Archive for the Category ◊ Erich ◊

Author: Measi

• Monday, September 17th, 2012

Thank you everyone for the well-wishes in my last post. It’s definitely a wild ride so far, and while there’s some (huge) financial stress that’s looming over all of this, I’m slowly getting excited about it. I just wish I could stop the exaggerated-by-hormones worrying that keeps interfering.

The good news is that I’m mostly over the morning sickness. Other than a weird doomed-by-toothpaste incident this weekend, I’ve been almost entirely nausea free for about two weeks now. The biggest problem I’m having these days is fatigue. I’m getting more sleep than I can ever remember in my life, yet I feel like a walking zombie most of the time. Plus, with getting home around 7 pm every night, I basically eat dinner and then go crash out before 8:30, only to barely wake up with the alarm in the morning. SO I feel my entire life right now is work and sleep. I’m craving me-time, and it’s just not happening. I can’t even really get it on the train as I normally do because I can’t enjoy my morning coffee, so I’m not really getting that wake-up during the ride in.

Ah well, hopefully it’ll pass. While I know that I should enjoy and embrace the sleep while I can get it, I’d like to also be able to enjoy some of this time to do the things I know I won’t be able to for quite some time after the baby is born. (like, you know… STITCHING). I have reserved a full week off of vacation time in late October. The main goal that week is to clean out and pack up my office so it can be converted into the nursery. I also hope to have a big last hurrah with my stitching that week – starting with my final Stitcher’s Hideaway retreat for the foreseeable future, and then another full week off afterward. After that, I’ll basically limit myself to only a couple of projects to be held for when I can steal a few minutes here and there. Everything else will be carefully packed away for quite a while.

We have started to make some preparations toward the big event, although they’re disguised under “stuff we needed to do anyway.” The big purchase this weekend was a new dryer. We’d inherited one with the house, and we got a good seven years out of it before it completely broke about a month ago (whatever turns the drum is no longer attached at all). Due to the dryer being well over 20 years old, we decided it was better to just invest in a new, energy efficient one. We also inherited a much newer washer from the mom of a friend recently – so both appliances are being replaced. The washer we have still works, but it’s also pretty shaky. We’ll probably put the washer up on Craigslist for a “free for pickup – as is” sort of a deal. Whomever wants to get it fixed can have at it.

Erich’s taking a week off at the end of the month to do some projects around the house – giving it a good scrubbing since I’ve been so out of commission from fatigue, plus a couple of cleaning out crap we don’t need projects. There will likely be a LOT of books involved in this, as both of us celebrate being bookworms. I’m going to check our library’s donation guidelines, but I also may offer them up here on the blog with the “you just pay shipping” caveat.

On the downside of things, we’re looking at having to add a second car payment on top of the upcoming childcare expenses. Erich’s car is on its last legs. He brought it in for what was expected to be a simple fix, and there’s about $1,500 worth of issues now, plus the transmission’s getting spotty… again. The car has over 150,000 miles on it and he does a lot of driving for work, so he needs a reliable vehicle. He doesn’t want to drive mine since it’s a stick and he’s usually in Fall River, MA – which is hill-tastic. The last thing we need is two car payments at the same time, but somehow we’ll figure it out, I suppose. Lots of budgeting will be required, and maybe this time I’ll ask for a long-term favor/loan from family to possibly push mine closer to being paid off so we can relieve at least some of that.

If nothing else, at least I know there won’t be any stitching purchases to interfere with all of this. Between expecting to not have much time, plus having a ton of WIPs as it is, I can definitely put off ANY purchases for a few years at this point (even if I’m going to be craving new patterns).

So yeah – it’s been a bit of a whirlwind around here. I’m okay, but I’m panicking a little. I know in the end we’ll figure it all out, but right now that’s not helping me to stay calm and shut my doom-and-gloom mind up.

Hopefully the fatigue wears off so I can start feeling a little more sane – at least about the things I can control right now (like… my house).

And one of these days, I’ll post WIPocalypse and TUSAL pics. I just need to remember to keep my phone charged so I can take photos!

Category: Big Life Events, Erich, Family & Friends, Stitching | 13 Comments

Life moves pretty fast…

Author: Measi

• Tuesday, September 04th, 2012

As I briefly mentioned in the WIPocalypse check-in post, I spent the holiday weekend driving around southeastern Pennsylvania this weekend, visiting family members from both my mother’s and father’s side. I admit it was an exhausting trip – I put more than 600 miles on my car this weekend driving from Providence to Easton, then to Lebanon, then to Birdsboro, then back to Easton, and finally back home.

The funny thing is that a lot of the “heading to PA to see the fam…” trips are a flurry like this. But this one was particularly exciting… and exhausting, because this was one of those Big Life Event trips.

The news?

We’re pregnant!

As of today, I’m 11 weeks along… official due date is March 29, 2013.

We’ve moved (mostly) past the “wait… WHAT?!?” shock and are starting to get into the excited mode. I’m sure that will build next week once I’m in for my first ultrasound and we hear the baby’s heartbeat.

Family members were very excited (and surprised!). My dad’s leaning toward more of the shock and worry mode… but since he’s been an OB/GYN for going on 40 years, I can understand his worries. I’m 37 now, will be 38 when this baby’s born, and obese. I’m scared, too. But as I told him – I can only do the best that I can do… eat well, keep moving, and stay positive. Hopefully he’ll come around from the shock and begin to celebrate, too.

I’m feeling good now, but the past month has been a little rough. Until last week, the morning sickness was omnipresent with just a constant low-grade nausea all day. Thankfully I’ve only had a couple of days where I’ve actually gotten sick. I’ve been careful to avoid the foods that don’t sound appealing right now (including my sacred coffee). I’m making sure to go to bed when my body tells me to. I honestly don’t remember ever getting the sleep I’ve been getting these past few weeks.

And this week, I’m starting to feel like I have some more energy. This is a good thing. *crosses fingers*

But seriously… holy crap. I’m going to be a mom to something that doesn’t have paws and fur.

When the hell did I become a grownup?!?

Category: Big Life Events, Erich | 43 Comments

TUSAL strikes again, and I’m getting organized…

Author: Measi

• Thursday, July 26th, 2012

One of these months I may actually remember to post my TUSAL jar on time. I have a reminder on my phone and everything… *sigh* The jar’s filling up nicely this year – much faster than I remember in years past. :) The WIPocalypse is definitely working for me on the progress front, and although my number of finishes is still a little lower than I’d hoped by this point in the year, I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made – and the TUSAL jar’s just one of the things that shows what I’ve done!

July has been speeding by so quickly! Lots of things happening on the life front, and although a couple in particular have me a bit nervous, I really can’t say that any of the things happening are bad – in fact, at least a couple are promising to be quite good. They’re still in the works and in early stages, so I can’t jinx them. But with how stressed and freaked out I’ve been in recent “real life” posts, I did want to do a little update and say that yes, it’s getting better, at least in the short term. Of the things I can talk about safely at this point, here are the updates…

Work - Work has calmed down a little, and although it may just be a summer lull, I’m grateful for whatever breather I can get. Due to the nature of how I’m assigned in my administrative duties, there’s always going to be some nasty pulling between my managers for my time, and I understand that. It just got to the point of stupidity last month, and I think reality finally hit one of the worst culprits of stress for me when I flat out said I was beyond sick of it, burnt out and was starting plans to look elsewhere if the situation didn’t improve because it literally was starting to take a physical toll on my health. I was asked to give a rundown of my normal workload and how it broke down. Four pages single spaced later (with bullets), I think there was a bit of a wake-up call of why I’ve been so burnt out. So yeah, things have calmed down a little. I’m under no illusion that it may not stir back up again and spiral out of control, but at least now there’s a list that I can revise and use to remind folks.

Friendship Circles - A toxic person was finally completely shucked from Erich’s and my lives this month (I alluded to this person months ago in my recap of 2011, although I mentioned the person in the plural sense in error back then). If I can give one piece of advice to anyone – be incredibly careful who you open up to in moments of complete vulnerability. I made a grave mistake in judgment regarding who to speak with in confidence in January of 2011 – a mistake so blatant that I’d realized my error before 24 hours had passed. Said person abused my trust completely by twisting that vulnerability and using it with intention to further rip me to shreds, deny doing so, and then 18 months later, reinforced how grave an error my judgment was when the person decided spread that information – spoken to them in confidence regarding topics only relevant to Erich and my marriage - to 3rd parties who had no reason or purpose in knowing them. (and not only that, but one of the known 3rd parties is currently struggling with a sudden family loss, and should not have been burdened with this). Thankfully said 3rd parties came to Erich and I with everything, and the betrayer’s plan (whatever the hell it was) backfired.

I’m so relieved that Erich stands in agreement with me on this one – the person is gone and will never be welcomed back into our lives. It’s an annoying wound that can now heal (and the lesson has been learned).

Home – A few months ago, I decided it was long past time for me to start getting into some sort of a sanity routine when it comes to cleaning the house. I don’t need my house spotless by any means, but I needed some sort of a system so I could get stuff done, keep on top of it, and at least feel like I was keeping the house under control. Erich and I work on house upkeep a bit differently – his strength and interest (for lack of a better word) lies in projects. Mine is more on keeping up on the standard house maintenance stuff. In theory, that should work to our advantage, right? Well, it wasn’t. I needed a system.

Somewhere along a random conversation, the website Fly Lady was brought up. The site’s a little cheesy and overly happy-cheery for me, but the advice and planning are actually pretty damn practical. Rather than try to get everything done at once, it focuses on very small jobs (either by a number of objects or 15 minutes) and breaks the house down into manageable zones. Each week, one specific zone gets focused on – and there are small challenges given to catch up on other stuff, whether in that zone or out of it. I’ve adapted what appeals to me, and left some of the other things aside. So far, so good. The house is significantly less cluttered. The basics are getting done. Is it perfect? Heck no, but I’m feeling much better about it. And less stress regarding house cleaning means less Measi stress overall. I’ve been able to stitch for three weeks without ever feeling guilty about sitting down with a needle instead of doing housework. I honestly can’t recall that happening before.

So yeah – I think wrapping my brain around some of these issues and really pulling them under control has helped a lot. Lots of work to be done still – and I doubt it’s ever done (that’s life, right?). But I do feel much better and much more grounded – which will only help to allow me the energy to work on the other things that I now really need to focus on!

On to the stitching… I’m getting my rotation together for the Olympics starting tomorrow night. I’ll be stitching a Rotation Relay, which means I’ll stitch on each project for only 2 hours before moving to the next one. My personal goal is to get two hours on each of the projects I currently have in WIP/UFO status during the month of August. No finishing plans – I just want to make sure I’ve touched and worked every project I currently have. :) I’ll post another entry tonight with the “pre-Olympics” photos of everything. :)

Off to get work done! Happy Thursday…

Category: Big Life Events, Erich, Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, SALs/Challenges, Stitching Tags: olympics, tusal | 8 Comments

Deep breath after a long week

Author: Measi

• 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!

Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Stitching, WIP Progress Tags: chatelaine, crazy january, deep blue sea, floral bellpull, teresa wentzler, wipocalypse | 11 Comments

Long weekends are wonderful…

Author: Measi

• Tuesday, September 06th, 2011

I 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. :)

Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Family & Friends, Fandom, Geeky Stuff, Stitching, WIP Progress Tags: gaming, getting organized, little house needleworks, stash, weekend, ye olde coffee house | 2 Comments

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend Pt. 1

Author: Measi

• Sunday, July 17th, 2011

So far, it’s been a busy but fun weekend. Erich is working all weekend thanks to a huge personnel move to new quarters (hooray, OT!), so our schedules are a little weird.

Yesterday morning I had a great time stitching with the other members of the Rhode Island Stitchers group, including a couple of new women who I hope will return. The library is much quieter in the summer, but it’s been a boon to our group – we were sitting at only 4-6 members for quite a while, and the last three months have been great with upwards of 12-15 every time. It’s wonderful to see all of the different projects everyone’s working – we all have different interests and tastes, even though there’s also quite a bit of overlap.

Afterwards, I drove Matt to work at Battleground in Plainville. Since Erich and I had evening tickets for the final Harry Potter movie at Patriot’s Place in Foxboro, I decided to stay at the store and relax rather than drive back home. I’m about a week late in sending off Linda’s piece for the 2010 RR, and so I’m frantically trying to get the final stitches in before I mail off on Monday. Catherine, who I send to for this robin, has been out of state on vacation, and if I mail it to her on Monday, it should arrive shortly after she returns home. So really, it’s not a huge deal that I’m late, but it’s still annoying me.

Anyway, I got some good stitching in on the piece yesterday. I have perhaps another 100 stitches to go, and then I can package Linda’s up for the mail. Photos will come later today. :) I’m also going to get some work done on the 2011 round robin piece for Tali – which is Mirabilia’s Sleeping Beauty. That’s due to be mailed on Friday, and I think I’ll be in good shape to plunk my hours in before then.

Erich and I decided to treat ourselves to the fancy seats at the theater for Harry Potter. The Showcase cinema at Patriot Place has a Lux Level, which is a 21+ seating area with very comfy leather seats, in-seat dining and a full bar. The tickets themselves are a bit outrageous, but the food is priced reasonably – especially for a movie theater, and the drinks are good. The seats in particular are great – they’re wide (great for my plus-sized butt), with a small swing-arm table for your drinks and food, and there is a center elbow rest between each set of two seats that goes up, so Erich and I were able to cuddle on our own little loveseat in the theater. The only thing missing is an elevated foot rest.

The movie was… okay. I don’t know. My feelings on it are really mixed. I think if I’d never read the books, I’d be very pleased, but I admit to being disappointed. I don’t like all of the scene rewrites made for the movie (especially after part 1, where the movie did stick quite well to the book), and I felt the pace was really, really rushed for absolutely no reason. It’s the shortest Harry Potter movie, and frankly it shows – it felt flat and rushed and almost like a checklist of scenes with no depth in the vast majority of them. I haven’t liked Yates’ style since he took over the franchise – it’s really just a shame that he’s on record as stating he doesn’t like long movies – it’s pretty clear he’s more interested in time than quality. Huge plot holes everywhere, including items that WERE brought up in book one that just get erased in book 2. I expected to be emotional, as it’s a very emotional story. I was crying when I read the book. I just sat there in stunned silence during the latter half of the movie, and was honestly rather angry when I left, especially by the last ten minutes or so. Maybe that will change when I see parts 1 and 2 together – but yeah, I thought the final movie was such a huge letdown. It didn’t need to be – if it had actually stuck to the book, it would have been fantastic.

So today while Erich’s at work I’m doing some projects around the house. I’m about to get the first loads of laundry in. I have some cleaning to do, and then I’ll get to work on some stitching.

Hope you’re having a good weekend. Stay tuned for another entry this evening, including a new stitchy giveaway! :)

Category: Erich, Geeky Stuff, Stitching Tags: movies, ufo rr | One Comment

Catching up on things…

Author: Measi

• Wednesday, July 06th, 2011

Warning – 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!

Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Geeky Stuff, Life, Work, and all the Rest, News & Politics, Stitching Tags: giveaways, holidays, montana, ufo rr | Leave a Comment

Round Robin updates

Author: Measi

• 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:

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:

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!

Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Geeky Stuff, Stitching Tags: ufo rr, warhammer, weekend | 10 Comments

When it rains…

Author: Measi

• Thursday, March 17th, 2011

I’m finding myself, as many other bloggers did after 9-11, having difficulty trying to write about normal everyday things when the news coming out of Japan is so horrible. The situation is so incredibly unreal and gigantic that I cannot comprehend it enough to form any practical thoughts beyond horror and sadness. Anything I could say would sound so shallow and trite. It makes my life seem shallow and trite.

But that is what I have to write about. I have no first-hand knowledge of Japan, nor would I claim to. I just hope that the determination I’ve learned and read about the Japanese people shines through and gets them through this tragedy.

So forgive this entry, which probably sounds completely flippant in light of things…

The past week or so has been pretty wild in Measi land. I swear that St. Patrick’s Day/Evacuation Day is the only reason I know what day it is. To sum up my week:

Friday afternoon through Sunday: Attended PAX East in Boston with Erich (I’ll be putting my recap entry together this weekend. It definitely deserves its own entry)
Also during the weekend…
- Friday night – severely bruised my right pinky to the point that rubbing nail polish remover hurts like hell… over fake nails. I’m still worried I may lose my nail completely, but I have hope it’s going to heal.
- Saturday morning – got the other 9 nails done anyway. In a pretty green for the holiday.
- Also Saturday morning – monthly stitch-in with the Rhode Island Stitchers (in which I got virtually nothing done other than drool over the hooked rugs that the Little Rhody Thrummers group had set up in one of the other rooms)
Sunday night – start the post-con laundry catchup, and suddenly I hear Erich yelling “we got a problem!” from the basement. Our water heater and storage tank had ruptured, sending water everywhere across the floor. Thankfully we caught it early, and aside from possibly a couple things at the bottom of a single paper box that was in the water flow, I don’t think we’ve lost anything of value. Hopefully.
Monday – Erich stayed home, called the oil company, and they came out to replace the heater. So much for our tax refund. *groan*
Later in the day, he got slammed with a nasty stomach bug that we’re thinking was a case of food poisoning with how it came on. He couldn’t pick me up from the train, so I ended up on an adventure to get home from downtown Providence (finally ending in a taxi home because there was weird stuff happening at the bus depot)
Yesterday – Erich’s PT Cruiser starts really making a loud, grinding noise. Like… really loud. And today it’s worse. Bad enough that it’s now officially at rest until it goes to the shop. I’m thinking it’s something to do with the wheel bearings. Hopefully it’s not an expensive fix.
That, of course, means that we have three people who need to go to work in different places tomorrow – and we have one car. So it’ll be another fun trek through Massachusetts tomorrow morning – first to drop Matt off in Plainville, then Erich in Dorchester, and finally landing in downtown Boston.

So yeah – it’s been an expensive week and a crazy one. I seriously can’t wait for the weekend. I dream of sleeping with no alarm clock. It will be done on Sunday. Oh yes – it will.

On the plus side, today was absolutely gorgeous – the first real day of spring (yeah, yeah… Ostara’s a couple days away still, I know…). Everything just smelled good – nice and clean and earthy. I love it. My daffodils, hyacinths, and day lilies are all coming up through the ground. My mums are already making an effort, too, even though they won’t bloom until August. I’ve seen a few forsythia bushes in the city heat islands starting to bloom. During our drive through Milton, MA this morning, I noticed that the yards are starting to green up, too. I cannot wait for the first night we can keep the windows open.

Needless to say, it’s been quite the unusual week. I’ve managed to get several hours of stitching in, too – all on Annette’s Mira RR. My progress is coming along well. I’m hoping to have all of the cross stitches done so I can add kreinik and the beads starting late this weekend and have it ready to go within the week. I really don’t want to be stitching up to the last minute on it. I’ll post a pic once my square is done. I will say – I’m quite happy with my stitching so far.

I’ll end on a few randoms…

There’s still time to enter my Blogoversary giveaway, too! Just look at my sidebar for the link. :)

Also – Rhode Island Stitchers (my local stitch ‘n bitch group) is hosting a Spring Giveaway with some fun stash, if you want to try your chances!

Sue, the organizer of Stitcher’s Hideaway, posted her blog report on the Alumni Retreat (what happens in Mystic stays in Mystic…). I think the photo of me worshipping my Saturday morning coffee may be about as truthful a photo as you’ll ever see of me.

I’ll write more this weekend, hopefully over a calm cuppa on Sunday morning. :)

Category: Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Geeky Stuff, House, Life, Work, and all the Rest, News & Politics, Stitching Tags: mira rr, pax east, weekend, weirdness | 3 Comments

Getting connected

Author: Measi

• Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Erich and I bought new smartphones for Christmas, and I was thrilled to see a WordPress app. I doubt I’ll post constantly this way, but I wanted to try it out during my lunch break.

We received a wallop of heavy snow yesterday. The final totals were somewhere in the 15-20 inch range by the time it ended yesterday evening. I’ve heard a few places in Western Massachusetts received over two feet, but that’s not in the area where we generally travel. Usually we have a lot of drifting, especially in our backyard, but the snow this time around was far too heavy. The roads were plowed well for the most part. Our commute from Providence to Boston took its normal amount of time. I was amazed! Everything looked gorgeous too: the trees were flocked with tons of snow. Only the very top of the trees were bare – where the morning sun could reach. I took several photos along my commute this morning. The photo with this post was taken Rt. 28 north, heading into the Blue Hills between Randolph and Milton, Massachusetts. Erich was driving – can you tell I took this through a windshield? (I sure as heck can’t!) The rest of the photos will get uploaded later.

So much of this week’s attention was on the impending storm that my 36th birthday was just a little speedbump. I went to work (knowing that I would most likely be home Wed.) and afterward Erich picked me up at the office for dinner. We went to Addis Red Sea, a small Ethiopian restaurant in the South End. It’s not far from the little studio apartment (aka “The Beast”) I lived in when we started dating. It felt good to be back in the old neighborhood. Despite the rent costs and how tiny my place was, I loved living there. It’s such a cozy neighborhood with a very active social scene and all of the best of what I love about Boston (the cozy brownstones, brick lined streets, teeny tiny backstreets, etc.)

Mom is coming up this weekend for the postponed holiday celebration, and she said she’s making a cake for me. (Mmmm… mom cooking)

Back to work with me… stitching news will probably come sometime this weekend!

Category: Birthdays/Anniversaries, Celebrations & Holidays, Chrismahanyulkwanzakah, Erich, Family & Friends, New England Tags: snow, the beast | 3 Comments

Normal insanity

Author: Measi

• Saturday, December 11th, 2010

Has it seriously been almost a month since I updated?!? The time is flying! I suppose this will be another huge catch-up post, then.

Announcements first:

One of my friends and fellow local stitchers (HeraChronicles) is having a Christmas Giveaway on her blog. Go over HERE to check it out!

The Rhode Island Stitchers group now has a BLOG. :) We decided that while being on Facebook is great, we also want something a bit more flexible to share info about the group, what we’ve been doing, what we’re planning, and what we’ve discovered. Stop on by, say hi – and if you’re in the area, please stop in at one of our events. :)

Signups for a new round of the Unfinished Object (UFO) Round Robin is starting over on the yuku boards HERE. Right now the planned start date is in late February. So if you have a stalled project that you’d like to have help with (and in return, help others with theirs), pop on by. :)

Random life news:

Thanksgiving weekend was fun, albeit all over the place. We went to Erich’s dad’s house up in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving Day and had a nice, quiet day with them. Erich had to work Friday, so it was only a single-day visit. Friday evening we headed out to Brewster, Mass. on Cape Cod for our annual weekend with friends. This used to be a LAN party, but along the way a lot of us got married. We bought houses. Kids are starting to come into the picture. All of those events means that there isn’t the money to blow on upgrading computers anymore. So for the last three years, it’s been a bit more free-form. We do a full Thanksgiving dinner (I cook, because I do make the best turkey around), which is a welcome change from the weekend full of Bagel Bites, taquitos, and oreos of younger years. This year Erich ran a weekend-long session of his Saga-edition Star Wars d20 campaign. I take advantage of the weekend to catch up on some stitching amid the cooking. It was a good time, although next year I’ve asked that I’m not the sole cook. I’d like to enjoy a bit more of the weekend.

Work’s been pretty good. I had a great yearly review, and I’m finally settled into somewhat of a routine with my workload, even if it is still a ton of work. I’m crossing my fingers that the week between Christmas and New Years is quiet so I can do some serious file clean-out for storage and start the new year feeling like files are under control.

Erich’s also enjoying his new job so far, which is great. I think after being stuck on a phone all day at his last job, being able to get up and go around the building on tech requests is a welcome change. He definitely seems much happier these days (which also helps me feel better).

Colley’s slowly getting better after the bout of fatty liver disease/hepititis this autumn. He’s now finally off the meds, and his weight has stabilized at about 10 pounds – which is a full six pounds lighter than he was in July this year. He has to go back for a blood test to make sure his liver chemicals are back to normal, but overall he just has more energy and is more responsive than he was around Labor Day. I’m relieved because it was so serious. The only downside is now he’s having a heavy shed due to the stress and illness – he’s blown almost his entire undercoat, which makes him look even thinner and a bit scraggly. A new undercoat is growing in thankfully – so I’m not concerned. He’s going to be really cold this winter, though. Perhaps this will be the year he finally snuggles under the covers!

Stitching:

I’m in over my head. What else is new? :)

I’ve been doing an insane amount of stitching in the last month. Three ornament finishes (Yes! Three!), one UFO RR round done, and the other is almost ready to mail home. I still have a couple more ornaments to do for the holidays, but they’re not quite as stressful now.

So here are the ornaments: (click for a larger photo)

Left to Right, they are:

Teresa Wentzler Beginner Whitework Ornament. I made this for the annual Teresa Wentzler Christmas Ornament Exchange (TWCOE). It’s currently en-route to its recipient.
Square from Pocketful of Peppermints by Blue Ribbon Designs. This was for an exchange with the Rhode Island Stitchers group.
Frosty Blue by Blackberry Lane Designs (from the 2010 Just Cross Stitch Ornie issue). I made this for the Life’s a Stitch exchange. It’s also currently en-route to its recipient.

Frosty Blue was a case of not reading directions well – it was supposed to be stitched over one, and by instinct I started stitching over two. So what was originally to be a 3-inch ornie is now a 6-inch “oh, we have a big gap in the tree here, honey” ornament (blush). I’m happy with the results, even if it came out HUGE.

I’ll talk about UFO RR stitching in my next post. Quite a bit going on there!

Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

- Mel.

Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Chrismahanyulkwanzakah, Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Family & Friends, Finishes, Geeky Stuff, Life, Work, and all the Rest, New England, Stitching Tags: exchanges, ornaments, Round Robins | 3 Comments

Life in general catch up…

Author: Measi

• Monday, October 11th, 2010

It’s been a wild few weeks around here. Mostly good, I think. Although the impending holiday craziness is already starting to creep in, and that has me worried.

The really really good news: Both Erich and Matt are working. Erich has found an IT job with a metro-Boston hospital, and so far is enjoying it. He likes the atmosphere and the people he works with. The commute isn’t great, but that’s fairly normal for us. I’m now commuting most of the way with him, then jumping the subway to finish my commute. I’m not all that sure if I want to do that every day – I honestly miss the peace of the commuter rail (and the personal space), but I’ll split the time with him. It’s a long bitch of a commute alone every day, and unlike me – he has to drive his. We have some friends who currently work there, albeit in a different department, and they seem happy with it. It does really appear to be a good fit for him – so I’m hoping he enjoys it and is able to stay there for quite a while. IT work can be so iffy and out of a person’s control, though.

Matt is working for the gaming store Erich and I have frequented for years. They recently opened up a second location in Plainville, Mass. which is much, much closer to home. We’ve already been there a few times (a couple intentionally to harass the roommate, as is required). It’s a great space – nice and open and bright. I confess that I may like it more than the original. The pizza place next door is fantastic, too.

Both of them seem much happier lately – I think getting out and going to work and not feeling rejected from all of the job application denials is a huge help. I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to shouldering a good chunk of the weekend chore load again, but at the same time – I was annoyed that it really wasn’t getting done how I prefer it to be done. So… *shrug*

The good news: I’m finding a rhythm in my job, and I’m starting to really enjoy the work. I got a good yearly review, which makes me feel much better about things. The difficult part is that due to how crazy it’s been this year, I’m still finding it difficult to catch up on the volume. I’m slowly slogging through backlog, but way WAY too slow for my liking. So I convinced one of the folks I report to that, especially with the normal end-of-year pace of our industry, that I’d really like to borrow a company laptop so I can do some catch-up work on the busy work that’s behind, but honestly could be done quickly if I’m not disturbed for a while. I mean heck, if I’m on the commuter rail – I have nearly three hours of time that I could use to catch up on these little projects (updating status charts and such) that don’t require access to the databases and such.

The bad news: Colley’s been ill. Really ill. He lost a third of his bodyweight sometime between July 4th and the middle of September. He’s been diagnosed with fatty liver disease and a form of hepatitis that essentially translates to “infection and inflammation” of the liver. If left untreated, it’s fatal. Basically, at some point he stopped eating for some reason – and he wasn’t eating long enough that his liver started trying to burn fat to replace the protein he wasn’t taking in. Only problem – cats don’t process fat very well at all, and the fat was building up in his liver. Essentially, his body started eating itself to try to produce the energy he needed, but there wasn’t the protein his obligate carnivore body needed… and that caused the weight loss.

So after a round of blood tests and an ultrasound, he got the fatty liver diagnosis. Medications have included an appetite increaser pill (he’s now off those), two separate antibiotics (liquids), and a bile producer (suspension liquid) to start cleaning out his liver. He was given a few cans of a high protein cat food, although the vet really just encouraged us to get him to eat any protein he’d eat – the protein intake was the important thing. The solution to the problem is to make his liver kick-start into recognizing and burning protein again. And thankfully it seems to be working. He’s not thrilled with the meds at all, but we’re managing to get most of them down him. He’s up about 11 ounces since diagnosis, which is good – and he’s now eating without any medical intervention. So I think we’re now out of the woods with him. The only problem is that for the first two weeks, by necessity, he was being fed on demand – and it’s starting to become a habit. Sooo… yeah. We’ll have to break that out of him eventually and start toning down the extra cans. For now, I just want to know that he’s better. Once he’s finally off the antibiotics, we’ll start cutting back the volume of food a bit. I’m thinking that whatever caused his loss of appetite may have been due to something with the kibble – he used to be an exclusively kibble-interest cat. Now he refuses to touch it, which I find interesting.

Stitcher’s Hideaway is a week away now, and I can’t wait to head to Mystic. Four days of work are between me and my vacation week. And oh, I need it.

There’s some other possible big news on the horizon, but not confirmed yet. I’ll get to that when I can.

Category: Catalanche!, Erich, Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest | Leave a Comment

Garden Sampler Update

Author: Measi

• Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Today was a very stitch-filled day, completely focused on Garden Sampler. I made great progress and I think that I might be able to get this completed tomorrow – or at the very latest on Monday. I have a little text left, a bird in the lower corner, and then some fill-in flowers, and I’m done. No backstitching on this one.

I started work on it this morning at about 10 am at our second Rhode Island Stitchers get-together at the library. Managed to get some decent work on it today while listening to a couple of new women who stopped by who really, really needed to talk. Topics were difficult and the timing wasn’t good for the topics for others in attendance, unfortunately, but still… we let them talk. It was a bit depressing, however – not the silly, cheery stitching group ideal.

Still – it’s what happens when groups are open to the public. And it was pretty clear both women who came were in some pretty desperate need to have someone to talk to. *shrug* As long as it’s not the permanent state of mind, it’s fine. I do feel sorry for these women – they both seemed so incredibly lonely.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet. Erich was running a Star Wars d20 game in the garage, and I spent most of the day stitching and watching my “true crime” TV. I admit the combination of cross-stitch (particularly flowery samplers) and watching Gangland episodes is a rather weird combination, but meh… I’m fascinated by these shows from a psychology standpoint, I suppose.

So it was a good day. A little odd, I suppose – but good. Now I’m off to bed to prep for probably the chores day of my vacation.

Category: Erich, Family & Friends, Stitching, WIP Progress Tags: garden sampler | One Comment

One of the biggest YAY’s I’ve ever YAY’ed!!!

Author: Measi

• Friday, July 23rd, 2010

It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! ZOMG IT’S FINALLY GONE!

As of 3:30 this afternoon, the god-awful permanent retainer that had been cemented to my six front bottom teeth is finally GONE. 18 god-awful years of that thing sitting slightly crooked on the back of my teeth, just barely visible above one tooth, constantly sitting against my tongue, constantly feeling gross despite carefully brushing it…

IT HAS FINALLY BEEN REMOVED.

Here’s the thing – I didn’t know it was going to be put in there in the first place. Literally NO ONE explained this was going to happen. I went in for what I thought was a checkup on my removable retainer about a week or so after my braces came off (and to check up on the site), and suddenly I’m fitted with this god-awful thing. And the kicker – NO ONE WOULD TELL ME WHY IT WAS IN THERE. No one. I asked my orthodontist. I’ve asked three dentists – not a single person would give me an answer besides “well, it’s there for a reason.”

I never understood what that reason was – it was on the six teeth that had never needed to move. Those six teeth were the ones that were actually STRAIGHT to begin with when I was a kid!

Today Erich and I had mutual appointments to get fillings done. He went first, and when he was in the chair, he asked the dentist if she could consider taking the thing out because it annoyed me all the time. When I got into the chair, she did the filling, and then she mentions it – asks me if I want it out. Oh HELL yes. And a half-hour later, it was reality.

For the first time since I was 12 years old, I have no wires in my mouth. It feels awesome and amazing and incredibly weird. I keep running my tongue over my teeth where the wire should be (because I was constantly worrying at the thing for 18 fucking years) – and there’s nothing there.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and why yes, my husband has HUGE points to cash in with me now at any time…)

Category: Big Life Events, Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Life, Work, and all the Rest Tags: childhood, health | 2 Comments

Yay! Small finish!

Author: Measi

• Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

I finished a cute little piece on the train Tuesday morning – Finish #4 for me this year… hooray! It’s a freebie from an issue of Cross Stitch Crazy from a couple years ago (I left the mag at home today, since I’m now done with the stitching… can’t recall the issue number). Anyway, I’ll be finishing this into an ornament sometime in the next few days. It won’t be a particularly elegant finish. I’m still a beginner at them and feel very clumsy with finishing work. But hey, it’ll be mine.

It’s yet another reason why I’m very excited for the Stitchers Hideaway in October. According to the current game plan, there will be some finishing work taught – which I desperately need. I think I may plan on holding off on any more ornament finishing work until after the convention. I’ll work on stitching up any ornaments I want to use for the TWCOE exchange this year. Late October will just be spent finishing, then. J

For the rest of this week, I’m in a bit of limbo as far as stitching goes. This week’s been extremely busy at work with a lot of mid-year meetings for claims status and such, so I’ve been working almost exclusively in Excel to try to get all of the necessary reports ready to go. It’s going well, and for the first week since I started the new job, I’m feeling like I’ve got my admin rhythm back. Hopefully it continues and I’ll be able to chip away at some of the backlogged work when quite a few people are on vacation next week.

On the non-stitching front, Erich had an interview last week that seemed to go pretty well. He told me a couple days ago that while yes, being unemployed is great in the sense that he can get some of those house projects done, he’s also ready to get back to work. He hasn’t been out too long – about 10 weeks. But with the mortgage to pay, I’m glad he’s itching to get a move-on. I’ve been very stressed about it all.

Anyway… stitching… I’ve put perhaps 2 hours of work into Garden Sampler during evening commutes this week.. My original goal was to finish it this month – and I may focus on doing that rather than rotating smaller train-ride projects as I’d originally planned to do. I definitely could get this project finished. It’s a more primitive piece with whole stitches only and perhaps twenty total backstitches, which is great.

I sadly will have to restart my Mira Spring Queen. I was having some trouble keeping good tension on my scroll bars last round with her, and so I used my Qsnap clamps to hold the fabric tighter. Well… then work got all insane, and stupid me forgot to remove the clamps. Some sort of chemical reaction happened, and now I have very blatant blocky stripes across the top half of the fabric. If it were on the bottom half, I probably wouldn’t have been so concerned – the huge skirt would have filled up most of the issue. BUT… since it’s on the top, it won’t be able to be hidden by stitches and creative framing. Grrr… so the Mira of Doom continues. In a way, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think the fabric color may have been a bad choice because the skirt was blending into the fabric a bit too much. So I’ll find a safe white or ecru fabric and restart.

There’s a new UFO Round Robin that may kick off in autumn over on the RR boards. I’m mulling participating in it, although Erich’s job situation will play heavily into that. I’m unsure what I’ll send out – I promised I wouldn’t send out a Teresa Wentzler piece if I were in it (since that’s what I’ve sent so far!) Right now I’m mulling over Walk in the Woods, which was one of Erich’s mom’s pieces that I inherited, or perhaps Autumn Queen, so I can have both queens ready to frame at the roughly the same time.

Plans, plans… plans…

Category: Erich, Exchanges & Robins, Finishes, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Stitching, WIP Progress Tags: finishes, ornaments, spring queen | Leave a Comment

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