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.

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.