Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Test post

Not sure what's up with blogger at the moment but my posts keep disappearing. The titles show up in the edit posts section but not one word of the post.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should scrap this blog and start over. Can't decide if it's blogger, me or my computer. Since the same thing is happening on the laptop I tend to believe it's not just my computer or my lack of skills.

Monday, August 22, 2005


Finally a Finish!

A small finish but a finish!

I've added the image through blogger because for some reason I couldn't copy and paste from my photobucket acct. Strange. Anyway, the above piece is from an issue of the Cross Stitcher, American version of the magazine, and stitched using Crescent Colors. It's from Brittercup Designs. I hope to turn it into a fob for a friend who gifted me with a ton of DMC. I think it's a little large for a fob but maybe not once I get it all put together.

Sure feels good to finish something for a change no matter how small.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Alive and Well.....Alive

The stitching weekend was a lot of fun. The first leg of the trip was an adventure in and of itself. Because I am "El Cheapo" I flew standby. Well when one is flying standby on planes with about 50 seats, it's not a good thing. I've flown standby for a few years and never had a problem getting a seat, I mean I was able to get a seat on a plane a day before Christmas Eve. Well, let me tell ya, that was not going to be the case this time. After arriving at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport at 8:28 Friday morning, I was still not able to acquire a seat on a plane by 7:00 pm that night. It doesn't help that while trying to score a seat on the 7:00 flight they taunted me continuously. They seated 5, 5 other standbys but not me. Then they tell me "we have a seat", then "no we don't", then "give me your ticket", then, "sorry, no seat". This went on for a while, then finally I gave up, and spent the night in the airport on a cot. One of the lonliest, coldest places in the world is an airport at 2am. I was able to get a seat on the first plane to Grand Rapids Saturday morning though so that worked out well.

I bought a minimal amount of stash. I think my grand total spent on stash for the weekend was $70. I could have spent more but was seriously concerned that I might need what cash I had to hold me over for a day or two either in Grand Rapids or at the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. I was taking no chances on the way home. The trip home went so well that I didn't even have time to pick up a "Don't Mess With Texas" t-shirt. I wanted one of those pretty bad because let's face it, Texas kicked my ass on Friday.

Housekeeping

As you might have noticed I changed the blog template. Thought I was long overdue for a change around here. Blogger is acting strange or maybe it's my computer, at first when I tried to access my blog all I would get was the title, nothing else there. I couldn't access my edit blog page or anything. Then I decided to clean house, change stuff around and that seemed to do the trick. I also can't seem to use the enter key on the keyboard when I first try to write my blog. I have to tab through everything before I can move down a line or two. Not sure what's up with that. I don't know if the kids or the DH have locked in some weird setting or if it's just me. Probably me and my computer illiterate self.

Hoping to have some time this weekend to readd my links and update the old blog.

Stitching News

Not really much to write about. I started Samsarah's Always Be a Wildflower at my stitching weekend but as is usually the case I didn't really get too much done.

I did pull out my oldest U.F.O. last night. It's an old Dimensions kit titled Serene Shores. I started it either in late 1984 or sometime in 1985. It was supposed to be finished and ready to hang in my new home after the boy became my DH. It seems I've had this aversion to finishing projects since early on in my stitching career.

Hope to have some pics to post this weekend.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Stitching Weekend Countdown

Well it's less than 24 hours before I leave for a wild stitching weekend way up north. I'm excited. I'm worried. I hate leaving my family and at the same time I'm so looking forward to the weekend of friends, eating, talking, laughing and stitching. Does it get any better than that?

The LNS is also a LYS. Two, two addictions in one. WOW!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Crafty Blog

Well it's been ages but I've been stitching lately. Here is my progress on my LNS fabric of the month/freebie chart club project:



Even though I took the pic outside in natural sunlight, the sun was so bright it washed it out. This fabric is bright, extra bright lime green. The fabric is 30ct R&R JABCO Green. There are some adorable flip flop buttons that will be attached later but I'm afraid to take them out of their safe place as every time I touch them they disappear.

Now a while back I placed an order with Knit Picks and the following picture is of some future sock knitting goodness:



And finally, from the LYS I scooped up the book Socks, Socks, Socks, some Trekking, some size 4 Clover dpn:



More future sock knitting goodness. I plan to use the Trekking in color #104 to knit the Retro Anklets.

Stitching Weekend

The countdown is on for my stitching weekend with my stitching friends in Grand Rapids. This weekend is going to rock! There will be a total of 12 of us from various cities across the country and I can't wait to see everyone again. Some good friends will be missing and that makes me sad. I'd love to give them all a hug, but hopefully there will be other retreats in the not so distant future. We don't have a lot of things planned, mostly just hanging out, stitching, talking, eating, spending money at the LNS. All very good things.

Unemployed? Who Me?

No, after weeks of wondering whether I'd have a job or not when I came back from my trip, looks like the owner is going to hold onto the restaurant for a while.

I'm torn. I hated to lose those extra dollars but at the same time I'm so sick of people. You know you've spent too much time in the customer service industry when one wants to just punch customers in the face because they find ordering lunch a strain on the old brain. Hello!! It's flippin' BBQ! It's a grouper sandwich! It's ordering lunch people, not brain surgery. Makes me crazy. I do adore 99% of our regular customers. It's the customers that want you to order for them that make me crazy. How am I supposed to know what you want to eat? I've never laid eyes on you before. Look at the menu, order the food. I don't know if you prefer baked beans, green beans, potato salad, cole slaw or pasta salad. You, dear customer, are supposed to tell me. OK?

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Thursday Morning

Well my work week is coming a close early. I work today and then don't go back until Monday. I'm so glad. One of the kids I work with is going to NYC and wanted an extra day on her paycheck before she left and I was glad to let her have it.

I've decided that I'm ok with unemployment. Have to budget, won't be a lot of spending splurges but I'll survive. I've also decided that I'll use the early days of my jobless state to finish some long overdue projects. This will give me some time to get things organized, save up my pennies(wish I was kidding about that but pennies is just about right) for whatever I might need to start some new projects, and hopefully plan out a quilt or two.

I've been trying to organize my stash for all my crafty endeavors and boy is it hard. I didn't realize how much stuff I have accumulated over the last couple of years. My fabric stash is fairly small, as is my scrapbooking stash but my cross stitch and crochet stash are both fairly large, well ok my crochet stash isn't all that big but it takes up a lot of space. I have several afghans kitted and ready to start-not to mention the ones I have started and need to finish, and extra yarn all over the place, this does not include the various skeins I've purchased for future knitting projects. Does the insanity ever end? Well I guess it ends when I run out of stash and then I'll be insane without anything to do.

I can't imagine life without my stash. Even when I don't seem to have one minute to sit down and create anything, I know that it's there quietly waiting on me to find time to work it into my life. I've asked this a thousand times, what do people who don't have hobbies do? What gets them through the week, the day, the hour? Even when sitting down to stitch is the very last thing on my mind I'm always dreaming about the next project, dreaming about working on something, creating something.

I was able to stitch for a little while yesterday and it felt so good to hold that needle in my hand and make some little Xs on fabric. I didn't care if I finished the project or only made 10 Xs. I was just stitching to stitch. The last month or so I have become one of those people in the previous paragraph. No stitching, no creating, but I did dream about it all the time. It made me unhappy not to have the time to pursue some of my quiet pleasures. On the positive side I did read a great book, The Historian, 700 pages in two days. Couldn't put it down.