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 !