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.

St Patrick's Day SAL

I started my St Pat's SAL in March, and finished it yesterday.

Anyone who watched my last video knows about the floss related issue I had with this pattern, but apart from that it was really easy to stitch.

And now it's finished.
Only thing left to do is to get it framed.
Because it's a memorial piece I want it done properly, so now I have to find somewhere in Sydney that frames cross stitch.

My Grandfather was a great person and he meant a lot to me. Sadly he passed away late 2012.
His birthday was St Patrick's Day, so I thought about doing a memorial piece for the Stitch A Long with Cross Stitch It's Fun.
I trawled Pinterest and google until I found something that would be easy to modify, and wasn't too cliche'd.

So here it is :)
Unframed as of yet, but finished :)

I stitched this on 18 count aida, from Colour Cascades Fabrics on Silver Springs.
The flosses were from Weeks Dye Works, and if you want to stitch this one yourself, get yourself 2 skeins of the green colour, Lucky. I used all but four strands of a short length for this.

I made a Q Snap cover!

First time I've used a sewing machine since 2001 and that was for maybe 4 hours in total. 

Now to learn to switch the threads so I won't have to stitch everything in white...

Life Updates!

I've been absent again.

It has been one of those time periods where a whole bunch is going on, a whole bunch needs to be done and my stitchy bug takes a break.

So I spent most of my time this month sleeping/attempting to sleep after having run around shopping, doing other crafty stuff, fighting with my ISP to get my internet fixed (never mess with a gamer's internet!) and trying to work out what to do with myself.

So I saw a career advisor with my local TAFE to chat about options for wheelchair friendly professions. I already had a few ideas in mind, some of which I doubted would be wheelchair friendly.

So I came to the decision and I will be returning to TAFE to study full time.

I will be starting off with a Certificate 4 in Youth Work and then I'm going to see if I can do a dual discipline in both Mental Health and in Disabilities. 

I really hope I can get both at the same time. 

It will be a bigger workload, yes, but overall will be quicker than doing 2 different courses after each other.

So have some photos, and I will be filming some cross stitch updates in the next few days :)

Check out the hot chocolate porn!

Made my first ever pulled Pork. It didn't last long.

Strawberries and Cream cupcakes before icing, and choc mint muffins :)

Didn't get pictures of the sugar cookies before they went. I made them in bat and cat shapes :p

That's an Air Con, not a bed. 

One of our awesome Flosstubers was in hospital for a little while, so I surprised her with a card :)

I bought a card making kit off ebay, put all the pieces together, found a kitty picture which I printed out and then coloured with watercolour paints :)

And this little butterfly pendant was the little gift I sent along as well :)

I stitched it with 2 Fiberlicious hand dyed flosses, and one Dinky Dyes hand dyed floss :)

I spent most of the month stitching on my St Patricks day SAL. I didn't finish it. 

But I'm not going to rant about it here, I'm going to wait for the video :p

Made a friend of mine a Star Trek Communication Badge :)

Made the little pattern based off an image off Google.

I should mention I know nothing of Star Trek. At all :p

The pattern for this is on my Etsy as well

Andrew getting his hacksaw on at Bunnings :)

And what I made with those hacksawed pieces of PVC pipe :)

Still learning to two hand stitch, but it's so good to not have to hold it :p

I'm very quickly becoming a Qsnap convert!

Tie Dying some shirts. Some turned out, others didn't. And then my washing machine screwed them all up.

Pizza scrolls and some trial Nutella and Coconut scrolls :)

Stitching!

Little lacewing I rescued from my room before Illidan got ahold of him.