*Grumble, Grumble*

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a nice weekend. It was damp and rainy in the Bay Area after 7 straight days of rain. We had a one day reprieve and it started to rain again yesterday. After so much rain and dampness, I'm feeling a little "'eh".

Nothing new or exciting going on. I spent the little stitching time I had last week working on the border for the Boo Club. I ripped out the orange and stitched the yellow and then the black and white checkerboard. I'll stitch the border as I go even though that backfired on me the last time. It just seems that it would be more time effective that way. Boo Club is being put away until late February.
This past weekend was busy. busy. Lots of cleaning being done and yet, the apartment still looks like a tornado hit it BUT the big, huge closet that I used as an "office" because it is that big, is clean and empty and I finally put a storage rack in there and I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Since I have wireless and use a laptop, I no longer need an office. I just need a shelf to put my router, modem and printer. The laptop pretty much resides under the futon. I plan on putting all my storage in that room, including my stitching cabinet, and will probably still have half the closet free for other stuff! It feels great to unload stuff. I've shredded about 5 bags of documents, about 4 bags of recycling and am giving away a desk and office chair for free to whomever wants my good junk. If it wasn't raining, it would have been at the curb already with the Free sign but alas, rain, rain and more rain.

I went phone shopping and got a new Blackberry phone and am learning how to use a smartphone. Honestly, sometimes, the phone is smarter than me and my geeky-techie coworkers are all excited because they can bbm me. Um, I don't even know what that means. I get a lesson from one of them tomorrow. I am happy with the phone so far! Here comes new, organized walking around Valerie who hopefully won't have a bunch of post-its and to-do's falling out of her purse. To be honest, the salesfolks at Verizon are lucky I found a phone I liked because after waiting for months for the iPhone rumors to come true...to no avail...and being stuck with the most craptastic phone out there that happens to have a defective jack...I'd have gone postal and on a long rant about how they are doing a disservice to their customers by having excellent service but a poor phone selection and how all their customers want an iPhone so make it happen already!! But I think the BB Curve8530 and I will get along great!

I've also decided I have to start shopping for adult (like grown-up...not stripper poles...poor choice of words there) furniture especially in light of my recent back issues. I'll be 35 this year and I think it's time for a real sofa (not futon) and some matching bedroom furniture. Slightly nerve-wracking since I think the biggest purchase I've made was my mattress set and work has been having it's fair share of budgetary problems and all I know is that I am safe until July. So I'm starting small and focusing on a new sofa with chair/ottoman or streamlined recliner. I went to my first shop on Saturday, walked in and promptly remembered that I should have measured before going shopping. Ummm...oops! I think this shopping for furniture experiment will take a while. It would also help if I finished my closet project before introducing more stuff into my apartment!

Everything else was ok. *The boy* felt sick and was drivingme nuts with his lack of help with my closet project and the noisy downstairs neighbors made me so berserk that I took to banging on the floor with a mop...and they banged back. One day, I will go down there and give them a piece of my mind. They are more inconsiderate than partying college students. Remember these folks are in their 40's! Oh, and I made a small start on my sister's gift who sometimes peeks on my blog so no photos until it's received.

So there has been lots of grumbling and not very much positive attitude. Shame on me! But I have one more grumble. Laural always seems to have the inside scoop on soon to be released designs and Nora Corbett's Letter V, W and X are being released! I *hate* the letter V! I don't like the thin brown left side and the thick green right side, the vine or the fairy just kind of standing there. Really disappointed.
But I really like the W and a part of me thinks that maybe, just maybe, I'll just pick one half of the W and stitch half (so it's a V) along with the fairy.
Eh, something to think about for later. Hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

Until next time...

Rainy Days

What a wet and dreary day it is today! I'm supposed to be at the parentals right now but *the boy* had a meeting and the rain is coming down pretty steadily. I'm nice and let him borrow my car and I'll see the parentals a little later. Lots of laundry to do and I'm sure the folks think I've forgotten all about them. Truth be told, with it being all rainy, I'd much rather stay at home in my jammies than drive on slick roads and wrestle with laundry.

This has been a rather strange week. After my workout on Monday, I came home and organized more of the mess. At the end of the night, I went to stand up and felt a lot of pain in my lower back. It was late and I went to sleep and was fine sleeping but when I went to get up in the morning to get ready for work, I really couldn't. I'd thrown out my back and called in sick to work for three days. I pretty much spent that time lying about drugged up on Flexeril and sleeping at the drop of a pin! It wouldn't have been so bad if I could actually stitch but it's hard to stitch when you're flat on your back. Trust me...I tried. So *the boy* played nursemaid and I just tried to get better. I felt ok enough to go to work on Friday but was still pretty stiff and couldn't stand for long periods of time. By the end of Friday, I had dinner and fell asleep only to wake up the next morning. The medication the doctor gave me makes me very, very sleepy and unmotivated. Today is the first day I am trying to make do without the medication. I feel pretty much back to normal so I hope this is the end of me and my aching back! I've got way too much to do!

Saturday, I decided to start my L*K Boo Club. My intention is to do one block per month and be done at the end of the year but I'd love to finish it by Halloween if some free time opens up mid-year. I finished "Spooky".
I was so excited to start that I didn't really read the border directions. I'll be frogging out the orange and doing it yellow as charted. I assumed they were still blocks if you did them all on one long piece of fabric but they aren't. Oopsie! I'm stitching this on 32 count BOAF Meadowlark with the recommended overdyeds.

It's also time to TUSAL reporting. Here's my jar posing with some funky orchids *the boy* brought home the other day.

And here is a close-up. You can see some of the orange from Boo Club, purple for a gift I'm making and below that are Mary Wiham orts.
I feel like I've gotten lots of stitching done this month by looking at my orts jar!

Well, better get that dirty laundry together...

Until next time...

Busy, Busy!

Hiya, folks! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I had a nice one and it was super nice to have *the boy* back. He's walking all normal...no cane...no crutches...I have the feeling this next doctor's appointment will be his last.

Saturday, we went for a little walk around the city, got a slice of Sicilian pizza at Golden Boy and came back home. We heard about the 6.5 earthquake up near Eureka and that got *the boy* all in gear to prepare in case we get a big one over here. *The boy* is all hypervigilant about earthquakes since he's East Coast. Since I'm SF Bay Area...I've dealt with this stuff my entire life! I kind of take it in stride although I have to say that the little 4.2 we had on Thursday was a little jarring. I think because it was about 30 miles away so that one was close. Now we're stocked up on water, easy to prepare food, candles and batteries. I'm due to report to work asap after any earthquake so I'll be taken care of through city resources assuming I am unhurt and able to get to work. The rest of the evening, I just stitched on a gift which is taking me a little longer to do than I thought. Isn't that always the case?! This working 40 hours a week and working out after work really cuts into my stitching time.

Sunday, *the boy* was busy cooking and I was busy running errands before we met up again to see Up in the Air. What a great movie! I thought it was well done and it had it's funny moments and sentimental ones as well. The rest of the afternoon and evening, I organized, cleared out some recycling, met one scary, hairy spider *the boy* had to deal with while I went screaming into the other room and managed to break my shredder. Ugh! This cleaning business is dangerously scary and time consuming!! And you know what?! My apartment is still trashed! But I am seeing a faint light at the end of the tunnel.

So folks, there is more cleaning to be had and I'll continue to be a bit distant. Now that *the boy* is back, he can help me out a little with this whole closet(s) project. I haven't been stitching much and what I have done has been gift stitching and I've come to realize that all the gift recipients are readers so no sneak peeks. Stitching photos will be scarce until April. I know! So boring! But I do plan on doing Boo Club as a monthy year-long project so I better get started on that first one. I can't even remember what it is!

So hang in there with me. I'm still reading and commenting when I can and will be going through my stash soon for a sale because the pile is teetering on top of my stash cabinet. Living in an apartment, I have a corner dedicated to stash...one day...one day, I'll have a stitching room but I know I have some charts and kits that might be happier in a new home so stay tuned.

Until next time...

A Couple of Lessons

Hey Everybody...Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a nice start so far. Mine has been nice but busy, busy! Oof! I even freaked out that I hadn't updated the blog for over a week and then looked and saw it's only been four days. Apparently I'm cramming in two days worth of stuff into one so I feel like all this time has passed.

So, let's see...what have I done? I've thought about stitching and cleaning a lot...oh and organizing stash. Yet none of that has actually come to be. I had a yummy breakfast with Claire at Maverick and a nice walk around the Mission District while enjoying a bright and sunny day in January. Amazing! I also went to my first "Guild" meeting and had a lot of fun and met some really nice and friendly ladies (Hi!).

I got two more motifs done on Mary and started on a third. The white motif is the only one I'm kind of on the fence about. I think it photographs well but the coverage isn't very good with just one strand of Shaker White. I know 2 strands will be way too much so I'm trying to talk myself into the whole "it looks dainty" belief.
I sadly have to put Mary aside for a little bit so I can make a dent in some gifts. *sob* I'm loving Mary and don't want to stitch on anything else!

I've been keeping busy organizing my walk-in closet which was supposed to be a task for last January...as in a year ago! Time to face the ugliness. Since I'm knee deep in paperwork (literally in some spots of my living room), stitching has taken a backseat the last couple of days.

I do have a couple of lessons.

1. Don't throw your paperwork and bills in a box saying you'll organize it next week, next month or next year because the next thing you know, you've got 7 years of paperwork accumulated and it will take you days, maybe weeks to get things straightened out! I'd show you a picture but am too ashamed!

2. If you're an online dater and sign up for a random site, half set up your profile and forget about it because you "don't get it"...someone will find you years later when you least expect it and because a handful of times, you used your online dating email on a part of the internets, they will find your blog. Be diligent! Eff! I feel like I've lost a little of my anonymity and I've been in a relationship for almost a year and a half! I've no interest in dating or anything. Dealing with *the boy* is enough thank you very much!

Speaking of *the boy*, he comes back on Friday. He's got a couple of job leads and we're starting out the year being positive and hopeful. This absence has been particularly hard...over the holidays and the longest one yet. I've warned him he's got a growing "honey-do" list and how I want to go see a chick flick and he's been accepting of everything I've thrown at him. He's already tired of shoveling snow. Methinks I have the upperhand! If he gets out of hand, I'll just threaten to banish him to the frozen tundra of the East Coast! I suppose that's my wild card.

Posts may be scarce in the next week or so with the cleaning and *the boy* being back in town. Stitching will be limited and some of the gift stitching can't be shown on the blog. But I'll be back to at least run my mouth a little bit.

Until next time...

A Year in Review

January 1st and it's time to take a look at last year's goals and make some new ones...I hope everyone had a fun NYE. I stayed home, watched CSI, stitched and talked on the phone with *the boy* a few times. I had hoped to have fun, wear my party dress type of plans but maybe 2010 will allow that.

Now onto the review...

2009 Personal Goals

~Lose 10 pounds and keep them off --umm, no!
~Be out of debt in 2009...for reals this time --YES!!!
~Purchase a new laptop --YES...still wish I had a Mac but my PC does a fine job.
~Maintain workouts...yoga, stretching and walking --Not really...
~Learn how to sew...enroll in class(es)--YES!

2009 Stitching Goals

~Quaker Friendship Round Robin --Completed and at the finisher
~Peppermint Twist SAL --No, not even started but used a part of the design to make a floss tag that made lots of people laugh
~2009 Christmas Challenge - 12 finished ornaments by the end of the year--Sadly, no.
~Bent Creek Snappers - July through December--done and at the framer
~Trick or Treat Fairy -Mirabilia--Not started
~Fairy Moon - Mirabilia --kind of started (50 stitches) but not really
~4 exchanges/gifts --2 exchanges, 7 gifts
~Keep better track of my finished projects for blogging--the sidebar says I stitched 27 items. Woot! 25 were stitched and 2 were knitted. I still need to keep better track though. I have my journal and may try to set up a online photo journal this year.

Now it's time to reflect on the year to come...

2010 Personal Goals

~Be more positive and happy. This is my number 1 goal. The rest will be icing on the cake.
~Lose those 10 pounds and exercise regularly.
~Save money towards big purchases

2010 Stitching Goals

~Stitch from stash...I can do it...I know I can!
~Continue to limit exchanges (2-4)
~BAPS for me: Mary Wigham, Fairy Moon and L*K Boo Club
~Gifts: Newton, Bless This House, Letter C
~Stitch 12 Christmas ornaments

I think this is manageable! :)

Until next time...