Saturday, February 25, 2012

Finally!

Finally it's letting me post the pic of the unfinished-finished snowman ornie I wanted to post last post. Woo Hoo!  Is it just me or does this snowman have a long nose?  Hmm, makes ya wonder doesn't it?  So today should of been my last day to work on 6 Fat Men on my rotation schedule.  I've really been struggling with that 32 count. But man, today was super bad.  My eyes crossed, they watered, they stung, I miscounted and had to rip stitches and I ended up in tears.  I'm figuring maybe it's due to be soooo tired from not sleeping right.  So I'm putting him away a day early and am just going to work on another easy snowman ornie.  Tomorrow I will try working on A House is Made.  It's on the count I'm used to and hopefully I will sleep better tonight, so maybe stitching will go better tomorrow :)  I'm not going to give up on 6 Fat Men, I'll keep him in rotation, I may just have to go slower and less than a week with him.  I don't want to get so frustrated with him that I do give up on him.  So here is where I'm at with him now, after after to rip out the stitches that I had miscounted.  Not far, sad to say.
So there he is all bumpy and knarled up looking.  But hey, that is learning :)  I'm so tired right now I'm not even sure I will stitch right now.  I think I will kick back and read.  I refuse to take a nap, but reading sounds nice and relaxing, maybe I'll stitch after dinner and family night, or maybe I'll just stitch tomorrow when I (hopefully) feel more rested!  Stay safe, warm, don't blow away, love your furs (and your humans) and stitch happy and avoid the frog!
Shanda

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ewww, but I'm gonna keep plugging

So I"m not too pleased with my progress on 6 Fat Men, it's lumpy and messy.  But it's a lack of experience issue and it's either put it away until I get a lot more experience, which I really don't want to do, or just keep going at it, which I will do.  But, I did get soooo tired and tired eyes from squinting, that I did put it down a day early and go to ornies.  (supposed to be ornie Wednesday and I started on Tuesday and continued today).  So here is where I got to on 6 fat men:

It's been a rough week.  A roller coast with the car.  We need to order one more essential part before the belt can even be put on.  That has been a mess.  I ran out of zoloft and thanks to the Topamax forgetfulness I kept forgetting to remind James that this was "refill meds" payday.  Usually I get the money and tell him what bills to pay but he wanted to "hang on to it" so if him and TJ found a junk yard with an Equinox they could look for that part and he could pay for it.  Well, by the time I remembered to tell him I needed my Zoloft there was no money left.  So I was out for a few days.  Not good when you're in the midst of changing your mood stabilizer also.  So I've just been one hot, crying mess.  Up and down, up and down, up and down.  I think most of the money went on cigs as James has probably been smoking way too much if his coughing and hacking is any evidence.  But I did find a way to get my meds today, even if it meant James could not get his cigs today (even though yesterday he said he was at peace with the decision to quit today), but decided today he wanted just want more pack and planned to smoke them all tonight and then quit tomorrow.  He will just have to make due with my menthol lights.  If he hates them that much, well, maybe he will quit.  And after the hot mess I've been, maybe it was good advice that the doctor didn't want me to add quitting smoking to the medication changes.  He wants to make sure I"m stable on new meds first.  Anyways, today I did very little stitching because I was just a blubbering fool.  I didn't want to do anything but want to crawl in a hole and disappear.  Didn't feel like anyone wanted me around unless I was doing something for them, otherwise I was just a nagging, bad mood, grouchy, snippy annoyance.  But I did manage to finish one little snowman ornie and start another.  Tomorrow I will start back on 6 Fat Men until Sunday.  Then I will work on A house is made for a week, then the wolf.  I was going to add Halloween House for a week, but really want to get wolf done, so I will wait until a project is done before I add it in.  I got the awesome lamp in from Nancy.  It is so amazingly sweet!!  So bright!!  OMG, what an amazing difference it makes.  And the little tray to stick all my little stitchy things....just amazing.  Oh and a magnifier!!  I can't wait till 6 fat men's turn again!!!  I won't be so squinty!!!  And a little clip to hang the pattern!!  Oh how nice nice nice!!!  I adore it!!  I did put it in my bedroom and re-arranged my little bedroom corner.  I just don't know how to fit in by my corner of the couch without it getting constantly run into and knocked over.  If the base hadn't gotten destroyed in shipping (yes, the concrete base got shattered) I wouldn't worry about it getting knocked over, instead they could just have broke toes...LOL!!  But I don't mind having my bedroom corner!!!  I listen to Pandora or watch Hulu on my puter and am happy as a clam.  There is also much more room for the doggies!!!    Anyways, here is the pic of the unfinished finished new little snowman ornie :)
Well, forget it I guess, been trying for over an hour to upload it and it won't let me!!  Maybe tomorrow!!!
Stay safe, warm and sane!!  Happy stitching!!
Shanda

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Squinty Sunday

Hello to everyone in blog land!!  It has been a highly interesting week!!  Had a little mental craziness with changing my meds, but am much more stable now.  The males in the family drive me a little nuts, as usual, but that is guys for you.  It was Kenzie's heaven birthday, but as much as the guys drive me nuts, they were so very amazingly sweet to me also.  The topper was "stubbing my toe" on the hearth of the fireplace.  It hurt like the dickens for all of 5 minutes and scraped the toe.  No biggie.  I spent the rest of the day going all over the house all about my business no big deal.  The next day I woke up in horrid pain and had to call James at work to take me to the doctor.  In less than 24 hours the toe had already started getting infected.  Great, just great!  So much for being pre-diabetic!  And also, I fractured my foot.  It hurts like the dickens and I'm stuck on my rear.  It's one thing when I choose to sit on my rear and stitch all day, it's a whole nother ball of wax when I'm stuck here and have to stay here!!!  Luckily it is better than the first day, slowly, but surely.  I got my packages from 123 stitch, boy did I.  300+ bucks of DMC thread.  And I've already wound it all!!  What else can you do when you're stuck on your butt all day!!  I meant to get pics, but I put it all nice and neat in my little corner and don't have the pain tolerance to get back up and snap pics.  I stitched about 700 more stitches on wolf before I got frustrated with Ty and didn't want to stitch on it for a bit, so I had James put it up, yep, before I got a progress pic.  Plus, now I have all the thread for 6 Fat Men and couldn't wait to get started on it.  I got the recommended Amber Linen for it (my mom and auntie bought it and just bought the "kit" for it).  Oh my, there is so much difference between 18 ct aida and 32 ct linen.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  I've already made a few mistakes, but you know what, from a few feet away it will look just fine and that is what counts right.  That piece of fabric is one huge piece though!!  It is a bugger to work around.  I am finding that I can't stitch on this one with my glasses on, so I have to take them off and squint.  Shhh, don't tell James, but I did order a neck magnifier.  We'll see if it helps.  With the way my living room is, I can't use a stand one.  My living room is small and the vast majority of it is taken up by my L shaped couch.  I can't even set up a TV tray to use, so I use the arm of the couch and spread out beside me.  I have to put the recliner up to make room for the doggies.  Here are some pics of 6 Fat Men, very, very little progress....going to go a whole lot slower on this smaller count!!!  Okay, so blogger is being a pain in the rear and won't let me post a pic of the fabby.  It's an 18x27 piece.  You never realize just how big it is till you have it in your hoop and all that extra is in your way.  I know you can't see alot in the upper pic.  I'm doing it all in one piece and almost done with the 1st sentence.  All day.  woo hoo.  I am enjoying it though.  But you know, something has been percolating in my forgetful brain.  Okay, DMC has blanc and B5200, 2 types of White.  Then in buying thread for 6 fat men I get introduced to weeks overdyed.  And they have whitewash.  which is white.  How in tarnation do you overdye white???
Shanda

Sunday, February 12, 2012

It's a page finish!!!

Page 1 of "A Beautiful Wolf" is finished!!!  Woo Hoooo!!!

I just might get a page finish this weekend!!!

Oh to of started so many projects and to of messed them up and stopped them.  So I keep plugging away at this wolf.  Don't get me wrong, there are errors.  But some of these colors are soooo close together it is a forgiving pattern.  So here is where I was last:
And here is where I am so far tonight:
I'm hoping to get another 100 done tonight :)  And you know, I figure you all deserve a picture of my stitching crew.  Some of you know (my sisters from over at Stitching Sisters Yahoo Group) that I have 5 furbabies.  2 bigs and 3 littles.  Dolly is our white german shepard/lab mix, Tas is our epileptic german shephard/husky mix, Princess Issabella (a.k.a. Issy, Boo Boo, Issy Boo) is our little Chihuahua, Cashew is my baby and is a Jack Russel/Pug mix and finally there is Angel who is a terrier mix.  Well, for me to stitch I camp out on the couch.  I use the arm of the couch for my needles and thread.  If it's a short stitch the coffee table is kept horizontal to the couch and I squish out the recliner part of the couch.   This makes it harder to reach my soda though and it decreases the room for the doggies.  If the doggies are insistent on needing their space, or I'm settling in for a long night/day of stitching, I move the coffee table vertical so I can reach my soda easier and fully recline my recliner.  Then there is lots of space for me and the 3 little furs.  My living room gets cold and we are out of fire wood and with this weather, I really don't want to invest in more, so I've set a space heater up beside me on a step stool.  It's quite comfy!!  So with all that long winded description, here's a pic:
Cashew is the orange and white, Angel is all black and Issy is there under the pink blanket.  Those are my "little" babies!!  Okay, back to stitching!!
Shanda