I’m back again – well sort of.

Thank you for all the messages and emails. I will get around to replying ASAP.

It was an unplanned absence due to a couple of things. Firstly out of the blue Richard talked about us moving and after a long discussion we decided it would be the right thing to do. We spoke to the estate agent who said he thought our house would sell quickly as there was a shortage of this size house on the market in this area. We rushed getting things ready, doing all the jobs that have been put off. I also had to go through everything I own and try and get rid of half of it as we will be moving to a smaller house. Wow, I have a lot of stuff! As soon as we put our house on the market things cooled down and houses are now not selling in the area (well this size anyway).

Well amongst that I had health problems. I am receiving treatment which is going well.

My stitching has suffered as although I am stitching sometimes, there have been a few weeks when I couldn’t do any at all. In fact this is one of them as I just don’t feel well enough, I am missing it though.

I don’t know how often I will be able to write my blog, but hopefully things will get back to normal (whatever that is) soon.

Even though I haven’t done as much stitching, I still have some to share with you as it has been so long since I last did an update. I haven’t stuck to the rotation, just stitched on whatever, whenever.

I have finished Lavender & Lace Celtic Winter:

This is waiting to be framed now. It looks better in real life, but then don't they always?

Next I worked on HAED – Tomboy:

I have reached the 52% mark which is 18 pages. This was my target for the year. There are only 18 more pages to go!

Lastly is HAED – QS Believe:

This is at 16%, which is just over half of the first page. I was surprised at how much confetti or isolated stitches this had on the butterfly. Maybe it was just I wasn’t feeling too good while I was working on it, so it seemed worse.

I have also just finished Lizzie*Kate Winter Boxer but haven’t taken a photo yet, will show that next time.

I am currently stitching on The Visitor, which is a picture of a fox. It reminds me of the foxes that visit our back garden. I am trying to get the first page finished before taking a photo, so hopefully I will be able to stitch again soon.

Well that’s it for now, thank you for reading my blog.

I won a HAED chart!

The Heaven and Earth Designs forum ran a game of bingo for fairy day and I nearly fainted when I won it! Two other ladies won as well and instead of selecting one of us to win the prize, HAED very kindly agreed to give all three of us a free chart. I chose Pirate by Selina Fenech. I am delighted to have won and to be able to select a chart that I love.

This week I worked on HAED's 'At First Sight' by Linda Tso. You wouldn't say I was addicted to HAED charts would you. Well here is my progress so far:

If you click on the image it will take you to see what it should look like when finished. I loved working on this design it has been the easiest so far of any of the HAED Charts I have worked on. I didn't spend as much time stitching this week so there isn't a lot done.

I worked on HAED's 'QS Believe' on Wednesday. This is my progress so far (again you can see what is should look like by clicking on the image):

I enjoy stitching this much more on the 18 count.

I am sorting out Lavender and Lace's 'The Quiltmaker' and hope to start stitching on it this weekend. I don't know why but every time I go to type 'Quiltmaker' I end up typing 'Guiltmaker'.

Another Week

HandsOnHobbies has been moved back to the old server and is open for business as usual. I am trying to find out why it isn't happy with the new server. It should be fine, all the software requirements are met and there are no obvious errors. I really hope it can be sorted out as I spent a lot of time this week looking into different software and nothing was suitable, without a load of re-writing that is.

Once HandsOnHobbies was back working I managed to get a newsletter out about the new Clear Magic Stamps. The new stamps are a huge hit. I thought they would be as there are some lovely designs.

I am really excited as I have designed some software and it is currently being developed. I am not sure when it will be ready but as soon as I have further details I will let you know.

This week I have stitched on only one design, Diane Graebner's - Home for the Holidays. It is lovely to stitch. It is a quick and easy design with no confetti stitches!!! I love the larger designs but it is nice to take a break once in awhile. I needed this project this week as it doesn't take much concentration and was easy to keep picking up and working on for the short spaces of time that were available to me. I was working all day and a lot through the evening, so it was lovely to see the picture developing so fast. This is where I am up to at present:

I have decided to stay with this project until completion, which hopefully will be this week. I am then moving onto HAED's - The Pink Rose.

Weekly News

This week our main water tap into the house developed a leak. I noticed a strange patch on the wall (which was recently decorated) which turned out to be caused by the leak. What could have been a quick repair turned into a saga, but thankfully it is fixed now. Although the wall does need to be sorted out!

We decided to move HandsOnHobbies to a new web server but it didn't go well and we haven't been able to get it to work correctly so the shop has been closed since Thursday evening. We decided to move it back to the old server for now and then probably start the shop from scratch using new software, which should be fun! Watch this space.

On top of which my PC is still throwing tantrums. Considering everything that is going on I am somehow managing to keep calm.

My sister is starting a new chapter in her life as she has just got the keys to her new house and is in the process of moving in. I wish her luck with her new start.

I have adapted my cross stitch rotation. I wasn't enjoying stitching on Sleigh Ride and Celtic Winter for just one evening a week. I prefer to spend at least a few days on a project before packing it away. With Sleigh Ride in particular I never looked forward to starting it and when I had to pack it away I had just started to get into it, so it wasn’t progressing very quickly. I have therefore adapted my rotation so both Sleigh Ride and Celtic Winter have slots every month and I can spend longer on them than just one evening. Also I wanted to have Tomboy as more of a focus piece. My new rotation looks like this:

Diane Graebner - Home for the Holidays
HAED - Pink Rose
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
Diane Graebner - Christmas Eve
Solaria Gallery – Girl from Alhambra
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
DMC - Tiger and Cub
HAED - Cabin in the Woods
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
HAED - At First Sight
L&L - The Quiltmaker
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy
CNSC - The Visitor (Fox)
HAED - Invariance
HAED - Tomboy
Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
L&L - Celtic Winter
HAED - Tomboy

I have now also got a list of "Office Projects" which are smaller designs that I will stitch on when I have a few minutes to spare. They are:

Waxing Moon - Bring on the Snow
Lizzie*Kate - Winter Boxer
CSC - Holly Cottage
Derwentwater Designs - Cliff Top
Lizzie*Kate - Flip-it Blessings

My progress photos for the week include Celtic Winter which I did still stitch on Tuesday as usual:

and Tomboy:

I stitched half a page.

As soon as I get a chance I am starting Diane Graebner - Home for the Holidays. I am looking forward to this one. It should be an easier stitch. I wonder if it will make me feel Christmassy in March!

Happy Golden Wedding Anniversary Mum and Dad!

Being married for 50 years is quite an act to follow.

Back to the story of my PC. I spoke too soon, although not as drastic as the week before I did lose a day's work. Although it is working I am having to be very careful as it could crash at any time. It is slowing up my work so much it is driving me crazy.

I did manage in the end to get some of the new stock entered into the webshop, but not all of it. I did get all the new Clear Magic Stamps entered and the gallery with examples of some cards made with the stamps. To see the stamps click here and the gallery click here. There are so many lovely new designs I can't wait to start using them myself.

Now for my stitching update. First of all Sleigh Ride:

Although I didn't get too much done this week the picture doesn't show my progress very well. I did do more than it looks.

Then Celtic Winter:

I think a few more weeks and I will have the cloak finished and I can start on the dress.

Last of all is Evening Lights by Mystic Stitch:

I started stitching this last Saturday. There were a lot of confetti stitches! Hopefully when I finish the trees there will be more patches of one colour. I was delighted to start stitching with a different colour - yeah for pink.

I forgot to mention last week that I have started Bring on the Snow by Waxing Moon Designs (Design 11 - Position 5 in my rotation) I haven't taken a progress pic yet. As it is a smaller design I am stitching on this gradually when I have a few minutes here or there.

I am going back to Tomboy later today, so hopefully will have an update next week.

Thanks for all your comments. I will be visiting your blogs later - PC willing!

What a week! It started off with me feeling terrible with the tiredness being joined by a sore throat, ear ache etc. Then on Monday evening my PC went wrong. I have no idea what happened but it was working fine when I left it to do some stitching on Sleigh Ride and when I went back an hour later to do more work it had crashed. Richard (who is a computer genius) came to look at it but he couldn't get it to start. We spent hours trying things and in the end had to leave it to sleep as it was around 4am. I was doing my best to keep calm but it was a struggle as I realised my backup was out of date and I would have lost my years accounts which I had only just got up to date and balanced as well as so much other important work. Tuesday after only a couple of hours sleep was spent sorting out my PC. In the end Richard managed to get it working and I spent the remainder of the week re-installing software and generally getting things set up. It was such a relief when I found out I hadn't lost anything important. I have now done a full backup and plan to keep it up to date. I don't want to go through that again! Thankfully both of us (that is me and my computer) are feeling much better now.

Thank goodness for stitching! Without it I think I would have gone crazy by now - OK more crazy than I usually am.

This week I found that Sleigh Ride stitched up quickly. I am pleased with how much I completed:

Celtic Winter is coming along nicely as well:

I also started The John Clayton Collection - Mountains And Lake. I am adapting it as it has the strange fractional stitches that Heritage Stitchcraft loves using. I personally think they spoil this design so I am removing them. So far I am pleased with how it is working out:

I promise I will introduce a new colour soon! Blue is one of my favourite colours but even so...

Last night I did the gridding for Mystic Stitch - Evening Lights and am looking forward to starting this later today. Although guess what the first colour is? Yep, BLUE!

I have been too tired this week to do a blog entry. I don't know why I have been so tired, but it has been such an effort to do anything.

Monday evening my mum came to visit, we had a great time. I did do some on Sleigh Ride, it was lovely having someone to chat to while stitching even though at times the conversation was reduced to "one, two, three, four ..." Here is my progress on Sleigh Ride:

Mum showed me some of the coasters she has stitched, they were beautiful and I am going to set her up an online gallery to show them off - just need scans.

Tuesday evening I stitched Celtic Winter as usual. This one is stitching up quicker as it is an easy stitch. I love working on this and watching it grow:

Yesterday evening I finished page 14 of HAED - Tomboy, that brings my total of finished pages to 11. It also means I have completed a third of the design, so only two thirds to go. I am pleased how it is stitching up:

Today I am looking forward to going back to my rotation. I have decided to work on the next three projects: Waxing Moon - Bring on the Snow; John Clayton - Mountains and Lakes and Mystic Stitch - Evening Lights before going back to HAED - Tomboy.

I hope this tiredness goes away for next week as I have a lot to fit in to the week. A lot of new stock is due and I need to find time and energy to enter it into the shop system. I am looking forward to it arriving as it looks good in the pictures!

My husband Richard runs a software games business, and recently published the latest release in the Repton games series. The main character in these games is called Repton because he's a green reptile!

Anyway, it has been such a great success that I have been helping to fulfil the orders for the Repton software; one of the reasons I have been so busy lately.

Richard has received some lovely emails from customers expressing their pleasure with the Repton games, which is very gratifying for us. Several customers have said they are the best games they have ever played, and he received these rewarding comments from two customers recently:

"I have bought Repton 1, 2, 3 and Spectacular from you and love them all."

"I'm really enjoying Spectacular. It has to be the best £9 worth of entertainment that I've ever had."

We are delighted that the games are loved so much!

If you would like to download a free trial version to see what I have been waffling about click here.

Birthday

I had a great birthday (although no stitching)! I spent the day with R who surprised me by playing his guitar. He hasn’t picked it up for over 8 years and still managed to play beautifully. I was so touched; it was the highlight of my day.

I did well with presents, which included 12 HAED charts! I received:

"Giaccometta" Krystal Camprubi
"Ice Wind 2" Linda Tso
"Martyrs" Tracy Butler
"SunkenTreasure" Schim Schimmel
"Sunnia Golden Dragon" Linda Tso
"Swans" Ruth Sanderson
"TheAccolade" Leighton
"The Crown Jewel" Schim Schimmel
"Victory" Selina Fenech

Click here to see pictures. I can’t wait to start them all! I can see my rotation growing.

In a birthday card I was given a few lotto scratch cards which I won £19 with, which added to the fun of the day.

Celtic Winter Day 3

Yesterday evening I worked a bit more on the Celtic Winter SAL:

I am pleased with the progress. I have completed around 5% in 3 days with only a couple of hours stitching each time. It is stitching up quickly and is fun to do.

Tonight I am planning to stitch on HAED ‘Tomboy’. I am looking forward to working on this again.

I am currently rushing around trying to fit next weeks planned jobs into this week, along side this weeks work. It is my birthday on Sunday and I would like to take a few hours off each day next week for some extra stitching time. If you can’t do it for your birthday when can you?  

Unfortunately though it means I am not getting time to read blogs or visit the groups. I will catch up with them soon though – promise.

The Master

I thought we had managed to avoid all the bugs going around at the moment, but on Friday both R and I came down with colds. Feeling pretty lousy I couldn’t settle to anything so didn’t achieve as much as I wanted. Of course I did manage to do some stitching! I started ‘The Master’ which is the head of a male lion. This is a fun one to stitch so have made good progress.

This weekend we have also changed web hosts for my personal site. So far I have been happy with the new company. If it performs well we will be moving the business website over to it. A job I am not looking forward to, but as long as the new web server does perform well it will be worth it.

This evening (as long as I finish work in time) I will be working on Sleigh Ride for the Monday SAL. I will take a progress picture and upload tomorrow.

New Year New Start

This year I am working on being organised.

I am updating both my blog and my personal website http://www.jthanson.co.uk . I still have loads to do.

I spent ages working out a layout for my cross stitch WIP gallery pages and am pleased with the result. I am receiving good feedback for it already which is great. To see what I have done go to: http://www.jthanson.co.uk/tomboy.htm

My cross stitch goals for 2007 are to have started:
Ladies
1 HAED - Tomboy
2 WOCS - Regency Lady
3 L&L - Celtic Winter
4 L&L - The Quiltmaker
5 HAED - At First Sight
6 HAED - Pink Rose
7 HAED - A Favour
21 Solaria Gallery – Girl from Alhambra
Christmas
8 DMC - Home for the Holidays
9 Dimensions - Sleigh Ride
10 Diane Graebner - Christmas Eve
11 Waxing Moon - Bring on the Snow
12 Diane Graebner - Home for the Holidays
13 Lizzie*Kate - Winter Boxer
Animals
14 DMC - Tiger and Cub
15 CNSC - The Master (Lion)
16 CNSC - The Visitor (Fox)
Scenic
17 John Clayton - Mountains and Lakes
18 Mystic Stitch - Evening Lights
19 Leisure Arts - Summer Breeze
20 New Stitches - Highland scene

I have made a webpage on my personal site for my rotation with links to the gallery pages to show ongoing progress. To see it go to: http://www.jthanson.co.uk/rotation.htm

My progress so far:

HAED - Tomboy

HAED - A Favour

WOCS - Regency Lady

HAED - The Pink Rose

Withdrawal Symptoms

I finished the latest Diana Gabaldon book "A Breathe of Snow and Ashes". I listened to the audio unabridged version read by Davina Porter which was on 48 discs while I stitched on an evening. I have been listening to it for so long it seems strange not having it on when I stitch.

I enjoyed this book much more than the last one "The Fiery Cross", even though there were parts, especially towards the end, where it seemed like it had been edited to shorten it. Where Diana Gabaldon normally explains things in minute detail, this seemed to jump from one part to another missing out chunks which I personally would have preferred to be left in. I am happy however long a book is as long as it is entertaining and hasn't just been padded out to fill space. I think Davina Porter is an excellent narrator and really makes the book come alive.

A Favourite Quote:
"If today were a fish
I would throw it back"

Yesterday's Fun

My sister and one of my nephews, Marcus, came here yesterday evening. It was lovely seeing them both as it has been ages since we have spent any time together. My husband took Marcus to play snooker and they both seemed to enjoy themselves. My sister and I stayed home and chatted and chatted... Well you get the idea. She has just started to cross stitch and it was lovely having someone to talk to about it. We also made a couple of cards (not cross stitched), although it was a bit of a rush at the end as it got so late. I really hope it isn't long and we can get together again!

We also started to plan out a quilt I would like made. I have never attempted anything like this before but have stitched the monthly Lizzie*Kate flip-its and five of the holiday flip-its and thought they would make a great quilt. We decided it really needed another holiday flip-it to even out so I am trying to think what to do. I don't want to stitch the 4th of July as I am not from the USA nor the St. Patrick's Day as I have no Irish connections, so I will need to design or alter another chart to fit. So far I have thought of either doing a birthday one (even though that isn't classed as a holiday) or New Year. Am I missing a UK holiday here? If you have any suggestions please let me know.

A Favourite Quote:
"Sometimes I wake up grumpy
and sometimes I let him sleep in!"

Wish List

At last I have got around to setting up a wish list on my personal website. I have been wanting to sort it out since Christmas as I thought it would be good to have an ongoing list available. So if I am asked "what would you like?" I don't have to spend ages trying to remember what it was I saw months ago. I thought it would be easier to have pictures to view instead of just a list, OK so that is mainly so I can drool.

I am also planning to sort out charts and kits I will probably never get around to doing and adding them to my "for sale" page. Having my "wish list" set up will make it easier if anyone wants to do a swap. I just need to remember to keep them both updated!

A Favourite Quote:
"Take my advice ...
I'm not using it!"

Long Day

I am working late tonight as I am about to send a newsletter out for HandsOnHobbies (it can be viewed here). It is going to be a long day; it is a good thing I enjoy my work! Today I managed to get some new products entered into the shop and got more sample cards into the gallery. So I am pleased with my progress.

I don't know what time I will get finished this evening but I am hoping to be able to get some stitching in. I am on the last column of page 1 of HAED "Tomboy" and would like to complete it today.

A Favourite Quote:
"Everyone brings joy to this house…
Some when they enter,
Others when they leave."

Moving Forward

I managed to get so much done today; more than I thought I could. So although tired I am pleased with what has been achieved.

Workwise I managed to get a number of the new products entered as well as improving the descriptions for the Francoise Read Clear Magic Stamps. I also sorted out images for some sample cards made with the clear stamps and set up a gallery online for them. I have also written a newsletter ready to be sent out later this week. All of that was as well as my usual day-to-day work.

Personally I managed to get some tidying and some much needed housework done - the dust bunnies were getting so large I could probably dress them up for Easter. I am now ready to sit and stitch for an hour or so - I am so looking forward to it!

A Favourite Quote:
"To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so."
... Robert Orben

Joy Of Cross Stitch

As I was sat quietly stitching I started thinking of the thrill of seeing a picture develop before my eyes; one created by me. Each stitch one more piece in the jigsaw, on its own just a coloured blob but together with all the other stitches a picture.

Cross stitch means so much to me. I have always wanted to be able to create something but not having artistic capabilities didn't think I could, well except a mess and that doesn't count. With cross stitch it is easy to create something good enough to adorn a wall in your home. If you can count and see (which certainly helps) you can cross stitch. I have even heard of a lady stitching who is blind, I am not sure how she does it but she does (with a bit of help) which I think of in awe. Cross stitch is like anything else if you have the interest and willingness to learn something new you can do it!

A Favourite Quote:
"I can do anything I think I can"

Pat On The Back

Today I received an email from a customer giving me high praise; it made my day. It's lovely receiving feedback like this and makes all the hard work even more worthwhile.

One evening left on the "baby lion" cross stitch before rotating back to "Tomboy". I had hoped to get half of page 8 stitched this week, but it doesn't look like I will be able to; having so many isolated stitches really slowed me down. I am feeling very tired today so am not sure how much I will end up getting done, but I will be doing some. I will take a progress picture after today.

A Favourite Quote:
"I'd like mornings better if they started later"

To Do or Not To Do

Various time management books advise writing out a 'to do' list and prioritising it. So this is what I did and was raring to get started this morning. It worked for about five minutes before going out the window! What are you supposed to do when your shop has a run on certain items and sells out, and you know people are waiting for things? Also what happens when a number of deliveries are made that arrive quicker than usual - so are not planned for and then need checking? Well I am not sure what the 'experts' say you should do (haven't got to that bit in the book yet), but I sorted out an order (of course I had to look into ordering some new products at the same time) and then checked through each parcel which took longer than it should as there were so many new items that just had to be looked at. I can't wait to have a play with everything - or should that be doing 'consumer research', as it all looks brilliant!

Well I did get some things done from my original 'to do' list so that was good, right?

I think next week's 'to do' list has written itself: get new stock entered into the online shop!

A Favourite Quote:
"My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Gone!"