My Latest Cross Stitch Project

It's (hopefully) going to be for my dad for Christmas or his birthday. It's a coat of arms design from Cross Stitch Heraldry. I'm stitching it on really horrible white evenweave which was a pre-packaged piece I bought from Spotlight when they had a sale. The threads seem very thin and the fabric very see-through and it's quite rough. I will probably regret not frogging it and using something different by the end. There's lots of large blocks of colour, so pretty good for zoning out on. Here's my progress so far, with a pic of what it will look like finished:

Another Cross Stitch Finish

It's been a while since I've been able to sink my teeth into any real cross stitch projects, but yesterday was a bit of a lazy day so I sat on the couch and stitched. Granted I've come down with my son's cold and wasn't up to much, so that's my excuse! Here's what I finished yesterday:

Here's the details:

• Name of the design  "Singing Bears" or "Oursons Chantuers"
• Chart is a freebie (on rotation - there's a new free chart every day and you can also access the last 4 days worth of charts too) from cross stitchers club
• Fabric is a piece of white 28ct evenweave
• Thread is DMC cotton
• Stitch count is 101 x 115
• Completed in September 2010. I think I'll finish it in a simple white frame, maybe with some holly beads and red seed beads on it for effect.

We have a winner!

And it's Barb! Congrats. Now to figure out how to contact her...:-)
She guessed a sad 10 pairs. For those sitting on the edge of their seats just waiting to hear about said shoes, here's my pathetic shoe collection:

• A short pair of black boots
• A long pair of black boots
• A short pair of camel boots (that's the colour not the animal :-)
• A pair of runners (they get a good workout. Sadly, not for running. Or any exercise at all)
• The obligatory pair of classic black heels (thankfully they are a classic style because I've had them for years and hardly wear them. They get dragged out those rare occasions a fancy pair of shoes are required)
• A pair of black flats
• A pair of black thongs (that's flip flops for the Americans. Get your minds out of the gutter :-)
• A pair of beaded brown thongs
• A pair of orange beaded thongs
• A pair of multi coloured strappy sandals (they look better than they sound. Truly)

So there you have it, my massive shoe collection. Thanks for playing!

Camp cut short :-(

On Monday morning my youngest son went off to camp. Mind you, camp is closer to home than school! LOL. He was super excited and happily boarded the bus for 3 days of fun. Today they were due back at school around 3pm, but I got a phone call at 7.15am from his teacher. Apparently he has a bit of a cold and has been fighting it pretty much since day one. He kept saying he wanted to stay, but this morning it was too much for him and he asked to come home. He has a sore throat, looks a bit wasted and a snotty nose, poor baby. He doesn't seem overly disappointed thankfully.

Watch out world - we have a new brown belt!

DS #2 had another karate grading on the weekend and is officially a brown belt, or 3rd kyu. The grading went for 2 1/2 hours and he always seems to go out strong and I wonder if he has the stamina to last the distance but he always does. This time he was looking tired early, but came through just fine. Oh, if you don't count the 2 injuries! While sparring he managed to fall and hit his head on a chair (complete with lump), and stand on a rogue staple.

On the contest front, there's been a close guess or two. Some of you are far too optomistic! If I had oodles of shoes, I'd need oodles of clothes to go with them, not to mention accessories. Then I'd need a stylist to make it all work together!

My 100th Post!!! Oh, and a contest!!!

I’ve finally gotten together some bits and pieces for a prize. Here they are:

 3 x leaflets (“Simply Blackwork” by Anchor Design Studio, “Favorite Fingertips” by Leisure Arts & “Boughs of Holly” by Jeremiah Junction)

2 x threads (A silvery/grey Madeira silk thread  - 1803  L11 & a dull gold Madeira silk thread – 2012  L11)

Fabric (A sage green piece of 30 count linen 45 x 50cm)

Buttons (A topiary/fruit tree in a pot button & a cottage button)

Eye glasses case (A black pre-finished eyeglass case, ready to stitch.)

I was getting the bits and pieces together to take a photo, and in the time it took me to get the camera, Jazz decided to make himself comfortable:

Needless to say, if you are allergic to cats, it's best not to enter. :-) Anyway, after I shooed him away, I took a better pic of the prizes on offer:

Now the only thing missing is a question! I can never come up with anything exciting, but here's my best, totally random, effort:

How many pairs of shoes do I own?

Yes, boring, I know.

Just post your guess as a comment on this post, and make sure I can get in contact with you should you win. I'll ship anywhere in the world, and the items have been stored in my smoke free home, but as you can see we do have one cat. Oh and 3 sheep but they never come inside. Anymore ;-)

I will keep the contest open until I get a winner, however long that might take. Oh, and only one guess per person please.

 

This is my 99th post!!

Wow, who would have thought I'd have 99 mundane things to post about! Anyway, I have decided to celebrate my 100th post in style, by having a contest. Not sure what, or when, but stay tuned. The prize will be some assorted cross stitch crap, oops I mean treasured cross stitch supplies from my stash. ;-)

A lot can happen in a fortnight

Has it really been just a fortnight since we returned from the nationals in Sydney? The weekend after DS had another tournament, this time a combined club one. (Our club has several branches). We thought we should support it so DS entered kata and kumite, winning both! There were about 7 kids in kata and 4 in kumite. On the same day I had a calisthenics competition. We did well, all things considered, and would have gained 2nd in march if we'd had 8. We will have a full team in all items except one for the rest of the comps so fingers crossed we can work hard and improve in all items.

Then last Monday I learnt that a little girl who was 6 months older than my youngest DS passed away. She had been fighting cancer for half her short life. She had just turned 9. I feel for her parents, as they have now lost 2 children. So sad!! I decided to go to the funeral even though I didn't know them well and it was a lovely tribute to her, with a pink coffin, pink balloons and bubbles to blow as the hearse passed afterwards.

National Karate Results

DS managed a bye in the first round, one kid didn't turn up and I think he was meant to be against him. He was all kitted out in red, but when his name was called he was meant to be blue, so it meant a quick change of belt. He also seemed to wait forever until it was his turn so I think he must have gotten into the second round by default. There were meant to be 14 kids, but only 13 turned up on the day, not sure why. We all thought he had this round, but lost out 1 flag to 2. The kid who beat him ended up in the final, so that meant he had a chance to come back for a 3rd medal, as they give a 3rd for each half of the draw. 

He then went up against a NSW boy and won 3-0, and I thought he had the 3rd medal, but apparently that was only the first round of the repecharge. He then had to go against a second NSW boy, who he beat in the Australian Open. He was doing well until he made a mistake (which he again covered beautifully - if you didn't know the kata, you wouldn't know he'd made a mistake at all). Unfortunately that seemed to have cost him the medal, although he did get 1 flag out of 3. He was obviously disappointed, but not devastated like I thought he might.

He enjoyed the experience and made some new friends and had a great time. We even managed to go ice skating, and head into the centre of Sydney (nightmare city!) to see the Opera house and the Harbour Bridge. All up it was a good experience, and he is in the same age group next year so won't be up against a lot of the kids as they will move on to the 10-11 year age group. He will be one of the older, more experienced boys, and might gain a medal, provided he makes the team again! Considering this was his first full year of competing (and being eligible) he has done a fantastic job. He can add Victorian Champion, State team member, and 4th place getter at the National Championships to his resume!

Australian Karate Federation - National Championships, here we come!!

We fly out for Sydney in the morning, and DS competes first thing Friday morning. That's probably a good thing, I'm not sure I could handle the stress if his event was near the end:-) Win, lose or draw (OK, so a draw is not technically possible) at least the pressure will be off and he can enjoy the experience with his friends. If you can spare a thought for him (or time to post an encouraging comment) that would be great. Go Victoria!!!!

Finally, A Craft Finish!

The black, burgundy and pink scarf is finally finished, and actually looks like a scarf should! And, I've even worn it in public without getting strange looks ;-) Here it is:

I actually finished it a few weeks ago but have been pretty flat out so haven't posted pics. After I finished the scarf, I started back up on my Christmas WIP, but haven't done a great deal.  Here's the latest pic:

I've also been madly taking up DS's new karate gi. I had to buy a new one after the last one was incorrectly taken up (by a professional) and I was told he may be disqualified. I have taken it up and adjusted it so many times, I barely have any skin left on my fingers. I have been hand sewing through 3 layers of 14oz fabric, one of which was a chunky cuff. If I ever have to take another gi up, I'll scream!! We fly out for the Nationals in 3 days time, fingers crossed DS performs well and is happy with his efforts.

Another weekend, another karate tournament

It seems like there's a tournament almost every weekend lately! This was the last one before the Nationals so good experience. In the kyu grades event DS didn't do so well, making a mistake in his kata (but correcting himself beautifully) and lost out first round. Mistakes and wobbles are unforgivable, unless of course your opponent makes a bigger error than you! He didn't let that bother him though, winning through 2 rounds to get to the final (where he came 2nd) in the open event. Both events had about 10 kids in them.

A cross stitch blog - with Coat of Arms designs

I came across this blog because a member of a message board posted about it, and being nosy I had to investigate. Steph, the blogger in question, is a cross stitch designer and appears to like all things celtic, among other things. She also designs coat of arms, and she is going to do one for me in my maiden name. My father is incredibly hard to buy for, so I'm going to (at some point) stitch this for a gift for him to hang in my parents home.

Take a look at her blog, and click the link to her designs at Celtic Obsessions too!

http://rossiter-designs.blogspot.com/
http://www.celticobsessions.com/

A full on karate weekend

I've been pretty quiet on the blogging front, so much to do, so little time!

This past weekend was nothing but karate. State team training as usual on Saturday morning, followed by a grading. DS is now a brown striped belt and proud of the fact he is the same belt level as his brother got to before dropping out. Then Sunday we had another early start for a karate tournament the other side of town. DS did well, winning his kata (out of 10 kids) and narrowly missing out on making the kumite finals (8 kids in total) and ending up 4th. He did well considering all the medal winners were a year older and all state team members.

Oh, and he was chosen to be one of 10 kids from his club to do a karate demo at the local cinema for an advance screening of the new karate kid movie. He did well and he (and his brother) got to see the movie free of charge, as well as get popcorn and a drink. He was excited and they both seemed to enjoy the movie.

State Karate Team Presentation Dinner

The long awaited, and much anticipated, State Team Dinner was held on Saturday night. DS was soooo looking forward to it, and thankfully he enjoyed himself. He looked very smart in his outfit, which he'd had picked out for ages! (New shirt with tie, hat, black pants and new shoes) He sat on a table with his brother and the other boys from his club, while DH and I sat on an adults table nearby. When it came time for the official announcement of the team, his name was called first and he proudly went up the front and took his place among the many other karate kids.
The Nationals aren't until early August, so he has that to look forward to now. Go Victoria!!