Cross Stitch & My Crazy Life

I am around

2012-02-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been so silent. I am going through somethings right now so my heart isn't into talking or stitching so I don't have anything to post about. I hope in the next few weeks I can shake off my troubles.

Thanks for listening and sticking around.

Progress

2012-01-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I hope 2012 is starting out nice and lovely for you all. It's going rather calmly for me.

I promise I have been stitching on Egyptian Garden just not much LOL. I have done half the row of far away palm trees (which is beside the arch's) and I have done one of the over one cats. I am currently working on one of the pyramids and the metallic border behind it. I am hoping this weekend I will be able to post a picture.

What I have been doing is reading. I got a ereader for Christmas so I have been using all the coupons that I received to buy some new books. I am currently reading A Discovery of Witches, I have heard good and bad reviews of the book and I am definitely on the side of it's a good read. The scientific DNA parts are a bit dry but I am really enjoying reading that kind of stuff.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for listening.

Next post I promise will have pictures.

Last Post & Finish of 2011

2011-12-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

Yep, you read that right I was able to finish Quaker Christmas yesterday. But sadly I was only able to finish 3 in 2011.....very pathetic I will be trying for a heck of a lot more next year.

And now I have started back on to Egyptian Garden, I was able to finish the back stitching on the Arch's and now I will be working on the area with the lotus flowers, black cats and palm trees...I am so excited. LOL.

Check out the canvas kit I got for Christmas. It is called Diamond Eyes and I am doing the Allure color scheme which is the one in the middle.

Well everyone have a great start of 2012.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I am just stopping by really quickly to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Please everyone be safe this holiday season.

FYI: I got a new camera so I will be able to post pics in the new year and I am still working on Quaker Christmas. I only have 1/2 page since I am off between Christmas and New Year I will be working hard to get this done. I haven't even kitted up any of my projects for next year yet because I am determined to finish Quaker first.

Oh dear

2011-12-16T22:58:00.014-08:00

Well I am annoyed.....yet again. I will be so glad to see the end of 2011. So I have been so busy with shopping, wrapping, work, Christmas visits etc that I haven't put a stitch into Quaker Christmas for about two weeks. I am now wondering if I can manage to finish it before Christmas or whether I will be still working on it Christmas.

So, Fizzy's foot has completely healed now and he is finished his antibiotics as of yesterday. I was able to take off the bandage the vet put on his foot after about 3 days and he pretty much left it alone. So I am happy the whole situation is over now.

My mother's side of the family Christmas party was last Saturday and I was showing my great aunt a photo of one of mom's framed Mirabilia in the front hallway. I wasn't paying attention and neither was she and one thing lead to another and she dropped my camera onto the hardwood floor. I didn't think anything of it at the time so I didn't check the camera right then and there but I waited about 30 mins and now my display screen is completely black and I can't take pictures anymore *shit*.

I was told by the local camera guy in our area that the lens is misaligned and it will cost about $150 to fix, since the camera cost me about $125 two years ago I don't think it's worth it to fix. Also, I just got my Christmas bonus at work today so I am going to look for a new camera. I most definitely didn't want to have to do this right now before Christmas but I am hoping the camera I purchase goes on sale on Boxing Day if it does I get some of the money back so I will cross my fingers it goes on sale LOL and since I am using my bonus money it technically won't cost me a thing. What this also means is I won't be able to take pictures of any stitch until I replace the camera.

Thanks for listening.

**apparently blogger doesn't like this post, I have been trying for 2 days to post it and my 'publish post' button isn't working.

I am still here

2011-12-08T08:20:00.001-08:00

I have wanted to post, really I have...I have also wanted to stitch too LOL.

So I am in the final stretch of Quaker Christmas, I am on the last page and have about 3/4 left to do. I had no idea that there were so many large motif on this page. I am alternating between the large and small just to keep this project moving.

My goal was to be finish before Saturday, we are going to a family christmas party and I want to show my great aunt the finished design but I just don't think this will happen.

Some one asked last month what colors I am using, I am using DMC variation colors I think the are #4200 & 4010. I will check if I am correct on the numbers and correct this post if I am wrong.

An update on Fizzy, so his injury turned out not to be that bad, he almost broke the dew claw completely off which was the best thing he could have done, or at least that's what the vet said. He would have done just that if his fur hadn't gotten in the way. So she just finished cutting the nail off, cauterized it and bandaged it up, he was a little red too so he is on meds for 10 days.

So Christmas is in high gear niw ant work and home and I literally am going to bed exhausted.....there is so much to do.

I bought myself a mini tree this year so I could decorate it the way I wanted to and then I bought jumbo ornies so they would jump out. I decorated it on Tuesday but I don't like how the jumbo ornies are sitting, they all seem to be at the bottom half of the tree so I am going to shuffle them around tonight.

Thanks for listening.

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Long lost post

2011-11-29T18:04:00.001-08:00

I have been trying so hard to finish page 4 on Quaker that I have been neglecting my blog. LOL. But life is getting in the way, my only consulation is at least I am almost finished my christmas shopping haha, yes it's still November. It's been a couple years since I have been able to accomplish that.

So back to Quaker, I only have 3 or 4 medium size motifs left which if all goes well tonight I can finally finish it.

The only thing new is Fizz decided to injure his dew claw last night and was bleeding, so I have called the vet and I am suppose to wrap his foot until his appointment on Saturday. I really don't know how that is going to work. Hopefully its not major and will heal on its own and doesn't require surgery.

I will try to do a better post once I finish page 4 of Quaker

Thanks for listening.

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Quaker Christmas WIP

2011-11-12T15:15:00.014-08:00

I have finally gotten a chance to show you updated pics of Quaker. What with the stress of strata, my computer dieing on me, busy at work and gearing up for Christmas baking I have found it hard to get an opportunity to do a post much less one with pictures.

This first one is page 2 and 3 finished. When I started back on Quaker I have already finished page 2 and was half way through 3. I was able to complete 3 in about 4 days.

This photo is of page 6 finished. I was a little busy while I was stitching this page so this one took me a week and a half.

This photo is of page 5 finished. I think this one took about 6 days to complete and I finished it a couple hours ago.

So now all I have left is page 1 & 4. My goal is to finished this pattern before the end of the month. It is going to be easy to fulfill that goal. I this can't believe I had this pattern so long as a WIP. I have also purchased Quaker #2 and will be using the same colors as this one but in reverse order. I don't plan on working on it for at least 2 years but it will definitely not be a long WIP if its anything like the current Quaker.

Thanks for listening

It all worked out in the end

2011-11-03T16:07:00.001-07:00

As my post suggests I am in a better mood.

I am about 85% happy with what went down at the AGM last night. These things usually take about an 1 hour we on the other hand were there for 2.5 hours so as you can imagine there were a lot of people with questions.

At the end of the day the usual strata fees did not go up (they wanted a 5% increase). The roofs are getting done (my father actually voted yes), but the gutters and fascia will wait for at least 2 years.

The reason we voted yes is for two very simple reasons 1) As long as the strata gets the money before the 24 month deadline is up they don't care how or when they get it, we could do lump sum, monthly or quarterly. This is fabulous for us so we have time to save and/or add it to the mortgage if we so choose. 2) The money figure they asked for actually might go down. Apparently they are still shopping around for a roofer but from the 7 bids they have received so far they took the most expensive one and put that one into the payment schedule so they wouldn't have to come back to us in 18 months and ask for more money. Their goal was to show us the worst case scenario but ultimately use one of the roofers that quoted less and write checks back to us with the money that is leftover. I really do like their thinking on that. They also added a little nest egg into the proposed figure to cover cost overruns as well so they are pretty confident there will be no need for any more money. Over all very happy with the situation once it was properly explained and rationalized to us. So instead of paying an extra $300 per month for 2 years it's only $184.

I was also amused when a couple of the owners went after the property manager about his attitude and ideas he had about spending our money, that was one of my big issue with this whole thing and I was happy to hear I wasn't the only one questioning his authority.

So the roofs will be done in stages once the money starts trickling in some time in the spring, there are 5 buildings and building 1 is the worse so obviously they will be done first. We live in building 4 so we probably won't get done till 2013 which is fine with me.

This experience has taught me to question everything especially when it involves a third party committee and money. I did panic when I didn't need to but I feel if the paperwork was explained better we as strata owners wouldn't have been so angry.

Thanks everyone for listening and letting me vent.....and I promise I will post pictures of Quaker Christmas very soon. I just have to get the photos off my camera.

Seriously part 2

2011-11-02T16:00:00.001-07:00

Now I'm really pissed off.

So my father went to the property management office this afternoon to double check everything was going ahead tonight and was chatting up the receptionist/manager, (I'm not sure what role she has) and the woman is pretty confident the special levy resolution will pass tonight. Naive woman.....that's not what has me pissed off.

She mentioned that the discussion about replacing the roofs have been discussed for 2 years now. What the heck is she talking about???? which is what I said to my father I mentioned to him that if strata council talks about it between themselves and behind closed doors that means nothing, the conversation has to be with ALL owners and a 3 line mention in last years AGM minutes doesn't constitute talking about it.

She also mentioned that 'we were told' to start saving for the roofs because they would be done this year....a) it is November if the roofs are being done this year the money should have been collected already b) when was it discussed, if she is talking about the 3 lines in last years minutes no where does it say we should start saving c) only 26 of the 48 units were at the AGM last year so when exactly were they going to tell the remaining 22 that we should start saving. e) no where does it say how much to save, me personally I would have squirreled away $100 a pay check and still only had $2400 by the end of the year but we need $7000, we were only told the amount we needed in October and who's to say if they did mention about saving we just thought they were talking about the strata as a whole unit because some of us where under the assumption the contingency fund was paying for the roofs not us personally.

And besides even if we all started saving like they asked life and shit happens and people lose jobs, medical expenses come up, cars breakdown etc. and the saving stops. A person would have to save $583 per month for the last 12 months to have the $7000 they want.

These people (council) are not being realistic. I am confused as to how these people don't own their own house as opposed to a townhouse if they have so much money laying around. They must go to the UK for vacation every year or summer in Florida because us working folks don't have two dimes to rub together.......Now I'm not saying we are surviving on food stamps or anything like that we are getting by, cutting where we can/need to and living life as it comes but unforeseen expenses like this completely mess with our finances/lives and they don't seem to give a crap.

Okay, I have to stop talking about this right now, I'm getting more pissed off. If anyone cares I will post what the result of the AGM is either tonight or tomorrow depending on my mood.

Thanks again for listening.

Seriously!

2011-11-01T16:18:00.001-07:00

Well I am so glad that October is over, it was the worse month imaginable.

First off, I got completely blued out when it came to working on Found HAED so around Canadian Thanksgiving (October 11th) I put it away before I really started hating the design. So I obviously won't be able to finish it in time for my mom's birthday in March which was my plan. I have spoken to her about this and she's okay about it.....she actually joked with me and said she was surprised I lasted as long as I did with all that blue. So I have moved on to Quaker Christmas and I'm loving it!!! I can't believe that I didn't pick the WIP up sooner. I started working on page 3 which is where I left off last time I worked on it (there are 6 pages; I've finished page 2 already) and it only took me 2 hours to finish the page, then I moved down to page 6 which took about 5 days to complete and now I'm on page 5 which I hope to be finished by the end of the week which will leave just part of page 1 and page 4 and then I'm done. My goal is to complete it by the end of November and then I want to finish Fairy Celebration #3, then I will either do some biscornus or work on a canvas design, I haven't decided yet. But I still will only have managed to finish 4 pictures this year which is just sad :(

So now onto my issues with October. We live in a strata townhouse complex which I detest. I find council are nosy, pushy and don't really do anything for us it's all about them and spending our money on things that shouldn't be the strata's responsibility. Well they have decided out of the blue that the roofs need replacing.....now don't get me wrong they actually do need to be replaced soon they are about 20 years old but the way strata is going about doing this is what has me pissed off.

Last year at our AGM (annual general meeting) they mentioned quite briefly that the roofs need replacing and the consultant they hired figured in the next 3 year this should be done.....fine, fine I agree but then they did nothing about it until this years AGM were they announced in the budget paperwork that 30 of the 48 units would have their roofs replaced in 2011/12 along with the gutters and fascia so they would need $4500 from each unit to do this so they would be raising the strata fees from $205 a month to $515 (or we could give them a lump sum payment of the $4500) and the new payments would start in 2 weeks. WTF In this economy who the hell has $4500 laying around to give nor can come up with an extra $300 per month without any notice. My father was livid, he doesn't make enough money to cover this let alone for an entire year, we also have a single mom in the complex, a family with a disabled child, 6 families with small children, 1 family who have rented out their townhouse for hardship reasons and at least 2 family that one of them has lost their job recently. None of these family can afford this either......then two days later the AGM was cancelled and we were told there were some concerned and they would get back to us. Now they want to do all 48 units at $7000 per unit or $300 over two years. Oh yes, strata council this is so much better than the first option (not!!).

To me this is just absurd, instead of talking to everyone and seeing what everyone could afford and do a payment schedule with a timeline from that information or start saving last year or even 5 years ago they are throwing this at us now, and right before Christmas. What exactly have we been paying into the contingency fund for if not for a large expense like this.....oh wait!! that's right you (strata council) have spent the contingency fund money on expenses that weren't the strata's responsibility and now that we need the money it is no longer there....... grrrrrrr.

So the AGM is tomorrow and we need 3/4 of the units to vote this down and from a couple of the units that dad has talked to that might just happen, I'm holding my breath and being a pessimist about this and assuming it's going to pass, if that happens I can see half the complex putting their homes on the market which includes us. It's so frustrating.

**I have thought up a bit of a payments schedule that might work and I'm going to try and present it tomorrow and see if they bite.

And then 2 weeks ago our car died quite unexpectedly. My father was able to borrow the courtesy car from work to get me home (yup I was with him when it happened) but he had to return the car the next day. He had arranged a ride from my uncle to get him home after he dropped the car off but my uncle flaked on him so my 62 year old father with vein/blood pressure issues and a bad leg was forced to walk 24 blocks home half of which were uphill, thankfully it didn't rain that day and my uncle couldn't understand why my mom was upset at him afterwards. This situation fixed itself and my father was able to buy a used car from work but it was just the cherry on top of our October problems.

If you have made it through this post I thank you for listening. I usually like to keep my problems to myself because this is after all a stitching/work problems blog but I am just so stressed out I needed to vent.

I will posted some progress pictures of Quaker tomorrow if I get a chance to.....oh ya and my computer died on Friday so it's in the shop so I am posting from my net book and smartphone only so I might only be able to post 2 of the 3 pictures I've taken.

Again thanks for listening

Little Update

2011-10-06T21:49:00.020-07:00

Haha, thanks for the comment Lana, I completely agree with you and the 'spectator sport'. Like I said earlier I am just an innocent bystander by I can't help but hope CW gets pushed down a peg or two with her attittude. The fact that the situation in March still bothers me because of it's unfairness I put the blame completely on her shoulders and said as much to the partner I spoke to back in March. But then on the other hand she has 25 years experience in law/office situations and the junior lawyer has exactly 1.5 months of being a lawyer. Just because he's a lawyer and she is staff I don't think it gives him the right to treat us like shit on the bottom of his shoes (he doesn't treat me well either) nor should he talk over her when she is trying to help him and instruct him especially since the parterns asked her to train him.

Any who, onto a happier topic, today was Fizzgig's first birthday, so if you don't mind here are some of my favorite photos of him.

When he was 13 weeks.

I can't believe how much he has changed. He is so loving and makes me smile everyday.

**Backdated post since I was having trouble posting on Thursday evening.

Interesting times

2011-10-06T08:17:00.001-07:00

So there are interesting times at work right now.

My co-worker "CW" has been having issues with the junior lawyer in the office. They have been having screaming matches. I have been staying out of it but as you can imagine with an open concept office floor plan that is easier said then done. The partners have been ignoring the situation which isn't helpful but things came to a head on Tues when she got carried away and one of the partners started bitching about her after she left for the day blaming her for the situation and then yesterday I found out that one of the other partners is siding with her......so I don't know what is going to happen but my CW does realize that she could get fired or she might quit or the partners might take away some of her power in regards to the staff, I think that is a good thing. Either way it doesn't involve me so I am sitting back and watching.

I think both were in the wrong and both think they are in charge and they both need wake up calls.

Thanks for listening

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Sorry, late photo

2011-09-21T08:21:00.001-07:00

So my intention last night was to stitch and then post an updated photo but unfortunately I started feeling ill and got hardly any stitch done...actually I don't even remember what I did, then I couldn't get to sleep because of feeling ill and uncomfortable so all I have to say is today is going to be a rough day.

I am going to try and post a photo from my phone, not sure how well it will turn out.

Thanks for listening.

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Hard to blog

2011-09-20T07:48:00.001-07:00

I am sorry I haven't been around much, I just don't have much to say and so I do feel you want me to ramble on in a silly post for nothing.

I am working really hard on Found and making great progress, I can see the outline of the mommy dragon a lot now and with the new fall tv schedule starting back up I am taking this opportunity to get numb bum while sitting amd stitching LOL.

Anyway I have some progress pics and pics of my bookcase that I hope I can show you tonight when I am home.

Thanks for listening.

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Quick post

2011-09-09T12:09:00.007-07:00

So today is the last official day of my vacation and I have to say it was one of my better more enjoyable vacations....or staycation which is what I have been calling it.

I did major spring cleaning in my living area, this task had been lingering for a couple months so I am so glad I finally got it done. I had to purchase a bookcase thingy from Ikea to complete my vision but it was well worth it.

I finally convinced my father to come with me to my storage unit and help reorganize it, apparently labels don't stick on rubber mate container indefinitely like I hoped so all my boxes lost their labels and I was searching for the first 3 harry potter books last month and couldn't find the box they were in, this really annoyed me so I knew I would have to redo everything. As well my little cousin is pregnant and due in Feb and I thought she might be interested in my sideboard that my parents gave me when they changed their living room deco, it would fit perfectly in a baby`s room, unfortunately the sideboard was at the back of the unit, so after 2 hours all my boxes are properly labelled and photographed; I know it`s weird but now I can look at the number and refer to the photo and see what is inside, and the sideboard is in the front of the unit for when my cousin is ready.

Then I have been spending a lot of time with my mom, she is a stay at home mom with no vehicle so she gets pretty lonely & bored so she enjoys my company even if we are sitting beside each other just cross stitching and of course the puppies were with us, its so funny to watch them play all day in the yard and then after they played hard I would turn the hose on them or we would play in their pool, it was too cute.

Then I spent one of the days with my best friend and her sister, then I got my hair cut (my best friend is a hair dresser) and then today I am spending the day with my best friend and godson while he is a an indoor play park.

And of course during my entire vacation I have been stitching, the first couple days I was too busy so I didn't get any done and in the last couple days it has been so hot that I can do it only in small doses because my lamp gives off so much heat, but I have also been staying up until midnight so I can stitch longer LOL. Regardless I have been getting a lot of stitch done and I really found a rhythm. My original goal was to finish up to the purple chunk (check out previous post picture) I think I can finish up to that point by this evening and then there are only two more rows to finish the page so my new goal is to finish the entire page by Sunday. I am still not sure I can finish the entire design by the end of the year but I will try.

Thanks for listening.

Canvas Photos

2011-09-06T00:40:00.020-07:00

So I have finally gotten off my ass and downloaded the photos from my camera.

Here are the supplies for Good Stuff by Deb Bee Designs, everything is there for the pastel color scheme for the design except for the regular DMC and the Caron watercolor thread since it was on back order when I took the picture, the color is called baby`s breath and it`s a pastel blue with some white and pink mixed in, it is a very nice complementary color and will go great with everything else that has been picked.

Next we have Looking Glass by Threedles, this designs is way beyond my expertise and so I am going to definitely have to work my way to this design, it is also the most expensive design I have ever bought.

Look at all those beads, they are bicones, cubes and swirly bugle type beads.

Next is the progress picture I took of Prosperity fairy before I put her away till next year. I was determined to finish her wings before putting her away.

And finally this is the photo I took of Found before I started by vacation. My goal is to finish page 3 which is two rows above the purple chunk that I have already done on the left. We shall see what I actually accomplish.

Thanks for listening.

This is why I'm not on the wagon

2011-09-01T17:31:00.001-07:00

I have been buying canvas patterns of late and all the supplies needed to stitch them and let me tell you it is an expensive prospect but if I want to do a design anytime I want this has to be done LOL (thats my story and I am sticking to it).

Anyway, if I was a forward thinker I would have photos for you but alas they are still on my camera so I promise I will update this post with photos of Good s
Stuff by Deb Bee designs and Looking Glass by Threedles later on tonight, both of these projects make me very nervous and are completely out of my comfort zone with canvas so I will be doing others in my stash before doing these.

These canvas purchases are also why I haven't stitched much I have been drowling over them and doing some reading but now I am officially on vacation as of 10 minutes ago and I have planned a stay-cation so I plan on making up for lost time with my stitch. Hopefully I can finish FC#3 by the end of the long weekend and then go to town on Found. I decided to put away Prosperity fairy till next year so I can concentrate on found. I cant remember if I said that in a previous post. So I will be posting a pic of what I got done before I put Prosperity down and also a pic of found before the official vacation stitching starts. My goal is to finish 1.5 pages or more. Wish me luck.

Thanks for listening and sticking around with my limited posts.

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Double damn

2011-08-15T17:48:00.001-07:00

So I just recently placed a rather large canvas pattern order from Scarlet Thread so I told myself I couldn't order anything else till my Christmas order that I place in November but wouldn't you know it but Mirabilia has come out with another fabulous design Elizabeth done to honor Elizabeth Taylor, it is most definately on my christmas list but I don't know if I can wait that long to get her.....it is gorgeous. I actually thought it looked like Elizabeth Taylor before I read the write up a couple hours later, I think it's very sweet of Nora to create the design and I love that it goes so nicely with Sabrina and Lady Alexandra. Lets see how long I can last LOL....*if you haven't seen the pattern yet go to abc stitch and check out their new design page or go to Mirabilia's website.

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Finally a post...but short

2011-08-02T16:46:00.004-07:00

Well I would like to say I've been stitching.....but not really I'm just not in the mood so my goal of finishing Found and Prosperity Fairy by the end of the year are in serious doubt, I hope that when I'm on vacation in a couple weeks I can make up for lost time but I just don't know. I'm annoyed but I'm not letting it get me down since this is suppose to be a hobby not a job.

I promised to post an updated pics of Found which I haven't done yet but unfortunately I'm doing this post from work so I will have to edit this later with the picture once I get home, as well I think I have an updated picture of Prosperity I just can't remember what I posted last time so I need to check first before posting a new picture.

I have been working like a demon on Prosperity for the past two weeks (and I'm extending it another week) my goal is to finish all of the wings by the end of the week and with the way things are flying when I actually stitch this is very much doable.

I have decided that since 2 weeks per project is working so well I've decided to extend the time per picture to 4 weeks and see how well that works for me. This is just a short post since I'm suppose to be working LOL.

Thanks for listening.

****Here is an updated post of Found

Silly, silly me

2011-07-25T17:23:00.001-07:00

So I truly am an idiot sometimes. Earlier this year I was working on a freebie Passione design, you might remember fairy celebration 3. I was using a hand dyed thread by Polstitch. I made a huge mistake and had to frog a chunk of it, as I was working further on it I realized I might run out of thread because of that frog. So I ordered two more skeins knowing I would probably have to ripe out the old and restart it.....I was sort of ok with that as long as the two new skeins matched and I was learning my lesson on dyed threads. Fast forward to last week I was inputting the new supplies I purchased and received into my cross stitch program and when I got to the threads, my program said there were 2 in my stash already, I just assumed that I had updated the program already with the new supplies so I just carried on with adding the rest of the stuff, then when I was putting the supplies away what do you think I found? Yep that's right I had purchased a second skein for this project and could have finished it months ago if I had only looked in my stash and/or pulled out all the supplies at the begining so now I have two extra skeins......Well before continuing with this project I am going to double check that the skein wasn't picked for something else because knowing my luck I picked it for another monochromatic design.

In other news I have made great headwave with Found and the only reason why I put it down was because I had to and moved on to Prosperity, which is what I was working on this weekend since it was too hot for anything else it, I made great progress and it looks fabulous. I am thinking of changing the schedule of working on each picture to a month instead of two weeks since I really didn't want to put Found down last time and possibly I can finish Prosperity sooner which will give me more time for Found.......something still to think about.

Thanks for listening, I will try and post WIP pictures tomorrow.

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Photos

2011-07-06T20:44:00.004-07:00

Better late than never,

Here is Prosperity Fairy. I just have to do her eye and the flesh down her neck and back to finish off this section. I might do the back stitch too but since there are beads everywhere in this section around her crown I might wait.

and this is Greece by Chatelaine I have done the PB metallic border and started on the black order around the metallic. I did the two shades of blue/purple last time I worked on it I decided to do the border so I could jump around a bit more in the centre.

Thanks for listening.

Progress on pictures

2011-07-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

Well I have now moved on to found by HAED and it is going well so far which means my current plan is working and I think I might be able to finish the entire row and the next one before it's time to switch.

I also was in the mood to stitch on greece by chatelaine this weekend so I did, the class just ended and I am just loving the WIP I was seeing so I caved. I actually stitched on it for about a half an hour a few months ago. I have converted all the specialty threads to DMC so I really want to see what it is going to look like compared to everyone elses. I might stitch on it a couple more times before the end of the year as long as I stay on track with my priority pieces.

Well my intentions is to go home and post some pictures of the progress I made.

Thanks for listening.

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New smartphone

2011-07-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

Well after a few frustrating few weeks with a dyeing blackberry I thought it was time to upgrade to an android phone. Lets see if this works. Maybe tomorrow I will talk about my stitching and post a picture or two.

Thanks for listening

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208 stitches

2011-06-21T22:38:00.008-07:00

Well I continued to work on Found by HAED for one more day and I got quite a bit accomplished if I do say so. Instead of the meager 30 stitches that I thought I got done I actually got 208 about 50 of those stitches were done on Monday.

I also figured out why it didn't feel like I accomplished a lot, it is because I actually continued stitching a couple colors passed the end of the 10x10 square row I was working, I just couldn't stop stitching when there were only a couple to half a dozen left in that section but I didn't count them toward the total count right now because I'm only counting the actual row I'm working on so in a sense half of my work didn't count (if that makes sense) so when I move on to the next row on page 3 I will be ahead of the game because some of the stitching will already be done. Silly little set up but it works for me.

I have now moved on to Prosperity fairy and I'm going to stitch the hair, face and bodice until the bodice joins the wings. I'm doing this to make sure everything lines up the way it is suppose to before moving on to big chunks of stitching because we all know how cranky we get when we put in a lot of stitches with metallic and find out we are off by a couple stitches, I did that once and riped everything I had stitched over a 4 day period and have never picked the picture back up to restart it I don't want that to ever happen again.

Once I finish the section I'm working on and everything lines up I will be able to choose between 3 section on what I will work on next so if I get bored with all the metallic or all that red I can move on to another section.

Well thanks for listening.

Update on Found

2011-06-19T19:23:00.003-07:00

Well with being sick, family get togethers, the Stanley cup final and the riot that occurred so close to my office and the stress that accompanied it I have to say that the second week of stitching on Found really didn't amount to anything.

I think I put in about 30 stitches and that was only because it was of one color. I am definitely thinking of extending stitching on it for one more day and stitching on the morning train ride instead of reading so I have something more to show for it. I think I will take a picture of the current status and compare with the earlier picture and see how bad it is before deciding.

If I only stitch 30 - 50 stitches a week on this picture there is no way I'm going to finish this picture by the end of the year....well if I get a chance I will post a new picture

Thanks for listening

Fickle HAED stitcher

2011-06-12T23:28:00.003-07:00

So I have just finished week 1 of my HAED/Passione Ricamo rotation of sorts and I am liking it. Number one reason is I know I can get both pictures done by the end of the year; Number two the way I am working on the HAED is working really well and Number three it is definitely giving me strong mojo since I'm happy with my stitching.

So this is about the third or fourth different style of stitching I have tried on HAED which is why I am so fickle but I think this style is actually working for me. It is pretty simple I had picked the top of page two and was working straight across stitching in every since stitch, then I am going to move to the bottom of page three but that is a story for another day. Anyway back to page 2 I have tried travelling over the top of the page, I have tried doing a 10x10 block at a time, I have tried finishing the same symbol for an entire page before moving on but none of these styles worked, some of them I just felt overwhelmed by the vastness of these designs other times the back of my stitching was a mess and I am anal about that and couldn't leave it like that and then other times I kept on making mistakes and getting frustrated that I always wind up putting the picture away in frustration but I am feeling none of that with this new style I am using so crossing my fingers I will stay happy with the way I am stitching.

I decided to switch from page 2 to 3 because there are bigger chunks of similar colors on page 3 and it will be easier to stitch on the train if I don't make a lot of color changes, which is another reason I stopped stitching this pictures because I was frustrated with the work I wasn't getting done on it on the train.

So here is the picture of the top row of page 2 completely finished.

and here is what the bottom of page 3 looks like before I add a stitch.

Well my goal is to take a picture of what I have worked during the week every Sunday and do a blog post so I can actually prove I have been stitching and doing more blogging LOL but whether that actually happens we will see.

Thanks for listening

The month of June

2011-06-05T13:24:00.003-07:00

Well I am just dyeing for a finish in stitching but since I have barely started Prosperity I am nowhere near to that allusive finish.

To help reach my goal of finishing Prosperity fairy and Found by HAED by the end of the year I have decided to work on them both for two weeks span each until the end of the year or until their finish, hopefully this will keep me on track.

I so desperately want to place a 123 stitch order right now but with Canada Post on a rotating strike knowing my luck when the order is ready to be shipped it will be my province and towns turn to be on strike and it will be stuck in the deposit....I just don't know if I should take the chance.

Well off to finish my laundry for the work week.

Thanks for listening.

Oh, come on

2011-05-29T00:23:00.004-07:00

Well I have my mojo back, I'm stitching everyday (almost) but do I have a lot to show for it......NO. Prosperity fairy is very time consuming with all the blends in her dress that I decided to switch it up and move to her wings. I was going to do the outline of the wings in metallic and then decide if I was going to carry on or move over and start working on the bodice section; I want to do it this way because when the bodice was finished that would bring the two sections I was working on together at a mutually joined section so if I made a counting mistake I would find it there, fix it and carry on and not be 3/4 of the way finished a section and then find a mistake... I am strange that way but it works for me.

Anyway I finally got tired of the metallic yesterday and was going to start and hopefully finish the bodice section with perhaps a start on her hair today....but wouldn't you know it I have been hit with a nasty cold and is setting up camp in my sinuses and it is really giving me a hard time today. I have had 2 earaches, a kink in my neck and a headache that has traveled around my head twice so the long and short of it is I think I put in about 15 stitches all day and that's it!!!!! Not impressed, you could say not being able to stitch is a silver lining because chances are I would make major mistakes and have to take it out but I hate feeling as if my Saturday stitch time is wasted time. I hope this is a short lived cold/flu and next week I can show you more of a productive picture.

Here is my status so far:

I cant believe it is almost June and I have been very absent in my blog posting and stitch finishes, hopefully the second half of year is better than the first.

Thanks for listening.

Well, Blogger welcome back

2011-05-14T12:06:00.008-07:00

Well as we all know blogger decided to shut down and pissed everyone a couple days ago. I wasn't overly annoyed since I didn't post anything but what I didn't realize is that all the changes I made to my blog on Thursday disappeared.......not happy about that.

Well here is what I came to post about in the first place

This is as far as I got on Quaker Christmas before I decided to put it away, I am now 3/4 finished page 3.

Here is Hive SB finished, once I got into the groove it didn't take me long at all

and here is my current status of Prosperity Fairy by Passione Ricamo, this is one of the ruffle of her skirt but what you probably cant tell is this sections is actually 4 different symbols, it is 310, 815, blend of 310 and PB19 & blend of 814 and PB07, I was a little surprised at how many blends this design has and how little beading there is. I usually can finish PR designs in 3 months but with all these blends it will definitely slow me down especially working on it on the train.

After Prosperity I have to work on Found and finish it as well this year. I have major plans for my stitching next years so I need to get rid of some outstanding WIP. My plan next year is to work on 1 Chatelaine design and 1 HAED (large) at home and work on half a dozen small/medium projects on the train but that means I have to get rid of Found since it is a HAED and I need to make room for a new one, right now the Chatelaine I will work on next year is Egyptian Garden and if I finish it off before the year is over then I will probably start working on Greece. The reason I am doing this is I have quite a few of both HAED and Chatelaine but I have yet to finish any and every time I see other peoples finishes I get so jealous so I have decided to fix that.

Thanks for listening.

HD No.2

2011-05-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Well I finished Hive on Sunday so I have officially finished 2 pictures so far this year, which to be quite honest sound very sad......it is almost half way through the year and I have nothing to show for it.

Well enough about my moaning and bitching about the lack of stitching. I decided against doing Love by Shepherds Bush, for some reason I felt the need to keep Love in my back pocket in case I have another case of loss of mojo. So I contemplated really hard on what I would work on, I know I should have started back on Found by HAED I have even left all the threads out so I could just pick it up at a moments notice but since my mojo is barely back I didn`t think something like Found would be such a great idea. So I completely ignored my list for this year and just picked a random picture so drum roll please I have decided to do Prosperity Fairy by Passione Ricamo, I had just recently purchased the last DMC thread needed for the design and my piece of fabric from Silkweaver just arrived so I was really feeling this pattern.

So my goal tomorrow is to upload the pictures in my camera and post some shots of hive, quaker christmas and prosperity.

Thanks for listening.

Slowly

2011-05-04T22:39:00.003-07:00

So I have finally got my groove back. I switched out Christmas Quaker because I wasn't feeling it anymore and switched to Shepherd's Bush "Hive", and I'm hoping to be finished it by this weekend I forgot how fast I can get through these patterns. Then I'm thinking of moving on to "Love" and then back to HAED Found.....I haven't decided yet. This is the only problem when I get my mojo back I want to work on all my WIP at the same time. haha

Well that's it for now & maybe next post I will have some pictures of a finish

Thanks for listening

I am stiching I promise

2011-04-19T22:28:00.010-07:00

I have been slowly getting back into the groove of stitching and with a long weekend coming up I hope to accomplish much more. I am still working on Quaker Christmas page three.

I will leave with the latest picture of Fizzgig LOL

Thanks for listening.

Hi everyone

2011-04-02T20:07:00.025-07:00

Well I am feeling a bit better about my job, my co-worker has melted in her ice queen attitude towards me but I am staying reserved in my conversations with her since I have now been burned twice with "over sharing", I actually don't want to share anymore so it isn't hard this time around. I still haven't really gotten back into stitching though, the change in the weather and the constant rain has been bringing me down. I am definitely in need of some vitamin D and fresh air, I have basically been sleeping or reading my puppy book on the train and not stitching at all and then when I get home all I want to do is play with Fizzgig and am too tired to care about anything else. This is definitely putting a downer on my to do list since I also am no longer do any of the tasks at work either. So I just feel that not much in my life is getting done, so I think its back to picking 3 tasks a day and anything I don't get down is a weekend task or pick certain days for tasks and other days for stitching......something to ponder. Well the whole point of my post was to finally show you pictures of Summer Fairy Spirit and what I have done on Found, so here they are. I have decided to take a break from Found though and work on an easier picture to try and get my groove back so I am working on Quaker Christmas for probably a couple weeks so I will keep you posted on how much I get done, maybe a page or two. Thanks for listening.

Test

2011-03-25T07:37:00.001-07:00

I'm seeing if I can post from my blackberry, don't know why I didn't think of this sooner

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

I am back

2011-03-24T20:58:00.003-07:00

I am sorry it has been so long since my last post. There has been much turmoil in my life regarding my job.....I thought I was going to lose my job, my co-worker was being a complete and utter bitch and I was sick and tired of her picking on me and getting angry about my work ethic but then turning around and doing personal things during work hours herself. I was so sick and tired about it I went over her head and spoke to one of the partners, I did find out there was a bit of a problem and I fixed it. I did make a point of telling the partner that I don't read minds so I didn't know there was a problem and that my co-workers behaviour wasn't appropriate in my opinion. My nerves were absolutely shot because of all the tense but work is finally getting back to normal.

I have barely picked up a needle to stitch because of the stress so I have nothing to show....expect I did finally finish Summer Fairy Spirit but I haven't taken a picture of her yet. I have now moved onto Found by Heaven & Earth but I really haven't made much head wave.

Well I know this is a nonsensical post but I'm just so over the work situation and I just wanted to touch base with everyone who is still reading my blog and telling you I`m still around LOL. I will probably post again this weekend since I will be hanging around home with Fizzgig while he recovers from his neutering which will happen tomorrow.

Thanks for listening

Too Funny, My Bad

2011-03-07T11:22:00.001-08:00

Well as you can remember from my post last week I was having issues with co-worker well it took a bit of a turn and even though it looked badly upon me I think it helped me personally in the long run.

So the phone issue came and went and at the end of the day was pretty stupid but unfortunately it started the ball rolling into a big situation, B was bitchy all week and was biting my head off every chance she could. It bothered me so much her attitude that it put me in a grumpy mood and I unfortunately started taking it out on people I work with, namely the lawyers. Since B made me that way with her attitude I couldn't really take it out on her since it would go on deaf ears.

Anyway things came to ahead on Friday when I actually noticed I was biting peoples heads off, namely one of the partners, I knew the moment I snapped at him that I was in the wrong but it was too late to do anything about it. I left work feeling beaten and upset but realized that I needed to let this go and just concentrate on keeping myself in a happy place no matter what happens

So I came to work this morning and she asked if I was okay last week because two of the lawyers made comments about my behaviour, I couldn't very well tell her yes you are my problem I just told her yes I had a bad week and I recognize I was a bitch to the lawyers but I'm over it now and I will try and not let my attitude interfere with my work and that was the end of the conversation and everything is fine now. I do find the situation kind of funny and I don't feel bad about it at all because push come to shove I would have completely laid into her if she got all bitchy at me for biting the partners head off, I just don't have the time or want to feel grumpy like that anymore it is physically draining.

So onwards and upwards for me.

I will post later on with the status of my stitch. I finished all the stitching on Summer Fairy Spirit by Passione Ricamo and I'm on to the beading, as well I am working on Found by Heaven & Earth designs and my system seems to be working for me which is great, I will need to take an updated picture of Found and post it but I must say it doesn't look like I got a lot done but I actually did.

Thanks for listening.

It's a Better Day

2011-03-04T15:02:00.001-08:00

Well I have a little bit of backstitching left to do on SFS and then I'm on to beading. YAYAYAYA but I wasn't able to touch the design in about 3 days but I was finally able to put some work into it last night.

I also have been stitching on FC #3 on the train since Monday and it is really coming together but I foresee a problem, I don't think I'm going to have enough thread to finish. I am almost at the bottom of her dress but I still have to stitch her wings, head and bodice and with the amount of thread that is left there definitely won't be enough to cover all of that. I did look over the design and see if there was any section I could sub out the thread for something else and the only thing I can do is change the wand to basic black backstitching and the stitching around the wand to show it glowing will be replaced with yellow kreinik or petite treasure thread (I haven't decided yet) but there really isn't anywhere else I can sub it's a monochromatic type design so there isn't a line on the design to show where the fairy stops and her wings start so I can't even sub the wings with kreinik if I wanted to.

So I have looked on the UK website where this thread came from and I have picked a couple threads to purchase to make an order worth my while so when I get to the point where I can go no further I will place the order and move on to another design. All I can say is if I hadn't make that mistake at the beginning I would have had enough thread!!!!! and lets hope they can find a skein that matches dye lot with what I already have. I'm crossing my fingers that since there are 5 colors in the skein I can make it work by not putting the same colors side by side.

My next design is Found by Lisa Victoria from Heaven and Earth designs, I have had this design as a work in progress for about 2 if not 3 years. It is a quick stitch and is only 6 pages long, I have completed 2 smaller pages so far and my only excuse for what is taking so long it 1) there are a lot of confetti stitches and I haven't mastered how to effectively work on them and 2) I hate the fabric, it is 18 count aida but the holes are huge and there is way to much sizing in the fabric so it is very rough and uncomfortable and no amount of washing is softening the fabric up. I also at times find HAED very daunting and I can't collect my thoughts as to where I should start so I am trying a little bit of a technique that my mom uses where she highlights in one color the area she wants to work on and then highlights in a different color when she has stitched those specific areas. I'm hoping if I highlight the big chunks of color and the occasionally confetti stitching that is the same color and work on it that way I will find the confetti stitching not so annoying, I have also gridded the fabric with a washable pen so that should help me to jump around as well. I am going to work on this design on the train and home until I get to the heavy confetti stitching then I will have to kept it at home when that happens I will start working on another Shepherd's Bush Seasonally Musing design.

Cross my fingers I can be really productive this weekend.

Well thanks for listening

Bugger Off

2011-03-02T15:37:00.001-08:00

I am beyond annoyed, for some reason co-worker is acting like a bug crawled up her ass and died there and is basically taking out her frustrations with me or at least I feel like she is.

For the past two days anything I do that slightly steps into her area of expertise she bites my head off and tells me to step back......we have been working this way for 9 years and why all of a sudden I can't do what I'm doing anymore without pissing her off. Prime example when people call and ask for her directly but don't know her direct line I ask what their name is so she knows whether she can keep them on hold a little longer or if she should pick up right away (there is an office supply guy she does this to because he is a chatter) well I did that this morning and she got all bitchy about not needing to ask who it is just transfer it. Last week I didn't ask someone's name and she asked who it was and I couldn't answer her and she got bitchy I hate this flip flop attitude. Yesterday a phone rep guy just shows up out of the blue at the office and wants to talk about our phone system (which is not my area of expertise) so I gave him her card and he was going to email her since he was on the way to another client appointment so I was under the impression he didn't have long to linger, well it just so happens she was at her desk and turns to me quite loudly, 'well I'm right here why don't I talk to him now'........this is the first time she has ever done that usually it's my job to blow them off and if she is interested in talking to them she will call them back but most of the time she ignores them .....so sorry I didn't get your ESP memo and I would appreciate you have some respect and not to bash me in front of a stranger. If you don't like the way I'm handling drop ins and phone calls perhaps you should stop doing personal emails all day and start answering the door and phone yourself. It is almost like she is pissed off at me because I took those days off last week because I was sick. I'm sorry perhaps you would have liked me to come to work where I could then throw-up all over my desk and visit the bathroom every 5 mins cuz let me tell you I wasn't having a pamper me day off last week I was sick.

And the cherry on top of my bitchy day one of our lawyers is out of town and wants to fly home early well she emails me at 1:45 to see if I can change her flight but the only other time that is available is at 3:55 and it's practically sold out and she would have to be at the airport by 2:00 for early check out and I send her the email and she doesn't get back to me until 2:30 to tell me never mind. People I am not a miracle worker.

Deep breath, deep breath day is almost over.

Back to the Land of the Living

2011-02-26T22:07:00.002-08:00

I'm sorry I've been so quiet for the last couple weeks. I was extremely busy this month with work, trying to get SFS done, puppy training, dentist appts every Saturday, my god son's 2 year birthday party and then I got slapped down with the stomach flu on Wednesday.

I had heard from my best friend that this strain was a doozy and she wasn't kidding I have never felt that sick before in as far back as I can remember. I won't go into the details but it was not pretty, in total I went to work only 2 days last week. I hardly ever take a sick day and usually it's only one but there was no way I could even manage to get out of bed let alone get dress and have a 60 mins commute to work feeling like I did. I got zero stitch done and had no desire too. I literally slept for days and it was only late Friday afternoon that I managed to pick a needle up and got some done. I left the house for the first time since Wednesday only because I needed food and Fizzgig had a scheduled grooming appointment. I got the bare essentials and will have to go out tomorrow and do a major shop but hopefully by then I will feel more human.

But while I was sick I did get some craft packages which I haven't really been enjoying since I feel like crap and hopefully in the next couple days I can post pictures of what I received.

Thanks for listening.

Scissors & Stitch

2011-02-10T16:17:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited!!!!!! Around Christmas times I saw the latest gingham scissors come out called "Ella" I don't really collect scissors so I've never really paid attention when a new version has come out but let me tell you these scissors are beautiful and I must have them LOL.

I remember one of the blogs I read offering them in their online store but for the life of me I couldn't remember which one it was since I read so many of them and it was Christmas time and I was way to busy to write the information down, I also spend a lot of time looking at blogs through my blackberry so I don't get the full screen affect, but thankfully Kiwi Stitcher mentioned the blog and scissors on her blog with a link, so I jumped on over to Carol's blog and online store and bought myself a pair YAYAYAYA.

I've got to say their services is fabulous. I placed the order right before going to lunch and when I got back I had an email saying my payment had been accepted and that they would be shipped out asap, now that is what I call great service.

On the stitching front I am just smoking through SFS, I have finished her face, hair, arms and wand (regular stitching) and I have also done most of the backstitching there as well. I have now moved on full time to the wings and I'm hoping to be finished them by Sunday, they are a little tricky right now because my hoop isn't positioned right to be able to view the whole section all together so once I finish the bottom section I'm currently working on I will fiddle with the hoop and then there will be no stopping me. LOL.

I took a break from SFS last night because I had a hankering to work on a HAED. Last year I changed my mind on the style in which I wanted to stitch Twelve Days of Christmas, I started out doing 1 over 1 full stitch and I wasn't feeling the love and 2 over 2 was too bulky, but while reading the HAED BB I saw that some people were doing the 2 over 1 using a tent stitch method so I decided to give it a try....I love it!!!!! the coverage is great and I will probably be able to stitch this project faster and considering this HAED is 36 pages every little bit helps. I had to frog the couple thousand stitches I have already put into the design but I was okay with that. I have slowly been putting the stitches back into it and I wanted to add move last night, it doesn't look like much but I was happy with what I was able to put back on.

Tonight I will be back to SFS and some cuddle time with Fizzgig who has decided that my mom's DMC threads are tasty, mom came into the room yesterday to find him standing on her side table with an entire skein of thread in his mouth munching away on it, I couldn't help but laugh when she called to tell me about it but I know I'm going to have to be hard on him to break that bad habit.

Well thanks for listening

Jealous

2011-02-03T22:37:00.013-08:00

LOL, now ladies don't start chanting curses at me but I'm kind of jealous about all the snow people are getting......have you seen spinster stitcher's backyard? I really would like to have some snow with or without a snow day from work. We have had a couple days of really cold weather but all that happened is that we warm up and got rain instead. If I remember correctly we have had ONE DAY of snow or at least with the snow sticking to the ground for more than 24 hours in 2011, other than that it's been raining everyday I swear I should have gills now. With living in a suburb of Vancouver I am used to all the rain but we used to get breaks in the weather every couple of days so we could dry out, we don't seem to be getting those anymore.

Anyway lets talk about stitching since this is a stitching blog LOL. I made a point to take current pictures of my WIP so I could post them here since it's been awhile, so without further ado

Fairy Celebration #3 2008 using Fireworks hand dyed thread by Polstitches

as I mentioned before it is looking kind of weird right now but I'm hoping once the design starts coming together it will look fabulous.

Spring Fairy Spirit by Passione Ricamo

I am so close to being finished that it is killing me that I'm dragging my feet so much on this design, but as discussed in previous posts I have other things on my plate that are stopping me.

Speaking of my distraction I forget to talk about how Fizzgig's first vet visit with me went. Since I have never owned a dog as young as Fizzgig I thought since I had the opportunity to talk to the vet at length I should ask as many questions as I could think of. By the time I was done thinking of questions I had about 18, the vet laughed at me because she knows me so well in regards to my pets. I asked about fizz chewing his back legs so I was given some aloe and oatmeal shampoo to try, I asked about the eating of moss and after the vet stopped laughing at the face I made she explained that it's not exactly a bad thing and he will pass it just fine I should still make an effort to stop his from doing it. My father was taking him out a couple times while I was at work last week and mentioned to me that he seems to be playing with it more than anything else now so it looks like eating it isn't as much fun to him anymore.....thank goodness. I also asked about his baby teeth falling out I've never experienced this before I just assumed that I would never see any of the teeth and that one day I would find empty spaces in his mouth, I was correct, he will swallow them and pass them and there is really nothing I can do about it, but the vet did mention that there might be blood occasionally and not to panic LOL (she knows me so well). By looking him over she figures he will definitely be about 12 pound when he's done growing. We were trying to figure out how tall he will be and we (vet, mom & I) are a little confused by the brussels griffon websites that say brussels will be 7 - 8" tall, if you measure fizz from the middle of his body down to his feet he is 7" tall already and is only 17 weeks so we will just have to wait and see how tall he actually gets, as it is when you see pictures of him his legs are quite long now and I don't see them stopping anytime soon.

So our purpose for the vet visit was for his 3rd puppy shot, while we were there I discussed with the assistance whether he should have another deworming since he likes eating moss, his own poop and I saw him drink out of a mud puddle, it was decided that it can't hurt to have another one and perhaps at neutering have a third one, I also opted for the kennel cough vaccination as the vet assistance says if you take your dog to a groomer, dog park, as well if he lives with another dog that isn't his litter mate (which he will eventually), it's a good idea to get it. I wasn't much help with the shots because puppies move around so much so the vet assistance had to come in and help, she just laughed and said the more hands the better with a puppy, afterwards fizz gave the assistance a kiss for her troubles so no hard feelings from fizz. We decided that he will be neutered at 6 months at which time he will get his rabies shot, his 3rd deworming & then he will be microchiped or tattooed or both, I haven't decided yet. We originally were going to get the rabies shot with his other shots but the vet thought that might be too much for him all at once so we are going to wait on that. On December 30th he was 4 pounds 7 ounces and on January 29th he was 6 pounds 4 ounces not surprising since he is such a good eater.

Today I booked an appointment to get his nail clipped this upcoming Saturday, I should have done it at the last appointment but I forgot. We have the capability to do it at home ourselves (actually dad does it) but since Fizzgig's a puppy dad is not comfortable doing it since he isn't sure how much you should take off in relation to an adult dogs nails, so we are letting the experts do it. All in all he is quite the character and makes me laugh everyday

.

Thank God for February

2011-02-01T12:19:00.001-08:00

LOL my mojo is coming back, my mojo is coming back. I'm so excited........Yes, you all can say it I amuse easily :)

Where to start hmmmm, I have been slowly working on SFS at home when I have a moment, which has been few and far between because of Fizzgig and other more pressing tasks, but when I do have the time to work on it I have been getting a lot done so I'm happy. I am even taking SFS back on the train so that should help a lot too. I couldn't work on it on the train before because I was working on so much confetti stitching and jumping around that it wasn't manageable on the train, but I'm done that section now so it's onto the wings which can be done on the train.

I am also working on Fairy Celebration #3 from Passione Ricamo which is the freebie fairy that was released in 2008, I have been working on it for 2 weeks but half the time I was reading so really only 1 week of work was done and I ripped some of it out too. I changed my mind about how I wanted the variegated threads to go. I had started out with it going vertically and then changed it to horizontally. It is still looking a little weird but I find that when there are more than 5 colors in a variegated thread that is what happens so I will hold off judgment until I'm finished. I have a multicoloured backing fabric that will hopefully work great when I'm done so that has kind of lessoned my nervousness on it looking weird. I originally was going to make all the fairy celebrations into smelly satchels but I'm still concerned about how to actually make them and having perfume staining on the fabric so I have decided to make them into half pillows instead, you know the kind with part of the backing fabric showing on the front with a nice ribbon separating the two, I don't know if there is a special name for that type of pillow. I have seen these pillows on a couple different blogs and I really like the look of them so I 'm going to give it a go.

I am just itching to start a new stitch project but I know that will just prolong my current agony of trying to finish SFS so I keep telling myself no, no, no, no. It also doesn't help that I signed up for Greece Mandala from Chatelaine and every time a new piece comes out it reminds me of how much I want to stitch that project RIGHT NOW but since I haven't even finished Egyptian Garden yet there is no way I would allow myself to even contemplate starting Greece.

Well thanks for listening and hopefully sometime in February I will have 1 if not 2 happy dances.

Think before asking stupid questions

2011-01-27T15:56:00.001-08:00

I am at work and I have been now asked for the third time for documentation on a property that is part of an file we have. The lawyer is such an idiot if he only would read the stack of documents I gave him about the property and then make a list of all the outstanding questions he wants I could do what he asked all at once, instead he reads the papers one at a time comes to my desk after each page with his document requests, then goes back to his office and in another 10 mins or so he is back at my desk wanting more information. And this is of course after I have already submitted the first request he gave me. He is wasting my time and I can't get anything else done because I'm never finished with his request.....well screw him he can wait for this stuff till tomorrow I have other jobs to do now.

and now the other secretary is mumbling to herself and distracting me and getting bitchy when she asks a question and I don't respond right away....I'm trying to work here people.

Maybe it's the PMS talking but everyone is annoying the hell out of me and I can't wait for this day, this week to be over.

GRRRRRRR

I`m still around

2011-01-23T17:16:00.007-08:00

Hello everyone I finally have a chance to do a post, lets see where should I start..........

I am in a little bit of a stitching slump because I have been so involved with the puppy of late, so I decided to start on one of my smaller train pictures that I was going to work on after SFS was finish. I hope it jumps start my interest again......it is Fairy Celebration #3 using fireworks thread from Polstitch (I think); I am still working on SFS at home but vary rarely, I think I have worked on it for 3 hours today which is more than I have worked on it all last week.

Now on to my puppy, he is so funny and is filling out nicely and considering how much he is eating I am not surprised. I crate him at night now which was a bit of a bumpy ride which I take full responsibility for because I didn't understand what needed to be done before locking the door on him. I find that it was safer for him to go in the crate since he was only just learning how to climb down the stairs and can't climb on furniture yet so since I don`t have a bedroom door my fear was that he would fall down the stairs in the middle of the night while I am sleeping so this way I know where he is at night, he is loving it now and actually climbs into it when he is tired or wants to play with his toys by himself LOL

He goes to the vet on Sat for his 3rd shot & I will weight him & talk to the vet about what needs to be done for his neutering. He also is chewing his hind leg something fierce so I want to know if there is some kind of cream I can give him to stop it & he has this bad habit of eating moss every time we go outside for bathroom time, so I would like to know if this a bad thing or if he will grow out of it.

Maybe next time it will be a stitch picture.

Little to no stitch being done.

2011-01-12T12:16:00.002-08:00

As my title suggests I am getting very little stitching done.

I would say in the last 5 days I have stitched only about 2 hours if that......but this is the one time I am NOT complaining about that fact because something much more important has been keeping my attention.

I'd like to introduce FIZZGIG

He is a 13 weeks old and is a Brussels Griffon, he is currently 5 pounds and will probably get anywhere between 10 - 12 pounds when he is done growing.

He is my dog, I am not sharing custody with my mother, which is what we did with Pookie. I picked him up on Friday night so I have been very busy since then in dealing with his every want and need LOL.

I have come to realize that I do not have experience with puppies at all, we got Pookie when she was 6 months old and she was potty trained and knew her name as well as "No". Fizzgig on the other hand does not know his name, is pee pad trained with only the pees and chews, bites and/or licks anything he can get his furry paws on and doesn't like to go outside on the grass, especially at night (probably because of the pee pad training), I have never seen a dog that doesn't like the grass so it is strange to have to actually drag him outside to go to the bathroom.

I am completely out of my element but I'm having fun. My mother is babysitting him while I'm at work and he plays with his toys all day and has a few naps in-between. Brussels are a one person kind of dog, they bond right away with that person and they are their world, that pretty much has been set in stone since Saturday and it's me and when I leave the room and return moments later or on Monday when I went to work and came back he was overwhelmed when I returned that you can't help but laugh at him with his antics.

I have many things to teach him which are occupying my time, bedtime schedule, learning to walk on a leash, learning his name, going outside at night, not jumping up on people and most importantly not putting everything he can find into his mouth these are my top priorities right now.

I think I have an updated photo of SFS that I haven't posted yet so I might get that up here in the next couple days.

**Little funny story from last night I asked my mom to watch him while I went to my loft to change out of work clothes and the next thing I know he has gotten pasted the barricade and was on his way up two flights of stairs to get to me and then an hour later while visiting my parents I went to the bathroom and Fizzgig couldn't find me so he ran up the two flights of stairs again looking for me again. So now he can get up the stairs and knows where our 'house' is but going down the stairs is still too scary for him.

Holidays Over

2011-01-05T15:27:00.001-08:00

Well I've been back to work for two days now and let me tell you it hurts LOL. I haven't really worn proper shoes in 10 days and because of that the walking I have to do to get to the office is very painful, my ankles don't really appreciate the confinement.

There was a snowfall warning for my neck of the woods yesterday and I was actually looking forward to some snow, but none materialized.....I was so disappointed and today it is just rain on the thick side that's it which made walking to work so much fun!!!! *sarcasm*.

My stitching progress is going pretty well I didn't finish all the stitching on Summer Fairy Spirit before going back to work but a still made fantastic progress nonetheless. I will have to post an updated WIP picture of SFS soon. I have finished the yellow dress, most of the white wrap along and the final leave and flowers on the left. I am currently stitching the flesh colors of the arms, chest and face & a bit of the hair on the train and working on the border and the metallic portion of the wings at home so hopefully I will continue to move right along on it. Yesterday I didn't get much stitching done since I was in task mood that I carried on from work to home but at least I was productive in something.

Thanks for listening.

Last Pictures of 2010

2010-12-30T17:18:00.006-08:00

Here is what I got for Christmas

This is Heart of Fire from Northern Pine Designs, this project is on black canvas which I have never worked on before so this shall be interesting.

This is Glitz & Glamour Morganite kit by DebBee's Design, I am still missing 2 RG threads that are currently being send to me even without I think the coloring is beautiful and I look forward to working on this design. The booklet/pattern is very detailed so that shall help.

and this is the stuff I ordered for myself - Selene from Passione Ricamo and a piece of Mystic from PTP, the last two patterns for Christmas Rules by Lizzie Kate, Gingerbread & Sweet Treats by Keepsake Stitches, Snow White by CCN, This is Christmas by Raise the Roof and Christmas Carol by LHN

and here is the picture of the three tea cup ornaments I made.

Well everyone have a good and safe New Year.

Next page 2011

2010-12-30T01:25:00.001-08:00

Well Christmas has come and gone and I have to say it turned out better than expected. We had a full house on Christmas Day which was great since I knew 2 out of my 4 younger cousins weren`t going to stay for dinner since they were spending it with their grandfather, this was the first Christmas since his wife died and it was only right that they spend it with him, but since they have dinner so late over there the kids were able to have a small supper with us at 5:30 - 6:00 and then go over to there and have dinner again at 8:00 - 9:00 (my cousin had to drop off her aunt there in the early evening so knew exact when the turkey went in so she guestimated the time it would be ready).

My mom was extremely surprised about the photos, you could see on her face when she realized that it was all 7 of us, she got pics of the younger 4 last year so I think she thought they were updated pics but when she noticed my brother, sister and myself she just lost it LOL, she was crying so hard I think she almost had to leave the room to calm down. My younger cousin also got her tickets to Cirque de Soleil which I though was a great idea and so did my mom because she started crying again. But I think the best crying episode is when my sister gave her cash to help purchase a new furry baby, my mom has started saving for a new dog and last time my sister was over she only put $2 in the piggy bag since she is such a cheap person so for my sister to do what she did for my mom was great and very surprising.

I went out on boxing day for a couple DVD`s I wanted we took our time and had no intention of being anywhere first so no standing outside in lines, we casually showed up a couple hours later and if we got what we wanted good, but if we didn`t that was okay too it`s one of those things that you just need to experience and shake your head at it.

We are currently still eating leftover turkey which I love. In all the excitement of everyone coming over Christmas Day I forgot to bring out my baking until boxing day which is fine because usually I don`t get any of my baking it`s eaten before I get a change to try any of it so I`m really enjoying eating it this year LOL.

I don`t go back to work until the 4th so I`m trying to not be a slug my entire week off, I`m doing housework, putting away the craft supplies I got for Christmas, I`m hoping to final finish some projects, watch the DVD`s I got for Christmas and of course some stitching, I have actually gotten a lot done on Summer Fairy Spirit by Passione Ricamo I think I could possibly get everything but the beading done before I go back to work.

So over the next few days I`m going to update my blog with what I want to accomplish stitchingwise and readwise for 2011 I want to have this up before the actual new year starts. And in case you were wondering the final tally was 9 finish stitch projects and 13 books read this year.....not bad for me.

I will post some pics some craft present pics and some WIP pics in the next couple days, along with a picture of my final finish tea cups.

Thanks for listening

Miss my Pookie Bear

2010-12-21T10:08:00.000-08:00

Today is a sad day for me it's the first anniversary of Pookie's death. I'm not really chatty so I will leave you with my favorite Pookie photos.

Waiting for me to come home from work.

Waiting for the shortbread cookies to be ready

Going for a run on the dike

Showing off her new pink shirt

Her glamour shot

Her 'stop taking my picture and let's go play face'

I find that pet owners and lovers will understand how I'm feeling but none pet owners will think I'm being silly, Thank god I work with pet owners and they will humor me today.

Crap, Joy and Crap again!

2010-12-09T12:05:00.001-08:00

Well things are going bumpy right now with my current WIP Cut Thru North Pole by Bothy Designs.

I started using the shimmery thread that was included with this pattern to make the snow sparkle a couple days ago and the stuff is CRAP (which explains the first crap in my title), the stuff bunches in the back and is so thin you can't tell that it has broken or has gotten twisted until you flip the fabric over to finish the line which I did and there was all the thread bunched in one stitch, I was not a happy camper, so I subbed out the thread for kreinik blending filament #32 the only difference with the two thread is that the stuff that came with the design had a white sheen to it whereas BF32 is iridescent, it's really sad when BF is a happy alternative to a thread.

The Joy is a three fold one - I have finished the 4th floor and 3/4 of the 3rd floor on the design and it's looking great, I expect to finish santa's sled and perhaps the bay window on the 3rd floor tonight. I have finished all my christmas shopping and everything is wrapped too and I have baked shortbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms and kahlua balls my mother has helped me and made the macaroons and two flavours of chocolate bark (white chocolate/peppermint and milk chocolate/skor pieces), now all that is left is the cream cheese tarts. I have already had my office christmas luncheon which was a lot of fun, our former lawyer that is now a judge was able to join us since the trial he is preceding on is with the jury now and they were deliberating, but he had his pager with him in case they decided and he had to rush off. We go to one of the partners 'clubs' and drink and be merry for at least 3 hours so going back to work after that doesn't produce much work afterwards LOL, I'm always concerned about sending any documents out to other counsel while tipsy so I basically just try to push paper around until I can go home. I have a family party this weekend which will be fun and then a get together with my best friend, god son and their family on Monday.

We are going to my 2nd cousin's house this year instead of my great aunt for the family party because my great aunt has just finished cancer treatment and found out she is in remission too so even though she wanted to do it my cousin told her she needed to rest and stay healthy and since the cousin has a new house it was her turn LOL. She has made cabbage rolls, perogies, basically all the usual Ukrainian Christmas stuff. We haven't gone all crazy with the Ukrainian food at Christmas time since I was little so I'm excited that someone is doing it. I think since my Nana passed away (and it's her family tradition) no one in my immediate family wanted to take the responsibility of all that cooking so we low keyed it and only do perogies on Christmas Eve.

I'm really looking forward to seeing my best friend and godson on Monday too, I ran into her 2 weeks ago when they were getting their pictures done with Santa and her sister posted a picture of it on facebook and it is absolutely adorable so I'm looking forward to getting my copy for my desk at work. I was given specific instruction on what I could get D for Christmas, since they live in a basement suite their isn't a lot of room for large toys and so they usually wind up at his Nana's since she has a playroom for him and the rest of her grandchild's so I kept that in mind when I totally disregarded my best friends instructions LOL I did get him clothes like she asked but I also got him a couple toys that could easily fit in the car he can play with them while driving with either parent, they are tonka trucks that are squishy and the wheels move when you squish them. So I don't think she can get too mad at me because of the toys, besides I am single and have no nieces or nephews so who else am I suppose to spend my toy money on. I think my favourite part of the gift though is the camouflage socks I got him, it is just such a boy thing.

Anyway back to my post title and the final crap........like I said earlier I had finished the 4th floor, well when I had to move the hoop over to work on the sled I notice this god awful dirt ring around the entire design that was visible in the hoop, now I know I'm not a tidy stitcher since I take the picture with me on the train and I'm not in control of cleanliness of my environment, but this is just disgusting, I also did bake and stitch at the same time but I scrubbed my hands before stitching but maybe not enough and also I don't know what it is with light blue aida every time I use it I have really bad dirt marks either way it is taking all that is in me not to wash the picture tonight just to get rid of the dirt ring but since I have a ways to go to finish the design washing it now would be counter productive but it did burst my happiness bubble in what I had accomplished so far. I am going to a quilt/misc craft shop on my lunch hour for some cording, felt, velvet and some christmas fabric I think I will look for some kind of fabric to put around my hoop too, I have tried this in the past but the scrap fabric wasn't thick enough for me and got in my way, so I think I need to find some fleece type fabric and make proper strips around the areas where my hands rest and hopefully that will help keep the rest of the fabric clean.

Well thanks for listening

Cut Thru North Pole Pics

2010-12-02T20:43:00.003-08:00

As mentioned earlier here are some WIP pics of North Pole

As of November 25th

As of November 28th

As of December 1st

December post

2010-12-02T12:21:00.001-08:00

Well I have been so busy lately with holiday tasks that I haven't been able to sit down and post or even read blogs, but I'm making time for it now.

I have finished my Christmas shopping Hurray!!!!!!But I haven't gotten much accomplished in regards to baking so it's now time to switch gears to baking.

I have been making great stride on my stitch picture too, I was struggling at the beginning for some reason but I have overcome that and everything is going smoothly now.

I thought the Cut thru North Pole pattern was 6 pages but I needed to look at the other pages last night because the area I'm working on carries over to two other pages and it was then that I realized that the design is only 4 pages, which makes me think that it is possible to finish the design before the end of the year, I'm not going to hold my breath since I haven't done any backstitching yet though LOL. I was going to backstitch each floor as I finished it but I'm not sure if I'm going to stick to that plan anymore since I strongly dislike backstitching and I don't want to sabotage myself, either way I hope to be finished 90% of floor 3rd and 70% of the 4th floor by the weekend then I will need to move the hoop and finish the rest of both the floors next week. I'm trying not to put any deadlines on myself after that point in the pattern since Christmas stuff is so all consuming but you never know with me.

I will try and post a picture of the WIP when I get home.

Thanks for listening

Another Happy Dance

2010-11-20T14:17:00.014-08:00

Well I have finally finished It's Cold outside by Blue Ribbon Designs, it is a very nice design and even though I bitched about it a lot I really did enjoy working on it.

I made some changes to it as well, in the top left snowman there were quite a few more snowflakes but I just felt they were a bit of an overkill so I only put in three. I also didn't fill in the largest tree in this design, I really like how it looked with just the one color of green so I just left it as is, giving it my own personal touch, and I again didn't put in all the snowflakes and I placed them were I wanted them to go. So that makes it 9 in the completed department for 2010, I'm okay with that I might even try and complete one more to make it 10 but we will see.

So I'm so disappointment with where I live, apparently there is a snowfall warning for the lower mainland and the news is showing some communities with a huge dump of snow and my co-worker posted some really nice pics on facebook but I on the other hand just got a sprinkle last night and when I woke up this morning it was all gone, I have the major cold wind but none of the snow to go with it. I was really looking forward to the first snowfall of the season and it missed me completely. Well maybe next time.

Thanks for listening and welcome to my new followers and people who have left comments of late. I don't know the etiquette for responding to comments/messages so please don't take offense if I don't response to you specifically.

Happy Dance oh Happy Dance

2010-11-15T20:58:00.005-08:00

Check me out LOL, here is my newest finish Falling Leaves by Laura J. Perin. I have to say once I got into the groove of canvas stitching this design just came together and was fun to stitch.

I have already jumped headlong into my next design too, it will be Cut thru North Pole by Bothy Designs even though it will be the picture on the back burner until It's Cold Outside is finished, for some reason I don't seem to get much accomplished on that design even when working on it everyday, so I figured I needed to add a little new blood to keep me on task and not put it aside.

Well I am making this short and sweet so I can get back to Its cold.

thanks for listening

Annoyed

2010-11-08T16:14:00.001-08:00

I sometimes wonder if people think I'm stupid and are surprised that I get offended and stand up for myself. I'm finding more and more lately that I should know my place at work, I know there is work division in all employment and sometimes toes are stepped on by I just find it silly when I'm on the phone with a third party provider, dealing with a supply issue, to put them on hold and pass them to other secretary when I can just deal with the situation myself. She is bloody well sitting right beside me so if I'm not getting the proper message across to the third party she can give me hand gestures and I can correct myself. I'm not meaning to step on toes but really! transferring and putting people on hold and making a 5 mins conversation turn into 20 mins is just silly. I'm not stupid I know what needs to be done. Anyway, enough about that.......

This weekend was a get success in regards to the family portrait. The weather was wonderful and I think they will be great pics. The photographer was a friend of the cousin that organized the photo opportunity, she has a really cool and fancy digital camera, so hopefully we all can have a sneak peek at the photos. These pictures will be Christmas gifts for our respective parents. My mom loves these kinds of things and like I said before there hasn't been pictures of all 7 of us together semi professionally ever, of course there have been causally photo op's at family functions but nothing like yesterday. As well my brother, who is the black sheep of the family, was able to attend and I think he had a great time.

I'm not looking forward to Christmas this year, I actually haven't in the last couple of years since there aren't any little kids in our family right now so it's not really fun the usual way people expect Christmas to be and since money is always tight it makes my mom blue since she can't get us big expensive gifts like we had when we were kids. For years now I've explained to her that at our age if we want something expensive we should get it for ourselves and to stop worrying about it, but unfortunately she is kind of labelled the 'poor' sister amongst her family and takes it personally. I just love getting together with family and eating good food and just having fun that the gifts aren't even something I give a shit about but it's hard for her to accept that so she becomes a bit of a downer, I actually like giving rather than receiving because I LOVE to shop. Anyway sorry for the poor me post....my point is that unfortunately this year will be a bluer year then most because we are coming up to the anniversary of Pookie's death and I'm feeling it. It was a traditional pookie and I had that I would make shortbread cookies and she would 'sample' the batches and make sure they were ok LOL......I know I shouldn't have fed her people food but it was a traditional and she would sit in the doorway of the kitchen and watch me and know when I walked to the kitchen table to let the cookies cool she was going to get something, and even though she was sick last year she did eat one cookie so we kept the traditional alive last year. I will be starting my Christmas batching this upcoming weekend and it making me kind of sad that she won't be there to help me.

On the stitching front, I'm making steady progress on It's Cold and I've sort of make it the priority pieces this week and if all goes well tonight I will be down to the last motif. Falling Leaves is taking a little longer now to finish too because I'm doing the cream inner border and each line changes as I go, it goes from 1 square, 2 square to 6 square in one line to 5 squares, 3 squares to 1 square the next line so I'm having to really pay attention and it's going slower, so hopefully Happy Dances will occur twice this week I just have to stick to it.

Thanks for listening

Almost Happy Dance

2010-11-07T00:30:00.003-07:00

I am on a role right now with my WIP, I don't know what has gotten my mojo back but let me tell you there was a lot of stitching to be had this weekend. I have half a border to finish and then 1.5 motifs on it's cold which I'm hoping to finish completely tomorrow and then I have 3.5 panels of cream left to do on Falling Leaves which I don't think I can finish until about Tuesday, either way I'm super excited that things are moving along so nicely. This is the most productive I have been on a weekend for so long. Now I better get to bed, my cousins and siblings on my father's side are getting together tomorrow privately to have a family portrait to give my mom for Christmas, I honestly don't think there is one of all 7 of us. There is quite the age gap between me and my siblings and the cousins so we don't really do things like this together so I'm pretty excited......hopefully the weather cooperates since we are doing it outside.

Still Quiet

2010-11-01T20:11:00.004-07:00

Thanks ladies for all the reassuring comments about my slump and it is funny to hear that I'm not the only one quiet right now and using stash sorting to help get out of the slump.

I am slowly putting some stitches into my projects. I did about 10 stitches on the train last Monday and on Thursday I even cracked my picture at work just so I could accomplish something. I'm only now getting interested in stitching again I finally finished the green border on Falling Leaves on Saturday and today I finished the gingerbread man on It's Cold Outside so it looks like my stitching mood it slowly returning.

I'm still also plugging away on reorganizing my stash and am half way through repackaging my extra DMC floss so I hope that will help continue to get me stitching again.

Well I'm off to stitch LOL, thanks for listening.

Here is Falling Leaves after Saturday night.

Quiet

2010-10-23T16:39:00.004-07:00

Hello everyone, long time no talk.

Stitching has been pretty non-existent for a couple weeks now, I have had a major reading Jones going on and so all my free time has been reading. I am still nowhere near completing my 24 goal this year but I don't care.

I am also reevaluating my craft set up right now, I have divided up my patterns up and put them in a 5 drawer rolling cart instead of my file cabinet and 2 drawers stuffed full in various places in my room, so now they are in a central location and now I've moved on to my spare DMC threads, my goal has always been to have 5 skeins of each thread excluding my main set I still have a long way to go but in the mean time I need them to be organized. I originally had them in large zip lock bags her color but lately I'm finding that I literally have to dump out the entire bag to find the skein I'm looking for so I have purchased some zip lock snack bags and have put each individual color in their own bag so I know on first glance whether I need to purchase more. Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to store them, I have some medium size containers that I'm going to see if they all fit into and all go from there.

As you can tell I've been quite borrowing lately with is why I've been blog quiet.

Actually the only thing I've have done worth mentioning is started my Christmas shopping LOL, I know I can hear you all groan but I'm so anal retentive and always start my shopping and baking early so I can calmly enjoy when society gets excited for the Christmas Spirit, it's actually quite fun.

Well thanks for listening.

Back again for more updates

2010-10-10T01:02:00.012-07:00

I realized after my last post that my EG picture was not a very updated pics I have done a lot more work on the pattern, so I pulled the picture out of the WIP basket and took another picture, and then I couldn't remember if I mentioned what designer It's cold outside is from.....it's from Blue Ribbon designs and let me tell you I LOVE these designs I think I have about 5 of them and there is a preview floating around for another similar box type design called Pocketful of Peppermint that the designer is doing for a class that I hope comes out as a pattern to be purchased because I already have it on my list as a must have, these type of designs are so great they are easy to stitch and you can get 5 or 6 different finishes out of them if you so choose, the possibilities are endless and I like it when designers do that.

Anyway I just thought I would drop by with updated pics, I've basically ignored my projects this long weekend but hopefully by mid week I will have more pics to show. Well off to help with Thanksgiving prep with my mom, while we wait for the slow poke know as my sister.

It's Cold Outside by Blue Ribbon Designs

Falling Leaves by Laura Perin

Egyptian Garden by Chatelaine

Finally an Update

2010-10-05T20:32:00.007-07:00

I have been trying to post for 2 days now LOL and now finally I can.

Well I feel so much better now, I still haven’t stitched much these past few days but what I have done has been progress. I have decided to take a break form Egyptian Garden, I knew this would happen because it’s such a big design so I pulled out It’s Cold Outside by Blue Ribbon Designs and will be working on this design till it’s finished. The design is so cutie and with everything in its own little box I can easily jump from section to section, it should also be a relatively quick finish too. I truly can see why Martina the designer for Chatelaine splits her designs into 12 parts because even though a section may look simple each section is very time consuming.

So here is It’s Cold Outside before I starting working on it again

What it's eventually going to look like

And here is Egyptian Garden as of Friday night when I put it down.

I actually got a little farther than this but I didn't take a picture.

As well one of my tasks this past weekend was to complete some of my finishes, I had put this pin keep away until I figured out what I wanted to do with it ribbon wise and then I got too busy and forgot about it. I’m still unsure about the finish but I figure the more experience I have doing them the better they will turn out. As you can see the ribbon around the design looks a little clunky, I really love the color of the ribbon and I purchased it for this design alone and after reviewing other ladies finishes I see most ladies do have a ribbon that is slightly larger than the design width so *shrug*, next time I’m going to use a smaller ribbon and then compare and see which one I like the best. Same thing with the ribbon on top I was all set to use Twisted stitchers instruction on ribbon making but as I was doing it I realized that my design wasn’t thick enough and the bow would look odd, so I just did up a basic bow and stuck it on it kind of giving a carefree attitude. I definitely came away with a couple different techniques I want to try for next time.

So here is my first pinkeep resting beside my new mini computer. I hope you enjoy looking at them both.

Blah!!!!

2010-09-27T16:29:00.001-07:00

I have a major case of the Blah's and I don't know why. I know the weather has been crappy but fall just started and if I feel like this just after a couple days of rain and clouds then I'm going to be a gem during the entire fall & winter. Stitching is nonexistent, all my housekeeping tasks are annoying me, sleep is a struggle and my father is getting on my nerves...ho hum I'm quite the bitch today. Let's hope the retail therapy I did at 123 stitch and ABC stitch help me out of this funk.

It is so bad I am even having a hard time figuring out what color of fabric to do Selene the Moon Goddess by Passione Ricamo on (if this is news to you go to passione website and check her out). Which is something I love to figure out, since the options are endless. I originally thought dark fury or siren's call by Enchanted fabric but I think they are both too dark, although I only pulled out the mystique piece of siren's call and not the flair so I will need to pull them out again tonight. Now I'm looking at the colors on Silkweaver and Picture this Plus but nothing strikes my fancy, I'm always worried when using dark/black type colors that when I stitch the design too much of the fabric with poke through and kills the design. But on the other hand she is a Moon Goddess which screams night time so I just don't know what to do, I know it's not the end of the world but it definitely fits into my bitch/blah attitude I'm currently in.

Well work is almost over, I'm going to go home have a tall cocktail, climb into bed and pout. Thanks for listening to my nonsensical post.

Mildly Surprised

2010-09-17T10:55:00.001-07:00

I spoke too soon regarding translink. The day after my post I got an email from them asking for more details about the 'unprofessional behaviour' of the bus driver, I'm so surprised I got a response, so I gave them what they needed, she is still driving my bus but then again I really didn't expect her to be removed but I'm hoping there is a reprimand letter in her file so if she does something stupid again that will be 2 strikes.

Onto stitch, I have been quietly plugging away on Egyptian Garden, I just haven't really been in the mood to stitch of late, there are so many other things I want to work on which wind up getting done instead, basically my fall cleaning stuff is huge and now that the weather has changed I'm tired all the time so I prefer to relax, read or snooze on the train then anything else.

I'm hoping to chip away at my to do list this weekend and then have at least 3 hours of solid stitching sometime this weekend, plus a family bbq to go to.

Well I'm not very chatty today so thanks for listening.

Not surprising

2010-09-10T23:51:00.002-07:00

So as I said in my last posted I fired off an email to Translink which is the official name of the people who take care of the public transportation in BC about the incident the other day and in that email you are given the option of whether you want someone to contact you about your complaint, I of course check yes. I didn't leave my phone number because I would be at work but I did leave my email... it's been 24 hours and no response, what is the point of saying you will contact me if it's only offered to the people who leave phone numbers, whatever.

Crap, crap & double crap

2010-09-09T11:41:00.001-07:00

So I've been working on Falling Leaves at home for a while, I took a break for a couple days because of the weather and had just gotten into it and it was going great. I finished the outer border of cream; leaving the inner cream for later since I was getting bored with stitching cream. I completed the red border around the cream and had then started working on the Caron Watercolor border using #10 Fiesta, I was a little concerned with this section because the border section is two rows on each side with little triangles in Fiesta. When I finished the inner quilt squares of this design I looked over the thread I had left and was wondering if I would have enough.....I had used a lot of the thread up at the beginning of this design when I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I didn't think I used that much up but when I started stitching this border I knew deep down that I would run out before I was finished and low and behold last night I ran out........I am not even half way finished the border. So I've had to put FL away, I could probably work around that border and finish the final green border and finish off the cream border (which I might do in a weeks or so) but I have decided to work on Egyptian Garden full time instead. Thank goodness I'm placing an October craft order for some supplies and patterns so I just can add the WC thread into the order, it is a nice variegated thread that even if the thread is a different dye lot then my original skein it will be okay to just continue where I left off and worse case scenario and it really doesn't match up I can just tear out the old stuff and put in the new since there really isn't a lot I was able to get done.

Now onto another issue I have this one is in regards to my commute home. After getting off my train I take a small mini bus that takes me the rest of the way home. We have this real piece of work driver - she never stops for people unless they are exactly at the stop if they are a 1/2 a block a way nope she won't or even if they flag her down she ignores them. She refuses to do any special stops, usually these stops are for the elderly or people with a lot of grocery bags and it is easier if the bus drops them off a couple blocks before the actual stop and closer to their home, she bitches at passengers for not understanding where they are going and always has a sour expression on her face, she keeps the door closed while waiting for the train to arrive even if it is raining and other people from different buses are transferring over to her bus, she makes them wait. She also speeds through the bus loops and over speed bumps while trying to beat the rush out of the train station, she closes the door super fast on people entering and exiting her bus to the point that I swear she has hit someone in the behind with the door. I have made comments to another bus driver about bad bus driver's behaviour and the driver tells me that this is what bad bus driver does all the time, she is unliked in the union and has to be shifted from route to route because her passengers dislike her as well. I was told to keep complaining about her because the only way she is going to change is if management threaten her with firing. Last night there was an incident that I'm so shocked about that I immediately fired off an email of complaint about it. So last night the driver was in such a rush to leave that she shut the door on two ladies as they entered the bus, while one lady was at the ticket machine inside the bus at the top of the 3 stairs the other lady was still in the stairwell (with a bag of flowers in her hands) the bus lunged forward and the 1st lady dropped her ticket in the stairwell, she moves aside and allows the woman in the stairwell to go past her to get a seat then she climbs down the first step, turns around and with her back towards the door bends over to pick up her ticket, at the same time this is happening the bus driver is still driving the bus and proceeds to do a left and right hand turn and starts to speed towards the first speed bump. My biggest fear at that moment was the woman in the stairwell to lose her balance and fall against the door, which might have opened up and she would have fallen out of a moving bus to potentially get run over by our bus or the three that were leaving the station at the same time we were, let alone the damage of falling from a moving vehicle to the asphalt below........but thank god nothing happened and the woman got out of the stairwell and sat down.

I remember in high school when I took a large bus that the driver wouldn't move the bus unless everyone was behind the yellow line they have after the ticket machine claiming it was a safety concern and I've heard this bus driver tell people to move their stuff if it's over the yellow line because it obscures her view so to me a person in the stairwell is just as much of an obstacle as someone's purse and there was no way that the bus should have started moving while these ladies were in the stairwell and most certainly this bus driver should have pulled over when the woman lost her ticket since it was in the stairwell. Let's see if anything happens about my complaint.

Thanks for listening

What to do?

2010-09-05T13:38:00.008-07:00

So my best friends is going through a hard time right now with her son, he is 18 months and doesn't sleep through the night yet, she is extreme frustrated and exhausted over the whole thing. I have tried to offer my assistance the best I can but being a single friend I don't feel that it is my place to do that. From reading between the lines I think she is having some problems with her mother and perhaps her husband with regards to the techniques she is using to raise the baby. I think she might be taking their helpful advise and taking it as criticism which is also why I'm not offer my opinion in case she takes it the wrong way.

She was quite sick at the end of her pregnancy and then D was sick with tummy problems for months after he was born so I think she coddled him and put him into a strange routine concentrating on his feeding schedule as opposed to a proper sleeping schedule and now that everyone is thriving the strange routine is now the norm and she doesn't understand why he hasn't snapped out of it and sleeps through the night, like any of us do that!!!!! There is chaos in the home and it's really hitting her hard and making her think she is a bad mom, what she doesn't understand is she is a first time mom and these things happen and she should take advise from other people to help her change this routine, it's nothing against her mothering if she does this. I have actually wondered for months now what she was going to do because once D become school aged this sleeping pattern he's on isn't going to work. I even offered to take him for the weekend so she could get some sleep and perhaps see if I could get him to sleep better but she refused, which I also think is a bad thing, I don't think even the grandparents have had him overnight which is a whole new problem she's creating. It's really frustrating for me as a friends because on one hand she is hurting inside and out but on the other she kind of did this to herself.......I just don't know what to do for her especially since she is so oversensitive right now.

Thanks for listening to my vent

New Toy

2010-09-03T23:16:00.002-07:00

I love this time of year....now that I`m not a student in any way shape or form of course. I still love going to the stores and checking out the school supplies and I always seem to find something I have to have LOL, you can never have enough notebooks to keep track of your WIP etc. But this time around I was there to get ink for my printer and stubbled into the laptop netbook section, I have always wanted a netbook, they are so cute and this past summer the thought of turning on my computer was plainful but I really needed to work on the computer so I had no choice which of course really overheated my room.

Anyway, I found this really cute netbook that will do all I need at a great price, everyone warned me that it doesn`t handle big graphics but that`s not what I want it for`nor do I need a large hard drive it`s kind of just a stop over until I get to my main PC. I have a couple word type document projects that I`ve been putting off for months because I always seem to run out of time to complete, now I can take the computer on the train and in the morning work on these projects, since in the morning I never seem to get a seat that give me enough arm room to work on stitch so my goal is to work on the computer in the am and stitch in the pm. Also that means I can take the computer out of my room and be more productive. I didn`t realize how chained to the computer I am and how cumbersome it is in the bedroom when things are happening in the living room. So long story short, I have a new toy. Perhaps when I post a new Egyptian Garden picture I will post one of the netbook as well.

Thanks for listening, and good luck to all the students going back to school on Tuesday.

I've Brought Pictures

2010-08-29T19:25:00.016-07:00

First thing first here is Madonna of the Garden by Mirabilia on 18 count aida Griffon from Sugar Maple Fabric, I finished her on August 1st. I love this design the vibrant color are fabulous. I really enjoyed every element of this design.

Next is Witch Way by Just Nan on 28 count Bone Lugana, I finished it on August 9th it is very cute the specialty stitches are the broom bottom and hair of the witches.

This is what I've done so far on Egyptian Garden as of Friday, I'll continue stitching empty spots on the top right then bottom right before moving on to another piece of the pattern. My goal by the end of the week is to finish the entire top portion and a bit of the left/right sides before moving forward on the top section. I've decided to split the pattern into 4 sections top, bottom, left & right and I will keep stitching those section until that portion of the design is finish, I'm doing this because it's easier to manage the large fabric on the train by concentrating to a single section, since the fabric is 25x25 32 count. Oh I'm using Days Gone by from Silkweaver.

And finally this is the status of Falling Leaves by Laura Perin as of Saturday. My goal tonight is to finish the outer portion of the cream on the final two sides and then start on the red border which is next and then slowly fill in the cream border, I'm just getting tired of the cream so I've decided to improvise so I don't get tired of the design as a whole and put it down.

Well I think that's it for now. Thanks for listening

Have you missed me

2010-08-27T11:48:00.001-07:00

I have tried to do a post for a couple of weeks now but I keep getting distracted. So here is the 411 on me. I have been stitching in drips and drabs because of the weather, it has been way too hot to have lights on in the house and sticky fingers are never good when stitching. But since my last post I was able to finish Madonna of the Garden by Mirabilia done on 18 ct aida Griffon by SMF. Then I started working on Witchy Way by Just Nan, it is a very cute design and a quick finish that I felt like doing instead of launching myself into another large design. I think the design took me two weeks from start to finish since I only worked on it on the train, the design also had some specialty stitches which were fun to work on and they really completment the design.

I have now pushed off all my other projects except for Falling Leaves (canvas) by Laura Perin and Egyptian Garden by Chatelaine designs. I will be working on FL till it's finished (if I don't run out of one of the threads) and will work on EG till end of the year. I will reassess in January and decide if I put it away or continue till finished, I'm actually hoping I might be finished by then because I will be working on it at home and train once FL is finished, but we will see.

The reason why I'm concentrating on EG is because I've joined the Greek and Venice Mandala yahoo groups which brings my total of Chatelaine designs up to 6 and I think it's about time I actually finished one of them LOL.

Since I started back on EG I was able to finish the fish, pond, and blue lotus flower section which are the first 2 layers at the centre of the design and I am now onto the brown, grey/green swirls in the third row, I probably won't be finished that section until next week. My only problem with the design right now is the section I'm working on is over 4 different pages so it's a little bit difficult to juggle all those pages on the train but I think I've found a technique that is working for me. I usually finish stitching all the stitches in one color before moving on to the next one but in this case I'm just stitching whatever colors are on the page I'm currently holding, so that means I will eventually have to put in stitches with the same color four separate times, it's not ideal but at least I spend more time stitching then I do looking for the next page. I have also decided to cut up the pattern pages I've printed out so I can handle them more easily, I usually do this when I've finished a chunk of stitching and what I do is cut it away from the master and only keep the sections left with bead or backstitch for future stitching but in the Chatelaine designs there is a crap load of beads splashed everywhere so I can't actually cut it without missing a spot where a crystal or bead goes so I made a second copy of the design where I've highlighted where all the crystals and beads will go this way I can cut my current copy up and not have to worry about the bead placements and when it's time for beading I will take the second copy out and know where the beads are right away because they have been highlighted for me this should definitely speed up the beading.

Hopefully if I'm not too busy tonight I can post some pictures so you guys know what I'm talking about LOL.

Thanks for listening

BC is Burning

2010-08-06T11:07:00.013-07:00

As of this morning this is how my province looks in regards to forest fires. We have been told that there are about 400 fires raging in the interior, some are small and contained, some are large and nowhere near contained and some are out of control and evacuation notices have been issued.

And now the haze from the fires have made it down to Vancouver. I got into town yesterday and there was this haze all around the downtown core. Our weather people are saying that there is so much smoke in the air that the wind is now bring it to the lower mainland and it will probably linger for a couple more days. Let me tell you I was definitely feeling it yesterday while walking to the train to go home. Hopefully with the cooler weather coming there will be some rain without thunder and lightening and the weather helps the men and women out there fighting these fires for us.

My goodness I'm in trouble LOL

2010-07-31T16:30:00.012-07:00

So I made the mistake of going onto the Chatelaine BB to see what was new.....BIG MISTAKE I have fallen in love with two new classes that I must have Venice Mandala which is a class that started in February 2010 and will finish January 2011 and Greece Mandala which starts tomorrow and go until July 2011.

Greece

http://www.europeancrosstitch.com/cgi-bin/chat_detail.pl?CDGreek-

Venice

http://www.europeancrosstitch.com/cgi-bin/chat_detail.pl?CDVen-

Now do I honestly need these pattern...No!!! but they are coming home with me anyway LOL. I won't be purchasing them right away so that gives me some time to crunch the numbers in regards to paying for them since these pattern are always expensive with their crystals, gold lined beads and hand dyed silks. Usually what I do it break up the supplies and look for the cheapest price and then spread the purchases over a few months. As well since I'm adding these two to my collection I figured it was about time to actually finish one. So Egyptian Garden has been moved up in my list of projects. I had planned on working on it in October but now it looks like I can start working on it mid August.

Speaking of projects I finished all the stitching on Madonna about 1 hour ago and so now I'm taking a computer break before starting to bead. I have also started a new train picture it's called Witch Way by Just Nan and it's pretty cute with witches, ghosts, cats etc. I will try and post a pics when I post Madonna happy dance.

Thanks for listening.

New Blogger Template

2010-07-22T17:22:00.005-07:00

Well since Cute blog is going through a transition right now with their templates I decided to switch back to Blogger's templates. I'm still on the fence about what I've chosen but I'll give it a couple days to grow on me before I make anymore major changes. My home computer and work computer are both flat screens but work is brighter so have to keep that in mind when switching templates.

On the stitching front....I am currently on vacation and was hoping to do some major stitching but have since changed my mind LOL. I visited with my mom, went shopping with the BFF and godson, went to the dentist and since it's been so hot that my fingers are sticking together the thought of picking up a needle is just not something that is appealing to me. Now I'm not saying I haven't gotten any done because I have I just was hoping to be a lot farther in the finish then I currently am. Basically I was hoping to be beading by now but I think I have about 1.5 days left of stitching still to do, I am working on the greenery/fruit section at the bottom of Madonna where there is a lot of color changes which isn't helping. I have also decided to work on a couple small designs and a canvas after I'm finished instead of launching into another big picture even if it's a WIP.

Thanks for listening

I'm still around

2010-07-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

Well I'm still around LOL. I just haven't been very chatty. I am still working on Madonna everyday and am very close to being finished.

I am currently working on her dress after which there is the bottom green panel, some stitches I missed around the side of the design and finally the beading which will then complete the design......so I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm hoping to be finished by the end of the month, this estimate is about 1.5 weeks longer than I wanted but since I took a break from stitching earlier this month I'm a tad behind my original calculations, oh well.

I will be on holidays next week so I'm hoping to catch up on some time with Madonna but I'm not going to count on it.

So next on the agenda, I want to complete a couple more quilt squares on Falling Leaves canvas design and then I will be pulling out Woodland Goddess by Joan Elliott and finishing her.

Thanks for listening.

Quick Post

2010-07-04T14:32:00.001-07:00

Now don't get me wrong I wasn't really complaining in my last post about getting no stitching done....it was kind of an observation. I was in a way proving why I don't rotate my stitching anymore.....I am easily distracted LOL.

I am on my last day of a 4 day weekend in observance of Canada Day and I've been able to finish all my tasks now so for the rest of the day I will be stitching. I finished the orange ruffle yesterday and today's goal is to finish the green/blue swirl on the right side.

This weeks progress

2010-06-25T10:30:00.001-07:00

Well, I've actually hit a bit of a block this week and I was doing so well. LOL

I had the day off on Tuesday to celebrate my birthday and I had big plans to stitch, which didn't actually materialize, my best friend and her son (my god son) came over to play...he was having such a good day that they stayed for 4 hours before he got tired and cranky but during those 4 hours he was hysterical, he does this wrinkle the nose jolly laugh thing which cracked me right up which of course made him laugh harder. I taught him how to blow kisses which his mom was excited to see since she had been trying that for a couple weeks with no success, he also was giving me kisses which was really cute especially since he doesn't give them out to anyone except his mom, not even his dad gets them which is pretty funny.

Anyway, back to stitch, I only stitched for about 1 hour on Tues and then after everyone left I just didn't feel like it so I played facebook games. Then on Wednesday I was in the mood to read on the train and I have been basically doing that for the rest of the week to and from work, which is no big deal. The weather has been great this week (knock on wood) and I'm enjoying it better with a good book then my head buried in stitch. But then of course I get home and I still don't want to stitch so I've been downloading free trials of hidden object computer games and playing them, I have also started playing farm town on facebook again LOL. I know I am so close to finishing Madonna and if I only gave myself a few more weeks of solid stitching I definitely would be done I just feel that the other activities I've been doing are calling my name louder. I received a few DVD's for my birthday so I figure if I park my ass in my chair with a movie on I could catch up on some lost stitching this weekend, my goal is to finish 2 - 3 sections that are half done already and would have been done this week anyway. I'm getting into the left desirable section of the pattern now so it doesn't take much to convince me to do something else but stitch. But hopefully this weekend will be full of stitch and a new progress picture come Monday.

Thanks for listening

Currently WIP & Loving Them

2010-06-21T20:25:00.007-07:00

I am still flying through Madonna and loving it, yes some moments are a little more tedious then others but on the whole it's a great project. So here is my latest WIP pictures

Now onto another topic - canvas designs. As I've mentioned in a previous post I've fallen in love with canvas designs I think the designs coming out are gorgeous and many of them I would like to purchase right away LOL. Anyway, I purchased Falling Leaves by Laura J. Perin about 1 year ago I think and earlier this year I started working on it. Now I tried to follow her instruction to the tee since this was a new thing for me but for the life of me I couldn't make the squares line up with each other, in case you don't know what this design looks like here it is.

My first try I started in the centre and followed the border lines around each square until I had to change to a different color, but once I tried to do the column of squares on the left it wouldn't line up to the centre. Then I tried to completed an entire square before moving onto the next one, but once I got to the centre corner of the square I was always one square off. I was so annoyed at this point that I put the design away and decided I would practise the pattern on aida first before trying again. I was very frustrated and disappointed because I had heard that canvas was very easy and you could probably finish a design in half the time it takes for a regular cross stitch project.

Fast forward to about a week ago and I was reading spinster stitchers blog, (which I love, she is hysterical) and she was working on a canvas called strawberry shortcake and in one of her WIP pictures she showed the paper copy of pattern and her canvas, well I was able to zoom into this picture and see what the paper pattern shows and how she then stitches it and that's when I noticed that I was doings something wrong on my design, I was definitely reading the pattern wrong. Now listed on canvas designs is usually an instruction that says 'each line represents one square' now maybe because I do most of my stitching on aida I thought I understood this instruction and thought it was no big deal, apparently not. When looking at spinster stitchers paper pattern I looked at some random stitches and counted them up and then compared with what they looked like on the actual canvas and realized that I was counting the stitches on FL wrong. In particulate there are these little corner stitches in the centre of each square that I couldn't figure out what they were, I didn't think they were one square I thought they were 1/2 square and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to stitch them on canvas and then every stitch after that was just one stitch more, well as it turns out those little stitches are actually one and I was miscounting by one on every single stitch and that is why each row wasn't lining up....so thank you spinster stitcher for showing such a great pictures on your blog.

So with this knowledge I pulled out FL again and started putting in some stitches and they lined up!!! What I was doing was counting as if it was aida and counting each square on the paper pattern instead of the lines. The border around each square turned out to be 4 stitch not 3 which is what I was doing. Hurray, I'm so happy I finally figured this out. So I told myself that I am now ready to try FL again (if only it would fit into my schedule this year) and then as a cherry on top I was reading Three Cool Pugs and Me blog and Margie is doing a bunch of canvas designs to get her mojo back and low and behold FL is her current WIP and wouldn't you know it she has clickable pictures too so I was able to click on 2 of her WIP pictures and count the stitches from the section that I was working on and had the most trouble with and they match with what spinster stitcher taught me, they are 4 stitches not 3 and the little corner stitch is most definitely one stitch, so with extreme confidence now I know I can work on this design and finish it with no problems.

and here is my first squares completed LOL.

Now I know this was a long winded explanation for such a silly problem but I have to tell you this was really bothering me I couldn't understand how I could possibly screw this up and it was definitely playing in my mind that I was an idiot and wasn't a true crafter if I couldn't do the simplest thing like canvas designs. This also proves how great fellow bloggers are, without their blogs I wouldn't have figured out my problem and be enjoying the design again. Now off to continue stitching on Madonna. Thanks for listening

Madonna of the Garden

2010-06-13T13:16:00.010-07:00

As promised here are some WIP of Madonna. The first pictures are from June 5 & 6

I then decided to switch to the baby and try and finish the ruffles underneath which I hope to finish tonight. This is how far I got on that from last night

Well off to go stitching. Thanks for listening

Run By Posting

2010-06-10T10:23:00.003-07:00

Hello everyone

I am still linger around her LOL. I have been on such a roll with Madonna of the Garden that I haven't stopped to do a post about it or taken more than just one photo of her in so many weeks. I promise this weekend I will do a proper post with pictures. But for now I will park my ass in my chair and stitch like a demon and since the weather is stormy and rain right now I think this is a good plan. My plan is to be finished Madonna in about 6 weeks and with the way I'm going this is quite doable.

Thanks for listening.

Pretty Good Weekend

2010-05-25T11:50:00.001-07:00

Well Madonna is just smoking along LOL. I was able to do the entire arch way above her head and 3/4 of the border down the side done this weekend. I would have gotten a lot more done but I decided to sew up my 7 dwarves as pillows and screwed up a bit and had to redo them, it seems that I didn't leave enough extra fabric on the sides and I became worried that if the aida started to fray (which it did in one case) I would lose the hem and the pillow would come apart, my inexperience came into play there. It's been so long since I used my sewing machine for anything but fixing a hem on my work pants that I couldn't for the life of me sew in a straight line, it looked straight while I was sewing but once I took if off the machine it definitely wasn't LOL but since these are cute little pillows you couldn't really tell that they aren't straight.

So I was able to finish all 7 I just need to fill them with fluff and hand sew the ends. I am still trying to figure out how to do this so I'm going to think on it for a couple days before trying one. I learned quite a lot from this sewing experience so next time I go about it I will be better prepared and will use the marking on the sewing machine table more, this time around I had so much extra fabric most of the time I couldn't see the marks, this of course will also help keep me straight....is the metal plate under the sewing foot called a table or is there another name for it? for the life of me I can't remember.

Anyway, back to Madonna I just have to do about 20 stitches on each side and then the bottom to finish the border off but before I move on to the next section I want to make sure everything matches up properly so I'm going to count up from the bottom of the design to a portion of the skirt that I've done in a couple locations to make sure everything matches up. I had 3 points of reference to match up the top section but the bottom is going into empty space and that always makes me nervous so I don't want to continue any stitching until I know everything is perfect.

Well thanks for listening. Once I finish the border I will probably post another WIP photo.

Status on Madonna

2010-05-21T21:17:00.010-07:00

Hi everyone I have been very quiet of late, I just don't have anything to say.....work is fine, stitching is fine, home is okay but whatever LOL. So I will keep this short and sweet. I have been working like a demon on Madonna of the Garden by Mirabilia and I have 3 WIP pics for the last couple weeks

This picture above is from about 3 weeks ago, when I started concentrating on finishing her hair/flowers

Here is two weeks ago where I was adding some of the blue veil behind her head and some of the metallic halo

and here is from about 2 hours ago. I have finished her hair/flowers, I had to rip out a tiny spot that I will put back later, did some more of the blue veil, the fence behind her and now I've started on the arch that covers the entire design. My intention is to complete the entire arch plus the leaves and back stitching included, since it is a long weekend I think this is doable.

Thanks for listening

PS: the fabric I'm using is Griffon by Sugar Maple Fabrics, too bad the company no longer exists.

Productive past weekend

2010-05-11T15:24:00.001-07:00

I don't know what it is about the nice weather I seems to have more energy to complete my tasks and can usually finish double the tasks then I would on a crappy day. This past weekend was just that type of day, I was able to fly through my tasks:

I did a fair amount of stitching on Madonna even though I really didn't pick up a needle all that much but I was quite productive. I almost did a finishes finish too but I need to purchase some cord. I've made my christmas tea cups into ornaments using these metal finish forms I purchased from Silver Needle last year, I thought I could just use ribbon and be done with it but now that I see the ornaments almost finished I definitely need cord to cover up the area where they join. So for now they are back in my cupboard until I get some cord, but the fact that I got that far in the finish is great.

I was also giving some time to my sewing machine which has been sorely neglected of late, I need to get some practice in since I will be sewing some of my designs into pillows and I don't want to ruin them just because I'm rusty. I also went to the second local quilt shop in town (the better one) and found all the fabric I needed to do all the finishes I dream/plan on doing currently. I had originally placed an online order with a shop in Kelowna but 4 out of the 6 fabrics I wanted she had sold out of so I cancelled my order and was back to the old drawing board, but thankfully I found everything I needed at the local shop, I even found this adorable beatrix potter bunny fabric for the back fabric of a pattern I haven't purchased yet! I plan on purchasing it for my birthday next month LOL.

I was able to be a bit of a handy man too, I have an attic door in my closet and the styrofoam had come loose as well as the door so with my father's help we were able to reattach the styrofoam and screw the door back into place so no more draft coming in.

And finally for mother's day I took my mom out to dinner and then we stopped off at a local bakery we haven't been to since my grandparents died, neither one of us can remember why we stopped going....it's a damn good bakery. Then my sister stopped by for her quarterly (insert sarcasm here) visit to the parents. Don't get me wrong I love my sister to pieces but 1) she sucks the life out of a room 2) only visits the parents when she wants something and 3) has no understanding for a person's personally space, so I get annoyed with her about 15 mins into her visit and she doesn't know how to take a hint about it either. She had to go to the emergency room last week because of kidney stone pain and was showing us her bruises from the IV etc., which I could see clearly from across the room they were that big, she starts walking towards me pointing them out to me and then lifts her arm and puts the bruise to eye level as she's walking towards me and I say "Hey B I can see them just fine you don't need to get any closer" just as she's about to shove her arm into my face. She stayed for about 2 hours and actually gave my mom a gift she asked for, her M.O. with gift giving usually is to ignore the person's wishes and get them something they doesn't want or need it's usually a big problem with my mom especially so for her to actually get something mom asked for was a shock to say the least.

All in all it was a great weekend. Thanks for listening

Happy Dance Photos

2010-05-03T20:28:00.009-07:00

Winter Blackwork, by My Mark

The Nutcracker by CCN

Monday, of course is a stupid day

2010-05-03T12:12:00.002-07:00

Has everyone taken a leave of their senses today. Some real dumb bunnies came to work today and a lot of hand holding is needed.....where are the envelopes? where does the out mail go?....same place it's been for the past 1.5 month that we have be here. I'm rushing through an assignment right now and I don't have time for your drama, you're a lawyer for goodness sakes deal with it yourself.

It also isn't polite to pace behind a secretary's desk while she's going through a rush letter that you want done, one of the lawyers was doing this to the other secretary and I could literally hear her grind her teeth in aggravation from my desk LOL. And then junior princess has a rush copy job for me to do and as I get into it she keeps on adding to the pile and instead of placing in on the desk she wants to hand deliver it to me while I'm in front of the copier, geeze lady can't you see the pile of documents on the table you just walk past...put the documents there and then she wants to tell me the story behind said documents, if this is suppose to be a rush job don't you think it would be a good idea to leave me the F@*~ alone so I can get it done.

Well I'm glad I got all of that off my chest before it ruined my day.

On the stitching front I finished Nutcracker on Saturday, I would have finished it on Friday but I made a mistake on the flowers and had to ripe them both out so I decided to go to bed early instead. On Saturday I took my mom on a shopping adventure to the local malls and then we went to the new quilt fabric shop, not very impressive I must say had more flannel fabric then anything else which is no help to me. There is another quilt shop in town that I haven't been to in awhile so I think I need to visit it now. When I came home I put in a movie and finished off Nutcracker in about on hour, it took a lot of strength not to jump head long into working on Madonna right then and there but I told myself no stitching on Saturday so instead I did some spring cleaning, did some reorganization, read a bit and of course some computer games it was a very lazy/productive weekend that I enjoyed very much.

Thanks for listening and hopefully I will remember to post my recent finishes tonight once I get them off my camera.

Another Post

2010-04-30T10:53:00.002-07:00

So I took my own advise and literally locked myself in my room these past two nights and got some major stitching done, I literally have half a flower, three snowflakes and a couple pieces of backstitching and then I will be done my the nutcracker, I just don't understand what took me so long to get to this point. I was also able to complete a rather large non-stitching task last night which was really beginning to bother me and I still have energy leftover.

So I have a lot of little errands on Saturday so I will be doing getting those done and some reading instead of stitching so on Sunday/Monday I will start afresh with Madonna as my next project. The idea of working on Madonna is quite refreshing since I haven't touched it in so long it will be like working on a new project again and with the huge blocks of the same color it will be quite relaxing, which is what I need right now. I do like working on pictures with huge blocks of colors, the color slowly creeps out and then bam it grows into a sleeve, skirt, wing etc. my only problem is when it's a light color on a light fabric like my problem with summer fairy spirit the yellows 744 & 745 are on blue/white cloud material from Silkweaver and it's very difficult on my eyes right now because the skirt is half in a white patch, I know it will look great in the end because of that but my eyes aren't very happy. With Madonna the colors will be purple/mauves, green blue on a grey/green fabric called Griffon from Sugar Maple and it looks fabulous so far, I really took a chance with the fabric choice and it's paying off. So hopefully by mid week I will have a progress picture to post or maybe when I post finish pics of Winter Blackwork and The Nutcracker I will also post a picture of Madonna.

So there's a new quilting fabric shop that opened on up in town about a month ago so I'm going to try and convince my mom to go shopping with me and check it out. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

My Status

2010-04-28T20:26:00.002-07:00

Well I figured it was time to drop another line, I'm still not very chatty but whatever, I'm still stitching, sort of LOL.

I finished a small pattern last Saturday, it took about 1.5 weeks to finish which is kind of surprising since I thought I could finish it in one day. It is called Winter Blackwork by My Mark, I used the DMC conversion included in pattern and I also changed out one color too because I found it was to light on the white aida I was using. I will be making this design into a pinkeep when I get a chance.

I am also about 2 days away from finishing The Nutcracker from Country Cottage Needlework and hopefully I can stay on this course, since I've been so distracted lately there is always the chance I won't finish it in two days.

After Nutcracker my next project is suppose to be finishing Summer Fairy Spirit, which is a lingering WIP, but I'm contemplating scrapping my entire rotation list and just starting something fresh but not necessarily a new start, something that will recharge my battery so I won't be so distracted, but first I think I will take the weekend off and see what that does for my stitching.

Maybe Madonna of the Garden would be a good choice, I haven't stitched on her in about one year.

Well thanks for listening.

Where have I been

2010-04-18T15:01:00.004-07:00

I can’t believe I have only posted once in April, tsk tsk tsk on my part. I haven’t been overly busy but obviously enough to not post anything. So lets see what have I been up to…….

Well I got my tax refund and purchased a new DVD player, and a 32” flat screen TV. I got my right side eye tooth capped and thankfully it was cheaper than what my dentist quoted me so I was able to purchase some new DVD’s with the difference. I used to have a VHS/DVD combo and now it’s just a DVD player so there are some videos I need to replace so the dental money helped me do that.

I am on the verge of finishing 3 patterns so I’m very excited about that. I have switched up my rotation again, it wasn’t like the other way wasn’t working for me I just wanted to work on the patterns longer then I was able to on the rotation before. So now I will be working on the patterns on train and home instead of one for each; to be honest I always like to do it this way but certain projects are too big or can't get dirty so they can't go on the train and I need to make time for them. So this altered rotation should enable me to finish them faster and the ones that can’t be worked on the train I have picked a corresponding smaller pattern to be worked on the train at the same time, to help speed things along. I’m was getting kind of getting twitchy to work on a new pattern so this is another reason I fiddled with my rotation so I wouldn't start a new one.

The new office is fabulous, we have now been in the new place for a month and we can’t get over how overly cheery and comfortable the place is compared to the old location we aren't exactly back up to being 100% productive but it's getting there.

We I can’t think of anything else to say so thanks for listening.

An Easter finish & a WIP

2010-04-03T17:26:00.013-07:00

I am having such a productive Easter Holiday, all the tasks that I put off because I was too exhausted to do them while moving the office are being ticked off my To Do list in record speed.

As well I am finally been able to post a WIP of my train picture, which is It's Cold Outside by Blue Ribbon Designs. It is a really cute design and I really enjoy working on it.

As well this afternoon I was able to finish Letter M by Nora Corbett, I really like this design, it is definitely a quick finish if you actually concentrate and work on it for more than 10 minutes a day LOL which is what my problem was, I just couldn't give it the time it deserved until this past week.

Well my rotation is now changing, I will be working on Summer Fairy Spirit by Passione Ricamo and Falling Leaves by Laura J. Perin, which is a canvas design at home.

For some reason I'm not getting the canvas stitching right and have had to tear out the same section about 3 times now. So after reading various blogs of people who work on canvas and cross stitch I have changed the way I'm going to work on the design. I am going to do each square one at a time instead of doing the border color, then the corners etc. and I've also put down pencil lines on the canvas to make sure I'm where I'm suppose to be, so hopefully this will assist in understanding canvas, I have 6 other designs so I better figure out a way to working on canvas with an easy design so I don't make a mess out of the other more complicated ones.

I have also made the pictures of my rotation designs click able for people to take a closer look. I thought I had already done this but one of my readers let me know she could, so hopefully I've fixed this for everyone.

Thanks for stopping by.

Time is flying

2010-03-31T12:43:00.004-07:00

I have been very quiet of late because I've been stitching!!!! I am so close to being finished Letter M that I have put my second home rotation piece away until I'm finished, as of last night all that is left is the wings, upper body/wing backstitching and then the beading so I can definitely see myself finishing it over the Easter holidays.

I have also decided to switch out Egyptian Garden from my rotation for awhile, the over one in the pond area was getting on my nerves so I decided it was time to take a break. I'm disappointed I didn't get more done on it but I will definitely switch back to it in a month or two. So I have gone back to Summer Fairy Spirit, it is really screaming at me right now, I think the reason I put it down in the first place was because I was working on it before Christmas/January when I was really upset about Pookie's death and my heart hurt to work on it. Now I feel much better about the pattern so it's back in the rotation. If I stick to the pattern I should be able to finish it in another month or month and a half.

I am still working on It's cold outside by Blue Ribbon Designs on the train and it's very fun to work on I am doing each block one at a time which gives be little finishes every couple days, which is great, so I don't get an opportunity to feel bogged down my the design.

Other than that everything is pretty quiet for me which is what I like. Work is great the new office is wonderful to come to everyday and the nice little walk to and from the train is definitely something I need in my quest to get more fresh air and exercise since I sit in front of a computer everyday.

Thanks for listen

Best Laid Plan

2010-03-22T20:41:00.013-07:00

My plan this past weekend was to finish Holly Teacup and then work on Letter M. Well I forgot I was going to the dentist on Saturday and instead of getting one needle of freezing I needed 3. So stitching was slow to come by and it took a little longer to finish Holly teacup but I finalized finished it YAYAYA.

No work was done on Letter M though, so I can only show you the progress I made on Letter M from last week.

A run by posting

2010-03-19T13:48:00.001-07:00

Sorry I’ve been so quiet. I am just exhausted!!!!!!!!

Movers came on Monday @ around 3:30 pm to start moving our stuff, they didn’t have access to the elevators until 5:00 pm so there was some waiting. The support staff of course left at around 4:20 because there was nothing we could do anymore and we were getting in the way. The movers were suppose to be finished by 10:00 pm but they weren’t finished until midnight, one of the reasons is that the old building security closed the loading dock on the movers so they had to track someone down to open it up again and apparently it was quite crazy.

Tuesday was quite a busy day reorganizing ourselves and unpacking, by the end of the day my legs and feet were burning and I was sore in places I didn’t know I could be sore LOL.

As of today I think we are 85% put together, there are still some piles of crap that we don’t know why we packed and moved in the first place and we are trying to find places for some things. At the old place we had 2 spare offices so all the stuff that lived in the spare offices needs a new home here, and of course there are endless piles of filing to go through and crap people left on the printer before we left but all in all I think we are pretty set. I haven’t actually done any work just yet but at least I can see my desk.

Because I’ve been so exhausted I haven’t touched any stitch all week. I either play computer games which doesn’t require any brain use or I’ve just reclined in my chair watching TV (I'm really just staring at my eye lids), I also wind up falling asleep on the train to and from work so I’m not at all surprised that I haven’t stitched I really don’t want to frog everything back out again next week because of mistakes I make this week so it’s just safer that I don’t stitch at all. But I was able to stitch on Letter M on the weekend before the madness hit and got a lot done. I take a picture of my progress every Sunday so either I will post last Sunday’s picture tonight or just wait until next Monday and post both progress pictures. And as for progress on my train picture HAHAHAHA that too is laughable I don’t remember the last time I touched it. I am going to pull it out tonight and work on it instead of EG, it truly is a quick finish type of pattern that I can’t believe I haven’t finished already, there are no beads, no metallic just basic stitching and I really would like to move on to another train project so I figure 4 hours tonight and I should be done, I'm dieing to start my next train picture.

Well not much else to say. Hopefully when things get back to normal so will my blogging.

Update

2010-03-08T20:59:00.006-08:00

Well its been a couple dates since my last post, I didn't have anything really to say and I was still feeling pretty crappy. But now things are getting back to normal and stitching is even getting done.

On top of being sick I have also been extremely busy at work. We are moving our office on Monday which now that I'm saying it I don't think I've mentioned this before, our lease is up at the end of the month, but we will be officially moving as of the 15, it was hard to get into the groove until we got the boxes, we were basically closing files & shifting piles of paper around so it looked like we were doing something LOL but now with the boxes here I'm hoping to make a dent in the packing. The only problem is the office is still open & actual file work still needs to get done & one of the lawyers is still screaming out assignments which is really annoying since she hasn't packed anything in her office yet, so the other secretary and I are getting kind of panicking with all that needs to be done in the next 4 days, and then this morning the female lawyer thought it would be a great idea if we all took Monday morning off since the movers can't move our stuff until 5:00 pm.....Uh Hello the chances of her office being packed on time are slim to none and I definitely think we will still be packing come Monday morning. I'm just glad we are only moving about 3 blocks so there is no travel time for the furniture to get stuck in. Don't get me wrong I'm really looking forward to the new office it's just the stress beforehand.

On the stitching front I have actually gotten some done this past week and quite a few of my chores as well. I have also been fiddling with my rotation. I'm currently working on Egyptian Garden by Chatelaine & I'm really enjoying it so I don't want to put it down but since it's such a large design nothing else will get done while I work on it and I know that will begin to bother me soon so I have decided to work on two pieces at home at the same time, trying to have the best of both worlds. The priority will of course be EG which I will work on on Monday - Thursday & Friday - Sunday is currently Letter M from Nora Corbett. The Friday's picture will be the picture that changes frequently depending on the speed of my finishes. My theory is that since EG is so large so if I don't work on it for a couple days it won't matter or make me feel bad, so working on it during the week is a perfect fit which leaves the other home picture to be worked on Friday - Sunday making it a potential quicker finish since that time will be somewhat uninterrupted. So long story short stay with a picture I enjoy working on and still get the finishes I like which I have been lacking of late. So here are EG and Letter M as of last night

I am also working on a very old WIP on the train, it is 3/4 finished so it shouldn't take long & I can't believe I let it linger so long but its using one strand of thread on 18 count which is what I did when I first started stitching & now I dislike doing it that way, now normally I would just start it again but the design is 1 of 3 & I've already done the other 2, so I will stick with it and make all three into ornaments.

Well that's it for now hopefully my progress picture will come more frequently now.

Recap

2010-03-01T15:59:00.005-08:00

Well, the Olympics have come to an end here in Vancouver and we are all sad to see it go. The festivities were a lot of fun. I was able to go to one more special location before the end. I was able to go to North Vancouver and see the Russian Tall Ship that had come to Vancouver for the Olympics.

Other than that since I’ve been so sick I have basically lingered around the office hacking a lung up and then going home to bed, while watching Olympic coverage of course. LOL.

While watching all the TV coverage I was able to finish a cross stitch picture…..FINALLY the first one of 2010, which is Lamb Musing by Shepherd’s Bush.

I am now currently working on Egyptian Garden by Chatelaine at home and still Christmas Quaker by ByGone stitching on the train.

Well I don’t have anything else to say and my head is fogging up, so until next time.

My Olympic Adventure

2010-02-25T20:07:00.021-08:00

First off the Olympic Cauldron, I think this is a great picture if I do say so myself. There has been a lot of controversy over the cauldron being behind a metal fence, but I don't have a problem with that, think of the graffiti that someone could have put on it by now if there wasn't a fence in the way, as well the cauldron is made of glass and I can see some juvenile trying to climb on it and hurt themselves.

This is a beautiful Native carving which is on display at one of our local hotels.

I went to the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion where they had the Olympic metals that you could hold and get your picture taken with if you wanted to stand in line for 4 hours, which isn't something I wanted to do. So I just checked out the rest of the Pavilion with some lovely coins with beautiful etchings and colors and one of the has diamonds in the coin as well.

The coin I actually came to see was the 3 Million dollar Loonie, it is huge.

This is the line to Sochi House before it opened at noon, surprisingly it didn't take long to get inside.

The count down clock for the 2014 Winter Games.

A small replica of what the Olympic venues will look like in Sochi in 2014

Some shots of the Olympic Village. I wanted to go to the other side and take some more pictures but with me being so sick I have been staying close to the office and conserving my strength.

Native Dancers at the Four Host Nation Pavilion

More Native dancers posing for the cameras

While walking back to my office I came across this cute little display, I have no idea what the purpose is but it's cute.

And this is a Native woman wearing her button blanket outside of a carving house, I think these blankets are beautiful. As you can tell a Native theme was intertwined throughout the Vancouver Winter Olympics which I think is a beautiful touch, since there are so many Native lines in this province you can't explain British Columbia to the world without explaining about our Native heritage.

Delayed

2010-02-25T10:47:00.002-08:00

I am so sorry for my lack of posting!!!!

I took oodles of Olympic pictures but I have been sicker than a dog these past couple days so I haven’t looked at any of the pictures since I took them last Thursday (I actually took a day off and played tourist), I also finally finished a cross stitch picture a couple days ago.

So my plan tonight after work is to post some of my Olympic picture for you all, so stay tuned tonight.

PS My heart is going out to Joannie Rochette Canadian figure skater, tonight is the long program. It's not about a medal for her, tonight she is skating for her mom.

More Pictures

2010-02-14T13:05:00.026-08:00

I have been so busy that I wasn't able to post my pre-Olympic so better late then never

Canadian Bobsleigh on display in front of Vancouver Art Gallery

Log House in front of Art Gallery, not sure what it's there for LOL.

Royal Bank advertisement which is pretty cool, my office is directly opposite that building.

Olympic count down clock from last week.

And here are some pics of people from various countries that I was able to get my camera out in time.

Great Britain

Russia wearing their Sochi 2014 jacket

Russia, what they had on when they entered the opening ceremony. I also so Brazil and the Ukraine but was unable to get my camera out fast enough.

Here above is the CTV TV station who are the official TV station for this Olympics and a outdoor station they set up.

Here are some shots of the outdoor skating rink and the design they have painted on the stairs which I think is really cool.

and here are the shots of the torch relay near my office that I got to see on Friday the 12th about 4 hours before the opening ceremony. And look at the crowd, it was just madness LOL

My plan for the next 2 weeks is to go and see some the Pavilions that that been set up around town to represent various country and provinces I've made a list and hopefully I can do everything on my list.

More Olympic Coverage

2010-02-10T14:50:00.004-08:00

I was able to find a video of the torch relay from my hometown if anyone is interested in viewing it. Let me know if the link doesn't work since this is the first time I've done one on my blog.

Maple Ridge News - Memorial Peace Park turns red and white to honour Olympic flame visit

PS I gave my godson his mittens and t-shirt last night, it was pretty funny, apparently he loves mittens so we had to put them on his right away then he started flapping his hands. He couldn't understand why we were laughing at him LOL.

Olympics are coming, the Olympics are coming!!!!

2010-02-08T21:23:00.015-08:00

So Sorry for the lack of Olympic photo’s I’ve been so busy at work that I haven’t had a chance to go to the sights around my office and the ones that I have seen have been at night in a moving vehicle so they aren’t the greatest and now this morning it was cloudy and foggy so some of the pictures I wanted to get weren't very good so I thought I’ll would hold off for a day or two and see if it gets better.

I have run across a couple athletes on my journey to work though. On Friday night there were a couple Finnish athletes on the train going home, they looked about 17 so I’m thinking they were figure skaters, off the top of my head I can’t think of what other sport would have such young athletes. I had heard earlier in the week that some athletes were staying in the Valley till closer to the opening but I was still surprised to see them and then this morning I was behind a Russian athlete at Starbucks LOL I guess no matter what country you are from you got to have your Starbucks coffee in the morning.

After Lunch:

So I now have all my Olympic memorabilia - mittens, scarf and mini mascot stuffed animals and some pins. I even purchased a pair of Olympic mitts for my godson and a Canadian T-shirt for his 1st birthday which I will add to the other clothes I purchased this weekend, but I think I’m going to take the Olympic stuff over to his mommy early so he can wear the stuff now while watching some Olympic coverage with his dad or grandpa LOL

So I went out for my lunch to get some Olympic gear and left my camera at the office and then the sun come....oh crap so I didn't take any pictures of the Olympic sites, like in front of the Vancouver Art gallery they have a Canadian Bobsled …. I hope it’s still out there tomorrow. I was able to get some pictures on my blackberry at The Bay which is the official sponsor for all the clothes and merchandise but they were really crappy. All of the mascot stuff is so cute and I could really go crazy getting stuff for my godson but I know my best friend would kill me if I did. And besides the prices they are asking for some of this stuff is ridicules even if it is Olympic stuff.

So I bypassed the torch in my home town this morning, I choose to take my train to Vancouver instead of watching the torch, simply put because I didn't want to get stuck on a bus for 90 mins and be late when I could be on a comfy train arriving on time. I will be going to work early on Friday so I can witness the torch in Vancouver instead, it will arrive about 830 - 845 and my usual train doesn't get in till 900 so earlier train it is. They released the names this morning of some of the torch bearers in the next coming day: Astronaut Julie Payette will be carrying the torch on Wednesday in North Vancouver, Thursday afternoon singer Jann Arden will do her run by BC Children's Hospital as well as former Vancouver Canuck Richard Brodeur and singer Michael Buble will be sometime on Thursday as well. They haven't released the names completely for Friday actually all the torch bearers have been kept really quiet including who will be lighting the flame BUT we do know that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be carrying the torch through Stanley Park as a representative of the Special Olympics on Friday which I think is a great idea, then Sebastion Cole who is a former track star and who is also a member of the London 2012 organizing committee will carry it and then Rolly Fox father of Terry Fox will do the torch near English Bay around 8 am and Walter Gretzky will have the torch about 20 mins after him. Then around noon 3 former athletes from Vancouver will carry the torch Former Canuck Stan Smyl, Bob Lenarduzzi of the Vancouver Whitecaps (soccer team) , and Lui Passaglia of the B.C. Lions (football). So what happens after lunch until 4:00 PST when the opening ceremony's start here in Vancouver is any ones guess. There still are quite a few Canadian celebs who's names have been mentioned for the last couple months that I haven't seen yet so maybe they will be on Friday. They are Wayne Gretzky, Trevor Lindon who we in BC lovingly call him Captain Canuck, he is the former captain of the Vancouver Canuck's hockey team and an avid supporter of Canuck Place and other children's charities, Michael J. Fox I'm not sure his health is the greatest for this so maybe his kids can help him or represent him and finally Betty Fox who is the mother of Terry Fox, she has really gone out of her way to keep Terry Fox's memory alive and is quite the figure head for the Terry Fox run to raise money for Cancer Research. So anyway I guess I should just shut up and show you the pictures I have.

Here are pics of the security cruise ships the one is the day time is really bad, I was at the wrong angle on a moving train.

Here is Canada Place which is housing all the international media for their broadcasts as well as various currency kiosks.

And here is one of the Olympic volunteers who I ride the train home with, he let me take his picture with him in his gear, cover up his security pass of course. I hope to have more pics for you tomorrow.

This post wouldn't be complete without some craft pictures so here is the latest WIP of Summer Fairy Spirit, which I'm currently not speaking to LOL.

So I have moved on to Quaker Christmas and I finished page 2 last night

And finally the first picture of the canvas I'm working on called Falling Leaves by Laura J. Perin

I had to remove the bottom row of stitching because it wasn't snug like the other two but other than that I think the design is going fine.

Current Projects

2010-02-03T14:00:00.003-08:00

Well I am turning out to be my own distraction, I am still currently stitching Summer Fairy Spirit but just not as much time is being given to it as before because I have caught the canvas stitching bug, actually it has been a slow growing bug ever since Laura J. Perin came out with her Box of Ornament design which I of course had to purchase right away, without understanding the supplies needed to complete the design or what canvas work actually entailed, but I figured I would just run with it. Needless to say while searching for all the supplies needed for said pattern I came across a couple more I was interested in try which I then purchased and now am the proud owner of 3 canvas designs with my eye on 4 more.

I have been distracted this last week or two trying to decide on my next set of purchases of canvas designs. My only complaint so far with canvas designs is no one seems to list any supplies for them when they advertise the pattern, and since I live in Canada and finding a shop that carries Caron threads or the various types of Rainbow Gallery threads are hard to find so I kind of need that information for when I place an online order. I prefer to purchase my patterns and supplies together so when the mood strikes me to start something I’m not hindered with having to buy supplies.

I started my first canvas piece on Monday, I picked Falling Leaves by Laura J. Perin and so far so good. I needed my mother’s help with attaching the canvas to my new stretch bars since I’ve never used them before (my mother used to work only on stretch bars when she first started stitching), the tacking down of the canvas is pretty interesting I must say, pulling and tacking without killing your thumbs is something I haven’t learned to master just yet. I was able to put in two rows before noticed a mistake and had to frog a bit, also I didn't like the tension I had in one of the corners of the canvas so I removed the tacks and fixing it, it's still not the best but I'll work with it, I've put it away for a couple days while I work on other projects so hopefully the next time I talk about it there will be pictures.

Maybe this weekend I will have some stitching and Olympic pics to show people.

Thanks for listening

Vancouver 2010

2010-02-02T13:42:00.004-08:00

Here in Vancouver Olympic fever is deafening. Shiny new signs, maps, Olympic logos are everywhere and I saw my first Olympic worker today all decked out in his florescent blue jump suit. We have three cruise ships in port which are housing the security people and there will be another cruise ship for the reporters and guests as a floating hotel. There are police etc. going up and down all the waterways and apparently there are security cameras everywhere that were all turned on February 1st. everyone in my office has noticed either news media or foreign groups in the last couple weeks so we know some people have already arrived in town and more will be coming daily. The Olympic Village doesn’t open till the 4th so I completely understand why these athletics are not wanting to pay for extra hotel accommodations by arriving really early so after the 4th it will probably be a mad house here. The Olympic torch will past through my hometown on Monday the 8th but I will be a work *sigh* but the torch will be going right past my office’s front door on the 10th or 11th so I might come to work early that day so I can see it. So I might acted like a tourist and walk around Vancouver and take some Olympic themed pictures in the next couple days and post them.

Well hopefully tonight I will have another post with stitch pictures. LOL

There Be Stitching!!!!!

2010-01-20T15:44:00.003-08:00

I have actually picked up Summer Fairy Spirit LOL. The technique of pushing all my tasks to the weekend worked to some degree, but there were some tasks that I couldn't handle waiting till the weekend to complete so they continue to be worked on/finished during the week. I am still super tired all the time but it has now become manageable and I do feel refreshed when I wake up in the morning so I'm obviously doing something right and know it will get better once I'm in a better routine.

Anyway I just got some stash in the mail yesterday so I will be putting everything away tonight and then hopefully some more stitching will be done...If not I can catch up on the weekend. I have moved over to work on the branch and leaves of the design because the 3 yellows I was working on weren't doing anything for me.

I purchased all the silks I need for Caribbean by Chatelaine (which I won't work on for awhile yet), some Mill Hill kits, JBW, Lavender Wing designs, crescent color threads, 2 canvas designs and Sabrina by Mirabilia along with some fabric........I loving getting stash!!!!!

Well bye for now.