The Ebbs and the Flows

Well, it seems like I'm far from the being the only one whose finding their stitching motivation a bit slack at the moment. In fact, quite a number of bloggers I follow have been quiet of late or are finding that life is getting in the way of their arts and aren't producing much to blog. I've only done the outlining on two of the blackberries since I last posted. Sometimes it's lack of time, sometimes lack of umph and sometimes that I'd just plain rather watch a YouTube film!!!

School is quite a lot of work trying to keep up with everything and keep head above water with the tests that are fired at us on a three times fortnightly basis - two sentence dictations (quite a challenge in Chinese characters at times as it's so easy to forget how to write them, even though you can read them fine) and a written paper. Still, they make one learn and, with someone like me, that really is needed, so on the whole I don't mind. However, it does leave one a bit drained at times - mentally, if nothing else. So, not a very productive time creatively just now. Having said that, I did manage to get the next issue of 'Creative Embroidery and Cross Stitch' at the Eslite bookstore nearest to school (they're great for foreign magazines - including titles I can't get at home, so that's something I really like here!), and so I now have full instructions for that fantastic little house you saw on the cover of the last mag show.=) I don't think I'd make it exactly as it is in there, but the idea is great and I hope to do one one day. Perhaps a timbered house. You know, those white ones with the black timbers on, Elizabethan styling. I want to have a go at an embroidered garden one day too, so that super book, 'Embroidered Knot Gardens' is going to the top of my wish list.

We've decided to get a place with an extra room when we go home. Said extra room will be my studio, which will double as the guest room (i.e. the sofa bed will be put in there and we'll get a new suite for the living room). So, guess who's all excited and has the whole thing almost all planned out in her head? Just what I've been wanting for years, I'm so pleased about it. All I need now is for it to come to fruition.=) Look out for more on that early next year...

So, I think things will be fairly slow stitch and arts wise during the rest of our time out here, but I will be keeping up as best I can, so please don't give up and unsubscribe/delete your RSSs or links etc. In fact, the more readers there are, the more I feel duty bound to entertain you, so don't leave, but join up en masse instead, and let me know you're there.

Here are a few nice photos of places we've been in Taiwan for you to enjoy in the meantime. Some of the hundreds of pix I've accumulated so far will no doubt end up as inspiration for later work. (The photo above is an 'old' stumpwork piece I enjoyed doing 5 years ago.)