Archive for September, 2009
September 27th, 2009 | 
Author: (in case other stitchers are curious):
Slightly adjusted because I discovered I’d broken my small hoops (whoops!) #1 and #3 have switched places. 5 hours min. each – additional time if I’m in a zone.
1) Egyptian Sampler – Teresa Wentzler
2) Cats on a Staircase – Bucilla
3) Elemental Dragons: Spirit – Dragon Dreams
4) Star Wars Sampler – self-drafted
5) Apache Wedding Blessing – Kooler Design
6) Floral Bellpull – Teresa Wentzler
7) Astrology Sampler – Witches Stitches
Ornament/Support Stacie craftiness (undecided)
I’ve debated either doing that David Tennant pattern or the Dalek for Support Stacie.
Thoughts?
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And no, I’m not abandoning LJ completely, but I’m thinking of making it for fandom only and returning my personal thoughts over to the site I pay for.
I spent yesterday morning organizing all of my stitching projects and making a list of all of my charts, kits, etc. I’m fairly sure I’m still missing a stack somewhere, but all but one of the “works in progress” have been found and documented. It’s not like I don’t have enough to work on without those missing charts – 29 projects either with stitches in them or all kitted up and ready to go (eep!). So I’ll eventually find those charts and add them to the batch I’ve gone through.
To start, I’m going to do a 5-hour rotation to work through several projects, including both the small projects that have me excited to stitch again (i.e. allowing myself new starts) and also some of the large projects that I’m interested in finishing at some point, but need a slow warm-up to get back into. Teresa Wentzler projects in particular take a certain rhythm due to their complexity. Once I’m in the zone with them, I’m fine, but I need to get into that zone.
My other problem was that because I love Teresa’s patterns so much, I have a bunch of them in progress – and they’re all huge, huge pieces. Literally hundreds of hours of work can go into them. I need some small pieces so I have the satisfaction of completed works once in a while – and that’s where the new starts are coming in.
So Rotation #1, five hours each is:
- 1. Elemental Dragons – Spirit by Dragon Dreams
2. Cats on a Staircase stocking by Bucilla
3. Egyptian Sampler by Teresa Wentzler
4. Star Wars Sampler – personal drafting, based off of a sampler found atHandEyeMindMouth New start
5. Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Design
6. Floral Bellpull by Teresa Wentzler
7. Astrology Sampler by Witches Stitches New start
8. Ornament for swap New start
#8 is something I don’t have to commit to until early November, so we’ll see how it goes, but for now it’s in the lineup.
On non-stitching stuff, Matt and I took a drive down to North Kingstown to the farm stand for pie and cooking supplies – it was a gorgeous day (and today looks even better). My tomatoes are slowing down, and I’m now making salsa and sauce to use them before they go bad. Fresh pesto is also on today’s cooking plans thanks to a couple basil plants that went haywire in August – I can’t let it all die off, of course!
There was talk of going to the Mendon Drive-In tonight for the final night of the theater’s season, but we’ll see. I’ve felt a bit under the weather since cleaning the outer surface of the basement fridge the other day (mold reactions… whee.) I feel okay now, but know that as the day goes on, I’ll feel… less fine.
It’s been a good vacation, I think! Quite a bit done, still stuff to do, but I have another long weekend coming in a couple weeks with Columbus Day, and I still have a few vacation days to play with this year – I may take some other long weekends off.
New post today:
http://measi.net/measiblog/2009/09/24/settling-down-for-autumn/
I’ve been on vacation all week – a much needed one to get my head in order, relax, and just catch up on things that I’ve been wanting to do.
On Monday night, Erich and I went to Gillette Stadium to see U2 in concert with a couple of our friends. It was absolutely fantastic! I’d seen them before back in 1997 (also in Foxboro… at the old stadium) during their Popmart tour. The current 360 tour, with its monsterous claw spaceship stage, is completely different. Only a few songs overlap… although granted, there have been a few albums since then!
Wednesday was our wedding anniversary – 2 years already (eep!). We went down to Mystic, CT for the afternoon to just get out of the house for a while. Mystic’s only about an hour way, so a nice and easy day trip. We went to Mystic Pizza (and like in the movie, it quite possibly is a little slice of heaven), then out to the point to relax for a few minutes, followed by shopping. Later in the evening, we tried a new Hibachi/sushi restaurant in Warwick (excellent). Overall, just a fun day.
I spent most of today getting things done and getting organized – laundry, getting a new calendar, catching up on email. Tomorrow will be much of the same. I’m getting the stitching bug again, so I’m planning to pull all of the projects out and set up a rotation. I’d love to get a few of them out of the trunk and onto the wall one of these days!
All for me… probably more chattering tomorrow as I get this stuff organized.
Anyone still reading out there? I’m guessing no, but meh, worth asking.
The important things, I’ll say offline. In public, however – Happy Anniversary, hon.
I love you.
Twelve years and the building of a new football stadium in Foxboro have happened since I last saw U2. In 1997, Popmart blew me away, despite all of the criticism of it as a "failed" tour.
Last night blew me away again – the energy, the music, and WTF that stage! A near sellout – 60,000 people, most of whom stood the entire concert. Lots of dancing, lots of singing along. It wasn’t one of those concerts where people came just to hang out and be seen. People were there to see U2, which made the environment fantastic.
Boston, as it is for every opening act I’ve seen attached to a concert, is quite welcoming of opening/supporting acts as well. Reaction started slow, but by the end of their set, Snow Patrol had quite a few people singing along to them, too (basically – once songs people knew were played) and a lot of cheering from people in the stadium.
It’s honestly impossible for me to compare the two shows I’ve now seen. The shows are so completely different. Literally only perhaps a 3-4 song overlap. Songs I missed not hearing were "I Will Follow," "Pride" and "New Year’s Day" (the last of which was apparently played the night before), but instead, I finally heard "Sunday Bloody Sunday" live. I got to hear all of the 2000 and later stuff live. There’s really nothing quite like hearing an entire stadium yelling along to "Elevation" and "Vertigo," and the insanity that always happens when "Where the Streets Have No Name" starts thumping away.
I’m so glad to have seen them again – and glad Erich could, too. U2 is one of those bands that even a person who’s not a die-hard fan should experience once. They put on an incredible show.
Set Order:
Magnificent
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Beautiful Day
Unknown Caller
Until the End of the World
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
The Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo – Stories for Boys
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One – Amazing Grace
Where the Streets Have No Name
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender
Hey guys-
Erich and I have two tickets to U2 this Monday night we’re looking to offload, if anyone in the New England area (or last minute travelers to New England) are interested. We’ve had surprising difficulty finding bites for these.
Saturday morning update: Erich found friends who were interested – tickets are sold. Whew!
*sigh*
Keep on dancing in the stars, you crazy, dirty dancing man.