Back from the winery - it was a lovely day out for a drive in the Aussie Bush and we got to see John's name up in Chalk! The food a bit more gourmet and pricey than my usual fare, but it's a once in an every so often treat. John showed once again, how versatile he can be - playing as a one man band.
I've finished my stitching tonight for friend's mum's quilt and that will be off to the USA during the week.
Speaking of sending things overseas... we have a winner of the fob draw .... Harry pulled a name out of the pink glass bowl .... GRACIE - Congratulations! I have sent you an email - please send me your snail-mail address.
I nearly forgot to show off my latest addition to my flock - a workmate travelled home to England and brought me back a shelf-sitter-sheep. He will live at work for now.
For somebody who has spent a LOT of time and floss stitching sheep, my TUSAL jar is suspiciously bereft of white orts. Am I stitching with the white floss to the 'nth' degree of floss and not caring too much about the length of the coloured floss perhaps?
With today's offering, I show again my sheepie scissor fob and my latest two sheepies - a black sheep - there's got to be a black sheep in every flock and my newest rough and tumble ram, found at a garage sale yesterday for 20c. He's a bit dirty and marked, but loved enough to still wear a red ribbon. I must admit that the family holding the garage sale had funny looks on their faces as I tried to explain the significance of sheep. (what am I going to do with all these sheep after Dec 31st?)
I'm off to see my son play his blues guitar at a winery today for lunch - I'll draw the winner of my fob giveaway tonight after dinner - so there is still time to enter (Edited: No there isn't!). For non-aussies only I'm afraid - but Aussies keep watching; I have a plan.
I apologise for the delay in posting - but the past couple of weeks have been hectic at work and I've not had the oomph on the weekends to take pretty photos, and a blog post without photos is only so many words!!!!
What have I to show you...???
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Sheep.
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Did you expect anything different??? That's right - I cannot pull the wool over your eyes! ....I'm sorry that was a 'sheep-shot' and not 'mint' to be 'saucy'. I'll just get baaa-ck to what I was about to show ewe. Fleece forgive me.
nope.... I don't think I'm quite over the baaa-d sheep puns yet. .... Are Ewe??
Stitching first: I finished Erica Michaels : S is for Sheep - I didn't bother with the turkey stitching on the fleece, because this is going to be a Christmas present for a non-crafty person who's name begins with 'S'. Stitched on pinky/lilac aida, using Victoria Motto Shoppe hand-dyed floss.
I also found this little ornament in a JCS magazine from a couple of years ago. I substituted gold beads for the metallic crosses in the sky and used my own wording in the middle - all I have to do is finish it off properly before the end of the year!!
My girlfriend found me this neat Coffee Jug. She is so nice to indulge my addictions...
Today, Sunday 24th July would have been my Mum's birthday. I was a wee bit too glum, and an online friend on my favourite message board, suggested that I find a way to use the jars of beads that were sitting on the end of a cabinet. This I did.
I found myself at Eureka Beads, less than 5km from home, purchased supplies to make some scissor fobs - even finding a sheep bead!!!
A couple of hours later - I have a new sheepie scissor fob. I have decided that my online friend can pick one of the two fobs and I'll have a giveaway to one of my Overseas followers for the other. (see the kangaroos???) Sorry to my Aussie followers - thought I'd give the off shore friends a chance.
You know the rules : Leave a message on this post - I'll pick a winner next Sunday evening (my time) and that winner will receive either the blue/green or the pink/purple fob. I won't tell which one will be sent out - so it will remain a surprise. Blue/Green was the colours she wore most, and Pink for the Pink Depression glass she collected.
Good Luck!
At 11am today, I realised the date.
AAAARRRGGHHH !!!!! Mild panic!!!! I have to have my 11-7-11 sheepie stitched today and I've not even tweaked the design!!!!! I'm at work - how can I play with my charts when I'm at work??????
Will I have time to stitch this tonight??
As it turns out, I'm aware this quick design takes me just over 2hours from go to whoa and, as luck would have it, I had prepared a crock-pot dinner, so the theory was that I could dish up dinner the moment I got home, then sit and stitch. No trouble! I even had time for a wee nanna nap. (My stitching chair is so comfortable, it's inevitable that I nod off for at least 30 minutes each time I settle in for a session of stitching)
I tweaked the design over dinner (yes....terribly bad manners, but I was the only one at the table, the boys were all staring at the telly) - I added beanies, green gumboots and woolly scarves to my sheep - after all, we are in the middle of a cold snap here in Victoria. It IS Winter !!! And I've been saving this pun for several months!
Looking at all the other sheepies I have stitched, I'm thinking this is going to either be made into a wall hanging or a table runner at the end of the year. I've a few months to find the 'right' fabric.
I am having so much fun with this series...
I'm finding myself however, having to explain how obsessed with sheep I've become in the past 6 months. Not all my workmates understand. (I'm not certain the family do either!!)
I'm really not 100% happy with it, but I think I've spent enough of my weekend trying to make my wallpaper and header work right.
Until I'm ready for another brain melt-down - this will have to do.
There is only so much html self-help my brain will absorb.
I will however thank the following pages for their help:
For the idea of re-vamping my blog and for the graphics to start on the header: The Cutest Blog on the block.
For a lovely background & check out all the other design elements on this blog : Tea for Two Scraps
For the sheep (and some tags that I've not yet added to the sidebars because my brain has melted) : Barb
For the Tutorials that did help until my brain fried: Blogger Template Design.
I've decided I no longer like the look of my blog.
I hope to play with it over the weekend and update the background and colours and general style. I might even get creative.
Of course sheep are a major consideration.....
So if you are patient with me, you might just see a difference over the next week.
Then again......life could trip me up and nothing happens.
If you have any suggestions - please feel free to comment. I'm not really into shabby-chic, so don't expect pastels....
baaa-ronny
Finally, I seem to have my computer back running and my files re-organised - after the great crash of June 2011!! I do have a snowman finish to show you - and my current TUSAL.
Here is my Snowman finish - I'm allowed, under the rules, to stitch WIPs. As this was one of the 7 snowmen charts started on Dec 31 2010 - it qualifies.... so there!!
Stitchy Kitty Freebie - Winter Blues - and I replaced some of the stitches with beads. I see this to be made into a companion cushion to the bright pink one stitched last year.
It is also TUSAL day - too dark to show off the TUSAL jar last night - so here's a pic taken early this morning (still dark and had to use a flash) What a lot of orts there are collected - a lot of blue from a recent sheepie WIP - and possibly the Winter Blues. Perhaps next month, there will be a little more white and whisper???
For those interested in the Sheepie SAL I mentioned a month or so ago (blush....could not do anything after the crash) I'm about ready to send it out - will tweak it over the weekend - and set it up as a pdf at work during the week. I think I might just offer it as a free chart - rather than try to organise myself into a SAL.
Back from the winery - it was a lovely day out for a drive in the Aussie Bush and we got to see John's name up in Chalk! The food a bit more gourmet and pricey than my usual fare, but it's a once in an every so often treat. John showed once again, how versatile he can be - playing as a one man band.
