My Garden and Progress

     I'm having a heck of a time with pics today.  This is my third attempt at them.  They just don't want to go where I want them to go.  Hmph...  Third time's a charm?  We'll see.  On Wed, my mom and I went up to the nursery to pick up our annuals.  I got some really pretty things.  Well, I think they are pretty.  Mom wasn't thrilled with my choices.  I got two different kinds of Calladium, I got four different colors of Vebena, and I got two four packs of deep purple Petunias.  I love the colors I got.  The Calladuim are both pink centers and veins and green edges, and the all flowers are lovely.  I have two big pots in front, and the Calladium are supposed to get to be about eighteen inches high to thirty inches high.  I though, for my big pots, that would be good.  We'll see how big they get!!  And the rest are in the back.  The Morning Glories have not sprouted yet, but they will soon, I'm sure.  Here are the pics.  The Verbena are the teeny tiny little flowers, and the Calladium are the big pink and green leaves.  The rest are Petunias.  Feel free to leave me a comment about what you think of my color choices!!  

  

     The Morning Glories will grow between the two Petunias 

of the long planters.  They usually take three to five days to germinate, so I should be seeing them soon.  My pot cracked though, sigh.  I grabbed it to pull it over to me, and it cracked.  I went ahead and planted in it anyways, cause I didn't have time to go up to Home Depot and get another one before they closed.  I'll get a new one sometime this summer and replace it at the end of the year, when it's too cold to grow anything.  Then the potting soil will be settled by the next spring, and ready to plant.  Here's hoping they all do really well this year!!  And that I don't forget to water them, lol.  I almost forgot Friday.  And I learned something from it.  I have a light on my balcony that leans like a drunken sailor.  I never would have thought, in a million years, that it would work, but I flipped the switch, and viola, it worked.  I was thrilled.  I didn't sit out in the summer evenings last year cause by the time it cooled off, it was dark.  Now that I know the light works, I'll have to sit out some nights this summer when it's not too hot.

     And now for progress, and an amusing story.  (You have to wait for the amusement, because I'm a B like that, lol.)  I FINALLY got to work on Time To Go this week (Witch Stitch'n'Bits).  I was thrilled.  

I'll need to take it off the Q in a few weeks again, to grid the rest of the first page.  But I got enough gridded to do the first two rows of ten by tens, so I started working on the first.  I put a LOT of stitches in it too.  Large, LARGE blocks of color, so it went super fast.  I'm working with primarily black in the first row of ten by tens.  There are a few other stitches, but it may be twenty of the first eight hundred.  Not many!!  You can see the stupid grid lines now that I finally have them in right.  Yes, I am a dork, lol.  (I also realized (again) that I really can't count.  I put in my own ten by ten grid lines on the pattern because the darned printer refused to print the graph, and was working on it, and realized...  I counted over nine, and drew my first grid line.  Then over ten, over ten, over ten.  So the first ten by ten grid is ten down by nine wide, the rest are ten by ten except for the last one, and that's ten by eleven.)  Luckily, I didn't have to frog anything because of it.  But still, how hard is it to count to ten?!?  You'd think I could do it by now.  

     And speaking of frogging, they're camped out in my living room.  And they're almost making me laugh.  (Hey, I did say ALMOST!!)  I'm having trouble with Midnight Hunting. 

 It's Dracolair Creations, and (typically) it has tons of fractional stitching in it.  So what do I keep frogging?  The regular stitches, lol.  There are several long rows with a three quarter stitch at the end.  (You can see them at the top, shading from dark blue to light.  They're right under the loopy part of the border.)  I've frogged them over and over again.  I just can't count!!!  It's been awful.  I'm so pissed off at them, I've put that part of it away for now.  Instead, I'm doing lots of little teeny fractionals, and I'm doing those just fine.  It's the whole stitches I just can't get right.  I wanted to finish the border and start on the wing for my goal this time, but if I don't get a handle on the stupid rows, that's not gonna happen.  Wish me luck.

     And then there's my ornie  (Bluebird of Christmas Happiness by M Designs).  I'm TRUCKING on that.  I got a huge amount done on it this past week.  

Several hundred stitches, at least.  I talked to Julie on the phone for several hours on Wed, and got so much accomplished.  Part of the reason it's going so fast is that it's so simple.  Hardly any color changes at all.  The bird's whole body is that turquoise color.  I didn't have to move the Q-snap like I thought I was going to, so that's a plus.  I should have just enough room for the backstitched little flourishes.  They're sort of like eight pointed asterisks.  I'm ready to start the red of his hat.  then I have the pom pom to do (on the end of his hat) and the asterisks, and I'm finished with him.  Oh, and a little bit of bsing to define his wing.  Isn't he cute?!?  Um, what am I missing...  I haven't worked on Beach Romance (Janlynn) since my last update.

     Oh, duh.  Noah's Sub.  I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  (Here's the amusing.)  My neighbor wanted to come over and talk.  For talk, read hit on me.  He asked me four or five times if I wanted to fool around with him.  He was slightly drunk.  As I'm not a homewrecker (he has a girlfriend, I think), I immediately promoted Freak to boyfriend.  (Also, I hardly know him.  No way am I gonna fool around with him when I just met him last week.  NO WAY!!)  I told him four or five times I wouldn't cheat on my boyfriend.  He explained to me that he likes women with big boobs.  (I'm a triple E, so that qualifies me.)  Which, at least he was honest about it.  But because he was trying to hug me and hold my hand (I kept pulling away from him), I didn't get much done.  Finally, he got the message and left.  I didn't go back outside to stitch, lol.  That's where he found me the first time.  (Friday, when I was out on my balcony, he invited me up anytime I want to come up.  I said thanks, but doubt I'll ever take him up on it.  He was telling me how nice his place is and how neat his TVs are.  He has three in a one bedroom apt.  Geez, one in every room but the bathroom.  I guess he was trying to impress me.  IDK, it was just weird, all the way around.)  So anyways, Noah's Sub. 

 I got some done.  Still working in that really pretty purple color.  I wanted to finish it off Thursday, but didn't even get close, as you can see.  There is a lot of it though.  As you can tell, I've gotten close enough to the next band down to work on that too.  There's a LOT of this color on the page, and I really like it.  I need to put in the other bands, and the kite tail too.  I'm probably about a third of the way done with the first page.  I still love this project.  It's coming along so well.  Hardly any frogging on it (knock on wood) and I've managed to remember that the sky is all half stitches.  So far, so good.  Hopefully, I'll get a whole lot more done on this next week.  I want to finish this color I'm on, and do the kite tail next.  Then I'm gonna work on the rest of the sky.

     Are you all still with me?  I'm impressed that you made it this far.  Congrats to you, as this is a very long winded entry.  Thanks for being here, and especially those of you that leave a comment.  I really appreciate them!!  Hope you're all having a good night!!

Blog Hop: The Stitching blahs

     Have I ever had the blahs when it comes to stitching?  That's the question posed by Stitching the Night Away.  And boy have I ever!!!  Here's the exact quote:


Have you ever had a case of the “stitching blahs” where you just didn’t want to stitch? Or maybe it was more like you didn’t get to stitch because you were busy and that created a chain reaction sense of the “blahs” and led to even less stitching…. sort of like a case of “the Mondays” that we are all familiar with. How do you handle your stitching blahs and get back into stitching mode?


Of course, I've had the blahs.  I think we probably all have.  And I'd bet we all try the same things to get back into the swing of things.  For me, my blahs lasted a little over a year.  It was awful.  I knew I should want to stitch, but I just didn't care enough to get out the needle and thread.  My commitment were hard to meet, and I didn't dare sign up for anything because I just wasn't feeling it.  Finally, I put away all the projects I had in progress, and started something new.  Shopping helps me too, if I feel the blahs coming on.  A new chart, even if I'm not starting it anytime soon, makes me want to stitch.  Having a rotation helps.  I used to be a one at a time girl, till I found the internet.  Therein lay my downfall, lol.  I now have twenty projects in my rotation, and four SALs going on.  It's just crazy!!!  I've found the rotation keeps me interested in what I'm doing.  I can switch projects every two weeks, and it's something new and different.  Each project has a feel to it.  Most of them are difficult.  Actually, the one thing in my rotation that's not difficult was a gift to me from a friend, lol.  I love challenging stitching.  Fractionals, confetti, blends, metallics, specialty stitches, and things of that nature thrill me.  It keeps me engaged and working when I would otherwise get bored.  And having the "feel" of the project change every two weeks is helpful, too.  Sometimes, I just force myself to pick it up and say, "I'm only gonna do a little."  I'm usually still going at it an hour later!!  There are lots of ways to combat the blahs.  And whatever works for you is the right thing!!


Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here. 

A giveaway

     Okay, I forgot to post my giveaway post.  I wanted to have one to celebrate the Finish Friday blog.  It's a great little blog that Andrea dreamed up.  She showcases different things that have been finished during the week.  I think it's a great idea, so I'm having a giveaway to promote it.  All you have to do is post on your blog about the  Finish Friday  blog with a link.  Then, leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog entry.  It's that simple.  (You can find the Friday Finishes blog here.)  And, since some of you already did this for me, you don't have to do it again.  I still have your names, so I'll enter you in the draw.  The winner gets a twenty dollar gift card to either HAED or 123.  Your choice, or course.  So enter!!!  

Progress Update

     Once again, it's been a busy week.  I have lots of piccys to show, and just added a bunch to my Multiply Made for Me album.  I put all my ornies in there, and I do have a couple of other things to dig out too.  Rosa made me a little thing that I haven't put in there yet, but it wasn't with my Christmas ornies, so I didn't have my hot little hands on it to take a piccy.  And I have lots of other things to share.

     First, and foremost, I have a special project.  Rosa told me about it.  Well, some.  I can't remember if she told me what it is or not though.  I don't remember, so maybe she didn't.  Or maybe I'm just that forgetful.  I have no info on it at all.  I don't know who was involved (there are ten to twelve people involved in it), what it is, or when it will be finished.  BUT...  Apparently the ten or twelve people made me something (Squares, triangles, whatever) and sent them all to another person who was then supposed to send them to my mom for finishing.  (They thought it would be nice to pull her in, and I think that's just awesome.  I would love to have something she made with my stitchy friends' help.)  But the clearinghouse has turned into a stall.  No one has heard anything from this lady since she got all the parts.  I was really depressed a while back, so Rosa broke the silence and told me about it.  And it worked.  It totally cheers me up every time I get down.  I love the idea that people I know would want to do something for me.  It's awesome!!!  So I'm moving to try and get the project going again.  Since I don't know the who or what, it's hard, lol.  (Understatement of the century.)  However, I do have some options.  There IS a Yahoo group for this project.  So I can have the owner of that group join the owners' group and report this lady as a bad trader.  I hope we don't have to do that, because I wouldn't like to have to do that to someone I consider a friend.  But I want my secret project!!!  (I'm not obsessed with it, but it cheers me up a lot.)  This lady is no longer answering emails about the project, so we'll see if I can't light a fire under her to not work on it, but to send it to someone who can work on it.  I'll let you know if I have any progress.  And I can't wait to find out who was involved and what they made.  OF COURSE, there will be piccys when it's finished.  You know how I am about pics.  Gotta have em, lol.  So wish me luck or say a prayer or whatever you do.  I'm hoping to have more info on this soon.

     And now I have progress piccys to show you.  Lots of them, it feels like.  I'll start with my rotation project this week.  I got my goal made.  I wanted to get the sky done, and it's done.  And gorgeous too.  I love the colors in it.

  (They're all purples.  Since that's my fave color, I'm good with my two weeks work.  Actually, six days, but still...)  I got a lot done on it at David's house Saturday night.  I wasn't exactly dogsitting, but...  He was going out to my sister's for a birthday dinner for my mom.  I wasn't going (because I said I don't want to feel like a turd my sister picked off the bottom of her shoe), so he asked if I would come over on Saturday night and just let the dog out to do his business.  I said I would.  So I went over around nine thirty.  He came out and greeted me (it was so funny, he turns around in circles to keep coming back for more petting, but he got his front turned around and not his back.  So he's looking at me, and going away from me, even though he's bent at practically a hundred and eighty degree angle.  And he's looking all confused, lol.  It was hilarious.  I was cracking up) for a while, and then we went down in the basement.  I went in to see the cats for a few minutes.  Reese hissed at me, and Butters got some petting.  I got a drink and went to stitch.  I stayed until about eleven fifteen.  Took the dog out at the end, since David said he was gonna get home first thing in the morning.  He's got a HUGE veggie garden started, with all the manure you could want.  It doesn't stink, but it looks very rich.  He's got a few things growing, and he's gonna plant a bunch of seeds soon.  It's about twenty feet long by about ten feet wide.  It's all built up with lumber, and he pulled out the grass (I assume) to put down the fertilized soil.  He's got it all nicely fenced to keep critters out, but God knows how he's gonna harvest everything.  I can't wait to see it in full bloom.  Well, as long as I don't have to harvest it, lol.  Anyways, you can see all the pretty sky I finished up in it.  And I previously did a lot of ground in the first half of the page.  I think I did three colors of about fifty stitches each.  So I got a lot done.  This one tempts me to forget my rotation cause it's so close to being done.  I have five pages of eight complete, and of the three pages left, one is a partial.  Three quarters of another is finished.  So I have a quarter of my current page to do, and then one full page, and then a partial, and it's all done.  I'm stubborn though, and refuse to give in to the temptation.  I WILL stick to my rotation.  Because I made the rules, and I need to be disciplined enough to follow them.  (Funny how stitching is the ONLY place I have discipline and organization.  And somewhat sad too...)  Anyways, on to the next.

     I started a new ornie this week.  

It's got an awful name.  Bluebird of Christmas Happiness by M Designs.  It's cute though.  I had to frog out almost sixty stitches, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to.  Still, it's a respectable start.  I like the colors in it.  They're both called Turquoise (dark and medium, I think), but they're pretty.  It's coming along well.  It's bigger than my others though, so I'll have to do half, and then move my lil Q-snap to do the other half.  (It's only a six inch, so it's not big.  And I lose another half inch on each side as I can't fit my fat little hands in between the Q and the stitched area.  So I have a five inch or less design area I can work on.)  I like the little curlicues in his tail though.  I think that makes him just darling.

     No piccy of Time To Go as I haven't done anything on it since last time I took pics.  I don't even think I've gridded any more on it.  If I remember right, I last posted on Tuesday night late, Wed morning early.  And today is still Monday to me.  I would have a piccy of Midnight Hunting, but I had to frog out everything I put in it.  (And not because I had problems with the fractionals.  Noooooo, I just plain can't count, lol.  Sigh, I'm just a big dork, lol.)  So no piccy.

     Noah's Sub is still coming along quite well. 

 I've gotten a lot done since the last piccy.  I put in some LONG rows too.  They're not continuous, as you can see, but they are long.  Many of them are forty stitches long or longer.  It's do two, skip one, do three skip one, do two etc...  You can see how far down they go, and they go almost up to the blue on top.  Pretty color too.  Rosa says I'm way ahead of her, but she likes looking at my pics anyways, lol.  I'll be urging her to do more stitching next week.  This week, she's a hot mess.  She has some social anxiety issues, and she's in a band at church.  They have a concert this weekend at a church rally.  She's half scared to death.  So please, if you could all say a prayer for her band to do well, that would be just awesome.  I'd appreciate it, and I know she would too.  They do a rocky sort of Christian music.  Some of the songs Rosa wrote, so I'm hoping they go over well.

     Beach Romance didn't get a lot of action this week.  I ended up playing with Freak for like NINE HOURS Sunday.  NINE!!!  We just couldn't get off the computer.  It was fun though, so I'm not complaining.  And I'm not on a deadline, so it's all good.  

I finished up almost all of the current color under her foot.  I only put about thirty stitches in, but I did do a little bit.  I've been enjoying this one as well.  Now that I've learned my lesson with the threads in the fabby untwisting a little bit, it's going much better.  I know to look out for it, and count it both ways.  (I generally count over two holes up two holes instead of going straight across on the diagonal.  Otherwise, I end up in the wrong hole.  With this, I check it against the previous stitch both ways (up two over two, and over two up two).  If I end up in two different holes, then I have to figure out which one is the right one.  Sometimes, the only way to do it, is put the stitch in one of the holes and see if it looks the right size.  So far, so good.)

     I hope you're all having a good night, and sleeping the sleep of the innocent.  And I wish for you all a good day tomorrow.  It's May Day, and I hope it's a good one for all my blogger friends.

     It's been over a week since I've blogged, but I've been busy, mostly playing and stitching.  I was on forever the other night, trying to level.  I was one fourteen, and at one fifteen, I get to go to a new place.  It was totally dragging for me.  Finally, I managed to level.  I was so happy, but I was also too tired to go to Aquarius that night.  So I went to bed, and got up the next morning raring to go.  I spent almost five hours there, y'all.  My arm and wrist were hurting by the time I got done, lol.  It was sooooooo fun though.  I'm having a blast.  A lot of my friends on there are always worrying about how much more they have to go to level.  But not me.  I enjoy playing, and that's why I play.  Not to level.  It's just a side effect of the enjoyment I get out of it.  That was yesterday.  I haven't played yet today, but my wrist is still a bit sore, so I probably won't play much.

     I've gotten a good bit done on my Astral Lion (DMC, and I know, I've been saying Dimensions, but it's not), but I don't think I'm gonna make goal.  He was looking soooooo good when I took him off the Q-snap to move it though. 

 I took a full pic and a partial too.  (The partial is of what I accomplished after I moved the Q-snap, so they're not exactly the same.  I really love the colors in this.  At first, when I was working at the bottom of the first half of the page, I was working with a lot of greens.  Pretty color, green.  My second fave.  (To purple, which was the next color I worked on, lol.)  You can see how the bottom of the page is done in different shades of green.  The last one was the easiest to do.  I checked in sections (small sections, to be sure) in between the other colors I had already done.  I missed three stitches of other colors that I had to go back and fill in, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  I went back and filled them in after doing all the little sections of the last color.  It's easiest cause I can check the "holes" in the design against the chart.  (Okay, starting one stitch up from the bottom, there are three rows of two going up one diagonally each time.  Then, the next section is a row of three followed by a row of two followed by two rows of one.  Then...  And so on.)  Once I check and make sure the holes match what I should have based on the chart, I put the chart down and fill in all the spaces.   It's quick, and easy.  Then I filled in the other two colors, and it was time to move the Q.  

I started working with the darkest purple next.  It's a lovely shade, and the color itself is beautiful.  You can see that the sky is full of shading.  It's not bad confetti though, like an HAED would be.  (Prettier too, with all that confetti.)  But it still will look good.  I may get lucky and finish up the sky part of this page, but I don't know if I will or not.  I only have two days to work on it, after all.  I have quite a bit more done on this now cause Monday was a rotation day and I've been stitching a lot.  I have about two hundred more stitches in it.  (I was watching Eclipse, and got quite a bit done.  I don't really know for sure if I like any of the Twilight movies.  I'm a huge fan of the books, but they made so many changes, that I really am bothered by in the movies.  Still, the movies are pretty good.  I wish I had seen the movies first, but too late for that now.  I have all the books and loved them so much that I've read them all multiple times.  I'm a team Edward fan although I don't think the actor is as yummy as what I had pictured in my head.  Heck, they all look different than I had in my head.  Except Jasper.  I had a pretty similar piccy of him in my head.  The special effects are amazing though.  Love the way the wolves look.  Awesome!!!)

     No piccy of Time To Go (Witch Stitch'n'Bits) again this week.  I'm still gridding it.  Of course, it doesn't help that I made a mistake in my gridding and had to pull a lot of it out and redo it.  (Yes, I suck, lol.  Nothing I can do about it now but soldier on.)  I got quite a bit of it replaced last week (four out of six lines), so I only need a few more and I'll be back to work.  Ah, if only I could count to ten without messing it up, lol.  I need lessons!!!!

     I finished my ornie (Let It Snow, Casey Buonaugario Desigsn) up in the doctor's office.  

I saw my PCP on Wed last week.  She wants to do lots of bloodwork, but I had forgotten about the appointment, so I wasn't fasting for her to do it that day.  She did give me a lab slip though, so when I do remember, I'll be able to go in and do it at anytime.  And, unfortunately, I was in the doc's office while I did it, so I couldn't share it with anyone right away.  But I did it, I did it!!  Yay, I was so excited that when the doctor walked in, I told her about it.  What am I going on about?!?  I made a French Knot.  I made the dot of the I in It and it's fab.  I have been bringing me needle up, and angling the thread to the left.  Then, I've been coming from the top and wrapping around my needle that way.  But someone in one of my groups sent in a tutorial where the lady wrapped it the other way, from the bottom.  So I tried it that way, and managed a nice knot.  (Now if it doesn't come out, I'll be happy.)  And I need to get beads for his eyes.  So it's not REALLY finished.  But it is to the point that I need to get beads for him to finish him off.  Well, actually, it calls for rainbow beads.  I need to look at them and decide if I'm gonna use them, or if I'm gonna get in my bead stash and find some black beads.  Or, I could use floss and make black French Knots if I don't wanna do beads.  We'll see...

     Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek) is still going well. 

 It's my favorite, probably because the colors in it are gorgeous.  Peach and green for the kite, and purple and blue for the sky.  Lovely!!!  Rosa left me a comment on my last blog entry and said, "You're so much further than me."  And so I thought about that, and decided that when I finish the first page, I'll probably stop and wait for her to catch up.  I know, that means it will take me longer to finish.  But it's no fun (and not encouraging) if your SAL partner is WAY ahead of you.  I want to keep her enthused about the project, and so that's how I'm gonna do it.  I'm almost to the end of the page with my current color, then I need to go back and fill in a little bit under the kite.  I'm not sure what that white swath is, but it's not in the original photo, so ignore it.  Something I somehow managed to do in Paint, I'm guessing.  (NO idea how it happened though.  I did nothing but add the text.  Weird...)

     A big, huge thanks to Andrea who started the Friday Finishes Blog.  She put a tutorial on it about how to watermark your piccys with text, which sort of worked for me.  It didn't work exactly how hers did as she's using Windows Seven, and I'm still using Vista.  The one difference that frustrated the crap out of me was that I couldn't resize my pic and then choose the text option.  If I changed the size, that option was not open to me.  It was really weird.  But everything else worked the way she said it should, and I've now got my pics marked with the date, and my name.  Oh, and a link to my blog on blogspot.  that way, if it gets passed around on Pintrest or something, people will know who did it, and where to look for more info.  

     And another big thanks to everyone who reads and comments or follows me on Blogspot.  I always read and answer my comments, but I hope you all know how much it means to me to have feedback on what's up with me.  It's wonderful to know you care, and I appreciate every comment.  Also, I haven't forgotten my giveaway, but so few people signed up I'm gonna make another post about it, and reopen it.  I'll do that in just a few here.  Hope you're all having a good night out there!!

     And I just now realized that I forgot Beach Romance (Janlynn).  

  Gasp, how could I have forgotten something so important.  Luckily, I know how to edit, lol.  I did a little bit on this this week.  I wanted to do more, but I just didn't get around to it.  I was determined to level, and then I had to get a bath Sunday night and got sucked into my book.  By the time I got back out of the tub (all wrinkled and pruny), it was time to go to bed.  So I got some done, but not as much as I wanted.  Still, it's not like it's on a deadline.  The larger blob, up and to the right, is her leg and foot.  The smaller blob, down and to the left, is the sand of the beach.  I'm thinking the bsing will really make her foot look like a foot rather than a blob.  We'll see!!!

Easter and updates

     Again, it's five AM and I'm blogging.  For a different reason this time though.  I finished my first page on Bubbles tonight, whoo hoo!!  I'm so excited to have reached some kind of milestone on one of my HAEDs.  (It's so sad, they're all on the first page.  SAD!!!!)  Anyways, I stitched for a bit talking to Rosa earlier, and then I got out of the bath and really got down to it.  Yes, I'm tired.  But my goal was to finish page one, and I finished it.  Yay me!  Only forty six to go now, lol.  Anyways, I'm sure you want to see the pic, so here it is!!  I enjoyed it today, but I didn't.  I was in confetti heaven, but I was impatient to get it done too.  I love the rich detail.  In just the edge of her wing, I counted twelve shades of purple.  TWELVE!!!  Maybe I should have called it confetti hell, lol.  It's very small on the twenty eight count, but I love working over one.  My next project is on eighteen count, and I already know it's gonna feel huge.  I'm looking forward to another page finish though.  My goal on Astral Lion is to finish page seven and start page eight.  I'm hoping I can do it.  I still have to do page six, so I'm not quite as close to a finish as it sounds, but page six is a partial page, so that's cool.  I'm NOT looking for a finish for this time around.  Not even close.  Still, it's the closest to a finish of all my projects, so it'll be fun to work on.

     I got a bit done on my ornie this week too, but not a whole lot.  And it's hard to see it too, cause there's a lot of white on white.  He's a snowman, ya know? 

 I'm using a very, very light blue on him on the right side, and you can barely see it against the white too.  I got the floss I needed for him last week, but I didn't get much done this week.  I thought I should be able to finish him up, but no dice.  I had to do some stuff to help my brother with his taxes this week.  His preparer wanted him to go pick them up, but he had to work, so he asked me to do it.  I gladly went out to the preparer's office and picked them up, but I didn't have a lot of time to work on my ornie that day.  Oh, well, there's always next week!!

     I totally fell into Noah's Sub this week.  I LOVE this project. 

 It's really coming out well.  I was working on it Thursday night, knowing I had to go over to mom's on Friday before she went to work and I just couldn't put it down.  (I watched a new movie for a bit while stitching.  It's a horror flick called Mandrake.  Pretty good special effects and lots of blood.  Awesome!!)  I started on the kite in the sky this week, and so did Rosa, so we're keeping pace.  It's an awesome project.  I've been enjoying it so much, and the colors are so pretty.  I did have to frog it a little bit, because of a repetitive motif (for lack of a better word) in the sky in the one color.  I thought I had done the same configuration of stitches twice, but I had only done it once, so I had to pull out about twenty stitches and redo them.  But it provoked a visit to the Fed Ex Office store near me for working copies.  I needed working copies of Frederick the Literate, Noah's Sub, and my ornaments all needed a working copy.  I spent eleven dollars cause most of them were color copies.  (Noah's Sub and Fred are both multicolored.)  The mags were black and white, so they were cheaper.  

     I walked in the door at Easter and said, Oh s**t.  I forgot my sister and brother in law again.  I've had their Christmas pressies since before Christmas, and I forgot them again!!!!  Apparently, Mom and Amy and Cathy in the kitchen heard me.  I poked my head around the corner and told her I forgot their pressies again, and she just sort of went whatever.  Mom confirmed that I'd had them since before Christmas (she was with me when I bought them), and she just blew it off.  NBD.  I'm not sure if I should be happy about that or insulted.  I took off my shoes (FYI, I HATE to wear shoes and socks.  I totally prefer to go barefoot whenever I can), set my purse down in the hallway, and took my stitching bag in the other room.  I looked at Amy and said, "I hate you.  I wish my brother had never met you."  And she laughed at me and said, "What did I do now?"  And I said, "You married him which made me offer to make your wedding gift."  So she said something about it was her fault cause she picked it out, and I told her it was mine cause I picked the fabby.  She was laughing at me.  And I just gave the put upon sigh, and showed her how little I have done on it.  

I think she was having fun laughing at me.  I got some more done after dinner, and the nasty, slimy green things were absent, so that was really good.  We'll see how I do on it tomorrow.  Hopefully well.  You can at least see the white.  You still can't see the violet, but it'll show up when I get the sand around it.  I'm still hyper alert to strands of fabby that are untwisted, but I did enjoy the time I spent on it, so I have hope that it's not gonna all be horrible.  I did tell mom it had taken Jesus's place in more than just the day of the week I worked on it, lol.  She's decided to get Jesus reframed.  She doesn't want to turn him into a tray after all, so she needs to go in and see Jerry and talk frames and mats.  We'll see how she does.  Crazy lady, lol.  Oh well, I didn't really need that twenty dollars.  And it wasn't a bad price to get him stretched and laced, and hopefully he won't have to cut it down and redo it, but we'll see what she wants.

     We had a yummy dinner for Easter.  Ham (salty, but with a sweet glaze for those who wanted it (no one wanted it, so I ended up throwing that part away.  Luckily, it came included with the ham, so it wasn't a big loss)), au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, and roasted veggies.  I didn't taste the seasoning on the roasted veggies, but mom said it had too much garlic.  (I like garlic, and she doesn't.  She did cut it in half from what the recipe said to use, and I probably would have liked it with more garlic on it.  She would have liked it with even less.)  Oh, and fresh bread and crusty cheese rolls.  It was all delicious.  We all decided that we liked last year's green bean casserole better though.  It was good, just not as good.

     I'm sorry to my group friends who got mass emails from me today.  I went through over four hundred emails trying to get caught up.  I'm only a little behind, a couple of days, but I'm trying desperately to keep up.  My one group just blew up this week with messages.  When I downloaded them day before yesterday, there were over nine hundred.  Now I'm down to two thirty three, I think.  So I'm getting caught up, slowly but surely.

     I've been saying prayers like crazy this week.  It seems like so many people are fighting illness for themselves or their loved ones.  I'm hoping it goes well for everyone suffering these issues, and I'm keeping you all on my prayer list.  Here's hoping you're all having a good night, and a deep dreamless sleep.  (Hopefully, I'll have some dreamless sleep.  Last week I dreamed that Freak was a girl.  It was weird!!!!!!!!!)

Late WIPacolypse post (It's all Julie's fault, piccy heavy)

     I just got back from Columbus.  Yes, it IS five thirty AM.  I wanted to sleep in my own bed.  It's been a busy couple of days, so I'll get right to it.  I dog sat for one day for David and Amy.  Well, I guess I should say animal sat cause I watch over the cats too.  Vin and I had a great day.  I was there all night Friday night, except for the hour I spent here to take my pills.  Yes, I forgot them, like a dummy.  (I forgot them tonight, too.  Duh!!!  I thought of it several times...  At David's house, where I couldn't do anything about it.)  Anyways, I took the dog out for a bit Friday.  Not walking, but just out in the back yard.  He enjoyed it, and I read for a bit, so it was good.  Saturday afternoon, I came home, took a quick shower, changed clothes, and headed for Julie's house.  It's about a two hour drive, so not bad.  I got there around six or so, I think.  Julie and Ansel ate (they had salmon, yuck), and I sat and stitched and talked to them.  Later, Julie took me up to the pharmacy to get my meds and to get food.  Penn Station East Coast Subs, Yummy!!!!  I think they have the best bread ever!!

     I got a little bit homesick though, and I was feeling bad about Yes Dear having been alone so much these last few days, so here I am.  And that leads me to the last months progress.  If you've already seen the pics, move on cause most of this is repeat.  I know not all of you have seen them, so here goes.  I'll start off with my two finishes.  I finished Jesus (WHOO HOO)

 and a Christmas ornie in the last month.  Jesus was my cursed project for a long time.  He was just ugly to work on.  Also, I've never been so happy to have a finish.  He's now framed and happily residing at my mom's house so David can put the handles on his frame and turn him into a tray.  Again, Yay for the finish.  He's Portrait of Christ (Sandy Orton through Praying Hands).  

     And then I have my little ornie finish.  It's from the 2008 JCS ornie issue which I got in the travelling stash box a few months ago.  It's called Candlelight, 

and it's designed by Angel Stitchin'.  It looks very peaceful and quaint.  I love the black and red together.  I think it's just beautiful.  You can't really tell, but the fabby is opalescent.  Very shimmery in real life.

     And then, I have other projects with progress.  Lots of them, lol.  April first was start a new project day in my 2muchXS group.  So I started four new projects.  I've gotten decent progress on all of them but one, Time To Go.  I'm gridding it now, so I'm not making progress.  The others are all looking good.  First up is my other ornie, called Let It Snow by Casey Buonaugario Designs.  

I actually had to stop working on it Wed night because I ran out of floss.  (I needed five or six colors and had none of them on hand.  NONE!!!!)  I'm ready to go now though, which is a good thing.  I'm really liking his hat (mostly, but I'm not fond of the brown parts, and I may take them out and do reds or something).  It's a nice bit of color, I think.  It will eventually go to my mom cause she has a thing for snowmen.

     Time to Go is being gridded, but I'll still show a progress piccy.

  It was super easy to make progress on this one at first.  The whole first ten by ten is black, 310.  Easy as heck.  So I did the first ten by ten, then started gridding.  OMG, boring, tedious, pita.  But so worth it!!!  Hopefully, I'll have him gridded enough to do some more work on him in a couple of weeks.  He's my Tuesday project.  Oh, and he's a SAL with Vicky.  I"m sure she's way ahead of me cause she's working on him every day, not just on Tuesdays.

     Next up is my Thursday project, Noah's Sub.  

I'm doing this as a SAL with Julie and Rosa.  I'm really liking it so far.  I was gonna pull out my half stitches, until I posted that I was gonna do so.  People came out of the woodwork saying not to, so I decided not to.  I added another color to the first on Thursday, and I love the way the colors blend.  It's gonna be gorgeous.  I think it's gonna be my fave of the SAL projects, partly because I've been wanting to do it ever since I saw it many years ago.  And I've had the chart for years, but was trying to be good.  And then Julie mentioned she had it, and I said SAL.  And then I mentioned that to Rosa, and SHE said SAL.  So Rosa and I have both started it, although I'm not sure if she worked on it this week.  I don't think she did.

     Beach Romance is the project I started for my brother and sister in law.  

I had a major frogging on it.  In some places, the strands of the fabby have separated, so it looks like you're going over two holes when you're only going over one.  I had to frog cause I had a short cross, and then I had to frog cause I overcompensated.  I can see I'm gonna have to be extremely careful with this one.  I love the hand dyed fabby I'm using for it.  As you can see, it's an opalescent.  Beautiful.  Sorry you can't really see the stitching.  It's there, I promise you.

     And next is my rotation piece for this week, Bubbles.  

I got in decent progress on her over the last week.  I did some of her dogsitting, some with Julie watching a movie (War Horse, which she really liked and I did not (for the same reason I didn't like Black Beauty)), and some in my stitching chair at home.  You can see the beginning of her wing now.  I counted them up and it has twelve colors in it.  I love how subtle the shading is on it.  Gorgeous!!  

     Last but not least is my last rotation piece, Country Bloomers.  

I got so much done on this that it's crazy!!!  It goes quickly because there isn't any confetti or subtle shading.  I really was chugging right along.  I'm amazed at myself for getting so much finished in a two week time frame.  I was all, wow, amazing!!!!  It's a fun project, but not challenging, so I was surprised it held my interest the way it did.  Thanks again Chris, for the gift!!!

     And one last note:  I think I'm gonna continue my rotation at two weeks.  I just didn't feel like I had enough time on Bubbles for this week, so I'll work on her next week too.  I was thinking switching each week would be easier to remember, but I feel like I hardly got anything done.  That's it for me folks.  Hope you're all having a great day and happy Easter!!!

Finish Fridays blog giveaway!

     And I forgot to let you all know about Drea's new blog.  I was featured on it on Friday.  It's basically a blog to show off all of our finishes.  She only made it last week, so it's only got one follower:  ME!!!  If you wouldn't mind giving it a look (and maybe submitting a finish to her), I'll link you.  You can find this blog here.  I hope you'll all join and help spread the word.  Cause a finish (any finish) it totally worth celebrating.  She posts on Fridays, so hopefully I'll see some of your posts there on Friday.
Edited:  As a matter of fact, I'll do a giveaway for this.  I've been wanting to anyways.  So the winner will receive the HAED of her choice, or a fifteen dollar gc to 123stitch.com.  To enter, leave me a comment on this blog with the link to your own post spreading the word (and the link) to the Friday Finishes blog.  I'll pick a winner in ten days, on the thirteenth.  (If I remember.  If I don't remember, someone remind me.  Y'all know how I can get with my bad memory.)

April first challenge (piccy heavy)

     Okay, I managed to start all four of my pieces for the April first challenge, and I have piccys of them all.  Since it's late (I'm sorry, I know I promised piccys on Monday, and it's now technically Tuesday), I'm gonna jump right in.

     I'll start with the smallest start first. 

 I've decided to do ornies for the whole family this year.  I started mom's yesterday (It's still Monday to me since I haven't gone to bed yet.  Yes, I know I'm weird), and he is just too cute.  It's Let It Snow (Casey Buonaugorio Designs).  I didn't put a lot in him, but good enough so you can see the start of the shape of his hat.  It's a sort of curlicue off to the left, and then the snowman sits to the right.  I put about fifteen or twenty minutes in on him, and I love the shade of red this is.  It's very vibrant.  He's gonna be awesome.  And since I'm not working in hand, I'm sure he'll work up quickly.

     And next is the new Jesus.  I don't know what the problem is, but I'm having trouble with Beach Romance (Janlynn) already. 

 In some places (I don't know if it's because of it being opalescent or not), it seems that the strands of fabby have untwisted themselves.  Instead of looking like one strand of fabby, it looks like two.  And it makes it hard to count.  I've already had to frog twice:  once because I put in a stitch that was only one hole high, and again cause I put in a stitch that was three holes high.  I guess I over corrected it.  It wasn't too bad once I was looking for it though, so I'm hoping it won't be too bad.  I'm working on the waves at their feet.  Not that you can see it atm.  It's so close to the color of the fabby it sort of blends in.  The fabby looks brilliant though, if I do say so myself.  (No, I didn't dye it.  I got it from Silkweavers.  It's Summer Winds opalescent.)  You can really see the sparkle.

     Next is the lovely Time To Go (Witch Stitch'n'Bits), for my gamer friend Freak.  

It's a SAL with Vicky L (you can see her blog here) and even though I started it on Sunday, we're working on it on Tuesdays.  I think...  I can hardly remember what we talked about now.  Anyways, it was an EASY start.  I did the first hundred stitches of it, which took all of half an hour.  I'm doing it two over one in tent stitch, and the whole first ten by ten was black.  Very quick and easy.  So far, I love it, lol.  (Who can beat quick and easy???)  Plus it's for such a good friend, so that makes it fun too.  I'm a little bit worried that I may need to change the colors in the legs a little bit.  I see a sort of blue cast, and I don't think I like it.  I may change it to a more flesh toned look, but we'll see how it looks when I get there.

     And my last start, and the one I was most looking forward to 

(and that I now have to frog, more on that later) is Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek).  I got Rosa on the phone and we got ready and started it together since it's a SAL with her and Julie.  Julie's not quite ready to start hers yet as she still has special orders to do.  I think I need to frog now though.  I started the half stitches so that they go the same way as my bottom stitches, instead of matching my top stitches.  So it will look like my half stitches cross in a different direction than my whole stitches.  Luckily, I don't have much in it yet, so I can easily pull them out and change them.  Of course, Rosa pointed out to me (luckily, because I read it wrong) that not all of the sky is in half stitches.  When I read it, I thought it said the whole sky was half stitches.  Some of them are halves and some of them (apparently) are wholes.  Oh, yegads, another thing to keep track of.  Grrrrr...  So I have to go through and mark the ones in the sky that are half stitches.  I think I"ll just put 1/2 on the bags so I don't confuse the asterisk as their symbol or something like that.  I didn't spend a long time on it, just enough to get a few rows in.

     And last, but certainly not least, is my last update on Country Bloomers for this rotation. 

 I'm now rotating once a week, on Saturday I'll finish up my rotation piece and put it away, Sunday is Beach Romance, and then Monday will be my next rotation piece.  I didn't do too badly at two weeks, but sometimes I had to check my blog to remember if it was the first week or the second week that I'd had that piece out.  So I'm changing it a little bit this time through.  Now I'm hitting the hay.  I've been up for a long time, and I"m tired.  

     I've been enjoying (sort of) my balcony this week, but I've noticed that I'm really tired at the end of the day.  Fresh air and all that.  I need to get a different chair for it (the balcony, I mean).  I go out and sit in the cheap one I have and it's not big enough for my wide load, lol.  So my hips get sore.  I used to have a couple of nice Adirondack chairs from dad, but my brother took them.  (I think he was afraid I would get rid of them when I moved.  As if...)  So I need to go out and find a good deal on one.

     Also, Julie's birthday is on Saturday, and if I can remember to get an oil change first, I'm going up there to help her celebrate.  We'll have fun (we always do, even right after her dad died), and maybe get to go out to dinner.  Yay!  I'll try and talk her into it at Wendells, where she works.  I want to meet some of her coworkers.  She talks about them a lot, and she likes most of them, so we'll see what happens.  Hope you're all having a wonderful night.  TTYAL!!

Lots of progress, and a few other things

Okay, now I'm peeved.  Stupid Chrome just ate my very long blog entry and now I have to start over.  Pfft.  Stupid thing.  (Don't get me wrong, I love technology, but right now, I'm irked at it.  I have no idea what happened to the six long paragraphs I just wrote.  Grrrr...)  Okay, now that I have that out of my system, let my get on to the point of this blog entry (again).  (Okay, so maybe it wasn't ALL out of my system.  Grrrrr......)  Okay, now I'm done.  Promise.

     I picked more lilacs today. 

 They smell soooo good.  The bush is in back, and it's right on the property line between my building and the building next door.  I love the way they smell.  Delicious (but except I don't really want to eat them, but I can't think of a better word.  Luscious maybe???).  I cut several stems for me, and a couple of stems for my mom too.  (We had to walk right past them to get to her car, so I took the scissors with me.  Whoo hoo!!)  So my house smells fabulous now.  And I love the color of purple they are.  They're sitting on my computer desk (you can see my modem in the background).  Yes Dear had a good sniff of them too.  I don't think she likes them as much as I do.  She's ambivalent about them, lol.  She sniffed, then walked away.  NBD, she says, lol.  

     I have progress to show you.  The bad news is I only have one, pitiful piccy to show you.  The good news is that it's not pitiful.  I made a HUGE amount of progress on Country Bloomers.  

It's coming along like a house afire.  I think it's because it's so easy, and I'm used to working on things that are much more difficult.  As you can see, I'm working on my third pair of bloomers.  It's going so fast.  (I just got back in from outside.  YD wanted to go out, and it's a balmy seventy seven degrees outside, so I obliged her.  It's too dark to see though, so we had to come back in.  Gorgeous weather, and it should hopefully last through till mid May.  That's when it usually starts to get hot.)  I just put in about fifty more stitches, so this isn't quite current, lol.  I'm not taking another piccy though, so you'll have to live with it, lol.  Again, Chris, thanks so much for the chart.  I love it!!  (I should do an easy project every now and then, so I don't feel so slow, lol.  But I probably won't.  We'll see.)

     I'm getting very excited about Sunday.  Sunday is April first, whoo hoo!!  I know, you don't all know what that means.  For me, it means four new starts, and yes, I've been waiting on them!!  In one of my groups, (2muchXS, and really, the name is a misnomer.  How can you have too much XS???), we are doing a start something new challenge for April first.  It came about because Colleen had just moved, and couldn't do the January first challenge.  (You don't have a limited amount of time to complete it, you don't have to finish by the end of the year, you just have to start something.  Or several somethings, in my case.)  So I'm starting four projects.  Noah's Submarine (Stoney Creek) is also called Noah's Sub and I'm doing it as a SAL with Julie M. and Rosa W.  Julie's decided she can't take the time to start it now cause she has jewelry special orders (whoo hoo), so she's gonna start it this summer.  Rosa and I will start it on the phone with each other (probably) and I'll do a few rows and then move on while she gets ahead of me (not too far, I hope).  I'm also starting Time To Go (Witch Stitch'n'Bits) as a SAL with Vicky L.  (Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM always up for a SAL.)  It's for my gamer friend Freak.  I tell him I love him, in game, and everyone sort of freezes.  Gamers generally don't get to know each other too well.  So they're all used to it now, but the first time, it was all dead silent, you could hear a pin drop, OMG.  Too funny, lol.  I generally tell the people I love, I love you.  If I don't, then they won't know.  So if the first block is all the same color, I'm gonna do it up and then move on to the next.  (I think it IS all the same color, but I'm not sure.)  Last, I'm gonna start Beach Romance (Janlynn) for my brother and sister in law.  It's their wedding sampler, and HIGHLY appropriate.  They got married on the beach in Florida.  I've been promised a piccy, but I don't have it yet.  When I do get it, I'll scan it in so y'all can see it.  Those are the three I'm starting on Sunday day.  On Saturday night, at midnight, I'll be starting my mom's ornie, Let It Snow (Casey Buonaugario Designs).  She doesn't know it's for her, lol.  I want to start something right away, but I wanted to wait on the big things.  So I'm gonna do the ornie first.

     With my SAL for ornies and all things Christmas this year, I'm gonna do ornies for the whole family.  I sent my mom some piccys of ornies that I could do this year for my sister and her hubby, and I'm waiting to hear back from her.  For my brother and his wife, I'm doing two ornies.  Amy has a cat, hissing and all poofed up.  The wording says, "What part of HISS don't you understand?"  It totally reminds me of Reese.  For David, I have a boxer ornie.  They both came from the book 99 Loveable Cross Stitch Pets.  (Or those words in some other order.  I can't decide what goes where, lol.)  I like the idea of making something for everyone.  My sister will probably put hers on the tree if it's among her ornies, so I'm safe.  And I KNOW David and Amy are putting up a tree this year.  So it's all good.  I'm gonna have mom make them into ornies for me, since I can't sew worth crap.  (Yes, she'll be making up her own ornie, and she doesn't even know it, he he he.  She'll be so surprised.  I told her that since I had made her a couple of ornies a couple of years ago, I was making them for the rest of the family now.  She's clueless (and she's not suspicious of anyone, least of all me), so I'll enjoy her opening her package.)

     She and I had a good day today.  We went to this little deli (well, not so little actually, it's two big rooms) and got lunch.  Normally, I wouldn't go to a deli for lunch, but...  It's Lent.  I'm Catholic.  Sometimes I forget to not eat meat on Friday, but I try really hard to remember.  So she suggested we go in and pick up fish sandwiches.  The first year we did it, dad was still alive.  She picked up three sandwiches, and brought them out to his house.  (The deli is in Mack, about five minutes from my dad's place.)  They were delicious, and huge!!!!  Each sandwich is eight dollars (I know, pricey) and big enough to fill you up.  It's about nine inches long by four inches wide at the widest point.  It's not a rectangle though, it's a filet.  So the ends are about an inch or so.  It comes with lettuce, tomato, red onion (yuck), and pickle on it.  It also comes with a side of their homemade dill tartar sauce.  Delicious.  She and I both picked out sides too.  She had black bean and corn salsa and pasta salad.  I got desert, lol.  Banana pudding and chocolate mousse.  Oh, it was so good.  With little shavings of chocolate in the mousse.  It was wonderful.  We took the sandwiches back to her house first, so she could eat and put away the groceries she bought.  Then I showed her (again, and made her practice) how to log on to the bank's website so she can check her balance.  She's a technophobe, so that was hard to do.  Then we came back here and she helped me out by cutting my fabby for my new starts.  (I don't do straight lines.  I can't cut one, draw one, sew one...  I have no artistic talent at all.  I can't even draw good stick people!!!)  Then she had to go home and work.  

     So Yes Dear and I went out on the balcony and she sat and people watched (my neighbors from two houses down were out) while I stitched for a bit and read for a bit.  Got some more done, as I already stated, and it was nice to soak up the Vitamin D.  It helps with the depression.  I was out for a little bit yesterday too.  Now it's raining, which is good.  We can use it.  But we're supposed to get bad storms, so...  Hopefully no one will be injured and there won't be any property damage.  I used to be scared of storms, but I gave my ex hell for not facing his fears.  So I didn't want to be hypocritical.  I went out for five minutes the first time, then fifteen, then half an hour and so on.  I don't enjoy them now, but I'm not scared of them either.  I hope you're all having a sterling day and evening, and getting lots of time to stitch and/or relax.

     And thanks to every one who comments on my posts, on either Multiply or Blogspot.  I love to know that you're all out there and interested.  It just makes my day!!  And welcome to those who are new to my blog.  It's nice to have you here!