Stash and stuff

Well, it looks like Photobucket is playing silly b*ggers with me today and doesn't want to recognise me, so no photos today. And on a day when I had loads of news and photos to share . I'll have to save it all for next time.

For today, here's something that's been rettling around inside my head for the last day or two - Stash Organisation. Yesterday, I made myself a list of where things stand at present with my stash organisation and where I'd like to get to.

How my stash is (not) organised at present -

4 large plastic crates crammed on a barely accessible small, narrow cupboard in the corner of the bedroom. The crates are very roughly organised into one for charts, one for fabric, one for stuff I'm supposed to be working on or really want to start, and one for magazines and things that won't fit into any of the other crates. In order to get anything out of any of the crates, I have to practically empty the cupboard. At the moment, I don't really have the odd hour to spare for that!

Also 2 small plastic crates, one filled with fabric and the other with any old stuff that happens to be lying around. One of these crates lives on a shelf in the living room, the other on a shelf in my wardrobe.

I don't have any record of what I have in my stash and rely on my memory which fortunately is fairly good, but I know there are some duplicates in there.

Where I'd like to get to -

Accessible - I'd like to be able to get at my stash whenever I want to without having to venture into parts unknown a la Bear Grills. (I think my son wants to be Bear Grills when he grows up!) Stash fondling and perusal should be accessible at any time!

Space - space to spread things out so that I can drool over all my lovely loot (metaphorically of course)!

Filing - maybe a filing cabinet for charts?

Ideally, I'd also like to presuade myself that I don't have to hide it all from my husband!

And it would be nice to have it all recorded on a database - for virtual drooling and stash fondling, of course! I had this 'good idea' that I might be able to get this done while I'm on maternity leave, but I don't see that I can do the virtual stash organisation without tackling the physical side of things too!

Sounds like a good goal, don't you think? But whether or not I'll get there is a completely different matter.


Iona is being completely adorable these days. I've kind of lost track, but she may be settling down a bit and getting ready to sleep through the night. More importantly, if you take the time to talk to her and play with her, she rewards you with the most beautiful big smiles! She seemed almost to be born smiling, but she's now doing it deliberately!

And I got the good news this morning that I won the Chloe's giveaway at Mee Crafty! I'm dead chuffed as I rarely win anything, so thanks to Chloe!

One month already!

I can't believe it - my baby is one month old already! Where has the time gone? I feel like I lost the first 2 weeks feeling completely overwhelmed by everything and struggling to cope. I'm feeling a lot better now and can even start to enjoy spending time with Iona.


Iona keeps us busy vainly attempting to persuade her to sleep - she must be laughing at our efforts as she doesn't seem to have any intention of sleeping during the day. I struggled with that when Alexander was small too, I could never work out how to entertain a small baby who wouldn't sleep. I find it very frustrating too not having any time to myself - doing baby 24/7 is hard work! All I really want is maybe half an hour's stitching time every day or two - very therapeutic!

Anyway, not a lot else going on here and I'm reduced to one-handed blogging this morning (baby perched on the other arm), so here's a selection of photos of what we've been doing over the last week or two.

MTM part 4 finish

As it says in the title, I've now finished part 4 of Chatelaine's Medieval Town Mandala.


I was three quarters done when Iona was born and finished the fourth side on Monday. I've now made a good start to part 5 - I've been really looking forward to the turquoise silks in part 5, so I'm going to enjoy this one!

Iona is doing really well and is a wonderful wee girl. I just wish she would settle a bit easier and sleep better. Sometimes it feels like a real fight to get her to go to sleep, even though she cries and cries and you can hear in her voice just how tired she is. Some days it's a struggle to get her to sleep at all for more than 15 minutes at a time between early morning and late evening, and wants to be held and cuddled all the time, so it can be heavy going!

However, it's still early days - she'll only be 3 weeks old tomorrow! I can't believe where the time has gone already, sometimes I feel like the time is running away from me and I haven't been paying attention. I want to be able to savour every second.

Alexander, my son, is beeing really good too. I think at first after Iona and I came home, he felt rather neglected, but he can see now how much attention a baby needs but also we're trying very hard to keep to his normal routine, so he still gets time to snuggle in bed with me at the end of the day.


A big thank you to everybody who commented on my previous post and for all the good wishes. I promise to vist all your blogs and thank you all individually over the next week or two.

Iona

.... is my daughter's name.


Isn't she beautiful? She arrived just before lunchtime last Friday, via c-section as planned and weighing 6lb 6.5oz or 2.9kg. We are both well and came home on Monday. Now we're all just getting used to doing what needs doing.


I've got to a stage where I need to connect more with the things I was doing before she arrived - including my stitching and blogging. It would be far too easy to let Iona take over my life, but I feel that if I do that then I'll end up as depressed and isolated as I was last time and I swear I never want to go there again. I'd like to be able to enjoy the time I have with her.

Still here

So I'm still here and still waiting. I had the membrane sweep last Thursday, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. The latest news is that if nothing happens before this Friday, I'll be going into hospital then for a caesarian.

The caesarian is by my own choice, not dictated by medical need, but weighing up the options, I believe it's the best choice for me and my family. If I had chosen induction, then it could still have been 24 hours or more and I could still have ended up needing a caesarian. The risks associated with a normal birth after a previous caesarian are also greater for induction.

To me the main advantages in having the caesarian are in the control we (me, DH and DS) have over what happens on the day. I'll go into hospital early on Friday morning and the baby should be with us by the time DS comes out of school on Friday afternoon - meaning minimal disruption for DS and I don't need to worry about where he's going to be and who's going to look after him while I'm in hospital. I also feel more comfortable for DH coming with me for the caesarian - he can be very squeamish and hates hospitals, and I was never entirely sure how he would react to being with me in labour. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it would be a major problem, it was just an unknown factor, and something else I would worry about. With the caesarian, we at least know what we're letting ourselves in for.

Do I sound as if I've persuaded myself that I've made the right decision yet?

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In the meantime, here are some photos of another box I've made - I think I like this one even better than the last one.


I chose this design as I wanted to have a go at the folded patchwork lid - I've never done anything like that before and I'm rather pleased with the end result. The folded patchwork was quite straightforward, but a bit fiddly and I cheated, using fabric glue rather than stitching each little fabric triangle in place individually.

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I'd like to thank everybody who has been leaving comments and good wishes. I'm really grateful for every kind word and all your support. I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to blog next, perhaps not for a couple of weeks. Hopefully things will settle enough after that!

Edgy

I'm just back from the hospital today and feeling rather edgy. I hadn't intended to blog, but sometimes it's better to let it out than keep it in. It would be nice to be able to talk to my mother or sister about this sort of thing, but somehow when I talk to them, they both manage to say completely the wrong thing and just wind me up. They make me feel like having a normal birth is the only realistic option, and having a caesarian would be some kind of failure.

Anyway, my due date is tomorrow, 9th April, so I've made it! I don't think I really expected to last this long. At the same time, it all feels rather unreal, and the prospect of actually going into labour is a bit scary. I'll be speaking to my midwife tomorrow and the doctor at the hospital has recommended that we arrange a membrane sweep which could get things started within 48 hours.

I don't know why I'm worrying in a way. After all, going into labour is the normal outcome of becoming pregnant. The prospect of having the membrane sweep somehow just makes things feel that bit more imminent. And once I go into labour, I feel like I'm not in control any more. Maybe that's the bit that bothers me most - I am a bit of a control freak!

My blood pressure has also been rising over the last week or so, and if it continues to rise, then there's also the possibility that things may be taken out of my hands from that perspective.

On the other hand, if nothing happens by next Tuesday I'll be back at the hospital discussing my options for induction or caesarian. If given the choice at that point, I may just opt for the caesarian.

In the mean time, I'm still playing the waiting game. I wish I could settle down to a nice bit of stitching, but can't think of anything I feel like working on. Maybe I'll go and do some baking.

Titch

Once upon a time there was a monkey. He lived in a nice house with a nice family and some lovely knitted friends.


The humans who lived with him were very kind. They played games with him, took him on holiday and named him Zero-X1.


However, this was not a happy monkey. He did not know any other monkeys made of knit and this made him sad. He was a sad monkey, a lonely monkey, a blue monkey.


But one day, Zero-X1 was in for a surprise. Suddenly, Titch appeared.


Titch was a lively little fellow and Zero-X1 loved him.



Zero-X1 was now a happy monkey – he was no longer a lone monkey of knit. He and Titch played together endlessly.



Zero-X1 was happy.


And they lived happily ever after. The End.

Well, I'm still here and all's quiet on the baby front. I've been struggling a little to get time online over the last 10 days as I have DS and DH at home for the Easter holiday which is quite nice. It's a bit strange having a whole 2 weeks holiday at home - usually we'd go away somewhere like to my parents, but given the circumstances, I really didn't want to risk going into labour half way up the M6 motorway or in some other equally delightful , remote location! LOL!

I had a productive week last week and finished stitching my bit on Lizzy's RR - it's now winging it's way across the Atlantic.


We've all been stitching LHN's Dear Diary designs for Lizzy and her RR looks fantastic!


I think I only have one more RR to stitch on and then I'll be done. It really has been great fun to do! I may have to find another one to join when this is finished and hopefully when things settle down with the baby. I'm not sure I fancy a Neighbourhood RR at the moment, but I do like the idea of the Seasonal Dragons RR Leslie, Jenna, Christine and Outi did last year. I have the chart for the dragons in my stash and kitted it up at one point. I've also got a bit of hand dyed fabtic I think would be fantastic for it.


A big THANK YOU now to Barbara who sent me this gorgeous little door hanger.


Isn't it beautiful? I love the purple colours of the fabric and it's such a sweet little design! This came about as I commented on Barbara's Un-birthday post and was one of the 12 to receive a gift. Barbara wanted to make me something to fit the baby theme and I think she's made a wonderful choice. Thank you very much Barbara!

Brief update

Things are fairly quiet here at the moment - the calm before the storm, I suppose. I finished work last Thursday so have had a quiet week at home this week. I've been trying to keep myself organised and do a few small tasks each day.

I've found it quite strange using the internet at home! Usually, I do most of my internet stuff from work where I'm connected to the internet as soon as I log on. At home, I've only been used to popping on for the odd few minutes here and there. So I've had to train myself to take my time!

I've also spent a lot of time working on my sister's ring pillow and am really pleased with the way things are going, but no photos yet. It would be useful to get this finished before the baby arrives as I have no idea what time I'll have for that sort of thing after! I've also done a little stitching here and there, mainly on MTM and Lizzie's RR where I'm stitching LHN's Julia Flynn.

As I don't have any stitching photos to share today, I though I'd share one of me and my bump! Following Monkee Maker's recommendation, one of the things I've done this week is to install Picasa on my pc and I've been playing around with that, resulting in this collage.


37 weeks and all's well!

Occasional project

Since January, I've had this 'occasional project' on the go that I've been working on as and when I've felt like it, or when I haven't felt like working on anything else.

It comes from this book which I bought shortly after Christmas.


There are some wonderful embroidered boxes in the book as well as folded patchwork. There are boxes stitched with plastic canvas, fabric boxes using cardboard to make them rigid and boxes that use a mix of the two. I've found it quite inspirational for thinking about finishing some of my projects. For practice and to get a feel for making boxes, I've made the following sewing box from the book.


It's stitched on a number of pieces of plastic canvas which are then joined and lined.


When the stitching is finished you end up with a number of pieces as shown above which you stitch together and line to make the following:


I'm rather pleased with it, but at the same time I'm more excited about the ways in which I can make and use boxes in finishing other items and I have big plans!

Thanks to everybody for all the wonderful comments on 'A Celebration of Love'. I've taken a lot of your suggestions on board and am looking at finishing it using a plain fabric which I hope will complement my sister's dress, but am also going to overlay it partly with lace. Unfortunately, I can't get hold of either fabric or lace from my sister's dress, I'm just hoping that the ivory fabric I've now got will roughly tone in and that I'll be able to make something which has the same kind of look. I might even get started on it later this afternoon! I'm also now tempted to make her a small matching trinket box!

A Finishing Dilemma

I'm worried. Unnecessarily (of course). How on earth am I going to finish A Celebration of Love into a ring pillow for my sister's wedding?

I finished the stitching at the weekend so I can't avoid the finishing question for much longer.


I know I'm quite capable of making a small pillow, but I want this one to be perfect! And I want it to roughly tone in with my sister's wedding dress (light champagne taffeta overlaid with white lace).

So I'm worrying about it unnecessarily while scrabbling around trying, mainly unsuccessfully, to find some nice fabric for the pillow. And what about trims or something round the edges of the pillow? I feel in need of a bit of inspiration and not being able to find a fabric I like isn't helping!

At least I'm pleased with the stitching now. I swapped the white DMC for a white NPI silk and I think it looks much better. I like the fine braid too and the hint of sparkle that it adds.


I also bought a couple of nice lengths of ribbon the other day which will be attached in the centre of the middle heart once I can find a nice button to attach them with.

I know I'll get there in the end, I'll just worry about it along the way. That's just the way I am!


Today I'm officially 35 weeks pregnant, so I've definately lasted longer than last time. I've also cut down to only working 3 days a week which is nice and I'm starting to look forward to not working at all for several months!

And now for something completely different .....

I've spent far too much time recently drooling over some gorgeous needlepoint and, needing more of a fix, stitched up this.

This is Winter Snowflakes from Kick Back & Stitch. It wasn't too complicated and fun to stitch up, using some fibres, Neon Rays in particular, that I hadn't used before.





I don't use a laying tool, generally railroading does it for me, but I did need a little help to make sure these Neon Rays (ribbon) Rhodes stitches lay correctly. And in good light, the Neon Rays ribbon really glows!

And I do love the eight pointed star in the middle.

I don't know how I'm going to finish it - an ornament? A box top? I feel in need of something that's really going to help show off the sparkle (which doesn't come across in the photos), but am lacking inspiration at present. Anyone have any good ideas?

I'm now thinking about signing up for Gay Ann Rogers new Mystery in a Corner. The older mysteries (Glittering Diamonds and Mystery with a Little Bit of Glitz) are just gorgeous and I'd love to get my hands on them, especially Glittering Diamonds!

I've been a little distracted over the last couple of weeks watching my blood pressure going up and down and up and down, never the same two days in a row. But yesterday I was back at the hospital getting the good news that they're quite happy with how things are with me. I just need to remind myself that, although my blood pressure has been up, it's not consistently too high (just all over the place). Long may that continue!

Now I just need to get organised to slow down and finish up at work.

With everything that's going on right now, blogging is feeling like less of a priority, but I'm determined to keep at it as I don't want to loose touch with everybody out there in Internet-land. I suppose that I'm just getting to a point where having a baby just takes priority. So I'm sorry I'm not taking so much time these days to keep up with everybody's blogs and not commenting as I maybe should. I also owe a couple of people emails which I've been very bad at replying to. Hopefully I'll do that this week now that I feel a bit better about the BP situation.

Now all I need to find is some comfortable clothes!

Earthquake!

We don't often get earthquakes here in the UK and most of those we do get are relatively minor. In fact, I've never been aware of one happening before. Last night's turned out to be the biggest quake for about 25 years, measuring about 5.2 on the Richter scale. So no wonder I was shaken awake at 1am this morning.

DS, who slept through it all, finds it highly amusing that I thought an animal had got into the bedroom and jumped off the bed making it shake. DH thought he heard some boxes falling over in the loft. But I couldn't understand how either of those could explain the entire house shaking. It was quite scary for a while - I was convinced that the contents of the loft were about to come crashing through the bedroom ceiling.

But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that earthquake was the only explanation, so I switched on the radio and was in time to hear the first reports of the quake come through. It was quite a relief that earthquake was the answer!

Pressure's rising

... my blood pressure, that is It's been gradually going up and up over the last 2 or 3 weeks. This week it's got to the borderline stage where I'm having to repeat readings and rest in between. Not the simplest thing to do while I'm at work, but at least they're sympathetic.

Generally, however, I still feel fine, if very tired. I feel as if suddenly everything's catching up with me - I'm starting to realise just how tired I am and that I really need to slow down. Easier said than done, of course!

I just want to make it through to next Tuesday when I have my next hospital appointment. I feel that after that I can work out how to take things forward and start to think more seriously about stopping work.

Next week is also a big landmark for me as I reach the 34th week of my pregnancy. My son was born at 34 weeks, so if I get to 35, I will have been pregnant for longer than last time!

Anyway, with all that going on, I haven't been doing a lot of stitching. However, I did manage to finish this at the weekend (the knitted one, that is, the other one has to be a long term WIP! LOL).


DS was rather pleased with him and couldn't wait to introduce him to the other knitted residents of our house.



Yesterday, I finally managed to get to the post office to collect my parcel from Kae in Lucy Locket's Valentine Swap. Look at all the goodies she sent me!


She's really spoiled me including a sock person, yarn, knitted heart keyring, ric rac, ribbon and trims, and a gorgeous heart pendant! And, of course, lots of yummy chocolate. Thank you so much Kae - I love it all!

I sent her a parcel of goodies last week which included this little fob/ornament.


The large heart is based on one of the hearts from A Celebration of Love, the small hearts are just a couple of Rhodes hearts and a satin stitch/cushion heart.


(Just including this photo 'cos I like it!)

Today's the day!

It's my birthday today, and I'm just glad I'm feeling a bit more with it than I did last week! It's been a quiet day so far with cards from my parents, husband and a couple of friends. DS have me a wonderful home made card with a pop-up smiley face in the middle, but I then had to give him some money so that he could buy me a present. By the time I get home this evening, the postman will have been and gone and I expect that DS will be demanding to open any cards that arrive during the day. Then we'll just have our normal quiet night in.

I see from my notebook that on this day last year I had 2 new starts - Starflake and MTM. I don't think that one finish from those two is bad going at all! But I don't think there'll be any new starts for today.

Now I just have to plan what stash to spend my birthday money on.

Your Birth Month is February

Peaceful and harmonious, you seek the gentle side of life. Your warmth and consideration touches many. Your soul reflects: Purity, modesty, and faithfulness Your gemstone: Amethyst Your flower: Iris Your colors: Purple, yellow, and light blue

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

Also see http://www.paulsadowski.com/BirthDay.asp for a whole load of trivia on your birth date! For example, did you know -

There are 366 days till my next birthday on which my cake (if I had one) would have 42 candles.

Those 42 candles produce 42 BTUs,or 10,584 calories of heat (that's only 10.5840 food Calories!) .

You can boil 4.80 ounces of water with that many candles.


I bet you're glad you know that now. And to think I'll have to wait a whole year to put it to the test!

I my Q-Snaps!

Looks like a new start (and my q-snaps) was just what I needed! I spent the most of my weekend stitching on a range of different things, no apathy or any problem with motivation at all.

Julie warned me that I'd start to wonder how I'd managed without q-snaps up until now, and it hasn't taken long to find out she was right. In no time at all, I was marvelling at how simple it all was to set up, how well it holds the fabric and keeps the tension.

As I was splashing out and investing in q-snaps, I also bought some different sizes - a 8" square, 11" square and a couple of 17" legs. I love the way I can take them all apart to make myself a frame exactly the right size for the project I'm working on. I started out making a 8" x 11" frame and getting started on 'A Celebtation of Love'.


The q-snaps were wonderful, but I'm not happy with the heart in the middle. The filling is stitched in white DMC stranded cotton and I just don't like the way it's lying, despite all my railroading, it just looks a mess to me. I know I'm being over fussy as I want it to be 'perfect' for my sister's wedding, so I'm going to swap the DMC for a white silk and see if I like that better.


Next up was Paradigm Lost as I just had to try out the 17" x 11" q-snap combination.


You could say that I bought the q-snaps specially for PL as I was resisting putting it onto one of my scroll frames and had just been using my biggest hoop. And again, the q-snaps were perfect, just what was needed! I still haven't completely worked out how to keep the extra fabric out of the way, but I'm sure I have some bulldog clips or some hair clips somewhere which will do the trick!

All in all the q-snaps beat the hoops hands down any day! I'm not yet convinced that I'd want to take something as big as MTM off its scroll frame and onto the q-snaps, particularly when it gets bigger than the biggest q-snap frame I can make. But maybe that will become an excuse for buying more q-snaps and the extension thingies you can get?


To finish off, I had another nice visit from the postman on Saturday with a couple of back issues of Classic Stitches I'd ordered as well as this fabric.

Isn't it just gorgeous?