Off to SLO-Town!

Things on the blog will be quiet for a few days because I am going on a road trip to SLO-town aka San Luis Obispo! Yay! I can't wait...I am counting down the hours! Claire and I are driving down together for a road trip and AM will meet us there so it will be a girlie weekend filled with food, wine, beach/pool time and chatting. I am so excited! I really need this break from work and so I am just taking me, clothes, a couple of books and a small project with me on the trip. Cell phone to be used in moderation to check in with M and no laptop. The evil computer is staying at home! I spend way too much time on the computer on a daily basis and I've found that if I take a laptop with me, I spend too much time online and not enough time relaxing and taking in my surroundings. I'll be sure to bring my camera so I can take pictures and share about my weekend when I get back.

I know it's only Wednesday but I wish everyone a happy weekend!

A Small New Start

Oof...what a weekend! It was a good weekend. I went to a birthday party for a good friend and had a nice time...saw people I hadn't seen in years. The weather was amazing all weekend! Sunny, bright, warm and clear. I made the trek out to Alameda and really and truly had to resist the temptation to go to NiaH. There wasn't anything I really needed and I already have plenty of stash. I was very proud of my willpower. I went to the framer to drop off my LYM project and I am really hoping I made the right choice for a frame and that my mom likes it. I always get nervous until I see the piece in person and even then, I have to warm up to how it looks. I got the guarantee that it will be done by Mother's Day so that makes me happy. On Saturday, I went into the city with Claire for an insane shopping day downtown. Luckily for my pocketbook, it was more Claire that was going insane with the shopping and I got a couple of good deals on tops good for my versatile range of casual to work to trendy. Those deals make me happy! I squeezed in a visit with the 'rents and did loads upon loads of laundry. That wasn't too fun.

Otherwise, the weekend was quiet. I decided to attempt a start on a new book. I've been very bad with reading lately since all my free time is being eaten up by my class (only three more weeks to go!). I had seen a commercial on Lifetime that they made "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" into a made for tv movie. I never got around to seeing the movie but it reminded me that I had wanted to read the book for a long time now. When I went to the library last week, there it was, sitting on the shelf and I grabbed it. I've only just started but it's pulling me in. This will be a great book for me to have with me on my road trip at the end of the week. I can read in the car. Don't worry...I'm not the one driving!

Since I finished LYM and I am a little disheartened with my freebie design at the moment, I decided to pull out Fairy Moon and do a start. I tried to take a picture but it didn't show up well at all...mainly because I started with a dark dusky purple on a dark blue/navy fabric. But I made a start! Yay!!!

99.3% Done!

My goal for the weekend was to finish all the stitching on my LYM project and it is 99.3% done! I finished all the stitching and only have three buttons to attach. So close to my happy dance! But I hate sewing on buttons!
I am very happy with how it turned out. Initially, I was a little skeptical of the WDW Hazelnut which constitutes most of the words on the front with the exception of "mother", "mommy" and "love". I thought it might be a tad to orangey to go with the pink but I like it. I need to attach the buttons soon though. My parents aren't going on that trip as soon as I had thought so they will be in town for Mother's Day. I will need to go to the framers this weekend and hopefully they will do a quick frame-up job for me so that this sucker is ready to be wrapped and given away on Mother's Day!

On other stitchy news, I am working on exchanges so I think pictures will be scarce in the next few weeks. I started my freebie exchange project for the HOE board. It's coming along. I am thinking of making some color adjustments but will wait to the very end to decide on that. Since I don't have much time to stitch right now, the exchanges are all I can get to and poor Santa and Fairy Moon (which I never started!) will have to wait a while.

The class I am taking is keeping me very busy and very frustrated. It's hard to motivate oneself in an online class especially when the subject matter is a huge snoozer! I also think that the syllabus isn't very clear. I end up reading pages of material to only find out that it's not what the activity is on and I have to read even more things to be able to properly do the activity. And I especially don't like that it eating my "at play" time on the weekends. No fun staying home reading when there is tons of fun city stuff to revel in.

I am still going out with NNG...we'll call him M now. I think it's been about a month and despite us being frank with each other...we haven't scared the other off. Amazing. I don't know if I'm what is his usual type but M definitely isn't my usual type so the pairing seems odd to me. I'm trying to get used to it. But we have loads in common, he cracks me up and we can talk hours upon hours about nothing. We are our own Seinfeld sitcom! I guess we just need a George and a Kramer to add into the mix!

**Sorry for the crummy picture. The fabric just does not want to photograph well but it's so pretty in person that I've actually gone back to NiaH for another stitcher's quarter.

LYM Progress Shot

I haven't been able to get very much stitching time in because things after-work have been hectic. The work-related class I am enrolled in right now is taking up a lot of my free time. I'm not very happy about it since the class material is very dry and with the weather being as nice as it has been, I'd much rather be outside "playing" in the sunshine instead of cooped up indoors trying to get through reading and class activities. I really need to figure out how to divide my time up during the week to do a little bit of class work at a time versus all on the weekend.
But I did find the time to stitch some and here is the progress on my LYM project. I think that I may be able to have it all done by the end of this coming weekend. I just need to finish the bouquet/ribbon on the left and stitch some sporadic flowers and hearts and it'll be done. This is a very easy stitch! Hopefully next time I post about LYM...it'll be all finished!

Pinkeep Revealed!

I heard from my HoE pinkeep exchange partner last week saying that she received my exchange package and enjoyed it very much. My partner was Cathie L. from France! I was a little worried about what to send her since her entire blog is in French and my four years of high school French really didn't get me very far. I saw that she liked more traditional designs and so I picked Spring's Notice by Blackbird Designs with is more along the traditional vibe of the contemporary designs I like to stitch. I stitched it as charted despite not being very sure about the pink satin stitch...but that's mainly because I have a bias against most pinks. I'm slowly getting over it...
I was very excited about this exchange and included a lot of small extras. I included the JBW Designs French Country Flower Basket, a fat quarter of a starred green fabric for finishing, DMC needles, 3 skeins of spring colored DMC floss, pale green ribbon, some chocolate squares and my favorite See's lollipops. Cathie said she enjoyed everything. Yay!

Here is a closeup of the front. It is stitched on 25 count jobelan...I forget which color. It was a very easy fabric to stitch on. NiaH, my LNS, sells odds and ends scraps of linens perfect for smalls so this was a small square I pulled out of their basket which was exactly what the pattern called for! I love it when things work out perfectly that way.

Here is the back of the pinkeep. I had a hard time finding a fabric I liked but this pale green viney leaf pattern was a great pick. It complemented the green on the pinkeep and had a little bit of character. As you can see, I went crazy with green. Green fabric backing, green pins plus all the greens in the extra goodies. Green is a definite marker for me for Spring and it seemed appropriate since that's the current season.

I had a lot of fun with this exchange and have signed up for three more...like a crazy! I better start stitching on those now! But they are a lot of fun and I have "met" a lot of cool stitchers through these exchanges and I've only done two so far! Next ones are freebie, quaker and christmas ornament. At least they are all pretty small.

A Little Lazy About Everything...

It's Friday morning and I feel tired and lazy. Don't know why I feel tired since I've been taking advantage of my downtime this week to be uber-lazy. I just hope that I'm not getting sick like NNG has been all week. So the dating front has been quiet and slow since he's been nursing his cold. I'll probably see him tonight or this weekend though just to remember what he looks like. It feels like it's been forever since I've seen him!

Since my huge deadline at work has passed, I've been slowly playing catch-up and taking my time. That's been nice as I don't make a good "stress case" anymore. I used to thrive in the hectic and busy lifestyle but nowadays, I thrive when it's mellow and I have the time to do a little bit of everything that I love to do like watch tv, see movies, stitch, take a walk in the sunshine and discover something culturally or artistically inspiring. Sitting at a desk and stressing about a deadline and rallying people to help me and stick to the deadline really isn't my thing. So this week, I have watched loads of tv, I watched more of The Sopranos and August Rush, I worked on the Love You Mom project and just plain relaxed.

I do have picture updates to do but no pictures here. My HoE pinkeep was well received in France. I was so relieved it got there ok and my partner liked it. The Love You Mom project is slowly coming along. I ran out of one of the colors! Oh no! I need to go to NiaH to buy more...along with a lot of other stuff. Provided I can get through my coursework fast today and this weekend, I'll continue to make good progress there.

Until the picture updates...hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Tulips and Love You Mom Update

I went to Trader Joes on Friday and saw so many lovely bouquets of tulips that I just had to grab one so I could enjoy a bright splash of color throughout the weekend. When I took the picture here, they were all over the place but today they sit ramrod straight and very perky in their vase. I absolutly love the color! The weekend was jam-packed! I had a couple of dates with NNG and things are going great! He's got a few very hectic weeks coming up so we may not be able to keep such a busy dating schedule right now. The rest of the weekend was mainly errands, studying and a visit with the parents. I did get a new hair-do that I am still trying to get used to. It is much lighter than I am accustomed to and I am mourning the loss of a lot of hair but I think this is a good change. I've got mondo layers and lots of body now and it will be good when the weather warms up. I wont get overheated as fast because of my super duper blanket of hair! Otherwise, the weekend was normal and unexciting. This week should be mellow...I hope. I am done with the super stressful deadline I had at work and I have no other deadlines on the horizon. Yay!! I just need to concentrate on yoga, stitching and more coursework. I should also be able to squeeze in another date with NNG this week. He has to see my new hair! I kept freaking him out by saying that "next time you see me, I'll have a boy cut". I couldn't ever get a boy cut as I love long hair but it was funny to get shocked looks out of him. Guess he's a long-haired girl fan. I had to reassure him on the phone that although I lost a lot of hair, it's still long.
Here's the progress picture I promised on Love You Mom. I haven't gotten much done since I took this picture yesterday. Stitching time has been slow during the weekend. This is a pretty fast stitch though. It doesn't look like much now but once I add the flowers and hearts, it'll totally pop.

Ok, time to sleep...take care.

Sleep-Deprived

Sorry for no pictures today. I got done with stitching after dark yesterday and was too tired and lazy to download a picture.

I am simply and utterly exhausted! My sleep pattern has been all over the place this week and I don't know why. Is it stress because of my deadline and not getting enough help from co-workers? Is it my excitement of NNG? I'm not sure although the nights I have the worst sleep are the evenings that I've gone out with NNG. I guess I'm into him...what did AM tell me last night? Something about how I'm all excited and am thinking about him during my sleep. I'm not too sure about that but then I don't really remember dreams and such so the possibility is there.

All I know is that the lack of sleep is totally bogging me down. Monday I was up until 3am because I couldn't fall asleep and the other night I went to sleep at 1130pm, woke up feeling fairly rested and realized it was only one hour later and it took me another two hours to fall back asleep!

NNG and I are having fun and we went out locally on Wednesday and I'll see him again after work tonight. I will need a pick me up before then but I think the caffeine from my morning coffee is finally kicking in.

Yesterday, I had training up in Sacramento so my boss and I drove up there. I was chatty in the car on the way up, sleepy throughout the training (obviously not exciting) and then attepted to stitch on the way back. How do people stitch moving at 70+ miles per hour?! It was hard! I did get a good amount done and am moving amazingly fast with the Mom project. I only have mom, mother, mommy and love left to stitch along with the flowers. Not bad for less than one week! I'll have a progress pic to share over the weekend when I'm actually home during the day.

I managed to get my project in 2.5 hours ahead of the deadline. Talk about stress! I am just so happy to have it all over with and now I can focus on having fun with the NNG tonight, meeting Claire for a nice lunch in my neighborhood, lots of classwork (yuk!), a possible new hair-do and a visit with the parentals.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Happy Friday!

Ma Mere

I should have gone to yoga today and I should be reading a boring chapter for my class right now but work was crazy again today and I felt like my eyelids were being held up by toothpicks by the end of the workday so I came home, took a mini-nap and finished my pinkeep. I am very happy with it! I can't show pictures though until it is received and it has quite a ways to go. I packaged the exchange and it is now sitting near my purse to be taken to the post tomorrow during my lunch break. I started to do my flat-fold but don't feel motivated enough to really attempt it right now. So instead, I started Love You Mom. I stitched "Ma Mere" from the chart already and the next word will be "Mum". I decided that I was very happy with the browns I picked at NiaH as the colors in my stash were less stellar than the WDW Chestnut and Hazelnut I had picked at the shop. I think it'll come out nice. I did discover yesterday that my parents decided to go out of the country for a few months so they will miss Mother's Day and Father's Day so this will now be a birthday gift for my mom for when she gets back. My mom's birthday isn't until September so I have plenty of time to stitch it and take it to the framers. Since I already started...I may as well continue and just set it aside until her birthday.

Sorry for the crummy picture. Hard to get good pictures at nighttime.

Since I'm already on a stitchy topic, Carol R. (different Carol from yesterday) convinced me to participate in a new exchange on the Quaker Inspired board. Actually, it didn't take much convincing. Since the pinkeep exchange is over, I need a new challenge to help master my finishing skills. It's just that I get nervous when I sign up for one of these exchanges because I don't want to mess up the stitched piece with a lousy attempt at finishing or disappoint my exchange partner. Carol made me feel better and even offered to send me finishing links if I needed help. She also said that if she could, she'd give me a lesson. Isn't that sweet?! Thanks Carol! Too bad she lives in the UK because Carol R finishes beautifully too. A lesson from her might teach me a lot! This project is to stitch one of The Workbasket quaker animals and finish it how you want. I don't have too much exposure to Quaker but I really like those Quaker Animals so that'll be fun!

Ok, time to prep my materials for the flat-fold and head in for the night...