Archive for the 'Memes' Category
I should really start answering the SBQs again. I’ll catch up with some of the past questions later, but for now, here’s the latest one:
When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do you take?
If I find tricky little counting errors, I try and fix them or at least frog them on the spot. If I suddenly realise I have a bunch of frogging to do (the sort that usually stems from one particular error), I usually set it aside for a day or so later when I’ve got a cooler head. If I keep making errors every time I pick a piece up - like recently happened with Dragonfly Jewels, then I put it away and work on something else for awhile. Or even better, do something else for awhile.
October 09 2006 | Counted Stitchwork and Memes | Comments Off
Day three of my October challenge, and I’m already resorting to memes! Ha, not really, but Erin tagged me, so who am I to refuse her?!
Today’s meme:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.
Like Erin, I haven’t been listening to much music of my own recently. My taste is pretty eclectic, and I love our CD collection, but it just hasn’t been getting a workout lately. We do watch Australian Idol, and cringe as they murder good songs, and I always have the radio on in the car, but in general, it’s Finn who picks the music during the day.
I don’t know how many of you have three and four year olds, or how far back you can remember, but if you do or once did, perhaps you’ll remember the soundtrack to your life at that point? For some it’s endless Wiggles’ songs, for me it’s endless Play School songs. Play School is the best kids television in Australia, as far as I’m concerned, and in celebration of their 40th birthday this year, Finn and I went out and bought him a double CD pack of fun songs. Plus, we also bought Justine Clarke’s album ‘I like to Sing’ (Justine is a Play School presenter - the hot one, if you ask the dads of Australia 
). So Finn has his own little collection, he knows how to work the a/v equipment better than me, and thus we have endless repetitions of these three CDs. But honestly, I do enjoy them. There are some great fun songs, and we have a lot of fun singing them together. So here are seven of our favourites, and a sampling of the lyrics for your amusement:
Ch.. Ch.. Ch.. The Toothbrush Song
“When you wake up in the morning; At a quarter to one; And you can’t go back to sleep; And you want to have some fun; You brush your teeth…”
Shake My Sillies Out
“I gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out… And wiggle my waggles away”
Upsy Down Town
“In upsy down town; The sky is in the sea; The sea is where the sky should be…”
New Shoe Laces
“I’m going places in my new shoe laces; Put me through my paces in my new shoe laces…”
On the Ning Nang Nong
“On the ning nang nong; Where the cows go bong; And the monkeys all say boo…”
Bump-a-Deedle Dance
“Everybody says sit down, sit down… Well I can’t sit down no I can’t sit down; ‘Cause my feet are all full of dance around”
And our number one favourite, because it’s what I do all day (and just why are 3-year-olds so fascinated with babies nappies, anyway?)…
Yucky Mucky Nappy
“Baby isn’t happy with a yucky mucky nappy, yucky mucky nappy on the baby-o… Put another nappy on the baby-o…”
So there you have it! Now don’t expect me to go tagging people for this, that just seems too much like work! (Besides, also like Erin, I’m also not sure I still have 7 readers left - I think you all ran away because I got too boring!) How about, if you’re reading this now, and haven’t done this meme, you consider yourself tagged. Or not. As you like.
Hope everyone’s having a happy Tuesday - it’s glorious, here… I love Spring 
October 03 2006 | Memes | 2 Comments »
This is the most excellent thing! I pinched it from a Snowball. You too can have your bloggy word cloud printed on a t-shirt. And let me tell you, I’m seriously considering having mine printed - it could maybe, just maybe, have something to do with the ‘little love machine melanie’ in the middle there Love it!
February 04 2006 | Memes | Comments Off
Ugh! The heat is stifling. At least with the outside awnings down and the evaporative cooling on all day, we’ve managed to keep it about 11 degrees below the outside temperature. I even put in a couple of hours stitching on Petal Fairy. Three more hours to go before another progress pic. As I write this, the change is coming in (rather violently actually - it just dropped 10 degrees in 10 minutes), so we shall have sleep tonight!
I forgot to mention a couple of things this week:
I finally got around to doing sets of progress bars in a few different colours - pink, purple and green in addition to the blue I already had. They can all be found in the ‘Progress Bars’ page, see link at top-right. If you’re desperately seeking some other colour, email me, I’ll see what I can do for you.
(As an aside…you may also notice I got rid of my ‘Blogroll’ page. I never got it set up the way I liked, and besides, I’m now using ‘Sage’, an RSS reader that integrates nicely with Firefox, to check for updated blogs. I still like to read most blogs in their intended format, so the personality of the author shines through. A few I read via the feed, but I pretty much only use Sage to notify me of what’s new. A handful of blogs I read don’t have feeds, which is a bummer. Means I now have to rely on my memory to check them. Or other people’s blogrolls!)
Oh, and I’m moderating an exchange over at SBEBB - called, of all things, “Melanie’s Exchange”. Y’know, coz I’m so vain and all that Actually it’s because I made the suggestion (I stole adopted it from the first back-tack exchange, which I watched in admiration). No one could think of a good name for the stitchers’ version of this three-way exchange, so it became mine by default. Anyway, if you’re a member of SBEBB, I hope you’ll check it out, and consider joining us, it should be a fun exchange.
OK… now. A half-arsed attempt at this meme of four-things which Laura tagged me for. (Half-arsed because I’m choosing not to answer some of the questions!)
Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Veterinary Assistant
2. Piano Teacher
3. Research Scientist (the realest of all these jobs - with an actual salary!)
4. Sessional Teacher (Java)
Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1. The Green Mile
2. The Princess Bride (jumping on the bandwagon there, aren’t I?)
3. The Triplets of Belleville
4. The Fifth Element
Four places I have lived:
I lived in a few small country towns before the age of 2, and then just the one slightly larger country town until I was 18, then Melbourne, Australia, ever since.
Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Scrubs
2. Coupling
3. The Amazing Race
4. Grey’s Anatomy
Four places I have been on vacation:
I’m so totally boring! The only O/S place I’ve been is China (well, and Hong Kong, for a stopover only). I’ve been most states in Australia though.
Four websites I visit daily:
1. Gmail
2. The Wagon
3. bom (Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology)
4. The ‘Moodle’ for my current uni course (kind of like a forum thingy)
Four of my favourite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Lasagna (made with fresh pasta)
3. Figs
4. Icecream
Four places I’d rather be right now:
Actually, I’m good right here thanks! About 10 minutes ago I was all set to answer “SOMEWHERE COLD!” But this change is incredible.
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Nah… I’ve seen it just about everywhere, so I’m not sure who hasn’t had it yet. Take it if you’d like it 
January 22 2006 | Blog Blather and General Ramblings and Memes | 2 Comments »
Last week’s SBQ was more about blogging than stitching. I’ve been mulling over my answer to the question since it was posted, and have been interested to read other stitchers’ answers.
Take a minute to reflect on your blog reading habits and preferences. What do you prefer to read in stitching blogs? (Progress, tips, family life, experiences, etc.) How much do you think you are influenced by other stitching bloggers?
Much as I expected, many answered that they like to see mostly (or only) stitching on a stitchers blog. I figured this largely because most of the comments I get here come in response to a post where I actually show some progress on a piece, or on a happy dance post (oh so rare!). For me however, I find most stitching-only blogs don’t hold my interest very long . Yes, stitching is a big part of my life, one of my dearest pastimes, but none of us are one-dimensional.
When I read a blog, I like to be able to feel I ‘know’ the person behind the blog a little better. A good deal of the blogs I read are not stitchers’ blogs. I like to people-watch, and that reflects in my online habits, I think. That said, many of the blogs I read are crafty in some way - either stitchers or knitters or otherwise. These are the people I share interests in common with, so it stands to reason that I will find them interesting. But I am most interested when the blog shares a little bit of this and a little bit of that, along with the craft reports. There are some stitching-only blogs that I check in with, and I have been inspired by some of the wonderful finishing techniques that I’ve seen lately, since discovering some of the bloggers on the SBEBB, but by and large, I want more!
I like witty writing, I like a little bit of fun stuff, a little bit of family stuff, a little bit of stitching, and a lot of personality. I aspire to write this kind of blog myself, and for my one or two readers:wink: to feel they know me just that little bit more (without getting creepy, mind!) That said, I do try and keep the depressing stuff out of here. Life isn’t all happy and shiny, but I would rather my blog be a place to laugh and sing rather than a place of misery. Sometimes the misery might creep in, but most of the time it won’t. I do admire people who can share more of themselves with the whole wide Internet and gain solace from doing so, but that’s not me.
OK, ‘nuf rambling from me now. I’m off to get some stitching pics off my camera so I can get me some more comments:giggle:
December 22 2005 | General Ramblings and Memes | 1 Comment »
Two-by-two is the way I seem to be answering these lately Here’s the latest:
Do you have rules in the way you stitch? (i.e., Do you start in the middle? Do you determine which blocks to stitch first? Do you always start from the top or the bottom? Do you have special paths to prevent wasting thread?)
I always like the ‘rules of cross stitch’ I read on some BB somewhere a while ago. Rule 1: Thread goes in needle. Rule 2: Needle goes in fabric. Everything else is negotiable! That pretty much sums up the way I stitch, though my stitching has changed slightly over time - I used to care about using the least amount of floss and having neat backs. So I would take a path to accomplish those goals. Now I care much more about neat, well-formed ‘x’s, so I don’t worry so much about the backs. As to where I start, I usually start somewhere interesting Gridding allows me to start wherever I like, but lately I’ve been a bit lazy about gridding, and have only done a few lines. I started Petal Fairy in the middle because of that. See… no rules! Just whatever suits me at the time.
Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?
Nope.
(That one was easy!)
December 14 2005 | Counted Stitchwork and Memes | Comments Off
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