Pig Roast Weekend!

First I'll post my updated pictures, I never posted my finished Tiger so here he is:

He took 7.5 hours to complete.

And my updated Legends of the Dragons, I worked more on the border and finished the word Majesty under the dragon.

That's at 37 hours.

I had a great weekend - the weather was better than I ever thought it would be! Thursday I took a day off to just relax with my boyfriend, we got stuff done, including clothes shopping for him for his internship this summer which started today. Then we watched The Last Samurai which I really enjoyed. I read the book Shogun and there were a lot of similarities between the two experiences.

Friday we picked up my brother's girlfriend and drove back home. We spent the day helping out about the house, baking, cleaning etc. Then we had a night with the family playing poker as my uncle's all came early.

Saturday was the pig roast. It was great, it was slow starting compared to normal, most people showed up more like 3 instead of 1 but that just meant more pig for us early folk. I took tons of pictures, filling my camera and getting some great shots. If they come out alright I will print them to scrapbook them. I did them on low quality though so i'm not sure how they will come out printed unless I print them myself smaller than 4x6.

Sunday was more family time, my little cousins were tired and kept trying to go to sleep but we tried to put that off for their car ride to help their parents a bit so we kept them running around. Plus I could get more pictures of them that way :)

We came home pretty early sunday and relaxed yesterday as well. I managed to get some stuff done, and I baked a cake for my boss' birthday today. I actually baked 2 cakes and made them into the shape of a hot dog with a bun. Unfortunately as I was baking the second cake (the chocolate part), the oven broke. So I finished it on the grill, not sure how it came out but it seems to be cooked through and the pieces I cut off tasted fine. We'll see this afternoon when we cut it open.

I didn't get a lot of stitching in. I haven't been stitching much lately. I have to start working on the website tonight too so that will cut down more on stitching. Which brings me to my goals, I didnt' do too badly and I'll do them in a seperate entry but I think I will be easy on myself next month. I am going to put away Peaceful Silhouette for a while and focus on Legends of the Dragons at work now. The Ever So Little - Gazelle which I need to start and finish in June I will work on sporadically including at my stitch nights that I can make. And most evenings I will continue working on my quilt.

Speaking of my quilt - I finished quilting the center 15" square of the quilt and i think it looks good. I started the first green border a bit too. Hopefully in June I can finish the green border and start the cross hatch triangles. Maybe I can get a picture of my quilting so far.
Well off to a meeting!

Note to self:

Thurday - quilted 2 hours on Amish quilt
Friday - stitched 2 hours on Legends of the Dragons
Saturday - no stitching

A messed up sweater.

Well guild was okay, I did all the business I needed to do of getting raffle tickets for the quilt in october, getting more blocks to piece for next year's raffle quilt, handed in my finished pieces etc. Then for the meeting I took out my sweater to continue knitting the back.

Well the woman next to me was also a knitter so I asked her advice on my end stitches because they are really loose, she looked at it and did a few stitches. The problem is that she stitches differently than I, I hold the yarn in my left hand and "grab" it with the needle, she uses her right hand and wraps it around the needle. No real biggie but when I took it back and started knitting the yarn was on the wrong side and wrapped around the stitches she did. I didn't notice right away of course.

So I tried unknitting what I had done to fix it. Unfortunately I don't actually know how to unknit and somewhere I ended up with an extra stitch. I checked, i was supposed to have 64 and I had 65. Instead of smartly just knitting 2 together where it looked reasonable to do so I dropped one where I thought it had happened and tried to recreate what it was supposed to be. Well that backfired, but I didn't realize it right away either.

4 rows of knit/purl later I looked back and I had a huge hole that was growing bigger! Oh crap. I thought i'd have to unknit all the way back so I just put it down until I got home. When I was home I studied the hole and grabbed the escaping thread and "knitted" it up through where it should have been, a makeshift fix for sure as it doesn't look good but there's no hole at least. Then I added it to my current stitch so I still have only 64. Why didn't I just knit 2 together back then???? Now I have this huge mistake that I'm always going to hate and from the inside it's REALLY noticeable, luckily on the outside it's not that bad.

So this will deter me from finishing this sweater (I haven't gotten that far to begin with though since I'm still on the back). Plus I haven't liked the color that much, I don't think it's a color I'd wear very often. Plus (another plus), I didnt' buy enough yarn so i'll have to get more and most likely the dye lots won't match.

I was thinking of looking for yarn online and getting some new yarn that I like where it will all match and start over. Now i'm a little better at it and maybe can keep my tension more even. Anyhow - for now I'll just put it away and concentrate on other things.

I took tomorrow and friday off of work so chances are I won't blog again till tuesday (monday is a holiday) unless i'm really bored some day. My brother emailed me asking me if we could pick up his girlfriend and drive her home with us friday morning - girlfriend who we've only met once and it's not like my brother will be with us. Of course I will give her a ride (preferably she can take the train out to our place instead of us driving in to boston during rush hour morning). But it's wierd. Just great. Hopefully he won't ask us to drive her back too since we are already driving my uncle back. I just don't understand why she can't get a ride back herself, or borrow a parent's car or something. I guess I'm comparing her to me in college and I was more "on my own" and had a car by that time and didn't rely on other people at all.

Well I already broke my "don't buy new stuff for a while", I had forgotten that I bid on something on ebay and I just won it today. It was the Mirabilia Spring in my Garden that I liked. Last thing for a while though!

Today is going to be a busy work day since I have tomorrow off, i best get to it. And tonight might be an evening of quilting????

Lots of Stampin' fun!

When I got home last night I quickly ate dinner and headed over to my friend's house, our stamp order had arrived earlier. It was a great evening of oogling over my new stuff and hers and then putting the stamps together (they come in such a way that you cut the stamps out of the rubber and stick the rubber and the picture on a wood block). Nothing harder than using a pair of scissors so we had a great time. I can't wait to use some of my new stuff. I need a craft table :(

I worked out my finances yesterday. I have to be good for a while, I really need to work on the website and then i'll be okay. I have Stitcher's Hideaway coming up in July so that will be a big hit financially, so I'm going to be good until then and not buy stuff. We'll see how that goes :)

So no stitching yesterday. I did finish making a curtain for my mom to bring home this weekend. And when I got home from my friend's my boyfriend and I went to the gym for a bit so that was really good. I was exhausted after that so I went right to bed and slept late this morning as well.

Well I must get some work done - I have to write up a self evaluation today for my annual review - yuck! I hate writing about myself! Now I must be the hard worker me....

Picture Update:

I didn't have much time to work on it but here's Legends of the Dragons at 33 hours.


And Peaceful Silhouette I worked on for a tiny bit last week:


I forgot to scan my Ever So Little - Tiger that I finished this weekend, hopefully I will get that later this week.

Not much stitching going on lately. Most evenings last week I worked on my Amish quilt, trying really hard to finish quilting the center square by the end of the month. I finished the 4 cross hatched corners so all i have left is to do the scallops around the block.

Taking friday off was great. Thursday night was a strange night, I stitched at stitch night - working on my Ever So Little. Then home and I think I mostly went to bed but I can't remember. Friday was a long day, first I slept in most of the day, finally catching up on the sleep I've needed since my trip to california.

No gardening got done - I am now saving that until this thursday. I did clean, the whole apartment which was good. Then we went to lunch and bought some movies. The rest of the evening we watched movies and made ice cream sundaes. :)

Saturday we picked my brother up at college and brought him home. Then I spent the day helping my parents get ready for the pig roast next weekend. Sunday we went shopping with my mom for bed linens and towels then out to dinner with my boyfriend's parents. We actually got home quite early - before 7.

I then pieced my quilt blocks for the raffle quilt for guild Tuesday night. Then we watched the movie "Closer" with Julia Roberts. I was not a fan of the movie at all, I can't stand movies where I dislike the characters so much. Those people had problems.

I did manage however to pick up Legends of the Dragons a bit yesterday (car ride), and started the word Majesty along the bottom. I hope to finish that by the end of the month too which I could do if I had 2 hours more probably.

And now it's back to work. Unfortunately it's a bad allergy day as I've had to blow my nose a lot already and I've only been here 2 hours. The great news is that I'm only working 3 days this week then I have Thursday off to garden and stitch. Then friday it's back home to bake and clean for the pig roast. Saturday is the pig roast. Sunday is the recoup day and then we'll come home sunday night to have a relaxing monday (more stitching for me)!!!

I do need to start working on the website, desperately so actually. My funds are running low and I need to cut spending too. I will have to talk to my boyfriend about this, no eating out for a while. Not really a big deal since i will only see him on weekends for the next 11 weeks (after this week).

So my goal is no cross stitch spending or quilting spending or stampin spending or craft spending at all until I've worked on the website for at least 10 hours. That will get me into the flow of working. Really my craft spending isn't a problem because it's not that much, what hurts me is food - eating out etc. and walmart shopping. So I am also going to avoid walmart. I have a gift i need to buy at target thursday when my boyfriend goes clothes shopping for work and that's it until I make some more money.

I sure am crossing my fingers that I get a raise next month (annual review). I'm not counting on it but it would help a lot for sure!

Carol Tagged me for a book meme so I will see what I can answer :)

1. Total number of books I've owned. Not as many as some but working on it. Books are one of the things I like to collect (besides dragons and cross stitch). I don't buy books just to have them, generally I only buy books I will read and I'm doing a decent job keeping up with the ones I buy. I'd say maybe I have 150 (upper bound approximation). When I have a house I will definately have a library.
2. Last book I bought. The Craft. by Dorothy Morrison
3. The last book I read. Poe's Cat by Brenda Walker
4. 5 books that mean a lot to me. That's a tough one. I guess I would say Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, by Thomas Harris. I'm completely blanking. Those two were favorites of mine but I can't think of others, if I was home in front of my bookcase I could name a ton.

Stitch Night Tonight!

I can't wait. And I finally decided to take tomorrow off. With my boyfriend having these 2 weeks off it would be nice to be home with him a bit before he starts working up in NH. Plus with the family reunion I don't have weekends at home to get things done. So I will use 3 of my vacation days up in these two weeks, in total I think I will have used 4 vacation days and I get 3 weeks a year so on my 1 year date I will have 2 weeks and 1 day exactly if I counted right.

I didn't work on my ohio star quilt last night. Instead I worked on knitting my sweater, it's knitted in pieces and I am starting with the back, I have a few inches now, i think it's supposed to be 15", i'm not sure how much I have. This is all new to me so we'll see how it goes.

No running yesterday, the day just didn't work out right for it. At my aunt's I helped make dinner then watched dinner while she went and picked up my cousin. Tonight when I get home I will go for a run with my boyfriend before Stitch. And with tomorrow off I might stay up late stitching tonight.

After seeing Carol's progress on Legends it makes me want to work on that, but I think since it's tough to work with something large at stitch I will work on my Tiger at stitch and then maybe Legends when I get home. I'd like to finish the tiger by the end of the month and I have the body and tail left to finish still.

A quick check on my goals tells me:::
1) I need to keep up quilting amish quilt (obviously)
3) I need to piece block 10 of ohio stars
4) I need to stitch 8 more hours on Peaceful Sillhouette
5) Stitch the word Majesty on Legends and work on border
6) Finish my tiger
7) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt
8) I don't think I'll get to the needlebook from Celebrations but maybe I should design the monogram.

I had some high goals, unfortunately with the Pig Roast coming up I lose most of my weekend time to stitch so that's hurting me big time. And next month I'll have the website to work on so I will have to keep my goals down then. Although I'm making good progress with the Ever So Littles and Legends of the Dragons so I want to keep those up. I may take a break next month from Peaceful Sillhouette and work on the Ever So Little at work. Leaving quilting for the evenings and knitting too.

Did I mention I was thinking about a new hobby. Not a completely new hobby, but I was thinking about making paper. I shred a lot of my credit card offers and bills and things. I was thinking of recycling that into homemade paper which I could use for scrapbooking. I could color it and add flowers and plants etc and it would be great for crafts. Just one more thing to do with my free time ;)

If you don't hear from me tomorrow it's because I'm outside planting some flowers in my "garden" :)

Another great night.

As Carol put it, i do believe my boyfriend missed me, not just last week while I was in California but the last few weeks while he was busy studying and such for finals.

When I got home we went running again, a little further this time which was really good. Then he made a pizza for dinner and we watched tv (mostly Seinfeld episodes but also some Sex and the City Reruns). I quilted while he played computer games. I bought a new wrist brace at walmart, along with a ton of other things while I was there (i went in to buy just lotion and came out spending a whole lot more!)

But it was good, I went through the flower section and picked out some bulbs that will grown in full shade since that's all i have and I may take friday off of work to plant them and plant my indoor seeds. Since I won't be home this weekend that's my only chance.

Besides that yesterday my boyfriend cleaned my car (really cleaned - it came out great), then met me for lunch and we ate out. Then we swapped cars and he went home to relax until I got there. It was really nice. I'm going to miss him today since I go to my aunt's tonight, but i'm going to try to keep up the running by running after work today hopefully, i brought my clothes :)

On my Amish Quilt, I now have 3 cross hatch/flower corners finished of the center block and the 4th started a bit. I need another evening to finish that probably (2-3 hours) then I can start on the border design which needs to be outlined in white again because it keeps rubbing out. My month goal is to get the green border at least started - so maybe one side finished completely would be good. Next month I can finish that and start on the purple triangle cross hatch which is huge!

I've never had a Mirabilia pattern that I've wanted to stitch, but I've now found some that I really want, particularly I like the style of
Spring in My Garden
Summer in My Garden
Winter in My Garden
I don't see a Fall in My Garden - wonder if there will be one.
I also like
Sleeping Beauty
and
Cinderella
There are a few others that I like, and most of them I think are beautiful I just don't think I'd actually stitch them as I have to feel a connection or pull to a large piece before stitching it.
I do own Midsummer's Night's Fairy and I like that one a lot, not sure if i'll stitch it but I couldn't turn it down on sale since I do like it a lot. The best part about having some patterns I like is that when I have some free money to spend I know exactly what to get, lately it's been tough finding new patterns I like and I had kind of slowed down buying any. But then this month i've had no problems :)

Another note - this week since I've been running regularly (yesterday marked day 3!!!), I decided to cut candy/junk out of my diet for a while. I'm doing pretty good at this, i'm not watching what i eat (i still ate chinese food for lunch monday), but no candy or sugar snacks for a few days, and a lot more fruit has been going well. I'm not trying to lose weight so much as get in a little better shape and be healthier in general so we'll just see how this goes!

If every day could be like yesterday...

of course with slight variations ;) Yesterday was a good day, i worked 9-5 since I came in late, but then when i got home my boyfriend and i went running, which was really good. Then we went out to dinner down the road (Mexican), it was very nice. After that I quick vacuumed the kitchen because the tracked in dirt for the last 2 weeks was driving me nuts.

The rest of the evening was just relaxing, 2 hours watching Seinfeld episodes (we have seasons 1&2 on dvd), and i quilted until my wrist couldn't take it any longer. Then my boyfriend gave me a head/neck/back massage which i really needed. That pretty much put me to sleep. So it was a great night ;) With a little quilting too.

Today I took his car to work, he cleaned his car yesterday and he's going to clean my car today, then he's going to drive out here and we're going to go out to lunch and swap back cars. It means a later day for me since i'm taking a lunch break but i managed to come in before 8 today at least. Maybe tomorrow i can get back to 7:30.

I'm not sure when I'll get to stitching. Tonight I will quilt more, tomorrow is quilting at my aunt's. Thursday is stitch night so i'll stitch something, probably my Ever So Little Tiger. Friday more quilting maybe. We're going home this weekend so i'll probably bring my quilting (can you tell i'm trying to focus on that).

I really need to work on the website, my goal is to start a bit, fixing a few problems that have crept up. But really i'm going to wait until June when my boyfriend will be in NH 3/4 nights a week and i'll work on the site those nights. I haven't told the owner of the site yet but with my family reunion and being so busy that's the best way. I could really use the money but i'll be fine if i start in June, that means i'll earn a decent amount by the end of the summer, maybe pay off some of my car loan if i can.

Hmmm... work is slow right now, yesterday i finished up all that i had to do, now i'm waiting for a meeting at 11, then hopefully i'll get more tasks to work on. I do have my stitching at work too.. Peaceful Sillhouette which has been untouched this month so far, maybe starting tomorrow i can pick that up at lunch time again and get working on it. To meet my monthly goal i need to work an evening or something on it (a decent number of hours). But i'm not sure I will get that with the Pig Roast (family reunion). I am taking Thursday the 26th off of work to stay home and clean and relax, then friday we're heading back to NY to help set up for the Pig Roast which is Saturday. Then I have Memorial Day off too... maybe i can get a lot done :)

If I could be a scientist . . .

If I could be a farmer I would have lots of children and animals. I would get up at dawn and spend the morning tending to animals and then cleaning/cooking. The children would have chores if they weren't in school and in the evenings I would stitch. I would not have a tv at all and my family would play board games and cards to occupy ourselves.

If I could be a musician . . .

If I could be a doctor I would work in a small town where I would know each of my patients personally. Where I would give a child their first exam and still know them when they go off to college and need final vaccinations. I would strive to know each patient, and listen, even when they aren't talking, sometimes people just need more time to talk and it's very easy to miss the important things that are said if you are expecting answers, I would expect nothing.

If I could be a painter I would travel around the world, painting everything I see. I would paint things that no one notices anymore as life moves too fast. I would sit for hours in a field watching crickets or the sunrise and paint whatever catches my eye. My art would show people what they are missing.

If I could be a gardener . . .
If I could be a missionary . . .
If I could be a chef . . .
If I could be an architect . . .
If I could be a linguist . . .
If I could be a psychologist . . .

If I could be a librarian I would read all day long. I would have story times for children to encourage interest in reading at a young age. I would organize book clubs for children and adults and participate in as many as I could. I love books and I would be very happy.

If I could be an athlete . . .
If I could be a lawyer . . .
If I could be an inn-keeper . . .
If I could be a professor . . .
If I could be a writer . . .
If I could be a llama-rider . . .
If I could be a bonnie pirate . . .

If I could be an astronaut in the idealized sense, I would go to the moon and to Mars and any other planet I could. I would sit in the space station and admire the stars and earth all at once. I believe the future is in space and I would try to set up more programs to get more young people interested in space exploration, it's expensive and not popular enough to have the funding it really needs.

If I could be a world famous blogger . . .
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world . . .
If I could be married to any current famous political figure . . .

Officially Back!

And it's good to be home. With no further delay I will post a few progress pics before writing what i'm sure will be a lot :)

First my progress of Legends - it's only a few more hours but now Majesty is finished and I can work on the word Majesty and the border next:


I think that's 31 hours.

Then I started the Ever So Little Tiger - so here's that little guy:

This is 3.5 hours progress.

I'm not posting pics here but I did finish Ohio Star number 9 and started number 10. Pics of 8 and 9 have been added to my online album.

Another picture is my finished embroidered block for my quilt guild raffle quilt. It's a japanese style quilt so i thought the fan would work well:

That only took about 4 hours.

Let's see... while I was gone, last week was busy of course, i know i mentioned that. I managed to get a bit of stitching done but nothing like I had hoped. Friday I flew back and was exhausted, my boyfriend and I ordered in for dinner and watched LOTR Return of the King extended edition. I only stayed awake because I was still on Pacific time :)
Saturday I made myself get up around 10 and we went running, then we walked for another half hour around a preserve near us, it was very nice.
I went to a Stampin party at my friend's after that - and I spent a lot :) I got a lot more than I had hoped though so I can't wait for it to come in. Plus we got to make a couple cards and learned some techniques which was really great.

Sunday was my sister's graduation - so I got up really early and it was a lot of driving. Then a long day then a lot more driving to get home. I was exhausted! And today I just couldn't get up. I made it in to work around 9 which is really late for me but no one could blame me.

In my absence I've realized I need to start working on the website which will hurt my stitching and quilting a great deal. I'm not sure how much time I can focus on the site though until June with our family reunion in two weeks and I'm going home next weekend to help get the houses ready.

I think I will work every day this week, I have a night at my uncle's wednesday, stitch night thursday and next week tuesday is guild. Then I think I might take thursday and friday of next week off so we can help with the setup some more. I will mostly take it as it comes.

While I was gone I was also tagged :) I will answer those shortly in a seperate entry :) Unfortunately I don't have 3 others to tag as most of the blogs that i read (and all that i comment on) have already answered them.

All in all my trip was a great experience, but i'm tired now :) I think i'm still on Pacific time and hopefully after another good nights sleep tonight I will be able to get up at 6 tomorrow and have a normal day. Happy stitching everyone!

Well yesterday was much better but also some bad news.

Work wise our presentation went much faster than we thought it would besides a slow going morning yesterday.
I found out on Tuesday that a coworker out here is also a quilter, so we spent a lot of time tuesday and wednesday chatting about quilting and getting out early yesterday meant we had time to kill so she took me to a quilt shop nearby which was really great, i got some fabric that is just brighter than i normally see on the east coast.
Then we went to the beach to walk a bit and just take in the ocean (a real treat for me), it's been cool out, not cold but windy enough to be comfortable in pants. After that we went to the outlets to shop and have dinner so of course i bought a few small things that would fit in my suitcase.

Dinner was long, we talked a lot, we have a lot in common and she's a very interesting person, it was 8:30 before i got back to the hotel. The rest of the night I spent watching tv after i finished reading my book "Poe's Cat" which is just strange, kinda hard to follow but interesting in places also.
So I stitched, i finished the dragon Majesty on Legends of the Dragons, all the backstitching is done, so next I will work more on the border and start the word Majesty below it.

Tonight we will go out to dinner as a large group from work, then we drive to LA so who knows when i'll get to the hotel, maybe 10, then that only leaves an hour to stitch, but i may stay up later, i'm not sure as i'm just getting up to fly home.
Tomorrow on the plane there's so much i still want to get done. I want to piece my 9th ohio star and maybe start number 10, then i want to finish my embroidered block which is taking a while because my needle is a pain to use (i dont usually use pearl cotton and i'm not liking having to use a larger needle). I also may stitch more on the Ever So Little, i think i'm done with Legends for the week and no work on Peaceful Silhouette this week but i can pick that up next week at work again. We shall see, i have a good 5 hours on the plane friday if i don't read much.

Note to self for when i get back:
Saturday (at sarah's) stitched Ever So Little 1 hour
Monday - plane - stitched Ever So Little 2 hours, embroidered 2 hours
Tuesday - stitched Legends 1 hour
Wednesday - stitched Legends 2 hours

I'm in California now. Just sorting through emails, and i have about 3 minutes. Yesterday we flew out and then worked for a few hours (until 7), i was starving with no lunch or dinner but then we went out to dinner (that's 10pm east coast time). After that i pretty much went to bed. It was nice to "sleep in" this morning though and today it's right into the swing of things. I probably won't have much time on here... next week will be catch up week for sure.

Sorry no picture updates, really there were no updates, i hardly stitched last week at all! I brought my stitching though and started my second Ever So Little (Tiger) on the plane, and that's coming along. Plus i started embroidering the quilt block for the raffle quilt. I hope tonight to get some stitching done too.

I'm sure i'll have pictures next monday or next weekend if i have time (probably not with my sister's graduation). I hope everyone is doing well, i'm safe in CA with the sun shining!

I'm off!

Stitch night - Excitement!

Well i managed to get out of work a little after 5, which meant heavy traffic, home for 5 minutes to unload laundry and pick up stitching, then off. More heavy traffic and i ended up being late by 15 minutes. No biggie, still a seat free.

Turns out i missed some major excitement back at 3 - there was a shooting at the pharmacy next door! No one was hurt at all, just scared and the robber ran off getting nothing (the owner had a gun and shot a warning shot at the ceiling when he saw the guy come in wearing a ski mask). Then the robber took a shot at the owner and the owner shot back (both missed), and the robber ran off. The cross stitch shop shares a wall with the pharmacy so it was quite an event. Tons of police cars and news vans showed up i guess. Only a single police car was left when i showed up.

So it was an interesting night, lots of talking, really no stitching got done, i was too exhausted. I did manage to start the second Ever So Little - the Tiger, mostly i figured out the counting to place him right and started his tail a bit so now i can pick him up easily and work on him.
For the most part i shopped, i spent about 50 dollars... on some great stuff too! I am going to search and see if i can find everything i got to show off.

So I got Girl's Night Out - it's a red hat society chart by Just Nan but i can change the color or ignore it, it's just bright and fun!
I got Thanksgiving Gingham by Twisted Threads.
I got another Witch piece, dont' remember the name - it was three witches flying brooms, in a solid dark color (silhouette piece).


Well there were a bunch more (i spent 50 dollars) - 2 snowmen pieces, another thanksgiving themed piece.
But work calls - i must call into a meeting that i wasn't going to call into until 2.

So quickly - I will be in California next week ! Usually i post pictures and such monday - so maybe sunday night i can get on and blog. I will probably be scarce next week in the blogging scene, especially reading blogs - the monday after will be a lot of catching up :) So I'm not gone yet but I will be going shortly ;)

More than half way finished with block 9 of ohio star.

That's pretty much my night. I worked till 5:30 (not bad only 9 hours), then went to my uncle's and we just relaxed for a bit before dinner. Dinner was great, it was pork boiled and then grilled with potatoes. Gotta love a free meal :)

The rest of the evening the red sox game was on so i worked on my ohio star and i really am close to done, maybe an hour, hour and a half tops left to finish it so maybe i really will finish 2 this month :)

Of course i fell asleep during law and order but now that they have all these new characters i'm not that interested, first lenny is gone - of course the actor passed away but he left the show first, and the guy they brought in i'm not a fan of, he's too loud and pompous. Now green has left i guess, he was shot and i missed the episode after, now they have this younger guy that is REALLY animated and overexcited about everything. Bores me big time. I'll stick to SVU and CI and reruns for now i guess.

Hmmm... time for hot chocolate and a long day - i should be out by 5 though because it's STITCH NIGHT! Time to work on Legends maybe??

Just wanted to plug my favorite store (they take online orders too... hint hint) :)

Cross Stitch Unlimited - located in Arlington, MA

Crochet vs Knit.

I learned to crochet a few years ago, my grandmother crochets a lot and i grew up in her afghans. Well I didn't want to make afghans so i drifted away from it after a scarf and some afgan squares and such. Then I found knitting - just recently, made some scarves and a hat, and i'd like to make a sweater and stuff.

So i was in Joann's on saturday (before Celebrations), looking at yarn and books with patterns. First i thought - maybe i would like to crochet a blanket, so i found a book with some patterns i liked - i have plenty of crochet hooks, so i looked at yarn. Reading the pattern i realized i'd need about 20 skeins of yarn! First that's too much money for me right now and second i can't actually get that much of one dye lot at joann's. So skip that idea.

Then i decided i'd challenge myself and get a sweater pattern i like. I found one, then i decided to keep it as simple as possible i'd get the exact yarn type called for (but in a color i like), so i did and i only needed 4 skeins. Plus i had to get new needles as it needs both 10 1/2 and 9 and i only have 10 1/2, currently attached to half a scarf i'm making to match my hat but i might give that a break.

When will i start the sweater - who knows.. but now i can whenever i want :)

On another note - I'm going to California next week, Monday to Friday, it's for work so it's not that exciting. I will be getting to work around 2 monday and working late, then tuesday will be an easy day and then wednesday and thursday will be LONG days and then we head back to LA thursday night to stay at a hotel close to the airport. So i'm desperately trying to not check my bag, if i was traveling by myself i would just check it but i'm not and the woman i am traveling with never checks a bag. So i have to fit dress clothes, casual clothes and my stitching for a week in one carryon. We'll just see how this goes, i plan on making a practice pack on friday and then clothes shopping saturday.

Again another note - I was at work until 9pm last night. That's a long day. We were working on the presentation material and i finished up my material this morning, just waiting for it to be reviewed now and then see what else i can help on. Tomorrow we do a "dry run" of the presentation, hopefully my part will only be 10 minutes. Then monday out in CA we will do a full practice. Boy am in nervous, this is all so new to me, but i'm up for the challenge and if everyone else has confidence in me i should have confidence right??

So not much got done last night - not gym for sure, i got home, ate some dinner, and quilted for about an hour. Then i went to bed. That's it, an hour at home before bed - i'm sure glad that's not a regular thing. And now i'm really hungry so i'm going to get some breakfast and see if i have any feedback on my work ;)

My wrist hurts. It's been building up since some time last week but my wrist is getting worse, no real surprise considering the amount of stitching and typing I do each day. The problem is I can't find my wrist brace that I have some place - and i think i must have thrown it out last time i cleaned out my closet. I have no idea why i would, but i searched for an hour last night and my apartment is not that large. I checked everyplace and no brace, i really should buy one if i can, i got that one from a doctor 2 years ago when i was "diagnosed" with possible tendonitis. It's strange because as with most problems i have it comes and goes with stress not with over use and of course this is a very stressful time with a deadline at work next week and flying to california for work for the first time.

Anyway - enough of that, last night I worked more on my Amish quilt, only 40 minutes since i spent so much time searching for my brace though. Then I was really good and I went to the gym and ran/walked/biked for 40 minutes and i hope to do the same tonight. When i first got home from work i booted my desktop computer into linux to start working on the website, the mysql database is giving me problems though so i gave up after an hour. I'm not sure what i will do yet but i'll take another crack at it tonight.

Schedule wise for this week it looks like i will be working late tonight and tomorrow night. Then tonight i will quilt more on my amish quilt. Tomorrow night I will start piecing block 9 of my ohio star quilt at my aunt's. Thursday is stitch night so i'll work on Legends. Friday more amish quilt. Then this weekend i want to piece the 4 blocks for the raffle quilt and start embroidering the 5th. I'd also like to maybe start my ever so little - tiger for the month. A nice long weekend at home is what i'm looking forward to.

Oh more good news, i got out my one suitcase last night (as i was searching for my wrist brace) and i measured it, it looks like it's the perfect carryon size, so there's a minimal chance i can fit everything i need in this one bag and just bring the carryon. Then instead of a "purse" i'll bring my cross stitch bag which is purse size. One major dilemma is that i can't bring scissors at all then for the whole week. I'm not sure how that will work. I do have a clover cutter and a needle threader/cutter that i can bring, i'll just have to test them out make sure they will cover me for everything. Plus that means i can't really pack my amish quilt as it's too large so no quilting progress - i'll bring just stitching and piecing/embroidery, maybe my new knitting pattern too, not sure.

So there will be a test packing of my suitcase soon as i like to do stuff like that, then i can find any problems early. Oh yea and that reminds me that i need to go clothes shopping for some more business like clothes (just some button up shirts) so i'm not wearing the same 2 for 4 days. Sorry this is a long entry - and i should be keeping my typing down to a minimum, i guess i should go get my hot chocolate and head into the closed area :(

Celebrations and Pictures!

Well I have to say I had a great weekend :) I will start with some updated pictures. Thursday night and friday morning I worked on Legends of the Dragons and started the backstitching so the updated picture with progress at 28 hours now is:


A few hours progress from working on my lunch break this week leaves Peaceful Silhouette at 23 hours:


And Celebrations. My sister showed up Friday and we made dinner before heading up for round robin. We decided we'd pick one of the 4 projects we got and start it that night so when we got back we started Wendy White's Needlebook but we each changed the color of the words and flower leaves using some Six Strand Sweets, my sister chose a green scheme and I chose a more blue/purple scheme. I finished the main part, what's not finished is the back which needs a monogram that i have to design still. This I finished Saturday night at the hotel:


Saturday was a great day, we stopped at Joann's to shop for a while then shopped at Celebrations for a while upon arrival. I found some great new things including a design of "Miss Mary Mack" and a kit which included the frame and fabric for a tiny design of a house on 36 or 40 count fabric over 1.

After shopping I got to meet Carol whose many projects are even more amazing in person. I can not believe how many projects she has going and going well I might add as they each progress quite a bit each week!

We decided to get some dinner and some stitching in before the saturday night event which was good as I was able to get the queen stitches done on that needlebook by wendy white. Then at the event we got a new project by Susan Greening Davis for another style needlebook, we made the inside cover at the event and I started the front cover sunday morning before our class. This piece has a carnation on the front with some borders, I finished the carnation last night, but realized as i was finishing it that it was supposed to be stitched over 2 and i stitched it over 1... here's the picture:

Not sure what i'm going to do now, maybe i'll restitch it over 2 on the other piece and use this one as the back cover. Doesn't matter right now as this will be put away for a short while.

So then we had our class with Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose, I took her Stitcher's Toy Box class last year and I like her teaching style as you get to start on the real piece right away so i thought it would be a good class for my sister to try out. It was Tiffany's Sweet Bag with accesories. The kit includes everything to make a 4 sided bag, a needle case, a scissor holder/fob and a case to hold a tiny tape measure which is the same case as the one from last years round robin which i finished last year and so i already have that done :)

So in the class I was able to finish half of the scissor holder we started, this same tree is stitched again on the needle holder and then 4 times on the bag but it only took me 3.5 hours so i think i can handle it. I did mess up towards the top but it's not really noticeable so i'll just ignore it, i figure i have 5 more to stitch and i won't mess any of those up hopefully. Here's the tree finished:


So after that we went to ACMoore and got a frame for my sister's finished piece which is for a wedding in May. When we got home we painted the frame and i laced the piece onto some foam core for her so she can finish the framing when the frame is really dry today. I think it came out great. So after that I finished the carnation but i couldn't stitch much more after that. My wrist was really tired so we went out to dinner and then relaxed the rest of the night.

I hit a high last month and stitched a total of 50 hours plus I quilted 16 hours... this is much more than usual and we'll see if i can keep that up when i have to start working on the website again now :( I need to keep the quilting up around 15 hours in order to hit my deadline and i may need to up that more so we'll see how much of a hit my stitching takes.

Plus I got some new yarn and a pattern for a sweater to knit that i'd like to try out so i may be starting that relatively soon. I'll wait a while as i'd like to finish some of these new projects now :)

May Goals:

I did a lot of stitching last month (50 hours), 66 if you count quilting hours. Not sure i can do that again but here are my new goals:

1) Finish quilting center block of amish quilt (corners and scallops)
2) Start quilting inner green border
3) Piece blocks 9 + 10 of ohio star quilt (i will try again to get 2 blocks)
4) Stitch 10 hours on Peaceful Silhouette
5) Legends of the Dragons - finish Majesty including word and continue on border
6) Finish Wendy White Needlebook (add monogram and put together)
7) Start/Finish Ever So Little Tiger
8) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt
9) Embroider 1 block for raffle quilt with japanese fan motif

That hits my goal of finishing at least one piece a month and still focuses on the quilt. Unfortunately with the website who knows what kind of routine i will hit this month, but i do have a week in California where my evenings will be all stitching!

APRIL GOALS WRAP UP:

1) Stitch on Peaceful Silhouette ~10 hours [YES]
2) Start Legends of the Dragons [YES]
3) Start a new small project [Yes - and finished Ever So Little Zebra]

4) Knit green scarf [Yes a bit]
5) piece 2 ohio stars (#'s 8 & 9) [Finished 8]
6) baste and start quilting amish quilt [Yes]

7) Finish Acorn Sampler WIP - from Celebrations class [Nope]

Ohio Star #8 Finished! So it takes 2 nights at my aunt's and uncles to complete one block. .. that means next month i should be able to complete 2, i've been slow the last two months completing only one each month.

Last night was mexican dinner night - yummy tacos. Then we settled in and watched Radio which was really good while I put my block together. I got some belated birthday presents from my aunt, a quilt book with some patriotic quilts and a birdhouse decoration which will look great hanging over/next to my bird house quilt! It was very thoughtful!

Todays schedule at work is again busy with a few meetings to take up the morning and early afternoon. Then i need to get a bunch of work done since i took tomorrow off. I should probably do my April Goal Wrap up today since i won't blog again until May most likely.

Tonight is stitch night - i think i'll work on Legends a little bit, i won't get much done as we mostly talk but i might get (and i say MIGHT) get the rest of Majestic stitched full cross stitch wise leaving only backstitching on him. We'll see. I'm also building up a nice order over at Stitching Bits' and Bobs so most likely i won't buy much at my LNS tonight - i always buy a little something as a thankyou for stitch night but i will spend less tonight.

Well off to kick off the work day with a bagel (Bagel day :))

Lost power.

We lost power at guild last night - a few times during the meeting but it came back on both times, then at the end it went out for good... so i forgot to get raffle tickets to sell for the raffle quilt. I myself plan on buying quite a few tickets as i'd love to win the quilt.

I did manage however to get 4 blocks to piece for the raffle quilt for next year that i've been helping on and i have the fabric and designs to embroider two blocks of. I'd like to get all that done by the next meeting so that the quilt can start getting put together in June.

Nothing else happened since I posted so late last night, it may be a busy day at work so i must go find out how busy :)

Ah a day at school :)

Well I went to law school today with my boyfriend, he had 2 classes and it's the last week of classes. It was fun, we went to the gym in the morning (making me really tired right now), then got ready and went over to the library where i read - haven't done that in a while. After lunch and classes we were home by 4 but me being so tired, i just made dinner and took a nap. Now it's time to head out to Guild for the night.

I worked on my quilt last night, i finished quilting the feather medallion in the center and did one corner cross hatch and one corner flower. It went fast, the cross hatch and flower took maybe only an hour and a half. Maybe Friday i will have time to do more on that.

So no work today - and no work on friday either, i took the two days off this week and with how tired i am i'm glad i did. So i have 2 more days of work this week and tomorrow i'm going to my uncle's for the night so it will be piecing ohio star #8 more.. stitching will come again on Thursday at stitch night :)
Well i'm off - i have to print something for guild tonight and get everything together to head over!

Picture Monday - and a long weekend. Well here's my photo update for the week. I worked on Legends Saturday and Sunday for quite a few hours each day. Majestic is almost done besides the backstitching and the tail and septer. I got to use a lot of sparkly :) I'll have to scan a picture in soon because the photo doesn't do it justice at all.

Legends of the Dragons at 24 hours:


Thursday night and Friday night I worked on Peaceful Silhouette, most of the stitching on the boat is finished now. I have to figure out if I want to finish more sky or continue down at the boats, since i messed up my starting position (down an inch too far), i will have to add fabric to the bottom to help it fit in my q-snaps correctly while working near the bottom as i will only have an inch and a half at the bottom.

Peaceful Silhouette at 21.5 hours:


So friday i missed work and pretty much slept the day away but in the afternoon i was feeling better and got some stuff done including a hair cut with my boyfriend and a trip to joann's with my friend. I bought some stamping stuff to start that new hobbie, she's really into stamping so i am welcome to share her collection she said and she's having a stamping party (where you buy stamps) in May that i look forward to getting my own collection started.

Then i went up to my uncle's for the night, my boyfriend drove up seperately since he had to leave saturday morning, so we spent the evening playing computer games (Medal of Honor), until 1:30am. Saturday i spent the morning with my little cousins, a great time, then the afternoon my uncle and i (and my 5 year old cousin), changed the brake pads, rotors and oil on my car. Then I vacuumed it out and tada it's done and working well :) He's got all sorts of fun stuff for working on cars, like one of those rolly things you lay on to go under the car.

I went home late saturday to stitch until 2 am and sunday we slept till noon - didnt' even realize it! Then we went out to lunch to celebrate my boyfriend getting the TA position he applied for next fall. We also hit up walmart and bj's so it was an expensive afternoon :)

Of course after that I pretty much just stitched, not wanting to stop at 10:30 but needing to get to bed to get up for work today. It's tough putting down Legends knowing I won't be picking it up for a while - next month actually.

I plan to spend this week working on my amish quilt and my ohio star, and Peaceful Silhouette at lunch time. Then this weekend is Celebrations! So I will be starting new projects, with a round robin friday night that's 4 small projects, then saturday maybe i'll have some stitching time, but sunday is a class with a new project so most likely i'll be working on that the rest of the day after class too.

Guild Tuesday night and Stitch Thursday night leaves me only 2 nights to quilt anyway so Legends is usually only a weekend project... so it looks like mother's day weekend will be the next time i pick it up and maybe finish the dragon and start working on the border again.

I'm out of work with a migraine today - just came on to check email... back to bed for a bit.

Bagel day... but an early day.

I am going to leave at 3 today, i got in at 7 and i take an hour lunch break, that means a 7 hour day, but monday i worked 9 + hours so it all works out. Besides my friend is coming over tonight to stitch and i haven't been home in 2 days so i will have some quick picking up to do.

Last night was later than i had hoped as well, but it wasn't too late getting to my aunt's. We had dinner (hamburgers) and then watched the red sox game - well they watched, i started piecing block number 8 of my ohio star quilt. I'm almost halfway done piecing it...

Then we watched law and order, during which i mostly slept.

It was so warm yesterday. I did manage to get out for a walk, which was good because i ate a LOT of food. I brought in cookies, cupcakes and cheesecake plus we all went out to lunch, so i was STUFFED. I can't think about that kind of food right now.

On a side note, i was thinking, sometimes i wish i had only one hobby. Not because i don't like any of my hobbies (then they wouldn't be hobbies right)... but because if i just cross stitched or just quilted i'd get so much more finished. Instead i find my time pulled between cross stitch, quilting, knitting (a little - haven't been pulled much lately), scrapbooking (soon to be more stamping) and sewing. Cross stitch is my favorite, probably always will be, but I do enjoy quilting as well, the downside with quilting is that it can be painful sometimes (i poke myself a LOT). The end result though, of something like an amish quilt is just amazing and so appreciated by a larger audience than my cross stitch.

Anyhow, i was just thinking about that because i planned out how to finish my amish quilt by november yesterday and realized i want to finish some cross stitch too. This would not be an issue if i kept my current schedule but the website that i worked on last year wants to upgrade and that will take some serious time. Granted it's paid time and i could definately use the money to start saving a bit, but it will really cut into my stitching time... sacrifices...

On a really bright note, my boyfriend got the TA position for next fall that he applied for at law school. It's tough to get and it really looks good on a resume, plus it pays a bit, which is more than i can say for his summer position! Only in school situations do people work for no money at all.. craziness!!! Okay i'm off for more hot chocolate, one cup wasn't enough today because i came in so early.

Well I didn't make it two days in a row (to the gym that is). Last night was BUSY! I didn't get out of work until 6 - which is an hour later than planned. Then I stopped by the grocery store and when I got home my boyfriend had grilled up some hamburgers and made fries (we need a fryer as we have been baking frozen ones and they are not as good :)

So then i started the baking... first i made some cupcakes in ice cream cones, but i filled the cones too much and they overflowed, so i had to clean up the oven and rescue them but i think they're okay. Then i made 2 batches of cookes.

With the baking done i was exhausted, it was 8:30 and i hadn't even sat down yet. So i pulled out my computer (real computer not laptop) and installed my boyfriend's new game he got for his birthday from my mom. I played that for 2 hours and then went straight to bed.

Today marks the last day of one of my coworkers, there are only 17 of us in the office so 1 leaving is a lot. That's why i baked and we have a bit of a surprise for lunch too. I'm pretty sad he's leaving, he's a great guy and i think i've mentioned it before. So today will not be a productive day i'm guessing, we'll see how it goes.

For now i must run into the closed area quick because i think someone is in there. Tonight i go to my aunt's and hopefully i can start piecing my 8th ohio star. No stitching at lunch today (since we're going out) and i messed up on Peaceful Silhouette yesterday anyway and frogged, and redid the mistake a different way so i have a lot of frogging to do now before i can stitch on it... UGGG.

Seriously not a great day i'm guessing.. but i'm off!

I almost forgot - Carol you just reminded me - and you definately don't have to do anything for my birthday! Thank you for the birthday wishes :)

I got a package in the mail yesterday from my friend in Spain - with a birthday gift, some yarn - not like any i've seen over here and i can't wait to make a hat or something out of it... and ... a scissor/needle case - i have to take pictures and post -- i am so touched at how much time she must have put into this. She took a Shepherd's Bush pattern i sent her a while back and used parts of that to make the outside into a spring like design, with my initial, then the pockets on the inside are also stitched.. oh it's wonderful, i've never gotten something so special! All i can say is WOW! I dont' know how i'll ever repay her!

I just had to share and i will try to remember to take pictures. Oh and she sent needles and a pair of scissors along with it. Meeting friends online - it's just amazing how close i've become with people i've never met... but i do hope some day to go to spain/scotland/canada and other states in the US to meet these wonderful, generous and kind people! Ahh.. i have to run to a meeting, just can't believe i forgot to mention that!

Is it friday yet?

Well I was good last night. I went home, cooked up some totina things that were quite good (microwave not really cooked). Then I quilted while watching Cooler which was okay, a bit violent in parts.

Then at 9 i dragged myself to the gym - all by myself - and i ran for 15 min, walked for another 10 while watching SVU. I was back home at 10 and did the dishes and cooked some rice for lunch today. So it was a productive evening and i went to the gym so i'm pretty proud!

I slept late again today - that's 2 days that i got up at the time i'm usually leaving the house! So i will work until almost 5 again today.

So my progress on my amish quilt is that i'm half way done with the outter feathers on the center wreath. Once that is completed i have some cross hatching to do in the corners of the center block and then some scalloped edges. My goal is to finish quilting the center square by the end of the month so in May i can work on the green inner border.

I planned it out yesterday, if in May i do the green inner border.
June I quilt the purple triangles (that's cross hatched - which maybe goes fast?)
July I finish the purple triangles and start the outter green border (more of the same green border but bigger)
August I finish the outter green border
September/October quilt outter blue border - large feathers.
November add binding - by November 9th it must be finished as the wedding is the 11th!

Think i can do it??? All the while keeping up my other hobbies? I would also like to finish Legends of the Dragons by the end of the year and the Ever So Littles are christmas gifts so i'd like to do one of each of them a month but they go fast. ... So much to do :)

Picture Monday!

First an update to my SAL with Carol on Legends of the dragons, this is about 15 hours of work:

I haven't added to the border but instead started working towards the head so i can use some of the Kreinik this week.


Peaceful Silhouette Progress - only 1 hour this week so it's not much:


My Amish Quilting Progress:


Let's see - the weekend was great. Friday night I went to walmart and then cooked dinner and cleaned just as I had hoped. Then i quilted a bit. Saturday my mom was a little late due to being lost :) But the quilt shop get together was fun, I helped bag up the blocks for the raffle quilt and my mom helped with that and cutting fabric. We got done really early (by 1 even after lunch) and stopped over at my LNS so i could buy myself a little birthday present - 4 wishes by Just Nan.

Then back home to relax and visit with my sister and a friend of my mom's that stopped by. Then we went out to dinner in Cambridge and met my brother's girlfriend at Fire & Ice which was fantastic again :)

Saturday night I quilted a little more with my sister watching movies. She got me a dvd player for my birthday to replace our old not working anymore one that we've had for 5 years. So we took full advantage of that and watched some movies she hadn't seen yet.

Sunday was a great day, my boyfriend made me pancakes for breakfast. My sister left around 10:30 so i showered and then we made cupcakes together (part of my gift) which was fun. Then I headed out thinking i could get my hair cut - but no place was open on sunday :( I was a bit bummed but got my stitching together and headed over to my friend's for a good time. There were only a few of us there but we ate, we chatted, we stitched, it was great fun as usual and they put a candle in a cupcake for me :)

When I got home my boyfriend made me dinner and i settled in for some more stitching (this was all on Legends). We watched Top Gun ( a gift from my sister too) which of course is a favorite! Then we watched Confidence which was better than i thought it would be.

So it was a late night, all the more reason to sleep late this morning and come in a little later than normal. It will be a busy day i do believe which is always good, tomorrow will be even more busy. So i should eat some breakfast so i can head in to the closed area. Another one of THOSE days :)

Well all in all i had a great birthday. I don't know what my mom got me yet as she had it shipped to me and it hasn't arrived yet which has her worried but i'm just crossing my fingers for tonight :)

Yesterday was a long day...

But today is friday!!! And tomorrow starts birthday celebrations with family visiting :)

I did work on Legends of the Dragons last night at stitch night but i only stayed there for about an hour and a half because i was so tired. I also didn't buy anything which is a first in a few MONTHS at stitch night. When i got home we did go to the gym but i didn't run i just walked pretty much on the treadmill (mile and a half) and then home.

So since i was so tired i feel like nothing got done but tonight will be the opposite. After work today i will stop by walmart to pick up a few things, maybe fill the propane tank in my trunk so i can use the grill tonight. Then i will cook dinner (pork loin) and clean the apartment up, not like last week but clean the bathroom real well, vacuum and swiffer dust the blinds and fans. The regular dusting i will leave because i did a really good job last friday on that.

I'm sure monday's post will be a LONG one, with stories of my excellent weekend and hopefull i'll remember my picture updates! Off to the lab!

A really busy day..

It's just one of those days where i am just busy doing things and i have things waiting to be done that i know i won't get to. I have been in the closed area all morning and i'm heading back in there shortly, just came out to eat some lunch quick and i need to take some tylenol - i always get a headache if i dont' eat regularly (every 3 hours or less).

So I looked at apartments last night, both were very decent apartments, the rooms were kind of small and they both had really winedy (?sp) staircases that i dont' think we could get any of our furniture up. The second place was in a great location with a really nice outside area, brick patio and 3 car garage (1 garage space available and 2 spaces open).

But since it would be a HUGE hastle to not only get our furniture in, i don't think the bedroom furniture would even fit in the bedroom (the ceilings are angled as it's the top floor). So i'm resigned to staying where we are unless something falls out of the sky in the next few days :)

I quilted more on my amish quilt last night and cooked up a nice dinner for myself all alone, my boyfriend was up at my uncle's house using his garage to change his front brakes and rotors. My quilting progress will have to be photographed each week now too since i'm really focusing on that a lot. Tonight though is a stitch night and i plan on working on Legends and chatting up a storm.

Gosh i could write more but already i must head back. i'm not even sure what time i'm leaving today.. i'm guessing it will be later than i HAVE to leave :)

The apartment hunt continues...

I'm not giving up yet, i have almost a week left. The place we looked at last night was horrible (no wonder so cheap if you can call 1000/month cheap!)

I am going to try some more places, i just know there's a perfect place out there for me :) ANd it has 2 bedrooms AND a diningroom...

Last night went great. Dinner was fantastic, i really recommend Fire & Ice, it was perfect for us (me being a picky eater and all - getting to choose your food and sauces). And we were in and out in 45 minutes!

The cake was really good and i brought half of it to work today and it's gone already - 10am! Vanilla pudding in chocolate cake works :)

I did get some stitching in - not cross stitching but quilting :) I finished quilting the center star and started the wreath around it on the amish quilt. By 9:30 i was exhausted, i don't know why but i went to sleep and woke up exhausted! So tonight i will probably continue working on the quilt and leave stitching for thursday night stitch night :) Then i will work on Legends again.

So today is another busy day at work, i think i have a meeting this afternoon at some time and then i will leave around 5 and maybe look at an apartment tonight if i can get an appointment, then cook dinner... maybe hamburger helper???
Alright - getting back to work :)

A late day for posting.

I had a bit of a busy morning but a good morning.

First off, last night my boyfriend talked to our landlord and he offered to drop our rent down to 1200. Sure that's great but it's still only a one bedroom and it has cockroaches! I will live with it if i can't find anything cheaper though because my boyfriend would hate to move (since he has to do the actually heavy lifting moving part).

So then i baked him a cake for his birthday today, i didn't put it together yet, he wanted a chocolate layer cake with a layer of vanilla pudding in the center and chocolate frosting... so i had to go to the grocery store for pudding! Because he generally only likes chocolate pudding so that's all i had, but i didn't complain because i love celebrating birthdays.

So i baked it and made the pudding and tonight i will put it together so we can have it after dinner. Of course my night was busy with other things, laundry, cooking dinner, eating dinner, making a crafty gift for my boyfriend etc. I got about 10 minutes of quilting on my amish quilt in and that's it before going to bed ! No gym either!

Today is going better... I found an apartment available for 1000/month, 2 bedroom with a diningroom and deck. I'm wondering what's wrong with it because it's so cheap.. so i set up an appointment for tonight at 5 to go look at it... i'm not getting my hopes up though.

I then made a reservation at a restaurant in Cambridge to surprise my boyfriend, i'm hoping being tuesday night it's not too busy because we're not big into crowded places and such.. but should be fun :) And we should be able to get there early to find parking some place.

I also set up Saturday - it's going to be a great weekend, my mom is meeting me at my place at 9:30ish, then we're going over to the quilt shop to cut fabric for my guild until 2. Then my sister is meeting me back at my place at 2:30 and we'll spend the evening doing girl stuff. Then sunday after they leave (unless mom leaves saturday night), i am going to a stitch thing at my friend's house - from 2-5 and then dinner with my boyfriend after. All because it's my birthday! I love birthdays (i'm still young so i mean i when i say that)... this is 23 for me.

So tonight is packed up with stuff to do and give attention to my boyfriend. Tomorrow maybe i can get another appointment to check out another apartment if this one doesn't work out and thursday is stitch night, looks like friday night is still free too.. hmm wonder how long that will last ;)

No stitching at lunch today (gotta leave early), i have to head back into the closed area to read more and hopefully stay awake, maybe more hot chocolate is in order here...
I can't stop smiling today, i am just in a good mood (excited to surprise my boyfriend and this weekend coming up and just keeping in touch with my friends from all over, it's all just good and i'm happy) :)
To all my blogging friends - here's a little happiness 8>) - pass it around :)

A nice long weekend.

It really was, long enough that I hardly remember Friday already!

First a picture update.

I continued work on Legends of the Dragons Sunday, here's my first progress picture, i think this is close to 10 hours of stitching. I am stitching this with Carol.


Then Saturday evening I finished the Ever So Little Zebra:


And my progress on Peaceful Silhouette from last week (now at 14.5 hours)


Let's see... like I said I dont' remember friday very much, i mostly cleaned the apartment. Saturday I started quilting my Amish Quilt, it's not so bad, I hope to pick that up again tonight to work on it more, I got quite far on the center star.

Then my boyfriend's parents came to see the apartment and we took them into boston to see my boyfriend's school then we went to Bugaboo for dinner (shocker there). It was a good time and i'm glad they got to see our apartment before we move next month :)

So then saturday night we finally rented The Incredibles (free rental), and watched that (and I finished my zebra above). We also watched I heart Huckabees, which was okay, my boyfriend had already watched it and said i wouldn't like it, i liked it just fine it just wasn't great or special, but easy to watch and stitch.

Sunday was a free day, my boyfriend had a review class for 6 hours so I did some scrapbooking and finished all the pages I had hoped to do so far. Then I ate some cookie dough, i mean baked some cookies :) I mostly settled in to stitch on Legends of the Dragons for the evening but I was good and my boyfriend and I went running when he got back, then grocery shopping and picked up some KFC for dinner. The rest of the week I'm cooking responsibly however (except maybe Tuesday since that's my boyfriend's birthday and we may go out and Thursday i have stitch night) :) I don't cook much :)

Well my stomach is growling. I just found out a guy at work is leaving for a higher paying job he couldn't refuse. He is definately an asset and we are going to really miss him. We are a small office (17), and he is not only so smart but so friendly and helpful. I don't know what we'll do :( He leaves Wednesday, i wonder if i can make a going away cake or something (especially since he's always said he's gained 10 pounds since working here). I hope he enjoys his new job. :( Going to be a sad day at work!

Stamping...

Do I need another hobby? A new "thing" to collect. The immediate answer is -- definately NOT! But....

So I went to my friend's place last night. We had dinner and then showed off our cross stitch progress etc. Then she showed me her new stamping hobby.. oh man! And I looked through the catelog, this is definately something I could get into and there's tons to collect... But I must resist.. at least for a while.

See.. we are looking to move (cheaper apartment), this will save hopefully 100 dollars a month. Then maybe in June when i hit my 1 year mark with my job, i'm hoping there's some raise involved or something.. this would help tremendously. Then if i work part time on the website ever again I will be sitting pretty. Unless those things happen i must be more conservative with my money. I have plenty of niceities and i need no more :) We shall see how things go.

The good news... as far as quilting goes (which is pretty expensive), i have my amish quilt to quilt, my sampler quilt to finish quilting and my ohio star quilt to piece (a little fabric needed for that) then that is just embroidered. So not a lot of money needed there and i refuse to start a new quilt project until i finish one of those.
Cross stitch wise, i have no need for new stuff, i have tons (and i mean tons) of patterns to keep me occupied, lots of fabric (possible need for specific fabric for specific project no big deal), more fabric coming monthly (for a tiny price :) and floss is not THAT expensive if i stay away from the 5.50 skeins of silk floss that i have been using :) They cover better... Really there are no worries. I paid for Celebrations already. I do have to pay the remaining balance for Stitcher's Hideaway in Sturbridge. But other than that i have no large purchases craft wise in my future (as long as i don't buy a sewing machine) :)

So i will try not to spend money, and see how things go in June. If i get a raise i will definately be starting a new hobby, which really is just an expansion of my scrapbook hobby i recently started. Plus if we move to a 2bedroom place i will have a craft room to fill :) I can't wait!

I'm going to look at a place tonight. And later today i will call a few other places and look at them next monday and wednesday night hopefully. Maybe before my birthday (the 17th) we'll have a place all picked out!

Well i brought my gaming computer to work today to put another harddrive in and install linux on it so i can run a local web server. I should get that set up and see if i can find an extra IDE cable for the harddrive :)

Today is dragging. I can't wait to get out of here in an hour! I took a whole hour lunch to stitch (which was nice) but it means i have to stay later :( I'm looking forward to going to my friend's place tonight, hopefully i won't be too tired to have a good time (boring days make me tired as i am right now). I could take a nap right now!

Bagel day - but the bagels aren't here yet.

I got my Amish Quilt basted!!! This was an hour long project with my aunt helping, but it really came out good and now i don't have to worry about it and i can start quilting!!! Plus she taught me how to do it since I never really learned and this will work for larger quilts.

My drawing lines however are fading on my quilt, so i may have to buy a quilting pencil (mine ran out), and quick outline the small border ones, the center i'm not worried about as that gets quilted first but the outside small border i won't get to for quite a while. The large border is fine, that was drawn quite dark. So another reason to get to Joanns soon - besides my 50% off a cut of fabric thur,fri, sat this week. Looks like maybe saturday morning i will run over there before my boyfriends parents show up as they are coming aroun 2:30/3.

So after making dinner, picking my cousin up from soccer, eating dinner, basting quilt, it was 10 already so we watched law and order and went to bed. No stitching time as i thought.

I surely am looking forward to going over to my friend's house tonight, not sure if i'll get to stitch as she wants to introduce me to her stamping obsession, umm, i mean hobby :) I am definately interested as i do scrapbook, i just don't buy stamps because it's just another set of things to collect and i don't need to go there :)

I think i just heard the guy come in that brings bagels -- i will have to go check this situation out :)

SAL started. I'm not as good as Carol, I forgot to scan a picture of my progress on Legends of the Dragons last night. However my progress doesn't show much as I started the border so there are no dragons yet to show :)

I found the link she gave me that shows Legends stitched on Dragon Myst with Storm Clouds Waterlilies for the border Legends of the Dragons. This is how we are doing it.

So last night I did even less than I had planned - I was going to cook but the meat my boyfriend took out was all dried out (beef), must have been in there a long time. So we had ramon noodles for dinner and I got to stitching by 6! So as I said I worked on Legends of the Dragons, trying to get some sort of scheme going with the variegated thread, making the roped border really look like it goes over and under (this will really show with the backstitching). We fit some tv in and I'd say i got a good 4 hours of stitching in which is a record for one night after work I think. No gym - my boyfriend and I both didn't feel like going.

So now my only hang up with changing the border color is trying to figure out what color to backstitch the border in, plus there's the inner border which is just a single line around each dragon. I figure it will be a blue, dark blue, so i grabbed all the blues and brought them with me so tonight at my aunt's i can pick on that will work. I don't think i'll have time to stitch tonight as we'll be basting my Amish quilt tonight hopefully but i always come prepared :)

So far this morning i've had a rotten morning. I saw no cockroaches last night (exterminator came yesterday and put out some poison stuff). Then this morning i saw a little on like usual behind the sink, killed it. Then I was filling the dishwasher and when i opened it there were two large cockroaches running around on the door of the dishwasher. They both ran into cracks on the side of the door and my boyfriend couldnt' kill them. So I ran the dishwasher hoping the hot water will kill them. But my boyfriend said he expects the poison will be drawing them out a bit and i'll see a few more (more???? i've seen enough!)

Then I had to go get my blood tested again. Man do i hate needles, i'm such a baby, and they took 6 viles of blood! That seems like a lot. Luckily i was able to drive to work fine and just ate some oatmeal, now i'm ready for some tea.

So tonight i go to my aunt's house, baste my quilt and relax. Tomorrow i go to my new friend's house to look at her stamping catalog and stamp collection and maybe stitch. Friday I will go look at a new apartment option after work, then clean the apartment top to bottom (oh i hope i don't see any cockroaches)!!! And saturday my boyfriend's parents' come (hence the cleaning). So i will be up late friday night (on a new moon no less), cleaning but sunday i can relax and spend the day stitching maybe??? or quilting my amish quilt??? or both?? :)

My fabric arrived! I now have everything together (except for 2 DMC colors which I'm not worried about as they are about somewhere) for Legends of the Dragons. I am going to do this as a SAL with Carol. So this will be started really soon :) Either tonight or... Thursday maybe. Tomorrow night I am basting my quilt at my aunt's so also bringing everything to start this piece is a bit much in the luggage department. Thursday i'm going to my friend's for a stitch get-together, we don't do much stitching but a little i'm sure will get done :)

Besides that I made progress on my Ever So Little - Zebra last night, i think i have 2 more stripes on his back and then his face which is mostly backstitching that needs to be done. He went really fast, I think being only 3 colors total helps the stitching go faster. When he's finished i will focus on Legends and then in May maybe do another Ever So Little - chimpanzee's. I'm making this piece (it will have 3 animals i think) for my sister's boyfriend for christmas. Then I'm going to do a similar piece for my uncle, with the Gazelle and maybe a few animals i don't have yet (elephant, giraffe, maybe zebra again).

No gym last night - we drove over only to find it packed, and i mean really packed so we left and went grocery shopping. Grocery shopping means i have to wash fruit and veggies and stuff so by the time i was done i had only 30 minutes left to read before bed. I try to go to bed at 11 each night, it doesn't seem to help me get up at 6 but i have been getting up at 6:30 (maybe i should go to bed at 10:30 but i doubt that will happen).

Tonight will be much of the same, except i want to cook dinner too, then stitch and watch tv, then go to the gym. We have an exterminator coming today between 8and 10 am. It's for cockroaches, my upstairs neighbors have them really bad and when he had them exterminated he didn't do our apartment as well and some of them moved down. I've found a few that i've killed which really really really grosses me out! So he's coming today and i honestly dont' know what to expect. I'm hoping all our stuff including food (like bananas and apples that are out), are okay just being out. I hope it doesn't smell when i get home... and hopefully the cockroaches are gone (they're weren't many to begin with as i have been setting out traps and caught none), but i don't want to see them any more and i will hopefully be moving in 2 months or less!

That reminds me to check apartment listings at lunch today. We are staying in the same area but looking for cheaper rent as what we pay is a bit high for a one bedroom when we could easily get a 2 bedroom (craft room/office for me!) Unfortunately we invested all the time and money painting this place the way we want it, but we will get reimbursed for the paint at least if i can figure out how much we spent (i think 100 dollars is about right as we got a refund on the first batch of paint we bought).

Well breakfast calls and i think today i might be able to finish up my first task and get a new one by tomorrow at least!

A pretty good weekend i'd have to say.

Friday night was busy, we went to dinner and walmart and then watched "The Village" (no stitching during that which was pretty good). Saturday I drove out to my mom's in the pouring rain. Then we drove up to my uncle's house to see my new cousin. Here's me holding my new cousin (3 1/2 weeks old):


I came home late saturday night after dinner with my parents and sunday was a day to myself. I did tons of stuff sunday but first my progress pictures.

A new project I started last night (it's a small one). It's
Ever So Little - Zebra:


And progress on Peaceful Silhouette - 12 hours:

So not only did i start a new project last night (that was pretty late), first i did chores (dishes, laundry), and got some computer files transferred to my desktop from my laptop. Then I went through my DMC and got everything for Legends of the Dragons except for 2 colors which must be with another project that's kitted (no biggie for now). After that I went through all my stash and input most of it into my database (this was a lot of typing and my boyfriend got home in the middle of it). I also made a trade list over at fiberswappers which i hope to add to it once i go through the rest of my stuff that's still packed up, including threads and such.

So once my boyfriend was home we decided to watch some movies, we watched The Terminal first as i had been waiting to see this and he had already seen it, then we watched The Notebook which was disappointing since i read the book and they seemed to change a lot. Of course we ended up missing Law and Order CI but i can always download that later (and i will).

So with the time change messing me up i went to bed later than i wanted and had a real hard time getting up this morning. Of course my coworker who's back from maternity leave today beat everyone in so no one saw her surprise. We filled her office with diapers and put the sound of a baby crying on her computer when she logged on (which included putting speakers on her computer and hiding them up under her desk on cardboard shelves taped on :) It was great but we missed it. She was shocked though. We tend to do things to peoples' offices when they leave for more than a week :)

So today we have another new hire starting as well so I brought in a few dozen cookies I made yesterday. Of course they are going fast and there's only 6 people here so far! I must get some :)

APRIL GOALS:

1) Stitch on Peaceful Silhouette ~10 hours
2) Start Legends of the Dragons
3) Start a new small project

4) Knit green scarf
5) piece 2 ohio stars (#'s 8 & 9)
6) baste and start quilting amish quilt

7) Finish Acorn Sampler WIP - from Celebrations class

Well those should keep me busy. The new small project i want to start is either
I simply Love You, by Twisted Threads or one of the 4 Ever So Little charts I have - maybe this one. .

Oh yes it's friday! And tomorrow I can sleep in - till 8 at least :)

Last night was a good time. I worked till 4, went home, folded laundry, ate a quick dinner and then headed out. Traffic was SO bad it took me an hour to drive the 13 miles to the store.

My goal last night was to laugh a lot (done) and buy some threads I need for a few projects (done). I got the kreiniks and Waterlilies for Legends of the Dragons (now just waiting on the fabric) and I got the Silk N' Colors I need for a couple small projects i might do as christmas gifts this year. (african animals). Of course buying silks cost me over 40 dollars total! But that's the price i pay for being addicted to just having stuff like that (fabric too).

I did manage to stitch a bit too.. worked on Peaceful Silhouette which is coming along a bit. I may need to start another small project while I'm doing this and Legends of the Dragons because this project is just boring most times!

Oh yea - it's April now - time to update the Goals for the month! I will postdate my March wrapup goals and then post some april goals!

March Goals in Review:

1) Finish Pooh Wallhanging [DONE]
2) Finish Precious Moments [DONE]
3) Finish Scarf 1, start scarf 2 (knit) [DONE - FINISHED SECOND SCARF]
4) Piece 2 ohio stars [FINISHED 1 - CUT SECOND]
5) Start quilting amish quilt [NOPE - PIECED BACK, READY TO BASTE]
6) Stitch Carolyn's RR [DONE]
7) Start Skirt (sewing) - read pattern at least [DONE - even almost made skirt]

Also stitched "Spirit Within"
Also knitted Green Hat and started Green Scarf
They were pretty boring for March - maybe April I can get a bit more done.

An early day today - i was in to work at 6:45. Not bad i'd say, I'll leave around 4, stop home quick and then head to stitch night. Then to the gym of course - a long day :)

Last night was not at all productive as I had hoped. i did stitch for half an hour at lunch time which had me motivated and I wanted to stitch last night. I got to my uncle's around 5, helped prepare dinner, then i knitted a tiny bit, then we baked cookies (yummy cookie dough), then we actually cooked dinner, then we ate. Next thing you know it's 9pm. Then my uncle's computer wouldn't boot because the fan wouldn't start, so we took that apart and "fixed" it - basically looked around, blew on the fan, put it back together and it worked. By then it was almost 10, time for Law and Order so I just watched that and fell asleep half way through. No stitching, quilting or knitting as I had hoped. All well :)

In the month of April I stitched for over 40 hours and quilted over 20 hours. This month i've dropped to stitching maybe 33 hours (depends on tonight) and quilting only 10. On top of that last month was only 28 days!

Unfortunately this weekend isn't looking good for stitching either. Saturday will be spent driving and seeing the new baby (that's 3 1/2 hours driving out, see baby, drive home at night maybe - another 3 1/2 hours). That does leave sunday but i need to clean a bit and do some shopping (groceries, library and Joann's). We shall see if stitching fits in there or not.

The real reason my stitching dropped a bit is because my main project is Peaceful Silhouette which is all in brown - not a blast for sure! Once I start Legends of the Dragons things will probably pick up - but until that fabric arrives i have to keep trying to motivate myself to pick this piece up (unless it's lunch time then i do it willingly).

Alright i'm hungry and i have work to do - time to get the day started with some hot chocolate :)

Ah - the joys of infants.

My coworker brought her baby in yesterday. Wow, i love babies - especially when they are so quiet for 2 hours like this one was! One woman in the office held her during lunch and she went right to sleep - it was so cute and gave my coworker and nice chance to just talk with adults. Then after lunch I held her for a while so my coworker could talk with our manager about what she'll be doing when she gets back monday. She continued sleeping the whole time. Then the mommy fed her before heading home. She's beautiful - a full head of hair and a very expression filled face (even when sleeping). I'm so happy for them!

Other than that yesterday was relatively uneventful. I picked up a pizza on the way home (my cop out since I didn't go to the grocery store the night before). After pizza I cut out 3 more Ohio Stars so they are ready to piece (that leaves 3 more to cut out still). Then I switched to stitching for an hour on Peaceful Silhouette. I really need a few good hours working on this piece as it's hard to decide what to start stitching next and you must really count a lot. Of course i messed up but only 1 stitch in the wrong place so i left it, i did this elsewhere too but i don't think it will be noticeable. I will bring this piece to stitch night on Thursday and work on it at lunch time today and tomorrow too.

Still waiting for my fabric for legends of the dragons. I am however getting the floss i need (Caron Waterlilies and some krieniks) on Thursday. The shop has a Heart in Hand trunk show going on as well that i will have to check out. I've never been a huge fan but it's always different getting to see the pieces in person. I also can't wait to see my friend's progress on Celtic Seasons - she modified the design in 2 places, first the sun's face was kinda strange so she changed it to make him smile, then the snowflake seemed out of place and it wasn't 6 sided so she redesigned that completely, that's what she's working on now and i'm really looking forward to seeing it.

I did make it to the gym last night for a change. We did chest and back. I was really tired but i started out strong. Of course my chest if feeling it today. I brought running clothes in case i want to go running today or tomorrow - unfortunately i'd rather stitch at lunch time :( I don't know if my priorities are wrong or just fine.

Who knows what i will work on tonight, i might start piecing Ohio Star #8, or knit. I think i'll leave my cross stitch at work though. I brought my half finished skirt to show my aunt too. It's not finished so i won't be taking a picture for my album but i figure she'll still appreciate the work i put into it.

Breakfast time and today i do have food :)

Baby visit.

My coworker that had a baby a few weeks ago is bringing the little one in for a visit today. Her maternity leave ends this week so she'll be back full time on Monday. We pitched in and got her a gift to give her today and I have the wallhanging i made her all ready for her to take home (hanging in her office actually).

I got my lab results back from my blood test. They're kind of hard to read. It looks like everything is okay except something about enzymes and I think she wants me to get my blood tested AGAIN in a week... not happy about that since i HATE needles and i told her i didn't want to get this done again. I will have to call her and find out why i'm doing this again, if she suspects something's wrong with me or not (because i feel fine and this was just routine - not looking for anything in particular - just checking cholesterol and stuff).

I got no stitching done last night as I wanted. It was a rough night - I had a headache, i was a little emotional and my boyfriend being such a sweetie took the night away from studying and just pampered me while watching tv. Just some alone time really paying attention to each other. It was very much needed and i can stitch anytime :)
I did stitch at lunch yesterday and tonight i'll probably get some stitching time for sure (or quilting at least).

I also got the backordered part of my 123stitch order. I ordered a bunch of Six Strand Sweets (they had a bunch of new colors released so i went through and ordered a lot of colors that looked nice). Then I ordered the chart Blessed Be - by Enchanting Lair - the red is really magnificent in this. I also got Warm Winter Wishes.

I'm still waiting for my order of the fabric for Legends of the Dragons. I'm also waiting for an order from Dyeing4u, I joined their fabric club and got my first fabric installment (march's) and now i'm waiting for the charts i ordered. 2 of which i already had (oops) and didn't realize until I went through my stash. But they aren't bank breakers so once i get them i'll put them up for trade over at Fiberswappers - a yahoo group created by Carol.

Oh lord - my head is pounding and I had no food to bring for breakfast or lunch today - leaving me only some yogurt (not a huge fan), pudding snacks and strawberries - all snack food not really food food if you ask me. I may have to actually go out and get some lunch today, until then hopefully i can survive!