Yippee - part 1 all finished!

(Updated to add this comment for Jenn ... just noticed your comment about the PINN chart - if you click on the link here, you can see a clearer piccie of it. I'm happy to send you the chart once I've finished with it - but it might take a while before I get around to stitching it as it's for a charity block that I might want to stitch in the future, ie no deadline as yet. Anyway, let me know, and I'll put it to one side for you.)

I managed to get all the stitching done on my Melanie's Exchange piece yesterday ... with just a few toilet and sustenance breaks - the finishing won't take very long, so the pressure's off a little bit now. I just have my biscornu exchange to stitch now, then my first ever exchanges are up-to-date. Sorry but no piccies for a while :(

Unfortunately not quite all my commitment stitching is finished, though - I still have my Batman logo to stitch for my final charity block that needs to be received by 15 May ... hopefully the chart I'm going to be using isn't far away from arriving from the good ol' US of A - I just didn't get around to charting it myself, and found it easier to buy one off Ebay (due to lack of time and lack of motivation) - fingers crossed it arrives this week so I can get cracking on it. Then my next charity blocks aren't due until 15 July and 15 August, so I have a bit of a breathing space before then.

Once my Batman logo's stitched, my main focus is on starting my Bunnies in my Garden SAL - we're already into week 3 and I haven't even started yet (partly because my threads didn't arrive until last week). I know it won't take me long to catch up, though, as I can be a speedy stitcher when it's needed (and when I have the time available) - then I want to get back into stitching my Marine Elegance. After that it's back to my rotation again, and starting a new SAL with Carol - the Mystery Bordeaux Sampler ... she's tempted me with her progress piccies, and I finally broke down and decided to join in.

On a different note, my debt consolidation came through officially during the week, so yesterday I spent the day paying off various debts to cut down my monthly repayments - it's still not going to be 'easy street', but it will be a lot less stressful each payday, especially when I'm back on shift allowances again :) I'm hoping now that I can actually put a bit of money away every month that can go towards having a holiday or something ... it would be so nice being able to make more use of my 4-day breaks etc by popping off for a night or two and seeing some more of this beautiful country. But it's early days yet, and I need to work out how much difference it's going to make to my monthly budget, and I guess it'll take a couple of months to work that out yet. I've told Mum if it all works out OK, I'm going to treat her to a holiday for her 70th birthday - and we're going to pop off to Singapore for a couple of nights if I can afford it ... otherwise we'll pop off somewhere locally, as there are a few places on my list ... Coffs Harbour, Mildura, Perth, Darwin, Port Douglas etc. She's said if we go overseas she needs to know for her travel insurance, but if we're staying locally she'd rather not know where we're going, and that it be a surprise. We wouldn't be going until Jul/Aug so there's plenty of time to work that out ...

Anyway, nothing else to report today ... and no progress piccies ... so, rather than waffling on about nothing, here's another old photo I took of some gannets during a visit to Napier, New Zealand - just to add a bit of colour to my post ;P