My progress on "Tribal Butterfly"

Here's where I'm up to so far:

My shortest post ever! LOL

Hot cross buns, one-a-penny, two-a-penny.....

Hot cross buns!
Guess what I made yesterday? I thought there should be traditional hot cross buns in the house for Easter breakfast, so got cooking. I found the recipe here and made the changes that some people mentioned (changed the white sugar to brown & doubled the spices. I also used mixed fruit instead of just currants). I made the mistake of leaving too much room between them when I left them to rise, and they ended up as single buns with a crusty edge instead of soft sides. I also used a baking tray instead of a lamington type pan which wouldn't have helped. I could have added even more spice too.
Anyway, the kids liked them and we had some for Easter breakfast, to wash down the chocolate ;-)

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you got a visit from the Easter Bunny!

A "Finished" Easter finish

Try saying that 10 times fast!
This is a design I stitched a while back, but put off finishing as I knew it would be a nightmare to fit it into the frame properly. Surprisingly I didn't get to the point where I wanted to fling it across the room in a fit of blind fury, cursing the day I ever thought it was a good idea to make a cross stitched collage. I know it's far from perfect, but it will do. As it's quite a busy design I think it works out OK. It gives it that real rustic, homemade look ;-)

Happy Easter, and don't overdo the chocolate!

Australian Open Karate Tournament

We've just had a full on couple of days attending the Australian Open tournament. Of course my internal alarm clock didn't trust my electrical alarm clock again and started the wake up process at 2am Friday morning. After a few more interrupted hours of sleep we hit the road in the dark. The worst part of tournaments? Hands down the early starts! Oh, and the ironing of the kata gi. This time I took it to the local dry cleaner and paid him to do it. Bliss! Best part? Seeing DS perform well and be pleased with results regardless of placings. Oh, and seeing him make friends with his opponents and being a great sport.

Anyway, DS was entered into both kata and kumite (sparring) in the kyu divisions (open to those below a black belt) and the open (open to anyone, including black belts and beyond - although at DS's age there's generally no black belts). A total of 4 events.

In kata, (both open and kyu grades) he won his first 2 rounds 3-0, but lost out in the final 0-3 to take home a silver medal in each. In kumite, he lost the first round but came back in the repecharge to have a chance for 3rd. Unfortunately he narrowly missed out on winning both matches, so just missed another 2 bronze medals.

Last year he was only eligible for kata, and had a major wobble in the kyu grades which cost him the chance to medal, but came back to take 3rd in the open grade. This year was a better result all round.

It was great experience, as there were boys from 3 other states besides Victoria. It felt a lot like Nationals because of this, and gave us a chance to see what some of the other states will be bring to Caloundra in August for the 2011 Nationals.

My Easter exchange package arrived FROM the UK!

And Eileen spoilt me rotten with lots of goodies! Here's a pic:

She sent me a cute purple felt bag, an Easter greeting card, a cute floral kit, some DMC cotton, a lovely bright stitched Easter design, a teeny tiny fluffy bunny, some Easter stickers, 2 pieces of purple fabric and some chocolates. Sadly, some of the chocolates are missing as they got eaten before I took the pic mysteriously disappeared ;-)
Thanks for the exchange Eileen!

Hot off the q-snaps!

I've finally finished "Lacey Pinks", it seems to have taken ages. Here's a pic of it:

Here's the details:

• Name of the design is "Lacey Pinks".
• Chart is designed by Debbie Draper Designs. 
• Fabric is 28 count pink evenweave that was gifted to me :-).
• Thread is DMC #150 (the burgundy) and the pink is from Carries Creations, in "Magenta"
• Stitch count is 120 x 120.  
• Started on March 19th.
• Completed on April 10th.  I chose to stitch this in alternate colours to break it up a little, instead of the one colour it called for. I'm not sure what will become of this design.

My Easter exchange package arrived in the UK!

It seems Eileen liked everything I sent, which is great. Her package to me is still in transit, I'm sure it will be here soon. Here's a pic of the stitched piece I sent to her:

Here's the rest of the goodies I mailed:

Purple is Eileen's favourite colour, so I sent some hand dyed purple fabric, a pansy tuck ornament kit, some fudge and 4 cards with birds on them as she likes birds also.

Here's the details of the stitched piece:

• Name of the design is "Easter Card".
• Chart is a freebie for members at San Man Originals. 
• Fabric is a unique piece of mottled lilac 28 count evenweave from Silkweavers fabric.
• Thread is DMC cotton.
• Stitch count is 63 x 60.  
• Completed around about March 18th 2011.

All quiet on the western front

I haven't posted in what seems like ages, as there hasn't been too much to report. I finally finished off the piece for the Easter/Spring Exchange and mailed it off. Eileen has also mailed her item to me, so I'll be able to post what I sent and what I got soon enough.
I'm still working on the "Lacey Pinks" design, slowly but surely making progress. It seems I've only been stitching at karate class lately, so it's taking a while to finish even though I'm close to the end. Not sure what will be next, I have a few ideas but nothing is jumping out at me.
My eldest son has started debating again for the year, as an extra curricular activity through school. Last night was the 2nd one for the year and his team got their first ever win! I think there's either 3 or 4 more debates, one every fortnight during school terms. Fingers crossed they can get a few more wins on the board.