SFS - May

Stitch From Stash May Report

Month: May
Carryover from previous months: $161.50
Allowed spending:  $25
Spent:  $0
Earned:  $0
Balance:  $186.50

Not much stitching done this month.  I have started Gingerbread Village by LHN

It has been an eventful month, starting with DD's birthday on May 1.
We had an extreme weather event and I have never seen so much flooding in this area.  I picked DD up from school at 3pm and we got home around 8pm.  It was pouring rain for most of that time.  Luckily I have a Landcruiser as I had to drive through water several times. Twice was over creeks flowing over bridges.  I ended up getting stuck in traffic about a km from home just after I crossed the second creek.  2 cars were trapped in floodwater across the road just after the rail crossing in front of me.  I couldn't turn around as the traffic going the other way was stopped because of the creek just behind me.  We all had to pull over to let a fire truck through once.  After about an hour the water rose enough that it started flowing onto the road where I was stuck.   That was pretty scary, trapped in the dark with the rain pelting down and hearing the rushing water from the creek and watching it rise around the car.  I was on a high bit of road and the land is fairly flat so the water can spread out a lot and it only got up about 6 inches where I was, but it was flowing very quickly.  Other smaller cars behind me weren't as lucky.   The trains stopped running as water was on the tracks.  I thought the last train was going to get stuck on the road crossing but it crawled through slowly, then the boom gates stayed down with the lights flashing.

When the rain eased DD and I walked/waded to the train station and saw this

Lots of car alarms were going off as the water got into the electrical systems.  

DH went a different way home and parked his car about 2km from home and walked.   He had to wade through about 800m of floodwater and over a creek.  He then walked down to where we were and took DD to walk back home while I waited in the car.  I was expecting to have to wait for hours but just after they left I was one of only a few 4wds that were allowed to go across the floodwaters.  The water was about 2 feet deep but it wasn't flowing much.  I picked up DH and DD on the way home.  The traffic was a mess because so many roads were flooded and cars had nowhere to go.  We had to go the back way and at the bottom of our street we got stuck in traffic again.   We ended up driving up the street on the wrong side to get to our driveway.  Once we were out of the car we realized a dozen cars had followed us up the wrong way and completely blocked the street!

The rain stopped, the water went down and DD played tennis early the next morning.  Lots of dead cars were abandoned on the roads in my area for the next few days.  5 people died just a bit north of here when cars were swept off roads.  Not an experience I'm in a hurry to repeat.  

SFS - April

Stitch From Stash April Report

Month:  April
Carryover from previous months:  $125
Allowed spending:  $25
Spent:  $0
Earned:  $11.50
Balance:  $161.50


Finishes for April, yes there are 2!

First, here is my finished Fall Mandala.

I did less than half this before January, so I'm going to claim half the stitching credit.
Stitch count: 101 x 101 100% coverage - $15  x 0.5 = $7.50

I also started and finished a small LHN - Silent Night this month.  I used the recommended fabric and threads.

Stitch count 49 x 49 = $4

Total for the month: $11.50


Not sure what I'm stitching on next.  I have another small LHN ornament kitted up and ready to stitch.  I've also pulled out my Romantic Rose Garden Mandala UFO.
I have some tax paperwork to do before I can stitch again.
We have a severe weather warning here for the next few days and are expecting flooding rain if an east coast low forms.  It won't be as bad as the system that hit New South Wales last week.  I hope it clears by Saturday for DD's tennis semi-finals.

We had a relaxing week away just after Easter.  DH and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on April 16.  It is DD's 14th birthday this Friday - May 1st.  We are going to see Cirque du Soleil - Totem on Sunday to celebrate both events.

SFS - March

Stitch From Stash March Report

Month:  March
Carryover from previous months:  $100
Allowed spending  $25
Spent:  $0
Earned:  $0
Balance:  $125


Fall Mandala is nearly finished!

I was going to stitch on this today but I've ended up working most of the day while keeping one eye on the cricket final on TV.  We have a short week coming up before the Easter break as Friday is a public holiday.  DD has 2 weeks holidays after this week and we are going to Mooloolaba for 5 nights from Easter Monday.  If I take some stitching I also need to take a portable light and some magnifying glasses as I can't see to stitch with using a magnifier.  It might be easier to just take a few books.

SFS - February

Stitch From Stash February Report

Month:  February
Carryover from January:   $75
Allowed Spending:  $25
Spent:   $0
Earned:   $0
Balance:   $100


I've done a bit more stitching on Fall Mandala

I've got itchy fingers!  I'm torn between continuing this or starting something small so I can have a finish.  I think I'll do another 10 hours and see how I feel after that.

The aussie dollar is shocking at the moment and postage is very expensive from my favourite US online store so I'm making sure I really want something (or several somethings) before I make a purchase.
On the other hand, I brought lots of patterns, fabrics and threads a few years ago when the dollar was very high so I have lots of choice from my stash.

Grow Your Blog Giveaway and stitching update

First, thank you to everyone who visited and commented during the Grow Your Blog party.
I have drawn the name of the winner out of the giveaway bowl.

Debbie, you have won a gift voucher to 123stitch.


Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments about Fall Mandala.
I sat down a few weeks ago and very carefully frogged out the thread that didn't match.

Then, I very carefully restitched it and frogged out the thread that I had run out of!

I must remember to double check my colours before I do any frogging in future!


Once I got past that hurdle I managed to fill in the top quarter.

Now, I am working my way down the right side doing the black outlines.


DH has been home for the last week and has been very busy getting his new race car ready for racing next weekend.  He and DS are leaving on Friday morning and getting back on Sunday afternoon.  DH flies to the US the following morning for another week away.  He has been struggling a bit with jet lag.  This is his timetable since late January - 2 weeks away, 2 weeks home, 1 week away - it's no fun flying to the other side of the world so often.  He is back in Australia a bit in March, but looks like he has a trip to Germany before Easter.  He was talking about ducking over to Singapore in March but I don't think he can fit that in.

DD is busy at school.  She has joined a tennis team at school and is playing against other schools on Saturday mornings. Her lesson and team training is early Monday and Tuesday mornings at school.  She is in 2 choirs at school, rehearsals are Wednesday morning and afternoons.  One is the auditioned choir which she was asked to join at the end of last year - there are only about 15 members taken from the whole school.  She also has singing lessons Wednesday lunchtime at school.  She didn't get her singing ability from me!

She is still playing club netball, her team finished 2nd on the ladder after the summer season and is into the semi-finals starting this Wednesday night.   Grading for the winter netball season is this Saturday.    She has early starts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at school, and netball on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  She also has Scouts on Friday night.  We have to leave at 6.30am on Saturday morning for tennis.
I'm exhausted and she wants to add a second tennis lesson every week!  Maybe next term.

My tailbone is still not great, the worst is when I'm driving or sitting on a hard seat for a while. Getting up from a chair can by quite painful.  The doctor said 6-8 weeks, but we've been told by a few friends that it can take up to 2 years.  Luckily, stitching doesn't seem to be too painful.

The heat and humidity have gone and the weather here is back to perfect again.

Thank you for visiting.

Stitch From Stash - January

I think I've missed the cut-off for this month but here is my monthly report.

Month:  January
Spent:  $0
Earned: $0
Allowed Spending: $25
Gifts: $50
Balance: $75

Not much stitching done this month.  I've been only working on Fall Mandala.
I was given some money for Christmas by my Dad so I've put $50 of that into my stitching fund.

Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my blog.

Please visit Vicki for the full list of Grow Your Blog participants.

My name is Kate and I have been blogging on and off since 2009.  I live in Brisbane, Australia. Later this year DH and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.  We have 2 children, DS just turned 18 and DD is 13.  DS is starting an engineering degree at uni next month and DD is starting grade 9 next week.

Last year was a bit of an injury prone year for our family and right now I am still recovering from a badly bruised tailbone suffered when I was thrown from a horse during an accident on our New Zealand holiday last month.  (The girth strap broke when my horse shied during an argument with another horse)  I had to ride back as there were a few river crossings on the way, but I swapped horses with the guide.  I took DD on a trail ride as a surprise for her.  My first time on a horse in 20 years!  Here I am just after the accident during the photo stop with DD.

I blog mostly about cross stitch.
Last year was very stressful and my stitching was limited.
DS got quite sick in term 2, and broke his right collarbone and missed most of his assessment in term 3 during his final year at school.   He still got great results and was offered his first preference for uni this year.
I hope to do better with blogging and stitching this year.

I am currently working on Fall Mandala by Ink Circles.

I have some frogging to do on this.  Can you see the difference between the golden brown leaves on the sides and bottom from the top pair?  I ran out of a colour and the new shade is different so I have to pull out the old thread and replace it.  It is bothering me so I need to fix it.  I am using HDF silks.


I usually don't get much stitching done during summer.  We have no air conditioning and I keep saying that because it only gets really bad for a few weeks, it's not worth putting in air conditioning.  This year however seems to be worse than usual.  The humidity has been horrible and I'm not sleeping well.  Last night at 11pm the humidity was 95% and the apparent temperature was 33C.  This morning at 5am the humidity was 95%, apparent temp 31C.  I feel like I'm constantly sweating.  We've had a bit of rain on and off so the mossies are quite vicious outside.  I work from home doing a bit of share trading online so I can't go to air conditioned work to escape like DH.  Still, in another month or so all my friends will be getting $700+ electricity bills and I will be getting $400-$500 credit from our solar panels.  Multiply that by 4 and you can see why I am resisting getting air conditioning.  But, I think it is much easier to deal with the hot weather than the freezing winters that my friends in the northern hemisphere have to cope with.


As a reward for reading all of the above, I am offering a giveaway to be drawn on February 15th.  Just leave a comment stating you wish to be included in the giveaway.  The prize will be a $50 gift voucher to 123Stitch.