Away on my travels

I'm going away tomorrow morning so logically you would think I would be ready. I'm not. I tend to leave stuff like that to the last minute.
I have spent this evening loading CDs on to my HD player so I don't have to take any CDs with me and I've also sorted what stitching I'm taking.

I'm off to the stitching show at Harrogate tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to lots of stitching and shopping. I go every year and when I come back, I feel that Christmas is just around the corner.

My mobile phone decided to pack up tonight suddenly. Its a pretty basic one that I inherited from my sister so it didn't cost me anything much. I think I might get something a bit more advanced this time.

I'll be back on Sunday with hopefully lots of lovely new stitching things.

Christmas mystery finished
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Its cold outside

The weather has finally turned cold here over the past few days. The winter coat is out and being worn. Thankfully there has been no snow and I hope there will be none any time soon unless it happens when I don't have to go outside.

I haven't moved just yet. I was planning to this coming week but what with no telephone line until 13th of December and the fact that I'm going away on Tuesday to the Harrogate stitching show, I've decide to wait until the start of December. It also gives me time to get the bathroom and kitchen floors tiled. The flat is looking pretty good so far. It gets a lot of sun during the day so its lovely and warm to be in.

It looks like I'm going to be working night shift this christmas. My boss showed us a provisional rota and my rota is horrid. I haven't worked Christmas in 2 years so I suppose it is my turn but I'm annoyed that there seems to be a presumption that those of us that don't have children should always work Christmas. A few of the others on my grade haven't worked Christmas in quite a few years and they either have children or aren't the most reliable at coming to work. I get angry that because I don't have children and don't have much sick time, I'm getting penialised by working lots of public holidays and weekends. Argghh. Oh for a 9-5 job. I think I need to start thinking about what I do next as I don't really fancy working where I am forever.

The biggest stitching news is that Ive finished Christmas mystery. A picture will appear here shortly. I'm looking forward to Christmas mystery 2.

Update time

Sorry for the long gap. I must try and make time for post here.

Big news is that I have the keys to my house and I'm in the process of getting organised. Some of the flooring is down and I got some furniture delivered today. I'm also in the process of getting an internet connection organised. I can't use my current ISP as they won't wire in broadband or a phone line to a 2nd floor flat.

I seem to have a huge list of things to do but I'm making time for stitching. In the past few weeks I've stitching ornaments for the TWBB ornament exchange. Its my favourite exchange ever. I love making ornaments and this gives me the ideal excuse to make a few. You also get some lovely ones in return. I can't share any pictures yet though.

I've also been stitching on Christmas mystery 1 and part 11 is finished. The last part is coming out early courtesy of Martina to allow us all to finish before christmas and get it framed. I've put the picture of my WIP in my webshots album.

Just after my last blog entry, I went to the chatelaine class in London and had a fab time meeting Martina and everyone else. We got a kit for a lovely needlecase and fob which I finished recently. Again there are pictures of it and the class in the webshots album.

I'm away to work now. Night shift tonight.

Bad blogger

I've been a bit naughty again not blogging but I keep forgetting to post.

On the house news front, I've had a stressful week with the Bank saying they wouldn't extend the loan offer to cover the 2 weeks until completion. I had a frank exchange of views with them on the phone ( No swearing I promise) and they backed down. On Friday I'm going to inspect the flat to make sure it is up to scratch and I should get the keys within the week. I will just be glad when I have the keys and its mine. It just keeps worrying me that something will go wrong.

On a stitching front, I've been round robin stitching. I've just started a new round robin with some old friends and I've got the wee beasties RR too. I'm running later with both but I'm caught up.

This weekend is the Chatelaine workshop in London. I'm a bit anxious about it but I'm looking forward to the stitching part. Plus I get to see Gina and Rachele and meet Martina.

Sunday stitching

I've been having a very lazy day today. Spent lots of time stitching and surfing the net.

Yesterday was reall strange. My sister is moving out too and yesterday she moved into her flat share. She came over at 5pm to pick up some stuff and it was kind of sad. I'm going to miss staying in the house with her and just being able to go into the next room to speak to her. I've spent periods of time living in a different place from her before but this time is final; we are both moving out for good.

I've still not moved and the flat is still not ready. The block has power now but the individual flats don't have power meters yet. Supposedly it will take 2- 10 days to get this finished but I will believe it when I see it. I got to see the inside of the flat on Friday though and it will be worth the wait. I can't wait to move.

Stitching wise I have been stitching on Taj Mahal garden today. I am supposed to be round robin stitching today but Taj was calling loudly. I've finished part 2 of mystery 7 too over the past few days.

Where does the time go ?

I was sure it wasn't that long since I last posted but apparently it is. Not a long changing around here. Work is still busy and annoying the heck out of me. I've applied for a couple of job still in the same line of work but completely different type of work. I don't know how I'll get on with them, I just know that I need to leave my current job before it completely hacks me off.
The other main hassle at present is the flat saga. The flat is still not ready. The builder wrote to me last week and told me that it still had no power but it might be sorted by today. They forgot that this weekend was a holiday weekend and everything is shut today around here so no news today. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. Basically they are going to give less than 14 days notice till completion so once I hear, it will be busy, busy around here.

Stitching wise I have finished Mini mystery F and a couple of other things. Pictures of them all are in my webshots album. So I am now down to 25 WIPs plus one RR. I've got a new RR to start with some friends that I have stitched with already plus I have finally succumbed to the Ornament RR with a round starting in November.

Back to work tomorrow. I'm not really looking forward to it. An ex student that I mentored has started work in my ward and he is one of the most annoying men I have ever met. He doesn't seem to realise that he doesn't know everything. Perhaps he has changed in the year since I last worked with him but I'm not entirely convinced. I shall try to smile sweetly and ignore him.

Life, the universe and everything

A mostly good week so far. The best bit being Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy being on the radio again. I have been waiting for this for so long. I really enjoy all of Douglas Adams's work and Hitchhiker's guide is my favourite. Just the theme tune sets me off. I think I may start reading it again. I also saw some pictures of the movie in a magazine this week and Martin Freeman really looked the part. I think he can pull it off. Now if they would just get the Red dwarf movie filmed, life would be sorted.
The second best thing that happened this week is that my kit for Mini mystery G arrived along with the beads for Taj Mahal. I finished Mini F last week and I can't wait for G. The materials are gorgeous. I'm trying to decide which Chatelaines I want to do next year. I like the look of Mystery 8 but I'm put off by the big size of it. I also fancy doing Celtic quilt and Christmas mystery 2. I'm going to make a final decision once I have been to the Chatelaine workshop in October.
The third best thing was having a $40 silkweavers gift certificate to spend from my lovely secret stitcher Kathy (aka Amber moon fairy). She really spoiled me all through the exchange. I ended up getting a load of small cuts plus a piece of seaside sparkle opalescent linen.
Sadly my stitching bits and bobs order seems to have gone wandering. Hopefully it will turn up eventually.
Back to work tomorrow.

Stitching blogger's QOTW

Been very busy at work and home hence the absence of posts.
First off, the Stitching blogger's QOTW
If you could design your dream needlework/cross stitch shop, what would it be like?
My dream shop would have a wall of fibres, silks and cottons in all sorts of colours. I would then have a rack with lots of fabrics especially overdyes with a daylight light so you can see the colours properly. In one corner I'd have a couple of comfy chairs with a large book case beside it with all the charts so you can take your time looking at them. I would have a room in the back for workshops and stitching clubs. I would have lots of models on the walls and a display of buttons and charms. It would have lots of TWs and Chatelaines and Mirabilas.

Still on holiday

My two weeks off seems to be eternal. Because of the way my shift rota works out, the two weeks I have taken off actually ends up being three weeks. I go back to work on Thursday night although I am going into work for a while tomorrow for a leaving tea. One of the night shift nursing auxillaries is retiring after more than 20 years working for the NHS. I'm really going to miss her as she and I seem to be on the same wavelength about a lot of things. I have to go tomorrow and buy the leaving present which will be a gold watch I think and some flowers too. Plus I promised to get a cake.
On Wednesday, I'm going to a local nursing careers fair. I'm not really that happy with my job at the moment. The management seem to be utterly disinterested in the staff and I don't see it getting better. Plus there is the fact that I don't want to stay a ward nurse forever and the time seems right just now.
Stitching wise I have been stitching away on Emerald mermaid and a Country companions Christmas design.

Stitching blogger's QOTW

Do you stitch small projects one at a time that you can finish quickly, have numerous large projects going at once that you rotate,
or both? How does your current system work for you and have you thought about changing it?

My system is kind of a mixture of both. I have quite few large and small porjects that I rotate through in a haphazard way but I also stitch quite a few small things that I start and finish straight away. I find it means that I stitch more. I have thought about having a more rigid rotation but my stitching time isn't particularly predictable and varies a lot from week to week.

Stitching blogger's QOTW

How do you explain cross stitch to non-cross stitching people? Do they get it or do they say “Oh, right.. you do knitting then (or sewing, or needlepoint)"?

I forgot to answer this earlier. I generally explain that its a type of sewing which you make up a picture from little crossed stitches. It also depends on who is asking. If, for instance, it is drunk men on the train from London to Glasgow, I tend to ignore them and hope they go away lol.
Some people get it and I've shown a couple of people how to stitch. I also have shown a lady on the Aberdeen to Glasgow train how to start a thread without using a knot.

A good day

Still on holiday here so I've been having a fairly relaxing day. Today is also my birthday, though it is now almost over for another year.
My dad took me out for lunch to a restaurant in the next town to us, where I grew up. The restaurant is fairly new although it is in the former premises of a favourite restaurant of the past. It is also next to my former high school, which I am glad to say has finally ditched the horrid brown uniform that I had to wear in favour of black.
Anyway we had some crab cakes to start with and then I had some lovely Scottish salmon with lemon and lime butter. Dad had some chicken in pepperly sauce. All in all it was fairly good though I still greatly prefer Chinese food to everything else.
I spent the afternoon going around carpet and flooring shops. I've been trying to decide what kind of flooring I want in the flat for ages. I like carpet but there is little choice available. So I've decided to go for laminate flooring in the hall and living room with carpet in the bedroom for cosiness and tiles in the bathroom and kitchen. This may all change again.

Stitching wise, I've been working on Taj Mahal garden from Chatelaine. I only joined this one after part 5 came out so I'm way behind and okay with it. All the progress pictures tempted me into it. I'm using the silks except for the NPI ones and I can't say I see a difference with DMC. Other than that, I am think about what I would like to stitch next year Chatelaine wise. I decided not to sign up for Mermaid treasure box as I felt I had enough to do just now. I'm tempted by Mystery 8 but the size of the parts that the folks doing mystery 6 are stitching is putting me off. I wasn't sure about Christmas mystery 2 but I'm definately in on that one and Mini H. Celtic quilt is starting to look tempting but I need to think about it all lot more. I want to stitch more mirabilias and TW. Anything Chatelaine related seems to suck up most of my stitching time. The possiblity of Vicki Clayton silk substitutions is definately going to make the financial side of things much more appealing.

First HD for September

Footballer ed
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I finished this wee hedgehog design on Wednesday. He's stitched on 32 c Lugana in a shade called Luna from Sugar maple fabrics. The chart was in one of the UK magazines. As with all UK magazines, it was suggest that you stitch the design on aida but I have a growing stash of small pieces of Sugar maple fabric pieces and this design looked like a sky coloured shade would suit it.

Today I've been stitching on Emerald Mermaid by Mirabilia. She is stitching up really fast and I hope to finish her before I go back to work on the 16th.

August stitching report and September plans

San man frosty
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Crystal snowflake
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These are my last two finished projects for August. I didn't manage to get as much stitching done as I'd hoped. Work and home stuff seemed to suck up all my time.

In August I had planned to
1. Stitch part 8 of Christmas mystery - I did this and even finished part 9
2. Stitch Mini mystery F part 2 - done
3. Stitch Mystery 7 part 2 - not even a stitch done of it
4. Finish one of my smaller WIPs - done (Country companions Christmas sweater
5. Stitch 2 christmas ornaments - done
6. Sort out stash - nope

So I did not too badly 4 out of 6. Considering how busy the month seemed to be, I'm amazed.

For September the plan is
1. Finish Jungle babies sampler
2. Finish Just Nan Barnabee's quest
3. Finish Emerald mermaid
4. Stitch some ornaments for the TWBB COE
5. Stitch parts 2 & 3 of Mystery 7
6. Start Mirabilia Royal Holiday

We shall see how that goes....

Some Chatelaine progress

Some progress to share on Christmas mystery and Mini mystery F now I have finally had some stitching time to stitch on them


Christmas mystery part 9 done
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Mini mystery F
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Busy, busy

This past week has gone by like a flash. Very little stitching or internet time. I've worked 6 12 hour shifts since last Thursday and I'm so tired.

The house move is delayed until the end of September. The power company can't put power into the flats until mid September. So everything is on hold. I was behind with the packing anyway so I suppose it will be less rushed.

My dad's not been well this week either. He has Cardiomyopathy and is on anti coagulants. Our family doctor mucked up with the dose so he had too much anticoagulant. And then his recurring foot/ankle problem flared up badly and he couldn't walk properly all this week. He is on the mend now thankfully.

I have holidays for the next 2 1/2 weeks so I plan to get lots of sleep and some stitching too. I'm behind on all three mysteries and everything else that I want to stitch.

More stitching progress

I have a little more stitching progress to show you


Sixteen spot Lady bug by Dimples
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I stitched this for Susan's Wee Beastie round robin. I am enjoying partcipating in the round robin. I have a terrible habit of procrastinating over things and then rushing to finish them. Two years ago, I stitched Scooby Doo and the mystery machine for my sister for Christmas. I finished the stitching and framing on Christmas eve. Never again.

I've been stash buying this week. First off, I got the TW Christmas collection book from Amazon for the small amount of £9.77 which is pretty good. I'm a big fan of Christmas stitching. Then I ordered the Holiday fibre pack by the Association of International needlework dyers. That arrived today so I did some drooling over the threads when I arrived home tonight.

At the moment I'm trying to concentrate on the needlework stuff I have already started but my iron will collapsed last night and I started Emerald mermaid by Mirabilia. She looks like being a pretty quick stitch too.

Stitching Progress

Well I have some stitching progress to report. I finished this one today.

Country companions Christmas sweater
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I love stitching country companions designs. I have almost every single one ever publish whether in kits or charts or magazines. I would love to end up having stitched them all (about 170 or so) but I somehow don't really think that is realistic unless I live to about 400.
On other news, night shift still continues. I'm working this Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully it won't be too busy. The other trained nurse I am on with is lovely to work with so no tension which is great. The house move is approaching too. The builders are going to phone me around the 23rd to arrange a preinspection visit. I guess I better do some more packing.

Night shift

Life is a bit upside down this week as it my turn to do night shift. I don't really mind doing night shift. Some people find it difficult to sleep during the the day but luckily enough I don't. The only problem is call centre sales people who phone during the day when I'm trying to sleep. Or people who come door to door selling things and then act strange when you answer the door at 2pm in your pyjamas.
The best thing is coming home in the morning as everyone else is heading off to work.

Its just after 9am here so its time for bed now.

Happy day

Today is a good day. Firstly and most importantly, Stacey's son David was found safely. I'm so happy for them all. Its so great to hear some good news when child goes missing and there were so many people all around the world that were hoping and praying for his return. A safe return of David is what we all hoped for.

This Saturday my sister turns 30. I find it really hard to believe that she is 30, particularly as that means I'm almost 32. When I was younger, I couldn't imagine us both at this age, it seemed so far away. And soon there will be more changes are my sister is moving to the other side of Glasgow from here, just shortly before I move about 1/2 mile from here. I'm not sure how my mum is going to feel with both of us out of the house for good. We have both left home for varying periods but this will be the final time.

I've been reading a lot over the past few day instead of stitching. I have just finished reading John MacEnroe's autobiography which was very interesting. He comes across as a fairly likeable guy who can be irrational when he play tennis and knows that he should keep his temper but can't. He also admits to not being the most perfect of people which I find interesting. I've now started reading a book called Attention all shipping by Charlie Connelly. For any readers outside the UK, the shipping forecast is a weather forecast for Shipping that is broadcast 4 times daily in the UK. Like quite a few people, I listen to the late shipping forecast at 00 48 am when I can't sleep. The names of the places and the rhythm of the speech within it is very soothing, even when they are talking about gales and hurricanes. The author spends the book visiting all the areas of the forecast and describing the people he meets. Its fairly interesting so far.

My weekend is here

With working shift work, I don't always get the traditional weekend off. This week Monday and Tuesday are my weekend days so I got an extra long lie this morning after a particularly horrendous and emotional weekend at work.

I work as a nurse which I mostly enjoy but it can be a hard job. Sudden deaths happen at times and when they do, it is the hardest thing to tell a husband, wife or child that their relative isn't going to be around any more. They trust you to look after their family member and make them better. But real life isn't like ER or Casualty. If someone stops breathing or their heart stops beating, sometimes no matter what you do, you can't save them. And it hurts so bad sometimes that you can't stop thinking about it. I am lucky that I have good collegues at work who support and understand each other.

Sunshine and stitching

Okay so summer has finally arrived. Yay.

Sadly I have to work all weekend but hopefully it will still be sunny on Monday.

As you can probably see below, I have managed some stitching progress. I'm really enjoying mini mystery f because of the lovely colours. The silk n colors that Martina has used for the jewel in the centre is just such vivid colours. I'm really looking forward to the Sapphire mini mystery because its my birthstone.

I've been thinking a lot about my stitching recently and I have just finished typing a big post listing all 29 of my WIPs on the Rotation stitchers board. I want to reduce the amount of started things I have, mostly due to the fact that some stuff has been hanging about for far too long. So many things have been started and finished since starting some of them.

So the plan is to finish some of the smaller stuff and concentrate on the WIPs that I actually like just now. More mirabilia starts would be good too. I kind of stopped stitching much Mirabilia stuff about a year ago. Stitching Shimmering mermaid seems to have reawakened my interest.
Further to the plan, I'm going to try and set myself some realistic stitching goals each month to see if that works for me. I know I can't do a strict order rotation because I end up abandoning it but goals might work better for me.

Some stitching progress to share

Chatelaine mystery 7 part 1 finished

Chatelaine mini mystery F part 1 finished
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Here comes the rain again

Alledgedly this is supposed to be summer here.  So far all it has done is rain.  Today was really bad and the power has been flickering a little although there is no lightening in sight.   Just more rain.

Stitching wise, I haven't managed to stitch as much recently.  Just seem to be working a lot and when I come home, I don't feel like stitching.   However I don't have to work again until Saturday so there may be some stitching progress.

I've hanging out on the Rotation stitcher's BB over the past few weeks.  I have a sort of  rotation just now but I'm not really liking some of my WIPs.  I also have quite a few long term UFOs that I would like to get finished and some that I couldn't care less about.  My stitching tastes have changed so much over the past few years and I think getting rid of some of my stuff might make me feel better too.  Fresh home, fresh start so to speak.

I just need to get a list of everything I have started together and figure out what I still like.  And then figure out a plan to finish some of it. 

Moving house

Earlier in the year, myself and some members of my family spent many cold hours standing outside an estate agents local to here so that I could buy a flat in a new development.  At the moment, I live with my parents and much as I really love them and get on with them, I need my own space.
We had to queue up to buy this flat because the housing market is so nuts in the West of Scotland that it was the only way for me to buy a place in a decent area on my salary.

Fast forward several months and the flat is almost ready.  So now I have to pack. Sigh .  I don't actually remember buying all this stuff, where has it all come from ?.  I don't even remember owning some of it.

I also seem to have ended up with seven large storage boxes of cross stitch magazines which I am having to make hard decisions on because I don't want to move them all or keep them all.
Decisions, decisions

Stitcher's question of the week

This week's question is  What are your favourite cross stitching websites and why?

Most of the sites that I visit are the variety of bulletin board dedicated to stitching.  I started off on the Teresa Wentzler board and found the rest from there.  I like visiting lots of boards so I can see that everyone else is stitching (and buying).  Through the board I have met some many lovely people and discovered cross stitch designers that I would never have f ound on my own as the selection near me is very limited.

My favourite UK on line stash enhancement sites are http://sewandso.co.uk and http://jaynesattic.co.uk/index.html . Both have a great variety of charts, threads and fabrics and both have great customer service.  They are both really quick at sending orders too when you just can't wait for something.

Outside the UK I like http://www.stitchingbitsandbobs.com/  and http://downsunshinelane.com/.  Buying stash from the US is so much cheaper, especially at the moment and the owners of both these sites are helpful and friendly.

Oh and of course http://www.ebay.co.uk .  Not strictly a cross stitch site but there is lots of stash to be bought there and when I spend too much on stash, I can sell old stuff off to fund more.

New to all this

After much puzzling and reading, I think I might have this worked out and hopefully the page looks like it should.
I've been reading lots of blogs for a while and I like the idea of having somewhere that I can ramble on about a variety of things.

The Plan is to write about stitching and also the other stuff that I come across on my daily life.