Home (Not) Alone

Hi guys,

The end of the week draws ever nearer.  The weather in the North of England has been reportedly atrocious (my family keep me abreast in a typically British manner), but up here the weather I have seen from my window has been mostly grey, marching clouds, in between which you can occasionally glance blue sky.

Cross Stitching Updates!

I have two finishes to report!  How exciting.  The first is this Santa Clause.

Last Time

With black back-stitching

Finished (but not secured)

I originally tried to do the back-stitching as directed by the magazine in black, but it looked dark, heavy and not very Christmas-y, so I had to unpick it all and backstitch the tree leaves with a lighter green (going for a more multi-dimensional look).  I also added some purple seed-beads I've had in my stash forever.  I can't remember the original reason for buying them, I believe it was something to do with hating french knots; but they look good as baubles, which is the main thing.

I changed the text, too - it is written in gold metallic thread, not black, and says "God Jul" - Swedish for Merry Christmas (I hope!).

Next up is R's Christmas present:

Before

After

Yay it's finished!  If you can't tell much difference between them, that's because there was only a few colours to shade below the hearthstone and in the grey-purplish area.

I intend on sending this off to be framed in a blue circular hoop, possibly with some blue card to help it as I stitched it far too close to the top of the fabric (because I'm stingy).

I did make some changes from the lovely Mateline's design - I used a blended thread of metallic colour and the suggested one for the light-grey-blue shade, and a deep purple instead of grey in the shading, but I think it worked out well.  The sparkle in the metallics is really interesting to me.

Finally, we have a new start!

This is "Harvest Mice", a (hopefully) Christmas present for my lovely father (and if not, a birthday present).  I bought this piece on adia, having had bad experiences in the past with evenweave, but I do regret it as evenweave makes a piece look more rustic.

However! The number of special and unusual stitches (half stitches side by side, whole stitches over the middle) make the piece challenging enough on it's own without adding in my personal difficulty in telling where the whole stitches are supposed to go!

So far we have this:

Where the red stitch to indicate the middle of the chart and will eventually be removed once I can see recognisable patterns from the chart on the WIP.

Life Updates.

I am still ill.  My throat is completely better now - my manager got sick of looking at me (his words, not mine, but imagine them said very gently and kindly) and took two hours out of his day to drive me to the nearest walk in surgery.  I'm not yet registered with a doctor down here, despite moving in early July, because I have no "proof of address".  All my bills go back up to my "permanent" address.

However, I believe I am allergic to, or certainly experiencing all of the symptoms of being so, the medicine.  I have the tight chest, sometimes mucusy, sometimes dry cough, the other, less glamorous side-effects, and on top of it all, the lack of appetite.  So I'll be starting the diet today whether I like it or not.

Due to the chest pain, and a rapidly developing numbness in my left arm, I went down to A&E just in case.  They did an ECG but then kept me waiting for three hours - at which point I assumed I wasn't serious and self-discharged.

I'm relatively happy, despite these inconveniences.  I managed to get some really good process on "keeping my flat habitable" - the bathroom gleams with bleach, and the desk is almost clear of water glasses, so I feel emotionally ready to go back to the office.

Everyone has been so lovely to me while I've been sick, and I'm just so thankful that I've been blessed with such wonderful friends (and a self-proclaimed "acquaintance") to tend for me.

Alright, it's past my bedtime.  Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you all had and have a wonderful week.

Much love,

Kat

Baby Steps of Progress

Cross-stitching Update

First and foremost: the cross-stitching!  I'm still working on the final shading in the hearthstone (you can see I've done a few stitches below the black)

After

                                                                 

Before

And the santa:
As you can see, only the facial hair and small grey detailing on the wool have appeared.

















I guess I was just really worn out last week after London, and I just didn't have the stitching bug.  Hopefully she'll come back soon, as these projects are on tight deadlines!

I think it is good to have a break sometimes though, otherwise what you love might turn into a chore.

Life Update:

Last weekend I went to London (again) for two parties in a row that my housemate, Z, had very kindly invited me too.  I really enjoyed spending time with her shopping on Saturday, too, although I spent far too much on makeup and jewellery - let alone clothes!  The full "hoard" is shown below, although I haven't included the jewellery I bought for others' Christmas presents.

On Sunday I woke up at 4.30 am (after having gone to bed at midnight) with a really bad migraine/sore throat.  Despite painkillers, the sore throat has remained, and my manager has now gotten so concerned over my self-diagnosed "tonsillitis" (said with a smirk and a half-laugh to show I'm not too serious, of course) he's spending his lunch break tomorrow driving me to the nearest walk-in clinic to get my throat swabbed.

Also, most exciting of news, I bought a car!  I've been driving her to work for two days now, with her L-plates firmly attached, and I'm thrilled.  She really is a pleasure to drive.
My mum isn't too happy with the plates though...

Amike,

Kat

A Foggy Monday

England is embraced in fog.  It was so bad last night that while walking back from the train station to my house (20 minutes tops!) my hair was dripping by the time I was home.

Had such a lovely weekend in London with my friends.  I dressed up as a "cat" (because my name is Kat, and also because I have no imagination) and went out with my friends to a nightclub in Camden (no, that isn't my normal scene).  It was actually really good fun to dance, and there was even a stripper/fire dancer/fire-eater performing inside the club!

I have worked on two pieces, the Christmas card and the Hearthstone Home gift.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I find these very rewarding to work on, although it's easier to work on the Santa because I see the finished product so much faster.  With the hearthstone it feels as though I am forcing myself to focus more.  I changed a few of the colours from the recommended, once because the local craft store didn't have the colour and the other time because I wanted to add some sparkles (as a Hearthstone is a magical key which takes you home).

All in all it's been a very productive week.  Happy Halloween everybody!