Daily Bliss
Today's lovely moments are tomorrow’s beautiful memories
Monday, November 26, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Dis...
'Naive' is probably it, to tell the truth.
Did you know that some of our most beautiful cross stitch designs are only ever designed on paper or on a computer before they are published? I didn't. I don't know why, but I assumed that if someone or a company was going to ask people to pay good gold for a chart, a prototype would have been stitched beforehand.
That would be the professional thing to do, right?
Surely, if someone charges a very large amount of money for his/her designs (not to mention that the designs incur enormous cost to a stitcher to kit up), s/he would have actually road-tested what is published! Just because something looks good on paper, doesn't mean it is going to work in real life. In any other industry, it's a foregone conclusion that you have created a real a model before publishing. Can you imagine the car industry if this wasn't done? Or even a Butterick sewing pattern?
For my two cents' worth, I have an expectation that what I am about to spend up to two years stitching on(not to mention $300US to kit up) will actually have been road-tested.
I got an email from a designer (through a yahoo group) stating that she couldn't possibly stitch a model of everything that she publishes & so she was requesting a high resolution photograph of stitchers' works so that she could find one she truly likes in order to use it when she publishes her work in print. To add insult to injury, she advises that she is prepared to give the person whose photograph she chooses acknowlegement of the photograph and a copy of a chart as payment.
Pffft!
What say you fellow stitchers?
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Nathan's School Finish

Paul & Nathan after the Valedictory Mass
While all was cool with Gabriella's last week of school. Things ran less smoothly for Nathan's.
After buying him a tie & a shirt for his formal on Wednesday night, he sent me a text message saying thanks for the tie but that I should know that the only reason he wanted me at the dinner is because it's going to hurt his mother greatly (they regularly argue).
What a dilemma! What was I then supposed to do? Go to the formal because Nathan's father, my husband wanted me to go, or stay away so that the ex-wife, with whom the son lives (but with whom he's often at loggerheads) got to have her day in the sun without me?
This kid is really mean! Quite seriously, the fight between son & mother that had me receive the text message was because Nat had taken her pushbike & hidden it at a friend's place so that he could hock it & use the money for alcohol for the party he was going to after the prom. I kid you not. He admitted that he had the bike hidden because his mother won't let him sell the cello his parents bought for him to learn on (which technically belongs to the mother not the child).
If the situation was a one off, I'd have said to hell with it & ignore a family fight, but this abuse by the son has gone on a long time. The first time I met the ex-wife was when Nathan refused to back down from putting a hammer through the windscreen of her car back when he was 12 years old because he was not getting his own way.
So, I stayed away from Nathan's formal at the request of my husband (for the benefit of the ex-wife). The son behaved well enough that he danced with his mother, despite the threat that he wouldn't (a tradition of the school prom is that the boys dance the first dance with their mothers), but was slack enough that he got no photographs with either of his parents. I snuck in the picture above at the Valedictory Mass. Nat posed for the pic & ran off and has not spoken with his father since (even though Paul had a birthday during the week & Nat was invited to dinner but simply didn't show up or acknowlege that he wasn't coming).
I can happily report that Kerry, his mother, thoroughly enjoyed herself with her new partner & basked in the joys of motherhood complete.
It's a sad, sad situation. I hope that Nathan grows up & starts to take an interest in someone other than himself, but I don't hold my breath.
Personally, I've washed my hands of him & his current behaviours. The time I have with my husband is precious (as he works globally I've seen him for about 5 days in the last 5 weeks) & I have my hands full with my own four off-springs' needs. I don't need the crap that my stepsons want to deal.
My Gabriella had a glorious time at her prom & the after party & we both had fun at the Valadictory breakfast this morning. Her siblings & their partners, Miranda & Duncan, David & Nadia, & Diana have shared events & made her week one that she never forgets. I'm very proud of them all.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Belle of the Ball
At last I'm done with kids & high school education - well, at least until the next generation comes along. The cadet princess's formal took place on Monday evening. The pictures below of the 19 year old Cadet Princess, Gabriella, speak for themselves, but I believe a great time was had by all.



Crown Princess: 26 year old Miranda
Gabriella & Miranda
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Remembrance Day

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
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