Organisation and a new kit

I've had quite a busy week, with no much time for stitching unfortunately. But I did have a lovely time last Sunday with all of my DMC threads. I finally got round to getting them all out and putting them away again in numerical order. I'm lucky to have quite the collection of DMC, but it was making it more difficult to find the ones I needed! I'm glad they're all organised now for easy access. They list the threads required in Cross Stitcher magazine in numerical order, so it should make kitting up projects a lot easier.

I have just started on my new kit that I bought with my Christmas voucher for SewandSo.com. It's called Highland Walkies from Bothy Threads. It was on my wish list for a long time so I was so pleased I got to purchase it. However, I was a little disappointed when I opened it because the threads were just draped over the thread holder, not secured, so the threads were in danger of mixing up. I spent most of the time when I opened the kit sorting the threads and only got a few stitches in. I'm sure I'll have a progress picture for next time. 

I've still got my Christmas sampler on the go. I thought about packing it away until next December, but I don't like leaving a project unfinished. Besides, if I finish it soon, it will definitely be ready to display next Christmas. I've got a couple of new projects on the bench, but I'm going to finish some before I make another new start.

I hope you're staying warm. It's been very bitterly cold in Bristol lately, I'm very glad for tea and stitching!

Best wishes,

Bekca

xxx

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

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