Starting With a Bang

Hullo Hullo everyone - and happy February!!it's hard to believe that it's the second month of the year already, but there you have it. It's Waitangi weekend here in kiwi land at the moment, so no denying the passing of the year when we have a long weekend to prove the fact.

The long weekend will be especially nice after my week back at work. Unexpected training of new staff all week always adds to the usual chaos, but such is to be expected with the new cafe due to open in a week. 

Mum flew down for a coffee yesterday which was nice. She seems to be on the mend - at the very least she seems a lot more peppy and aware which is good to see. Especially when her visit was close on the heels of bad news from my dad - my Pop (and sole remaining grandparent) has been told he has terminal cancer so it looks like I'll lose three grandparents in the course of 18 month. The more morbid side of me is taking the view of 'well at least once their all gone, you can't lose any more'.

I have some very strange thoughts sometimes. 

Beyond that slight blemish,  the month has actually started out really well. Because I went back to work, and the Man was on holiday (and therefore home when I finish for the day), I just pulled out a small piece of stitching to work on, not really knowing how much I would get done.

Turns out, more that I thought, and I finished the piece. Not just finished but FULLY finished.

Peg the Plum Pudding Angel is one of Brooke's Books patterns and I am really happy with how she turned out. A few little changes here and there, but none particularly big enough to notice. Beyond leaving off the wings. Wasn't a big fan of the wings. She can now go into my slowly going collection of Christmas decorations that I never get around to hanging up  (but will one day).

I was then ready for something a bit bigger, so I pulled out my NZ map.

This was actually further along than I had told myself, and the back stitching and motifs don't seem to be taking as long as anticipated so maybe, just maybe, with the long weekend,  I can finish this this weekend. Or at the very least by next weekend.

Three finishes by the middle of February would be pretty stinking great. Four would be better since there's a new start I'm planning to make at the beginning of March, but I'm not going to push my luck with that one.

Finally in terms of stitches put into fabric, I did a few more days on my temperature bookmark. 

Still really fascinated by this. I can't wait to see it as it grows through the hottest months of the year this month and next month and on through winter. Really looking forward to it - so much so, I'm already planning to do one next year as well. And I have finally got my colour range sorted for it.

with guest appearance from the ORT jar

So pretty. I'm thinking that eventually I might give it its own page up to with all the information. At some point.

What prompted the sorting of the colours was the massive tidy up of my craft boxes that I undertook when I got home from the airport (coffee with mum) yesterday. I think I mentioned that I put in a huge order with 123 stitch with the intention of it lasting me the whole rest of the year without buying more. That arrived on Friday so that involves a whole heap of DMC that needs put onto bobbins, but the end result is that my full coverage pieces (plus one set to start soon) have its own project box of floss, as does my book mark that shares a box with whatever I'm working on at the minute (in this case, NZ map)

My current project gets pulled from a master set of DMC, which will be a little frustrating until I get my current number of WIPS down, but I'm using that as incentive. 

So all very good progress for the week on the stitching front. And reading has been  just as good. I finished this beast...

I FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!!

And I did really really enjoy it, for all the hard work it was. Plus I think I read it at just the right time in political history for it to have maximum impact on me. Defiantly a five star read that has now fallen into the category of me wanting to tell people to read it just so I have someone to talk about it with.

As a reward for finishing the behemoth, I started and finished another...

Not that the was now a challenge, being only 59 pages. It's a companion story that fell a little flat for me. There was no where near the level of mystery or chemistry between the characters that there was in the full length novel, so that bumped it down to a three star for me. But then I have never really been a short story person.

Defiantly starting the month with a bang.

As for what this week will bring, the Man is still on leave so no quiet time in the evening just yet for me. I am also pulling a extra shift to cover the market next Saturday,  which'll cut in to my time a chunk. I do so hope to get New Zealand finished though. Pick up my new glasses Friday too, so hopefully that helps how my head feels.

I very much hope that your weeks have been and continue to be just as you want them to be as well.  'Productive' is such a subjective term.

Till next time.