thread mess

I've found some new threads to work with.  A local art and craft store was clearing their DMC threads for 50c a skein.  Cheap!  Still no sign of the elusive fluro yellow thread though..! It is so hard to know what colours I have and haven't got, so I just grabbed a selection of blues that I thought would help with embroidering the sky on GG's embroidery.  I also got questioned by the shop assistant as to whether I was doing embroidery "like, from a chart or do you make it up?".  Obviously she was not accustomed to seeing embroidery outside of a kit...?  Anyway it was kind of funny.  I haven't really had the space to embroider much since returning to Melbourne, perhaps I overdid it a little over Christmas!  I might start a fresh motif on GG's Embroidery and see where that leads me...


Have a happy weekend!

the country

Today I visited 'the country'.  I took a train out to Castlemaine, which is about an hour and a half west of Melbourne, and is where my sister lives.  Castlemaine is a pretty little town from the goldrush days, which now attracts arty/hippy types and has an abundance of cafes.  And since it was Sunday there was also art markets and farmer's markets.  It was nice to get out of the city, but unfortunately it was a rainy-ish day, so we couldn't get out as much as I had hoped- it looked like a great place to walk about snapping photos like my tourist self likes to do.  How was your weekend?  Did you get away to somewhere interesting?

simple dinner

I was impressed at how picturesque my dinner looked, that I had to take a photo.  Chopsticks would have been better, of course.  Miso soup with buckwheat soba, chicken, tofu and pak choi.  Simple.

quiet

It's been very quiet on this blog.  Seriously, I don't know how many times I have lamented about my lack of posting.  Its too late for me to bother with the whole 'New Years' post thing.  Anyhow I have given the blog a much needed renovation- something that is clean and simple, and doesn't hurt my eyes.  Or yours for that matter. I had finally decided that I did not 'need' a patterned background- this idea was OK in 2006, when this blog was started, but not now. 
Did you have a lovely holiday break?  I went back home to New Zealand and caught up with my family and friends, and generally spent a bit (ok lots) of time lazing about.  Actually I think that I needed a decent break- moving countries, settling into a new home and re-learning your job is plenty to take in.
So in that lazy holiday time my embroidery certainly did not suffer.  Early in 2011 I had set myself the goal of Completing Georgie's Embroidery, which turned out to be a bit of a fail.  By the time my niece's birthday rolled around in late December the embroidery was still only partially complete.  Little girls do not forget things so easily and I was asked where it was.  Thankfully I could hint at the things I had added recently.  
Spending time in Napier with my parents brought on an embroidery blitz, which resulted in some fab additions:


The Cats.  Meet Putty and Pipsy, the two family cats- now in embroidery form.

The Kawaii Carrot.  GG loves to eat raw carrots all the time, so I thought that a kawaii carrot would be appropriate.  And this too.  It was nice to work with a simple and graphic forms, as opposed to the more finely shaded stuff that I normally do.  I also added the speech bubble above.

The Night Sky.  I guess that adding the Night Sky was the major piece of work here- all those teeny tiny stitches took ages.  I was kind of aiming for a 'Van-Gogh-Starry-Night' effect, which I partially achieved thanks to variegated yarn.  I'm planning on blending this more with lighter blue shades on the daytime side to achieve a brighter look.
I finally named the unicorn 'Aurora', which I thought suited.  I still need to shade the banner, but baby steps.

The Witch and The Moon.  Work on this piece has stalled as I'm now on the hunt for elusive DMC Flouro Yellow thread.  When I moved into my house it was the rainiest day possible, as in torrential rain rainy. The taxi dumped me outside my apartment block with my gear, and I then had to get my housemate to help me haul in all my stuff before it got completely soaked. When I got inside I was very quick to make sure I put the embroidery somewhere safe to dry.  However I had separated all the yarn I was using on the witch/moon into a red bag.  Which was not colourfast.  I discovered this about a week later.  Flouro yellow thread was now a bad shade of orange, glow in the dark thread was red-ish and anything blue looked distinctly purple. *sigh*  

So, overall (progress):

Since returning to Melbourne I have barely picked this piece of work up.  Perhaps I need a quiet weekend with decent light and a dash of motivation to make a little more progress.


Bye!

making the move

Melbourne- looking towards Flinders St Station. 

Melbourne- looking towards city buildings and Federation Square. 

So, I've been in Melbourne for a week now.  Craziness- I can't believe that things have gone SO quickly since my last post for me to be here now.  I'm slowly sorting my life out- there are things that you don't normally consider to be difficult, but are- alot of that has to do with not having a permanent residence (yet).  I have just spent about an hour (!!!) trying to set up a prepay cellphone....!  However I am lucky enough to have found a new flat which I should be moving into in a couple of weeks time- its a little further out from the city than I had initially planned on, but it is on a nice leafy street and there are shops nearby.  It is also close to my work, which is good as I am public transporting it at the moment.


Today I've decided to visit Ikea to get some ideas as to how I can decorate my room..!  Its kind of exciting as we don't have Ikea in New Zealand so it will all be novel and new for me.  I have told myself that there is no point in shopping until I move into the house, so I'll have to wait a little.  I am also waiting on all my tax and pay stuff to be settled as well before I really hit the shops- I suspect with 40 degree summers on the horizon that I will have to update my wardrobe a little...

Living at a hotel is kind of weird, as you can't cook properly in a mini kitchen (hello takeaways!) and everything  is in (messy) suitcases.  I've started to be worried about my lack of fitness and the other day I went for a long walk around the neighbourhood of my hotel nosying at all the houses....! I still have my craft with me and I have done a little bit of embroidery, but mostly I am reading about everyone else's craft instead.  


Oh! And I've just started reading Harry Potter- talk about catching up on lost time.  Its funny though since I've seen most of the movies, that everything seems very comfortable and familar.  Loving them, and suspect that I will inhale these books within a couple of weeks.


Will promise more updates...!


Anna