Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Computer is Back

After a lot more drama we now have our computer back and I can start putting photos on my blog again. It's good to have it back.

While I have been without this particular computer I have been busy working on a few samplers. I seem to have 3 of them on the go. It's something that I don''t usually like to do as I usually do one at a time, but what the heck I now have 3. The one above is the one the keep talking to me, telling me that she wanted to be done. Her name is Kitty Bigg and she is from a book that I have on Australian samplers. But they think in the book that she was actually worked in England. The original is in a Museum in Sydney. She is quite pretty as she is in the golden tones with hints of turquoise throughout. I am doing her on 40ct Antique White. Below is a photo of the original.

One thing with her though is that it is pretty certain that she is going to have a name change. Her name is probably going to be Elizabeth Welfare who was my GGG Grandmother on my Mum's side. She will continue the tradition that I started with a couple of my samplers that I did for my Mum being named after Grandmothers.


This is my progress on Sarah Moon. Sarah was one of those samplers that I fell in love with when I first saw her. My only problem with her is that I wish that I was doing her on 40ct instead of 32ct. 40ct wasn't available when I first started doing her.
This is my progress on Beatrix Potter. Another sampler that I fell in love with. Beatrix is over one on 32ct. Unfortunately I haven't touched her for a couple of weeks.

Well my Sister has had a lovely timee in Paris. She celebrated her birthday by spending up BIG. Can't wait to see what she has bought.

She rang me on Saturday all excited to tell me that she had gone to the Marie Antoinette Exhibition and got caught in this LONG line waiting to go in. Everyone was grumbling about having to stand around when she suddenly saw a small group of people going through. A lot of the people were complaining about how come these people got to push in in front of them all.

When she looked at the woman she knew why. It turned out to be Queen Margarite of Denmark and her husband Prince Heinrich with a small party. It was one Queen visiting another Queen. Anyway, it made my Sisters day.

Today, she flies over to England for a few days before flying to Venice for a week. Some people have it rough.

Monday, June 16, 2008

The Computers Back and Gone Again

Well, I think this computer is cursed. We travelled down to Penrith yesterday to pick up the computer after it being away for 5 weeks.

Well, you can guess what happened. We travel up the mountain again, get home, disconnect the boys computer, plugged the main computer in and you guessed it no power. The darn thing wouldn't turn on. My DH rings the store to tell them that he's not happy about the computer not turning on now and is told, its probably the leads or the power point. He tells them that another computer was connected to all of the above 5 minutes before and all was working well.

So to cut a long story short I had to drive all the way down the mountain again and take the psycho computer back to the store. Hopefully it will back on Friday. They tried to get us a new one but unfortunately its "No deal".

On the stitching front I have a sampler that has been talking to me for awhile to do. It is called Kitty Biggs and on the weekend I unfortunately gave in and started to do her. So now I have 3 on the go. When will I learn.

My Sister flies out for Paris tomorrow and I told her to go and check out this amazing exhibition that I found on Marie Antoinette. The link is here http://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/shop/special/169-marie-antoinette-exhibition.
(hopefully this works). It looks as if it could really amazing. I have already told her what I would like from the gift shop. Hopefully she will remember LOL.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A "What The?" Moment

Still no news when the computer will be back. Hopefully next week sometime, so I can't post any new photos.

I've been having a disasterous time over the last 24 hours. It has been raining quite heavily since the weekend and it is also misty up here in the mountains, especially where I live. Last night when I went to get my husband from the train, I had a major tyre blowout on the highway where they are doing highway roadworks. They are putting in an extra 2 lanes. The road between Katoomba and Leura has become simply shocking with potholes everywhere. This is a major Highway between Sydney and the West (Outback).

Outside the Hospital (quite appropriate) there was a HUGE pothole that you couldn't see in the dark wet conditions. You guessed it I hit it and heard such a loud bang and I said to myself "What the Hell was that". I thought I was a goner for a moment or two but the car seemed to be handling ok and as I only had a short distance to travel I thought I'd try to carry on to the Station to the damage. As I went along I discovered that there was no where to pull over to check as all available pulling over spots were already full with people checking their cars and all were changing tyres. There were cars everywhere. At one spot it looked like a used car spot.

Anyway to cut a long story short I discovered that I also had a flat tyre and that there were around 20 of us in similar situations. I think I am lucky as some of them apparently have front end damage as well. At this stage I have to get a new front tyre which I have been quoted at $155.

After my DH had changed the tyre there were a few men looking at the hole (what is this with men and holes) and directing people away from it. This morning, I had to go and take photos of the hole and the damaged tyre to lodge a claim with the RTA. Would you believe that they haven't filled the hole/s in yet. All they have done is put witches hats around the hole. The part of the Highway where this happened isn't that wide and we have all these semi-trailers rattling along. It is a wonder that someone hasn't been killed there or injured. I found out while at the tyre place that apparently this hole had been reported to the contractors at 7a.m. yesterday morning. A good case of hmmmmm.

On the stitching front I have been working on not only Beatrix Potter, but Sarah Moon as well. I started Sarah early last year on 32ct and did a little bit. I couldn't make up my mind whether to carry on with her or wait and start again on 40ct. She is beautiful, but I was a bit worried about the size of the finished sampler, as my house isn't that big and I'm running out of hanging space. I decided to carry on last Friday and have been working on her. So I have 2 Needleprint Samplers on the go. Decided that when they are finished, I will replace some of the earlier works with them.

Well that is my excitement for the day. I hope you all have a lovely week and I'm looking forward to getting our other computer back.


Update on pot hole situation - apparently 22 people turned up yesterday at our local tyre shop to get replacement tyres. One poor man had 2 tyres that had to be replaced. Then how many other people have replaced their tyre/s and travelled down further to another tyre shop.

Would you believe this is Thursday today and 2 days after the event and they still haven't fixed it. - Sorry if I'm ranting about this, but gee wiz what does it take to fix a HUGE pot hole.