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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I'm still here, haven't fallen off the face of the earth if you were wondering.
I have been busy stitching amongst other things, so I'll start with some photos.

First, TUSAL up to now

This is on my table next to my stitchy chair with my favourite Aussie flag scissors in front.

I have been busy and here are some finishes.

1. Pine Tree Inn by LHN, recommended fabric and threads

2. I did a box finishing class with Meari from ILCS yahoo group.
I chose to do Seaside Retreat from A Stitcher's Journey by Blackbird Designs.
I used Golden Wattle 32ct lugana from Stitches and Spice with Old Maid of the Sea HDF silk.

3. I joined the Sticklounge group in January and I have my first finish with them.
Thimble Collection designed by Karen of Sunshine-Stitches
I used a 32ct lugana with DMC

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What am I working on now?

WIP 1. Another Sticklounge piece - Many Years Ago Sampler designed by Gudi.
I'm using a pale violet 28ct Jobelan from Stitches and Spice with a custom colour by HDF.

I have finished parts 1 and 2.

WIP 2. Sweet Flowers.
I had lots of problems with this piece last month. Every time I did some stitching I had to pull out most of it and restitch because I was out with my counting. After doing that for 2 weeks I was ready to throw it across the room, so I put it away for several weeks. I picked it up again at the end of last week and finished part 7. I am working on part 8 now and part 9 comes out at the end of the week so I'm hoping I don't end up too far behind again.

Well, that's the end of the stitching news, so the rest is about family and holidays.

We went up to Yeppoon to visit my Dad in June for a week of the winter school holidays.
This is the view from his deck looking out to Great Keppel Island.

Dawn, looking towards North Keppel Island. My favourite time of the day.

This is the Singing Ship at Emu Park which commemorates the landing of Captain James Cook in 1770. Yes, it sings!

On the drive home we were waved to the side of the road and stopped by the police so this could go past. A dump truck body heading for one of the coal mines in Central Queensland. Luckily it was on a 'good' section of the road - that's our national highway once you're more than a few hours north of Brisbane.

Family life is still busy. DS has made the top chess team at his school - not bad for grade 10. He plays against other schools this term, but he trains all year. He is also playing rugby this term. This month he has to pick his subjects for grades 11 and 12. It looks like his electives will be physics, IT maths B (maths required for uni ) and maths C (maths useful for engineering at uni). He has to do English and Study of Religion (catholic school). He wanted to continue Japanese but has decided he probably should do both maths instead. He has no idea what he wants to do but his passion is IT. Out of school he is involved in the older scouts.

DD is even busier. She is doing live musical theatre with the scouts. Rehersals started in July and they do 8 performances over 10 days in late October. She has just finished winter netball and will start summer netball on Wednesday nights in October. She had a scare during her last netball game - came off at half time and asked me to take her to the first aid room to get a hurt finger taped up. The first aid lady said we should go to the hospital emergency department as she thought it was broken. The doctor and nurse at the hospital thought the same, but luckily the x-ray was clear. They splinted it anyway as it was pretty sore, but the pain stopped after 4-5 days.
She has also signed up to play cricket again this summer, that will be on Saturday mornings. DD will be going to the scout Jamboree in January for 2 weeks. It is held every 3 years and next year DD will be just old enough but it is in Queensland, only a few hours from Brisbane, so we said go for it. She still needs to get some more experience camping in tents with the scouts before January, but she only moved up to the scouts in May. DD also plays tennis, is in the school choir and does speech and drama lessons. Her last eisteddfod was a few weeks ago so next up is the voice and drama exam in November.

DH is home at the moment. He has been fighting a bad cold the last few weeks but he is going car racing this weekend so it is good he is starting to feel better. DD is also away camping this weekend so it looks like it will be a quiet one for DS and I.

I was trying to catch up on my blog reading before posting this, but it just wasn't happening.
If you have read all this, thank you. If you leave a comment, you are awesome.