I have just come back from one of the most amazing weekends of my life. Unfortunately because it is work-related I cannot really speak about it. But I will say that I had the opportunity to see a remarkable speaker, and have come away from the experience re-energized and enthusiastic about everything!

I have been crafting, but have been restricted to working on my knitting and bluebeard’s princess as I managed to lose the most important screw on my sewing machine! ($8.95 + p&h thank you very much!)

I want to take photos of Bluebeard but the weather is so bad right now that none of the photos will do her any justice.

So instead I’m going to post some pictures that Jessica took in New York City. I think it is amazing that Jessica and I both love photography but we both love to take photos of different things. She loves landscapes, and I love macro and portraiture. It certainly gives us different perspectives of whatever we are photographing!

Anyway, these three photos are the ones we have when you come down the hallway in our house.

My favourite, is the one from Central Park. It was purely coincidental that the photo was taken, we were cutting through the park to get back to the hotel during sunset and came across the great big lake in the centre. The lighting was perfect, and it really reflects what an oasis Central Park is to the residents in that massive city.

-Stacey

I have been trying and keep this blog positive and upbeat, so I apologize if this post is a little bit whiny!

So…..I have a pretty serious leg injury. I don’t know if I will be dusting off my running shoes anytime soon. *sigh* And the injury has become this bad pretty much because of me….

You see it first started in January (yes - 11 months ago!) I would run and my leg would puff up and hurt. So I trotted off to a local physiotherapist, and they said all these technical terms blah blah blah that went straight over my head. But the crux was I needed new shoes, and orthotics. So I did that, but then we went overseas. And I never broke in my orthotics (I had to wear them for two weeks straight in sneakers - it was summer and my feet don’t like being cooped up in closed in shoes during summer!). So I just kept them safely tucked away in a drawer.

So, I kept on running (in my new shoes without the orthotics) and my leg felt okay, not fantastic but certainly nothing to be too concerned about. After all it had stopped puffing up after a run, therefore it had had to have been better, right? Wrong. Oh so, so, so wrong. Fast forward to two months ago, two weeks before my big race. I was away at the time, and had to run on a horrible hotel treadmill for a week, the treadmill was so bad that it was like running on concrete. It was then that the injury became truly aggravated. Nevertheless I still didn’t go back and see someone, and I did run that race.

Fast forward again to now, two months after the race and I *finally* found time to go see a different physiotherapist. And she was not very happy. With me, or the injury, or with the original physiotherapist.
Apparently back in January I gave myself shin splints (where the tendon rips away from the bone - ewww), and because they were poorly treated at the time they have now become chronic. She’s banned me from running, and I have to go have a bone scan because sometime during the year I may have given myself stress fractures in my leg. Wahoo!!

Incidentally, the new sneaker + orthotic combo had I worn them would have done even more damage to myself because they hadn’t been fitted correctly (quote from the physio was “it would have been like running in high heels” had I worn them). Also, if the original physiotherapist had said “Shin splints” I would have treated this whole situation differently. I would have taken the injury far more seriously but at the time it just didn’t seem that bad.

It looks like I’ll be doing “Deep Water Running” for the summer, and pilates to strengthen my legs. I’m really going to miss my time running, it is the only exercise I find that de-stresses me, so to lose it is going to be painful.

Moral of the story: Get your injuries checked out before they become too serious!

The reality is that during mid-week I have very little time at home. There’s no time to bake, nor cook. Due to the crazy work hours I seem to be keeping these days (a few nights a week I don’t finish until 8pm or this week not until 9.30pm!) I try and take “Linner” - a lunch-dinner combo that I eat late in the afternoon at work.

I had my heart set on making a sun-dried tomato, mushroom and cream-cheese toasty. But when I opened up the fridge I was greeted by my pitiful little shrunken mushrooms.

So, sadly I had to make my old faithful a spaghetti, and swiss cheese toasty.

Trust me, it was more delicious than it looked!

It has been a real eye-opener to see how little time I spend in the kitchen during the week. On the weekends Jessica and I love to bake bread and cook meals together. I also *love* making cookies and treats. But I keep jutting up against the brick wall of there not being enough time in my day. However, today I feel more committed than ever to try and do more in the kitchen. Of course we’ll see how long this enthusiasm lasts!

-Stacey

(It’s my turn today;) )

Today is such a gloomy and overcast day.

 However, even on a dark and dreary day I am able to find brightness, colour and happiness in my kitchen (even when the light doesn’t want to let me take decent photos;) )

With our black benchtops -which, btw, show every single crumb or streak perfectly- we have a few little Alebrije friends to help brighten up the room.  

This is rhino who Stacey brought back from Oaxaca a few years back:

As well as our mexican friends, I had a thing for retro anodised kitchenware, and these beauties are my pride and joy:

Now, I am off to make myself a coffee and muesli!

I’m so excited, Simple sparrow is hosting for the week of 3rd -9th of November Moments in our Kitchens.

I’m not a fantastic cook, but I do love to bake and even though our kitchen is tiny I thought J and I could give it a go!

So here is day 1!

An integral part in my morning ritual is making my morning coffee.

Depending on J’s work schedule (if she wants to start early or not), she either joins me for a cup, or I enjoy my cup by myself.

Today I was by myself so I had my cup of coffee out on the back deck with some magazines.

And a cat….

The weather is looking particularly grim today, which suits me fine. I’ll feel less guilty about crafting inside! I’m torn between working on Christmas stockings, or my cross stitch. Perhaps I’ll work on both?

-Stacey

caterpillar

Originally uploaded by glowstar

Haha I’m blogging at work. Yes I have plenty of work to do, but none of it is too pressing! But I couldn’t wait until I arrived home to show what I worked on this morning. I started and finished quilt number 2 for Christmas!

It’s for my cousin’s new baby girl. I have enough the fabric leftover that I may be able to do another for my brother’s little girl too.

From pin-basting my first (of two) Christmas quilts. It is a huge relief to sit down after spending all that time on the hard floor! If only we had a dining room table that was big enough to baste quilts on!

Anyway, here it is in all it’s unbasted but layered glory.

This has been the easiest quilt top I have ever made. None of the seams had to match up so it was pure bliss!
And…*gulp*….I am going to attempt to machine quilt it. Hopefully I will not destroy this quilt top.

(And if I do destroy the top I will be retiring from quilting!).

Wish me luck!

Whoa! Two posts in a row by me (Ica/Jessica)!

A fair bit has happened since my last ‘proper’ post, a new job mainly, but most excitingly with the new patch I am back into being WoW addicted…

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit I am not the most prolific or talented crafter around, but I am sad to say that my poor half finished projects -and I am a starter not a finisher by nature anyway- will probably take even longer to finish now :/

The new achievement system especially is going to be my downfall.

Ahh well, off to try catching ‘Old Crafty’ again…

Well, I now can blog from my iPhone…
Exciting

Well, we have skipped through Spring, and are in the throes of Summer temperatures here! It’s only the beginning of October and I am already *over* the hot weather…eek! (only 5 more months…only 5 more months…)

I have to say (and it is a pathetic excuse) that the weather, work and Ripley’s injury have been getting me down lately, so I’ve only been doing snippets of crafting. However, this week I have taken a week off work to relax, and I have given myself permission to do absolutely nothing, and anything above that will be counted as a bonus

So here is what I have been working on:

I have *finally* finished “My Needles Work” by LHN

Due to weather restrictions, I have started smaller projects. I thought knitting up dishrags would be lots of fun! And it has been!!

This is my first one. Done in a double seed stitch.

My second one, done in a basketweave stitch.

And of course, the obligatory action shot! In use on my coffeemaker (best purchase of 2008 in case you were wondering! I *love* that machine!)

I don’t often show stash purchases, but these two projects are for Christmas presents. J and I have decided to do a “handmade” Christmas for friends and family. Here’s hoping they like the finished projects….

After completing my LHN project, I dragged my dracolair dragon back out. Page one is *almost* completed. Yay!

This embroidery is the start of a big quilt. J’s mum said she would do the patchwork for it, if I did the embroidery…sounded like a fair deal Then of course I remembered that I don’t like backstitching…. oh dear!!

Sorry about the crunkles, the ironing board didn’t want to come out today

And lastly, this is the final picture of my RR piece.

If you look closely, you should be able to see the beads. I used the recommended beads, but in hindsight I should have changed out the really pale ones.

Now my September goals were:

Stitch on a Mirabilia RR piece Done!
Finish my little quilt - this time with no puckering - Err nope (started it, but then had issues…)
Finish another project - anything will do LHN will count!
And, run my first 5K race Done and dusted!

October Goals….
Relax
Relax
Relax

-Stacey