Farewell to the past year

And so on the last night of 2019 I have been reflecting on the past year.   It has been one of change for me and (for my records) I have made a list ...

• Reached Gold Card status
• Retired from paid work
• Sold one house and bought another
• Moved to a new city to commence a new life
• Without being convinced of the accuracy of my count it looks like I have stitched 26 individual items and only two still need construction and final finishing.  
• Kept my weekly food bill under $100 - this year I managed an average of $95.65 per week

Tonight I completed the last stitch in the fascinating Temperature Chart.  Somehow in the house shift I have mislaid my graph paper so the centering of the letters on each side is not totally mathematically pleasing.   However, I intend to make this into a cushion to sit on my sofa -  once I find a suitable coordinating fabric.   In 2020 I will stitch the same for my new city and have a matching pair of cushions.

And I lined and constructed the Maria Katarin's Reticule (Betsy Morgan) for which I attempted a DMC subsitute for the Gloriana Silks.   All in all not a bad effort I say.
I lined the piece with a scrap of ivory silk which gave a pleasing neutral finish and a good shake of the button box revealed two small buttons for the fastening,

Front

Back

Inside

While I won't be sorry to say goodbye to this old year it has not been entirely unprofitable and I can only hope for better in the year to come. 

Relatively consistent

The temperature chart has been relatively consistent orange and yellow these past two months.  

Night time temperatures are dropping now and hopefully daytime will follow suit so there should soon be more green appearing.   This sure is a fun way to make the daily TV weather exciting!

I really thought today would be a green day

I've had to keep a cardigan on all day so I really thought today would be a green day but.....only yellow.   The temperature SAL is going well and is definitely making the daily TV weather forecast an exciting part of my life.  Ha ha!

Here's a shot of what we look like as of today.
The DBEM is recovering but is still a mass of dark bruises.   Fortunately I've worked half days this week and have been able to look after her.  As a bonus I got to cross off more items from my cleaning list in the unexpected free time.  Today the man came to organise a repair for the shower door which got knocked off its hinges in the debacle.   Soon both house and the DBEM will be back to normal.

A red day today

Poor DBEM.   While I had the benefit of air conditioning in the office (apart from the interruption of a fire evacuation drill), the DBEM had only electric fans to circulate the warm air.   Our Australian cousins kindly sent their heat wave over the Tasman Sea to us and although it has cooled a lot it is still hotter than usual and oh so muggy.

So tonight the Temperature SAL got a red square.  (Excuse the odd perspective of this bad photograph). Hopefully there won't be too many of these!

Christmas Ornament Number 1

I have promised myself to stitch one ornament a month through the year so here's the first.   From the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue 2012 in 32 count linen with DMC white and Threadworks Christmas red overdyed.  I decided against adding the year to the stitching and will be finishing this into a circular ornament.   It's about 5cm wide so a perfect size.  The over one of the word was rather hard on the elbow but it's all done now and some Volataren Emugel on the elbow will take the pain away - I hope!

Today has been very hot with hotter to come so it's an orange night tonight on the Temperature SAL and if the weatherman is to be believed we may get to a red for a day or so this week!

I'm off out for a long walk now and back to work tomorrow.   This has been a fun public holiday (=day off work) and I've accomplished all I planned to do.

In which we continue the yellow streak.

Today we were promised rain in the evening and I had decided that I'd forgo the evening walk and stay in to stitch up two small cardigans knitted by the DBEM.   But the weatherman was wrong so I went on my walk and only sewed up half a cardigan!

But I did watch the TV weather and add today's square to the Temperature Chart.   This is fun!

Only a year late!

Inspired by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching I have made a start on a 2019 Temperature Chart.   Unlike Lowestoft, Auckland does not have such a huge range in temperature from season to season so it will be interesting to see how the colour variations show up.   This may indeed prove the claims to sub tropical climate  which Aucklander's use as an excuse for almost every garden growing hibiscus!

Progress has been slow and until tonight consisted of writing down the daily temperature.   But I now have the colours to hand and have made a start,  These are the first 10 "little squares" that form the centre of the big spiralled square and tomorrow I will catch up and be able to do one a day.   Quite achievable and will still allow time to complete the Octagonal Box - only three sides to complete now and then the final construction.
The Temperature Chart may well prove to be a depiction of the DBEM's health too -  she finds the "orange days" hard.  Today she had insufficient energy to accept the offer of a drive to a nearby park to sit in the cool of the shady oak trees. 
I on the other hand have derived an almost Calvinistic satisfaction from crossing off every last item on my Saturday To-Do list and can now go to bed happy after turning over the page in the notebook -for tomorrow's list!