Monday, July 31, 2006

A little bit of stitching

I've done a tiny bit of stitching lately. Not much, but I have finally started part 8 of Alpine Seasons. I've only done a tincy, wincy bit, but it is a beginning. Having it on the frame in our bedroom is great. Now I just need to get over the cold, exhaustion and twisted ankles and I might have the energy to work on it.

I did about an hour (first stitching since a friend frogged it all for me becuase I'd started in the wrong place) on the gift I need done for October and I'm intending to get to work seriously on that tomorrow (ie 1st August) but we'll see what happens.



I'm currently reading Catherine Asaro's The Dawn Star which features Stephanie Law's wonderful art that I charted for myself. So of course, now I want to stitch that as well.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions, decisions.

Reality is that I'll struggle to do anything I suppose, but I can hope.

Fourth Guild Friendship Sampler


Fourth Guild Friendship Sampler
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

This is my fourth stitching for the Embroiderer's Guild Friendship Sampler.

I stitched the butterflies in the bottom row. The pattern came from the wonderful The Gift of Stitching magazine.

I now have three more to go, the first of which is tucked safely in its bag in my bedroom while I build up to starting working on it.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

I think I'm in love

Dani Mogstad has just unveiled a new scrapbooking collection called This Love which is absolutely gorgeous. I'm trying to decide if I can justify the cost (and the bandwidth) because I'm totally in love with it.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Mine is an Evil Laugh


Mine is an Evil Laugh
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Marcus has the most evil Bwah-ha-ha laugh when he chooses to employ it, although it is naturally very hard to capture on camera. This photo is the closest I found.

The title and use of a dinosuar kit is an in-joke to Joss Whedon's Firefly.

Grunge overlay and paper edges from Expecting Sweet Stuff - Edges by Christy Lyle and Robin Carleton; round swirl from Swirls by Roberta D'Achille; flower from Bubble Gum Machine by Angie Briggs; M alpha from Be Glad by Denise Docherty; paper heart from Beloved by Josie Celio; heart clip from Golden Dreams by Kim Liddiard; Doodle from Cindy Wyckoff's contribution to the RAK April 2006 MegaKit; everything else from Dinos from Heather Roselli

This is very cool

http://www.superficial.net/castle/

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Defender of the Kingdom - 13th July 2006


Defender of the Kingdom - 13th July 2006
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

My latest progress. I'm going to leave her here for a bit and work on some other things until she starts screaming at me again.

I'd hoped to get more of the top of her head done, but I now have Alpine Seasons on a floor frame and its yelling at me to do more, so I'm stopping Defender for a while.

My Stitching Corner


Kerry's Stitching Corner
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

This is my new stitching corner in our bedroom. I've put Alpine Seasons on the frame and now hope to get some progress done on it. The only trick will be to keep it all safe from Marcus.

Character Creations Update

The move is done and here are two new releases to celebrate - Faery of the Standing Stone by Johanna Pieterman and Eagle Nebula from Hubble Space Telescope photographs.

We're back and everything should be running again. Most of the boxes are unpacked (if we don't count the 40 or so boxes of books waiting downstairs), the furniture is in place and the computer network is back up. To celebrate, I'm releasing two new designs early.

Eagle Nebula - Hubble Space Telescope

Faery of the Standing Stones - Johanna Pieterman

I've also added close ups of the model stitching for Morgan Le Fay, Faery Trouble and Blue Moon which were missed in the rush to get the last new releases up.

I now have the model back for the first in a new line of designs, so look out for those in August.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

First Train Ride


First Train Ride
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

29th January, 2006
These photos were taken at the
Esplanade in Palmerston North
on your second birthyday.
We met up with lots of
Daddy's family for lunch and
then we all decided to go for
a ride on the miniature train.
There were a lot of us -
you and me and Daddy,
Grandad Ross, Grandma Jill,
Uncle James and Aunty Rachel
and Great Nana Rose - but
there was room for all of us.
You didn't really like the train
very much at first and you
were rather upset, but
Daddy held on to you tightly
and by the end you were
starting to have fun.
Your very first train ride
certainly wasn't your last.

Tag is from Gina Cabera's Book Bag Essentials; stamp border from Anna Aspnes' Stamp Templates; date stamp from Katie Pertiet's Date Stamps Vol 2; steam engine image from Stock.XCHNG; staples from Christy Lyle and Robin Carleton's Expecting Sweet Stuff - The Photo Shoot; everything else is from Christy Lyle and Robin Carleton's Expecting Sweet Stuff - His Day Out; font is Beth's Hand

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Better than Chocolate


Better than Chocolate
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

No special occasion, just a lovely photo of Marcus and a need to make something pretty. I never expected to use lots of pink in a layout for him, but this kit is just lovely. The title is so great I decided to use it for the text as well, as it all fitted together so well.

Everything is from "Your Love is Better than Chocolate" by Ams Digi Scraps; font is Hannibal Lector (horrible name, nice font)

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Peek-a-boo


Peek-a-boo
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Dave brought this box home pack things into, but Marcus appropriated it as soon as he saw it. We still haven't got it back for packing.

Staple from Gina Cabrera's Book Bag Essentials; Everything else from His Nursery (from Expecting Sweet Stuff) but Christy Lyle and Robin Carlton.

Rapt Attention


Rapt Attention
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Marcus watching the magician at his daycare's birthday party. He was fascinated.

10th June, 2006
There were so many people at [daycare]'s 20th Birthday Party that we didn't stay very long. It wasn't just that there were too many people for you; there were too many for Daddy and me too. We saw the magic show though - your very first - and you loved watching the magician do his tricks. Your fascination with the world is a joy to see.

Everything is from Baby Cakes by Carrie Stephens; font in Lumos

Open Your Eyes to the Magic


Open Your Eyes to the Magic
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Marcus' daycare just celebrated its 20th birthday and they had a big party for the kids from all three Auckland centres. This included story telling, face painting and a bunch of other things, including a magician.

Buttons from Stitched Up Buttons by Jen Wilson; Background from Be Glad by Denise Docherty; Stars from Lucky Star by Gina Cabrera; Word Art by Tina Chambers

The moving continues...

And most importantly, I think I've figured out where I'm going to have my stitching spot. My goal is to be able to leave Alpine Seasons out on a frame without having Marcus tempted by it, so my stitching nook is planned for the bay window in Dave's and my bedroom.

I do all my other stitching in Q-Snaps, so the idea is to store everything there, but I can just pick things up and take them to anywhere in the house when I want to stitch in the living area.

When it's all set up, I'll aim to post a picture.

Cute Scrapbooking Freebie

A lovely little mini kit from Digital Freebies. Soft blue, pink and purple with butterflies. I grabbed this one straight away. I buy mostly boy stuff since I have a big Dave boy and a little Marcus boy to scrap for, but a girl needs some "pretties" as well.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Stitching Therapy

I was so stressed last night that I sat down and pulled out my stitching and worked on it while Dave and my mother worked at packing around me.

I left home at 10.30am to drive out to the airport and pick up Mum, who was coming up to help us with the move. There had been some fog around Auckland that morning and Dave had suggested I check if Mum's flight was actually coming before I left. I looked at the flight information on the Auckland Airport website and it said it was, just a little late, so off I went.

I was a little dubious when I drove over the Harbour Bridge and there was fog under me, but the sky was clear and I was still 45 minutes or so from the airport so I kept going.

I got to the airport to find it fog-bound, full to overlowing with people, queues out to eternity and no reliable information about what was going on.

About 15 minutes after it was supposed to land, the flight board finally declared that Mum's flight had been cancelled. I called my father, who said he'd left the airport after she got on the plane. He decided to head back home and see if she was there. She wasn't. I got Dave to check our home landline to see if there were any messages. There weren't.

After some discussion, we decided I'd wait to see if the next flight from Palmerston North made it through and if she was on that. About half an hour before that one was due to land, planes finally started getting in and out. The Palmy flight arrived about 1.30pm and there was no sign of my mother. She's a diabetic and it was well after lunchtime by then, so I was beginning to get rather worried.

My father drove out to the PN airport to see if she was there. Once again, she wasn't. He's far, far more paranoid about her diabetes than anyone else and he was getting even more worried and cross that there was no-one around at the airport to give him any information. In the end he went back home and got on the phone to try to find someone at Palmerston North airport who could tell him something.

I got in the queue for Air New Zealand information. As this was the same as the queue for ticket booking and heaps of people needed new flights I didn't expect anything to happen fast. Which it didn't.

Just as I got to the front of the queue, Dad rang me back to say he had been told the flight had been diverted to Rotorua and the passengers had been put on a bus to Auckland. I finally managed to confirm this with the Air New Zealand staff member at the information counter. Clearly the lines of communication are far from perfect as it took her ages to track all the information down and then needed to ring the Rotorua airport to find out when the bus had left. All kudos to her; she did a great job on what must have been an enormously stressful day.

The bus had left at 12.30pm, and the woman suggested it would get in about 2 hours later. When I phoned Dave he said that was a ridiculous estimate and it would take more like 3 to 4 hours for the drive up from Rotorua.

So I finally tracked down the bus stop and sat out in the wind to wait for it as I figured Mum would have no idea I was still at the airport waiting for her and I didn't want us to miss each other.

In the meantime, Dave had phoned Marcus' daycare to see if they could keep him past his usual home time of 3.30pm until I could get back there to pick him up. Dave couldn't really do it since I had the car. Fortunately, they were quite willing to do that, so I could stop worrying about him. (Thank goodness it was a daycare day and I didn't have Marcus with me for the whole, stressful day. That would have made it much more stressful.)

The bus driver did a great job, arriving at the airport a little after 3.30pm. I found Mum, and happily found out she'd had enough time to get herself some lunch and wasn't having a hypo from low blood sugar. We got her bags, said goodbye to the potential Tall Black (NZ basketball team) she'd been sitting next to and headed towards the carpark.

We got caught in some of the rush hour traffic, but fortunately we were just ahead of the worst of it and we manage to pick Marcus up about 4.45pm, only 1¾ hours late.

That's why I was sitting on the sofa stitching while Mum and Dave packed a box or two each. I so needed to wind down and I figured doing the calm, repetitive actions of cross stitch would help. I did thank goodness; I don't need another day like that in a hurry. And the lady in Defender of the Kingdom is getting some hair, which I'm sure she's pleased about.

To look on the bright side...
Hooray for cell phones.
I got a reasonable amount of my book read.
Marcus was safely at daycare and not having a meltdown with me.
The pilot of Mum's plane, when told to go into a holding pattern, decided to do it over the Central Plataeu, so Mum and her fellow passengers got to enjoy the beautiful spectacle of the central mountains covered in snow while they waited.

I think you probably already got the down side.