IHSW Randomness

Hi Everyone!

I haven't done a randomness post in a while and my mind is such a jumble that I can't formulate full sentences. Oh look, I just did one. I'll keep this on the short side since life is terribly busy and I don't think I will be able to do a proper post with real progress for another three weeks. 

• My parents decided to go back to Nicaragua in 12 days. There is a whole slew of things to do. I stress myself out just thinking about it. 
• Besides being stressed; I'm partly relieved and partly sad. This will totally free up my time to work on personal projects like job search and apartment reorganization and redecorating, which is great. But I think that this will most likely be the last time my parents see their house and we will have the hard decision of figuring out what to do with it. That makes me teary to think about. 
• I've been too tired and too lazy to do much stitching since I've been mostly vegging out in bed. My stitching set up is in the living room. So I've been winding a bunch of bobbins while watching tv and I am almost done!
• Thanks for all the well wishes regarding my little health hiccup. I think it's fixed itself (after the dose of terrible hormones) but the doctor will let me know for sure in a couple of weeks. The stress is affecting me a lot I think. My skin is also acting up and I decided to try out acupuncture and herbs to see how that helps. 
• I still keep socially busy so I feel exhausted most of the time. 
• I bought new bedroom furniture! No more mix-matched dorm type furniture for me. It arrives in a month!
• This lady played bumper cars with me on the freeway which resulted in minor cosmetic damage to my car. I feel like I had to "convince" her to pull over to exchange information which upset me more since she is the one who hit me which leaves me to report damage and field insurance calls for a week when I'm already stretched on patience and time.
• I miss regular stitching and blogging more than you know. I know I need to find the time for it but I just feel like I can't concentrate enough.

Here's a view of the little stitching I've managed. Since the last time I showed A Very Fine Sampler, I've added some letters, numbers, two butterflies and started in on one of the many ginormous flowers. I think this middle section will take me a while to accomplish!

Also, Joysze of Random Ramblings and IHSW fame, recently started Lilac so I said that I should pull mine out so we can SAL together. Hey, a girl can hope and have high aspirations. Joyze has already surpassed me  (in one weekend...girl you stitch fast!) and will probably finish before me but that's ok. I pulled Lilac out and put her back on a scroll frame. That's an accomplishment! I even managed to put some new stitches in (the dark green ones) on Friday night before I fell asleep at 830p. 830p! On a Friday night! Since Friday was the only day allotted for IHSW, there were no more stitches. =(

I really need to find the time to sit in my stitching chair and work on her more. I really like how she looks finished. I think one of my deterrents has been the fabric. I usually use linen but this is a 32 count Lugana and boy are those holes tight! I'm assuming the fabric shrunk a little during the dyeing process. 

Well, that's all I have for today! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Much love and hugs...until next time. 

The Grand Unveiling

Hi Everyone!

I said that next time I visited blogland, I would do the unveiling of the contents of my Jill Rensel package. You may have seen one of them already since I've been busy and slow to blog and both Jill and Theresa managed to post before I did!

<<>>

Ta-Da! Jane Pattison by Shakespeare Peddler. I love how it turned out!

And I also had her frame Hallow Eden by Plum Street Samplers and convert my frame into a pop out. That way I can display Hallow Eden at Halloween and Christmas Tea at Christmastime.

I'm now just waiting to see when a friend can help me hang Jane up into her permanent spot in the living room. 

Not much else to chat about. I've been dealing with a minor health issue and the medication I am on has made me very cranky and emotional so I've been nesting. Cleaning up the closets little by little and sorting my DMC threads into a jammer box. I hate winding bobbins. It's such a slow process and I think I still have another 200 skeins to go. I find that if I break it into 10 skein increments, it feels like little accomplishments!

A Very Fine Sampler is coming along. Not enough progress to warrant a picture at the moment though. I'm working on a couple of butterflies and hope to move onto the ginormous flowers soon. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm going on a tour of a lace shop in the East Bay with my Guild and plan to see "Her", have a fun evening out and watch the Superbowl. Busy, busy!

Until next time...much love and hugs

Back in the Saddle

Hi Everyone!

I do have to say that it is hard to get back into the groove of blogging when life has been and still is hectic. It's been months since I've had a proper post. One that shared what was going on and most importantly, showed some stitching progress. I wish I could say that things have worked themselves out but they haven't. I am still struggling helping out my parents. 80-somethings are SO stubborn! I've done all that I can (attorneys, bankers and doctors....oh my!) to get things where they need to be and so now it's up to them to decide a date for them to go back to Nicaragua. I assume it's hard for them to leave their house but the constant neediness is hard for me too. I juggle their stuff, working full-time, maintaining a (constantly unorganized) apartment, social life, dating (you know what they say about meeting someone when you least expect it? Yea, that happened) and stitching. I say stitching because without it, I would lose my mind but there's never truly enough stitching time to satisfy me. There have been doctors appointments for me, those pesky five pounds that won't go away and a huge desire and need to job search. A lot of things geared towards my advancement and improvement have been put on hold. I am eager to get back to it all.

When I get super frustrated. I stitch. It's therapeutic. The sound of thread going through linen. To see a design slowly form on a blank canvas is restorative. I had one small finish at the end of 2013. Here is Lizzie Kate Ho Ho Ho. If I remember correctly, it's stitched on 32 count Natural Belfast in Shepherds Bush's thread conversion. A medley of overdyeds and DMC. I plan on stitching this again in the called for color palate which is much brighter than this one.

For my birthday back in October, I ordered the Lizzie Kate Christmas Mystery and diligently stitched the first two parts. I still need to start on the third. I don't know why I set it aside but it's probably because I've been stitching more in hand lately. Sorry for the funky photo. The linen is crooked in the rod and I am too lazy to readjust it since I can still stitch fine. Priorities people!!

Apparently, I've been on a Lizzie Kate kick because my next WIP is Lizzie Kate's Snowman '10. I am so close to finishing this one! It will be a happy dance soon...once I remember where I put the embellishment pack! Does that ever happen to anyone else?

And now for my New Years Start. I decided on A Very Fine Sampler by Birds of a Feather. I'm stitching it on 40 count BOAF Barn Owl using the recommended WDW threads. I've been stitching this in hand but will probably have to move to a scroll rod and stand after the alphabet bands. I've completed almost all the alphabet bands and am really enjoying it.

Last weekend was IHSW and I signed up and managed to get quite a bit done on AVFS. I was only at the lowercase "c" in the third band and managed to complete the numbers band. Pretty good for me considering I don't get much stitching time at all but I've been in a hermity mood lately. Now if I can just motivate myself to get some cleaning and organizing done...

Well, my laptop battery is dying and I had better post this before it gets anymore delayed. I'll have much more to show you soon because I got a package delivery from the infamous and talented Jill. I haven't even opened it yet but am excited to share the reveal with all of you! I know you'll be waiting on pins and needles.

And thank you for sticking with me during these long absences. Life is still not easy but I hope to stitch and post more. I had to do a "clean slate" at the start of the year because I was over 1,000 posts behind in my feedly. Do you know that when you are over 999 posts, they don't even show you the number anymore. I am sure I missed out of lots of wonderful things and sad things and beautiful things and wish I could have shared in it all with you but I had to reset feedly to 0 because there was no way I could have ever caught up. I know you all understand. Thank you so much.

Until next time...much love and hugs.