Her Drama-ness

This is going to be a quick one, just posting a picture of the entire RR as promised. Mady's theme was 'Friendship' and here is what we stitched for her! I love the fabric that Mady has used, it's absolutely beautiful (hand-dyed fabrics are awesome!) and I think it's come together beautifully. Apologies for the poor picture, it's a little blurry, but I assure you, it is extremely gorgeous in person. It will be heading on its way to Canada tomorrow, unfortunately, it always takes ages from Australia, but here's wishing it a safe journey, and I hope Mady likes what she receives!


Here's another scan of my part with my "signature". It's the first time for me stitching one over one, it was fun! I love how it's so tiny and so neat, I don't normally sign off on my own pieces when stitching for myself, but I think it may be the way to go in the future, I really like it. I used lettering from Bent Creek's Wedding Row.


Also, for those who may be interested, here are the details of what I used in the design:

• Pink in the border - Wild Cherry by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
• Yellow in the border and flower - Daisy by Dinky Dyes (cotton floss)
• Blue lettering in main piece and signature - Icy Nights by The Dye Is Cast (cotton floss)
• Purple thread - Berry Freeze by The Dye Is Cast (cotton floss)
• Spool - Tiger Eye by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
• Needles and backstitched lettering - Soot by Gentle Art Sampler Threads (cotton floss)
• Leaves - Crème de Menthe by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
• Flower petals - Secondhand Rose by Crescent Colours (cotton floss)
• Red in heart and flower - Good ole' DMC cotton floss

Okay, I'm heading back to watch Federer serve for the championship!

Posted by Leeny at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm still here, just have been a bit busy as I was travelling and needed time to settle back in, and also preoccupied with some personal stuff, so I haven't had the chance to update my blog or go visiting either. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and/or left a comment for me, I didn't mean to ignore you, it has just been a little crazy for me. But it's the long weekend, and I plan to catch up on my blog-reading, so look out for me at your blogs! :)

A couple of updates from me. Firstly, there was a bit of a scare with my grandfather. As most of you would know, he had lung cancer and is recovering from surgery. He hasn't recovered as fast as we liked but has been doing okay for the last few months. About two weeks ago though, he relapsed with hallucinations caused by a lack of oxygen, which the doctors advised that it came about from a viral infection and had developed into pneumonia. That was pretty scary - it's bad enough for an old guy to get pneumonia, let alone someone in his condition. The doctors were also telling my family to "mentally prepare" ourselves and asked us to make some tough decisions. Needless to say, everyone was tense, and I was feeling especially helpless as I am miles away so all I really could do was get updates from my sister. Anyways, the good news is, we received some positive feedback early in the week. While my grandfather is still pretty weak, medication had helped to get rid of the fluid in his lungs and x-rays show that the infection is clearing. He's still in hospital but it seems like he's on the mend. That was a tremendous relief for everyone, and we are hoping he's going to be well enough for Chinese New Year. I go back to Singapore the middle of February and my aunt will also be there from New York, so it will be the first time in quite a while that the whole family is gathered together on such a significant occasion. It's going to be good. I just hope that my grandfather continues to get better.

The news about my grandfather had distracted me from stitching, even though I was late on the deadline for the RR I'm in (as always!), but as usual, my RR mates are so patient with me and so understanding. With the good news early in the week, I could focus on stitching again, and I'm proud to say that I finished my piece today. Well, pretty much finished, all that is left is for me to "sign" the piece. I guess having a long weekend (it's a public holiday today as it's Australia Day) helped as well, and apart from having breaks to eat and going to the toilet, I was pretty focused on stitching! I reckon I worked harder today than at the office! LOL. This is the last round of the RR with my friends from Cyberstitchers and this is on Mady's piece. I stitched Friendly Stitchers by Brittercup Designs.

Initially, I was unsure about this choice as I wasnn't sure if it would fit with the overall RR so I sought advice from a fellow RR-mate, Harmien, who assured me that it was fine and I'm glad I did. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I changed the colours completely from the original as I wanted it to match with Mady's fabric and if I do say so myself, I think I did a pretty good job! I did consult with Terrence, but the choices were still mine, so I take full credit! LOL. I also didn't use the flower button as required for the piece - partly because I didn't have it, but even if I did, the colour wouldn't match and I didn't have any substitute buttons that would work so I just stitched in a flower. Anyways, without further ado, here's a picture of my stitched piece! I have also included a picture of the original. Once I "sign" the piece, I'll upload a photo of the entire RR - it's a real pretty one, I think Mady will love what is going home to her!



I have also been watching some pretty exciting tennis matches on the telly. I love it when the Australian Open is on, it's the only time that I get to watch the matches on TV at fairly decent times. I would love to follow all the grand slams but with the different time zones, it's pretty hard to do that. Oh, and the first time, we actually have decent reception so we can SEE where the ball is going! LOL. We weren't organised enough (and also didn't feel like paying so much) to watch the games in person but I think I would like to do that next year. Sure, it's pretty pricey for a ticket but I think it's worth it for the experience and atmosphere, and I think doing it once won't kill us. So Australian Open, I'll see you in 2008! For now, I will be happy watching the finals on TV. I'm happy that Gonzales has beaten Mr. Fancy Pants (aka Nadal, whom I really don't like) and now that he's beaten Tommy Haas and gotten through to the final, I hope it's going to be an exciting match with Federer. I'm still gonna support Federer (you just gotta love that sheepish charm of his, so adorable!) but I hope Gonzales puts up a good fight and don't get destroyed like Roddick in the semis. Did anyone see that match? Poor Andy was bitch slapped; he was destroyed and crushed and even though I was supporting Roger, I actually felt sorry for Andy and was hoping he could get some points in. Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to Sunday night's final, I hope it doesn't keep me up for too long, I still need to get to work the day after!

Well, I think I've yapped on long enough, I sure was making up for lost time there! :) For those who have been visiting, I hope you keep visiting, and be sure to leave me a comment! I love comments! *big smile* I will catch up with my blog reading, so expect me to pop up here and there! Oh, on a closing note, I just discovered my local library and I just want to say it's AWESOME! Almost as cool as Bookcrossing! Okay, it really is the end for me now, bye bye everyone, I will be back soon! (^_^)

Posted by Leeny at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

Okay, so I faced a pretty awkward situation at work today. Getting into work today, I was stuck at the entrance of the car park as there was a car in front of me blocking my access with no sign of the driver. The car looked familiar though - it was a green Toyota Kluger, which a colleague of mine drives, and although I don't know his licence plate number, I had a pretty strong feeling it was his car. Anyways, lo and behold, he walked out of the car park (the gate was open but the boom gate was down) and got back to his car. So just to make fun of him, I was making gestures to indicate, what's the hold-up? He made signs back indicating his card to swipe in wasn't working and it looked like he just got back from speaking to the security guard. He gets back to his car and keeps trying his card and it's still not working. Meanwhile, a car comes in behind me, and another pulls up behind that car! The bay is not very long, and the street that it's off is a NARROW street - you couldn't fit two cars side by side - the last car was already blocking part of the street, one more car and the entire street would be blocked. So I got out of my car to see what's going on, and I tried my work pass to see if it's his card that was kaput or maybe the system was out. Well, my card worked because the boom gate went up so I thought, okay, just let him get in first and clear the congestion, and then he can continue sorting it out with the security guard. I didn't think it would be a big deal since he was already talking to security, so she should know what the situation is about.

So I make my way to my floor and just as I popped my laptop into the docking station, I get a call on my mobile. I answer it and it's the security guard! She goes, "Did you let so-and-so into the car park?" and I'm like, yes? And then she basically goes into her lecture that you are not supposed to do that, it's a big no-no, blah blah blah. Which I totally get, because of security reasons and all that, but in this situation, I thought it was completely justified, and she was completely aware of the situation since my colleague had already been speaking to her before I got there. Plus, there were so many cars waiting! So I let her know how I feel and she still says, no no, it's still not allowed. Oh, just a note, this lady is not the regular security guard, so she doesn't know who we are, otherwise the regular guy could have just pressed a button or something to let my colleague through and then sort out from there, which the regular security guy has done for me when I have forgotten my work pass. Anyways, I didn't want to get into a lengthy conversation, so I just said that was fine and ended the call. I wasn't feeling angry or annoyed, really more amused than anything else, and I had a quick chuckle about it with my colleague in question.

Okay, I'm being quite long-winded with my story, please bear with me, I'm not the greatest storyteller! So fast forward to the afternoon, I'm having lunch with two different colleagues at the office's "chill-out" area on another floor and we were just chit-chatting away. I mentioned how great traffic was today as I had left my house later than usual and I still got to work at the usual time! Which then reminded me of the incident this morning, so I was telling them the story. It had stayed on my mind because of the unusual circumstances, and also because that colleague usually comes in a whole hour after me and it was really strange to see him at that hour. So yah, I'm telling them about what happened in the morning and ended with the security guard calling me about letting my colleague in. Then one of them made a remark, "I can't believe she rang you, that's pathetic." And WHAT DO YOU KNOW, the security guard lady is sitting at the next table having her lunch! I almost died. I hadn't noticed her as she had her back to us and there was a pillar between our tables, so I only realised when I glanced over just as my colleague made that remark. I didn't say anything rude, and I was just sharing my experience from the morning, but I still feel really embarrassed. On top of that, there was my colleague's remark, which I know was just a passing comment and wasn't meant to be an attack or anything, but it still wasn't very nice, so I feel bad. Even though it wasn't me who said it, it was I who brought up the whole incident, and I just talked without thinking or being aware of my surroundings. I feel like such an idiot!

So yeah, that's my story for the day. I know it's not a big thing at all, but it has been on my mind since lunch, I just feel so bad. Well, I'm off to extract my foot from my mouth, I hope the security lady doesn't hate me... :(

Posted by Leeny at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wow, where has the year gone? Some days seem to just drag on while the year just flies by. Overall, 2006 has been good to me and I can't complain much. I guess the biggest event by far was Terrence and I buying our first home and it just keeps getting better. I know I've said this before, but nothing beats having your own place and it has been so nice putting in our own personal touches, and just having the liberty to do that in the first place (wouldn't have happened at the rental property!), it's been great. Work hasn't been the best, but hey, it has afforded us some luxuries and here's hoping that it will pick up for 2007. The biggest upset also came in 2006, with the family learning that my grandfather had lung cancer. While the surgery was successful, it has been a slow and painful recovery for my granddad, and he's still doing it tough. I know we should be grateful that at least the tumours have been removed, but it is heart-breaking seeing the loss of his vibrancy. My hope and wish for 2007 is that my grandfather regains his strength and the quality of life he had before his surgery, and live out the rest of his years in comfort. No new year's resolutions, I think they're pointless, I just want all the best for my family, and especially for my grandfather, hopefully this will be the year.

Before I go, here's a little story about my fuzzballs. Nothing too exciting, I just think they're cute, LOL. Terrence and I were having a little showdown on Mario Tennis (video game on Nintendo GameCube) so we were sitting at the foot of the bed having our match. We weren't really focused on the dogs as Terrence was putting in all his energies in trying to beat me. Believe it or not, I'm better at this game even though I don't actually know how to play tennis! Haha. Anyways, when we turned around, guess what we found? We didn't even know when they got there but they sure made themselves comfy! FYI, Banzai is on the left and Reuben is the one sort of hugging him.


Well, that's it from me! I head back to the office tomorrow - *sob* I need a longer holiday break! I want to wish everyone a happy 2007, all the best for the new year! :)

Posted by Leeny at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments