'Girlie day' today

What can I say, except what a lovely day it was today. I spent the entire day doing things I enjoy. It all started off with a phone call from a friend in Sydney, who I haven't spoken to in person since Christmas - what a lovely surprise! I was supposed to be meeting my ex-flatmate, and best Aussie mate, for a coffee before he started work, but my Sydney phone call made me a bit late - I just had time to pick him up from home, and grab a takeaway coffee before walking him the 100m to his work building ... oh well, it was still nice to see him, even if it was only briefly.

After that I got my hair cut - and that's always a bit of personal pampering in itself ... it's like having a massage for me, very relaxing. And to top that all off I popped into the Embroiderers Guild exhibit where I spent 1 1/2 hours admiring the beautiful, and in some cases exceptional, stitches pieces by members of the Guild. I managed to have a quick chat to both members of the Gift Workshop and Patchwork guidance groups ... I really MUST make more of an effort to get along to the Guild guidance groups, as it always inspires me to get stitching! Unfortunately, it's difficult doing shift work, but even if I get to one group every two months, it's gotta be worthwhile!

Anyway, yesterday was going to be my stitching day ... hmmm, well it was 'of sorts' - ended up playing on the computer drooling over charts etc online, rather than getting much stitching done haha. Oh well, at least it was still stitching-related LOL. At 10pm I finally decided to pick up a very VERY old UFO and actually finished it at 1am this morning ... I don't think the neighbours would have been too impressed to hear my heavy thumping happy dance upstairs from them, but I didn't care :-) I can't believe I finally got this thing finished ... it was from a beginners hardanger class from about 2001, and really had very little stitching to be done to it - mainly just finishing the 4-sided stitch around the edges and the eyelets. Unfortunately I started out by finding I'd miscounted a few stitches back when I'd originally started stitching it in the class, so I started off by frog-stitching, but then I managed to pick up the pace and get back into the swing of the stitches, and finished it off.

On top of finishing my old UFO, I also did the background stitching to what was supposed to be a 'hardanger pincushion' ... well, you wouldn't get too many pins in the thing, it's pretty small - I figure I'm going to finish it into a scissor fob instead, and the colours I chose are similar to a needlecase I've stitched, but just have to put together. I just wanted something 'small' and quick to stitch during the day yesterday, and that was it - it also got me back into the hardanger 'mood', which is why I dragged the old UFO out again afterwards.

So, all-in-all, a very very good day today - and it's still not over, so I intend picking some more stitching up again tonight, and finishing the book on tape I got 2/3 through yesterday (Clare's War by Anita Burgh) ... ah, could life get much better?