More Progress

After the last few weeks I am in the groove with stitching again.  I did wonder whether or not to move area and make a start on the remainder of Ben's face and get Natalie into the picture but in the end decided to continue where I was and try to get that part out of the way.    However, the dreaded confetti stitches, especially in light colours has not helped my eyes even with my daylight bulb.  



The Gap is getting Smaller

What also did not help me this week, on getting more stitching completed was firstly spending a day or two with my DH, Steve pulling up the hall carpet.  Our house was built in the late 1800's and still has the original cast iron fireplaces in most of the rooms.  We decided that the hall carpet needed to go and were thinking about tiling the hallway.  However, when we pulled the carpet and the underlay we did notice that the floorboards were in really good condition so we have started to sand them down to varnish instead.  A dusty and long job but after the first lot of sanding they are coming up pretty well.  Another problem was contracting conjunctivitis in both eyes and having to rely on eyedrops and bathing them each day.

Nabucco

With regards to my cushions, I have received another 3 orders, a birth, a wedding and a verse one so I am also going to be busy completing them.  Last month I also had a letter published in one of the UK magazines.  Since it started I have been purchasing Craftseller which promotes handmade crafts here in the UK for those who already do so and for those who want to learn new crafts.

No snow as yet? I talked that up!!!

Many of my friends both here in the UK and in America have been experiencing extreme snow conditions.   Until last night, here in Lowestoft on the east coast we only had an 'icing sugar' sprinkling of snow.  Whilst we have had heavy frost (which always intensifies when I am on the school run), we usually seem to be the forgotten area.  This morning I woke up to find 2 inches of snow outside, with 6 kids in 4 different schools and college (in 3 different towns) slowly news trickled in on the local radio.  Checking both Norfolk and Suffolk county websites for school closures it turned out that all of them ended up having a 'snow'day which saved me driving.  Whilst I have driven in the French Alps many times in the winter, I hate driving around Lowestoft in snow.   We also look like having a very white weekend here as more snow is expected especially on Sunday.

Until my next post, I hope everybody stays safe and warm in these wintery conditions xxx

Lisa xxx

Goodbye 2012 ~ Hello 2013

Its now week 2 of 2013 and I haven't written on my blog for a good couple of months now.  Whilst I could say that I have been so busy, that would be a total lie.  For the past year and a half, my beautiful step-daughter has been battling cancer with great courage, however towards the end of 2012 her health started to deteriorate.  Unfortunately, during December Natalie passed away just 6 days short of her 27th birthday.  Although we, as a family had accepted that this was going to happen, it's still been a shock, however we feel blessed everyday that she was in our lives and that her memory will live on in her artwork that is hung around the house.  Natalie did have one quote from Mark Twain that summed her up perfectly:

“Sing like no one's listening,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like its heaven on earth.”

Natalie Barbara Wilson 20/12/1985 - 14/12/2012

For Natalie it inspired her to take each day one step at a time, not to worry about the past or future, to remind her that each day was precious, limited and unique.  When talking in conversation on the telephone to a social worker we work with through our fostering she said she found when people passed away she looked at their qualities in life and has tried to incorporate one into her life.  At the minute, I am still thinking what special quality I will incorporate into my life.

 

Stitching News

 

At the minute I am still plodding on with my big cross stitch, obviously this is going to be more poignant, especially as I still have Natalie's face and body to do.  I have worked out I still have roughly 42,000 stitches to completion and I am going to crack on to complete it. 

 

 

 

In the meantime though, I did complete 2 more cushions, one for an ex looked after child for her new foster carers as a Christmas present and one for my DH as I wanted something special for him and from the heart.  I did have an order from a local brewery, and whilst the majority of it is stitched I have to work out how to make material hops inplace of the usual flowers for them. 

 

 

To my DH,

Almost complete...just need to figure out how to do the hops

 

Belated Resolutions

 

Towards the end of the year, following Natalie's passing, I did post on my online groups some New Year's resolutions.  However, yet again I haven't been able to keep any of them, at the moment, but I am now as I feel more comfortable with them.

 

1 Make time to correspond more to my online groups.
~~~~~~~~~~
 2 Get my big cross stitch on the way to completion of all the kids and
especially get the remainder of Ben and Natalie on material.
~~~~~~~~~~
 3 Continue with making my cushions and start an online shop and, as my
 family keep telling me, to believe in myself and my achievements. 

~~~~~~~~~~
 4 Contact the Louise Hamilton Palliative Care centre which is going to open
 in 2013 at our local hospital and volunteer 2 days a week, putting my social
 work skills into good use. Whats the point of getting my degree if I cannot
 use it, besides I haven't got the time to work full time with 8 of us in the
house.
~~~~~~~~~~
 5 Start posting again on my blog. Especially with regards to resolution No
 2 as it can be my online journal of getting this cross stitch completed. I
 did a rough estimate and worked out I have about 42,000 stitches to do.
~~~~~~~~~~

 

So for now, I have loads to get started on, but will leave with something different from the usual.  Take some time out to listen to the lyrics and have a healthy and happy 2013 xxx

 

Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole