*cries* It seems the stitching gods have forsaken me. I really want to stitch but even when I do find some time I seem to have lost my stitching mojo.

But that is enough whining…
The Halloween party was fun although there are very few photos for technical reasons (I was too busy and the camera proved to be a challenge for others) there are a few though and I will take more of how I do the house up for tonights trick or treaters.
This year I know there will be a few as the nephews have been excited for weeks about being brought over to trick or treat.

Jack ‘o’ Lanterns you would be mortified at how much we have to pay for american style pumpkins over here. I still pay it though… you have to have jack o lanterns at halloween.

My mad science lab display for this year.. Being a chemist has its advantages. I put dry ice in the vessels at time through the night too which made then bubble over. It was fun! the bowl is filled with slime from the chem lab. We have school kids make it when they come to visit the uni. It is all gooey and fun to play with.

And the grave yard. We set it up under the house this year to section off an area we didn’t want people to go into. It had eerie green light over it which added to the spookiness. I am going to set it up in the front yard before the trick or treaters show up tonight.

I have a photo of me in costume too … but I am not sure about posting that one.. . It involves me, though I really do like my new hair colour

Lots of other people were taking photos so I may get a few more yet and put them up in my gallery if people are interested. Unfortunately there were a few sick people who turned up so we have spent the last couple of days fighting off bugs that we caught on the night I am pretty much recovered now thankfully but the boys are still a little on and off which meant our trip to dreamworld was postponed from monday to this coming saturday.

I still have a busy week of touristy bits (wine tours, visits to the botanical gardens, China town etc) to do with Adam before he heads back to the scary USA but then I should be back to stitching… and hopefully have some update pics.

Last things .. sorry I am really really behind in my emails I hope to get a chance to write a few soon *hugs to you all* and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Ok well I did manage to squeeze in a little stitching time on Belladonna’s Gift for the SAL so here is a quick pic. I even start at her face and not the top left hand corner… no fainting please :p

She should be a quicjk stitch once I get through the shading on the facial areas. There are over 90ish colours in this design believe it or not and most of them seem to be in the face lol.

I am actually itching to get to the background but I can’t decide if I want to stitch the leaves of the deep blue sky bits more.

Well Adam has made it safely to Australia even if he was complaining about the heat and humidity after on 5 minutes :p It has actually bee really mild with a wonderful cool breeze since he’s been here too.

Surprisingly enough he had no troubles getting through customs…. and all this came from one bag! I had so much fun unpacking it *giggle* . There is enough halloween candy to kill numerous small children not to mention grown adults and peeps. I had my first peep experience yesterday. They are strange , very , very strange.

With all the craft fair craziness and getting ready for visitors I haven’t done a great deal on Belladonna’s gift. I did get her started though and will be sure to post pics as soon as I get the chance.
for now though I need to make calls to confirm my dry ice for saturday and finalise my menu.

The fair was great. Too many people which always makes me a bit jumpy but all in all I had a really wonderful day.

Nic and I got to meet Annette from the HAED BB and oggle her gorgeous stitching *swoon* we wandered around and chatted for a few hours before Annette and her lovely friend Kim had to head home daylight lamp in hand
That meant Nic and I seriously got to shopping. Hehe silks and fabby was the call of the day for me as I was avoiding charts due to the 10 project challenge. I did wonderfully on all fronts. I came home broke but with bundles of lovely goodies. Included were some adorable halloween fabrics and a few bits for finishing as well. Nic shopped like crazy and was busily buying up everything Halloween she could see before I did and giving it to me the evil little pixie.

With Nic being aided by Erica in her war against me I really stood no chance. I did get to buy a large portion of the materials for the this cute little dino blamki for Ericas bubby boy thuogh . The lady at the stall was nice enough to let me take a picture to remember how they had put it all together (it wasn’t a pattern or anything jsut the panels and coordinating fabrics). Unfortunately my photography skills were somewhat lacking and the picture is all fuzzy. It was an adorable blankie though and little bub will haev a new cot feature once his Mum and Nic find the time to stitch it together.

I am happy to say I came home with 3 pieces of sugar maple fabrics (being sold through peppermint stitches) a budle of silks including a few VCs and the latest releases of brights from Dinky Dyes.

We were also lucky enough to have a chat with the lady from colourstreams silks and got to fondle all the lovelies they had on display. The colours I got are: DD: lilac, Binda, Desert Sands, Turquoise, Violet, Pink Tourrmaline, Native plum, Peridot and Red centre. VK: Autumn Leaves, Baneberry, Fire Dragon, True Green and Gloss Green.

Colourstreams: monet, Purple Genie, Plum, Berry and Wisteria. I also picke up a few skeins of the stitches and spice hand dyed cottons. Stitches and spice are trying to source silk threads to do a range of silks in thier colour selections so people should keep thier eyes out in the future

Phew well that was a lot to list out hehe though not everything I got. There is also a bunch of great little FQs I picked up for finishing and just because they were halloweeny (or Nic picked up depending on who saw them first). The other stuff I got was all fairly boring and simple. There was a large pack of matboard off cuts for finishing items, some candlewicking supplies, plain jobelan and a bunch of flyers for online shops imcluding applicuts which does the most beautiful little dragon appliqued quilts. I also got a bit of information on the local lace makers guild and embroidery guild. I may go chack them out if I can build up the courage to interact with people. There was also some oggling of lovely wool fibres and I took down the names of a few lace weight yarns I intend to be ordering from this lovely little lady in perth.

Funnily enough today when I was going through everything and putting it away I cam across two skeins of colourstreams silks that I had in my stash! Yes fudgey you can stop laughing now… although I think you will find it even funnier that one of the was purple genie. I can remember where I bought them even and it was over a year ago lol. The other skein it turns out I have is Water Nymphs, which is lovely.

I got them to stitch the border around my HAED RR but never got around to getting it done before I had to send it out. Too vague for my own good. Knowing my luck I will forget to pick Adam up at the airport in the morning and he will never send my lovely packaged thread again.

Nic has promised to email me pictures of her stash haul and I will put them up here when she does.. it is bound to be impressive. Not everything that we bought is for ourseleves though. There will be some little pixie packages flyng off to varying destinations in the coming weeks

I got a new Floss FAiry package in the mailthe other ady but I hva ebeen to busy to post the piccie.

I adore how my little bundles of floss get packaged they look so pretty. I have about 300 skeins of thread here. Full sets for Return of Srping, Dragon lore and Character creations Hermit.

I was going to start reutrn of spring for the new start SAL but need to get started on that tote so it will still be BElladonnas gift.

Speaking of which .. I’m of to stitch. Tomorrow will be all day at the craft show with the added bonus of meeting up with Annette from the HAED BB. That shoudl eb fun, even if I am already freking out at meeting someone.

I’m blaming this crazy idea on Sharon and Nancy.. mmhmm I am.

When I had coffee with them we were (as can be expected) chatting about stitching and HAED etc etc…. really who would have though we would talk about stitching and inparticular HAED?
One other topic that came up though was the cost of framing. Nancy had been quoted an outrageous price for framing her Sea of Roses from the last Round Robin. As it is want to do my brain had one of its fleeting flashes and ran off on a tangent to other finishing ideas for HAEDs. While on its little trip it decided that the Jasmine Beckett Griffith designs would work really well on tote bags! Well one thing has lead to another and my brian won’t let go of the idea. So was born the Crazy Tote Bag Project.

I have been puzzling it out for a few days weeks now… what I would make the bag out of how to incorporate the stitched piece, which stitched piece … right down to the lining.

This is the design brief so far:

For inspiration on bag shape and size I have used a bag  picked up on my trip to Melbourne from a very funky store “Dangerfield” (pictured in the mock up image).

The JBG Design I have chosen to use for my bag is Belladonnas Gift which was a giftie from Adam to cheer me up after I stopped buying HAED charts right before they released her. the image will be cropped to make it an approx 9×11″ or something close to that. Exact Dimensions will be worked out by the weekend. It will be stitched over 1 on 28ct Jobelan and then sewn in to the bag panel during final construction in the area blocked out by the large rectangle on the skull tote. As is noted on my little mock up there will be  ornate clasps and buckles added possibly something from this selection but I am still looking at my options.

I will be adding some batty buttons and skull beads for additional decoration too and the lining will be a funky Halloween print cotton of some description (probably purple in colour or accent colour). The main bag will either be a heavy drill cotton / raw silk or cotton velveteen depending on how I feel at the time, what I can get readily or how durable I want the fianl product to be.

So as a result of this crazy idea I will be starting “Belladonna’s Gift” for the new start SAL on the HAED BB, not pumpkin pixie which was going to be my halloween start this year (I may still start this on Halloween night though). Now I just have to go buy riot out of thier stocks of 310 and 939 again

Yep it is another Meme this one I pilfered from Adam and shows the rather ecelctic collection of Music on my ipod

Put your music player on shuffle.
Press forward for each question.
Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense.

1. How am I feeling today? – “Velvet Belly” This Mortal Coil
2. Will I get far in life? – “Decomposed by the Fire of the Frimament” Black Tape For a Blue Girl
3. How do my friends see me? – “Unsettling” Strange Boutique
4. Where will I get married? – “East of the Sun” Mythica
5. What is my best friend? – “A Certain Someone” The Sundays
6. What is the story of my life? – “Earthfall” The Cruxshadows
7. What was high school like? – “Hold on tight” ELO
8. How can I get ahead in life? – “State of Mind” De/Vision
9. What is the best thing about me? – “Incendiary Lover” Christian Death
10. What is today going to be like? – “Time after Time” Cyndi Lauper
11. What is in store for this weekend? – “Slow Kill” Fields of The Nephilim
12. What song describes my parents? – “Your River” My Dying Bride
13. To describe my grandparents? – “I Don’t Expect to be Right” Mesh
14. How is my life going? – “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” Ozzy Osbourne
15. What song will they play at my funeral? – “Relax” Frankie Goes to Hollywood
16. How does the world see me? – “Compulsion” Martin Gore
17. Will I have a happy life? – “Sad I Cry” Human Drama
18. What do my friends really think of me? – “Speak My Language ” The Cure
19. Do people secretly lust after me? – “Snow in Summer” The Cure
20. How can I make myself happy? – “Serenity” New Clear Sky
21. What should I do with my life? – “Imitation of Christ” The Psychedelic Furs
22. Will I ever have children? – “Suffer Age” Fear Factory
23. What is some good advice for me? – “Fear” Sarah McLachlan
24. How will I be remembered? – “Your Love is Sweeter than Wine” Black Tape for a Blue Girl
25. What is my signature dancing song? – “Sour Puss” The Mission U.K.
26. What is my current theme song? – “Darkest Days” Stabbing Westward
27. What does everyone else think my current theme song is? – “Modus Operandi” Front Line Assembly
28. What type of women / men do I like? – “Melting” All About Eve

I have not been stitching much lately.. too much running around combined with not being too well. Generally I am finiding I am jsut too exhausted to stitch in the little times I have been getting. I am slowly plodding away at the outline for my TrickORTreat box though and getting ready for my new HAED start for the SAL. (more details to come on exactly what that will be)

There is a stitching/craft/quilting fair on this week at the brisbane convention center. I am being given money to go spend and will be there all day I am hoping to find lots of yummy silks to fondle… fudgey should I look out for some nice greens for you? Nic and I should be able to keep focussed for at least.. umm 30 seconds.

Because I haven’t gotten much more dones past my first nights stitching so far I thought I would show my Japanese Garden progress. I am using VC silks instead of NPIs they are lovely to stitch with and I haven’t had any problems so far… other than wishing I could stitch better

I need to get back to some sort of rotation but the lastpart of this year is going to keep me too bust I think. Between gifts I need to get done and RR commitments I think the rotation will need to stay on hold until January.

I think I should havea norty Nic category. She rocked up to work yesterday with more presents! I even got asked if it was my birthday It sure felt like it. hehe

I think I have given Nicole the Halloween bug (except she buys it all for me). Over 100 pieces of candy, which will be fantastic pinanta fill! Three adorable Hallmark Halloween bears a garland batty boppers and a witches broom. hehe More for the Halloween stash.

Things around our house look like a spooky bomb hit. There are Halloween bits and bobs everywhere. I start making Mr Bs Costume this weekend…

I am thinking I will add as praoject to my 10 project challenge. The challenge is for any crafty project so I think sewing counts. That and I haev a stitchers and craft fair to go to on the 21st. I am sure my resolve will be tested for this wagon stuff when I am there.

I have confirmation that my costume will be sent this week. I cheated this year and ordered mine from house of Vamp. I usually make all my costumes but for some reason decided not to this year. Probably because of that whole busy with my PhD thing. For those interested I got a Mad Scientists Lab coat from House of Vamp I will be adding some accessories dying my hair vlood red and adding a few personal touches to the coat as well I will post piccies when I have it all done
Have I mentioned I like Halloween? Oh and Happy Friday the 13th Everyone (tomorrow for you crazy american types)

Oh apologies for the bad lighting in the photos too I haven’t got time to take better ones at the moment.

I’ve signed up and joined the masses of stitching bloggers out there for the weekly question so here goes.

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Lee
and is:

As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the
hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter
months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a
special regimen that you would like to share?

I am notoriously bad with all things “girly” this includes makeup, moisturisers etc (well everything except clothes) so I don’t tend to use any sort of creams on my hands. My skin doesn’t usually get too dry though to make it much of an issue. The winters here in Brisbane are also very mild. I have been thinking I probably should start to use something on my hands though as the lab enviroment I work in is quite unforgiving with my hands having to be in gloves all day.