Jobee's Journal

Getting time to write has a been a bit tricky the last few weeks! Especially as there's so much stitching to do. I stitch most evenings, though usually most weeks there is one or two nights where I don't get to. My main finish in the last couple of weeks was The Cowboy Boots. It's for a present and not fully finished yet. I have a picture in my mind of how to do it thanks to watching a lot of flosstube lately! I don't have the supplies to do it though so it has to wait until I get to a place with the appropriate stores. I really like how it turned out. It was easy to stitch and I didn't really get bored of doing only one colour. Having other projects to do at the same time probably helped! Pattern from Instant Cross Stitch on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/218742612/cowboy-boots-counted-cross-stitch? Started June 2018 - Finished 14th September 218 My other finish was one I only started this week. I was watching Flannel Jammies Farm on Youtub...

I'm not sure how often I'll post, maybe once a week or so. Since I'm just starting, I thought I'd do an individual post about each of my current WIP's.  My biggest project at the minute is 'The Pioneer'. It's a Country Threads kit I bought from a shop in Narooma (South Coast NSW). 'The Pioneer' is a famous Australian painting, painted by Fredrick McCubbin around 1901 - it can be seen in the Victorian Art Gallery ( http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5990/ ) http://www.countrythreads.info/Enlarged%20Images/4009%20The%20Pioneer.html My hubby had a print of it in the house and it stayed after we were married. It's looking a bit shabby now, so when I saw the kit I decided to have a go. My reputation for finishing cross stitches in a timely manner is not good as I mentioned previously so I was a bit worried when starting it that I might lose interest quickly. The kit has 16 count Aida and uses DMC threads. I started...

Welcome to my blog!! As you can see if you scroll down, I've tried blogging before but not too successfully!! I've recently started cross stitching again and decided to try again to keep a record of all my stitching. A bit about me. I'm Jo, married with 3 kids, living in country Australia and really enjoying getting back into cross stitch. I started cross stitching when I was about 16. My great aunt was a dressmaker and was always giving us various crafts to try. I wasn't much of a sewer, but for some reason decided to have a go and was hooked.  I had a big break after the kids were born (my oldest is 17). A few years ago I decided to start again with a Frosted Pumpkin Mystery Stitch Along. It was an ideal project to get back into cross stitch with as it wasn't too complicated.  It wasn't until this year that I really got back into cross stitch. I had an unfinished project that had been bugging me for a long time. I'd started the 'Footprints...

E is presenting a project on a Famous Australian on Thursday. We decided she could use the Governor General as her Famous Australian. It makes it easier for all of us being someone she has met. And the fact that she thinks Ms Bryce is wonderful helps (she still calls her the nice lady who asked about my dress) E is supposed to dress up & act like the person she has researched. The dress up bit is easy - she has already requested make up. She's been practising reading out her powerpoint - after each slide we have to 'make it big' so she can present it! I finished off the scrapbook pages I had done about the visit so she can display them on the day. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .

My parents & brother came up over the long weekend which was very nice! We decided while shopping in Narrabri to head to Sawn Rocks & have lunch up there. Seems quite a few others had the same idea!! After we'd eaten, the kids, my brother & I headed along the track to see the rocks. Even though we've been a number of times, the kids still enjoy it. The track is easy - tarred all the way except for where there are metal bridges. They like to explore in the creek bed though which means a trip down some stairs. There were a few ponds left over from rain, so they checked them out & the natural 'stair's that form when the rocks fall.  Suprisingly we didn't have one complaint from E! That was despite her sitting down in every shop we'd been in earlier. I think she had decided she was going to be first back so that kept her going. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .

Flowers on our rogue cotton plants reminded me I hadn't posted a page I did last year showing how the flower turns into a boll. Firstly I guess I'd better say why we have rogue cotton plants in our garden!! A couple of years ago I asked a friend to get us some cotton so I could get some of the bolls. It got left on the verandah too long & kinda self sowed in the garden. We have a mini crop down the side of the house + one lone plant near our driveway.  We've just left it there for now & it's flowering for the 2nd year. Some has already flowered & developed cotton bolls. The one near the driveway seems to do it later than the others.  When it flowered last year I took a series of photos to show how a cotton boll develops. It was around the time there were news reports that lots of students didn't know that cotton grew on plants. So I decided to make a scrapbook page. When cotton is grown commercially it is defoliated before the cotton pickers stri...

Les Miserable is a classic - well in my opinion anyway! I've loved the music basically since I heard it - sometime during school in the late 1980's, around the time it was in the theatre in Sydney. But I didn't see it until much later in a smaller performance in Newcastle. I had studied musicals in my HSC music course so I guess it had come up there & I loved the music. So when I heard it was coming out as a movie, I knew I had to go & see it!! And I wasn't disappointed. It was absolutely brilliant. The whole thing is sung, like the musical, and it was great. I guess there would be lots of things for people to pick apart about the singing since the main stars are big Hollywood names, but I thought that it was pretty spot on. And I guess lots of people don't realise or don't know that Hugh Jackman was in musicals before he went to Hollywood! Anne Hathaway has a really nice singing voice too. I reckon most of the other characters that weren't pla...