Archive for the Category ◊ Celebrations & Holidays ◊

Deep breath after a long week
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• Sunday, January 15th, 2012

For some reason, life has been absolutely non-stop since about mid-November.  I’m thankful I haven’t had any five-day work weeks since Christmas week because honestly, I desperately need the longer weekends right now purely for recovery.

This week was no different in the insanity, although it took a different twist.  Erich’s job was transferred to a new hospital as of this past Monday, so both of our commute schedules have changed again.  In his case, it’s much, MUCH better.  He’s gone from a 1 hour and 20 minute drive to Dorchester, MA to approximately 20 minutes over to Fall River, MA – much, much more tolerable.

In my case, it’s a mixed bag.  Technically it’s a bit of a shorter commute for me, but unlike with driving, I now have a very firm schedule as to when I need to leave the house because I’m back on the commuter train.  For me it’s about 90 minutes each way to and from Boston.  The train is much easier than driving, and once I get used to the train schedule, I’ll be back stitching on my commutes.  This week, though, was a bit painful with the adjustment.  Hopefully my brain will make the switch soon.

Wednesday was my birthday.  Erich and I went out to dinner after work and had a relaxing night.  I took Thursday off – I had a scheduled dentist appointment, and decided I’d just take the entire day so I could have some “me” time – I got my nails done and went milling about Thistle Needleworks over in Glastonbury, Connecticut for a couple hours.  I didn’t buy much, but did pick up a couple of the colors I still needed for Deep Blue Sea.  That evening,  Erich and I gathered with friends for a laid-back dinner at one of the centralized hangouts we like to go to.

Yesterday morning I went to my monthly stitchy gathering at the Warwick Public Library – the Rhode Island stitchers gather there every month on the second Saturday morning.  It was a quiet month – only four of us this time.

And then last night was the Patriots game – I was relieved they won.  Hopefully that will quiet down the Tebow mania for a while!

+++++++++++++

I’ve been doing well on stitching this weekend – I’ve become a bit burnt out on new starts, so I’m putting my Crazy January on pause.  My current projects are just screaming a bit too loudly for attention!  I’ve been focusing on Deep Blue Sea so far this weekend, correcting my miscounts from my January 1st progress and pushing forward on the next two colors.  Once that’s done (hopefully this afternoon), I’ll be picking up Floral Bellpull, since it’s the Wentzler I want to complete this year above all others.

Remember that WIPocalypse signups end tonight at midnight my time – so if you’re reading and waffling, jump in and join us!

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Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Stitching, WIP Progress   Tags: , , , , ,  | 11 Comments
Oldest UFO – December Update
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• Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Progress as of 12-20-11Thanks to a long delay on Amtrak last week, I made a good amount of progress on my oldest UFO – Cats on a Staircase.  Everything in blue and the beginning of that cat tail with the hanging thread was completed this month.  It’s probably my largest block of solid progress on the piece in, well, years.  Next month I’ll finish the cat that’s attached to said tail and hopefully fill in the gaps between the blue and the browns, most of which will be white on white stitching.

It was good to do some stitching on this again – it really hadn’t seen my needle for about a year and a half.  It’s one of the pieces I really hope to finish in 2012.

*****

That said – bring 2012 on.  2011 was quite possibly the hardest year of my life emotionally, and I will not be sorry to see this year end.  Both personally and professionally, this year has been challenging and exhausting.  The personal issues are ones a bit *too* personal to discuss online, but they were serious ones – ones I knew I had to deal with head on and essentially alone.  A few friends do know about everything, but after a couple of missteps in confiding to friends who I thought would be supportive as the situation unfolded, I decided instead to shut down and just work through everything on my own.

The good thing on the personal front is that I know things are healing and getting better, even though from time to time, I’ll get a wash of overwhelming emotion and just need to acknowledge it, release it, and continue on.  The professional issues sorted themselves out, for the most part, as the year progressed and I’m hoping that they’ll continue toease with some recent news at work.  The problem is that I got smacked with both major problems within a two week span at the beginning of the year, and I truly spent the entire year in survival mode for the most part as I just tried to keep myself righted (and sane).

But yeah – I don’t want to ever relive a year like 2011.  And I don’t wish anything similar on anyone.

I’ve also learned to put on a VERY convincing “things are fine” face, when no… they haven’t been.  But they’re getting better.

And ultimately, I think that’s all that matters.

 

Happy New Year everyone – may the next one bring all of us better times.

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, SALs/Challenges, Stitching, WIP Progress   Tags: , ,  | 25 Comments
And my lists for next year are finally finalized…
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• Friday, December 30th, 2011

I took over our bed last night with stash – spread everywhere.  WIPs, unopened kits, new charts I want to start.  Our king sized bed was PILED.  All so I could sort through everything, see what I needed to purchase to get started or to fix my WIPs that had been raided for bobbins for Mirabilia RRs this past year, and get myself in some sort of headspace that said yes, I’m ready for stitching in 2012.

My original list of projects needed to be reconsidered, though.  I’m really itching to start a couple of the charts I’ve acquired (*cough* Cirque des Cercles *cough*), but I have so many projects that are partially or mostly kitted up that I do want to stitch, so I should take advantage of them, save the money, and stitch what I have first.  Thanks to my fabric of the month stashing all year via Picture This Plus, I have a bunch of lovely neutrals to start projects on, and won’t have to buy too much fabric (which was the stalling factor in the first place).

So here are my master lists for 2012.  The Crazy January one won’t be changed.  WIPocalypse will morph as the year goes on.

Crazy January 2012

 (I’m in two different groups, but will be using the same pieces for both SALs)

Jan 1 – Deep Blue Sea – Mystery XV (Chatelaine)
Jan 2 – I Love New England (Sampler Needlework)
Jan 3 – Take a Stitch Tuesday (year long freestyle sampler SAL via Pin Tangles)
Jan 4 – Cowboy Cats (Dimensions)
Jan 5 – Nantucket Sampler (Medeiros Needlecraft)
Jan 6 – Hearts of America: Montana (Victoria Sampler)
Jan 7 – Everyone Brings Joy (Waxing Moon)
Jan 8 – Inn at Fox River Mill (Little House Needleworks)
Jan 9 – Dance of the Summer Solstice (Mari MacDonald/Whispered by the Wind)
Jan 10 - Pocketful of Peppermint (Blue Ribbon Designs)
Jan 11 – Leaping Cat (La-D-Da)
Jan 12 – Welsh Bookmark (Heritage Textiles)
Jan 13 – Mirror, Mirror (Abby Lane Designs)
Jan 14 – Stars of Winter (Charland Designs)
Jan 15 – Dragonflies, Ladybugs and Bees (M Designs)

 

WIPocalypse

(Yeah… I have a lot going on.  And I’m aware I have a Wentzler problem!)

First, I’m adding everything above.  Then the rest of the list:

Cats on a Staircase (Kooler/Bucilla) – also part of The Oldest UFO SAL
Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus)
Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Design)
Walk in the Woods (Cricket Collection)
2011 Mirabilia RR – finish my square & the piece
Astrology Sampler (Witches Stitches)
Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof)
Book of Ink Circles, aka BoInk (Ink Circles)
Muse of the Midnight Sun (Heaven and Earth Designs)
Four Seasons of Mystic (Jeannette Douglas)
Floral Bellpull (Teresa Wentzler)
Egyptian Sampler (Teresa Wentzler)
Legends of the Dragons (Teresa Wentzler, Dragon Dreams, Black Swan)
Noah’s Ark (Teresa Wentzler)
Fantasy Triptych (Teresa Wentzler)
Millennium (Teresa Wentzler)
Magical Night (Teresa Wentzler)
Snowball Fight (Dragon Dreams)
Witches Wheel (Glendon Place)
Elemental Dragons (Dragon Dreams)
Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe (Little House Needleworks)
2007 Floral RR  - finish my square and the piece
Peace Angel (Lavender & Lace)
Castle 2.0 (Teresa Wentzler) – doubtful I’ll do anything with this in 2012

It’s a lot, but I’m very hopeful I’ll make some great progress!  *crossing fingers*

***

I have several new participants to add to the WIPocalypse participant list tonight after work, as well as a couple of blog address updates that have been sent to me.  A few people have been worried about the signups closing tomorrow, but that’s not the case.  As of right now, I’m planning on closing signups for the WIPocalypse at the end of the day on January 15th.  Anyone who finds us after that is most welcome to “stitch in spirit” with us through the year, post their progress, etc, but the actual participant list is rapidly approaching 300 people now, and I think after 4+ months of open signups and mentions all over the blogosphere (thank you all!!!), those who are actively blogging will have found us.

After all,  I need to focus on my stitching, too!  :)

I’m pretty certain I’ll be making another post sometime tomorrow – but just in case I get too busy, I wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy and happy New Year!

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Chrismahanyulkwanzakah, SALs/Challenges, Stitching   Tags: ,  | 21 Comments
Yuletide Blessings
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• Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Erich and I are packing up this  morning to head to my mom’s for the weekend.  While I celebrate Yule religiously, my celebrations are really based on family traditions more than anything… so I’ll be celebrating Yule via Christmas.  It’s honestly all the connection to family in my opinion, and differences in faith should never come between family members.

My mom’s side of the family is Polish and does a full Wigilia feast for Christmas Eve.  I’ll see about taking some photos quietly through the evening because it really IS a wonderful tradition.

I may not have good internet access while I’m gone, however, so all updates to the WIPocalypse participant lists will have to wait until my return (unless I get really, really lucky).  I’ll still be reachable by email thanks to my phone.

So in case I don’t have the chance to say it – I hope that all of my readers have a wonderful holiday, regardless of what you believe and how you celebrate, and that it’s full of love and laughter in the company of family and friends.

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Chrismahanyulkwanzakah   Tags: ,  | 7 Comments
Ooh, exchanges!
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• Friday, December 02nd, 2011

2011-12-02_13-09-32_553A few weeks ago, Rahenna asked on her blog if anyone would be interested in doing an ornament exchange for the holidays. She and I share some similar stitching tastes, and I knew I’d adore anything she came up with – so I jumped right in. I had two different ornaments that I immediately had in mind to stitch for her. The one that screamed loudest was oddly NOT my initial choice, but wound up being the far better one. I’m quite pleased with how mine turned out, and I’ll share it as soon as she confirms receiving it.

Rahenna was Miss Speedy Stitcher because she was prepping to write in NaNoWriMo this year (which I get, as I attempted it for five years… it takes over your life for a month). I was much slower – unexpectedly so –  as my volume at work was so insane the last week of October and first week of November that I didn’t dig out from the pile of early month projects until literally the day before Thanksgiving. My evenings all month were essentially spent staring exhaustedly at a wall because it’s all I was capable of doing.

Meanwhile, Rahenna’s package arrived. I decided that I would not open it until I completed and mailed to her. I needed to be good. It taunted me in all of its padded manilla glory.

Once my ornament was sent off this past Monday, I was quick to get to that envelope to see what was inside.

And promptly created a catalanche in my house when I opened her envelope the other night and gave out a squeal. Cats. Running. Everywhere.

2011-12-02_13-09-51_740Rahenna chose to stitch one of the Byzantine ornaments designed by Teresa Wentzler. These have been among my “must do” list for a while. In fact, I had them originally on my own to-do list for 2011, but the round robins nixed that idea pretty quickly.

Isn’t it gorgeous?  She finished it as a slightly padded flat envelope, backed with purple fabric that matches the deepest purple you see in the photo.   Now I really want to get the Yule tree up so I have somewhere proper to display it!

The squeal, I must confess, was equally for Cirque des Cercles.  I’ve coveted this pattern for a while now, but absolutely could not justify buying it with all of the projects I have in progress right now.

Rahenna evilly apologized for being an enabler in a note attached to it.  Somehow I don’t think she’s quite genuine with that apology… which I completely understand.  :)

So yeah… this may be putting some changes into that Crazy January list already.  (Somehow I knew I would be…)

Also enclosed were two cute holiday patterns by designers I’m not familiar with – December Greeting by Creative Moments and Country Santa by Angel Stitchin.  I’ll definitely be adding those to the late 2011 stitching once I’m back in the holiday mood – both look like great, quicker pieces that I can finish and display.

So Rahenna – thank you, m’dear!  All are quite excitedly received!

 

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Category: Chrismahanyulkwanzakah, Exchanges & Robins, Stitching  | 4 Comments
A Graphics Request
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• Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Erich and I are back from the weekend at Cape Cod.  It was a fun time with friends.  My Thanksgiving turkey was once again a success and we all ate ourselves into a near coma.  The guys played many games of Risk, we all fawned over Jack (the toddler of the hosts), and I managed to find some stitching time.  It was gorgeous all weekend – low 60s!  In New England!  In late November!  (in case you’re not familiar with my area of the world, it’s normally just above freezing this time of year, often with snow flurries or freezing rain).

I even found a new stitchy shop on the Cape to head to when I’m searching for specialty fibers – Town-Ho Needleworks in Brewster, MA.  Always nice to find another supplier “just in case.”  Cape Cod isn’t too bad of a drive (I think this shop is roughly the same distance as Bush Mountain from me).  In the summer, though, I wouldn’t dare try it – traffic on the Cape gets a bit… insane… on the weekends.

Good thing I found it – I was missing two Kreinik colors to finish off my Mira RR square.  Which no, is not done.  But I made progress and will definitely be ready to send it by the deadline.

Rather than take US 6 off the Cape today, we decided to enjoy the nice weather and drove the entire distance of 6A until we arrived at the bridge, wandering through the little towns.  It was a wonderful Sunday drive.  We saw tons of antique shops, Inns, B&Bs, and gorgeous little cottages.  Cape Cod is adorable to the point of overkill.  It really is.

*****

I’ve updated the Wipocalypse signups – we’re now over 180 members!  Can you believe it?  I’m shocked. I really am.

In the near future I’ll be popping by everyone’s blog to remind them of the start of the SAL (some people signed up at the end of August!), make sure I have everyone on my blog reading list, and post a link to the FAQ Page.  Since the first people signed up, I’ve added the FAQ page, added the discussion forum, and hope to have one additional element to add for folks:  a sidebar linky button.

This is where I need some help, however, because I’m design-challenged.  If there’s anyone out there who wouldn’t mind putting some sort of a stitchy-themed button together, that would be awesome.  The only thing I can offer is thank you credit, but any help you can provide would be awesome.  I’d like to have a standard sized button (I think they’re roughly 80×20 pixels?) and also a 100×100 pixel icon square if possible.

Any help that can be provided would be awesome!  Send anything (along with your link and how I should credit you) to measiwitch@gmail.com.

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, New England, Travels   Tags:  | 6 Comments
November TUSAL
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• Friday, November 25th, 2011

TUSAL Jar as of 11-25-11I hope that everyone in the U.S. had a lovely Thanksgiving, and that everyone else has had a good week. TGIF!

I’m doing a very quick entry because I’m running late this evening, but I didn’t want to forget my Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long post for the month. :) (Daffycat has opened next year’s signups, by the way. Jump over here and check it out!)

My jar is officially filled to the lip now, albeit with a lot of loft. This month I focused mainly on ornaments. I’ve also done a little stitching on the final round of the Mirabilia round robin (which I should wrap up this weekend).

I’ve finished my ornament for my personal exchange for Rahenna just a short time ago. I’ll post a photo of it once she receives it. I’ve been good and have avoided opening up my package from her… my willpower is about to give in!

I’m off to finish packing. This weekend is an annual trip to Cape Cod with my group of friends. We do Thanksgiving dinner, play lots of board games, drink too much, and just enjoy a couple days in a timeshare condo away from the craziness back home. I’m just waiting for our roommate Matt to get home so he can help me lift the turkey (25 pounds!!) and the brine pot into the car, and then off I go.

See you on Sunday – hopefully with a round robin finish!

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Family & Friends, SALs/Challenges, Travels   Tags: , ,  | 6 Comments
It’s that time of year again…
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• Monday, November 21st, 2011

It’s Thanksgiving week, which means that I start getting into holiday mode.  One of my favorite things is mailing out cards for the holidays.  I don’t get to send mail as often as I used to when I was avidly penpalling, but I still love the little excitement of getting something non-billish in the mail.  Pretty cards around the holidays to add a little extra cheer are all the better.

I love to send them, I love to receive them.  :)  I don’t mind sending internationally, either.

So if you’re looking for a little extra holiday cheer in the mailbox, let me know your address via my little card form here (this is just to keep things together for when I sit down to write them out).  No one but me will see this list, and the contents of the spreadsheet get deleted in January once everything’s done and mail.

Let me know your address, and I’ll mail one your way.  :)

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Chrismahanyulkwanzakah   Tags: ,  | 4 Comments
During this week half a lifetime ago…
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• Wednesday, September 07th, 2011

I boarded on a plane with my dad, watched the familiar landscapes of Montana disappear behind me with a couple tears in my eyes, and headed off to a city over 2,000 miles to the east that I’d never visited.  I’m sure he probably noticed me, even though I kept my eyes turned to the window out of hopes he wouldn’t see.

About eight hours later, we landed at an airport conveniently named the same as the one I’d left, from and to a city with the same first letter.

Billings Logan to Boston Logan.

I was scared out of my effing mind, not to mention excited and relieved that finally – finally - this day that had been looming over me for months had arrived.  I was going to college – sight unseen to Boston University -completely on a whim because it was the one that had accepted me for my intended journalism major.  I figured that if I hated it in Boston so much, I could always head home and apply to Montana State or University of Montana, for which my grades and college prep exams more than qualified me.  I literally had no idea about the university at all, aside from the photos in the literature I’d been sent.  This was, of course, right before the internet took off, so it was truly a leap of faith.

Kenmore Square - sometime in the 1990s

Kenmore as it looked when I was in college...

I actually do remember that first night a bit.  Dad and I took a taxi from the airport straight to Kenmore Square and stayed at the Howard Johnson hotel on Comm Ave, which has since become a BU dorm.  We wandered Kenmore a bit that night, which made me fairly nervous.  The gritty, dark square that was Kenmore in 1993 was far different than it is now.  At that point, I was convinced that I’d never feel safe walking there alone (one of many things thankfully proven false).   I gaped stupidly up at the Citgo sign that glowed, with several missing bands of neon, above our heads.  At that point, I honestly didn’t recognize anything about Boston sports aside from knowing the team names and the logos.  My dad, on the other hand, made comments about how neat it was to see the Citgo sign in person – which meant that wait – were those the light towers of Fenway just over there?  

(Like I said… sight unseen.  My dad had never been to Boston either).

Little did I realize how much that sign would come to symbolize home.  Things were okay when the Citgo sign was on.  Lots of things were okay when I’d see the increasingly familiar sights – the little things, in this order on the taxi ride, that told me that I was coming home once again.  Not to Billings, but to Boston:

  • The odd eight lanes to two lanes merge at the airport to enter the tunnel.
  • The elevated highway – now torn down and pushed underground as part of the Big Dig – that made it appear like you were flying through downtown
  • The Reverse Curve sign on Storrow Drive that had been spray-painted to say “Reverse the Curse”
  • The Hatch Shell sitting quiet on the Esplanade, waiting for the explosion of patriotism that surrounds it on July 4th every year
  • The weather indicator lights on the old John Hancock tower.  Steady blue, clear view. Flashing blue, clouds are due. Steady red, rain ahead. Flashing red, snow instead.  (or, in summer… flashing red, Sox game cancelled!)
  • A sharp curve to enter Kenmore Square
  • And the Citgo sign, looming proudly as the taxi would enter BU’s campus.

 

Needless to say, I fell in love with Boston.  So much so that eighteen years later, I’m still treading that city every weekday as I head to work. It’s changed so much since I’ve moved to New England, yet it’s still in many ways the same old town.

The next day I moved into my dorm room in Warren Towers – a huge fork-shaped building that stuffed 1,500 students (then) into its single and double rooms in three identical towers of 500 students each.  My dad decided to stay out of the way of my roommate and me, so he went wandering.

REALLY wandering.  Like half the city wandering.

And later, he took my roommate and I wandering to where he’d gone earlier.  In one afternoon he’d strolled from campus down to Newbury Street, through Copley Square, down Boylston Street (“there’s a new mall that’s opening up in a few weeks called the Prudential Center, Melissa… looks like it will be a nice one…”) and around the Cheri Theater to Huntington Avenue , through the Christian Science Center (“you need to see that pool – it makes people look like they’re walking on water”), to Symphony Hall, then past it and through the Fenway, around Fenway Park, and back into Kenmore.

A town he’d never seen before.  Flipping EVERYWHERE in an afternoon. And mind you, my father’s sense of direction is absolute rubbish… even in Billings.  I have NO CLUE how he didn’t manage to get so lost he needed a cab to get back.  Who knows – maybe he did and just didn’t tell me!

In any case, a couple days later, he gave me a huge hug and a kiss out in front of 700 Comm Ave, got in a taxi, and drove off, past that Citgo sign and back to the airport.

Leaving me alone in Boston for the first time.

It’s insane that that plane trip was half a lifetime ago.

It’s also insane how much of my life as it stands now was determined by that leap, and how much of who I am wouldn’t exist.

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Category: Big Life Events, Birthdays/Anniversaries, Life, Work, and all the Rest, New England   Tags: , ,  | 6 Comments
Long weekends are wonderful…
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• Tuesday, September 06th, 2011

Ye Olde Coffee Shop as of 9-5-11I hope everyone in the USA had a lovely Labor Day weekend with fun activities (or productive ones, if you did some catch up work).  Mine was good – some relaxing, some actual project work.  I managed to do a nice amount of stitching thanks to episodes of Torchwood, Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica.  Ye Olde Coffee House by Little House Needleworks got a much added boost, as you can see in the photo.  I also put a few hours into a piece I’m stitching as a gift, but can’t post photos of it until it’s finished and sent off.

I’m only working two days this week – I have Thursday, Friday, and next Monday as vacation days, so while I didn’t get the usual house chores for the weekend done, I’ll do them later this week.

I did, however, get a lot of progress done on a massive project – organizing my stash.  I last did this back in late 2010 – if you’re reading my blog on its actual page, you might notice that “stash” tab at the top of the page.  Yeah… that’s about when I last looked at the list.  Unfortunately, that was done shortly after I returned from my first Stitchers Hideaway retreat last October.  Since then, I went to another Stitchers Hideaway retreat, the Celebrations of Needlework show in Nashua, and a new LNS (Bush Mountain Stitchery) opened up a mere 2 hours from my house.

My stash intake has been a bit out of control this year – and I jokingly blame Lisa – who has been my partner in crime for all of these adventures.  Not really, of course.  What’s actually happened is that over the past year, I’ve had one of those lucky times in my life where my knowledge of my own hobby expanded greatly.  I’ve been stitching for many, many years (25-ish), but my knowledge of different designers and fabrics and fibers really only started to expand about six years ago, and common in-person connection with other stitchers honestly didn’t start much before last September, when the Rhode Island Stitchers group first started getting together.  Once those pieces started falling into place, I began learning from other people rather than just the self-taught things that I’d picked up along the way.  I’m no longer just admiring things over the internet but completely intimidated by them – I’m finally feeling some confidence that I could actually delve into those crazy projects by Heaven and Earth Designs or Chatelaine.

It’s glorious, really… but also a bit dangerous on the wallet!

With Lisa’s help, I sorted through 99% of my charts, and she was kind enogh to organize them in piles by designer before putting them back in the magazine holders from IKEA that I keep them in.  I’d already made a good dent in my magazines several months ago, and I also did an inventory of my spare specialty flosses.  I’m not going to bother with DMC or Sullivans floss – Lisa had a good point when she reminded me how often that inventory’s going to change, and it’s too much of a headache.

Among my stash I did find duplicates of a couple patterns (apparently I really, really like them) – so two items are already reserved for the WIPocalypse stash box!

Erich and I got together with the guys on Monday and played a session of his long-standing (and long on hold) Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I have to admit, I just don’t have the mental stamina for it anymore.  Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice with the mental focus required for gaming for many hours on end, but after three hours or so, my brain just starts to wander.  I seem to always leave the games these days feeling guilty because I’m just not able to “stay on task” such as it is, despite the fact that for quite a bit of the time, there’s simply not much for me to do.  And yesterday was one of those days where I really should have paid attention better – the module Erich incorporated into his campaign was a bit overpowered for our group.  We struggled through it with a lot of trouble.

Ah well… it’s only a game, right?

But still – a good weekend, with decent weather that defied the rainy forecast.  The rain arrived this morning rather assertively, and it’s been cool and damp all day and will likely stay that way until sometime Thursday.  It’s actually cool enough that we almost – almost – have all of the windows closed.

Tonight I’m already in bed before 11 pm, which is highly unusual for me.  I had a cup of Sleepytime tea about an hour ago, hoping I can catch a bit more sleep than last night because I was dragging all day.  Hopefully tomorrow won’t be too insane and I can enjoy my second long weekend.  :)

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Family & Friends, Fandom, Geeky Stuff, Stitching, WIP Progress   Tags: , , , , ,  | 2 Comments
Catching up on things…
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• Wednesday, July 06th, 2011

Colley & Fizz in a lazy afternoon napWarning – really, really long rambly entry ahead…

I seriously can’t believe the year is half over already. Granted – 2011 has been a very bad one for me so far, and part of me is wishing it would move its butt out of the way so I can get to (hopefully) a brighter 2012, but at the same time, I feel like time is flying past me in a crazy, out-of-control sort of way that leaves me feeling like I need to get my own butt in gear and catch up.

I hope my fellow Americans had a relaxing, fun 4th of July – and that Canadian readers had a fun Canada Day. Ours was filled with activities over the weekend, but the 4th was intentionally quiet for us. Erich’s going to be working the majority of July on big projects for his company, and so his fun and relaxation was really the important thing, since he’s not going to have full weekends for many weeks.

We went to an impromptu BBQ on Saturday afternoon hosted by our friends Marc and Erin (and their adorable baby boy, Jack). It was a small affair with only six of us – honestly a perfect size. I brought my mom’s BBQ Beanpot recipe that is stupid easy and so, so good. I should post that tonight, actually…

On Sunday Erich and Matt went off to play a Star Wars d20 game with the guys (translation for the non-geek readers: think Dungeons & Dragons, but with the Star Wars universe as the setting), which means I had the house to myself for many, many hours. I spent virtually the entire day in my stitching chair working on round robin stitching and watching episodes of the X-Files that I hadn’t seen in years.

By Monday I’d developed a weird cough that had me feeling a bit off. We spent most of the day relaxing in the house due to the heat, nibbling on burgers and dogs all day, playing games and watching episodes of Dexter. The cats, as you can see in the photo at the top of this entry, had wonderfully lazy afternoons cuddling up together in our sunroom. At night our neighborhood exploded with fireworks, as they’re now legal here in Rhode Island, and we watched our next door neighbor’s rather impressive display. The bugs finally drove us inside. The night ended with a slight scramble when I heard a HUGE buzzing near our family room light. I thought it might be one of those big bumblebees that I refer to as “drunken bumbles” because they seem to crash into everything. Anyway… the bug was bouncing furiously around the light, then careened under the dining room table, where I managed to get to it before Noby and Gus did anything to it. It turned out to be a Junebug. It was promptly scooped up and dumped outside.

My cough then decided it really wanted to make me miserable by preventing me from getting any form of sleep that night, so yesterday’s return to work was impressively zombified. I couldn’t tell you what I actually did yesterday, but apparently I did do quite a bit because I have several “finished” checkmarks in my planner list. All I know is that I crawled into bed promptly upon arriving home last night in the 7 pm hour, napped fitfully until after midnight, when Erich found some nighttime cold meds, was up from about 12:30-2 am, took the nighttime meds once my previous round had “expired,” and those finally conked me out for the rest of the night.

I’m feeling a bit better today, although I’m a bit out of it from the weird sleep schedule last night. The cough is still here, although not as bad as yesterday. I have no other symptoms, which is very, very weird. Allergies, perhaps? Or maybe a cold that’s so light that I don’t notice it over my normal allergies? Who knows. Whatever it is, it’s annoying.

In other news, I keep watching what’s happening at home and groaning. Montana is not having a good year. In early June, they had massive storms that flooded virtually every river in the state. The larger problem was that it had been so cold this spring that most of the snowpack was still there – and now it’s melting off, keeping the floodwaters active. And then on Friday, an oil pipeline near the refinery in Laurel (about 16 miles up river from my hometown of Billings) ruptured, sending oil down the Yellowstone River for upwards of – at last check – 125 miles. They’re now testing soil in North Dakota, fearing that the oil could reach where the Yellowstone meets the Missouri. Seriously, it’s like they can’t win recently. Last year, a tornado took out METRA (aka Rimrock Auto Park Arena, as I think it’s lamely named now), which is the state’s largest indoor arena. And now all of this. It’s just a horrid turn of events in a state that was already poorer than most of the country. *sigh*

Anyway. God, this is becoming a depressing entry, isn’t it? It’s not intentional – blame it on my weird cough. Onward to happier things!

It’s July, which means that there are some lovely stitchers doing midsummer giveaways.

Parsley has a fabulous Christmas in July giveaway full of ornament stitching goodness. :)

Debbie is giving away an amazing die-cutter machine that’s great for quilters and crafty finishers alike. I haven’t joined this one because I know I don’t have the time for another hobby, but still – this machine looks awesome.

I’m itching to do a new giveaway soon. Maybe I’ll put something together on my next wandering up to the stitchy store. :)

If you haven’t yet, please pop back two entries and give me opinions on what I should stitch for the next square in the Mirabilia round robin! :)

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Geeky Stuff, Life, Work, and all the Rest, News & Politics, Stitching   Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Round Robin updates
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• Sunday, April 24th, 2011

I hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a lovely holiday.  Erich and I had a quiet Sunday, mostly spent at home.  The weather was gorgeous for most of the day.  More on what we did late in the afternoon in a bit though…

I updated my status on Rachel’s round robin earlier this week.  Kris’ piece for the 2011 edition of the UFO round robin is now ready to travel again.  :)  This piece is quite busy, but it has adorable colors in it – and was a perfect springtime stitch.  It’s the Spring Sampler from Kooler Design studios.  When Kris sent it, she’d just started it:

And here’s how it’s being sent to Blu tomorrow:

Kris' piece as sending 4-24-11

I got to cross stitch a peep!  The little spots are jelly beans.  Once there’s some backstitching in here, it’s really going pop.  :)

My next project is the Mirabilia RR, which I have a comfortable start on.  Hopefully I’ll have it done by the weekend, although this is my busiest week of the year at work, so I may not get it done until next week.  Regardless – it’s my go-everywhere piece until it’s done!

So early this afternoon, I got our laundry done and finished my hours on Kris’ piece.  Erich was playing Dead Space 2 on the Xbox.  I swear half of my stitching is done to the sounds of violence in some form.  It’s really odd.  But anyway… it was absolutely gorgeous outside, and I told Erich that as soon as the laundry was done, I really wanted to go somewhere so we could enjoy the day a bit (mostly so we didn’t spend the entire weekend in front of the TV).  Saturday had been a wash-out, and I definitely had a case of cabin fever.

We headed out around 3 to head up to Battleground.  Matt was working today, and he had told us he was pretty sure it would be dead due to the holiday.  We figured we’d take advantage of the quiet time to geek with him.  I’ve been itching to do some Warhammer painting, but it’s not really something I can do easily here at home – so it’s really a Battleground-specific project.

We headed north, and pop! goes Erich’s left front tire about 4 miles from home in Pawtucket.  Now… this was not unexpected.  When Erich had the massive car repair last month, we were told that there was a bubble on his tire and that the rim looked cracked.  Thankfully it happened in such a way that Erich was able to maintain control easily and pull over – and into a relatively good location to swap out the tire.  Donut was switched out on the axle, and we continued on our way.  I’m very happy that this didn’t happen during a commute or during bad weather, though!

We got up to Battleground, and found only my car in the parking lot (Matt’s been driving it lately).  For the next hour or so, the three of us were the only ones at the store.  All of the doors were open, giving the place a nice, fresh breeze.  It was great. I got to work painting.  Erich decided he wasn’t in the mood and curled up with a good game of Civilization 4.

About three hours later, I’d put some serious work into my figurines, and managed to finish my first two:

My first two finishes - 4/24/11

Erich put these two together and primed them, but I did all of the painting, very slowly by hand.  For perspective, the taller one is probably about 3 inches tall.  The smaller one is, obviously, half that.  So the details on these things are insanely tiny.  My painting skill is not great, but I’d say they’re pretty good for my first model finishes ever! (now I just have about 50 more to do…)

I know they’re not exactly the girliest thing out there.  I do have a batch of completely over the top girly ones in store – intentionally so to annoy all of the guys.

For those who aren’t familiar with these figurines, they’re Orks (yes… spelled that way) from a tabletop game called Warhammer 40K.  It’s a futuristic war strategy game where players battle each other with squads of different races of figures. Different types of figures are worth different point totals and have different abilities.  It’s quite complex.  I haven’t played yet beyond an intro game, but I wanted to try my hand at creating the figures.  :)

So overall, a very productive crafty weekend here!

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Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Geeky Stuff, Stitching   Tags: , ,  | 10 Comments
Blogoversary Giveaway winner!
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• Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

I am amazed and thrilled at all of the interest in my giveaway – thank you ALL for your entries, for your promotions on your own blogs, and for helping me make this a fun little blog project.  I look forward to reading new blogs that I discovered through your posts, and I hope you’ll stick around.  This was fun – and I’m already thinking about the next giveaway to host sometime in the summer!

And the winner is…

Line S.

Congrats, Line – I’ll be dropping you an email later today after work, so keep an eye out!

Here’s a sneak peek on the folk egg being stitched!

 

Folk Egg from Prairie Schooler as of 3-29-11

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Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Celebrations & Holidays, Stitching, WIP Progress   Tags: , ,  | 4 Comments
Ten Years On…
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• Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Ten years ago, I started this blog honestly as a combination of boredom project and the realization that I cannot keep a handwritten journal.  My brain simply goes too fast for my slow handwriting crawl, and I’d get irritated and stop writing – sometimes for months at a time.  I figured I’d give blogging a try and settled into a then quite comfortable easy-going journal site called Diary-X.

I honestly didn’t know what would come of the blog. I mean, hell – what interesting stuff do I have to write about?  My life certainly didn’t qualify as interesting.  I was a mid-20s single woman living in Boston with few friends, no love interest, an entirely geeky personality that didn’t generally bode well to social acceptance (especially as a girl) and was quite honestly still in a rather bad way with a nasty looming relationship that had really screwed me up.  I figured it would probably drift off as many little whims do with the web, and I’d lose interest and move on.

And from time to time, I have done that a bit – there are months that I haven’t written as much, or that I just have gone into inane meme copy hell just to keep posting.  But that’s the thing – I kept posting.  Much to my surprise, I enjoyed posting.  I loved meeting new people that had the same interests as I did.  I felt part of a social circle again, even when I felt isolated and alone offline.  I learned from others.  Somehow I helped others – including some insane good things that I still am amazed that happened.   I found love, I experienced some nasty rejection, I switched jobs, friendships were made, broken, or strengthened, and I continued to grow.

For example – consider that I started this blog before I met my husband.  Seriously – my entire relationship, right back to our first date, is blended in the pages of this blog.  (the early entries I’m still importing from Diaryland bit by bit, because they predate entry tags).  That alone is crazy to me.  It’s amazing and wonderful to me – and it’s a complete accident.  I just happened to capture it.  This blog predates five of six cats, the house, my current job, my first car, my first trip overseas, experiencing death in my family, and of course -getting married.

It’s quite a list of things in ten years, and that doesn’t even count the silly day to day stuff I’m usually writing about.

I do read some of my old entries from time to time.  I recognize the person in there, even if she’s now years detached from the person I am today.  I laugh at the silliness and smile at the good memories.  Some of those old pains are still quite raw.  Others have healed.  Some I don’t get why they were a big deal in the first place.  It really is my weird, crazy life in a nutshell – and I’m realizing that it doesn’t matter if I have anything important or profound to say.  I just need to write – and it’s as much for me to connect to myself as it is to connect to other people.

So thank you everyone who reads and shares this journey with me – I love connecting with each of you, and I hope it will continue for another ten, evolving into whatever the Internet becomes by that time.  :)

Best,

Melissa

 

 

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Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Blog Organization, Celebrations & Holidays  | One Comment
The Great Blogoversary Giveaway
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• Wednesday, March 02nd, 2011

This March marks a surprising anniversary for Measi’s Musings – my tenth anniversary of blogging.  Seriously - ten years of Ramblings of a Geeky Witch (which morphed into a more generic Measi’s Musings a few years ago).  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging this long, nor how different a person I am now from back then.

I began my blog on March 29, 2001 – mostly out of boredom and for a little place to write down thoughts and nonsense while keeping some basic HTML skills up to date.  My blog started on Diary X, then morphed to LiveJournal, then to its current home on my own domain via Blogger, and finally via WordPress.  Although I haven’t merged all of the original Diary-X entries into WordPress yet, they do exist on a very messy little archive over on Diaryland.  Some day – I’ll get them all here.

So – in honor of my blog’s entry into double-digit years, I’m holding a stitchy giveaway. Here are the items (except two, mentioned below) that that will be in the giveaway basket:

2011-03-23_20-53-19_513

  • Birthday Bellpull Samplers #1: Sept, Oct, Nov & Dec (Victoria Sampler) – comes with charts and threadpacks for all four samplers.
  • An ornament – stitched by me – from the Prairie Schooler’s new Folk Eggs collection (not pictured above).
  • A one year gift subscription to either Just Cross Stitch or Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine (winner’s choice) – not pictured above
  • A random pull of six springy color skeins from The Gentle Art sampler threads – included are Daffodil, Lambswool, Huckleberry, Cameo Pink, Grape Leaf, and Lavender Potpourri
  • Hatch into Springtime chart, part of the Lil’ Britters line from Brittercup Designs
  • Little Bo Peep chart, part of the Country Cottage Kids line from Country Cottage Needleworks

To have your name added to the drawing:

  • Comment on this post with an email address where I can contact you in case you’re the winner.
  • For a second entry, link to this giveaway post on your own blog & include your blog URL in your comment.

I will be taking entries until Saturday, March 26th at 11:59 U.S. Eastern Time.  The winner’s name will be drawn on the 27th and announced as part of my blogoversary post.

Good luck!

 

- Measi

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Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Blog Organization, Celebrations & Holidays   Tags: , ,  | 54 Comments
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