A lot of blogging entries yesterday - back to the norm - a short synapse of my night :)

Halloween - it was a monday - but the traffic felt like a friday! After an hour or so I got to the grocery store, which was also packed, finally I was home by 7 (i think I left work a little before 5). Then I turned in the domestic housewife, picking up, cooking, cleaning a bit (just the kitchen really). I made dinner, I cleaned dishes etc.

Finally I got to work on my quilt again, I added the binding and the sleeves, I am finished officially using my mom's machine! The quilt is ready for me to whip stitch the binding back and add a patch which I still haven't figured out how to write on.

Then what did I do ... back to cooking :) I made chicken broth for soup some night (it was supposed to be for tonight but that's not happening now - maybe friday. Next thing I know, it's 11pm! Not a single trick-or-treater!

What a halloween...

OH, it's my sister's birthday - i must go email her...

November Goals:

1) Add binding to Trip Around the World Quilt
2) Add signature patch to TAW Quilt

3) Knit blue purse for sister's birthday
4) Knit purple hat for christmas
5) Knit third hat for christmas
6) Start harry potter scarf for christmas

7) Finish Stitching Wisdom (backstitching)
8) Work on knotwork border
9) Stitch pickle ornament 1
10) Start second ornament
11) Start new cross stitch piece ("Did Someone Say Pie??")

That's a lot but hopefully it will be a good month!

October Goal Recap:

1) FINISH WEBSITE [I'd say YES besides some tweaks!!!]

Stitching:
2) Finish Wisdom dragon in Legends of the dragons [No but very close]
3) Continue working on border on LOTD [Nope didn't get to it]
4) Finish Ever So Little - Chimps [YES]
5) Work on a WIP at my sister's - something from Celebrations [YES finished Acorn Sampler]

6) Quilt Trip Around the World quilt [YES!!!!!]
7) Add binding (finish) Trip Around the World Quilt [Nope - tonight or tomorrow!]

8) Knit first scarf for christmas (purple) [Finished all 3 scarves!!!]
9) Knit first hat for christmas (purple) [Finished PINK scarf]


This was a great month, I can't wait to make the goals for next month later today...

Happy Samhain!

I woke up in such a good mood this morning, it's just a happy day all around, the sun is shining and it's warm out (well it will be), the weather yesterday was great too!

This was one of those great weekends! I got the website running live - it still has a few kinks to work out but should finish up real soon besides future additions and....
(drum roll)
I finished quilting the wedding quilt!!! It's all ready to add the binding and sleeve:


And here's the promised picture of the pink hat with it's matching scarf:


The hat is a bit large I'm afraid so I'm going to buy some pink ribbon to weave through the bottom so it can tie up tighter. There's also a hold in the back that i'm not yet sure how to deal with, I may tie it up with some pink yarn to at least hold it closed then weave in the ends.


Carol asked what "the website" was - I guess I've never fully explained:

A teacher from high school owns an online pet supply store with his brother, he asked me last year (feb 2004) if I could convert their current website to a database driven website that he had purchased all the software for and then to customize it for them. I did this and it went live in Nov. 2004. There were tweaks here and there throughout the year, new features to add and such. Then in May or June he asked if I could upgrade to the newest version of softare which helped with security problems, this was a very difficult task due to all the modifications I had made, but I started the process in August. I completed it this month and the changes just went live this past weekend. There were more tweaks of course and i'll have a bit more fixes to do but generally speaking it is done and working. And I think I even made my goal for the month .. which reminds me -- goals!

The website is pretty much done! I'm SO happy! I am jumpy with excitement :) I can see my freedom... just kidding.

Seriously though, yesterday I spent most of the day on it, but relaxed, I watched a few movies, enjoyed some meals and slowly got things all working, only staying up until midnight this time (did i mention i was up until 3 am friday night???)

This morning I slept in and went out to breakfast. Then I just spent an hour finishing up 2 of 3 more things left to fix.. that leaves 1 very non important task that I'm going to save for later or tomorrow --- TIME TO QUILT!!!

I'm so excited, hopefully no more problems will creep up but if they do they'll be pretty small. There's some future work on the site but not for a few weeks so I will have some freedom to enjoy my evenings!

Oh yea and yesterday I finished the first hat for my cousin - it's the pink one, I will take a picture tonight with it's matching scarf. It may be too wide around the bottom so I think i'm going to buy some pink ribbon and weave it through so she can tie it, she's a ballerina girl, pink ribbon suits her. The next hat will have to be a little tighter around the bottom.

I have high hopes for today - watching Alias Season 4 while quilting... first things first - i must tidy up my sewing area!

it's snowing... not that i've been outside as i've been on the computer all day but there's snow on the trees!!!! It's OCTOBER... did nature forget???

Oh my - i'm still here - online that is...

The website commenced going live last night, i think we actually started it around 10 (after all the file uploading and backups). I was up until 3am, it still wasn't working correctly, it worked in firefox but not IE. I got up at 8 this morning and got it working within a half hour with IE (sleep is great). But I am still working on kinks... and it's going to be a long day like I feared. At least orders are going through now and it's working though.

Maybe by dinner time I can take a break...

My eyes hurt...

A night full of knitting...

I had such a great night last night. I got home, took care of chores (garbage, laundry, dishes) and headed over to my friend's house. There we had dinner (yummy too), looked through new aquisitions from the Stampin Up party that had arrived (lots of fun stamps for making christmas things). Then we broke out the knitting! She's making baby hats and finished one last night, with me watching to see how she seamed it together, it came out adorable.

I worked on the first hat for my cousins, i fear that it will be quite large but a new idea has been brought to mind by a coworker, if it is too large, I can take a piece of ribbon (pink of course) and thread it through and tie a bow to make it tight around the bottom. As she grows it will fit without the ribbon. Of course I don't know for sure yet that it's too large as it's on needes still but when it's finished I will know for sure. I plan on working on that again at lunch today, I'm still not decreasing, not sure when I should start that but I think I'm close at the very least.

Tonight - the website goes live, i hope :) When I get home I will start uploading the files and whenever that gets done I will then do the upgrade of the database and move all the files and then start the long process of debugging and testing to get it working. Oh yippee. If i was optimistic I could hope it would all go smoothly and work tonight and tomorrow I just have to then be around in case there are problems but mostly spend the day quilting. But i'm not THAT optimistic and i know something will go wrong and most of saturday will be debugging and fixing and sunday might be my day of just being around.

Soon the paycheck will come however - and i can buy a new treadmill :)

Knitting away...

I started knitting the first children's hat yesterday at lunch. I continued last night and it's going very smoothly. Got a few inches on it, this is my first project in the round and with double pointed needles. I think for the next hat I will use my size 8 circular needles though, they will probably work just fine and be less cumbersome. Then for the decrease I can switch to my number 8 or 6 double pointed.

I also plan on using a different pattern for the next hat because the yarn is fluffy and you can't see the pattern, this first one I'm using the plain pink yarn and the pattern will show, it's mostly ribbing but it's still a pattern. Now my only problem is that I have no idea how many stitches to cast on to knit the correct size hat. I have the head size (20") but I dont' know what that means with this yarn weight so I did 90 stitches, it seems kind of large but children grow...

I have to interview someone in an hour so I must prepare..

A much needed night of doing nothing...

that's what last night was. I got home, I turned on my video games and I played zelda, my boyfriend ordered some chinese food for dinner and served me so I didn't even have to move. Then at 8 I switched to watching gilmore girls, then back to Zelda for another hour. Love that game ;)

So absolutely nothing productive got done at all... and then I slept late this morning, by an hour! But my cold with a horrible cough is finally subsiding now and I think it all did me good.

Today I plan on learning to knit in the round and hopefully tonight get a start on one of the kids hats! Today is not a great day for work, i'm tired and unmotivated, plus with all the construction I am now forced to keep my door shut if I want to get anything at all done :)

A new office...

I've been moved to a new office at work. We expanded at work, when I was hired I was employee 19 in this office, then 2 of those people left and we've slowly grown and grown now we're at 28 or so and I'm technically number 17, that's 10 new people since I started in June 2004!
So our office is growing now, we can fit a couple more people now that we've expanded, a lot of people have had to move to double offices (before we all had singles), for now I'm in a single again, not sure how long my move is for but i'm settling in.

One problem is my old office used to be at the end of a hallway so the only people walking by we're coming down to talk to me about something, now I have tons of people walking by and saying hi - kind of a distraction, change is supposed to be good - i sure hope this is!

Anyway - I worked on Legends of the Dragons at lunch yesterday and I hope to again today. Yesterday I got most of the green backstitching done, I still have the blue and brown backstitching which is the really detailed part but he's starting to look like a pretty dragon now ;)

I really need to start knitting the hats for my cousins but I forgot to bring my stuff to work so I hopefully will get that all together tonight to bring in tomorrow. Plus tonight I might (might) get my new stamping stuff I ordered, got some great things to make christmas gifts (like recipe cards) and christmas tags.
Oh I have so many fun things to do before christmas... and once the website is live and running smoothly (this weekend - crossing fingers!) I can just do it all!

One last thing - in yesterday's post when I posted the picture of Legends, I didn't mention it but if you look at the larger picture (click on it), you can kind of see where I added my initials, in the scroll that Wisdom is holding. Not sure yet about the date but I snuck the initials in at least!

I'm at 102 hours on Legends of the Dragons now, and I'm happy to announce that the Wisdom dragon is almost complete, only backstitching left to do - of course there's a lot of backstitching but it goes faster than regular cross stitching:


And my quilting progress - I have now finished not only the diamonds but all the diagonal lines, only borders left to quilt now!


It was a very good weekend, having no stress of the website I was able to just enjoy doing my crafts. Friday night I watched 3 movies while cross stitching - working on Legends, actually I only stitched during 2 movies, the first was a brain break.

Saturday I picked up my cousin and went to her soccer game then spent the evening watching movies again and cross stitching more on legends - getting to the above point.

Sunday was a quilting day, besides spending a few hours at the mall shopping for dresses and jeans, I spent the evening quilting and watching tv shows on my laptop.

So I've made great progress on my cross stitch and my quilt and tonight I hope to work more on the quilt, starting the green border. I'm not sure how long the borders will take but I'll get a start on it hopefully tonight and at lunch today it's going to be a little more time on Legends, doing the backstitching. Tomorrow I will start knitting the hats for my cousins for christmas.

It's going to be a good month... friday the website goes live too - so that will finally be behind me.

Another missed day blogging - i really am busy, yesterday I was at work until 9pm doing a review with the west coast over the phone... a really fun day :) But I did get some knitting done while on the phone at least and now all 3 childrens' scarves are done for christmas presents and my sister's scarf for her birthday is half done. I used up one whole skein on her scarf and i'm not sure if 2 will be enough now so either it will be a short scarf or I will take it out and make it thinner or I will buy more yarn (big if though because it was sale yarn so they probably don't have any more).

I did manage to stitch at lunch today finally - on Legends :) Got a few stitches in. And my goal tonight is to stitch while watching movies - sure have missed stitching and there's a bunch of new projects I'd like to start soon (as soon as my quilt is finished).

This weekend is a mixture of busy-ness :) I am going to my cousin's soccer game saturday and then she is coming over for the night. I will probably start knitting hats that night while we watch some movies. Then sunday after she leaves I will work on the quilt as much as I possibly can, need to make some progress on that real soon!

A few more hours to go today at work - I won't be staying late but I figure until 4 is good at least :)

Yup I'm alive :) I was busy yesterday, but it was a nice busy.

Let's see ... Monday night - no more pictures because I didn't get any more quilting done. I did manage to pretty much finish up the website so we are ready to go live with the changes on the 28th. Until then I'm free ;)

Last night my boyfriend found out he got one of the co-op jobs he wanted for the winter break, so I took him out to dinner. Killed my productive night but I did manage to make some cards and finish putting together all my stamps. Then I started knitting a new scarf for my sister out of this rayon mix yarn that is really soft.

Today is my night at my uncles, probably more knitting going on, Thursday I work late but this weekend hopefully I will pick up the quilt again and get going on that!

Alright I couldn't resist and I think I fixed the problem on the website so i'm on to just testing now anway:

Framed Bunny Gingham:

Those aren't wrinkles in the fabric, it's my reflection in the glass :)

Framed Spirit Within:

This one does have some wrinkles in the fabric that I couldn't get out :)

My Batik with some character:


My quilting progress - actually this is before i started the diagonal lines so I'm sure i'll have an updated picture tomorrow!


And my progress on the scarves for christmas for my little cousins. The third one is coming right along and i will probably finish it by wednesday (or on wednesday at my aunts) and start on the hats!


And that's it for now :) back to the website!

Pictures to come a little later today - because I'm home today!!!

What a great weekend this has been so far! Friday night I worked on knitting the third scarf while watching a movie (Winter Solstice - nothing really happens in the movie but it was fine for knitting through). Then I moved on to quilting and I finished up quilting all the diamonds on the wedding quilt. After that I decided to pull out 2 pieces I had cross stitched and get them framed, Bunny Gingham and "Spirit Lies Within" - slightly modified with no words, they are now in standup frames I had lying around and I can enjoy them much more!

Saturday I still had most of the day to myself before my boyfriend got home so I worked on the website for a few hours (and made good progress), so to reward myself I worked on the quilt again, getting 1/4 of the diagonal lines done. Then I made a wall hanging out of one of the batiks I bought at the quilt show, it just involves hemming the batik, hemming a fat quarter and then whipstitching the top of the batik to the fat quarter to it just hangs nicely.

I even managed to work more on the website that night.

Sunday I had my stampin up party - so first I got out all my stamping stuff and set up my table in the livingroom so whenever I so desire I can work on stuff. I have 122 stamps now and just ordered 4 more sets I really wanted. I'm ready to make christmas cards, christmas tags, maybe little thanksgiving treat bags, recipe cards as a christmas gift and anything else that suits my fancy. After coming home for dinner I did manage to work on the website for another 2 hours too leaving which makes today even easier so I slept in!

All I have left on the website is to finish the checkout process (almost done) and do some more testing of less obvious things. I say maybe 4 hours today and I'm ready to call it done until we go live. The going live date is set for the 28th, which means I will spend the night getting the site uploaded and then debugged, and the 29th most of the day debugging but hopefully after that I will have time to myself again and a nice big fat paycheck for christmas shopping!

Well I best get to working on the site. Once I finish that today I will get my pictures uploaded before moving on to quilting!
Note to self:
Sat- 4 hrs
Sun - 2 hrs

When will the rain stop??? This is just too much already - for days and days it just doesn't stop raining.

So I worked late last night and then made a run to Joann's to buy some more knitting stuff. I bought 2 sets of double pointed needles to start the kids hats, I bought some yarn (just a little because I wasn't impressed with what they had). THen I bought a basket to hold yarn (and it's already full) and the Encyclopedia of knitting as I enjoy reading about knitting and it comes with a bunch of basic patterns including hats.

So not much got done last night, I started scarf number 3 for christmas, I'm using bamboo needles now, giving them a try, they're a bit harder to knit with, they don't slide the yarn as easily but they solve the click clack scrape problem of the metal needles that was driving me crazy!

No stitching at lunch time yesterday, i ended up working through lunch but today I hope to knit at lunch time at least, get a bit farther on the third scarf. Then I can start hats soon!

What is my plan for the weekend - well it's a 3 day weekend for me by choice, so tonight I plan on mostly relaxing, maybe watch a movie, maybe pull out some stitching, not sure. Maybe quilt a little.
Saturday I have to work on the website most of the day - during breaks I will quilt on the wedding quilt. Hopefully it's a really productive day.

Sunday I have a stampin up party where I will try to be good and not buy too much :) Then it's back to the website and quilting.
Monday - same - but I hope to FINISH the website! And finish the quilt??? Or at the very least get far enough on the quilt that I can work on it in the evenings and finish it by next friday.

Maybe i'm too ambitious, i hope not, i really have to finish the website and taking a day off work to do it seems like the least stressful way to do it. However it means i have a lot to do today so I best get to it :)

Ah, knitting goes so fast when you haev 3 hours in an evening ;)

Last night I finished the second scarf, that's 2 out of three and I don't have the yarn yet for the third or the needles to start the matching hats. So hopefully today is a trip to Joann's to get some more yarn and needles but for today at lunch - it's back to stitching Legends :)

Looks like work is going to be really busy the next 2 weeks, late nights, lots of stress, not looking forward to it exactly but I am looking forward to taking this coming monday off and forgetting about work and just quilting (and working on the website). Looks like I will miss my group stitch next thursday though :(

Well it's time to eat something and get some work done ...

A much more productive day.

Work today is going much better than it was yesterday, i'm hitting a snag right now but i don't think it's a problem i created, i think it's just something i need help on and the person to help is out sick today so i'm putting that work off until tomorrow :)

Last night was very productive. I got home, made some mac and cheese (it was a make yourself dinner night since i got home first last night). Then I watched the last episode of Oz from season 1 while I ate. After that I worked on the website for 2 hours and then went to the gym.. not too bad. Even then it was only 10pm so I read for a while before falling asleep, it's sad when i get excited about an evening because I got more work done... soon the website will be done and I can spend my evenings stitching (or studying if i'm in grad school already)...

Speaking of grad school, I really should finish the application process for that, feels like i've been here for a real long day but it's only 3 and i have 2 hours to go before I plan on going to my aunt's. What to do.. maybe a short knitting break will help...

It's all about finished pieces today :)


That's the acorn preface piece to Rebecca's Sampler by Earth Threads, finished on Saturday.


That's the second trio of Ever So Littles, a better picture to come when I cut the mat maybe this weekend :)


That's the basket quilt - my first machine quilted piece :) It's now happily hanging on my livingroom door by magnets :)

And the first christmas present scarf finished yesterday at lunch:
the tails are still hanging off but it's finished at 46" long :)

Unfortunately I haven't finished anything else, I started scarf number two in pink last night while watching Oz. Tonight I hope to work on the website. Lunch time today is definately knitting time. Once I get this other scarf done I might have to start hats -- I've never knitted in the round before so we'll see how it goes :)

I didn't forget, I just decided last night it was too late to do pictures.

This weekend I finally got some stitching done, which is a very rare thing if it's not lunch time at work :) Friday at lunch I finished the Ever So Little - Chimps (so now both pieces for christmas presents are done). Friday night I cleaned the apartment top to bottom after laying tons of poison out for the dreaded cockroaches.. now i'm finding only dead ones :)

Saturday was my stitch day with my sister, my boyfriend came along to hartford with me as he has a 3 day weekend and felt like he needed a break so he spent the day with my sister's boyfriend. We relaxed - I didn't get nearly as much stitching done as I wanted but I got in about 4 hours, we watched Sin City which was easy to stitch through. So what did I stitch:
Well I finished one WIP - my Acorn preface piece from a class last year, it's a preface to Rebecca's Sampler from Earth Threads. It is complete now and it got me looking at Rebecca's Sampler with renewed interest as the fabric is very lovely. The top is a bit strange with random motifs but the rest is more like a band sampler, definately unique. We'll see if i have time for that next year, it's not high on my list as I have some other beautiful samplers i'd rather do first.

I also worked on my Woven butterfly WIP - which is hardanger, I finished wrapping all the "bars" in the center design so that the next step is to actually weave in the butterfly design. This is from Stitcher's Hideaway in Sturbridge last July, it actually has a border as well but I think I'm just going to do the butterfly and maybe find or make a box to top with it. Put some nice fabric to show through behind it or something. A good gift for my aunt that likes butterflies.

So there will be pictures, hopefully tonight i'll take them. I spent 7 hours on sunday working on the website, getting home at 1, I was working through my tv shows until 11. So pictures were definately not happening. No good news with the website either, I was hoping to get the tax situation working but instead got stuck fixing a bunch of other things that are taking forever! They need to be working first though, and one of them is only a hair closer to working and still broken! So hopefully tonight I can work on that some more, a fresh mind taking a look at it.

I'm trying to pick a day to take off work to just work on the website, it has to be soon because I need to start quilting the wedding quilt in my free time and that is not happening so far - and the wedding is getting closer! Alright - enough worrying, i have some things to try out in the lab which should cheer me up...

Stitch Night!

And finally for the first time in a few months I actually got some stitching done there! The third Chimp on Ever So Little-Chimps is basically finished, I just have to finish the last vine today at lunch! Time to get out the mat cutter and get these christmas presents framed! Picture Monday with my happy dance for sure :)

So now what - lunch time will become my knitting time and once the website is done I will get to stitch in the evenings. I may have to start alternating stitching on Legends with knitting at lunch just because I think knitting scarves will get boring for me and I have 3 to do. Plus I think I may have thought of another scarf to do as a christmas present - my oldest cousin loves harry potter so I could make her a harry potter scarf - IF i can find the correct color yarn (of course I'm not a potter fan so some research is in order. I wonder if i'm just a bit too ambitious with my knitting here...

Long long night last night, i won't get into it but I think i'm going to go throw myself into my work today and try not to worry too much. It's almost the weekend and tomorrow is a stitch day with my sister!!! Ooooh that's even more exciting - I get to go through all my wips and pack up stuff to bring down and work on!

Chimp number 2 done (at lunch yesterday) ... now ready to start the third today at lunch, then I have stitch tonight then with lunch tomorrow, it's reasonable to assume I can finish the third chimp tomorrow - maybe ??

Last night I knitted more of the first scarf, i realize now that being so short (16 stitches across), is not really making it go faster, the part that takes the longest is the turning and starting the next row and now I have to do that very often kind of makes it boring.

Today it's back to the lab, in general I have no meetings on thursdays and fridays so maybe I can look forward to a more productive day :)

Hehehehehe... still no working on the website!

I stitched at lunch yesterday - unstitching what i messed up on the Chimps and re-stitching. I finished all the actual stitching on the second chimp so today I will backstitch him and start my way up to the third chimp.

Last night I downloaded some tv shows I had missed including last week's gilmore girls, but I did get to watch this weeks. Then I knitted a bit more on the scarf for cousin number 1. I brought that to work on tonight at my aunt's too.

Now it's back to the lab - i think i have some work to do :)

Let's see did I do as I was supposed to last night? -- nope

I got home at 6:30 and decided I would quilt - start machine quilting the Trip Around the World quilt ... wow I didn't know what I was in for.

I started on a center diamond, medium sized. After 2 inches I realized my stitch lenght was tiny! Uh oh! So I pulled it all out (which took about 15 minutes they were so tiny! Basically the quilt is so heavy that it catches and pulls at the front of the machine and I have to contort myself to hold it up and guide it through so that it stitches at a regular stitch length. All while also trying to go straight and even! This is not easy.

After about an hour and a half I had 3 diamonds done, 2 of the smaller center ones and the largest outter diamond. That leaves 8 more diamonds - but that's just of the diamonds part :)

So at this rate next week I can maybe get 4 done that leaves 4 more and then all the straight diagonals and the borders... this is going to take a while!

I was good and went to the gym last night though, ran over a mile walked another mile, then lifted. Hopefully I'll do the same tonight except hopefully I'll also work on the website!
Lunch today - rippin out stitches on Ever So Little - Chimps so I can get back to working on those!

I actually remembered the picture!


There's legends at 94 hours progress - getting very close to that 100 mark. This piece is the "largest" i've done if you count by hours - finished anyway :)

No stitching at all this past weekend - Saturday I went to the quilt show (which was amazing) and then up to my cousins' combined birthday party. Sunday I worked on the website and got little things done. We also went for a 2.3 mile run! Which is a mile more than I usually do. We didn't get up this morning though and hopefully I'll go when I get home.

The website is getting very close. I finished all the basic merging, and started testing and making fixes. I have to do a few more large sections of fixing and then I"ll be all done besides a simple upgrade security wise and we can go live. Going live however will be tough on it's own!

This week doesn't look like a big stitching week - I will work on the Chimps at lunch all week and work on the website in the evenings. I'd like to get the Chimps done next week and start knitting at lunch time. Saturday I am going down to my sister's so I will bring some small projects we started at celebrations together and work on those!

October Goals:

1) FINISH WEBSITE (gosh i really hope so this time)

Stitching:
2) Finish Wisdom dragon in Legends of the dragons
3) Continue working on border on LOTD
4) Finish Ever So Little - Chimps
5) Work on a WIP at my sister's - something from Celebrations

6) Quilt Trip Around the World quilt
7) Add binding (finish) Trip Around the World Quilt

8) Knit first scarf for christmas (purple)
9) Knit first hat for christmas (purple)

That's a lot of work to do in a month. Today I am spending the day working on the website and next weekend I'm going down to stitch with my sister all day saturday so hopefully that knocks 2 things off my list right away !

September Goals WRAPUP:

1) Finish Ever So Little - Lions [DONE]
2) Start Wisdom dragon on Legends [YES]
3) Work on blackwork dragon [NO]
4) Start a new piece ... hmm... [NO]
5) Start Ever So Little - Chimps [YES]

6) Start and Finish quilting Trip Around the World Quilt (machine quilting) [DEFINATELY NOT FINISHED BUT READY TO QUILT]

7) Finish merging website and start testing (the sooner this gets done the sooner I can get to stitching a little each night). [almost done merging - started testing!]

Finally worked on the website a little last night. No real promising progress, just continuing to merge files. Once i get them all merged I can start debugging and fixing problems that cropped up between the old version and the new. I hope to spend most of the day sunday working on it.

Tonight I hope to get some time to sew. I think we're going out to dinner and then I have some sewing to do for my mom who I will see tomorrow. Then if i have time after that I will start machine quilting the wedding quilt. Tomorrow is my cousins' combined birthday party so after I volunteer at the quilt show in Belmont I will head up there. Should be fun.

Nothing interesting to say. I will stitch more today at lunch, today is the last day I'll work on legends at lunch I think- next week I will focus on the chimps so I can get them finished up soon and then knitting at lunchtime!
Time to do a monthly wrapup!

One quilt finished...

I finished adding the binding and sleeve to my small basket quilt last night. I will get a picture tonight. I just have to add a label now which I never do but I will try to be good this time. Maybe I'll embroider one or just write in permanent marker. It's not a quilt that will get washed much so I can do whatever really.

So last night I did a 2 mile walk and helped make cookies - of which I got a bunch to bring to work today :)

Tonight I should get home by 5 - then I will maybe start quilting and make dinner. My show comes on at 8 so maybe by 7 I will start working on the website. No stitch tonight- my friend has too much work and can't get together but I should be working on the website anyway :) So i will try tonight - we'll see how it goes.

No lunchtime stitching today,we're going out to lunch.

As I was stitching Wisdom yesterday at lunch - I realized, there isn't a whole lot left. I was worried the wings of the dragon would take forever but there really isn't that much stitching. It is completely doable and not so daunting. However - things are coming up in the way of my stitching time! Like:

Ever So Little Chimps - need to focus on them and get them done so I can get the two pieces framed for christmas which means ordering frames still!

Quilting - need to finish the wedding quilt and then get back to hand quilting again.

Knitting - christmas presents, going to probably pick that up at lunch time once the chimps are done.

Website - need to get that done early october which is already here so this weekend will be devoted as much as possible.

Round Robins - I'm in a round robin that has been delayed and whenever I get the next piece I have to focus on it and get it done as soon as possible and mail it on. So whenever that happens - maybe next week you'll see a big change in stitching :)

Finally.
Progress at 90 hours of stitching:


So far this week at lunch I've been squeezing in about a half hour for stitching. Last night at guild I really started the first scarf for christmas. I'm starting with the oldest of the 3 girls and hers are going to be in the purple/white yarn. I have pink for the middle child and I haven't bought yarn yet for the youngest.

Running for the third morning in a row. Tomorrow I won't run because I'll be at my uncle's but hopefully friday and saturday we can keep it up. It was chilly out this morning!

No picture of the chimps - they are still in their bad state waiting to be ripped out - I can't do that tonight as I'll be at my uncles and one of these african animal pieces is for my uncle for christmas, maybe this weekend I"ll get it ripped out. I do hope to finish the binding on my small basket quilt this weekend and then I'll update that picture - my first machine quilted piece!

Still no pictures - ugg - I forgot I wanted to take pictures last night and I left my stitching at work because it was raining and I didn't want to carry it in the rain for no reason (no stitching last night).

The plan was to work on the website and quilt last night - neither happened of course. I worked late and we went out to dinner. We got home at almost 9 - so I picked up my "learning to knit" book and read through the basics. I learned to knit from a friend and this book went over things like the differences in yarn and stuff. It didn't teach knitting in the round which I still haven't attempted but need to for hats this christmas. Then I started a the first of 3 scarves, I have to start it over as I did 30 stitches but I'm using size 10 1/2 needles so I really need only about 18 stitches across - it is a child's scarf.

So a little knitting to get me back in the groove. I hope tonight at guild to knit some more, get some progress on the scarf. Today I'm going to look online for a good place to buy good needles that aren't too expensive. I'd like to go with bamboo circular needles, get them in a few sizes and not too long of a nylon "connector thing" as nothing I stitch is that long. I can't knit with the straight needles, all the weight pulling on my wrist is bad, circular's for straight knitting was recommended because I can hold the weight in my lap between the needles.

Anyhow - definately pictures tomorrow morning, or even tonight and it's the first guild night of the year (our year runs september to june) ;)

Ack! I forgot to take pictures last night. I will get them tonight. The Wisdom dragon is starting to come to life now that I've been backstitching his head. He didnt' get any attention this weekend but he seems to be my lunch time piece now.

This weekend i finally got to start using the sewing machine. I machine quilted a small quilt I made last summer and put the binding on (just need to whip stitch it now). Then I did some practice free motion quilting on another quilt - that came out horrible and I may take it all out if I can manage it.

I bought some backing fabric for the Trip Around the World quilt and pieced that and basted the quilt with the spray adhesive stuff. That took a long time and most of the night last night. So now that quilt is sitting on my diningroom table waiting for me to figure out what thread I'm going to use to quilt it. I may use a different color thread for each diamond to match the fabric. I have a green/blue changing color thread but I think it will be too bold on the lighter fabrics. A color that blends better will look better I think and changing top thread is no big deal if I can keep the bobbin the same color at least.

That was my weekend besides visiting with my little cousins saturday night. I measured their heads and hands to make hats/scarves/mittens for christmas (maybe), and I bought a little bit of yarn to start that process. I think I'll start with the scarves to get used to knitting again, try some new hat patterns (as I've only made one hat that I made up as I went along). Then try mittens if the hats go well. I have 3 sets to do so I will probably start that real soon!

Well it's work time, we have 2 new people starting today but no new offices to move them into yet - maybe tomorrow they will be ready.

Off to work..

Stitch night.

Well I went to stitch night last night, even though I was tired. I of course had a great time, laughing and talking. The problem is - I tried to stitch. The first time I messed up I caught myself pretty quickly. The second time was at 8 when I was getting ready to pack up to go. I realized that the mess up was from when i started stitching earlier! So it all has to be ripped out, everything I stitched last night. So that got quickly packed away! Who knows when i'll get to that - luckily it was just the chimps, just one color, with an extra row making the chimp too wide. I'm just glad it wasn't the dragon!

I really did nothing else last night besides read a little. I'm reading Crime and Punishment and I just finished "part one" which is where he (Roskolnikov) - i think i got that right - kills 2 women, I don't know what happens in the rest of the book and I fell asleep just after starting part two.

I just borrowed a book from a friend "Eyre Affair" - unfortunately I want to read Jane Eyre first which is next on my list but i'm not even half way done with Crime and Punishment. I think i need to start reading more - after I finish my quilt!

Tonight - pick up sewing machine :) Start practice quilting, then maybe work on the website.
Saturday - quilt/website and go up to my uncle's house for dinner and gaming.

Cold.

It's always cold in the office - in any office I've ever worked. Too much air conditioning! Unfortunately the work I do doesn't lend itself well to working outside in the sun which is where I'd rather be. I'm always happier hot than cold. I mostly hate wearing winter clothes during the summer and still being cold, I didn't even buy shorts this year.

Job fair went well yesterday, but man am I sick of talking about our company, what we do and what we're looking for, and a bunch of over eager individuals who may have no interest in all pretending to really want to do embedded software development in a no OS environment even though all they know is hardware work... It's nice to be back to work.

I had a very unproductive evening. I fell asleep before 9 but did wake to watch most of law and order. I'm still tired, not sure why I'm so tired, maybe I should start taking my vitamins again...

Job Fair.

We're going to a job fair at a local college today, a coworker and I. Trying to get our company name out there as we always seem to be hiring. I'm not a fan of talking with strangers, but that's what today will be... a change of pace I suppose.

No stitching last night, I wound floss on bobbins while watching some more Alias Season 4. Then Gilmore Girls and Law and Order SVU. I'm not a huge TV fan, obviously I like Alias but I've never watched that in a "time slot", just on DVD. Gilmore Girls I've watched from the beginning however and I do still enjoy it. I used to enjoy it more when my boyfriend had time to watch it with me, he did however stop working at 10 to watch SVU with me.

I don't know if there will be any stitching today, definately not at lunch and tonight I'll be at my uncles so I just have no clue, I may break it out or I may read... depends what's on tv.

15 minutes till we head out.. I should get my stuff together.

A mood.

Yesterday was a great day as far as "work" goes, I made a breakthrough debugging my code and I can't wait to get back to it today. However that great feeling didn't last long and the rest of my night I was in a mood. Just one comment made by someone can really change your mood, I started brooding over the comment and feeling inadequate. The way I thought things were ... I was wrong ... I think, I can't be too upset it may not even be true, I can never tell. So I'll stop complaining.

Anyhow, I told my boyfriend why I was in "a mood" last night when he called and I was still on my way home. When I got home, he had made dinner and a cup of tea for me! He is so sweet, he was so busy (always is) and studying while he made dinner but I came home and ate and enjoyed a cup of tea, it was a real treat, he's the best!

No stitching last night, I stitched for a half hour at lunch but that was it. Today hopefully I can fit in another half hour, getting closer to finished on the dragon's head so I can get the backstitching done on that before starting the wings/body.

Lots of progress on Wisdom - I'm now at 86 hours on this project, here's a closup of just Wisdom:


And Chimps - 1 is done and I've started my second:


As I'm working on Wisdom, I"m getting the most interesting parts done, I have the scale done now and next I'm going to finish the head. That leaves the body/wings for last which is probably a bad move as it looks to take a LONG time. But the good thing about that is that I will probably look forward to stitching the border more :) Maybe I'll alternate as I get to that part between the dragon and border. I still think this piece will be finished by the end of November for sure.

Chimps I worked on at my party saturday and a little after. Bringing that up to almost 4 hours progress.

I also worked on the website yesterday for a number of hours (5) - and I got the database all merged and updated (almost - i'd say 90% there) and I'm probably almost 2/3 done with the actually website merging. I have it running now so when I make changes I can test them out and that is extremely helpful.

I forcast a busy day and a night working on the website but my apartment is clean and there's pie for lunch so I'm happy :)

My stitch party was a success! Not that I did much stitching but it was a great time!

After a night of cleaning the apartment top to bottom, a morning of baking and "setting up", a great day of chatting and eating... the night kind of flew by. We rented Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and bought chinese food to finish the evening. Unfortunately I was so tired that I fell asleep before 10!

But now it's an early morning (early because we got up and went out to breakfast before 9am) - so now I can work on the website for a few hours and then maybe stitch the rest of the day! And the apartment is nice and clean to enjoy!

I like fridays. A nice relaxing morning getting to have an actual conversation with my boyfriend when he's not reading or studying. But I get to work late and now have to stay late meaning I will definately hit traffic.

It's okay though, I have a ton of work I want to get done so it will be a day in the lab trying desperately to make progress with my code.

I did stitch last night - for about 15 minutes :) Mostly I talked with my friend, that's really what stitching nights are, time to chat and catch up. Plus it was so muggy and hot that it was hard to stitch comfortably. Today at lunch I will work on Wisdom and tomorrow is my stitch party so hopefully some stitching will get done ;)

The cough is back with a vengeance. But at least my throat feels better.

Babysitting last night was easy, the kids were so good, I had them in bed before 8 but fell asleep with them and woke up at 9. Pretty much just slept after that too, still tired from being sick.

Tonight is a stitch night so I hope to get some stitching done on the Ever So Little - Chimps, tomorrow night I probably won't stitch as I have cleaning to do and I might go out to dinner as a treat.

Alright - nothing new - back to work :)

My order has been shipped! That's from Stitching Bits & Bobs.. maybe it will get here by saturday when i am having my stitching group over and they can see the new stuff i got.

Well I'm back to work today. Yesterday was a long day, I dropped off my mom's sewing machine to be repaired and the rest of the day pretty much did nothing. I think it did me good though. Today my throat hurts (really bad) but other than that I'm feeling much better. I watched some movies in the afternoon and started Season 1 of Oz. I got a little stitching done on Legends of the Dragons - man is that a slow going piece! Lots of highlighting needed! But I will have a progress pic next monday again.

Tonight I babysit for my uncle - the 3 little cousins. my boyfriend was planning on meeting me up there to help but he can't now because he has an interview early tomorrow and a lot of work to do tonight. So i'm on my own - under the weather and all. Maybe they'll all go to sleep no problem and it will be a night of reading for me (yea right).

Tomorrow night is stitch, then friday I have to clean and maybe go out to dinner. Saturday more cleaning before my stitch group comes over. That leaves sunday to work on the website again finally - been a while. I need to get that done so i can get paid too - i need the christmas shopping money! Okay - back to work stuff..

I think i'm done messing with the template - let me know if there are any problems.

sick day - i could feel the cold coming on the last few days but today is the worse. I took the day off and slept in (this is me still in bed checking email and blogs). The reason and only reason i am up right now is because at 9am exactly the roadwork outside my window started! Right outside my window, so i had to run around and shut the windows - they are jack-hammering right now. UGG. So i just took some tylenol cold (hoping the tylenol part will help this headache).

So I'm babying myself today - I can't really stitch with this headache, i'll probably make a run to the store for some halls (cough drops) - and if I feel any better this afternoon I'm going to go up to the sewing machine store in stoneham before it closes at 6 to see if they can repair my mom's machine for me. That was my plan last night anyway, before i got worse - I was skipping my "quilt night" to do that, definitely still skipping my quilt night.

Hmm.. stitched at lunch yesterday a bit on Wisdom - started on his head which I'm going to focus on now until that's filled in at least.

things are changing slowly - hopefully no problems, i think it's loading slowly now, i will see what i can do about that - the images are large...

I remembered Pics for monday!

Not a lot of progress on Ever So Little - Chimps but this is what I stitched Thursday at my stitch night, it's also a better pic of the lions. Click for a larger image:


And progress on Legends of the dragons, not much but definately a better picture just a little blurry:


I'm enjoying working on Wisdom but it is much slower going than the other 2 dragons. I finished the stitching of the scroll and the underbelly of the dragon. Until the backstitching is in though he really won't come to life.

I had a very busy weekend but not busy like I expected. Saturday I drove back to NY for a bridal shower and to visit my mom. I borrowed her sewing machine so I could machine quilt the Trip Around the World quilt. I got home late saturday night still tired from staying up all night last thursday night.

Then Sunday I slept in and got ready to spend the day quilting. I set up the diningroom to have a quilting station, cutting on one side, sewing on another and ironing. I wanted to do some practice pieces. Then I set up my folding table to do some painting.

I bought a little pedestal thing at a Mill Store the other day and I wanted to paint it to match the diningroom furniture which is black but worn with red/yellow underneath. So I put on a coat of red then sat down to sew.

Of course the machine doesn't work for me - I desperately do anything I can think of reading the book, clean it etc. Call my mom, she's not mad at all, this same thing happened last time I used her machine and she had to get it repaired but it's under warranty. She's bummed my plans are ruined for the day though (as am i). Even with her help we've narrowed it down to a possible original problem but nothing to do now. She says I should try to find a bernina store out by me and get it repaired so I have it sooner. I found one I just need to find an evening to get there - won't happen until next week for sure which means the quilt DEFINITELY won't be quilted before the quilt show - all well.

So I was bummed, I picked up all my sewing stuff and finished up my painting stuff. Then I pulled out the good old nintendo 64 and zelda to play for a few hours. After that I was in the mood to stitch a little so I got to where I am above on Legends.

This week I hope to continue working on Legends at lunch time Mon-Thur. Thursday night is stitch so I'll work on chimps and i have stitch at my house on saturday so i'll probably continue working on chimps then. Chimps should be finished by the end of next week and I can pick up blackwork dragon again.

Off to work...

Still alive - i mean awake.

3 hours to go for the day - then I have to stop at walmart on my way home and change my oil in my car tonight before I drive back to nY tomorrow morning. I sure hope i'm awake enough to do that tonight!

I just ate lunch - and that's what's really hitting me hard - now i'm exhausted, before i was okay just hungry :) I'm not a caffeine person but i think i may drink a half cup of soda and see if that helps at all, i need to be awake for the drive at 4 that's for sure.

I did start stitching the Ever So Little - Chimps last night at stitch, not much progress as mostly i just chatted but it's a start. That will be what I work on next week at lunch time and Legends will get held off again.

Also starting next week I have to start machine quilting the new quilt, I get the machine this weekend from my mom hopefully and i'll need to do some practice quilting, but then get right to it. I think i've decided it won't go in the quilt show as that's too much pressure (2 weeks) but it will definately be done by November so i should be just fine.

Off to sleep - i mean work...

5:00AM Friday

And I'm still up - not that I've just woken up - no still up as in Thursday night still up. It's been a long night and hopefully by 6 I can get a few hours sleep, i'm going in to work late - so I can sleep until maybe 9.

I'm very tired and my brain isn't working well but I am trying to help my boyfriend stay up and grade papers so I'm staying up with him and proof reading his evaluations for him. He owes me and the first thing I'm asking for is a neck rub as my neck is killing me!

I'll be back tomorrow, i mean today - just later...

Dentists:
I'm not a huge fan of my dentist - well I have two dentists, one I like and the other I really don't like very much. I've never had much done to my teeth, a cleaning every 6 months and that's about it, no braces, fillings etc.
Last year when I moved here I had to find a new dentist, and I did, a woman. Well her practice also has a male doctor, for the sake of this I'll call the woman Dr. Y and the man Dr. X.
First appointment - after my cleaning Dr. X comes in, I was a little surprised but whatever it's a dentist, he takes a look at my teeth - notices I have all my wisdom teeth in (they are all in and they came in when I was around 17 - they made room for themselves, came in straight and have caused no problems). He says "You should really have your wisdom teeth pulled" and proceeded to give me a LECTURE about how bad it is to keep wisdom teeth. a LECTURE - not on flossing/brushing - but on just HAVING my teeth!
I was a bit annoyed and I'm a freak when it comes to pain/needles that kind of thing, so I said there was no way I would consider it without any problems.

Second appointment, Dr. Y comes in - no problems - nothing.

Third appointment (today), Dr. X again - ugg - I got x-rays, before he even looks at me he looks at those - "Hmm.... you have your wisdom teeth, we should really get those out of there" me:"umm.. nope, you said that last time and it's not happening" dr x: "i'm going to say something every time until they're gone" - I gave him kind of a look and the matter was dropped, then he proceeded to more pertinent things like how I don't floss enough and eat too much sugar - that's nice - I'll floss more (*smirk*) - i think i may have rolled my eyes a bit too. So I do vow to floss more, actually I already have vowed to do that and recently invested in a large supply of floss because everytime I try to floss every night for a period of time I run out of floss and give up.

Result: I will be requesting Dr. Y at my next appointment if at all possible. What is the problem - I have wisdom teeth - I brush them, I *will* floss more - there is nothing wrong with them - why cause pain and possible infection to get them pulled for no reason - IF and WHEN they need to be pulled that's fine - what if it never happens - or if I die before it needs to happen (note I have no plans on dieing until I'm well over 80 but who knows, life is life)... I don't want to put myself through that for NO REASON! My mom still has 2 of hers and only got the other 2 pulled in her 30's.
On top of that I HATE pushy doctors - as you can tell, he leaves me kind of stressed out and I am a bit peeved now. I need to go relax, maybe a short walk and then it's back to work. Luckily it's a stitch night tonight so that will be very relaxing!

I hope today to continue working on Wisdom as I did at lunch yesterday. This little introduction to stitching TW's is an eye opener for sure. It is very different than the other two dragons and there are a lot of tweeded colors. I'm actually not a huge TW style fan, though I do love dragons and still collect them of course (that's the crazy me talking). The TW designs however seem kind of washed out because the colors blend together so much, now this is not from seeing one stitched in person however, I am hoping that seeing this little Wisdom dragon finished will give me a better idea about how they really look finished, maybe they aren't so washed out.

One major exception however is Celestial Dragon - that's a real beauty, very bold and I definately hope to someday stitch that (it will take more than one day - probably a few years but I use "some day" as an expression) :)

So as I stitch Wisdom I am hoping that it will come out more to my taste in "real life" and this will persuade me to enjoy the style a bit more of TW. I'd have to say though of these three dragons, my very favorite is Majesty by Black Swan, I am a huge Dragon Dreams fan and I like Magic, it's just a little simple and Majesty seems like a good mixture of boldness, simpleness and my favorite colors :)

Yeah finally some pictures ;)

Well I did get to pick up Legends of the Dragons a tiny bit this weekend - mostly last night while catching up on last season's Gilmore Girls before the new season starts next week. So here is my tiny progress on Legends - finally starting Wisdom (which has a LOT of tweeding and color changes - this is going to take significantly longer than the other two dragons):
At 75 hours:

I apologize for the quality, it was late at night and I saved it at a lower quality by accident. The next update I hope will be better.

And my finished Ever So Little - Lions which took 9 hours (which is more than all the others so far):
Another bad picture but when I start on Chimps and get a picture it will be better.

What's on the plate this week -

Well Legends is going to be my lunch time piece this week - at least until Thursday night when I start Ever So Little Chimps at stitch. My last Ever So Little for Christmas! Also Thursday I have no lunch break as I have a dentist appointment so that's 2 days stitching Legends. This weekend I'm headed back home to go to a bridal shower and pick up my mom's sewing machine. That means next week if I have free time in the evenings I will be quilting (practicing at least) so the weekend after I can start quilting my Trip Around the World quilt. I bought some spray baster this weekend, I'm going to try that out even though I'm using Polyester batting (which was my boyfriend's choice as he wants it more "poofy"). This is a gift for his sister but I've never used the spray with poly before. Anyhow I'm not "basting" it until just before I start quilting as I hate when I have to fold it after it's basted and it kind of bunches and crinkles in the folded areas.

Well 4 day week to look forward to ... hopefully I get a lot done ;)

Well I kinda sorta started Wisdom - I put 10 stitches in while watching The Pacifier today, it was a cute movie but it wasn't one I could really stitch through. Now I'm going to work on the website with the hope that tonight I will get to stitch while watching some shows or movies. Last night was more Alias - I'm almost finished with season 3 now.

Note to self - Ran Sunday and Monday morning.

Well I haven't bought cross stitch items online in quite a long time (at least a month or so I think). So I just spent a good 60 dollars over at Stitching Bits and Bobs at their sale, getting a few more Dragon Dreams charts I don't yet have (of dragons of course) and Mirabilia's like Sleeping Beauty, Winter in my garden and summer in my garden (i have spring already)

Now I'm off to Newegg or someplace comparable to buy a new printer/scanner copier that can print photos too. I have a lexmark that doesn't print photos but it's been acting up and right now it has an error we can't fix so we figure it's time for a new one anyway (it's been 4 years). I still have to try to get this one working this weekend though if possible.

No stitching yet on this wonderful 3 day weekend - but i did finish the Ever So Little - lions last night real quick before watching a marathon of 4 Alias episodes again :) Today I cleaned the apartment finally, all except the livingroom which has been taken over by law school books/papers again. I will leave that for a bit. We also went out to do some browsing at Best Buy for an hour. So it's been a somewhat productive day. Now it's time to start working on the website for a few hours tonight, then I will treat myself to some more Alias :) Still on Season 3 - but I am definately pre-ordering season 4 which comes out in october!

Very close on Ever So Little - lions - I stitched every day at lunch this week and I have less than 20 stitches left to finish the lions up (but I'd have to rethread and stop and start to finish so I will wait till I get home (already took a 10 minute too long lunch) :)

Pictures will definately be up next week with that piece and my little progress on Legends.

I had a great morning at work - getting half of my code working - now I hope to spend the afternoon getting the rest all working - it's a bit ambitious but it would be great!

Last night was my night out, usually a stitch night but I did cards instead. I am giving a set of 6 thank you cards in a little boxy thing as a gift at a bridal shower next weekend so I went to my friend's house and borrowed a great thank you stamp from her and she helped me think of a cute card idea. I need a trip to Joann's before I can completely finish it but I have the pieces all cut for all 6 cards and one card almost finished. I hope to finish those up this weekend and make the box too, that requires a little decorating to match the cards but should be cute when it's finished.

Well i'm back to the lab - and in a good mood too..

What a short night! We went out and got dinner, ate, then we went out and got ice cream (yummy!) then I fell asleep - really that's pretty much all I did. I have no idea why I was so tired either - too much food maybe.

I did however stitch at lunch again - another hour on the Lions, so now both of the Lions' heads are finished, all that I have left is the massive mane. I do hope to finish that this weekend and pick up Legends finally to start the Wisdom dragon. Carol took this week off to make some awesome progress on her Celtic Band Sampler - a really lovely and huge piece, so I don't feel so bad not having stitched on Legends in a while.

So it is September - my main goal is to get the Trip Around the World quilt quilted, if this doesn't happen it's no big deal but if I do get it finished I can put it in the quilt show the first weekend of October. The wedding however is not until November so technically I have 2 months to go. Once this quilt is finished I can get back to hand quilting my amish quilt and my sampler quilt. Once one of those is completed I can start a new quilt :)

That's just quilting, stitching wise, I want to finish Legends of the Dragons by the end of the year, I have the Ever So Little's pieces that I have to have finished and framed by Christmas, plus a few ornaments to make as gifts. I'd also like to start a few more pieces, I have one in mind as a gift for my aunt who I visit each week, I'd like to get that done in a decent amount of time to give as a thank you gift for having me over each week.

Tonight is normally stitch night - but instead tonight I am going over to my friend's house to make thank you cards, these cards will be part of my gift for the bridal shower I'm going to this weekend. I'm going to make 6 cards and a little box thing to put them in. That way she can use them however she likes.

And the gas prices - oh man - well there will be no trip back home this weekend to pick up my mom's sewing machine - major bummer because I can't start quilting until next sunday that means. Next weekend I am going back home for the bridal shower and I'll get the machine then. But with a 3 day weekend wasted as far as quilting goes - I will have to get some stitching in :) Plus a lot of work on the website, and some shopping - I think I might hit up EMS, i heard they are having sales and there are a lot of things we want to price out including bikes.

No running this morning - that marks Mon, Tues, Wed morning running and Tues night running. I slept in till 6:30 this morning but hopefully tomorrow I will get up and run since I'll be back home again.

September Goals:

1) Finish Ever So Little - Lions
2) Start Wisdom dragon on Legends
3) Work on blackwork dragon
4) Start a new piece ... hmm...
5) Start Ever So Little - Chimps

6) Start and Finish quilting Trip Around the World Quilt (machine quilting)

7) Finish merging website and start testing (the sooner this gets done the sooner I can get to stitching a little each night).

August Recap:

1) Finish the word Magic and backstitch border around magic [YES]
2) Finish Ever So Little Zebra [YES]
3) Start/Finish Ever So Little Lions [Started - not finished]
4) Work on Blackwork Dragon [nope]
5) Start stitching Wisdom [nope]

6) Piece "Trip Around the World" Quilt (machine piece) [YES]
7) Piece Ohio Star #10 and #11 [nope]
8) Quilt Cross Hatch Triangles 3 and 4, unbaste the rest [nope]

9) Work on website - start upgrade [YES]

Not bad considering I only stitched for 11.5 hours this month and quilted for 11 hours. Usually I average closer to 30 hours of stitching monthly - but it was a month of vacations without stitching - i'll do better next month :)

Hmmm.. I guess I'm stitching again. I've been stitching for an hour at lunch time at least - that's on the Ever So Little - Lions. I'm about halfway done maybe, this Ever So Little is more stitching than the others. Which reminds me to wrap up my goals for the month today :)

Work is busy which is always good, frustrating but busy and tonight I go back to my uncle's for dinner (it's been 3 weeks since i've been to visit), i'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend not worrying about the website.

I did work on the website last night, I started merging files that I modified a lot, a few more and then I'll move onto the templates on the site so I can start testing things as I do the changes instead of just doing this blindly.

Well it's breakfast time -bagel day is a day early this week :)

Hehehehe - I'm back :) I don't have many pictures as I didn't actually do much stitching - or any stitching I guess. I did however finishing piecing the second amish quilt and here it is:

Click for a larger image.
I'm so glad that is together now, I'm hoping to borrow my mom's sewing machine this weekend and start machine quilting it after a little practice on a smaller quilt I have ready.

Vacation was great - just having a week off to sleep in every day and not worry about things. We went to NYC for a few days and saw a few shows which were of course wonderful. Thursday and Friday we spent home. Of course I had to work on the website so I lost thursday to that completely, but friday I worked on the quilt (finishing all except the outter border), and then watched Alias - finishing up season 2! Saturday I had my work summer outing so we went to that and the rest of the night I did the same as friday (finished the quilt and watched Alias). Sunday after a day out and about I did manage to work on the website for a few hours - after watching 4 episodes from Alias Season 3... man that show is addicting!

Now it's back to work and getting up at 6am. I did manage to go running this morning which is great, we'll see how long that lasts :) I have so much to do on the website, even working on it monday, tuesday and friday night I won't be near half way yet. Next weekend I hope to devote a whole day to working on it again (that equates to about 6 hours).

Hmm.. stitching .. well I did stitch on the Ever So Little -Lions at stitch night on Thursday, Legends hasn't been touched, I spent my car time winding floss on bobbins and reading. Today at lunch I am going to start stitching again though, first priority is to finish the Lions, then work on Legends maybe next week at lunch. Something about summer gets me out of the stitching mood (sitting under a hot lamp to stitch at night is part of it).

Alright back to work - I finished going through emails from last week, I think it's time to head to the lab!

I played Hooky!

Wednesday was my day off to go to the beach house - well we were supposed to head up tuesday night and spend the night up there but plans changed and we had to drive into boston wednesday morning. So we got up to the beach house around noon - but had a blast of course. The water was great, it was hot hot hot outside but not muggy at all.

Then I got talked into staying over wednesday night and spending thursday up there too.. ho hum... so I called work and finally around 1 got a hold of someone and it was no problem so I enjoyed the day. Thursday was really cool out - maybe just 70 degrees. But the water was very warm and my boyfriend bought some boogy boards (?sp) so we had a real blast.

I even made it home for my stitching night with my friend - I didn't get any stitching done but we talked a lot and I got my new stamp sets cut apart and assembled. Of course it makes me want to play with my stamps :)

I made it to work today though - through some really heavy traffic this morning. I think I will work a long day to miss afternoon traffic as best as I can and make up some time from yesterday.
Next week is my vacation week - I can't wait! We head down to NJ tomorrow!! We do come back mid week but I still have the whole week off to relax, quilt - and work on the website :(

I don't plan on blogging next week - at the earliest maybe next thursday but I"m sure I will put picks up when I do - hopefully of Legends, Ever So Little - Lions, and my new quilt which I really need to finish piecing!!! Alright - I must work - and eat some food :)

Ack - no internet yesterday at work .. at all!

It was a long day just waiting with nothing to do. I did a little stitching (one hour) and finished the word Magic on Legends. I will have to take a picture tonight maybe. I'm actually going to continue working on the border for a little while - the bottom border around Wisdom, so that I can line up the last dragon better.

Last night I worked on the website for a few hours - hit a problem, I can't upgrade between 3.5.x and 4.0.x at all - I will have to install 4.0.x and then figure out all the changes I have made and re-make those changes! This is a huge problem and I have to email the owner about this now.

Tomorrow I have the day off to go back up to the beach house! Actually we're going up tonight after the gym (yes I'm back to the gym now as of last night) :) Then we'll spend tomorrow on the beach all day and head back tomorrow night - then back to work for 2 days.

We spent all last weekend at the beach - it was great. Saturday the water was really cold but it was hot outside and we still had a blast. Sunday it was cool outside (I wore pants part of the day) but the water was warmer so we spent more time in the water. We really had a great time and it's so nice to wake up to the ocean right there.

4 more days until we head down to NJ/NYC! It's strange not working at all next week - I'm really looking forward to it, even though we get back Tuesday night, I don't have to work until the following monday, giving me lots of time to work on the website and quilt!

Well since the internet is back up I have tons to do :) And I'm hungry...

I made it to stitch :)

And I sure am glad, even though I didn't actually stitch much. I had a meeting late at work but I was able to leave by 6, I of course hit a TON of traffic but made it to stitch around 7. I worked on the Ever So Little - Lions which is coming along really slowly as I didn't do much stitching last night.

Back home I worked on the website more (yea for me) - getting the second update completely finished. We are now up to version 3.5.9 from 3.5.7. The goal is to go to 4.0.X and I think after 3.5.10 I can go to 4.0.0 and then I just have to figure out how high in 4.0 I want to go. I should do a bit of research on that today if I can.

Today I work only until 4 I think, skipping lunch, I don't have much to eat for lunch anyway, just cereal and I haven't been in the stitching mood so I don't need a break really. Then I need to go to walmart and the grocery store tonight to get things for this weekend. Then tomorrow morning I head up bright and early to meet up with my aunt and uncle to head over to their beach house. A weekend of no worries!

Well last night was extremely productive - I got nothing done :)

Not exactly true, I worked late again, getting home around 7, then I started cleaning, got about half of the apartment done. Then I put laundry in and started up another Alias episode while eating my mac n cheese (mmm mmm yummy). Of course that episode ended with a shocker and I just HAD to watch the next one, besides the laundry was now in the drier so I couldn't go to the gym yet anyway.

That episode ended with a bigger cliff hanger so now that the laundry was done I had no excuses - but I skipped the gym and watched the last episode on the disk (this is only disk 2 of season 2 but I'm still waiting for disk 3 which may come tomorrow).

I was really bad then - (not last night - I pretty much just went to bed), but today I looked up Season 2 spoilers and read a few episode guides so I could get an idea about what was going on. Probably shouldn't have done that, but I really wanted to know without waiting. I skimmed and read glimpses, nothing major. Doesn't really bother me to know what's going to happen in about what timeframe, the show is very good and will hold my attention no matter what. That is why I am considering buying season 1 even though I've already watched it all!

Tonight is supposed to be stitch night - but I have a late meeting that I have not yet gotten out of, but I am trying :) If I can't then I will just go home and work on the website as I didn't do that last night either! Wow it's almost lunch time already - I should probably get something done!

Well no quilting last night ... I had to work late so I missed my quilting thing. But I did work on the website last night which is a bonus, got the first update completely finished now, tonight I will start the second update after I run some tests to make sure the other update didn't break anything.

No quilting or stitching yesterday either. I spent my lunch break trying to clone my laptop harddrive to recover everything but it didn't work - it has some bad sectors and couldn't last the hour and a half it takes to clone it. So instead I just installed XP on the new harddrive and then all the other software I might need. Then I was able to boot up my old harddrive for short periods of time and I copied all my files to the network and then booted up on my new harddrive and copied them off the network. So i didn't end up losing any files, just some software programs I had installed. No biggie really, it should run fine this weekend for playing MOHAA at least and I'll keep the old hard drive around in case I think of something on it that I forgot to copy off.

So that disaster is over, I now have both computers working again and a new monitor for my desktop which is really great! It's so light I can move it wherever I want and I put in on the coffee table last night so I could sit more comfortable on the couch working on the website.

Tonight I have to clean the apartment - the cockroaches are back again - my landlord has "exterminated" twice but the people upstairs live like pigs and they just hide for a bit, there's no lack of food for them up there and when they get really bad I start to see them. This really P***es me off because I bleach down my counters and there really is NO FOOD out for them. I vacuum on a weekly basis but still I have to see them. Last night it was a really large one (we're not talking like in the movies but about an inch long which is TOOOO big). It wasn't running either, it was wierd, I sprayed it with bleach which usually does nothing, but it started walking sluggishly, i think it was trying to drop it's egg sack, so I "chased" it by spraying it with bleach into the sink, then ran the hot water so it went down the drain while I had the trash compactor on. I hope that ended it's life. I ran the hot water for while after that to be sure it didnt' come back up :)
I really can't wait to move, there is NO way I am staying here another year, unfortunately I'm stuck until the end of May with these stupid things and my landlord isn't bright enough to kick the people upstairs out even though they barely pay rent, leave garbage and food all over the place (throw cigarette butts over their porch onto mine), and they've flooded their bathroom twice which results in water coming through my diningroom fan and ruining whatever I have on my table (or ruining my chair like last time because it was puddled there). I hate this so much but what can I do but wait for the lease to be up and try to find another place that's priced similarly for the same space or more.

We have so much furniture now and the apartment is quite large that I couldnt' find an apartment last May that we could fit into... hopefully this coming april it will be easier. UCK i'm so grossed out thinking about these things.

Progress pics!

First, here's Legends Progress at 72 hours (approximately):

Click for a larger image. I changed the colors on the word Magic to be the next darker shades (930 and 931 instead of 931 and 932 I think), as my fabric hid the lighter blue completely.

And after 3 hours of piecing last night - here is where my Trip Around the World quilt is at (7 hours progress):

click for larger image

So last night I decided the quilt was more important than the website as I have my quilt get-together tonight and I wanted to bring my progress. So the website will wait until Wednesday. I spent most of the night cutting the rest of the tubes apart and sewing them together. Some of the rows were completely crooked but once they are together I don't think you can tell as much. This is 2 tubes of strips, so I have to sew one more tube together, I think I will cute the next one in half though and do two smaller ones seperately in the hopes that they come out straighter. This probably won't happen until next week some time though, I need another 2 evenings to get the whole diamond done then I need to add the borders still.

No gym last night which was bad, but I really wanted to finish this much. Tonight after my quilt thing I will definately go to the gym, and tomorrow I need to clean, work on the website and go to the gym, sounds manageable.
My new monitor came in - it looks good too and it's so light!! Now I just have to get rid of my 21" crt which weighs a ton :) And I have my livingroom end table back because the new monitor takes up a tiny space on it - makes the whole room look larger :) My harddrive also arrived so I"m going to go try ghosting that right now so maybe my laptop will be back to working this afternoon - keeping fingers crossed.

Oh - to answer Carol's question, we're not really doing much for vacation, I'm just taking the week off, we have a wedding in NJ on the 20th to attend, then we're going to NYC for 2 nights to see Phantom of the Opera and Blue Man Group and do some general sight seeing. Tuesday on the way back home we'll stop at Six Flags in CT and then visit my sister for dinner. That leaves Wednesday, THursday and Friday to just relax and get things done (work on the website) before my boyfriend starts school up again the following monday....

So... 7 more work days until vacation!!!

A very interesting weekend. But I will keep this short. (relatively)

Legends of the Dragons, I did not get a chance to work on it this weekend - but last week I finished backstitching the border around Magic. So today at lunch I hope to start the word "Magic". I've been winding the project floss for this onto bobbins and would like to get that done before I start on Wisdom anyway.

Amish Quilt (the new one) - I started the new quilt this weekend - Sunday to be exact, I ironed and cut strips then sewed two tubes together which took forever. I started cutting one tube apart and got about 9 strips done, they take a while to cut because my tubes don't fold in half exactly and i have to fuddle with them each cut to make sure they are cutting straight and I get squares instead of squewed squares.

Website - I started updating it yesterday, took a bit of work actually but finally got the update script to work and got the list of files that wouldn't update automatically (this is for the first update only, i think there are 5 or 6 updates total). I will get back to this tonight for a bit and then back to quilting again.

Saturday I went to my stamp party and bought my stamp stuff, it won't arrive until august 25th or so, hopefully by then I"ll be done with piecing my quilt and I can start making some stuff. Once I get my laptop harddrive ghosted (if it works) and I can access all my pictures again, I'm going to send a bunch to walmart to print out and make some scrapbook pages with them. Plus I'll get some beach pictures next week of my cousins.

This week is going to be a long week - I have a lot to get done and hopefully I can get out early on Friday (which means long days until friday).
Countdown - 2 weeks until vacation!!!

Aaaaaag! What a night!

Well I headed out after work - up to my uncle's to meet up with my boyfriend and just hang out for the night. He calls me a few minutes after I had left to tell me his car had died! He was at a truck stop in NH waiting for a tow truck. And our AAA had just run out at the end of July and I hadn't renewed yet (because I have to call to do it since we moved and it had to be tranferred)... needless to say I did the transfer today just in case now! But that didn't help last night.

So he thinks his waterpump went. So he had the car towed to my uncle's and we looked at it. It's leaking coolant all over and makes a noise so my uncle agreed that it's probably the pump. This is not an easy thing to replace on an Audi.. the whole front end must be taken off and the radiator and such disconnected. But he's decided to do it himself because it's about a 12 hour job for a mechanic which means it would cost 1000 in just labor, while he's at it he's going to change the timing belt too which he needs anyway.

That's a new process, he's going to start it next week after he gets the parts he's ordering tonight.

As for me - I just have to go back up tonight if I want to see him at all because he won't be back down until tomorrow. So I'll be going home and then back up to NH for the night then back home tomorrow for my stamp party :)

Almost time to go home - I'm leaving early today so I should pay attention to my conference call now so I can head out as soon as I'm done.

Another day - and I've been winding floss :)

I had a great dinner at my aunt's last night, steak, corn on the cob and green beans. It was really good. Then I drew out a plan for my new quilt based on the quilt she has hanging which is a Trip Around the World but they do something different with the colors and I like the effect so I'm going to mimic it with my own colors.

Then I wound floss. I didn't have many plastic bobbins left but I filled what I did have. I ordered 500 plastic bobbins on ebay yesterday, that should keep me busy for a while :) I also ordered another plastic case to hold floss and 2 small plastic cases to hold project floss which is the first thing I'm winding to make carrying my stuff easier. Eventually I will need probably 6 plastic cases total and I have 2 right now (actually I have 4 but 1 is for beads and another for kreiniks).

I also started reading "The Lord of the Flies" again (I read it in high school), but my boyfriend bought the hardcover edition of that and "Things Fall Apart" (also read in high school), because I wanted to read them over now that I'm a bit more mature and more likely to understand them. I'm looking forward to getting a few more classics in hard cover but our bookcase is full now so I shouldn't be going on a buying spree.

I've been spending a lot of money lately. I need to slow down my spending - but I have been working on the website which will help a lot when I get paid from that. If I get that up and running by the end of August and paid then I have no worries and if I stop spending now, some of that money will go towards christmas spending :)

Well enough about that - I'm playing with some software at work now and of course hitting more walls so now i'm reading the manual to see if that will help... back to fun stuff :)

Happy Dance Picture :)

There's the second Zebra

And Legends progress:

Click for larger image.

I finally got my camera software loaded onto my desktop so I could get these pictures off the camera. Then I spent the rest of the night working on the website which I'm happy to say is now working on my local machine so I can start upgrading it this weekend! I can't wait until that's done!!!!

No stitching last night, I worked until 9 then I watched "Alfie" while winding some floss (i'm slowly converting my stitch bow collection to regular bobbins because they will take less storage space and not get tangled while I'm stitching). We'll see how that goes - I have every dmc color plus duplicates so i'm not hopeful that this will get done anytime soon, plus I need to buy some more plastic bobbins and bobbin boxes.

I finally got the software at work that i'm trying to test out working so today I hope to test it out and have some results by the end of the day. Then tonight i go to my aunt's for dinner and maybe i'll get a little stitching done. For now -it's off to have fun with work :)

Uck - still no pictures it's been a long two days fighting with computers. With my laptop harddrive out I've been using my desktop at home. Well I was working on the website last night trying to get that to work locally on my machine at home and it was so close, and then I installed some things that have completely messed it up - completely, it won't open at all now! I was working on that until 10 last night and I finally gave up for the night. This came after a day at work fighting with a program that just wouldn't work for me.

So then I watched the last hour of The Sixth Sense (on tv), while finishing up the Ever So Little - Zebra - I know I really need some pictures but I didn't even boot my computer into windows last night, hopefully I will do that tonight.

At lunch today I hope to work on Legends for a bit, finally, it's been a while!
And today I've been wrestling with a new computer program that I just installed and I'm supposed to be evaluating but it's causing problems!

UGGGGGGG... just had to let that out.

Anyhow - I did a little shopping this morning and ordered a new laptop hard drive - 60GB (i had a 40), and it was only 80 dollars or so. Then I also ordered a flat panel 17" monitor for only 200 dollars and a DVD burner for my computer (another 40 dollars). So I spent a lot of money but all on good stuff and I can't wait to fix my laptop and play with my new monitor. Finally get rid of the 21" monitor that i have hogging half my livingroom!

That stuff might arrive by this weekend which would be really great but I can't ghost my hard drive until monday -well maybe i can, i might bring home the stuff for it and try it out on my desktop. Lots of fun stuff.

So tonight will be more working on the website, i'm going to try to uninstall a bunch of stuff then start over installing things. My original problem was getting the SSL cert stuff working but I seem to have messed up the php stuff, but if i can get it back to the point it was at before messing with it i'll be a happy camper! And I can start the upgrade process this weekend maybe.

Hopefully pics tomorrow...

August Goals:

1) Finish the word Magic and backstitch border around magic
2) Finish Ever So Little Zebra
3) Start/Finish Ever So Little Lions
4) Work on Blackwork Dragon
5) Start stitching Wisdom

6) Piece "Trip Around the World" Quilt (machine piece)
7) Piece Ohio Star #10 and #11
8) Quilt Cross Hatch Triangles 3 and 4, unbaste the rest

9) Work on website - start upgrade

Monday. And no pictures :( Ho hum. My laptop hard drive is dying. Rather slowly but still dying. I currently do not have it in my laptop at all in the hopes that if I buy a new one I can ghost this one and have an exact replica of it. So my laptop is not being used in windows at all which means I have no photo software to download pictures off my camera.

I do have another computer, my desktop computer which is dual boot (has windows and linux). So I will try to find my HP software and install it on my desktop tonight to get some pictures of my stitching progres... progress.... yes there is progress.

Let's see, I had friday off to take the GRE's, which didn't go too badly. Then I unwound the rest of friday watching Alias. My boyfriend got home and we watched the rest of Alias Season 1 and the movie The Usual Suspects. I really can't wait to watch season 2!!!

Saturday we drove back home to my parent's house, in the car I stitched on the second Ever So Little - Zebra that I started Thursday night at stitch night. The rest of Saturday I spent helping out my dad clean out the attic - and I think i'm paying for that (i'm allergic to dust horribly and that with the mold I think is making me sick.).

Saturday night I crashed around 10 and Sunday I slept in until 10 :) Then we headed home after lunch with a desk for the bedroom, my parents will get it back some time after I can afford to buy a new desk but for now this was going unused so I borrowed it :)

After getting that all set up and eating plenty of ice cream and other junk food I decided to work a bit more on my Ever So Little - Zebra, I now have only 1 and 1/2 stripes left to finish him, maybe i can finish him at lunch today... oh that reminds me - I must put up my goals for the month :)

Legends didn't get any attention, this month I hope to finish the border around Magic and the word Magic and start on Wisdom at some point but first my focus will be on my new quilt. And now I must check out how I did on my goals this month and set some new ones!