Wizard from Cross My Heart Inc.

More details here.

I really don't know how to describe myself!!! The current description my fiance and I are giggling over is "farmer's wife"! DF and I live on a 107 acre property in the heart of the Mary Valley which is about 2 hours north of Brisbane (in the middle of the east coast of Australia; 1000km or 600 miles north of Sydney and nowhere near Perth). Our farm has been neglected for a few years but we're repairing everything and trying to bring our 800 Kensington Pride (Bowen) mango trees back into production.

The family consists of me, DF (aka MrA), DSS (aka Mr14), occasionally 3 other step-children and a visiting stallion. (I love horses and used to have my own TBred gelding, but this poor old Noble Stallion is getting very lonely and cranky and we're all not getting along very well.) Hopefully we'll be hosting a herd of self-propelled, grass-cutting fertilisers (i.e. the neighbour's cows) soon too.

We'll be moving back to Brisbane for Mr14's schooling this year so I'm job hunting. I trained as an accademic scientist and I've worked at universities in New Haven, Connecticut and Leeds, UK but I'm now looking for more desk-based work, focussing on the areas of regulatory affairs, copy-writing, or administration.

I've been stitching seriously since I was about 10 years old. My Mum sent me to a class at the Embroiderer's Guild of Queensland (the last year that they used the South Brisbane Town Hall) and I was hooked! I love all forms of embroidery particularly black work, hardanger and creative canvas work but my main thing at the moment is cross stitch. One day I plan to learn stump work and crewel as well. I love needlepainting, for example the work of Lesley Turpin-Delport and Verina Warren. My favourite cross stitch designs are fantasy and sampler patterns, particularly those by Teresa Wentzler, Dragon Dreams and Dracolair.

My other interests include watching Formula1, V8 Supercars and other motorspot. I'm now a CAMS Communications Official as DF and I provide radio communication support to the Australian Rally Championship (among many other long-distance events) when it comes to Imbil. We'll be supporting the WRC when that moves to Queensland so I'm really looking forward to meeting those superstars at the start! (I chat on F1 BBs a fair bit too.) Obviously I love Jaguar cars and have a keen interest in Amateur Radio and will be taking my exams to get my licence soon (ish!). The only other craft I could say I "do" is scrap cards from time to time. I really enjoy it but I can't see myself scrapbooking.