Ornament almost finished , it's called Christmas Surprise 2005 and is adorable, I won't finish it up as an ornament yet but I'll save it tucked away until I have more ornaments ready to make for next year. I may even have to make this little guy again, he's such a cutie!

I'm really looking forward to tonight, nothing really planned but that's always the best :) I will wash the harry potter scarf so I can block it overnight and tomorrow and then add the tassels tomorrow when it's dry. I will finish up the ornament tonight and work on Green Old Gardens a bit and take some pictures, maybe post them tomorrow on my day off.

I started knitting a hat for myself yesterday at lunch, it's a mix of one of those fun fur type yarns with a regular yarn matching in color, I think it will be a cute hat that I can work on slowly this month while I focus on stitching more. Monday I think I will start a new cross stitch piece as well so I can have a small rotation going and never get bored... I'm thinking maybe "Going To Market" - it's a kit by Dimensions... unless I need to buy fabric for that as I am going to trade out the Aida in the kit for an evenweave or linen.

I'm so excited to be back to stitching, maybe soon I'll start hand quilting again too! Yipee!

2005 Goals in REVIEW!

Stitching:
1. Finish Winnie the Pooh for Robin [YES]
2. Start/Finish Precious Moments for Grace's quilt [YES]
3. Finish Herbal Sampler [YES]
4. Finish DD Wisdom (virtue series) [nope]
5. Finish Mystic Retreat piece by Jeanette Douglas [YES]
6. Start/Finish 2 pickle ornaments for aunt [YES]
7. Make progress on piece for Ryan [progress made]
8. Start a new project [YES a few!]
9. Finish It's Winter [nope]

Quilting:
1. Quilt and Bind Sampler Quilt [not finished]
2. Make Amish quilt for boyfriend's sister [YES]
3. Finish Herb Quilt [nope]
4. Make Pooh Wall hanging for Robin [YES]
5. Finish Teapot Quilt? [nope]

Funny how goals change throughout the year - the amish quilt took up so much time that I ended up making a different machine quilted amish quilt for my boyfriend's sister! And with the start of knitting I accomplished a lot this year.

Other pieces finished/started this year:
Started and Finished Legends of the Dragons (SAL with Carol)
Stitched 6 Ever So Littles and framed them up for gifts
Stitched 5 ornaments and made those
Stitched "the Spirit Within" and framed it
Stitched some Round Robin pieces and class pieces
Started Blackwork Dragon
Started Green Old Gardens

I hope all those that celebrated it had a very Merry Christmas! I sure loved my little 4 day vacation and I'm looking forward to another in 3 days :)

My boyfriend and I went home for the weekend, driving out friday night to hang out with my parents (I should really say evening as we left around 2 or 3 I think). We had dinner when my sister and her boyfriend arrived and a relaxing evening cleaning out my parent's liquor cabinet - luckily it wasn't very full :)

Saturday was a relax and sleep in day then head down to my boyfriend's parent's house for dinner. Sunday we did presents and then headed out to see my great grandmother and then off to my grandparent's for dinner and presents with my mom's side of the family. My parents really spoiled us this year, I got so many great gifts from everyone!

Well Christmas evening with the boyfriend's over again we started on the newly refilled liquor cabinet (not me but everyone else) and they polished off a few bottles of liquor with shots (that's between 6 people). It was a long night and an even longer morning with everyone recuperating (i felt fine).

We finally headed home around 6:30 after watching Cold Mountain (which I liked) and watched Star Wars III at home before crashing off to bed.

The best part of my vacation was yesterday, I slept late then I got to go through all the christmas presents and find places for them, enjoy them again, I got a lot of books, a couple cross stitch books (including the best of TW which is something I always wanted but would never buy myself because I don't know that i'd stitch any of them), but now I have it :) Then I went through all my cross stitch patterns and updated my database so now I know I have over 300 patterns in binders alone (so that doesn't count my kits or my patterns that don't fit in binders (like TW's). That's a little more than I thought I had but does include freebies that I intend to stitch.

Organization was the name of the game yesterday so after the cross stitch I moved on to christmas stuff, it never got put out this year, no tree or anything, just didn't have the time (or space really), so i went through and reorganized my decorations (old and new) into some new containers I bought for storage and I'm left with just a small pile that needs a box so I figure I can pick one up some place during the sales this week (friday).

Finally it was time to relax so I put dinner in the oven and got out Green Old Gardens, I collected all the floss for it and wound it on to bobbins then started stitching it. I didn't get much done on it but enough to feel like I got a start and can pick it up again no problem. Then I started working on the new Dragon Dreams ornament freebie that was up for a short time, it's a dragon with a stocking and I have the stocking almost stitched. Getting an early start for next year while I'm still in the holiday mood!

Well this is long so I won't bore anyone one any longer... just stitching updates:

Almost finished with Harry Potter Scarf - the knitting is done, now I'm sewing in the tales and then I have to do the "finishing"
Finished that hat for my sister last week and she loved it :) Forgot to take a picture :(
Started the two new cross stitch pieces yesterday - hopefully next week I'll be pulling out some WIPS to work on during lunch breaks when my knitting is on break for a month !

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!

Well I'm sure I won't be posting this weekend as I will be back in NY, maybe tuesday I will get back online and then I'll be back wednesday and thursday, hopefully with some stitching updates!

No knitting last night really but I'm leaving work at noon today to go home and pack and I hope I can finish up my sister's hat before we leave so I can wrap it with everything else. Then I can work on the Harry Potter scarf in the car and maybe finish that up.

I gave my uncle his Ever So Little's piece last night - he loved it, and my aunt really loved her pickle ornaments. Next year I'd like to make my aunt a sampler I found that i think she'll like, it's pretty simple so I think it will go quick, it's kind of patriotic and also a quilt theme - perfect for her.

Well I'm at work early and no one is here - and by here, I not only mean in my office but in the whole building! I'm headed to the lab to see what I can get done while it's quiet!

Wrapping is all finished!

I am officially ready for the holiday, of course we never did get our tree up and decorated, but that's what happens when you're never home for a whole day, nothing we can do about it now, we won't be home for the holidays anyway as we'll be going back to visit family tomorrow night.

I worked on knitting my sister's hat last night, I am now on the decreasing part so it will be easily finished by tomorrow some time - hopefully before we leave and I can wrap it up. Then the car trip I can spend finishing up the harry potter scarf and get it washed and blocked this weekend. The last step should go quickly, that's adding the tassels after embroidering my cousins name along the botton (never tried duplicate stitch before but i think i'll give it a try for this).

Almost done with all my holiday crafting - so now what do I do? :) Next week I will be home all day tuesday and I think I will start a new cross stitch piece - Green Old Gardens, if I have the right piece of fabric in my stash for it. Then I will break out one of my WIPS to bring to work for lunch breaks and finish up. It's Winter is close to finished so that would be a good choice (good timing too).

Well I am either taking tomorrow off or working a short day (probably just working a half day), so I better get some stuff done so I don't feel guilty doing it!

Finally some pics .. and I did even more stuff last night.

First the second set of ornaments I put together last night, they are slightly better than my first 2 which are next. These are 2 pickle ornaments for my aunt and the penguin ornament for myself (only because I matched the one I did for my sister).


And here are the first 2 ornaments I put together, the penguin for my sister and the other is for my om.


Then the 2 pieces I finally framed with my own mats (the Ever So Littles) - one for my uncle:


and one for my sister's boyfriend:


So last night I first made the coasters out of tiles that I'm giving as gifts, I took a picture but forgot to upload it so if I remember I will do that tonight. Then I put together the three ornaments in the first picture. By then it was about 8pm so I started watching some tv while knitting on my sister's hat a bit, I didn't last long, I pretty much put down my knitting by 8:30 and was asleep shortly after.

Our treadmill is having problems... which is really bad because I was doing so well getting up and running in the mornings. We used the incline for the first time the other day and it would go up but wouldn't go down. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a hold of someone to come fix it, it's under warranty so we wont' have to pay anything but I'm we'll have to be around which we just aren't since we both work during the day. So I'm bumming about that.

I'm going to call today and maybe see if someone can come out friday, then I will either take the day off or if i can get my brother to come over for the day then I'll work. I plan on working a short day friday anyway.

Well times a racing so I better get to the lab and get some stuff done!

My internet at home is still not working.. I was not able to get my pictures up for today either! Really I should have pictures in tomorrows post, maybe even some more ornaments finished.

This past weekend was nice and relaxing, I spent it with family (little cousins). Then Sunday I finished up my christmas shopping and wrapped presents. Then I did the framing I had to do and started making ornaments.. which is a bit tricky. I started with fabric glue but that really didn't work well, the hot glue gun worked better but adding the trim around the outside looks a little messy with the glue gun. Hopefully my next couple ornaments will come out better, I have 2 finished (the ones for my mom and sister), I have 2 ornaments to make for my aunt to give to her thursday and then I have the matching penguin ornament for myself to make.

Last night I did the prep work on my tiles to make into coasters. I just had to spray a few coats of fixative on them. Then I picked out the stamp sets I'm going to use. I have 2 sets of 4 I want to make as gifts, and then I might make 4 more as a backup gift. It's pretty simple to do, I simply stamp the images on with Staz On ink. Wait for that to dry, color in the images with pastels. Stipple the edge with some brown ink and then spray a matte finish over top and let dry. I figure I can get those all finished tonight and maybe also finish making my ornaments which really don't take long.

For Christmas that will leave only the following:
Finish knitting hat for my sister
Finish the harry potter scarf (i have about 2 stripes left to go and then the tassels)

That's it - maybe even doable!

Short post -

Sorry this isn't much and no pictures - I promise tomorrow to post my pics from this weekend. Things are crazy hectic at work today and have been. I did get some crafy stuff done this weekend, including making 2 of my ornaments (only 3 or 4 to go now, some of which aren't stitched yet) :) I also framed my ever so littles pieces that are gifts and took pics so pictures definately coming.

Almost done with the harry potter scarf - 2 or 3 stripes left to go. First I need to finish a hat for my sister for christmas though since the harry potter scarf is for my extended family christmas which is actually new years day so I have another week. I think i'll go get my knitting now and take a lunch break now that i think of it.

A new hat started...

I decided last night to start a new hat for my sister for christmas. I hope to maybe finish or almost finish the harry potter scarf this weekend leaving me plenty of time to finish this hat next week. The only problem is I have to buy size 10 double pointed needles to finish it as I'm knitting it in the round on 10 1/2 circulars that will not decrease at all so just another reason to stop at joann's this weekend.

Tonight is a stitch night, I hope to finish the Silent Night ornament and maybe start the second pickle ornament. If i can get that done by sunday I will have all 4 ornaments done and maybe I can finish them up.

I was going to stop knitting after the harry potter/sister's hat were finished but there's one more hat I want to make for myself this year. I will most likely wait a little while to start it but it's purple, a mixture of plain purple yarn and a matching fun fur yarn. I got the fun fur stuff on sale and I think it will make a cute hat mixed with the other.

Tomorrow night I babysit my cousins - all 3 of the little ones. They are good kids so I'm really glad I get to see them so much, putting them to bed is another story though! We'll see how it goes. I do hope to bring my knitting and get some of that done after they're down but I don't have my hopes up as usually I just fall asleep after that whole ritual!

A night of baking cookies...

Seriously that is all I did last night. On the way home from work I went to 2 grocery stores and the liquor store to get some cognac for the greek cookies that I didn't end up making ;)

Then I spent hours rolling out dough and cutting and baking cookies, sugar and gingerbread cookies. Tonight I hope to make the greek cookies which shouldn't take all night like last night, they can't really because I have to work on the website tonight, I promised.

When to stitch.. well tomorrow night I can't knit on the harry potter scarf because i'll be at my uncle's and it's for my cousin so she can't see me knitting it ;) So maybe i'll bring my stitching. The only problem is I have the silent night ornament to finish and then the next one I was going to stitch was another pickle ornament for my aunt but I can't do that at her house ... so maybe --- I'll start something new???

I really want to start Green Old Gardens, I'm not sure I have the right fabric for it though so if I have a free minute tonight I'm going to go through my fabric and see and gather my supplies to start it. If not I always have blackwork dragon to work on.

Thursday night is stitch night too so I'll work on continue whatever I work on tomorrow. Then this weekend is packed, no stitching probably, maybe some knitting in the car rides if i'm lucky.

So my feet hurt from standing last night on cold hard tile floors, and I have plenty of work to get done... I really just want to take a nap!

A Christmas Shopping Weekend ...

Well Friday worked out really well, I got a ton of work done at home, enough so that I felt completely relaxed all weekend. Friday night I worked steadily on the Harry Potter Scarf while watching lots of ER season 1. Saturday we drove down to CT to see my sister and her boyfriend so I knitted during the car ride, then just relaxed the rest of the evening. We got some shopping done, went out to dinner. I read some more of my Lisp book (teaching myself Lisp).

Sunday we spent the day christmas shopping, we got most of the hard people on our lists finished. Not too much more to shop for now so I am stress free :) We got home around 5:30 or so and I made some more christmas cards, I made a total of 15 (5 of each design I could come up with), and that is the exact amount I needed so far. If I come up with any more designs I can send some to my local friends but I don't want to put pressure on them to send back cards, that's not the point, I just like making cards. So I'm mailing out those cards today, all but 3 or so that need addresses and input from my boyfriend (for his family). Another stress off my back :)

No stitching this weekend, although I think that will get picked up soon as my wrists have been aching from all the knitting. Plus I have to finish the ornaments soon probably next sunday I will try to do the actual finishing of the ornaments if I have fabric I like (another trip to Joann's is needed I think) :)
Alright - today should be a good work day - got up and ran (4 days last week and 1 day this week so far - not bad!)

Snow day .. work from home...

Well unlike Carol I don't get the day off completely but I am working from home so I don't have to drive through this crazy storm. It's really not the snow that bothers me, as I have all wheel drive and I drive carefully, but the other drivers scare me so I avoid storm driving, especially early in the season like this when people aren't used to it yet.

So I'm home, working - I figure I will work till 3 straight with only short breaks then I will be done for the day, and I can continue watching ER season 1 while stitching/knitting or whatever.

I worked on the harry potter scarf a little last night since I didn't get a chance at lunch time yesterday. Almost done with stripe 8. This weekend I'll be home sporadically but should have some car driving time to knit if we go down to CT to visit family a bit. I also have to finish up my christmas cards this weekend so i can mail them out monday. I have 10 done so i have about 15 more to go and I should be set (that's 3 more designs I have to come up with).

Then at some point I want to stop by home depot and pick up some tiles to make coasters out of, They come out really cool and i think they will be good christmas gifts for a few people. I know I would love a nice set of good coasters myself and real artistically made coasters can run 30 dollars generally. Plus another craft .. win win :)

A night of cooking, well I worked till 6, drove home, stopped by the grocery store, that got me home around 7. I started right out cleaning chicken and getting cooking done. Finally by 9:15 I was done with 2 large chicken parm dishes in the oven and a small eggplant parm already cooling off. Nothing else got done last night, I slept!

I did however get up and run for day 4! on the treadmill! Tomorrow might be a stay home from work/recover/work from home day as this cold seems to be getting worse again, I think I need some extra sleep and with the predicted snow tomorrow might be a good day to work from home anyway.

Possibly stitch tonight, so I could finish up the Silent Night ornament and start either the second pickle ornament or the other ornament which is still undecided! Plus I could always do some knitting as I'm going to do at lunch today. I'm now on stripe 8 of 19!

So there is a feast prepared for lunch today at work and plenty of work to be done, hopefully it's a good day!

A nice lazy night, I did get a tiny bit of knitting done but other than that I went to bed early (by 9) and got some much needed rest.

Day 3 getting up and running! And hopefully the count will just continue!

Tonight - I must cook - lots of chicken and eggplant parm for work tomorrow (i'm bringing in lunch for part of the office). I'll probably get some knitting or stitching in, and maybe some reading as I started reading my lisp book in preperation of my grad class next january. I must learn Lisp before the class starts so i'm on my way now...

and now it's lunch time..

Pictures finally:

Here are the two finished penguins:


And here's the ornament I started last night, Silent Night:

It has beads for the notes, all that's left is to stitch the words Silent Night, plus I have to add the year to all the ornaments since that's the point, maybe the names of each person as well.

So only a few more ornaments to go, hopefully today at lunch I can actually get a knitting break and work on the Harry Potter scarf.

Last night was a nice night of baking, watching a movie (Fever Pitch) and then stitching (above ornament). Then after dinner I hemmed the other pair of pants for my boyfriend for work.

Another successful morning of getting up early to run on the treadmill and get in to work early. Tonight I will spend most of my evening putting together a powerpoint presentation about the history of knitting for my fellow co-workers lunch presentation tomorrow. Every wednesday we do a brown bag lunch session and someone presents something about the program they are working or something. I offered to spice it up with a hobby presentation so I think i'm on the hook for tomorrow now but it should be fun. I'll bring in all my needles and yarn and anyone who wants to can try it out as well.

Sometimes I feel like I'm sick all the time.. this weekend it was a cold, i could tell it was coming on, that sore throat for a few days then sunday it combined with congestion which is continuing today. Luckily it hasn't been bad enough that I've had to change any plans or anything. Just an annoyance.

This weekend was pretty good otherwise, I had a stamp camp saturday and now I have a new christmas gift idea, making coasters out of tiles. Then I got my treadmill all set up before heading up to my uncle's for the night.

Sunday I watched my cousins for a bit then came home and went right out to my stitch group which was a lot of eating and stitching :) I finished the second penguin ornament so now I just have to start making ornaments and stitch 2 more ornaments, maybe 3. I meant to have pictures today but I wasn't feeling good last night and I went to bed early. Tonight I will be up baking so hopefully I'll have no choice but to take pictures :)

This morning I got up at 5:30 and ran on my treadmill! Of course I'm still sick so after about 10 minutes I had to cut it down to just walking for the rest of the half hour but I think it's a doable goal to get up 4 days a week at 5:30 to run and any evening I have free time to maybe walk too.

Work is extremely tiring since I have an on and off headache and I got up so early, I think I may leave a little early today so I can take a nap before baking for tomorrow. How productive can I really be in the next hour and 20 minutes before I plan to leave anyway??

I am not a fan of interviewing! And yet I have to interview someone in 15 min or so... ugg!

I started my penguin ornament last night at stitch, I decided to stitch him without the border so that I can make him into a round ornament instead of rectangular. Unfortunately as I was almost done (all i have left is some white to fill in and then backstitch him), i realized that he's supposed to be grey, not black, so the lighter grey outlining his elbow and such looks funny. So I decided that I will make 2 penguin ornaments, one for myself (the messed up one), and one for my sister and every year I will make us matching ornaments, unless I can get her to do an exchange or something with me every year and she stitches one for me. Then I'll make another one for my mom too. Not that i'm getting ambitious or anything now.

I do figure however that I have stitch on sunday at a friend's house so I will easily finish this penguin and maybe finish the second as well. They go so fast. I need to get them all stitched in time to make them into ornaments though too, which means buying fabric and some fun fridge or something - hopefully saturday i can make it to joann's to hit the sales :)

I will definately have some pictures on monday!

Oh and then after stitch I came home and put together my new shoe rack, then organized my closet, i'm really liking it, got all my stamping stuff put away (which needs to be out again to make the rest of my cards real soon but for now it's away, so we can put up the treadmill this weekend). Plus I have 10 cards already made so I can start sending out cards whenever.

Alright - back to preparing to interview - ugg again!

December Goals:

1) Finish Harry Potter Scarf by Christmas (family christmas is actually new year's weekend)
2) Stitch penguin ornament for my sister
3) Stitch second pickle ornament for my aunt
4) Stitch another ornament (not sure what yet)
5) Start Green Old Gardens
6) Pick up Blackwork Dragon at some point
7) Maybe knit hat for my sister for Christmas (real christmas)

8) Work on website again -- UGG!

Well I did even better yesterday than I had hoped, during work i had a slow meeting so I brought my knitting and I finished both the pink hat and the scarf for my sister. The only real knitting for christmas left is the harry potter scarf and maybe another hat for my sister.

I'm looking forward to Stitch tonight at the LNS, I have an ornament to start, although I might start it at lunch time before knitting more on the harry potter scarf. Tomorrow at lunch I will knit the harry potter scarf and see how many rows I can get done during a lunch break then I can determine how much I need to knit in the evenings if at all to get it done in time for christmas.

Hopefully today is more productive than yesterday, these meetings really mess with my day, of course i have another long meeting today too...

November Recap :

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

3) Knit blue purse for sister's birthday [YES]
4) Knit purple hat for christmas [YES]
5) Knit third hat for christmas [YES]
6) Start harry potter scarf for christmas [YES]
Also almost finished re-knitting the first hat for christmas!

7) Finish Stitching Wisdom (backstitching) [YES - FINISHED WHOLE PIECE]
8) Work on knotwork border [YES]
9) Stitch pickle ornament 1 [YES]
10) Start second ornament [NOT YET]
11) Start new cross stitch piece ("Did Someone Say Pie??") [NOT YET]

Not too bad! Next month I will have more website work I need to do so the goals will be lighter.

It's warm out - if you call 60 warm, which I do right now :) Last night it was 58 at 9:40 so we went for a run - it has been SO long since I went running. With our treadmill coming next weekend I've been even worse about getting motivated but last night it was very nice, only ran about a mile but better than nothing for sure!

I also spent almost two hours knitting, I have the pink hat which I'm redoing almost finished, it's at a point where I have to switch to double pointed needles and I have about 8 more rows left until it's finished, maybe today at lunch. Then I worked on my sister's scarf and I'm on the third skein of yarn which arrived in the mail yesterday along with some halloween quilting fabric that was on sale and some more yarn for socks. I will definately finish up my sister's scarf tonight at my aunt's so starting tomorrow the only real knitting I'll be doing will be on the harry potter scarf unless I make a hat for my sister for christmas as well.

I did some shopping while I got new tires put on my car yesterday, I went to Linens N Things - never been before and boy do I love that store! I did some christmas shopping, mostly just getting some ideas of things, and I bought a shoe organizer to put on my closet door so I can organize my closet a bit more (my closet is a combination clothes/crafts room so any organization helps!) Thursday night after stitch I hope to put that together and get my shoes all off the floor to see what I can now hide under my clothes where my shoes live now, maybe my stamping stuff? Who knows!

How long does it take to hem a pair of suit pants? For the first time? Well 2 hours for me :) That's how I spent my evening last night. First I had dinner all ready by the time I got home (actually I was stuck in traffic for almost 2 hours so dinner was getting cold!) Then I started on the hemming, it was finished before 9:30 at least so I had a little while to relax before going to bed at 10 with the hopes that I could actually wake up at 6 - didn't happen, got up at 6:30.

So the pair of suit pants that come unhemmed are now done, the other pair of pants are already hemmed but need to be 2" shorter - those are on the wait list for now! Tonight I think I will relax, iron out my Legends of the Dragons so I can start thinking about framing options and maybe frame my Ever So Littles pieces.

I am going to get new tires put on my car today - I figure I can get some serious knitting done during this time so I can finish the third knitted hat some time tomorrow evening, then finish the scarf for my sister by the weekend. That reminds me -- I'm still waiting for my order from Joann's to show up! I should check into that!

Legends of the Dragons - Finished!

Click for a larger pic - This took approximately 119 hours, and I stitched along with Carol. Now we are both finished and hopefully next year another dragon stitch a long will commence!

It sure was a productive few days for not being home most of the time - and allergy stricken as I have been. First on my list was to finish up Legends above, which I did on the drive to and from NY, the way out I didn't get much done as I was crammed in the middle between my brother and my cousin and not a lot of elbow room. But the way home I finally finished it up. Now it has been washed (with no running which I worried about with the hand dyed fabric and thread), and it sits in my freezer awaiting my iron and some time for me to get a frame and mat board to cut.

I did not get any other stitching done this weekend but I did finish the third knitted hat and worked a tiny bit on the harry potter scarf. Then I restarted the first hat (the pink one) which I will work on at lunch time this week:
Here is the third hat all knitted up:


Sunday we went out to the mall and bought our treadmill!!! We had to get a slightly more expensive one than planned and it's larger which I'm not thrilled about but it's ours, we couldn't fit it in the car however (since it's larger) but we are going to borrow my uncle's truck this weekend to get it so next week I can start running at home in the mornings and maybe get back in shape :)

We also picked up some new suits for my boyfriend who is working this semester, I have to hem those tonight so I spent last night cleaning off the dining room table to have room, this entailed cutting the second set of mats for my Ever So Little gifts for christmas and putting together the frames I had ordered. I also washed and ironed both Ever So Little pieces so they are all ready to be mounted. I'm not rushing on that because I have to pick up acid free brown paper for the backs of the frames still, here's a picture of the piece with the mats I just cut last night, it's just set in the frame:


A very relaxing four days, unfortunately I've had horrible allergies almost every day and today is not any better! I'll just continue to live on benadryl I guess!

So SO SO close! I worked on Legends last night as my boyfriend surprised me and was home another night instead of driving back to NY. So we watched movies and I stitched, getting the border finished up and the light green on the word Wisdom finished. That leaves one color left to finish and then I have to find some place to hide the date, now that my initials are already "hidden".

Tonight I may not have a ton of stitching time as I have to make 2 pies to bring home tomorrow. I do hope to knit a little at lunch today, yesterday I got a few rows in on hat number 3 so now I'm decreasing at least. I could probably finish the hat up at lunch today. Leaving only 1 more kids hat to do before christmas and one grown up hat and the harry potter scarf. I'm almost finished with the scarf for my sister, that shouldn't be hard to finish up.

Orders... I'm waiting on some orders now, I ordered a bit from Joann's.com, i don't even remember everything i ordered but I do remember some yarn, 1 of which I really need and the others are magic stripes yarn for socks, that will be fun to try out next year.
Yesterday my frame order came in, I got the pieces I need to frame the two triplets of Ever So Littles as gifts for christmas. I'm not sure how to put the frames together exactly, i'm hoping everything I need is included, I also ordered plexiglass and mounting board so maybe this coming weekend I can do some framing when we get back.

Next month I am definately starting a new stitch piece, I may actually start 2 because I want to stitch Green Old Gardens real soon and I want to start Going to Market (a dimensions kit that I want to trade out the fabric from). Then when Green Old Gardens is finished in 2006 I can start another :) I love finishing pieces, my boyfriend was even impressed with how Legends looks so close to do, of course he asked "When are you going to finish the boats piece for me??" HA!

Every day closer on Legends :)

I worked on Legends for an hour and a half last night, I'm halfway done backstitching the right side and then I have the top, I have all the whole stitches done in the border. Still leaving the word Wisdom for last. I realized too that I can work on this thursday during the drive home to NY as I can not work on my knitting at all since the family that I'm giving my knitting to will be around :) So I will bring Legends and then start the next ornament I want to stitch which is a little penguin out of the 2004 ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch.

We rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night - it sure was strange but I still liked it, made me laugh a few times. Johnny Depp is a great actor. We'll have to buy it for christmas or something, we did buy a few other movies including Robots, Sin City (which we saw, i wasn't a fan of), and another Comedy, one with Ashton Koucher (?sorry can't spell names at all!)

Anyway, I experimented with dinner a bit and made a chicken parm sub for my boyfriend, I stuck to plain chicken sub as I'm not adventerous at all, but he liked it, I made it with frozen chicked strips so it was easy too. Good to have new dinner options!

Tonight I'm on my own, I will be baking a pie to bring to work tomorrow, cleaning up a bit and maybe doing some more backstitching on Legends :) I'd like to have just the word Wisdom left for the drive to NY.

Hopefully I'll get a lunch break today so I can knit, yesterday was too packed, got a free lunch but no break to stitch and we ate during a presentation.
A nice early day - if i get a lot done I can leave by 3:30 and maybe beat SOME of the crazy traffic that will be horrible tonight!

And Carol has a happy dance! She has just finished our Stitch-A-Long. I'm not posting a picture today only because I'm very close to finishing myself so my next picture will be the finished piece. I worked on Legends yesterday for 3 hours and I have almost all the stitching in the border finished now, leaving just the backstitching up the right side and the top of wisdom. Then I'm leaving the word "Wisdom" for last.

When will I finish?? Well I was supposed to be working on the website but that's kind of fallen through the cracks lately, tonight I will probably pick up Legends again and by next weekend it will be finished for sure with a picture next monday!

I didn't really work on much else this weekend, with not feeling well and visiting my aunt and uncle in NH saturday night. I played a lot of computer games, I beat Myst all over again so that I can start Riven now and then Exile, catching up in the Myst series to the new ones, I believe both 4 and 5 are out. Myst really only took two evenings to beat but I think Riven will be more involved.

I haven't touched my knitting, i plan on working on the third hat today at lunch, if I can finish that up tomorrow then I can redo the first hat by early next week and get back to the harry potter scarf.

Oh funny story - and I almost forgot .. while driving to work today, almost here too.. I got a flat tire! What fun. Luckily it was a quick change with only 2 interruptions, one from someone offering help (but I really already had the tire almost off), and the other from a tropper who parked behind me so I wouldn't get hit, then he helped but my other tire on (I have a full spare in my trunk). So this kind of pushes me to get my new tires for winter a bit earlier than i had planned, not a bad thing really. I wonder how much this will cost me!!!

Taking a sick day today...

on the stitching front, I stitched for maybe 20 minutes at stitch last night and bought a few new charts:

Skeleton Crew by Cross Eyed Cricket
Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls by Just Nan
Someone to watch over me by Sam Sarah Design Studio

I also got:
Signs of Winter by Bent Creek as a gift for my aunt, I'm going to get some fabric and the floss for it as well and make a little kit for her for christmas, i'm not sure what her tastes are exactly but it's cute so hopefully she'll like it.

Well just because it's a sick day doesn't mean i have no work to do, i'm going to do what I can and then maybe get some knitting done this afternoon.

The quilt is finished ... and WASHED! Wow that was nerv racking! I didn't use detergent or anything, just ran it through the hand wash cycle and the tumble dry low low cycle. Came out looking quite nice though and I have to say I will definately wash my hand quilted amish quilt if I ever finish it :)

I knitted a little on the scarf for my sister for christmas, I'm using size 16 needles which are just huge but the yarn didn't work with a tighter stitch. Today at lunch it's back to working on the hat that I started yesterday, I wish I had more yarn to double that yarn but I only have a single ball. Luckily this is for the youngest so she'll grow out of it quickest.

Stitch night tonight! I'll probably work some more on the border around Legends of the Dragons, bit by bit. Two weeks seems like forever ago when we had the last stitch - I sure am looking forward to seeing everyone!

Quilt picture coming soon...

I spent the evening yesterday whip stitching the binding onto the wedding quilt, that's done now, and now I just have to whip stitch the sleeve down and add the signature which will include their wedding information (names/date etc). Then tonight I will wash it and hope it comes out looking good :)

No stitching or knitting progress, i did however finish Alias season 4 finally last night and watched the first episode of the current season... I knew Michael Vartan left the show but it was still just as sad and i'm not really looking forward to the show anymore, we'll see, I'm a few episodes behind now but I have them saved to watch.

Today at lunch I'm going to start the third christmas hat, I can't work on the harry potter scarf tonight because it's for my cousin who I will see :) So i will work on the third hat, when that's finished, I'll redo the first hat and then those cousins will be all set for gifts. I might buy some cute bags to wrap them up in too.

Full moon tonight!

Did we have fun in Las Vegas? Well yes mostly, more so than I thought we would :) We did a little gambling at one of the off strip casino's and won a little money, I got to play at a black jack table which was real fun and won that too :) After the wedding we saw the Bellagio water show as well before heading back to the hotel and then the airport. A good experience, we may even go back some time to really enjoy Vegas :)

Zelda night again last night - much needed too. I made a nice cozy warm dinner and settled in to play Zelda. I got to a hard part though that I don't remember how to beat so I stopped and watched tv before going to bed. Tonight I hope to maybe make some christmas cards, I need to get on that as soon as possible. And for lunch today, instead of knitting since I finished the purple hat yesterday, I'm going to work on the binding on the wedding quilt, see how far I can get with that!

Back from Vegas :)

And I got some stitching done too!

First, my update on Legends of the Dragons... I worked on this a little saturday and a good amount sunday, finishing the backstitching on Wisdom and working a bit on the border:

That's 108 hours of progress.

On the plane ride out to Vegas I stitched up ornament number 1:

You can't tell but it's on a light green sparkly fabric.

Also on the plane (most of the plane rides), I worked on the harry potter scarf for my cousin for christmas :

It's a nice easy continuous knit stitch but it's a long scarf, we'll see how that goes :)

My trip was good, we were home by saturday at 10:30, went to lunch and then I went to a stamp camp to make gift tags and other things christmas style. After the Red Eye back friday night I was exhausted and slept about 13 hours or so saturday night but sunday was a good day, I got the apartment vacuumed, met my boyfriend for lunch (he's studying for finals so he's at the library most of the day), then stitched/knitted while watching movies. It was a very good weekend!

It sure was good to get home though and I'm looking forward to a nice normal week with a normal stitch night and back to knitting hats for christmas.

Status on Christmas gifts:
- 1 ornament stitched (3 more to go)
- 1 hat knitted - but I think I will reknit it thicker now that I know what i'm doing more.
- second hat almost finished, on the decreasing part at least.
- 3 scarves knitted
- harry potter scarf started
- 2 Ever So little pieces stitched, waiting to be framed and another mat cut

What's left:
- 3 more ornaments to stitch
- 1 hat to re-knit
- 1 hat to knit
- 1 hat to finish knitting (almost done)
- Harry potter scarf to finish
- mat to cut and 2 pieces to frame with mats
- Scarf to knit for sister
- Hat to knit for sister
Not too bad, hopefully I can do all this ;)

Zelda - a night just wasted a way :)

That's right, I spent last night playing zelda until almost 10pm! It was great though and I'm up to 2 stones out of 3 and then I think I get to grow older and ride my horse so it will get even better :) And bonus, I only died once last night :)

I bought shoes for the wedding, some fun ones, and a purse, so now i'm all ready clothes wise (i think i have a shawl I can wear.. wonder what the temp will be like out there...)

Then I got my hair cut, nice and short the way I like it, it's a little short in the front, getting in my eyes but it will grow out fast i'm sure. Tonight I'll get my nails done then pack and give myself a pedicure.

Hat #2 is going along great, I have 2 more inches before I start to decrease, I think I can do that at lunch today and also add the ribbon to hat #1. Then I'll have the harry potter scarf for the plane ride along with my stitching and some books.

I'm looking forward to another good day at work so I best get to it!

Hat number two started...

I have a good start now on hat number two, spending yesterday and today's lunch working on it, I have a few inches. After almost 8 inches I start the decrease. Maybe more like 7 1/2 incheas. I hope tomorrow to get to that point so I can switch to the double pointed needles and start the harry potter scarf on the circular needles. Not a huge deal to start it on the plane but I'd rather get a bit of a start now.

I worked on the website last night and wrapped up a few things, there are very few things now to fix and i am taking the rest of the week off. So tonight I must go shoe shopping for shoes for the wedding (i have nothing that matches a brown dress!) Then I might get my hair cut, and spend the rest of the evening knitting or playing Zelda (i think zelda will win though). Tomorrow i have a nail appointment to get a manicure and then i'll spend tomorrow night just packing (packing my cross stitch will be the hardest because I have a few small projects I want to start - ornaments) so getting all that together will take a while.

I found an adorable ornament I want to stitch in last years Just Cross Stitch magazine, it's a penguin, that will be for my sister, then there's 3 more that I just like, not that i have time but they're on my list now ;)

Work is going well today, making some good progress, i'd like to finish up some things by the end of tomorrow so i best get back to it!

Do I ever get to stitch??

That's what it's felt like just lately, the stupid website that was supposed to be live and done is now dragging out and I'm working on it more now than ever before! This weekend was packed, I came home with a migraine friday night so I slept, did nothing more. Saturday it was up early with a long drive to my parent's for my sister's birthday party.

I did manage to at least change my oil while home but nothing else and Sunday it was up early for a long drive back home. Then I worked on the website (shocker there really!) and then enjoyed a few hours with friends at a tupperware party. Excited to come home and stitch it turned out to be a good night to go out to dinner, and then alas - more work on the website! I want a break!!!!

I brought my knitting to work, it's time to start hat number two and also the harry potter scarf, i need these started before the plane trip on Thursday. Tonight unfortunately there will be a little more work on the website and then I plan on going through my stitching stuff and kitting up some ornaments to also stitch on the plane.

Las Vegas:
Thursday we head to Las Vegas for a wedding, this is not a trip for fun, we fly out thursday morning early, layover somewhere and then arrive early afternoon (exhausted i'm sure). Straight to the rehearsal and dinner, then probably bed. Friday we'll try to get up and enjoy Las Vegas a bit before the wedding in the evening. Then the wedding, then we leave the wedding early, change and head back to the airport. By 11:30 we will be back in the air flying over night back home, with another layover around 6am or so (with the time change who knows what time it will be/feel like).
I do however plan on getting some stitching/knitting done on both plane trips, then sleeping away most of sunday :)

Question though--- we're bringing only carryon (obviously!) -- but how do we bring razors??? My boyfriend will need to shave his face friday as he's in the wedding and it would be good to get to shave my legs (not a necessity) :) But how?? I think I'll just pack one and see what happens, I'm going to be careful about scissors and such and if it gets confiscated i'll just figure out how to buy one out there. What a pain this whole thing is!

Oh - so no pictures today as I have no progress to show on anything... and darn it i forgot to take a picture of my sister's purse before I gave that away :( I think she liked it...

Purse is finished :)

I finished the purse at Stitch last night, really just the handle was left but still i'm happy :) Then I added my initials to the back of a needlebook from Celebrations 2005. All I have to do with that now is find the felt that came in the kit and finish it as a needlebook which is quite easy. Then I can use it :) So two finishes!

Also at Stitch I splurged a little, my Mystic Sampler was framed, they are going to hang it in the shop for a while (as long as I want), and that gives me a discount on the framing which was quite a lot as I picked out a large frame but it came out amazing.

I bought the following three charts too:
Dry Turkey
Tiny Tim Turkey
Hocus Pocus

Tonight after work I will stop by joann's, buy my sister the other part of her birthday present and also buy some yarn on sale :) Then I'll make chicken soup for dinner (my first time making it but the broth is done already).
This weekend, it's home to visit family for my sister's birthday and back on Sunday to go to a tupperware party. A packed weekend... not much stitching will get done for sure :)

A long day...

I am definately ready to head home.. and then to Stitch! I'm not sure what I'll actually stitch, I think first I'll finish the purse for my sister as the purse itself is finished (as of last night) and now I just have to finish binding off the 200 stitches for the handle and attach that. Then I'll work on the backstitching for Legends of the Dragons me thinks. :)

So last night I finished the purse, the button on the front is a little off center but I'm trying not to stress about it. I also realized putting it together that the yarn really doesn't fit the style purse very well, it hangs very heavily and I could have made a very simple purse style that would have worked better, but now it's done so I'm not worrying about it. I am DEFINATELY not pulling it all out and starting over! Although I am tempted - but i'm just crazy.

I do love this bamboo yarn though, not knitting with it exactly because it splits really really easily but the feel of it is amazing. Maybe i'll order more and make a better style purse for my sister for christmas and one for myself :)

It's been an odd day at work, but i think it's time to head out now and tomorrow marks the end of the week :) Can't beat that!

Well last night I got to enjoy some knitting while watching Felicity season 1 on dvd. I'm more than halfway done with the purse for my sister, and I will work on it again today and then at my uncles tonight. The only part i'm worried about not having enough yarn for now is the handle so we'll see how things go.

I cound some great books on amazon that I want to order (both for myself and gifts for christmas as I think I will be getting quite a few people books). And also I might place an online order with Joann's, i'm not sure though, I may just go on friday (or do both).

Well i'm off to do a bunch of work and then i have an interview later this afternoon.

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.