Yeah the dresser is done:
Here's the dresser all done and already in use, although we don't use the tv when we're in bed at least we can now see it (the bottom of our bed is very high).

Last night I put the second coat on the bookcase and I'm hoping tonight to do the last coat on that! That will leave only the sofa table unfinished and maybe by the end of the summer I'll have finished that :)

No stitching or anything to show :( I do hope soon to get back to stitching as I have Carol's RR to start up!!

I forgot to post a picture.. I will post it tomorrow. I finished the dresser this weekend! Knobs and all! And I got one coat of poly on the bookcase which took about 45 minutes so I think I can handle the last two coats Monday and Tuesday this week!

Also this weekend I got some old closet shelves from my dad and sanded and painted them (they were really really old and ratty!) I'm looking forward to adding them to my closet tonight and organizing my craft room closet a little, getting that room a little closer to done!

So pictures coming tomorrow for sure! I hope to have a very productive night!

No news, last night I went to my cousin's middle school graduation, then out to dinner. It was a nice but late evening. We got back around 10:30, after help fix up the new router for my uncle I crashed.

Got in to work early today though and hopefully I'll have a good day, leave at 3:30 to beat traffic, work a bit more from home and then finish the dresser! Then tomorrow we drive back to NY to see family - oh man i have to get some father's day gifts tonight!!!

Well I haven't done anything more with the furniture but I figured I'd show some more pictures. Here are the bookcase and sofa table, first unfinished and second - stained (no poly still).
The shelves are separate.
Here it is stained.
Sofa table - behind the couch where it will stand when it's finished.
And stained. These two pieces are sitting in a dark area indoors waiting to be finished - hopefully this weekend i can start on them. The dresser still needs one coat of poly :( I'm hoping Friday night I'll be motivated enough to finish that and put a coat on one side of the bookcase shelves.

No stitching but I did work on my craft room last night, I unpacked all my stamping supplies and put them in the cubes that I bought at ACMoore. The stamps take up 2 shelves on a bookcase and everything else fits in my organizer cubes. I've rearranged things and made a place for the above bookcase to go. I can't wait to finish this room!

Well that was a busy weekend - didn't really feel like a break. But I did get some stuff done (no stitching) -- here's my finished quilt hanger - please excuse the messy craft room, it's the only room not unpacked yet. And the microwave cart is also finished....
And already put to use!
I also got the dresser almost finished, it needs one more coat of poly tonight, then I have to do all the knobs, which are stained but no poly yet. I want to put them on the drawers sticking out before I poly them.

And lastly I finished staining the sofa table and bookcase last night so they both need 3 coats of poly - this is the last time I buy shaker style furniture UNFINISHED! All those bars are killer! But I will love these pieces when they are done!

More pics as more furniture is finished and hopefully soon I will have time again to stitch. Besides furniture I worked a bit this weekend and I think that's it. Tonight includes a trip to ACMoore to take advantage of some sales! I can't wait!!!

Well with the onset of the diet and exercise again I've started a new work schedule as well. I've decided to work from 8:30-4:30 (with an hour break for the gym) - and then go home to have dinner with my fiance. Then work from home for 2-3 hours in the peace and quiet of my office/sewing room.

This does cut out stitching time a bit but I still get a little time during the dinner break. Last night I pulled out my fishy pin from Celebrations - knotwork and worked on that a bit. I'd like to make some progress on my Celebrations pieces this weekend before starting Carol's RR but we'll see - it's hard to stay away from it!

Well back to work - it's amazing how I can get more work done in 2 hours at home than 4 hours here! Then add in the meetings and the day is just insane!

Wow thanks everyone for the great comments on my RR. I'm very happy with it and I'm very excited to stitch on Carol's next. I think I have a house pattern picked out - I will have to change the colors but that's easy, I just need to figure out the measurements for the house to see what I can fit in a block!

All finished and ready to mail tomorrow!
I ended up doing a lot more landscaping than I had anticipated but I really loved pulling different flowers from different patterns and then making some up (okay I only made one up - the little purple ones and they're just smyrnas). The veggies are all over one (so is the bunny) so that really took me a while.
And here's a picture of most of the layout. It's 10 squares, the last square will either be stitched by a close friend or I'll add a saying of some sort with everyone's names or something at the end. I will also add a title when it comes back home next year.
So this is off tomorrow to Leslie.

All in all my day went okay, I slept through a lot of it, then took some Excedrin migraine and after eating I started feeling better. I did a little unpacking (filled our bookcase) and then sat to stitch and listen to my audiobook around 4. I'm afraid I may have worn myself right back out with that 40ct (my eyes are very sensitive with migraines) so I'm going to relax before bed now.

Oh and even better - Carol's RR arrived today! I can start on that straight away!! Now to go post my pictures on the RR blog!

Out sick...

I woke with a horrible migraine today so I won't be posting my usual monday morning progress pic but i do have progress to share and i'll share tomorrow. I'm hoping to have my neighborhood RR finished up tonight or tomorrow night to mail out and even with the over one stitching in the veggie garden (which is done) i think i can manage!

June Goals:
1) Finish Neighborhood RR and mail out!
2) Finish Leanne's block 7!
3) Start Carol's NRR
4) Frame Peaceful Silhouette!

May Wrapup:
1) Finish Leanne's block 7 [nope]
2) Frame Peaceful Silhouette [nope]
4) Start Neighborhood RR [YUP]
3) Work on Celtic Banner?? [nope]

I tried to keep it light for myself but things at work really got in the way I had absolutely no stitching time this month.. but that is all going to change this month!!!

Am i crazy???

Well I got home kind of late last night but I did manage to stitch a little. No picture though because there isn't much new to see. I finished the second tree, added some grass and added a bunny.

I am hoping to stitch a vegetable garden near the bunny and the pattern I'm using had the bunny 10x10 - that's kind of big so I decided to stitch it over 1 - well now i have to do the whole veggie garden over 1 to match! YIKES! Whatever I do on the other side of the pathway will not be over one, maybe just some bushes or something.. hmm.. I need to plan this out.

Tonight it's unpacking and then relaxing - maybe with some over 1 40ct stitching - hehehe.

A little progress:
I know it isn't much, that pathway took me forever, especially since I was designing it as i went along and had to rip it out a bit. I went with a mosaic stitch, small at first then larger for the second part, then switched to a diamond, alternating diagonal pattern for the part behind the fence. The mosaic stitch was too dense under the fence and took away from it too much and the diamond is kind of hidden inside a mosaic when you stitch 4 mosaic stitches in a square so I went with that.

It came out alright, then I started the two pine trees, I'm making this house similar to the house I grew up in so certain things are key (blue house/pine trees). Tonight I'll finish the tree and put in some grass and then start on the gardens.

Oh it felt so good to be back to stitching! It has felt like forever (I know it was just last week some time!) This weekend - unpack and stitch!!

Holy Moly - I had no idea how much stuff we had! I'm back from the move - officially living in NH now.

Quick recap of this insane "weekend":
Friday - fiance's graduation, drive back to NY for family reunion LATE
Saturday - family reunion
Sunday - recover, drive back to MA, then pack up cars and drive up to NH and clean up new apartment
Monday - go into Boston, get truck and brother, pack truck, move up to NH and unpack, out to dinner and drive back to Boston to drop off brother
Tuesday - unpack and shop for necessities and unpack and unpack

I have a kitchen and diningroom pretty much unpacked but that's it. The furniture elsewhere is all set up but everything is still in boxes and it will stay that way tonight as we're going to my uncle's for a night - much a needed break!

I have unfortunately not touched my stitching, tonight I will work on my Neighborhood RR finally some more but it will definitely be a little late, hoping to finish it up this weekend??

Going to be offline for a short bit...

First - I did get to stitch Tuesday night - I worked on my RR and finished the fence and started the walkway from the house to the fence. I hope to have some more time to work on this during the weekend festivities, but we'll see. I will post a picture as soon as I'm back online..

So why am I offline - well things will be busy -

Friday : Fiance's Graduation
Saturday: Home for Pig Roast
Sunday: Still home - but coming back in afternoon/evening
Monday: MOVING DAY
Tuesday: Unpacking - internet should get hooked up but I won't have time to be online most likely

So I'll be back on Wednesday - driving in to work from NH! Oh there's so much to do still - yikes!

Alas I did not make my stitching goal last night. When I got home we went for a long walk but my headache was already setting in. After some dinner and Law & Order I fell asleep. All well.

On the moving out front, all holes in the walls (from pictures) have been patched and 2 of the 3 colors have been painted leaving just the diningroom/kitchen color left to finish tonight. I'm using the same foam brush so I have to wash it and let it dry between colors.

Tonight I hope to do some more packing, my fiance has some events for graduation going on the next two nights so it will be grilling hamburgers for dinner, packing and stitching!

House Complete:
As I mentioned the actual house is complete and I started the fence. My goal tonight is to finish the fence and figure out what I'm going to do for the path from the door to the fence.
I have lots planned for the landscaping, first a pine tree or two on the right side of the house and gardens in the front, a bunny will be in there someplace too!
I'm very excited, things for the move are working out, I got the cable to transfer the day after we move which is perfect since I have that day off. I'm waiting on the electric still but I've started the process.

With a little more packing to do in the evenings but that's it, I should have some good stitching time in the next 4 nights. I probably can't make the June 1st mailing just because of the packing and unpacking that will happen between now and then but I'm hoping for Monday June 3rd since that gives me the weekend to find the envelopes I have somplace and get everything put together! That's not too bad!

In my neighborhood...

I had some time this weekend to work on my house! I finished up the stitching on the house tonight and started the landscaping, starting with a fence. I have a lot of room for landscaping so this is going to take a little while :)

Luckily I got a lot of packing done this weekend and the website finished! The site isn't live yet but it's tested and working. After the owner has updated all products we can go live with it and I'm all done!! So this week I'll pack a little each night and then stitch. Thursday night I'll probably clean and finish any packing I can since friday is my fiance's graduation!

Oh it feels good to have things finished!

A relaxing night...
Well I worked a little later than planned and traffic was horrible but I got home around 7 and we went out to celebrate because my fiance just finished his very last final exam for law school!!!! Next friday is graduation! I'm so proud of him.

So we went out to Bertucci's, then a quick trip to home depot and then we settled in and watched Pan's Labyrinth which I really enjoyed watching even if I had to cover my eyes for a LOT of scenes! No stitching as planned though because of subtitles.

And today is a free day off from work thank goodness. So I'm about to work on the website and see what I can do as far as that goes and then it's packing time! I'm very excited. Of course my wrist has been bothering me this week and it's really bad today so I have my brace on and I'll have to be careful with lifting and things. I wonder why it's acting up??

Stitching my neighborhood rr finally!
Here's my start, stitching with GAST on 40ct cream linen. It took a while to get started last night as I did a little more basting (still not done basting) but I'm loving it. I can't wait to work on it more tonight! Plus with no work tomorrow I can work tonight until I can't work on it any longer.

Unfortunately my wrist was really bothering me last night -it is again this morning as well. I may need to bring out the brace I have for it for tonight as I need to be functional this weekend to get all my packing done! Can't wait to get back to packing. OH and then there's the website- gotta finish that tomorrow too! Going to be a great day tomorrow. Now.. to get through work.. at least I can leave at 4:30 since I got in early, if I can get everything done that is.

Oh my I have a lot of stuff...

Well I didn't stitch last night, my quick packing of the closet took HOURS! I used up all 6 bins that I had bought plus a few boxes and there's still stuff in my closet!!! I can't believe how much crafting stuff I have.

1 HUGE box with yarn/knitting stuff (and i hardly knit!)
3 boxes of stamping stuff
1 bin with all our framed pieces (mostly cross stitch!) wrapped in fabric
1 bin of fabric (quilting)
2 small bins of sewing/quilting supplies and fabrics and notions
1 bin of cross stitch supplies (not patterns OR fabric! - those aren't packed yet)
1 bin of quilting books and fabric (that's a heavy one)
1 bin of misc. top shelf stuff (scrap books/photo books/stuff to be scrapbooked)

This is a little insane. I'm looking at all the bins and wondering where it all fit in my closet -i'm really good at organizing evidently! My closet is still filled with clothes and my xstitch patterns and fabrics to all be packed. Some are in drawer units I may not remove them from, just use stretch wrap around them and pack that way.

So needless to say I didn't get much stitching done, I did baste a little more on my RR and I hope to start my house tonight at my aunts' where i can't pack :)

Oh and now I'm out of bins - I need to either buy a few more or try to use all boxes for the rest. Bins are nice because you can put heavy things in them with no worries. I planned on using the small boxes I have for all our books (we have SO Many books!) Yikes, deep breaths, no need to feel overwhelmed, I have a whole weekend to pack up books and dvds and such. I CAN do this!

Wow I just noticed I have over 800 posts - that's a lot :)

I started basting my neighborhood RR fabric last night, I got the left and top across done - man that 40 count is hard on the eyes when you have to stay in one row all the way across! I think tonight I'm actually going to start stitching my house before finishing the basting as I have the house picked out and the thread for it.

So hopefully tomorrow there will be a first picture of my RR - maybe, if i actually make progress and don't end up with too much of a headache. 1 more hour at work to go!

Last local shopping trip:
Well with moving to Nashua I'm really going to miss popping over to Lucy's to buy some last minute fabric and threads, and of course some neat charts I find (see above).

So I bought a fat 1/4 of 40 ct linen for the Neighborhood RR. I'm going to sit and start gridding it right now so hopefully by tomorrow night that will be finished and I can maybe start working on my house which I have picked out, thread and all. I'm very excited about this RR and I'd really like to make the first mailing date even with the challenge of moving too...

Oh and I did a little packing tonight: my good pots and pans and my good dishes (these are rarely used) - they are now packed up tight!

CELEBRATIONS (finally) - in order

First off I took a punch needle class - and thursday night when I got home I finished up the little sheep pin which was the practice piece:
Punchneedle was fun and fast but I had even more fun using french knots in the beginner's knotwork class with Teresa Laymen. I worked on this piece in my free time saturday as well:Friday night was the round robin, we got 4 projects and when my friend and I got back to my aunt's I started one of them. The petals are 3-d and i know mine looks like a corn on the cob - it will be ripped and redone a little wider and shorter but it's a really neat weaving technique!
And finally my favorite class with Catherine Strickler - Kate's Necessaire. We worked on one of the pockets for the inside and we made that round pin cushion (not finished yet but it's round at least). This kit comes with all finishing supplies and I can't wait to make the little book!
Celebrations was great. I ended up spending a ton - I didn't get a picture off all the stuff I bought because Sunday I organized it all and put it in my binders before realizing I hadn't taken pictures yet. But I have enough to keep me happy for quite a while!

I've been thinking about the neighborhood RR and I can't wait, i picked out my house pattern and I just have to grid some fabric. I'm going to do a 10 block layout (2 rows of 5) and leave the last block for the names to go in, i'll grid it out to fit the names as well. I'm very excited now and with a June 1st deadline I better be! :)

Stress...
Well the deadline that I was working towards for the last two weeks finally ended Friday at midnight. Has my stress dissipated with it? Of course not - because now I'm 2 weeks behind on my other work project that I was supposed to be working on and got pulled off of and we're moving in 2 weeks and I haven't even really started packing, nor have we signed on an apartment!

But I need to focus on reducing stress because it has been causing physical symptoms for the past month or so that I can no longer deal with. I'm sleeping 10-12 hours some nights (weeknights 9-10 and weekends 11-12), this just causes more stress because it shortens my daytime hours. That's the worst symptom but there are plenty more and now that I know it's stress causing it I'm going to do some things about it.

First off - this week I will leave work by 5pm each night, I will get some exercise in (preferably a nice run outside). I will pack/clean for 30 minutes and then I will relax with some stitching on my Neighborhood RR which I need to start. I'm going to take next Friday off completely to make sure I finish the website, pack and stitch.
Before bed I will do some breathing and relaxing exercises (friday night I took a bath at midnight when I got home which was great) and I will try to get up after only 8 hours of sleep.

It's time to take care of myself a little better because how I'm feeling affects my loved ones and in particular my fiance who has plenty of stress himself with a final this week.

So you will see my posting more often again - and hopefully with some stitching. Tomorrow I will post my Celebrations report finally. I will take those pictures tonight before bed. Now I need to go check out the website and see what I can do in the next 40 minutes before I start "relaxing".

To all my friends - don't forget to take care of yourselves, you can't help those around you if you yourself are not happy and healthy.

I know I owe a Celebrations report - and an apartment report - soon I promise. I'm still working until 9:30/10 each night (maybe later tonight). Last night I got to leave at 6, only because we were going up to look at an apartment. Now I'm crossing my fingers that we get it - getting very close to the deadline!

Please keep you fingers crossed we get this place and then this weekend or monday i promise a proper update is coming!

Celebrations post to come shortly i promise...

Things are crazy hectic at work - I promise to give a proper weekend and Celebrations update either later today or tomorrow when I can add lots of pictures...

What brings me here right now .. I'm getting a little worried about the nieghborhood RR!! I need to start this .. heck I need to pick fabric still! Where has the time gone and when do I get time again??? Yikes. I promise myself that the next stitchy moment I have will be to figure out the dimensions for the fabric I need and to put in a purchase if I need to. I have a local shop I can call, she may have what I need and I can get it, I'm hoping for 36 ct.

Then I guess I need to baste and then figure out what to stitch myself.. yikes - I guess I figured May would be an easy month work wise and that I'd have my apartment situation all figured out at the end of april - neither of those wishes came true.. deep breath!

Okay back to work, I will focus on this later :)

Sorry - I haven't been blogging - that will continue for a short while longer, things at work changed unexpectedly towards the busier side of things so now i have new deadlines that come on fast and I'm working long hours etc...

HOWEVER - today is CELEBRATIONS!! I'm taking a punch needle class at 1! I can't wait - leaving work early to do it. I'm taking a knotwork class tomorrow at 2 (again leaving work early for that) and then I'm taking a class saturday morning.

All i can say is that i can not wait until noon to head north, listening to my audio book and forgetting about work for a few hours!!!

FINISHED!!!
Sorry about the picture, I used my camera last night, if you click on it you can see it a little better. I will be taking a better picture once I frame it anyway which is hopefully very soon. Maybe i'll have time to scan it in today or something then I'll fix the pic.

So I finished Peaceful Silhouette last night! Really I needed to because work has decided to take a turn and it looks like I'm going to continue to be busy for 2 weeks.. but Celebrations is this weekend and there's no missing that!!

A quick wrap up of goals and goals for May below. Happy Beltaine!!!

April Wrap up:
1) Finish Barnabee! Stitching but not beading
2) Finish Peaceful Silhouette! YES!!!
3) Finish Baby Quilt before Easter! YES!!!
4) Start a new xstitch piece! Nope
5) Finish Leanne's block 7 Nope
6) Piece Leanne's block 8 Nope
7) Piece Leanne's block 9 Nope

May Goals:
1) Finish Leann'es block 7
2) Frame Peaceful Silhouette
4) Start Neighborhood RR
3) Work on Celtic Banner??

I'm keeping it very light - with the move at the end of the month and the ongoing search for an apartment who knows what kind of time I will have.

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 :)

Pictures come monday...

Well yesterday was a much needed day. I spent hours listening to an audiobook (Jodi Piccoult's Tenth Circle) and stitching on Barnabee. I've gotten the center garden on part III finished and all I have left is the roses, the last saying and the last honeycomb row. I'm very excited that this piece will be finished pretty soon. I'll scan in a pic on monday.

Then we went out to dinner with a friend of my fiance's last night and we watched "You, Me and Dupree" which i thought was pretty funny. Today I'm just getting to work on the website now and I'm going over to my friends' for stitch at 5pm. Tomorrow I'll most certainly have to work on the site more but we'll see how it goes today.

I also talked to my mom and she's going to start quilting her baby quilt this weekend. I need to get mine done by next Saturday so I can give it to her to take back home in case the babies are born soon. So hopefully tomorrow I can square away some machine quilting time!

Well - website time!

Sick day (for real) and March Goals Recap:

Well today I took a real sick day - no computer, no logging on to work (except to make sure nothing crazy is going on of course). We delivered our document last night so the deadline passed and considering I felt horrible this morning I decided to stay home and stay away from the computer and tv for a whole day.

The tv part is no problem, i have an audio book going and I'm stitching away on little Barnabee! What a happy day. I did a little cleaning and picking up too so the day is not wasted and tomorrow is the weekend! I can't wait, I will work work work on the website and I will stitch with friends. Sunday I will quilt.. oh what fun!

And now - how did I do on my goals this month:
1) Finish Part II of Barnabee and start Part III - YES
2) Finish Leanne's block 6 YES
3) Piece Leanne's block 9 nope not yet
4) Start applique on Leanne's block 7 YES - finished applique!
5) Finish all half stitching on Peaceful Silhouette nope - for some reason i want to finish Barnabee first now
6) Make baby quilt for mom's friend - Almost completed, border quilting and binding are all that's left!

Sick day - kind of, not really...

Well I tried to stay home sick today but ended up working a full day anyway, just from home is all. But the sleeping in helped immensely and I'm on DayQuil now so I'm feeling okay and I'm going to stitch for a bit - been almost 2 weeks since i did any cross stitch.. so I'm pulling out Barnabee to see what kind of progress I can make on part III finally!

And my friends are getting together for stitch saturday night - i can't wait! I'd like to bring barnabee to that probably.

I'm going to keep work as a light day tomorrow if i can, so I can come home and relax. Then saturday I'll work on the website all day until going to stitch. Sunday I'll try to finish the website and then I need to finish the baby quilt! I will need the coming week to add the binding! man time has flown by on that!

i hurt all over....

yup that's right - i got sick - a really nasty cold that comes with horrible pain (even aleve isn't helping) and did we make our deadline yesterday - NOPE..

so i'm at work, trying to help us deliver today or tomorrow. If it's tomorrow I won't be involved so i have to do everything today - i'm taking a sick day tomorrow... i need to sleep!

Almost over ...

I can tell because last night I got to read for an hour before bedtime! I finished working a little after 9pm for a change.. oh how nice! And tonight should be even sooner!

My car is in the shop to get the timing belt changed. It will cost a LOT but then my car can go another 80K which will be another ~5-6 years! So today all the stress should be lifted (car and work) and tonight I plan on ... dare i say it... stitching?!

Now to get back to the grind - 3pm is our deadline!

Nap Time...

That's what happened to me today. So I ended up staying over at my uncle's last night. We slept on the pull out couch. I didn't go to bed until about midnight and unfortunatly at 6:45 I heard pitter patter and *wispers*. Two of them (the oldest and youngest) were up and about. They kept running in, looking over the couch to see if we were sleeping and then running off into the other room. The oldest keeping the youngest quiet the whole time and berading her for asking "why" too much - it was cute - but it was also 6:45 on a sunday morning!

Finally by 7:30 they couldn't hold off anymore and I had 3 little munchkins jumping on me and giggling. By 8 I had given up trying to fall back asleep and we left around 9.

The day was going well, I got some work done, then we went out for a late lunch and some shopping. Came back and I was so stuffed from lunch that I fell asleep for 3 hours! I'm sure not getting enough sleep last night was part of it. But since 6 I've been back online trying to get all my work done. I was hoping for some me time later tonight but it won't happen. At least I got out to Linens N Things (I had a gift card) and got some fun kitchen stuff....
I got :
-a small metal strainer, good for getting the yuckies out of drippings on a roast.
-A really nice baster with a cleaning brush
-Meat thermometer - digital, with a wire so you stick it in and the the wire can run outside of the oven to the digital reader and alert you when the meat hits the right temp
-Can opener
I guess I'm in the mood for cooking a roast of some sorts :) It was fun though. I also got a new mattress pad. I promised myself when I got a new mattress 3 years ago that the cheap 20 dollar mattress pad would get replaced by something better in a few years. That time is now and I can't wait to put it on tonight! My cheap one doesn't stay on anymore, the mesh has ripped in the corners.

Wow this is long - i'm just stalling. Back to work. Look out for crazy stitching later this week! I hope!

Stitching deprived...

That's how I'm feeling. I didn't realize it had been so long (since last monday night and that was just quilting at the machine) - but I was catching up on blogs and all the stitching going on made me realize how much I miss it. It will be a short while longer before I get to stitch though - soon hopefully but a few more days.

Babysitting went just fine today. Of course there were ups and downs (there are 3 of them) but the day went pretty smoothly and no one got hurt (most importantly not me). I haven't figured out if I'm staying over or just going home tonight - it's already 8pm (the kids are being put to bed).

Tomorrow will be work work work. I want to work on the website and I have regular work to get done as well. Maybe if I'm lucky and manage my time well I can do a little something for myself at some point. But Tuesday is my work deadline so after catching up on sleep, by thursday and friday I should be stitching again - especially if I take a day off work to just relax. Plus I need to get that baby quilt done still!

Of course the stress of the past 2 weeks is hitting me pretty hard now that I've taken a day away from it all. It will be very hard to get myself to actually get out of bed tomorrow. :(

Well just popping on quick, I know I'm usually better about blogging but work has been insane - beyond insane. Last monday night was the last time I did anything besides work or sleep! It's almost over though - next tuesday should be the last day of this craziness.

Tues, Wed and last night I worked till midnight (luckily from home after 7pm). Tonight will be another late night but tomorrow is a day off - well from work anyway - instead I'll be going up and babysitting the 3 little monsters cousins. A whole day with them, then an evening with my aunt, uncle and fiance.

Then sunday it's back to the grind, I need to work and i need to work on the website as best I can so that next weekend I can finish that. It does look like I may be taking off at least next friday for free (due to all my overtime). That will be a much needed day of sleep! 6 hours is just not enough for me - i really need 8 a night!

Quilting :)

When I got home last night (after dinner), I managed to spend another hour at the sewing machine. I finished the quilting in the center of the quilt! Now all i have is the border quilting and binding. I haven't figured out what i'm going to do for the border quilting so I've mocked something up to send to my mom - opinions welcome here too of course :)

What's in red is what is quilted (I colored over the pink so ignore that), what's in white are possible options for the border.
1) (top) Triangles and diamonds - my preference, something different than the rest of the quilt but still straight lines.
2) (right) Continued Cross hatch - a simple choice, a little hard on the machine quilting in that it's not really continuous but it will run off the edge and when the binding is added those parts will be reinforced.
3) (bottom) Diamonds - Continuous but I would have to figure out a 1/4 inch along each edge to estimate where the binding will end. Could easily cut off points.
4) (left) Mimicing a pattern in the border fabric. I've never done free-style - this would still be using the quilting foot so it may very well come out as it looks above where i was wrestling with a paint brush in paint :)

Ideas welcome!

No other stitching last night, we finished up the second season of 4400 and loved it, unfortunately i have to wait until May for the third season to come out :(

As Promised - Barnabee Pic:

That's progress from Thursday and Friday night last week (making up for missing last week). Part II is complete and the border (minus the backstitched line and beads is also complete for Part III). I think 3 more weeks on this and it will be done for sure.

What a great weekend (i think I mentioned this) - quick recap:

Spent friday night working late then stitched for a few hours on Barnabee! Saturday I worked on Leanne's Quilt block 7 doing the applique while watching P&P. Sunday I worked on the website for a good 6 hours or so and then started quilting the baby quilt!

Tonight I will hopefully quilt the rest of the center of the baby quilt and start planning the border. I may have to add the binding before quilting the border so planning might be all I do. Maybe I'll add the binding tomorrow.

And this week I'm pulling Peaceful Silhouette back out - I need to start making progress on that again! Once the baby quilt is done this will be my focus until it's finished. Then I can finally start some new piece!!

Weekend wrap-up:
1. Work on website - YES - spent over 6 hours on it!
2. Start quilting baby quilt by machine YUP!
3. Start appliqué of block 7 Finished appliqué, started embroidery!
4. out for dinner and bowling (7 year anniversary on sunday!) Nope -watched P&P instead

What a great weekend, I worked a lot more than I would have liked but I got the feeling of accomplishment from all the work I did do.

Website work went well, I have a long list of what's left but it's broken down so it's maybe a day or two of work and all time dependent, so hopefully next sunday I will be just wrapping things up!

Started quilting the baby quilt about an hour ago - did quite a bit. I think I can finish the center quilting tomorrow night even and then I just have to measure out the border quilting :) I need to send this picture to my mom with the quilting lines drawn out so she knows what i'm doing and we can stay in sync.
The red is what i've quilted so far, the pink is my plan. Then I'll do the big square (in ditch by border), and then figure out the border stuff. I think that should be enough without having to also outline the pinwheel squares.

Now for one more episode of 4400 (season 2) and a little more embroidery maybe. I never did pull out peaceful silhouette last night - but it will surely come out this week when i get bored with block 7!

Quick weekend update ...

I managed to finish Part II of Barnabee last night - I'll post a picture on monday. Today I've been working on Leanne's Quilt block 7 - I finished the appliqué and started the embroidery but I've gotten tired of it so I may be switching to Peaceful Silhouette, it's been a while.

It's been a wonderful day, I didn't work on the website (I've put that off until tomorrow) and we spent the whole day relaxing, did a little shopping, went out for a late lunch, and now we're watching Pride & Prejudice (the A&E version)... a perfect day - what a way to celebrate our 7th anniversary :)

Working from Home and Stitch night..

Well with the expected bad weather today and with working until 11pm last night (after 9 that is) I decided to work from home today. I get more work done (less interuptions) and I miss the drive which is at least 1 1/2 hours of the day - worse if there's snow. Unfortunately I'll still be working pretty late tonight (probably 8 or 9) but at least I can take it easy this morning (slow start) having stayed up late.

Last night I did got to stitch for 2 hours - had dinner with friends and pulled out Barnabee. The problem with stitch is that I need to work on something where I don't need the pattern, so I stuck to the border, finishing it for Part II and making good border progress on Part III. Tonight I'll work on the actual bands and my goal is to finish part II. I'll post a picture monday morning.

Oh so much to do this weekend:
1. Work on website - get it near completion! (goal is to finish it next weekend)
2. Start quilting baby quilt by machine
3. Start applique of block 7
4. out for dinner and bowling (7 year anniversary on sunday!)

Okay it doesn't look like a lot but for a weekend it is especially the website stuff, that will take a while!

A late night - well i worked until 7pm, went and had dinner with my aunt and uncle (and cousin), then I logged on and worked until 10pm. But I got it all done and checked in and now I have 40 more minutes before the CPR training we have today to get anything else done :) Actually i have this afternoon too so i'm not stressing but still.

So I did not start the applique and i'm thinking it won't happen at stitch tonight, it's not the easy type of stitching that i can bring some place, so i'll have to check through all my stitching projects and pick something else to bring, maybe Barnabee so I can work on the border a bit or something.

Well off to water a plant and then review some things :)

Block 6 Finished!!!


Somehow I managed to finish this block last night - all I had to do was the two small squares off to the right. I worked a bit at the dentist at lunch time and then finished it up while baking pies last night.

It was a long night - I got home after 7, went for a run outside again (warmer than monday night!), then baked two pies - unfortunately i really packed in the pumpkin (3/4 batch) and it took almost 2 hours to bake! It came out around 10 to 11.. yikes, that was close!

So it was a late night but I got a lot done and tonight I go to my aunt's house, I hope to start the applique on block 6 which I'll continue tomorrow at stitch. Friday will be barnabee night, and to make up for last week probably a bit on saturday for barnabee as well. I'd like to finish part II and get a good start on part III.

A little stitching - no picture yet.

I'm almost done with Leanne's house Block 6 - so very close. I will try to finish it tonight and take a picture. Then wednesday i can start on the applique to block 7! Wow only 3 more blocks to go!

I didn't get a lot done last night, I got home late, we went for a run (still light out - love that early time change!) - then I settled in and worked on the block while watching the Prestige (which I loved). I couldn't stitch much because I had to pay a little bit of attention (I kept getting lost).

Unfortunately I stayed up until 11 reading and didn't get up until almost 8am! (now i'm hating the time change :) ) So it's a late day in to work - but i planned on working late anyway - I'll be running in the dark tonight :(

Anyway - hopefully a picture tomorrow and it looks like the quilting of the baby quilt won't start until friday...

Quilting weekend!!
My mom and I made the quilts for the twins - all that's left is to machine quilt them. Here's mine:
And the one my mom made:
It was a lot of fun. We got the pinwheels finished saturday night and a start on the flying geese blocks. Then sunday we finished it all up. I got back home around 5 so my fiance and I went out to dinner and then settled in for the night around 8 - a nice headache had started so I pretty much just zonked out.

Poor Barnabee -- unfortunately I did not get to him last friday because we went out for the night (and I worked late). So there's nothing to show there, I'll post a picture of him after I get to work on him this week - probably friday, maybe thursday.

And now of course the quilting bug has hit. I haven't set up my quilting station at home to start machine quilting but I'm going to do that tonight. I'd like to set little goals each night, like stitch in the ditch of the main diagonals tonight to get started. Then the stitching of the diamonds from the center out another night (one diamond in each pinwheel). Then the zig zag in the flying geese another night. And lastly the border zig zags which I have to measure and draw out first. My goal is to be finished by March 25th, put the binding on and finish attaching the binding before the weekend of the 31st so I can maybe work on another quilt :)

Pictures monday - i promise...

I did go to stitch last night and I worked on Leanne's House block 6 - finally. I finished about half of the embroidery that I have left. I think I can finish this block next weekend and then start on the next.

And speaking of Leanne's House, block 8 arrived so now I have all 9 blocks! Next month I get the borders as my last installment. I'm not going to sign up for another block of the month right away (but i want to) only because we'll be moving at the end of May and it's easier to wait until after we move to sign up but I've already got it narrowed down. I've done so well actually completing these blocks that I think I will keep up with another as well. Maybe one with more applique and less embroidery??

Still have the quilting bug - I can't wait for this weekend to start - going to be a semi late day at work though and then tonight we're going out bowling!!! Yipee - a night out with my sweetie!

Getting the quilting bug...

Well with my cross stitch going so well (having made so much progress on Peaceful Silhouette and Barnabee)... what happens.. of course I get interested in quilting again. I really really want to make a new quilt. Of course I get to make one this weekend - a baby quilt in batiks.

Why did this happen? Well my mom mentioned that she wanted me to pick out a quilt pattern for her and my grandmother to make me for my wedding (which isn't until the summer 2008 but a bed quilt takes a long while!). So I started browsing the quilts - and there's so many I really want to make! I found one that I love but it doesn't have a pattern so I'll have to mimic it and re-design it myself. I can't wait!

But I must remind myself that I need to finish one of the many quilts I have started already - need to get my quilting needle going and work on my amish quilt or my sampler quilt and finish them up!

But I did place an order with some new fun gadgets (rulers and such) so now I'm looking forward to getting those things! Since I can't cut my batiks tomorrow night (i still have to wash them), maybe I'll pull out one of my quilts and get working on it (which means I have to find all my supplies!).

Saturday after the birthday party my mom and I will start the baby quilts (they're for twins). So monday I will have a picture of a hopefully pieced top I made and then I'll machine quilt it - hopefully by Easter when I see my mom again. Is it friday night yet??? :)

Tonight is stitch night - i'm bringing Leanne's Quilt to work on (still haven't touched it). Last night was a computer night all night long, still fiddling with Vista. Looking forward to the night off tonight though!

Good Work Day..
I'm having a very good work day, making a lot of progress on things and I may not finish tomorrow but I will definitely finish by Friday which I think will be great. I'm just about to pass my last hurtle and then it's just finishing the documentation and code after that (once the concepts are done).

Last night again I did not stitch - because my new computer came! I haven't decided if I'm sticking with Vista yet or not. Unfortunately I can not VPN into work which is a very big strike against using it for now. And I can't get my Codecs to work to watch dvds on my laptop but I'm slowly working on it. I'm sure I'll play with it some more at my uncle's house tonight. Right now I have it retrieving the files I backed up onto my work computer from my crashed computer so I can have all my personal files back.

Oh and I played a little Zelda last night - I beat the second dungeon!!

Zelda night :) - no stitching.

Well last night I had to go grocery shopping and then cook all the diet food for the week. That went fine, was done around 7:30 or 8 I think. Then I played about an hour of zelda - beating the mini boss in the Goron dungeon (second dungeon). I'm up to about 12 hours into the game now.

Then I finished the book I was reading (a mini book really) before going to bed so no stitching at all. Tonight I'm hoping to have my new laptop so there will be some computer playing going on, probably no stitching. Wednesday at my aunt's I hope to break out my Leanne's quilt block 6 and maybe make some progress.. we'll see!

Barnabee Update...


This weekend was a family weekend. I didn't get to stitch Friday night as I'd hoped because we ended up out shopping until 9 just about and we bought a new Wii game - Elebits which I stayed up playing until about 1am. Saturday my family all came over, we played Wii, we played cards, we ate lots of food. It was another late night (till 1:30am). Sunday after saying goodbye to the last of the family still around, we decided to stay in and watch shows and stitch. So I got a few hours in on Barnabee while watching the rest of season 1 of the 4400 and Arrested Development.

I adapted the bunny band just a bit. When I purchased the chart I purchased the chart packs for Part I and III but not Part II for two reasons. Firstly I generally don't mind roosters but this one was a little oddly colored as far as roosters go for me and secondly I had decided to stitch on 32ct and I thought the rooster charm was too large when you increased the count since it's already a large charm. So I modified the row a bit so I don't have to worry about a charm at all for that section.

That was my night - unfortunately all that stitching started bothering my neck and i ended up with a tension headache that I now still have. I need just a few more hours of sleep :(

Surprise last night...

I came home last night to find my fiance had been cleaning for a good part of the day! I was in utter shock! I mean really cleaning, organizing things, going through piles of paperwork, cleaning the kitchen (scrubbing the stove!) Everything. And he wasn't stopping. So I got right to work cleaning the bathroom (scrubbing the shower) and that's all I had to do last night.

All that's left is to dust and vacuum and he swears to me he's doing that today. No big deal if he does or not because that will take about an hour and I've decided to work from home today with the yucky weather so I don't have all that time lost to driving.

No stitching last night though, I wasn't feeling well after dinner and just worked until about 10 before going to bed. I'm borrowing a laptop from work and evidently having a computer again means I'm on email all night and getting things done for people real time (we have a california office so 9pm is only 6pm for them and they are still working).

Progress pics on Monday as i'm sure i'll be able to pick up Barnabee tonight and maybe Peaceful Silhouette on Sunday!

Goal met - just updated...

Well I was going to have my March goal for Peaceful Silhouette to be to to finish all the light stitching (sky and upper part of water) but I finished that last night as you can see above. All I have left is the darker stitching in the bottom right. I hope this month to finish all that if not the whole piece - I am really psyched with this piece lately and really loving it! Even with all that tweeding :)

So last night I stitched through 3 episodes of Gilmore Girls (saved on DVR at my aunt's) before heading off to bed. I also got some reading done for work so it was a very productive night.

Tonight I have to clean clean clean - no stitching :( But the more cleaning I do tonight the less I'll have to do tomorrow night and maybe i can get some stitching done since tomorrow is Barnabee night!

March Goals (i've been lax on goals, i'm getting back into it now :) )

1) Finish Part II of Barnabee and start Part III
2) Finish Leanne's block 6
3) Piece Leanne's block 9
4) Start applique on Leanne's block 7
5) Finish all half stitching on Peaceful Silhouette
6) Make baby quilt for mom's friend

I think that's enough for March, we'll see how it goes :) I'd like to have Peaceful Silhouette finished in April and Barnabee as well. Then it will be a month of starting new pieces!