View from a window

Petra started the trend on her own blog a few weeks ago by posting views from her office in New York. Well, here's the view I see every day at work. Behind the cornish palm, you can make out the white canopy of Penzance bus station, and behind it is a view of Mount's Bay. You can see St Michael's Mount itself from my bosses office above mine. Shame it's such a bad day, usually you can see the sun gleaming off the sea!

2005 Stitching Goals

My 2005 stitching goals are:

To try and finish one WIP for every new project I start. These include the ones listed to the right of this blog entry

• Mirabilia Angel
• Canterbury Bell Fairy
• Paradise Island
• Black and White Cat
• Too Pooped
• Stargazing Wizard
• Home is Where the Cat is

I also have the following projects left as WIPs from my Aunty Jean's stash:

• Moonlit Owl
• Father Christmas

New projects that I have in my own stash that I'd like to start:

• Teresa Wentlzer's Egyptian Sampler
• Teresa Wentzler's Tapestry Cat
• Pharoah's Pet by Couchman Creations
• Mary Mary Quite Contrary Sampler
• Noah's Ark Sampler
• TW's Miniture Castle Kit
• Victoria - Cat in hat by Pam Kellogg
• More Cats in Hats by Pam Kellogg
• Cattitudes Band by Margaret Sherry
• Cattitudes Coasters
• Venice by Sheila Hudson

And we are still all stitching on the Cattitudes RR - which because the schedule has slipped will probably be a major stitching feature of mine for most of 2005. We should have been on the final leg right about now.

Mirabilia Angel Progress

Here's my progress that I've made on the Mirabilia Angel today. I got quite a few good hours of stitching in on her dress while I watched some episodes of SG-1 and the new Atlantis spin off that a friend lent me.

I really miss not having Sky. I'm settled here now, and now it's the only thing that I'm lacking - but the L/lady here doesn't like the dishes because a neighbour's dish fell down and to complicate matters you need planning permission to stick a dish up here in the Penwith Council area. Serious! It might not be such a major hassle in other areas of the country, but neither Telewest or NTL have dug up any streets to install cable so presently Sky TV is the only option.

;-(

Blog Image Post

Geek Liaison

You are 33% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.


You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!


Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!


You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

Amalfi Coast Framed

I framed the Amalfi Coast on Christmas Eve. I didn't do a very good job, but getting the circular cut out piece was a bit of a nightmare. I tried using a compass for the curve, then in the end just ended up cutting around a plate with a craft knife.

The Amalfi Coast is one of a series of 4 designs that appeared in Cross Stitch Collection by Sheila Hudson. I already stitched Mount Fuji which was the first of the designs published. I didn't bother with the St Paul's Cathedral design, which was the second published and the last one - which I will probably attempt at some point is of Venice.

I started stitching this in February 2004, just before all the troubles with Sean started which dogged so much of my stitching time this year. This took a long time to complete, partially because for quite a few months I really didn't have the heart to stitch or the time, but I finished it in August this year, just before I went on to finish off my Aunt's Elephants for her.

Jean also started this Amalfi Coast design, I remember going stash shopping for her and buying all the threads and material she would need for it from John Lewis' in Bluewater to while away some of the time she was in hospital undergoing tests. Unfortunately she didn't get to finish this design either - but as I'd already made quite a bit of progress on my own copy - Jean's WIP of Amalfi coast went to her friend Karen - who is also a stitcher.

Merry Christmas to all my Blog Readers.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: Finishing

Besides framing, how do you finish your pieces?

I've made a couple of coasters out of my stitching. They turned out quite well.

Missing Hours

This was a photo of my own knee I took last night about 2 in the morning after a particularly long drinking session which had started with our works' Christmas do at lunchtime in the Inspiration Restaurant in Penzance.

Of course I had too much to drink and did my usual and fell down in the street, thus causing this injury. I sort of remember this because it hurt, but to be honest I'm missing about 4 hours of memories after I started consuming blackberry wine which is about 17% proof! I remember having more fruit wine (I think I asked for Cherry) in the Meadery, but after that I don't remember a thing until I remember climbing over the bar in the restaurant we first started at to get at the stereo to turn the music up! Ooops.

Well, my colleages filled me in today: we went to 2 more pubs after the Meadery, tried to go in a third (but they wouldn't let us through the door) and ended up in an Indian Restaurant. Now, I have a vague recollection of sitting at the table in this restaurant, but nothing more. How could I consume curry and not remember doing it??? I also apparently fell down in the Indian Restaurant again as well between some chairs. Maybe that explains the small bump I've got on my head and my sore shoulder!

The weird thing was seeing the photos I took when I downloaded them off the camera just now - 52 in all - some of them at least go to show what happened during some of my "missing" hours.

Total damages: one grazed knee, some broken glasses (when I climbed over the bar), and two mobile phones trashed by my boss. One drowned in a drink when the owner of the phone was holding up a pool match by talking on it, and another one smashed when he decided to use his secretaries handbag as a rugby ball. All in all a great night out!

My former bunny: Jessica Rabbit

An Easter RR at Christmas

Sandra Lewis sent me a package today, inside it was a Christmas card, and my long time no see Easter RR material. I was awfly glad to see it again. I had asked Sandra to hold on to it for me while I was in the process of moving to Penzance as I didn't know when or where I would end up.

I stitched the first rabbit - which is from an RSPCA design. I picked this because it was very similar to my own rabbit which I had at the time called Jessica. See the above photo. Next it went to Petra in the US and she stitched a Margaret Sherry design (Petra knows how much I love MS designs ;-), and then it went to Sandra Lewis, who stitched the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit design and then finally to Suzi Hornsby. Thank you to all of you who stitched on it and made it a lovely piece of needlework. I look forward to finishing off my border and then getting it framed and hung in my new flat.

Contacts

I've been trying out contact lenses for the last couple of weeks. It has been a very hit and miss affair so far with them.

First of all, I decided that I wanted to have the daily disposable lenses so that I could just wear a pair occasionally when I felt like it and then throw them away. However when I went for my initial consultation with the Optician I learned that they didn't make the daily lenses that corrected astigmatism strong enough for my left eye which is about 1.25 worse than my right. I tried a pair anyway, but I just couldn't see well enough in them.... so on to plan 2.

Plan 2 was the day and night wear lenses. In theory you could leave them in for a month with the occasional day off to give your eyes a break. In theory anyway. I can't seem to keep a pair in for more than a few hours before them starting to irritate me, also the lenses were having a derogatory affect on my mid range vision, i.e. reading a computer screen or paperwork on a desk which I do all day long at work. When I first put a pair in, I went into a bakers and attempted to pay for a sandwich by putting some coins on the glass countertop. I kept missing it, not quite knowing where it was. I felt such a fool. I tried two different prescriptions for these lenses, but even with the prescription change helping the reading a little, the irritation still persisted.

So a couple of weeks go past... and then they suddenly increase the prescription of the toric astigmatism-correcting lenses so I can now try some of these. They are a lot more flimsy than the monthly day and night ones and keep sticking to my finger when I try to put them in, but they seem a little bit better for reading, and less irritating, and probably the best thing is that I can just put them in when I want to go out in the evening and use them on an ad hoc basis which is what I wanted in the first instance.

I did have a mishap with them the first day I wore them though, one of the lenses split when I was trying to take it out, it broke into three pieces and I was convinced for the rest of the evening that I still had a piece of lens in my eye. I had an emergency appointment at the optician the next morning, who checked my still inflamed eye - but fortunately there was nothing in it and I had got the lens out.... so that's why I'm not wearing my glasses in these pics anymore.

2nd Christmas "Do"

Xmas dinner at Slipways in St Ives. Left to Right, Lynette (who's leaving at the end of this month), Hayley, Me and my Boss.

Quite an uneventful evening really, we had a laugh, reasonable food, and good company but considering some of the stories that I've heard about what this companies' staff get up to when they go out on the p*** : this was a very quiet evening.

Which "Finding Nemo" character are you most like?

Nigel!


Which 'Finding Nemo' Character are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

Out Again

I'm out again tonight to the second of my work's Christmas dos. Cause it's a Wednesday I've got the afternoon off, anyway and I'm currently getting ready. I'll probably take my camera out with me, so no doubt I'll post some more pictures on this blog tomorrow. We are going to a restaurant in St Ives. Nearly everyone has bought their partner, so it should be a civilised dinner? I'll let you know either way.

You know Jade is indeed a strange cat, I was just in the shower washing my hair, and where is he? Sitting outside "wanting in" to the rain room. ;-)

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Obligation Stitching?

Apart from my commitment to the Cattitudes RR - I'm not committed to stitching anything for anyone else at the moment. As I've gone back to working full time, I don't even have time to stitch Christmas cards this year - so sorry folkes!

Dante's Inferno Test

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Extreme
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Extreme
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Extreme

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

First Christmas "Do"

I'm hung over today and recovering from last night's excess. I think I drank about two bottles of wine - it was drinkable for a change, the Tregenna Castle actually put Medium wine on the table instead of the usual bottles of Dry House White. Two bottles of wine, plus one of Reef, two cointreaus and at the end of the night I was drinking Vodka Martinis - it was probably fortunate that Linzi piled me into the taxi when she did, all that to drink - plus the glass that I spilt all over the table earlier, the spirits were literally free-flowing.

It was quite a strange night really -
Me and Linzi (she's the glamorous one on the right who makes me look like a midget - what you don't know is that at that point she'd taken her shoes off and I was standing there in 3 in heels - but then that's why I can't get any trousers to fit ;-) ), were picked up by Lynette's daughter who drove us all there. Ray (my boss) and Angela were really late, we were all wondering what had happened to them. We had all finished our starters by the time they arrived, about half an hour late. It turned out that Ray was staying at the hotel and had forgotten to bring his trousers with him, so he had to go all the way home to Rusudgeon to get them. lol!!!

The food wasn't up to much though, the last time I'd been to the summer ball at the Tregenna the food was excellent and just about the right amount - but this time it wasn't so good. A chicken salad to start with - and no dressing on the lettuce leaves - yuk! (or melon or soup), Turkey or Salmon (not enough vegetables on the table) as the main course and Christmas pudding or mousse to finish with. I don't like Christmas pudding so I had to settle for the mousse, but I don't really like chocolate desserts either so I only ate half of it. Fortunately I wasn't that hungry because I'd eaten a nice lunch in the Blue Snapper wine bar at lunchtime.

Lynette's husband Terry was surprised to find a cardboard disk from a party popper at the bottom of his coffee cup - no wonder his coffee tasted bad. ;-)

I unexpectedly bumped into an old friend from Hayle at the dinner too. I thought he was just gate-crashing - I wouldn't put it past him to do that sort of thing - but his date was giving me nasty looks all night, so he'd obviously mentioned me to her previously, so I stayed well clear.

That sort of thing just doesn't happen in the SE, the odds of meeting someone that you know are really high, but because there aren't that many people in Cornwall by comparison, everyone knows someone somewhere, and usually all about that person's business too. It can drive you crazy at times.

Bread Thief - photographic proof

I came home today and I had some freshly baked onion flavoured baton rolls. I put the bag on the coffee table and sat down at this computer. Jade became very fascinated with the bag, stuck his head in it and nearly got his head caught in the handles. Then I realised why. He didn't steal this, I broke a piece off and gave it to him. There you go folkes, proof of the cat who would eat bread! Jade has stolen bread in the past though. Read about it here.

Lava Lamps

I've always loved Lava Lamps. I used to have one of the original Mathmos ones in the shape of a rocket that I picked up at a boot fayre. I bought a cheapo one from Argos this week on my afternoon off. I love it when it first starts melting the wax, like some weird alien jellyfish or something!

Jade's Little Adventure

It's a shame he can't talk because I would have loved to have known what he got up to today. I got a text from a neighbour at lunchtime who had found his collar in the road outside.

Only Jade knows just how he managed to slip out of it (this is a cat who has worn a collar all his life 5+ years and never lost it before) and what he got up too.

;-)

Jean's Elephants Framed

I got my Elephants back from the framers today. Two weeks early. Yipee.

When I went into the unit to pick it up there was no one around, but the radio was blaring out. I shouted "hello" a couple of times, but there was no answer, so I started to explore around the framing studio to see if there was someone out the back - as I walked around a workbench, I found a guy asleep on the floor behind it!!! lol. He was the framer's assistant, although how he could sleep with the radio blaring was beyond me.

Addicted to Zelda

Since getting Zelda and the Minnish Cap a few weeks ago, I must admit to becoming a little addicted to playing it. I'm about a third of the way through now. I had it on yesterday lunchtime (trying to beat the Fire Dragon Boss on Mount Crenel) and my boss saw me playing it as he went out to lunch. I must have looked embarrassed, because he asked me what I was staring at. lol.

The addiction gets worse though, this morning I had another, "oh it's 5 AM and I can't get back to sleep now what should I do?" nights, and you guessed it, that's right, there was me playing Zelda at 5 am. Managed to beat that Fire Dragon Boss though! ;-)

I've always been a fan of the Zelda games, I don't know why, it's strange really, once you've played one of them, you've played them all: little elf person in green hat has to get sword and shield and then go and rescue Princess Zelda. But something about them is so charming that I've always had to rush out and buy the latest gaming platform (which I usually had no interest in before) to play the new Zelda instalment on. Maybe it's the cutesy graphics and the attention to detail. This morning I was wandering around Hyrule Town as a midget, getting a little worried because the black cat sitting on the bridge started wiggling his butt to pounce on me (the way that cat's do - if you're a cat owner you'll know exactly what I mean), and I thought, "how sweet".

My Sleepy Baby

Here's a picture of Jade fast asleep on my bed. When he's not exploring the gardens, or encountering Tickle, this is where he spends most of his time. I like this picture cause it shows his great big soft velvety feet.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: Stitching Injuries

What has been your most interesting stitching related injury?

I don't ever think I've really had one apart from really boring needle pricks!

The Short-legged Accidental Shoplifter!

I went shopping yesterday, I'd been eyeing up some grey suits (jacket and
trouser sets) in Peacocks for a week or two and I decided to go in an buy
one yesterday - but I didn't in the end. Why? Why do all clothes
manufacturers insist on creating trousers for people with model length legs?
I'm 5' 3" and only one inch below the average height of women in this
country - which is 5' 4", and I'm sick of buying pairs of trousers and
having to suffer the indignantly of 5" turnups or having to hack off about
3-4 inches of material to avoid them. Why should I be forced to become my
own tailor due to their short sighted-ness?

There was an older lady in the shop who said she had exactly the same
problem as me, as she held up a skirt to her that swept to the floor. I
left Peacocks in a huff after that. I went in another clothes shop, this
one a bit more upmarket - but alas, the same problem with the trousers in
there.

In the end, I walked right up to the other end of the High Street and went
in Bon Marche'. As I entered the shop I became aware that something was
dragging on me. I looked down, I'd got a coat hanger and a size 18/20 black
glittery top hanging on the back of my poncho. Oooops. I noticed that the
tag on the hanger was one of Peacocks ones. I hurriedly disentangled the
coat hanger from my poncho and stuffed it on the clothing racks in Bon
Marche'. I must have walked the entire length of the high street trailing
that damned top! No one stopped me either. lol I was too embarrassed to
have taken in back.

At least Bon Marche' were able to help with my trouser problem, I asked for
short length trousers and they went and found a couple of pairs from the
store room upstairs. Yes, they had to be fetched, they weren't out on
general display, even given the fact that the sales assistant was the same
height as me and suffered the same problem, her trouser hems were dragging all over the floor as I spoke to her. I was quite pleased in a way because the size 14s were too big and I had to ask for a 12. I think that's the first size twelve garment I've bought since..... ermmm actually I can't remember, I think I've always been a size 14, 16 or plus.

As well as buying a couple of clothes, I bought the other Zelda game (A Link to the Past) for my new Game Boy Advance. I haven't finished the first one yet by any means, but sod's law is that when I want to get it, I won't be able to find it in the shops anywhere. The really ironic thing is that I used to have this game for my original Gameboy (along with the classic Tetris and a couple of other games), but when that stopped working - I think the batteries leaked in the battery compartment -there wasn't much point in hanging onto the original games, so I gave them away along with loads of other stuff. I wish I hadn't now, I used to love playing Tetris -gotta see if I can get it again. I'm told the Game Boy Colour version will work, I'll have to check Ebay ;-)

I also had a bit of a splurge on DVDs, most of what I bought was further
replacements for the SF movies that Sean took: Armageddon, Starship
Troopers, Judge Dredd etc, but I also bought the second volume of Kill Bill
and Garfield: The Movie. I'm quite embarrassed by this last purchase ;-),
but I was standing there in "Game" watching it on their TV screens, here I
was a thirty-something standing there enraptured by a dancing cat. How
embarrassing, much better to do this sort of thing in private. So I bought
it.

Mirabilia Angel - WIP3

Mirabilia Angel - Work In Progress 3. I did some stitching on this yesterday. I've finished her wings now and started on her dress.

Afternoon in Newlyn

I get Wednesday afternoon's off usually, and I often am busier running errands on Wednesday afternoons than I would be if I stayed in the office. But this week I'm getting caught up with a lot of stuff here finally in the flat and I actually had some "me" time!

I actually planned to do a bit of shopping this afternoon, first item on the list was a small hoover for the flat. I've been here three weeks, and what with Jade's cat litter turning up in the oddest places, combined with leaves that he brings in and also our hair getting everywhere, the floor's been getting a tad crunchy of late - and I really needed to clean. My landlady has a Dyson hoover that I can use, but the thought of humping that up two flights of stairs to the flat has put me off using it. But in the end I didn't have to buy one, my boss donated one of the office hoover's too me (he plans to get a new "Henry" Hoover for the office), so that was a trip to Argos that I didn't have to make. So picture me at lunchtime walking through town carrying a hoover, people must have thought I was a bit strange, but then again, Cornwall attracts all sorts. Anyway, halfway up the road, one of the straps broke on my handbag (again - this is the second time this has happened, I exchanged the first one - and now the same thing has happened to it's replacement), maybe I'm carrying too much stuff around in it, for I had:

• 2 small plastic hoover attachments
• purse
• glasses case
• gameboy advance (complete with plug and charging lead)
• mobile phone (complete with plug and charging lead
• keys
• address book
• 2 cheque books
• make up
• assorted ketchup and sauce sachets
• salt and pepper sachets
• scraps of paper and receipts
• cherry lip balm
• passport
• and not forgetting of course, for this is a cross stitching blog: my purse project (which at the moment is still the Canterbury Bell Fairy)

What do you think? I guess you can see why the strap broke ;-)

Anyway, the shop exchanged the bag for another one and I endured
embarrasment again as I had to take everything out of the old bag and put it
into the new one.

When I had dropped the hoover off, I set off along the seafront into Newlyn
so I could get a piece framed. It's the African Elephants piece that is in
my webshots album (2004 Finishes). This piece is particularly special to me because my Aunt started it off last year, and unfortunately was unable to complete it because she died of cancer in June. I finished it off this summer in her memory. This is the reason I took it to a professional framer - I didn't trust myself to do a good enough job. It's going to take about 3 weeks (they have to order some materials in) but I should get it back in time for Christmas.

After leaving the framers I stopped at a small cafe and had a jacket potato
which was filled with "bang-bang" chicken. Well, all I can say is - it
certainly banged! The chicken was in a satay sauce, but it was quite hot
and spicy - very tasty, but hotter than I would have liked.

After finishing that I walked back along the seafront. The wind was quite
cold coming off the sea, and I was surprised that the damage to the sea wall in Newlyn hasn't yet been repaired from last month's storms. There are still barriers in about 5 or 6 places along there where the vicious waves ate away at the edge of the wall.

So now I'm sitting back here, (after de-crunchifying the carpet with my new
hoover) and just telling you all about my afternoon on this blog. Ermm.....
I'm supposed to be stitching actually, UKCSF (my yahoo group) have Wednesday evenings as UFO night so I suppose I'd better get stitching ;-)

I treated myself to a Gameboy Advance. This one is a special edition gold model and it came complete with the Zelda and the Minnish Cap game. I can't believe I was up at 6:00 am playing it this morning.

Jade

You can get 'em running in full circles.

A laser pointer makes a wonderful cat toy.

A New Blog!

Well, to be honest I only created this account so I could actually post a comment today on Petra's own blog (http://doyouknowthewaytomars.blogspot.com) , but I keep getting loads of "excess bandwidth" warning messages from Bravenet about too many people looking at my current blog and pictures over at http://vashxstitch.bravejournal.com so maybe this can be the new home for my blog in 2005?

Hmmmm We'll have to see ;-)

Age 2

Aged 2