finally a few pics!

TGIS - thank God it's Sunday!  The only full day of rest.  I tell you I was so tired yesterday after an 8am meeting at another office, and I *still* went back to my office til 3pm, that I didn't have the energy to walk around the mall for even an hour, and when I got home I promptly fell asleep til 7.30 in the evening!  The things we are planning for at work, just thinking about it makes me feel like panicking!  Anyway, it's Sunday, so get a grip girl and learn to compartmentalize (talks to self)..

For that 8am meeting, my co-worker picked me up at church -- I went to Saturday morning mass for the sake of my immortal soul :)   This is what church looks like:

It's not such a good shot because of all things, I chose a day when they were having booths in front of it (for vocations)

And this is what it looks like inside:

A side corridor, where the niches are (I thought of visiting my dad but in my anxiety about whether I'd given my co-worker the right directions for the church, I forgot!  But never mind, I visit every Sunday, so no worries.)

So why am I showing these - well, my cousin was thinking of buying a niche so she may as well see what they look like (they are to the right):

There's a little garden between the church and the niches (really little, compared to the gardens I've seen abroad, but a big deal here where  land is so expensive)

Oh well, hope no one is upset by the photos.

On to stitchy things.  I've basically dropped all my other works in progress like The Tuscan Welcome - oh, who am I kidding, I only have that in progress, ha ha!  Although the Dimensions Angels are ready to launch - they're in a kit, after all -  and Maria Winkler's Peaches have all the needed thread, only no fabric!  It needs a white fabric to match the Plums piece.  Aida, if I'm to really match them.

Whimsey and Wit's Advent Calendar is coming along.. at this rate I'll be done in time for Christmas (next year! haha ha)  Still no eyes for the infant (fear of French knots has taken over, I tried 4x and was unable to make a single one - my high school home ec teacher, where are you?), so maybe I'll take up Jenny's wise suggestion and place beads instead (I only have pale blue Mill Hill though).   Kris Kringle's left hand is missing as is the staff he's supposed to be holding.  Oh, and his beard of course.  But that's white, and uses Glissen floss (where do you buy Glissen floss over here?). Anyway, it's white, or ecru, and if I'm using DMC then I'll hold off from stitching it til I'm nearly done with everything.

Day 11 is a sheep, and Day 12 a music note.  I'm not too keen on stitching white first, so I'm not doing the sheep yet.  So next up will be Day 12, which is in navy.  Or I might go to the Angel on Day 1 and frog, since I discovered my count is wrong besides which, I was supposed to stitch her with floss and metallic together.

It's a lot of solid stitching so it's taking a bit of time as I get bored with a lot of color.  It's a toss up - too many color changes and I get tired, too much of the same color and I get bored!  I was looking at the Weeks Dye floss the piece was supposed to be sewn in, and I noticed there's a lot of variation in one thread color alone.. maybe that would have made things more interesting.

And here are the ornaments:

Sorry about the picture quality -- seems kind of dark.  I'll take clearer ones later.  Hmm... looking over the church photos I notice a definite tilt to the left - must correct that.  Back to the ornaments.. the boys' trains need their back stitch on the wheels; the Christmas tree needs its candles, star and ornaments and its trunk.

The only thing is I have several errands to run today - mass, FedEx or DHL, plus we need some grocery items - peanut butter (my brown bag sandwich of choice), plus, since I want to cook, shrimp, Cajun seasoning, and chicken.   Hope to be able to update this tonight.

Ah well, there's my Sunday.. how will yours go?  Thanks for reading..  Happy Sunday!

Some progress and some rest (not much of either!)

Thank you kindly, Jenny, for the sympathy!  It's the tiredness factor..  today's a holiday and so is tomorrow, but I had to go to work.  Things have improved a bit, we are pulling 12 hour shifts instead of 15.  I definitely sympathize with those about to be separated from the company... words are difficult...but on the up side, work has been found for them, permanent work, only not at the rate they're used to.  What to do.

Had to attend a breakfast meeting at 7am on a day when everyone else was sleeping in..  all was quiet in my neighborhood! Got home at 3 and have only just woken up.

Anyway, here's my progress on Whimsey and Wit, the baby Jesus square:

Earlier yesterday:

Later that night...The little oval is where his face is going to go.. I'm going to finish this and the rest of his swaddling clothes tonight!

I have a confession to make.. this square is not the same one that I posted a week ago!  I stitched in the wrong square and had to unpick..  I couldn't bring myself to mention it or even touch it for a few days.  I have left the Tuscan Welcome for the time being.

Apart from the progress there, I was able to take off for an hour yesterday and bought these:

They are not new.. the newest is Cross Stitch and Needlework on the left, which is May 2011.  The Stoney Creek is October 2010, the Cross Stitcher is August 2010.  Not all of them have patterns that I want, but hey.. for an average of $2 and because there aren't any cross stitch magazines sold here on a regular basis, I'll take what I can get!

Sadly, the few needlework shops here do not offer any Prairie Schooler, Shepherd's Bush, Bent Creek, Just my Imagination, or Lizzie Kate charts/kits... all they have are mostly DMC and Chinese patterns (or should I say patterns from China) .. No, not copies of the ones I mentioned.. just anonymous Chinese ones!  Some manga-type charts too.  I will just have to wait until I can make a trip over, or order online (never tried it for charts and kits though!)

That's it..  comments welcome..  :)   Here's to a happy and productive week ahead!

Many, many thanks :)

Yay! Someone actually read my blog, someone whose blog I follow, too!  Well, I subscribed to her blog, and now I publicly follow it (I didn't know there was a difference til today!)

Thank you Jenny for explaining what TUSAL and ORT mean!  I had a general idea but I didn't know if I was correct or not.  I'd been reading so many stitching blogs and there are so many acronyms to catch up on if you're new..

I haven't had much stitching done, as we went off to a place called Tagaytay to visit with a cousin-in- law who I hadn't seen for years -- she and her husband (who is my cousin) migrated-- in her parent's new vacation home, and I had my first zipline ride..  what a thrill!   I had a great view of the crater lake and the valley full of plants and trees below me.  Thank goodness my cousin-in-law was there or I'd never have had the nerve to ride it!  She said she wasn't going to, and I had no plans to, either.. but when I saw my nieces aged 9-13 doing it with no fear, I said to my cousin, "I'll go if you go".. and she did, so I did, too!

By the way that pic is of my cousin and our niece (I took this picture).

Anyway, suffice to say no stitching was done over the weekend but I'll post what I have so far (the Tuscan greeting kit) and the project I want to do.

Here's the Tuscan greeting:  So far it hasn't been so interesting to do because the thread colors are so subtle that they meld into the fabric.. you can barely see the stitches.  Anyway, I'm keeping at it because a.) my family said they doubted I'd do it and b.) in the hope that I get to the other colors soon (gotta get cracking!) and it becomes so engrossing that I'll finish it next week   :)  I mean in 2 weeks.   Or at least within the month.   I'm kind of slow when it's not so interesting.

Down below is the DMC the-original-is-a-painting by M. Baldemor, and part of the proceeds from pattern or kit purchase goes to Unicef.  Aren't the colors striking?  It's a Philippine harvest scene.  The farmer's families make colorful rice ornaments that they hang from their houses when they celebrate the feast of San Isidro Labrador (in English, St. Isidore the Farmer/Laborer), who is the patron saint of farmers.  It would have been nicer if DMC could have kept the cover simpler, showing more of the painting than the lavender swirls.  A side note:  as far as I know the festival wasn't as well known as it is now in the Philippines, until the ad agency (PAC) of the makers of San Miguel Beer (a Philippine beer known the world over for its Cerveza Negra) promoted it along with the beer, back in the late 70s.

First pic up top is the Christmas Angels kit by Dimensions.  I'm debating whether to show the pattern covers of the Mary Engelbreit "Believe" and the oops, Peaches (not Nectarines) in a Bowl, that I mentioned in the first post.  The patterns got wet years ago and the pages are kind of discolored now.  I bought the Mary Engelbreit pattern in San Diego, I think.  The Peaches and Plums pattern I may have bought locally (I think a store in Mile Long arcade, when there were more stitching shops back in the 90s).

Anyway, my next post will feature progress on the Tuscan Welcome and the Peaches pattern.  I also hope to start on the ornaments (whether the ones above or from the Engelbreit kit).  I'm in awe of the skill level of the stitchers whose blogs I follow...  I mean, WOW.

Here's to a happy, productive week ahead!