Tutorial - Cross Stitch Mock Ups in Photoshop

The story of the Storage Tray - A rant about Spotlight

Updates and Blizzcon Haul

I found my teenage Poetry and Stories - I lol'd

Gothie goes to Book Expo - Haul and Thoughts!

Adult Colouring - Collection and Reviews

Gothie Attends Steamengine IX

Updates: Flosstube and Life!

Vlog - Day 19

Every Body: Glamour, Dateability, Sexuality & Disability | Dr. Danielle ...

This!! So much this!

Bookstand #4

More reading!

I finished two books today. One I had been reading for a couple of days, one I had picked up planning to read a few pages, but found I couldn't put it down!

This has been a super busy week, with my last week of classes comes the last 8 assessments all being due in the same week!
And we have a public holiday here in Australia for Monday, so that's one less day to get everything handed in.

On top of that, house hunting.
Ugh. I absolutely loath house hunting.
It's so hard to find a good place, with no stairs, 2 bedrooms and a garage that's in our price range.

But onwards to the bookish stuff!

Finished Reading

The Univited - Liz Jenson

Such a creepy idea is addressed in this. 

Though my only  gripe with this book was the lack of solid answers.

I still need to know what was happening.

The narrator was very interesting, and had some interesting quirks.

None of the Above - I. W. Gregorio

Such a sweet book, but also heartbreaking.

This book is about a teenage girl who find's out she has AIS making her intersex.

The book is about her journey through acceptance and the hurtful things that the uniformed say and so.

It has a positive ending, one that promotes normalcy, which I thought was fantastic.

I've had my own fights with gender and sexuality, and a large chunk of my life I have feared people finding out and treating me differently. 

That's happening, though for other reasons (wheelchairs are just mobility aids, seriously).

But I loved how throughout this, the girl has voices and people who treat her the same, because at the end of the day she is. 

She is a girl.

Currently Reading

The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss

Still plugging away :p

Vlog - Day 14

Bookstand #3

More reading!

Still not super motivated to read, but I'm getting along :)

I've been trying to hunt down a copy of the Julia Gillard book, but not for $40-odd. 

Even the ebook is $20. 

Ebook prices are a joke. 

Recent Finishes

Hush Little Bird - Nicole Trope

This was such a good read!

I will first of all put a trigger warning on this however, as it does deal quite a bit with the sexual abuse of children.

I was sent an Advanced Reading Copy by Allen and Unwin through the Reading Room.

This book will be released in July, and I do hope people pick it up :)

This book follows the events of two women with very different lives who end up in the same correctional facility.

Currently Reading

The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss

I'm still plugging away at this one :p
I've got to the 30% mark so far.
Such a long book, but I love it so much.
It's a fantastic fantasy world.


I'm putting myself on a book buying restriction so I can put funds away for the Book Expo in October.
I got a free ticket from Selena Fenech (I fangirled so much when she replied to my email).
I can't wait to buy some more books from her at the Expo, and just buying books in general :p

Bookstand #2

Finally getting over that reading slump!

Slowly, but it's happening :)

I've decided to pick up a few books that are a little different to my more recent reads :)

Recent Finishes

The Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen

This was great!

It's a fantasy based with a little magic in it.

The options for this have been picked and it's going to be a movie. And I hope it's as good as the book was.

It was quite different in a few ways.

The main character is self described as being plain, instead of being a devastating beauty, as is pretty commonplace in fantasy.

The plotline does not revolve around a romance, but upon a girl learning to be queen, and fighting for her life.

There's magic as well.

Argh, it was so good.

Pick this up!

Currently Reading

The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss

This is going to take me a while to read. 

I really do love this series, but it is very long.

The ebook is over 1000 pages, and I'm still in a bit of a slump.

But that's fine.

I usually read 2-3 books at the same time anyway.

But yes, this series is awesome. This is the second book, so I can't really talk about it without giving away spoilers.

But it's a fantasy series about a guy, who has done stuff, and seen things.  :p

Hush Little Bird - Nicole Trope

So I got this ARC this week.

I'd requested it through the Reading Room, and Allen and Unwin picked me to get a copy.

This is a drama type fiction, something very different to my normal types of fiction.

It's set in Australia, in a halfway house/prison.

The book switches between two characters' points of view.

One, the wife of a famous actor who has been convicted, though at the point of the book I'm in there is no mention of what the conviction actually is, though it eludes to her husbands death.

And the second is a girl convicted of assault who has a developmental disability/intellectual disability.

The big secret hasn't yet been revealed, but these two characters are linked in more ways than just being in the same prison.

Life Updates, again!

Life is a time consuming bitch.

Every time I start thinking things will settle down and I'll feel less stressed, and have some more time to do stuff, the opposite happens.

After 9 weeks with crappy internet, and having to step away from raiding with my guild in WoW, we finally decided to switch providers.

And dear god, I can play!

Without lag!

And at night!

Have I had much time to do so? Well, no, but still, I can!

Sadly the install was supposed to be a Friday install but because of Murphy's law with the Optus tech's that day, it got pushed to Saturday.

I had to cancel a bunch of my plans Saturday (upside was I finished my friend's birthday gift) to wait for the tech.

A 7.30 am to 12 noon window for them to show up, and just my luck, they showed right near 12.

The install itself didn't take long.

The tech said 20 minutes until we could set it up and be internet filled.

An hour and a half on the phone later, get told it won't be up until late Sunday.

Then get told it won't be until Monday.

This totally messed up my Sunday plans of sitting and doing a bunch of my TAFE assessments.

But in the end it didn't matter, because I got a damned cold.

Spent all of Sunday and a good chunk of Monday in bed, with hankies and a bucket.

Missed my Monday class too.

The TAFE assessment was a group project, and it didn't come together until the very last minute because life!

TAFE itself is going pretty well.

A couple weeks in, already have assessments all over the place. 

Next week I have a presentation to give, but that will be on cross stitching, so easy enough. But to satisfy the visual component of the marking scheme, I'm making up some little kits for the people in the class. 

So I need to make up 30 little cross stitch kits. 

Trip to Spotlight this weekend I think!

Apart from that I finally got a new phone.

My little HTC Desire HD has been a great phone for the last 5-6 years, but the touch screen doesn't respond as well, the apps I use are starting to not work on the outdated Android platform it runs and the speakers were going.

And the battery, 5 hours until it was almost drained.

I'm still waiting for my number to be ported over, but the battery on my new phone is amazing!

I went with a Samsung Galaxy s5.

My biggest happy about it? 

Hearthstone on mobile works, and I can get the cat selfie app.

So be prepared for cat selfies!

Apart from that, I'm still in a reading slump.

I'm days behind in Stitch Maynia (until tomorrow anyway)

I haven't done much stitching at all (though being able to stitch in class will be a godsend)

But now photos!

Only in Australia can we have a storm when it's mostly sunny, with rainbows and lightning crashing over the top of it....

Finished Birthday gift, I didn't take many photos of this before we left.

We only just made it in time for the party after all the mucking around with internet.

Cupcakes I made for my friends party, with  pink and purple icing!

I want to cross stitch this Spiderman art xD

And now I can selfie!

Updates! Life keeps taking over!

Life, huh.

Still crazy.

Still super busy.

My last post I mentioned working on a second birthday present. I have 7 days to finish and frame it.

I started my course this week as well.

4 days a week, starting at 9.30am for 5 hours each day.

Doesn't seem like a huge deal, but I'm having issues with my insomnia and sleep habits.

So it's been pretty full on.

Not to mention we're playing classroom roulette, because the classrooms and staffroom for the communities sector are closed off.

Thanks to all those crazy storms, we have sections of roof that have collapsed.

So we don't have actual classrooms, we end up having to find out when we get there in the morning.

Other downsides include the lifts being out of order as well.

Looking like a 3-6 week wait for them to be repaired, and that's only if we don't have anymore storms.

The course itself is looking to be interesting, and a little fun at the moment.

I know it won't always be, I know there are going to be some things that pop up that will be a little uncomfortable, a little emotional.

But it's all part of learning to help people.

As for stitching, I've not done much. 

All my TAFE teachers have given me permission to stitch in classes, so I will get more done that way :)

But then I decided to take part in Stitch Maynia.

The crazy creation of Coffee Stitcher and A.Stitch.In.Time

15 new starts.

1 for each of the first 15 days in May.

I've picked my projects, picked out fabrics. 

I haven't photocopied working copies or floss picked, but I can do that each day.

The plan is to take pictures of each one, then I'm going to do blog posts and videos for them.

Just got to get used to studying again and settle into a routine.

So back to sporadic posts and videos :P

Some photos!

Terry Pratchett shirt <3 RIP Sir Pratchett

The storms hit here with sunlight, hail, winds and rain. 

Later there was rainbows, hail and lightning.

The floodway behind my house rose up really quickly. 

Thankfully it didn't get much higher than this.

Spider's don't like wet weather, they come indoors and eat other bugs.

This is a Spider Bro.

They typically don't bother humans, just other spiders and bugs.

Got this sharpener from TYPO.

Gotta use the butt :p

HAED Sale, of course I did :p

Cute little glass jars I can use as ORT jars

Andrew has finished the outline on his first project

Stitch Maynia plans

Best. cup. Ever.

I'm thinking of giving the ort jar away with the present because it looks pretty cool.

First project for Stitch Maynia

Second project for Stitch Maynia

How awesome would this be to cross stitch?

I'd just settle for the Spiderman part :p

New finish - Birthday Present #1

Number 1?

Yes, I have 2 birthday presents to stitch at the moment!

This one is a late birthday present for my younger sister.

She's super into tattoo's (not my influence I swear!) and nautical themed everything, so this pattern from Plastic Little Covers on Etsy was perfect!

So next came picking a fabric. 

Colour Cascades is my go to, Australian based dyer, so I can get them pretty quickly.

Tammy did me a huge favour by adding it to the next dye lot so I could get it a little quicker.

My sister's birthday is the 11th, so I knew it wouldn't be done in time, but I wanted to get it done as quick as I could, as the next present I'm stitching is for the 9th of May.

So I grabbed a few pictures of Tammy's fabrics and did a few overlays.

Clouds

Black Holed Sun

Candy

She liked clouds the best, so I ordered it in a 16 count Opal, because sparkles!

I kind of dropped the ball on taking in progress pictures, so here's the finish!

For the frame I got a Kasiercraft wooden 10 inch square frame from Spotlight. 

I painted it a lightened Teal, and stuck some little embellishments on it.
It was a little hard to glue the frame together, because I seem to have misplaced my packet of low temp glue gun refills....

But these are just some quick photos taken with my phone.