New Beginnings and a Revived Interest

In June this year I found myself for the first time in my life facing redundancy which although was a shock to deal with emotionally I was not altogether surprised since my role had become quieter and it had become obvious there was less work to go around.  It has been an adjustment dealing with this new world of job hunting and especially the daunting prospect of attending interviews since the last one I had was 27 years ago!  I have been using outplacement consultants provided as part of my redundancy package and have joined a few employment agencies to help me navigate my way.  As a result of my new found status I have found myself far too distracted to concentrate on reading so have picked up my cross stitch needle to help.  The last time I did a cross stitch update was in April 2015 far too long ago so it does feel good to be stitching again.

I have made some progress with my Humphrey Bogart project his face is finally complete as you can see.  I am pleased to say I am nearing the end than the beginning I have two small sections at the bottom to stitch and have begun the first already though I took the photo before.  My Dad is pleased too.

I also decided after having been given several tapestry cushions many years ago as gifts and been saying to myself on many occasions I will learn to do tapestry one of these days so I can make them.  Finally got off my butt and bought a small basic learners tapestry kit and am over half way through.  I have found it pretty easy to pick up after following a very helpful You Tube video:

Link to Video - Beginner's Guide To Tapestry

The design is by Orchidea and is called "My First Embroidery" it is quite a small piece only 6.5" x 8" - I found it slightly difficult to see the difference between the white and very light grey stitches in the colour guide I far prefer working with black and white symbols as you quite often do in cross stitch patterns.  But it does stitch very quickly and I'm already over halfway and it looks quite effective.  It is nice to have a break every now and then from the tiny stitches I have to do for the Humphrey Bogart piece.

Hopefully I'll have some good news on the job front soon.

My 2016 Year In Books

Thought that I would share my year in books through 2016 from GoodReads to my Blog:


https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/2230482

My favourite book was Slaughter On A Snowy Morn: A Tale of Murder, Corruption and the Death Penalty Case That Revolutionised The American Courtroom by Colin Evans which was a fascinating true story of injustice and corruption of those who are suppose to uphold the law but broke it due to laziness and personal ambition.  It was a real page turner Colin Evans detailed the characters in such a vivid style and I really enjoyed learning the backstory of each.


Highly recommended.

My least favourite book was A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - sadly it was the first book I read for the book club I joined this year but it was so hard going it was brutal, violent, deeply unpleasant reading and very hard to follow due to the Jamaican dialect it was largely written in.  Why is it so often that books which win the literary prizes are so inaccessible.

Not recommended.