Weekend wrap up: September 28th 2015

I was planing to do a once a week update, but I've just posted a Friday Frolic update and thought I would follow up here.

So first things first: Stitching

Not much got done, explanation later on, but I did a little bit then this morning ironed the piece and took a photo. So here she is again!

Persephone copyright Mirabilia designs

Persephone is being stitched on Picture This Plus 32 count linen in their Rosewood colourway - I love it! There is a faded square on the fabric that you might be able to see. This is from where the qsnaps were left on, and in the sun too, for a long time. It's a testament to how depressed and tired I was last year that I just didn't care enough to pack away this project. I'm hoping that once the design is completed the faded square will not be as noticeable.

Ironing this project was an unexpected joy this morning. I can't say this house is the tidiest it could be - I do need to start making an effort there. But it is way bigger than any other place we have lived in. It is also modern having been built 10 years ago and that means STORAGE. All my adult life I have lived in places built circa 1900 and they didn't do built in closets and wardrobes back then. This new place has sooo much storage and I am ashamed to say we aren't using it - we aren't used to it! This is a roundabout way to say that we have a rumpus room that is being used as an exercise room/library/everything else and the ironing board is left there permanently set up (don't know who did it or why as I don't iron clothes) any way it was there and it took mere minutes to switch it on, heat up, and iron my project. Will be doing this all the time now!!

Weekend wrap up: It was weird

Friday night: Two close friends of ours, a couple, broke up. They have been living with us since the beginning of this year so being in close proximity it's hard to witness two friends going through a horrible time. They had been together for about 6 years, travelled the world together, so this is a very hard break-up.

Saturday/Sunday: Was spent being cautiously available but not trying to pry either.

Saturday was notable that daylight savings has started in NZ - hooray - I feel I look forward to this more than any other event/holiday of the year. LIGHT.

Sunday was a complete write off as I woke up feeling dizzy and disorientated which remained for the whole day and I was even sick. It was like having motion sickness - except I wasn't in a car or boat. Thankfully it seems to have passed.

New Start

It's been a few years!! I think I'll have to reintroduce myself :)

My name is Lisa and I'm a cross stitcher in New Zealand. I've cross stitched since I was a teen and I remember joining the TW BB board when I was 18 (as kiwiflowa) it was my first contact with other people who were just as crazy and passionate about cross stitch as I was as well as discovering the marvellous wonder of all the designs/fibres/fabrics that were available off-shore with the click of the mouse. Blogs weren't a thing, digital camera's were new and expensive to have, cellphones did little more than txt and, you know, actually call people. I'm now 30, and my passion for cross stitch has waxed and waned over the years. My interests have grown into other areas: Gardening, knitting, reading.

I've gone to uni, graduated, started working, bought a house with my partner, got engaged, bought another house and moved out of the city, quit work. Yup I was really not happy, a bit burned out to be honest, so in June this year I left my job and became a home maker it's taken me this long to feel settled and content.

Sooo I pulled out my cross stitch this week for the first time in ages. I have a lot of old WIP's as I used to like working on many things at once, going so far as to create complicated rotations. I have a lot of stash in boxes that I haven't gone through in ages. At the moment that causes me some stress so all I have done this week is pull out the WIP I was working on last and have been working on that this week. Over time I will start to organise everything I have.

Here she is:
Persephone by Mirabilia

The fabric is wonky as I was trying to stretch out the wrinkles. Next time I will iron before taking photos. The right hand ironwork is actually 1 stitch lower than it should be so I will be ripping that out at some point and re-stitching, which will also mean a new skein of waterlilies I think too.

This is a huge design, I forgot until I took it off the qsnaps and it seemed to go on forever when unfolded, it's hard to take a photo of it on the table as I'm not tall enough and my arms not long enough! I resorted to using the tiled floor.

Just as I remembered getting photo's uploaded to blogger is such a pain. I just had to download google photo's, picasa, make umpteen folders, upload photo's to picasa webalbums etc etc. Off to go research how to make this easy. Instagram is a breeze and so much easier!! I've never found the whole picasa process intuitive. I don't want my laptop to become full up on photo's including a lot of duplicates.