Things are a bit slow just now

I'm very behind with TAST - despite the catch up week and have only done one short session on the rabbit's head, which isn't going very well either, but then, much as I admire it, I think shading is not really my thing.

Anyway, I haven't been very well so have really just been reading a lot and doing the occasional bit of time wasting on-line, so no stitching.  I remember Sir telling me of a talk he'd heard that mentioned time wasting on-line and called it 'the Internet vortex'.  Your time just falls in and you never see it again!!  Good, isn't it?  I recently discovered a language exchange site as well, so that's not helping me be productive elsewhere.  Squads of Chinese girls want to be my language partners - I've never been so popular before!=)

Anyway, I have this to show you, which is the floss toss for the Cross'N'Patch 'Sunshine and Flowers' design I've been planning for my mum for about 3 years so far.  I finally got the fabric cut, framed and 'tried out' with all the threads.  I think it's rather nice, don't you?

I haven't yet put a stitch in on it....

Here's something else as a taster.  It's one stage of the finishing up I've part done on the manicure pouch (the dogrose thread painting).  I plan to try and get that done this week if possible, strength allowing.

These are my stitching goals for the month:

* Complete the finishing up on the manicure pouch and post the whole process to my blog.
* Catch up with TAST and finish April also caught up, even if that means only doing one line of the new stitch on my doodle piece (which I thought I'd lost, but have just spotted under a WIP on my little table here)
* Work on and, preferably, complete the stumpwork rabbit piece.  This will move forward fine once I find my feet (developed some confidence) with it.
* Do some practice stitches for and get started on the rolled rose Brazilian piece, which has been waiting to be started for some months now.
* Make a start on stitching the 'Sunshine and Flowers' piece.
* Not directly stitching, but I want to get the shelves and so on organised in my study.   This includes a second and larger '4-drawer contraption' (!!!) which will hold all my fabric and will be a lot simpler and more user-friendly.  The smaller one is full already, but the top drawer, into which I've just shoved some of my metallics, needs more thinking out.  So, it's stitching related and, yes Monika, I will show it all when it's done. I've taken 'before' shots in the room.=)

At least I've got a secretarial/IT qualification out of the way now that was taking up time and getting on my nerves.  Assuming that I passed all the final 3 exams, I can now put that behind me.  I doubt I'll ever be able to use it as I haven't been able to work for around 4 years, but we'll see.  I now have my Monday afternoons back and plan to use this one to get some TAST work done as well as some language study etc.  I'm behind on my Chinese and German schedules.

FOR SARAH who admired my hardanger needlecase and wanted the pattern details:  I've answered you in the comments section of that post, but you mayn't have seen it.  The pattern was a free download from the now defunct Classic Stitches site.  That being the case, I can e-mail it to you if you provide me with an addy to send it to.  Please leave a comment on any post (you may prefer to use an old one), which I will see at once and, after having deleted your address from the public domain, I'll contact you to see which format you need, OK?=)

Bis bald  快再见  See you soon

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012