Heath Ledger cross stitch project - out with the old, in with the new

I am extremely thrilled to be able to announce that I've finished my longest ever standing, cross stitch project.

I'vee talked about my phases before and I'm not ashamed of having a minorly short attention span when it comes to sticking to one craft or another. They all remain very dear to my heart, which is the one and only reason I managed to get this 7 year project, finished.

After years of struggling along, it was only in the past few months I learned the value of guide lines

I had real trouble with this kit - it was really hard, on dark fabric with 30+ colours in various shades of brown.

All of these colours looked the same to me, I'll be honest. I couldn't identify them by eye, so it was very easy to go wrong.

The patterned areas were the hardest - those are the areas where all of the colours become very sinilar indeed, with a veritable lack of contrast to add to the already challenging design.

But hey ho, I've finished it - and I'm thrilled with the results, even if he most certainly needs a wash, and the loving touch of a caring custom framer. His time will come.

This crumped masterpiece has a few minor pixel errors, but I'm still extremely proud to have finished such a tricky kit

I learned throughout this project just how much a symbol of our generation, Heath Ledger had become.

It sounds silly but at least once a week, the girls in the office and I recant excerpt from Ten Things I Hate About You with very fond memories - mostly teenage girls at the time.

The dark ending of Heath's career in the Batman film was bitter and twisted - a very sad end to a troubled young man of great talent. I have selected a quote from The Dark Knight in which Haarvey Dent talks about how one should die a hero, and not live long enough to become the villain.

A fitting brass plaque to accompany him I think.

So yes, glutton for punishment I sure am.

I've picked yet another kit from the same photo-realistic designers, Designs In Thread. I guess I'd liken it to picking another epic.

Heavens knows why I've gone from working black-on-black to white-on-white. Not intentional, I swear it

John Lennon's poetic lyrics have spoken to me since I was very young, and this felt like a good time to pick a real idol of mine to immortalise in another needlework project.

As a huge fan of Stephen King, I also have a kit for IT the clown, but the fella won't have it - he says there would be nowhere suitable to hang it [fair enough].

Instead a pallette of cool greys and not warm browns, I'm thinking that picking an accompanying quote for the final framed piece could be rather fun.

My favourite recording of his at the moment has got to be the Real Love recording, sneakily recorded by Yoko and butchered in a cover for a John  Lewis advert years later. I've never liked Tom Odell. Was it Tom Odell? Whatever, those guys all sound the same to me.

I am starting to get the impression that I've started with the best bit of this kit - with Heath Ledger I started at the nose and seemed to work anti-clockwise from there, filling the corners.

With John there's lots of hair to be stitched, and that's all very dark and quite hard to see.

I've had to put it down this evening for lack of not being able to see the damn thing in domestic light (must, must, must invest in a decent craft light). And having a very stiff neck for no placable reason.

This one is only four pages where the previous was 9 - and a hefty 45 x 45cm where John will most certainly be much smaller.

But there's no danger of the artist dying while I make this one - Heath did, sadly. So I sort of ended up making it in his memory although thatg was never the original intention.

So in the meantime while I have probably another four years to pick a quote from a Lennon song to accompany this cross stitch project, here is Real Love - the way it should be heard. I wish i could pick Real Love as the quote but erm... it's a bit short, don't you think?

Sleeper Train To Edinburgh - Our Journey To Hogmanay

My birthday is New Year's Eve and we never do anything - at my decision. So for the big birthday last year, I figured I ought to do something at least once, and do it big. Hence, we swanned off to the Hogmanay festivities in Edinburgh for a fun-filled four day trip. It was GREAT!

We had two real highlights on our trip and the first was the sleeper train journey up there. So let's start with that.

I had always really really wanted to do the Calendonian Sleeper train, and walk past them docked at Euston all the time so this seemed as good a time as any. We couldn't do a sleeper train it both ways because the check-in and check-out times with our accomodation wouldn't have worked out.

I was prepared for it to be a bit cramped (it was) and we got around the high cost by investing in a two-together railcard. For £25 (I was offered a discount, I think it's usually £30 - the card lasts a year), we ended up saving something like £150 on travel all-round so it was worth it. You don't have to be family members, any two people can register for one of these and you can be listed on several. So I think I'll be registering for a few with other family members, too.

Dad packed me a little birthday present to keep up busy on the sleeper train and it was great fun!

With such a big saving, it was tempting to go for First Class but as soon as I found out that all First Class rooms only have one single bed in them (not bunks), so it kinda sucked the fun out of travelling with my partner completely. I don't think I'd have coped in the shared bunk room with a total stranger though. Not a lot of room to get around.

I've since learned that my annual gold card (the bit of paper that goes with my annual London travelcard) also gives you a massive saving on sleeper train tickets - so tick both boxes if you have both, as discounts can be applied for more than one railcard.

Boarding doesn't start in London if you're only going to Edinburgh, until about 11pm. So we chose to go and hover at Euston station with a couple of pints. That is, until I remembered that the pub inside the station had vanished, that is..

A quick Google search suggested an alternative within a few metres of the station (us with our heavy luggage didn't want to go far) and although I couldn't picture where it said it was (I go through Euston quite often and I'd never seen it), we chanced it and followed Google Maps.

Hidden away, The Doric Arch is a cheeky little pub tucked between Nandos and William Hill (out of Euston's exits and towards the left), and was totally empty when we got there at 9pm. We did have to lug our heavy suitcases up the stairs though, so beware if you have accessibility issues - but it's a nice little pub with some lovely ales to keep you going while you wait for a train.

A photo posted by DoricArchPub (@doricarchpub) on Jul 22, 2016 at 6:13am PDT

We boarded in good time - at the earliest possible opportunity (11pm for an 11.50pm departure). Greeted by a member of the Caledonian Sleeper staff who confirmed the brekfasts I'd pre-ordered and asked which drinks we'd like in the morning.

As you can see, there isn't much room to move around in there - negotiating our suitcases up the narrow corridors wasn't much fun either but we managed it within a few minutes, and before it got too crowded.

Over night was fine - we had special christmas soap gifts from the Caledonian Sleeper company. I'd brought a bottle of wine so there was no need to bother with the dining car - I did wander up there to nab plastic cups and let me tell you, it's TINY. So buy your snacks and drinks before you get on, as space is prioritised for first class ticket holders. And there isn't much of it.

Yes we could hear through both walls so had to be mindful to keep our voices down. We could both sit quite happily on the top bunk to play games and share a drink.


It was totally dark so don't expect to spot anything outside the window on the journey. All we saw was blackness and a few distant lights.

We got a few hours sleep on what were suprisingly comfy beds and the bathroom wasn't far although it was filthy so there was no washing going on in there. I waited to do all that when we reached our accomodation.

Breakfast came at about 6am - we ate it and went back to sleep for another hour. My bacon roll had no sauce and Ben's poor 'full Scottish' was pitiful - it looked like it had been trodden on. Nothing like the Instagram pictures had led me to believe!

The train booted us off at about 7.45am despite me having read somewhere that we were safe to sleep in til 8. But that was fine, it was a bit weird staying in bed when we knew we had reached the station and the train had stopped.

On arrival in the city it was very easy to find our bus even though it was dark. You literally disembark the sleeper train in the middle of the city centre so there's not far to go if you've got somewhere to get to nearby. It's very early in the morning though. Not a lot was open.

We managed to negotiate with our accomodation, to let us in about half an hour later. Luckily they didn't have people staying overnight the night before and over Hogmanay, so we were extremely fortunate. Be prepared to pay for an extra night if you need to do this during busy periods.

The alternative is to leave your luggage with the Left Baggage facility at Edinburgh Station - which would have weighed in at a cost of £25 for our two suitcases - a cost I'm happy we avoided!

I would do the sleeper train again, it was a great experience in good company. But I don't think I'd want to brave it on my own. Part of the fun was having my partner with me.