This morning Bren and I went to the Blackheath Floral and Craft Show. It was not as good as we had hoped but it was still a fun morning out. Hopefully next year there will be more needlework.

Here is Bren in the park where we had lunch.

For everyone who asked, we now look like we have found a way to only require 1 car spot at the cottage which means there should be enough room for a car to turn around. We have decided to put the council application in on Monday and take a chance. I will let you know when we have an answer in the coming weeks. Thanks so much for all the well wishes. I'm looking forward to not thinking about it for the next few weeks and letting life get back to normal for a bit.

Well, it's time for bed as I have had a couple of red wines and it's been a long day. I think I will be asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow:)

To try and shake the blues off tonight I did a little stitching on HOHRH. I am so looking forward to finishing my first house square. Hopefully I will get there in the next couple of nights.

Thanks for letting me vent guys.

I am looking forward to Thursday as Bren holds down the fort at the shop and I have the day off (tommorrow is his day off). On Thursday I will have the day at home stitching and watching the Phantom Of The Opera DVD that Carol sent me. It is one of my favourite movies. I adore Gerard Butler who plays the Phantom:)

Bren teaches Silver Clay classes and today gave me a lovely pendant. I just love it. It is made of pure silver and dichroic gass.

A couple of ladies asked me why I didn't enjoy stitching An Open Heart. To be honest I really don't know why but I just found stitching it a chore. There were some rows that took me ages to work out how to do. For example there was a row of a sort of Rhodes stitch in the shape of a heart that nearly drove me around the twist.LOL. Having said all this I am so incredibly happy with the outcome. It really is beautiful and I can't wait for Bren to frame it for me. I am definetely happy that I stuck with it. Sounds like a lot of you are either almost finished it, just started it or are about to start and I can guarantee you will be pleased at the end results.

Stargazer on the other hand is a lot of fun to stitch. It is rare that after stitching for a day on something that I don't want to do something else the next day but with Stargazer I am having to force myself to put it down and not neglect my other stitching projects. Tomorrow will be back to stargazer though:)

Today I spent the day stitching. I got some more done on Stargazer. She is really starting to look pretty. I am so glad I chose Sugar Maple's Snickerdoodles to stitch her on. I did also attempt to start my Houses Of Hawk Run Hollow which is the SAL I have joined but I had chosen 34ct Cafe Au Lait linen and found I couldn't decide whether to use 1 strand or 2. I tend to stitch 32ct and bigger with 2 strands and 36 and 40 with 1 strand but neither 1 or 2 looked quite right on the 34ct. 2 strands looked too think and the 1 strand didn't seem to have enough coverage. In the end, and with some much appreciated advice from Carol S, I have decided to use my other option which is an Ivory 40ct linen. I have also decided to stitch it in Needlepoint Silks rather than DMC that I was orginally going to use. I feel much better about my choices now so I will make a fresh start on HOHRH tomorrow. Hopefully tommorrow will be a little cooler here and not the scorching hot day it was today.

Well, it's past midnight so I am off to bed now.

Now as I mentioned yesterday one of my goals this year is to keep up with all SAL's and that includes the ones I started last year with Carol, so I got out Petal Fairy to finish. I thought I had done a lot more than I have with this but not to worry. It will go into my stitching rotation and I should get through it fairly quickly (I hope) . This is being stitched Silkweavers 32ct Summer Breeze Lugarna.

Last year Bren and I were in the States on a business/holiday and were lucky enough to have the day in Boston with Carol and Mike. Because of a tight schedule we were only able to have the one day but we had such a good time. Hopefully next trip we will be able to spend more time with them. Here is a photo Mike took of Carol, Brendon (my hubby) and I at a pub in Boston). Fortunately my hair is now longer and I have lost some weight since this photo but it is a nice memory I thought I would share. Carol, as always looks great:) When I reach my goal weight I will post another photo of Bren and I:)

Well tommorrow is my day off so I plan to stitch all day so hopefully I will have some good progress photos in tommorrow's posting.

Again, thanks so much for all the lovely comments:)

Welcome to my new Blog. (Hi Carol:) ) Well I have finally got my act together and will try to Blog each day. My friend Carol Sutcliffe has inspired me to start a Blog. Hers is the best I've seen so hopefully I can try to make mine something interesting as well:) My name is Karen and I live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. I am married to Brendon and we have a Needlework store in Katoomba called Dragonfly Dreams. We moved up to the mountains about 18 months ago and can not imagine living anywhere else. We just love it.

Ok, onto my stitching. Above is An Open Heart that is my first finish for 2006. I am very proud of it as it feels like I have been stitching this forever. While I think it is stunning now it's finished. I did not enjoy stitching it. This is a SAL I was doing with Carol and Tannia. For the first time I have finally finished a SAL I have started with Carol. I am so glad I have not let her down for once:) One of my goals for 2006 is to keep up to date with my SAL's and Chatelaine projects.

The projects I am currently working on are:

1) Chatelaine - Medieval Town Mandala
2) Chatelaine - Mystery IX
3) Mirabilia - Stargazer
4) Long Dog - Bois De Luc
5) Shepherds Bush - Reeds Stocking
6) About to start a SAL with Carol - Houses Of Hawk Run Hollow

These are all my current works in progress. Following is a picture of my Stargazer progress. I am stitching her on 32ct Lugana in Snickerdoodles from Sugar Maple. I am really pleased with how she is looking on this fabric.

Well, it is getting late so it is time to turn in. I look forward to getting to know a lot more people through My Blog:)