Day of the Frog

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

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

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

New start first, a temperature book mark...

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

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

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

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

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

And finished it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till next time. 

Addictive Qualities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then came the addiction. The HaED.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till next time...

  

False Start

Happy 2016 everyone! Hope you all survived whatever festivities you partook in (if any). I'm not a big one for parties anymore. I used to be when I was a teenager and my first few years at uni. But people change. I saw in the new year reading my book, in bed (new start for the new year of course). Living the life, that's me. And I don't even care if that makes me sound old lol.

In the spirit of all good things, I did also attempt to make a new stitchy start when I finally ventured into the waking world. The call of reading Jurassic world in bed in the sun was too great, so it was a much later start than normal. And to be honest I have no idea what I was thinking with that attempt of a start. I as going to go with We Are Geeks from Paine Free Crafts - a chart that I have adored since I saw it on another blog. But for some strange reason I thought it would be a good idea to do it on 40 count linen.... one over one.

Clearly that was a case of temporary insanity.

I got a letter and a half in before throwing it across the room in frustration and going down to the public to have a beer with a good friend. That led to sunburn, but what ever. Side note, the beer that we were drinking was called Velvet Worm, it's a local craft brewery, and while beer is not usually my poison,  I'm very glad I got suckered I  by a silly name.

I tried it again this morning, this time on a 32 count lugana - I think the fabric is a keeper this time, but within half of the first letter the floss was a tangled mess, so I've taken it as a sign that this piece is not destined for right now.  So it got frogged and put back in the 'to start' pile and I went for a walk to the farmers market to calm down.

And farmers market in January - you know what that means? No?

These

Central Otago has got to be THE best place for cherries. Well, stone fruit in general, but it's only the first week for the rest so it's not at its best just yet. Give it time. Since Central Otago is right on my door step, and since I work a lot at the farmers market, I gorge myself on fruit at this time of year.

Bliss. Absolute bliss.

And with all that happy,  I felt up to putting The Reader back on the frames.

The border of doom is getting close to being done. I'm on my fifth spool of Krienik now, so I guess the floss usage guide was a little wrong. Here's hoping that I can get her finished before I go back to work.

Which is only a few days away. It's been very nice being lazy and on holiday. A girl could get used to it. But I'll worry about that on Tuesday. For now I think I will take advantage of night finally falling and the temperature finally dropping and go continue with the adventures of Alan Grant and friends. The man did warn me that it was very different to the movies but it's exciting and fascinating to discover just HOW much different it is.

Until next time.