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!