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.

      

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

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

What a (Insane) Year!

Hullo Hullo everyone, if anyone is still out there. It has been a really long time, but 2016 has been the year that officially kicked my ass. 

I think, scrolling through the past, the last life update I made was June,  the last stitching update July and the last reading update was in September. It's now December. I can only say I am sorry. I was all set to do another update mid September,  it's still sitting here as a draft. It was going to be title "Normal Sweet Normal". I think that jinxed me if I'm being honest.  

If any one remembers, my Nanna passed away in March and that threw me for a bit of a loop. Especially since it was followed so close by my great uncles passing, and a theft at work. The drama killed my stitching bug entirely and left my reading bug unchecked. Just when I thought everything was starting to return to normal (hence the unpublished update), my other grandma passed mid September which funnily enough renewed my slumpy mood. Things with my dad remained tense, but hey ho what you going to do. My uncle was then screwed over by his partner and left with nothing more than a can of beetroot, my aunt was thrown from her horse and spent two weeks in hospital and finally,  to round off the year my mum sprang on us at Christmas that she has been seriously ill for the last six months.

So, all and all, I haven't really had the brain space to do much at all,  blogging not withstanding.

But that's enough of the doom and gloom.  I'm ready to rejoin the world.

Even with the lack of stitching motivation,  I did have a few finishes this year. Six in fact.  Not a huge number but certainly more than I was expecting.

This one was the first of the Christmyth ornaments that I've started. They were free patterns put out by Dragon Dreams. Not sure if they still are or not, but they were when I got them.  I thought something small would be a good way to ease back into the whole stitching thing.

 Certainly everyone knows this one by this point. I left the boarder off from top and bottom because in my head, once I frame it, I don't think that boarder will add anything. I can always change my mind.

Finished off Pandoras Box, another freebie, this time of the Liz Almond variety. I used a Carrie's Creation cotton in Chimera, DMC 310, a silver DMC satin and some random clear silver lined seed beads I found in Spotlight. While I did enjoy working on it, not entirely sure how I feel about the finished piece. It did teach me a lot though - which is always nice.

This was my oldest wip that I finished early this year. Without looking it up,  I don't remember any detail beyond its done and there was a boat load of fractional stitches that I hated doing on Aida.

Joan Elliott Reader. This one defiantly gave me a love of Joan Elliott patterns. Can defiantly see me doing more of them in the future.

And finally

My mums tartan cushion. I finished this bad boy with a couple days left till Christmas and with two crushed fingers. Handy life lesson - don't try and catch a falling 30kg bucket. But I pushed through it and finished the cushion in time to give it to her at Christmas,  which she loved.

Reading wise I did far far better. I read a total of 100 books (101 if I finish my current one before saturday)  for a grand total of 35,559 pages - at least according to Goodreads. I am a little bit chuffed with that achievement.

Looking forward to the new year, I am really really hoping that life becomes a little more settled, or at the very least not as upsetting. I have set up spreadsheets to try and get some more accuracy and organisation to my workings. I am setting my Goodreads goal to 75 again, but I am hoping not to ignore my stitching so much.

Before the weekend I will update all the tabs up top, so we have a good starting point for the year. I'm not going to make any goals - me and goals don't seem to get along very well, but I would like to make a dent in the number of projects I have going - while I have great admiration for those of you with many multiple wips going, for me, my number is getting up there - especially since most have not seen the light of day in the longest time.

I did treat myself to a set of quantum frames for my thirtieth birthday - I have had them for two days now and am in love, so here's hoping it makes working of some of the older wips more enjoyable.

I think I will leave it there for now.  Unless some one tragic event happens I don't forsee me being awol. I am hoping to get back into a regular routine with posting again. What I will do, I think, is try and keep the reading and the stitching posts separate,  but we shall see. The only real objective I have right now is routines.

So if you are still here - thank you

Until next time

July Reading Wrap Up

Okay, yes, I realise that it is now September, but in the interest of not making this obscenely long I'm spliting this into months.

So, July, the reading mojo of 2016 continued, but I will try and make this brief.

Demon Seed - Dean Koontz - 3 star

A solid AI taking over sci-fi. A quick compelling read like most of Koontz books. Just a shame I couldn't stop thinking about the Simpsons episode based on this while reading.  

The Guardian Cycle - Julia Grey - overall 4 stars comprised of:

The Dark Moon - 4 stars

The Jasper Forest -  4 stars

The Crystal Desert - 3 stars

The Red Glacier - 4 stars

Alyssa's Ring - 4 stars

I remember picking up the first book in this series years and years ago - it must have been when it first came out because I can't have been much out of primary school and still unaffected by the "readings not cool" taunts of high school.  I finally managed to track the whole series down and while it's not what I remembered (to be honest, I don't know exactly what I thought I remembered), the enjoyment was very definatly still there. The story could easily have fallen prey to classic fantasy clichés of comming of age and saving the world, but it didn't.  The fleshed out characters grew superbly with both the passage of time and experience and the world building was simply wonderful - something I definatly look for in the fantasy genre. I would have liked a map though, I like maps.  

Coma - Robin Cook - 2 stars

I'm convinced that my mum told me I'd love this book, and she's convinced that she didn't.  Either way, wasn't my favourite. I found the mystery predictable, the Suspense, dull and the characters insufferable. I did like the premise of otherwise healthy young people dying in comas, just a shame about the execution.

Insomnia - Stephen King - 4 stars

If I haven't said it yet, I'll say it now. King is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. The depth of the world that he has built in all of his novels is just staggering. I also really enjoyed that this story was told from the perspective of retirees - we don't see that often.  

Mid Year Reading Wrap Up

Hullo hullo

Here I am, back from Auckland, alive and well (just), mostly rested (I had a whole weekend!) and here with a wrap up of the books that have held my attention for the last six months.

So as of today, I have read 48 books towards my yearly goal of 75. 13 of those have been comics or graphic novels, 2 have been non-fiction, 11 have been YA or middle grade and the remaining 22 have for the most part been a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller and historical fiction.

All up (as at the 1st of July) I have read 16,903 pages - that's 2,377 more than the entirety of last year. And certainly well on my way to the record breaking (for me at least) 2014 where I hit 27,709.

For my mini reviews (though I don't really like the word review, maybe we should just go with mini opinions?), I will lump series all together. Let's get started.

Jurrasic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton

This was a mixed bag for me. The first book I gave four stars while the second I couldn't even finish. I'm not a huge Crichton fan. While I love the idea of so may of his books, there is just something about his writing style that just doesn't mesh with me. I have picked up and put down so many of his books over the years that I'm still just amazed that I finished (and enjoyed) one.

Coffee Obsession by Anette Moldvaer

Read this for work. Was a good in depth reference guide. Gave it five stars.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

This is that age old story of the book being better, even though the movie is stunning and amazing in its own right. The two were written in conjuction with each other and it shows. The book offers far more insight than the movie - even to the point where the crazy ass ending makes perfect and logical sense. I gave it four stars and will definatly be picking up the sequels at some point.

The Wizard of Id (2 volumes) by Johnny Hart and Brant Parker

I don't even remember which two volumes I picked up, let alone what they contained. Found them while tidying the Man's stuff while doing so renovations. Won't be making that mistake again.

The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan

Defiantly a strong and enjoyable follow up to the Percy Jackson series. I may have even enjoyed this one a little more. With the characters being just that little bit older, I found them far more relatable and the connections formed with them just that little bit stronger. Definatly looking forward to reading more my Riordan.  I gave the series four stars over all.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

Definatly the most movingly real and emotional book I've read so far this year.  I can definatly see why it's not only a classic but has been pulled from publication several times. No words can ever do this boom justice. It was dark and haunting and soul destroying. I loved it. Five stars

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
I don't really know why I waited till I was nearly 30 to read these classic children's tales. I can see why they have endure through multiple generations. Only you a 3 star rating for the series as a whole though, there were definatly large weaker spots stack along side the whimsy.  And I rally did not like the ending. Just to have it all stop seemed weak some how.

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher
The whole concept is a bit of fun.  Nothing new about the story,but enjoyable none the less. Four stars.

Undone by Paul Jennings
A pure walk done memory lane. When the man walked in with a copy of this...this icon of our childhoods, I knew I had to read it then and there.  It was still delightfully bizarre and uncanny-  just how I remembered.

Ilium by Dan Simmons
This one was odd to the point of uncomfortablness. I'm sure my workmates were beyond pleased when I finished this one.  Three story lines, so seemingly unconectable (aliens and the Trojan war?) all shoved together and forced in to whatbecameaseemless narrative. I surprised even myself when I gave this one fours stars. I couldn't stop reading it, no matter how much I sometimes wanted to. And I'm really glad I didn't.  It was sometime I have never seen before and really did enjoy it in the end.  I don't know that I will pick up these qualities though. It felt almost complete to me. But we shall see how I feel about that in the future.

Atlantis by Dave Gibbins
An archeological adventure story. Not much to say about it really. A three star airport read if nothing else.

The Winds of Darkover by Mario Zimmer Bradley
I've read these out of order and that always frustrates me. I probably would have liked it better if I new the back story

The Redemption of Althalus by David Eddings
A re read for me. Still as good as I remember, but then in my world Eddings can do no wrong. Four stars.

The Taking by Dean Koontz
Another reason read and my favourite Koontz book that I've read so far. Love the pacing and tension ever if it is a little heavier on the biblical themes. Very definatly a strong five stars.

The Return From Troy by Lindsay Clarke
Once again I'm guilty of reading out of order but this time I don't think a prequel would have changed my mind out disliking this one. While a retelling by its own nature is just rehashing an old story,  it would have been nice to have had something new added to the story.  A new approach maybe. But this was just more of the same.i love the Iliad and the Odyssey so this one was a disappointing.

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
The other non fiction book on this list. I don't think I should have delved deeper into this story. The idea that these men srivived not only a Russian gulag in northern Siberia, but also walked to India to gain their freedom was just mind blowing to me. Then I did some googling and discovered it may not be true. Don't know how to feel about this one anymore but I did give it four stars.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King
I first read King when I was 9,and while I have always been a mature Reader I think that may have been just a little young. I definatly remember enjoying the few books I read of his but I think the depth and complexity of his work got a little lost on me. Not any more. This short little owner to the Dark Tower series has relaunched a love of King books for me. Four stars.

Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn
Know I have to admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of the movie, but I figured enough time had elapsed that I could read the book without the movie clouding my judgement. And while it had,  and I didn't not enjoy the book, the characters were just hideous. I've never disliked every character in a book before, usually there is one I feel for at least. Not this time.

The Daylight War and The Skull Throne by Peter V. Bretton
Books three and four of the Warded Man series. This series started out so so strong and I find myself struggling with it more and more as it goes on. The characters you care about get relatively little page time while being forced to trudge through chapter after chapter of back story for minor players in the obviously based on Muslim m desert people. I will continue with this series, the story intrigues me, just a shame about the development of it. Four and three stars respectively.

It by Stephen King
A behemoth of a book but definatly well worth it. Creepy and dark and twisty - one of my favourites for this year by far.

The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike
This was another one of my childhood favourites that I found again just recently. I remember it being a lot bigger and a lot more complex than it turned out to be. Though I guess I was remembering it thought the eyes of a seven or eight year old. Still perfectly readable however, three stars.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly
I couldn't decide if this was a very dark YA book or if it just seemed that way because of the child narrator. I did really enjoy the very dark twists on the fairy tales but the rest of it was just okay, I enjoyed it but I already find myself forgetting. Three stars.

The Bachman Books by Stephen King
This was a collection of four novels that King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman - The Running Man, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and Rage. I can see why King wanted some of these pulled from publication. They are gritty and raw in the way they deal psychological issues surrounding very American issues such as school shooting. I did really enjoy them though, they are wonderfully written. You are in these people's heads.  The Long Walk in particular was a favourite.

And finally...

The Terror by Dan Simmons
History merged with the supernatural. What more could you ask for. This one kept me turning pages - though I know the fate of the Franklin Expedition of 1845, I still needed to know what happened to the men. And the ending.... I was pleasantly surprised with that ending. 

Now I haven't included the comic in this,  because the are both on going series that I keep up with month to month. Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Wicked + Divine by Kieron Gillen.

Now that life is calming down a tiny bit, I'm hoping to do these baby reviews once a month so hopefully the don't gets as out of control as this one. If you've made it this far, we'll done and thank you so so much.

Till next time.

PS - I've been stitching again, just a little. I'll try and get a picture in the day light and update that side of things in the next couple of days.

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