A Very Busy March

Hullo Hullo everyone,  hope your all good and well. I'm sorry for the absence, but it's been a rather busy month. There's been a trip to Christchurch, a comic expo, a couple of weekends at work, multiple trips to the movies, a library book sale, and a surprise take over of a book club - and not a lot of time spent in front on my tablet. Luckily I've been almost completely monogamous with my stitching so I have something to show.

 I started Angel of Love as a memorial piece for both my grandma's that died last year. Beyond my temperature book mark, that's all I've worked on.

It's stitching up quite fast really - given the lack of time I've had, I'm really happy with it. I am hoping that I have done my math right and will have room at the bottom for names, but that's a while away - though I am planning to work on it this weekend as well. I signed up for the new Passione Ricamo SAL so I would like to get some progress on all that kind of WIP that I've got on the go.

My bookmark is the only exception to my monogamy-  and it's ticking along nicely.

The bigger it gets, the lest concerned I am with the similarities in colours some weeks. I'm thinking it will look good by December.

Reading wise, I've read a lot this month, so I'm not going to go through them all, but I will update the tab up there with my star ratings.

The biggest news is that I have become one of the new moderators for the Stitcher's Book Club on Good Reads. If you haven't heard of it, you should check it out. It's a group for cross stitchers who also love to read. We draw a genre out of a hat and vote on books from there. We have two selections every two months and the three of us new mods are hoping that we can facilitate a lot of really good discussions. This round (starting in May) we've selected out the genre of romance - not my usual option but I'm excited to see where we can take to group in the future.

Short as this is, I'm going to leave it here for now. Easter is coming and I'm hoping I can catch up on every thing then.

Till next time.

Back to School Time Again

Hullo Hullo  lovely people,  hope you are all well and good out there in your various parts of the world. We are here, despite the week or so delay in updating.  But life happens as we all are well aware.

Now let's start with the heading of this post - no, I'm not going back to school - I have neither the time nor inclination for such things at this point in my life. I do however live in the heart of "studentville" and they are all well and truly back for the year. Lectures start next Monday and O Week started today - neighbours on the right are listening to NZ pop and the ones on the left are listening to classic rock. Upside that both of them this year seem to have listenable taste in music, but the combo of the two clashing genres defiantly has me reaching for the headphones for the first time this year. The price I pay for city living.

Because of the arrival of the students, I have been all over the place - which is also the reason I've been a bit quiet. The bosses wanted the new cafe up and running - which we managed, just, opening last weekend. As a result the bakery has been left to look after itself, which in reality we should be able to do,  but if you've ever worked with people you'll know as well as I do that hearding cats would be an easier profession most of the time.  I was also foolish enough to volunteer for market shifts like some kind of crazy workaholic.

What this means is that lots of projects have been worked on, but not a huge amount of progress has been made of any of them. Hyperactivity is a symptom of stress I think.

I do however have a finish - most exciting. 

New Zealand Map, by Heritage. I very fittingly finished this on Waitangi day. The pattern had also charted the text ' New Zealand' in the bottom right and the coat of arms in the top left, but I left them both off (as you can probably see, despite the terrible photo). As unpatriotic as it sounds,  I don't particularly like our coat of arms, and I figured I could remember what country it's a map of.

Then this is where the ADHD kicked in.

I tried one of my HaEDs, but only lasted half a row.

So then I tried my kit from China, but again only lasted half a page.

Thought maybe I needed something smaller, so I  started a Mill Hill kit that I want to do for Mum, for Christmas.

It's going to be a penguin, not that you can tell yet. As you can tell, my attention didn't last long on that either.

So then I tried my Astrologer and was a little more successful with that.

It's still on he frame in the other room at least. 

I also dragged my Chatelaine out at one point, but I have decided to scrap that and restart it at some point on different fabric. While I can handle stitching on black fabric, I have come to the realisation that I do not like linen. It's not even and that drives me to distraction. Eventually I will get some evenweave for it. I do still really love the design, but it can go on the back burner until I get through some of these other big projects. I'm not planning to by stitch stuff until the end of the year anyway.

And while I have just said that I don't like linen, I did start another project on linen. Not just linen,  but 40 count. But it is only small and I don't want to waste the fabric I already have.

It is (will be?) The Bookshelf by Little House Needlework. 

Finally, on the stitching front anyways, I at least have been keeping up to date with my temperature book mark.

I did warn you I was all over the show this month.

Reading wise, I was a little more consistent, finishing four books. Kind of.

First was yet another book bub freebie - that this is dangerous I swear.

While I did enjoy this one, I think I did suffer from having too many points of view. Whether this is something that works itself out further into the series, I don't know, but while it was a decent enough premise, (zombie like plague forcing the human race back to the middle ages) it's not particularly high up the list of series' I need to finish.

Went back to my favourite authors with this one.

Dean Koontz is one of my favourite authors.  And I do particularly like his stories with religious overtones and the themes of good verse evil. This one defiantly fell into that category,  and while not quite as good as The Taking, still very good.

This one probably doesn't count as a full book, but whatever.

The Man brings then home when he finds them in the thrift store to try and finish off our collection. Both of us read them as kids - me loving them with every fiber. And they are still super fun to read.

And lastly I finished this one last night.

Again, this had a really good premise - what happens to the normal kids, when the heroes are out saving the town. I had, you doubts at first, but it really did come through.

I think that's about it for this time,  sorry it's a long one. I've got one evening shift this week, the touch wood, I should going back to normal. With any luck that means my ability to concentrate will return.  Hope every one else has very pleasant weeks, full of all you want them to be - I will do my best to be back next Monday to prevent another mammoth post like this one...

Till next time

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.

      

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

June

Yes, June. And the end of June at that. That's a hard statement for me to process in more than one way. The last six months have both felt like an eternity and flown by simultaneously. I know I haven't been around in a while and I know I have already apologized for that (to be fair I probably will again), but hopefully now I am getting back to normality. 

Hopefully I'm not mistaken in that this time.

Hopefully.

I figure the easiest explanation will be to give you a run  down of all that's happened over the last five months. If you are only tuning in for stitching, then I'm not going to be at all offended if you quit reading here and carry on with you regularly scheduled day. Thanks for dropping by if that's the case, but truth be told I haven't actually been doing any stitching. Or any thing crafty at all.

Where to begin?

It all started in February - sounds like the start of some pulpy paperback doesn't it? But it did. The end of February when we found out my Nanna's cancer was back and that she was dying. So multiple trips too and from Christchurch and then just like that she was dead. And then her brother was dead too. And what support do I get from my father? A 30 second phone call. This was the woman who practically raised me and supported him through my parents separation  (despite being my mother's mother) and all I get is a measly 30 second phone call. I spent half of the funeral answering the question of where he was to people I barely knew.

But we survived the funeral and made it home safely. Only to find out that my boss had be covering my shifts because the idiot that usually covered me had been caught stealing money from the till. So it was back onto six day weeks through the long process of searching for a new person and getting them trained up. A process made longer since the powers that be decided that in light of this being the 11th person in this role, the obviously need longer training.

Which was fine. Extra money will never be turned down by me. So I get her trained up, and the bosses go away so I have to cover them. Then we have baking classes - move shift cover. I've had two two day weekends since easter and that's only due to public holidays. Well three if you count the sick day I took on Monday - because I got my self sick. Funnily enough. Next weekend I have a work trip to Auckland and then hopefully, HOPEFULLY like will go back to normal. 

Oh and the idiot that was stealing from us - 237 hours community service, 9 months supervision and reparations - why so much I hear you ask? Because the twat resisted arrested, punched and officer then threatened to kill said officer.

You think you know someone huh?

Like you would think that I know my dad after nearly thirty years. But apparently not. After the whole no show funeral thing I will admit, I was a little mad. I'm not now. I have officially hit the relms of not caring any more. All I ever wanted was to know that I was equal in his mind with my two (half) sisters. It's something that's been brewing for a while. They get given ipads, I get given towels (it not about the money, I don't even want an ipad), of the five houses I've lived in since moving out of home, he has never seen a single one. He can afford to take time off to go on cruises and to Australia and Fiji and the cook islands but can he spare a weekend to make a four hour drive to visit Dunedin? Nope. Apparently not. And then, thinking me mad at him, does he confront me himself? No, he works through my 14 year old sister (God knows what he's told them). When I do confront him, I get no response.

So apparently that's how it's going to be.

I just can't bring myself to care any more. Perhaps because I'm so tired from everything else. But it is what it is.

And to top it all off, I crashed my car the other day. Not badly, just clipped the roof on the corner of a trailer unit. But still.

But all this does mean that I have done absolutely no stitching, as I mentioned before. The brain fuzz kicked it and it's all I can do to stay awake when I'm at home, let alone do anything requiring concentration. Although, I did pick up a needle for a couple of hours today and boy did it feel good.

I have been reading however. ALOT. As you can probably see on the tickery this to the right there, I am 61% through my reading goal for this year - which is huge since this year, of the 46, only 12 are graphic novels, putting me at a whopping 15,078 pages - that's nearly 1000 more that the whole of last year already. And it's only June.

I think in a few days, I'll put together a post doing short reviews on them all. If not this week, then at the very latest in a fortnight time when I get back from Auckland. At least if their all in thier own post it can be skipped if no one is interested.

Hopefully that goes someway to explaining my absence. I really am sorry, I never intended it to go on so long. But life. 

If you stuck this rant out to here, we'll done. And also thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. The man listens to an extent, but he's to close to the situation to really let loose I guess.

I can't promise that I'll be back to regularly scheduled cross stitching anytime soon, but I do intend to be around more, and actually pick up the needle - even if it is only once a week.

So again, thank you so much for letting me vent and I'll be talking to you all again real soon.

Till next time. 

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.

Field Trip

And I mean that in the literal sense.

Hullo all - its February now, can you believe that!? The speed of time regularly messes with my head like that. February means the students are all moving back and my piece and quiet is disappearing rapidly. Which is a shame really.  But until I can afford another house,  student neighbours will continue to be a fact of life.

Did get some peace on the field trip though. I think I briefly mentioned it last time as some kind of justification for potential lack of stitching. Which was a fairly accurate prediction. I got a few more stitches into Sleepy Hollow.

Few being the opprative word. I also restarted New World Map by Bucilla. 

This pattern is the reason I don't buy kits any more. I bought it off trade me, completely new and unopened. But it was not only missing two colours of thread but I would have been severely short on at least eight others - we're talking about running out before being half way through type of short. I tried contacting Bucilla but they didn't want to know anything about it so I had a tantrum and threw it in the ufo basket. Thought I'd restart it now that ie had time to calm down, plus it's fairly easy to follow for my post work weekday brain.

And that's it. Like I said. Not a lot of progress at all. The field trip was totally worth it though. Even if it did mean no break from my loud boisterous work mates for 48 hours (I love them really)

The bakery that I work at has very strong locavor ethics. We take pride in being able to trace out raw products to the source and that's what the trip was about.

We started here.

It's a farm just outside of Fairlee.  It grows this stuff.

Biscuit wheat

In multiple varieties.

Rye, biscuit and hard wheats

60% of the flour we use comes from these exact grains of wheat from this exact farm. The other 40% comes from a farm half an hour up the road. We then followed these grains the following day to the mill and watched them being made into the flour. But unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me that time.

We also toured another bakery and and got the chance to pick some of these guys...

Again the berry farm is a supplier that we use. Finally we stopped off at the pig farm where all out pork product comes from and we were lucky enough to arrive at the right time to see this

These piglets had only been born an hour or so before we got there - the last one was born while we watched. It was amazing to see, even if it was in the back of everyone's minds that in 5 months time we will be serving these cuties as bacon, ham and pulled pork.

It was the size of the adults that stunned me.

This lady was nearly shoulder hight on me - and I'm 5 foot 6!

And so now after all that sun and farm air I am definatly ready to stay inside for the upcoming long weekend. Very definatly sunburnt and my nose is starting to peel.

Reading wise it's been a far better month. My total completions for the last 31 days is sitting at 15 books, and while eight of them were comics, I'm still beyond happy with over 2700 pages behind me going into the rest of the year. I have also almost finished book 16  - The Mark of Athena, the third book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. Which I think I will return to now. While the last few weeks have been u seasonable cold, this week has been the opposite. High temperatures well and truly making up for lost time. Bakery work when it's in the mid 30s is not particularly pleasant,  but there is now a drafty cool breeze waiting for me to lie in it.

Till next time.