Once upon a time a young girl set out to do something new for the summer. Her dad dropped her and her sister off at their new summer activity: Horseback riding. Her sister and her walked solomnly from the yellow car, early in the morning and looked at each other sure that this would be yet another activity that they wouldn't like. You see dad had tried several other camps last summer and none of them were great and all of them failed to really hold any interest. I mean football and softball were things that interested boys not girls. But their dad was a single parent and he was determined that they do something outside during the hot days of the summer. These girls were die hard couch potatoes and they wanted nothing more than to spend the time in front of their beloved friend. So tese two sisters embarked on their new adventure with the same attitude as the other camps had garnered: distaste.
But this place was different. This place became something more than the tv to these girls, it became a place to find happiness again. It became a place for them to heal from the loss of their mother and sister and it became something that they could be themselves. They didn't have to worry about being different or worry about people talking behind their backs about their home life, no one treated them any different. It was magical! They spent their days riding horses, learning to take care of them and making new friends. They learned how to feel again and they learned how to give love again, all traits that the father thought would be gone forever. It linked the girls forever as they spent ten summers together out there and what ever school holidays they could con their father into.
This magical place had a pond to take the horses swimming in, a creek to ride through and to explore, miles of woods to get lost in and play fort in, paddocks of horses to wander through and pet. There were never any worries about getting hurt or something bad happening because nothing ever did.
Things have to change as they always do. The girls grew up, their friends moved away or lost interest and new ones came in, the barn changed and things became more adult. One of the sisters decided that the horses were no longer for her and left the other sister behind. That sister didn't mind though as she had bought her first horse and spent all of the hours she could with the horses. Soon that sister was doing really well at shows, teaching other kids lessons and managing the barn. This was a dream come true. Alas though the real world entered and there were all of the sudden bills that needed to be paid. Her dream job no longer was keeping up with the bills and that sister had to spend less and less time at the barn. She had to grow into the adult that the barn had helped create and show the world that she was ready to take it on. She has since gotten married, had some children and had to move on from this barn. But the barn still holds a very special place in her, one that brings a smile and tear to her eye when she thinks about it. She misses those summers and misses the freedom that the barn gave her. The barn is moving now and the special horses are going to new homes. She knows that she can never truly go back as it is up to her to give her children that magic that her father gave her, but she hopes that one day she can go back and play once more.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
I spend a lot of my time wondering what i am actually doing with my time. Huh? You wonder, is that actually a sentence that means anything? Probably not but it was the first thing to come to my head this morning or night or whatever it is for me.
Recently i received one of those silly e-mails in which the person who has sent it to you and about ten others fills out a questionaire of various questions in order for everyone to learn a bit of trivial stuff about them. At the end they either promise you will have happiness or come into money if you send it to ten of your friends including the person who sent it to you. The person that this particular one came from is someone that i consider to be one of my closest friends. One of the questions asked who were your four closest friends and i wasn't listed. I don't know why, but that hurt my feelings. I mean i had always thought we were close. Maybe i was wrong. But i don't think so. This is someone that i talked to every week, shared a lot with and who i couldn't imagine that i had a friend closer than her. Maybe i am just being silly, but i felt a little bit hurt about it. That e-mail came about 3 weeks ago and we haven't spoken since. I am not sure why. We didn't end on a weird note, but it is like all of the sudden things stopped. Although she does have a little one at home that is 2 weeks younger than D, so i know she has her hands full.
*sigh* being a hormonal woman is just not worth it sometimes. My pregnancy hormones are finally going away, but i still have residual emotions and times of silliness. Like said above e-mail issue. M is glad though because i have finally landed on planet earth and am fit to be around again for the most part.
Oh and my hair is falling out by the clumps again. Boy i hate this part of it.
Recently i received one of those silly e-mails in which the person who has sent it to you and about ten others fills out a questionaire of various questions in order for everyone to learn a bit of trivial stuff about them. At the end they either promise you will have happiness or come into money if you send it to ten of your friends including the person who sent it to you. The person that this particular one came from is someone that i consider to be one of my closest friends. One of the questions asked who were your four closest friends and i wasn't listed. I don't know why, but that hurt my feelings. I mean i had always thought we were close. Maybe i was wrong. But i don't think so. This is someone that i talked to every week, shared a lot with and who i couldn't imagine that i had a friend closer than her. Maybe i am just being silly, but i felt a little bit hurt about it. That e-mail came about 3 weeks ago and we haven't spoken since. I am not sure why. We didn't end on a weird note, but it is like all of the sudden things stopped. Although she does have a little one at home that is 2 weeks younger than D, so i know she has her hands full.
*sigh* being a hormonal woman is just not worth it sometimes. My pregnancy hormones are finally going away, but i still have residual emotions and times of silliness. Like said above e-mail issue. M is glad though because i have finally landed on planet earth and am fit to be around again for the most part.
Oh and my hair is falling out by the clumps again. Boy i hate this part of it.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
In following blindly in another trend that seems to have swept bloggerland. I am going to join in. Basically because i have nothing better to blog about today.
1. Debbi needs to focus on Lexi’s needs and getting her well
2. Debbi needs receipts from hospitality.
3. Debbi needs to improve on her writing style- all she does is rave about how
wonderful every recipe is. :-(
4. Debbi Needs To Make Her Humor More Obvious
5. Debbi still needs information on what type of AV equipment is needed.
6. Debbi needs serious help with her simpsons addiction.
7. Debbi needs about four more. hours in each day. AMEN!
8. debbi needs to introduce this young man to the world of rescue.
9. Debbi needs all of your prayer's.
10. Debbi needs some voting reform - what about Florida?
1. Debbi needs to focus on Lexi’s needs and getting her well
2. Debbi needs receipts from hospitality.
3. Debbi needs to improve on her writing style- all she does is rave about how
wonderful every recipe is. :-(
4. Debbi Needs To Make Her Humor More Obvious
5. Debbi still needs information on what type of AV equipment is needed.
6. Debbi needs serious help with her simpsons addiction.
7. Debbi needs about four more. hours in each day. AMEN!
8. debbi needs to introduce this young man to the world of rescue.
9. Debbi needs all of your prayer's.
10. Debbi needs some voting reform - what about Florida?
Friday, January 27, 2006
A Day in the Life of Me
10:00pm - Wake up and get ready to go into work. This entails my dragging out of bed, combing hair, getting dressed, teeth duties and grab my pump and dinner and off to work i go.
10:55pm - Arrive at work, trek up to the third floor, take turnover from the previous shift and sit down to log in.
11:00pm - get ice in big Paradise Cafe cup that hubbie and i bought on our honeymoon and drink my first glass of water (i will consume at least a gallon of water during my day). If i am particularly dragging i will grab a can of Pepsi and hook the caffeine IV directly to my brain. I hate coffee. I love the smell of it, but swear that the smell is just a lure to the vile stuff that actually is put into the coffee cup. Tried it, hated it, will now just stick to my one Pepsi of the night. Of course since i am still nursing i realize that this is a no-no, but honestly humans were not meant to survive on my schedule.
11:05pm-2:30am - work
2:30am-3:00am - break to pump before i embarass myself and several others on the floor. I am one of two females that works the night shift in my department. I am surrounded by guys, mostly younger and trust me any leaking causes many people to be very uncomfortable.
3:00am-6:30 am - work
wait no i mean *cough* *cough* work
6:30am - get my tickets ready for the next shift and prepare log for turnover.
7:00am - give turnover to day shift. Go outside and wait for M to arrive with van full of grumpy kids.
7:05am - talk briefly with M (the only intelligent conversation we will have all day). Get into the van and drive kids home.
7:35am - arrive home. Unload van and get into house. Grumble about how there could be so many dishes in the sink when i swear there were no dishes when i left the house last night.
7:35am-9:00am - Get D's medicine into him and change his diaper, put him on floor to play and work on crawling. Wrestle pacifier from grumpy J and fix his breakfast of milk, banana and either eggos or blueberry pancakes. No tv until Nick Jr's shows start at 9am. After about 20-30 min(d has fairly severe reflux like J and the medicine needs some time to be absorbed before he eats), put D in high chair and get two jars of baby food in him. Put him back on the floor to play, chase J around to get him to finish eating so that i won't have him running around with a syrup covered fork for the morning (new favorite toy as it makes mommy say strange things!). Heat up 6oz of milk to feed D as he is now screaming as two jars of baby food does not hit the spot. Sit down to feed him the bottle, of which he will eat between 2 and 3 oz before deciding he wants to play, leaving me to get rid of milk (grumble), but mind you if i heat up 2-3oz he will know and will want 6oz right that minute. Put him back on the floor to play, drag out the art boxes and color or draw or something with J until he has a mini-meltdown because he is tired and doesn't want to do it anymore. Clean up art stuff and heat up another bottle to cart D off to bed for his first nap.
9:00am 11:am- J sits down to watch Dora, Blue and Diego with his books and stuffed animals and my pillow. I take D up to nap and give him a bottle, of which he will suck down as if i have starved him for the entire morning. Finish feeding bottle, turn on 5 minute mobile music and shut the door. I go downstairs, grab my pump, express as i am now about to burst, but i haven't had a minute to pee much less pump (D no longer nurses directly from me, but i will still express until he is a year old). After pumping i will clean up the dishes, swifter the floor (i love this thing!), put some toys away, get the bedroom ready for J's naptime (our room is the darkest room in the house, so J will nap on his pullout Elmo couch in there). D wakes up at 10am, ready to play. SO i bring him downstairs, change diapers on him and J. I get out meat or whatever needs to be defrosted for dinner, refill TP, paper towels, wipe/diaper stations as needed and take out the trash.
11:00am-1pm- give J back his pacifier so that he knows that it is getting ready to be nap time, put on a Baby Einstein DVD to get him in the sleepy mood, heat up another 6oz bottle for D as he is now fussy and tired. Take D upstairs, feed bottle, turn on music and leave him to nap. J's DVD finishes, we go upstairs, he lays on elmo couch, i lay on the floor beside him @ 11:45am...BAM i am out!
12:45pm - D wakes up from his nap and is chatting to his toes, all happy now. This wakes me up, J is still asleep. I get up and quietly leave so that cranky toddler can sleep. I get D and take him downstairs to play. I get things ready for dinner, chop, sear, fry, etc to make as few steps for M to have to prepare.
1:30pm-3:00pm- J wakes up and comes downstairs, pillow in tow and plops on the couch. I again wrestle the pacifier from him, give him his spoonful of Omega 369 (good for the brain and whatnot) and start getting his lunch ready. I crush his half a flintstone vitamin into whatever flavor of applesauce his has chosen for the day (yes i know about the chewable ones, but he doesn't like them. My child is not normal). He eats lunch and i feed D his two jars of babyfood for lunch. Get diapers changed. While J is finishing up a Sesame street DVD and D is playing i get to express finally. If it is nice out we go outside and run around for a bit before i have to put D down for his last nap of the day. If it isn't nice out, we will do some more arts or read or watch videos. During the videos i will get calls made to various doctors (speech therapist, play therapist, state programs, fence contractors, etc) and get J's things lined up. Having a 2&1/2 yr old that doesn't talk much is a bit trying. I will also lay out his pj's for night time upstairs in the playroom.
3:00pm-4:00pm- Take the boys inside and heat up a bottle for D. Take D upstairs and feed him and put him down for a nap. If nice I will take J back outside so he can play and run around while the neighborhood kids get home from school. If not nice, we will work on the words for the week, hide and seek, etc. whatever will occupy him for ten nanoseconds.
4:00pm - M will get home. I will sit down and express while running down what the boys schedule is for the rest of the day. J has reflux as well, but in working with a nutritionist we have been able to keep him off of any medicine. This makes for a controlled diet though and a eating schedule that needs to be followed to prevent any flair ups. D will normally eat some more baby food when he gets up. Since M works the day shift at work he will fill me in on anything that the managers are implementing since we rarely see our manager at night.
5:00pm-6:45pm - Blessed naptime!
6:45pm - Drag myself up so that we can put the boys to bed. I will take D for bedtime and he takes J. D has a different ritual right now than J does so we do what we have to for them to sleep well. Their bedtime is 7:30pm as they both like to sleep and since M has to wake them at 6:20 to do the car swap. This seems to work. D is normally bouncying himself silly in the Jumperoo. I will take him out of it and get him into his pj's, give him his tummy drops (M will have given him his night reflux meds at 6:30pm) and into the swing he goes for a ten minute calm down period. He is getting too big for the swing but still loves to watch the mobile and listen to the music while winding down from the jumperoo. I will go downstairs, silently weep at the disaester that is my living room (i was only asleep for less than two hours!!!), straighten up the toys, put dinner in the oven (unless M is hungry and then i will have left instructions on cooking for him, but apparently he doesn't have enough time to do this as he has to watch both kids...) and heat up D's night time bottle. I will take up a sippy of milk for J and his pacifier. I will move D from the swing into his bouncy seat (minus the toy bar, of course) where he sleeps until he finally gives in to sleeping in the crib (getting him into the crib is much harder than it sounds. After 2 hours of solid screaming, mommy cannot take it anymore and i feared he would stop breathing. This kids does not know the meaning of crying it out!). After feeding him his bottle, i will go in to check on J and make sure he has been put into his pj's and that his video is not done yet (baby einstein again. we have them all). Then i will go and express one more time before crashing at 8:00pm or 8:30 depending on how long it takes me to finish expressing. Then it starts all over again.
Anyone else tired reading this...
10:00pm - Wake up and get ready to go into work. This entails my dragging out of bed, combing hair, getting dressed, teeth duties and grab my pump and dinner and off to work i go.
10:55pm - Arrive at work, trek up to the third floor, take turnover from the previous shift and sit down to log in.
11:00pm - get ice in big Paradise Cafe cup that hubbie and i bought on our honeymoon and drink my first glass of water (i will consume at least a gallon of water during my day). If i am particularly dragging i will grab a can of Pepsi and hook the caffeine IV directly to my brain. I hate coffee. I love the smell of it, but swear that the smell is just a lure to the vile stuff that actually is put into the coffee cup. Tried it, hated it, will now just stick to my one Pepsi of the night. Of course since i am still nursing i realize that this is a no-no, but honestly humans were not meant to survive on my schedule.
11:05pm-2:30am - work
2:30am-3:00am - break to pump before i embarass myself and several others on the floor. I am one of two females that works the night shift in my department. I am surrounded by guys, mostly younger and trust me any leaking causes many people to be very uncomfortable.
3:00am-6:30 am - work
6:30am - get my tickets ready for the next shift and prepare log for turnover.
7:00am - give turnover to day shift. Go outside and wait for M to arrive with van full of grumpy kids.
7:05am - talk briefly with M (the only intelligent conversation we will have all day). Get into the van and drive kids home.
7:35am - arrive home. Unload van and get into house. Grumble about how there could be so many dishes in the sink when i swear there were no dishes when i left the house last night.
7:35am-9:00am - Get D's medicine into him and change his diaper, put him on floor to play and work on crawling. Wrestle pacifier from grumpy J and fix his breakfast of milk, banana and either eggos or blueberry pancakes. No tv until Nick Jr's shows start at 9am. After about 20-30 min(d has fairly severe reflux like J and the medicine needs some time to be absorbed before he eats), put D in high chair and get two jars of baby food in him. Put him back on the floor to play, chase J around to get him to finish eating so that i won't have him running around with a syrup covered fork for the morning (new favorite toy as it makes mommy say strange things!). Heat up 6oz of milk to feed D as he is now screaming as two jars of baby food does not hit the spot. Sit down to feed him the bottle, of which he will eat between 2 and 3 oz before deciding he wants to play, leaving me to get rid of milk (grumble), but mind you if i heat up 2-3oz he will know and will want 6oz right that minute. Put him back on the floor to play, drag out the art boxes and color or draw or something with J until he has a mini-meltdown because he is tired and doesn't want to do it anymore. Clean up art stuff and heat up another bottle to cart D off to bed for his first nap.
9:00am 11:am- J sits down to watch Dora, Blue and Diego with his books and stuffed animals and my pillow. I take D up to nap and give him a bottle, of which he will suck down as if i have starved him for the entire morning. Finish feeding bottle, turn on 5 minute mobile music and shut the door. I go downstairs, grab my pump, express as i am now about to burst, but i haven't had a minute to pee much less pump (D no longer nurses directly from me, but i will still express until he is a year old). After pumping i will clean up the dishes, swifter the floor (i love this thing!), put some toys away, get the bedroom ready for J's naptime (our room is the darkest room in the house, so J will nap on his pullout Elmo couch in there). D wakes up at 10am, ready to play. SO i bring him downstairs, change diapers on him and J. I get out meat or whatever needs to be defrosted for dinner, refill TP, paper towels, wipe/diaper stations as needed and take out the trash.
11:00am-1pm- give J back his pacifier so that he knows that it is getting ready to be nap time, put on a Baby Einstein DVD to get him in the sleepy mood, heat up another 6oz bottle for D as he is now fussy and tired. Take D upstairs, feed bottle, turn on music and leave him to nap. J's DVD finishes, we go upstairs, he lays on elmo couch, i lay on the floor beside him @ 11:45am...BAM i am out!
12:45pm - D wakes up from his nap and is chatting to his toes, all happy now. This wakes me up, J is still asleep. I get up and quietly leave so that cranky toddler can sleep. I get D and take him downstairs to play. I get things ready for dinner, chop, sear, fry, etc to make as few steps for M to have to prepare.
1:30pm-3:00pm- J wakes up and comes downstairs, pillow in tow and plops on the couch. I again wrestle the pacifier from him, give him his spoonful of Omega 369 (good for the brain and whatnot) and start getting his lunch ready. I crush his half a flintstone vitamin into whatever flavor of applesauce his has chosen for the day (yes i know about the chewable ones, but he doesn't like them. My child is not normal). He eats lunch and i feed D his two jars of babyfood for lunch. Get diapers changed. While J is finishing up a Sesame street DVD and D is playing i get to express finally. If it is nice out we go outside and run around for a bit before i have to put D down for his last nap of the day. If it isn't nice out, we will do some more arts or read or watch videos. During the videos i will get calls made to various doctors (speech therapist, play therapist, state programs, fence contractors, etc) and get J's things lined up. Having a 2&1/2 yr old that doesn't talk much is a bit trying. I will also lay out his pj's for night time upstairs in the playroom.
3:00pm-4:00pm- Take the boys inside and heat up a bottle for D. Take D upstairs and feed him and put him down for a nap. If nice I will take J back outside so he can play and run around while the neighborhood kids get home from school. If not nice, we will work on the words for the week, hide and seek, etc. whatever will occupy him for ten nanoseconds.
4:00pm - M will get home. I will sit down and express while running down what the boys schedule is for the rest of the day. J has reflux as well, but in working with a nutritionist we have been able to keep him off of any medicine. This makes for a controlled diet though and a eating schedule that needs to be followed to prevent any flair ups. D will normally eat some more baby food when he gets up. Since M works the day shift at work he will fill me in on anything that the managers are implementing since we rarely see our manager at night.
5:00pm-6:45pm - Blessed naptime!
6:45pm - Drag myself up so that we can put the boys to bed. I will take D for bedtime and he takes J. D has a different ritual right now than J does so we do what we have to for them to sleep well. Their bedtime is 7:30pm as they both like to sleep and since M has to wake them at 6:20 to do the car swap. This seems to work. D is normally bouncying himself silly in the Jumperoo. I will take him out of it and get him into his pj's, give him his tummy drops (M will have given him his night reflux meds at 6:30pm) and into the swing he goes for a ten minute calm down period. He is getting too big for the swing but still loves to watch the mobile and listen to the music while winding down from the jumperoo. I will go downstairs, silently weep at the disaester that is my living room (i was only asleep for less than two hours!!!), straighten up the toys, put dinner in the oven (unless M is hungry and then i will have left instructions on cooking for him, but apparently he doesn't have enough time to do this as he has to watch both kids...) and heat up D's night time bottle. I will take up a sippy of milk for J and his pacifier. I will move D from the swing into his bouncy seat (minus the toy bar, of course) where he sleeps until he finally gives in to sleeping in the crib (getting him into the crib is much harder than it sounds. After 2 hours of solid screaming, mommy cannot take it anymore and i feared he would stop breathing. This kids does not know the meaning of crying it out!). After feeding him his bottle, i will go in to check on J and make sure he has been put into his pj's and that his video is not done yet (baby einstein again. we have them all). Then i will go and express one more time before crashing at 8:00pm or 8:30 depending on how long it takes me to finish expressing. Then it starts all over again.
Anyone else tired reading this...
Thursday, January 26, 2006
I have a purple notebook.
I love my purple notebook.
It is just a plain, 180 sheets, 5-subject, college ruled spiral bound notebook.
I love it for what it represents.
I love it for the things that it holds within.
I am not crazy...I am just a little weird.
What does my notebook hold, you wonder?
Why it holds all of the charts in the process of being kitted, all of the ideas i have about designs i want to do and the notes on projects that i am currently working on.
I bet you thought it was something else.
I bet you thought it would be something interesting.
See i really am a nerd.
I love my purple notebook.
It is just a plain, 180 sheets, 5-subject, college ruled spiral bound notebook.
I love it for what it represents.
I love it for the things that it holds within.
I am not crazy...I am just a little weird.
What does my notebook hold, you wonder?
Why it holds all of the charts in the process of being kitted, all of the ideas i have about designs i want to do and the notes on projects that i am currently working on.
I bet you thought it was something else.
I bet you thought it would be something interesting.
See i really am a nerd.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
WANTED
Person(s) to take said teething screaming crying unsatisfiable baby off hands until front teeth have punched holes in his red gums and he stops his screeching. No need to bring anything but your loveable self as medicines, cold bits and hands are don't take even the hint of the pain away. Be prepared to spend endless hours holding him as he attempts his back flips out of your arms while going downstairs and while trying to feed him. For him to fuss the minute his feet hit anything resembling solid ground and not your arms, stomach, legs and/or face. Be sure to be skilled in heating a bottle to the point of lovely numminess only to have it spit at you and/or flung from the path to his mouth all while he screams to be fed. Did i mention that you should be able to stay up for 24 straight hours and produce an adequate supply of milk for said ungrateful baby. Don't forget either that there will be diapers to be changed which will involve skill with handling wriggly eels as said baby immediately senses freedom from his diaper and begins his practice for the US olympic gymnastic team, his favorite is the double back hand spring followed by the boob kicker.
Pay--> Immeasureable in the mother's sanity
Oh did i mention the toddler that you will be required to entertain at the same time as he chimes in with the baby when he cries.
They are not insync.
God save us. My sanity is hanging from the ceiling fan and it is on high.
Person(s) to take said teething screaming crying unsatisfiable baby off hands until front teeth have punched holes in his red gums and he stops his screeching. No need to bring anything but your loveable self as medicines, cold bits and hands are don't take even the hint of the pain away. Be prepared to spend endless hours holding him as he attempts his back flips out of your arms while going downstairs and while trying to feed him. For him to fuss the minute his feet hit anything resembling solid ground and not your arms, stomach, legs and/or face. Be sure to be skilled in heating a bottle to the point of lovely numminess only to have it spit at you and/or flung from the path to his mouth all while he screams to be fed. Did i mention that you should be able to stay up for 24 straight hours and produce an adequate supply of milk for said ungrateful baby. Don't forget either that there will be diapers to be changed which will involve skill with handling wriggly eels as said baby immediately senses freedom from his diaper and begins his practice for the US olympic gymnastic team, his favorite is the double back hand spring followed by the boob kicker.
Pay--> Immeasureable in the mother's sanity
Oh did i mention the toddler that you will be required to entertain at the same time as he chimes in with the baby when he cries.
They are not insync.
God save us. My sanity is hanging from the ceiling fan and it is on high.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Fine. I give up. You win. I lay down my challenge and conceed to you the victor : my body fat. 
I can't win, i can't even get you to budge in a different direction. Here it is 8 months after i had D and people are asking me what day the baby is due. I am just going to have to face the facts that my body is going to retain this extra weight like a warrior would embrace their armor. My body is not giving up these plush layers. If there were to be a famine i could do very well for months. I know that my body is laughing at me and taunts me with a pound or two lost here or there. Well i give, i don't want to fight anymore, i will play by your rules...Someone pass the twinkies i feel a harsh winter coming in...
Monday, January 23, 2006
Today was a quite a stash haul! I received the fabric in from Silkweaver's, both the Antique White for Noah's Sub and the Silver Mist 25 ct for Motherhood. The Silver Mist looks like it will be perfect for this, if not i have two other designs that i believe will look great on it. I am going back and forth between changing the fabric for Motherhood to a pale blue or blue/greenish so that it will look like she is in the ocean. I am not sure though. I may just have to order the fabric to see if i like the floss toss better on one than the other. Hmm more stash, fabric at that!
Then i received my order of Eterna Silks for Motherhood as well. I have all of the DMC colors so i can do a good comparison of how true the conversion is going to be. I already know that i want this piece done in silks so it will just be a matter of if i have to change one or two colors. My order came super fast and i ordered it via the Eterna website, but Thread Express filled my order. It took maybe a week total. Super cool!
I also received the next piece for the UFO RR in. I didn't open the package yet as i want to finish my piece for the Mirabilia RR before starting something else up. I am about a 1/4th of the way through the piece i picked for Sylvia's RR piece. So far i am liking how it looks. Since Mother's Bliss has no sparklies, i am adding a few beads to the baby's blanket and a few strands of Kreinik to the mother's dress. At least that is the plan.
At this point i am just waiting on the rest of my DMC for Noah's sub and the freebie Blackbird "Mini Gameboard" that i am kitting up. When i place the order for the blue fabric (guess that decided it, huh?) i plan on ordering a piece of Rock Quarry for the gameboard piece.
I am anxiously awaiting the newsletter from Silkweaver's about their solos as maybe, just maybe there is the perfect fabric choice in there for Motherhood. I am really looking for a molted type fabric look, light and dark spots and while i love Silver Mist it isn't quite what i am looking for there. The solos always have some great color combos and mixes.
Then i received my order of Eterna Silks for Motherhood as well. I have all of the DMC colors so i can do a good comparison of how true the conversion is going to be. I already know that i want this piece done in silks so it will just be a matter of if i have to change one or two colors. My order came super fast and i ordered it via the Eterna website, but Thread Express filled my order. It took maybe a week total. Super cool!
I also received the next piece for the UFO RR in. I didn't open the package yet as i want to finish my piece for the Mirabilia RR before starting something else up. I am about a 1/4th of the way through the piece i picked for Sylvia's RR piece. So far i am liking how it looks. Since Mother's Bliss has no sparklies, i am adding a few beads to the baby's blanket and a few strands of Kreinik to the mother's dress. At least that is the plan.
At this point i am just waiting on the rest of my DMC for Noah's sub and the freebie Blackbird "Mini Gameboard" that i am kitting up. When i place the order for the blue fabric (guess that decided it, huh?) i plan on ordering a piece of Rock Quarry for the gameboard piece.
I am anxiously awaiting the newsletter from Silkweaver's about their solos as maybe, just maybe there is the perfect fabric choice in there for Motherhood. I am really looking for a molted type fabric look, light and dark spots and while i love Silver Mist it isn't quite what i am looking for there. The solos always have some great color combos and mixes.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
M came home rather excited today as he heard in a roundabout way about the possibility of getting some season tickets to the Redskins next year. If you don't know getting season tickets to this teams games are next to impossible. It would be more likely that you win the lottery first. These guys are super popular. Both M and i are on the waiting list for season tickets and i think that they estimate we may get a shot in 2012! Goodness! So any opportunity for him to get a ticket i told him to grab. It isn't like i will be able to go with him, someone has to be home with the kids so the person looking to sell the tickets actually is asking M's cousin and so it would be two of M's cousins and him with the seats. I say go for it. I only support the habit, plus the cost of the tickets is HUGE so any small....stash purchases i make for the year i am GOLD on. Not to mention that not only will he be going to games, but he also has a tour of old ballparks that he is going on this summer with these two cousins, all inspired by the fact that they are tearing down Yankee stadium (his absolute fav team). AND he is going on our anniversary to a dinner/fund raiser and will get to meet his fav Football player, Darryl Green. I am fine with this as i would rather him go and meet someone he idolizes than regret it later. Plus we aren't too terribly hung up on those type of things. I love that about us, we believe everyday is a celebration and so we don't really do a whole lot. Why sit at home when he could be living a dream.
This has garnered an enormous request with the guys at work for me to talk to their wives and get them to let them go to "sporting" events on anniversaries. Sorry buds, to each his own.
This has garnered an enormous request with the guys at work for me to talk to their wives and get them to let them go to "sporting" events on anniversaries. Sorry buds, to each his own.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Not too much going on in my land really. I have been working on finishing this last row on the UFO RR piece i am working on as the mailing is monday and i wanted to complete two if not three rows total. I think that i will get two done. I may not start the third as i don't want to wind up going past the mailing date because i wasn't done with the third row of satin stitching. As easy as it is, it is time consuming. So not really a lot to post about since i am busy with that and then just trying to stay awake during the day until M gets home so i can sleep.
Friday, January 20, 2006
In keeping with the theme of organizing my crafts, I had a thought today. I wondered what my home would look like if i completed every chart that i had? I mean i have a lot of charts, not nearly as many as several of my counterparts on various boards, but i still have a lot. I think that if i completed everyone of them our house would be insane looking. Not to mention the amount of money spent on getting frames for all of them and the fact that i have several BAP's in the wings.
M's aunt works at a needlework shop and her home is insane with finished pieces. She is a really fast stitcher and i love going and staying with her with when visit VA. She always has ten projects going as well as two or three quilts going as well. She also has this crazy random way to organize things and half them time when we go through her stash she finds things that she forgot about and had already bought another one of! She is so funny! I love the fact that she is so scattered about it and really truly loves it. In the last couple of years she has discovered an intense love of stitching over one. She doesn't really like many fantasy designs, she prefers samplers, so i don't think that she would like any of the HAED's for herself, but she is always so complimentary and helpful when i visit. Even if she does make me drag all of my WIP's with me so she can view them in person!
I rather think though that my house would look like hers. As every wall in there is full with her finished and framed pieces. She does her own framing having learned a ton working at the shop and has taught me a lot about framing my own pieces. I have framed most of what i have given away for gifts. Now to just finish something for our house as we have lots of white walls!
M's aunt works at a needlework shop and her home is insane with finished pieces. She is a really fast stitcher and i love going and staying with her with when visit VA. She always has ten projects going as well as two or three quilts going as well. She also has this crazy random way to organize things and half them time when we go through her stash she finds things that she forgot about and had already bought another one of! She is so funny! I love the fact that she is so scattered about it and really truly loves it. In the last couple of years she has discovered an intense love of stitching over one. She doesn't really like many fantasy designs, she prefers samplers, so i don't think that she would like any of the HAED's for herself, but she is always so complimentary and helpful when i visit. Even if she does make me drag all of my WIP's with me so she can view them in person!
I rather think though that my house would look like hers. As every wall in there is full with her finished and framed pieces. She does her own framing having learned a ton working at the shop and has taught me a lot about framing my own pieces. I have framed most of what i have given away for gifts. Now to just finish something for our house as we have lots of white walls!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
I spent my weekend doing some cleanup in my craft cabinet. M and i have this agreement that i can keep buying crafts as long as it fits into this cabinet and a set of three drawer tupperware type container. My cabinet is really a tv armoire that looks like this. I love it! We bought the bedroom set that goes along with it and it literally takes up our whole bedroom! So the cabinet is huge and has three big shelves and then two drawers inside the cabinet and then the long drawer underneath the two doors. In the long drawer on the bottom i keep all of my fabrics. I have two boxes of hanging folders that have the designers in alphabetical order, where the charts live that are not in kits or partially kitted. I have another box that holds my current WIP's. Then i have these small personal type filing boxes that hold my patterns that i have kitted up in full, there are about 3 of those. Then i have a box similiar to my WIP box that holds the purchased kits. All of this sits on the bottom two shelves. On the top shelf since it is not quite as tall as the other two holds my magazines, books, a small tupperware container full of freebie designs awaiting filing, notebooks that hold charts that don't come bound. If a designer doesn't make a booklet out of their pattern then i take and put each page into a sheet protector and then file it into a notebook. My HAED designs are in three 3" 3-ring binders divided by artist and then each design is listed on a tab. Then the other designs are in other 3" 3-ring binders separated by divider tabs listing the designer. The other designers are Long Dog Samplers, Chatelaine, Dracolair, Dinky Dyes, Lynn Nicoletti, Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery, Character Creations and so forth. I don't mind the individual pages, but i want to be able to see all of the pattern and don't want to constantly have to take it in and out of an envelope that holds it. So i like having them in a notebook that i can flip through. Then for these designs i have a purple 3 ring binder for them if they are a WIP (like Motherhood), i store everything inside there. I have holes punched in a couple of the discarded pattern envelopes that go in the notebook and hold the floss, fabric, beads, etc. It works out pretty well. If the envelope rips i have a large supply of replacements. I am the type of person who needs to find a use for things because i don't like a lot of waste. So when i went through and overhauled my filing system i found myself with a ton of envelopes that these designs came in. I couldn't throw them away, most of them are too small width wise to hold my q-snaps unless they are broken down, so i came up with punching holes in them to hold floss and whatnot for the 3-ring binder projects. Then i can keep everything together in one neat place. Very anal is it not? I also have on that top shelf a binder full of my homemade designs, two binders full of freebie designs printed off of the web that i don't have a file for and a small frog to keep the others away. :-) In the tupperware drawers i have all of my floss, silks, beads, charms, needles, q-snaps, envelopes, rulers, extra scissors, and other gadgets i have collected over the years. I really love my system and i spent the weekend re-arranging and putting things away as things have just gotten thrown in there lately. I am still waiting for the silks for Motherhood and the rest of the DMC for Motherhood as well. I am kitting her in both in case i don't like the way one looks. I am also still waiting for the fabric for this piece and Noah's Sub. I have all of the floss for the sub piece and for the freebie gameboard piece. I am thinking that the freebie will look fantastic on a piece of SW's Rock Quarry. I just need to get a little piece of it.
I didn't do much stitching this weekend. I put a few stitches in my Mirabilia RR piece, Mother's Bliss, but other than that i was mainly too tired to stitch. M's new days off are really hard on the kids and I. Having to wake them four days a week and do the car swap is really tough on them come the fourth day rather than the three day wake-up. I don't know why but that extra day makes a big difference.
I didn't do much stitching this weekend. I put a few stitches in my Mirabilia RR piece, Mother's Bliss, but other than that i was mainly too tired to stitch. M's new days off are really hard on the kids and I. Having to wake them four days a week and do the car swap is really tough on them come the fourth day rather than the three day wake-up. I don't know why but that extra day makes a big difference.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
It’s the 4 Things Meme. Here goes:
List 4 Jobs you have had in your life: Hmmm… There have been a few…
1. Networking Engineer (currently)
2. Manager and trainer of a show barn
3. Secretary at a Paving Company
4. Dispatcher for the engineering dept of a medical software company
4 Movies you could watch over and over.
1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (although i love the first one the best)
2. Christmas Vacation
3. Harry Potter (all of them)
4. Love Actually and Bridget Jones Diary
4 Places you have lived:
1. North Carolina (currently)
2. Woodstock, NY
3. Orlando, FL
4. Fairfax, VA
4 TV shows you love to watch. (i don't watch tv while it is on, but i do get the seasons once they have ended and catch up. I hate commercials)
1. CSI
2. Criminal Minds (I am off on wed nights so i like this one, mandy Patkin rocks!)
3. Dead Like me (Cancelled, but was excellent)
4. Lost
4 Places you have been on Vacation:
1. Disney World
2. Blue Ridge Parkway
3. Disney Land
4. St Petersburg
4 websites you visit daily:
1. Blogs on the right side
2. WRAL (for news and weather)
3. Recipezaar
4. Ezboard
4 of your favorite foods:
1. Homemade Bread
2. Linguine with Cherry tomatoes
3. Homemade sticky buns
4. Broccoli
4 Places you would rather be right now:
1. asleep at home with my family
2. stitching
3. catching up on one of the many books i have to read
4. riding my horses
List 4 Jobs you have had in your life: Hmmm… There have been a few…
1. Networking Engineer (currently)
2. Manager and trainer of a show barn
3. Secretary at a Paving Company
4. Dispatcher for the engineering dept of a medical software company
4 Movies you could watch over and over.
1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (although i love the first one the best)
2. Christmas Vacation
3. Harry Potter (all of them)
4. Love Actually and Bridget Jones Diary
4 Places you have lived:
1. North Carolina (currently)
2. Woodstock, NY
3. Orlando, FL
4. Fairfax, VA
4 TV shows you love to watch. (i don't watch tv while it is on, but i do get the seasons once they have ended and catch up. I hate commercials)
1. CSI
2. Criminal Minds (I am off on wed nights so i like this one, mandy Patkin rocks!)
3. Dead Like me (Cancelled, but was excellent)
4. Lost
4 Places you have been on Vacation:
1. Disney World
2. Blue Ridge Parkway
3. Disney Land
4. St Petersburg
4 websites you visit daily:
1. Blogs on the right side
2. WRAL (for news and weather)
3. Recipezaar
4. Ezboard
4 of your favorite foods:
1. Homemade Bread
2. Linguine with Cherry tomatoes
3. Homemade sticky buns
4. Broccoli
4 Places you would rather be right now:
1. asleep at home with my family
2. stitching
3. catching up on one of the many books i have to read
4. riding my horses
Monday, January 16, 2006
Have i mentioned how much i LOVE mondays! Ok mainly because they are my fridays, but that is enough reason for me.
This weekend i have a few things planned. I will teach on wednesday, clean the house (an ongoing issue), play with my boys and sleep. I would say stitch, but that would be a lie wouldn't it? I can't promise something that i can't do and stitching on my weekend just never seems to happen. I am waiting patiently for my fabric for Motherhood and Noah's Sub. I am thinking that i should order somemore fabric, simply because i go through phases of wanting to buy fabric and bounce car payments. Sad isn't it?
Seriously i will hold off on buying anything else, i have enough, but i can't stop shopping!
The weather here has just been crazy, i seriously am hoping for snow, but secretly happy that it hasn't. I worry that with the long drive that we have to work now, that something will happen and my family will be hurt in a car wreck. I don't know why, but it is always a niggly fear in the back of my head.
Has anyone seen the trailer for When a Stranger Calls? Ok now i am seriously having issues with the phone ringing and a dark house. Not that i didn't have them before...i mean since when does a Curby salesman come to your house 3 times on a Saturday evening AFTER 6:30pm? Can we say scoping out the joint. Fortunately when you look into our house from the open door all you see is a sparsely inhabited dining room and a bunch of toys, the kitchen and the living room are hidden from view.
Well i think i am just rambling here so i will go. I am sure that i have bored most of you to complete tears. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I may post again from home if the laptop bug strikes me! I have been cleaning up blogs that i keep up with since several urls are not working or people have stopped posting for months. I have so many blogs listed on the side that i like to keep them up to date as much as possible.
BYE BYE!
This weekend i have a few things planned. I will teach on wednesday, clean the house (an ongoing issue), play with my boys and sleep. I would say stitch, but that would be a lie wouldn't it? I can't promise something that i can't do and stitching on my weekend just never seems to happen. I am waiting patiently for my fabric for Motherhood and Noah's Sub. I am thinking that i should order somemore fabric, simply because i go through phases of wanting to buy fabric and bounce car payments. Sad isn't it?
Seriously i will hold off on buying anything else, i have enough, but i can't stop shopping!
The weather here has just been crazy, i seriously am hoping for snow, but secretly happy that it hasn't. I worry that with the long drive that we have to work now, that something will happen and my family will be hurt in a car wreck. I don't know why, but it is always a niggly fear in the back of my head.
Has anyone seen the trailer for When a Stranger Calls? Ok now i am seriously having issues with the phone ringing and a dark house. Not that i didn't have them before...i mean since when does a Curby salesman come to your house 3 times on a Saturday evening AFTER 6:30pm? Can we say scoping out the joint. Fortunately when you look into our house from the open door all you see is a sparsely inhabited dining room and a bunch of toys, the kitchen and the living room are hidden from view.
Well i think i am just rambling here so i will go. I am sure that i have bored most of you to complete tears. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I may post again from home if the laptop bug strikes me! I have been cleaning up blogs that i keep up with since several urls are not working or people have stopped posting for months. I have so many blogs listed on the side that i like to keep them up to date as much as possible.
BYE BYE!
Saturday, January 14, 2006
I spent most of today (which by today i mean tonight) working on my UFO RR piece. I have pulled all of threads needed for Motherhood by HAED, Noah's Sub by Stoney Creek and a freebie sampler game board by Blackbird Designs that i want to do for M's aunt who is nice enough to let us stay with them when we visit. She has a bunch of old game boards in the basement, which is normally where we stay, and i think that this will look nice. I have ordered a FH of Silkweaver's Silver Mist opalescent for Motherhood and FQ of just plain white linen for Noah's Sub. So hey i am off to a nice start on completing my goals for the year.
How is it though that out of four 2.5 gallon bags stuffed with DMC i could not find all of the floss to kit up these designs and am having to order the rest as my michael's has a horrible selection!
How is it though that out of four 2.5 gallon bags stuffed with DMC i could not find all of the floss to kit up these designs and am having to order the rest as my michael's has a horrible selection!
Friday, January 13, 2006
Well we had a great weekend. We met with J's play therapist Thursday morning who will be working with J's speech therapist once we actually retain one. Before getting into the whole search for a speech therapist i must say that our play therapist was excellent. After spending 45 minutes playing with J he had learned a new sign and was sounding out a few words with "h" in the beginning. He was so happy to have someone play with him and just focus on him for a change, that he was so sad when she had to leave. I felt like such a horrible parent though because it made me realize how little one on one time he has with me. I wish i could devote more time with him, like he had before D was born and sometimes i wonder if he is suffering in some way because of my inability to give him one on one attention. I feel like sometimes he craves my attention and i am just so caught up in housework, D, trying to get sleep, etc. that he gets left out. I do spend time with him as much as i am able.
It is a long tale in trying to obtain a speech therapist has been going on since J turned 2. Right now he is babbling more and more and starting to produce words, like "no", "moo", "wow", "thank you" (ok once but very clear), "cow". So my theory is that he is just a late talker. We are still going to get a speech therapist, but he ages out of the state's program at the age of 3 which is in June. At that point he would start the public school's program which is another round of paperwork and a new case worker so to speak. I wish that they weren't so short handed in this program and had gotten to him earlier. Now he is going to get comfortable with his play therapist and speech therapist and then in a few months that will end. Now since we have private insurance through our company, and because his birthday falls at the end of the school year we can elect to continue on our own until the public school systems plan started in September. The difference will be that the play therapist will no longer be free ( the state pays for 5 hours of play therapy a month) and the state will no long pay 40% of whatever our insurance does not pick up. So i don't know. I will try to make it happen if J is really progressing well and needs them over the summer, but financially we may not be able to pay for it. Therapists are not cheap. Now originally we chose the state program because everything could be done in our home, sessions, etc. Once we got through a month of testing and paperwork we come to find out that the speech therapist is not an in home thing. Which, hello, in the beginning this was the EXACT thing i stated to our case worker that attracted me to the program. Had i of know that i had to still take J somewhere, we could of started this back when he turned 2 and we had the evaluation at the place our pediatrician recommended. Needless to say i feel that my time had been wasted all of these months on a waiting list and that they completely ignored the major request had had for this program up front. This being said on the morning that the play therapist (we will call her C in future posts) met with us our case worker (we will call her M in future posts) stated that she had found a speech therapist that would come into our home for sessions. Oh happy day! The only problem is that her company in not an "in network" provider with my insurance company, therefore i am not sure that they will pay on it. Most of the time they pay X#% if the provider is out of network, but not for most of the specialty stuff. So i am researching this as i may just go with the speech therapist i have to drive to. It is only 1.5 miles from the house and they are on the provider's list. *sigh* someone to work with him in home is really such an attractive option though as D is not the most cooperative baby especially now that he has learned to crawl. M and I are trying to work on deciding by tuesday since we only found out about this on Thursday and Monday is a holiday.
It is a long tale in trying to obtain a speech therapist has been going on since J turned 2. Right now he is babbling more and more and starting to produce words, like "no", "moo", "wow", "thank you" (ok once but very clear), "cow". So my theory is that he is just a late talker. We are still going to get a speech therapist, but he ages out of the state's program at the age of 3 which is in June. At that point he would start the public school's program which is another round of paperwork and a new case worker so to speak. I wish that they weren't so short handed in this program and had gotten to him earlier. Now he is going to get comfortable with his play therapist and speech therapist and then in a few months that will end. Now since we have private insurance through our company, and because his birthday falls at the end of the school year we can elect to continue on our own until the public school systems plan started in September. The difference will be that the play therapist will no longer be free ( the state pays for 5 hours of play therapy a month) and the state will no long pay 40% of whatever our insurance does not pick up. So i don't know. I will try to make it happen if J is really progressing well and needs them over the summer, but financially we may not be able to pay for it. Therapists are not cheap. Now originally we chose the state program because everything could be done in our home, sessions, etc. Once we got through a month of testing and paperwork we come to find out that the speech therapist is not an in home thing. Which, hello, in the beginning this was the EXACT thing i stated to our case worker that attracted me to the program. Had i of know that i had to still take J somewhere, we could of started this back when he turned 2 and we had the evaluation at the place our pediatrician recommended. Needless to say i feel that my time had been wasted all of these months on a waiting list and that they completely ignored the major request had had for this program up front. This being said on the morning that the play therapist (we will call her C in future posts) met with us our case worker (we will call her M in future posts) stated that she had found a speech therapist that would come into our home for sessions. Oh happy day! The only problem is that her company in not an "in network" provider with my insurance company, therefore i am not sure that they will pay on it. Most of the time they pay X#% if the provider is out of network, but not for most of the specialty stuff. So i am researching this as i may just go with the speech therapist i have to drive to. It is only 1.5 miles from the house and they are on the provider's list. *sigh* someone to work with him in home is really such an attractive option though as D is not the most cooperative baby especially now that he has learned to crawl. M and I are trying to work on deciding by tuesday since we only found out about this on Thursday and Monday is a holiday.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Today was unseasonably warm here. In fact, this whole week will be warm. I am a little daunted by it. I actually am one of the few people who like winter. It could be the fact that during the winter is when i do the majority of my carb consuming. In the warmer weather i just don't eat as much bread as i would during the winter. So you see i need to have winter so that i can store bread. :-)
I am excited for this next round of Secret Stitchers to start. I wish i could get the name of my person ahead of time so that i could start shopping for them. I love to shop and it doesn't matter if the items are going to someone else. I love to spoil people as well as i love to be spoiled myself! Plus i want to take advantage of the DMC sale that we are having here, but i am pretty sure that i will miss it. I believe we get the names at the end of this month as the round begins Feb 1.
Having taken pictures of and uploaded all of my WIP's onto the internet i am struck by what a small amount of WIP's that i actually have going. Of course, being a slow stitcher i really shouldn't add to the pile, but i love to kit things up and start things. It is like having a new notebook for school or a new journal i love that thrill! I know that i must wait though i would like to at least be halfway on some of these designs. But i am going to start either Fish City or Noah's Sub and an HAED so that i can have some progress in those areas. I think i have found a wedding design for my friend as well. It is Walk Beside Me by Rosewood Manor. I think out of the many, many designs i have been searching these past few days this is the only one besides TIAG's Amish Wedding that doesn't involve pink, big roses, doves, or something cutesy. Those type of designs just don't suit them and their tastes.
I have been working on updating my stash list. This list seems to be huge, but it is staggering to me the amount of charts and fabric and fibers and such that i lost in last year. I was going to break the fibers down into colors that i want or need for my collection so that when i get a little bit of money i could buy the colors i need, but i do have a To Be Kitted List that i keep with me at all times so i can reference that. What i hate is that i used to have old patterns of my mother's that she had gotten from her mother. They dated back to 1938 and i can't find those books anywhere. I wouldn't of stitched anything from them, but they were great to see how far this craft had changed. M looked at my list and he was like "When will you ever stitch half of this?" I said it was more that i am a collector. Of course then i reminded him that the list would be smaller if i hadn't lost ten boxes of stuff. Oh the stash i could be fondling! But now i get to buy more!
Have a great week. It is my weekend!
I am excited for this next round of Secret Stitchers to start. I wish i could get the name of my person ahead of time so that i could start shopping for them. I love to shop and it doesn't matter if the items are going to someone else. I love to spoil people as well as i love to be spoiled myself! Plus i want to take advantage of the DMC sale that we are having here, but i am pretty sure that i will miss it. I believe we get the names at the end of this month as the round begins Feb 1.
Having taken pictures of and uploaded all of my WIP's onto the internet i am struck by what a small amount of WIP's that i actually have going. Of course, being a slow stitcher i really shouldn't add to the pile, but i love to kit things up and start things. It is like having a new notebook for school or a new journal i love that thrill! I know that i must wait though i would like to at least be halfway on some of these designs. But i am going to start either Fish City or Noah's Sub and an HAED so that i can have some progress in those areas. I think i have found a wedding design for my friend as well. It is Walk Beside Me by Rosewood Manor. I think out of the many, many designs i have been searching these past few days this is the only one besides TIAG's Amish Wedding that doesn't involve pink, big roses, doves, or something cutesy. Those type of designs just don't suit them and their tastes.
I have been working on updating my stash list. This list seems to be huge, but it is staggering to me the amount of charts and fabric and fibers and such that i lost in last year. I was going to break the fibers down into colors that i want or need for my collection so that when i get a little bit of money i could buy the colors i need, but i do have a To Be Kitted List that i keep with me at all times so i can reference that. What i hate is that i used to have old patterns of my mother's that she had gotten from her mother. They dated back to 1938 and i can't find those books anywhere. I wouldn't of stitched anything from them, but they were great to see how far this craft had changed. M looked at my list and he was like "When will you ever stitch half of this?" I said it was more that i am a collector. Of course then i reminded him that the list would be smaller if i hadn't lost ten boxes of stuff. Oh the stash i could be fondling! But now i get to buy more!
Have a great week. It is my weekend!
Sunday, January 08, 2006
I was hoping to get at least the next little flower and some more of the vine done on the UFO RR piece that i have, but alas I am tired and i cannot see very well as a result. I don't want to risk ruining someone else's piece so i had to put that up after a few stitches. I received my first piece for the Mirabilia RR from Sylvia on Saturday. It is called "Faces of Change" and we are supposed to pick pieces that reflect who we are. So i have chosen "Mother's Bliss" by Mirabilia. The face that most resembles me is mother. So i am going to pull the fibers for that in the next few days and get her going on the Q-Snaps.
I was trying to organize all of my fibers today. Right now when i order fibers or have fiber left over from a project it goes in a ziploc where ever there is room in my plastic file cabinet. I probably have 6 of these gallon size ziplocs full of fiber. Ihave one whole one of just Caron fibers! I am trying to separate them though as the rest of the bags are just a mass of beads, kreiniks, dmc, dinky dyes, etc and i would like to 1) know what i have and 2) be able to find what i need for a design. Right now i have a tendency to buy all new fibers when i am kitting a chart up and i tend to buy two of each fiber, because i fear running out of a color and not getting the same dye lot. So i have a lot of fiber from all the duplicates i have. I still for some reason when i kit something up want to order all new, i totally love getting fibers in the mail, but i need to start working from the stash that i have because i have so much of it and i have so little money.
For 2006 to be kitted & started:
* Fish City - Stoney Creek
* Noah's Ark - Stoney Creek
* Motherhood - HAED
* one of the Mirabilia Queen's
* Sleeping Beauty's Castle - HAED
* Wedding piece for my friend's wedding on Aug 5 ( i really need to pick the design out for this)
* Angel of Hope - L&L (already kitted, but i may change the fabric)
* Woodland Santa kits - Mill Hill ( for christmas 2006) need to purchase
Finish for 2006:
* Trick or Treat Tree - Mill Hill (Current WIP)
* Rose of Sharon - Mirabilia (Current WIP)
* UFO RR
* Mirabilia RR
* Wedding Piece for friend
* Angel of Hope - L&L ( for a gift)
* Angel Procession - Mirabilia (Current WIP)
* 10 Woodland Santas for Christmas presents
* Spring Celtic Cross - NVP (Current WIP)
Goals for 2006:
* Get halfway through Lady Death new version (Current WIP)
* Get halfway through Winter Faere - TW (Current WIP)
* Get 1/4 done on Sleeping Beauty's Castle - HAED
* Get 1/4 done with Motherhood - HAED
* Add to my Mirabilia collection of charts
* Start Fish City - Stoney Creek
* Start Noah's Sub - Stoney Creek
* Increase my HAED collection
* Increase my hand dyed fabric collection
January 2006 Goals:
* UFO RR - Jane's piece: I would like to complete 3 rows before sending it out
* Mirabilia RR - Sylvia's piece: complete Mother's Bliss before sending it out
* put 100 stitches in angel procession
I know it doesn't seem like a lot but i have to be realistic on what i can actually achieve. I am not a fast stitcher. I have come to terms with this. I am too much of a perfectionist to go too fast and i am too tired most of the time to stitch as much as i would like. I have redevised my WIP system yet again. I have a box that is 2.5' x1' that holds my ziploc project bags perfectly. Soi have them all in there in a row and every two days or so i grab a new bag and put the one that i was working on to the back of the box. All except my RR pieces, these i keep out on my craft table so that they get the most attention until they are finished. Hopefully this will work for me as all other systems have failed.
I was trying to organize all of my fibers today. Right now when i order fibers or have fiber left over from a project it goes in a ziploc where ever there is room in my plastic file cabinet. I probably have 6 of these gallon size ziplocs full of fiber. Ihave one whole one of just Caron fibers! I am trying to separate them though as the rest of the bags are just a mass of beads, kreiniks, dmc, dinky dyes, etc and i would like to 1) know what i have and 2) be able to find what i need for a design. Right now i have a tendency to buy all new fibers when i am kitting a chart up and i tend to buy two of each fiber, because i fear running out of a color and not getting the same dye lot. So i have a lot of fiber from all the duplicates i have. I still for some reason when i kit something up want to order all new, i totally love getting fibers in the mail, but i need to start working from the stash that i have because i have so much of it and i have so little money.
For 2006 to be kitted & started:
* Fish City - Stoney Creek
* Noah's Ark - Stoney Creek
* Motherhood - HAED
* one of the Mirabilia Queen's
* Sleeping Beauty's Castle - HAED
* Wedding piece for my friend's wedding on Aug 5 ( i really need to pick the design out for this)
* Angel of Hope - L&L (already kitted, but i may change the fabric)
* Woodland Santa kits - Mill Hill ( for christmas 2006) need to purchase
Finish for 2006:
* Trick or Treat Tree - Mill Hill (Current WIP)
* Rose of Sharon - Mirabilia (Current WIP)
* UFO RR
* Mirabilia RR
* Wedding Piece for friend
* Angel of Hope - L&L ( for a gift)
* Angel Procession - Mirabilia (Current WIP)
* 10 Woodland Santas for Christmas presents
* Spring Celtic Cross - NVP (Current WIP)
Goals for 2006:
* Get halfway through Lady Death new version (Current WIP)
* Get halfway through Winter Faere - TW (Current WIP)
* Get 1/4 done on Sleeping Beauty's Castle - HAED
* Get 1/4 done with Motherhood - HAED
* Add to my Mirabilia collection of charts
* Start Fish City - Stoney Creek
* Start Noah's Sub - Stoney Creek
* Increase my HAED collection
* Increase my hand dyed fabric collection
January 2006 Goals:
* UFO RR - Jane's piece: I would like to complete 3 rows before sending it out
* Mirabilia RR - Sylvia's piece: complete Mother's Bliss before sending it out
* put 100 stitches in angel procession
I know it doesn't seem like a lot but i have to be realistic on what i can actually achieve. I am not a fast stitcher. I have come to terms with this. I am too much of a perfectionist to go too fast and i am too tired most of the time to stitch as much as i would like. I have redevised my WIP system yet again. I have a box that is 2.5' x1' that holds my ziploc project bags perfectly. Soi have them all in there in a row and every two days or so i grab a new bag and put the one that i was working on to the back of the box. All except my RR pieces, these i keep out on my craft table so that they get the most attention until they are finished. Hopefully this will work for me as all other systems have failed.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Friday, January 06, 2006
Thursday, January 05, 2006
*sigh* The weekend is over and i am back at work. Which i guess is a good thing as this is really the only place I get to interact with adults other than my family.
Lists. I love to create lists. I love to list everything. Nothing makes me happier sometimes then to sit down and make a list of either housework (broken down into categories), WIP's, recipes for the next two weeks complete with side dishes and ingredient breakdowns or lists of stash i want or have. Since i have a cool laptop now i am working on a program to store all of my stash. I want to be able to pull up the list of stash that i own and be able to find a chart complete with a picture, floss breakdown, fabric choice that the cart gives and maybe the fabric chose that i like that i have seen on someone else's WIP complete with a pic of the fabric, and any notes that i may have kept on the piece. I also want to be able to see a list of the fabrics and floss/silkies i have in my collection complete with a picture. I mean that's great that i have a FQ of Silkweaver's...., but what does that look like? I also want to be able to know if i have the items to stitch the chart in my stash and if not i would like the program to create a shopping list for me. If i order it online i would like it linked back to that project. I haven't found any software that will give me all of this yet so i am working on creating my own. I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but i do know what i want and am willing to work on getting it in place. I am less likely to stitch something right then if i don't know what the piece looks like and have to go look it up.
I only got a little bit of stitching done this weekend on the Spring Celtic Cross. After collaberating with M (yes, my DH actually took part in this decision!) we decided to change out the fuschia in the celtic knot part of the design. When stitched it really doesn't go well with the gold, it looked kinda gross. So we flip flopped between a red/burgundy and a deeper purple. We decided to go with the purple to keep with the jewel tones in the piece as the greens and blues are nice and rich in color.
We are going through some issues with loading photos into Webshots on my laptop so pictures will be a little while in coming. Hopefully by then i will have a little more to show you on the UFO RR that i am working on. It is coming along rather nicely i am enjoying this piece a lot!
I also mailed off my Mirabilia RR piece to the first of many people who will stitch on it. I can't wait to see what it looks like when i get it back. I am going to have to find a few more online stitchy friends to fill in a few of the rectangles as it looks like only 6 people maybe 7 will stitch on it and there are 12 spaces. I am more than willing to fill in the remaining blocks, but since this is a "Friends" piece I would like to find a few others to work on this with me. Since i am not asking people to provide beads or charms for their ladies i am hoping that it won't be hard to find a few more people. The squares are only 60x100. So fingers crossed!
Lists. I love to create lists. I love to list everything. Nothing makes me happier sometimes then to sit down and make a list of either housework (broken down into categories), WIP's, recipes for the next two weeks complete with side dishes and ingredient breakdowns or lists of stash i want or have. Since i have a cool laptop now i am working on a program to store all of my stash. I want to be able to pull up the list of stash that i own and be able to find a chart complete with a picture, floss breakdown, fabric choice that the cart gives and maybe the fabric chose that i like that i have seen on someone else's WIP complete with a pic of the fabric, and any notes that i may have kept on the piece. I also want to be able to see a list of the fabrics and floss/silkies i have in my collection complete with a picture. I mean that's great that i have a FQ of Silkweaver's...., but what does that look like? I also want to be able to know if i have the items to stitch the chart in my stash and if not i would like the program to create a shopping list for me. If i order it online i would like it linked back to that project. I haven't found any software that will give me all of this yet so i am working on creating my own. I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but i do know what i want and am willing to work on getting it in place. I am less likely to stitch something right then if i don't know what the piece looks like and have to go look it up.
I only got a little bit of stitching done this weekend on the Spring Celtic Cross. After collaberating with M (yes, my DH actually took part in this decision!) we decided to change out the fuschia in the celtic knot part of the design. When stitched it really doesn't go well with the gold, it looked kinda gross. So we flip flopped between a red/burgundy and a deeper purple. We decided to go with the purple to keep with the jewel tones in the piece as the greens and blues are nice and rich in color.
We are going through some issues with loading photos into Webshots on my laptop so pictures will be a little while in coming. Hopefully by then i will have a little more to show you on the UFO RR that i am working on. It is coming along rather nicely i am enjoying this piece a lot!
I also mailed off my Mirabilia RR piece to the first of many people who will stitch on it. I can't wait to see what it looks like when i get it back. I am going to have to find a few more online stitchy friends to fill in a few of the rectangles as it looks like only 6 people maybe 7 will stitch on it and there are 12 spaces. I am more than willing to fill in the remaining blocks, but since this is a "Friends" piece I would like to find a few others to work on this with me. Since i am not asking people to provide beads or charms for their ladies i am hoping that it won't be hard to find a few more people. The squares are only 60x100. So fingers crossed!
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
At long last D's teeth (yes teeth!) have come in! His two bottom teeth that made a starting appearance about 3 months ago as bumps on the back of his lower jaw have finally broken through. Thank goodness! I swear, kids should come with a meter indicating that their fussiness is due to a tooth coming in, pain, cold, hunger, tired, etc because this has been one frustrating journey.
It is the start of my weekend and thank goodness, i need a few days to recoop. I worked some overtime since we were short at work and that normally makes me very tired as i miss naps that i would normally get.
M took off on wednesday so that we could take down all of Christmas and do a general de-clutter of the house. I am thinking that i will get rid of a lot of clothes that there is no chance my post-pregnant body will ever fit into again. Weight loss aside you can't force hip bones back to where they were and after we have two more kids, forget it. I don't hold any hopes that i will ever fit into anything remotely cute again. I am of german stock people, my body stores fat for everything!
I doubt i will stitch on anything this weekend just because i will be so tired from cleaning the house. Enjoy your work week!
Monday, January 02, 2006
So it is a new year. What exactly does that mean though to me? My daily routine is still the same. It is the beginning of the year so now i get to start all over with the birthdays for the year, anniversaries, weddings, events, etc. Last year I was horrible about keeping up with birthdays and whatnot. I will be better about them this year. I lost my calendar that listed all of these important dates as well as all of J's milestones for his first year. :-( It was all stored on my HP PP, but the memory went bad and it blue screened on me. Now all of it was backed up on my 'puter, but is inaccessible due to a hard drive issue. So i consider it all gone. So i have bought a regular normal, hang on your wall calendar and will have to fill it out with what i remember and figure the rest out as we go.
C asked me if i had a list of all of the charts i wanted and needed to replaced after losing them. Yes I do as a matter of fact, why do you ask? No reason just wondered. Hmmm. Now my friend knows i have a wishlist blog, but she said she wanted specific chart names and such. Ummm ok. So i gave her the other blog that i keep's url. Now this one just lists the charts i am collecting and it is insanely long. But what she fails to realize is that i lost a lot of charts and my list would only be half this long if i still had them. If M ever say this list he would keel over. Of course he would keel over if he had seen the itemization i had of my stash before. I had broken it all down for him in case i ever kicked the bucket before him. I wanted make sure he didn't get taken by some crafty person and cheated out of what things were worth. Plus when i made my will out, they said list items that are of considerable value. Well at one time i had ALOT of money tied up in my stash. So i listed everything out and did research on the costs, most of the time only listing the lowest price i could find for the chart and still the list was not only long (35 pages), but costly. I told M that if i go before him he is to make sure that my stash gets a good home. I have it broken down as certain people i know will get parts of it because they will appreciate it, but the rest i told him to go to the BB's i frequent and sell it there. Morbid thoughts aren't these, but at the beginning of each year i tend to think about my will and if there is anything that needs to be added to it.
Well i got quite a bit of stitching done on the Spring Celtic Cross. Now it is time to put that away and work on the UFO RR a bit more before the Mirabilia RR arrives. Tuesday is the first mailing date for it. I have my piece ready to go! I am excited about it. I need to remember to take a picture of it before it goes out so that i have a picture of the beginning. I forgot to take a picture of my wizard before it left for its second UFO RR tour. I will have to remember to take a picture of it when it gets home.
C asked me if i had a list of all of the charts i wanted and needed to replaced after losing them. Yes I do as a matter of fact, why do you ask? No reason just wondered. Hmmm. Now my friend knows i have a wishlist blog, but she said she wanted specific chart names and such. Ummm ok. So i gave her the other blog that i keep's url. Now this one just lists the charts i am collecting and it is insanely long. But what she fails to realize is that i lost a lot of charts and my list would only be half this long if i still had them. If M ever say this list he would keel over. Of course he would keel over if he had seen the itemization i had of my stash before. I had broken it all down for him in case i ever kicked the bucket before him. I wanted make sure he didn't get taken by some crafty person and cheated out of what things were worth. Plus when i made my will out, they said list items that are of considerable value. Well at one time i had ALOT of money tied up in my stash. So i listed everything out and did research on the costs, most of the time only listing the lowest price i could find for the chart and still the list was not only long (35 pages), but costly. I told M that if i go before him he is to make sure that my stash gets a good home. I have it broken down as certain people i know will get parts of it because they will appreciate it, but the rest i told him to go to the BB's i frequent and sell it there. Morbid thoughts aren't these, but at the beginning of each year i tend to think about my will and if there is anything that needs to be added to it.
Well i got quite a bit of stitching done on the Spring Celtic Cross. Now it is time to put that away and work on the UFO RR a bit more before the Mirabilia RR arrives. Tuesday is the first mailing date for it. I have my piece ready to go! I am excited about it. I need to remember to take a picture of it before it goes out so that i have a picture of the beginning. I forgot to take a picture of my wizard before it left for its second UFO RR tour. I will have to remember to take a picture of it when it gets home.
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