Yup - changed the template - playing around with things a bit :)

No stitching last night... zelda called to me ... couldn't help it. I finished gathering the tears, I learned to summo wrestle and I just beat some bad guy by throwing him off a bridge.. after losing about 5 times I beat him anyway - all well :)

Anyway I will stitch tonight - on Pooh and maybe I'll have an update tomorrow. Oh and it's January goal wrap up time ... okay I take it back - i didn't set january goals :)

And some more progress...

This is just unknown - me actually remembering to post progress pics ;)

Anyway - here's Pooh in all his glory as of last night. I finished all the actual stitching in the picture, just have to backstitch piglet and the flowers, then add the personalization, probably underneath for the name and to the side for the date, just like the other one. I really think I can get this finished up this weekend.. if I really focus.

So - almost time for Barnabee's Quest to start!! I'm not sure yet if I will start this on Thursday or wait until the weekend - only because I want to finish the Pooh piece and Thursday is stitch night, it's an easy thing to bring along. I'm really looking forward to Barnabee though and it's almost ready to go, I just have to make a working copy of the patterns and buy some missing DMC on thursday at stitch.

I played some zelda last night - I beat the first major boss - all by myself! Now i'm back to being a wolf and finding all the tears. Almost done with that. They did such a good job with this zelda, it's very similar to the other zeldas but it has a lot of new stuff! I might have to play a little tonight but i really shouldn't... oh man..

I did it - I switched to the new blogger - I hope it all works, it looks okay so far. I have a couple of blogs and I'm going to create a new one shortly - books I'm reading/read. Keeping all my interests separated by blog :) Anyway so now this one is updated to the new blogger... I'll post an updated picture of Pooh very shortly - I've finished Pooh himself, and the flowers. I started Piglet last night and probably tonight I'll make more progress on him :)

Making progress...

What is this - two pictures in a week - Nicole is on a role!! Here's Pooh after Stitch Night last night when I couldn't resist starting the backstitching after finishing the actual pooh stitching. Still left is Piglet and the flower bouquet (hence the strange holes in his hand).

Pooh is coming along, I will work on him some more tonight and this weekend hopefully (sunday after website work). My goal is to finish the whole piece before next weekend so I can make the wallhanging then. I have lots of cute Pooh fabric in my collections so I'm sure I can pull something together and machine quilt it.

Mt. Washington here we come... so I just booked a mini vacation in Feb. for 2 nights and 3 days of snowboarding! I can't handle that much snowboarding but there's lots of other things to do and my fiance and I always have a good time so it will be a blast, i can't wait! Plus it was much cheaper than i thought - cheaper than just lift tickets for 3 days! Maybe we can afford to go snowboarding once in march as well for just a day if we ever get some snow!!

Nothing new going on. I stitched on Pooh Wed night at my aunt's and last night at stitch (hence the fast progress). Tonight I will start piglet probably while we watch some tv. I won't point out my mistakes in Pooh - i'll have some fudging to do while backstitching his lower half - oops - too late now :)

Here he is:


He's really going much faster than I remember Pooh to go... which is good because I'd like to get this done before the end of january so in February when I start Barnabee I will have no obligation stitching holding me back (besides Peacefull Silhouette which I HAVE to finish by the end of may!)

So somewhere I made a counting error on the lower part of Pooh. As you can see I outline and then fill in, that way I can do some mindless stitching, well as I was doing the arm, it didn't match up with the body correctly and I realized that somewhere there is a mistake - I couldn't figure out exactly where but I'm sure i'll find it when I do the backstitching ;) I'll just have to fudge it a bit.

So last night I stitched (can you tell) :) We watched some of Season 1 House. Nothing else got done but tonight I hope to work on the website and then maybe finish Pooh's head. Then I just have his arm, the flowers, and Piglet to stitch :) Oh and the personalization of course. If I can finish this by Feb 2nd, I can make it into a wall hanging that weekend and be all ready for my coworker a month later!

All right - much to do ... must stop dreaming about a life where I just stitch all day!

What a busy weekend! But I did finally start the Winnie the Pooh piece - I'll post a picture as soon as it's more than a blob of golden brown.

Saturday we went up and visited my cousins for the day - a long day, getting home late but we went out and saw Night at the Museum with them and that was a lot of fun.
Sunday was a day to myself as my fiance had to work in boston (on our cheat day - kind of lame :( ), anyway , I filled my day - I got up early and spent 2 hours reading, then I got into the organizing mood and I cleaned out all the drawers in our bedroom (the "junk" drawers). And reorganized and packed some stuff away into the basement (might as well start packing for May now if it's things we dont' use often).
By noon I was done with that (that felt great!) so I settled in with my new pattern and picked out my fabric and floss for pooh. I watched the Office and stitched until my friend came over to visit and then we just sat and stitched and chatted for a few hours.
So I got a decent start on Pooh but all in one color still. I didn't get to working on the website at all - tonight I'll have to take a look at that and work on it before doing anymore stitching. And now I have zelda calling to me again - it's been almost a week :)

UCK - migraine attacks...

No stitching last night :( I had a headache most of the afternoon and when I got home there was no way i could do anything. I sat and listened to my audiobook in the dark and fell asleep (oops) a few times. I missed dinner (migraines cause me to feel sick so I generally can't eat) and ended up getting carried to bed after 11, essentially getting about 12 hours of sleep when I got up at 6:30.

But I'm feeling loads better today - and it's amazing that it's friday - getting all that sleep makes it feel like monday or something so I'm really looking forward to this weekend now! We're considering going snowboarding tomorrow but if we don't I will have lots of crafty time. I have to work on the website as well but I think I'm scheduling some time sunday for that... oh i can't wait for the weekend!!!

Winnie the pooh pictures hopefully by monday...

Oh Zelda... completely throwing off my plans for the week :)

Well last night instead of going to my uncle's house, I had to run home after yoga so my fiance could use my car - his car would not start in the morning. So I worked from home in the afternoon and being home for the evening unexpectedly, I decided to play a little zelda... and 3 hours later... :)

I love zelda and I love the wii, I think I've played 5 hours total of zelda (it tells you how long your game is), and I've gotten pretty far - I'm no longer a wolf and I technically finished the first dungeon. They have this new thing in this zelda about learning special moves - this is great - they didn't have that in the older games and I learned my first special move.

Anyway sorry to bore you... no stitching but tonight I really really do plan to gather bits for the Pooh piece i need to start. I think I have a pattern picked out, this is the one I did for the first child:

So I'm thinking about a piece with Pooh and Piglet holding a bouquet of flowers with the second baby name. I really hope I can whip this up quickly. I can hopefully get a good start on it this weekend.. oh man it's only thursday ...

Anyway so my coworker is bringing the baby in to work today - so I get to meet her :) Maybe that will kick me in the but to get started on this :)

Barnabee's Quest and other things...

Well last night I got a whole hour to myself - so I headed into my closet (where I keep all my craft stuff). I pulled out Barnabee's Quest, and then I realized I already had chart packs for it as well, I bought part I and III's chart packs... what about II?? Well I didn't like the rooster very much so I didn't buy part II, so now I have to figure out if I should buy just beads or the chart pack. If I buy beads I'll need another charm to replace the rooster but my friend that owns an LNS has tons of charms so it's not a problem. Plus I'll save the beads and charms to the end anyway.

Anyway - so I need on Kreinik and I still have to gather my DMC, I figure I can do that in the next couple weeks before we start this as a SAL. Oh, i picked out some white belfast linen, just some zweigart I think to use.

Our second Wii controller came yesterday too (no Zelda yet) - so we played some Wii Tennis together. Then after my fiance got back from the gym, we put in Criminal Minds and finished Season 1. I got to work on Celtic Banner a tiny bit .. I finished the two motifs by the alphabet and I started the large square motif. I may put this away for a bit because...

I completely forgot - a friend at work had her second baby in Dec. and for her first baby I made a winnie the pooh wallhanging, I forgot i wanted to do a second one for her second. I need to get cracking on that. So tonight I might pick out a pattern and fabric and get the threads for that together. If i get it done before her maternity leave is up I should be okay. So this will be my focus for the next 2 full weeks at least. Somehow I'll have to keep working on Leanne's Quilt as well...

Promised Pics!!

Not a lot of stitching this weekend (hardly any). Saturday during the car ride I worked on block 6 a bit - here it is so far:


Friday night when I got home I felt in the quilting mood so I pieced block 7 and got it ready for all the applique. This one doesn't have a lot of embroidery, just the top right block and some on top of the applique later on. Here it is just pieced.
It was a nice weekend but a whole lot of driving. We drove home saturday and then drove up to Albany to get a family portrait done (JCPenny) for my parents' anniversary. Then we went out to dinner, then drive back (45 min to albany from my parents').
Saturday night we played games - this new CSI game my sister has was really fun.
Sunday was our cheat day on our diet, so we had a big breakfast with family then lunch with my fiance's parents, then dinner after we got home - long drive back in the rain :( We finished the night with disk 2 of season 2 of LOST... which we are totally addicted to :)

Now it's back to work - I'm trying to get back to getting up early again, I don't know what's been going on but I haven't been able to get up before 7 the past few weeks ... but no longer - today I got up at 6:40 but I'm aiming for 6 tomorrow and the rest of the week. Then I can get in before 8 and leave by 5 and have more of an evening at home.. we'll see!

Ack, sorry - it's been a very busy day - i like days like this as long as I can leave on time - we'll see - i'm hoping for 5/5:30 - which means busy busy now :)

I did get to work on leanne's house block 6. I finished the embroidery on mini block 1 and maybe tonight I can take a picture when I get home. This one has a lot of embroidery but it should go pretty fast - much different than the last block. A lot of repetitive stitching which is nice.

Stitch night was fun last night, i finally got to tell most of my friends that I got engaged. I also bought a few new charts and some floss I needed. If I have time tonight I'll post the charts I got too... but for now i'm off - hitting the ground running!

A little stitching, not as much as I had planned since I got a headache. I worked on block 6, starting the embrodery on mini block 1. There's a decent amount of embroidery in this block but I think it will go fairly quickly, unlike block 5.

Tonight I have stitch, I hope to work more on block 6 there and then go home and play a little on the Wii!!! My Zelda game just shipped so we may even have it by saturday, not that we need it saturday since we'll be going back to NY but we do have sunday night to play then :) Oh it really is a disease.

The cold I have been fighting is still threatening me, i'm kind of losing my voice now and my throat just feels gross. But I'm not too congested and my head is pretty clear so I'm sticking it out. My guess is by saturday when I can finally relax it will hit hard. I can always take monday off though if I need to.

Finally - I finally can post my picture from this weekend - sorry about that. I finished block 5 Sunday as you can see.. there's a TON of embroidery but it's done :) I also pieced block 6 and will start the embroidery tonight hopefully.

I also worked on Celtic Banner a little this weekend - almost finished the two small motifs next to the end of the alphabet.

In more fun news - we just got a Wii today! My fiance just went and got one - and now I'm ordering Zelda from Amazon today too - I will be much less productive when it comes to stitching if i have zelda but it will also be good for my fiance to have something to do while I'm quilting and can't watch tv shows with him. Like tonight - he'll be playing Madden all night long now.

So hopefully I will have a picture of block 6 on friday with some good progress to show. I may be able to finish it even this weekend since we have a drive back to NY and that's 2 hours of car time. Then I'd like to piece block 7 and be caught up. I am really enjoying Leanne's Quilt and I can't wait to start another block of the month when this is complete - of course I still have to quilt this one but I'm sure that will happen too :)

Back to work - it's like monday and friday at the same time :) That's what taking thursday off does to a person!

My poor fiance (still really not used to saying that) - has a really bad cold, the one I fought off last week. He took a sick day yesterday and ate lots of soup and today he's trying going back to work but this weekend will be very relaxing and we gave up on snowboarding (no snow!).

I have so much I want to do this weekend since we're finally home:
1) take down holiday decorations - pack them up and put away (really pack since we're moving in May)
2) clean the apartment (a good vacuum and bathroom cleaning for a fresh winter start)
3) Finish (really finish) Leanne's Quilt Block 5 finally! I have a little more embroidery and applique in each corner left!
4) Piece Block 6 and maybe 7 of leanne's quilt!
5) Work on the website for a few hours sunday
6) Work on Peaceful Silhouette or other stitched piece - need something to do while we watch Lost and ER. We started Lost Season 1 last night (First 4 episodes) and we're pretty hooked now. Plus we have ER season 6 disk 1 to watch from blockbuster.

Yesterday was great, aside from the long drive, the baby was great, only cried when she needed something (diaper change/bottle/sleep) and actually played for a bit and slept (on me) for quite a bit. I watched Pride and Prejudice since I could leave the room and not worry about missing anything (seen it before) and not have to change channels since it's 5 hours long I could just keep it going all day :) It was a very good time and if I didn't have to take work days to do it I'd offer to watch her more often!

A non-eventful evening. I got home after 7pm and my fiance had dinner ready for me. We ate, we watched a Criminal Minds episode. Then he went to the gym while I ran on the treadmill re-watching the last half of davinci code. Then another Criminal Minds when he got home, a Good Eats episode and off to bed to read a little "Princes of Ireland". A nice, relaxing evening, only thing missing was the stitching I was too lazy to get out of my bag.

Tonight I'm headed to my aunt's, hopefully I'll stitch a bit, I don't have to get up so early tomorrow since I'm headed out to babysit in Springfield tomorrow instead of work. I haven't watched such a young child in a long time (few years), and she's only almost 3 months old. I don't know what to expect - but I'm guessing lots of crying since I'm not mommy or daddy :) It might be a long day :) I brought Pride and Prejudice to pop in just in case I need some background noise.

For picture see 3 posts down - I should have posted that post last :)

A few goals for this year - 2007 - nothing major but I do have some things I want to get done:

1) Finish Peaceful Silhouette for Fiance's graduation (I really need to focus on this!)
2) Stitch eagle piece for fiance
3) Work on Celtic Banner - finish at least halfway
4) Start/Finish Barnabee's Quest as SAL with Carol and friends
5) Stitch piece for fiance's step mother for xmas 2007

6) Finish Leanne's Quilt (piecing and embroidery)

I won't make any other goals even though there are lots I want to start/finish, these are the ones that are high priority, others will be just for fun and when I'm bored. I hope to take advantage of the spring semester off and make killer stitching progress this year- we'll see :)

Oh and this weekend - trying out snowboarding again - looking forward to it .. probably someplace small like Wachusett and then in Feb, we're thinking a long weekend at a cabin or something - should be fun :) Cabin means stitching time too!!!

Year end wrapup:
2006 Goals:

1) Finish Green Old Gardens [YUP]
2) Finish Wrapped Butterfly into pillow [nope]
3) Finish Blackwork Dragon [YUP]
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YUP]
5) Stitch/Make ornament for my sister [nope]
6) Stitch/Make ornament for my mom [nope]
7) Finish It's Winter [YUP]
8) Start/Work on Going to Market [FINISHED]
9) Start/Work on Kingdom Sampler [FINISHED]
10) Start a seasonal fall piece [YUP - Dry Turkey]
Also stitched:
Mini Cottages II
Just a little Peace and Quiet Please
and started Celtic Banner!

Quilts:
1. Work on Amish Quilt (hand quilting) [nope]
2. Work on Sampler quilt (hand quilting)[nope]
3. Start a new quilt [made baby quilt for friend!]
Started Leanne's Quilt - month by month

Knitting: [none...]
1. Learn to knit socks
2. Learn to knit sweaters (try it)

And a December wrapup:
December Goals:
1) Finish alphabet (and 2 ornaments next to y/z) on Celtic Banner [Finished Alphabet only]
2) Piece and finish block 5 of leanne's quilt [Pieced not finished]
3) stitch 2 ornaments [nope]
4) make all 3 ornaments [nope - made 1 ornament]
5) Work on peaceful silhouette tues/thurs at work (lunch time)[I think I was too busy]
6) Make crafty gifts if time allows (gift tags/cards/bookmarks...) [made tags]

It's not much but finally a picture:


I spent a little time working on block 5 again yesterday. I'm almost 3/4 done with the outside but then I have to do the corners still! This block has a LOT of work involved. Plus I have blocks 6 and 7 waiting to be pieced and finished.

HOWEVER - I decided against taking a class this semester, I'm going to probably transfer to WPI and I can't carry over more than the 2 classes I've already taken so it would really be a waste so I dropped the class. This way I can focus on the website and getting that finished and enjoy the spring with some stitching and quilting :)

Well I can't believe it's 2007 already! I have to go back and wrap up all my goals for both the year and month!!