A finish!!

Ballet exams are useful. How can this be? Due to the need to spend two Sunday mornings in a row at ballet waiting for the girls, I got a good chunk of stitching done.


Here's the result:
A finish!
This is for my niece's birthday - as mentioned in a previous post some months back.
Just needs a quick wash, then off to the framers it will go, well ahead of deadline.
It's from the UK's Cross Stitcher magazine April 07 issue, by the same designer as the Dandelion Bear I finished last month.

Now to dig out my Marty Bell's The Abbey (for the UFO Challenge SAL) and go through my stash to find a small new one to start. I want to find a cat one to do, possibly a Margaret Sherry... just love having to have a stash fondle :)

one about Tamsin for a change

For most of the term, the girls' school has been trying to hold the cross country run (before the Zone competition) for all the pupils. The weather here has been standard Auckland weather: four seasons in one day. Thus the run has been postponed and postponed.... well you get the picture. And in the meantime the teachers have had the kids out practicing whenever weather permitted (this exercise thing is part of the curriculum you see).
Jess, who runs well but hates cross country cos it is just that - across country (and where we are, that means cow pats), had been agitating for weeks to get permission to not do it.
Tamsin never said anything, just taught herself to tie the laces on her sneakers so she could wear them to school due to her teacher recommending lace up sneakers as better for running.
Finally, the actual event did get held, using a circuit around the outside of the school instead of the original around the mountain-through-muddy-fields-and-cow-pats one.
I had compromised with Jess and had sent a note giving her permission to decide for herself whether she ran or not. This solved all her concerns and she worked out an on the day solution which she and her teacher were really happy with.
Tamsin just made sure she had on her lace up sneakers and continued to stay out of all the debates about school cross country events.
Anyhoo, I picked up the girls from school as per usual on a Tuesday - in a hurry as it was ballet, then gymnastics. Tamsin's teacher mentioned as Tamsin and I were leaving the classroom to go meet Jess that Tamsin had told her she'd come first but the teacher didn't know if that was true or not as she hadn't been at the finish line. Tamsin has a great imagination so I, bad momma, didn't pay much attention.
On walking the girls to the car, we ran into one of Jess' friends (Brittney) who gave Tamsin a big hug and a "congrats on winning, Tamsin!"
Jess then answers my "did she?!" with "oh yeah, it was cool! and Alice came second!" Alice being our neighbour's tiny tiny 5yr old. Brittney's mum joins us and confirms this with "Tamsin was great, she was lapping people!"
Apparently the 5yr olds had been split into two groups and sent out 5 mins apart (Alice in the first group and Tamsin in the second), so Tamsin had caught up with and then passed all the other kids.
Tamsin meanwhile is just standing there with the biggest grin on her face, finally being the centre of congratulatory commotion for something she'd done, all by herself and not in the shadow of Jess.
SO
Tamsin, my 5 and a half year old, won the 5yr age group school cross country event.
She really really did.
You see, my bright youngest daughter had worked out that it was a race and by running steadily the whole way (no walking or mucking around) beat all the other 5yr olds - and encouraged Alice along the way so she came 2nd.
Way to go Tamsin!

Twelve years later

and finally they're done! Penguins on Ice is officially finished!!

Bought, and started, the kit prior to November 1995 (for my mum's 60th), did about 2 & a bit penguins then stopped stitching entirely for about 4 years, then when I did start stitching again mum received 9 other pieces while waiting patiently for the Penguins.

A huge thank you has to go to the Yahoo group 2muchXS. Without their UFO Challenge and the unflagging support of the list members, this piece would never have gotten finished. One must also point out that my stash has grown exponentially since joining the group nearly 4 years ago, but what's a bit of enabling among friends?

So off to the framers they will go and my mum will finally get her Penguins for her 72nd birthday. Thanks for waiting mum, hope you've got some wall space ready!

Proud mama gets to brag

Miss Lily handed out the RAD exam results to the Grade 3 class tonight.

Jess scored 80 out of 100, so a pass with Distinction.

It is ten sections scored out of 10. She was a bit disappointed with the marks for character dance as she thought she'd done that ok. Sautes were her highest mark for the third year in a row.

Not as good as Grade 2 mark last year (93), but she had lots of extra practice with an older Grade 5 girl last year. This year she didn't do the extra practice, had the distraction of a full on cheer competition straight after the exam plus she freaked herself out about the exam while waiting to go in.

So all that taken into account, 80 is a very good mark.

Now onto the BAL exam in two weeks...

Tuesday update

The end is in sight! And I mean that literally: the end of the fabric is in sight.

Penguins on Ice #20 is done, only 2 of the little critters to go.

Wish me stitching vibes so that I get them done by the end of August. I need Sep/ Oct to stitch diligently on Bears on Balloons so it can be framed for the mid-Nov birthday deadline.

I always seem to have stitchy down time after I finish something. Does anyone else have that problem? Or are you so excited at being able to start something else that the issue never arises?

Tamsin got her certificate for doing her RAD Pre-Primary "exam" today. That means that Jess will get her marks for RAD Grade 3 at class tomorrow. Proud mama promises to post the result.

BAL exam is Sunday Aug 25 and then that's ballet done for the year. Jess wants to drop ballet, and reduce down to just gymnastics from now on. Fees-wise I can cope with this decision. I'm a bit sad otherwise cos she's been doing some really lovely dancing lately. Tamsin I'll keep at ballet to at least the same level Jess has reached - the pros of ballet are worth keeping her at it till at least Grade 3.

Tamsin was doing sautes today in class: she is just as springy as Jess. Miss Lily, in the run up to the RAD exam, was telling Jess that the grade 3 sautes were petite, not grande like Jess was doing. Jess then demonstrated what her grande sautes looked like. And as Jess was perfectly in time to the music, Miss Lily had to accept that Jess' sautes were always going to be twice as high as the rest of the class. Coach Richard just laughed when we told him. What else do you expect from a student who can do standing flics and punch front saltos?