The PHD is still in progress unfortunately but it is close and Christmas 2008 / New Year 2009 should see that part of my life finally put to bed. It hasn’t been easy and in some respects I have made it harder for myself at times but it sure has been a learning experience.. one I am not sure I would willingly repeat.

What lies ahead after the PHD I really do not know… at this point I am thinking strongly about whether or not I will continue in science at all. But that is something to worry about later and there is enough going on around here without adding to it

In brief I am relocating to Melbourne in roughly 4 weeks will be there hopefully all settled by the 23rd of Nov at the latest… so there is LOTS of packing and mad running around trying to organise an interstate move which has left even less time for stitching than usual … it has even pushed the majority of work on my PHD to the wayside.

I do have some progress I have made on stitchy bits over the past months of silence but I have yet to upload them, hopefully that will change soon.

It is unlikely I will be very active online still until things settle , the move is done and the PHD under control again but 2009 should see some big changes around here.

Emails have been few and far between from me too and there are people I have let fall to the wayside keeping up with email etc has never really been a strong point and one that suffers the most when I am busy.. it is something I should work on more

In keeping with things stitching related I am heading off to the Brisbane Craft show this weekend … It will be my last here which is all exciting and scary at the same time… I get rather used to my routines. I haev a few things I hope to pick up … mainly fabrics but I am trying to be good whatever I buy will just have to be packed straight away anyway lol.

My laptop dies taking my thesis draft with me…. yes I had backups.. of sorts at least they were just older than I thought

I had spent the week battling the latest version of Microsoft word for mac (office 2008) and while I think the office software itself is a great improvement on usability over the previous version it currently does not mesh with the citation software I use. Which with over 200 references is somewhat of a problem.

I did manage to find a solution (Using paper and bookends) but jsut as I was setting it all up and busily writing a draft of a major chapter my hard drive died. *sob* I lost alot of application setup and more concerning than that I lost about 20 pages of work.
Many many hours later and some help from my northern hemisphere tech support ( *hugs* to Mr Adma) I managed to get my document files for my thesis back and my chem schemes. However, up until yesterday I was without my trusty little laptop.

As you can expect there hasn’t been a lot of stitching going on around here but today I have run away from work and I’m hitting the Stitching show for some retail therapy.
Nic and I are bound to get ourselves in trouble and bring back way too much stuff so I thought I best get an update in before I have all that new stash to show off
So… stitching updates, I have a couple the first of which is my progress on the HAED BB sampler SAL. A few weeks late in updating for this but better late than never. I am stitching on Cirques Des Circles by Ink Circles on Atlantic Storm 40ct Linen 1×2 using Caron Waterlillies silks in plum. I am officially over half way in this now and should see it finished before the end of the year I hope.

Last but by no means least is my little Draggie - Lost
I tray and pick away at him when I can but it is not very often. All the same I have managed a fair bit since the last update and I am about half way through page 3 now I think.

Ok I best run off don’t want to be late for the show

There were host problems… or something like that and now my little blog has a new host to call home. Hopefully that means it will be a little more stable and not act like it hates me for ignoring it for so long.

I have another stitching pic! I have been trying to get one day a week in on St Nick every week this year. For the most part it is working out even if a lot of the time it may only be twenty stitches. Every stitch counts though and I thought I would share a picture of how it is coming along, this is about half way through page two. With only a year and a half left to complete it I need to focus on this some more, but not until after the dreaded PhD thing is in the bag. I think I will be able to make it by my deadline if I focus on it form the end of this year.

My next update will probably be caupcake related rather than stitching… I have set myself the challenge of baking werewolf cupcakes for a friends birthday later this week I have some ideas floating around so we shall see how they turn out

I decided to stick with Return of Spring (by Ian Daniels) again this year. All in all this is one of my favourite pieces and I would love to see her finished one day, even if I am only working on her once a month she is still slowly coming to life and the shading detail is just breathtaking. One moment it just looks like a bunch of haphazard dots then that final stitch goes into an area and magically it just all comes together.

The light colours around her face are so similar to the fabric colour that I find them hard to stitch for long periods, especially at night as I don’t have a decent lamp so I try to break the up with going back and working on the top corner page… the holes are steadily fading away as I hunt and peck those last few details stitches.

I love how she is turning out … well all except the very white accent stitches on the tip of the curl on the central swirly bit. You only really have to look at the picture and see the spot that looks like I missed two stitches. I am thinking of swapping those two stitches out for one of the greys often used on the other accents but will leave it for now. Maybe they won’t be so obvious once the surrounding pages are done.

This is now 7.6% done one more page and I will break the 10% mark

This morning marks my first adventure to work by scooter and I made it! Through peak hour traffic along a major road I am here at work in one piece. The whole trip into work on the scooter has been a bit daunting to day the least, around our little quiet streets no problem but out onto the big scary main road at the end of my street and past all those traffic lights through two lanes of traffic… where I would actually have to change lanes! Well you get the idea I have only been on the scooter a half dozen times at most with no formal lessons.

Having made it in here with no casualties other than my still racing heartbeat I think I will manage to do this more often… though I will leave my final decision until after the ride home tonight. That will add all ne dimensions to the ride as it is likely to be well after sunset before I am anywhere near ready to make that trek….

Wish me luck

www.flickr.com Cynthaea’s Cupcakes 2008 photoset

And just for reference he is stitched 1×1 on 25ct lugana in light blue.

Yep Halloween!
Unfortunately this year the pressures of that evil monster the PhD are going to be keeping me from the usual crazy party prep and costume making. The first year halloween has fallen on a friday night in years and I can’t have a party. I have to give a seminar presentation to the research institute my supervisosr sold my soul to for funding instead. This is not my first choice of things to be doing on halloween believe me.

That being said I am determined to make the most of it, and while I am desperately trying to not give in to temptation and give my presentation dressed as a Zombie I have agreed to make some cupcakes for Mr B’s office halloween afternoon tea. This of course means cupcake for my office (lab) too.

I have also volunteered to help out with what appears to be a family type Halloween event that may be happening this year. At least I can provide loads of decorations etc if I can’t have my own party.
So what this means is Google and I have become friends in the quest for inspiration for halloween cupcake ideas. So far I have these and a couple of others.
Being one to never do things the easy way I have also decided to try my hand at a little sugarcraft and make some of my own toppers. Having never done this before I decided to have alittle practice. I made up a little black sugar modelling paste and had a bit of a play.

So far I have come up with these:

So what do people think.. that cat needs some work and both it and the hat need some piped details in other colours like eyes and stuff but I would love to know peoples opinions. Oh and any ideas of other thingamybobs I could mold as cupcake toppers. So far I am thinking the tentacles for a cthulhoid monster cupcake, perhaps a broom and spell scroll combo, pumpkins of course and I may try my hands at a bat though I am really not very good at this so that may be a bit hard… so any suggestions and feedback welcome

My September Goals were:

• Finish stitching my Halloween exchange piece - Nope but I did start at least a half dozen things.. one of those is bound to be the one I send
• Reach the 55% mark on lost (this relates to about another 2400sts)- I think I feel short on this one too but I should be close I will need to check
• Pick up cirques and get at least on length of thread into it.- I looked at it but no stitches were done
• Reach the 50% mark on Fudgeys RR - ummmm no
• Finish Belladonnas eye and post a wip pic of her finally - Very very close and I did post a pic
• Participate in the Challenge SAL - Yep

I also managed to participate in teh Background SAL and got 1500ish stitches into Violet Sometimes as well as participating in teh 5th weekend SAL. So all in all I at least progressed some of my pieces along this month.

Now for October.. I think I will have to be more focused this time in my goals:

October Goals are:

1. Participate in teh SAL challenge
2. Finish my exchange piece and send it off on time.
3. get the RR done to the point where I can finish it on time (posting date is Nov 5th I think)
4. Work on Belladonna some more
5. Get to the 60% mark on Lost

My focus though will be the obligation stitching I need to finish off. There will be some serious stashing done in october too as the usual gang is heading off to the stitching show again. Nic and I always get in trouble there