Indeed it has been, and I am more than a little pleased with myself. I have made a new birthday card for a friend of the family:

I’m quite chuffed with this one.

Now for my real reason for posting today: I would like to ask a question of the Blogiverse, at least the crafting portion of the Blogiverse. A few months ago I had a letter published in a cross stitch magazine, and they sent me a prize for publishing said letter (like having the letter published wasn’t enough!). It was a Hodgepodge Hardware tin of goodies. Wow! It’s very nice, with lots of little bits and bobs in it, but my question is; what the heck do I do with the contents? I had it sat next to me while making all the Christmas cards in case inspiration should poke its little head up, but no joy! Here are some photos:

Any suggestions? I really am at a loss as to what to do with them, and would appreciate any input (aside from sticking it up my bum – that would NOT be appreciated!).

So now I must return to the sock knitting. I am tired of knitting socks, and I haven’t even finished the first pair of eight for Christmas! I would love to be cross stitching again, but that is going to have to wait until after Christmas now. Never mind; only three weeks to go lmao!

… to say that I have finished making Christmas cards for this year (unless I suddenly remember someone else I should send one to!) and am about half-way through writing them out.

So? This means that I can now concentrate solely on knitting socks until Christmas.

I have found myself yearning to cross stitch during the day, but daren’t pick up the needle and thread as I am still knitting the first of about eight pairs of socks!

I have completely wasted today (what little I have seen of it) and really should be in bed right now, but I’m writing this before I power down the PC. I have spent the day updating the pages on this blog (although I still have loads of Christmas cards to upload to the cardmaking pages) and editing photos etc. I still have a long way to go, and many more sites to update before my job is done, but then my whole life seems to be a great big Work In Progress at the moment!!

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year – and not only because we have the children! I don’t know, I kind of feel quite Christmassy.

On the other hand, I’m not really looking forward to Christmas, because of the whole L and R thing. I don’t think my stress levels will be lowered until the whole situation has been resolved. And I can’t even blog about it until it has been, so we’ll all have to wait.

Well, I guess I should call it a day and bumble off to bed so I can start afresh tomorrow!

zara by edarcydesign on Etsy.

I want this for Christmas. Seriously. I think I have fallen in love with it.

Yes, a strange combination to be blogging about I’m sure, but nonetheless…

 

Yesterday I was struck by the urge to make some Christmas cards. I’m not entirely sure where it came from (apart from knowing that I’ll never be able to cross stitch another forty cards in the next two weeks), but I was struck all the same. So while we were out and about, trying to cheer ourselves up over the crappy luck we’re having with our recordable Freeview box (one blew up and the one we bought to replace it doesn’t work), I picked up a few card making essentials:

1. Outline stickers  2. “The Snowman” cardstock   3. Red flocking   4. Assorted Christmas stamps from Papermania   5. Red glitter   6. Silver ink pad   7. Red and silver gems

 

I also purchased a couple of cardmaking magazines for inspiration.

 

I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive about making my own Christmas cards this year, since last year’s looked like they had been made by a seven-year-old (except for the dangly silver stars, which I managed NOT to photograph…). The evidence:

Not what I would call “exception” unless you are referring to the work of a four-year-old…

 

Anyhow, last night when we got back from our wander I sat and looked through the magazines, not intending to do anything except encourage creativity and inspiration to take hold of me. And it did, but it forced me to make two cards there and then:

My Cosy Christmas Penguin card took about an hour to make, and I think that inserting the eyelet into the “with love” tag was the most time-consuming component! It took my husband and I several attempts to work out how to use the damned rivet punch (trust me to get a multi-tool and not understand the instructions!) but we got there eventually! I have used “designer” papers that were free with a magazine (I’m sorry, I can’t remember which one at the present moment in time, but will update this if I do manage to dredge the name up from the depths of my brain).

The pink star aperture card was actually the first card I made, based on a tutorial in the magazine I got yesterday and using their templates in the back. I altered the design slightly to suit my preferences, and then embossed Merry Christmas on a piece of card at the top. I love the layered effect of this card, and wish our colour printer was working so I could print some more Christmassy papers that I have on it, but alas that is not meant to be (

 

The pink star aperture card took me about two and a half hours to make (or there-abouts), by the time you’ve accounted for my re-measuring, trimming and general umm-ing and aaah-ing over bits and pieces. I hope to make more than two cards today (let’s face it, I’m working on a deadline here) but I am definitely impressed with last night’s efforts.

 

~     ~     ~

So, Follow Friday on Twitter. Anyone? I worked out from the name that it meant following people on a Friday, but beyond that I’m out.

However, upon switching on the Mighty Desktop this morning (yes, I have actually been doing other things in-between writing this post), I noticed that Stephen Fry (whom I just love and have been following for, oh I don’t know, ever?) had tweeted a Follow Friday tweet (I am aware this doesn’t make an awful lot of sense: my brain is starting to wobble a bit). So I minimised Chocqok (my KDE Twitter client) and opened Firefox (my browser of choice) and navigated over to his Twitter home page.

I am now following a few more people, who seem to me to be quite amusing, and have re-tweeted Stephen Fry and some other dude whose name escapes me at the moment (surprise) because I am following the same people.

Now, I have to ask, does anyone know where Follow Friday originated? Who decides who should be followed and who should not be followed on a Friday? And what about the people you start following on the other six days of the week? Are they not worth a mention? Am I just being blonde by asking these questions, or does anyone else ask them too?

Another thing of note that I happened upon was the number of people following and being followed by the wonderous Stephen Fry. It really is quite astonishing that he has nearly twice as many followers than he is following. I know this is because he is famous etc, but who else has more followers than they are following? And in that proportion? Now that proportion in reverse (i.e. following twice as many as are following you) I understand to be quite common. And I feel I must point out that I enjoy following those that I follow, and am grateful for my followers (and it never ceases to amaze me that people want to read the shit I come out with!).

I think I might be babbling. Am I babbling? Tell me to stop then!! Honestly….

… and far too quickly for my liking!

So, let me start at the beginning.

I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks with my computer, installing Open SuSE Linux and Ubuntu next to Windows XP and trying to find the Grub that will allow me to boot whichever of the three operating systems I choose. I love Ubuntu (in case you didn’t already know!) and don’t want to get rid of it completely, but it is Gnome-based, and most of the applications I use are KDE-based. But KDE4 has been quite buggy since it was released, which I really can’t be dealing with (I just want things to work, you know?), so I have stuck with Ubuntu through thick and thin for the last few years. But Open SuSE released 11.2 this month and I fell in love with it. It runs KDE4.3, and quite smoothly too I might add. So I get to use all my favourite apps (like Kontact, Digikam, Akregator and Choqok) in their native environment. And it runs like a dream.

However, I can’t seem to configure the HP printer/scanner in Open SuSE, so I have to boot into Ubuntu to scan. Hubby will sort this out for me at some point, being the Linux Guru that he is, but in the meantime, I prefer to do everything but scanning in SuSE.

But that is not all I have been doing.

I am still stitching Christmas cards like mad, although the last few days I have been busy organising patterns so I can tidy my craft space up a bit. The end result of the tidying is:

It’s still a mess, isn’t it?! I have so many projects on the go at the moment, that I have to keep them close by or I’ll forget about them! So, on the table I have my computer that my husband built for me (a bit of a geek-fest, that one!), which I would be lost without, a nice big cup of tea and various bits and bobs. Under the table (which is the bit I actually tidied) I have a few cross stitch and knitting patterns in the folder, a caddy full of sparkly embellishments and paperclips and ink cartridges, a hole-punch sat on a box of embellishments I won, a bag full of Madeira threads and metallic threads etc., and my journals (knitting, cross stitch, craft and a general note book) and sketch pads.

To the right of the table (which I intend to tackle next week), there is a folder full of DMC stranded cotton, a folder full of Anchor stranded cotton, the Flutter-by sock I’m currently knitting, a chocolate truffle kit, a bag full of sewing projects to be sewn up on the sewing machine and various patterns for various projects.

To the right of that (which you can’t see in the photo), is the coffee table, under which I have a box full of wire and beading accessories, a box full of blank cards and various card-making bits and bobs, together with my sewing box and a few of my birthday presents.

Which brings me to the next part of my blog: my birthday! It was my birthday last Friday and my family were very generous and supplied me with the following amusing cards and lovely gifts:

Yes, that’s right, I was given the complete works of Blackadder on DVD and a beautiful Maia cross stitch kit. Here’s a close-up of that one:

Isn’t it gorgeous? As you can see from the photo, it’s called “Rejoice” and it was designed by Monica Stewart Fine Art. I can’t wait to start stitching it, but before I can even contemplate opening the packaging and ironing the 16-count beige aida, I have to stitch these:

From left to right: Cut Thru’ Cottage by Bothy Threads (a kit I won in a competition); Sea Goddess by Joan Elliott; and Sleeping Cat by Anne Mortimer.

I have had the materials for these three projects sat around the house waiting to be stitched for so long now, I can’t remember when I got the bits and pieces together!! I am really looking forward to stitching each one, but can’t wait to finish the first three so I can start stitching Rejoice.

But before I can start any of these projects, I have to finish the Christmas cards and the Fairy Mother and Child birth sampler, and time seems to be speeding up, if not evaporating!!

And then I also have important milestone birthdays to stitch for next year (although I am determined not to cross stitch any other birthday presents or Christmas cards or presents until I have stitched a good few projects for hubby and myself). For example, my father-in-law’s seventieth birthday is in March, a life-long family friend will turn sixty in May and my middle-little sister will be eighteen next (2010) December! That’s a lot of stitching to be getting on with for one year in most people’s cases!

In addition to the cross stitch mountain I have to climb, I have also promised my three step-children (who are wonderful and I love them so very much) that I would knit them each a pair of socks for Christmas.

As well as my Mum, brother and three sisters.

And husband.

And my youngest step-daughter wants a nice fluffy purple jumper as well.

…

There are not enough hours in the day, or days in the week. And has it really been nearly a year since last Christmas? It only feels like a few weeks actually. Where does the time go?

Also, I follow a few blogs and stuff and watch a few people’s photo profiles, and I really have to ask: how the hell do you find the time to do so much cross stitch??!!! I mean, seriously, there’s one lady who has divided her photo albums/sets/whateveryouwannacallthem into years, and I swear to God she has about twenty different projects in each set! Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but there really are more than it is humanly possible to stitch in one calendar year. Or does she live in a time-warp or something? If she does, where can I get one? Are they expensive? Honestly, I can’t work and some days I actually manage to stitch for six hours. And even then it can still take me a few months to complete a large project. How do people with jobs find time to stitch? I know I was always far too tired to stitch when I got home from a day at the office, but then maybe that was because of the chronic fatigue syndrome…

Whatever the answer/solution, Please do leave a comment below and let me know how you manage your crafting time. I am super-organised because I used to be a secretary/personal assistant and I just don’t have the time to do all the projects I want to do when I want to do them. So how do you manage it? Do you have to delay stitching particular projects because of an important birthday and running out of time? Or am I just sketching myself out and wanting to do too much? Please share any tips you have picked up…

Radical Cross Stitch » stitching a new economics.

I implore you all to read the article at the above link – especially if you are concerned about today’s economy. I read this and it really struck a chord with me. What do you think?

In other news, I have finished some more Christmas cards (see my Christmas card page – link to your right) and also knitted what I have called a “Zanzibar” (because that’s what I used to knit it!). It is a shawl/wrap, scarf or headscarf, and is sooooo pretty!!

Isn’t it gorgeous? It wasn’t as much fun to knit as I thought it was going to be, but I really am very pleased with the results.

…. until Christmas that is!

 

In light of this fact, I have put the birth sampler on hold while I stitch some more Christmas cards. I finished this one last night:

 

It really is quite difficult to tell from the photograph, but the snow is stitched with DMC Light Effects, which is glittery bright white. Cool eh?! I also experimented with the photographs, and so here is another….

I’m not sure I got the angle quite right, so expect more photos of the experimental type.

 

Anyway, in view of the fact I have only stitched seven cards so far, I really should get back to that in stead of writing this blog post and worrying about my little brother…

I am so pleased with my progress so far that I just couldn’t resist sharing a photo with you:

As you can see from the photo on the right, I have now been working on this project for a total of 16¼ hours, so if you have followed the link on my WIPs and Queue page, you will know that I’m coming up to the half-way point. I can’t wait to start adding the Kreinik braid and the beads – this is going to look so gorgeous when it’s finished!!!

 

I think that the fabric I hand-dyed for this really sets off the cross stitch, and I might even send a photo of the project to Joan Elliott when I’m finished stitching. Surprisingly, the back of the project is staying quite neat and tidy, despite the number of thread changes. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how that goes, and maybe do another compare and contrast like I did with Love’s Journey…

 

I also can’t wait to finish this because I will be stitching another of Joan’s designs after, one which I have been admiring and wistfully hoping to stitch for over a year; Sea Goddess. I fell in love with this pattern when it was featured in Cross Stitch Collection in May 2008, and loved it even more when I got Joan’s book, A Woman’s World in Cross Stitch, where the picture of the project was clearer to see (I think it might be time to see the optician about some glasses…)

 

Anyway, I have hand-dyed some fabric for this project as well and really can’t wait to start stitching it – it has been put on hold far too many times, and now that I have all the materials I will need, there is no excuse when I finish Fairy Mother and Child.

 

Am I jibbing? Sorry about that. I’ll leave you in peace now – I want to get back to the stitching! I really must pick up my knitting needles and finish the Flutter-by socks so I can move on to the next pair of socks I’m knitting for Christmas presents. More important than that, I must line and sew up the halter-neck top I knitted as a 30th birthday present to myself – I have another birthday coming up next week, which will mean that this particular project will have been a year in the making soon if I don’t get on with it… Photos will follow. Eventually.

cakeyvoice: ow me gums.

I cannot remember how long precisely I have been following cakeyvoice’s blog, but I have to admit that I rarely read it without a smile on my face. This particular post actually made me laugh. Out loud. I’m sorry about that because I shouldn’t laugh at other people’s pain and suffering, but I expect I won’t be the only one.

Yes, I have indeed been busy! I finished Love’s Journey and am today posting the compare and contrast photos of the back. Actually, this one was not a very good example, as the back is extraordinarily neat. Probably because of the use of only nine colours. I think we’ll do another one when I finish Fairy Mother and Child by Joan Elliott, which I really am enjoying and don’t expect it to take the 60 hours predicted by WOXS.

Anyway, the photos:

The finished project

The back before I did the backstitch

The back of the completed project.

Please do vote in the poll – and leave a comment!!

So I have now moved on to Fairy Mother and Child by Joan Elliott. This is such a gorgeous design, and I am really enjoying it:

I have also turned the heel on the first of the Flutter-by socks, and love the pattern of the heel stitch:

“Eye of Partridge” heel stitch pattern on first Flutter-by sock

Flutter-by stitch pattern

I know it’s not terribly easy to see the stitch pattern here, but it really does look like butterflies!

I have also cross stitched another Christmas card:

I am itching to get back to stitching the Fairy Mother and Child project, so I’ll leave it here for now.

I know I usually finish the backstitch a lot quicker than I have on this project, and that I promised a photo of the back of the stitching when I finished the backstitch, which I have not forgotten. I am sorry to those of you who have been waiting patiently for me to post said photos; I have a lot on my plate at the moment and am experiencing a nasty flare-up of my fibromyalgia. My hands are feeling a bit better today though (probably due to typing, strangely enough!) so I hope to finish this piece today and return with photos tomorrow. However, if I run out of thread, you may have to wait a little longer. Again, I’m sorry!

 

Anyway, as soon as I do finish it, I was going to start on the Fairy Mother And Child design by Joan Elliott as a birth sampler for my friend, whose baby is due at the end of January. However, I think I had better stitch a few more Christmas cards before I get carried away with that! I have not forgotten about the Christmas card page I promised, I have just been too busy to start it as yet (although you can actually see a slide-show on Flickr or Picasa and read something about them on my website).

 

In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has been commenting on my blog – I am glad that I can bring a little happiness to others with something that makes me happy to do. I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog, and look forward to reading more of your kind comments. Of course, you are always welcome to e-mail me too! Don’t forget to check out my other blog too – it really is a little different to this one, probably because I only post once a week to that one, so I remember different stuff to write about!

 

Oh, and before I forget, I have joined Tumblr!

If you want to read the previous post, you will have to e-mail me for the password I’m afraid. Sorry about that!

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I have now finished all the cross stitch on Love’s Journey and am about to start the backstitch. Before I do that, however, I thought I would share a photo and ask for opinions.

 

Let me explain.

 

My husband always turns my stitching over to look at the back when I show it to him. He says it’s because he can’t believe how neat and tidy the back is. I disagree. Kind of. Yes, the stitching is tidy on the back when it is just cross stitch, but I think it is messy once I have added the backstitch.

 

Therefore, here is a photo of the back before the backstitch is added, and when I finish the backstitch I will post a photo of the back again and ask you all to vote as to which you think is tidy, or whether you agree with me or my husband…. lol!

 

And just in case you’re wondering, this is how the front looked this morning before I started stitching:

So I shall leave you there and I’ll be back when I’ve finished the backstitch (please don’t hold your breath; there’s quite a lot of backstitch on this one!)

I have been quite busy with the old needle and thread over the weekend, having got more than half way through Lesley Teare’s Love’s Journey, and have also managed to almost reach the heel of the first Flutter-by sock…

 

I suppose this should really be a longer post, but I’m getting a headache from the computer screen after re-installing the new Ubuntu release, so I’ll keep it quite short. Suffice to say that I am enjoying the Willow pattern cross stitch project, and will shortly be moving on to Christmas cards and another birth sampler. Hooray!!