Walking the Long Path

Hello all, I'm back again with all kinds of updates to share. There's been so much going on lately, it's hard to judge where to start!

I finished with the District Nurses on Friday, where I was gifted with an enormous bunch of flowers and a lovely card. I was sad to leave the team, but they're actually all being disbanded in a huge company reshuffle, so it wouldn't have been the same anyways. I started with the Community Discharge team today, and I think my first day went well. They seem like a very nice group of people and the work is slightly more challenging (which is a good thing!) and it's close to Lawrence's work, so some days, we can walk to and from work together :) I think I'm going to be perfectly happy with my new team.

I had my consultant appointment at the hospital last week and I will be having surgery for my endometriosis. I thought this was likely, and I'm glad in a way, because although operations are scary (and this will be my first), it should reduce my overall pain. I'm still waiting on a phone call to confirm dates, but fingers crossed it will be in the next couple of months. I know I'm at the start of a very long path, but I'm not walking it alone. The surgery I'm penciled in for has a two week recovery time, so if my upper body is up to it, that's plenty of uninterrupted stitching time! 

Talking of stitching, I've made progress on one of my projects, and not put a stitch in the other since my last post. I think I'll have to change that soon. Anyways, here's where I'm up to on Sewing Machine:

I absolutely love the colours in this design and I'm really enjoying every stitch. I love Cook's Measurements too, so I really should be showing it some love! Here's a picture just for the sake of it :)

My 123stitch order arrived last week, so I've got all of the threads now to finish both of these pieces. There's no stopping my needle now! 

I hope you're all well and keeping safe from the horrendous hurricanes. My thoughts are with you all, I can't imagine how scary it must be. 

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

Endometriosis and Me

I've shared a lot on this blog. I've done posts on holidays, family losses, weddings, graduation and everything in between. So it would be remiss of me not to mention a key part of my life at the moment and one of the reasons that's led me back to cross stitching.

One of my bunches of beautiful Get Well Soon Flowers - I love lilies!

I started getting pains in my hips and tummy in June 2017. In the following few weeks, I went to the nurse and then I went to the doctor and then I had one evening where I was in too much pain to walk. The next day, I had an urgent visit to the GP and left in an ambulance to go to the hospital. I have never been more frightened, I didn't know what they were going to find. After hours in the hospital, many tests and a scan, a consultant came to speak to me. She thought I had endometriosis. She told me to keep a pain diary, keep up with my medication and she'll see me in a couple of months time. 

My necessities during a flare up

I'm sure many of you know about endometriosis and may even unfortunately suffer from it yourself. For those unsure, let me tell you, it's hideous. It's not just period pain, like some naive doctors would have you believe. The endometrial tissues grows outside of where it's supposed to which causes very intense pain around your pelvic area and stomach. You get cramps, headaches, tummy ache, dizziness, drowsiness and you want to cry all the time. This happens for a whole week out of every month. Endo can also effect fertility rates and can have an impact on other organs.

As much as I try to stay positive, having investigations for this lifelong condition really threw me and I'm still struggling with it now. One thing that's really helped me on my bad days is cross stitching. Although I have to keep the lower half of my body still, I'm free to use my hands and arms as I please, so I can at least cross stitch! I'm working more on aida than ever before, because my concentration suffers as a side effect from taking medication. Still, it means I can stitch for longer because I'm not squinting at linen!It's incredibly relaxing, as it always has been for me, but now it has an additional benefit. I'm normally so active and busy that I hate being made to stay still by the pain. It makes me feel a bit useless and a burden. But at least with my cross stitch, I feel like I'm doing something productive and I've got something to show for my days on the sofa. I can't just laze about, feeling sorry for myself, not when there are stitches to be crossed! It's really helping to calm me during this uncertain point in my life. 

I hope I haven't overshared in this post, but I thought it was important to be open and honest about what's going on in my life lately. I know cross stitching has been healing for so many people, so I'm hoping it will have the same magic effect on me :)

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

The Timeline

Just for the sake of continuation, I thought I would do a post about what's been happening since I last checked in. So, on my last blog post before my revival, I was living in Southampton with Lawrence in our studio apartment. We stayed there until December 2015, both working and saving our money. We spent the festive season with our families and on January 10th 2016, we left on an epic adventure!

Yours truly at Hobbiton in New Zealand

We spent six months travelling the world and it was honestly the best time of my life. We started in New Zealand, then Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, back into Thailand and finally Sri Lanka. I can do a more detailed post about travelling if you like? Let me know in the comments!

On safari in Sri Lanka

We were back in the UK at the start of July 2016. After a couple of joyous weeks visiting family and friends, we knuckled down and started job hunting. I really enjoyed the cities we visited whilst travelling, so I knew I wanted to move to a city, but one that I hadn't lived in before and not London (too busy, too expensive). We chose Bristol because we read good things and it is a good distance between both of our families. Picking a city was the easy part, finding a job was not easy. I found this time in my life quite challenging, because all we seemed to be getting was rejections or nothing back at all. Still, we perservered, and tried to make ourselves useful whilst we were living with Lawrence's family!

Eventually, Lawrence got a job in marketing and I got a position working as an admin for District Nurses. It was for a year for maternity cover, which is about to end, so I'm moving on to another NHS admin role, which I'm really looking forward to. When I was job hunting, I was looking for a job that would help people, not just about making money for my employer. I definitely feel like I have that satisfaction in my current job, and probably in my next one too. 

So, we've been loving life in Bristol since October 2016. I'm very pleased to say that I'm still in a wonderful relationship with Lawrence, we'll have been together seven years this October. We've just signed up for another year in our flat and we're currently saving up to buy our own place in the future. I've recently been having a few health issues that I would like to discuss in a future post, but I think I've rabbited on enough for now! 

I hope you've enjoyed my little catch up session - now it's your turn! Tell me all about the exciting things that been happening in your lives, weddings, new births, new pets, I want to hear about anything and everything :)

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

Reviving the Stitching Lion

I was stitching the other day, calmly passing needle through fabric and I remembered my dear little blog and how much time I invested in it. I had a long break from stitching and blogging for a long time, but recent developments have led me back to stitching and I'm loving it!

I'm hoping to do a few posts this week to fill in the gaps, seeing as I last posted in 2015. I'm even hoping to get a few pictures in too, including my latest WIPs and maybe a couple of recent finishes.

How are you all? I'm truly looking forward to immersing myself in my stitching and posting all about my progress. I'm going to spend some time clearing through my blog reading list to update it, so please recommend any new blogs that I need to be following.

I can't believe I was 17 when I started this blog, and I'm now 24. Goodness, how time flies.

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

A Different Kind of New Start

Hello all! I started my new job at the start of the week, I'm working at ALDI in Southampton. I was very pleased to get this particular job as its in an ideal location within walking distance from my house. I've done two shifts and today is my first day off. 

I like the freedom my new job gives me as I have two days off a week, as well as some afternoons. This is great for stitching time! Miss Peepers is coming along a treat. I was pleased to hear that I had been a bad influence on Justine from Justine's Cross Stitch, who has recently purchased this chart to stitch for herself. I can't wait to see your version Justine!

Here's where I'm up to with mine . . .

Not too much more to go actually, I think I may be able to finish it within the next couple of days. And then I'm going to have to get creative with what I stitch next. As most of you know, I packed up a lot of my stitching stuff when I moved to go into storage. I have a few supplies with me, but I also remember the vast collection of charts I have saved on my computer. I may not have a printer, but I know the library offers printing services. Oh, the lengths I will go to for cross stitching! :P

Hope you're all having a great week, best wishes. 

A New Stomping Ground

Hello friends! Well, I've made it safely to my new place in Southampton. Sunday was a very busy day. My parents drove all the way from Glastonbury to help me move my stuff. They're storing most of it in their outbuilding until I find a more permanent residence. 

It was strange to see my room in Winchester completely bare. I felt a little sad as I closed the door for the last time, but I know I'm moving onwards and upwards. Plus, I know I'll see my former housemates regularly. They're not getting rid of me that easily!

I've settled into my new room here. I'm having to live out of my suitcase, but I can cope with that. I've got a cupboard and fridge/freezer space all sorted, so I'm perfectly content. I managed to get some stitching in last night, here's how Miss Peepers is looking . . .

I start my new job in just under a week. I'm quite looking forward to going back to work actually - more money for stitching supplies! Keeping within the SFS budget of course :P

Best wishes,

 

Stitch From Stash Update: June

Good morning fellow stitchers :) I'm back again for another SFS update, this month has certainly flown by. I have finished the cross stitching on White Magic, but I'm yet to do the backstitching. I unearthed a Solo project from awhile back that I'm halfway through the backstitching on. But I'm afraid I've packed up both of these projects in preparation for my move to Southampton, so no pictures to share.

I haven't spent any money this month, but I do have a new start to show. This is how far I've got with LHN's Miss Peepers, a chart I bought in my first stash splurge a couple of months back.

I'm using some of the allocated DMC colours, but not all of them. This was supposed to be a project for Southampton but I couldn't resist starting a bit early!

In other new, I got the job! I'm going to ALDI today to sign the contract and I start in about a week and a half. I'm so pleased! It's so exciting to be moving to a new city and starting a new job and finally beginning the next chapter in my life :) So yes, I've been packing up a storm. I'm limited to one suitcase for the summer, so I had to severely condense my stitching stuff. I've narrowed it down to this . . .

Box of Anchor threads so I've still got a varied choice, but it's not as bulky as my DMC boxes. A selection of fabric, a hoop and a thread holder. A cute mouse kit and a couple of other charts. Miss Peepers is in the project bag at the front, which also contains needles, pin cushion and scissors. 

This is what I've got to last me three months over the summer, before I get my own place and can move all my stuff in. Hopefully it will all last for that long!

I hope you're enjoying warm, sun-filled days, just like we are in the UK. Best wishes to all,

Phew!

Gosh, what a crazy time it's been lately. At one point, I was set to move in with another girl in Southampton. We'd signed for a flat, got really excited about the whole thing and were making plans for moving day. The next thing I know, we've lost the flat because another estate agent outbid us on rent and the other girl doesn't want to live with me any more. I can tell you, it was very frustrating to go straight back to square one. All I wanted was a modest home and a steady job, I can't believe how hard it is to achieve that. It got me down for awhile.

But things are on the up. Yesterday, I attended a group interview for ALDI (a discount supermarket) and I'll hear back about the job within the next seven days. Fingers crossed! And I now know where I'm living for the next three months too. I'm moving into Lawrence's shared house and taking up a room there whilst the girl who owns it tours India over the summer. It's literally down the road from where I will be hopefully working at ALDI. 

It's such a relief to get my life finally in some sort of order. I know where I'm heading now and I'm feeling much less anxious.

Onto the good stuff! Whilst all this housing and job madness has been going on, it's been wonderful to escape with my stitching. I've made a fair amount of progress in the last three weeks, I've only got a tiny section of stitches left to cross.

Just a few more rows, then it's on to the backstitching. It would be great to get this finished and framed before I move, but I'm not sure how likely that is. I'm just stitching whenever I get a chance. 

So today, I'm attempting to pack up my room. I was dreading going through all my stitching stuff, but then Mel said to me, you never know what treasures you might unearth! I'm off to do some treasure hunting :)

Best wishes,

 

Stitch From Stash Update: May

Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. The past fortnight has flown by. I've been out celebrating my finished degree by eating meals out with friends, going on day trips with Lawrence and attending lots of parties! I've had such so much fun, but now it's time to re-focus and get my head in order. Now the real adventure begins :)

Today I'm here for another SFS update. I haven't needed to spend any money again this month. Only one project has got my full attention at the moment, and at the rate its going, I don't think it will take me long to finish it. Here's where I'm at with White Magic . . .

I hope to catch up on my blog reading in the next few days, I can't wait to see what everyone has been working on. I'm sorry for my lack of consistency, it appears I've lost a couple of followers due to lack of updates. I'm afraid I can't make promises, I just post when I can and when I have something worth sharing :)

Best wishes to all,

 

The End is Nigh

Hello friends! I left it longer than I meant to from my last post. But I'm here now for a jolly good catch up :)

I have now handed in my final assignments for University. So technically, I'm all done, although I won't officially finish until the end of term in June. It's a weird sensation to have finished with University. Of course I will be sad to leave, but I'm so looking forward to the next chapter. I'm currently applying for jobs in this area and flat-hunting as well. I'm also spending these last few weeks socialising a lot and making sure I spend as much time as possible with my Uni friends. 

I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments and emails regarding my life at Uni. You're all so generous thinking of me and wishing me well. I've been blogging for so long, I remember telling you all about results day and getting into Winchester in the first place! Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me, your encouragement means a lot :)

As a treat to myself for finishing all of my assignments, I bought an official Winchester hoody to commemorate my time here. It's really cosy!

Time for a stitching update! The only thing I've been working on recently is White Magic. I can't seem to put it down :) I have got a bit more time on my hands now to work on other projects too, but I'll just share a pic of my lovely wolves today . . .

I'm onto the third section, with only one quarter to go after that. And then it will be time to tackle all the backstitching! I think this piece will look great when it's all finished up :) You know I'll have framed pieces all over my new flat when I settle in. Hopefully, that won't be too far off in the future :)

Best wishes to all,

 

Our Easter Holiday

Hello everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the long Easter weekend. I had a wonderful time in Devon with Lawrence and his family. I thought I would share a couple of photos of my trip, taken with my new camera :) There's no stitching on offer today I'm afraid, so feel free to skip! :P

The view from our bedroom window.

Saturday was spent walking to Lynmouth. The sun was shining and the views were spectacular.

You can just see the rest of the group in the distance. I kept falling behind :P

Me and Lawrence at the top of the first hill - excuse our wind-battered hair!

It was so lovely to see spring lambs in the fields. 

Lawrence being champion of the world at Woody Bay.

I think this was my favourite picture from the trip. I do love being out in the countryside.

I'll be back soon with my next SFS update. I've finally spent some money, I know, shocking! I'm currently working on White Magic and I'll have a pic of that up soon too :)

Best wishes to all,

 

Lazy Days of Spring

 Greeting friends! It's surprising to see some of my fellow bloggers still experiencing snow at this time of year. I do hope it all melts away soon! Here in Winchester, we didn't see any snow at all this year, which I am in two minds about. On one hand, I love the beauty of snow and trudging around in it. On the other, it can become quite a nuisance after awhile!

Spring is in full swing around these parts. I love seeing all the daffodils softly swaying in the breeze. It's nice to have longer days too, which of course means more time for stitching :) I've had a couple of very restful days recently where all I've done is stitched and watched box sets! Don't worry, I'm not completely lazy, just having a bit of TLC before the next assignments are due :) 

I've managed a fair amount of progress on White Magic. One quarter is done, apart from the backstitching. Here's where I'm up to on this project . . .

As much as I love this piece, I was getting a bit bored of black and grey. It seemed a little out of place when the sun is shining brightly outside. So I set my needle on a different project, Country Cottage Needleworks The Tea Room. As you can see, I've whizzed through this one! Not long to a finish I reckon :)

And in other stitching news, I've finally spent some of my SFS allowance! Me and my housemate (who is a fellow cross stitcher) made a large order to 123Stitch last week. Here's hoping our mammoth parcel arrives soon. I'll be sure to show and tell when my goodies arrive :) 

I hope you are enjoying the delights of Spring wherever you are.

Best wishes,

 

Travelling Pattern

Hello everyone! There isn't a cloud in the sky as I type this post. It's so wonderful to see the sun after so long! Spring is one of my favourite times of the year, birdsong and daffodils and crisp cool breezes. I hope you're enjoying Spring delights wherever you are :)

I was very lucky to be chosen by Elisa to be the next person to stitch an amazing travelling pattern. Thank you so much Elisa! I will be the 38th person to stitch this gorgeous design. As soon as I'm finished with it, I'll pass it on to the next person. Look out for a post about this soon. 

The pattern arrived at the most perfect time. I had just arrived home from handing in my dissertation. Yes, it's all finished! Woohoo! The whole thing came to nearly 12,800 words in the end. Phew, I'm glad to have got it handed in nice and early. So I was free to start my new pattern straight away. Here's where I'm up to . . .

Whilst I was still working on my dissertation, my stitching was my therapy in the evenings. I've made a fair amount of progress on White Magic, I love the look of this one so far. 

I plan on chilling for the rest of this weekend, I think I deserve a bit of downtime! Me and my housemates will be tuning into Crufts later on, is anybody else watching? I adore dogs and cannot wait to have my own puppy. One day maybe :P

Best wishes to all,

 

Keeping Calm

I have to hand in my big, final year assessment in just under a month. I'm making slow and steady progress on my story and the accompanying essay. When I finally set down my pen, or save my latest draft, I instinctively reach for my stitching. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, spending time with needle and thread calms me like nothing else. I think it's the sense of achievement, that you can see how each tiny stitch makes a bigger picture. That's a good lesson to keep in mind this close to the end of Uni. 

In the last week, my Solo the Cat hanger has gone from this . . .

. . . to this!

I've only got another row of hearts to complete, and all of the backstitching. I love adding the backstitching on these designs, it really makes them come alive. I look forward to finishing it as a hanger when it's finally done. 

I know for the next four weeks, this is going to be my motto!

I hope you are all well and not being hindered by the weather. It's ghastly here today, grey and rainy. But still, it's Valentines Day and I'm celebrating with Lawrence later on today. I hope you have a wonderful day, however you choose to spend it.

Best wishes,

 

PS: I've reached 150 followers! Thanks must go to each and every one of you, I'm so grateful. I think this calls for a giveaway, don't you? :)

A little bit of progress

Good morning everyone! I just thought I'd post a quick update on my latest WIP. I'm  enjoying every stitch on this All Our Yesterday's design called Dolly's Stroll. It's going to look even better when the finishing touch of the backstitch gets added. Still got a few more crosses to stitch before that point though. Here is my progress as of last night (sorry for the wrinkles!).

My days have been filled with Uni work. We have more assignments this semester than any previous one, so it's a case of getting my head down to work hard. It's not all hard graft though. I'm off to a tea party this afternoon with some fellow Creative Writing students. I'm very much looking forward to it :)

I hope you have a lovely day planned too.

Best wishes,

 

Stitch From Stash Update: January

Here I am with my first Stitch From Stash update! It's been a very busy month for me, but I always find time to pick up my needle. I find it so relaxing after a hard day of study. 

Money spent: £0 - not a penny! I'm saving up for when I truly need some new things.

Finished WIPs:

So pleased to have finally finished the Pokemon Project completely! These three are displayed in Lawrie's room at University. He says he's very proud to own something I've made specially for him. He is a sweetie, isn't he?

I finished up this sunflower bear this month too. It was a nice and gentle stitch. I'm hoping to finish it up soon so that I can gift it to my grandmother.

I finished this little Halloween ornament too this month. I have two more of these kits in my stash. I've got this idea of Halloween themed bunting in my head, using these designs. Let's see if I can pull it off!

New starts:

This All Our Yesterday's design has progressed a lot since this picture, but I haven't had a chance to update it. I think this will definitely be a finish for February. 

I've started a couple of card designs this month too. Using scraps of fabric and leftover threads from kits, these two will be finished in no time. 

There we are, my first post for the month. I'm determined to post every month, fingers crossed I can!

Best wishes,