I've been a hopeless blogger ...

But I'm still alive! Still stitching, but not nearly as much - I'm lucky if I sit a couple of nights a week with it. Stampin' Up kind of took up a lot of my creativity, I've loved the journey - I'm taking things quieter with it for now as life is permanently very busy and sad fact is that I can't do everything!

So of interest to my stitching buddies? I'm stitching the "C" fairy from Nora Corbett right now, when I'm finished with that I have to stitch the "R" ... I was SO excited when the R came out and she was called Rhiannon! Funny enough, if Charlotte hadn't been Charlotte, she would have been Cassandra :) So yeah, still stitching :)

So why a post all of a sudden? I thought I should tell you about my new blog - not sure if anyone is really interested (okay, I know Faith-Ann is :) :)), but I've set a new blog ... my journey to running the London Marathon next year. Yeah, can you believe it? I'm going to run a marathon - you'll have to read the blog to learn more about it!

http://journeyfromfattolondonmarathon.blogspot.com/

Maybe if I get time, I'll actually update here with some stitching pictures, no promises though!


~Lisa

Watch that sun ...

Wow, I just heard that my sister's best primary/high school friend has only weeks to live. Skin cancer - she is only 37yo.

Wow, I know they keep telling us, but when it hits that close it really makes it real :(

So listen to the ads, cover up and wear that sun screen!!!

Go Paula!

Our first gold medal at the Paralympics, won in the cycling by Paula Tesoriero. I would say, I was surprised to hear her name mentioned as we were half watching the Opening Ceremony - but my natural reaction is more "wow, we always said she'd do something".

Paula was one of my original Rally girls - Every Girls Rally, that is - a bit like Girl Guides but run by the church, I was a Rally girl that went onto to be a Leader right up until my married family life got too busy. I haven't seen or heard of Paula for years, but back then she was an incredibly gutsy determined little girl. When we played games, she often won, and if she didn't she always gave it 110% to make sure she was just like everyone else.

So no, I wasn't surprised to hear her name - but happy to hear that that little girl really had come along way, just like I expected her to. Congratulations Paula!

No snow like Pauline ... but ...

TWISTER!!! ... well, we're pretty sure it was a twister, we live close to the beach and am thinking we are in the direct line of storms meeting from either side of Kapiti Island and making a twister - about 7yrs ago we had our front gate ripped off from a freak water twister.

I was at home with Josh last night when what I thought was a huge (as in OMG, that wind hit HARD) gust of wind bringing in the Southerly storm from the South Island hit. David came home and asked if I'd seen the front gate, it had been whipped backwards and broken it's post.

We got woken this morning by the boy next door knocking on our door to ask if we'd see our backyard!

Next door neighbour's tree uprooted ...

and landed on our garage -

and our outdoor furniture (one table broken) knocked around, AND our back fence blown right down -

We don't know for sure if it was a twister, but we're pretty certain it was - you can actually see the path it has travelled, our neighbours in front of the neigbours with the tree, didn't have any damage at all - it looks like it landed on the road in front of us, raced down the side of our house, and then turned and ran down the fence line, there are a few fences looking down that way that have been damaged.

Pretty scary stuff - I'm glad I didn't realise what it was when it actually hit!

Hello :)

How about I just pretend I've been here every day for last, um so many, months?

I have been stitching, but not a lot, since I've joined Stampin' Up (loving it!), I've been doing a lot more cards and scapbooking. But, you'll never catch me watching TV in the evening without stitching in my hand! (... of course, I work 3 evenings, have workshops and meetings ... which = not as many evenings in front of the TV as I'd like!). I can't say anything is particular grabbing me right now though, I think I've lost that stitching mojo for quite a while now.

Anyway, I DO have an update :) ... because I can't "just" sit, and because I've always admitted to being a stitcher who just enjoys the de-stressing process, I've been stitching on Faery Tales. I've just finished page 2! (well not *the* page 2, but a whole second page of stitching). When I started this, I started it about 3 times, the fabric was wrong the first couple of times, then I started and realised I had the fabric the wrong way ... so when I finally started it, again, I started on page 2 - I just couldn't bear to re-start page 1.

So this is page 2 and page 8 (I think) - I think I'll work on page 1 and 3 at the same time next.

AND ... there are 40 pages ... I wrote down the date on the chart when I started page 8 - it says 12 October 2007. That is seven months to stitch one page, x 40 pages - well, you do the math - it could be a LONG time before this one is finished! LOL

Funny enough though, I'm really enjoying stitching it - I am definitely in a rhythm with the colour changes and the one over one.

So, enough chatting - here is the updated picture -

... and because I was taking photos this morning to try and do something for my Mother and MIL for Mother's Day this Sunday - here is an updated picture of the kids ... yep, they've grown!!

Now, if I'm really good ... I'll try and update my stitching once a week or so, we'll see - no promises!

Let's try this ...

I promised a while ago I'd try to put up a gymnastics video ... I tried at the time and couldn't work it out, I think I have now! The first one is one I took of Charlotte (5yo) this afternoon - doing her self-taught "middle" part of Rhiannon's Level 3 routine (Rhiannon also does some gliding and swinging on the top bar) - what is amazing (to me) is that she has the strength and know-how to pull herself up and over, Rhiannon still has to give a kick to get herself over, Charlotte can do it by upper body strength. The second one is the one I recorded at the beginning of the competition season a few months ago - of Rhiannon's floor routine this year, not the most polished, but it impresses me!!




Watch More Videos Uploaded by http://bebo.com/watchuser/2729145621

Got to keep this up ...

I'm not sure I've got a lot to say, I'm determined to try and keep this blogging thing going! ... then again, once I start rambling who knows how much I've really got to say?





Sunday morning here - Fathers Day - and a quiet one for me ... in fact David has been joking that *I* get the Father's Day, not him ;) ... Cameron is playing soccer over in Carterton (about 1.5hr away), so they left early this morning, Rhiannon went with them - which leaves me with just Josh and Charlotte (David Jnr is at a mates and then will be at work). House is nice and tidy because I had a card-making thing here yesterday, Dad who I planned to see this afternoon is on holiday down the South Island ... which leaves a nice relaxing day - which is nice for a change! My nice relaxing day will include some baking for lunches for the next week, doing a couple of cricket funding things that need to be done today ready to go out tomorrow, lots of laundry and making a gift for Rhiannon's teacher who finishes next week (after 53 years of teaching!).





Kathryn (in NZ) asked me how the girls' gym has gone this year - so I get a valid excuse to ramble on about that! LOL ... they're done really well - Rhiannon has just finished up Level 3 - she came at the bottom of the pack at most competitions (moved from last up to about 5-6th to last), but to be doing the level she is doing she has to be pretty good - so that doesn't give a true reflection. The club have pushed her and her two team mates through the lower grades pretty quickly so they are also usually the youngest and smallest at the competitions (they are all 8yos) - there thinking is that they will now spend the next couple of years with them in Level 4 fine tuning things and it gives them a few years in those higher levels to really polish them off - a lot of the girls winning this year are 12-13yos who haven't got many years left to travel up the higher grades. Makes kinda sense, the main thing is Rhiannon is still loving it :) ... they've moved on to conditioning and training for level 4 next year ... to give some idea - level 4 they do walkovers and cartwheels on the beam, they do a floor routine where they have to choregraph their own routine to music, the bar they start jumping from smaller to higher bar and they start using the "real" vault - so it's a huge step, basically from junior to senior stuff :)





Charlotte (5yo) is doing her last general competition next weekend, after that she will move into the Level 1 class to start training for next year - this girl is just amazing, Rhiannon is good, but has to work - Charlotte seems to have natural gymnastic strength (lucky thing!) - for those who know any of the terminology - she can already pull herself up and over on the bar - Rhiannon still needs a little kick to get herself over, Charlotte can actually pull herself up (like a chin-up) and use her strength to pull herself up. Having said that - she is still 100 miles/hour Charlotte and needs to learn to slow down and be graceful ;)





I'll try and put a link to Rhiannon's floor routine this year - it was at the beginning of the season, so not the most polished routine, but it gives you an idea ;)



I'm going to edit my last post and put in more details for the fabrics for sale - I've had interest in a couple - but mostly they are still all there for the picking!





Sorry I haven't been commenting on anybody's blogs ... I am reading and enjoying :)





I'll leave you with a photo of the three cards I used for a class yesterday - I'm just loving this stuff!