Weird Week!

Tornado after tornado this week and it's getting OLD! The sirens go off for hours, the TV weathermen scream "we're all gonna die" constantly, it's mass hysteria down here! The phrase that really gets me (and something they actually say, and not me joking) is "get in your tornado safe spot now, we can't stress this enough". Every time they say it, it sets my teeth on edge. Let's keep reminding me that I'm poor and live in a trailer! I don't HAVE a tornado safe space unless I drive all the way across town. There is no family, no friends, not even a ditch within a close distance to me, so where the heck am I supposed to go? UGH! Granted, there have been several towns within a 10-20 mile radius of me that have gotten hit pretty bad, but I've taken to the mantra of, "if I can't see it, I'm not leaving" and "if I can see it, I'm already dead anyway, so might as well die with my stuff". But, it does cut into stitching time, so I spent the majority of the week winding bobbins for the upcoming projects.

I had planned to spend the week on Alice and the B's, but that didn't happen. I left off here last time:

I did manage two more days, but the progress was minimal (another 516 stitches). Just a bit more in her eye and hair. I'm now at 188847/329175 total stitches, 57.37% and 819.42 hrs.

I decided it was time to switch, so I did actually go to Hook (like I planned weeks ago). I had initially left off on 2-1-24 at 14,418/148,750 stitches and 9.69% and 61.1 hrs.

I decided to stay out of the white and work on the colors, but I'm not sure if it's the fabric being oatmeal or what, but I had a horrible time seeing what I was doing. Hook lasted a night and an additional 308 stitches and 2.2 hrs. I just wasn't feeling it. I'm not even sure you can tell the difference here:

Once I could start stitching again, I went back to Everest, one I haven't touched since 1-20-24. This was an Etsy project from Addict to Cross Stitch.

I started in the white clouds and immediately realized white was why I wasn't feeling Hook, so I moved into the mountain and top of the rickshaw. This was just last night, so it's just one nights worth of stitching (845 stitches to be exact), which brings the total up to 8884/136,528, 6.51%, and 51.82 hrs:

But I do have EXCELLENT news on the stand front! Since I had my scroll frames ordered from Amazon, I decided to reach back out to Gaylon at BeeCreekLtd about the attachment for my newish stand (not including inflation, and considering how inflation has been in the past couple of years, I think I got off lucky). He was SO accommodating! I ended up getting the attachment (for 48" scroll frames), the travel stand, and even a tablet holder (which is what jacked up the price). The total amount was $303, which I think might have been more than the stand when I bought it, but considering it's now doubling the capacity of the stand, making it better when it's in "standard" mode, and still cheaper than the stand I was looking at, I'm totally excited about it! I literally can't recommend them enough...such nice people. I will never be able to afford an Omanik or Millennium stands (let alone their frames), so I'm making due the best I can. I've been posting daily pics to Instragram for my stitching progress, so I'll make sure to post as soon as it comes in and I've adapted my current stand.

And that's about it for this week. Will I continue on with Everest? Not sure, but I am running out of projects in the rotation. I want to start the new ones once they are all set up, I'm just not there yet. Still need more supplies to arrive. Now I just to focus on finishing a project (or two or three) before the end of the year. As of now, there aren't any in my stash that I would "die" if I don't start them now, but there is a new Jasmine Becket Griffith print called Tudor Rose Fairy that I WILL have to get if HAED chart it (or anyone else who charts JBG prints). That is my historical time jam (well, technically, one generation before, the Plantagenets, but they are technically the origins of the Tudor rose, white for York, red for Lancaster). I haven't been on the HAED forums for years, but even back then, they would never listen to my requests for projects, so I'm not going to bother asking them (it took them YEARS after I had begged for years to chart Strangely Lonely, so maybe it's just me). I'm not sure if they still do the "request a chart" where you pay to get them to chart something for you, but I'm also not going to pay an outrageous fortune for them to chart something just for me, when they just turn around and put them in the main shop for everyone else to buy as well. I don't have money to throw around like that (says the girl who has spent lord knows how much on stitching supplies for the past couple of weeks).

I'm stumped and second guessing myself

I don't regret UFO'ing Suteki, I hated that project. But I can't stop thinking about it, athough not for the reasons you might think. It was confetti heavy and it was like stitching through carpet because of the color changes. Granted, it was during a time when I knotted the ends of my thread (I can be lazy that way sometimes and I still do it upon occasion, although I try to waste knot it at the front now). I was stitching her 1x1 on 28 ct Monaco (my fabric of choice). And I am a cross country stitcher by nature, which also doesn't help with heavily confetti'ed projects. I debated parking, but I'm just not built for those hanging threads.

The reason for the sudden obsession? The Aimee Stewart supersize max color Bookshelf that will be one of my new starts. It's going to be Suteki on steroids (and I have no plans to use any kind of knot, I can loop method one strand, I just don't like to, it takes too long). Back in the day when I did my first HAED and decided that 28ct was for me, I did try 25ct, but I didn't like the coverage for 1x1 (I have never been a fan of 2x1 and I'm still not...there's a story behind that too, of course). So, I've lived happily ever after in 28ct land 1x1 with the occasional foray back to 18ct 2x1, but I always complain about it while I'm doing it, even if I picked it for a reason (usually because 28ct is too small for the project or the design is too simple for the smaller fabric count). I watch FlossTubers who do 25ct 1x1 and their coverage looks fine, but I'm not seeing it close up. They are usually showing wide views (or they are stitching 2x1 tent, and I've already decided I'm not doing tent).

I need to interrupt this mini-panic moment for storytime. This week, I did everything I could to avoid Everest, although the why is a mystery. Maybe it was almost two weeks without stitching and I needed to retrain myself to the discipline of it all? I'm not sure. But I decided it might be better to change projects again because I literally put in 6 hours in a week (two actual days of stitching) and that's just horrible! It was here last week (which might seem sooner because last week's post was a bit late):

I was just so sick of all the blue! Blue in the sky, blue in the mountain, blue, blue, blue! Believe it or not, there are three colors of blue in that top part of the sky...you can't even tell! Even when I could get a brown or a purple in, it was for a brief amount of time, then back to the blue. No page finish, no real progress.

As my ADHD kept getting worse...back to my original thought. I started noticing the coverage on Everest (which is 28ct Monaco 1x1). It's a good coverage, exactly how I like it...here's a close up (and ignore my crappy stitching):

It's not too thick, there is no "carpeting", it's just the right amount of coverage, knotted back and all. Where you can see fabric poking through, once it's washed, those will disappear. But, I do actually have some 25ct chillin' in my fabric stash, it came with my Dollmaker kit from GeckoRouge (I just switched out her fabric for 28ct). So I got the bright idea to stitch up a block of different colors to see how bad it actually is (keep in mind, I did this test once back in 2010, but I figured maybe my tastes have changed or maybe my memory was skewing my view of the situation). I was using thread from Everest's stash which, ironically, is almost entirely made up of the knock-off thread I cleared out of my stash a few weeks ago. If it's faded, I can't really tell because it's all the same, but by golly does it shread really fast! I have to cut the strands very short or it will just tear apart after about 2/3 through. But anyway, here's my mock-up block on 25ct 1x1 (with a tiny little BamBam hair right there staring back, I thought about retaking the pic when I saw it, but it made me smile, so I left it in):

It's pretty much the same as I remember, pretty good with the lighter colors, but crap with the darker ones, especially the black. I should also add here that the 28ct of Everest is Monaco and the 25ct test is Lugana. In my experience, the holes in Lugana are bigger. Monaco is harder to get nowadays (and it's pretty much exclusively 28ct anyway) and the Easy Guide fabric I bought for the Bookshelf only comes in Lugana (even though it comes in various sizes, I bought it in 28ct for Bookshelf), so the holes will be bigger (which may negate this issue altogether and I'm, as per usual, getting bent out of shape for nothing). If I re-buy it in 25ct, I could go with Anchor black to solve the coverage issue, but it does create a couple more issues. First and foremost, it means I'm spending more money on a large fabric that isn't cheap (and more floss...21 skeins of Anchor black). I also couldn't get dowel rods longer than 48" locally for the new scroll rods I'm gonna make, which is fine for 28ct, but the fabric would need to be exactly 48" wide for 25ct, which makes them too short if I want a bit of hang-over of the rods, so I'd also have to order new dowel rods (and the next size up is 72"). Drilling in the house is one thing, but sawing too? I don't have an outdoor space to work in (let alone it's been 20 or below for two weeks now, with no change in that for the forseeable future) and I don't have an adequate vacuum to clean up sawdust. I am certainly not buying a new vacuum too!

I still have time before my February 29th start date to change all this out to 25ct, but the window is shrinking. I don't want to start on the 28ct and regret it because it turns to carpet, but I also don't want to rebuy it all for the 25ct and regret that as well if the coverage sucks. There is one FlossTuber I watch who starts big projects over and over again for various reasons (usually due to fabric and coverage) and I couldn't imagine doing that. I did it once with my Highlander Girl because it was my first full coverage and I didn't understand stitch lines if you stitched certain ways and it was pretty traumatic knowing I had to give up all that work (and it wasn't even a full page yet, let alone pages and pages of work like that FlossTuber does). I'm just not built that way nor do I have enough life left for that. She's young.

As for now, I'm trying to control my spending and trust my instinct to go with the 28ct. I have almost all of the bookshelf patterns (not quite all, but most of them), so if I do more than one, they will all need to be on the same fabric. Whichever one I pick first, needs to be the right one. I can't change later. Like the DoNa's, 18ct opalescent, each and every one. Someday, I will have a real house to hang the in, and they need to match. I am nothing if not a matchy-matchy kind of person.

But back to storytime (yes, the ADHD is strong), I did have to switch projects to keep myself stitching, so I did that on Sunday. I switched to Faces of Faery 167, a HAED by Jasmine Becket-Griffith. She's actually on 32ct 1x1 (a little experiment I'm still on the fence about). She's small, she'll only be 11x11 when she's finished. I have several other of the Faces series, so I'm not sure if I'll continue them on 32ct to keep the size consistent, or go back to 28. I'm not as strict on size for these as I am for some other projects. The bookshelves and the DoNa's are all the same size, the Faces vary. That helps with the decision. Plus, to be honest, in five years, I might not be able to stitch on 32ct as my eyesight gets worse than it already is. It's actually not that much smaller than 28ct, but it is smaller. And again, it's the "old" charting way for HAED, so there is no dithering, which means it's not "carpeting" up at all and that also helps with seeing it easily (some of the newer ones are dithered, which will make it harder to see as well, no chunks of continuous color). I left off on her here back in June of 2020:

I had trouble focusing Sunday, but I got a chunk done (although it's not my usual chunk and it just looks like more because she's so small). And, for the entire day, I only stitched 6 hours. That seems to be my new magical number. It's even hard to see what I got done on her because of the light colors and it was basically just fill in. Maybe I need to start on her face this week so next week you can see the progress as well:

As a bonus, the reason why I hate 2x1? I started stitching young, but they were young kids tiny kits. Teddy bears mainly. Back in those days, kits were all we had. I am older than the internet, remember? My first "real" kit was a Teresa Wentzler...yeah. I was 12! I had NO idea what I was in for. I don't know if any of you have done one of her projects, but tons of blended threads, half stitches, back stitches, french knots. I was WAY out of my depth. I was a one WIP pony at that point, and that kit took me through high school graduation, college, numerous jobs, marriage and separation before I finished it (although I would sometimes put it down for years and I apparently signed off on it with my married initials, so I wasn't quite divorced yet). This is a horrible picture of it and I think I've rematted it since, so I probably need to rephotograph it, but here it is:

There is a stain up by the dragon's neck that I never could get off. I have no clue what it was. I spilled tea on it at some point and half the fabric is "tea dyed" (or so I claim it when someone asks). It's supposed to be white Aida (I think 18ct, yet another reason to hate it). Ironically enough, I do have another Wentzler kit in my stash. I started it many many years ago (I was in my 20s), but I made a mistake and put it down. Haven't touched it since. It's 28ct, but it's 2x2 with some 1x1. I've never been good with 2x2 on a higher fabric, let alone mixing the two. I already intimidated myself enough by my initial experience, so between the mistake and the future issues this project could throw up, I've gotten too scared to touch it again. This one makes the other one look like child's play (what I would consider a Chatelaine on steroids with a dose of heroin). I started in the middle on it (which is what I used to do back in the day), but it all needs to be frogged before I even think about restarting this (which I can't imagine doing again unless I go crazy or something or someone offers me a million dollars to do it, and even then I might ask for 10 million). If this were a full coverage HAED, I'd be all over it in no time! This is it:

I had actually given away a bunch of kits to a co-worker at one point and panicked. I did the unthinkable and asked for some of them back, this being one of them. I'm still not sure why. I've never been good with letting go of things, but those of you who have been around for a long time, know the reasons behind that. It was a horrible thing to do, I'm aware of that, but I just couldn't help myself. I really shouldn't act on rash decisions! If I were smart, I'd sell the Disney Kinkade kits rotting away in my stash. I'm NEVER gonna stitch them, the detail is horrible and they have all those specialty stitches I hate, I was only buying them as "collectibles", and I never got Rapunzel (the last one before the company went belly-up). They go for several hundred on eBay now. I could get several thousand for the whole set. But, as with everything else, I can't part with them. That's for dealing with after I'm dead I guess.

So, I guess that's it for this week. This wasn't supposed to be a long post, but none of them ever are! I'm just a very verbose person in writing. I really should write a book someday! I'm more of a storyteller than a speaker or a "quippy" person. If you guys have any first-hand experience with those bookshelves or 28ct vs 25ct, let me know (but I know most of you guys don't work on those types of projects). I do so prefer the one-on-one relationships we have here versus what happens on YouTube. I still hate commenting over there. And I'm on Instagram, but I'm bad about posting a pic and forgetting it. I rarely respond to comments because I have notifications turned off (I have notifications on almost all apps turned off, I hate my phone pinging every two seconds), and I don't catch them until the next time I post a pic, which might be in a couple of weeks. I'm just not good with social media.

Unavoidable Distractions

I've been busy with stitch stuff the past week or so, just not stitching per se. I did switch off Alice and the B's because it was turning into "work". It must have been all that Petit Treasure Braid. For some reason, Everest by Addict To Cross Stitch from Etsy was calling to me (I'm not even sure if they are still a shop, I've had this pattern forever). I had barely started this back in 2020 and haven't stitched on it since 2021. Since it's been so long, and I'm not very far, here is what the design is supposed to look like:

Granted, despite the animated nature of the picture, it is a real bridge in Animal Kingdom in Disney World, although, with all the changes, I'm not sure if it's even still there now. It was one of my favorite places to get away from all the traffic of the park because not a lot of people would usually go back in that corner. Whether it's still there or not though, I still love the design, so I decided not to give up on it. I left off here back in Feb of 2021:

And I had only stitched one night before I ended up with a super-migraine that lasted almost a week:

Instead, for the days I could, I started winding bobbins for my new starts that will be coming (I've decided to start them on Feb 29th, since this is a Leap Year, it will be interesting to see how far I will be by next Leap Year, maybe I'll have more than one of them finished in four years, who knows!). It's taken me well over a week, but all the projects are bound up:

The bottom one there is a two-sided bobbin box, that's where my super-sized/max-color one lives now. That container was originally bought to help expand my thread collection (I keep my spare threads in those boxes and the three I had were running over, so I bought the fourth, but by the time I cleaned them out, I'm at two and a half now, so this one was a spare again). The one above that was the original box I got for that project, but I very quickly realized it wouldn't fit. When I got to Blue Marble, I realized it wouldn't fit in a regular bobbin box, so it all worked out. Also, there were so many of the little paper thingees from the skeins, it half-filled a small trash can:

I also learned a valuable lesson, when ordering thread for projects, only order thread for one project at a time. The two I ordered on their own was perfect...no extra thread, no missing thread. The order I made for five projects was missing thread and, for some weird reason, I ordered 42 skeins of 208...I only needed two! Granted, 123 Stitch's ordering system is a bit weird and you have to be careful how you click on the numbers, if you hover too long the number goes up exponentially (and, if you don't click off, it will drop down to zero), so that must have been what I did, I forgot to click off and just ran 208 up to 42. I just chalked it up to the question of life (if you know, you know), and wound those too:

I'm sure they will come in handy someday, although it's not MY color of purple (I prefer a more blue-purple). I still have to go to Michaels and get the missing thread I didn't order properly, but it's only like maybe 8 skeins or so. And here is a better picture of my DMC "trash" for comparison (shame those aren't recyclable, but boy, I need to run that trash can through the dishwasher, sheesh!):

As another side project, I had gotten myself a magnetic board for my needle minders to get them off the fridge (since the fridge was already covered in Disney magnets) and the new board was looking pretty sparse with my 8-10 needle minders, so I went around the house, pulling out my spare (or duplicate) Disney pins, old buttons, duplicate magnets, duplicate keychains, even seashells I thought might work, and made myself enough needle minders to fill the board! I did have to order some new magnets for all the bits I found, but with a headache that wouldn't go away and all the bobbin winding, I was busy enough until they arrived. Anything Harry Potter, Outlander, Supernatural, Marvel or the pave Disney stuff are basically the bought ones I think, maybe a couple of other ones...I probably should have taken the bought ones off the board and just taken a picture of the ones I made. Oh, and for the record, the one on Everest is one I made a long time ago from an old Disney pin.

I do still have to make my scroll rods, but that's for another week or something. I might have to watch another YouTube video on making those before I attempt it. I still have some time before Leap Day and I'm ready to get back to stitching before I lose my bug again.

I had a day where I left work after just 30 minutes when the migraine just got to be too much. In hindsight though, I'm not sure how much of it was headache, and how much of it was a panic attack...there was a lot of extraneous noise in the office, I was in a lot of pain, and I just really wanted to be home and not there, so I was already hyper-sensitive. I've worked through worse headaches. When I went to the office manager and told her I was going home, I was met with a bit of resistence, and I just kind of freaked even more and I just left (they weren't going to stop me, but I could tell they didn't want me to go). But once I got home, even the headache eased, so I'm thinking it was more panic attack and I probably could have suffered through the pain if not for the attack, but I have sick days, so why? If pressured (which I won't be), I'll call it a mental health day instead of a sick day, although we don't get those here, it is Arkansas after all.

We (surprisingly) got a fair bit of snow this week, not ice, but actual snow! It has been below 20 degrees here for over a week (and that will continue for another week, as well as below 10 at night with a wind chill in the negatives). At least I got to work from home for a whole day. We did get more than this, but it was just got too cold to open the door later, so this is the best I got.

I do live in a trailer, so we have to be extra careful about pipes freezing, although, in the South, we all have to worry about this because our houses aren't really built for cold weather. For me, every water cabinet door has to be open, every tap has to be running...it's super wasteful in my opinion, but at least I don't have to pay the water bill, that's on the park (although I do pay my gas and electric). On Sunday, the water went off completely. The park "claimed" the main water froze (which, in 28 years of living there, that has NEVER happened, even with colder weather and harsher weather conditions). Even though that put my own pipes in greater danger, there was nothing I could do. I typically don't buy bottled water because I don't like the taste of water from plastic bottles (so, of course I had no spare water other than what was in the Brita in the fridge). I only drink tea (made from tap water), so I had some of that in the fridge, but I don't drink sodas or anything else, so no other fluids. We were pretty SOL on the liquid situation. I drove up to the lab and filled what large containers I had (and a few water containers from my office), so at least I had water for the pups and to boil and bathe with (and believe you-me, they weren't that big, but it was a desperate situation at that point).

Then, a strange pattern started emerging, about Monday night, the park water would come on, but only between 7a-10a and 7p-10p. After initially calling the trailer park the second the water went off and seriously questioning her explanation initially (she sounded like she wasn't telling the truth), it didn't take me long to figure out that they had probably (allegedly) turned off the water on purpose. They have more rentals out there now than owners, so they were probably (allegedly) protecting their own properties from freezing up. I'm hoping it was just a coincidence that the water was freezing and unfreezing at "scheduled" times, but even I'm not that stupid. The water is officially back on full time now, although the pressure is leaving something to be desired. It's probably the same as what it's like to take a shower in an RV. But I'm not complaining, a shower is a shower and, when you haven't had one in several days, you are grateful for whatever you can get!

And, to add to the "fun", we are expecting our typical ice tomorrow. The amounts keep varying, so I'm not quite sure yet if it's enough to keep me working from home yet. I'm far less stressed when I do that and, probably, far more, regimented. I sit at my desk at home, I don't listen to any podcasts or music, which I have to have, at minimum, at least earbuds in at work (even with nothing playing) to tune out the noise of the office because even people's voices can be upsetting sometimes, and I just work. Certainly no TV or other distractions (maybe a puppy snuggle or two, but that's it). I even tried to listen to a podcast Monday and I had to shut it off almost immediately because it was too distracting at home. I almost work like there is a hidden camera on me at home, whereas at work, I'm horrible about distractions and probably am way more lackadaisical than I should be, without fear of consequences (although I should have, I'm almost daring them sometimes to do something...maybe it's my ODD). I managed to get caught up on everything I got behind on last week at work with my headache, on Monday, it was great! But now that I'm back in the office, I'm stressed again and the headache is coming back.

But tonight, I say I'm going back to stitching, although, as I have been winding bobbins, I have been glancing back over to Everest, and I'm thinking I might want to change to something else. It might be because I'm in the boring sky and it's just not fun. I keep trying to remind myself that I have to get through the boring sky to get to the "good stuff", but it's a LONG way to the duck. I'm not sure if there are mice ears in this top row or not. It's a long project, but I'm not sure how tall it is (it is horizontal, so definitely not as tall as wide). The mock picture doesn't make it look very big, but even on 28ct, it's almost as wide as Alice and the B's. Maybe halfway between Alice and Maleficient. And the dithered nature of the pattern is also a bit of a bore, especially in the sky (although it looks great in the wall). Time will tell though. It's the first I've stitched from this company and, like I said, I'm not sure if they are still in business, or even if I have more of their patterns (I think I do), but so far, so good!

And that's this week's update...for a week of no stitching, I had a ton of stitching-related updates I think! I wound probably several hundred bobbins, sorted seven new projects, and made quite a few new needle minders, all with a migraine that ranged from severe to mild, so I think I did pretty well!

Been a while...life been too sucky to report

I've been trying hard not to post anything that was too "Debbie Downer", hence my lack of posting. I haven't been stitching other than a brief 20 minute stint back in January (which I'll show later). The mood just hasn't been there. Frankly, the mood just hasn't been there to do anything. I don't want to do a TTT post, so we'll just leave that there.

I can show you picks of our "wonderful" weather than has plagued us all week. Somehow, work has (again) been the toxic element in my life, especially when I made my way to work Monday through this lens (technically, this picture was taken on the drive home, but you still get the idea):

Only to arrive at a job where all the lights in my department were completely off because no one was there! No one bothered to let me know that the lab staff had worked the day before (not that they affect me much, but it would have been nice to know I could have stayed home). There were a couple of people in the billing office, but they live a couple of blocks away. I live on the other side of town. I stayed for several hours, but as the weather got worse, I got more scared and went home about mid afternoon (to the above scene). By the time I got home, I had to sit in the vehicle for about 30 minutes, my knees were just jelly. When I was younger, I could drive on anything, but I ain't young no more. We don't get snow (ever), we usually get ice, and NEVER get both. This was the scene once I got in the house, gathered myself, and got the "real" camera out, taking pics of my view (and my "preventive car measures, which did a pretty good job making live easier the next morning and, for the record, I couldn't back in because I could barely get in my drive at all without getting stuck):

I tried to let the pups play in it, but they only wanted to jump on me and get back inside! Wusses!!

On Tuesday, after therapy, my therapist and I agreed that my migraine (probably induced by the stress of Monday), was causation enough for not going into work on Tuesday. It was not met with resistance from the "powers that be" when I informed them of my sick day, but I was still more than slightly aggravated that there was no news from work about what we were supposed to be doing, who was supposed to be coming in, and what was expected. We got nada. So I just stayed home and tried to sleep it off (which I did manage to do, so it had to be stress and not weather related). I did still get two work-related calls, one of which caused me to throw up violently when it was finished. Thanks for that!

By Wednesday, again, still NOTHING about work instructions, so I treaded in again, once again to an almost empty building, although there were one or two more people than on Monday. As a side note, since we don't get weather like this, I don't have the appropriate clothing, so this was also my morning view every single morning:

I did order an expensive pair of snow boots, guaranteeing it won't snow again, so yeah me, my wallet took one for the team! This day, I tried a different road in, and saw one of the few cars on the road do a 360 into someone's yard! It was about a 40-minute wait until they could pull her out with a bulldozer and a truck.

Also, for the record, I don't have a 4-wheel drive, I have a front wheel drive. That was the only car I saw on the road until today, and I bet I was the only two-wheel drive on the road. I was surrounded by 4x4 trucks and Jeeps everywhere! They didn't appreciate my 10-15 mph speeds, but oh well! Again, on Wednesday, I left midafternoon, to this (and keep in mind, they had been scraping and sanding these roads non-stop since Monday...it just kept snowing ruining all the progress). That may look like a clear path, but it's a solid sheet of ice:

By Thursday, again, still no contact about work instructions from the higher-ups, still barely a skeleton crew working, but I brave the now 12" snow bank in my yard (you can't tell it, but there are three steps going up to my porch, the bottom step is under the snow):

Everyday, the roads seem to get worse, like all the sanding and scraping was actually more of a problem (plus, they seem to be doing all the wrong roads). I saw several people walking, here's an example (and keep in mind, temperatures here were in the negative degrees at night and barely reaching the teens in the day):

Again, still no cars, just me and the lovely Southern 4x4's trying to run me over at every chance (obviously I wasn't taking pictures when they were around me...I was trying to be cautious). But thankfully, by the time I went home Thursday afternoon (later this time), the roads were a bit clearer (except in the tree-covered areas, aka half my way home). I did take more pictures Thursday night, one of a Mercedes Sedan stuck on a road and four 4x4's trying to help, but he just kept spinning his tires so much it was throwing snow and dirt in the faces of all those trying to help and I just don't think it's right to post those. For the record though, when I left for work Friday morning, that Mercedes was still stuck, half in its street, half in its drive, and I guess the owner was digging it out with a shovel (or he was digging out something around it). I didn't bring my camera today. I'm at the point where I've had enough.

I will say, I am thankful that we don't have it as bad as Texas with the power outages (although there have been threats about forced blackouts if we don't turn down our thermostats...I'm not gonna publicly comment on my response to that). I've done everything to keep my pipes from freezing and so far, so good, but never underestimate the weather. By Sunday, it's supposed to be in the 40-50's and we're supposed to start getting thunderstorms, go figure! All my thoughts and well wishes are with my friends in Texas! Stay safe and someone rescue Snowflake (those in "the know" know what I mean).

For the record though, I'm extremely disappointed in my work. I work for a lab that services clinics that all closed because of the weather. I work I.T. for people who couldn't come to work because of where they live. Even the bosses couldn't come, but because the doctors had to work at the hospitals, we were expected to show up. How people "got away" with not showing up and why I was expected to be here, is the reason why the toxicity of my job is getting to be too much. I had my letter of resignation typed up Tuesday, I got talked out of it because I don't have another job to go to. I need to find another job before I can leave and I can barely leave my house to get to the job I have. I think I'm screwed, hence the lack of posting, but again, staying on course, just wanted to show you the weather!

On the stitch front, again just sadness. I decided I must have been getting bored with Snow White, so I switched to Everest and worked approximately 20 minutes. It was just sad! I left off in January of 2020 here:

And this 20 minute bonanza took place on January 23rd of this year, so brace yourself for ALL this glorious work (HA!):

I will try not to stay so elusive, but this trauma therapy is REALLY rough, it's wearing me out, it making me realize that my life is far worse that I thought it was and I have to change it, but when it comes to work, I don't know where to start. I did, however, reach back out to Uni to the disability leader, and she, not only remembered me, but has been waiting to hear from me about re-entry (or so she stated)! So, if I can arrange to go back to school (and probably not at this job considering the flack I got last time), maybe I can finally settle in and graduate! Although I will need to change majors and back off the "heavy" stuff.

Everyone stay safe if you're in the thick of it now, or if it's coming your way, and hey, share your pics with me! I really need to get a vlogging camera so I can start my YouTube channel, but cameras are EXPENSIVE! My camera won't do it, so I'm gonna have to buckle down and spend more money. Yeah me, but hopefully it will be worth it.

I'm still going (somehow)

Work is getting down to the wire on my big project, but I'm somehow still stitching! I think I'm just getting to the breaking point at work and I'm starting to give up, so I'm leaving and spending more time stitching. It was bound to happen, I'm an Asper who rarely finishes anything! I had just started Everest last Sunday with one day's worth of work:

And when I started to get to the boring sky, I had to stop about mid Saturday (at least I finished the first page):

But since it's such a LONG canvas, here's a close up (and forgive the shadow):

You can tell I haven't stitched in a while, check out how "bumpy" some of those stitches are! Oh well, I'll get better again with more practice! I was getting bored with the sky background, so I decided to move on mid Saturday instead of my usual Sunday (I didn't want to routine it, but it seems as though that has been exactly what I have been doing, changing out projects every Sunday morning). So to break up the monotony of the boring background, I switch to the most boring of background stitching, Night Wish! She's been on my mind lately though, mainly because she's another one I apparently haven't touched since November 2017 (I am SOOO ashamed!). But I did remember that I worked on both Night Wish and Snow when my Grandmother was dying in hospice in July of that year, so it was probably hard for me to work on them past that, 2018 was the "year of the psych hospital", and 2019 was the "year of the school project", so it's not like I've had a lot of time since to work on them, so I am going to try to not be so hard on myself about it.

Since it's been so long, she's a HAED from Annie Rodrigue that is supposed to look like this:

I left off on the first row finish here (and yes, that moon was a total beeoch!):

I probably stitched for like 30 minutes Saturday and kept coming up with stupid side projects to distract myself, so I barely got anything done Saturday:

But at least by Sunday, I got about a third of the page done, and that was WITH watching both Infinity War and Endgame (there are certain parts of those movies I have to stop and watch...I can't help it, even after numerous watchings!):

Since she's not dithered, if I have the time this week, I could get a LOT done, if I don't have to work late, but there is a LOT to get done because we are about to go-live with this new system and I still have to switch everyone out from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (there have been some complications there too, shock, there is ALWAYS complications). I guess we'll know by next week how much stitching I got done!

But, as a side note, I was bad again and bought more patterns. HAED had a sale and, although I barely have anything in my wishlist anymore since they switched to all dithering, I did have two Max Color, Supersized Aimee Stewart bookshelves in there to add to the multitude that I already have that I have NO CLUE how I'll ever get done! Once Upon A Fairytale:

And Boho Seaside View, because we all know how much I love the ocean and, if I do ever get to build a house, my spare bedroom will have a beach theme and this will look good in there:

And I guess that's the news for this week! Have a good stitchy week everyone!

I'd forgotten how headaches affect stitching!

They had put me on this miracle once-a-month shot that had all but stopped my headaches and, the best part was, it was free with this cute little card it came with! But, by the end of last year, the card went away and I have to get prior approval every month, which screws up the schedule, and therefore, the shot isn't as effective, so I'm back to random bouts with migraines that last days on end. Thus was my week last week. It started on a Tuesday and didn't let up until Saturday (and I'm still feeling twinges), so my stitching was minimal at best, and I probably only got as much stitching done as I did because I ended up working less hours at work thanks to my head.

I left off on Snow here last week:

And stopped her Saturday nite here, stopping at 151.8 hours total:

Just basically a lot of mirror fill in and the Petite Treasure Braid that you can't even see unless you are close up (I'm not even sure why it's there).

Not only because of my head, but I also had a hard time focusing on her Saturday, so I figured it was "time to switch" again. A new person at work was showing interest in my stitching (something NO ONE ever does), and I was showing her my WIPs, when I ran across Everest and I realized that I kitted that project up in 2018, but never started it for some reason. I had every intention of working on Alice and the B's next, but I kept thinking about Everest and, when I went to reach for Alice on Sunday morning, that blank canvas was staring at me, so I reached for it instead! Just a reminder, it's by Addict to Cross Stitch on Etsy:

And I think it will be about 14 x 11 on 28ct when finished (and, I'm not sure since it's been a while, but I'll bet it's Monaco, although it's tan-colored, not my usual Monaco purchase color, so probably something I bought at Hobby Lobby or something). I worked on it about 10.58 hours Sunday, so I made it through about half of the first page:

Like the others, I'l keep working on it until I get "bored", which seems to be until about Saturday. The pages have big blocks, so a half a page finish isn't that great an accomplishment, especially with 10 hours of work (although, I am still trying to build up my speed and my head was still hurting a bit).

Speaking of Monaco, is it just me, or are they not making it anymore or something? I'm having a heck of a time finding it, other than very small sizes of that really crappy Charles Craft stuff. 123 Stitch used to have an excellent Monaco, but even they only have the Charles Craft stuff now, on the rare occasion they have it at all! I'm NOT a fan of Lugana, it's too soft and the holes aren't "right" for me. I've never tried Jazlyn or Jobelyn, can anyone compare them to Monaco vs Lugana? Which one are they closer to? I HATE the thought of loosing Monaco! I have a bit of a stash, but not nearly enough for future projects (although I still have enough WIPS to last a few years). I did buy a really cheap evenweave fabric the other day at Hobby Lobby, and I SWEAR it felt just like a really good Monaco, although I'm not sure how it will stretch out and stitch up. I guess only time will tell.

On the Flickr front, it seems the CEO has backtracked a little on his whole "doom and gloom" statement (it might have been a whole ploy to get new members). I have been looking at other services, especially Google photos, because I do like Google for most everything else, but I'm NOT a fan of their privacy agreement on the photos...it's a bit on the scary side and, since I just re-upped my Flickr account and I would have to buy more space for Google, I'd be doubling my expenditure there as well. So, until I see that Flickr is diving down further than it is, I'll hang on just a bit longer, at least for now. But thanks for everyone's input, it does seem like, if I can get over Google's scary privacy statement (although, for the record, most privacy statements are scary if you actually read them), then that's the way to go next.

Oh well, here's to another good week of stitching!