So many things, so little time

Whew, it's been a busy few weeks! Let's see....
First of all DS #1 was awarded the annual "Outstanding Student" award at his primary school this year, which was exciting. Last year he won the English one and the year before that the Maths one! Little Mr Brainiac :-) I'm not sure if any student has won 3 in a row, none that I can recall anyway.

Then, the very next day he won another academic award during the grade 6 graduation. The award was given by the Apex or Rotary club or something similar. He won a Coles voucher for his troubles. On the night he even got up and made a speech and gift presentation to his teacher too, in front of 90 odd kids and their families.

Both kids recently had their school concert and performed well. DS #1 even had a main part. His grade did songs from the production they performed earlier in the year, and he even had a solo singing part during it. I still can't believe he did it, and so confidently too!

DS #2 looks like trying out for the state karate team next year too. He is about to turn 8 and will be in the 9 years and under age group, so will be up against slightly older and more experienced kids. We'll see how he goes, it will be great experience and he should learn a lot from the process.

Oh, and I almost forgot!! DS #2 has broken his right arm too. He was outside and kicked his soccer ball over the neighbours fence. He climbed the 5 foot high fence to get it, and fell backwards from the top, ending on the wrong side of the fence. He broke the bone right near the wrist, and had a massive bruise on his left thigh. Thankfully we got treated at the hospital quickly and they x-rayed it straight away, showing the break. He is now sporting a bright blue cast for Christmas. This is my child who, by his current age of 7, has had several bad Christmases. He's spent one in a cast on his leg for another broken bone, had Chicken Pox for another, tripped while decorating the tree and cut his brow- just missing his eye, and lost his voice. I think he's had 2 "normal" Christmases in his life, whatever that is! Next year he's going in bubble wrap for the whole month of December!

I also finished the chess board cross stitch design for DS #1's teacher which went over well. I also gave DS #2's teacher a stitched hand towel and found out she is an ex stitcher! She seemed to appreciate the time and effort involved and we talked shop a little. It's nice to know someone who speaks cross stitch!

Free Blackwork Chess Board Design

I designed this to stitch for my DS's school teacher to give him at the end of the year. I'm going to backstitch "property of X Y" around the outside to make it personal and I have the perfect sized black frame to mount it in, and some chess pieces. I couldn't find any black and white pieces so will paint some brown and bone ones, hopefully they work out OK. I also have some black and white checkered fabric that would make a great drawstring bag for the pieces, too bad I don't actually sew! I think I'll get started on this tonight if I have the right sized fabric.

Feel free to save a copy for yourself. Please, if you do, leave me a comment to let me know! It's no good offering freebies if no-one wants them, LOL. If you have any trouble saving it and getting it to print at a stitch-able size, just email me with "free chess board design" in the subject line, and I'll email you a copy. jakt70 at gmail dot com

3 on 3 Karate Tournament

Posted better late than never! DS #2 had his club 3-on-3 team tournament at the end of October. He is 7 and was in the 6-7 year age group. There were 5 teams and his team won, yay!! From memory, (FYI - Mine is shocking!) I think his team got a bye in the first round and then won the next two to take first place. The points were accumulated each round, so every flag in kata or point in sparring helped his team to win. I'm pretty sure he won all his kata rounds, but maybe not his sparring. He is working on tactics with his sparring but sometimes he seems to forget that the name of the game is actually to score, LOL.
A few of the kids in the 8-9 year age group failed to show up so DS and his 2 team mates were asked to fill in, which he was rapt about. He held his own, winning his kata 3-0, losing his sparring, but coming out with more points than his opponent which was the aim. Unfortunately his team lost in the first round, but he got an encouragement medal for his efforts.
He also has another grading coming up soon and will be an orange striped belt. The grading after that he will have to spar all the rest of the kids, which will be funny to watch. Most of them going for their orange belt or higher are a bit older and much taller, he'll be lucky if he can reach their kneecaps! LOL

Calisthenics - End of another year!

It's hard to believe but we've had our annual concert, costume return and there's only the kids break up party and adults dinner to go before the whole year is done and dusted. This year we had the concert at a new venue with a bigger stage, proper stadium seating and better lighting. The only problem was the "professional" lighting technician didn't show up and we were left to fiddle around with the equipment trying to work out the mic, lights and music. Thankfully we were able to get the basics working and the show went on! It was a little hectic in the first half trying to get changed and help side stage whenever I could, but it was much quieter in the second half. Our revue was the last item of the day and was well received, we got a few laughs. We also did the presentation a little differently too, introducing all the pupils by name and getting them to come up and get their medals which was nice. Despite the problems (we also got locked into the car park for a brief moment!) I think it ran pretty smoothly. I got some lovely gifts for being the Masters coach and also the class secretary, will have to post pics of the flowers and hydrangea plant I got. Very pretty! Now to think ahead to music, costumes and choreography for 2010!

Bushfire Ornaments - Before & After

OK, so I finally got off my butt, with days to spare, and finished off my ornaments. I've said it a million times before, but I'll say it again - I'm not good at finishing. I don't really enjoy it (though I do like the finished results) and it's fiddly and I'm not very patient. The end result is some are better than others, LOL. Once I got into the rhythmn and had a plan of attack, they came together OK. They've been sent off to, and received by, Nise. It makes the total of over 500! Fantastic effort Nise, and to all the stitcher's involved.

Items for trade/sale

Another "Photo Flicker" from Picturetrail. I think I have a new addiction, LOL

Cupcake #3

I've cross stitched another cupcake and am on to my 4th! I might just get them all stitched this year, it's the finishing that might never happen, LOL! Here's a pic:

And here's the details:

• Name of the design it just saved as "aunts_attic_00018a_esther"
  
• Chart was a freebie at http://myauntsattic.web-log.nl/
  
• Fabric is an off cut of dusty pink evenweave
  
• Thread is 2 different shades of mystery thread I bought at the Stitches & Craft show. They had no identifying details on the tags.
  
• Stitch count is 37 x 37
  
• Completed in October 2009
  

Just testing....

Just testing "Photo Flick" from Picturetrail. I'll play around some more and see what works best as some of the odd sized pics don't show up well.

Another karate tournament for DS

And this time we made it on time, despite leaving later than I'd hoped, an unscheduled toilet stop and then not being able to get back onto the freeway! I wasn't quite sure how he would go at this tournament, as he seemed to forget all his katas and get them mixed up when we were practicing over the school holidays. Once there he went through them all and he was fine. There were a total of 13 competitors, and he made the final again, against the same kid who beat him last time. (Last time DS lost 0-3). This time around he lost 1-3, but worked really well. He didn't get quite so far in his sparring this time, losing out in the second round 1-2. He did fight well, it was just his opponent scored a little better. The boy who won kata also won sparring. (both this time and last time). His next tournament is the end of October, a 3 person team event at his club. Then the next one will be in the new year, when he joins the "big kids" and reality, with only the top 3 placegetters winning trophies/medals.

Some cupcake stitching

I've been toying with the idea of buying a cupcake stand to fill with cross stitched cupcakes, and finally found a cute one for a reasonable price, so I just HAD to buy it. Of course it does hold 23, so I'd better get stitching! I haven't really decided on a theme, so far the idea is to stitching colour co-ordinated ones. I've got an orange fluted cupcake holder, I've matched some orange fabric and a button to it, and stitched a design in 2 contrasting orange threads. I've also got a blue cupcake, matching fabric and a contrasting thread to do another one. I have pins with the head the same colour, so might add them for a bit of interest. I think I'm addicted! Here's a pic of my orange design finished and the blue one started:

It's my birthday - again!

Or so it seems. I had some birthday money to spend and decided to order some more hand dyed monaco fabric (a recent discovery and now my favourite fabric) . I was going to order from www.enchantedfabrics.com but before I got the chance, I learnt they were having a 20% off sale the first week in September. Needless to say I held off so I could get more bang for my buck!
Here's what I chose:

From left to right, my rainbow of colours are hocus pocus flair, fairy kisses painted (I bought this colour in flair last time and have already stitched on it - I wanted to compare the flair to the painted), fairy tears painted, fairy blush flair, eire flair, pumpkin pizazz flair and margarita flair. Most seem a little duller in person than the pics on the website, but a couple seem more vibrant. Either way I'm happy with what I chose.

Charity stitching finishes

Here's a couple of cross stitch finishes that just need washing, ironing and mailing. Of course I will cut the evil masking tape from the edges first :-). These are to be made into a quilt featuring just designs from Ellen Maurer-Stroh's animal baby series. It will be donated to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) to raffle off for much needed funds. This project came about after the devastating bushfires that hit Victoria earlier in 2009. Our upcoming bushfire season is also being tipped as potentially horrific too.

• Names of the designs are "Ladybug Baby" and "Bunny Baby"
  
• Charts were purchased from www.patternsonline.com and are designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh
  
• Fabric is a 28 count white evenweave
  
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count 80 x 94 for Ladybug Baby and 86 x 90 for Bunny Baby
  
• Completed in September 2009 for Ladybug Baby and July 2009 for Bunny Baby
  

A whole lotta stitching goin' on

At least it looks that way. I have accumulated quite a few cross stitched pieces that need "finishing". They are all for Nise's bushfire survivors project, you can see the album of finished ornaments here. (Stitched items to be distributed at a Christmas lunch to those recovering from the deadly bushfires of early '09) I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to post the "after" pics, when they are all nicely completed and ready for mailing. Yeah, right, LOL!! They are due early November so I do have some time up my sleeve, and it is school holidays so maybe, just maybe I can get them done in the next fortnight?? Don't hold your breath!

Finally back to cross stitching

After some busy weeks where I had to concentrate on making and decorating bits and pieces for calisthenics, I can go back to cross stitching. At the moment I have a few things on the go. Somewhere I have a WIP of a welcome banner to be donated to the bushfire survivors. I'm not really liking the shading, a little too harsh for my liking but I'll keep plugging away at it I guess. The other is a quilt square to be made into a quilt to go to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) for fundraising purposes. That design is the ladybug baby from Ellen Maurer - Stroh and has caused me headaches as the key, symbols and chart did not match. I have it worked out now though and should be finished soon, especially considering it's due at the end of Septemeber! Speaking of September, I'm also organising a stitched cupcake exchange, due to be mailed about now and I haven't started. ARGH! I have a clue on what to stitch but just need to do it, it really shouldn't take too long.

Calisthenics Championships!!!!

What a crazy few weeks! With 2 weeks to go until the Calisthenics Victoria Inc. State Titles, our team lost it's 8th member. 8 is the minimum number for a full team, any less and you lose points. We were lucky enough to have one new lady join about a week beforehand and she filled in for 1 1/2 items. We also had another lady learn a bit more of 2 items, and the principal coach of the club learnt the remaining 2 1/2 items. All in all, a lot of stress building up to the big day! Not too mention I was still finishing off costumes.
We worked really well (the DVD is proof of that!) and gained 2nd place for all our items, except rods. Unfortunately we received a penalty due to a timing error and came 4th. Without the penalty we would have been equal 1st!! We came 2nd overall!!!! It's my 3rd year coaching, and our first year with a full team in every item. I am still on cloud nine! Our scores were really high and the crit papers encouraging. I got near perfect scores for my choreography and wonderful comments too.
Here's a picture of the trophy our team received.