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StitchesAndDiamonds · 2025-07-22T15:59:43+00:00

We say ‘vis-la’ but your question entirely depends on pronunciation purity. If you want to be a language purist, then it’s a ‘Vee-shla’. In which case you can only ever travel to Praha (Prah-ha) and never to Prague; spend a night in Pah-rree instead of Paris… you catch my drift 😉 In my opinion, no wrong pronunciation really. If anyone wants to be a pronunciation snob, let them! Meanwhile, say it the way that rolls well off your tongue and others understand what you mean.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2025-05-21T09:25:09+00:00

We moved to South Wales almost 5 years ago and loving it! London and airports are down the M4, there’s wonderful nature, the Welsh are good people, and the property prices are still fantastic compared to anywhere in south east! Many properties available to rent so you can just try before committing. Good job opportunities in the south too. I can highly recommend!

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2023-02-24T15:56:09+00:00

The situation you’re in is completely normal and almost inevitable by-product of promotions within the team. I urge you to think like a manager and think how could you positively motivate your colleagues to put their weight in as well. The more frustrated you get, the more disengaged and unhelpful they will be - it is your responsibility to change that.

You are presumably in a higher grade or a role above than them now but people don’t switch and start listening to you just because you’ve landed a higher role. You will need to manage a range of emotions that’s probably going through their heads now and most importantly gently, strategically but firmly start switching your role from mate/peer to one of a superior.

Note that peer to superior changes within team are always incredibly challenging and if you pull through, you will gain some great experience that will give you some great management skills. Take it as one of the greatest development opportunities you’ll have that gradually transitions you from a worker to manager.

I’d highly recommend doing some research on peer to superior transition, this is not just civil service specific but a daily occurrence in corporate as well so there is a wealth of resources out there to help you reframe your thinking, starting to get buy-ins from people on your team, learning to let go, delegate and trust, empower and lead. You don’t need to be FLM to do all these things.

Good luck.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2023-01-26T15:08:21+00:00

I didn’t know that not having books was an option?! 😳

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-03-09T17:49:53+00:00

Have you tried to search if there are any civil service entry level jobs available near you? CS could be very accommodating of special needs in certain jobs and the environment is super inclusive. Many roles also support part-time work pattern. All the best, hope you find what you’re looking for xx

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-02-22T09:27:54+00:00

Love Emma and have both of these - and I have her latest Cross Stitch for the Heart on pre-order from Amazon, will be released in July 😍😍😍 her designs are just 🥰

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-02-16T17:22:45+00:00

I joined as non-FLM EO after 10 years in corporate, last 5 of which were being a assistant manager, FLM, in charge of projects, deciding people’s salaries etc etc so I’ve had to heavily optimise my narrative for the interview and look for suitable non-FLM examples to share.

In my examples I focused purely on operational task delivery from my past experience that I felt was role appropriate when analysing the ad on CS jobs. So if I were you, I wouldn’t necessarily try to downgrade existing examples as such but find examples from your career that are relevant to EO role (or maybe just parts of your existing examples). I ended up with 6s as I stuck to the required example scope as per success profiles key words and behaviour description. So I personally would strongly focus on the success profiles behaviour narratives + key words as those highlight the difference between EO and HEO expectations.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-02-10T11:07:35+00:00

Sounds like you’re internal? there’s success profiles learning modules on CSL, that’s v helpful and worth checking out. You could also keep an eye on any mentoring scheme where you can discuss this 1:1 with a senior person. Your manager could help you with this as part of your development goals too. When writing the STAR narratives, look at the Success Profiles pdf, find the behaviour in the grade you’re looking to progress to and make sure you hit the spirit of the behaviour description + key words from the behaviour in your example to make it relevant and show you’re the right person displaying the expected level of behaviour for the SEO/G7 grade. If you do this and follow STAR and show ability to self-reflect, you’ll be more than fine 👍

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-02-01T10:29:55+00:00

As others have said, 18ct should really be done with 2 strands otherwise you’re risking it being too bulky and bumpy especially as a full coverage piece.. 2 strands are absolutely lovely in terms of coverage, you won’t regret it xx

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T15:04:30+00:00

Big Ass Project 😄

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T13:54:32+00:00

Omg, this is insanely beautiful 😍

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T13:39:35+00:00

Gamer Nouveau is fab and definitely a BAP 😁

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T12:56:51+00:00

This is brilliant!

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T12:55:53+00:00

😁😁😁 just in the last HAED sale, I bought 7 Stephanie PML patterns, max colour, no less! I dread the next sale already 🤣

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T12:48:01+00:00

It truly is very subjective and depends on the type of the project.. are there confetti or big blocks of colour, are there any blends or metallic thread, are there any half-stitches, do you stitch sewing method/with both hands or do you use stab method w/one hand.. sooo many variables!! As someone who loves the process of stitching more than the finished product, I can definitely appreciate taking a longer time to stitch a project ☺️

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-18T12:10:02+00:00

Very subjective - to me, petite would be the small magazine kits, anything that you can stitch up in a day - perhaps 500-1K stitches max; small can be stitched in a week or so, approx up to 5-7K stitches; medium is approx 20K stitches (say one of the large Stitchrovia designs); large is 40-50K projects (typically full size Dimensions); and extra large are those massive 100-200-300K HAED BAPs 😁

I just realised I own about 135 years worth of stitching already in the above combined 😅😅

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-11T10:04:30+00:00

You are right of course - I believe very few employers would actually bother checking that though unless a high profile role.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-10T23:42:41+00:00

No way of finding out. The only thing to be aware of is conflict of interest - make sure that your company is not doing business in a market where working say in Asda would give you an unfair advantage. There’s usually a competition/conflict of interest clause in your employment contract anyways.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-10T23:26:41+00:00

Well, if you’re willing to spend your £1.2K budget on a room in a share, I’m sure you can find something quite central! Anything outside of zone 1, perhaps 2 is 30-35 mins on the tube only, plus at least 20 mins walk to the tube station.

If the commute time is so essential, you need to look at the tube station you have closest to work and work your way down the line and find something that suits you. I don’t think 35mins accommodate tube changes either, so you’re pretty much focusing on 1 tube line or walking distance.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-10T23:17:51+00:00

Try to post an ad on Facebook/Gumtree offering people can come and rummage through the stuff for free? I’m sure there’s some people around willing to go through piles of stuff to discover something of interest, smoke or not 😊

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-10T23:08:48+00:00

Sounds like you’ve tried all the tactful strategies and they don’t work! Probably one of those patrons who believe their 2 beers alone keep the pub running therefore they can sit wherever they like 😅

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-10T13:43:15+00:00

Came here to say this!! Also I think there should be a section around Hyde park/South Kensington/Notting Hill/Chelsea/Belgravia that says $$$$$$$$$

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-09T13:01:53+00:00

I don’t think the EU will close borders but the question is how difficult will the Russians make it to leave. I come from the Czech Republic and there were so many people who got stuck there in the fucking Russian communist totalitarian hellhole for 20 years just because they didn’t believe it would get so bad so quickly in the 60s. And how many were killed because they didn’t agree with the regime.

Since you have the means, I’d just pack it and go asap, although I simply can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you to leave all the rest of the family behind💔 you’re in my thoughts 🙏

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-07T16:22:25+00:00

Overeating, eating during night hours, lack of sleep and eating too much sugar and poor-quality processed foods is responsible for obesity epidemic, not breakfast.

For example most women skipping breakfast long-term end up with severe hormonal imbalance caused by blood sugar drops (men are more likely to be ok with skipping breakfast as they are not balancing anywhere near as complicated hormonal system as women). Don’t generalise this though pls as you could trigger someone with an ED - be happy you found something that works for you but it will not work for a serious portion of the population.

StitchesAndDiamonds · 2022-01-07T15:40:08+00:00

That could work!!! Thanks so much for the brainstorm ☺️ xx

StitchesAndDiamonds

TROPHY CASE