The new year is coming

I can't quite believe this year is nearly done. It seems like yesterday that I was toasting my first new year in my new flat. Christmas has now been and gone and I don't have to go back to work until the 3rd of January. Scotland pretty much still grinds to a halt at new year - no buses or shops open on the first of January. January 2nd is also a bank holiday up here so nothing will get back to normal until the Wednsday as Tuesday will be a holiday inlieu of Sunday being new years day. I'm not very fond of new year so I plan to make myself a nice meal on the 31st and then see the bells in at midnight with my stitching in my hands.
Speaking of stitching. I managed to get Christmas mystery 1 framed in time for Christmas. I'm hoping to get some more finishing done before I get back to work. I have decided to start something new on the 1st inspite of the huge amount of stuff I have already got in progress. They don't call it guilt free January for nothing.

Christmas frenzy

This time of year is one of my favourite times. I would prefer it even more of if it wasn't dark most of the time and if it was a little warmer but no matter. I do live in a fairly northerly bit of the world and summer days are very long here.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my Christmas elf fairy. I've posted a few Christmas tree photographs today. Apart from one or tow ornaments which were gifts, all the stuff on my tree is made by me or I have received it in an exchange over the past few years. I've taken part in the TWBB's ornament exchange every year recently so I have quite a few lovely ornaments that I have received from fellow stitchers. So if you've ever sent me an ornament in an exchange, you sould be able to see it.





Not much stitching has been going on around here for the past few weeks. I'm knitting a few gifts this year so they have had to take priority. I've just got one gift to finish and then I'm done. I've also been making lots of Christmas cards which are almost done too. I picked up the frame and mounts that I had made for Christmas mystery 1 today so I'm going to get that stretched and into its frame this week. I have to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but after that I'm not back until the 26th so I'm going to be busy. I've got 5 days off over New year and I'm planning a serious stitchathon. In spite of being Scottish, I'm not found of New year so I have no plans at all except stitching

Busy time

Lifes been a bit busy lately. Mostly due to the preparations for Christmas. My tree is up and covered in covered in stitched ornament either made by me or received from various exchanges over the past few years. I've not really managed a lot of stitching due to Christmas preparations. I've made most of my Christmas cards. I have a few more to make and I need to get them done this week.
Most of my stitching time this week has gone to finishing my part of a secret project which is now ready to send to the person who it is for and has no idea it is coming. I can't share a picture for obvious reasons but once it is safely there, then I can share.
I have managed to make time to buy a frame and mount for Christmas elf fairy and you can see the evidence below. I also ordered a frame and mount for Christmas mystery 1 which has been sitting waiting to be framed for the past year. Hopefully it will be in by next weekend and I will have more photos to share.

More stitching stuff

I've finished a few things over the past week, mostly due to going to Harrogate for the stitching show.
The show started on Thursday. It wasn't as busy at the show as previous years and there were definately less cross stitch/needlework exhibitors from previous years. There was much more wool and yarn stalls instead which was good for me as my interest in knitting has grown greatly over the pasy year or so.
One of the big appeals of Harrogate for me is the opportunity to take the short classes that are staged during the show. The classes are on a wide range of techniques and are mostly demos of a technique or a small project of that technique. The first one on Thursday was to make a wire work bracelet.

The idea behind is pretty simple and pretty effective. I've bought some more beads and wire to try and make another.

The second class was with a Royal school of needlework trained embroider called Tracey Franklin. who has written a book about goldwork and also teaches across the UK. Each year, she takes a short class which is a goldwork taster session. I've done quite few of these now but I haven't quite plucked up the courage to stitch a bigger piece yet.


I'm going to gather together the previous ones I've done and try and figure out a way of framing them together. Tracey is a very good and patient teacher and even remembered me from previous years.

On Friday I did 2 more classes. The first one was on making small concertina notebooks using pelmet vilene ( its like Skirtex for the US stitchers). I haven't quite finished mine yet but a picture will follow. The second class of the day was possibly my favourite. It was a class to learn how to make dry needle felt animals. The teacher was a lovely woman called Ewa Kuniczak who is so very enthusatic about the whole technique. My creature decided to be a dog.

The materials for the class are more than enough to make at least a couple more creatures. Ewa was felting a lovely dragon at the show which looked amazing.

After all this other stuff, I've also got a cross stitch HD to share. I finished the Mirabilia Christmas elf fairy kit last night. The kit picture looks so dull compared to the finished item. She's stitched on the recommended fabric.

Catching up again

I've been away for the past week on holiday where I just happened to spend 3 days at the Harrogate knitting and stitching show. Well it wasn't really a coincidence as you might have guessed.
On Saturday, I got to meet up with a few of the UK based stitchers - Karoline, Scully, Rach, Amanda, Kate and Pat plus Karoline's MIL and Amanda's DH and her two children. It was great to see everyone again. More show stuff to follow as I took a couple of classes and have some finished stuff to share.

When I got back, I had a package waiting for me from Jo with a lovely Christmas ornament from the Stitching Bloggers exchange.


She also sent some chocolate which I've been munching through this evening whilst uploading some photographs.

Redwork exchange

My redwork exchange piece has arrived all the way from Singapore. Its from Zohrah and I really like it.

Catching up

Since my last post here, I have mostly been stuck in the house with the cold from hell and I made it back to work for one whole day last weekend. The wedding fair went well and I now have a fairly good idea what sort of invitations my sister wants.

As I've been stuck in the house, I've been card making and I have made about 20 or so Christmas cards. I've also knitted 2 scarves for my mum and finished stitching a few things which I can't share just now as they are exchanges or gifts.
I can share some pictures of the scarves though




Last night was Guy Fawkes night in the UK which means lots of fireworks. I forgot that the local council uses the playing fields behind my building to have the council run display. The photographs show the view from the window on the landing on my floor of the building. All my windows face the other direction so I stood at the stair landing window to get a good view.




It was pretty close by so it was really noisy but some of the fireworks were very pretty.
Stitching wise, I have stitching quite a few Christmas ornaments. I've also started Chatelaine Japanese garden on black belfast linen. I'll post a progress picture once I've got a bit more to show.

Bits and bobs

This week started out fairly promisingly. Saturday was the Craft show in Glasgow. Not much stitching to be found and for the first time at a show with stitching stalls, I didn't buy anything stitchy. I did buy more card making stuff - a pack to make for Christmas cards and some ribbons for cards. As I am going to making all my sister wedding stationery, I was trying to get some ideas of what sort of thing she might like. I just need to get my head down and make up some samples.
My mum was really inspired by the knitting stalls and fell in love with two lots of yarn for scarves. So I have just acquired two more knitting projects to do as although she can knit much better than me, she can't knit at all at the moment due to her hand and neck problems. It will be good to make stuff for her as she has made me so many clothes and other stuff over the years and finished off a few projects into cushions for me.

Monday didn't really go too well though. I ended up getting sent home from work as otherwise I would have been sick over the patients, which isn't really what nurses are supposed to do...

I felt better yesterday and even managed to finish off some ornaments for the ornament exchange on the TW BB. I can't share any pictures yet as they need to be a surprise for the receivers. I even managed to sort though some other ornaments that I want to stitch too.

Today I seem have developed the cold from hell. So I have spent most of the day lying on the sofa, watching trashy TV and sleeping. As today is one of my days off for this week, I am not best pleased by this. Also I am supposed to be going to a Wedding fair with my sister, my mum and my sister's future mother in law on Saturday and my sister needs me there to protect her from motherly insanity from both mum and the future MIL, who are both already too overexcited about this wedding. So I need to be better for then or my position as Chief Bridesmaid may be gone due to my sister being driven insane.

Stash and stitching

My stash seems to be getting larger again at the moment. Partly because designers keep releasing things that I love and also because of a bit of lack of stitching time lately combined with a few obilgation bits and pieces. I'm in 2 round robins at the moment and behind in both. Thankfully I seem toi be catching up as I hate to be behind.

I'm also a lot of parts behind in the Chatelaine mysteries that I'm stitching. I'm only on part 3 of Mystery 8 and I haven't even started Christmas mystery 2. Normally I would feel pressured by this but I've decided that the journey is the important thing rather than the time taken.

I've done a bit of stash aquiring today. Mirabilia have released a Christmas elf kit which was a must have for me. Mirabilia plus Christmas equals my perfect project. Tomorrow I'm off to a local stitching and craft show so I think I might be spending some money. I'm going with my mum who is a dressmaker and machine sewer who loves the look of cross stitch but hasn't got the patience. She's a bit down just now as she has a problem with her right hand which has stopped her doing most things. She's worried that it won't improve soon as she is making all the dresses for my sister's wedding in mid 2007. Worrying enough for me is if things don't improve soon, I will be getting a major crash course in machine sewing. The last time I used a machine was over 10 years ago.

Edited to add Yay this post took without having to switch to Firefox so it would seem that Safari and blogger are starting to get along

Framed stuff and gifts

Okay so it appears that blogger doesn't like the version of the Safari browser that I use so I have had to download firefox to use with blogger.

The best thing that happened this week is that I got the most beautiful gift from Elisabeth as part of the Stitching bloggers exchange.






I am very impressed at Elisabeth's finishing skills. My finishing skills at the moment don't really extend much beyond pillow type ornaments and the odd bellpull.

I updated my webshots album today with a few finishes and some newly framed stuff. My latest finish ( or at least the latest one I can share) is Buddha from a kit by Pinn designs. Its going to be a gift for my parents. Hopefully it will be the last project that I take on as a obligation gift on behalf of some else. Perhaps that will be after I finish the 4 or 5 things I have decided that should stitch for other people that they don't even know about.

A stitchy day

I'm still on my holidays as yet so my time is all my own at the moment. So far, I haven't got as much done while I've been off than I thought I would.
I spent a good part of yesterday stitching on the Buddha that I am stitching for my dad's meditation teacher. Its looking fab but its only about half done and I have only 2 weeks left. Argghh and its stitched in a variety of white, cream and browns. I may go blind stitching it.
For a bit of variety today, I decided to trying and finish off some of the huge pile of finished stuff that I have. I managed to finish off my Halloween exchange piece which I can't share a picture of as yet. I'm really pleased with how it looks. I've going to get it all parcelled up over the weekend and do a big post office run on Monday. I'm going to try out some new finishing ideas over the weekend so hopefully I will have a few pictures to share over the weekend.
My kit for Chatelaine Japanese Garden arrived today too. I just need to get the black belfast linen and I'm all set for November.
The main distraction this week however has been the new computer. My shiny new Imac arrived on Wednesday and I spent most of the day on Wednesday copying files across to the new computer and trying to get used to the differences between XP and OS X. So far I'm loving it and the transition hasn't been as bad as I thought it might been. So far being the operative word - I'm hoping that saying that doesn't come back to haunt me.

Why is it that..

as soon as you finish work for a holiday, your body decides to rebel and make you ill. I've been fighting a sore throat, coughing and a swinging temperature for nearly 4 days now and I'm fed up of it. Luckily it seems to be fairly low grade but its lingering and after having a severe viral throat thing at the start of the year that might have been Mumps, I'm not really keen on a repeat performance. Added to the fact that Scotland has been having daytime temperatures of 23-28 celsius over the past week doesn't really help.

I've decided to try and not feel sorry for myself as things are much worse elsewhere in the world and life is otherwise pretty good.

2 good things that happened this week were firstly my cousin Nadine had a baby girl on Tuesday and all is well. The second thing is that today is my birthday. My parents gave me some money which will either go towards some stitching stash or some thing for the new computer. My aunt bought me the DVD of the movie of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy so I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

GTG sampler HD

To get the holiday off to a good start, I've got a stitching HD to share. Its a sampler designed by Kate who hosted the GTG and surprised us all with the design and the materials to stitch it with.
This weekend. I'm planning to try and get some completed pieces finished off or framed. I have a gift piece in progress for my dad's mediation teacher who is leaving their group to run a group in Edinburgh. I've also picked out 2 designs for the exchanges I'm taking part in as part of the Stitching bloggers exchange board.
On other news, I ordered a new computer yesterday. I'm getting a imac. I've been thinking about getting it for a while but the time is finally right. My current computer is going to be put to good use by my parents. Their computer is about to give up so the timing is good.

I really don't know where the time goes

Nearly another 2 weeks with out a post. I have been busy though. 2 weekends ago, I was at a UK GTG which was very enjoyable. We were all given some fabric and threads to stitch a GTG sampler designed by Kate. Mine should be finished this weekend so hopefully I will have a HD or two by the end of the weekend.
Tomorrow is my last day at work for 3 whole weeks. I have taken 2 weeks off work for holidays and with my strange shift patterns, that turns into 3 weeks. So there will a lot of stitching and knitting being done over the next few weeks. I don't have any plans to go away anywhere as yet.
On a non stitching note, my sister has booked her wedding date for 2nd June 2007. I've promised to make the invitations and favours and all that sort of stuff. My mum is making the bride and bridemaids dresses. I'm Chief Bridesmaid so I get to boss the other 3 about. There was only supposed to be 3 of us but one of her friends "invited" herself to be bridesmaid and my sister didn't have the heart to say no. Of coure there will be a wedding sampler. I'm not sure what yet as my sister isn't really a floral type person. I've stitched a Scooby doo design for her which she absolutely loves. I'm not sure that scooby doo is right for a wedding sampler.

I can't wait for the weekend

I really can't wait for this weekend as I'm heading off to a UK stitching GTG. I''m looking forward to catching up with some stitching friends and get to drool over some HDs and WIPs. And to cap it all, some of us are heading to Wye needlecraft on the Sunday for some stitching shopping therapy.
Not really sure that I should been spending anything though. I've spent a bit recently on various things including some cotton tape yarn for a jumper and other wool for a couple of different projects. I also went a bit mad last Saturday and bought a load of card making stuff on QVC. I've not been doing much card making of late and I really miss it. Quite a bit of the stuff is for making Christmas cards. I am a big fan of Christmas stuff and a lot of my stitching is Christmas related also. The first thing I ordered arrived yesterday and I'm very impressed at the quality of the card and embellishments I received. Now I just need to find some time to make some cards.
I've decided roughly what I want to stitch for the Stitching blogger's redwork exchange after getting the name of the person I am sending to. This weekend I need to pick up a couple of things so I can get started. I've also signed up for the Halloween exchange. So far I've decide what I'm going to finish the item as but I've not quite narrowed down the exact design.

Tired day

I've been trying to keep myself busy today. I finished night shift this morning at 8 and due to some really crap planning by my boss, I am back on day shift tomorrow morning. So today has been a exercise in keeping awake so I will sleep tonight. I only nodded off at two points though. The first time was in mid converstion with my aunt whilst she was driving us back from a local shopping centre and then again at about 7 when I was trying to watch the TV. The next thing I knew it was 9 o clock and the phone was ringing.

Stitching wise, I've signed up for a few exchanges on the stitching bloggers exchange board. I used to take part in a lot of exchanges in the past on various yahoogroups that I belonged to and I've organised quite a few too. Lately most of the groups I'm on aren't having exchanges so when I saw the posts for the exchange board, I decided to take the plunge. The first one is the redwork exchange. I have a fairly good idea what I'm going to stitch for it after reading the recipents blog. I've ordered some supplies so once they arrive, I will get started.

I'm off work after Thursday until Tuesday so the plan for the weekend is to stitch, stitch and stitch some more. I also need to sort my stash area as its a bit of a state plus I want to go through my stash and sort some stuff for trading at the UKGTG and possibly to sell some stuff off on ebay. I know I have a few things that I know I won't stitch.

MIA again

I can't believe its nearly a month since I posted here. Life has been very busy. My aunt is finally out of hospital and my other aunt is recovering well from her knee replacement surgery. Both of them are back in their own houses so the pressure on my parents and myself is reduced finally. I'm very tired after it all especially as work has been so busy.
Stitching wise, my progress in July has been fairly non existent due to very little stitching time. I've finished a couple of small christmas cards and another christmas piece. Pictures to follow. The knitting bug has continued to bite. I've knitted a scarf for my sisters birthday and I've also almost finished another knitted bag for my sister.
At the moment I really need to be kicked up the backside. I've got 4 different things that needed posted off to various people and a mountain of ironing that will over take the house. However all I really want to do is sleep, surf the net and stitching or knit. Still its only 1 month till I have a fortnight off work and only 2 weeks to the UKGTG. I really can't wait, especially for the GTG. I have no stitching friends locally other than my aunt (who I am gradually enabling with lots of different stuff) and its great to talk to other people who get the stitching thing rather than think it strange.

Holiday weekend

Its a holiday weekend in a large part of Scotland this weekend. The holiday marks the start of the traditional Glasgow Fair holiday fortnight. It dates back to when this area was mostly industrial and all the factories and ship yards closed for the annual summer holidays. Each area of Scotland had its own Fair fortnight and it coincided with local fairs and gala weeks. The factories and ship yards are mostly long gone but the holiday remains. So this weekend the airport at Glasgow has its busiest time. Today is called Fair Friday and almost always the weather is dreadfully today and it usually rains. Its not raining and it is warm today but the weather is muggy and not nice at all.

This week, the weather gods got a bit confused and the West of Scotland had temperatures of 80-90 degrees during the day. Not really typically Scottish weather especially when you are a very fair skinned Celt like me. I only have to look at the sun to get sunburn. Added to that is the fact that we don't have air conditioning like those in USA and Canada. Sleeping has been a bit tricky to say the least.

Stitching wise, I haven't done much at all this week. Mostly I've been at work or up visiting my aunt in hospital or sleeping. Added to this is the fact that we changed soap at work a while back and its not agreeing with my hands. The skin on one of my fingers has split at the knuckles and the rest of my hands feel like sandpaper. Not ideal for stitching with silks. I've got an appointment to see someone at the Occupational Health department to sort it out and I've been given some cream until then. Meanwhile I still have to wash my hands 30+ times a day at work and use masses of hand cream.

New technology and other stuff

I don't think I've mentioned this before but I love new gadgets. I like the whole process of learning something new. So I've been having fun today learning how to use my new mobile phone. Somehow, at some point on Monday, I managed to lose my mobile phone. Luckily it was a old one which I inherited for no money from my sister so I didn't particularly lose out.

The new one has a few more bells and whistles - a camera, bluetooth and WAP. And is easier to use. I did feel a bit patronised by the sales guy. I knew exactly what I wanted and told him that. The salesman seemed surprised that I had heard of bluetooth and knew how to set up a phone. Obviously women can't know these things. The other irritating thing was that he kept going on about their land line phone services inspite of the fact I told him four times that I wasn't interested and not to tell me any more about it.

On another note, the G8 summit is really getting on my nerves. Half the police from the west of Scotland are over in the East dealing with the violent element. I had to phone the local police to have a very suspicious and intoxicated man removed from just outside the ward I work in. The Police were great when they came but they took ages because they are very shorthanded. All their leave is cancelled too. Combined with that is the fact that the Police are advising against travel at all to Edinburgh unless you have to as its bursting at the seams. The ironic thing being that the summit isn't even there, its at Gleneagles in Perthshire. My aunt was supposed to be visiting my other aunt in hospital today but she didn't make it as she has to come through Edinburgh and the traffic and transport is a bit of a nightmare right now. I really, really want things to change during this summit but the nightmare element has arrived on the scene as usual to wreck a good campaign with fanastic aims. I don't know what the violent element hope to achieve but I don't see them influencing George Bush or anyone else by those methods.

Catching up

Life has been a bit busy over the past few weeks. My parents went away on holiday 2 weeks ago and just after they left on holiday, my mum's youngest sister phoned me at work to let me know that she was in hospital with an exacerbation of her Colitis. My mum has a big family (4 brothers and 5 sisters) but quite a few of them don't stay nearby and the other one who does is nursing her husband just now. So for the past two weeks, I have either been working or at the other hospital that my aunt is in. My parents came back today and my aunt is better but facing further treatment so the stress should reduce.
Work has been ultra stressful too. I started nights on Thursday and each night was worse than the night before. I've been shouted at, sworn at and had to convince a variety of people that 2am is time when everyone should be asleep (apart from the staff obviously). I also had to deal with a trumatic emergency situation that did not turn out positively and has left all the staff shocked and upset. Still the lovely words of another patient who has said he is coming back to give us presents because of all we did and would give us all a reference, cheered us up and made it easier to carry on.

Stitching time has been sparse over the past few weeks. I'm up to date with 2 of my 3 round robins and I should get the other one sorted soon. I have some other obligation stuff to get finished also. Various wools and patterns to knit are still catching my eye and I'm thinking of knitting a blanket from the new issue of Simply knitting also