Good Things Finished

This was one of my crazy starts last year. 



Good Things
Designer: Lizzie Kate

Finished 27 January 2013

I'm going to give away the chart so leave a comment if you would like it.  If more than one wants it, comment by Friday and I'll draw a name next weekend.  Chart only, no fabric or threads included.  I will post overseas.

I needed to do something to distract me from the weather.  It's Sunday night and we are expecting several more hours of strong winds, heavy rain.  Still under a (mini) tornado watch - never expected that in Brisbane!  Not sure that a watch is very helpful as they are over in less than a minute and can't be seen coming!  Nevertheless, we are advised to stay indoors and this morning I moved all outdoor loose items into the garage.  We have had nearly 250mm  (10 inches) of rain in the last 2 days - most in the last 24 hours. The wind started getting unpleasant from this afternoon, but luckily the only issue I've had is a leak in the kitchen window so I've got a couple of towels on the kitchen bench which I wring out every hour or so.  The pool is overflowing but it can wait until tomorrow.  I did duck outside to empty the raingauge because I was worried the wind would blow it over. 
Up late again tonight to keep an eye on things.  Maybe I'll be able to do more stitching!

It's November!

It's November and I've done very little stitching since my last post.  I'm still working on my Autumn piece for ILCS yahoo group so I can't show it to you.  I ran out of thread and had to stop for a while so I'm not sure if I will get if finished in time.
October is not a good month for me and I think this year was particularly difficult - more on that below.

Here are some of the things that have been happening lately.

AIRPLANES
DH is in Vancouver again.  He left on Sunday morning and will be back next Monday.  Yes, he was caught in the Qantas drama. In case you don't know, Qantas announced on Saturday afternoon at 5pm that they were grounding their entire fleet in response to industrial action by unions.  Within 2 hours DH managed to get return flights to LA on another airline.  Of course Qantas is back flying again now.

CRAFT SHOW
A few weeks ago we had the Craft and Quilt show here in Brisbane.  I was lucky enought to get a free ticket offered by Stitches and Spice in their newsletter.  Here's a photo of part of their stall. The bins at the front are full of fabric.  Some of that fabric made it's way home with me.


Stitches and Spice stall

 I also found something else I had been looking for. I found this in one of the bead stalls.


Bead storage containers


 WEATHER
Look at this.

The closest we get to snow in Brisbane.  A hailstorm a few weeks ago.  It was only marble sized and no damage for us, but friends had cars out that got dented and it was a lot worse in other areas.  We have another wet summer forecast again - please not as bad as the floods early this year.

EXCHANGES
I was in the ILCS 10th Anniversary Birthday Exchange.
This is what I received from Renae

And this is what I sent Jo

A few months ago I decided I needed a new mobile phone as mine was not working properly. I waited and got the new iphone 4s on the first day it came out.  It's my first smartphone and I love it, and I can take photos with my phone (such technology!)  I already had an ipad so I wanted to stay with Apple.

SCHOOL

Kids finish school for the year in 4/5 weeks so it's getting busy for both of them now.  DS is getting another academic award at his schools yearly awards ceremony next week - he got one last year as well.  He has nearly finished year 9.  He is getting very tired again so I think he is about to have another growth spurt.  He will be 15 in January.

We are horribly busy and the next day when I have nothing on my calender is November 27, so we are looking forward to ...

HOLIDAYS

We've decided not to go overseas this summer, we'll go back to the snow and skiing in January 2013.  This year instead we're going up the coast to Mooloolaba for a week in early December.  It's only an hour drive away and should be a relaxing week in the sun on the beach. 

It would have been my mother's 70th birthday in late September.  She passed away in October 1982 when she was 41 and I was 13.  She took her own life after a 9 year battle with schizophrenia, caused by a severe brain injury from a horse riding accident as a child.  I spent very little time with her because I went to boarding school when I was 6, then my parents started living apart, so I have no good memories of our time together.  October is sometimes hard for me and I think this year was worse because now I'm older than my mother was when she died.  I guess as I get older I'm more aware of what she missed out on.   

If you are still with me, thanks for reading so much.  I'm almost sure I'm going to start 15 charts in January, just have to decide on which ones to do.

A Small Finish

Here is a picture of what I finished a few days ago.

A Life Lived for Others by Glendon Place

Stitched on 32ct Autumn Blush Lugana

with Caron Waterlilies, dmc, Kreinik and Mill Hill beads

This took forever to finish because I kept getting sick, it was the end of the school year chaos, and DH was overseas.  But, I am better now and the kids are on holidays until the end of January.  DH spent last week at home after 2 weeks in North America but left for Japan and Singapore yesterday.  He gets back on Thursday then is home until we all leave for our holiday in January.

Holiday Plans

We have asked DMIL to come to Canada with us so I hope she has a good time.  We are spending the first night at Vancouver then we have booked 5 days at Whistler, then back to Vancouver for another 5 days (DH has to work there).  Finally we have a few days in LA before coming home. 

Weather

It has been a cool and wet summer so far.  We have had only 2 days where the temperature reached 30C.  Yesterday I drove DH to the airport.  I checked the rain radar before we left and it looked like I might have to go through a shower or two on the way back.  It started to rain 5 minutes after we left home and on the freeway I had the windscreen wipers on the fastest setting and was still having trouble seeing.  It was worse coming home.  Of course it eased up soon after I got home!  We had about 75mm (3 inches) in less than an hour.  The only problem we have had here was water flowing over the top of our retaining wall and flooding a neighbours front yard.  I'm not sure we can do much about such an extreme weather event but DH will look at it when he gets back.  DH's plane was held up an hour because of the lightning but luckily he had managed to get a seat on an earlier flight to Sydney so he still had time to make his international connection even with the delay.

It's School Holidays!

and my life gets much easier.  This was a busy year because DS is at a different school than DD.   DS has grown taller then me now and will be 14 next month.  He has done well at school this year and got 7 A's and 3 B's on his final report card.  He entered some competions this year and is in the top 1% of the state for maths and science.   The last term was a bit of a struggle as he seemed to be constantly tired and hungry.  DD has also been busy.  She started playing cricket in October and loves it.  She had to miss a few games because of ballet concert practice but is keen to start again in February.   She does dancing, swimming, cricket and cub scouts after school.   I have more time to stitch during the holidays so I hope it's not too hot and humid this year.

 

Rain

Rain, rain, rain and more rain!
It has been bucketing down here.  SE Qld is awash and the northern Brisbane surburbs got drenched today.  This was my raingauge at 9am this morning Monday 11 October.  The inner cylinder holds 25mm (1 inch).

179mm (7 inches) in 24hrs!

It has been wet since Friday morning.  We have had 355mm (14 inches) up to Monday night.
Houses are flooded and roads are cut but we live on a hill so we are fine.  I got both children to school this morning in the torrential rain with a few detours to avoid flooded roads.
The rain has eased but more is due over the next few days.



I'm still sick with the post flu infection.  I'm on my second lot of antibiotics and improving slowly.  I can't talk long without coughing, but it isn't waking me up in the middle of the night any more.  I'm glad I had the flu needle as I hate to think I could have been worse.  I'm doing lots of reading while I get better.


New Project
I've started stitching a small project.  No photos yet.  I have to get out my thread heaven so I can continue.