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

Layout - The Road Goes Ever On

I recently discovered a scrapping site called "Scrapmommies". Since I'm still mostly obsessed with doing layouts of Marcus, this has turned out to be a great site. They runs heaps of challenges every two weeks and these keep creeping inside my brain and giving me good ideas. I had this photo from going down to Palmerston North at Easter and thought I knew what I was going to do with it. Instead, it turned out like this thanks to a sketch challenge and I like it much better this way.



13th April, 2006
It's a long way from Auckland to Plamerston North, especially when you're only two. We went to stay with your grandparents for Easter and you couldn't stay awake for the whole trip, no matter how hard you tried. You saw lots of interesting things on the way, but you fell asleep in your car seat for some of the time as well. Don't worry, I went to sleep too and poor Daddy had to stay awake and drive while we were sleeping.

Background from Construction by Melany Violette, Road from Vroom Vroom Beep Beep by Melany Violette; Stamp, frame and brad from Little Prince by Lori Barnhurst and Scrapsy Daisy; Journaling Paper from Journaling Paper Biggie by Valerie Randall; Fonts are A Little Pot, Golden Script and Da Vinci Forward

Dark Demon

I can't help myself. I keep going back to Christine Feehan's Carpathian books, even though some of the recent ones have been less than stellar. (I gave the previous one 6/10 and wasn't exactly bowled over by it.) I still like the basic premise and I like the way she's been developing an overall story arc lately. I like the addition of the wizards and now there are dragons as well, which always gives a story or series extra points in my book. So I read the bad ones, enjoy the good parts of those and keep hoping the next one will be good.

I had high hopes for Dark Demon. More for the heroine - we met Natalya briefly in Dark Destiny where it was clearly indicated that Vikirnoff would be her lifemate - than the hero, who seemed to be a typically over-alpha male such as Feehan writes regularly and really needs to tone down. Happily, she did. Vikirnoff had some nice, steady character development as he discovered that he hadn't really had a clue when he's imagined the perfect lifemate and that Natalya is exactly what he both wants and needs. Natalya too moved steadily from seeing him as an enemy to loving him. She also had a good and sensible reason for disliking and distrusting him at first, that dissolved as she got to know him. Too often, Feehan's heroines move from "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you" to "I love you" over the course of about a page and without any truly sensible reason for doing so beside the fact the author deems it time. Dark Demon escaped this common problem and was a much better and stronger book for it.

Natalya is part Carpathian, part mage, part tiger - the granddaughter of a Carpathian woman stolen away from her lifemate by a dark wizard to bear his children and thereby make him immortal. She has been indoctrinated since childhood to hate the Carpathians, seeing hunters and vampires as the same kind of evil. She has come to the Carpathian mountains under a compulsion she doesn't understand, aware she is followed and hunted all the way. Virkinoff is one of those following her, determined to find her for reasons he doesn't fully understand himself since seeing her picture back in his brother's book, Dark Destiny. Their meeting shows him she is his lifemate - something she's not convinced about - and from there the story takes off, mixing romance, vampires, dark pasts, Carpathian history and a whole lot of potential disaster. While the immediate problems are solved within this book, there's clearly still evil out there with plans against all the Carpathians and especially the prince.

We're clearly building towards a major confrontation here, which may or may not take place in the upcoming reunion book Dark Celebration. Like I said, I can't help myself I keep reading the books and hoping each time I'll get a good one rather than the opposite. I hope Feehan can stay with the tone and set up she produced in this book. It was a good self-contained story and a good step along the overal story arc as well. Keep it up, Christine. Please don't backslide again.

Oh, and I loved the revelation of previously unknown elements to the long time alliance between Mikhail's family and Gregori's family.

Stitching Dilemma

I started a new cross stitch project this week. It's a gift, so I'm not going to show a picture (sorry but you know how that goes) but I have a problem. I totally miscounted when I started stitching. I'm going to have about 5 inches of spare fabric at the bottom and only an inch at the top.

Now I don't know what to do. Considering that stitching tends to go very slowly for me this days, part of me wants to keep on going and hope. However, the perfectionist in me knows it may well drive me nuts and keep me worrying as I go along. I've only done about three days' worth of stitching so if I'm going to restart, this is the point to do it.

I'm stitching it on 32-count Glacier Lugana from Countrystitch. I had a full fat quarter and I only needed half that, so I have a whole second piece of fabric available if I do decide to start again.

That'll teach me to be lazy and skip putting in centre guide threads. Clearly I still need them!

Oh no, not again

Here we go, my next spate of "catch up" posts. There should be a book review, some layouts and a couple of stitching posts. Sit back and try not to be too bored.

Latest Layout - Little Yellow Digger

Journaling ~
20th April, 2006
A little yellow digger came to our house today, to dig a trench for the new stormwater pipes. You watched in fascination as it rolled carefully down the drive, then settled by the window in the sunroom to watch the digging. You are such a little boy - you love all sorts of machinery and vehicles and you were very lucky to have a digger come to visit you.

Credits ~
Letters from Ronnie’s Antique Typewriter Alpha by Ronnie McCray; Background from Boys and Toys by Melany Violette; Truck sticker, Caution ribbon and decorative plate from Construction Zone by Melany Violette; Road ribbon from Vroom Vroom Beep Beep by Melany Violette; Postcard from Journalling Paper Biggie by Valerie Randall; Stamp edge from Stamp Templates by Anna Aspnes; Date Stamp from Digital Date Stamps Volume 2 by Katie Pertiet; Metallic brads from Sand and Sea by Melany Violette; Fonts are Civilian and Dear Joe; I can’t remember where the staples came from – sorry


You can see why I needed some time to get all the credits together. The "real" layout, which I'll be getting printed, has our address on the postcard where the two blank lines are so that it really does look like a postcard to Marcus, but I'm not putting that out on the Internet, so I've smudged out the details. I looks much more balanced in reality as a result.

Defender of the Kingdom

I didn't feel up to stitching until Friday this week, so I didn't get a huge amount done on Defender of the Kingdom, but I'm still very happy with my progress. It was all filling in with navy blue and now it's looking a lot less messy than it did when I started.


(I'm adding larger versions now, so click on the image - I'll stop telling you about it soon so get into the habit)

I'm very tired (finally figured out it's because Marcus won't take a daytime nap on the days he's home, so I've lost four days' rest a week) so everything is going very slowly.

I've also got a new layout done that I'm very pleased with, but I pulled elements from all over the place and I still have to do all the credits. My brain doesn't feel up to it right now and I can't post it online until that's done, so it'll have a wait a bit.

So I still have issues

I learned something interesting today.

I still have issues over Marcus' birth and early days. I discovered this in an interesting way.

I've jumped right onto the digital scrapbooking bandwagon and I've been spending a lot of time on the various sites, forums, blogs etc. One of them, digiscrappin.biz, is holding an ultimate scrapbooking challenge. Apparently about 300 or more people are signed up for the first round and they will gradually be whittled down to a winner. I've been keeping an eye on all the entries being posted for the first week (here if you want to look) and there are a lot of layouts featuring people's children.

This isn't surprising - I started doing this myself to do layouts of my child - but I'm finding the various newborn baby ones hard to take. I'm not sure if I'm jealous - yeah, okay, I'm jealous. In fact, to a degree they make me cross, although not with the people involved. With fate maybe? Or wondering if people know how lucky they are? Or something.

Here are these people and their cute, chubby, newborn children going on about how wonderful it was. (*)

I don't have that. I will never scrap "cute" baby pictures in the same way these people can. My cute boy is tiny and skinny and covered in tubes. Sure, he was still cute in his own way, but if I was to place a layout of my own beside these people's, mine would stand out as different.

There are plenty of words I could use to describe Marcus' birth - amazing, terrifying, unbelievable - but wonderful and the words like that don't go on the list. And sitting here and typing this I could easily cry about it. I can feel the tears building up.

Then I feel like I'm being totally ungrateful.

My son is a miracle. All children are miracles, but mine got in a few extra degrees of miracle. I can hear him now in the kitchen doing something I should go and check on, but I really don't want to know what mischief he's up to now. How can I not be grateful for that?

But part of me is still grieving for the things I missed out on. I wonder if part of me always will.


(*) If you should happen to be one of those people - your layouts are beautiful, and I do not mean to demean your or your experiences in any way. It's just that seeing evidence of them has brought up issues of my own I didn't know I still had.

What am I going to do with this?

Today has been a really, really hard day.

At one point, I sat there, thinking about retail therapy. I realised I couldn't think of anything to buy that wouldn't stress me out more.

Food would be bad because I'm trying to eat well and I would have chosen chocolate.
Books would be bad because I already have so many lined up to read that more would only add to the stress.
Stitching stuff would be bad for the same reasons as books.
Clothes would be bad because I absolutely hate clothes shopping.
Jewellery would be bad because I never remember to wear it.

After that I ran out of ideas.

So I went and bought myself a digital scrapbooking kit that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it, but I couldn't think of what I could possibly do with it.

Ronnie's The Mad Scientist

Technically, I guess I'm not even a scientist any more, but I will always at heart consider myself one. I think like a scientist still and I see the world like a scientist.

I love this kit. Still don't know what I'm going to do with it though.

Latest Layout - Granny's Gumboots

What else can you do with Granny's gumboots except try them on?

I set myself the challenge of doing something with just one photo and several papers like I've seen other people do. So far I've really only used a single paper and added photos and elements on top. I was going for no elements at all, but the little flower was perfect and finished everything off nicely.



Credits:
Everything is from Gracie's Garden - Forget-Me-Nots by Amy Knepper of Scrapdish.

Whoo-hoo! It's done!

Part 7 of Alpine Seasons that is. Okay, so I still have 5 parts to go, but I'm really delighted with this - both how it looks and the fact I got it done.


(Click on the image to see a bigger version)

It's been a long haul to get this far, but I still totally love the project. So far I managing to stay with my new philosophy of "enjoy each moment and don't stress about the total time it will take". Today being the end of the week, I'm at the end of this first slot in my renewed rotation, so this is the prefect place to stop. Next I'm going to get out Defender of the Kingdom and do however much I manage between tomorrow morning and next Sunday night. I have realised I'm unlikely to manage to stitch every day, so I think I'm at peace with that and I'll do whatever I can.

Latest Layout - Ebony and Ivory

This one speaks for itself really. The photos were taken at my parents' place on Easter Sunday. Daniel and his family called in to say hello for Easter and he and Marcus played the piano together. How could I use any other title?



Credits~
Decorative seal from Melany Violette's Boys CD extras; everything else from Elegance by Renee Peters.

Home Grown Philosophy

I had a moment of clarity in the shower today.

I faced up to the fact that I am sick, I have been sick for a long time, and I can't keep on pretending that I'm not. In nearly sixteen years, I've learned to do that physically, but I suddenly realised that I haven't truly done it intellectually. I have to some degree - I know I couldn't put in the concentration, and possibly not even the understanding, needed for higher degree study for example. But at a more basic, at home level I have refused to do so.

Beyond the everyday, family and household things, there are the things I want to do for me, the things that make me feel personally satisfied and challenged and fulfilled.

I still buy books as if I could read them at the same rate and with the same ease as I did before I got sick (and that's ignoring the fact I didn't have a husband, a child or a household back then and my mother did all my washing and cooking). I still imagine I'll read everything that sounds interesting, and then I get stressed and frustrated because the to-be-read pile and my expectations keep piling up until I feel they're going to topple over and crush me.

I still have a heaps of embroidery designs I want to do and plan out to the distance of years ahead what I'll stitch next - that Dragon Dreams after the one I finish now, something like ten Mirabilias I want to stitch, Heaven and Earth Designs, Chatelaine and a host of others. (You notice I generally don't pick small projects to put on my to-stitch list.)

I want to do everything I ever think of for Character Creations and struggle to keep moving at a steady and sensible pace because I want to do it all now.

To top it off I went and got myself hooked on Digital Scrapbooking as well and now plan to do Marcus' journal that way.

(Let's not mention that time-sink called the Internet.)

I'm not prepared to give up these "me" things. I need them and I've been holding onto them jealously, taking time for them when I should be resting or playing with Marcus or spending time with Dave. I've lost so much I've been determined to keep all these things.

And I can't keep up with it all.

So today, I had a moment of revelation. If I want to hold on to these things, then I have to accept that doing them will take longer than I currently think it should and/or I'll get less done. But that doesn't mean I have to stop doing them, just enjoy each moment I get on one of these things and let it all take as long as it does. I need to pick out what's really important to me and accept that some of the lesser stuff will have to go by the wayside.

Practically, I'm taking that in the following ways:

Books - Stick with the things I really want to read. Accept that some things I think sound interesting just won't be read. Don't stress about that, just enjoy what I do read. Make sensible choices and don't get sidetracked from them by temptation. Be okay with it taking me to take a week to read a book I might have once (sixteen years ago!) been able to read in one or two days.

Stitching - Focus on the now. Enjoy what I'm stitching and stop imagining what I'll do next and next and next (something I'm very bad at). Go back to a weekly rotation with the projects I most want to stitch - that's Defender of the Kingdom, Dawn Star and Alpine Seasons. I'll put in a fourth slot for "free choice" which means I can do a bit extra on one of these or do something different (that is one of my current WIPs - I refuse to add more at this point as that would add to the stress). For the immediate future that slot will go to a gift for my niece- or nephew-to-be.

Scrapbooking - Do it when I feel like it and scrap what I feel like. If it takes another year to do Marcus' journal pages, that's okay. I have all my LJ entries from his first year safely saved to my home computer, I have the photos and the momentos I saved at the time. They're not going anywhere.

Character Creations - Work as steadily as I can, try not to take on too much extra and don't get stressed if things take a little longer that I first imagined.

I hope I can make it work. I hate to waste that clarity.

On a much less philosophical note, I did get some stitching done today - I worked on Alpine Seasons while watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Because it's so hard to get out to things like the movies these days, I hadn't seen it before. I was delighted with it. The kids were great - Lucy is a darling - and matched my childhood visions of them pretty well. The beavers were totally cool and Aslan was brilliantly done. I also loved the very last Narnian scene where the grown up kings and queens are hunting the white stag. They had matched up their adult actors and child actors so well it worked perfectly. I'd kind have liked it to be a bit more explicit that Digory had been to Narnia too and therefore believed them, but I can't remember know if that is actually in the book, or if I just know it because I've read The Magician's Nephew and know how it came about. I certainly hope they keep making more of them - they're clearly got the CGI and the techniques to pull it off now.

Oh and the griffins - they were the coolest. I want one.

Tinker

I became a Wen Spencer fan after Barbara-the-pusher (my affectionate nickname for my specialist bookseller who treats enabling as a God-given duty) gave me Alien Taste to read. From there it was a case of 'the rest is history' and I've read everything she's written, I watch her livejournal and hang out for hints and tipbits of her upcoming books. I read Tinker from the library when it came out in hardcover, then bought my own paperback copy when that was released. I have several books that sit on my bookshelves unread because I'd read them by borrowing them from a library or a friend, but still needed my own copy. Tinker was one of these. When the sequel, Wolf Who Rules, was soon to be released, I spent a fair bit of time tossing up whether or not to buy it in hardcover. In the end, I succumbed to the temptation and ordered it. However, with my poor memory, there was a lot of Tinker I didn't remember, along with a few things I hadn't fully grapsed the first time around and I wanted it all to be fresh and clear before starting Wolf Who Rules.

I finished my reread today - and loved it the second time around, which is always a good thing.

Tinker is set in a near future Pittsburg, where twenty years earlier a hyperdimensional gate was opened to facilite travel to the stars, with the unfortunate side-effect that a neatly circular section of Pittsburg got transported into an alternate reality called Elfhome where magic is stronger than on Earth. In the past, natural gates existed and it was through those that limited travel had occured between Earth and Elfhome, leading to humanity's legends of elves. Once a month, the gate is shut down for 24 hours, returning Pittsburg to Earth and allowing the influx of goods, ideas and travellers.

Tinker is eighteen, a genius and has lived her entire life in the Elfhome part of Pittsburg. She runs a scrapyard and spends much of her spare time putting her huge intellect to work inventing pretty much anything she chooses. As the book begins, the Elven noble, Windwolf, is chased into Tinker's scrapyard and injured just as Shutdown begins. This leave her stranded with him in Pittsburg on Earth without the benefit of magic to help him heal. With some help, she manages to keep him alive and finds her life forever twisted up with his and that of the all the elves.

Add to this some serious culture clash and misunderstandings and the reappearance of an ancient enemy of the elves who see Tinker and her genius as a way to open their own gate to Elfhome for an invasion and you have a clever, swift and intelligent novel that moves at breakneck pace and leaves the reader fully satisfied.

On my first reading, I had a little trouble with some of the scientific principles of just what had happened to Pittsburg and how the gate effects worked. Rereading cleared this up very nicely for me as instead of being thrown in at the deep end in the first chapter, I was able to take the worldbuilding as clarification that helped me 'get' Spencer's world much more clearly. The same was true of the gate physics, that became significant in the last quarter of the book. It is well-written, without large amounts of technobabble or handwaving, so don't be afraid of the word 'physics'. It was much clearer this time and I can now head into Wolf Who Rules happy knowing that I pretty much understand what has gone before.

I gave this book 9/10 last time and I'm giving it 10/10 this time. Spencer has real talent - not to mention that all three of her series so far are very different from each other and her current work promises to be different again - and I suspect I will continue to buy her books in hardcover now that I've broken the first time. I won't be able to wait long enough for the paperbacks.

Latest Layout - Strong

This is my response to a challenge with Clikchic Designs, where the requirement was to use their Cyclone Larry charity kit. I hadn't been planning to enter, but obviously I had something bubbling away in the back of my mind as I spent last night working on this.



I am really, really pleased at how this came out. It's a lot softer, subtler and and simpler than I originally planned, but I love it.

Quick note before the Sleep Monster gets me

Hooray, I have finished those stupid trees on part 7 of Alpine Seasons (let's not think about how they are mirrored in part 8). If all goes well, I hope to get the part finished this week.

I have stayed up way, way, way too late working on a scrapbooking layout. Three Australian designers have put together a lovely kit in blues and browns as a fundraiser for Cyclone Larry victims. Over at Clikchic Designs, they're having a challenge to use the kit for a layout - and thereby encourage people to buy the kit as well. I admit I hadn't planned to do anything, then an idea struck and it was perfect. I think I've got it how I want it to be, but it's so late now that I'm going to let it sit overnight and look at it again with fresh eyes in the morning.

It's really weird, because I only have a basic idea when I start working with the photos and elements - when I started this one the photos were the last thing I did as the inspiration was all abut the wording rather than the images - but somehow I muddle around and get what I want. It's very satisfying - and quicker than stitching!

Don't worry Stitchers, I'm not going to be seduced away to the dark side, I'm just going to keep flirting with it a bit.

I'm loving my reread of Tinker as well.

If I could just turn the rest of the world off for a little bit, it would be perfect. Oh yeah, and get well, and have the housework magically done and the dinners cooked and... Okay, I'll stop now. Clearly I'm overtired and raving.

Window Shopping

I've finally found time to go and take a look at the Online Needlework Show and I discovered that, fortunately for my bank balance and sanity, that it has actually closed. That let me window shop safely. Here's the goodies I liked...

Yin Yang from The French Needle
Livres Chat Rouge from The French Needle

Tiffany Roses from Tapis-Tree
Poppy and Asters from Tapis-Tree

Frog by My Mark
Never for Granted by My Mark

Don't Bug Me! by The Sweetheart Tree

My Latest Layout - Java Boy

This is my nephew (well, technically he's my best friend's son, but I'm his honourary auntie so that makes him my nephew). While down in Palmerston North Dave, Marcus and I met up with his family for gelati and coffee. Paul was very interested in his Dad's coffe, but was eventually convinced to stick with icecream.



Credits
Eyelet from "Tans and Teals" by Dawn Webb; everything else from “Scrappucino" by Taran Conyers

Wow, just wow!

I called around to see Nicki today (okay, really I called around to see her finished Alpine Seasons).

I'm only just picking my jaw up off the floor now. I looks so totally amazing. She has done a fantastic job and it looks stunning on her choice of fabric. I know she was a bit worried about the fabric colour, but it looks fantastic.

She showed me her progress on The Token as well and that is very pretty - and so tiny as she's doing it over 1 on 32-count.

I am now inspired to get back to my own Alpine Seasons. Not necessarily energised I am forced to admit, but certainly inspired.

Beautiful, beautiful work, Nicki.

Update on Dawn Star

I'm just putting this away now to spend a week with Alpine Seasons. (Yes, I'm trying rotating again.) This is how far I got while on holiday - after I pulled out everything I'd stitched in the wrong shade of purple.



(I've just got a new laptop - thank you my darling husband - and we're rebuilding my desktop so I won't be updating the gallery until everything is loaded, updated and configured. Just saying...)

Latest Layout - Uh Oh

Marcus has three things he can say clearly - bye bye, no and uh-oh. Since these are understood, he uses them a lot. He's also just started adding a hand of the mouth gesture when he says uh-oh. It is totally cute even if it isn't always appropriate to the circumstance. While we were down in Palmerston North, I caught him on camera doing it. It's not the best of photos, but the moment was so cute I just had to use it.



Journalling ~
15th April, 2006
While riding on the tricycle at Granny Pam's, Marcus stopped to tell Mummy "uh oh", even though there was nothing wrong.
Credits ~
Background and brad from " Shining Star" by Melany Violette; letters and tag from "Love this Boy" by Carrie Stephens; coloured stars from "Lucky Star" by Gina Cabrera; frame and pin from "Views" by Lauren Bavin

His Majesty's Dragon

I've just finished reading His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommed it to anyone who likes dragons in their historical fiction. Novik's sole fantastic premise is that dragons exist - in a number of regional varieties, from British and French to Chinese - and the rest of the story is extrapolated from this.

The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars, and as it begins Captain Will Laurence is master of the ship Reliant when it encouters a French vessel. Once the ship it taken, he finds it carries a major prize - a dragon's egg. Despite his misgivings, he finds himself handler to the newly hatched dragon, whom he calls Temeraire.

From there the book moves through Laurence and Temeraire's training as aviators as they try to find their place - Laurence is a misfit as a Navy man and Temeraire proves to be equally different when it is discovered he is a Chinese dragon rather than a familiar British breed.

This is a nicely written alternative history, where the dragons are as much characters as the humans. Laurence and Temerarie are beautifully drawn and getting to know them as they got to know each other was a delight. I did feel I had a bit of an advantage over Laurence, since I know that a five toed Chinese dragon was going to be as much a scholar as any kind of fighter and so I was unsurprised at Temerarie's delight in having Laurence read to him or his grasp of mathematics and tactics.

In the sequel (Throne of Jade, to be published next month) they visit China, so it will be interesting to see them learn more about Temerarire and his abilities.

Novik's air force is well drawn - used to dragon books where each dragon has a single rider, I was at first suprised by her full crews - from a second to the sharpshooters and bombers and the maintenance crew. They are well drawn and her tactics sound solid to me in my inexperience.

The end of the book covers the time of the Battle of Trafalgar and it's aerial partner the dragon fought Battle of Dover. Napoleon's method for invading Britain is brilliant and I don't want to spoil it by saying anything more than that. There is something of a Battle of Britain feel to this section as the tired, outnumbered aviators fight off an overwhelming force, but Novik makes it all her own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this an recommend it.

Lookie what I got!

Dave asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I suggested the normal things - book vouchers or money towards stash - but he wanted to get me something that I wouldn't buy for myself that I'd really like.

After thinking for a bit, I asked him to get me a print of Abranda Sisson's Dragonfly, which I just love. Abranda is one of my artists, so we've got to know each other a bit and I gave Dave her email address and he said he'd contact her.

On my birthday he told me he'd ordered the print, but because I hadn't given him enough warning to get something mailed from the States, it would arrive in the next week or two.

I was delighted when I checked the PO box and found a card saying there was a parcel to pick up at the counter. It was soon clear it was my print. Yay! I got home, opened the parcel and found that Abranda had sent me, not a print but the original painting! What a wonderful surprise.

I picked it up from the framers yesterday and it is just beautiful.



I will be charting and releasing this through Character Creations as soon as I am able to do so. Right now I'm not well enough to do new charting - but when I am in good shape, I try to build up a backlog of designs so that I still have new releases ready through the time I'm not doing new ones.

I can't wait to have some time and energy to sit down and do some charting again as I really love it, but my brain has to be functioning better than it is right now to do a good job.

Stashing...

I've had some lovely stash arrive lately.

I ordered Tiger's Eye linen from Silkweaver for Chatelaine's Illuminated Medieval Sampler, and since I was making the order I added in some Starquest Reflections which I hoped might work for Watergarden one day in the future, and three random samples.

The Tiger's Eye has more copper green in it than I expected, but it's really growing on me. The Starquest won't work of Watergarden, but I'm thinking it might do nicely for Dragon Dreams' Not Forgotten. I can't remember the colours of the samples off the top of my head, but they were all new colours to me and I'm sure will prove useful.

I also got some Dusk 16-ct Aida from Silkweaver, which will be used for a model, so I'm not going to say anything more about that at the moment. But it's going to be very pretty - although I do have to finish the charting first.

My kit for the Medieval Sampler also arrived from European Cross Stitch, along with the Quaker Game Board pattern. The sampler is going to be very pretty when I finally get a chance to stitch it, but for now I'm just going to enjoy the beautiful supplies.

Stitching Update

Any stitching has gone very slowly lately as I haven't been feeling all that well.

My Embroiderer's Guild is doing a canvas work round robin, so I've spent some time picking my colours and working out what I want to do. Then, of course, I had to find the time and energy to stitch it.

I chose to use pink 18-count mono canvas, with a selection of pink, purple and green threads in all sorts of textures. My dividing band is canvas stitch and the main band is tweed stitch. I will admit that I spent a lot of time tryign to choose what to stitch for my main band, but when I saw "tweed" stitch, I immediately thought of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and that decided me.



We went away to visit my parents for Easter and I took Dawn Star with me. I got a nice bit of stitching done, but then I discovered that I had done a whole lot of it in the wrong colour. I've pulled it all out, but haven't faced up to starting restitching again.

I've decided to have another try at a rotation, but only have four slots in it - for Dawn Star, Alpine Seasons, Defender of the Kindom and a free choice from the rest of my WIPs - as I'm struggling to get anything done at all. I need a very fine balance between freedom and structure and I still haven't found it yet. Instead, I'm going for a variety of approaches and at least trying to get something stitched.

Update

At long last, here comes an update.

I've not been feeling particularly great lately, and haven't done much stitching. However, I have caught the digital scrapbooking bug and I've been having a great time creating my first layouts. For now, I have them up in my Livejournal Gallery until I figure out the best place to keep them all.

I've decided to turn this blog into an "obsessions" journal - it'll include my stitching, scrapbooking and reading.

"Study" original art

This is primarily for etitameh, who asked to see the original art of Howard Faria's "Study".



(And here is a link to the chart if anyone wants to compare.)

I was wrong about the trees

When Nicki was around the other week, we talked about the trees in Alpine Seasons. She said she hated stitching them and I said I liked it.

I was wrong.

I'm struggling with the ones down at the bottom of part 7. Bah. I will get them done, but it'll have to be when I have a moment of space for myself, and that hasn't happened lately.

Nicki, you were right. They are horribly fiddly. I think the fact they're right over on the edge of the scroll rods isn't helping either.

A little Cinderella

I decided today that I've had enough of Cinderella for now. Those trees are really annoying to stitch, so I'm just going to stitch a little bit at a time until I get the castle done. I'm happy with this as I've been feeling a bit funky lately (a highly accurate medical turn you understand) so I think staying settled and as minimally stressed as possible is best.

Here's what I got done this time around. (Previous progress here.)

Birthday Stitching Stash

My parents gave me some money for my birthday, which gave me enough to order the supplies kit for Chatelaine's Illuminated Medieval Sampler.

These are the overdyed colours for the design:


Since I was already shopping and had a tiny bit of money to spare, I also ordered Papillion Creations' Quaker Game Board. I was tempted by the thread pack as well, but that was getting a bit extreme, especially since it will probably be a few years before I get to stitch it.


To top it all off, the wonderful Fudgey gave me the new HAED release of Teri Rosario's Fire Element. She even admitted that she had, ah, encouraged Michele to get it finished in time for my birthday. I love this and would love to start it soon, but I'm sticking with my "don't make the rotation any bigger than necessary" plan. Since I'm planning to add some kind of birth sampler to it soon anyway, this beautiful chart will have to wait.

Looking for a baby pattern

I've recently heard that Marcus is going to get a cousin in October. (My SIL had the first scan yesterday and all is looking good.)

I'd like to stitch something for the baby, but it will need to be something I can get done in time. I'd rather have something a little "classy" rather than "cute". Also gender neutral or able to be customised at the last minute as they still haven't decided if they want to know the sex of the baby.

I wondered if some of the nice sampler designs out there these days (like Long Dog and Papillion and those guys) has something for a new baby?

I would welcome any suggestions please.

(I had a great birthday yesterday, including stitchy presents and I'll post an update when I have enough time to get together pictures to go with it and that sort of stuff.)

Well, that was a surprise

I'm feeling a little better now. Things seem to have settled down to the way I felt when I had morning sickness (and before anyone suggests it, I know I'm not pregnant). So not nice, a kind of perpetual state of queasiness, but at least I feel vaguely human again.

I spent a quiet day with Marcus at daycare today (apart from the interlude, where I had to go and get him, treat him for headlice - which really, really stinks when you've already got a grumbly tummy - and take him back again). I watched some TV and caught up on watching CSI and CSI: New York, which I have to watch when Marcus isn't around as they've got pretty graphic with the gore these days.

I wanted to stitch something simple and not too complicated and I'd got out my Celtic Horse to do just that. To my surprise, I found myself working on Mirabilia's Cinderella instead. I'd thought to put this away as a UFO for a while, and instead here I am stitching it and loving it. I've hardly done any (I've put the link back in the sidebar if you want to see where it was up to yesterday) so any progress seems significant. Now I have a little bit of castle and some lighted windows as well as a few trees.

I think I'll keep working on this as I get back on top of my health. It's going to be really pretty (I'm doing it on Evening Dreams from Silkweaver so it's fairly dramatic) and I'm glad to discover I'm stitching on it again.

Bleech

I'm sick.

I've got pretty much the works - vomiting, diarrhoea, aches, pains, headache, exhaustion - although I don't seem to have fever (let's be grateful for small mercies).

So I guess that explains why I've been feeling so awful for the last few days.

Ooops

I've been making use of other people's blogrolls to go exploring various stitching blogs. There are lots of people out there creating the most beautiful things. So I added a whole bunch of people to my Newsgator feeds and I've happily been watching their entries. I haven't commented much yet, as I'm a total stranger to them, but occasionally I say something I feel might be relevant.

I've been enjoying Christine's Coffee Cup Thoughts and when she posted that she was struggling with her current rotation, something I understand all too well, I said "hello" and told her my own strategy (which is basically a screaming rotation, but kept down to a pool of six to seven designs so I don't get stressed by too many projects). I then thought nothing more of it.

Until I found that I had accidently enabled her with my mockup of Illuminated Medieval Sampler on the Tiger's Eye linen and she's now drooling and trying to decide if she really needs it or not.

Christine, I don't know if I should be feeling smug or very apologetic. But if you to decide to take it on, I'm sure you'll love it. I have to keep telling myself again and again that I cannot start another Chatelaine project until I finish Alpine Seasons.

As for Alpine, I'm feeling pretty rundown and unwell at the moment, so I think I'm going to have to take a break. If I want to stitch I'll do a little bit on my Celtic Horse instead. This is why I try to keep a small, less challenging project among my WIPs for times when I want to stitch, but can't manage the big projects.

Lastest on Alpine Seasons

Nicki came over on Wednesday and we had a lovely time chatting and stitching together. Her Alpine is looking amazing and I'm confident she'll get it finished by her deadline, even if she isn't.

Here's my latest. I took this on Wednesday before rolling it further up the scroll rods so I could do the next lots of trees and their mountains. I've had a couple of rest days since this was taken as I've hit another tired patch and I think it's more important to take a break than struggle along.

Keeping on stitching

I'm still working on Alpine Seasons. I am so enjoying this - it makes it very frustrating when I feel like stitching by don't have the physical energy to do so. Still, I am making progress.

Nicki is coming over to do some stitching on Wednesday and bringing her Alpine Seasons, so I'll aim to get some photos taken of them both then and share my progress.

I'm always a bit afraid of posting goals in public, because I know better than many how easily plans get altered. Still, my current small goal is ...

... to finish part 7 of Alpine Seasons by the end of next week.

Please do send positive stitching thoughts.

No stitching

I haven't done any stitching the last couple of days. I've been very tired lately and, much as I'd like to be stitching, I just need a few days off to get some energy back.

Dave tells me it's all my fault for staying up late and watching the Opening Ceremony for the Commonwealth Games. While I'd like to disagree with him, I'd forced to concede he may have a point.

I'm hoping to get back to the stitching soon as I'm loving Alpine Seasons all over again and want to share another picture. However, I refuse to take one until I've at least finished that central range of mountains in part 7.

WIP pictures

At long last, I got out the camera and took some photos.

Here's my progress on Alpine Seasons - into part 7 now...



And on Defender of the Kingdom...



I had been going to finish the big block of navy blue I'm working on for Defender, but I got lured away by Alpine. I've decided that if I'm stitching and haven't added a new WIP before I finish something else, then I'm happy. I will gradually make progress on everything.

And for something completely different, this blue dyed child is the one I picked up from daycare today - check out his feet and hands...

Gallery updated

I did an outrageous thing today and updated my Online Gallery. It's been a while!

The main changes are adding a page for Celtic Horse and updating my "Next" page. It'll be a very long time before I get to stitching anything on the latter, but it's nice to look at everything and imagine.

That picture at last

Dave had a chance to photograph The Ice Dragon's Kingdom for me today. Here's where I got to during the Winter Olympics.



The colours are all darker here than real life - it's all just a little softer, but with all the sharp contrast it's really hard to get a good photo.

I loved getting to stitch Alpine again and love it at the same time, but I think I got a bit carried away about how much I thought I'd get done and I started to do this tight focus thing I do where something is the only thing I want to pay attention to. Bad enough when you've only got a husband to ignore, worse when you have a two year old who doesn't just want your attention but needs it too.

So I need to pace myself better and be satisfied with whatever progress I make.

Part of the problem is that I'm starting to imagine all the other Chatelaines I could stitch (can we say "Pompeii" and I haven't even seen it yet - maybe I'll hate it) and that means I need to finish Alpine first so I think I want to stitch and stitch and stitch and stitch to the exclusion of all else. I couldn't do that even if I tried and it wouldn't actually be a good idea. All the same, the inner border for part 7 is done, I've done the waterfall at the top and started on the trees.

I'm doomed!

I've been browsing the Chatelaine bulletin board this morning. After getting back to Alpine Seasons, I'm all in Chatelaine mode at the moment.

I headed into the "Ask Martina" forum in the hope there might be a question and answer there about the materials list for Illuminated Medieval Sampler (there was - hopefully available next week). There I found an innocuous little thread titled "More Patterns Please". Oh, maybe there will be a hint in there about upcoming designs, I thought innocently.

Martina is promising a POMPEIIAN mandala garden. I'm so doomed. This just catches my imagination right off. She said later in the year, so I'll have to curb my enthusiasm in the meantime.

It doesn't help that I still want to stitch Egyptian Garden and Watergarden, both of which I have patterns for, but no supplies. Not to mention other ones I haven't actually bought - like say, Taj Mahal or Medieval Town Mandala or Persian Garden, just to name a few.

I guess I better a) keep on stitching my Alpine Seasons and b) win lotto this weekend.

A Good Stitching Day

A good stitching day today for a change.

Recently, I had the good idea that I could put Alpine Seasons on my scroll bars. It would be a compromise between mobility (the reason I wasn't happy with using the floor stand and I kept me stuck in one place and not necessarily able to protect everything from Marcus) and a good way the fabric taut. I knew that my fabric is wider than the 50cm scroll rods, but I've got away with that before by folding over the extra.

I opened up the files for parts 10, 11 and 12 and worked out that there are only 13 more stitches out from the top of the pine trees to the edge of the design. That much fits into the 50cm and even if the crease settles into the fabric, it will end up under the mat. It was a bit complicated to sort out - I had to mark the middle of each scroll rod and stitch the fabric on out to the sides from the centre so that the fabric will stay straight vertically as it is rolled through. The first time I rolled it up, there was so much extra layer at the sides that the middle, where there was less wouldn't pull tight, which defeated the whole purpose. In the end I got some pellon and put that in the arest that are rolled up. Now the thickness is about the same all through and it's working pretty well. Not perfect, but pretty close.

It's only been a day, but I think I might have solved the Chatelaine problem. Around giving Marcus all the TLC he was demanding (he's been a bit under the weather today), I got working on the octagonal border. Previously, all I had stitched was the green outline for part 7. Now I have all the stitching done for that bit or boderer in part 7. I've gone back and done the beads for part 6 and half of the beads for part 7. I don't have that much more beading to do, but I had to acknowlege I was getting tired and it was time to stop. Barring the unexpected, I should be able to finish the beads tomorrow and start work on the mountains. I'm really hoping I've got over the barrier and I'll be able to carry on with the project now.

The only catch is that, in typical fashion, now I'm dreaming of all the other Chatelaines I could stitch. Basically, I've found my desired fabric for Watergarden (Starquest Reflections 32-ct Lugana from Silkweaver) and I'm imagining that I could start Illuminated Medieval Sampler when it begins next month. The materials list isn't even out for it yet, so it's not like there are any kits available for it or that I could order my fabric (will be Tiger Eye 32-ct Beflast from Silkweaver) because we don't have a size yet. I think the whole thing will run late, which I'm not really complaining about. I am considering buying myself some European XS gift vouchers whenever I have some spare money in the PayPal account so that I can build up some funds for the kit. I'd love to get the Watergarden kit too, but Illuminated Sampler is my first choice.

More drool

I got an update email from European Cross Stitch the other day, announcing a couple of new designs from Papillion Creations.

These aren't usually my sorts of designs, but I love both of these, especially the Quaker Game Board. Hmmm, if I had more time and more money and less WIPs...

Quaker Game Board


Floralie


Drool....