Owl cross stitch chart

I have been meaning to post this for a while now. In the lead up to Christmas I went completely irresponsibly Christmassy and even bought a nasty plastic Christmas tree that scared my budgies. I am sure a lot of the festivities seemed like crazy monkey games to them, but I loved it. Only I didn't have enough stuff to hang off it (sure, if I put too much on the tree was in danger of either toppling over because only 1/3 of it was visible in the corner or the branches would fall off)- so I made some ornaments.
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One of my favourites is this little owlie that I saw somewhere while looking at pictures on google pictures and thought 'I could make that... or at least something that looks like that if you squint and take 10 steps back from it'. So now here it is, the results of my googling and stitching combined to share... perhaps a bit late for Christmas, maybe it could be an Easter owl, or an ANZACC day owl or something...

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Procrastination butterflies

I have had a black work pattern that I have been wanting to stitch for ages. Today I had a suitably horrible task (cleaning the oven of terror) that made procrastination possible and I was able to stitch up this butterfly.

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(Link to pattern)

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Now I have grand plans of one day doing the whole sampler that has 16 variations of the same butterfly or the really really big one. Perhaps if the oven at the new place is horrific enough, I will be able to get the whole lot done fairly soon...

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Capital letters are always the best way of dealing with things you don't have a good answer for

After a few goes, I made some Teeny Tiny Crochet Flowers. I did some housework too, but that isn't worth taking a photo (or even capital letters). I think I will try a few different types of flowers and see which ones look best. These ones are from blue girl xo and seemed to work out okay. I ended up using a 1.5mm crochet hook and some Perle 8 cotton. Now all I have to do is Take a Decent Photo of Them...

My next project

I have been inspired for a quick new project I saw while googling randomly. This is a picture of a flower chain that I want to turn into a necklace. I am not sure a cotton necklace is a good idea in the sweaty tropics, but they are pretty nice looking.

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I have found a few tutorials for some easy looking flowers at How to Crochet a Flower and the adventures of bluegirl. I think if I use a fine crochet cotton or a perle cotton and the smallest hook I have, and I will hopefully be able to make something that looks like the photo. I am thinking this will be a nice distraction from cleaning the oven this weekend...

Humble cake

I feel a bit like an ass at the moment. I was feeling pretty crappy at being told there would be no cake and not even getting an invite to my own farewell party. Hurumph! It was a bit of a surprise to find an enormous cake, covered in chocolate cream, and even a present at the farewell party. It just goes to show that it is best not to expect anything and to be happy with whatever turns out.

Its my party and I'll have cake if I want to

Its my last official day at work tomorrow and I am really looking forward to some time off. The last few months have been crazy busy and I feel slightly like I have fallen through a mirror and I am wandering around trying to play croquet with an emu (I am in Australia after all).

We are having a farewell lunch tomorrow, and I have already been gruffly told that there won't be any cake (they really know how to make you feel welcome). I thought to hell with it, I want cake so I'm taking a cake.

People generally like the cinnamon tea cake I make (thanks Carla and your Ag Show winning recipes), so I made one this evening and I'll take it along tomorrow. I like it, its not a big ostentatious cream filled monstrosity (and its rustic because I am too lazy to carefully fold the baking paper into the tin).

Hurrah for the back yard

With the prospect of a yard again (even if its so small a ferret would feel cramped in it), I wanna puppy (or should I say puppeeeeeee). I don't mind that they chew the crap out of everything and poop all over the place. I will try to be sensible and wait a couple of days after I start my new job to see how much time I actually have (probably won't be much with the change to a 10hr day. That leaves 14hrs when I am not at work, sure for most of that I am just lying around the place with my eyes shut but that's not the point- I wanna puppeeee).