Little Snap Dragon is Growing

Well, technically the dragon isn't growing, because I haven't started stitching him yet, but the flowers are growing, and I'm loving how fast this is coming along, even my other half has just looked at this in surprise and gone 'that's really going'. I think it's starting to look like something now, although that's possibly because I know what it's going to look like, so I know what I'm looking for.

I had quite a productive week actually, I like it when I'm at the end of the week (okay, so it's Saturday, but I don't know what chance I'm going to get to post) and I can see a definite difference between when I lasted posed a picture.

Talking about not being sure of time, I'm quite excited, we're going to see Les Miserables tomorrow night. Our local cinema is one of the ones involved in the Live Theatre projects so theatre performances are broadcast live to the cinema, and the 25th Anniversary edition of Les Miserables at the O2 is being shown on Sunday so myself, Ben and his mum and dad are going to see that, which should be good.

I'm actually feeling a bit guilty, I've been looking at my writing in the last couple of days and thinking that I ought to give some time to my writing instead of my stitching, it's difficult, I love both and whenever I'm doing one I fell guilty for neglecting the other. I did contemplate assigning days to one or the other, but I think that that'll back fire because if it's a day when I'm just not in the mood I won't achieve anything anyway. Anyone got any suggestions?

A shiny new start

A shiny new start, which makes me very excited, but does mean that I am, once again, posting pictures that don't really look like anything.

It also means that I've got three projects on the go at the moment, two of which I'm still on the first page of, and all three of which still don't really look like anything. Although I think this is currently the prize winner for not looking like anything.

He will be Little Snap Dragon, who will be very cute when he's finished, it's a really nice pattern, that I fell in love with and bought on impulse a couple of years ago, I've cut the material a little small, it's big enough for the picture, but I haven't left much of a border, so I don't know what I'll do with it when it's done, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Hello to my new followers by the way. You can tell that I'm still quite new to blogging, I still get excited when I get new followers!

Just some info

I'll do a stitching update over the weekend, but I've just seen this on the HAED website and thought that I'd pass it on and I'd love it of others do the same.
Feel free to take the picture off my blog to pass it on yourself, or let me know if you want me to send you a copy.

The return of In Love

In Love is back on the frame.

This is my weekly update, due to the fact this is the last chance that I'm going to get to do an update this week. I'm out every evening and then away this weekend, so here's my update, and we're back to playing 'can you guess what it is yet?' Whole lotta cream!

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.

Tatty Ted is finished

He's finished, which is lucky because, as you can see from the date, Joshua came into the world this morning, which gave me the spur needed to finish the kit.

It has to be said, that despite the fact that it looks quite cute, I have hated this kit, really haven't enjoyed it at all. The stitching was okay in itself, but the back stitch was just unnecessarily fiddly, and badly charted, and due to a bizarre way of charting (and if I'm honest, my own stupidity) I've had to redo three of the four corners, one of them twice, and it's just driven me utterley insane. It's safe to say that I'm not going to do another Tatty Ted anytime soon.

On the plus side, I think this is the first proper finish that I've had since I've been blogging (I don't count cards as they're only little, although I'm not sure if I'm completely counting this, despite the frustration it's still smaller than I'd usually work on).

Heaven and Earth

Why? Why would Heaven and Earth Designs have a sale when it's payday on Tuesday? I cannot justify another kit at the moment, but there are so many beautiful charts... I've got 230 charts on my wish list for goodness sake, 62 of those are Love to Have or Must Have, 21 of them are in my must haves, so I really need to get stitching (and buying for that matter). And I can't decide which one I want the most, I've always loved Bubbles by Selena Fenech (I've even got a pair of earrings with the design on, and it's my profile picture), and I love the colours on Dancer by Meredith DIllman, ditto Dragon Fae 2 by Selena Fenech and I've just completely fallen in love with Alice in Wonderland by Meredith Dillman (you can see a theme here, Meredith and Selena). I think that when I get paid I may end up caving and getting one of them, probably Alice, if I can just over ride that sense of not being able to justify it.

Ahh well, I've got a couple of weekends of stitching coming up, Ben's away hill walking with friends next weekend and away on a course the weekend after so lots of stitching time. I'm planning to get the birth sampler finished, then the woman's back that I'm doing for Ben's clinic, I reckon that's possible in two weekends, then that'll free up a frame for a new challenge, and as I posted a couple of weeks ago, all that's left then is to make the decision of which one it's going to be... hmmm, ponder ponder!

Oh yeah, and I have to build furniture this weekend, Ben took me to IKEA in the week to buy a new wardrobe and bookcase, and I need to do some baking because I moved to a new office a week ago and the girls are complaining that I haven't baked them anything nice since moving into my new desk, how exciting is my life?

Wish me luck!

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!

Toy Story 3

I meant to do a stitching update today, as you can see, that didn't happen, so I'll try to do it either tomorrow or Monday instead. However, after an aborted attempt at going to see the A-Team (can you believe out local cinema already stopped playing it?) we went to see Toy Story instead, so I thought I'd do a review on that instead.

It has most of the cast that we'd expect from the old films, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Rex etc but also introduces some new characters, such as Lotso and Ken.

Andy has now grown up and is going away to college, consequently he's packing up his room and the toys are terrified of being thrown away. Woody is put in a box to go to college with Andy (you can't help thinking that this will eventually result in some Grade A bullying) and the other toys are put in a bag to be put in the attic, but there is a mix up and they end up on the pavement waiting for the bin men to come and collect them. Woody, sees the mistake and goes to rescue them, but they won't believe that it was a mistake and think that Andy was deliberately throwing them away and so stow away in a box for a day care centre. The toys excitedly watch children playing with the other toys and can't wait until it is their turn, this is a new chance for them to be played with again and the day care centre seems like a haven, but all is not as it seems.

We know the vocal talent is going to be good on this, Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack  and Tim Allen reprise their roles as the heroes, along with all the original cast, except Jim Varney as Slinky Dog who sadly died in 2000 and has been replaced by Blake Clark. We also see (hear?)  Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton and Whoopi Goldberg take on new characters and roles in this film. The plot as you can see from the summary isn't exactly complicated, but then I'm a 25 year old sat in a cinema where the average age is about 15 years younger than me, so I possibly shouldn't be surprised by that (the guy selling us the tickets actually mocked us, but that's by the by). But it's enough of a plot to hold the film together, it doesn't just feel like it's tying several set pieces together.

For me personally it took a long time for the humour to kick in (if I'm honest I thought the funniest bits were all in the last half hour), but those around me, including my other half were laughing all the way through, so I'm willing to accept that that was possibly just me. And there are some good moments, Mr Potato Head in different guises is very good. This is also, in places, actually quite creepy, look out for the screaming monkey, it wouldn't surpirse me at all if I had nightmares about that monkey tonight. And there are some sad bits, there's a real tear jerker towards the end of the film, there was definite sobbing and nose blowing behind me, and I'll admit that I had a lump in my throat, and the final scene before the credits, I actually thought was even sadder, but there was less sobbing during that.

It's nice to see the film grow up with it's audience. I was about 11 when the first film came out, so it's not that long since I had to go through my old toys and decide what I was going to do with them (and yes, I still have a lot of my teddies), so it's kinda cool to see the little boy I remember when I was a kid going through the same things himself. To the adults this is a story about growing up and leaving your childhood behind you, to the kids it's a good adventure with some funny bits. Either way it is a good film and I did enjoy it thoroughly, I probably won't bother to buy it when it comes out, but then I don't own the first two, so that's probably not surprising. It made me laugh, it made me feel sad and it creeped me out in a major way, not bad for a kids film.

And I'd just like to finish by saying 'The Claaaawwww'

Well, they always were my favourite character!

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Book review, I haven't done one of those for a while.

I've just finished reading Nation by Terry Pratchett, which I read some months after seeing the National Theatre Live version, which I loved by the way.

Nation tells the story of two teenagers thrown together after a storm. Mau is an island boy who returns to who home island to find that he's the only one left, Daphne is a young British girl travelling home whose ship is wrecked by the storm. They don't speak the same language and know nothing about each other.

The book, despite being a Pratchett fan I took a while to warm to, it's a book that I seem to have faded in and out of, I'll enjoy it for a while, then get bored for a while, then back to enjoying it for a while, and so on. It's difficult having seen the live version that I really enjoyed because a character I loved on stage, was nothing like that in the book.

But, the book, opening chapter is very cryptic, you're trying to catch up and work out what's going on, but I think that's intentional, it does grab your interest.

I like Daphne, she's been bought up in a traditional Victorian style way, this is no use to her when she suddenly finds herself shipwrecked. She and Mau eventually learn to communicate, in a roundabout sort of way, and she starts to realise that just because she's been told something is right, doens't necessarily mean that something is.

Eventually more people arrive on the island, building up a bigger character base, giving a bit more interest to the action. The more westerners from the ship that Daphne was travelling on arrive on the island throwing them into chaos.

This book is aimed at children, and handles some pretty big concepts. Mau learns his way around religion and belief, Daphne touches on right and wrong, not just in the simple form of 'it is wrong to lie' but in the form of what is an acceptable form of retaliation when something wrong is done to you. They're big concepts for children to handle, although I actually find them quite interesting. Daphne's morality story more so than Mau's religios story.

As the whole the book was shorter on laughs than I'd expect from Pratchett, but I did enjoy it as a whole.

Tatty Ted - Baby Powder

Guess how I spent my day yesterday? I started this Friday evening and am now nearly finished, all I've got left to do is the white and then all the back stitch to get it finished, which I can probably do today, although that does make me a bit sad, because that will mean that I've done this in a weekend. However, I've got to make sure I save a few stitches for Ben to do, which means that I can't do the back stitching until he's done that. I'm thinking if I leave some in the talcum powder cloud for him to do then I can do all the stitching else where and get it nearly finished before he gets back.

Whole lotta blue!

I think the title of this pretty much describes where I'm up to with Winter's Majesty. It has grown, I can see a massive difference from when I last did an update on it, but it's just so blue, and so fiddly, and generally driving me up the wall a bit, but I keep going because I know it's going to look brilliant when done, and because I'm aware I started on the most fiddly page, which means it can only get easier.

Ben's away this weekend (yet another stag weekend) so I've got another weekend of cross stitch ahead of me, but it won't be on this, or on any of the other kits I've got on the go, because I had a new kit arrive yesterday and I started it last night. I know, I've got three on the go, plus the fact that I've started my Christmas cards already, I really don't need another kit on the go. Add to that the fact that Ben's little sister is about to start a kit as a present for someone and it's her first ever attempt at cross stitch so I'm on call for helping her when needed, I don't need another kit! But I have an excuse, it's a present, we've got friends who are due to have a kid in a couple of months, so the new kit is a christening present for them. Ben ruled out the ones I wanted to get on the principal they were too big (I wanted to do a Cut Thru' by Bothy, but Ben argued that they were too big, and to be fair, I'd never had got it finished in time) and so talked me into something smaller, so we've got a Tatty Ted kit instead, so that's my weekend planned, although I'll have to leave a couple of stitches for Ben, because if we're giving something as a present he likes to have done a couple of stitches as well!

So that's my weekend, make massive in roads into that, currently trying to decide what I fancy watching while I'm stitching, I'm thinking I quite fancy a Buffy weekend, possibly Angel, so I'll have a look later.

Anyway, I've also been remiss in keeping my blog up to date recently, so I'll try to be better in the future.

Hope everyone is having a lovely time!

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.

Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon

So Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon, one of the many books that went on holiday with me this year. Working in three time periods, going down to two when two of them join together and based during and just before the Crimean War, it follows Mariella, her fiance Henry and her cousin Rosa.

There are three time periods that are followed, Mariella's childhood, the time just before the war and the time during the war, eventually these second two meet and you're only following two time lines. Mariella is a traditionally reserved and quiet young lady who spends most of her life sewing, her cousin Rosa is the opposite and seems to go out of her way to be shocking, Henry I found quite difficult to get a handle on, so I'll refrain from making any real comments about his personailty.

The book opens with Mariella travelling to Italy to visit Henry who has become ill being the war and been sent there to recover. Once there he seems not to recognise her and instead raves about her cousin Rosa, leading Mariella to believe that he may have fallen in love with her (this is the first chapter, I'm not giving any of the plot away) and the plot follows Mariella's decision on how to deal with this and what it leads her to do. The story of her childhood is 'simply' that of how she met Rosa and Henry and her developing relationship with each of them. The childhood sections especially are not always in chronological order and you can be left piecing together what goes where.

My opinion? Divided! I enjoyed the first half, but found my interest waining and kept picking up the other book I was reading instead of this, especially in the last few chapters I found myself skim reading simply to find out what was happening and to get to the end as opposed to actually wanting to know. It has to be said that, without saying what happened, I found the ending singularly unfulfilling, almost like McMahon wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with the end of so just stopped writing one day and sent it to her publisher.

As I say I lost interest half way through, and I think that's because I stopped caring about the characters, I didn't like Henry and I can't really put my finger on why, I just couldn't bring myself to be interested in him. I couldn't bring myself to like Rosa either, and normally she's the sort of character that I would quite enjoy reading about but, partially because I found her quite selfish and partially because we're seeing her through Mariella's eyes who, while she may love her doesn't always approve of her behaviour, I couldn't bring myself to warm to her. Mariella I did quite like, and I found her dedication to her sewing quite endearing but when she was the only one of the main characters that I really warmed to then it wasn't enough to keep me reading on.

Finally, there was a section about Rosa's step father that I personally thought was unnecessary, it didn't seem to add anything to the book that I could see and I don't really understand why it was included.

I've been very negative about this, that's not to say that there weren't some things that I didn't enjoy about it, but it wasn't enough to make me look upon this particularly favourably and I don't think I'll be hurrying out to read anything else by McMahon

Catch Up

I've been very remiss in my blogging recently, in that I haven't! I haven't done much stitching, so I didn't really have anything to write about from that quarter. However I have just got back from a weeks holiday in Bulgaria where I read a lot so I might do a book review or two.

Also, football has just taken over the world and my other halfs a big fan, so there's a chance that I'm going to get a lot of stitching done in the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, and I'm off to see Latin Fever this afternoon (my price for a month of football) so I might be able to say something about that, either way, this proves that I'm alive and I'll try and wrote something proper tonight or tomorrow.

Unnecessarily organised

Last weeks update, this was all done last Monday while Ben was still away and while watching Series 2 of The Avengers (I'd forgotten just how wonderful that series is, although 4 & 5 were by far the best with Emma Peel).

I can see a big difference between this and my last picture, although whether other people will be able to I'm less sure, here's a clue, the white flowers are now completely white rather than not being finished. Think I'll have to chose a brighter colour to stitch next so that you can actually see some progress on it.

Apart from that I've not done much stitching this week, didn't get my stitching evening on Wednesday as I've got roped into helping out with the regional Guides centenary celebrations for Yorkshire, and there was a meeting on Wednesday which lasted most of the evening.

Other than that I've only had one other time for cross stitch, decided to do some last night, but wasn't in the mood to work on a big project (very unlike me, normally I always like big projects) so I decided to start on my Christmas cards, how freakily organised it that? I hasten to add that I'm not actually that organised, I just didn't want to unpack a big project but fancied stitching, and happened to have a pack made up for Christmas stitching from when I went away a while back.

Bank holiday Monday - woo!

Another update, and still all my fingers are intact, so it's all good.

I was pretty productive yesterday, and she's looking really good now, even if I do say so myself. Making real progress and if I really get my head down, I could probably get this finished before we go on holiday in June, four weeks? I think that's about do-able.

It also means that I've achieved one of my targets for this weekend which is good, not convinced that I'm going to achieve my second target of getting first page of Winter's Majesty complete, but I'll give it a shot, although I'm thinking that, aslong as the rain holds off (it was lovely when I got up, now it's going grey) I might go into town and do a little shopping first.

Talking of targets, I typed up the writing I did Saturday night yesterday, the principal of the writing was sound, the writing itself is going to need some serious work in the light of day, for instance in one paragraph I killed her mother twice, which strikes me as a little harsh!

Anyway, off I go to get some exercise then some breakfast (got to make up for what was a rather stationery day yesterday somehow), then check teh weather to see if I'm going to chance a walk out before settling to another day of stitching. Hope everyone who's got one is having a lovely bank holiday monday.

And it finish on a random note, last night I dreamt I twisted my ankle (train tunnel a la Railway Children), when I woke up this morning it took me a few minutes to realise that I was limping, I wasn't in pain, I was simply limping because my brain remembered me twisting it - how odd!

Weekend to myself

Another week another update. She's coming on quite well now. Ben's away this weekend, so I've got lots of stitching planned (and thus far there has been absolutely no blood, although I still have 48 hours to go so I probably shouldn't tempt fate). I have lots of targets for this weekend of peace and quiet (well, three anyway). I want to get this page finished, which is perfectly do-able, I'm also hoping to get the page of Winter's Majesty finished, although that may be a little optimistic, and I'm also planning on getting some writing done. I did do a little last night (why does my brain think that midnight is a good moment to get inspired?) I gave in around 1 o'clock and went to sleep mainly because the words were starting to swim infront of my eyes, so technically I have already completed one target, although I'd like to write more than a page and a half, especially as that's hand written, so it's barely any word count at all so far! On that subject, thank you KittyCat for your comment, I've decided to go with the George Boleyn idea.

Also, this isn't something I've done this weekend, if I made these while in the flat on my own I'd then eat them on my own, and that would waste the time that I've just spent exercising this morning. But I'm quite proud of my 99 cupcakes, so I thought I'd share 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 :-)

Writing and Frustration

Just a quick blog today, writing based rather than stitching based (all those stitchers, feel free to switch off round about now)!

I haven't done much writing recently, in fact I've just thought about it seriously and I've realised that I've not written much in nearly two years, this upsets me! I was thinking about it earlier (there's a chance that I should have been working, but managers were on away days and my mind wandered, anyway, I've mastered the art of typing up documents while my mind does something else) and I think it's because I've got very frustrated with the piece I'm working on, and I think I need to put it away and come back to it at a later date, because while I'm getting frustrated with it I'm not taking it anywhere. Therefore, I've decided to put that on the back burner for a while and come back to it at a later date. Guinevere, Lancelot, Arthur and Elaine shall go and have a little snooze and hopefully I'll come back to it with a fresh look at a later date.

But this means that I now have to find something else to work on, not difficult, I've got the best part of 100 ideas floating around on my computer, the hard part is picking what to work on for a while, wish me luck!

Winter's Majesty and an aborted weekend of stitching

Ben was on a stag weekend this weekend, so I had a weekend of stitching and generally just chilling out, and this is what happened, to begin with. The page of Winter's Majesty that I'm on at the moment is lots of confetti, so it's very slow going, and it got slower when I tried to chop my finger off.

Saturday evening I thought that I'd make a nice sweet potato tortilla, cos I'd found this nice looking recipe, then when cutting the potato, I thought it would be fun to try and remove the end of my finger as well. Two hours later I'm still bleeding, two and a half hours later Ben's mother is patching my finger back together, it only stopped bleeding this morning, so as you can imagine, this did put a bit of a dampener on my stitching time, due to the fact that I had no desire to bleed on anything that I'd already spent 15 - 20 hours on, because that would probably have annoyed me, just a little bit! But, having said all that, I did get quite a lot done on Saturday before the incident with the blood, and there's quite a difference between this and the last update I put up, if you squint you can almost make out little white flowers (a little clearer in real life if I'm honest).  This is an incredibly fiddly page with lots of confetti, far to many half stitches and a couple of funky cottons that look lovely, but are a real pain to stitch with, and I am getting a little frustrated with it now, because it's not growing as fast as I think that it should. Having said that I'm persevering (that word looks wrong) because it will look very nice when it's finished, just as long as I havent already thrown it across the room.

New Title and 'The Owl Killers' by Karen Maitland

Firstly I've changed the title, I decided that my title didn't really mean anything, granted this one's roughly the same, but it's slightly less ponderous and pretentious (I hope) with it.

I finished reading The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland at some unnatural hour last time and thought it was about time that I wrote another book review. Like her previous book Company of Liars this took a while to get into, but once I had I really enjoyed it. Starting in England in 1321 it tells of a village, and the fight between current superstitions and Christianity. A group of religious women have recently moved from Brussels to bring their religion to the British but rather than taking their hope the village priest takes against them and fights them every step of the way.

The story is told by several people, a daughter of the local lord who he banishes from his home, the leader of the religious women, one of the other women, a child from the village and the village priest. Each chapter titled by whoever will be 'speaking' for that chapter.

The story is very enjoyable, but it does occasionally seem to jump without any real explanation, one chapter will end with the expectation of an event and the next chapter will start after it happens so you occasionally feel like you're missing out on information and events.

The voices of all the different characters are clear, and even without the name at the beginning of each chapter, you could probably tell who was talking, and it's very interesting to see everything happen from different points of view, and despite the fact that personally, I have no interest in religion, it was interesting to see the Lord of the manor's daughter find her own theories about religion and peoples faith.

Overall, I'd recommend this is a borrower, having read it I probably wouldn't read it again, but it was enjoyable to read once.

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.

Just a quick catch up

I'm feeling very guilty, I haven't done any stitching this week, and I didn't do my update last weekend, I just kept saying "I'll do it later, I'll do it tomorrow" and I'm lazy, so I didn't. I wasn't even that busy, just didn't get round to doing anything. Didn't get up to much, say Ben's folks a couple of times, went out on walks with said folks a couple of times, went to a Maundy Money festival in Knaresbrough on Saturday, was presented with a very nice Easter egg on Sunday (Bettys, he's a good lad) went swimming on Monday (had to work off the Easter eggs somehow) and swam till my legs weren't certain about holding me anymore, then Ben made me walk up and down hills in the afternoon, I hurt!

I'm also quite childishly because I've got my first followers who are neither my boyfriend or a kindly friend, hello Justine and Momma in Stitches, you've no idea how excited I was when I saw you! Probably quite sad if I'm honest.

Anyway, Ben's away this weekend (stag do = beer) so I've got the flat to myself and how am I spending it, eating all the things that I can't normally eat because he doesn't like them (I just ate macaroni cheese made with chesse so strong that it smelt of feet!), do my stitching and watching the DVDs I don't normally watch 'cos he won't like them, it's going to be a very lazy weekend, can't wait!

As such, stitching updates to follow!

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.

Winter's Majesty, it's the latest update

It's that time of the week again, time for another update. Another days work on Winter's Majesty, I had some leave to use up by the end of March so I spent some of Thursday working on this. This is probably the first time since I've been posting on this blog that you can actually seen a difference from the last picture, although I suspect that that's only because I was fed up of it not looking any different so I deliberately chose a brighter colour taht would stand out next to what I've done. So progress continues, but, despite the fact that I've used a nice bright colour so you can see that I've actually done something, you still can't tell what it is. Ah well!

I'm not going to get much time for stitching this week, because I'm out Wednesday, which is my usual stitching night, and Thursday, which would have been my additional stitching night because Ben had a match, so I may not have much time for stitching, but I'll see what I can do. Determined that I have to stitch each week otherwise I'll never get anything finished.

And to continue from last week, I have acually managed to do some writing, be it it was only about 250 words last night, but I've started putting down ideas for the competition that I mentioned. Wish me luck!

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

Forgot to say, Ben and I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D last Friday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'll start with the 3D then go onto the film, this is the first time I've seen a film in 3D so I can't compare it to other films but, I thought that it was a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it worked perfectly, generally if something was in the middle of the screen and coming towards you, then it came out clearly and was amazing. At one point there were some kids on the front row trying to grab hold of something as it 'came out of' the screen. Other times, generally when something went across the screen, or when it was half on screen it didn't work, because it spoiled the image where it suddenly stopped. Overall though, quite impressed and think that when it's been perfected it'll probably be quite amazing.

So, onto the film itself, if you've read the books (Both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) then you could, quite happily, pull the plot to pieces, however, if you sit and watch it as an entertaining film that's loosely based on the works of Lewis Carroll, then that's not a problem. No, the Red Queen should not be the same as the Queen of Hearts, yes, in Jabberwocky the slayer is most definitely male, but if you can let that slide then it doesn't matter.

The film starts with a flash back to Alice as a child having bad dreams about Wonderland then moves forward to (her) present day at about 18 where she's going to a garden party only to find that the son of the family holding it is going to propose to her in a very public manner, Alice panics and runs away before falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. This turns into the beginning of the book, 'eat me', 'drink me', but with voices talking about her as she does, then goes into Wonderland.

Wonderland is pretty typical Burton fair, weird, wonderful and really quite dark. Really impressive cast, all doing a very good job (although I did wince a little at Barbara Windsor as the dormouse, why would you do that?). Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are old hands at Burton films and it shows, they look incredibly comfortable in their surroundings. Helena Bonham Carter is wonderful psychotic as the Queen of Hearts/Red Queen, with occasional flashes of Queenie out of Blackadder, but she's wonderful in the role and has been made to look quite freaky through it. Depp of course has been one of the main publicity calls of the film, and he was very good as the Mad Hatter ranging between comic craziness, terrifying madness and the occasional moment of heart breaking terror when he comes out of the madness long enough to realise that he is mad, he slides between this different emotions with consummate ease, and it's easy to see why he has been pushed to the fore for the publicity, this is a starring role. Matt Lucas does a wonderful turn as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, arguing with himself all along and I personally have to give kudos to Anne Hathaway. I haven't seen much publicity around her role as the White Queen but I have to say that I thought she was brilliant, she has these wonderful 'airy fairy' affectations that she puts on as the public face of the white queen, but as soon as there's no one looking she pick up her skirts and runs. As for Mia Wasikowska as Alice, I feel a bit guilty, as I don't really know what to say about her. She does hold the piece together as the one that the action revolves around, and she gives a  good performance in this role, but she pales into significance when placed next to the larger than life characters around her. That said, she has some wonderful scenes with Depp as the Mad Hatter who has the decency to not upstage her in some of his more 'emotional' scenes where she comforts him in the realisation of his madness.

All in all I did really enjoy it, and have gone around telling people that they should go and see it, and I will be getting it on dvd when it comes out, as I would like to own it, even without the magic 3D effects. It's a cast list that just roles on and on, and I can't mention all, although everyone does give a sterling effort (again, I'm possibly questioning Barbara Windsor a little bit, but apart from that). But I can only finish this review as I've been saying to the girls I share an office with, it's really good, you should go and see it!

Chalet Schools

I'm a very happy Kim. Proper stitching update to follow, probably tomorrow, but in the mean time I just need to share that I am happy.

Just been to a book fair in town and came back with three of the ones that I was missing for my collection, I now only have 18 more to get for a complete set, then I can go back and start replacing the massacred Armarda editions, but first things first, a complete set.

Oooh!

Did I mention by the way (I know I didn't, so I don't know why I'm writing that), I've just recently seen a couple of interesting writing competitions and so am currently mulling ideas over in my head. It's been a long time since I did any proper writing and even longer since I've plucked up the courage to enter a competition (where I've never had so much on an acknowledgement, never mind a success), so it's all a little nerve wracking, but I've decided you can only work in admin for so long before you brain starts to melt, especially when you've suddenly found yourself looking after recruitment (I have absolutely no idea by the way), so it's time to start doing what I want to do, even if it's only in a very little way.

Time for an update

The continued stitching of In Love by Vervaco.

Yeah, it is still a whole lot of beige, but it's now a whole lot of beige with a little dark spot that is, let me assure you, a head, so as well as beige sky and beige sea, the picture now contains an itty bit of a person.

I do enjoy stitching this, and it's going to look wonderful once it's finished, but it's just not very photogenic during these early stages, although I have at least managed to take a reasonable picture of it for once.

This is going into hibernation for a couple of weeks now, as I've mentioned before, it's going to be a wedding gift for my dad and his fiance when they finally get round to setting a date and actually doing the wedding thing, and they're coming to stay next weekend, so I've got to make sure that this is securely hidden away while they're here, preferably in a much more effective way then when I tried to hide the one I was doing for Ben.

Haven't had much time to stitch this week, only a couple of hours, but I achieved all of the right hand side of the picture, so I've not done to badly.

This week is going to be a mixed week stitching wise, I lose my two evenings that I normally have (Monday we're going to the theatre, Wednesday I'm stuck in a meeting in Leeds until 8, so I'll be lucky if I'm home by 9 ) but I've got Thursday and Friday off work, so hopefully I'll be able to get some stitching then, more likely Thursday of the two. Friday's looking a little busier cos I've got my dad and his fiance arriving, also, in a moment of stupidity I told Ben that of course I'd be willing to be photographed for the new literature for the clinic, so Friday afternoon I have to put my money where my mouth is and actually go and be photographed. Ah well, look out for my face, in a chiropractors near you (but only if you live in Harrogate).

Just a quick catch up

I haven't written anything in about three weeks, and I'm feeling very guilty about that. I haven't stitched much recently cos I've been busy, in fact up until Thursday I hadn't done any stitching in about two and a half week (and incidently discovered that where my partner needs football to de-stress, I need my stitching). Haven't even read or watched much recently, so can't write about that either.

Watched the Duchess with Keira Knightley and Ranulph Fiennes the other night, which I did enjoy, but somehow don't really feel like I can review it. Saw the first half of Absent Friends by Alan Aykbourne at the theratre the other night when I was ushering, but didn't really enjoy it, so much so that when I wasn't needed after the interval I decided that I couldn't be bothered to stay till the end.

Did some stitching on Thursday night when Ben was playing a badminton match, but was working on Winter's Majesty so I've just added to the confetti and it's not worth posting an update.

Got a couple of 'stitching days' coming up though, Ive got a couple of days off in a couple off weeks and I'm planning on using one of those for stitching, and Ben's going to a stag weekend a couple of weeks after that so I'm going to have an entire stitching weekend I think.

Currently having a very lazy Sunday, debating trying to convince Ben he wants to go and see Alice in Wonderland this evening, but not convinced that I can see it happening.

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).

Legs 11

Just a quick post this week. Valentines card for my partner, but it's been a busy week so I haven't had much time for stitching, this is all I've done this week. And looking at this picture I've just realised that the stitching on the tights is a little wobbly so I'll have to try and straighten it out a little bit. This is a pattern from Cross Stitcher, either last year or the year before, afraid that I can't remember who the designer is. I did enjoy stitching it though and it was quite a quick stitch, seeing as the majority of it is actually back stitching. I've cheated on the back stitch and done it as long stitch, just weaving it over and under, I thought that looked better for the fishnets. This did have some DMC light effects in it, which I did use, but I'm now wishing that I hadn't gone to the hassle, because you really can't see it. Out of interest it's the 'lacey' stitching, either side of the band of stitching, but it doesn't look any different to the rest of the black so I don't think it was worth it. I normally really like the light effects as they add a bit of sparkle, but the black it a waste of time, you can't tell the differene.

Anyway, that's about as far as the stitching goes this week, although I'm going to be evicted from the living room today I suspect because Ben's going to want to make my card at some point (we agreed no gifts but handmade cards this year for Valentines) so I think I may take my stitching into the other room with my i-pod. The last couple of days have been very long and tiring. We had some work away days, always a bit full on and include early mornings and late nights (left the house at 7am on Thursday and finished up at about 8.45pm), we did have a break for 'outbreak' activities, but seeing as I ended up looking after my group and mothering them, and it was ice skating, so it was just tiring in a different way, it was a pretty exhausting day. Thankfully yesterday was an early finish, I was home by about 4.30pm, but I'm still utterley whacked, so if I get my way it's going to be a very quiet weekend. Sounds like a good excuse to me anyway :-)

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention played Harrogate Theatre on Wednesday 4th of February to what was, pretty much, a full house, apart from (rather randomly) the two seats next to us and somewhere near the front where my partners parents would have been sat, if they hadn't forgotten that they had tickets.



The support act was Dark Horses (Keith Donnelly and Flossie Malavialle), a Geordie and a French lass whose been living in Darlington, that's quite an accent combination. Flossie had a lovely voice, she sings with a French accent but talks with the strongest Darlington accent I've ever heard. Quite a mix of songs, from love songs to protest songs. I'm feeling a little ashamed, I remember really enjoying some of their music, but now I can't remember any of them, but be assured they were very good, with amusing banter in between songs.


Fairport were invited on and opened with Si Tu Dois Partir, the first time in many years that we've heard it sung by someone who can actually speak French. The set list contained some new and old, including some that haven't been in the repertoire for some time. And Ukulele is a very happy little song, I never thought I'd see the day when Chris, Simon, Peggy and Ric were gathered round a microphone playing Ukuleles while Jerry played a washboard. It's a history of the Ukulele and a chorus song, which you will be expected to sing along with.


This years tour sees the revival of of some of the songs from Babbacombe Lee, telling the story of John Lee, which was a concept album in the seventies, and boy does it sound like it when you hear it now. We also had the comedy value on the night we saw it where there was a brief disagreement about how one of the songs started. Gerry gave them a count in, and no one else moved, after a second attempt there was a long debate about whether it was the right count or not.


A very enjoyable night, ending, of course, on Meet on the Ledge with the audience singing along.


After the performance, Dark Horses, Chris and Simon were all in the foyer signing merchandise for people, so I'm now childishly happy because I've got the latest dvd signed by Simon Nicol.

In Love Progress

Latest update of In Love by Vervaco, it still looks like a whole lot of beige if I'm honest, but there are now more shades of beige, although you still can't really tell what it is. I'll give you a clue, the top beige is clouds, the bottom beige is water and beige, and the blank gap at the bottom right of the shot will eventually be a head, yeah, like I said whole lot of beige. Haven't had as much time as I would have liked this week, probably put about four hours in. Wednesday is normally a stitching night for me (other half plays badminton, so I can put a dvd on and curl up with my stitching), but as I said earlier, we went to see Fairport Convention this week, so didn't get a chance to stitch that night. I might get a bit more done tonight, but we've got Ben's parents over for dinner so I have to start making dinner soon. Anyway, I've been working on this one for two weeks, so I think it's time to do something else for a while. I didn't even mean to work on it this week. I picked it up to finish a cotton off, then in turned in to "I'll just finish this colour", "Well, if I do the next colour it might actually start to look like something." "Well, I've nearly finished this page, I might as well go ahead with it." and so on, but it's definitely time for another project now.

Excuse the blurry picture by the way, If I turn the flash off it also turns off the anti-shake for some reason, and I can't work out how to make it stop doing that, and if I take the picture with the flash on it bleaches anything and you can't see that there's even anything on the material, it's all fun!

Anyway, next weeks project will be card for Ben for Valentines, I've already picked the design, I've just got to start stitching it. Don't think it'll take me long, so I should be all right to get it finished in time for next Sunday, if all else fails, I'm going away with work Thursday and Friday, so I can probably hide in my room and work on it in the evening.