New post, now with photos

Photos, as promised yesterday.

Kitten Reflections, the finished product

I'm very happy with the outcome. There's lots of french knots around the bushed on the right. I am now very good at french knots.

Below is Happy cats. Looks a lot nicer with the detail. This is moving very slowly as I have gotten tied up in a new project (See below).

Ashley's Roses. I've been wanting to do another Mirabilia for ages! Below is approximately one week of work.

Then about two weeks. This is all skirt and a bit of bouquet. The greys are a bit tedious, but alternating with some of the colours is working well for me. I will gladly work on this for as long as possible before I go away :)

Thanks for reading :)

No photos :(

Sadly no photos in this blog. I have been slack and haven't uploaded any recently.

Anyway, in exciting news: I HAVE FINISHED MY THESIS! About frickin' time! It's handed in and I don't have to think about it until it's returned from the markers with recommendations for changes, probably about 5 weeks away. These shouldn't be too drastic.

Now, in my last post I wrote up a list of goals for my "month of leisure" as I shall call it. I am now 1.5 weeks in, and I am loving that I made up the list, as I can go back and check over how I'm going. Let's see...

1) finish all uni-related paperwork (forms, case summaries etc) On its way. I just finished some bits of paperwork
2) finish Kitten Reflections DONE! Picture in next post
3) start a new cross stitch project (maybe a Mira) I started Ashley's Roses about 2 weeks ago. Photo in next post
4) continue working on Happy Cats :) A little bit of work on this, but not much, I've been caught up in AR
5) read novels (averaging 1 per week) Not at all. I've been reading travel guides
6) start swimming Nuh. Need bathers. However, I've just been offered to teach a permanent class at my local YMCA which means I'll have free pool access, so it's on the way.
7) plan my overseas trip That's definitely on the way, flights all booked and paid for, paid for some accommodation, thinking about trains.
8) learn a few necessary words of the languages for the countries I'll be visiting (France, Netherlands, Italy...hopefully I should be right for the U.S. and England). Not really. I'm trying to cast my memory back to primary school Italian, and high school French. I think I have a very basic understanding of these languages. Dutch, I'm completely lost.

So that's what's happening. I am only working about 3 days a week at the moment, which is absolutely tops. I will be going to Queensland for a beach-based holiday with friends in a few weeks, then on to international travel. I think I'll have to set up a travel blog as well.

Photos of finished projects, and works in progress next post, hopefully within the week :)

Thanks for reading x

Shhhhh! I'm "working"

Haha! I'm at work at the moment, quite obviously not working. Let's call it my 3.15 lunch break. Thought I would put up a post as it's been about 6 weeks. Really, I think I post irregularly because I'm not sure anyone is reading. So if you do have a peruse, drop me a comment, it will make me feel special :) ...not that I can't enjoy blogging regardless of who is or isn't reading.



Anyhow. Let's look at some progress pics.



Kitten reflections is nearly finished. I've put up two photos as the more recent one (first pic) is pretty cruddy quality:







I have really enjoyed working on this one. Dimensions do such nice designs. All that is to go is the cross-stitching and back stitch in the top right corner (bringing the second smitten to life :) and then a shed-load of french knots making up little flowers in the bluey-green bushes. Oh how I love french knots (shame sarcasm doesn't come accross in written text).



I have also been working on another piece, Happy Cats (has anyone noticed that I like cats a bit?) This piece is fantastic, all simple shapes and bold colours. There is a progress pic below, as well as my initial floss toss, with a shot of the expected finished outcome.

I've actually made a fair bit more progress than this as well, I just don't have a shot of it to post. No wait, I do have a shot of a more recent Happy Cats! Unfortunately it's obstructed by my unhappy cat.

CAPTION: "Where's my dinner, b%^&$!?"

Lastly, a little mother's day card I knocked up a week before the day. This is from one of the more recent issues of CrossStitcher. I changed a few of the colours around so that it wasn't so pastelly, then stuck it to a bit of manilla folder to make the card! I really like this piece, but it hasn't reached my mum yet. She's currently holidaying in Europe and hasn't received it more than a week later :( Here's hoping it shows.

In other news. Within two weeks I plan to hand my thesis in! I know, I know. "We've heard it all before" they say. Well, I think it's actually very close. Then I'll have a month of working a 2-day week and chilling out before I go overseas. I was thinking I might make some goals for my month off:

1) finish all uni-related paperwork (forms, case summaries etc)

2) finish Kitten Reflections

3) start a new cross stitch project (maybe a Mira)

4) continue working on Happy Cats :)

5) read novels (averaging 1 per week)

6) start swimming

7) plan my overseas trip

8) learn a few necessary words of the languages for the countries I'll be visiting (France, Netherlands, Italy...hopefully I should be right for the U.S. and England).

Can't think of anything else at the moment. I'm excited about the prospect of having time to myself!!

Thanks for reading, and sorry for rambling :)

Plodding along

Hello to all.

Well, I am plodding along, as my title suggests. I am still working on my thesis. I am still looking forward to finish it (obviously), but I feel like I've stopped fighting with it so much. Either way, it's got to be done, so there's no point in hating all the time spent on it.

In the time that I have to spare I have been working on some round robin pieces (again, I won't post pictures until the whole round is complete. There's a total of 13 of us participating...that's 169 pieces! Massive!

I have also made some progress on Kitten Reflections. The backstitch looks so nice in this piece. And now the first smitten has a face. The colours are so good; I'm looking forward to getting back to it between round robins. Picture below.


In other news, a friend of mine has been working on a project of siamese kittens and has palmed it off to me as she's not really interested in cross stitch any more. Her progress is in the picture below:

I'm not sure if I'll actually work on this one, as I've actually already done the pattern up before (about 10 years ago). It is lovely, but I have so many other projects that I'm really keen to get into. I'll see how I feel once I've finished kitten reflections.


Hope everyone is well. Happy easter. I'm off to stick my face into some easter eggs :)

Kitten Reflections

Well, I've been working a lot on Kitten Reflections, and I've got to say, I am loving it. Look at how much progress I've made!!! It's going very quickly :) I love that you can begin to see the shape of the first kitten coming out. I think the colours are really nice and the shading/blending is beautiful. Go Dimensions!
I was even a bit worried that I was going a bit fast...I do like to be able to spend time on projects, but then I realised that if I do finish it quickly, my enjoyment won't be hindered, and I'll be able to begin one of my other projects sooner! Double positive!

In other news, I'm addicted to reality television. Biggest Loser & SYTYCD Aus, are great!! I want Charlie to win Dance and I think he just might. If you are elsewhere in the world and/or haven't seen any of the show, I recommend you youtube some of Charlie & Penny's dances...lots of fun.

Anyway, back to the dreaded thesis :(

Something different

Hello

this is a long overdue blog update.

When I have the time to stitch I've been working on a few round robin pieces, which I'm really enjoying. Although, not sure I love the time pressure of round robins. I like being able to take the time and enjoy my stitching...although I do also love seeing the picture take form.

When I've been between round robin pieces I've been working on Kitten Reflections. Before I put it down in January, this is what it looked like:

This is where it's at now-ish.

I'm really enjoying this piece...I like the textures and different stitches Dimensions use.

I will hopefully be able to post again soon :)

What have I been doing?!?

Well, I'm back in blog-land.

Not sure what I've been doing that means I haven't been able to post anything. I suppose I'm back at all my jobs now (I work at 6 different places!...no wonder I'm confused all the time). Other things of interest: I have been working on improving my diet...go me! And in doing so I've lost a little bit of size (not weight, but it's the size I'm interested in losing). I'm hoping that with a healthy diet will come nice skin, but I suspect that that will sort itself out when I'm not so stressed (someone tell me to cut it down to only 3 work-places).

I have also been working on my thesis...I have to hand it in before the end of March and it still needs a fair bit of work...I can't wait to have it done.

In happy stitching news:

I have finished Stroke of Midnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my god. It's about time. I have been working on it for about 4 years

Obviously she needs washing and ironing. I think I'll work on all that, and getting her framed once I've handed in my thesis...and gotten on top of some other projects.

Here are some photos of the detail in the piece:

beading and over-1 detail...I like the way her face turned out.dress detail (including over-1 parts)

I have since done a little bit of work on Kitten Reflections (no picture as yet), and been working on some round robin pieces...also no pictures on the off chance co-robiners stumble across my blog. I am loving working on round robins, it's such a great opportunity to stitch pieces that I enjoy working on, but wouldn't necessarily do for myself. Brilliant. I will post photos of these once they have been received by their owners

Thanks for reading. I will try to be more diligent in my posting, reading and commenting :)