It's all over!
Finally, the presentation is over, it went well and today is back to a normal almost stress free work day. And more importantly - I'm taking tomorrow off completely!

Clarifications -
First off - thank you all for the birthday wishes and the comments on Peaceful Silhouette, I'm really hoping to have time to finish that this weekend!
Secondly - the dragon quilt was a gift from 2 coworkers in our california office. It is so beautiful and generous, I just love it, they are so great.
Thirdly - now that work should be more normal again, no working on weekends, no working until midnight -i should be able to stitch more and I'm really hoping to get started on my neighborhood RR!!! I haven't even picked fabric yet! I have to measure out and figure out what size I need and then see what i might have already. I'm very much looking forward to that.

Oh and then there's the move, I'm going apartment hunting this weekend up in NH, I'm not sure I'll find exactly what i want but I'm hoping so because the closer I get to the move day the more stressed out I will be! Wish me luck!

And tomorrow is a work on the website among other things day - I hope that goes well! And now - back to the lab!

My birthday surprise:
Isn't it just gorgeous! I absolutely love dragons - and I'm in total shock!

And my birthday treat to myself just arrived yesterday from SB&B:
I got Lady Scarlett's Journey (I,II,III), Overdyed Dragon, and ABC and DEF Sampler Stitches! A real treat to myself!

And when I wasn't making myself sick with nerves for the presentations going on at work today and tomorrow I did a little stitching - I finished backstitching the front boat on Peaceful Silhouette so now i Just have the larger boat and then I'll be done - I really can't believe it!!

My presentation should be tomorrow morning at 8, it could be last this afternoon if we run early - and of course I woke up feeling like I'm getting a horrible cold - unbelievable! I will just have to work through it and Friday I had planned on taking off anyway, will just have to be more of a recovery day than a get things done day... all well!

Almost done!!!
Here's Peaceful Silhouette with just backstitching left. I started the backstitching and oh boy does that take forever! Those boats are going to take a long time but the doc and the posts with the bird are all finished! I'm so very excited and I hope to work on this little by little this week and by next week I'll have a finished picture to share!!!!

I also received an AMAZING birthday gift - a quilt! From 2 coworkers, one who moved away a short while ago and now she shares and office with another that I befriended while I was out visiting CA a few years ago. They worked together and made me a quilt - pictures to come tomorrow! It really is amazing and I have no idea what I can do for them that even compares! My idea that I had does not even come close to measuring up!!

On another note - in response to a comment - I did actually make the jewel case boxes as I'd planned - spent a good hour or more and I will take some pictures tonight as well to share, they are just made from an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of card stock. I hope to dress them up a bit more in the future but for now they organize my jewel cases.

what amazing weather! We really enjoyed the weekend and I'm sorry the weather won't last much longer but it's great right now and I just went for a quick walk to enjoy it!

Birthday Treats!

First of all - I received this absolutely beautiful - amazing - fob from Carol! I saw Dani stitch this and I knew it was a must stitch for me eventually and now I have it already finished! I absolutely love it - here's some pics:
And the other side:
Here's a picture of the gift my aunt got me - it's a beautiful chart for a quilt which includes an embroidered center piece about the Seasons - I love seasons! And some gorgeous fabrics!
And from my best friend - A Cake decorating kit!! Plus some super sticky tape for making the dvd boxes she's going to teach me to make!
Tulips from another friend and the cards I've received. I really feel loved on this birthday!
Last night was such a surprise! I went to go out to dinner with my best friend and it turned out to be 6 of my friends (our stitching group) - 2 couldn't make it but we had a blast! It was 3 hours of relaxing with great friends (and eating good chinese food of course). I was so thrilled.

I guess the birthday doesn't end yet either, my sister and her boyfriend are coming up this weekend to celebrate over night on saturday and my mom is going to try to come out, then my brother might come by for the night as well after his baseball games. My mom got me a gift card to IKEA!! That will be great once I've moved and I have new space to fill (hopefully) :)
I really think this is the best birthday ever!

Well I wanted to dedicate this post to the generous gifts I've received, I am truly truly thankful! I'm working from home today so that by 4:30 I can start cleaning around the apartment for company and doing any more packing I can get away with. I'm also planning on going running outside because the weather is amazing! What a beautiful day - now - back to work :)

So close and yet...


First I want to say THANK YOU For all the birthday wishes. It really was a great birthday, one of the very best.

Secondly - I am finally showing my progress on Peaceful Sihouette. The next picture will be stitching complete for sure as there is only one color left to fill in (half stitches) on the bottom right. I'm VERY excited! 4 nights of working on this from 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours and it's almost completed.

BUT THEN - I realized I had an error... not a minor one either - I accidentally used dark brown (2 strands!) in the tweeding instead of regular brown for what I stitched last night - it's not a lot darker but it definitely shows. I am undecided if I will leave it - or my other alternative is to take one strand of regular brown and stitch over that whole area. I'll decide after I actually finish it and see it all together ... OOPS!

Anyway - so there's my progress. Tonight I don't think I'll have stitching time, I'm going out to dinner with a friend and friday I have to clean but probably this weekend!

Birthday...

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a great day. I got home from work around 6:40 and I'll leave the rest to the pictures:
This is what I came home to - freshly made (and VERY YUMMY)!
My gift (actually got that first thing in the morning) - it's a subscription to Martha Stewart Living which I secretly wanted :)
My home made pizza (my absolute favorite) and he even picked up orange soda for me!
I picked out 5 favorites and my fiance got to pick the one he'd tolerate the most - he actually likes Notting Hill so he picked that one.
And this is how my movie/stitching night started - Some wonderful pizza and soda, lots of laughing (I love Notting Hill) and a very good amount of stitching - Peaceful Silhouette. I know I haven't posted a progress pic - yesterday was a non-blog day and today I have so many other pics to share I'll post one tomorrow.

Off to my aunt's for the night tonight, I'm looking forward probably some shopping at Kohl's and then some dinner out.

A necklace and Ebay...

First a necklace - this is the necklace I made Saturday night, it is a birthday gift for my fiance's sister. I really like how it came out, if it was for me I'd make it much shorter but I'm a very small person so I was more generous with then length. This took forever!

There's a lot of wire work (all new to me) and I basically wrapped each stone chip individually creating the hoops as I went and connecting each one very slowly!

And on Ebay I sold my first item! It was a pair of headphones we had as a duplicate gift and they sold very quickly for buy it now. I will be shipping them off tomorrow!

Last night I finally stitched! I will post a progress pic tomorrow - Peaceful Silhouette, I hope to also stitch on it tonight. I really want to get this finished and with so little stitching time I was really getting worried. Plus there was a wopper of a mistake and I was trying to ignore it but I finally figured it out last night and it's not that bad, I think I can work around it and not make many changes.

Well back to a busy work week. Probably working late today - but at least I ran this morning!

Ebay - and Magazines

Well I have finally made the move to do some selling on ebay. I was going to start packing up my closet and I looked up to my top shelf and saw all the magazines I moved out here with me that I have not touched in 3 years!

So I've decided to go through them and if I don't find more than 1 pattern I'd stitch I'm adding it to the sell pile. I'm giving ebay a try - I've uploaded some small groups of magazines, they're expensive to ship (heavy) though so I'm doing Flat Rate Priority. This is all new to me.. .we'll see how it goes.

I was thinking I'd list a few on my blog as well, especially ones that don't group well. Going through these takes forever though!

If you're interested in looking at my auctions - my username is "groudn" on ebay!

Working from home today - no bad weather like predicted but this way i'm home already at 5:30 when it's time to go to dinner for my fiance's birthday. And i get a full day with little to know interruption of work in. Unless you call laundry an interruption.

Back to work!

Stitching, what's that...

No stitching still.. probably not until Friday and this weekend unfortunately. Tonight I need to figure out something small to get my fiance for his birthday (tomorrow) nothing like putting something off to the last second. Then we'll probably watch a little more Pretender Season 1.

Tomorrow night we're going to the mall for his birthday and then to dinner. So Friday will be my first night home relaxing and hopefully stitching - maybe adding beads to Barnabee or working on Peaceful Silhouette.

So nothing fun last night, just worked late and watched some pretender while sorting through my audiobooks and downloading some missing ones.

Worked late... no stitching...

Last night I left work pretty early (4pm) and went and got my hair cut. Then I settled in for the evening to continue working. I just wanted to get home before we had people coming to look at the apartment. I ended up working until 10pm and then I read for a half hour before bed.

Ahh that reminds me, I wanted to start a reading blog... to keep track of the books I've read and if I enjoyed them etc. I too often get books confused with each other.

I am SO SORE today from lifting yesterday, it was great though and I'm so glad to be back on the diet and exercise and doing well. Tonight I need to run, didn't run yesterday but I can make up for that :)

Barnabee just needs beads!


I finished the backstitching last night, beads are all that's left to finish this one up! And last week I ordered Lady Scarlet's Journey (the three charts). I will save the finishing on Barnabee until I finish Scarlet as well and then figure out how i want to finish them together.

Weekend update --
Horror of Horrors Friday night. I got home from work around 10pm and needed to make the princess hat to match the princess dress I made two months ago (the birthday party got delayed). So I take out the dress to just iron the hem quick - but the iron was on a Cotton setting and next thing I know I have a HUGE hole at the bottom of the dress! And it's after 10pm!

Well a little fabric glue and some extra fabric patched the hole.. I really should have ripped out a bit of the stripe and resewn it but I just had no time, it was too late. So I made the matching hat and just lived with it.

Saturday my sister and I went up to celebrate birthdays and easter with family, the 3 yr old loved the dress and hat, the kids were great, it was a great time.

Sunday was a low key day - saturday night was a late night because my fiance had friends over to celebrate his birthday and they stayed up till 3am, which meant i was up till 3am. So I was fighting headaches all day sunday, but I did manage to do that little bit of backstitching on Barnabee.

Tonight my goal is to maybe do the beads, not sure if I will have time or how I will feel.

As promised...
Off to Easter :)

Totally spaced.. on the picture of the quilt that is. I will try to take one tonight before it gets given away :)

Unfortunately I got home last night with a headache and went right to bed at 9pm. I did read a bit but the headache would not go away. Today has been a busy work day (still at work and it's 7pm) but I should be leaving shortly (7:30 maybe??) and meeting my fiance for dinner and then a quick shopping trip.

I'm not sure all the cleaning i wanted to do will get done tonight but I can get up tomorrow and clean before my sister comes and we head up to celebrate easter with family. That's my plan and i'm sticking to it :)

For now I will eat some skittles and try to get out of here!

Finished the Baby Quilt! I will try to take a picture tonight to post tomorrow!

I spent a few hours last night listening to my audio book and finishing the binding on the quilt. I'm listening to "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Picoult which I'm of course enjoying immensly.

Then I read for an hour, I'm reading "Perfect Match" by the same author. Not a great before bed book but whatever.

It was a great night but I wasn't feeling well and wasn't very social after dinner (went up and read). But I'm feeling fine today and I have stitch tonight with a friend so I hope to work on Barnabee and maybe by this weekend get that finished up so I can switch over to Peaceful Silhouette completely.

I can't believe it's only Thursday :( For some reason this feels like a long week. I really need to go to the gym tomorrow as I will be up late friday cleaning!

Quilt almost finished!!

Well I got home by 5 last night and after getting my taxes done finally I then moved on to the baby quilt! I finished all the quilting and then squared it up and added the binding which I then started tacking down. I'm about a 1/3 done with that and hope to finish it tonight! That's one thing I can cross off my list!

Sometimes things just work out. Now if i could just finish the website and then the xstitch for my fiance for graduation I'll have no more obligations! That's my goal by mid may or sooner.

Taxes were a serious hit financially but I kind of expected it so I was all ready for it. And if i can finish the website I'll be making up for the taxes for sure.

Well work work work - time to see what I have going on for today!

As Promised - progress on Barnabee:

This is after Friday and Saturday night stitch. Sorry the scan is so crooked. The next pic will hopefully be a finished one! This one went really fast. All i have left is the backstitched saying and the honey comb backstitching with a little bit on the bees and butterflies a the bottom.. Then the beading!

I worked a ton on the website yesterday. I'm very happy where i am on that and I think I can finish it up maybe next weekend. I have a kink with the emailing still but hopefully i can resolve that when I do the payment processing anyway.

I worked on quilting the border of the baby quilt. I got the triangles all around done then I did one side of diamonds. My hope is to finish that tonight and *maybe* even add the binding too??? But I do have tomorrow night. Then I can hand stitch the binding the rest of the week and have it done before Saturday!

And now it's back to work - feeling loads better from my cold last week! I'm hoping to keep the week relatively light as I've been overworking so much but we'll see how it goes!

Stitch last night was great, I worked on Barnabee and I got the roses all done! All that's left is the last backstitched saying and the honeycomb row, then the beading throughout! This piece is lovely and I'd really like to do Lady Scarlett as a companion some day soon (of course I have to get those patterns first). I think I will finish this as a bell pull, not sure yet, I need to be on the look out for some pretty bee fabric for the back first. I probably will not finish this until the summer (after we move) anyway.

And after this piece, I will focus on Peaceful Silhouette until that's finished then I have a new pattern to start - not sure which, there's so much to choose from!

Well gotta work on the website today! I played some Elebits on the wii all morning - love that game! Now if i can get the website someplace I can then quilt later! Wish me luck...

April Goals:

1) Finish Barnabee!
2) Finish Peaceful Silhouette!
3) Finish Baby Quilt before Easter!
4) Start a new xstitch piece!
5) Finish Leanne's block 7
6) Piece Leanne's block 8
7) Piece Leanne's block 9

That seems like a lot but I want to try to take it easy this month with work and what better focus than my crafts! Plus May will be my packing up month to move up to Nashua (end of May) so i have to get my crafting in early :)