nishatalitha

I feel like I've done hardly anything at all this weekend, but I am assured that this is not actually the case. Indeed, if I list it out, I've done quite a bit, for all I spent most of yesterday sitting in a chair in the lounge reading Inception fic. After it hit nine or ten yesterday evening, I had a glass of whiskey and a couple of port so I wouldn't end up going into the kitchen and making a completely unnecessary batch of chocolate-caramel brownies or chocolate self-saucing pudding. Or both.

So far this weekend, I have:

• done all the laundry (and most of it is folded and put away);
  
• made pancakes for breakfast yesterday;
  
• made feta-spinach-pasta thing for dinner;
  
• assisted in cleaning up the kitchen a few times;
  
• made the pea teepee stand up again and hopefully anchored it enough that it doesn't fall over again;
  
• made the gooey cinnamon rolls that purplesparkler made that time (only in a roasting dish rather than a baking tray for all that bubbling sugar); and
  
• probably, I will made thai fish cakes for dinner.

I should also vaccum my room, clean the bathroom, do my ironing and make something to take to the Dresden files playtest tomorrow afternoon. You will note there is absolutely nothing on the list about embroidery, designing, or my Kapcon game.

I forgot to print out the base pictures I want to start drawing from at work the other day, and I haven't been bothered cracking out the lead pencil, baking paper, and the book on the Bayeux tapestry. I'm fairly sure that the inner lines of the border are going to be A4, with the border wider at the top and the bottom than the sides.

Long weekend, so no work tomorrow. This is awesome.

Photos, as promised. Although while looking at them, I noticed a missing stitch in Winter, so I guess I'm not quite finished after all. This has been on the go for a bit over two years (I really started it in Raglan when I was there for Grandad's funeral), with six months or so off for study and doing thesane's wedding present.

( Lots and lots of pictures )

For all that I talked about (or think I talked about as sometimes I'm not sure of the difference) about slowing down, about being less busy and easing some things out of my life, it hasn't really worked. Maybe after this weekend - and the week after Easter, I don't have class, so that should make things easier to.

I'm currently trying to work out how much of Conjunction I want to attend. The entire thing is (currently) $100, but I believe that goes up if you register on the day and I certainly don't want to use my entire Easter with the SF Con. Each individual day is about $25 at the moment. I have go on Friday as I'm running For the Honour of the Family again and with any luck, I'll get a full cast. That would be neat. But for the rest of it - well, maudlinrose and tamarillow aren't currently planning to attend or attend much and they're the usual people I'd hang out with at this event. I'm not sure what darthsappho and tofulope are doing either. It is not that I don't believe that getting to know new crazy people at a con is a bad thing - one of my good friends I met at the last con I went to - but I don't have the energy or the time, really, to put into new people when I am changing how I relate to other people in my life and am focusing a lot on that aspect.

So if you are planning to attend, do let me know, and maybe we can work out something together.

I failed at getting to bed before midnight last night or the night before, and once again, I didn't get to the gym on time, so it's definite - I have to be asleep before midnight. I must be getting old. So I shall finish writing this post, make my lunch, finish chatting to Alessan, make my lunch and go to bed. Probably to read, but I'm more inclined to turn my light out if I'm already in bed.

The handwork is into its final stage (I just need to buy some black thread and think about spacing) and then I can do some nice ordinary uncomplicated counted crossstitch like the maidens and that will be good.

And the wedding present is finished! Crossstitching, backstitching, beading, accent and all! It is done. And of course, Walrus Gallery was closed for their summer break when I got there. They're open again next week, so I guess it'll be Tuesday before I can take it in.

I'm still not entirely pleased with it - I ended up backstitching the bride's dress in the light pink varigated silk that I used for the ruffle on the bridesmaid's dresses (I first used it on my sister's wedding sampler), but I can't come up with a better idea, so unless I do before Tuesday, I guess it stays. I should sign it, too. Doing the champagne bubbles in beads was absolutely the right decision - it looks fantastic. The rest of the beading also looks good, but I'm particularly pleased with that part.

It is my last day at Baldwins tomorrow. It seems quite strange. I started there 3 July 2006, which feels both a very short and very long time ago. I will need to compose a farewell email at some point during the day. I don't think I've sent out an 'all staff' email before. I'm taking a couple of bags to work to take stuff home in, but I imagine there'll be more stuff than I expect. There always is.

I'm currently working out whether timing will work for me to come to practice on Saturday. I have something in town at 1.00pm, which means a 12.30 bus at the latest, allow me at least half an hour to get changed, preferably more, a fifteen minute or so walk home... managable, I think. Just. We'll see.

And wonderfully, I start at SG on Tuesday, so I have Monday to sleep in and linger in bed and laze around the house doing nothing, which sounds like a really good thing right now. I should go to bed.

I have hair! It looks awesome. Currently it's straight, but that's only going to last until I have a shower at the gym tomorrow morning. The colour is going to last a lot longer and it's great. Very different and contrasting. I haven't told my mother what colour the streaks are and I think she's dreading something terrible which she'd have to make me fix before my brother gets married. Not purple, alas, because my hairdresser couldn't find a royal purple that would fade well. But she is a fantastic hairdresser and I am really happy with the results.

Am down to eight and a half squares of black, so hopefully my brother's will turn up soon. They have set a date now - 1 February 2008 (and I am vaguely disturbed that I wanted to bold that for a deadline as per the style guide at work). But that means I have two and a half months to stitch and frame a sampler. Not that it looks remotely hard, but I'd've rathered a bit more time.

The team secretary is away again all this week, but is joining us for our team lunch tomorrow. I should be nicely busy for the rest of the week.

tamarillow's new couch arrives on Saturday and so the Sallies are coming tomorrow to pick up the old lounge sweet, a box of cups and miscellany, possibly the old stereo and about a dozen bags of old clothing, since clearly this necessitated a wardrobe clear out. I have space in my drawers and wardrobe now. It's quite a novelty. Now I need to buy clothes - or will, once I've lost a bit more weight, because I have enough things to go on with, more or less.

After a busy weekend, I am experimenting with embroidery stitches. I have borrowed tamarillow's A-Z of embroidery stitches and I have a scrap piece of linen, which I suppose, technically, is a sampler and am trying out a few stitches before I start bl9_knt and purplesparkler's wedding present. I'll get the linen for that next week.

We had tamarillow's mum and brother up for a birthday lunch yesterday and as part of her birthday present, tamaraillow got plants and transport to and from the Mitre10 Garden Croften Downs. We then weeded the bank and chopped down one of the hydrangas and planted our garden. But first, we composted. We made compost, rather haparzardly, but we made usable compost! It feels very good. There are a few herbs to replace - primarily tarragon and italian parsley, but we're rather pleased with how it looks. The garden is clearly marked off, so if the moron with the weedeater chops down our garden again, I think they should replace the plants!

Today we had three people from church up for lunch. One of them had to hurry off early, since it turned out she was working this afternoon, but the other two, a lovely older couple tamarillow and I have had lunch with before at their place a couple of times, stayed until about three. It turns out that he'd gone to school with maudlinrose's grandfather. Small world.

There was lots of gardening talk and they had a look at our section and were very glad they didn't have to deal with ours, with its steep banks and lack of topsoil. Not much they could recommend that would plant well, save for three things I refuse to plant - gorse, convuvulis and oxalis. The best thing would be to stick a lot more top soil and compost up on the bank and dig it in thoroughly, which is too much effort here.

The flight down was on one of the Airbus planes, which is the biggest plane I've flown in within New Zealand. Six seats a row, lots of rows, not enough space to crossstich in (I checked that I was allowed the scissors before I went through the x-ray scanner) and small children. One of the said small children said something rude as we were leaving the plane, and later, as I was waiting for my bag said small child and mother came up to me and apologised. That was surprising, but appreciated.

I was met by thesane and her partner who took me back to their place and fed me dinner, which was good lasagne. We then watched Barbarella: Queen of the Universe, which I fell asleep partway through. I'm sorry about that because I was quite enjoying it. I might have to watch it again at some point and stay awake for the entire thing. Jane Fonda's character seemed to loose her clothes at any excuse.

They have a lovely house with three fireplaces that they can't use, this being Christchurch and a library/music room with lots of books, a piano and a harp (clearly the important things about the house) and a lovely garden with increasingly less ivy.

Today was spent wandering around town. We visited lots of fabric stores, some bookstore (saw a copy of Redeeming the Lost by Elizabeth Kerner, which I would have bought if I hadn't read it before. Instead (at a different bookstore) I picked up The Excalibur Alternative by David Weber, which I enjoy somewhat more.

I am now in possession of five metres of blue wool which which I am to make a Daughter's Day festival dress with. I understand much of the next two days will be spent making the corset and possibly starting the dress. I am sure it will be fun, and thesane is planning to get me to enjoy plain-sewing. But then I get to do stupid amounts of embroidery, which I'm quite looking forward to. It will, at least, be transportable.

I keep wanting to make a hardanger or some other form of cutwork or a pulled thread altar cloth.

I am surprised at how much this tummy bug has taken out of me. I haven't been sick since July last year, when I started at Baldwins, and that was just a really nasty cold. It didn't leave me feeling like a wrung-out rag from going to a church meeting! I'm not tired; I just run out of energy quickly.

Today I left the house for the first time since Friday lunchtime, when I returned from going to the doctor's. I didn't go to church, only to the member's meeting after, then to the library, wandered through a couple of bookstores and Goldings before sitting down in McD's and having some coke to get enough energy to get to the bus stop and come home again, and once home I had to sit down for an hour or so before doing anything other than stitch!

The last time I ran out of energy this quickly, I was recovering from an operation and that was a completely different sort of exhausted! A better analogy is the time I was recovering from flu and moving into Harbour View Rd at the same time.

Still, I will endeavour to go to class tomorrow (I just did my readings) and maybe to Arty Bees, since they have a book on hold for me that I'd like to trade some other books for. Back to work on Tuesday and to the gym on Wednesday, I think, or so is the plan. I will have to ask Tredwell for a med. cert., I think, when I speak to him tomorrow morning.

The Deco Wreath I'm doing for my workmate who is moving to Australia is coming along nicely. When I started it I estimated a two-three week job at the most, not something a bit over a weekend! I'm doing some of the fill at the moment and will be onto the backstitch shortly. Go to Art-Stitch and it's the Deco Wreath under the Art Deco link, if you can be bothered checking it out. I also picked up the Plum and Gold (stained glass link) for myself and will probably do that once I've finished this eighth of my dragon. I have a lot of things to do once I've finished my dragon.

I feel quite proud of myself. Last night, I finished The Reality Dysfunction, and I even almost want to read the next one. Not for a while though, I have plenty of other things to read which I am now catching up on. The Chosen by Robert Picado is still put to one side while I read something more cheerful; both of the two books named being closer to the horror genre than I am really comfortable with.

I also *bounces* picked up a framed sampler from Walrus Gallery on Taranaki St after work today. It looks very good, and I'm quite pleased with it. I will post photos when I am able. I've also started the small one that stephanie_pegg and repton_infinity gave me for my birthday. I thought about trying to do it in a day, and then I decided I wanted to read...

Work is going to be very quiet tomorrow - we will have three of our five authors away, and I doubt the remaining two will do enough work for four secretaries. What do people do at work when it's quiet and they're bored?

I'll try and be bouncy and bubbly, manic_subbie, but I don't know how well it'll work.

I'm bored. I can't concentrate enough to write anything, and if I could I doubt it would be Freedom but Chimes. It's awkward enough to concentrate on reading anything, and I suspect there is a reason that I'm not looking at anything emotionally heavy or angsty. Of course, I can't concentrate on anything with bad paragraphing, punctuation or grammer, but that's usual.

I would like to be starting the sampler that I'm doing for my mum, for her birthday, but I rather think I need to finish planning it out before I do anything of the sort. Hopefully I won't need to write it all out - particularly the border. Each repeated section is 7 (high) by 10 (wide) stitches. And I know the lettering is about 185 stitches wide.

No, I didn't count them. The graph paper I'm using has thicker lines every five squares. I counted those.

I haven't worked out how high it will be yet. I can't do that until I work out what picture I want to put with it. I can either do blue pansies, which fit around the lettering and only add 5 stitches to the width, or I can do a longer thing of violets underneath the lettering. I don't think both will work.

I was planning on doing a blue and bronze metallic base for the lettering, but that will only work with the pansies, since violets aren't blue (that I know of), and I'd really rather not put any biological inaccuracies in the sampler. *mutters* And I swore I'd never do a sampler!

If I do the violets, I think the lettering will become a purple - probably DMC 550, since that's the darkest one in the violets - and gold metallic. I have grand ideas about what to do for the capital letters (and thank God, I've settled on the lettering), and they involve things like do the letter itself in the base dark colour, and then do pretty patterns overtop with the metallic in backstitch. It should be fun experimenting.

I just want to be able to start it... But I don't have the linen, and I'm none too sure whether I have all the colours I need, and enough of them. I know I won't have enough gold metallic (shame I can't use the copper with the purple) and I doubt I'll have enough 550 left, but I don't know what else on the list I need.

A good thing is that the smaller capitals (which I'm not using in the sampler itself) and the lowercase letters are about the same height as the border so I have grand plans to do my name, the date and a dedication of sorts in the bottom border instead of the border pattern.

I never really realised how much work went into planning out a crossstitch before. I mean, you can see it in the big ones that I do - http://www.mirabilia.com (have done Garden Verses, The Dreamer, Titania, Queen of the Fairies and A Midsummer's Night Fairy) - but realising the amount of work that goes into a sampler is something entirely different.

And once you've worked out what lettering to use, you need to work out spacing and colours and pictures and borders. I need to do some photocopying so I can return the books to the library and still have a copy of the patterns that I need. The violets and the pansies both come from a library book.

But it should be pretty, and with a border, hopefully it won't need a matt when/if I get it framed. And mum should like it, which is a good thing. But metallics... why do I have to go for prettiness over ease of doing?

Just answered my own question there. Ignore it.

Babble. Isn't it fun?

Oh, and for people who do crossstitch, how far out from the lettering do you think I should put the border? I'm thinking about 10 stitches, but I'm open to suggestion. And is anyone any good at calculating where I should start it and how many sections should fit onto an edge?

*considers eating in order to take painkillers*