August Releases for Character Creations

Today I'm introducing a new size range called "Petites". These are smaller designs (under 150 stitches across) to make for a quicker stitching project. I've started with five lovely paintings by Nicole Cadet that she sells as ACEO cards (Nicole defines them: ACEO stands for "Art cards, Edition and Originals", miniature works of art that are made to be collected and/or traded). Wonderful model stitcher Lyn has completed Celtic Moon for me, which will give a good indication of how the other four stitch up as well.

Celtic Moon - Nicole Cadet
Regency Fae - Nicole Cadet
Dark Elf - Nicole Cadet
Briar Elf - Nicole Cadet
Handmaiden to the Princess - Nicole Cadet

All five new designs are available at a 12.5% discount for the next 10 days. (I know it's a funny percentge, but it works out at $1 off the regular price in US dollars.)

I've had a number of people send me photos of their stitching lately. I'll be working on updating the gallery next. I'll also add all the pictures onto the Bulletin Board. Do take a moment to pop over to the board and say hello.

Check out what's new here.

Tourists for Today

Tourists for Today
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Marcus and me at Sheepworld, a tourist attraction and farm about 45 minutes north of Auckland. Marcus was totally fearless about meeting and feeding the animals and had an absolutely fantastic day.

Credits:
Polaroid frame from Build Your Own Bulletin Board Add On by Gina Miller; background, paua, silver fern and photo corner from Pacific Paradise by Lauren Bavin; raffia and fiber from Pacific Dreams by Lauren Bavin; font is A Little Pot

Little Brother

Little Brother
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

My "little" brother while he was visiting recently. While he was sitting out in the sun talking to his wife, I took the opportunity to take some pictures. Of course, Marcus had to see what he was doing and is in most of them.

Credits:
Frames from This Love - Bold Moves by Dani Mogstad; fabric flower from Summer-y Start by Gina Miller; swirl from Miracles Within by Jen Miller; dried flower from All Natural by Melany Violette; paper from DDE November 05 kit by Gina Cabrera; fonts are Sir Talks A Lot and LainieDaySH.

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.

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.

Our latest adventure

Over on my livejournal.

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/

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

Beginning Our Move

Beginning Our Move
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Our first day moving house ended up being a day cleaning up the mess felt by the last tenants - as well as lunch at the beach - not a particularly auspicious start, so let's hope it gets better from here.

If you follow the link to Flickr, then click on the "all sizes" link at the top of the picture you should end up at the full size image which will allow you to read the journalling if you wish.

Details~
Everything is from Sand and Sea by Melany Violette; font is arial

Dark Side of the Moon - Sherrilyn Kenyon (Contains Spoilers)

I'm currently reading Robin Hobb's The Mad Ship, which is fantastic but pretty dense and also long at 906 pages. I made a deal with myself that I would take a quick break when I was halfway through and read something lighter.

In rare perfect timing, my copy of Kenyon's Dark Side of the Moon arrived just as I reached halfway.

So I spent yesterday reading the latest Dark-Hunter adventure.

There was a lot of hype about this book - Nick was going to be back; we were going to learn more about the Dark-Hunter world; it was the first hardcover. Beyond that, I avoided spoilers and excerpts and waited to read if for myself.

It started off like most of the others. We met the heroine, who then met the hero and the story began. Then the balance began to shift a bit. While there's a great love story in here, the outside events taking over the Dark-Hunters and their allies and enemies are also beginning to take centre stage. Since I wasn't expecting that, it threw me off at first, but Kenyone has created a fascinating world and if this new 50/50 balance continues, I think I'll like it. It'll be better if I'm expecting it though.

So, the book itself.

I like Susan and I like Ravyn. They're not my all time favourites in the series (that honour still goes to Tabby and Val at this point) but they're a lot of fun. It was nice to see Susan as someone who has already hit rock-bottom and started her healing for herself. Getting together with Ravyn completed it, rather than being the cause and end of it, which I liked.

The stubborn stupidity of Ravyn's family was a bit annoying though. Gald they finally came around in the end.

I wish we'd seen more Ash. I guess things wouldn't have gone the way Kenyon needed if he'd been around more, but I'd rather have a fuller role for him or not have him at all than this kind of cameo. Still the scene where Susan goes into the bathroom and sees his back was wonderful and hints at, well... something. I'm not sure what yet.

I had felt at the end of Seize the Night that Artemis had finally shown a hint of the potential to finally grow up when she realised what Nick's death would mean to Ash. However, here she's just a selfish little bitch again, which I found disappointing. I'd like even Artemis to have a chance to turn out okay.

And Nick. What can I say about Nick? This hurts. His hurt, hurts. But what he's doing is terrifying. I am now so worried about him, about Ash, about, well, everyone and everything. Dammit, I reamain hooked on these books. My budget is so going to suffer.

So in conclusion, this is a good book, but be aware it focuses on a lot more than just Susan and Ravyn. If that's what you're looking for, it may disappoint.

New Release - Morgan Le Fay

Hey, go me! I finally got a Character Creations new release out.

This is Morgan Le Fay by Johanna Pieterman.



She's the companion to Morgan, Part II (and finally explains why my first Morgan is called Part II - she was the second version drawn by Johanna, but was stitched for me first). I'm really pleased with how she's turned out.

I am so very frustrated, as I have so many good ideas, so many wonderful artists and so many boring old "housekeeping" tasks that I want to do for Character Creations. The problem is that with my health (both the CFS and the depression which is playing up on me just a bit right now), Marcus and moving house in 2½ weeks I just don't get anything done.

Yesterday, I was imagining what it would be like to be able to sit down at the computer for a working day and just get stuff done. I could achieve so much. Except that I can't. Even on my best health day with Marcus off at daycare, the longest I could probably sit down and maintain any kind of concentration and achievement would be about 2 hours. So I guess it's no wonder things never progress as fast as I would like and I always have way more ideas than I can keep up with.

Chatelaine's Pompeiian Garden

Martina has just posted a preview of her upcoming Pompeiian Garden.

Lookie here

At this point I'm not sure what I think of it. I do like it, but it's different from what I'd been imagining.

I was thinking more along the lines of gardens, statues and columns rather than actual villas. So right now it feels very building-heavy to me.

All the same, I do like it. I'm going to wait a bit to let the reality settle in and then see what I think. Considering I still have Alpine Seasons to finish (I'm going to leave that one be until we've moved and then attack it again) and Illuminated Medieval Sampler to do after that, it's not like I'm in a desperate hurry to make up my mind.

Defender of the Kingdom - 19th June 2006

Defender of the Kingdom - 19th June 2006
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Wow, a stitching update at last!!!

I've been slogging through all the navy blue and I'm very tired of it. Still, I've done all of it on my second half page (I'm working in horizontal half pages across the full width).

I was going to do some more Dawn Star once it was done, but now I want to see how it will look with another colour added in, so I'm thinking I'll do another week on Defender instead.

Organising my images

I know I often hear of people asking how to organise all their scrapbooking files as they get more and more.

I can't tell anyone what to do, but I think I'm finally happy with what I'm doing, so figured I might as well share.

I have a directory for all my scrapbooking components. Under that I have a series of folders for the different types.

alphas
elements
kits
other (brushes, overlays, that kind of thing)
papers
quick pages
word art

Inside those I have folders for each set of items. I name them by the designer's name and then the name of the kit or set.

eg. Lynn Grieveson - Island Winds
Gina Cabrera - Birtday Blitz Elements

I leave all the actual file names the same as the designer named them as they often have important information in the filename. (Besides, why would I want to do all the work to rename them all?)

I have been looking for some image album software to let me browse through everything to find what I want and I've found Microsoft Digital Image Suite Library to be the best for me.

This gives me easily viewable previews of .png files, which not everything does. (I couldn't get Picasa to do it, although there may be a way to make it work.) It keeps things sorted in my directory structure unless I choose to change it. I can set the edit function to go to the graphics programme of my choice rather than being stuck with the Image Suite Editor. It offers tags and labels etc that I haven't used yet because I'm happy with my directory structure at this point.

I used it in conjunction with Painshop Pro to do the Fearless layout and found it great. I can easily skim through all my folders to find what I want to use. The thumbnails are bigger than in PSP's browse function (and I can pull up a bigger one any time I like) and I can drag a file directly from there into PSP. It was also really easy to skim through again to do the credits. As each directory had the name of the designer and kit, it was all there for me to see easily.

So this is what's working for me. I don't know if it will be any help to anyone else but maybe there's something useful in here.

Fearless

Fearless
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

These photos are from the park last weekend. It's definitely winter here now - with lots of rain and wind etc (Marcus has decided he doesn't like loud thunder, which is perferctly understandable to me). So any decent weather demands a trip outside. There were lots of kids there doing the same thing, but I still got some good photos. My son has no sense of fear whatsoever! It's okay though, I have more than enough for the both of us when he does things like this.

The details, including the journalling and credits, are on the Flickr page so follow the link for those and the fullsize image.

Sharing the Scrapbook Love

I figure I should start sharing some of the nice scrapbooking things I see aound the net.

Christine Smith has a lovely little RAK giveaway on her blog today. It's papers in nice, autumny sort of colours.

I've fallen for Lynn Grieveson's page kits. Her newest one, Blue Water, is up on her blog and will soon be on sale at The Digichick. And while you're at The Digichick, check out Blue Nile by Andrea Burns.

I love both these kits and will most likely buy them once there's some loose change around our place. I rather doubt it will be before we move, but I've got lists of favourites saved around the place to buy later.

Layout - Kitchen Drawers

Kitchen Drawers
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Here's me at three!

I now know where Marcus gets his smug little look that says "look how clever I am even if you don't think I should be doing this". It's exactly the same as the one I'm wearing in this photo.

Everything is from Lynn Grieveson's Island Blues Kit.

The details, including the journalling, are on the Flickr page so follow the link for those and the fullsize image.

Warsworn

I didn't like this one as much as Warprize. I'm not exactly why, but it didn't grab my attention. I struggled with reading it all and finally decided that I would skim through to the end because I didn't want to give up completely, but I didn't feel like reading every single word. I enjoyed it much more as that picked up the pace and I realise it did cover important aspects in Keir and Lara's relationship as well as showing up the disruption trying to join two cultures as created. I think I'm looking forward to the next one as Lara and Keir face the Elders on the Plains and fight for their vision. I think perhaps my problem with this book is that it felt like a pause or a delyaing tactic rather than a strong story in its own right. I'm glad I know the story in the book, but I'm not at all sorry about skimming some of it.

Third Guild Friendship Sampler

Third Guild Friendship Sampler
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

The third sampler band I've stitched for my Embroiderer's Guild Friendship Sampler. Personally these aren't my kind of colours so I found this one a bit more difficult when it came to choosing a stitch etc.

In the end I did a row of rice stitch (second up from the bottom) and then used the bright pink for the divider band. Unfortunately I didn't read the diagrams properly for the divider at first and I had it almost all stitched before I realised I'd done it wrong and had to pull it all out and start again. Still, it's done now.

What is a Scientist?

What is a Scientist?
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

We Remember Moments

We Remember Moments
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Tuckered Out

Tuckered Out
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Wild in the Rain

Wild in the Rain
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

O is for One

O is for One
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

New Gloves

New Gloves
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Kingfish Kid

Kingfish Kid
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Read

Read
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

In the Rain with Nana

In the Rain with Nana
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Eating Piglet

Eating Piglet
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Digger Driver

Digger Driver
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Blues Groom

Blues Groom
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

At the Park

At the Park
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

Please follow the link for details, including journalling and credits.

Layout - Apiti Wind Farm

Apiti Wind Farm
Originally uploaded by rocalisa.

I'm testing posting to here from Flickr, so let's see how it works out.

All details and credits are on the Flickr page so please follow the link.

Daily Covers

I've started posting daily covers again over at A Cover a Day. Resizing, coming up with something to write and picking which to choose was what kept stopping me I think.

So now I'm just putting up pretty covers in essentially alphabetical order.

Often I'll know nothing about the book - I just like the covers. So don't take these as recomendations of any kind. Although, if something takes your interest you're welcome to go look it up and make up your own mind.

If you find any really good reads, do let me know.

I'm stitching!

It's taken two weeks, but I finally picked up my needle again today and I've added a grand total of about 30 stitches to Defender of the Kingdom. I'm very happy just to have the stitchy urge back again.

In the meantime I did a whole bunch of layouts and I'll try to get organised enough to put them up here. I've also been working on finding the best options for getting my layouts printed so I can put them in a album. I sent off a couple of files to an online printing service yesterday and hopefully I'll have them back early next week to see how they came out.

I also faced up to finishing the next bands in the Friendship Sampler Round Robin. I didn't like the colours in this one, and then I made a mistake (okay, I didn't read the instructions) for the divider band and had to pull it all out when I was almost finished. I left it for a week or so while I built up the enthusiasm to do it again. It was done last night, so I'll take a photo shortly.

I'm fairly good at taking the photos, but not so keen on transferring them to the computer, resizing and uploading them. Considering how easy it all is with a digital camera compared to the days of prints and scanners I don't know why I'm so slack.

I have a bunch of photos of Joan D. Vinge from the SF Con on the camera that I need to get off as well. One of the Scrapmommies challenges this fortnight is "my favourite things" and I'm planning to do a layout about books by focusing on the day at the con and meeting Joan. I really do need to get over my bad habit of procrastination. Maybe tomorrow.

Dawn Star Update

As always, sorry for the delay. I totally cannot keep up with my own life.



You can see the original artwork here.

I haven't picked up a needle in the last week. It's frustrating, but the will just isn't there right now. Hopefully soon.

Layout - Grommets Defined

The second of the grommets layouts.



Journalling~
20th April, 2006
1. Small teflon tubes inserted into the eardrum to allow air to pass through it into the middle ear to alleviate the hearing loss and pain that can occur with repeated ear infections, a condition sometimes known as glue ear.
2. Soft toy monkeys given to all children who receive grommets at Gillies Hospital

Credits~
Background from Kim Hill/CG Essentials; alpha from Dictionary Decoupage Alpha by Miss Mint/Peppermint Creative; flowers from The Simple Florist by Jen Wilson; arrows from Book Bag Essentials by Gina Cabrera/Digital Design Essentials

Fonts~
Font is Times New Roman

Layout - Getting Grommets Take Two

This is one of two layouts I've done of when Marcus got his second set of grommets. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it with lots of photos when Scrapmommies (yeah, them again) had a sketch challenge that gave me the answer.



Journalling~
20th April, 2006
You got your first set of grommets in May, 2005. They lasted for almost a year, but with winter coming, I wanted to be sure you wouldn't get lots of ear infections again, so I took you back to the doctor. He looked in your ears and agreed you needed new ones to make sure you stayed healthy and could hear properly. We all went back to Gillies Hospital early in the morning for your surgery and were home again for lunch.

Credits~
Papers from Refresh by ScrapGirls; tag from Summer Sunsations by Krista Mettler, Janine Baechtold and Jen Reed; alpha from Boy Oh Boy by Valeri Brumfield

Font~
Font is Baskerville Old Style

TW's Blog

I had a lovely afternoon with Nicki and Anne this afternoon. We talked about stitching, blogs - and how much stitching time we spend reading them - and a whole host of other things.

I mentioned that I had just discovered that Teresa Wentzler has started a blog. Neither of them knew about it, so I figured I'd share the link, both with Anne and Nicki (hi ladies!) and anyone else who doesn't have it and would like it.

Artistic License - Teresa Wentzler's Blog

Layout - Monkey Swing

Dave's parents were in Auckland for the day yesterday. They had been on a cruise around some of the Pacific Islands and the ship docked here at Auckland. So we picked them up from the quay and got to spend several hours with them before taking them to the airport for their flight home.

We had lunch at a cafe over by the airport that is part of a complex with a butterfly house, childrens' farm, train and playground. We only had time for the food and the playground; the food was good and Marcus had a wonderful time.

He has absolutely no sense of fear and will head for the big kids' equipment if given half a chance. We conned him back onto the smaller climbing fort and slide, but he still managed to prove that a plain old slide is just too basic for him at the advanced age of two and a third.




Butterfly Creek
27th May, 2006
Torn edge from Kim Hill; stitching from Simply Stitching Imperfect Frames and Corners by Christine Nash; everything else from Monkey Doodle Doo by Robin Carlton and Christy Lyle.
Font is Century Gothic.

Layout - We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

Again for a challenge. This is just a fun one. The words are the title of an Arthur Ransome book in the Swallows and Amazons series. I have to admit I've never read the book, but I just love the sentiment.

The photo was taken at Wenderholm Regional Park just north of Auckland in October 2005.

Layout - A Real Hero

Another Scrapmommies challenge. This one was for Mother's Day and the prompt was "mothers as everyday heroes". Being kind of warped, I went off on a tangent again. I'm really pleased with the result.




The hero phrases are:
Puts bandaids on skinned knees
Knows how to jump in puddles
Can kiss everything better
Mends ripped clothes
Wakes up at the slightest sound
Gives kisses without warning
Insists on hats and sunscreen in summer
Can whip up a fancy dress costume in minutes
Gives the best cuddles
Doesn't mind a bit of mess
Loves finger painting
Watches sports games in the rain
Loves unconditionally
Can help with maths homework
Can sweet talk the mosters under the bed
Gets up in the middle of the night without complaining
Makes hot chocolate on cold days
Will read the same story over and over as if it was the first time
Knows how to soothe a scared teddy
Hasn't had a sleep-in in years
Can turn a saucepan into a musical instrument

The superhero was created with Hero Machine. Background and elements from Bliss by Kelly Shults. Fonts are Sara Elizabeth and Milk and Cereal.

Layout - Children's TV

This was for another challenge over at Scrapmommies. The theme was television and this was what my brain, already scarred by too much kids' TV, came up with.



Font is punch label. I did everything else. All the caps where photographed directly from the TV screen because straight screencaps wouldn't have had a high enough resolution, so they came out pretty well really.

Another band sampler

Here's my addition to the friendship band sampler for another member of my Embroiderer's Guild round robin.

I did the last row. It's a fairly simple stitch called Chessboard Stitch, but I think it looks really striking and I'm very pleased with it.



I've almost decided what I'm going to do for the next sampler I have sitting beside my chair now, calling to me.

First some news - we're moving

Enough things are official now and all the need-to-be-told people have been told, so I can announce that the Dustins will be moving house at the beginning of July.

We've been very happy where we are now and we have a great landlady, but when we decided to take it we didn't know we had a Marcus on the way. It's one house of two down a shared drive with a very steep driveway on a hilly street. It has some grass, but none of it is in a safe location where Marcus can play with minimal supervision. It also has the master bedroom upstairs and the other bedrooms downstairs, which isn't perfect either for a small child.

The new house has a fenced back yard that's close to flat by Auckland standards. All the bedrooms are on the same floor, with what will be Marcus' room right next door to ours. It has a workshop for Dave and a lock up garage as well as a big living area. It may or may not have a pool, depending on what decisions are made about repairing it or filling it in. It's also in a much flatter area that where we are now.

It's one of those opportunities you have to take when they arise, so that's exactly what we're doing.

More catching up

I have such great intentions to keep up with this regularly and then it all gets away from me. I have the idea of what I want to write in my head, but somehow the job of actually doing it feels so enormous that I put it off instead.

I have a bunch of layouts to add - mostly the ones I didn't get done before, but I've also got a couple of new ones.

I decided to do two week's stitching on Dawn Star (atlhough I haven't done anything for the last four or five days) so today is the last day for that and I'll take a photo soon.

I have a picture of my band on another of the Embroiderer's Guild friendship band sampler.

I also have at least one book review, but that's stuck on my PDA right now and I need to figure out how to get it off as my autosynch is working like it is supposed to.

Update

I had stitching friends around today - they come most Thursday afternoons and are part of the reason I'm still vaguely sane. I showed Leigh my miscounted new project and she offered to pull out the stitching for me. She says she doesn't mind unpicking it it isn't her stitching. Sounds kind of crazy to me, but I'm not going to complain. So I have my fabric back again ready to begin over. Frustrating though that is, I think it's the best solution. I'll make sure I put in guide threads this time.

I'm actually getting some stitching done this week, which is very exciting. I'm working on Dawn Star and I now have a dodecahedron (or some other multi-sided three-dimensional polygon). I was really worried the shape wasn't going to show up against the background, but it really looks rather neat. I'll have a picture of my progress at the beginning of next week.

I still have a couple more layouts to upload as well as my band on a canvas work RR. I'll try to do them as soon as I can, but I make no promises.

Layout - M is for Marcus

Another challenge, this one was for the letter M.



M is for Marcus
Miracle
Mirror Baby
Messy
Mummy’s Boy
Monster Feet
Monkeyman

Background from Windswept by Kim Liddiard; Circles papers from Backyard Explorer by Lynn Grieveson (Scrapbook Elements); Stitching from Simply Imperfect Frames and Corners by Christine Nash; Letters from True North by Anna Benjamin/Paper Moons; Font is Black Jack.

Layout - Frog Prince

I've known I was going to scrap at least once, if not several times, some of the "frog boy" photos we have of Marcus. When I saw this kit, I bought it pretty much on the spot (it helped that it was on special) to use later for just this.

Scrapmommies were having a scraplift challenge (where you make a layout of your own, copying the look of someone else's layout). Mine quickly turned into something individual, so the scraplift part was a bust, but I'm really pleased with the result.



Because you were attached to so many monitors
it was safe for you to sleep on your stomach in your incubator
You liked to tuck your legs up under your tummy
like a little frog so Daddy and I called you our frog boy
You were so tiny and so very precious

Everything is from Frog Prince by Mirranda Reinhardt (www.yesterday-remembered.com). Fonts are Aqualine, Corabael and Helena.

Layout - Kangaroo Care

This is another challenge from Scrapmommies. The idea was to do a picture of you and your child. This is the first time I've actually gone back through my livejournal and used an original journal entry from the day of the photo. This page will go in Marcus' album when I actually do it. So one page down and who knows how many to go.



Journaling is directly from my Livejournal of 3rd February, 2004
Wow, amazing!I got to hold my little boy today. It was my first cuddle and words fail me when I try to describe it.
He was still attached to all his monitors and wires, but he was able to come off the CPAP (which helps with his breathing) for a while which meant I could sit beside the incubator with him cuddled on my chest.
They call it "kangaroo care", where he lies on my chest with as much skin to skin contact as possible and then gets wrapped up so he's all warm and snug.
He rested happily, and even dozed off to sleep.
Amazing.

Credits ~
Beads from Butterfly Kisses by Jeanelle Paige (Sweet Digi Creations); Background paper from Green Elephant by Joana Carvalho; Journalling Paper from Note This by Gina Miller (Scrapbook-Bytes); Tuesday flower from Bloom of the Week Club by Amanda Lacey for www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Flower stamp from Aqua Dreams by Gina Cabrera for www.DigitalDesignEssentials.com; Photo framing from Edges Pack by Lauren Bavin; Word art and ribbon from Baby Baby! Preemies by Michelle Raine; font is Jayne