No Stitching done for days, infact I don't think I am going to get to lesson 4 before lesson 5 comes out, but not too worry. I have spent the night rearranging my room to try and make it more user friendly rather that a storeroom, which it still is technically. Hopefully this will work better for me. Having the space is so important. Oh yes I spent some of last night moving my junk from the lounge so that you can now see the floor in there. Such a good feeling although I am knacked at the moment.
I keep thinking on Sharons post from Sunday and mulling things over in my head. Knowing that it is important for me to have and use that space. Brought my lap top in here too and am determinded to be in here first thing in the morning with my coffee in my hand ready for the day. Not too stitch though, but at least to get my Bible study done. And the bonus is everything is at my fingertips instead of wandering back and forth to collect what I need. Tell you what I am a slow learner.
On a lighter note, I work for the local Council/library. We had a Kindy visit today and I made bookmarks for the little ones, quite a thrill I might add, doesn't take much for me to be excited. Anyhow, they came to visit and I handed out the bookmarks to them all, then they went back to kindy. Round about lunch time a little fella came marching into the library with Mum on one hand and the bookmark clutched in the other determined to join the library and get some books. I was really blown away Soon after an other little boy came in with his bookmark waving it at me. His Mum was already a member so he was just stocking up. They both made my day.

A really exciting thing has happened for me. I am the recipient of a Scholarship to study Librarianship next year. I just got notification at the weekend, so you can see why I need to be organised next year and always of course.
Also want to get my wisps worked on next year, so I have made a decisions not to work on making things for other and hence stress to get it right, BUT to work on things and then I will have things ready for others when the time comes. Fun without the stress.
Thats all for now folks.

Before I forget again, thank you all for stopping by and leavings comments about my precious boy. Thanks

Now back to what is creativity? Sharon has started something really intersting and I have been trying to ponder on it all when I get a chance. Her 5 objectives are all ones that speak to me. I have never seen myself as a creative person, I can make things with my hands but lay a blank something down in front of my me and my mind is the same... blank. I tend to get very frustrated and have not really come to grips with it yet for myself. Are we born that way, is it a gift, is it learned? I don't know, please enlighten me if you can.
I am on the last third of my life and want to spend that time productively.
What do I know about myself, well I have discovered I am lazy, especially since starting this course. I have my own space to do things but I always bring what I am working on into our tiny lounge so that I can watch TV at the same time, also at the same time creating a mess. As I said the lounge is tiny. Since losing Callum I need to keep my brain occupied all the time. So I tend to read a lot now, esp as I work in a library. I nearly always make things for others, very rarely myself. And I am starting to wonder if that maybe stiffles the creativety, as you always want to get that right, no mistakes, perfect etc etc. I hate making mistakes, although I now know its how I learn. I want everything to be perfect first time. Doing my sampler for the course I have spent more time unpicking that doing actual productive stitching, why? it just doesn't look right.
I want so much to learn, anything and everything, the only trouble is my brain at the moment is not retaining too much. That has always been a problem with me but at this time of my life, hot flushes aside, I am forgetting things as quick as I read about them.
Thats enough negative, where do I go from here. The visual journal is essential. I did one year at art school a while back and we were marked on our journals. As I cannot drawI always had a struggle with them. But can see and do know how important they are. I am one who always thinks I don't have ideas but as Sharon has explained, we do have them but we fail to capture them. I has lunch with my friend today and as we parted a thought came into my head about how important she was to me and instantly there was an idea with that.Thankfully I had the sense to write it down as soon as I got back to my office.
Discipline is an other big key for me, I waver from being extremely disiplined to being the exact opposite, consistensly is important for me.
Using my own space instead of just storing my stuff there.
I have still much to think on if I want to making lasting changes in my life. I like Rissa' comments too http://blog.prettyimpressivestuff.com/
Is it all a hobby or am I an artist, phew big word!!!!!
On that note I will leave it for today.
I spent the weekend making soap so I am off to check on how it is doing and will post a photo of some of it.

Any one who hasn't read Sharons post this morning http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php
needs to pop over there with a cup of coffee and spend some time.
I was in two minds about signing up for the class just because of its proximity to Christmas and all the things that go with that, making gifts, functions just to name two. But I couldn't bare to miss out on the opportunity, after all I did the first one and learnt so much. Also the class was bursting at the seams with content and I knew this one would be the same. As it is of course and such a valuable resource that you know you will be going back to it again and again.
The frustrations set in though as you want to get into it and when you see the work that others are doing and achieving, I for one tend to get a bit down on myself. After reading Sharon's post I have realised that others are in the same boat, life gets in the way, and this lead onto priorites.
Of which I have been thinking a lot of lately, as I am going to be studying next year, working fulltime, doing a bible study, hope to be able to catch up on wisps, stitch of course, oh and cook clean etc. So obviously priorities are going to be important to me. Sharon has 5 priorities.

1 How the process is prioritised,2 Allocating regular time,3 Making a space for you,4 The habit of regular work5 Catching your good ideas when they come by using a visula journal.

Lots to think on and I am going to have to leave it there for today. Do read Sharon's blog she has invited us to comment. I am a lot more to think about and want to get an action plan formulated, but have to go for the moment

Its a year since we tragically lost our youngest son in a car accident. This is a roadside cross that some of his classmates have erected in his memory at the site of the accident which is about 100m from our house.
A lovely caring and touching thing for these kids to do. A whole year has passed!!!!!
I started this blog just a few weeks before his accident, I had to mention it, I know we don't get too personal but I wanted to share how marvellous people are.

More Christmas Earrings

Aren't they yummy, just love that glitz. So easy to do and less than an hour to make. Great little gifts. Of course I need to come up with a way of attaching to the ear! but I am sure they will work out fine.
Thank you all for the lovel positive comments on my work on Sharon's class. I really appreciate you taking the time to post a comment.

Playing with points from lesson 2.

Just been having some fun with points, using beads a few sequins and french knots. Used a variety of threads and just went for it, thinking of a floral arrangement as I went.

I love the weekend when you have some time to play and not have to rush. Especially this weekend as we are having a lot of rain. Having said that yesterday was fine and we got a lot of gardening done. It is supposed to be late autumn but we had snow last week. Guess you have to expect that when you live on the central plateau. I have lots and lots of annual seedlings planted and they are not doing to well with the copious amounts of rain and lack of sun and warmth. You just never know what the weather is going to bring here in the middle of the North Island New Zealand, mind you we are at 619metres above sea level.

Stepped running stitch on WOW block.

As I said yesterday I love whipped and wrapped stitches and this is going to be one of my favourites. Tried it on my wow block but it was way too big for my liking, it is not out of place on my block as it is a reasonable size but I do tend to like more delicate dainty things. So I decided to go with it and add a few bits drop beads, an other of my all time favourites. They were to big to add in each space so I added them every second one with rice and little pearls also. I also wanted to add some art glitter on the running stitches. In hindsight!!!! don't you wish hindsight was really foresight? guess we would all be so wise we would be boring, HUH? As I was saying with the benefit of hindsight the glue and glitter should have been added before the beads. And as you can also see the glitter is all over the place instead of just on the glue. I will brush the bulk of it away shortly once the glue is dry. Whether it will still show up on the stitches is an other matter. I love all that glitters, just a little magpie really. Do any of you use glitter in your work. Would love to hear or see about it if you do. Anyway all in all it looks ok.

Christmas earrings.

I managed to buy these lovely little balls last year but due to all sorts if things never got round to doing anything with them. Should have put something into the picture to get perspective. They are about an inch or so round. Got the balls in all sorts of yummy colours. I am traditional myself and like the reds, green and golds etc etc, but lots of others like all the other yummy colours. Wants to make lots for friends. Only got 2 pairs done so far, so I need to get a move on.

Progress on 1st Sampler

Stepped running stitch. I don't know what it is about wrapped and whipped stitches but I just love them, this one is done with a small running stitch in pearl which is threaded with a lovely chenille fishing thread, with a few beads added.

Underneath is my attempts at portugese stem stitch. I have stitched and unpicked this stitch quite a few times, infact for most of last night. Decided to start again today, you can see my attempts on the left where I have still got it wrong, then wallaa!!!!!! I finally got it. So instead of unpicking the left hand side again, I thought it would be better to leave it as a learning experience.

Lesson two is out and full of information as always, but I need to get on with somemore practice first.

Christmas time.

Not the best photo yet again but I have been working on these balls for Christmas presents. Got the pattern from about.com. They are really quick to make up and I love to make little gifts for Christmas, and I especially love beaded balls

Sharons Class over at www.joggles.com.

I have decided to do my samplers in a format that I can make into a cloth book. This is the start of my borders. Left hand side is just plain old stem stich that is whipped, not that you can see that, but thats what it is. Done in a pink crochet cotton and whipped with fine fool, me thinks its appletons but not sure as it hasn't got any label on it!!!!. The top is guilloche stitch. Which has 2 pink pearl cottons the french knot in the middle is fine wool as is the green straight stitches.

I have decided to stick with pinks and greens as I have the most variety of threads etc in these two colours. The fabric looks like aida and it has that weave, but it is soft and I have no idea what it is or what I bought it for. Don't know what the count is either, and these old eyes will go cross eyed trying to count it so I will leave that. It is much smaller than 14 though.