Another beautiful blue autumn day...

and the ironing awaits.
I'm onto Penguin #18 and I dug Barnyard Kitties out of the WIP box and put some stitches in after months of neglect. Now that it has resurfaced I'm going to try to stitch on it every Wednesday - the day of my Yahoo group's "Stitch in the Dark" SAL. As Penguins on Ice is my piece for the UFO SAL I'm going to stitch on that every Sunday. That way, those two will get worked on (and who knows? maybe even finished) while leaving other days to work on the other WIPs in my list, and make a start on the Bears on Balloons sampler for Grace's birthday (Nov). It's gotta be worth a try, right? Rotation systems work for other people, I know.
Now, onwards and upwards...
to do that ironing.
:)

Sunday blues

Sunday blues cos if today is Sunday, then tomorrow is Monday and sometimes I'm a bit Garfield. You know, fat orange cat that hates Monday? I'm not orange, agreed, but I am fat and I'm not fond of Mondays. I'm ok once I'm in Monday, but I surely don't look forward to it.
Still, it is a BEAUTIFUL blue sunny day, DH and Tamsin have just left to go fishing, I've caught up on the blogs I like to read and Jessica is supposed to be getting dressed. She is currently sitting on the couch reading, half out of pjs and half in clothes. And by half I mean she has the tshirt over her head, but no further. sigh.
Well, passport application for Jessica is all done, just needs to be sent off tomorrow with a cheque attached, and then we wait for the real thing to come back.
The stitch show was ok. Only half a stand devoted to cross stitch, never mind. It was just nice to spend the whole day with my dearest friend Sarah.
AND...
when her DH arrived to have dinner he brought with him the quilt that she had sooo casually mentioned that she'd finished during the week.
It was "our" quilt!!!! the one she designed, made and quilted for Steve and I!!! It is soooooo awesome. It is pansy fabrics (cos Steve loves pansies), there's lots of yellow (I love yellow and our house interior is painted yellow) and it is quilted with hearts all over it. Woohooo - best 10 & 11th anniversary gift ever!!
I promise I'll post a photo.
Lunch with mum & dad then take Jess to cheerleading practice, then home and maybe the fishers will be back.
In the meantime, I'll "motivate" Jess to finish getting dressed, do her stretching, conditioning and ballet practice and hopefully motivate myself to finish penguin #17 and put Lickle Ted on the towel so that I can send it to my colleague as the gift it's meant to be.
Roll on Monday and back to "normal" routine of school etc :)

Lickle Ted finished :)

Lickle Ted, along with a bath time duck from Cross Stitcher April 07, is all done. Woohoo. Two finishes for April. If I try hard, I might get Penguin #17 done before the end of the month as well - which would be too cool.

Jessica arrived home safely from a week of gymnastics in Napier. She said she had lots of fun and is much happier about some of her skills. Excellent :)

We'll head of in a minute to go to regular gym class (Thursday 5-8pm). Leaving early so that we can stop at West City mall on the way to get passport photos done. That way, her godmother can do that signature thingy for the application tomorrow (since we're meeting up to go to the Stitch show) and then off it goes to get processed. And that will be one more step on the road to Jess in Australia for cheer comp. Plus one more thing ticked off the to do list, yeah.

Monday here again

and another day at work done :)
DH has today and tomorrow off work to be home with Tamsin. Jessica is still in Napier - very tired but getting a lot out of 5 days straight gym training. Home does not feel right without her here DH and I have agreed.
It's official - DH is taking up fishing. With Tamsin's help he bought a rod and reel today while out with his brother (the one who has a boat and goes out fishing). It's only fair. I have cross stitch plus he gets left at home while the girls go to ballet/cheer/ gym. And it's good for him to chill out with his brother. He has to clean anything he catches though!
Lickle Ted is coming along nicely - the end of the x's is in sight, then the backstitching will commence.
So all going well the next post will have a finish to show
:)

Day 6 of my looong weekend

And Jessica has gone to Napier, DH is at work leaving Tamsin and me to chill out at home. My Cross Stitcher arrived yesterday, lovely. It has a really cute Lickle Ted design in it, just perfect for a new baby gift. Arrived just after I finish kitting up three designs to do ready for the birth of my colleague's baby - none of which I felt was just right, but I thought they'd "do ok". Classic Murphy's Law, that. Never mind, will kit up the Lickle Ted and do all four and then I'll have finished baby gift items in my stash - always a good standby item! Need to get a move on though, Tracey's baby is due in a month!
I really should give the house a good going over, but I simply can't get up the enthusiasm to start. With most things for me, once I start I'm fine. Just getting started though is sooo hard. And some days harder than others. So many things I could be doing - have option paralysis!
Right, big deep breath and I'll go do something
really I will
really
:)

Happy Easter

Well, here I am, middle of my six day weekend. Have spent most of it at the ballet studio while my girls attend holiday classes in preparation for the RAD exams in early June.

Jessica is happy as she has mastered some things in the dances that were giving her some difficulty. We knew this might be a problem due to changing studios - her old one had the exams in late July/early August so they hadn't really started in on the grade work meaning she was a bit behind the class at her new one, which had. Tamsin is just enjoying doing ballet classes. Preprimary is sooo cute, yet the basic building blocks are all covered.

Jessica has shown some lovely work over the last week at ballet - such a joy for a proud momma to see. I'm also proud of Tasmin's application to her work. I didn't put her in any classes last year as all she did was play around and not focus. I decided to wait until she started at school in the hope it would make a difference to her attitude, and it has. Possibly being in a pink leotard and pink net skirt has helped too!

Took the Penguins with me today instead of the Sudoku and actually put some stitches in. The ballet girls were quite fascinated.

Made it to an LNS yesterday. Kitted out three designs from various issues of Cross Stitcher and Quick&Easy, all in Anchor. Realised this morning that I had forgotten to pick up the missing DMC for the Balloons sampler, du uh. Oh, well - having to go again won't hurt, will it? Why is my credit card running away do you think??? LOL

There is a Stitch show coming up that I am planning to attend, so must save some budget for that :) My girls are happy to tag along, and my closest friend is coming with me too. Should be fun! I'm on annual leave for the first day of it, so will go then (girls still on school holidays), woohoo.

The new, bigger fridge arrived on schedule Thursday afternoon - what a difference! So easy to fit everything in now. And I cleaned the old one today, so it's all ready for a new home. Just need to get it into Trade&Exchange and hope we get a buyer.

Got to the optometrist last week as well. Slowly ticking things off my list, very satisfying. Took Tamsin along as her new entrant vision test had had a query on it. Glad I did. While her eyes are healthy with none of the stereo/squint issues that I've had, she does have a "vision reduction". No panic (or glasses) at this stage as school this year doesn't involve distance work, but the optometrist wants her back in 12 months to look into it further. Tamsin was so good for the optometrist, just like she was at the dentist. I've attached the photo of "model child at dentist". Why is this such a milestone for us, you ask? Cos her elder sister is sooo nervous of dentistry that what is normally a 20min appointment takes an hour with her. She is getting better thanks to a lot of effort on her part, and a lot of careful pre-explanation by Loy, our dentist (also an old family friend).

Last day for ballet tomorrow (just Tamsin's classes) and then Jessica will be off to Napier for a week long gymnastics training clinic. She is really looking forward to it. She went down for a similar weekend in February and had a fabulous time, so she's looking forward to seeing all the Napier coaches again. She also wants to work on the skills for the Level 4 routines, especially with competition season starting in May. Personally I can't see her being ready until June at the extreme earliest, and then it will clash with a cheer practice for Australia (the last one before leaving in fact!). This year was always going to be full of clashes until after the Australian comp, so no surprises there.

It will be interesting to see how we go with fitting in Tamsin starting gymnastics. Proud momma that I am, I hope she takes to it and also ends up competing. She's picked up some of it by osmosis from hanging around Jess for over 2 years, so we'll see. She can do a mean glide on bars, but has no idea about a cartwheel or handstand. Can be very funny to watch. Either way, it'll do wonders for her gross motor skills which is no bad thing.

Meanwhile, the pantry is now absolutely full of chocolate Easter eggs the girls have been given over the weekend. Just as well they do so much activity to work off all that sugar!

April finish!

Yay - I did it. Forever Friends chart from Quick&Easy June 2005 is done. Not sure what I'll do with this one. A work colleague is pregnant, due next month and I might finish it somehow and give it to her. Unless I see something in one of my magazines that I think will suit better...

And while I was uploading it, I thought I'd scan and post the Penguins on Ice #15&16 I completed in March. Only 6 of the little critters to go...

Now to get to an LNS to pick up the DMC I'm missing to finish kitting up the Bears on Balloons birth sampler from Cross Stitch March 2007. I'd promised myself that I couldn't start it until I'd finished the Forever Friends piece.

I think it will suit my niece, Grace, perfectly for her 4th birthday in November. I had bought one (a detailed Noah's Ark sampler in muted colours) not long after she was born, but never felt like starting it. I'd chosen it as I thought the colours would suit the decorating tastes of her parents. Anyway, when I saw the preview for Bears in my Feb Cross Stitcher it screamed "for Grace!" at me and I couldn't wait for the March issue to arrive to confirm that it was the one for her. The minute the magazine arrived I went through the stash and kitted up fabric and floss, and it has been waiting for me to finish a WIP since. I'm trying hard to not start anything new until I finish one of my WIPs first.

So far, so good. :)

3 days to go

till I get a 6-day weekend, woohoo.
It is Easter this weekend, plus I'm taking 2 days leave to cover part of the school holidays. Between my mum, my DH and myself the school holidays are covered. Jessica is off to Napier for a week of gymnastics in the middle, and Easter itself will be spent at ballet doing extra classes for exam prep.
I've managed to do some stitching, so the end is in sight on the teddy, yay! I was hoping to finish last night but was very slow due to it being backstitching and my watching Bones then Heroes. But I can see that it will be my April finish.
It's a fine day today, great. Tamsin is off on her first class trip: Auckland's Botanic Gardens. She came home from school yesterday and lectured me on all the things she needed to take with her. At least I know she listens to her teacher!
Work is a bit quieter for me now. Avocado exports are all finished, including payments to the growers. So my focus turns now to kiwiberry payments and the upcoming persimmon and kiwifruit seasons. The auditors are with us at the moment, driving the admin team nuts.
Next month will continue to be very quiet for me as the manager I do the most for is off on holiday for 4 weeks, to Spain. She's planning on getting to see some of the America's Cup racing, so cool. Go Team NZ!