Counting Down

Only four more days of work, including today, then a whole 2 weeks of holidays. I am actually having a good work week cos I am alone in the office. Basically I work for a small company of scientists and a technician (the male boss, he has no formal qualifications) and as such they spend a lot of time "off site". Except the male boss, but since one of the girls quit (now it is just me and the lovely Miss T, one down, two to go) he is now having to get out a lot and hence I am alone most of the time this week and loving it. It gives me time to search for another job too. Not that anyone is advertising just before Christmas.

Yes the job hunt continues. I have discovered that employers on the Central Coast don't seem that keen to place ad's up on Seek. On our weekend away while ducking into the local bottle shop I noticed the local paper, the Express Advocate, sitting on the counter, I took one and turned to the back and found 4 pages of job ads! The Boy looks over and says, "Oh yeah, we get that paper at work, at the security gates."

HELLO!! How long have I been complaining about my job and how many times have you told me to find something on the Coast?? So every Friday I send him at least 10 sms's reminding him to bring one home. I have a new ritual on Friday's after work. Devouring the Central Coast local paper looking at real estate and jobs. Is that sad or does it just mean I am so ready to move?

Anyway, feeling quite calm in the lead up to Christmas (despite all of last week's drama). I have bought every present (except one) and they are even all wrapped. I made the labels above for the gifts. I had to make them before I could wrap anything. I purchased 5 A4 sheets of metallic red cardboard for $5. The Boy pointed out that we could have just bought cheap labels from K-Mart for that price. Men! Of course we could have, but where is the love? Where is that little touch of hand made that makes it stand out from the stock standard gifts they get from everyone else? Of course once he saw my wonderful collection on the table he quickly changed his mind and gave me a kiss on the check telling me I was so creative. $5 for an afternoon of being worshiped and praised seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And finally I have started my next project. Going for cross stitch this time for a change. It is meant to be a gift but I am really loving the pattern and am tempted to keep it. I shouldn't. If I want to increase the home made stuff next Christmas I should probably get to work on them now. Or I could just save myself the effort and buy something from K-mart.

Some Sons Do Have Them

I finally finished the tapestry. After many, many months with long nights sitting patiently on the couch, filling in each square, I have finally finished it. This all started because I eventually want to be making home made Christmas presents for people. This year I decided that I would start with FMIL. She lives in the country and likes all that Aussie bush kinda stuff, so I thought this May Gibbs tapestry would be perfect. Fortunately I finished this just in time for the framers to have it framed before Christmas. We are getting a beautiful frame that nearly gave The Boy a heart attack as it cost just under $300. So not only is this a gift made with love, that a lot of time and effort and thought has gone into, but it ain't cheap either.

I really do like FMIL. In fact I probably even love her. Except when she doesn't get her own way, because when she doesn't get what she wants she morphs into a 2 year old complete with tantrums. Enter our current nightmare.

Christmas. Last year was spent with my family, this year we had planned to spend with his. They had planned to have Christmas at their house in the Hunter Valley. That was until FSIL refused to drive down there for Christmas (she is the one with the two kids, and therefore the only grandkids The Boy's parents have). So they then decided to have Christmas in Coffs Harbour. I remember this. They had come down for a weekend and we were all having coffee and home made carrot cake, sitting around the dining room table that they gave us. There was a pause in conversation.

"What are youse doing for Christmas?" asked FMIL.

I looked at The Boy. He shrugged. "Don't know, nothing yet. What are you doing?"

"Well, your Father has Christmas off for the first time in 20 years so we were going to have Christmas at our place."

The Boy nods, just as we expected. However, she continued.

"But your sister won't drive down because of the kids, so we are going up there for Christmas so we can be with R & H (grandkids) and your sister and B (partner). That is what we are doing, it is up to you if you want to come to Coffs Harbour"

The Boy didn't look thrilled, but told FMIL that he would get back to her.

He did get back to her, and told her that no, we won't be coming. It will be holiday traffic, it will take all day to get there, money is a bit tight and therefore our budget will not allow us to pay for accommodation and we are not comfortable staying at his sister's house as we will feel we are invading etc and also because B's parents will be there and we will be on the outside and just generally feel uncomfortable and not very welcome. All very valid points. She was fine with this. Apparently.

That was until a few days ago when the (resisting the urge to use swear words) woman decided that in fact she was going to have Christmas AT HOME! And naturally expected us to be there, to drop our plans less than three weeks out from Christmas and be there with her. She informed us in October she was going to Coffs Harbour and we told her a week later we won't be. I told my mum in mid November we will be around for Christmas. About 10 years ago my family decided to go out for Christmas lunch instead of having it at home like we did every year, and since then we have never gone back, and it has now become a new tradition in our family. Needless to say going out for Christmas lunch is not cheap, and with two of us we had already paid a significant amount to go out to lunch at Christmas with my family, and now FMIL decides she's staying home and wants us there.

It gets better. The Boy told her that we were not changing out plans, etc, that she had all this time to decide and she cannot change her mind after we have already confirmed with my family etc. He also reminded her of the above conversation, to which her reply was; nothing was definite (well it sounded definite to both of us). Clearly she is not getting what she wants so she gets nasty.

"What is it with you? First your ex and now Melissa, you spent Christmas with her parents last year."

"Who the F*** is Melissa?"

"Elissa, it is not my fault her name is so hard to say!"

Um, WTF? In the entire time she has known me, not once has she got it wrong, in fact whenever we are up there she is the one correcting other people.

"Boy, you need to spend Christmas with family, and Elissa is not family."

Ouch. Let me translate that for you. FMIL had just put a knife in my back and decided to ram it in a little deeper and twist it around. Very appropriate behaviour to your sons' future wife, the woman who will one day bear you grandchildren!!

At this point the conversation is clearly going nowhere, she refused to acknowledge the conversation in October, and even his Dad won't stand up for us (he knows the truth) because, well how can I say this nicely.... he is whipped. She then asks why The Boy even bothered to call. Just as she is about to say something nasty again he hangs up on her.

So that is where we stand. I just love family! Love being in a relationship and experiencing the alleged war between myself and FMIL for The Boy's #1 place (this is my shrink talking, many a session has been spent with me ranting about FMIL). I dunno. I am not a mother so maybe I don't understand, but I know that I do accept responsibility for my actions and I do follow through on what I say. I just wish it didn't have to be so nasty. I mean, does she really think of me that way?

Well after such a long post the conclusion is we are staying here for Christmas. We were meant to go up and see them beforehand, but don't know if it will happen. As The Boy said, she needs to change her behaviour before we go back up (unfortunately we will not get an apology, she never apologies to anyone as she believes she is always right). And as for the tapestry, well, I think it will look lovely on our wall, and would best be viewed by sitting at the dining room table sipping coffee and having carrot cake.

Notice Anything Different?

There is something different about this canvas. Notice it? Yes I have added another leaf that looks like a bare bottom could be sitting on top of it. But there is something else....

The dark green leaf on the left hand side is gone. Gone! All that hard work and effort and it is gone! Why? Well as I was constructing the large leaf it was getting close to the dark green one. So close that I was going to end up running into it. I picked up my chart and looked very carefully. On the 7th row from the top of the dark green leaf I made an error. I was one stitch over, which meant that every row under that (about 20-30) was one over. Was this a problem? Yes.

The Boy told me I was "talented" enough that I could just work around it. I told him it wasn't talent, it was following a chart and I had made an error in doing that and it didn't matter what he said it had to be made right. Maybe I could have done a botch job, but if I did it would bother me for the rest of my life. I would see it hanging up in a certain person's house, and everytime I saw it I would be reminded. The leaf would have to go and would have to be sewn again, this time in the correct spot.

I don't know how it happened in the first place. I am not careless when it comes to these things. So I think it was one of two things. Either I was so absorbed in Sex and the City that I wasn't paying enough attention (although given I could recite the scripts myself I doubt it) or that I was so excited about getting back into tapestry that I didn't look closely enough at the chart and my work because I was a little too determined to get it done. It has certainly been a lesson. I know doing a rush job never pays off. I just didn't apply my knowledge of that at the time. Next time I will be more aware.

So, I had to remove the offending leaf. How was I going to do that? I searched my sewing box and couldn't find my unpicker, or my embroidery scissor. Which means that I must have another secret stash of sewing supplies hidden somewhere at mum's house. Out of pure frustration and a strong desire to make things right I began to cut the wool with ordinary scissors. It was very difficult. The Boy pulled the canvas out of my hands and told me not to be so stupid and to stop before I put a hole in it. He then disappeared, and emerged a minute later with...... his razor.

What did he do? He sat with my canvas on his lap and shaved the back of the offending leaf. Very gently, and with great care, and slowly the wool began to pull away. He was slow, and patient, and I watched as the leaf disappeared before my eyes. Before I knew it, it was gone. The canvas was unharmed and I was free to start again. I looked at disbelief at the pile of wool in front of me. Sure it might not be in the tapestry books, but it worked. I was a happy camper. I could now carry on anxiety free.

I couldn't help but smile for the rest of the night. I think you can see why.

Re-Discovering Past Hobbies

With my passion for tennis re-ignited, I decided it was time I explored some more of the things I loved when I was younger to see if I wanted to get back into them. Sewing (clothes and all forms of needle art) was one of them.

At school I did Textiles and Design and in Year 10 we had to make a dress and complete a needle art of some form. Most girls choose cross stitch. I decided to be a little different and after talking to mum I found myself learning tapestry. I received full marks for my piece and I was in love with it. I continued doing tapestry while at uni, but of course, like everything else, once I began working full time it stopped. That was until last weekend.

This Christmas I want to give gifts that have been "made with love". So I decided for one particular person I was going to make them a tapestry. I found my old books (thankfully I still have as they are no longer in print) picked a design (one had always wanted to get around to doing) and went to visit one of the only places in Sydney where I could get supplies. The previous weekend The Boy and I went out to another 'Supa Centa' where both Spotlight and Lincraft were located and they only catered for cross stitching (and even that was very limited). So last weekend it was off to the wonderful ladies at The Crewel Gobelin. If you are in Sydney and into any kind of tapestry, cross stitch, stitchery or anything similar I recommend you go there, it is worth the trip as they have abundant supplies and old fashioned service.

I spent almost half an hour there as the woman helping me very patiently picked out everything I would need. While I was there I also went through their items for sale and picked up two stitchery kits, something I have been meaning to learn, which will be done after this tapestry. Once I was home I couldn't wait to get started, and began the lengthy task of assembling the frame, finding the exact centre point of the canvas (I am a perfectionist so naturally I counted every single square and worked out the absolute centre from there) and tacking in the centre lines. After that I was finally able to begin.

It all came back to me, how addictive it is, the sense of achievement from every completed section and looking at the canvas beginning to take shape, and also the relaxation and peace you get from it. I now have a new favourite thing to do on Sunday mornings. I always do my beauty routine then, hair mask, let that sit in a towel for an hour, then full body scrub followed with lotion and a full facial. And now as I sit with my hair mask or face mask I am now sitting on the lounge with my tapestry while watching Sex and the City. Utterly relaxing as I get into the rhythmic flow of weaving the needle in and out. I was the most relaxed I have felt in a long time.So there is my work. I am totally loving re-discovering past hobbies. I wonder what it will turn into, and more importantly, who will be the lucky receiver of this gift? I know what I will be doing this weekend, what about you?