Tuesday 20 June 2006

Hello from Zagreb in Croatia

We are on day 3 of our 17 day trip around Eastern Europe and we are having a marvelous time!

We arrived in London after the long flight, via Singapore, from Australia early on Tuesday morning last week. London weather was as London weather always is: wet and chilly, but we got out and about and saw some relatives and some of the sights we haven't seen before. Have you been on the London Eye? It's run by British Air and is like hovering above London in a glass bubble - scary as all getout but cool as at the same time! I have about 60 pix of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Most of the stay in London was directed towards recovery from the trip, really. We ambled along and enjoyed without being touristy manic.

We arrived in Vienna to a very hot, hot climate. It was 35C which is almost hotter than we experienced in Brisbane all Summer. The reunion with the youngest princess was heart rendingly w-u-n-d-e-r-b-a-r! She's still the same looking kid. I recognised her the moment I saw her (one day I will tell you about the reunion with the crown princess when she came back from Finland - my black haired daughter with long, long tresses came back with a bright orange mop as her hairstyle and a nose ring!).

Slovenia was incredible - all mountains and mountain lakes - and Croatia is a mix of Asian and European traits. It's yet to be explored.

More news from the holiday front soonest.

Happiness and laughter always,

Bliss

Saturday 10 June 2006

... and so it goes



No, it won't be finished before the plane trip but it will be finished soon!

Determination to finish no longer has any connection to whether I will like the finished product. Having done all the work, I'm not sure that I like it. Yoiks! The colours are insipid

So what made it 'work'? What made it easier to get done than other cross stitches beforehand? My usual track record is about 10 years per project. Not working at the moment helped, for sure; however, I think the biggest thing was a little trick I learned when I went to the Barrossa Valley in December - use more than just the centering lines when necessary. This was a complicated pattern. While I was in South Australia, I visited a craft shop where photographs are converted to cross stitch works of art. The stitcher had a grid system of running stitch to help with the project. I found that counting was so much more accurate and less frustrating as a result of the marking lines matching the 10 stitch bold grid lines in a pattern. As a result, the project was much less a chore once the shine of the 'new project' wore off. I suggest that anyone with a large or complicated project try it

Fatigue has just set in. I've got to go and do more packing

Blissful stitching to one and all.

Bliss

Saturday

Preparations for the big trip are going well.

Friday was a whopper! I bought tyres forand got the Corolla serviced, went to the hairdresser, got a manicure & pedicure to get rid of the remains of paint, picked up the plane tickets and finally got to the doc for some antibiotics for my head cold. Hang on to your hats, folks. It seems that I don't have a head cold. I have pneumonia. I'm getting on that blasted plane even if it kills me.

Meanwhile, today I did some clothes shopping both for the trip to London and in preparation for starting work the day after I get back from our holiday. Diana was a great help!

David took delivery of his temporary wheels today. He's Gypsy and house-sitting while we are away but as we live out of town a little, we have lent him the Corolla. This is the car that Luke decided he didn't want (he's a sparky and bought himself a ute - a man's car!) and therefore returned to his father last week. It's not a bad little vehicle now that it has the tyres, a service and a new alternator. Me thinx that David's rather pleased. I think he was expecting a bomb. LOL.

And so back to putting our wardrobe back to order. You know how it is ... leave it too long to put everything back after painting and chaos insidiously sets in.

Happiness and laughter always,

Bliss

Thursday 8 June 2006

Pre-holiday insanity

It's not the 50 weeks of hard work that make the holiday a necessity. It's that one week of madness before one leaves.

Weekdays, Paul's been clearing his desk getting ready for four weeks away. I say 'clearing his desk' in a metaphorical sense because I'm not sure he actually has a desk unless it's located at Brisbane Airport. He has spent the last three weeks travelling back and forth to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and the Hunter Valley doing whatever he does when he's at work.

As well as my usual activities of daily living, I've been working on two particular projects for the last two weeks: my cross stitch (which you can check out at Blissful Creations) and house renovations, most particularly the painting of the three bedrooms in preparation for youngest princess's return in July (see my recent post about painting). 'The Gang' is nearly finished and, thankfully, I've run out of wall paint which means that once I've finished the trims in the master bedroom I'm done for this round of nesting insanity.

Weekends haven't been slack either. LOL. Apart from recovery from busy weekdays, we've been gradually getting ourselves organised for the big trip. There have been lists of 'things to do before we go', 'things to see while we are away', 'bills to pay', 'what to take', et cetera, scribbled out and then crossed off as we've gotten more organised. We might have reached the insanity of 'list of lists to write' at one stage, but I quietly slipped that one into the bin when I was home alone one evening.

At this point with everything almost but not quite there, I will be in shock if we make it onto the plane. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I'd better get back to it.

Happiness and laughter always,

Bliss

Friday 2 June 2006

The Gang - Homeward Run



The target date is here but still my Popcorn 'The Gang' is unfinished (there is all the backstitching to be done). I did all the characters but discovered on the last one that two symbols were so similar that I used the wrong one in a couple of bears. To my aged eyes I couldn't see the difference. Oh joy! Why have an x and an x? Tricky, huh?

I'm working on painting during the day and stitching in the evenings whilst my darling is away. I'm still sure that I can finish both projects before I leave for London in 10 days.

Ah well, back to it!

Blissful stitching to one and all!

Bliss