L for Lorraine

This is a project for my mum for Christmas. It is for her bedroom, which is a bright lime/apple green. I was originally going to stitch the design in 2 shades of green on white fabric but then I remembered a grab bag of fabric I bought from Stitches & Spice at a local craft fair. In it were 4 pieces of bright fabric - blue, pink, orange and green. The green looked to be just the right colour, and is just big enough, so I decided to stitch it on this - with the L in white and the background design in a slightly darker shade of green.

So far I have just finished the L and only had to frog it once, I'm improving!!

Christmas bouquet is finished

Yet again, I'm not sure what will become of this. Maybe an ornament to keep, sell or give away. Time will tell.

• Name of the design is Christmas bouquet.
• Chart is a free design from ABC cross stitch.
• Fabric is 28 count white opalescent evenweave.
• Thread is DMC cotton.
• Stitch count is 66 x 56.  
• Started on September 25th 2011.
• Completed on October 9th 2011.  

Sick of karate yet?

Yep, we attended yet another karate tournament on Sunday, miles away from home again. DS performed kata first as usual and did really well to take home a nice big 1st place trophy. He also entered kumite again against a group of kids he hasn't come up against much before. He started out more aggressive and confident than usual and took his first 3 rounds to make it into the final. The final saw a draw, and another minute on the clock. His opponent then hit him too hard a couple of times (light contact to the body is OK, no contact below the belt or above the chest is allowed) and knocked his confidence a little. He kept up the fight though to take home the 2nd place trophy. Here's hoping he can keep his new found confidence and attacking skills for the next tournament, the last of the year.
Here's his winnings:

Reserve Aggregate Winners!

In the calisthenics classes leading up to our final competition of the year, I have been convincing the ladies in the team that we were going to do really well. I even told them we'd medal in all 6 items and take home the reserve aggregate trophy - I was being realistic and not expecting to beat the favourites to take out top honours! Well, we did pull it all together and work really well, gaining 2nd place in march, clubs and free exercises and 3rd place in rods, aesthetics and revue. It was a bit of a race to the end as there was another team on our tail going into the last two items. They did really well, placing 1st and 2nd, and with our 2 x 3rds, that made us equal runners-up, behind the favourites. The competition committee was on top of this, and had a spare trophy, so both of us got to take one home. Here it is, it represents a hard year of work: