Woops… I have been reminded somewhat lately that I have been neglectful of my blogging duties. I just never seem to have found the time or had the inclination to blog for a while. Which is kind of odd because I have had quite a bit to blog about since July. So what have I been up to?

Lets see.. not long after my last blog post I ran away to Melbourne for a week. It was kind of a spur of the moment, hell I need to get away from here kind of thing. The trip was just what the doctor ordered too. It was loads of fun and I was lucky enough to have the chance to catch up with the wonderful Nancy and Sharon for lunch and stitchy chat :D. There are a few photos to be found here but not all of them have been uploaded yet just a few from the trip we made out to St Kilda and a couple from about the place.
I have more of the wine tour we went on (yummy!) and a few other bits a pieces as well that I will upload to flickr once I get home to the computer they are on. This last trip to Melbourne has pretty much set in stone that it is somewhere I really could see myself living, so plans are in motion for that to happen as of October 2008 and I can’t wait. I have dreams of owning a little terrace house somewhere around Brunswick St in Fitzroy, or at least that close to the city. I really feel like I “fit” in Melbourne though I am sure the dream will be much more glamorous than the reality for now I am happy to be delusional :p

As always there was a fantasitc array of restaurants offering a huge variety of food. The stand out for this trip though was a great little mexican bar come restaurant called Mi Corazon. It was somewhat of an adventure getting there with the discovery that Lygon street actually starts from 1 again at around 2000 so it was a very long walk to find 462. But after a few phone calls, sore feet and some persistence we eventually found the place. All that for some mexican hot chocolate with Chillie but it was so good… and so were the margaritas.. oh and the food too.

Other than running about the countryside and making grand plans to move a few thousand kilometres south I have been busy with the evils of my PhD but making slow progress, which is better than none. There is sitll hope to be out of the Lab and writing full time within the next few months but for the moment I am just trying to make each day as productive as possible so I don’t feel to overwhlmed by what there is left to do. The goal remains to have this done and dusted by February so I suspect my stress levels will only rise from here on in. Bring on the chocolate! lol
To keep myself as sane (or as close as I am want to pretend at least) I have been baking .. yep my cupcake obsession still grows with each week and I now own more than a few books dedicated to these sweet littlw morsels. Pictures of my latest baking adventures can be found here. The list of recipes I want to try isn’t getting any shorter that is for sure. While in melbourne I picked up some must use ingredients like Saffron syrup and some mexican chocolate. I am also all inspired to make Horchata cupcakes which will be based on the incredibly yummy mexican rice based drink Horchata (ooo it was so good and being lactose free it was something creamy that didn’t leave me in pain and sick afterwards).

There has also been knitting… being all officially car-less now (it has passed on into the wreckers hands) bus travel has meant time to knit. So far I have finished 2 scarves and I am over halfway with a long sleeved rib and lace shrug. No pictures though but I am enjoying knitting again. It had been about 12 years or more since I seriously picked up a pair of knitting needles so it took a bit to get back into the groove.

And of course there has been stitching… I am quite happy with the progress I have been making on some of my wips of late so here comes the picture intensive part of this post. Most people will possibly have seen these posted about but I wanted to collect them together on my blog.
First up is Lisa Victorias Lost Quick Stitch. I am almost at 50% with this guy and have finished 2 complete pages and started in on page 3. I am doubting the likelihood of finishing him this year but I still plan to give it my best shot. He is stiching up so well and even though there are 90 colours in this chart it moves along at a fairly good pace. Most of the detail stitches tend to gather around the edges between the highly detailed dragon and the plainer background.
I had another page finish this month too with the first page of Violet Sometimes Originally I was a little concerned that the striped candy cane like swirlies would get lost in the background being as it is mostly 939 and the stipes are black and purple. Originally it seemed like there wouldn’t be quite enough definition, with the whole page done now though you can clearly see them and I htink the more that is completed the picture will really start to come together.
Taliking about Violet reminds me … I went to see The CURE play live at the beginning of august!! I was hoping they would play charlotte sometimes which is what this piece always reminds me of.. but no luck there. The show was awesome though with the band playing a massive three hour show. *bounce*
Wow so much … I guess this is my punishment for not blogging for so long. For those of you still reading my blather I have a few more pics.
I finally got around to taking pictures of Dianes Round Robin and I am really happy with how my selection stitched up(the whole RR so far can be found here). I chose to stitch a section from Keeper of Secrets by Selena Fenech for Diane, her theme was faces. This artwork is amazing but know I am never likely to stich the whole thing so this seemed like a great opportunity to get to stitch just a portion of it. For anyone thinking of stitching this.. Do! her hair is just sublime to stitch and looks fantastic in person the shading is remarkable.

I have also stitched a little more on cirques but nothing worth showing yet and did more of Aredhel for the long past 5th weekend SAL. I never posted a picture of her though (sorry fudgey) I will be sure to add one to this post (probably just a link though as this is way too long already) when I get home. I think I even added a little colour to her last time… but not much :p If I am right we shoudl be able to get ehr out again this month. I will need to check my calendar to make sure.
I have been trying really hard to keep up with the SALs as they keep what little stitching time I have somewhat focused and remind me that I am making some progress. In spite of the fact that the SAL always seems to fall on what ends up being a very busy weekend for me I made a little more progres on Return of Srping for the august challenge SAL. I had hoped that hainving this as my challenge pice this year I would make good progress but 8 months in I still haven’t even finished a page .. I htink I am just too easily distracted.

Which leads me to this past weekend where against my better judgement I joined in with the new start SAL over on the HAED BB. With close to 20 wip on the go the last thing I really needed was a new start but I have no will power so I caved with little to no pressure having to be applied. Really I think I am always looking for an excuse for a new start so I couldn’t pass up such a good one as the SAL
I didn’t get to stitch all weekend like I had hoped but did manage a really good amount friday night when Nic and I had an impromptu stitching / DVD night (almost finished watching the rest of Escaflowne) I even managed to get Nic to have a new start too ;P hehe.
My Start was Broken angel by Meredith Dillman and I have to say she is just wonderful to stitch. I think I came close to getting 2000 stitches done with about 1200 or more of those being done friday night. I would love to keep stitching on her but I don’t think I can fit her in just yet. I still want to try and meet my HAED goals for the year… lol, not that it is likely but I can still hope. I look at it this way putting her to the side will just give me all the more incentive to finish Lost.

Ok if you have made it this far I am very very impressed and thank you hehe. I promise not to take so long to update again. I have been really bad with commenting on other peoples blogs lately too… worse than usualy even. So sorry everyone I have been reading blogs but have just been a bit quiet. Oh and Nicki.. if you still check here the carries creation threads stitch up really well and I compared them to weeks dye works and they feel much the same. I meant to email you but I am notsure I have all your current details.

Some stitching updates as promised.
Firstly my long overdue picture of Nics RR I kept forgetting to upload the picture to somewhere I could get to it to post but have finally rectified the situation, only to find that the picture is somewhat blurry sorry

Nics theme for the Round Robin is Dragons, the sections are dragon shaped etc etc. I was originally going to do just a section of a dragon, eye nostril wing section etc but got it into my head to stitch the little guy from Meredith Dilmans “Forbidden Doorway”. The charting on this is a bit darker (more black) than I expected and for a long time whilst stitching it I wasn’t very happy. All in all though I think it turned out ok. The sections were a little bit of a challenge to work with … especially with the newer HAED chart format where the chart elements are not as easily defined from each other as they once were. Hopefully Nic will like it. I think this will be loads of fun to watch as the Round Robin progresses there are so many cool charts and sections to choose from for the theme. Now I just have to get it sent off to Sharon (it is far later than it should be) first I have to get Nics notebook and instructions from her. We both forgot that she just gave me the piece of fabby and nothing else back when the RR first got going. So Nic.. expect a visit soon

My next bit of show and tell is cirques. This has turned into my doctors / hospital waiting room piece. It is great for those long stretches of time waiting in uninteresting rooms for stuff to happen. Also very easy to transport having only the one thread to carry. This meets my February goal with there being two more of the middling size circles completed since January as well as some filler circles adn a bit more outlining. I am really happy with how it is turning out so far not to mention how quickly it is stitching up with only small amounts of time given to it each month. Just a refresher it is stitched 1 thread over 2 on 40ct Atlantic storm linen with Plum waterlillies from Caron. Appologies for yet another bad pic I snapped this one quickly before work this morning and hadn’t realised how wrinkly the linen looked.

Woops I meant to post this Sunday and here it is already Tuesday.
Nic finished her RR layout which is now in my hot little hands while I try and sort out what I will stitch on it. Interesting shaped sections will make this a fun little treasure hunt for just the right section.

So here it is for everyones viewing pleasure an insight into Nics crazy mind:

I think they are so incredibly adorable, and now everyone can fully understand when Nic said her topic was “dragons but in more ways than one” The fabric is Queen Annes Lace Jobelan in 28ct I believe and the little dragon smoke clouds are all a little different

Santa visited my house this morning too and I was being all good in not opening the presents he brought until a squeaky little elf told me I had to. Though I only opened the one, the other is still waiting and therefore taunting me from the other side of the room. I feel spoilt alreadyand christmas isn’t even here yet.

As for my packages they are heading to the post office today before I explode in a fit of guilt lol.

Oh santa delivered me a dilemma… I now have to choose between two designs for the ink circles SAL and work out potential colours. This will take some serious consideration.

My Round Robin left on its great journey yesterday. Unfortunately without my section finsihed … I was pretty silly trying to get a section of over 7000 stitches done before she hit the road but you get that. I think I managed over 200 stitches which let me know that she should come back looking fabulous. All the gridding is done *phew* and she is *HUGE*.

So the details are… for those that haven’t heard enough times already
Theme: Sectioned version of Linda Ravenscroft’s Turquoise (Gridding details provided by the ever patient and wonderful Nancy).
Fabric: Taupo in 36 count linen from country stitch. The dye is lighter than the usual colour for the linen and is more like that of the evenweave colouration.
Threads: DMC 2 threads over 2
The colour on the photos is really off but the lighting has been really funny here for the past few days and I just couldn’t get a good picture before sending it off.
I won’t see her now until sometime in 2008 I think. But until that time I am eagerly looking forward to working on everyone elses round robins. There are so many beautiful ideas being stitched up and with such a greta group of people too *bounce*
I think everyone is going to flip when they see Nics (I have given her a bit more time to get it to me seeing as I am busy with santas at the moment any way).

Talking of santas I should have another one finished today … does that make it impending Doom?

Round Robin 2.0 is breaking my poor fragile brain into tiny tiny pieces. I can’t make a decision and keep changing my mind everytime I think I have. The latest idea turned dilemma is Linda Ravenscofts: Turquoise. I love this chart, and thought (woo hoo) I will just do a sectioned up version of this much like the beautiful Sea of Roses Nancy did for round robin 1.0. If only it were that easy.

The chart is proving difficult to section without cutting eyes / noses in half etc. Nancy beautiful talented person that she is did a few mockups for me.. now I have 4 to choose from! I look at them think I have made up my mind and then change it again. This is where you come in, oh wonderful yet small and select group of people that read my blog. I need you to vote. Please end my suffering by placing a vote for layout 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the comments. I am sure it will not be pretty if I lose what little of my mind I have managed to retain thus far.

Okay well after too long I have the pics of Fudgeys RR. Nancy posted a pic of my section in its incomplete form on the BB back when I originally sent it off. This time the little guy is all done and is busily flying his way across the great water to get to Sue in the USofA.

The section is from Linda Ravenscrofts “Babysitting” . I think this design is adorable and could think of nothing better to stitch for Fudgey than a cheeky little Dragonling / Goblin. I am not overly happy with my stitching this time round (sorry fudgey) there is more lumpiness than usual… I would like to blame the fabris but it is probably just the way I stitched it and all those pesky single stitches. Now I just need to come to some firm decision for round 2.0 and get started on my layout.

My Round Robin from this round is still with nicole so I will be sure to post pics once I get it from her and then once I get my section stitched on it. I have seen it though and everyones sections look fabulous… makes me think of continuing with the seaon theme… too many choices for someone as indecisive as me.

In other stitching news I remebered the Quick Stitch SAL on the HAED BB. I almost forgot, being that I have had no idea what day has been which this week so far. Easter always messes with my ability to know which day or date it is. I managed to get 389 stitches into fire this wed, which is less than normal but close to my goal of 400 stitches each SAL Wed. It brings my total to over 5000 stitches (5010) giving me 15.85% completed. I should have page one doen in about six more weeks at this rate, eight at the most. *bounce*