The Best Laid Plans

I think I should start out by saying that I am not a planner. I like to pretend that I am. I will quite happily make my self lists and goals and the like, but when it comes down to the doing, it never works out. 

Maybe that makes me a bad do-er rather than a bad planner? I don't know.

So needless to say, my plans for my week off went much the same way as every other plan that I've ever made. Please don't get me wrong, I am not unhappy with how I spent the time, it's just not what was previously aimed for.

In my previous post, when I came back from Christchurch, I had said that I wanted to churn out some of my smaller WIPs, get a few finished behind me to bump up my moral as it were. A fine goal for a Wednesday morning. Until, that is, you discover that you are out of some of the threads for not only the first project that you pick up (miniature sampler) but also the second project that you pick up (dragon abc's). That kind of happenings tends to take the wind out of your sails a little bit.

Now I can hear you saying it "but Dana, you were on holiday, why didn't you just wander the 10 minute walk to the store to get more?"

Floods. That's why. We got three months worth of rain in one day. There was no way that I was going out in that if it wasn't completely essential. And thread, no matter how much I love my hobby, is not essential. It did facilitate a rather large 123 stitch order, but lets worry about that later.

But not to fear, as I have already said, the week wasn't a complete wash (bad flood pun, sorry).  In my cross stitching, I got two finishes.... or maybe three, depending on how exactly you count - do biscornue panels count as one or two?

white 14ct aida, DMC cotton is recommended colours

I finished Clouds Factory's "Nevermore". Then carried on with the Clouds Factory fun by starting and finishing the 10th Doctor and Rose Tyler.

white 14ct aida, DMC cotton is recommended colours

Yes, they are unwashed and unpressed - but floods. That's the excuse for everything this week. There's half a plan in my head (again with the plans) that I can mount a few or more of these cute little nerdy designs on foam core, get a little easel and swap them out when the mood strikes me. Two designs (this and Ghost busters) towards the goal is a good start me thinks.

Finally, on the cross stitch front, I started the kit I bought from China, which I have decided to call Love Birds.

Not much, to be sure, but, while I thought that 11 count aida would be fairly easy, it turns out that stitching with three strands is a little taxing on the finger tips. Can't fault the coverage though - 

And then I changed tacts. I know I said that my knitting was going to go on the back burner for a while but I couldn't resist.

So incredibly proud about this. For teaching myself a new skill at the side of the round, its turning out (at least I think) really really well. I guess I don't really know where pom pom hats sit in the scale of complexity, but I didn't really find it that difficult once I got started. Probably just as well since I bought two of the kits.

It started life as this cute little bundle - 

And know looks like this - 

All it needs now is to be sewn together and the pom pom attached. And just in time for the chilly chilly farmers market shift that is my reward for the time off taken.

Lastly, I gave the other kit that I purchased from China a try. It was called a Diamond Embroidery kit, though I have no idea where the embroidery aspect comes in. I don't have a picture of what it will look like when its done - I don't what to show the pattern, but this is what it looks like now.

Looking at it now, it doesn't actually look to bad. Up close, at a pixel to pixel level, I was starting to question what it was going to be like. From my cross stitching experience, I understand colour blending and placing colours next to one another to give various effects. But I was starting to question this one. Maybe not so much now. Despite my misgivings though, it is a strangely hypnotic process. Mosaic is probably the best way to describe it - all these little resin pebbles being stuck onto a pre-glued, pre-printed canvas.

Once again though, it is something that is going back into the pile for a little while. Yesterday was back to work day, and its going to be a six day week on that front. Add on my current enjoyment of my knitting, my blind determination to finish Garden Verses and my need to get a couple of assignments done, there's not going to be time for much else now I think. Such is the reality of being a grown up I suppose. There is the crafting retreat weekend at the end of the month to look forward to though. Start counting down the days.

I'll leave you on a completely random side note (thinking about the snacks I'll take away with me that weekend) I have a new favourite thing

my favourite drink and my favourite food all rolled into one thing - heaven

Holiday Time

I don't often take time off work. I work as part of a very small team so it gets a bit tricky organizing leave. But I finally did it. I took a whole week off. Unfortunately I don't get to spend it all by my self (which would have been very very nice).It started with this on Friday - 

oh, flat flat Canterbury, how I have not missed you

Since it was Queens Birthday here in New Zealand, I road tripped up north a bit to visit friends and family while they wouldn't be at work either. As boring as the long, straight, flat roads of Canterbury are, it was a very nice day for a drive. Such visits, however, always end in a headache for me - I love my family dearly, I just like them better when there's nearly 400km between us. And despite, or perhaps because of not having the internet for a few days, my trip resulted in an actual finish finish.

Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt at putting on canvas

One of the friends that I was visiting has just bought a caravan, so naturally this little pattern that I had done a couple of months ago seemed like the perfect gift. It is just stretched over a mini canvas that I found in Lincraft, backed with white felt and a length of ribbon attached to form a hanger. First time I had ever tried anything like this, usually my finished languish in a box under my bed, but her and her partner both loved it, so I'm calling it a win.

The trip also resulted in a sneaky surprise new project, though now that I'm home it may get put to one side for a little bit while I finish up some others (but more on my staycation plans in a bit). There was a serious crash on my route home so I was stuck in traffic on State Highway One in the middle of nowhere for about four hours (not as bad as those in the front of the line that had a wait of over 6 hours, but still a decent wait). I had found a pom pom hat kit in my travels, and thought it would be a fun way to learn how to knit more that squared or scarves. So sat by the side of the road, surrounded by sheep and other stranded travelers, I started to knit.

Three times.

Turns out I'm not very good at knitting.

That's not to say that I am going to give up on it. Its just going to take concentration and You Tube for me to get the hang of it, so it can wait for the proverbial rainy day.

Finally, nine hours into what should have been a four and a half hour drive, I made it home, and now am ready for my real five day vacation to begin. I have updated the WIP page above, so my starting points are all up to the current. I have one assignment to do for work. But other than that, I plan to stitch my little heart out. I would really like to get some of the smalls that I've started out of the way, plus I'll probably attempt the Diamond Embroidery kit that arrived from China the day that I left. In five days, hopefully I can get a good amount done - I'm feeling a little starved for finished this year. I guess that's what happens when you focus on the big pieces.

So watch this space. 

Let it Snow

Last post, I had mentioned that winter had arrived and that hibernation was beginning. I was wrong. Winter arrived last night. With vengeance. Snow and hail and sleet and lightning and gales..... today has been miserable.

So I read.

Read this to be exact

This book reminded me why I love Dean Koontz. Sucking me in from the very first page and keeping the suspense at such high levels that I didn't even notice the Man coming home from work and puttering around the room (think it scares him a little that I can be so oblivious). If, like me, you are terrified of moths, this has the potential to turn into a horror pretty quickly. But luckily I love horror. Beyond that, I'm not going to say anything else about it - would hate to tread unintentionally into the spoiler zone.

Upside, after the annual 24 hour book sale at the local theatre, I'm good for reading material for a while.

All this for only $18 - you gotta love a good bargain. Yes, one of the books it turned out we already had (or at least the Man did), tucked in the back of the temporary bookshelf - but given that most of my things are in storage while we do renovations, I think that's an acceptable mistake to make. Besides, whats a couple of dollars in a fundraiser really.

But on that note, I'm outta here. My stitchy bug has come back tonight, so lets see where that will take me.

Till next time.

Winter is Coming

Technically, I know that the month of May is actually autumn, but this year it seems as if we have gone straight from summer into winter, only with slightly warmer temperatures. Or at least so far we have - no snow or ice....yet.

But it very defiantly feels like winter. Its dark when I go to work (unsurprisingly since I star work before 630) and its getting dark when I get home. The longest day is still a month away, but the days are very noticeably short now. The joys of living so far south I suppose, we get the extremities of the seasons. And unlike when I lived further north, the days are not only short, but gray and gloomy. It wasn't until I came to Dunedin that I truly understood the concept of seasonal depression.

I'm not saying that I suffer from it, because I don't, not really. I do find now though that I hibernate far deeper than I ever did before. 

And the hibernation has hit hard and fast this year.

Curling up with a book in front of the fire has been on the cards this week, rather than a couple hours of stitching.My hands not preventing it now, thankfully. The cold still eats at it so gloves are a permanent feature now (thank you Ali Express for allowing the hand wear collection to grow fast), but it doesn't slow me down any more. 

I have nearly finished Garden Verses. Hopefully this weekend I can get it done. Its a busy weekend this week - the annul 24 hour book sale, the Capping Show and a Pink Ribbon breakfast - but I have hopes of getting it done in between. I'll wait until after the weekend now to take a photo of it though, it was raining and dark and gloomy when I got home from work every day so far this week so the light hasn't been particularly helpful, even with the flash on.

Probably why I have been reading so much really.

It makes a nice change. I had been beginning to think that by reading bug had abandoned me.Only something like eight books have been moved out of my 'to be read' pile this year - most unusual for me. But yay its come back - even if that return does signal the start of winter.

Since my laptop battery is about to die, I'll leave it there for today, but I will be back over the weekend. Tomorrow I have promised myself a shopping trip after work, plus its the book sale, so I will share any interesting goodies I find, plus I will post a review of the book I am reading once I finish it and process it, since I did say that I was going to combine my failed book blog with this one.... at least I think that's what I said.

Anyways

Until next time.

The Nature of a Mule

I am a stubborn person - stubborn and incredibly independent. Any one who has ever met me will attest to this little fact. I rarely take sick leave, I don't do sickness or injury well. I have to be able to carry on with what I want to be doing at any given time. So needless to say, after a week of not being able to use my hand properly and not being able to stitch, I was nearly climbing the walls in frustration. I had internet shopped (but refrained for the most part from buying - I'll get to that later), I had read, I had gamed, I had annoyed the stuffing out of both the goldfish and the man..... Fractured hand or no fractured hand, come the end of work on Saturday, I was going to cross stitch. 

So I did.

And surprisingly go more done that I could have hoped, given how many breaks I had to take to ease the aches. I have been known to sit for 8 or more hours on a day off and stitch - while I'm stubborn, I'm not completely unrealistic. That's probably not going to be happening for a while yet.

But progress is progress.

The garden in my Garden Verses is now done, and the plinth is started, its getting closer and

 closer to being finished. Its at the stage where I just want to push through the rest of it. So I think that I might have to ignore all my other WIPs and focus on this one. Its on a 28 count cream linen if anyone was wondering.

I'm fairly boring with my fabric choices. I'm not a huge fan of the hand dyed. While it is very pretty, it just seems like it will take away from the artwork. Not to mention the price is a little prohibitive for me. There is not really any needle work stores in this city. There is one, but the selection is average and the service is horrible. There is also two big multi craft stores - a Lincraft and a Spotlight, but they seem to be more geared towards knitting and sewing and papercrafts so I have to do most of my stashing on line. By the time currency conversion and international freight are taken into consideration, spending money on fancy fabrics doesn't seem worth it. I'd rather spend my money on the pattern. That said, I do want to have a go at dying fabric in the near future - but as flat colours rather than mottled.

Because of "restrictions" on my purchasing, I am also using DMC metallics in Garden Verses. I don't think I am alone when I say that its not my favourite. Its not the experience of stitching with it so much, but it never sits properly - at least not for me

I always end up with these little bumps, and it stitches different sizes. Not ideal in the slightest.

I had actually thought to just use up the last of what I had in my stash - unfortunately it wasn't enough, and I had to go buy some more. That little action furthered my resolve to shop online rather than in person. 

Now, don't get me wrong here. I would much rather go into a store and buy things in person. I work in retail, I know the value of brick and mortar stores. But when said stores raise the prices to ridiculous levels? I can live with paying $1.60 for a skien of the DMC stranded cotton. I can even deal with it when it goes up to $1.80. But paying $6 for the metallics? No. Just no. And the same amount for three of those little silver needle threaders that break as soon as you look at them?

I just cant anymore.

So its going to have to be a matter of being organised and planning more thoroughly and ordering from the big old global market place that is the internet... I started with China. That I only bought two kits while in my wrist splint is something that I am a little bit proud of. Both of them were from Ali Express - only one has arrived yet however, and I must say,I am pleasantly surprised by it.

I managed to find one that was a counted cross stitch. I don't like the idea of the stamped kits. Wall to wall stitches frustrate me and I get bored with them. Not to mention none of the designs really called to me. But for $5 this one seems like value. The 11 count fabric does feel relatively stiff, but I can wash that out (hopefully), and the two needles that came with it are perhaps a little small for the size of the fabric. But the floss does truly feel like DMC.

The other kit that I am waiting on I am a little excited about. Its one of the diamond embroidery kits. But I will write about that when I finally get it.

Till then though, I shall press on with Garden Verses. Hopefully my hand continues to feel better. I miss stitching when I can do.

Till next time.

Change is in the Air

Okay, so up until this point, activity on this blog type object of mine has been haphazard and narcissistic at best. I think at the time I only really intended it for my self. But a nearly broken right hand has left me a lot of time to think and not much ability to do the things I actually enjoy. Using the computer and tablet are about all that are left to me for now, and since my reading bug has left me high and dry (thus why the previous attempt at a book review blog failed rather abruptly) I have been reading through and discovering other blogs. 

You see, I am a cross-stitcher. I learned as a kid from my mum. I must have been 9 or 10 when she went through her needlework phase of crafting (paper craft and scrap booking were the only ones that really stuck for her, but that's a whole different story) and I wanted to learn to. It fell out of favour for me while I was at high school, and though I picked it up now and then while I was studying at university, I never really had the time to dedicate to it. Until a couple of years ago. 

Then it became a hard and fast addiction.

So you can see the problem I have with not being able to use my dominant hand properly. But I thought trying to sate my stitchy bug by reading about other peoples adventures might do the trick. I started on YouTube naturally. I have been an avid watcher of FlossTube for well over a year now, however, while I love the community spirit, the idea of being anywhere near a camera makes me more than a little squiffy.

Blogs, though, written word and still pictures, surely I can manage that. Yes, previous attempts haven't worked out so well, but I think I was limiting myself far to much. So instead of narcissistic rantings or half-assed book reviews, this blog is going to change up to be and everything platform. I'll share my stitching once my hand heals enough for me to hold a needle again, I'll muse both on life a little (not that I think my life is particularly interesting to anyone but myself) and whatever other pass times cross my path. I have several that I intend to try at some point - I had started to teach myself to knit last winter and the ideas of drop spindles and fabric dying and sewing and quilting all appeal to me... we shall see where that takes me.

What that means then, I guess, is that for the first time ever, I hope that people come on this journey with me. It has been wonderful to find the online communities to know that I am not alone in the art of cross stitch. That I am not crazy in my addiction, even if my partner does give me odd looks some times. 

Change wont happen over night, I do work full time - dented hand not withstanding - but it will happen. So please bear with me and I hope to see you around.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

I feel that I am about to risk my life by saying what I am about to say and willingly putting it on the internet for anyone to see. But I am going to anyway.

I did not like this book. At all.

I tried out going to a book club briefly (it wasn't for me, but that's another story for another time) and this was the first book I read with them. I was terrified going to that first meeting, feeling how I did for this book. The writing was clunky and belittling, the characters cliche and predictable and I found myself having to physically force my self to read every page knowing that I could in no way feel any empathy for such unrealistic portrays of people. Yes, it could be argued that The Book Thief is considered a young adult book, and therefore may lack some of the maturity that is to be expected of 'older' fiction, I think that with so many really good YA books on the market now, it is proving that younger readers can understand a story and its themes without being talked down to.

The only redeeming factor was the narration view point. I enjoyed that the story was told from the view of the personification of Death. That idea struck a cord with me.

So here I was, about to meet with a group of people that I have never met, with nothing but negative thoughts about a book that the entire world seems to have loved - you can imagine how worried I was about that. It was relief to no end, to hear these eight other people say the same things that I had been thinking all month.

Unsurprisingly, I only gave this one out of five stars.