31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1

I saw Measi doing this on her blog and thought it looked interesting.  It took me awhile to search out the actual challenge list and I found it today, so I am starting it today.

Day 1 is to introduce yourself and to share a picture.

Ok so lets get the picture out of the way.  I don't think it is cheating putting up a picture from 2007 because I pretty much still look the same.  You see I hate pics of myself as the camera truly hates me.  I never seem to look decent in them and so I have very few pics of myself, and this is the most recent one that I have on my pc.

It is a pic of myself and my daughter when she had to dress up for a concert.

 

 

I tought myself to cross stitch when I was about 16 but only did 3 projects.  Then life got in the way when I finished high school and went off to study.  My first serious boyfriend, my studies and just life in general got in the way.

 

I then got taught how to knit and met my husband when I was 21.

 

We kind of put the cart before the horse and got pregnant before we got married but I was married and a new mom at the age of 23.

 

I started cross stitching again and made my daughter 3 Teddy Bear Projects:

 

 

 

 



Then I bought myself a  spinning wheel and taught myself to spin and for a few years I did't touch cross stitch at all.

 

For the last few years I have spent way too much time cross stitching and I love every moment of it.

 

Now I am 31 (just about 32 in a few days), I have been married 9 years and my daughter will turn 9 two days before my birthday.

 

I live in South Africa and most of the time feel lucky to live here.

 

We have large houses compared to what I have seen of the overseas houses on TV.





We are blessed with a beautiful countryside and the chance to go visit game reserves whenever we want and to be able to see animals like lions, elephants etc.

The sad things living here are basically the school education that is not very good compared to overseas.  A person who is highly qualified here wouldn't really be able to get a job overseas easily, even if they were lucky enough to be able to immigrate.
The politics also puts a damper on living here.

And my major gripe is as far as cross stitching is concerned.
Because everything is imported here it is expensive.

I have a full set of threads that I have accumulated over the last few years.  I once sat down and worked out how much I had spent on my set and was shocked to realise that it pretty much summed up to the same amount as a decent jobs monthly salary.  Fabric costs an arm and a leg here and so I usually only buy 1m or 2m at a time.

Luckily the hubby has his love of tools and so we have an agreement:  He sais not a word about my spending on my hobby and I say not a word when he comes home with yet another tool or woodworking machine.  It works for us because he knows his tools cost way more than I spend on cross stitch:-)

I have Scottish and Irish blood in me from my great grandparents and am married to a South African born German.  His whole family speaks the language and one day I would love to learn the language.

I think that is enough rambling for now.

See you tomorrow for the next day's challenge.