FNwF and Friday Frolics....

My first Friday Night with Friends and Friday Frolics ... was a bit like Schrodinger's Cat - neither successful nor unsuccessful!  For those of you who are wondering who Schrodinger and his cat were and why I am referencing them - Sheldon from The Big Bang explains it best (or click on the link above).

(TraderVic and I are huge fans of The Big Bang Theory and are quite addicted to the show - it is on repeats here in Oz every night, so we are able to feed our addiction regularly - lol!)

Anyway, I digress - onto the stitching.....

Now, the successful part was me completing a FFO from last year - Wee Santa 2016....

Design: Wee Santa 2016

Fabric: 28 ct Mocha linen

Floss: My own choice of specialty threads

Framing: By me in a Mill Hill frame

My dear friend, Wendy, from my LNS, taught me a neat trick for getting the design to sit nicely when you sew it over the cardboard - you have two lengths of thread and weave them like shoelaces.  It worked like a dream, the stitching is sitting really flat and looks perfect - thank you so much, Wendy. xxxx

Now for the unsuccessful part... in true Friday Frolicking fashion, I chose a WIP at random from my ever growing pile of WIPs, UFOs and BAPs ....

Morning Song by Just Nan, I last posted about it on this post.

So, here is where I was up to before yesterday....

... and after, looking rather more crumpled and not much progress at all!

Design:Morning Song

Fabric: 28 ct Cream or Antique White linen

Floss: Suggested DMC threads

Okay, do you want to hear my excuses?

1. Plait stitch is really tricky to do, especially in a light green - I found it really hard to get a rhythm - there was a lot of frogging happening.

2. It was really, really hot yesterday, so the house was shut up tight with the air conditioner on, the outdoor sun blinds down and the plantation shutters shut - so the lighting was poorer than usual which affected 1. above.

3. Frantic morning video chats with DS2 in Sydney. DS2 video chats me on my mobile:  

DS2: Dad, where's Dad? I need Dad!  (Note: no greeting)

Me:  Why do you need Dad, is everything all right?

DS2: No, our ceiling has fallen down and I don't know what to do! (Note: DS2 is 24 and lives in a sharehouse in Sydney and there were terrible storms in Sydney overnight)

Me (and TraderVic):  Oh, my goodness, was anyone hurt? - Ring the SES (State Emergency Service) and ring the agent.

DS2: No, no one was hurt, we were all in bed (it was 9am), I tried the agent, the office is still shut for the Christmas/New Year break. What is the number for the SES?

Me: Does the agent have a head office or a mobile number?

DS2: No.

Me: (On the computer in Melbourne, remember DS2 lives in Sydney) The SES number is xxxx and the real estate agent's mobile number is xxxx. Ring both of them now. You may be told by the SES that you can't stay.

DS2: We have a back up plan if we have to move out, I'll ring the SES now but I can't bother the agent on his mobile.

Me: Yes, you can, he needs to know, so he can let the landlord know!!!!!

DS2: Okay. Talk again soon.

Me: (later that morning). How is it going?

DS2: Ses came

And said it will be fine

So land lord is getting people to come fix it

Me:You got onto the agent, then? Do you have to move out?

No we can stay

Yep glen is sorting it out

Me: Great, aren't you glad that I found his mobile number for you - just saying! lol! 

DS2: Thx mummy (Remember he has just turned 24!)

(Later that morning I get another call)

DS2: it is still raining and now the living room is flooding.

Me: Have you shifted the furniture? (couch, dining table and chairs, TV, etc.)

DS2:Nah! It is only a millimetre or two.

Me: What if it keeps raining and you don't have contents insurance?

DS2: Nah, she'll be right (very typical Aussie attitude), it's only a little bit of water and rain.

Me: I give up!

I am not sure what else has happened as DS2's mobile phone has now broken down - so I have to Message him via his best friend's phone who is staying with him for a few days before heading back to Melbourne and DS2 starts a new job on Monday. It never ends with your children, does it? lol!

4. Daytime naps needed to be had due to 2. and 3. above and the fact that it has been really hot overnight so little sleep has been had.

5. TraderVic, DS1 and DDIL and I all played a lively game of Monopoly_Melbourne Edition in the evening, which severely cut into my stitching time.

So, there you go, all sound like reasonable excuses to me! lol!

Just to finish off, the cats are feeling the effects of the hot weather, too. Milo and Nobu are engaged in a Mexican Standoff ....

... and Furio has just given up!

Poor furbabies, mind you, they could sleep in the cool, air conditioned rooms but no!

So, that was my first Friday Frolic for the year. Rather an eventful one, now that I think about it!

If you want to see what everyone else got up to for these Stitching events, click on either or both of the links below:

Friday Night with Friends

Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics

hugs, 

P.S. Please don't forget to check out my first little giveaway for 2017.

Boxing Day....

As Boxing Day is DS2's birthday (24 this year - oh, my baby is definitely all grown up!) we traditionally go to the movies as a family.  All I can say is thank goodness for film franchises: seven Harry Potter films; six Tolkien films and the various Xmen and superhero films!

This year we went to see the new Star Wars film:

Now, I would have to say it was okay.  A bit slow in parts (I must admit that despite two coffees at lunch I was so very tired that I kept dozing off during the film - that must say something about it, mustn't it?) and the heroine was too similar to the heroine in The Force Awakens, we all thought.  I think that I would give it three and a half stars.

Now, onto my Christmas Stitching.  I have joined a FB group called Stitchmaynia, which I think that some of you may already belong to or have heard of, and I decided to take up the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge.  Each of the twelve days from Christmas Day to January 5, you stitch on something related to that day's theme - A partridge in a pear tree, etc.  Being the traditionalist that I am, I am stitching, yes, you guessed it!  The 12 Days of Christmas!

Day One:

Day Two:

The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's 12 Days of Christmas

Stitched on 28ct Cashel linen, Serenity. 

Mixture of suggested floss and my own choices.

Well, that is all from me for now, 

hugs, 

Happy Big 5-0, dear Jo ...

... and welcome to Jo's Big Birthday Blog Hop....

I have been given the year, 1992.  Here is what Jo has to say about that year's events for her.

1992 - Jo was 26.  Following the demise of Ripley the Hamster in the winter, Jo was delighted to hear the patter of tiny feet this year.  Or tiny paws!  She adopted a rescue cat.  Jo wanted a black cat she could name Vasquez (Aliens theme to the pets) but the cat she adopted was so shy the name just didn't suit her.  When Jo tempted her out from under the cupboards she discovered the black cat was actually white at the roots of her fur, so the name Spooky was chosen.

Jo's instructions go on to say:

On the 17th September you post that information on your blog and add an anecdote either:

1. What happened to you in that year

2. What happened to you at that age

3. What happened when you had that life event

Then add a photo of something you've stitched which you think will appeal to me.

I have chosen #2, what happened to me that year.  

Well, I, too, heard the pitter patter of tiny feet but these were not feline but human, at the end of this year, my third child was born - DS2.

He was born on Boxing Day, 1992 and I can still remember being at my sister's for Christmas Day, feeling very uncomfortable as I ate Christmas prawns and literally crossing my legs, declaring that this baby was NOT going to be born on Christmas Day.

Well, I managed to hang on - just! - my waters broke the next morning and my second son was born late that night.  His birth was a difficult one, an emergency caesarian, the months following his birth were also very difficult as he was a very clingy and quite demanding baby. Plus two weeks after his birth, DD came down with chicken pox and two weeks after that DS1 and then DS2 (the baby) had a mild bout (the daughter of my friend who looked after DS1 and DD on the day of the birth came down with chicken pox that very day!).  And, oh, we were also doing major renovations to our house!   But once his babyhood was over, he turned into the most delightful toddler and child and has become the most easygoing of young men - kind, caring, thoughtful and loving.

Once DS2 was born it became clear, that three children was the right number of children for our family.  So, that meant that I could finish the family birth sampler ... Wind in the Willows.

(Sorry about the glare on the photos - I have taken lots of the different sections so that you can see them more clearly - it is a very big piece).

I would have to say that this is my biggest stitching accomplishment and is certainly the one of which I am most proud - which is why I chose to showcase it for Jo.

Dear Jo, I just want to wish you the very happiest of birthdays today. May it be a very special day for you and I hope that your menfolk spoil you rotten all day long.

I also want to tell you how much I value your friendship - we have been wonderful online friends since 2012, I believe, and I find your stitching advice and finishes totally inspirational.  I love your various blog hops and I enjoy our email discussions on a variety of topics very much.  Long may our friendship last!

All my love, and.....

xoxoxox

Weekend Roundup... ...

OR 

How we ate our way through Sydney!

We arrived late Friday afternoon in Sydney on our visit to see our DS2, and after a quick check-in at our hotel in Surry Hills, we went in search of a cool bar to meet DS2 for a drink.  

And I think that I met the brief with Salary Man, a cool 20s something bar that TraderVic and I happened to stumble across. It met with DS2's approval - phew! (Mind you, I think that we were the oldest people in the place, by at least 25 years! lol!)

Then we moved onto meet our DDIL (who luckily happened to be in Sydney on Friday and Saturday morning) for a delicious dinner at another cool place, The Owl House.  It was a real gem of a place, which I found just by researching Sydney Broadsheet online.

I think that I managed to win the coolness factor stakes with DS2 with my choices. lol!

The next morning TraderVic and I had a lovely sleep in (I didn't get up until 9.30 am - unheard of for me!) and then it was off to brunch with DS2 and DDIL.  Another cool urban space, this one definitely a favourite haunt of the twenty-something hipster bunch - again we were the oldest people there by 25 years at least!

I think that this was one of the most delicious milkshakes I have ever had in my life - Raspberry, fig and pistachio!

Whilst we were chatting over brunch, my DDIL put me onto this really cool app for photoshop people in photos, called MeituPic.  Scroll down to see the changes we made to our photos.

Pretty sure that I won't use it every time - but fun to have a play!

Then, it was time to bid a fond farewell to DDIL as she had to leave for the airport to get home to DS1 in Roma.

So, we decided to go for a wander around Sydney, down to Paddy's Market, through China Town to the Shrine of Remembrance in Hyde Park.

In China Town we bought some Emperor's puffs - yummy custardy delights!

Then it was time to head off to meet one of Matt's closest friends, my "third" son, at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) to see the Mighty Tigers get creamed (oh no!) by the Sydney Swans.

(a less than flattering pic of me - should have used the MeituPic App - lol!)

Unfortunately, the game was a bloodbath but watching the colour of the sky change as the sun set was amazing.

Then after the game, it was Pizza time!  We caught up with some young friends of ours at Via Napoli in Surry Hills.  This place is so very Italian and has the most fresh and delicious antipasto, metre long pizzas and nutella pizza for dessert! Yum! Yum! Yum!

Luckily for me, we had walked and walked and walked all day on Saturday (and we even walked back to the hotel from the restaurant), so that I did walk off some of all these delicious calories - I actually did 22, 575 steps on Saturday, Oh boy, was I tired when I finally made it to my bed!

The next day, Sunday, was another leisurely morning and then yet another brunch (I told you that we ate our way through Sydney!).

This time we went to Newtown to meet the 'boys' and had a delicious breakfast at yet another quirky cafe - Cuckoo Callay.

For brunch, I had "Gorgeous George" (as I don't eat bananas, I try to eat lots of avocado to get my potassium - or at least that is my excuse, lol!)

We also went for a walk down King St and checked out a few book shops.

.... and, of course, some stitching took place.

"Believe in Christmas"

Samplers not forgotten

Okay, kudos to you, if you have read this far - it has turned into a marathon post (only taken me three days to write it - lol!)

See you later, 

hugs,