The past couple of weeks have been an incredible mix of ups and downs. One thing I can say about it though is that I consider myself lucky that I know so many wonderful people and have found friends in some of the most unlikely places. Hopefully you all know who you are even if I am ultimately slack in keeping in touch.

…. so how many skeins is recommended for cirques?

I finished the prototype for the Halloween Invitation! It always takes so long to come up with an invitiation idea and becomes more challenging with each passing year. This will be our fourth big Halloween bash (not counting the one we “didn’t” have last year). The first year was little bats made from cardboard and chuppa chupas with little goggly eyes etc … they were really cute. The next waas a series of little pumpkin cards but each one had a different face cut out of them. They were made from copper mettalic paper and backed with black card… we still use some of the extras as decorations. The last party we had little fold up coffins that we placed a scroll tied with a piece of black ribbon in to. They were probably the most popular so far (except for maybe the bats) I may have a pic of them somewhere actually, will have to poke aroun in my files and see.

This year I give you our little spider webby friends :

This guy was done as a mock-up so he is a bit dodge. Constructed from Black card with silver glitter glue used for the 3D type web bits. The little cutie of a spider was made with craft pompoms tiny googley eyes and black beading wire for the legs. I may still stick little beads to each end of the legs to give him little round feet but I am still undecided. Party details etc will be written on the back in metallic pens. Now I just need to make about 30 or more of them, lol.

I thought I might ramble a bit.. so feel free to stop reading here it is likely to be boring but eh.

Basically I am sitting in the library at uni and have been searching through literature and updating my bibliographic database for the past 3 hours *ugh*. It has to be done though especially with how much reworking my PhD project has to undergo to make it workable. With my supervisor out of the way in Europe for the next few weeks I have the opportunity to take much needed time to regroup and finalise the structure of my thesis. This is much harder to achieve when he is around and far less frustrating.

I was hoping to take some much needed time away from it all while he was away but really I am finding if I try to take a break from it I am just ending up more stressted. My current plan is to just play it by ear and take it easy when I can, working as much as possible from home on writing and planning. I have a few crucial experiments I need to sort out tomorrow or wed though as I have to organise equipment time off campus to get them done. The stress levels lately are bordering on rediculous and I need to find a way to unwind, stitching isn’t even working I am finding it hard to sit still in one place long enough to actually stitch when I am not at the computer trying to work.

Baby steps… one way or another it will all be over in about 12 months and then I will be facing the great move to Canada (hopefully) or the UK somewhere… maybe I can go bunk with nic when she gets to scotland.

I almost decided to take a whirlwind impulse trip to new zealand next week but really I need to save the pennys for the big move next year if it is going to be possible. The idea of popping across the tasmanand doing a quick trip through Auckland , rotorua and down to startford is so tempting though. I would love to catch up with family… now that is a very strange thing for me to say. lol.

oh well….

I have at least decided what I am doing for the halloween party invites now so I can start making those… at least I can look forward to halloween this year should be great and having my bestest friend over from the scary faraway land of america will make it all the better…. I have huge plans and really need to start making the props, hmm maybe I could do a photo diary of halloween preparations  to bore you all with in between stitching updates…hmmm now that has promise :p

Well the stitchathon is now over … at least foir those of us in the southern hemisphere. As usuall I did very little stitching over the weekend, and then what I had managed to do I had to frog portions of .. lol that is what I get for stitching when way too tired i guess hehe.

I am really happy with my progress and while I know it will  pale in comparison to some of the totals that people will post I feel I made fantastic progress. I would have liked to finish all the way across and possibly could have if I had stitched saturday or more than and hour sunday. I really love how it is coming together.

Less rambling more pics hehe I totaled 2776 full crosses for the week which according to the stitchathon rules is a total of 5552 stitches (each half counts as one). *bounce*

Well Nic asked for a Midway piccie form the SAl so here he is….
Stephanie Pui-Man Laws – “The Devil”

Stitched on 28ct Jobelan full cross

I made good progress (well for me) on monday and tuesday but seeing as Nic forgot to come over for our stitching day on wednesday (lol) I ended up distracted and only did a  hundred or so stitches. I haven’t added up my totals yet. I have head! there are a few dots to fill in of pesky little detail stitches but you can clearly see the top of his head and the tips of his fingers now and his wings are taking shape nicely. *bounce*

Well it has been over two weeks now since i actually put needle to fabric and stitched… as a result my stress levels have been high and everything seems just a little bit harder to deal with on a daily basis. It really is a vicious circle. I stitch to relax but when i am all stressed out I can’t stitch etc etc.

I think it is starting to turn around though, or at leat I am trying to make it. The Stitchathon over at the HAED BB has inspired me to do some stitching funally and I have chosen “Devil”. The rotation can fall back into place again once the stitchathon is over. I was going to work on St Nick btu feel I am so close to getting my yearly goal achieved for devil that he should come out to play for the stitchathon 🙂

Anyway enough babbling. I will try update daily with how I am going for the stitchathon and I emphasise *try* lol I may even take pics. I have loads of work to do but Wed is a holiday here so I am hoping to get a full day stitching then and maybe even con Nic into coming over and joining me with her Stella or some such…. Dvds, Gossip and chocolate… yep sounds good to me.