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 :)

Happy New Year

Well, it's a new year. How exciting! I had a very uneventful evening at a friends place playing board games, but it was a good time. Hope everyone else's nights were good.


Anyway, onto stitching. Below is a picture of the secret santa piece I made up.

Sadly it's not the best picture in the world, but it is now on the other side of the world (in Canada!) so nothing I can do about it. I am very proud of the finishing (I've only ever framed things before. I made the cording myself! I must admit there were a few nasty words and tears in the making. The lady I sent it to said she received it on the 23rd so I'm glad it made it before Christmas.


The picture below is the completed stitching for my Christmas round robin. I am absolutely loving this piece to bits! The colours are great, there's sparkle in the border. It's just so lovely. It will be sent off in the next few weeks (now to 13 other places). I will look forward to getting it back, hopefully with some nice additional pieces :)



Below is the finished picture of my Paris project. All framed up. Again, I did the framing myself. What bitch of a job! It took ages. But my parents loved it and said they had no idea I had been working on it. Go me!! Now to pick where to hang it...


And lastly:
Now that I've finished all my extra projects etc, I am back onto the Stroke of Midnight. I did a little bit of work on her before Christmas, which is the photo below.

But then, compare with the work done in the past week. I am on absolute fire with this bad boy! I can't wait to finished it. It is so complicated and intricate. Give me solid blocks of colour any day. I think I'll finish it within about a month. Then I'll dance around, put it in my finished projects bag and not think about it for about a year.

Anyhow,
that's it for the moment. Thanks for having a read. Sorry I haven't commented recently, it's been that crazy time of year. Hope everyone is feeling suitably righteous about the New Year's resolutions, I know I am :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

No seriously, it is! :)

I am looking forward to Christmas. Although I'll still be teaching my classes at the gym over the break, they only take up one hour at a time, and I won't have to do any 9-5 style work! Hooray!

I have a couple of bits and pieces to report.

I finished my naughty/crafty cat. He's so cute!!

Hehe, he puts me in a good mood. Now I'll hopefully be sending him off sometime in January so that he can have some cat friends join him :)

Once I finished the cat I began work on my part of the Christmas Round robin I joined. The pattern is from Cross Stitch Collection issue 162. I really like it so far, although the sparkly threads are a massive pain in the ass. Should have this finished within the week.

Lastly, I received my Secret Santa from 'Jay' hidden identity in Canada. It looks great! and is sitting above my computer where I can see it. Bit of a bird-Christmas theme this year so far...

I will keep you posted on other goings on up until Christmas. As soon as I've finished my wren I'll be picking Stroke of Midnight up again...hooray!! :)

Older and tireder

It was my birthday on Friday...hooray I love birthdays. I got a lovely necklace, Grey's Anatomy Season 4 on DVD, and lovely bowl and a massage. Brilliant! However, I am now excruciatingly tired...I had a pretty big weekend...went out on Fri and Sat nights, had an aerobics workshop on Sunday, had to prepare a presentation for a conference next week. Too much. Now that I'm 25 I can't quite handle as much...whinge whinge.

But, beside that I have done a bit of stitching.

I am currently participating in a Christmas round robin and secret santa. I finished my Secret Santa piece, but have decided not to show it on here for the moment. I will wait till I send it out. Needless to say, I am incredibly proud of myself. I sewed my little christmassy piece into an ornament and made and attached my own cording! I'm beaming :)

I have done a bit more work on my puss cat for my other round robin. He is below.

Isn't he cheeky!? Loving him to bits :) Should finish him in the not too distant future, then I can get back to Stroke of Midnight...I am actually missing her and very much want her finished.

Paris is also coming along. I'm a little bit nervous that I won't get it done it time...but I must remember Christmas is still a good 5 weeks away.

This probably doesn't actually look that different from my last post. There would be more white, and more backstitch. Looking forward to getting this done so I don't have to work on things in secret (I think it also means that I am spending more time on this when I should be studying...naughty).

I have also done a bit of spending. I bought '501 Cross stitch designs' by Sam Hawkins. I used to borrow it from the library when I was a teen. I feel all nostalgic now owning. Plus it will be great for my Christmas round robin :)

I also bought the lastest editions (available in Australia) of Cross Stitch Gold and Cross Stitch Collection. I have a problem. As we have all thought at some point..."when will I ever have time to work on all these?!?!"


Anyway. That's probably about it. Thanks so much to those who have read and commented on my blog. Keeps me motivated. Have a lovely week! :)