Everyone Please Stop Blogging

Posted on October 15, 2006 | 3 comments

No seriously. Stop it! I just cannot possibly keep up. My list of feeds is at critical mass – if I don’t keep up with the new posts for just two days (and often I don’t), it’s over – it takes me a week to catch up, and that’s if I skim.

I think my decluttering effort needs to include my blogroll. Some serious culling needs to be done. But who to cut and who to keep? That’s just too hard, people.

Sometimes I think it would be A Good Thing if my laptop was lost or stolen. Starting afresh would make me really take notice of what parts of my electronic life I really want to keep and what I could happily do without.

I’ve worked a good amount on Claire’s UFO this weekend, I’m about to do some more, and hopefully I’ll have a progress update for you tomorrow.

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Posted in General Ramblings

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SBQ 11/10

Posted on October 14, 2006 | Comments Off on SBQ 11/10

SBQ-ing along again:

As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a special regimen that you would like to share?

Dry skin is very much an issue for me at the moment, not because of the Winter (because it’s not), but the many daily nappy changes/ washing of hands that come along with a new kiddo. My hands got pretty bad a couple of months back (when it was Winter) – it was really difficult working with silks, I kept snagging them (so I put away Dragonfly Jewels for a while, remember). I’m using QV lotion (from Ego) pretty religiously now – I use it all over Niamh, too, and on a few dry bits of Finn’s skin. Eczema runs on my side of the family, so I really do try to keep us all moisturised 🙂

I tried out that hemp hand cream from the Body Shop – OtherHalf likes it a lot, but it leaves me with too talc-y a feeling, so I don’t use it. I have a bunch of other creams and lotions too, but most are too scented or too greasy for my liking. Though the greasy ones are good to put on last thing at night before bed, I find. Like now!

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Memes

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A Whole Lot of Cranky

Posted on October 13, 2006 | 4 comments

It’s 7am. I am half dressed, have already been spit-upon twice… no, three times this morning, Niamh woke up several times again last night, and I made the mistake of weighing myself this morning. Yesterday was the day I didn’t get out of my pyjamas until 5pm. (I knew there’d eventually be one of those – one could wonder why I bothered changing at all once it got that late – I certainly do!) This ‘4-month sleep regression’, if that is what it is, is kicking my butt. Tell me, how is it fair to regress from something you were never actually any good at? I was just starting to think maybe I was doing okay, even though Niamh was mostly still getting up twice a night. I was starting to handle it. Now? Not so much.

All of that, though, is not the main cause of this morning’s irritation. This is the big one…

A BIRD HAS STOLEN THE FIRST RIPENED STRAWBERRY FROM MY GARDEN!

Buggeration, that just really ticks me off. Now I have to go and find nets or something to put over the plants. What’s really annoying is the darn bird didn’t even bother to finish the fruit – it left a manky chewed up half-a-berry still hanging off the plant. I had planned on letting Finn pick that strawberry today. Lucky I didn’t tell him about it, hey?

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Posted in Family, From The Garden, The Kids

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Milestones

Posted on October 12, 2006 | 1 comment

One year ago today, I discovered I was pregnant with ‘Small’. Today, I watched that same small baby rolling over and giggling with delight. It was wonderful.

She learned to roll over yesterday, after struggling and struggling to get there for several days. I had made the mistake of thinking she would go from tummy to back first, but when I finally figured out she looked like going the other way, I started putting her on her back again, and over she went. When she did, I lay there chatting with her for a few moments, then reached around for the telephone to call OtherHalf and let him know. In the two seconds my back was turned, she flipped over onto her back again! Mobile baby – scary :giggle: Today she’s been perfecting the roll with nappy on – a cloth nappy presents a slightly bigger obstacle than a bare bottom!

Finn acheived his own milestone yesterday as well. We’ve been putting off night toilet-training for ages now, but on Tuesday night we found ourselves unexpectedly out of pull-ups, so undies for bedtime it was (I couldn’t be bothered going out to buy more at that time of night, plus I’ve been getting irritated by the expense of them and was planning to look for a cloth alternative anyway). Anyway, surprise of surprises, he had a dry bed yesterday morning. Whoohoo! Unfortunately we weren’t so lucky the second night, but we’re on the way now.

We made a wonderful discovery last night. I decided I was in the mood for sushi for dinner, so Google found us a great little takeaway sushi place about ten minutes away. They make up sensational platters for a very decent price, so we came home with a small party platter of nigiri and made gluttons of ourselves (all three of us – Finn loves sushi too). Yum. Topped off with chocolate cake courtesy of OtherHalf, it was a most excellent birthday meal 🙂

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Posted in Family, General Ramblings, The Kids

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Birthday Bling

Posted on October 11, 2006 | 5 comments

Heh. I typed the title quickly and it came out Birthday Blong. That sounds kind of less appealing :giggle:

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Yes, it’s true. I am now ‘in my thirties‘. Do you know, I think that sounds much older than just ‘30‘! I still feel like a babe in the woods (though I must say I think the last four months have aged me a bit).

What I wanted for my birthday: a night’s sleep and a day off. Hahahahaha. Niamh decided to wish me Happy Birthday at 11.45pm, 2.15am, 4.15am and 6.15am. Such a darling.

Here’s what I did score instead:
Birthday Bling
I must confess, I picked this out. That’s the only way to get exactly what you want, after all! Note it feeds my dragonfly habit :smile:. This has amethyst and fluorite stones on it, and as the woman who sold it to us waxed lyrical about the properties of the stones, and how I should ‘cleanse’ the stones by ‘bathing them in healing light’, I couldn’t help but think ‘yes, but I just picked it out because I think it’s pretty‘! It has a nice bit of weight to it, which I like, too.

OtherHalf, Niamh and Finn also gave me seasons 3 and 4 of Will and Grace on DVD (to go with seasons 1 and 2 from last birthday). And… what could possibly be inside here?
Lookie...

Only the most beautiful hand-made chocolates I have ever seen 🙂 Too stunning to eat, I think (yeah, as if!)
Yummy

Also, my Dad arrived home from Canada today. He came bearing a boxload of Canadian treats – maple syrup (of course), tea, coffee, maple butter, hard and soft maple-leaf lollies(/sweets/candies – the hard ones are wonderful – think barley sugar, made with maple syrup. Yum!), chocolate, apple-saskatoon jelly (whatever a saskatoon is – sounds like some kind of bird :giggle: ), and smoked salmon ‘candy’. I don’t know about that one – fish marinated in syrup sounds a bit suspicious to me!

No special plans for tonight – I am not quite ready to leave my baby to a sitter yet. Perhaps Niamh will grant me that night’s sleep tonight instead. (I won’t hold my breath though).

Clarification: I read this again and realised it kind of sounded like I turned 30 today, but actually, I’m 31. Hence, ‘in my 30s’!

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Sparklies & Beads & Threads, Oh My!

Posted on October 10, 2006 | 7 comments

Wow – a day before my birthday, and I’ve already had an international happy birthday phone call, a birthday cheque in the mail, and a big stash order arrival! Yippee. I’ve been waiting on this one for a long time. Some of the Mill Hill treasures were backordered for ages. Anyway, the goodness was extensive when it finally arrived:

Stash!
Stash!
Stash!
Stash!
Stash!

Whew! I’m exhausted after all that, aren’t you?!

PS. I totally didn’t realise I was getting a rainbow of WDWs – I just ordered a bunch that I needed for various charts – it made my heart smile when I pulled them all out of the package today.

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SBQ 28/09

Posted on October 9, 2006 | Comments Off on SBQ 28/09

I should really start answering the SBQs again. I’ll catch up with some of the past questions later, but for now, here’s the latest one:

When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do you take?

If I find tricky little counting errors, I try and fix them or at least frog them on the spot. If I suddenly realise I have a bunch of frogging to do (the sort that usually stems from one particular error), I usually set it aside for a day or so later when I’ve got a cooler head. If I keep making errors every time I pick a piece up – like recently happened with Dragonfly Jewels, then I put it away and work on something else for awhile. Or even better, do something else for awhile.

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Memes

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Discovering the Camera

Posted on October 8, 2006 | 3 comments

Finn has been taking a huge interest in the digital camera lately. Digital is great for kids – there’s instant gratification, and they can take as many pictures as they like. So, what does a three year old boy take photos of when given the chance? Well, himself, of course!
finn-self-portraits

I also love this image he took of trees in silhouette, taken in a nearby bush reserve.
finns-photo

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Posted in Family, The Kids

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The Big List

Posted on October 7, 2006 | 2 comments

Finally, finally, I’ve got around to visiting all my WIPs, and writing out ‘the list’. It isn’t as bad as it could be, what with my decision to go guilt-free. (Most of the new starts I’ve had since then have been small projects that I finished off.) The list is still longer than I’m comfortable with though, so soon I’m going to have to have a go at a rotation again to whittle it down a bit. Here’s the list, roughly in order of oldest to newest, and with approximate progress on each:

  1. Mirabilia – Winter Queen (1998)
  2. Rajmahal – Brilliant Wind (not cross stitch – this is surface embroidery and gold work) (2003) 30%
  3. Vermillion Stitchery – International Bears ‘Kaitlin’ 95% (2003)
  4. Dimensions – Noah’s Journey (Nov, 2003) 20%
  5. Patricia Allison – Seasonal Dragons ‘Spring’ (Dec, 2003) 65%
  6. Teresa Wentzler – The Storyteller (Apr, 2004) 25%
  7. Dimples Designs – Wee Beasties Part 6 (Sep, 2004) 15%
  8. Chatelaine – Christmas Tree Mandala (Jan, 2005) 70%
  9. Chatelaine – The Knotgarden (Feb, 2005) 5%
  10. Mirabilia – The Petal Fairy 35%(Dec, 2005)
  11. Mirabilia – Lilly of the Woods 15% (Mar, 2006)
  12. Mirabilia – Mermaids of the Deep Blue 20% (Apr, 2006)
  13. Periwinkle Promises – November Sampler Accent 20% (May, 2006)
  14. The Cat’s Whiskers – Dragonfly Jewels 35% (July, 2006)
  15. Mirabilia – Bumblebee 80%(August, 2006)

(I’ve learned that I’m absolutely hopeless at estimating % progress, so some of these are probably terribly inaccurate, but it gives you an idea.)

The list is interesting – I think it shows a good cross-section of my stitching taste. Five out of the fifteen are Mirabilia designs, and four out of fifteen are insect designs (three of those are dragonflies). Of course there are also a couple of dragons in there – there would probably be more if most of the dragon charts I have weren’t so huge.

I’d like to get back down to under 10 projects. I’ll be binning Winter Queen (remember), so that’s 14. Kaitlin is only missing some backstitching (I actually thought she was finished, it was a bit of a surprise to dig her up and find she wasn’t) so I’ll finish her off today or tomorrow, that gives me 13. Then, starting November, I’m planning to pick three projects and rotate them whenever I’m not working on the UFO Round Robin. I won’t start rotating in October as I still have a round of student marking to go (and the less said about that, the better :yuk: ), and also I imagine it’s going to take me until the mailing deadline to finish up 20 hours on Claire’s UFO.

The first three projects I’ll rotate? Hmmm… not sure. My first thoughts are probably ‘the small ones‘! Bumblebee, certainly. Probably the Periwinkle Promises kit, as it’s something a bit different. And maybe something bigger – maybe MOTDB, which is my favourite of the Miras I currently have on the go. Or perhaps I should choose something older? What do you think?

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress

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Things I Know Today

Posted on October 6, 2006 | Comments Off on Things I Know Today
  • If you try and feed yourself at the same time as you are feeding the baby, you will end up with crumbs in your bra. (Or soy sauce on the baby, if you happen to be eating sushi!) 😳
  • If you try using reverse psychology often enough on a 3 year old, they will turn the tables on you – Finn’s favourite phrase has progressed from ‘Look at me, look at me’ (Bart Simpson, anyone?) to ‘Don’t look at me, don’t look at me’ :giggle:
  • I am up too late, but it was worth it :drink: 😆 G’night!

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Posted in Family, General Ramblings, The Kids

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