This bank holiday I...

1. Went to the anti-coagulant clinic every day

As I mentioned in my post on Friday, my INR reading had gone down, i.e. not the right direction. This has meant my warfarin dosage has been bumped up and a visit every day to keep an eye on it. I am also now injecting myself with Fragmin, a fast-acting anti-coagulant, in an attempt to thin my blood out more quickly. Injecting myself was a quite frankly terrifying prospect but it's not a big deal anymore, I just have to grab a load of fat on my stomach (I knew there had to be a good reason for me being overweight!) and stick the needle in. It doesn't hurt too much, just a little scratch and I feel very brave when I do it.

At the time of posting my INR is stuck resolutely at 1.7 and has been for the past 3 days. It just doesn't seem to be onboard with the whole concept of thinning out. I'm now taking 10mg of warfarin, which is a pretty hefty dose, and injecting the fragmin every day. I'm back at the clinic on Friday afternoon so fingers crossed there'll be a 2 on the machine!

2. Went to a barbeque.

We were undeterred by the rubbish weather because we are hard. BBQs suck when you're on Weightwatchers because there are way too many points on offer. It is very annoying. But I did my best and had quite a bit of the sweetcorn because that's all good. It was also one of the first times I was surrounded by drunk people and not being one of them. It was strange. And annoying.

3. Attended a stitch-a-thon.

One of our Stitch & Bitch group is off to Ghana for a couple of weeks in August to a charity she worked with before. They are currently trying to raise funds to buy a landrover to get between villages and we held an all day stitch in at a cafe in Hull. We had a little bucket and told friends and family and people came and stuck change in our bucket and admired our stitchery activities and we managed to raise £115. Not a bad day considering we basically wanted an excuse to sit about and stitch all day. I managed to start and finish this piece for the exhibition at the end of the month.
4. Did some crocheting.

Oooh what does that picture look like? Does it look like I've joined all my squares together? Oh hell yes. I managed to join all my squares together after a lot of dramatics and eye-rolling and squeals of temper. Now there is just the edging to do (no idea what I'm doing with that) and it is finished. Can't quite believe it.

5. Revelled in getting an extra day off

Although I generally think of work as something which gets in the way of doing the things I really want to do, I have to admit that sometimes it has its benefits. One of those being that we get an extra 3 days holiday a year for free - usually the Tuesday after the last bank holiday in May, the Tuesday after the August bank holiday and a day at Christmas. I didn't do much with today, especially as it's rained all freaking day but any day at home is better than a day at work.

6. Picked up two visitors
Mum is off to stay with my sister for a few days so we have taken delivery of Fred and Lily. So far they have mainly slept. I keep going in to the bedroom and fussing and poking them but they've been resolutely boring. This is why they bug us at 3am - they sleep all frickin' day.

7. Got my bake on
Haven't baked since starting Weightwatchers because the thought of finding out how many points were in the stuff I was making made my brain bleed a little bit. However, the WW website has some recipes and today I made banana and Malteser muffins. Only 4 points each, thus eliminating the guilt out of eating something 'bad'. I will be rewarding myself with one tonight because I just found out I've lost another 2.5 pounds (meaning there's officially 10.5lbs less of me than there was 3 weeks ago).

Views from the sofa

What I can currently see...

A foot which is much less swollen and getting less painful by the day. Thankfully not broken, a discovery made by a late night trip to A&E on Bank Holiday Monday just to make sure. Just a very bad sprain. Story of my life. I am incredibly clumsy and have lost count of the number of times I have cockled over on my ankles but somehow have never broken a bone. Must be all that milk my Mum made me drink when I was younger.

Pretty tulips that Mum got me as a present for looking after Fred and Lily for a week.

Mr Tree who is looking obscenely green. Seriously. Didn't I tell him in the last Tree Project post to slow the hell down?

Everything I need on 2 little tables:

- cup of tea

- glass of water

- my best friends, Ibuprofen and Paracetemol

- Grey's Anatomy Series 2 - currently re-watched most of this series in the last few days

- New book on the go, Stephen King's Duma Key

- Aida, hoop, thread and needle ready to start my next piece for the Embroidering the Truth exhibition

- Granny squares. Look at how many now!! Eighteen baby. Eighteen. I feel that the end is almost in sight. Almost.

Unfortunately all the relaxing and fun is almost at an end. Mum is taking me into work later this afternoon to pick up some work to bring back home and get stuck in to. Much as I would just love to be off sick, there's a part of me that knows I should be more professional, I can do work, I just can't walk at the moment. Planning on being back in the office on Friday, although we'll have to see how the 20 minute walk in to work goes.

Something else I can see? In the distance, lying on their side, the cause of all my misery...

I can't decide whether to throw them out or frame them.

PS. To Mr/Ms Anonymous who left the comment on my last post which had more than a slight tone of judgement to it - I'm 27. Thanks for asking :)

I'll show you productive

A quick check of the calendar last week revealed that this weekend would be the first one I would be spending at home in 4 weeks. That left me with 2 warring factions of my brain;

Side A: Oh my god brilliant you must sit about and do knack all and celebrate the fact that you don’t have to go anywhere or see anyone
Side B: Do not waste this weekend.

The fact is that I’m not really brilliant at just sitting around. Don’t get me wrong I can veg like the very best of them but sometimes I just get a little itchy and don’t like the feeling of just being slumped on the sofa staring blankly at the television. Hence even when I’m watching some incredibly mind expanding programme like The Hills or Hollyoaks, I’m usually doing something else whether it be cross stitch or crochet or, less often, ironing.

I decided to please both sides of the brain. There would be time for vegging but I was determined the weekend would not be completely unproductive.

Saturday included the very boring task of going shopping. For the first time ever I planned out in advance what we would be having for tea this week and needed a few extra bits. Then it was time to make start on a friend’s birthday present.

Her birthday was the day before mine. As in 3rd April. And I saw what I wanted to get her in February. I bought it and congratulated myself on my superb organisation powers. Then I promptly forgot to get around to actually making the damn thing. If only one thing would be achieved this weekend it would be the making of the guinea pig.

Yeah. I bought a little ready to sew up kit and made her a guinea pig. Because she has guinea pigs. And, you know, I’m hilarious.

I’d put this off because I looked at the instructions a while back and nearly gave myself a brain aneurism trying to figure out what in god’s name it was on about. Luckily for me, the boyfriend speaks Incomprehensible Sewing Instructions so he was there to let me know what I was supposed to be stitching to what.

The end result? Probably the funniest gift ever. I don’t know why but every time I look at it I want to dissolve into giggles. Just look at him.

Fred was slightly less than impressed with my efforts but I’m hoping my friend will appreciate it and forgive me for being a month too late.

I thought Sunday was going to be a write off because I had a night on the town on Saturday but I must be getting sensible in my old age because I jumped in a friend’s taxi at midnight, rather than keeping on going until the early hours. (Truth be told I would have carried on partying like a rockstar but there’s one thing you need to know about Hull. There are no taxis. Seriously. There are none. Don’t even think about going out without booking one to come home and even then it most likely won’t turn up.)

Things weren’t looking brilliant on Sunday. I spent the morning lying on the floor where I’d fallen asleep (I was trying to fix my bad back, which hadn’t totally appreciated me going out in 4 inch heels. Tell you what though, alcohol? Best painkiller ever. Didn’t feel a thing all night), watching Hollyoaks and thinking really hard about getting out of my pyjamas.

I had a sudden spurt of energy about 3pm and got my backside in the kitchen where I made Simone's Cherry & Sultana cake. The verdict? So so good. And even better still warm from the oven with a cup of tea. Oh. My. God.

I also made a Spinach & Ricotta Chicken Lasagne which J had featured on her blog a while ago. You have got to try this out. It was beyond good. What’s beyond good? Oh I know....ACESOME. I felt like I’d actually made an effort in the kitchen, I felt most smug with myself, especially seeing as there was an incident a month ago when I tried to make lasagne and it didn’t go well and I may or may not have actually cried about it. I feel I’ve put that ghost to rest now. Pictures? Erm, no because I was shovelling it in my face. AND there’s some in the freezer to have on a day when I’m lazy.

And lastly, I finished another piece for the Embroidering the Truth exhibition. I’m on a roll now people, five completed and 2 more months to go. I’ve actually got so many quotes stored up that I’m going to have to start picking favourites because I’m not going to have time to do them all.

(I overheard this one at the Post Office when a group of girls were talking about a fancy dress party they were going to)

So I reckon that qualifies as the perfect balance. Productive? Yes. Lazy? Yes. (I never did get out of my pyjamas on Sunday. Well technically I did but that was to shower and put them back on again. Yeah I’m kinda gross.)

The Stitch and Bitch project

Again. Thank you for all your kind words of support and advice. I do listen to them and I do think about them and they're all greatly appreciated. I really don't want this blog to become all about my moanings though so if I seem to move on to other things with remarkable speed it's not that I'm cold-hearted, more that I'm trying to look on the brightside!

When Stitch & Bitch first started back in September 2009 the word ‘exhibition’ was mentioned. One of the founding members of S&B had done an art degree and was very enamoured with the idea of us all creating something to display for others.

I was not so keen. I have a desperate need to be liked, which means that I don’t handle criticism very well – the thought of putting my work up for strangers to see makes me feel a little queasy. What if they don’t like it and think it’s stupid? My fragile little ego couldn’t cope with it all.

My policy was just to ignore any suggestion of an exhibition and hope the problem would go away but she persisted and last month it was decided. Exhibit we would.

And actually it was a very cool idea so I willingly hopped onboard.

We would be cross-stitching/embroidering/whatevering quotes that we overheard on our travels.

Basically, we would eavesdrop on peoples’ conversations and take little snippets and turn them into a finished article.

And the exhibition would be called...

Embroidering the Truth.

See what we did there?

It’s been hilarious. At first I was worried that I would never overhear any conversations but I have developed a knack of listening in without making it too obvious that I’m listening in.

Unfortunately this has meant there have been a couple of occasions when the boyfriend has been sat there, chatting away to me only to realise I’m not listening even slightly and am instead earwigging in on the conversation the two people on the table next to us are having.

But I explained to him that sometimes art has its casualties.

We now have an official exhibition date for the end of June so we are furiously stitching away in an attempt to build up our portfolio.

So far I have....

Which was overheard in a rather seedy pub near to where I live – I think he was trying to impress the woman he was with. Or the rest of the pub seeing as he practically shouted it.

And....

Which was overheard on my way to a particularly unsavoury part of Hull and was made by a particularly stoned person on the back of a bus. I’m very proud of this one because I designed my bar table all by myself. For someone who has to always follow patterns this was a big step into creativity.

And also...

Which is the first snippet of conversation I overheard which was taking place between a rather drunk girlfriend and boyfriend who were waiting for a table in an Indian restaurant just down the road.

And I’m currently working on this bad boy, which I overheard at the boyfriend’s Grandma’s funeral of all places.

It’s been great to do something as a little group. We’ve all become firm friends now but it’s been nice to all be working on something together and I’m actually very excited to see all our stuff up on the walls somewhere.

So if you’re in Hull and you see someone leaning in uncomfortably close to your conversation...speak up a bit will you?

(Apologies for the crappy photos - they will look much better when they are ironed and

framed and generally prettified)

The V Word

There are an awful lot of hearts around at the moment you know.

I’m not really one to go all out on Valentine’s Day. Have never done the exchanging of gifts, I’ll send a card, maybe go for a meal out but that’s it really.

I don’t have anything against it as a day, I’m not one of those people who start foaming at the mouth and saying “You shouldn’t need a day to be romantic”. I agree, it shouldn’t be the only day that you are romantic, but if there’s chance for a little bit more and a day to take a little time out and be especially nauseating then why not take it?!

At the same time, I’m not going to line the pockets of some savvy businessmen who have latched on and want me to buy The Greatest Love Songs Ever of The Decade Ever and Ever Part II as a declaration of my love.

I’ll just make a card for the boyfriend and maybe we’ll go out somewhere and maybe we’ll stay in. Who knows?

Ah yes, “make a card”.

This is when living together becomes an irritation. Last year was easy peasy, I was living with Mum, plenty of time to get my needle and thread out. This year? He’s there ALL THE TIME.

Luckily I’ve had Stitch and Bitch on a Thursday evening to do some stitching, (although when we picked me up last week and asked me what I’d done I had to give the rather lame answer of “Oh nothing, I just couldn’t be bothered”) and in the evenings before he’s come home I’ve got my stitch on, and I have encouraged him to take lots of nice, long, relaxing baths, but it was looking like it wasn’t going to get finished.

My salvation came in a rather painful way though.

I have done my back in.

I would love to say that it was flying through the air on a trapeze, or skiing down a mountain, but I just slept a bit funny. And I woke up and it hurt. Then the next day it hurt a bit more. Then the next day a bit more. Then the next day a bit more. Then the next day I cried. Then I got a taxi home from work because I couldn’t walk, sit, stand or generally concentrate and I spent that day and the next lying on the floor at home.

It was irritating and incredibly annoying. I felt absolutely fine. I was at home, I could be doing things!

But my back wouldn’t let me.

“NO” it said when I asked it if it would mind me just sitting on the sofa with my legs out. “NO” it said when I asked it if it would mind if I laid my full length on the sofa. “YOU MUST LIE FLAT ON THE FLOOR.” It demanded.

I tried to reason with it. “But it’s annoying lying flat on the floor, can’t I just lie on my side?”

“NO. ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN. GET. FLAT.”

You can’t do anything! I thought I would spend lots of time piddling about on the internet, but I had to balance the laptop to do so and I figured that at some point I was going to get a broken nose when it fell on me. I figured I’d pick up my cross stitching but that too was annoying. My arms got tired from holding it in the air and because I was following a pattern I kept having to stop and put down the aida, pick up the pattern, see where I was and do the next line.

In one word.

FRUSTRATING.

But I am pig-headed. And I persevered because I knew that this was my silver lining. Yes I was in pain and probably overdosing on ibuprofen but here was the perfect time to get the boyfriend’s Valentine’s Day card made.

(Sometimes you have to look really hard for positives)

So hurray for me, it is done and I can relax for the next week or so.

On the floor.

(The pattern for the card came from The World of Cross Stitching magazine and was part of a Love Token sampler)

(My back is on the mend now, and has felt much better today. I am receiving some treatment in the form of acupuncture - probably more on that in a later post!)

The devil's craft

Like many before me I was seduced by the adverts.

They promised me things.

I felt like they had answered my prayers. How did they know I had declared 2010 the Year of the Crochet?

And here, before me, for a mere 99p (to start with) I could learn! There was wool! And a hook! And easy step by step instructions!

I was whisked away with it all. I had visions of a home like Attic 24 - I would bask in the adoration of those who appreciated the magic I would weave with a hook and some wool.

Has anyone ever told you how frigging annoying crocheting is?

Afterwatching the DVD and reading the magazine, I embarked on my mission - easy peasy.

Not easy peasy.

Turns out either I can't follow instructions or the instrutions were no good (I'm tempted to go with the former if I'm honest) because what was appearing from my hook bore no resemblance to what I was supposed to be producing.

I spent a whole day trying to figure it out. The boyfriend must have been sick and tired of my ball of wool begin thrown across the room. As I hooked and then tore apart my hook, the wool became as frayed as my temper.

Help eventually came in the form of Stitch & Bitch, where one of the girls showed me the error of my ways.

After many many many more attempts (including a complete inability of crochet straight lines, I had more curves in the edges of my work than Kelly Brook), I finally crocheted a square of treble stitch.

There was much rejoicing.

But this wasn't good enough. I want to make the square that the magazine wanted me to make. If I didn't do it I would feel it was mocking me.

Well mock away magazine because I officially give up. I have everything you asked of me. I have pulled apart countless swatches and instead of looking like the picture in the magazine, my square bears no resemblance to it whatsoever.

I didn't want to make your stupid blanket anyway.

My Stitch & Bitchers have solidly stood by me and encouraged me and have put up with me temper tantruming in the corner. They eventually managed to get me to make a flower which I am very proud of (but which I can't really do anything with because it is a rather crazy shade of orange). I will persevere however and next on the list is a granny square.

But for now, I'm returning to my soothing cross stitch for a while. It understands me, it makes sense, there aren't a billion different stitches and instructions, just up one hole and down the other.

Peace and tranquility have returned to the flat.

For now...

Want to see the geekiest thing I ever cross-stitched?

So by now you know that I'm a cross stitch geek.

But I feel that there are certain levels of geekdom and I'm on the cooler end of the scale (if one exists).

One thing that has always made me laugh are the cross stitch magazines. A few of them have a feature that's called something like Stitch a Star and they give you a chart of a celebrity for you to cross stitch.

I've always been baffled by these. They most definitely register as "sad" on the geekometer. For instance, this month in one of these magazines there's a chart of Piers Morgan. Who would want that?! They always put me in mind of the little old ladies who have flying ducks on the wall and pictures of Elvis all over the place. Those little old ladies would love a cross stitch of Piers' face.

But then.

Early in 2009 I saw one of these charts and knew exactly who I could cross stitch it for. American Girl's birthday was coming up and I would cross stitch this person's face and make it into a card. It would be hilarious.

Her birthday was in August so I had plenty of time.

However I am rubbish and didn't get it finished in time to send to her for her birthday.

I'll send it for Thanksgiving I said to myself and carried on.

Then I had a crisis of confidence.

What if she didn't find it hilarious like I did and was offended or something?! What if she thought I had mental problems?! What if she couldn't work out who it was?!

Thanksgiving came and went.

"I'll make it into a card for Christmas" I thought to myself.

Then I thought. What's the point in doing that?! She's going to be coming here a week after Christmas so you might as well just wait and give it to her then.

When The Americans arrived in Hull from their trip to Paris, American Girl gave me a present - a charm for my charm bracelet of the Arc de Triomphe. In turn I thrust a tatty rag into her hands (I hadn't even made it in to a card or given it a quick wash)....

I was lucky. She found it hilarious.

Yes. I did cross stitch Barack Obama's face.

Now who do I know that like Piers Morgan?....

Something crafty this way comes...

Reading everybody's blogs has left me feeling rather inadequate about my paltry efforts to the Creative and Crafty Chrismas God.

I've been thinking I was a bit of a crafty person. But it turns out that I'm just crafty in comparison to the people that I'm friends with. Once I turn to the blogs it turns out I'm lower down the ranks of craftiness. Actually I'm probably at the bottom.

But I must be patient and accept that these things take time. 2009 was the year of the cross stitch. Now I have that mastered that, 2010 will be the time to turn my hand to other crafts. Crochet, knitting, sewing - they're all on the list!

So my creative efforts this year are pretty much solely based around aida and thread. The Christmas cards have been cross-stitched and are ready to be sent out. There is a tier system operating with my Christmas cards this year - family and very close friends will receive the honour of a cross-stitched card through their letterboxes. The next tier will receive Christmas tree cards as blogged about in this post and the credit to which goes entirely to Petit Filoux. The final tier of people (mainly consisting of people I work with and those people who give me cards unexpectedly) will be receiving some shop bought ones.

The cross stitch has also extended to tags for people's presents. There was an alphabet included in the latest issue of Cross Stitch Card Shop and I have been furiously stitching away in an attempt to get them all finished in time for Christmas Day and the last posting date.

They're not too fiddly and only take a couple of hours to do so that's been about 1 a night which doesn't sound too bad until you realise how many Christmas presents you have. The decision was made very early on that no matter how many presents someone was getting, they would only be receiving one tag with their initial on it.

Last night Christmas came to the flat as I sat there and began the wrapping process. I love it. I absolutely bloody love wrapping presents. Normally there's lots of string and bows and fancy stuff which people do seem to like when they see the present but is closely followed by complaints that they can't actually get in to their presents. I figure if they have a special tag then I'm allowed to miss out the streamers.

Oh my goodness. It's actually nearly here...

PS Do you love the sprout wrapping paper? Like really love it? Well tough you can't have it. God alright alright you can, you just need to go to Urban Outfitters. It's £2.50 a sheet so I wouldn't make plans to wrap all your presents in it but it's great for little stocking filler type pressies.

PPS The rest of the wrapping paper is from Paperchase.

Efficiency

Sometimes. Just sometimes. Life gets a little messy and out of order and disorganised.

This causes me great upset.

I don’t like mess. I don’t like disorder. And I definitely don’t like the feeling I get when things are disorganised.

Organised is good. Organised makes sense. Lists are a person’s best friend. You know why?

Efficiency.

What a lovely word it is. I like being efficient. Life is short and sometimes we mustn’t waste precious moments. And if that means getting dressed while I’m on the toilet then so be it.

Clearly that was a joke.

(it wasn’t a joke)

ANYWAY

When I feel that things are getting a little out of control I have a safe little place I can retreat to.

I could sit down with some M&Ms and put them in piles of the same colour (yes I have a touch of the OCD about me) OR I can go to my cross stitching file.

That’s right blog-friends. Cross-stitching FILE. I’m a geek. I buy the magazines, mostly because I am missing the creative gene that would mean I could design my own stuff. I’m happy to copy from other people.

But magazines can be messy. They can get in the way. They do not form an orderly pile. And I don’t want all the designs anyway. So within a week of me getting the magazine it has been ripped apart and the useless bits tossed aside. The good bits, the stuff I want to keep and copy one day are then filed.

FILED. It goes hand in hand with efficiency.

Unfortunately my file is not very exciting to look at. That’s because my boyfriend stole it from work for me and solicitors apparently don’t have fun files, they have boring, serious, grey files. But I’m not one to complain. :)

These charts are not just filed away willy nilly. That would not make them efficient. No no no. To be efficient they must be filed IN ORDER, by CATEGORY.

Ah you may laugh but next time you think to yourself “Oooh I might cross-stitch a flower to put on a card to give to my Granny” will you be able to flip straight to section 6??? where you will find all charts of all flowers?

I can.

(Yes I am smiling smugly to myself.)

And when I have selected my chart I turn to my little thread box.

Aaaah the thread box.

Thread box also makes me happy.

It is a) colourful and b) ORGANISED.

When I buy new threads I have a jolly little time spinning them on to my little cardboard bobbin things, using my spinny bobbin gadget.

Then they get put in their place.

Then when I need to find colours I can easily see whether I’ve got them or not. I usually don’t but I might have one that’s one out and if it’s the difference between using Orange and Slightly-Less-Orange-But-Not-Really then I’ll save my 75p thank you very much.

So if things get a little stressful you will find me looking through my file and looking at my threads.

They make me happy.

(Today’s post was brought to you by the words EFFICIENCY and GEEK)

Why sometimes it is good that you get sick.

Remember this one time when I was ill?

Well there was a small part of me that secretly enjoyed it. When I stopped wanting to cry that is. Because it meant that I was legitimately allowed to stay at home and cross stitch to my little heart’s content.

I actually didn’t end up getting as much done as I thought I would. Turned out I was quite ill and I was kept company by a rather marvellous banging headache which drummed out such a rhythm that I actually found it kind of hard to concentrate on needles and holes and charts.

But even so, a couple of Christmas cards were made and I started to make a birthday card for a close friend of my Mum’s.

She’s almost a second Mum to me really, I’ve known her all my life and her and my Mum are a pretty formidable duo when she comes to town. It’s actually quite a relief that she lives in Milton Keynes now, otherwise I’d be worried for the residents of Hull.

As soon as I saw this design I knew I wanted to stitch it for her and thought it would make a nice card. Then when I was finished I thought, why waste it on a card? Put it in a frame and then it can be her present.

The reasons this idea was good are two-fold;
1. She will appreciate the effort I’ve gone to, being a crafty person herself
2. It means I don’t have to buy her a present and I’m all in favour of saving money

The time has come for her to begin her little journey down South and before she gets wrapped up and put in an envelope I thought I would share her with you...

Isn’t she ace?

Wouldn’t we all like to be her?

Sometimes aren’t we all a little bit like her?

The wall of cross stitch begins...

When I decided a year or so ago that I was going to be a little cross stitcher I got a little worried.

I had visions of myself living in a house surrounded by cross stitched samplers and pictures like a very old lady. (I imagine I'd also have several cats, waiting for me to die so they could eat my face.)

It turns out that that hasn't happened.

You know why?

THINGS LIKE THAT TAKE FREAKING AGES!

I've done a couple of birth samplers that I have given to friends and they've been very appreciative but they take up some serious time which means that no time can really be spent on doing anything for myself. Add in all the birthday cards that I make and my dreaded vision so far hasn't come true.

BUT.

Now it begins...

For my birthday in April a friend knew that I was a geek and got me the perfect present. I set to it at once.

(That's a lie)

I didn't start it until August.

But I did track my progress...

Look! It's cross stitch! And cats! Combined!

And even though I finished it in August it's taken me until this weekend to get my backside in gear and get it properly framed. (Apologies for the rubbish last picture but it's dark in the mornings and and the evenings now - what's that all about?!)

And now it's on the wall. And I have stated out loud that he will be joined by other cross stitch projects that I will one day complete. There's one that I started on Boxing Day last year and have yet to finish. I've abandonned hopes of getting it finished within the year but now I have something to aim for - I want another one on the wall!

Sometimes I'm pretty sure I can feel the boyfriend despairing.

What's the collective for a group of crafters?

I have made a discovery.

I’m not the only geek!

I realise that my love for cross stitching is not a completely normal hobby for a 26 year old. It’s one traditionally associated with old ladies but I am proud of my hobby (kind of).

Normally when I tell people I like cross stitching, I do it with slightly hunched shoulders and an almost wince on my face as I prepare myself for the onslaught of incredulity. It’s kind of the same pose I adopt when I tell people in Hull that I went to private school. It doesn’t go down well over here.

Anyway back to the cross stitching...

I no longer need to be afraid! I can proudly declare to one and all that I am a stitcher! Because I now have an army behind me.

Ok. It’s not an army.

A friend of mine has got a few people together who also like being crafty little so-and-sos.
And we meet on a Thursday in a coffee shop that stays open late and we sit about and do our crafty things and drink tea and gossip. (I’ve just realise that rather than making us sound cool I’ve just described us like a group of old ladies. Fail.)

There are people who crochet, people who knit, people who cross stitch and there’s a dose of embroidery thrown in. Some people come and go but there’s a faithful core of 5 of us who are there come hell or high water, needles and thread in tow. I’m not going to lie, I’m not massively productive on these nights, it’s more about the talking than the crafting for me but once Christmas is over and the last of the cards have been finished, I’m looking forward to getting one of them to teach me to knit or crochet.

And it’s been good for me. I was getting a little bit bored with myself to tell you the truth. Money’s tight at the moment (when is it ever not but I’m trying to get myself out of the mire of student debt so I am resigned to the fact that this will be my life for the next couple of years) and I was just sitting in and watching rubbish on TV. Not good for your social skills.

Now I know that at least once a week I’ll have somewhere to go and some people to see. You don’t need to spend loads of money to make yourself feel refreshed, you just need a break from home for a while. And yes, most other nights I will be sat at home, watching something dreadful on the TV like The Hills or another programme that rots my brain and cross-stitching, but on a Thursday I will be out on the plains, free to frolic and roam with my fellow geeks....I mean crafters.

The christmas cross stitching has unfortunately started a little late this year so only 'special' people are going to get cross stitched cards. I haven't decided what the criteria is going to be but I do know that this little guy is for my Mum...

(I've made it back to work! Managed to last the whole day today as well although I am now absolutely shattered so I'm going to take a holiday tomorrow and have a long weekend with plenty of sleep so that I'm fully recovered and back to myself on Monday morning.)

Productivity

So far this weekend has been pretty productive. With the countdown slowly ticking away 'til my friends come over from America, the race is on to get little things sorted in the flat. There are just those little niggly things that don't desperately need to be done but it would be nice if they were done so that when they arrive I can be smug and proud of my little home.

Top of the list were bedside tables. Our bed fits very nicely in to an alcove in our bedroom but unfortunately it was the bed and nothing else that fitted in. There's the tiniest space on each side of the bed and it's been impossible to find bedside tables which are thin enough. So the boyfriend was tasked with building some so he got his manly man head on and spent Saturday morning making them.

Yes. They are a little wonky. But it really doesn't matter, he's made them, we have something beside our bed, so there's a little bit of sloping...what's a bit of sloping between friends?!

Obviously with us not having a garden he had to build them indoors and the amount of sawdust that was flying everywhere was too much for my inner clean freak to cope with. So while the boyfriend got busy with drill, nails and saws, I took myself away.

To Hobbycraft.

Hull is slowly coming up in the world, after years of the most up to date shop being Next and Topshop, we now have such delights as an H&M and a Zara and finally a Mama & Papas. And on Thursday Hobbycraft opened its doors. I've never been in one of these before and when Mum and I walked through the doors I actually went "Oh my god" We walked round in a trance before Mum frantically whispered to me "There's an upstairs! You can go upstairs!"

There was too much to take in. I felt a little bewildered and overwhelmed to be honest. I need to go back when it's a little quieter and I'm a little calmer. There is just anything you could think of that could be related to craftiness in there. And then some stuff you would never have thought of. I went a little mental buying threads for christmas cards - I have no idea exactly when I think I'm going to be making all these, is it possible to cross stitch in your sleep?

How's my finger I hear you ask? Well it just so happens that I have a picture...

It's much better, definitely not broken, I have full mobility although as you might be able to see in the photo it's still pretty bruised. Actually you probably can't see that in the photo so you're just going to have to take my word for it. I can't tell you how good it's been to get my left hand back. This girl is very left handed, my right hand has virtually no use and it has not been helpful at all in this long week when I've been incapacitated. It can't even hold a pen for god's sake!

(I was supposed to be sorting out my wardrobe this weekend, following advice from this lady but I went out last night and don't feel up to it yet. But I am definitely going to do it!)

So. Bedside tables. One thing ticked off what is now known as The Countdown List.

By the way did you know how many days there are left til they get here?