Measi's Musings

Archive for December, 2009

our neighbor’s cars
Originally uploaded by measi

It’s still coming down, but nowhere as crazy as last night. It’s hard to know exactly how much we have due to all of the drifting, but I’m guessing we’re at about a foot. Drifts are 3 or more feet in some places. We actually have a bare spot near the grill from it. Very strange.

With the cold weather outside and a need to have an easy to make dinner, I decided to grab what ingredients I could remember off-hand for the Turkey Tortilla Soup I made after Thanksgiving. Only this time I wanted to try making it a bit fuller-bodied.

The variation tonight turned out great. As planned last time, I doubled the batch. I also used chicken thighs instead of turkey since it was cheaper at the store.

2 medium onions, chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
8 cans chicken broth
2 pounds chicken, shredded or cubed into small bits.
2 large tomato, chopped
1/2 – 1 cup frozen peas or corn
8 oz fusilli pasta
4 tablespoons lime juice

1) [skip this step if using leftover chicken] Spray skillet with olive oil and cook cubed chicken until cooked through. Set aside.
2) Spray bottom of large stockpot with olive oil. Saute the onions, celery & chilis until tender, but not brown.
3) Add broth, chicken, noodles, and peas. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Add additional time if needed until pasta is soft.
4) Add tomato. Simmer 5 more minutes. Stir in the lime juice.
5) Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
6) Ladle into bowls and serve hot.

So… I’ve moved on in my rotation again, and with it come a new round of photos. The only one I haven’t updated yet is the ornament I stitched for Jo for the TWCOE exchange. I’ll post that and the one I received sometime this week.

First off – after nearly a month, my energy finally fizzled on Floral Bellpull. I almost got the entire square stitched, but I just needed a break. I managed twenty hours, which is double what my rotation requirement was, so no complaints.

I also decided to put Spirit Dragon away until the new year – I haven’t put any stitches into it for the past three weeks, and instead have been reading on the train. I’ll get back to it next rotation round (when I’ll probably finish it).

My first attempt at my TWCOE ornament was scrapped, although I do plan on finishing it for myself. It’s Teresa Wentzler’s Beginner Whitework Ornament. My chain stitches wound up very off, but for my own tree, I really don’t care. Instead of sending this one, I stitched up Father Winter (another TW pattern).

So that leads me to the current piece in my rotation: Apache Wedding Blessing. This is how it started yesterday morning:

I’m hoping to get the top border done this round so that I can position it better on my scrollframe. The fabric’s pretty cranky and doesn’t want to stay put.

That’s it for now… more later this week!

- Mel.

With December speeding by, I’m trying to get a sense of the things I’ll be doing project-wise next year.  I’d like to get a general plan together before Christmas hits, purely for that part of me that’s a type-A personality.

In my previous entry, I listed the random Stich-a-Longs I’ve joined in some form.  Today I put together a full list of my cross stitch patterns (excluding magazines, which are mostly there for reference & round robin ideas).  I honestly didn’t think I had quite THAT many pieces in my stash… eep!

So now I’m planning my “attack” on all of it.  Obviously I can’t do it all next year.  I couldn’t do all of it in 10 years.  But I definitely want to make a good push at it, and it all depends on the method of my rotation plan.

Based on past experience, a firm hourly or goal-oriented rotation just doesn’t work for me.  Nor does stitching pieces in a particular order.  One thing that does work is designating a theme for a slot (a designer, a piece size, or a focus slot, for example).  So I’m going to be doing a modified blend of a screaming, hourly, and goal rotation.. if that makes sense.

The rule is that I can stitch these pieces in any order.  This will allow me to be flexible for when Round Robins come in and such.  I must put a minimum of 5 hours on any one piece before I can move onto another piece.  I may stay on a project for as long as I’m feeling in a groove on it – progress in any form is a good thing!  I must stitch on every piece in the rotation before making any adjustments, such as included pieces, slot themes, starts, etc.

Right now, I’m thinking about this as my beginning rotation for 2010.  I expect to have a decent amount of time for stitching this winter. 

TW SAL:  Floral Bellpull
Small/Commute: Home is Where the Cat Is (will finish this round)
Small/Commute #2: Elemental Dragons: Spirit
Backstich Focus: Egyptian Sampler
Christmas SAL: Cats on a Staircase
TW/DD/BS SAL: Legends of the Dragons (new start for 2010)
Free Slot: For Round Robin
Open Choice: Apache Wedding Blessing
Open Choice: Astrology Sampler

I’m crazy, aren’t I?

So far, I’m doing very well on my stitching since I picked it back up in early October. I’ve made great progress on a few projects, I’ve finished a couple little projects, learned how to bead and how to do several specialty stitches… so yeah, I’m very pleased.

Of course, the big looming issue is that I do have quite a few projects that are in UFO land (Unfinished Object, for the non-stitchers who read). Many of them are large projects that will take me literally hundreds of hours to finish.

I’ve already become active again on the discussion boards I used to frequent a few years ago… one of them specifically for UFO’s has died off to almost no people posting. Other boards, though, are strong and active.

I’ve also joined a few SAL’s (Stitch-a-Longs) to push projects that I currently have along, and between that and the forums (and the blog here), I think I’ll have a good community to get stuff done.

So the SALs I’ve either joined or will shortly start stitching for are:

Christmas Design SAL being hosted by Yoyo.

For this one, I’m going to continue on my Cats on a Staircase stocking, which I really, REALLY want to get finished for Christmas next year – partially so I can justify starting some of my other holiday patterns.

Cross Stitch SAL on Facebook (not visible unless you’re logged in to Facebook)

This SAL has a monthly stitching weekend where people post their beginning and ending progress of whatever they feel like working on. They also encourage weekly update photos (although I haven’t been doing that). It’s a good random SAL that I can adapt to whichever project I’m focusing on in my current rotation. This month’s SAL is Dec. 26-31st. I guess they’re dragging it through the week due to the holidays.

The Totally Useless SAL hosted by Yoyo

About 6 weeks ago I posted a picture of a jar with a bunch of threads and DMC labels. That would be this – it’s just a keep jar of all of the stray threads as I work through projects. The funny thing is that in my house, it actually is a useful thing – as it forced me to get a container to toss threads in so the cats don’t get to them.

I’ve Started so I’ll Finish… Eventually

If there ever were a SAL for me to join, it’s this one. Basically a cheerleader-format community blog for those projects that have stalled. I’m in very good Teresa Wentzler-lover company over there. For now, I’ve selected Egyptian Sampler and Floral Bellpull as my two UFO projects to push through on this.

Teresa Wentzler SAL – Facebook

This one I’m running, although so far it’s just me and a friend of mine. It’s exactly what it says on the tin – pick a TW project, join up and stitch with us.

I’ve also placed my name in for a round robin for 2010. I haven’t decided which of my projects will go into that one yet, but I still have a few weeks to decide. Maybe I should make a poll on it and see what others think…

Onto non-stitching stuff… it was a fairly uneventful weekend. We had our first sticking snowfall – about an inch fell on the ground for us. It’s stayed cold, so it’s not going anywhere soon. I’ve heard rumors of both rain and snow for midweek, so that will be the deciding factor, I suppose.

I managed to get a good chunk of my holiday cards done yesterday. I still have cards to address, but I’d say all but the personal family and a few close friends’ cards are done and in the mail. I’ll get the rest done by Saturday. The most important thing to me was to make sure that the international cards went out early this week to give them time to arrive at their destinations.

We haven’t bought our tree yet – that’s in the plan for later this week. As always, we’ll get a real tree. The cats are going to eat it one way or the other, so I’d rather they nibble on a real one than a fake one. Plus they smell so nice in the house. So this weekend will be decorating time.

Erich just IMed me that there’s going to be a Doctor Who marathon on BBC America this Sunday virtually all afternoon – including the uncut versions of some of the episodes (hooray!). I’m already so happy with how BBCA has grabbed back control of Doctor Who airings here in the States. SciFi (or SyFy… whatever the hell it’s calling itself these days) was so awful to it with the delay in broadcasts. BBCA is broadcasting the final 10th Doctor 2-parters only one DAY after the airings in the UK later this month (as opposed to the 4 or more month delays on SciFi).

So I guess this Sunday will be “Whomas” at our house. Hooray!

Okay, back to work. More later!

over at Measi(dot)Net…

http://measi.net/measiblog/2009/12/04/planning-for-the-weekend/

I have a lot to get done this weekend. Some of it’s holiday related (getting a tree, putting lights up outside, cards), some of it’s belated autumn stuff (cleaning up the yard before they stop picking up yard waste for the year), and some of it’s stuff I’d planned to do over Thanksgiving weekend but just didn’t get done for one reason or the other (laundry). I’d also like to find some time to relax – play some WoW, maybe do some stitching.

Stitching is going great since I started. I have two slots left on my rotation once I finish my hours on Floral Bellpull tonight. I may actually finish my rotation before the end of 2009!

Here’s where Floral Bellpull started on November 18th:

I started my rotation during our Cape Cod weekend – but also wound up doing a whole lot of frogging (UGH). I’m not sure whether the problems were all present when I took this photo, but I know for certain that small batch of green stitches close to the middle were misplaced (they were a row too high), and caused a whole mess of alignment problems.

I didn’t feel like I was making a lot of progress on this piece, but looking at this photo versus what I have done now, I realize I really have done a nice amount… and all I’ve been doing are leaves. Lots and lots of green!

So tomorrow morning I’ll post the end-of-rotation photo for this piece before moving onto Apache Wedding Blessing, which was meant for Ivanna’s 1st anniversary. At this point, I’m figuring maybe I should plan for an early 10th anniversary present with the rate it’s stitching! I expect to make some good progress on it, though. I seem to be in a good stitching zone lately, so hopefully I can make a push on it.

South Station in Boston is prepping for the holidays this week. The Nutcracker banners are up in full force, as they are every year. This week the annual electric train display has been going up. In years past, it was done on a weekend so I never got to see the building of it. But this year I’ve been able to get the progress pics.

Here’s Tuesday’s shot as they set the supports up:

The black poles are supports for the plastic clear boards (think hockey rink glass) that will surround the display so people can get right up close to look at things.

Here’s yesterday’s shot, with the ground and the train tracks laid:

They were beginning to put the actual trains and the buildings on the display last night, so I imagine by tonight it will be completed. I’ll take another photo on my way out of town tonight.

Off to work – lots of typing to get done today.

This is not one of my cats. If it were, I don’t think I could survive the cuteness onslaught.

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

Edit: Yeah… apparently it is a broken tree this year. pooey.

Where the heck has this year gone?!?

Via Rotation Stitchers, here’s the monthly update on where I’m at and where I’m going…

My goals for November were…

1) Finish an ornament for the TW ornie exchange Yes!
2) Stitch 10 hours on Floral Bellpull Yes! Just squeaked this one in last night.
3) Stitch 10 hours on Apache Wedding Blessing Nope – didn’t get to it. That’s next on the rotation list.
4) Update my stitching website with photos/progress I’ve started compiling this stuff, but it’s not online yet… so a partial here.
5) Frame the Star Wars sampler for DH No – this will have to wait until after the holidays, as my LNS couldn’t take anymore projects for 2009.

For December, I’m hoping to…

1) Stitch 10 hours on Apache Wedding Blessing
2) Start Astrology Sampler
3) Prepare a new rotation round to start January 2010
4) Organize my stitching portion of my website.
5) Plan my long-term stitching goals for 2010

Overall, it was a very good stitching month. I finished the extra metallics Erich requested on the Star Wars sampler. I started and completed my ornament for the bulletin board exchanges (I’ll post a photo of that once I know my partner’s received). I managed to stitch a total of 81 hours this month.

So yeah – a very good month.