End of the Month

Yikes, today is the end of the month already! Time to review goals etc.

Sooo for March this is what I wanted to accomplish:

March Goals
1. Part 3 of Chatelaine Sampler Mystery II - Yep
2. Another section on the Any Designer Band Sampler RR - Yep
3. Two squares on Katie's blanket - Yep

If I have more time: (I did!)
1. Stitch some on my Hardanger Table Runner (finish the blanket stitch!) - Done, even did a few small motifs. :)
2. Stitch some on Angel of Summer - nope
3. Start Mother's Tree - nope

I did also do a small JN boxtop design and stitched some on Emma's Garden instead of Angel of Summer. And I started Mira's "Waiting for Ships" instead of Mother's Tree. I was anxious to start something on the beautiful aqua fabric I had originally ordered for Mother's Tree, but it was too dark for that design. I will, will start Mother's Tree soon though, maybe. (ha)

Okay now for April

April Goals

1. Part 4 of Chatalaine Sampler Mystery II
2. My section on Autumn's Mira RR
3. Stitch another section on the Any Designer Band Sampler RR
4. Stitch some on Emma's Garden
5. Stitch one square on Katie's blanket
6. Get a layout together for the Foldable Books RR

If I have more time:

• Stitch some on Angel of Summer
• Stitch another square on Katie's blanket.
• Stitch some on Alhambra Garden
• Stitch some on Waiting for Ships
• Start Mother's Tree

*sigh* doesn't look like I'll get to Mother's Tree in April, maybe May?

Stitching stuff

Just a quick update on what I've been stitching lately. I've decided to make Emma's Garden sort of a focus piece. Mainly cause it is small and will be a quick happy dance and also because I want it done in time for the fair this summer. So I'll work on it a bit each month until it is done. The other pics are a square for Katie's blanket and a section I did for the any designer band sampler RR. :)

Another sick weekend

This time it was just Katie, but it was her first bought with throwing up and it was no picnic! UGH. She seemed fine Saturday morning and we did our normal errands and stuff and everything was fine. She ate lunch normally and went down for her nap normally. When she woke up from her nap I noticed that she felt a bit warm, but that isn't really unusual after sleeping under the covers. Lots of times she feels warm when she first wakes up and then is feeling normal within 15-20 min or so. So I didn't think much of it. Just gave her some milk and crackers, which is her usual snack after naptime.

She didn't want either, which is what really started me thinking something was wrong. Then she was cranky and fussy so I just sat her in the chair with her "blankie". Suddenly she and the blankie were full of puke! UGH. Luckily the blankie caught most of it so the chair was unharmed. Threw everything in the washer and got her cleaned up and tried to get some infant Advil in her to bring down the fever. 20 min later the Advil all comes up plus some more lunch.

After she was done she seemed back to her old self, laughing and playing with her brother and bouncing off the walls as usual. At about dinner time I gave her just water and saltines to see if she would hold that down okay. All seemed fine, she was still laughing and playing and then got this look on her face and I knew what was coming. All over me and the chair this time. Luckily though, I was sitting in a vinyl covered chair - so no biggee. Several hours later DH and I were very good at getting a tuperware container under her whenever we saw that look on her face. She didn't get anymore to eat for the rest of Saturday after the crackers came up - just water. Funny thing is when she wasn't puking she seemed fine - except for the bit of crankiness when she first got up from her nap she was playing around as usual- just stopping for a puke break. Alex was like that when he was a little kid and would get sick too - so I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. She seemed pretty miserable when she was puking though - she kept saying "all done, all done" even when she wasn't. Sort of like she wanted me or daddy to let her be "all done". I felt so bad that I couldn't stop it for her.

She made it through Sunday with no repeat performances, so I think we are in the clear now. No one else in the family felt sick at all (well except for the gagging we did while cleaning up the messes!), so I have no idea what it was.

Oh, and the other thing we did this weekend - we all got our hair cut. First haircut for Katie and she did really well (this was Sat. morning before the sickness). She had to sit in Sean's lap (I was getting mine cut at the same time), but she sat still and let them trim her up. I just had them straighten the hack job I did on her bangs and even out the back a bit. I had my hair chopped all off. Well a lot of it anyway. If you scroll down to the pic of me and Katie together in one of my other entries, you can see I had pretty long hair. It is now just brushing my shoulders. I wanted a bit less hair for the summer months. :)

work rant

RANT ON
Why is it that whenever I get brought onto a project as a technical writer - I always end up being the team gopher? It always sounds good in the beginning, "We need someone to proofread, edit, wordsmith our statement of work and proposal." But before too long I'm standing in front of the copy machine stapling and corelating the project managers presentation. ARGH!!! I did not go to college and bust my butt for several years in entry level positions to now finally have the kind of job I've been working toward (only in theroy evidently) to end up in front of the copy machine again!! I AM NOT YOUR SECRETARY! I wonder if I was a big burly guy of age 49 or so with a bald spot whether they'd transition so easily from having me do what my job is: Write clear, concise documents.... to: copy girl. Just because my part of the project is done - you have your clear concise document doesn't mean you get to use me as your personal secretary.

And yes, I'm well aware you cannot tell I'm a professional writer from my blog. I dont' make an effort to be flawless here as I do in my professional life as this is for fun and not for pay.
RANT OFF

Hardanger Table Runner

Me and both kids were laid up all weekend with the most awful cold. I'm trying hard not to cough as I type this! I'm over the worst of it now, but I still have a bit of a drippy nose and a cough. Katie seems almost back to normal but is still a bit congested. Alex on the other hand didn't really get it bad til yesterday afternoon so he is still in the thick of it. Kept him out of school and home on the couch today.

Anyway, being sick meant we didn't do much the last few days but lay around and stitch! Well, I stitched, the kids watched movies and drank Hi-C. :) So I finished the dang blanket stitch on my hardanger table runner! Yay me! I even managed to finish these two small motifs on the inside. The box with the three hearts still needs another heart yet and three more small eyelets. It took a lot of curses and ripping and redoing to get the three that are there in right, so I figured I better quit when the thread length ran out. I've decided to finish the inside before cutting around the outside cause there are some lacey edges I'm not sure whether I'll be comfortable doing. I could just cut along the blanket stitch and leave the lacey edges off - not sure if I will or not. I have Janice Love's hardanger books and she explains the process pretty well - but I'm still feeling a little intimidated. Sooooo I'll leave that part to the end and we'll see. If you are interested the white is just regular DMC perle, the darker pink is Vikki Clayton dusty rose and the light pink is Dinky Dyes silk Strawberry Ice. The originial is done all in white, so I'm having fun picking and choosing where to use the pink shades. The blanket stitch was a nice repetitive stitch to do while I was sick - but I'm glad it is finished now!

Tonight I'm going to start another square for Katie's blanket. Once I finish that I'll only have to finish a section on my band sampler RR to complete all my goals for March. It hasn't arrived yet, so cannot start on that yet anyway. If I finish the blanket square before the RR gets here I'm going to stitch some on Emma's Garden. :)

Butterflies!

This is my piece for the Open-Themed Round Robin that recently wrapped up. :) I'm very pleased with how it came out. Once it came back to me I just needed to finish off the butterflies in the border by adding black beads for their bodies. I finally got around to doing that the last two nights and so now it is ready to be framed and hung in Katie's room (which is done in butterflies). I think a black frame would look nice with the piece, but silver might look better for the room it is going to hang in. The walls are a very light gray with purple butterflies stamped on, so the gray actually looks sort of lavender. The other pictures are framed in white or silver so I think black would stand out too much. Decisions, decisions. :)

So last night and tonight I've been plugging away on my Hardanger Table runner - probably won't post a pic of that one this time as I'm just doing blanket stitch and it doesn't really look any different from before. I'll be so glad when the blanket stitch is done though cause then I get to move onto some of the pretty motifs on the inside. I also have a bunch of eyelets to do though, so I think I'll alternate between motifs and eyelets so that I don't OD on the eyelets. I'm not big on eyelets. Love how they look - just not crazy about stitching them. After the Hardanger Table runner I'm going to do the other dreaded square on Katie's blanket for this month. I had a cute little bee pattern all picked out - a freebie I got from somewhere, but now I can't find it. Gonna do some more digging tonight to see if I can't come up with it.

The other night I was trying to get Alex and Katie to pose together for a picture by sitting in our bay window in our living room. Alex hates having his photo taken and was unwilling but offered to take my picture with Katie instead. I remembered that there are almost no pictures of me in this house cause I'm usually the one holding the camera, so I let him go ahead. Except that we have our PJs on and our hair is pretty messy, I think it is a pretty good picture!

New Car!

At ages 32 and 34, DH and I have just purchased our first ever brand spanking new car. Actually it is a small SUV. We are the proud owners of a 2006 Royal Blue Pearl Honda CR-V. It has so much more room than the 1997 Dodge Neon we traded in, and the ride is so much more comfortable. I'm freaking a little bit at the large payment we are going to have to make as it is larger than the payments we used to make on both cars put together - but we did our homework beforehand and made sure it was something we could afford. I'm just not used to paying that much for a car - but then we always bought used and smaller before too. Alex is really pumped that he can recline his seat in the back (he thinks he's living it up now!), and we all like being up a bit higher - makes it easier to see everything. Oh, and did I say it has so much more room! Very nice. We got the 4x4 model as DH wanted something that would do really well in the winter with the snow and ice we are prone to here in WI. He is from VA, so he's always kind of struggled with snow and ice. Unfortunately for me, the CR-V is going to be DH's car primarily and I'm going to be driving our 1997 Chev Cavalier. The Cavalier though, is in much better shape than the Neon I was driving before, so I still get a step up. And I'm sure DH will have no problems with me driving the CR-V on weekends. :)

Buying the new car consumed almost all of my free time over the last week, so I haven't been able to get in much stitching or blogging. I did finish one of the two Katie's blanket squares I have planned for this month, but I haven't taken any scans of it yet. I think I'm going to work on a few other things before I get back to that though. Tonight I want to get in some on the Hardanger Table Runner, I need to finish the boring blanket stitch edging, so I can move onto some of the pretty motifs on the inside of the design.

Birthday Weekend

I'm 32 if you're interested. :) We spent the majority of Saturday looking for a new vehicle. We've pretty much narrowed it down to either a Honda CR-V or a Toyota RAV4. DH really likes the RAV4 better, but it sounds like we can get a much better deal on the Honda. We're trying to work a little better deal on the RAV4 - so if that comes through we still might get the RAV4, but right now it looks like we'll be getting the Honda. DH and I did remarkably well not arguing about the whole buying a new car process. Those kind of high stress situations always seem to bring out the worst in both of us, but we did really well this time. It's not over yet though, so hopefully we can continue on an amicable path.

I did manage to finish stitching part 3 on the Sampler Mystery this weekend. It was a really small part this time, just a peacock. It was quick, easy, and fun. I also decided not to do "Mother's Tree" on the aqua fabric. I have ordered a piece of lt. Sand 40ct linen that I may use, or I may order another blue piece. I just had the feeling that the aqua was a bit to garish for that piece. Since it was my birthday yesterday, I decided to start a new piece (even though I probably should not have!). I started "Waiting for Ships" by Mirabilia on the 40ct Tropical Breeze (the aqua fabric). So far that is going pretty well, but I'm having to use substitutes for a few of the blended symbols as I'm stitching with only one strand on the 40ct. I think I will also substitute blending filament for the #4 braids. The beads are already petite size, so I'll have to see how they will fit when the time comes. They are mostly in long lines of beads, so I think it will be easy to fudge by leaving a few off here and there. I'm excited though, cause so far it really looks good, and I'll be able to stitch 2 of the mermaids on the fat quarter I have since they come out so small on the 40ct fabric.

I've avoided it for as long as I can, so tonight I have to start another square on Katie's blanket. Pray for me that it goes quickly! :) I've picked out a cute teddy holding a green blanket from one of my stash leaflets. Katie always carries around a green blanket (she's very attached to it actually!) so I thought it was appropriate. I think it will be quick and simple to stitch too, so hopefully it won't be painful. :)

A Small Finish and Mother's Tree

After I finished my current section for the Mira RR, I decided to do something fun and quick before the next part of the Chatelaine Sampler Mystery was released on the first. This is Just Nan's "Love and Roses". (I was avoiding the dreaded Katie's blanket - but oh well!) I bought the pattern and little box to put it in at my LNS's Superbowl Sale for 40% off. I really liked doing it and it turned out nice, I think. I did finish it with glue, but it only took a day or so to stitch, so it isn't as though I'm destroying an heirloom piece. The box is only 3 inches across if you are curious about size.

I have a stitching dilemna for Mother's Tree that I'd like some opinions on - so feel free to comment. I decided to do mine on 40ct linen and picked what I thought was a pale blue shade from Silkweaver's Classic Linen series. This is Tropical Breeze along with the dinky dyes silks I bought to stitch it with. I think the colors look okay on the linen, but I was really looking more for a pale blue and this is kind of an aqua shade. Very pretty, just not what I was looking for. Do you think I should go ahead and stitch Mother's Tree on it? I would use the darkest green for the tree and the other shades for the lettering. (Might possibly use the darkest green in the lettering too - haven't decided yet.) I could always use this piece for one of the Mirabilia mermaids - I think it would work well for that if I picked one of the ones that doesn't have so many beads and those beads that are there could be converted to petite sizes. Oh, and please excuse Katie's shoe in the picture - as usual she doesn't want anyone to take pictures of anything but her! :)