I finished St. Michael's Steeple today! Picture behind the cut!

( Picture )

Hi, I don't know if this is allowed, but I know our moderator will delete if it is not. And then, my apologies.

I am having to close my Brick & Mortar Needlework shop and wanted to let any of you in the Pacific Northwest know that if you are in Tacoma before December 19th to look up www.krazykatfiberhaus.com and come on by for the stock reduction sale. We are talking 20% off some of the best threads available. I am not going out of business, just getting rid of the Brick & Mortar shop. Yes, jessmonster you can still call me and pick up your patterns and threads when you need to;-)

Thanks.

December's free fractal bookmark pattern is up! I like this one, it reminds me of snowflakes and icicles. :) Appropriate for the season, I think.

http://www.xs-collectibles.com/Free.aspx

Hi stitchers! The Hand Embroidery Network just put out their first free, online issue of Needle magazine. I think it's gorgeous and has some really amazing articles. If you'd like to take a look, click the link below:

http://www.needlemagazine.com/issue01/index.html

Enjoy!

Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist runs good contests, evil Dallas Cowboys fan that he is. Right now he's giving away five sets of the first two books in our current Wild Cards triad, INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH.

Check out the details at http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/11/win-set-of-wild-cards-novels.html

Meanwhile, Tor has scheduled the release of SUICIDE KINGS, the third and concluding volume of the Committee triad, for December 22.


The contributing writers for this one are Ian Tregillis, Caroline Spector, Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Milan, S.L. Farrell, and Daniel Abraham.

Rustbelt, the Amazing Bubbles, Double Helix, the Radical, Gardener, and Jonathan (Bugsy) Hive provide the threads for our tapestry in this tale of love, war, revenge, and madness in the heart of darkness... but other Wild Cards favorites will also appear, including Cameo, Hoodoo Mama, Lohengrin, Dr. Finn, Popinjay, and many more. Not to mention the usual host of new characters, in parts both large and small.

So draw an ace for Xmas, and give Wild Cards a try. You won't be sorry.

I stil here with my head phones permanently glued to my ears, this song on repeat. Its one of those moments in the morning or night life where I simply lose myself to the vibe of sound, to the feeling of free within my own universe. Where everything is perfect and I don't feel so down to the whims of the world out of my control. What is control? Why should we care about control? Order is just our attempt to ocntrol and that's fallen to bits and pieces. Sometimes it just feels right to let it all go, to let it flow free from within and to embrace what we feel is right. And when we do, we get chaos. A beautiful chaotic mess. It's not always a bad thing. What defines us to be bad and good anyway? More control issues. I just don't know anymore. I guess I'm having issues with the man I didn't know existed. I think it's me breaking out of my manager mind and back into my quiet shell where I am in control of the chaos , where I feel that everything I do -is- right and no one can tell me otherwise. I mean, if I cannot trust my own head, then what is trust and the meaning of living out lives not our own?

+++

I'm not committed to anyone or anything, except my 12-8 (or other odd-end shift) in retail hell. I don't even feel bound to my friends; does this make me a bad person? Sometimes I just want to cut it all off, start anew. Wait, wait, waaaaaait, that's Japan! I won't be going there in February; I've decided that I'll be going to the Philippines for a week, maybe two, hopefully 3, with my plane credit (if its enough; if not then I will go to Japan and pay for some hostel or just train hop? lol). You know, it tears at me that I have this GREAT connection with someone who doesn't want to be in a committed relationship. It feels like an insult to my personal sense of integrity, because why spend time with me if you know I feel this way?

+++

The techno on repeat is driving me to get on with my life, so I think I shall. 3 pages of writing, here I come! Also, Happy December!


Also, thanks to mechnicaltears for reminding me in passing --> I'll be writing up cute quick Christmas/holiday/holla cards. If you'd like one, comment here (all posts with addresses will be screened -duh!) or email me at anosako@livejournal.com <3

I am sure this is WAY too ambitious for me, but I am thinking that a very nice holiday gift for Em's day care teachers would be a little Christmas/Holiday bookmark for each of them. Yeah right! I have NO time to stitch so I am not sure why I think I can do this, but I want to try. She loves her day care SO much and these women are amazing.
Do you all know of any free Christmas/holiday bookmark or border patterns that I can use? My googler is exhausted but nothing good is coming up. I want something cute but obviously not too too detailed - let's be realistic here :)
Thanks!!

For those of you who missed these on Kurt's site, Kurt sent the remaining to Art Star to sell:

http://artstarphilly.com/shop/prints/halsey74.html

- Buy/sell/trade. eBay allowed. One top-level-thread per person per post. If you have (unsuccessfully) advertised something before, you may comment to this post with a repeat.

-- Watch out for the "for sale" tag: you can quickly access all selling-posts that way, newest first.

-- No off-topic comments or discussions

-- Proceed with caution and common sense

Another highlight of my time in Morocco was the wrap party.

For those not familiar with the term, it's a Hollywood tradition to throw a big party when you finish shooting -- or "wrap" -- on a movie or television project. I attended quite a few great wrap parties during my ten years in LA, but the GAME OF THRONES wrap party blew them all away. We held it in the Ouarzazate Museum of Cinema, a pretty amazing place itself, complete with local musicians, belly dancers, acres of Moroccan delicicacies, and lots of spirits to lubricate the exhausted cast and crew. And when the museum threw us out, we just adjourned back to the Berbere Palace, where the party continued.

These few poor snapsnots don't capture a tenth of what went on. But hey, what happens in Morocco stays in Morocco, right?












A great time was had by all... except, of course, for the cast members who shot their scenes in Ireland and Scotland, and the Irish and UK crew who did not get to make the trip to Morocco. The drawback of shooting in so many different places... everyone couldn't be there together to celebrate the end of the shoot.

I know that you all want to see pictures from the pilot shoot for A GAME OF THRONES, but alas, I can't show you the sets, the actors in costume, or any of that good stuff.

Which is not to say that I can't show you a few other things from my recent trip.

Jerusalem in Morocco, f'rinstance.

Here are some shots of the huge city walls and siege machinery that Ridley Scott built for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, outside the city of Ouarzazate in Morocco. We did shoot some scenes here... but inside, in a court redressed for our purposes.





That's my assistant Ty perched on the battering ram, which was full sized, made of real wood, and appeared to be fully functional. Ditto the siege towers and trebuchets Ridley left.

The interior courtyards were equally impressive (alas, I can't show you the one we redressed and actually used).





I worked in Hollywood for a decade back in my checkered past, and these are the most impressive sets I've ever seen. Hell, Scott's fake castle beats about eighty per cent of the real castles I've seen, and I've visited a LOT of castles.

I'm obviously going to have to put a city under siege sometime soon, so we can go back to Morocco and play with all these cool toys one of these days.

Life is... well, not magical, but tolerable today.

Jake Delhomme threw more interceptions than Mark Sanchez today, so the Jets beat the Panthers and still have a pulse. A very faint one, to be sure, but still a pulse.

Revis was amazing, completely shutting down Steve Smith.

Obviously my teams can only play well when I am here watching. I can never leave home again.

( Cut for possible triggers: talk of holiday season, seasonal triggers/depression, and stress - non detailed )

One of our members requested a Thought Stirring Question about what makes us happy, so here it is! With all the extra stress, focusing on things which make us happy, and seeing the happiness of our fellow survivors, can be an extra light through tough times.

This week's questions:
- What is your happiest memory?

- Which activities bring you the most joy?

- If you could suggest one thing to another survivor, something you think they'd also enjoy, what would it be?

I bit the bullet and bought the 25 count I needed for the Faery Tales HAED pattern and I started it. I read you do the tent stitch 2 threads over 1. I did that and check out the coverage. I thought it was 100% but you can see it's not... Is it like this with all 25 count tent/half stitch projects? Or do I need to just do full X's?

http://pics.livejournal.com/trenthamfamily/pic/000zcetz/g18

Sorry had to post a link instead of the picture because it came out HUGE!

Also... I can't get using this gridding marker... I keep losing where I am! I think I need to try gridding using sewing thread. I think I'm messing this one up.

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/1336404.html

<em>(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published July 20, 2003.)</em><br /> We are worried, here in the newspaper business (motto: ''What, YOU never make misstakes?''). We're hearing that you readers have lost your faith in us. Polls show that, in terms of public trust, the news media now rank lower than used-car salespeople, kidnappers, tapeworms, Hitler and airline flight announcements. (We are still slightly ahead of lawyers.)

Something that I've always been fascinated by is the difference in threads by the same manufacturer. I've noticed it before where some DMC threads are a different thickness to each other.

I'm working with Weeks Dye Works at the moment, and the "Americana" (blue) colour that I'm working with is sooo much softer and smoother than the other colours i've been using, mostly reds, greens, whites and yellows. It's amazing how much less the Americana tangles compared with the other colours as well. I'm sure my long lengths are a large part of why I get so many tangles, but I just find it really interesting (even though I know that different dyes mean the thread is going to behave differently)

I've also found that there's a HUGE difference between American DMC thread and Australian DMC thread. I don't know what it is, but I find that American DMC is much coarser than what we have in Australia. Maybe there's a reason we pay 3 to 4 times as much for our DMC?

Started in early October and I'm kicking myself for not having some previous progress pictures. 32ct olive green linen with various DMC flosses... 2 over 2. I've had only a few minor frogs - easy fixes. Until now.


( Large-ish pics attached, just a forewarning =) )

I stashed today. I ended up wasting some time at Joann's today waiting for Mom, so I found a kit I really liked that was half off. It's Bucilla's Snowy Owl. I also took advantage of their Black Friday ad and bought a bunch of DMC threads for 33 cents each. I wasn't sure which colors I really needed so I just grabbed one each of the first thirty colors or so.

I actually like the fabric in it. It seems to be a decent piece of evenweave, so I might actually use it!

I decided I needed a break from all my huge projects. So I've done a bunch of bookmarks (the first four of which I forgot to take pictures of). The first two in the picture are for me and the third was a gift. The designs are from Leisure Arts "Bookmarks Galore" which has 66 patterns in it (Leaflet 2985).

( Read more... )

(Cross-posted to haniaw)

Started work on Monday. It's scary, there's so many people to remember, and lots of buildings to find my way around. But it's good. I'm working with the departments doing English as a Foreign Language, English for Speakers of Foreign Languages, Basic Literacy/Numeracy and students with learning disabilities.
Everyone is nice, I went out for lunch with two of the others in the same team on Thursday, had lots of fag breaks with one of the others :p
Got an ID badge with a picture of me looking bright yellow. Also got a posh new e-mail address, and a work mobile, as I will be in three different offices :p
My new shoes rubbed the back of my feet, took all the skin off so can barely walk (seriously, it's disgusting and incredibly painful).
Found a quicker way to walk there, so takes just over 10 minutes - no hanging around at cold bus stops, woop!
I am also very excited by the fact that if I buy six Twixes from the cafe, I get a free mug. So on Monday I might just have five Twixes for lunch :D

Got the dates for my Biology re-sits today. I really should start revising...

Interview on the 8th for counselling course - the woman who teaches it is in the same office as one of mine, but apparently she's hardly there. I'm going to have to e-mail her I think to find out where the interview is, as it would be a bit silly going down to reception just for them to ring her if the interview is near my office anyway (the counselling training room is right round the corner, which is good because I'm very lazy :p) :s It's a course for a Certificate in Counselling Skills and runs from January - December, it's the only time they do an evening one. You are supposed to do an introductory course first, but I e-mailed the adult education people and did a bit of begging, basically. From the course description I think I've covered everything it teaches anyway, on my social work course, so I'd rather not wait until April for the evening one, pay £150 just to go over everything I've already been taught, then wait until next January to start the certificate. Hopefully I will dazzle her with my brilliance and she will let me onto it :p

I got a new tattoo last week, to celebrate my new job/last week of freedom. It is on the back of my left wrist - a Yorkshire Rose :) It's still looking a bit red around the edges, but it's mostly okay now - it was quite painful for a couple of days, much more than my penguin I think. I think I might have a rainbow done next, probably on the back of my shoulder. Because I'm just that cool *nods*

I'm so tired, I don't like this being grown-up thing. Paying taxes, paying student loan back, having to get up early (i.e. before 1pm when I got up for All Saints :p)...plus I haven't seen Doctors all week *sigh*

Roll on Christmas Eve. Otherwise known as...PAY DAY :D Woooooooooooo :D

Just ordered some very nice charts at sewandso, where they're having a wintersale. =D

The Spindle Berry Fairy
The Sycamore Fairy
Spring Chart Pack
Summer Chart Pack
Autumn Chart Pack
Winter Chart Pack


And, while not in the wintersale, I also ordered Lissandrea Chart Book, because I loved the pattern. :) (This pattern does have some nudity, so... be warned.)

Last update: July 30 2009.

So, I started this back in July and tonight I finished the central landscape image. As most of the centre is worked in half cross-stitch and the rest of it is mostly in full cross-stitch, I'm pretty sure that progression is going to slow way down (but I'm all asquee because the centre is also all shades of sepia and I get to work in colour, now!). There's been just shy of 70 hours of work done on it so far.

( Current progress. )