It's finally over.

And it didn't go too badly, not bad at all really, now we just wait about a week or so. Luckily I will be out of the office Mon-Thur next week taking a linux course with another co-worker. When I get back hopefully everything will be done and over with for sure :)

Anyhow. Stitch night last night. Man did I need that. I came to work early and stayed until after 5. No break at all. Then a long drive home through traffic, a quick stop home and I was still late to stitch night. But once I got there I had a great time, laughing and stitching and buying new charts :) I stitched more on my Gazelle, I'm very close to finishing that now so I may finish him up this weekend, maybe work on him at lunch today instead of Legends since I'm so close. And these animals always get tons of compliments, stitching in groups is so motivating, I love it :)

So what did I buy...
Well I bought the DMC i was missing (1 color for legends), and a strand of GAST that caught my eye... purple Iris I think it was called.
I got the chart I was waiting for:
Cookie Dragon

And completing my series by Twisted Threads, i now have the last two months I've been waiting for:
Mini-Gingham August Away
Mini-Gingham September Study

I'm not supposed to be buying stuff but it was so little and I really feel like I owe it to the store owner for opening up her shop to us for the evening, and I couldnt' just buy a skein of DMC! All in all I didn't spend that much and I won't buy any other stash this month. Technically I have been working on the website but currently I'm not, until after my linux course anyhow when I can start the upgrade since I finished everything else.

I will be buying more stamp stuff in August for sure, my friend is having another stamp party, but I won't spend as much as last time hopefully, I'd like to keep it around 100 instead of 200, we shall see for sure, maybe 130 or something. Yikes and I must not forget that I still need to pay for stitcher's hideaway.. I think it's time for me to take a peak at my bills and get them taken care of :)

Going to be another busy day. At least yesterday I got 15 minutes to eat my lunch, but no stitching time... probably none today either but it's stitch night so I will be breaking out the Gazelle tonight for sure!

Well gotta go already - things are happening. Oh and no stitching or quilting last night at all, just settled in and watched a movie with my aunt.

Update:

Well now it's 10am and there's no sign of our inspection person. They were supposed to be here at 9, and we're ready so for the last hour I've been back to doing my real work instead of what I've been doing all week (preparing for inspection).

We watched Bridget Jone's Diary (the second one) again last night, my aunt hadn't seen it and I really liked it so I wanted to watch it again. I couldn't get myself to work on my ohio stars though which is a bummer.

I've been thinking lately about sewing walls. I don't have a sewing room, or any extra space whatsoever really but I'm trying to figure out how I could make a sewing wall (just a piece of felt to put my blocks up on to organize them (specifically for the ohio star quilt which is small so we're not talking a lare wall or anything. I just need to buy the felt and find the space. I'm not thinking permanent, something I can tack up and then roll up when it's not needed.

Oh man the delay waiting for our inspection is horrible, i just want it over with. I'm so nervous, mostly because I've only been here a year and I have so much responsibility. Maybe if I do well I'll get a bigger raise (i'm up for my annual review which should include a raise and i'm waiting to hear anything about that). This is all new stuff to me, never having had a job for this long (being in school mostly), so we shall see...

It's going to be a busy day but at least it's cooled off.

And boy has it cooled off! I was cold last night after work (of course I was still wearing shorts). I drove into Brighton after work to get some computer parts we needed yesterday but today will have to do and then I went to my quilt get together (i was late having never driven to Brighten and getting a wee bit lost).

Anyhow, I got to show off my Amish quilt and see all the amazing quilts everyone else is working on. I bought some sashing fabric for my ohio star quilt, I couldn't find that perfect fabric for the triangles yet but I'm no where near ready on the quilt for it (still have 4 ohio stars to finish). I hopefully will be motivated enough tonight to work on it at my aunt's after dinner.

A little work on Legends at lunch yesterday was nice, finishing up some purples in his stomach. I've been putting off the blended colors but I really should do those probably. And I can not find one DMC color at all - luckily I have stitch night thursday and i'm sure i can get it there (i wouldn't normally buy it anyplace for more than 20cents but it is convenient and it's only one skein) and ACMoore just isn't happening anytime soon as far as I can tell with my crazy busy schedule... maybe joann's this weekend .. maybe..

Well i'm hungry and i have a horribly busy day that will probably turn into a late day too :( I must get a start on it...

Yesterday was a long day!

No lunch break like I had hoped at all - finally after 9 hours working in 84 degree temp (our a/c is broken in the office right now), i headed home.

I was home by 6 after stopping to pick up a pizza (a whole pizza for myself will last 3 meals so i'm good for lunch today and tomorrow). I watched the second Bridgette Jone's Diary - that was a great movie, I wouldn't mind owning those two movies some day, for now i just rented it (1 dollar at my library for a week). While I watched that I started embroidering the second block for my guild's raffle quilt.

Then at 8 since my show wasn't on yet (on at 9), i went to the gym - yea for me ;) I ran over a mile which was good and walked a bit. Then I headed back home to watch my show. After the premier of Summerland during which I FINISHED embroidering the block (it's the same japanese fan I embroidered last month), anyway, after that I pieced the 4 blocks for the raffle quilt by machine and then went to bed.

I feel like I accomplished so much last night and going to the gym was great. Today however I got up way late (40 minutes), but it's no biggie if i only work 7 hours today since I worked 9 yesterday, and if i end up missing lunch again I'll fit in 8 anyway. The only reason I have to leave today by 4:30 at the LATEST is because I'm giving someone a ride to the car dealership after work so he can get his car. It's on my way home so it's no big deal at all.

Then tonight is my quilting get together, I'm going to bring my Amish Quilt to show and tell and my ohio stars - since I have 9 done now. I may pick out the two fabrics that I need to finish that quilt too if I see anything I like, since I get a discount shopping on these get together nights.

I came prepared for a hot office today - i actually wore shorts. This is a rarety, as I'm one of those people that is always always cold! Last summer I wore jeans and long sleeves all summer but with the a/c broken yesterday I was sweating in capri's and a tanktop so today it's shorts. With my luck the a/c will be fixed today and i'll end up freezing but it's warm right now so i'm good so far :)

Progress:
Legends of the Dragons - at approximately 52 hours, here's Magic:



Here is my Gazelle progress at 2 hours:


What a HOT weekend - oh my! Not only hot but humid - yuck! Well it was a relaxing weekend at least. Saturday we went shopping, mostly to BJ's (where I always spend more money than I plan on) and then shoe shopping for some summery shoes.

The rest of the night was spent watching movies from the library and stitching when I could stand to have the light on (my light generates a lot of heat).

Sunday I worked on the website a bit and stitched and frogged some stitching (I messed up on Magic's tail and had to frog a bunch and restitch it :( )
I also worked on my Amish quilt a bit - getting 5 more pumpkin seeds done, there are 7 on a side but I can only fit 5 in my hoop at once so I finished those 5 and now I have to move my hoop to do the others to be halfway done with the border.

I completely forgot to piece together my raffle quilt blocks so i'm hoping to do that tonight and also to draw the embroidery design onto the fabric to start that for the raffle quilt. Tonight is my only night home to get stuff done. Tuesday I have my quilt gathering where I finally get to show off my Amish quilt. Wednesday I go to my aunt's where I will work on piecing my ohio star maybe. Thursday is stitch night and I will work on my Gazelle more. That leaves Legends to only be worked on at lunch time this week and hopefully this weekend I can work on my amish quilt more as I have a lot to do on it still.

I also have a movie to watch tonight hopefully after Summerland is on. I got the second Bridget Jone's Diary from the library and hope to watch that while either embroidering or quilting (or both).

Well I think this week will be a busy week and that's always good so I better get some work started, I am looking forward to stitching on Legends at lunch time though!

It's FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!

That means my boyfriend comes home tonight :) I can't wait to see him.

Besides that - I'm feeling better, thank you everyone for the good wishes. I have an annoying cough now but I'm clear headed and had no problem either staying up later last night or sleeping.

My stitching friend came over and we had dinner last night and worked on some cards she's making. Then we switched to stitching and watching Law and Order :) Always fun. I started the Ever So Little - Gazelle which I think is going to go faster than either of the other two as I finished the head and started the shoulders already besides backstitching. The best part about the Ever So Littles though is that there is hardly any backstitching so they really finish up quick. I look forward to getting this done and ironed so I can start experimenting with my mat cutting to get the perfect double mat for this, I will have to buy some new mat board in the right colors but i have plenty to practice with. Then I have until Christmas to get a frame for it, even if I have just a custom frame made and I do the stretching myself and stuff as now I've learned how to lace, it takes a while but definately doable.

So I will put away the Ever So Little until next thursday (stitch night) - hopefully i can resist him... and this weekend I will stick to quilting my amish quilt and maybe stitching on Legends a little to satisfy myself :) I like legends as my lunch project because I get to touch it almost every day - but today i am going out to lunch so no stitching break :(

I'm looking forward to another relaxing weekend, work on the website a bit, start the upgrade process if i can get my local server running the site - so far it's not looking good but maybe ... It's really a database problem i'm hitting right now, the permissions are wrong and they won't let me as a normal user edit the database, only as root and i don't know how to change that so the website can edit the database... linux... hmph!

I promise pictures on Monday, I will have a nice update of Legends - with my dragon Magic coming along, I started outlining his second wing now, I took one color and I'm just going through and stitching that color wherever it is called for, which gives a nice shape to the dragon but hopefully I won't mess up my counting!! I might start the sparkly part this weekend as that's hard to resist :) Also my Gazelle warrants a nice picture.

Well work calls, only 2 hours before lunch so i have to get my testing done, that will leave me the afternoon to write up my results. If I finish early i may even just leave early, but if i run late i have to stay late... oh the pain of it all!

Bagel Day - if I can eat one.

Well the cold is better still - but the sore throat is a bit worse, probably going to be a tough day for eating, but I have some fruit I can cut up and hopefully I won't irritate it further.

No stitching last night at all. I kinda figured that would happen with my cold. I got a tiny bit of stitching at lunch time done, sitting outside with a few coworkers, but not much.

It was hot yesterday - hot and muggy! We ate dinner around 7:30 and then tried to go for a walk, hoping to beat the storm, but about 1/4 mile down the road the storm hit big time and we were soaked (even with umbrellas which we definately knew to carry). The rest of the night I slept, mostly on the couch then after 11:40 up in bed. It was a long night but I think the sleep has been helping me big time.

Tonight hopefully is a stitch night. I need to get in touch with my friend and see if she wants to come over for dinner and stitching. I have chicken defrosting at home so I figured I'd make chicken parm or something simple, maybe chicken and rice. So hopefully tonight a little stitching will get done of some kind and at lunch today I'll add a bit more to Legends of the Dragons.

Well bagels haven't arrived yet and I'm not sure my throat will handle them anyway so I'm going to make some oatmeal up.

Feeling better.

Well last night was horrid, by the end of the day I was in pain (sinus/headache etc) and I just wanted to sleep. I went home and slept for about an hour - mostly in a delusional state of uncomfortableness and constant waking up. But finally at 6:30 I got back up and did some work on the website for 2 hours. that was tough on my head but it had to be done.

I had really wanted to get the apartment cleaned so even as sick as I was I cleaned, a bit anyway, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen and then vacuumed all the floors. I still need to do a better vacuum job to get the cielings and behind the couches etc, before my spider craze will be gone but this is much better.

Then I tried sleeping again. Didn't work out too well, I was still delusional and finally when my boyfriend called me at 11:30 (which I complained about but I wasn't actually sleeping when he called - just trying to sleep), anyway, I took Nyquil finally and then slept till 6 no problem, even fell back asleep after my alarm to make it in a little later than normal.

So today I still have a headache and some sinus pressure/congestion but I feel 80% better than yesterday and if I eat better today and sleep again tonight I should be fine tomorrow.

So no stitching last night, I worked on Legends of the Dragons at lunch time, made a bit of progress on his left wing. Today at lunch I hope to continue with Legends.

What am I up to stitching wise:
Well in the evenings from now on I'm going to work on the website mostly and quilt any free time I have.
At lunch I will work on Legends of the Dragons.
At my stitch nights (every thursday) I will work on my next Ever So Little (Gazelle), and work on that on the weekends until it's finished as well.
I need to embroider a block for my quilt guild still too - so this weekend I hope to start that and piece the other 4 blocks for the raffle quilt as well. The embroidery is due by the 28th but the 4 pieced blocks must be done by the 18th.

Now I've already eaten breakfast and I am going to get some work done this morning, even if I have to shut my office door (to block out the talking in the hallway) to do it!

Well now I definately have a cold. I thought I was getting it friday but getting 13 hours of sleep must have pushed it off until last night, I got home and it hit big time. I had a headache and sinus pain. This morning it was all a little worse and my throat hurts, so I took some tylenol cold and I just had a cup of tea (instead of my regular morning hot chocolate).

Besides that I did remain pretty productive last night. I touched the website a tad, and stitched a tad more while watching the end of The OC season I missed but had taped (last 4 episodes I think). So I made a little progress on Legends, started working on the left wing of Magic and the head. Then I picked up my quilt and finished the one green strip I had started so I'm 1/4 done with the first green border. I need to focus on this more than my stitching for a while if I plan on meeting my June goal of finishing the green and starting the cross hatch in purple.

Tonight I have to clean - really I have to. I haven't cleaned in a while and I'm seeing those little spiders (the ones that look like daddy long legs but smaller), in the corners. I'm horribly afraid of spiders so if I don't clean I'll start having nightmares or something. So I will start as soon as I get home tonight which shouldn't be too late, i've been getting to work early enough that I can leave before 4:30, that's with an hour stitching break too.

Tomorrow night I go to my uncle's, hopefully I will work on my ohio stars a bit, since I didn't last week. I'd like to get number 10 pieced so I have no reason to put off cutting out number 11,12, and 13. They are still not cut out!

Well my cold is getting to me, maybe this calls for two cups of red tea? I hate colds, maybe I should have just called in sick today and slept, but I wouldn't have slept and I have tons of work to do...

An Awesome weekend with some stitching too!!!

First, check out this progress on Legends, I pretty much finished the border around Majesty and just started Magic last night:


I quilted a little last night, I wanted to quilt more but it was too darn hot to hold a quilt in my lap with my light over my shoulder. I have a picture though of the center part quilted now:

The green border on the left is the one I started on and I have the top two pumpkin seeds done on that and most of the zig-zag is finished on that strip.

What a weekend! The weather was amazing! I don't remember much of Friday night, I was pretty out of it, I felt like I had a cold coming on so I cuddled up behind my boyfriend on the couch and went to sleep while he watched tv. Saturday we drove all the way back to NY (not city but upstate), to his bank to deposit his check, then back, we were home by 2:30 - that was 5 hours driving - which gave me about 4 hours stitching!! That was Legends progress right there.

We had the rest of Saturday to kill so we went to the library and got some movies to watch and some language tapes, with a commute for both of us this summer we thought we might try to learn Italian on tape at the same time. We'll see how it goes. I haven't started yet because I'm in the middle of a book right now but he is starting today.

Sunday we got up and went running (bonus), then we both worked, he brought home work and I worked on the website finishing up a bunch of tasks I had to do. Around 2 we were feeling like we accomplished a ton so we decided to go out to the park. It was 83 degrees or so, it was hot! We went to the local park and put down a blanket, he worked more and I stitched for a while and then read. Even got a bit of a tan on my shoulders.

What do you do after a hot day in the park?? We got ice cream :) I love warm weather. I spent the rest of the night relaxing, stitching a bit, quilting a bit. I would rate this weekend as excellent. The only thing that could have been better is not having to drive for 5 hours but what can you do??

3 little girls...

That's what my night consisted of. Oh boy! We had a good time, we started with dinner which was cereal (as per the mommy's instructions, i would have voted for something like chicken and rice - no milk to spill on my skirt that way). Anyway, all three sat at the table together and each ate their own cereal. Then it was time for bed. The youngest is now over 15 months so she is getting easier and after an hour and a half I got them all to bed. Actually the middle one (3 years) was the toughest, they've been going through a rough patch getting her to sleep lately, she likes to just lay and talk which wakes up her sisters!

Finally I got to spend some time with my boyfriend, which was real exciting considering we were both exhausted, so we watched Stigmata. Then we went to bed when my aunt and uncle got back from the movies. All in all i'd say it was an easy night and it's so cute in the morning when all three want hugs and kisses before i go to work (even the youngest now). What loving girls, my aunt and uncle must be doing something right!

It looks like tomorrow my boyfriend and I are going to drive back to NY for an hour, he needs to go to his bank. That's 5 hours in the car - maybe i can stitch the whole time??? At least for 2 hours I can stitch, I may drive a bit too. We are thinking about getting language tapes to listen to on the ride and then on our commutes. I generally listen to books on tape but while he has a commute this summer he wanted to learn a language and I'd like to learn along with him. So, he mentioned Spanish, i was thinking more along the lines of Italian since I definately want to go to Italy and Greece (a heritage thing), and Italy would be a great country to spend 3 weeks in, so much history there.

So i'll go to the library tonight and see what they have for language tapes/cds.

It's going to be a long day today - I've been at work a whole hour and I'm already yawning! I think I may need a nap!

A nice night out.

My cousin had her "last" soccer game last night, i say "last" that way because since they tied they are going on to the playoffs in some form or another, but technically the season is over. It was a good game, not a lot of interesting things going on since it was tied 1-1, both teams had a great offense and defense.

After that we went out to dinnr to celebrate my aunt's birthday. It was a really nice dinner in Groton. I pretty much passed out when we got back but I did manage to stay awake while my aunt opened presents.

I hope to stitch at lunch time today, at least for a half hour. That will be Legends. I'm looking at my blank calendar on the wall. I have 2 stitch nights this month that I can make it to, so I will work on the Ever So Little then and until that time I will stick to Legends and quilting my amish quilt.

Next week is the week that marks me having worked here for a whole year! I started on June 14th last year which is the 13th this year. I have an annual review that should be happening soon, my boss has a back log of the reviews because he's been really busy with a program, so i'm not sure when my review will happen but hopefully not too late. I would just like to get some feedback if i can.

Well it's bagel day and I think i better go get one!

I was very good last night! I worked on the website for 2 hours!

Really that was very good. It was my first night alone for the summer as my boyfriend is spending week nights up at my uncle's house since it's closer to his internship (otherwise he'd have to drive 140 miles a day). So I went home and ate dinner, watched a little tv and worked on the website while the last 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls were on. That was great too because I had missed them but I do have them saved to watch later (now I don't have to worry about it).

Still in the queue to watch are the 2 episodes of gilmore girls before the last 2. And the last 3 episodes of Summerland. Also the last 5 episodes of The OC. Maybe a few Tru Calling episodes too.

So no stitching. Tonight I am going to my aunt and uncle's for dinner, I am bringing my stitching, I will probably work on block 10 of my ohio stars.

Thursday night I head up to my other uncle's house which is where my boyfriend is and we'll babysit his 3 kids while they go out to dinner and a movie. I don't expect to get any type of stitching done that night, probably some tv watching and mostly sleeping :)

June Goals :) --is it June already!

1) Finish Quilting Green border on Amish Quilt
2) Piece Ohio Star block 10
3) Embroider Fan block for raffle quilt
4) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt

5) Start/Finish Ever So Little - Gazelle
6) Legends of the Dragons - stitch border and start Magic

7) Work on Website ~16 hours
(i know that's not a stitching goal but it will affect my stitching a lot), plus it causes a decrease in the number of stitching goals.

But I think I can make those goals, and more importantly if I follow those goals I will feel good about what I'm working on (working toward finishing the amish quilt and the ever so little's for christmas).

May ReCap:

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

Yea! I did good this last month and I only stitched 20 odd hours, and quilted 20 hours!

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!