Earth Sampler - A Beginning

I made a start on Earth Sampler by The Primitive Needle on Friday night. Ranae and I are doing a SAL every Friday night in an attempt to get this design completed. Here is what I managed to stitch.

It's fun and really hard to put down. I have been tempted by it during the week, but I put it away in my stitching box. I figure if I don't see it, I won't be naughty and stitch on it any other day. I am missing a few threads, so I am just stitching around those colours until my order arrives.

In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of The Moon Landing, my DH's work had a rocket launching competition (my DH works in the aerospace industry). They had to build and launch a homemade rocket using non-chemical methods. All weekend my DH was back and forth from the hardware store and designed a pretty good launch pad and then we all had to drink lots of fizzy so he could make some rockets from the bottles. Aurelia had a fun time helping him test his rockets. I must say my DH was like a little kid, so excited to get it built and for it to work so successfully.

The end of our RR has arrived

I am so very pleased to say, that I have stitched on the very last RR piece in the Little House Needleworks RR. I finished Julianne's square yesterday and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Julianne requested a theme of Country Stitcher/City Stitcher and I decided to put together my dream country manor.

The house, big tree and squirrel are from 'Little House Neighbourhood', the sheep from 'Wool Needlebook and Scissor Fob', the hare is from 'Woodland Samplings', the topiary trees and hedge from 'Season of Rest' and finally, the flowers and gate from 'Season of Hope'. I have a photo of the overall RR. It all looks great, I am sure Julianne will love it.

So ends my RR commitment. I am a little sad, as I really enjoyed putting together everyone's squares. I am sure that I will do another RR again, they are a lot of fun.

Jolene is having a great giveaway on her blog Dip Diddly Designs, check out her blog. Jolene is only new to blogging, but boy does she stitch some wonderful designs.

I know this is really late, but here is an update of my Ort Jar for the Totally Useless SAL. I originally had it in a glass bowl, but it was getting really dusty and looking very yucky. I transferred the contents into this new jar, but I am filling it up pretty quickly.

Ranae and I are stitching the Earth Sampler by The Primitive Needle as a SAL on Friday nights, if you would like to join us, please let me or Ranae know.

Amelie started her new swimming lessons on Saturday and she really had a whole lot of fun and didn't get upset or cry once during the lesson. Our new instructor Kelly has taught Aurelia since she was six months old and is the best instructor I had ever met. I am so glad that we were able to get Amelie into her classes.

PS. I have to apologise for the photo of Flax Fields, I just realised that I took a photo of my progress, but there had been no progress at all. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

A long awaited post

I have finally got back to blogging this week after a few weeks of drama. As you know, the washing machine emptied it's full load of water out onto the carpet, which has now been removed. Yes, we are living with concrete floors in a small area of the house and it's winter and yes, it's cold.

Basically, the reason this all happened is that we don't have a floor waste in the laundry floor, hence the water had no where to go except around the house. In order to replace the floors, we now have to address this problem, which means a total laundry renovation. Currently the laundry doesn't look like it fits into the rest of the house, so we are having one wall of the laundry removed, so the laundry expands another metre and uses up the useless hallway. Please see pictures for further clarification. While we are renovating, we are going to have the exposed brick walls around the house covered with dry wall, so that should lighten up the house and reduce the amount of dust in the house. Finally, when all that work is completed, we are having floating timber floors laid through the high traffic areas of the house. This will mean the flooring will all match and be much easier to look after. I have found a contractor, who has come up with a great plan and reasonable price. We now only have to work out the finer details and he should be able to start in about eight weeks time.

While all this was happening, both Amelie and myself have been sick. She had been crying and sleeping less than ever before. For several nights I sat up in a chair in her room so she could sleep on my chest. At the time I was really annoyed and couldn't understand why. Several days later I discovered the reason when I was sick as well. I developed a really sore throat, that when I laid down felt like it was on fire. When I sat up, it didn't hurt as much, which explained Amelie's desire to sleep upright on my chest. Both of us then lost our voices and mine is only just getting back to normal.

Enough of that, now to some stitching. I entered a draw on Karen's blog and I won the chart 'Earth Sampler' by The Primitive Needle. Once everything settles down and I get my stitching commitments out of the way, I am definitely starting this one. I have already ordered the fibres I need. So thank you very much Karen, I am definitely going to enjoy stitching this one and I think it will reinvigorate my desire to stitch.

Last week I received a purchase I made from Kathy Barrick's Etsy Store. Most of you would recognise her from her Carriage House Samplings. Kathy is currently selling a number of her OOP designs on her Esty store and I just couldn't resist these purchases.

I have made a tiny bit of progress on my 'Flax Fields' by Carriage House Samplings. Not as much as I would have liked, but any progress is good I suppose.


I have also stitched a little more on 'My Needle and My Floss' by Waxing Moon Designs. I really want to finish this one soon, so I can send her off to another willing stitcher.

Finally, I have to apologise to Julianne. This is my progress on your square for the LHN RR. I was supposed to have posted it off last week, but as you can see I am not quite finished. The house needs a roof and then there is a squirrel and a tree to stitch. I am going to make an extra effort to get this one stitched as soon as possible.

I will leave you with some photos of last Sunday, when we took a trip to Sydney and went to the Aquarium, had Yum Cha for lunch and spent a lovely afternoon at the park and merry go round.