I am definitely feeling better - yesterday wasn't bad, we stayed in and watched movies/tv shows all day. I didn't do much stitching but I did work on Leanne's quilt block 5 a little bit - I've got another backlog with that now that blocks 6 and 7 have both arrived and are waiting for me :)

Today starts another family filled weekend. My sister and I are taking my cousin to go see Eragon and then stay at my uncle's for the night. Sunday the rest of the family arrives to celebrate family christmas and then new years. Monday I come home and hopefully get to do some sewing!

I played with my new camera a bit, printed a picture using my new printer and it came out great. I hope to take some more pictures this weekend, and I have my memory card now so I can fit over a 1000 pictures on my camera :)
Now I must get things squared away before we leave in 40 minutes!

Out sick...

I got no sleep last night - I kept thinking "maybe i should take nyquil now - but then i won't be able to get up in the morning". Finally at 7am I took some dayquil and went right to sleep for a few hours. I'm going to stay in bed most of the day, maybe make my way to the livingroom if my head stops pounding but for now I like the quiet dark of the bedroom.

I did manage last night to order some things I needed off of ebay after we went shopping. We finished up our christmas shopping (we do family christmas this coming weekend). And I'm saving my amazon gift cards until after family christmas. I don't know if there will be stitching today - that takes some concentration my head might not have (i can't even remember what i was going to write a few minutes ago). But I'm sure I'll post tomorrow if i do find some time to stitch.

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. Unfortunately most of my family was sick over christmas and friday night I started coming down with a cold that started as a migraine - not the best way to start my life engaged :) It was a great weekend though (despite being sick).

Friday after the morning surprise (see post below), we had a wonderful day, I had a lot of phone calls to make and then we went and saw "The Holiday" which was wonderfully romantic. After a little shopping I came home with a serious migraine though and took a 2 hour nap.

The rest of the weekend was holiday stuff with family (all very excited about the engagement). We had a wonderful christmas. My mom got me a new digital camera for christmas - I can't wait to post some photos with that thing, i haven't gotten it hooked up to my laptop yet though but soon I promise!

All in all it was a joyous few days despite pretty much everyone being sick or recovering from being sick. Today is really bad for me, i'm very congested and dizzy. Hopefully the dizziness will go away before I lift today.

No stitching updates - haven't touched anything in a while. I have to figure out what I'm doing about a class this spring and that will determine how much stitching happens in the next few months - I'm sure I'll write more about that later :)

The biggest day...
So the problem I've been having all day is how to give this news... in phone calls, in emails ... I don't know how to begin. So I'll give a little story:


When I was in 7th grade I got a crush on a boy - he was the popular boy - I was the geek (geek exemplified). This crush continued, he even knew about it at one point (how embarrassing that was!) - note to crushers everywhere - "Secret Admirer" birthday signs taped to lockers are probably not anonymous in 7th grade :)

Anyway - I went pretty much un-noticed through school by said boy - until one day - senior year of high school when I got very noticed.

Well we started dating - in february of 2000 (senior year). We went to colleges close to each other (and close to home), after graduating college in 2004 we decided to move to Boston where I got a job and he could go to law school. So we officially moved in together in August of 2004.

And here we are - Going on almost 7 years together - and now ...

We're ENGAGED :)

Oh and it was so sweet - it happened at 8:30 this morning and I couldn't be any happier. My family is so excited and I can't wait to see them all this weekend and next to celebrate (I had many a conversation with a squealing aunt this morning :) and my sister was so surprised - it was great!)

There's plenty more to write but I want to keep this post special so I'll close up for now and fill in more about the day later in the weekend or so.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Oh I really hope I'm not getting sick now - I'm having an allergy attack - this never happens anymore... sneezing, itchy eyes. I just took a benadryl so hopefully that will help a bit so I can drive to stitch but that will make me drowsy too. I just hope it's only allergies and not the beginnings of a cold (nasty colds have been going around the office for weeks!) Of course now i Have 5 days off and that would be when i get sick wouldn't it!

I completely forgot - no stitching last night. My cousin had a band concert that we went to. We did get home by 9 and I could have stitched but I folded laundry and watched a movie instead (A lot like love).

So today is my friday - my last work day before 5 days off! And tonight is stitch with my friends - perfect! Tomorrow is some shopping, wrapping and sewing so that saturday I have nothing that I "have" to do. Saturday I'll do some baking and packing and cooking our diet meals, then it's off to NY to see family for a few days... I can't wait!

I'm actually thinking we might try to get to a movie friday night or something, I really want to see "Holiday" and friday night might be a good time - we never go to the movies - it's so expensive and in general we prefer to buy the dvd but twice a year is okay :)

Alright - now to work so the day will pass faster and the holiday will start sooner ;)

No stitch last night - but it was a good night. My mom arrived shortly after I got home from work and we headed over to pick up my brother at MIT. Then we came back and they headed back to NY.

So by 8:15 I was in my warm bed watching House and waiting for my last meal. I didn't pull out my stitching, just a little tired and it was nice to just watch tv. For the second episode I ate my meal and then went to bed.

Tonight I hope to work on Leanne's quilt. Since my ornaments are machine done and not stitched this year I can't bring them with me so I figured I'd bring both my embroidery and Celtic Banner to my uncles and choose one to do tonight. Tomorrow at lunch I'm hoping to finally work on Peaceful Silhouette a bit and bring that to stitch as well tomorrow night.

And no work friday!!! All though it's filling up quick, there's a lot to do that day including finishing these 3 ornaments to wrap up, wrap gifts, head to walmart for some basics and do some grocery shopping... oh I love the holidays :)

A wonderful night and even better morning. I've been feeling so good this week - this diet/exercise is great!

Last night I got home kind of late (7:30) no problem though, I baked up some corn bread to bring to work and then got to work on my ornaments. I stitched 2 of the 4 together and one of them I finished completely - stuffing, cording and everything, then I wrapped it for my aunt. I completely forgot to take a picture.

I won't have time to work on these again until friday but I figure I can piece the other two friday and then finish all 3 and wrap them up for stocking gifts for my sister and mom. Then I have my little dragon to finish if I have matching fabric. So friday will be a finishing and wrapping day since it appears most of my gifts will arrive friday.

And now that i've done my run I'm going to work from home for a bit this morning (baking some more corn bread right now) and then head in for the lunch time smorgasborg - there will be turkey chili so I'm going to join in the festivities one more time (i also joined on the day i brought food in).

So now it's back to work work work so I can get through this day and get home - my mom is coming out here to pick up my brother so I'll be seeing her for a bit tonight!

Finally!
Seriously me remembering to post this is nuts. but here it is - Celtic Banner with the alphabet finished. There won't be a full picture of this until I'm done since I'm using scroll rods so I'm trying to keep the running WIP pics on the sidebar.

What a great weekend. Friday night I babysat my cousins, we had a good time, I was up until 2am talking with my uncle - that's just insane! Saturday we went to walmart and got oil and then changed the oil on both of our cars (my uncle has all the tools to make it go quicker so we take advantage of our visits every 3500 miles :))

We headed home around 2pm I think and the idea was we'd go shopping - well first we had to run, then eat, and finally around 6:30 I think we headed out shopping. But we did all the shopping - I got the 2 kids done I had to get done (the other 3 I don't see until after christmas so I'll shop the week after) then I went to Joann's and finished up shopping for everyone on my list. So by 9:30 when we got home and unpacked we then settled in to watch Scrubs and I finished the border on celtic banner up there so i could take a picture :)

Sunday was great - I did my weigh in (see other blog for details) and then it was a christmas day - I made gift baskets, I wrapped the gifts I have (still waiting on most!), made christmas cookies (yummy) and did my christmas cards (mailed out this morning). Then after cooking our food for the week (after a yummy chili dinner!) - I started on some ornaments that I'm going to make for gifts. I had picked up some xmas fabric at joanns and I'm going with a simple star type design, I got all the cutting done for 4 ornaments. Tonight I hope to piece and finish 1 which I can give to my aunt wednesday then I have friday to finish the other 3 (one for my sister, one for my mom and the third is for a friend in CA if it comes out to my taste).

Going to be a busy week - but when isn't it. I'm closely watching my amazon purchases (for some reason some haven't even shipped yet and I ordered last monday!) The rest are being shipped (picked up) today and supposedly all will arrive by the 23rd - oh they better or I'm going to be doing a lot of last minute saturday shopping and making big complaints to amazon!

I had a great stitch night - and got some stitching done too! It was a quiet one which I very much needed, a quiet evening where I could stitch, browse charts (I bought 2) and just relax. Plus I got to see my friends' little one (she's a little over 1) and she's adorable, I've only seen her a few times so I thought it was great to spend a little time with her before her daddy picked her up.

So I did finish the alphabet finally - the Z was so easy it was great! I promise a picture is coming this weekend. I just want to finish the border on the right - it will take about 5 minutes and then I'll do a picture. Then the banner will get put aside a bit while I try to frantically stitch 2 ornaments for family members and make some quilted ones maybe - i think I have too much on my plate but we'll see! I do have next friday off to stitch maybe so this weekend I will try to get some quilted ones done.

I regretfully think the website will get put off until the weekend after christmas. I have the friday before new years off and I think that will be the day I focus on it. I will email her this weekend to let her know (the owner) but that will relieve some stress so I can focus on gifts this weekend and in the evenings this coming week!

OH NO christmas cards - I still have to do those! That will be my priority saturday and sunday and they'll go out monday - that might be enough time.. gulp! I'm not making them this year - I just couldn't do that - but I have some adorable ones from 2 years ago that I bought and didn't use plus I'll be hitting Joann's on Saturday (tomorrow i guess) and getting wrapping paper and more cards. Oh this will be a christmasy weekend!

Resist - i must resist - the cookies have arrived --- oh man!!! Sunday ..sunday .. i will make cookies on sunday and eat as many as I want.. must resist!

Anyway - last night was a late night - I had a work dinner from 6-8 so I didn't get home until almost 9, did my usual pick up around the house, unpacking from my aunts and then settled in with my book to read a bit. Of course going out to dinner - even though I stayed close to my diet the steak was cooked with something and my stomach did not like it - so it was a stomach ache night but not a setback diet wise at least.

Tonight is stitch night - I hope to work on Celtic Banner some more. If I can ever get that stupid y and z done I will take another progress pic to share.. ugg!!! I hope to spend a whole 2 hours at stitch if I get there on time this week.

I can't wait for christmas - I splurged a little with my shopping yesterday and got a great gift for my bf, now I can't wait to give it to him (it has to arrive first though so that's helpful in holding off) :) I do need to finish up my shopping this weekend and start wrapping too, hopefully some more packages will arrive shortly - I should go check their tracking numbers!

Finally a few stitches - I finished the mini block 5 (center block) of block 5 of Leanne's Quilt. This is the words. I still have a lot of embroidery and some applique left on this block though - it's a little crazy.

I have a few gifts I need to make this weekend so I think I'm going to put away Leanne's Quilt for the month and try to make some gifts. I stay at my aunt and uncle's house every year so I want to make my aunt a little something - like a quilted ornament or something. I will try to do this this weekend between shopping and working on the website... this is getting a little nutty!

Still listening to Eragon - I'm listening while I lift or run which is nice since my car ride is taken up by JD Robb audiobooks (I'm listening currently to the 5th in the series i think). As for actually reading - I started Princes of Ireland - didn't get very far but it's starting to come back to me (i read this a long time ago). I'm looking forward to starting to read a little each night if I can. Got to get this in before my class in January starts!

So tonight is a little open - I have a work dinner and then maybe I can go through my sewing room and pick out some gifts to start whipping out - I still have high hopes that I can stitch some ornaments - they will have to be very simple ones - for my mom and sister and make them next week... yikes!

Finally a picture :)


And this was taken with my cell phone because I completely forgot last night- but i figured out how to send the picture to an online site and save it off onto my computer. So that works. This is the progress I've made on block 5 of Leanne's Quilt. I will hopefully work on this some more tonight at my uncle's house.

Last night I spent some much needed time online doing some christmas shopping. I'm in much better shape and mostly have kids to buy for now - which I enjoy doing at toy stores and the like so hopefully this weekend I'll hit a few stores. Oh and I have some Joann's shopping to do for a select few and then I have to get a few more things for my bf .. I think I know what I'll get but I have to find it.

Now I can't wait to wrap the gifts - I have to make tags still but I have some fun easy ones to make so maybe wednesday night I'll make some tags and start my christmas cards (i know - getting late for that but soon ...)
Now i'm hungry and good reason since it's time for my next meal!

I really am still here.. just busy - what else is new. I really do promise a picture is coming soon, i completely forgot to take it last week though, hopefully tonight.

I haven't stitched in a few days - friday night was busy, worked late, went to a holiday party. Saturday I spent some time with a friend just chatting and trying to help fix a printer. Then we went to my sister's down in CT for the night and spent the day sunday with them. (Cheat day) - went out to lunch - and we got new cell phones!! We both got the new chocolate- - mine's GREEN. I love it. Not sure how to use it completely and I won't put music on it probably since I have my ipod but it's so cool looking and it was free. I think I need to make a little carry case for it though because I'm worried about scratching it - much more so than my old one :)

Well with no stitching going on I don't have much to update - but hopefully I'll get to stitch this week. I have some serious christmas shopping to get to though.. ug!!!

Hehehe .. I'm in maryland right now - taking a quick lunch break (meal 3 for me). This day is throwing my diet a bit off but i think I can squeeze it all in okay - that shake today at 3 is not tempting but I must :)

Anyway - I pieced block 5 last night!!! I was disappointed - this is the second time that there wasn't enough fabric in the kit, i had to improvise a little (again) and I will be writing a letter to the quilt shop with the fabric that was missing - plus I ran out of one of the DMC colors (no big deal for me since I have them all and just pulled it from my stash) but I will let them know for others .. especially since I'm stitching with only 2 strands and the instructions say to use 3.

So I started the embroidery on the plane while listening to Eragon, actually airport and plane since I was an hour and a half early for my flight - won't be the case tonight since I'll be squeezing any possible working minute out of the day today but then I have a flight home (more stitching) and tomorrow even with a lot of work to do I'm taking it easy - not stressing!

Anyway - a little impromptu blogging during my lunch break :) Back to the grind.

Ah to stitch! I got one hour of stitching on Celtic Banner last night while GG was on. I worked on the border. I did not piece block 5 of Leanne's Quilt but it's ready (set up my sewing area in the diningroom again) and I will piece it tonight now that I will be home tonight.

I have a lot on my plate tonight - with laundry (if we can gather enough quarters to do a load or two), packing for the day thursday, getting my ipod ready, sewing the block and tracing it so it's ready for embroidery etc... All in the maybe 3 hours i will have. Then I have to get up at 5:15 tomorrow morning!!! Yikes.

I promise there will be pictures soon - it's been so long. I will not be blogging tomorrow but friday I will post a picture of my block 5 progress! And it's time to start some ornament stitching I realized! I may try to pack one of those for the airplane, I generally like to do 3 a year (one for me, one for my sister and one for my mom) and put them in our stockings. I have 1 stitched (for me) and now I have to stitch 2 more and make all 3!

And it's over - the final that is - wow was that tough. Really tough and long! But I got out of there, got home and de-stressed by starting Eragon again. I think I'm going to do Eragon as an audio book but I needed to actually read last night so I started it.

Tonight i have big plans - first when I get home I want to piece block 5, should be quick, I think it's a simple piecing, mostly embroidery (it's the center block for Leanne's Quilt). Then I'll gather all that together and get it ready to pack for Thursday... then I will spend the rest of the evening stitching Celtic Banner while watching my shows (tuesday is the only night i have shows - gilmore girls and House - i wonder if they're new this week).

Tomorrow I'll get to maybe stitch a little - but mostly pack, thursday I'll stitch on the plane and in the airport. Friday I have plans with a friend, so maybe there will be stitching. And saturday - oh saturday - completely undecided at this point :)

Now to get a little more christmas shopping done at lunch time today! Oh I'm so glad my class is over - only 6 more to go - 3 years :)

ACK! This travel thing is more than I thought... last minute travel for one day - no big deal right??? I planned it for a non-lifting day so I can get up early and run before I leave - that solves issue #1.

BUT - food - okay I can still pack all my food for the day - no liquids - but thursday is easy - 2 sandwiches (one turkey, one chicken salad), chicken and brown rice, green pepper and celery and my shake and meal bar - looks good, i'll pack all that easily and buy water at the airport after security so I should be good. Okay issue #2 solved.

Stitching! (#3) - What am I going to stitch??? Celtic Banner is just too big to lug around - so is Peaceful Silhouette! Those are my majors right now... If i could get Leanne's Block 5 pieced Tuesday night I could bring that (embroidery), or I can scrounge my floss together for my DD Wisdom Dragon WIP - poor little neglected guy. I'm leaning towards embroidery since I don't have to follow a pattern but that means I need to piece it tuesday night.

And the last issue - I still don't know what time I'm flying there and back - it's a day trip but I have no idea how early I have to get up and run yet... ugg!

Final today - i swear there will be stitching updates more after today :) What a boring life it is with all this work and studying :) I did study most of yesterday - I gave in at night though and read for pleasure - finishing DragonDrums the 3rd of the harper trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. My bf started Eragon, it's slow he says - i loved it last year, i'm going to re-read it now before I go see the movie, but i may do it as an audio book - undecided - audio book means i can stitch though :)

So reading went well, i love finishing books. Besides Eragon i'm not sure what i'm going to start next, i'm leaning towards Princes of Ireland...I have Rebels of Ireland but I don't remember Princes so I want to re-read that first.

I just got back from lifting - happy to be back on my diet but more on my other blog :)

Hah - completely forgot to blog yesterday and completely unknown - i'm blogging on a saturday! I guess I really don't want to go study yet today :)

I did go to stitch thursday and worked on the border of celtic banner a bit - didn't stay long, I managed to go home and study a bit. Last night I worked late and then studied before just falling asleep.

Today is going well, I went for my run, went to spend some time with friends and now I'm home, spent some time with my bf and now i'm going to go study as much as I can to lighten the load for tomorrow -- after monday i'm done for a while!!!

My diet is still going well.. going to go update that and tomorrow is my cheat day - i can't wait :) I'm feeling really great!

December Goals:

1) Finish alphabet (and 2 ornaments next to y/z) on Celtic Banner
2) Piece and finish block 5 of leanne's quilt
3) stitch 2 ornaments
4) make all 3 ornaments
5) Work on peaceful silhouette tues/thurs at work (lunch time)
6) Make crafty gifts if time allows (gift tags/cards/bookmarks...)

November wrap up

1) Finish block 3 of Leanne's Quilt [yes!]
2) Piece block 4 of Leanne's Quilt [yes!]
3) Finish all cross stitches on Peace and Quiet and work on backstitching [yes- finished completely!]
4) Make christmas tags and other gifts at craft party [yes!]
5) start something new! (it's about that time!) [Nope not yet but soon!]

I miss...

I miss quilting - I mean really quilting - working on my amish quilt that I was really smoking on last year and put away to finish a second machine quilted version as a gift :(

I miss knitting - I just can't fit enough hobbies in the day and knitting was the most expensive, I couldn't afford to buy enough yarn to do a sweater or anything fun so after I knitted myself with hats for last christmas I haven't touched it since (that's 11 months and counting with no knitting).

I miss scrapbooking - I really got on a kick and started a scrapbook to just be an embellished photo album, I have tons of stamps and accessories, used mostly for cards but I wish I had time to sit with my photos and make interesting pages up for my pictures, I've been a little better taking pictures but do nothing with them but collect right now.

I miss video games - zelda (on nintendo 64) is always there mocking me but I can't justify the time to sit and play even though I love it... and computer games ... when I do take a few hours I feel guilty afterward and always get a headache, I miss playing diablo for 8 hours straight in my dorm room!

I miss the sunshine - I know winter is just starting but I hate leaving work in the dark, I love the summer when I get up and it's light and I leave work and it's light out -- not dreary all day and dark by 4 :(

On the other hand.. because I limit myself on my hobbies things I don't have to miss and get to enjoy often:
Reading! Audiobooks (while driving). Stitching! Embroidery (not just lately but I do have a block ready to piece and start up next week).

I think I'm procrastinating working on something right now so my mind is drifting to all the things I'm not getting to do right now -- and with a test to study for I can't help but wish for more free time... oh and then there's the website I have to work on this december.. can't forget that!

Well a not very productive night just passed by - I didn't study, I didn't stitch - all I did was read - but I love my book (it's the 3rd of the Harper Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey Pern Series).

I did manage to get up this morning and run, not sure how since I can hardly walk but I'll leave those details to my other blog. Tonight is stitch night! I will only go for about an hour but I will work on Celtic Banner! I can't wait!

Sorry about the lack of picture updates - it's because of a lack of stitching - starting next week i'll be done with my class and back to regular programming - stitching :)

Not a stitch! But I guess that was to be expected. I got home earlier than I thought I would last night, ate some dinner with my bf, then went in to study.. then I remembered it was gilmore girls night- so I had to watch it, studying during commercials, then house came on -- ugg! Studying went out the door! If i was smart I would have given up on the studying and just stitched while watching the shows but I kept thinking I was going to study more.

10pm is now our bedtime so after house I just went to bed. My sore muscles thanked me and this morning I slept until after 7 - oops :) Tomorrow I can't do that as I have to get up and run, although I'm not sure how i'm going to run after my leg workout this afternoon. I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

Well grocery shopping tonight, cooking and studying. Maybe I'll try to get some stitching done, I really wanted to get that Y and Z finished before stitch night tomorrow - we'll see.

Class night - nothing special. I got homework 4 back and only got a 25/30 on it :( But homework 5 was relatively simple so I should get full credit and all I have left is my final next monday! Then I'm done... so study study this week!

I stitched before class - on Celtic Banner - I had the Y all finished and then realized I had messed up - had to take almost the whole thing out! I ripped it out and stitched a tiny bit, probably half way done with the Y now - what a bummer. My goal tonight and tomorrow night is to finish the Y and Z and be happy with that progress since I need to study. Thursday is stitch, I may go for like an hour, work on the border of the banner but then it's back to studying!

I got up and ran this morning - half an hour later than I had hoped so it's a late morning but that's to be expected in the beginning, just a week or two and I'll be up early no problem! More on my other blog :)

Not much else since stitching is lacking so. Starting next week though my class will be over!

Body For LIFE.

First - let me say I hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. We had a great one, lots of family activities, relatively quiet and relaxing, great food and even better pie :)

We got home early saturday and relaxed - played a good 7 hours or so of Civilization III together - basically when i get a migraine we stop :) And i was losing horribly and the computers were taking over my cities even with bf's help. We'll have to play more often during my off month from classes so i can brush up a bit!

Sunday was planning day - we planned our new diet and exercise routines, figured out all the food we needed and then went shopping. Got all the food and cooked it all. It was a long day but now we're set for the week (oh and i got homework done too). Then we put up the christmas tree!! This is the earliest I've ever put it up (I grew up putting it up the weekend before christmas if not christmas eve), but last year we didn't put it up at all so i'm making up for lost time!

For the diet details and the new way of life my boyfriend and I are starting - I have created a new blog to hopefully be updated daily (except on weekends just like this one).. My Body For LIFE And I'll keep it all there so I don't bore those here :)

And tonight I have class - I will get some Celtic Banner stitching in before class most likely, especially since my meals are all set and I won't need to do anything for those. My homework is done and all that's left is my final exam which is Next monday! Just a studying week for me!!!

I'm spoiled - I spoil myself.

I didn't do anything productive last night, I didn't bake pies and I didn't do homework. I decided I'd bake the pies while I was working from home today - since they are pretty much ready to go, I just have to take some time at lunch time to finish them and start the baking process. That's not so bad...
but I didn't do homework either. I watched Grey's Anatomy episodes online - very very bad :) I didn't even stitch, just watched. I think I can handle getting my work done in a "half day" (which is 6 hours) and taking some vacation time today so I can work on my homework a bit before going to pick up my brother and head out into the traffic to my uncle's house. But for now - it's time to get some work done before my meetings!

Class night.

It feels like I didn't get anything done last night but really I did. I stitched on Celtic Banner before class for 45 minutes, working on the border some. Then I had class, then when I got home I read, finishing the 2nd book of the Harper Trilogy (anne mccaffrey). That's good timing because with homework and then my final I need to have no book going to distract me. I need to focus :)

Tonight will be a long night, I have to work pretty late, then I need to bake 2 apple pies, then I have to work on homework and see if i can get most of that done. It does look like I might work from home tomorrow, which will save me almost 2 hours in driving with the traffic I anticipate tomorrow afternoon. I'll get more work done that way and not have the stress about needed to leave early to beat traffic!

Now it's time to go eat some leftovers from yesterdays feast - which was great!

A very stitchy weekend :)

Saturday while watching LOTR Fellowship and first half of Two Towers (all extended) I finished this:


Then Sunday while finishing the marathon I worked on Celtic Banner, I'm actually up to the letter X but I took a picture before scrolling:
Before the next Celtic Banner picture I have to finish the border around the next 7 letters I stitched and maybe start y and z. I'm very happy to be back to this piece and I plan to work on it before class today.

Saturday we also went to the Science museum to see Body Worlds 2 - really grossed me out when I really thought about it - but it was interesting I guess. Then we went to a nice lunch (this was all with my bf's family who came out). Sunday I got all my baking done for the thanksgiving feast at work today - I brought in 3 pies (apple, pumpkin and lemon meringue). Plus i mixed the filling for 2 more apple pies to bring home thursday - with the plan to make those pies tomorrow evening.

And today is the feast at work - we have 3 large turkeys being roasted right now and everyone brought in sides and deserts - we will eat and eat and eat :) Then next week we start the 12 days of pigging out that we do every year. But I will not be joining those festivities - I am starting a new exercise/diet regime next week - i'll write more about it tomorrow probably :) Off to check emails :)

Leanne's quilt won last night...
At my aunt's that is, I decided to continue working on block 4 - and i finished mini block 4 of it! So now just mini block 2 and block 4 will be complete!

Last night we had a nice dinner and then settled in to watch Paychex which was actually good (i didn't have high hopes) - but it was kind of predictable (really predictable, as in i was saying lines before they were said)... but enjoyable to stitch to.

A nice early day at work today - and i'll probably leave around 4 to get home and do some picking up before going to stitch. Then tomorrow after work I will clean the apartment top to bottom.. oh the joys :) It's been a long time coming.

Saturday will be a day in boston with my bf's family and sunday i will be baking pies for thanksgiving at work monday and for real thanksgiving as well. Mmmmm... hot chocolate - now i can focus on work :)

Work at work...


Yesterday was just a long meeting at work that we teleconned imto so I did a little embroidery. I finished mini blocks 1 and 3 and got a start on 4! It moves very fast but this is almost 5 hours of work too so it's not that fast :)

I didn't do any other stitching last night - I got home and listened to my audio book while baking and cooking, then watched House while I walked on the treadmill. Tonight I have both Leanne's quilt to embroider and Celtic Banner with me, I haven't decided what I'll work on at my aunt's :)

FINISHED!!!!!


Surprised myself with this one :)
where to start...

What a long weekend - Friday night I stayed up late and managed to finish my homework! It was great, Saturday I picked my brother and his gf up and headed back home for a family day of relaxing. We stayed until almost 10 and then drove back to the boston area.
Sunday I went to a craft party where I learned a bunch of new neat crafts as christmas gift ideas - it was great. Except the part where I got lost trying to get to Medford (I was in Medford and then I was in Sommerville??) Plus it was stormy out!
Sunday night I met an old friend for dinner in boston before going home (still raining).
Yesterday I had a migraine, it has been crazy with migraines lately so I decided to take the day off and try to recouperate. Well by lunch time I was feeling better so I did some stitching (hence the finish) but by 2pm the headache was back full on and tylenol was not working. Finally I took some excedrin migraine before my class last night.

The rest of the night was fine - I got my midterm back and got an A on it. I handed in homework number 4 so now I'm down to one last homework assignment (next week I'll get it) and then the final! Can't beat that!

So stitching wise I'm down to only a few WIPs - this is wierd for me. I'm going to make Celtic Banner my focus for a little while and try to get back into Peaceful Silhouette at work. Plus i have my Leanne's quilt blocks which take a lot of my stitching time.. speaking of which -number 5 arrived yesterday - wow there's a lot of embroidery!!! I still have 4 to embroider, I may try to start that today during a long meeting. Oh darn - i forgot my mac n cheese for lunch - shoot! Now i have to figure something else out!

Let the headaches begin - or continue anyway...

Well I left work at 4 like planned - and I got home, set up to do homework in the diningroom with my bf who was studying. This is the only time we've ever had both laptops on the diningroom table and all our work. Well homework did not go well - it is extremely confusing and hard. After 4 hours I have 3/9 questions done and they aren't 3 that needed real focus (they were the easy ones basically), I haven't answered any of the ones I spent time trying to figure out.

Well finally it was 9pm so I went in the bedroom to read a bit to see if that would help - I hear bf go in to the bathroom and then i hear a wierd noise - i'm sure bf is in the bathroom so it can't be him - what is that?? I run out and sure enough water is dripping onto our diningroom table from the fan above (with both of our computers and work spread out!).

Disaster averted - I quickly moved everything and bf ran upstairs to talk to neighbors - someone was in the shower so a pipe must have broken or something, so we called the landlord but at 9:30/10 there's nothing he's going to do. So we moved everything and set up towels to catch any residual dripping.

I had a horrible headache at this point and was horribly depressed about my hw not going well so I fell asleep reading more queueing theory. It looks like tonight it will be more of the same. I need to stop at the mall and get my sister a birthday gift (for tomorrow) and then back to working on this homework - i really need to get it almost done tonight as I just don't have time this weekend!

The worst part is that my headache started up again before I even got up this morning so it's going to be a long rough day!

Sometimes I have a night where I just do nothing - that was last night - I was sitting on the couch at my aunt's watching movies but no stitching happened - it was right next to me too... All well. Sometimes i'm just too tired.

Tonight is homework night, I absolutely must do homework all night (that means until bedtime) :) I can't wait for the weekend - even if i'll be driving 4 hours total saturday (out to NY and back) but still - it will be the weekend :)

I can't believe i've been here an hour already - I am definitely leaving work by 4pm today - absolutely!

Not much stitching - definitely not enough to show anything.

I didn't get home until 8 last night, and then didn't get to relaxing until 9 - when we finally remembered to turn House on. I stitched while watching House but really didn't get much done as I kept having to actually pay attention :) Then 10 the lights went off.. my life is so boring :)

And today I have to interview someone - I really don't enjoy doing that.. I hope he's a talker as I really don't have the energy to really question someone - and I hate starting days this way! Hopefully tonight I can leave before 7:30 at least...

Class night -- got some stitching done before class and then during the break and after class - here's where I'm at now:

It's getting very close - I think I can finish this up this month for sure. I have to stitch the two hanging towels (they will be the same blue fuzzy stuff as the blue one in the basket) and then backstitch the shelf/bottles and towel hanger as well as the words. But that's very close!
I'm hoping to finish this guy up and get right to speeding along on Celtic Banner - my friend is stitching along on it and is already done with the alphabet and more so I must get back to it :)

I have homework this week :( I think I will put it off to do both Thursday and Friday night and tonight I will do some reading in preperation for it as well as take the night for myself otherwise!

Finally some pictures - and lots of quilting this weekend ;)
Nothing from Friday - we went to the quilt show - which was amazing - so many of them were hand quilted! Awesome quilts. I bought a ton but it was all worth it. Then I went home and vegged, ending the evening with a migraine so I went to bed around 8 and slept for 12 hours straight.

Saturday was great, I worked on Leanne's Quilt Block 3 - finishing mini block 1 (applique and embroidery). As well as made this little ornament (from a kit I bought):

Sunday I finished the embroidery on block 3:


Then I continued with the quilting mood and pieced block 4! :


I decided against starting the embroidery as I was a little embroidered out and instead I finished the evening by working on Just a Little Peace and Quiet - finally starting the fuzzy towels and trying to get the backstitching done on one side so I can move the q-snap to the other side to finish the piece. I'll post a picture of that one tomorrow ;)

Ugg - i had to work later last night than planned, got home around 7 - missed the 2 trick-or-treaters we had :( But the night was nice, we watched Underworld - I've seen the second one (we own it) but never the first but now I want to re-watch them back to back - we couldn't do that last night but I have more backstory now. Of course knowing the second one we found some inconsistencies between the two - but it's still fun to watch and perfect for Halloween!

It was 9:30 after that, too late to start another movie so we watched an ER episode and I worked on getting all the applique pieces for block 3 ready. They are all cut out, starched and ironed, ready to start appliqueing tonight and I can't wait ;) Unfortunately there's so much i want to do - it's all been piling up, and i just don't have the time - yikes!

November Goals - and happy birthday to my sister - i must email her today!

1) Finish block 3 of Leanne's Quilt
2) Piece block 4 of Leanne's Quilt
3) Finish all cross stitches on Peace and Quiet and work on backstitching
4) Make christmas tags and other gifts at craft party
5) start something new! (it's about that time!)

I think I might be able to finish Peace and Quiet this month but i'd rather not, it would be more fun to start something new and finish it next month, we shall see :)

I survived! And even passed - the first exam at least - so I can take the class this spring and the midterm went just fine. I at least got a B so I'm sure I passed. Now just 2 more homework assignments and a final in that class and I'll be done with 2/8 classes towards my masters :)

So tonight I'm looking forward to some sewing! I'm going to start the applique on block 3 so I don't feel guilty this weekend starting to piece block 4 if i have time. Also my stitching bits and bobs order finally got mailed so I'll have my Whisper thread to finish Peace and Quiet soon so I hope to get back to that piece and maybe finish that this month coming month... now let's end with a review of october's goals:

October Goals:

1) Piece and embroider BOM 2 [DONE!!!]
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [hmm.. don't think so...]
3) Work on Peace and Quiet - finish tub and start shelf/towel hanger [Oh yes - finished all stitching except for towels and backstitching!]
4) Make something for oldest cousin's birthday [well i didn't make anything but got her something :)]
[that was easy - i also pieced block 3 of Leanne's Quilt]

I survived - and I'm almost ready for my exams. What a long day yesterday!

I got all the midterm studying done nice and early (by 4) yesterday and then took a short break before starting back on learning LISP/Scheme. Well it was a long night and the more I worked on it the less I felt comfortable about the Scheme test. I decided to go through as much as I could of the "Little Schemer" book - 130 pages and then back to the problems to see if I could do them... well I didn't make more progress on the problems (at this point it was 10:30 and I was tired and frustrated). So I went to bed. So where am I at?

Well today at lunch I will pull out the problems and try to feel comfortable with a few more of them. Then I leave work at 3:30 - my exam is at 4:30-5. That gives 5-6 to go over my study notes and assignments for my midterm and my midterm is 6-7:30.
Unfortunately my night doesn't end there, then we have lecture 7:30-9 before I get to go home and sleep. Let me tell you - there will be NO MORE school work until next monday when I go to class again - that's for sure (of course i have nothing due so it just works out that way). Oh i can't wait!
I guess it's still going to be a long day. I really don't miss undergrad days!

I'm still alive and studying! I made great progress last night, we took a break and watched some ER episodes and then I stayed up from 12-1:30 working on the LISP practice problems chapter I had to read.

Today I'm back to the grind, trying to go through the last two lecture notes and readings (about 40 pages of reading to go in one chapter and then the last -hopefully shorter-chapter after that). Then it's back to LISP practice problems.

I'm trying to think of a nice treat to myself when I finish up my midterm studying before going back to LISP, i think i've decided on one tv show episode. I won't pull out stitching but maybe i'll cut out my applique pieces for block 3 and start getting those ready while I watch... we'll see.

Oh i loved getting the extra hour of sleep last night - and i hope it helps me get up early tomorrow since i have to leave work early.

Carol's got this great fabric selling spree going - it makes me realize I should go through my bin of fabric and think about selling some of the ones I get that I'm not in love with. I always wonder though "what if something just perfect comes along for this" :) I have a few items I've been meaning to sell on Ebay as well and I have not yet figured out how to do that.. i may have to look into it soon.

Thank you everyone for the encouraging comments :) The studying is going well. I didn't get as much done last night as I had planned but really it wasn't realistic planning to do the same amount friday night as saturday.

Today I made up for it and I'm almost all caught up with my plan, just have to get back to learning Lisp and see how much I need to do tomorrow to feel good about that exam. The midterm i'm 3/4 done studying - so with tomorrow I will get that all finishe up.

I had a nice lunch break with a friend today, evidently it's comfort food weekend for me, I had some chocolate chip cookies (break and bake) and grilled cheese sandwiches. Then for dinner I made french toast with milk - yummy! If i finish up by 9 I'm treating myself to some ice cream while watching some ER with my sweety. That all depends on if i can get myself back to the grind for another hour - ugg!

Happy Halloween (almost):


That was my pumpkin carving from last sunday - oh what fun it was :)
Well I managed to finish the chapters of the LISP book I had planned. Tonight I will start on studying for my midterm and tomorrow and sunday will be a mixture of both. I think i can handle this - i have a checklist of things to do get done, if i stick to that i should be golden :) going to be a long weekend. But first i have to get through today - working till 5 today - onlly 4 1/2 hours to go !

Ack I forgot my pictures - i'll post them tomorrow - they're off my pumpkin nice and carved :)

Last night was rough, I found out that not only do I have my midterm monday but I have another exam on monday which will determine whether I can take a class this spring or not. That's one weekend to study for two exams! Needless to say it will be a busy weekend with no stitching and I will so be looking forward to next friday - i think i'm going to the gathering with my aunt that day (still have to confirm).

Looks like i'm working from home tomorrow which will save me some driving time, if i can work a good 9 hours straight, maybe get a run in at lunch time, then switch gears to studying I think I'll be on track for the weekend.

My goal is -
Tonight - finish chapter 1 and 4 of lisp book for refresher
Friday night - read through Lectures 1 and 2 and book assignments relating
Saturday - read through lectures 3 and 4 and book assignments,
- Read as much in Little Schemer as I can
Sunday - read through lectures 5 and 6 and book assignments,
- finish all prep work for scheme exam
- go through class homework assignments and prepare
Sounds reasonable, if I give myself a good lunch break to run each day I might even survive :) I definitely don't miss undergrad right now!

I spent way too much yesterday - but it was much needed. I got two new space heaters to help with the heating of the apartment to keep our oil cost low (we'll see how much it raises the electricity) but I really hate that the oil heat heats the wrong areas of the apartment - for instance - one of the heaters is right by the fridge - really - so the cost to keep the fridge cool goes up and who needs heat way over there anyway???

Plus we only need either the bedroom and livingroom warm or the livingroom and diningroom/kitchen, so getting moveable heaters should help. We'll keep one in the livingroom by the thermostat and keep the heat set to about 60 so the pipes don't freeze but hopefully when we're home and the electric heaters are on the oil heat won't kick on.

Plus i bought a new warm mist humidifier, i have a cool mist one from the last two years but i need a new filter and the warm mist one is filterless. I figure it can't hurt to have two, if i get a new filter i can put that one in the livingroom.

Didn't get any studying done last night - I did get things organized and put away and got to bed early but that's it. My dvd's are now back in alphabetical order (that was really bugging me) even if they are stacked because we ran out of shelf space at least they can be alphabetical :)

Tonight I will definitely study, oh man i just realized i didn't take anything out for dinner ... oops... i'll have to figure out something quick. Well work beckons...

When it rains it pours - such a true statement.

Well it looks like things will be quite busy for a while - busier than i had thought - but with the bad comes good as well so we'll see how it all works out in the end.

I won't get into details but the bad has to do with the class I have to take this spring, there's an exam I need to take as a prereq and I can't take the exam when it's offered - due to both time to study not being there and also just not being here for the exam.. nothing I can do about it. So we'll see where that all goes.

Class last night but I did some backstitching on Peace and Quiet. It's going to take a while to backstitch and I still have the towels to stitch but i'm still waiting on the Whisper thread - my order is backordered, not that i'm in a rush, i don't really have time to stitch anyway :)

So study tonight and wednesday. Thursday take the night off and stitch. Friday work on the website. Saturday and sunday, both study and work on the website and maybe work on my quilt block a bit - is that too optimistic? I wonder how i'm doing for my goals this month!

A very good weekend - after a horrible day friday - I'll skip the friday monologue - what a horrible day. But I did get some embroidery time and most of my homework finished friday and then last night I put the final embroidery stitches into Leanne's Quilt Block 2!:
Loving this block - but very glad it's over. Block 3 is applique heavy, but embroidery light, i have a feeling I'll be wishing for the embroidery when I'm busy appliqueing but for now i'm looking forward to it.

I also got some finishing done yesterday! I finally made the pyn pillow from Celebrations into a pyn pillow :)
And here it is from the side, with ribbon all around to hide the seam:
And the basket pin from Celebrations also finished up - this one was easy but cute and I'm glad to have it done now:
It was a packed weekend, Saturday was a day spent with friends, we went to a tea room for lunch and then shopping - both ACMoore and Joann's, I had a blast, then on my way home I stopped at a quilt shop and really got into the quilting mood again (got the stuffing for the pyn pillow too).
Sunday was a day to just get things done, I did laundry, finished homework, carved my pumpkin, made dinner, all those things I haven't done in so long :)
And now it's back to work - hopefully not as crazy as the last few weeks but definitely busy none the less. And class tonight - and next week is my midterm oh my!

Where did yesterday go? I was wondering the same thing, it was a long day working so no fun stuff got done but I still have fun pictures from this weekend to show and some good news:
Progress on block 2:

And here is block 3 pieced and ready to be appliqued:


So good news - My boyfriend got his job that he was hoping for :) We'll be moving to NH in May and he starts working Sept. to Sept. after taking the bar this summer. I'm very excited. It does mean he'll be doing the job search again a year from now - but for now we have some security :)

Well work is busy... i'll try to update the pic again tomorrow.

Short day at work with class tonight so no pictures - but tomorrow definitely as I actually do have something to show.

This weekend was great, we went down to Hartford to see the new baby born into the family, adorable :) Then we came back up and had my sister and her boyfriend over for the evening. Sunday we went to my cousin's birthday party up in NH and spent the day with family. Then in the evening I got to quilt a bit.

I pieced block 3 of Leanne's Quilt - so it's ready for the applique now (the applique pieces aren't cut but the rest of the block is pieced! Then I worked a little more on Block 2 embroidery in the car this weekend and I got mini block 3 finished and just started mini block 4 which has a TON of embroidery! I will continue to work on that this week if I have time and maybe get it done by the end of the month.

Class tonight, tomorrow night I have to work late and then do homework, wednesday homework, thursday homework... etc. I'm hoping to get the homework done some time friday and enjoy the weekend.. plus there's always that website!

What day is it? Is it the weekend yet .. i am so exhausted!

Well I did get to go to stitch last night, it was a small group and I didn't get there until 7:30 but leaving work at 6:30 when you got in at 7 and had no lunch break is just killer. I stitch a tiny bit - filling in that tub on Peace and Quiet. I won't post a pic until I have more progress than that at least. Maybe I'll see if i can work on that at lunch today - lunch - hah!

Tonight might be a late night at work - we'll see, then i have some shopping to do and then the bathtub is calling my name with a good book (Dragonsong) to join me. Tomorrow it looks like we're driving down to Hartford for the morning, then coming back up and having my sister and her boyfriend over for the night, then sunday going up to NH for the day. Looks like a lot of driving, if I can be the passenger maybe I can get some stitching done! Always trying to look on the bright side.

Oh and my boyfriend just had an interview for a job he *really* wants next year (after he graduates law school) so please keep your fingers crossed for him, he's not having the best luck but this one he really really wants and it would be very good for his career (it's only a year long job)... The interview seemed to go very well so I'm really hoping he gets it ...

Allergies are attacking - don't know why but it's going to be a long morning!

So I was the last person at work last night, closing up, and this morning I opened being the first - that's just wrong! I got no sewing/stitching done last night - i was too tired, by the time I got to my uncle's, had dinner and helped clean up it was almost bed time. We watched the dvr'd Gilmore Girls and then I read a bit... still continuing the Ann McCaffrey series, I finished the first trilogy and I'm on the first book of the second trilogy (Dragonsong). Love these books!

Tonight is stitch night - I just can't miss it, I most likely will be late but that's better than nothing and maybe I'll get to work on Peace and Quiet a little...

Ugg... sneeze .. .. wish I was sleeping right now!

A picture a day ... :) I like when I have progress to show... here is the embroidery and applique for Block 2 mini blocks 1 and 2 finished:

Tonight I hope to work on mini block 3 (the rectangle to the left) and then all the tan fabric on the 4th mini block is embroidered .. that will take a while!

But I've decided this Friday, after work, after shopping for birthday gifts (for my cousin), I will then work on piecing the third block and get that ready for applique. Saturday I will split between working on the website and working on these blocks and sunday I have a birthday party to go to but maybe I can get some work on these done as well.

I did work on the website last night - just figuring out an estimate. I haven't talked to the owner, she wasn't home last night but hopefully today or tomorrow we can get in touch so I can get started on saturday.
Well lots of meetings today so I must get to some work before they start.. oh and yoga day!

Doing better - here's my updated Peace and Quiet Please pic:

As you can see, besides the towels (one in the baseket and two hanging), I just have to fill in the rest of the tub and stitch one more bubble.. then backstitch! There's a lot of backstitching but it should be enjoyable.

Last night I worked on Leanne's Quilt Block 2 some, I appliqued the 3 hearts and finished the embroider on mini block 1, and started it on mini block 2. I think mini block 4 will take the longest but I have it all traced out now so I'll just keep plugging away this week. Block 3 doesn't have nearly as much embroidery, just a lot of applique, so it will be a nice change of pace and I hope to get that block pieced maybe this weekend so I can just continue on making progress.

Today I absolutely have to call the owner of the new website and get that rolling along, i'm spanning time saturday for working on the site before my class on monday and homework to do... The next 2 weeks (after this week) look bad .. The 16-23 I have a homework assignment due, maybe I can finish that friday night again like the last assignment since that weekend is a friend's birthday and concert. Then the 23-30 I have to study for my midterm - oh joy! Then I get a week off (which includes my sister's birthday) before the next homework goes out... I can do this, i can do this....
and now i must work :)

A little something done...

Sunday morning I finished piecing block two of leanne's quilt... now to get to all that embroidery! I'm actually very pleased with the fourth mini block, the points all came out okay! I will soon be receiving block 4 so I need to finish this block up and do block 3 still!

Also this weekend, saturday night, I worked on Peace and Quiet some more, I'm almost done with all the cross stitches, mostly waiting on the Wisper thread for the towels and still have 1 bubble to stitch. PLUS all the backstitching - so it will take a while but it feels good to be so far.

We went apple picking this weekend - and sunday i did some baking, I baked 3 apple pies, plus I made 2 and froze them. Then i made a big batch of apple sauce and i still have apples left over .. it's insane. The thought of apples is making me sick right now :)

I didn't manage to squeeze in time on the new website but I have no class tonight so I'm hoping to work on that tonight. With no class I still have no homework, so any fun stuff must be sqeezed in this week before my next class when my life ends all over again :)

Tomorrow I will update the Peace and Quiet photo!

Not much progress but I worked on the sky a bit lately and I'm almost over to the other side now (probably 30 stitches away or so). Here's my Peaceful Silhouette update from my lunch breaks (2 this week):


Last night was stitch night but I didn't really get to enjoy it... traffic was bad and i left work late, finally getting home at 6:30 (stitch is 6-9) i grabbed my stuff and headed over to stitch to show my newly framed pieces (from a few weeks ago). I only stayed about 20 minutes, then I picked up dinner on the way home to spend a little time with my boyfriend and get some work done.
We decided to pop in Serenity - ah i love that movie :) And since my work vpn was actually down I ended up stitching a bit :) I worked on Peace and Quiet - getting the bubbles on the right hand side done and starting the shelf. I now have exactly 1 bubble left to stitch and the shelf and towel hanger. This piece really does go fast.

Tonight my goal is to piece the rest of Block 2 of Leanne's quilt and get it ready to embroider, then work on the website research a bit so I can call the site owner this weekend. Apple picking this weekend, then making apple sauce and a couple of apple pies - yummy!

A real homework free night!
Not that I stitched, but I did get to watch a movie while doing some research for this new website I've decided to take on and I think the website won't be so bad, there's lots of free shopping cart options and since I can modify them I at least don't have to start from scratch :)

Here's my update from monday night stitching on Peaceful Silhouette:


On the left all I'm missing is a towel in the basket stitched in Whisper but I'm waiting for my SB&B order for the whisper which I ordered in blue because i thought that would look nice. Then tonight I'll finish filling in the tub and start on the shelf up to the right of the tub and the towel hanger. I should have this piece finished by the end of november maybe. I'm not starting new projects because of my class but finishing things up would be nice!

Ah - and Tuesday night - I started piecing Leanne's Quilt Block 2 finally, I got mini blocks 1-3 all pieced, I'm hoping friday night to piece mini block 4 so I can start on the embroidery for it. Maybe I should also start piecing Block 3 if I find any free time...
Looks like apple picking this weekend in NH? THen making some apple sauce?? Going to be a possibly busy weekend but fun at least!

2 weeks off...

I had class last night, got a little stitching done before class while waiting for it to start. Working on Peace and Quiet and I'll post an update photo tomorrow maybe. With stitch night this week I should be able to finish the tub so I'm starting the shelf above the dragon now I think.

I have no class next week and no homework for the next 2 weeks so I get a bit of a break, i could do some reading, I may try to catch up on reading the sections that correspond to the lectures but it's not required so we'll see how busy this weekend is.

It looks like I might be starting up a new "part time" job working on another website, I don't know that i have time free for this but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I could really use the money with christmas coming up. So I may have even LESS time for stitching than I had hoped, we will see...
Alright back to work, we just had an ice cream social at work today and i'm feeling very tired after stuffing myself with toppings - all healthy of course :)

October Goals:

1) Piece and embroider BOM 2
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
3) Work on Peace and Quiet - finish tub and start shelf/towel hanger
4) Make something for oldest cousin's birthday

Unfortunately i have to leave it at that as I don't anticipate a lot of free time this month :(

September recap:
1) Finish BOM 2 (quilt) [nope - not started!]
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette (finish posts/bird) [yup!]
3) Work on Peace and Quiet (finish tub) [worked on - tub isn't finished but I made the same amount of progress]
4) Work on Celtic Banner (finish through 'u') [still at 'o']
5) Make princess dress for cousin's birthday [yup!]

So not great but my class really is taking a lot of time and the next 2 weeks i should get a bit of a break before the third hw assignment and then midterm!

now to figure out october goals...

Something was up with blogger yesterday - couldn't read em, couldn't write em.

Anyhow - I got to stitch a little on Peace and Quiet before class monday night, I start the feel like i'm getting close to done and then realize there's a bunch of stuff to the right of the bathtub, but not too much. I am waiting for the Whisper thread from SB&B now, i bought a blue, i think i'm going to do blue towels instead of white so they'll show up better.

Unfortunately the fabric doesn't at all show up in the scan, but it's pink and bluish with sparkles, kind of bubblegum i think.
I have changed out a few colors, the purple towel was supposed to be pink and i've changed the candle's colors, basically i'm not stitching the pinks, changing them for purple and blues. I just like em better that way :)

So I have more homework due next monday, this one is a programming assignment, i read through it last night and it actually seems pretty reasonable, hopefully tonight i can get a start on it, maybe get the first half done and friday night maybe MAYBE finish... or else saturday at the latest. We'll see.
I started burning dvds last night - by this i mean backing up the stuff from my desktop onto dvd so some of my 120 GB hard drive would be free again (yes i actually filled 120 GB drive). I think i'm down to 40 GB free now. It's wierd when my 60GB laptop has more space than my desktop but i'm working on getting it off now and backing everything up now that i have a dvd burner. Burning CDs was just useless with that much data.
And the decision has been made, it looks like even though we only watch 2 shows total prime time, they are both on at the same time! So I will be watching House over Gilmore Girls and hopefully catching Gilmore Girls by taping or something (of course my vcr is broken - go figure). But House won last night and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I got my homework done :) That doesn't sound like much but oh man!

This weekend was crazy, friday night I went over to a friend's and we feasted to celebrate the solstice. Saturday I went to western MA to go to a baby shower, then I met up with my sister for dinner. That night I was exhausted from all the driving so I did pretty much nothing :)

Sunday however was a busy day ... I got up, got the grocery shopping done and then started on homework - after 5 hours I had gotten it all done except for 1 question I had skipped, then I ran on the treadmill and ate dinner, then got out my work (from work work) and worked on that for 2 hours. Amazingly I got inspired and then figured out the last question for my homework so by 9:30 I had it all done! It felt great and I got to read for a whole hour (by read i mean read something fun not schoolwork) :)

And it feels good to come in to work monday and have all my work done for both work and class, ready to go!

Wow, thank you for all the comments. Unfortunately getting 5 pieces framed is only a small dent in my pile. Plus Legends which has a frame is still waiting to be put in it :) It was laced on and ready to go but the board doesn't fit inside the frame, it's a metal frame and the board and glass I had cut just don't fit. I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do about it.

I did a little homework last night, mostly getting some readings done so I can work on it tonight. Hopefully tonight I'll have a good start on the assignment and I won't feel bad taking tomorrow night off.

Well work is really picking up, hopefully it stays this way (been bored lately). And today at lunch i get to stitch! It's going to be a good work day i can tell!

I actually stitched last night...

I got home, I made dinner, I relaxed for a while and at 8 when House came on I grabbed my stitching and stitched for about 2 hours! It's been so long! I should have done homework but I rationalized with myself that I would work on my homework Wednesday and Thursday night this week so I got to work on Just a Little Peace and Quiet. It's really a pretty small piece and I'm not almost done but I'm about halfway which is great considering how little I've worked on it :)

Today was yoga at lunch so no stitching but Thur and Fri at lunch I hope to work on Peaceful Silhouette. Then this weekend after the baby shower my goal is to finish my homework and then start on the quilt blocks that I have, maybe getting them pieced so I can start the embroidery this week. So much to do and so very very little time!

Homework .. must focus tonight.. two weeks i will have homework then i will have a week off and then homework again. The homeworks are tough, and that doesn't include keeping up with reading (which i'm not already) :)

What a weekend!

First we went to my uncle's saturday and I gave my cousin her dress, she LOVED it - truly. And she looked like such a princess in it. I have a picture but for her own privacy I cropped it so you can just see the dress but it looks better on someone than on a hanger so here it is:



Sunday was a really great day, we went out to our breakfast place, I cleaned the apartment (it's been a while!) Then we went shopping and I got some frames. After watching a movie (Birth which I don't really recommend, it was really bothersome at some points), I started framing a bunch of pieces... here are the results!

Blackwork Dragon on Wandering Ivy linen - framed with glass.

Kingdom Sampler framed with glass:

Going To Market framed with glass:

It's Winter framed without glass, and with batting to make it puffy:

Green Old Gardens, framed without glass, with batting:

Strange day... so it's late blogging :)

So Thursday night my friends and I all went to the airport to meet our friend and her new baby! It was very exciting and I felt so honored to be there. The baby is beautiful, happy and just perfect! And my friend and her husband are just ecstatic!

Unfortunately the plane was delayed and arrived after midnight, i didn't get home until 2am.. which is very late for me, I still managed to get up and make it in to work by 8 but by noon i was crashing so I left at 1:30 to go home and take a nap. I woke up at 6 and started working again and things are going well. I'm just waiting for dinner to arrive and then i can get a little more work done.

I hope to end the night taking care of adding fray check to the princess dress and wrapping it. We're going up to my uncle's tomorrow for the day and then i'm hoping to get some cleaning and sewing done on sunday...
sewing... BOM 3 arrived already and i haven't started 2! So i must get on that! Oh goody - chinese food is here!

Finally an update to Peaceful Silhouette. I've been working on the darkest color which is full stitches and takes longer than all the shaded colors which are half stitches. I do want to get this done for my boyfriend for graduation next year so i may have to start calling this my focus piece sometimes :)

Thank you thank you thank you for all the wonderful comments on the dress! What an honor. As difficult and time consuming as it was it was also fun and I'm pretty proud of it. I can't wait to get a picture of my cousin wearing it.

The class I'm taking is Fundamentals of Networking. I'm getting my masters in Computer Science concentrated in Networking and to do that I have to take pretty much all networking courses. The funny part is that my job is a network programmer, but I don't have the background knowledge, i just learn quickly so I'm already doing most of what i will learn but this way the class is easier :)

I'll post a WIP update in a second...

hmm, i think lately has been a blogging slump for me, my mornings are just busy busy and my evenings are too busy to do any stitching so I don't have anything to show anyway. Well maybe things will start to settle down with this weekend, but now i have homework :(

My class went well last night, I'm looking forward to it in general, i will have 5 homework assignments and 2 exams and lots of reading that is optional which means I will of course do it.

The baking is continuing, I'm trying to bake 3 batches of cookies for my close friend who comes home thursday and then make a mud pie as well. So far I have 1 batch done, 1 batch mixed. Tonight I hope to finish the cookies and figure out the effort required for the mud pie if not make it.

Is it only tuesday? Wow it feels like friday, tomorrow night i will be relaxing at my uncle's house for the evening, maybe getting some reading for class done. Thursday is a mini stitch and then a trip to the airport to see my friend who comes home quick.
Well, it's almost time to get going - thank goodness, i need a normal night, with pasta for dinner!

And the dress is just about finished.. after 20 hours of sewing this weekend (and yes it did wear me out completely), here it is:


It was a long weekend, Friday night I was up till 2am piecing the hot pink top, then saturday I had gotten the sleeves and collar on and was starting the skirt, my friend came over and chatted while I sewed the lining to the skirt pieces, then I finished the night adding horsehair to the bottom of the skirt.

So up sunday i started by hemming each skirt piece by hand (which took a good 4 hours watching movies). Finally I'm ready to piece it all, no small task but progress can be seen. The zipper task fell about 6pm (after 2 hours putting the skirt and dress together). Finally it's basically done and all I have left is to add trimmings (3 snaps and 2 hook and eyes). I started the hooks but my headache prevailed and I decided with just a few things to sew on by hand I could put it off till later in the week.

So there the dress is pretty much done. I want to get some fray check this week and treat all the seams with it and cut the frays off so it looks neater. Then saturday it will be presented in all it's glory to the little 5 yr old princess, my cousin :)

Tonight I start my class up - so no stitching, especially since I have a lunch time dentist appointment. I will try to get an update to Peaceful S. tomorrow on the scanner. Until then it's work and then class and then more baking...

Wow it has not been a good blogging week for me! Work hasn't even been as crazy as it was last week so I don't know what's going on.

So last weekend we camped, through the rain but managed to stay pretty dry and have a good time. I didn't get any stitching done but last night at stitch I worked on Celtic Banner and got two more letters done (n and o ).

This weekend I will be sewing a Sleeping Beauty Dress all weekend probably and I plan to have pictures monday. Plus monday i will update my Peaceful Silhouette picture as I worked on that a little at lunch time a few times this week.

Okay - got to finish up some things now so i can head home in an hour!

Back from camping - and yes we did camp through the rain ... I'll write more tomorrow, just finishing up a long work day and want to get out of here to meet my boyfriend for dinner :)

I'm alive - but not very - working too hard :) I figured I'd set my september goals at the very least before getting back to work (been working for 11 hours straight so i'm a little worn out).

September goals:
1) Finish BOM 2 (quilt)
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette (finish posts/bird)
3) Work on Peace and Quiet (finish tub)
4) Work on Celtic Banner (finish through 'u')
5) Make princess dress for cousin's birthday

I think i'll leave it at that, i have my class starting up and I don't want to get too crazy.

August Goals Recap:

1) Finish Kingdom Sampler! [YES!!!]
2) Start Celtic Banner [YES]
3) Work on Just a little Peace and Quiet [YES]
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
5) Finish Leanne's Quilt Block 2 [nope, haven't started but it arrived very late]
6) Start new Pooh piece [haven't even picked one]
7) Get Petal Fairy ready to start [nope, not yet]

8) work on website [nope...]

Well if i had prioritized then I did pretty good :) This weekend is all camping so I doubt there will be much stitching and class starts pretty soon but there are a few things I want to get done this month at least ;)

Thank you everyone for the comments, I really enjoyed stitching this piece with Carol !

Last night I got home late and of course the headache had started (but not a migraine this time), so I popped a pizza in the oven and settled down to watch Strong Medicine (the first 2 episodes). No stitching, I was kind of drained and moved on to just reading a bit before going to sleep. I can't believe it's only Wednesday! This week is dragging.

But tonight I go to my uncle's and hopefully a little stitching will happen :) I have been getting a little stitching time on Peaceful Silhouette at lunch time the last two days, hopefully I can keep that up!

Kingdom Sampler:


Stitched on Silkweaver Solo 32ct. Sorry it's crooked..

So there it is, finished in 2 months which is amazing since I thought this piece would really take a while. Now I can focus on Celtic Banner and Peace and Quiet a bit and I will definitely be starting a new piece soon once I catch up on some other things.

Again no stitching last night, probably none tonight as I have grocery shopping to do and general organizing of things around the house.

Excedrin Migraine saved the night last night, I was fighting one all day but took it before going over to my friends, luckily the caffeine wore off around 9:30 so going to sleep wasn't a problem (besides dealing with migraine side effects like feeling sick to my stomach). I have to say it was the best migraine night i've ever had though and hopefully my body has adjusted to being back at work and I won't get any more :)

more to come...

I haven't scanned in Kingdom Sampler yet but I did finish it last week (yipee) so I will share the pic probably tomorrow. I'm very happy with it and just have to add initials to it and find a frame that's suitable.

Atlantic City was awesome, we had a great time, I didn't stitch at all (I finished Kingdom Sampler the weekend before), but I did a lot of reading. I've finished the first 2 McCaffrey Pern books and I'm about to start White Dragon next. I started listening to Jodi Piccoult's Plain Truth. My boyfriend and I listened to The Shining unabridged (that's 16 hours), finishing it at 10pm last night.

I'd say the best part of vacation was that the annual Atlantic City Air show happened to be going on Wednesday while we were there and this year was the Blue Angels AND the thunderbirds! Tuesday the Blue Angels must have been practicing or something because they were flying all day, it was great!

Tonight I'll be visiting with friends and this week doesn't look to be free for stitching since we're camping next weekend I have a lot to do around the house before we leave for another 3 days. I'm ready for a vacation from vacations :)

Pictures tomorrow...

Still here :) Just busy at work - always happens before vacation!

I worked on Kindom Sampler last night at stitch, I finished the clouds so all I have left is the alphabet, which I'll probably finish this weekend so I can work on Celtic Banner down in Atlantic City (if i get to stitch that is).

Leaving work at 3:30 today to pamper myself a bit. (manicure and pedicure) Then I have an evening of packing and cleaning to do so we can leave by 10am to go to a wedding in NY and then the rest of the weekend to just relax... oh how I love vacation!

I will be bringing a LOT of books with me, hopefully dragonquest will arrive in time for me to bring it since dragonflight is just about finished, might finish tomorrow in the car.
I'll be offline until Monday the 28th!

Thanks for all the great comments :) I picked up Kindom Sampler again last night to get a start on the gigantic cloud :)
I don't know if I will have stitching time tonight or not but if I do I will try to finish the cloud. Tomorrow night is Celtic Banner night!

And the countdown to vacation is getting small! Techinically our vacation is Mon-Fri but we're going to a wedding back in NY saturday and staying at my parent's sat-mon morning, with no work to do I can call my vacation starting friday night with the manicure and pedicure i just set up! (Want my toes in good shape for the beach :) )

No reading last night, I resisted, I knew if I started I might just finish the book completely, we'll see if I can resist tonight or not :)

Not finished like Carol :) But I got the backstitching done and some alphabet. The alphabet really does go fast, with just that and clouds left to go I will definitely finish this soon ;)

Trying out blogger photos again so hopefully this works fine. I am really loving this piece and I can't wait to have it framed along side Legends of the Dragons. Speaking of which -- Legends is still not framed because the board and glass they sent me were too large for the frame so I have to cut them down myself which means re-lacing Legends - UGGGG!

So much to do .. still have to add the patch to the baby quilt with the personalization, and do my Block of the Month 2 for Leanne's quilt... and i'll be on vacation next week so that's not going to happen, maybe the weekend after :)

Sometimes I feel like I never have anything to show :) No stitching again this weekend, it was a camping weekend and we had a great time but definitely no time to stitch.

I did get to read in the car a bit and I'm loving this book (Ann McCaffrey's Dragonflight) and i'm looking forward to reading the whole Pern series.

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL, I am hoping to work on the backstitching, *maybe* finish that up and start on the clouds that I keep putting off ... I think this will be finished up in the next week or two. If I do finish it next week I won't be able to post until the 26th when I'm back from my first week long vacation! One week to go until we leave!!! I don't know how much stitching will happen since this is a beach/casino vacation but hopefully a little stitching at least!

Well work is busy busy and with next week off I have a lot to do this week!

No stitching again... but it was a nice night of playing cards with my aunt, uncle and cousin :)

I worked from home yesterday and got my boyfriends car around 5 (they never called when they were done). Then it was the regular go to my uncle's night and hang out with them.

Tonight is stitch night! I have to stop home to get Celtic Banner as I might work on that :)

No stitching last night... I did upload a pic using blogger to test that out so we'll see how that goes.

Last night was spent figuring out what to do with my boyfriends car, resulting in me working from home and gearing up to run (yes actually run) over to the place to pic his car up this afternoon and go in to work for about an hour. We'll see how the running bit goes, i may end up calling a cab but i've never done that before either. The run would be good for me.

Then I started looking at new laptop stuff in case I decide to build a new one. I can't find a barebones system with enough features I like to get rid of my trackpoint though so I'll be sticking with my ThinkPad for now. Then I checked Ebay for the prices of Razrs as I'd like to get a new phone but I don't want to spend much more than 100 on it so I may wait it out a bit longer since my phone works perfectly fine as is.

The rest of the night I continued reading Dragonflight, i'm not very far and it's kind of hard to understand all that's going on but I'm liking it so far. I think I'm going to really like this series and may buy the second one soon to read when I finish this one.

The audio book I enjoyed over my vacation was Poison Study by Maria Snyder, Magic Study the second in the trilogy comes out in October so I can't wait for that! I definitely recommend this first one!

Just testing :)

Kingdom Sampler SAL ... finished the border...



Not much else but I did get the border completely done and get a tiny start on the alphabet. With 3 mondays left to August I think finishing this will be no big deal. I will start the backstitching next week and either more alphabet or start the clouds. Then I'll have just alphabet and clouds to do. Loving this piece :)

Last night we settled in and watched the new Pride & Prejudice which was definitely not as good as the 5 hour A&E version but I still love P&P. My boyfriend liked the 5 hour one and we both had some comments about how much they condensed some things and some of our favorite parts were left out so I think a 5 hour run with the other version will be coming up soon :) The anniversary edition comes out very soon so I think we'll get that and spend a saturday watching it again (lots of stitching time then!!)

We also watched Prime last night which was good, a little strange at the end, maybe I'm just slow but it took me a while to figure out what had happened but all in all it was a good movie.

Tonight I hope for more movies and stitching, Just a Little Peace and Quiet has been neglected for a while now so maybe I'll pull that out.
Back to work!