Happy New Year!

The Motherload!

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a Christmas giveaway that Danielle was hosting on her blog. She mentioned she would send the winner a handstitched ornament and I love ornies. Well, on Christmas Day, I was the lucky winner. Yay me!! Hearing I won was a great Christmas present.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week...I open my apartment door and there on the floor is this huge package. Hmmm...what's that? So I open it and it's the giveaway package from Danielle! Holy cow...I hit the motherload! I was only expecting the ornie and maybe one or two small things. Danielle sent me so much stuff...I seriously felt like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. Here are a few photos...I piled stuff into the photos so it wasn't so photo-heavy.

Lots of past JCS ornie issues, Prairie Schooler, The Drawn Thread, Waxing Moon Designs to name a few...
And more charts....
And these were the things that made me *squee* out loud like a 5 year old...even though I was the only one home!

PS Ornie hand-stitched by Danielle...this is the design from November's (I think) GoS issue plus a bunch of overdyed threads! I've died and gone to heaven!!
And my absolute favorite charts out of the whole stack!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Danielle!

Wow...I'm still kind of speechless. I've been incredibly lucky in blogland this year. I've won 2 huge giveaways, a threads giveaway and an ornie giveaway this year. I have more stash than I know what to do with now...and after winning Danielle's giveaway, I am going to challenge myself to only stitch from stash this year. This will be hard because you are all enablers with the wonderful projects you work on that I may have not noticed otherwise but I am going to try really hard. *The boy* doesn't think I can do it but I think I can. There are a few things I will allow myself though:

~black fabric because I haven't any and just acquired the perfect pattern for ornie gifts for the women in my family next Christmas.
~beads for finishing ornies
~ribbon/trim for ornies or smalls
~BOAF Dashing pattern should I ever come across it
~Nora Corbett Letter V assuming she releases it and I like it

So the last 4 are *ifs* but the black fabric is a must!

We'll see how things go...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! lol

Reflections

A couple of days ago, I stumbled on this post on Laurie's (Aunt Purl) blog about reflecting and her new year's resolutions. Since that day, it's like my brain has been in overdrive and can't calm down. I've been reflecting on this past year, the things I need to do, the things I'd like to do, what I hope 2010 will be like. It's hard because obviously, I'm no psychic and all I can account for is the past and not the future. I can plan for things but that doesn't mean they will happen. I can only hope for the best. And sweet God, do I hope for the best this year. If 2010 is anything like this year, I'll be checking myself into a mental ward by the end of it.

Laurie said that she is going to try to "come from a place of yes". This spoke to me because the things she said rang true for me. I'm naturally a snarky, sarcastic person which a lot of people may consider negative or complaining. Since this year was particularly terrible with *the boy's* attack, the disappearance of his friends, becoming a caretaker 4 months into a new relationship for an injury that took 10.5 months to heal, being nervous about my job security for the entire year and looking after elderly parents without the help or support of my siblings, I have become quite angry and resentful. I am happiest when I am at home and stitching...basically leading a hermit-like lifestyle of pjs, stitching, tv and takeout. The snarky and sarcastic is me...it will not go away but the anger and resentment has to go away and I can't live my life cooped up in my apartment no matter how much I would love to. There's work and parents to deal with and friends to see and lots of fun things outside of my four walls and I need to find a way to enjoy things again despite people cutting you off when you're driving, or cutting in front of you in the coffee line or just the general level of stupidity that you encounter on a daily basis. It's all a part of life. These little things get to me...and they shouldn't. And so I will try to find ways to be a little more positive and a little more happy and a little more smiley and reclaim a little of the happiness I lost this past year. It will still involve a ton of stitching and tv...and reaching out to both real-life and stitchy friends...and getting back into yoga. It will involve taking deep cleansing breathes and muttering "Serenity now!!" under my breath when I'm about to have a fit. And if you're any sort of Seinfeld fan, you'll understand this. And I say it because it's so ridiculous, it makes me laugh and the upset feelings go away. All I want is a little serenity.

So I think my personal goals this year will be pretty simple. Come from the place of yes...be happy....enjoy life...embrace old friends and new alike. But I will still be saying no! lol I haven't completely lost it. But I will try very hard to not sweat the small stuff.

I really think that everything else will be icing on the cake.

I do have to mention that I wouldn't have made it through this year without my supportive and wonderful friends and readers. At the beginning of this year...maybe I had 30 subscribers. And back then...I wondered who was reading my rambling posts. At the end of this year, I have almost 100! Wow! That amazes me! Thank you so much for all the support, kind comments and friendship you have given to me over the year. I can't find the words to express my gratitude but please know that it truly warms my heart.

I wish you and yours a happy and joyous 2010!

My Needle is Flying!

I've been pretty close to being a hermit this weekend...which has been very productive on the stitchy front! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was relatively painless. I had Christmas lunch with my folks and made my excuses once my brother came to visit. He didn't say Merry Christmas to me, greet me in any brotherly manner or get me a gift. I pretty much called it for this year. I'm very glad I didn't waste my time getting him one. I, at least. had the good manners to wish him a Merry Christmas. I've pretty much been planted on the futon watching bad tv all weekend. Life could be a lot worse!! lol

The only reason I left my apartment was to go to NiaH to buy fabric for some major projects I need to get done in 2010...aka gift stitching. I was very indecisive and I'm surprised Mary didn't strangle me but in the end, I'm really happy with my fabric choices. Lisa even stopped by and we had a mini stitch-in and chat. We even pulled out our Marys to compare. It was nice! Until it was time to head home. We left in the middle of a rain storm and I white knuckled it all the way home!

Today, I ran the usual errands...grocery store, bank, gas station and other little stops and have been lazy the rest of the day. I finally made it to motif#5 on my MW. My goal was to have 4 motifs stitched by the end of the weekend and I've succeeded!
I had to change out the yellow motif. I originally stitched it in WDW Whiskey but the varigation wasn't showing up too well so I ripped it and did it over in GAST Gold Leaf. I'm happy with it! I think I will get a good amount of motif #5 done tonight. Then I have to decide what I will do. I have to get a start on gift stitching but I only want to be stitching on Mary! What to do...what to do!? I had hoped to make a NYD start on Fairy Moon but I don't think it's realistic right now. I have the feeling I will have to switch gears to gifts this week.

Last week, I was obsessed with getting a Christmas cactus. I've seen so many pretty ones in blogland...all sorts of colors. I've managed to kill the plants that *the boy* bought before he left. I asked for a Violet and he brought back some finicky little things instead. Ugh...dead. So I needed to replace with something nice. I can't kill a cactus though! After stops to three different shops, I finally found one. They only had a fushia-red but I took what I could! Here it is sitting with Christmas Fairy. Ignore the junk in the background. I'm stitching...not cleaning!! The blooms are starting to open on the plant and it's looking very happy and un-dead. My kind of plant! :)

Tomorrow is back to work for me. Thankfully, it's a short week. Yay!!

Until next time...

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all my wonderful blog friends and readers. I so appreciate that you stop by and listen to my ramblings in my little corner of blogland. Thank you for all your wonderful advice, support and comments!

Christmas Meme

I saw this meme on a couple of blogs now so I thought it would be fun to play!

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Egg nog...spiked with brandy. I am probably the only person who doesn't like hot chocolate!

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? I'm scrooge-y but not that scrooge-y! I wrap the presents.

Colored lights on a tree or white? Colored...and blinky. They have to twinkle and blink!

Do you hang mistletoe? Yes.

When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving...usually. As a kid, the tree would be bought Thanksgiving weekend and taken down New Years Day. I'm still within that realm assuming I'm in the christmas spirit and getting a real tree.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Stuffing

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope...Christmas Day reveal.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Twinkly lights, ball ornies and any other ones that are cute and fun. Twinkly star topper. My fiber optic tree is too frail to hold up the star topper so I have an old fashioned tree topper from the 50's for that one.

Snow: love it or hate it? Snow? What's that? The fluffy white stuff that I see on the tv? It looks fun but people tell me all these horror stories about it that I don't know what to think!

Can you ice skate? Oh yea, I can ice skate on my rear end! I have this problem that the moment I stand up on anything that it supposed to make me look graceful and roll or glide about, I fall down. I am the epitome of graceful!

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Warm apple and pear crisp with vanilla ice cream.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Caroling Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Yum. Love!

Favorite Christmas show? I'm opting for christmas movie and naming Love Actually.

Find a Little Joy

It doesn't really feel like Christmas this year. Mind you, I'm being a Scrooge, my folks are being scrooges and so are some of my co-workers. We probably aren't helping each other get into the Christmas Spirit being all Scrooge-y. I've always found it hard to deal with the holidays for reasons I discussed around Thanksgiving.

But I still find some joy...holiday movies like The Holiday, Love Actually and Miracle on 34th Street. Netflix will be bringing me A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life and The Bells of St. Mary this week to enjoy.

The holiday cds. Just this year, I finally bought White Christmas by Bing Crosby. My parents had the LP and when I was a kid...think 6 or 7...I would lug my Fisher Price record player all over the house, find a record, put it in my player and lie down on the carpet and listen. During Christmas, as a kid, I'd play Bing all the time. It's time to reminisce a little. He'll be crooning to me this year.

Christmas treats like the abundance of fudge, cookies and chocolate. Tomorrow is the holiday potluck at work and I am going to try to make these peppermint brownie bites. I love candy canes and incorporating that into dessert...bring it! I hope they turn out ok! If they bomb, I have a box of Peppermint JoeJoe's from Trader Joe's in case of emergency. Mmmm.....peppermint creme oreos! Yum!

Christmas lights...I love looking at them. It's the main reason I risked my neck climbing into the depths of the closet to dig out my tree. Blinky twinkly lights are my favorite thing!

And stitching...must stitch to prevent loss of sanity. Mary Wigham saw a little more action last night as I set aside an hour to stitch. Still on that massive motif though. I'll devote a little more to her tonight in between baking and then must make a start in my PIF this week. I heard from *the boy* that my little package arrived. In it was one of the ornaments I made last week. One went to my friend Kelly and the other to *the boy's* mom. I still have two waiting to be finished but those I'll just save for next year. The training I have invested in *the boy* must be working as he sent me the photo below without any other prompting. It's a Christmas miracle!! lol

Joy freebie by Lilybet Designs
32 count Antique Ivory Belfast
Recommended GAST and DMC

I wish I had had time to do a beaded edge but I was quickly running out of time and didn't really have any beads that matched. So, simple finish...the backside has the same border as the front side. Uh...so can you tell that *the boy's* family is at least part-Irish. The shamrock and the leprachan cracks me up!

I'll be blogging through Christmas since I don't have any concrete plans. Visiting the folks, avoiding the brother and stitching to my hearts' content while listening to holiday music and watching holiday movies while in the glow of my twinkling little fake tree. But for those of you disconnecting during the holidays, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you and yours a marvelous holiday. Merry Christmas....Feliz Navidad...Joyeux Noel.
Snoopy say Merry Christmas too...

Until next time...

MW Update

Just a quick post today. Super tired and can't believe tomorrow is a workday...again! A lot of the weekend was devoted to laundry, organizing, tidying, finally packing away the Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations (yes, really) and digging out my Christmas stuff. I do have to say that I was very spoiled by having a real tree last year because I now realize that my little fake tree is puny! But I like the whole fiber optic effect. Since I wasn't even going to deal with Christmas, digging out the tree and setting it up is a huge accomplishment. Yay me! I don't feel like putting ornaments on it though. It looks nice with the lights, fiber optic and the tree topper.

I did have time yesterday to work on Mary Wigham. I am SALing with Lisa and you should check out hers...she's made great progress so far. As for me...I am a slowpoke! But see Lisa...I'm stitching! lol I do think I have finally mastered two-handed stitching so things may speed up. I've never stitched two-handed before. My left hand is pretty weak so I think I figured out the jabbing motion I need to do to get the needle into the right spot. Here's a terrible photo I took early this morning while it was dark and grey. I'm rarely home during daylight hours and my photography suffers even more in the winter.
I am using 40 count Lakeside Linens Fawn. It's a much darker color than I'm used to but I think my eyes are slowly adjusting. Another thing is that this feels like a higher count fabric to me than 40 count! I had no problems with the 40 count Tundra for Christmas Tea but the weave seems so tight on this piece of linen. I think that's part of the reason I'm being such a slowpoke too. I am using a conversion so graciously created and given by Katrina! Thanks Katrina!! It's a little revised from her original release. I'll list it here for anyone curious:

Blanc - GAST Shaker White
Ecru - GAST Lambswool
225 - CC Dulce de Leche
310 - WDW Charcoal
352 - WDW Red Pear
356 - WDW Baked Apple
407 - GAST Woodrose
433 - WDW Chestnut
435 - WDW Pecan
519 - CC Deep Fennel
725 - WDW Whiskey Edited 12/24: Changed to GAST Gold Leaf
739 - GAST Flax
746 - GAST Straw Bonnet
927 - WDW Dove
930 - GAST Brethen Blue
934 - WDW Juniper
963 - CC Rosy Glow
966 - GAST Grape Leaf
3052 - WDW Kudzu
3768 - WDW Teal Frost
3822 - WDW Huneysuckle
3855 - WDW Straw
3857 - CC Red Currant

The motif I am currently working on is being stitched in WDW Baked Apple. I am hoping that by this time next weekend, I'll have finished this motif and have moved onto another. I also stitched a little on Newton but am still stitching with white. Once I've moved into another color, I'll take a photo.

Until next time...

Craptastic Photos!

*sigh* It's really hard to take good photos when the weather is gray and the lighting isn't very good at night or in the office so bear with me. The camera operator is also a little under-trained as well! lol

First up is my last update for 2009 on my TUSAL. I managed to fill the jar up a little more in between Christmas Tea and the ornies I was making. The photo is overflashed but I liked how the ort colors stood out more because of it.
I'm planning on putting these orts into a baggie and most likely incorporating them into ornie stuffing. I'll use the same jar for 2010 and start anew! This is a fun no-stress SAL. Yoyo is taking sign-ups and you can join an anytime. You just need to go and sign up here.

As you may have guessed, I bailed on working out on my own and went and got a manicure. I picked OPI Crimson Carol because it's just obnoxiously glitterly and people stop me on the street to comment on the color. I mean look...I couldn't even get a good picture because the glitter was causing glare from the glitter in the polish! It's my cover into *appearing* like I'm in the Christmas spirit. I love red polish though so it's fun!
And I did watch Four Christmases but I don't think it was all that great. I got distracted around scene 16 and so by scene 21...I was all...where'd Vince Vaughn go?! So I have to re-watch that a little bit so I can understand what I missed. Yea...seriously...attention span of a jackrabbit.

Today has been a day at work. You know it's a day when I'm telling people I'm going back into private industry and looking for a job tomorrow! *sigh* If only things were so easy! My friend Claire and her munchkin met me for lunch today and she handed me a goodie back and another treat. She said it was a stocking stuffer type thing. We always agree to not give presents and to just try to spend more time with each other. When I got to my desk, I opened up the extra and found this...
Claire knows I love Snoopy (just not pumpkin ones). So here's Snoopy and Woodstock. The outfit Snoopy is wearing is a hint to what side of public industry I work in. It's not as fun and filled with hot, stud-like men as you may think...like seriously.

Well...I'll be back in a couple of days. I'm not going anywhere but there's lots of cleaning to be done and SAL stitching to do. Hopefully...I'l have some cool things to share on Sunday.

Enjoy the weekend!

Until next time...

I'm Still Here...

just a frazzled trying to be into the Christmas spirit tired-ass scrooge-ette! Not to mention that the posting everyday for NaBloPoMo was HARD so I am taking a little blog vacation.

Thanks for all the kind comments on the Letter G reveal. She's on her way to the other coast so it can slowly makes it's way to Italy where *the boy's* niece lives. I have the feeling the niece is too small to really appreciate it all but her mom, who's also a G, will probably be surprised and super happy. My sister saw the big reveal too and she's asked that I do the C for my niece so that will be added to the assembly line in the new year. She'll be sent to Jill and will become my niece's Sweet Sixteen gift. My sister also asked me for "something red that can be put in the kitchen". Ummm...yea, I have no idea what that can be. Sounds like I'm be working my fingers to the bone between her requests, my BAPs and trying to do at least an ornament a month.

I've come to realize that I just don't have enough hours to the day and I've either become a very slow stitcher or just pile too much on myself and I get stressed out over something that almost always makes me happy and relaxes me. But when I have deadlines, self-impossed deadlines, I get frazzled and stressed out. Case in point would be my brilliant idea to make four ornaments at the last minute so that I can send off. They were tiny ornaments...cute...no frill. Easy peasy. Yet...omg, it seemed to take me forever and in the end, I only finish-finished two of the four. Last night, I decided not to finish the other two because I really just had to get the packages in the mail. Even *the boy* was telling me it was ok to not do it because I was obviously not enjoying the process. He got a good deal of "ugh, you called me and I'm in the middle of blahdeblah". I swear that guy has the worst timing about things. You know, wait and wait and then decide to heat up dinner and the phone rings right when I'm going to take my first bite. *sigh* So I finished two ornaments and didn't take a picture. One went to Kelly my wonderful massuese and friend. The other to *the boy's* mom. I gave him explicite instructions to take a picture of it on their tree and sent it to me to share. I'm a little bummed I couldn't get the other two done but I'll be ahead for next year now.

In the process, my apartment seems to have upchucked all over the place so I'll be spending lots of my free time the next couple of days getting things back in order. It quite embarrassing how messy it's gotten!! Maybe if I get motivated enough, I'll drag the little fiber optic tree out of the closet and set it up.

So no wonderful pictures to show. I've watched some movies though. On Sunday, I watched Everybody's Fine with a friend. We thought it was a comedy but people...that is one sad, slow movie! If your curious about it, wait til it's on video and make sure you have some tissue nearby! It seemed slow to me but it did have some heartwarming scenes. Then that evening, I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on video because my apartment manager lent it to me. When this came out, I had no interest in watching it. It sounded weird and was anti-Brad Pitt. But since it was literally handed to me, I said why not! It was a wonderful film. Seriously...rent it! It captured my attention up to the 2-hour mark and I have the attention span of a jackrabbit with movies. And even at the two hour mark, I wanted to see how things turned out. The acting, makeup, wardrobe and storyline were all superb. You'll have to devote 2.5 hours to watch this but it's seriously time well spent.

I've been a little lax with my exercise routine despite seemingly eating my weight in cookies and chocolate! I ellipticaled twice last week and then went to 25 stores and shopped til I dropped on Friday so I'm counting that as a workout too. This week...nothing so far and my exercise partner is taking today off to have a boozefest so I am debating between working out alone or getting a manicure. You tell me what sounds like a better choice! lol I'm thinking manicure and a lovely relaxing evening watching Four Christmases. Reviews don't look so hot on imdb so I'll let you know what I think.

This is longer than I anticipated and I applaud you if you've reached the end of this. I'll be back soon to post about my TUSAL...final photo of 2009! Besides the cleaning, I'm hoping to put a few stitches in Newton, Mary and start a PIF.

Until next time...

Photos, Photos!

OMGosh...aren't you glad I'm not subjecting you guys to another pictureless post?! I rushed home at lunchtime today to heat up soup, take pictures and load them into blogger!

First up is my Plum Street Samplers Christmas Tea finish. This fabric seems difficult to photograph...or it might me the intense gray dreariness of the day but I tried! The fabric is really a blue-ish gray color.

Plum Street Samplers Christmas Tea
Lakeside Linens 40ct. Tundra
Recommended Belle Soie

The funny thing about Christmas Tea is that it's charted for Cranberry where there are little spaces in the letters but the model photo does not have the Cranberry spots stitched within the letters. I saw some photos stitched as charted and I decided I liked the model more so I went without. That's part of the reason why I also went with Lakeside Linens Tundra. The model photo looks like it's stitched on a blue-gray color but the color linen recommended (which I can't remember the name of right now) is actually a green color. It's always so interesting how the camera and lighting can really change the look of things.

Over the last week, I received some lovely goodies in the mail. Staci sent me a cut of some "Staci-dyed" linen. That was so nice of her! I was very touched to receive a goodie from her and I can't wait to figure out what to stitch on it. I just love the color and the mottling! I was also lucky to receive an "honorable mention" on Ruth's blog from a giveaway she was hosting and she sent me these lovely threads. She included some GAST, WDW, Belle Soie and Threadworx. All the colors are great and I actually didn't have any of these colors!

On Tuesday, I rushed home anticipating and worried about my Jill Rensel package. When I walked through the door of my apartment, the package was safely sitting there, waiting for my arrival. Whew! All I can say is that Jill is a fabulous framer and I may just have to start sending her all my projects that require framing from now on! She does such a good job and is so sweet! Letter G came out fabulous and just what I wanted! I'm kind of sad my name doesn't start with a G so I can keep it for myself. I'll let the pictures do all the talking. They are all clickable! These photos actually show a truer color of the fabric too...a soft pale yellow.



I am thinking about getting my Snapper Year and Christmas Tea out for her for framing. I'll be simple with those...just a frame since I don't think they require matting or anything fancy. Now time to pack up Letter G and get her on her way to her new home.

Until next time....

Lunchtime

I'm lucky enough to live very close to work and many days, I just drive home at lunchtime, eat lunch and then drive back to work.

Today, I went home for lunch because I wanted to pack my gymbag and take some pictures of my finished Christmas Tea and the nice gifties that arrived in the mail.

So I went home...ate lunch...packed my gymbag...checked email and blogs...watched some Crossing Jordan and stitched a few stitches...and came back to work.

I'm sitting here remembering that I didn't take any photos! So welcome to another photo-less post. Shoot!

Hmmmm....and I just checked my UPS tracking for my Jill Rensel package and it says they left it at the front door despite clear instructions to have my apartment manager sign for it so he could put it in my apartment. So...slightly panicking! OMG...I am dashing home after work to make sure it's safe! Screw ellipticalling!!

It's funny how my previous post generated some funny and not so funny stories. Beth mentioned kids in her comment and I realized I didn't even touch on the single mom that lives below me TWO floors down. She has two kids...one full-time daughter and a half-time son. When the son is visiting with his mom, I can hear the yelling and insane running back and forth two stories up. I have no idea what the running is about but with hardwood floors and high ceilings...the racket travels! Apparently, sister and brother don't get along very well.

Maybe Thursday, I can share photos...it's the next time I can head home for lunch and take daytime photos. I'll try not to subject you to craptastic nighttime shots.

Hope everyone is having a good week and keeping warm. I am freezing my buns off here in SF but I guess I shouldn't complain...all we get is chill and rain. Some saw snow nearby and that's a rarity. I have never seen snow in SF my 34 years. The first thing to happen when I get home...besides hugging my Jill Rensel Package and tearing it open...is turning on the heaters and putting the kettle on. Brrr!!!

Until next time...

Apartment Living

Are you ready for a rant? Ugh! Apartment living can be so frustrating at times. This weekend...all I wanted was a quiet, lazy, stay in my jammies and watch bad tv while stitching type of weekend.

When I want quiet...I *really* want quiet. But my neighbors weren't cooperating.

Saturday was the guy across the hall blaring Joan Jett around 8pm. Like BLARING!!! There is an apartment between us and I could hear the lyrics perfectly! I feel bad for the girl who lives between us. How can she deal?! I'd be having a nervous breakdown! Dude, turn down the music! Now, I love Joan Jett but I don't appreciate being forced to listen to her when I want to watch Criminal Minds and actually listen to the tv show. At least he has the sense to turn the music off at 10pm.

Now the people below me are the worst. They've been bad since I moved in and I complained about them three years ago. They are almost as inconsiderate as the college girls I lived above at my old place. I'd be more forgiving if they were college aged instead of the married 30=40 something married couple that they actually are. They've been playing two-beat bassy music all weekend. You know, the kind of music that is migraine-inducing. As I shuffled off to bed at 2am (yes, very late), they proceeded to head to the bedroom as well and have a loud argument/discussion which made me bang on the floor a few times and then resort to earplugs. Living here, I am completely dependant on earplugs because 1. they are loud, irritating night owls and 2. the dude snores so loud you can probably hear him on the East Coast! They drive me insane. In the 4 years I've lived here, I've never said anything to them since this is a consequence of apartment living but today, I had it! The loud music at 330pm was driving me insane. I couldn't escape it. Every room...bassy music. My head was starting to hurt. I wrote them a note, slipped it under their door, came upstairs, hopped into the shower and when I came out...silence. It was beautiful! They'll probably be loud and annoying tomorrow but I'm glad I "said" something. I'm way too shy to knock on their door and tell them off but oh, how I want to! I'd like to give the dude a brochure for a sleep clinic because seriously....can you hear him over there? He is fricking loud! He'll wake me up in the middle of the night and I'm not even in the same room!

My neighbors drive me insane! I love my apartment though. It's beautiful and when my neighbors aren't driving me batty by being loud, it's seriously my sanctuary. Arches, french doors, hardwood floors, high ceilings, loads of closet space...it's beautiful. But I sometimes daydream about moving to a little cottage or duplex to minimize the number of neighbors and hence noise but that would cost me at least $400 a month more than my rent now and well, that's a lot. So...I guess for now...I'll buy stock in earplugs and Excedrine Migraine. It's cheaper.

Fricking neighbors!!

Stitching has been successful though. I finished Christmas Tea and organized my meager collection of DMC. I also got some lovely christmas surprises in the mail and even got complimented on my obnoxious glitter red nail polish. So it was not a loss! It's late, dark and rainy tonight and I won't even try to take pictures. I'll save them for next time.

I'm off to try my hand at a couple christmas ornies for last minute presents. Better go make my fabric selection!

Until next time...

Challenges

I've been away from the blog for a couple of days, trying to take on a couple of new challenges.

November was all about NaBloPoMo and seeing if I could do that and I did! Pat on the back for me!

December is about another personal challenge. You may remember that I was complaining about being winded just climbing up my three flights of stairs. Something that didn't faze me before. 50 stairs up...50 stairs down. The down part is easy...it's the up part that is hard. This year, I've been completely lax about fitness and working out and staying/getting into shape. All I want is to have energy and lose 10 pounds. 15 pounds...I'd be over the moon. I'm pretty height/weight proportionate but could use more muscle tone over jiggly tone. I started very slow at just 1x per week the last two weeks of November. 20 minutes on the elliptical to start. First week...20 minutes...felt like dying. Holy cow...so out of shape! Second week...25 minutes...legs felt like jello and I thought I might fall down the stairs. This week, 25 minutes and I'm ok. I hate working out! I don't mind the elliptical or walking though. I figured the elliptical during the winter is the best bet since it's pitchblack by the time I leave work and if I'm going to exercise, it's best to get it over right after work. There is a small workout room in my building at work so I don't even go outside. If I do...it's over. I make excuses...it's dark, it's cold, I need to do errands, I need to stitch...I need to do anything other than work out!

So Tuesday, Wednesday and today, I've done the elliptical. It helps that my coworker is using the room too so I feel like I have support and he can stand my whining. As much as I don't like working out, it's nice to see I ellipticaled (I know that isn't a word!) for 1.5 miles and burned 180 calories in 25 minutes. I think those numbers are the only thing that get me through it. I'm hoping for 3x ellipticaling during the week and one good walk on the weekend. The goal is to be able to do more time at a higher level but for now, I will take my 25 minutes at Level 2. One day, I'll get to Level 8 and I better have buns and thighs of steel by that point so help me!

Second challenge...is trying to figure out how to meet new people and make new friends. Always a new challenge when you're no longer in school or a public transportation commuter. I also work in an organization full of men with egos as big as a 747. Ummm...so work friends are minimal. If you have suggestions of how to meet new folks, send them my way. Many of my friends are now scattered all over the states, married and are starting families, planning to start having families soon or just so in the throes of new love...it's sightly disgusting. I am looking forward to being more involved with two local stitching groups in the new year and am excited about that but stitching isn't everything (omg, did I just say that!?).

Third challenge...for being in a scrooge - bah humbug mood about the holidays...I am suddenly obsessed about christmas ornaments having seen so many folks stitching such beautiful creations this season. I must have ornaments! So I will challenge myself to an ornament a month at least. I'd love to do two. But one at least while working on my two BAPs for 2010...Mary Wigham and Fairy Moon. I might even start ornaments this weekend since I decided to not feel guilty about my sewing class and lack of vest. Screw sewing...Viva la stitching! Of course, this will only happen if I ass-plant on the futon. I always say I will and end of squandering away precious stitching time on things like errands and laundry and cleaning! But I am hopeful that I will have 12 new ornaments to decorate the tree I envision myself putting up next year.

Since I've been ellipticaling and catching up on chores after work, stitching has been minimal. I've stitched most of the snowflakes on Christmas Tea and can probably finish it by tomorrow night or Saturday for sure.

Well, I know I've been rambling...I had wanted to put up a picture that Jill Rensel sent me of my framed Letter G but I can't figure out how to save it as a picture file so I sent it to *the boy* which usually means it may never get done. But he did it and turned it into the size of a quarter! *sigh* It's truly beautiful but the big reveal may have to wait until I receive it and can take a picture of my own. I'm so excited! I wish I could share it!!

Until next time...