Tenderness - Another finsih - YAY!

My second cross stitch finish in as many weeks! I'm very proud, and I really enjoyed stitching this one! It's been a lovely piece to watch grow as I was working on it, which I have been doing, on and off for a year. My other half is a chiropractor, so I decided to do this to put up his clinic when it was finsihed. I originally meant it to be a surprise, right up until he caught me one evening, so I gave up on that, but I've still been working on it to go up in the clinic. I was aiming to get it done to go with their new brochure, which is going to have a similar image on the front, but that's be delayed now, so I'll just frame it up when I get a chance.

I do recommend Vervaco kits though, especially the sepia ones, they do look lovely and they're good fun and quite simple to stitch.

Now, I've had a productive weekend, getting this finished, now to get In Love put back on the frame, which I took off to work on the birth sampler, and to put a new one of the frame, Little Snap Dragon I think. This is what happens when Ben goes away for the weekend, I suddenly get loads of stitching done.

Tenderness Cross Stitch update

As promised, I've finally got round to doing an update on Tenderness. I actually took this picture a while ago, I just haven't got round to uploading it, and I haven't done anything else on it since the picture was taken. I need to finish the birth sampler I'm doing (hopefully this week), then I can go back to getting this finished, hopefully by early September anyway!

I'm still very fond of the Vervaco charts, the sepia ones look so effective when they're done. I've got two nearing completion which means decisions will have to be made soon! Birth Sample will be replaced by In Love, which I had to eject from the frame in the first place, but I haven't decided what I'm going to replace Tenderness with, I've got about half a dozen in mind! Little snap dragon, regency ballroom from Cross Stitch Collection, King Arthur sampler, which a kindly soul donated to me once, a nice Arthurian lady who was also donated, the the famous shot from Memoirs of a geisha of her white face and the black hair or pluck up the courage to start my first HAED, I've got 5 so I really ought to pick one, a couple of Meredith Dillmans, a couple of Selena Fenech and a Linda Ravenscroft one, there are so many to choose from, and I just can't decide. Still, I've got a month to think about it, and knowing me despite the fact that they're all the ones that I've got 'queued' at the moment, you know I'll end up picking something completely random instead!

Anyway, after that quick update, I''d better head back to the kitchen. I'm attempting to make chocolate mousse cake, and I think my mousse is to runny and isn't going to set properly. If I'm honest, going back to the kitchen isn't going to help, it's done now, I'm simply hovering round it in a nervous fashion and hoping that it sets. This is why I normally do cupcakes, cupcakes are simple and I always get those round, but now I'm trying something new, and I'm a bit worried about it! Ah well, wish me luck!

Tenderness and to long since I've last updatred

Two weeks update on Tenderness, I did loads last week but this week's been much less productive, after a slight explosion at work on Wednesday (almost literally, my sewing machine was making some fascinating burning smells at one point). But here is the progress, I'm hoping to get this page finished today. Ben's off to watch the football and a barbeque with mates so that gives me a quiet afternoon to do what I want so it's going to be either a film or an audio book and my stitching for the afternoon.

Oh yeah, and trying to forget that I've got a dentists appointment tomorrow :-(

Does anyone remember the Sweet Valley High books by the way? I read most of them when I was a kid, and I've recently got it into my gead that I want to re-read them, and while you used to be able to get them in every charity shop you now can't get them anywhere, and I'm having to trawl amazon and ebay for them. Also, does anyone else remember the Trebison school stories? I never knew anyone else who read them.

Stitching and Writing topic opinions please

I've just seen Justine celebrating because she's nearly reached 100 followers (Congrats by the way), I'm celebrating because I've nearly reached 10 and have just discovered that I now appear in googles blog search, how sad am I? Anyway, two updates today, firstly, as you can see from the picture, a stitching update, she hasn't grown much this week, but I have done a little. And doesn't she look a little weird where you can see the outlines of muscles starting to form, there's something strangely creepy about it. Haven't got much done because I lost my main stitching night 'cos I was ushering at the theatre, but I'm hoping to get some done this weekend, and I've got another stitching weekend planned (hopefully this time without accidently removing parts of my finger with a big knife) next weekend and Ben is going hill walking. Personally I don't think it classifies as hill walking when bits of it will probably have to be achieved on hands and knees, but what do I know? It does also mean that I'm going to spend at least part of each day hoping against hope that he makes it back intact, which probably wont be helped by the fact that they're camping so he won't have much signal, or a charger and probably won't be able to call me. Okay, breath, panic over now :-)

Second update, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I've got frustrated with my writing and have decided to put it aside and start on something else, as I've got so frustrated that I'm just not doing anything, so a fresh start is probably a good idea, but I can't decide which idea I want to work on. So this is where kindly blog followers come in, I would be interested to hear your opinions on the final three ideas and their pros and cons.

So...

1. Something based around George Boleyn, it'll have to follow the history of his sisters but I want to push him and his relationships to the fore, probably diary style, half written by him and half by the person he falls in love with.

Pros:

• I quite fancy the double voice writing style
• It's a period in history that I like
• The plot is pretty much planned out, firstly by history and then in my head, and I'm fairly sure how I want it to end, and I do like my ending (again, I know, history dictates a lot of how it ends)
• I quite fancy working my way through a lot of historial (Tudor era) characters and telling their stories, so this would be a good starting point for that

Cons:

• I'm going to have to do quite a lot of research before I can really get into the meat of writing it, I like the period and have a reasonable knowledge, but details annoy me when other people get them wrong, so I need to show the same courtesy to others.
• I've never really written something prolonged in first person before, so that may be a bit of a challenge to me.
• Never tried my hand at a male protagonist before, so another challenge for me, don't know how well I'll be able to write male first person.

2. Something based around Robin Hood and his sister (I know, no sister, as above, I quite like throwing an unknown character into an existing history/legend and seeing what happens). Picture her as being quite strong mentally, and her brother strugglnig to come to terms with the woman she's become while he's been away

Pros:

• Again, quite well plotted out, partially by the legend and I've got a pretty good idea of where I want to go with it.
• I'd quite like to have a little romance plot running through it, and would like to see how that develops and where it goes.

Cons:

• Concerend that I may actually have too much plot and that my head will explode when I try to make sense of it.
• Has the story and the history been done to death?
• Again, historically speaking I need to do some research, although this won't need to be quite as thorough and timelined as the George Boleyn one.

3. Traditional Boarding School Story, but from the side of the teachers. When I was a kid I loved Malory Towers, St Claire's and the Chalet School and I figure it would be quite fun to write something in that style, but from the teachers point of view as opposed to the kids.

Pros:

• First and foremost, I really like the idea and just think that it would be fun.
• Again, really like the voice and would quite enjoy writing in that style.
• I hope it's a relatively original idea.

Cons:

• Going to have to do some reading to find the voice (although, is that really a hardship?).
• It's going to be slightly removed from reality, as that sort of school just doesn't exist anymore.
• What's the audience?

Anyway, that's the basics, any comments gratefully accepted :-)

Last weeks stitching

Here's an update of last weeks stitching, the picture that I should have posted last weekend. Three pages plus the first colour of the next page. It's coming along. I'm working pretty hard on it, occasionally anyway, because I'm trying to get it finished in time for Ben's clinic's new brochure going out. Plus one random line down where I didn't want to finish the cotton off when I only had a bit left, hence she's got one line running down where her arm should be.

And now for a weekend of stitching and seeing if I can make a couple of my projects grow a bit where they don't seem to have much recently!

And it's the first time this year I've been able to sit with the window open without freezing myself half to death, so it's all good.

On the down side had a call from Ben last night saying that the car had broken down, so he's taken it to the garage today in the hope that they'll be able to get it running, hope they can other wise it's a long way from Bristol to have to push it back along the hard shoulder :-) Bless him, hoping for updates as the day goes on, in between the quad biking and general stag weekend merriment anyway.

Tenderness update and a bikini crisis

I'm liking the new blog style by the way, I got an email from Blogger the other day telling me that I could make my blog pretty if I wanted, so I gave it a shot and this is what I cam up with.

Latest update of Tenderness for Ben, he's just seen it for the first time in a while and said (albeit while sounding slightly surprised) 'that's starting to look really good', which is lucky really, seeing as I'm doing it for him.

Last Friday I got dragged into a photo session for the new brochures for the clinic, and one of the pictures that was done was something very like this (thankfully not by me, although that was threatened at one point), so I'm now trying to get this finished by the time that the new brochure comes out, not convinced that I'm going to manage it, but it's as good an ambition as any! And I did do loads of work on it on Monday night, I stubbornly got it into my head that I wanted to get the current page done so I wa stiching away frantically. Managed it, and I'm weird, I like how it looks when you've got the straight lines next to the block of solid stitching, but that'll get broken up soon, possibly even today.

In other news I'm very much looking forward to Easter next weekend, four day weekend, and even better, Ben's got a four day weekend as well, and that practically never happens. We've not got much planned, just looking forward to having some time off at the same time.

Talking of time off, we recently booked our summer holiday, a week in Bulgaria, which should be something a bit different, so of course, in a vague sort of way, the holiday preperations have begun, you know start layering on the moisturiser (and then the tinted moisturiser) so that I'm not the palest person there and no reflecting sun light with my pasty white legs. Also trying to find a new bikini, tried one on yesterday and can't remember the last time I felt so depressed about myself. I'm already pretty picky about what I wear, it's got to be shorts rather than briefs because the more of my bum and the top of thighs that is covered the better, and it's got to be a more solid halter neck top rather than a piece of string with two tiny triangles of material attached to it. I'm not saying I've got much bust to cover, but I'm fairly sure that two tiny scraps of material aren't going to do the job. Anyway, tried one on yesterday and it was wrong in pretty much every sense of the word. It was shorts, but they were wrong in so many ways, mainly in the way that they made me look as though I was trying on a size six instead of my size. The logical part of my brain says that I'm a size ten and so I can't be that big, my eyes say I looked like I'd just tried on a size six for giggles and I was hanging over the top of it, and it was quite hideous, I looked truly awful and it really has despressed me. So I'm now trying to find a way of looking less terrifying and depressing in a bikini, but the trouble is that gym memberships are very expensive and I don't earn enough to be doing things that are very expensive, so if anyone has any suggestions of cheap ways of looking less nasty in a bikini (please not jogging, far too public and just generally very unpleasant),l but all suggestions gratefully accepted.

Feeling sorry for myself!

I've just come back from the dentist, and I'm feeling incrdibly sorry for myself. This was my last of five appointments so I'm happy about that, but my face is completely numb, and I must have bitten my lip while I was attempting to eat breakfast (possibly not the smartest thing I've ever done), it looks an absolute mess and is currently nearly double it's normal size, I'm really hoping that it heals quickly because I'm meant to be going to an engagement party tomorrow night and meet lots of my partner's friends from uni who I've never met before, and I'd like to not meet them looking like I've been punched in the face.

Anyway, rant over.

Latest stitching update. This is actually last weeks stitching, I haven't had a chance to get anything done this week, but I've got a day off today, I meant to do lots of exercise type stuff this morning, but I'm to busy feeling sorry for myself to do that, so I'm thinking that I may chuck a dvd on and do some now instead.

Can't remember when I last went through a week without doing any stitching, but I think I'm going to have a few weeks like that coming up.

This week was my Christmas present off my other half on Tuesday, he got us a photo session with Venture so we went and did that, it was actually really good fun, and I didn't feel anywhere as foolish as I expected to, so I recommend it. I'll try and find away to publish some picutres once we get them back. Wednesday I had a meeting at work until 8.30 and by the time I got home I just didn't have the inclination to start to be honest, then last night was badminton and packing cos we're going away this afternoon (hence fat lip + party).

Stitching

When I first started writing this blog I said that, as well as books and films it was also going to be about the progress of my stitching, and then I haven't done anything about that since writing this, so this is my initial stitching news.

Winter's Majesty by Maia.

I haven't actually done much of this one yet, and haven't done anything on this for nearly two months, and most of what has been done to date was done when I was off work for a day last year, I seemed to get loads done that day, but it barely seems to have grown since then, despite the fact that I have deen working on it occasionally. I'm aware that at the moment it mostly looks like I just threw stuff at the aida and waited to see what stuck.

Really enjoying it, and it's going to be an absolutely beautiful piece when it's finished, but it's quite complicated and takes a lot of concentration so it's not something that I can pick up for a few minutes then put down again, it's got to be something that I work on when I know I've got at least an hour to work on it, otherwise it's just not worth picking up.

There's a lot of confetti stitching in it, which means I'm really having to think about not trailing cotton across the back where it can be seen. There's also a lot of half stitches, which on 16 count aida isn't exactly something that I relish, but again, I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end.

I've been stitching on and off for years, but I always give my projects away, so when I finished my last project at the end of last year, my partner made me promise that my next project would be something that I'd keep for myself, so this is what I picked as the one I'd like for myself.

Tenderness by Vervaco.

The trouble with Vervaco is that I tend to find that it's called by different names on different sites. The site I bought this off it was called Tenderness, so that's what I call it.

I'm making this as a present for a partner, he's a chiropractor, and I thought it would look nice in his clinic, it was meant to be a secret, right up until the moment he caught me working on it, so, it's still a present but it's no longer a surprise and I can work on it when he's in the flat now.

Really lovely to stitch, I'm rather fond of these Vervaco sepia kits, this has only got seven or eight colours in it and looks absolutely amazing. Also, because it's so few colours it's really lovely to work on, it's nearly all nice easy blocks of colour to stitch, no flitting back and across the material to do one or two stitches but the final effect is just so striking.

I'm enjoying this one so much that I've actually just bought another of the Vervaco sepia's to do as a present for someone else as well.

Now that I've actually started writing about my stitching I do occasionally intend to publish picture sof my progress, although I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write each time, because my opinion is unlike to change that much, until I get the opportunity to see what I think of the final piece, but I'll see how it goes.