,  19th century Crimea, 2019 and 2039. It follows the same couple through out all of these while they try and piece together the problems surrounding them, as well as memories they have. It was a light read and I very much enjoyed it -enough to give it a 4 star rating and buy the companion straight away....

And while I was buying that I bought two other companion novellas for a series I was reading over Christmas.

The series is the Artifact Hunters series by A W Exley - an author from right here in good old New Zealand. This was another BookBub gem and so far there are four books and the two novellas, but I believe it's a work in progress. A steam punk work in progress. The one that I read this week...

...falls between the second and third novels and follows two of the side characters as the deal with kidnappings and general mayhem to eventually fall in love. I read it in one sitting and it was just as brilliant as the full length stories - none of the fun nor the action was lost, despite only being 100 pages long - I gave this a 4.5 as well.

So all up, that's three for three with 4 star ratings - that's not a bad way to start the year if you ask me.

Let's hope it continues.

I will be back in a day or so with some stitching progress, so until next time...

One Week Down

Hullo Hullo all. Hope the first week of 2017 has seen you and yours well.

We seem to be (touch wood). The man had a cold for the actual big day of new years, but he's on the mend, and Mumbai is claiming to be feeling a little better so that's a plus. My only complaint is muscle pain, but that is self inflicted so I can't be too loud about that.

The bosses bought a new cafe just before Christmas,  so the last two afternoons after work, instead of coming home, I've been down there helping them paint. And don't while I am on my feet for nine hours a day with little consequence, painting walls is a whole different bunch of muscles - ones that are now making themselves VERY known.

I did make time for some all important stitching though - the long holiday weekend certainly helped with that. I decided against doing a new year, new start this year. I have far more WIPs than I am really comfortable with at the moment, but I did change out which one I was working on as a kind of homage to the idea.

So, I pulled this bad boy outta the storage box. I hadn't worked on it in a really really long time. Nearly a year I believe. I hated the fabric. It's one of those stupidly cheap kits from China stitched on a 11 count Aida.  The Aida is so stiff and so... the holes are far smaller than they probably should be for such a wide weave of fabric - if that makes any sense. It would pop out of any hoop I tried to use and I'm not big into sticking in had so the whole process became unbearable, leading to the projects banishment to the storage box.

But I bought myself a little birthday present. A quantum frame. And I am in love with it. It holds that tricky fabric nice and tight so this cute little bird heart project won't become a UFO after all!

Next up I did a little more on a HaED.

This now marks the half way point for this one. I am hoping to make more of an effort on my full coverage pieces this year. There's more I want to start, but I don't think it's a good idea for me, personally, to start another without making some forward process first. I completely admire all of you that have so many projects going at once. I can say I have tried, but it's starting to stress me out a little.

Finally I pulled another out this week that hasn't seen the light of day since last January.

I do still really like this piece, I had legitimately forgotten that I had started it. The only problem I have with it that can possibly explain my absence of mind with it is that, because I've in a fairly dark house with poor poor lighting, I can only work on it for so long before my eyes don't want to any more. I won't be forgetting about it again however. It is lovely, and does come together quite quick.

Reading wise, I have just started 'Salems Lot by Steven King. Not far through it yet, but I do love King. Goal wise I have stuck with 75 again, despite my whopping 101 for 2016. I think that was a fluke of circumstance and I really do hope do get more stitching done this year so 75 it shall stay.

No long weekend this week, in fact it's the opposite I have market shift, so I'll only get Sunday to really rest. So not as much will get done this week, but that's okay. There is plenty of year left.

Until next time