Anoher sneaky catch up post. These pictures were taken on my trip to melbourne last september. The gardens around the (I think it is ) exhibition building were in full bloom and it was a really clear and sunny day… somewhat unusual for Melbourne I hear :p

Well here he is after QS Wed my little lost Dragon. I had to pretend to be a part of the nothern hemisphere this week as really I had not time on Wednesday to stitch. I was too busy off having rather decadent meal type things with a dear friend and drinking absinthe

I do have a dilemma though … I need to stitch faster. I made myself a promise no new HAED starts until I finished at least this guy. The problem is though that all the incredilby cute Lisa Victoria draggies have been released and I want to start them all! (actually there is still one to be released that will probably be fudgeys downfall).

So now I want to finish him asap so I can start the pirate dragon before I explode .

I’m a bit slow updating things this month.. but I thought I might do a little birthday update. I was again showered in so many unexpected gifts this year and I am still in shock. All in all between my own stashing and all the wonderful parcels I received I have quite a few new shinies in my collection.
This is of course resulting in a huge dilemma be cause I have a dozen new projects that need to be started and of course with the end of my Phd funding fast approaching even less time than usual to try and squeeze them in. I was trying to take pictures of everything but I got all overwhelmed and have only uploaded some to bore you all with. lol

I have picked up a wonderful selection of books that I have been reading through slowly. These are The Tudor Tailor (with thanks to Mr B), 18th Century embroidery techniques (thank you Nancy), two more books filled with delightful illustrations from Ian Daniels (thank you Adam) and the Goblins of Labyrinth book filled with beautiful images from Brian Froud. This makes a lovely companion for the Dark Crystal art book I have and regularly drool over, Froud is one of my favourite artists. I also picked up a beginners guide to Goldwork to help me with the gold work techniques that were widely used in the 18th century. I got this at the Crewel Gobelin along with a variety of different goldwork threads (in silver of course hehe) and some silver purl and spangles. My main concern with these is the tarnishing of the silver threads. They are more prone to tarnishing than the gold adn I tarnish needles all the time. I can see me having to wear thin cotton gloves like the ones used in photographic studios when handling these threads and trying to figure a way to work them also wearing the gloves. Should prove quite challenging and amusing to watch I’m sure.

There is all the lovely silks and cottons I picked up at the Crewel Gobelin: Gloriand Seaweed and rosewood, Stef Francis Silk impressions in a lovely greenish tone, colourstreams silk in monet and a bunch of purple shades in Needle Neccessities cottons. There is also a lovely deep blue from Weeks Dye works and the most gloriously intense purple cotton from The Thread Gatherer. Last but not least is the yummy Carries’s creation cottons and Stef Francis silks that Nancy was so lovely to send to me and the Klemscott thread keeper, rings and winder I got at Crewel Gobelin as well. They are much larger than I thought from looking at the photos on stitching bits and bobs. I had been wanting a few of these for so long that I really couldn’t help myself when I could actually just buy them then and there. Thanks to Nancy enabling me I also have about 15 skeins coming to me from Carrie’s creation too, hopefully some time this week.

Wow there really is a lot… but last but not least is the lovely fabrics of gotten lately some from wonderful friends and some just random purchases from silkweaver odds and ends. There is a gorgeous piece of Relic from PtP, Karma Sparkle and then a couple of small cut and one larger cut of some hand dyed 36 and 40ct linens.

With all this I am going crazy working out colour combinations for the lovely AMAP charts I received for my B’day too (which arrived in record speed from France I was blown away)
Phew I promise the next update will have some stitching… and maybe some knitting :p

Thank you all so much , you know who you are for the wonderful treats and all the ways you have made me feel special over the past few weeks. I am surrounded by pieces of gorgeous art, and so much more all because I have been lucky enough to find wonderful people to call my friends.

My recent trip to Sydney seems so far away already even though it really has only been a few days.
The weekend was fantastic even with the scary weather that has been wreaking havoc on NSW over the past week. Mostly all we experienced was a considerable amount of rain (sometimes sweeping in on the horizontal), wind and things were a bit chilly. Just the sort of weather I love, even if it does make the whole sight-seeing idea a little hard.
The main pupose for this trip though was to catch up with some much loved friends that have moved away from sunny Brisbane and made Sydney thier new home. In that sense the weekend was immensely successful and I was reminded just how lucky I am in the people I can call friends.

We spent a lot of time in cafes, restaurants and just hanging about chatting. Friday night our plane was late in but we still managed a group of 6 outing to Cafe Otto where the gas heaters were much appreciated. I am told this is the place if you have sudden cravings for tiramasu and don’t feel like driving to get it…they deliver! (not to Brisbane unfortunately).

Saturday was a whirlwind affair with Sydneys public transport to get to The Cewel Gobelin. Given that the north bound train lines were out of service for the weekend for line repairs it was a somewhat more amusing trip than originally planned. A couple of bus transfers in the rain and heading to somewhere we really didn’t know made for some nervous moments but all in all it was pleasant rather than traumatic. We found the store no problem even if we were a little later than intended, thankfully though that worked in our favour as they had only just opened due to a power outage that morning. Three hours of stash fondling and much chatting later I left about $200 poorer but very very very happy. The store is lovely and while they do not stock a huge variety of charts the thread selection and service is impeccable, oh and I may have done a little enabling of my own after raving about AMAP

Saturday afternoon was planned for the paddington markets but for only the second time in something like 20 years they were cancelled. Not to be daunted we loaded ourselves and the rest of the crew (-1 as Miss C) was at work into Cafe Escobar for yummy food coffee and indulging in rather decadent gelati combinations for dessert. The afternoon brought much shopping in covered areas at Bondi to keep out of the weather.
I am a confirmed coffee drinker by nature.. tea just doesn’t hold much appeal for me, thoguh that has changed somewhat after going crazy in T2. After stocking up on cinnamon and vanilla variations for Mr B the lady behind the counter pulled out thier answer for “oh but I only drink coffee”. The tea is a combination of coffee beans Gurana flowers and black tea and is wonderful on its own with no milk or sugar. I am drinking it at work now for a good kick mid afternoon.
Dinner was at Betty’s Soup kitchen which has amazing bread and great simple hearty food, as well as delightfully camp waiters. We retired to our friends apartment for hot chocolates and general cahtting until the wee hours of the morning before heading to our hotel.. which by the way was right next door to a book store open until midnight and across the road from two others… I was in heaven!

I am sure you are all bored to tears by now reading this so my apologies.. It was a big weekend filled with loads of stuff and I still have more to pratle about.

Sunday and Monday we were left to our own devices in the AM seeing as though Ben and Leah do not generally rise until around midday on the weekends. We used this time primarily to catch up on some sight seeing. I worked out it has been 18 years since I was last in Sydney. Basically we walked from paddington in Sydney all the way across town to the harbour visitng St James Cathedral, Hyde Park, the Botanic Gardens, the Anzac Memorial and the Art Gallery of NSW before heading back into the centre of town to stock up on Haighs.
After that we ventured off to Angus and Cheryls apartment for a lounge room picnic which continued on through a late lunch to dinner and again the early hours of the morning.

Monday there was just two more things we really wanted to get from our trip before heading off and that was to see the Leonardo Davinci Machine display and to do the obligtory visit to the opera house and ferry ride. Surprisingly the weather cleared up and we headed out on the ferry to Manly and back before meeting up with th cre to go do the Davinci thing. The exhibition was interesting with miniature reproductions of a lot of the machines mentioned and outline in Davinci’s notebooks but the lighting made it impossible to get good pictures and was bad enough at times that viewing the exhibits was uncomfortable.

From there is was a matter of one last indulgent food evening before heading back to Brisbane on out 8:30pm flight. After
trying earlier in the weekend we were finally able to get a table big enough for all six of us at Max Brenner where we enjoyed dessert before our dinner. This place has amazing amount of chocolate, though I would say that I found koko black in Melbourne to be richer and more deadly…hehe. The chocolate souffle was amazing though and served with pots of warm liquid chocolate.. mmmmm
Hello to anyone who made it all this way I am very impressed… I think I will stop waffling on now though with one last comment. While Sydney is far nicer than I remember I am still drawn to Melbourne a lot more. Sydney is more of a club/pub town and I was suprised to find that at 9am on the weekends there were a lot of cafes not open let alone any other businesses. While Melbourne has late opening hours I still always found it easy to get a great coffee in any number of small cafes tucked in to strange little alley ways no matter the time.

Just a quick note: Larger versions of the pictures can be found in this album. Until I get around to making them all clickable thumbs.

Eeeep yep it is a photo hunt update.

I kind of got behind on these and it made it hard to face coming back to them , with each passing week the task seemed more and more insurrmountable. I have just decided to pick it up again though and go back and fill in the gaps where I can.
This weeks was a bit tough, mainly through having to choose just one photo. I love bridges… I am not sure exactly why but I do and as a consequence there are a few pictures about on my hard drive that would have been suitable.
I was tempted to go with the obvious…given my trip to sydney but have decided on something I consider a little more eclectic.

This is the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver Canada. It was really misty and cloudy the day we were there but it didn’t dretract from the experience one bit. The Bridge is suspended high over a gorge and is quite the site to see hanging not so still across the cold waters below.

I have included a second image to give a little perspective of how high above the gorge the bridge is. You can read more about the bridge and its history here.

Well see you all in a few days with all sort of pictures I’m sure… and stash!

I haven’t been stitching much lately.. but I am still here.
I even have a few things to post about so hopefully I will get around to doing at least a little of that before I head off to sydney for the weekend.

Mostly I wanted to say thankyou to everyone for the lovely comments on cirques etc. I went dead silent there for a while but I do apreciate all the comments. I was even quite surprised to discover that thee seem to be more people visiting my little space in the web than I thought.

The one bit of stitching I have been keeing up with s QS wednesday so before dashing off here is a pic of my progress since last itme. Page two is over halfway complete now but will slow down now that most of the background is done and I am headinginto full dragon detail