Tag-Archive for ◊ home is where the cat is ◊

Hooray! I’ve finished one of my UFOs!
Author: Measi
• Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

I finished Home is Where the Cat Is… FINALLY. I honestly don’t know how long this has been a UFO piece. I started it ages ago, and then it was packed away by accident in a box during one of my moves. It’s safe to say it’s at least 9 years old because I *know* I had it in progress when I still lived in my little Boston studio apartment.

The sad thing? it’s a teeny piece. It just got stuck in limbo:

Home is Where the Cat is - Finished on 17 March 2010

Cute, eh? I’m not sure where I’ll be putting it yet. Maybe our bedroom once we repaint. It’s silly and bedroom-ish.

I mailed off my Hush Hush piece to Carolyn last night from Boston. Hopefully it arrives soon. I’ve seen a photo of the one I’ll be receiving, and I love it. :) Quite excited!

I’m also putting Legends of the Dragons away for this rotation round… ran out of steam, but between some slight frogging and some fill-in work, I put in about 6 hours on him, so I’m pleased.

Legends of the Dragons - as of 17 March 2010

Next projects up are Spirit Dragon, which I’ll be finishing up probably tomorrow or Friday during my commute, and Cats on a Staircase, which is part of the Christmas UFO SAL that I haven’t participated in yet this year. Cats will probably take me through the weekend so I can get a good push on it.

Happy St. Patrick’s day, all!

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Category: Exchanges & Robins, Finishes, Stitching  | Tags: , , ,  | One Comment
March Madness
Author: Measi
• Saturday, March 13th, 2010

It’s been an amazingly strange week in the Krueger household – quite a bit focused on jobs. Erich’s job is changing to something where he’ll have a lot more responsibility (and minions… minions are good). He’s going to be the only lvl 2 tech support person for a product line, essentially handing all of the complex items on software that the lvl 1 folks can’t handle. He may have to do some traveling soon to help train/support some of the folks he’ll be working with.

I’ve applied for a lateral transfer at my company into another administrative job that’s opening up which would give ME a lot more responsibility and challenge. I had a good interview for it, I’m psyched about the possibilities, and I’m very hopeful, but of course “it ain’t over ’till it’s over” and I see an official offer letter on company letterhead.

*crosses fingers*

And Matt seems to be working through some of his depression and is coming around.

So a good week. I’d be lying if I denied my head was spinning a bit!

Aside from work-related things, it’s been a good week socially. On Thursday, Erich and I attended Bye Bye Birdie at Fontbonne Academy . Our best man, Tone, directs two productions per school year there, and we attend primarily to support him. The school has a good drama department, though – and it seems like the plays are generally well attended. It was an adorable production – the kids looked like they were having a blast. Lots of talent on that stage (and I’m a bit envious of all of the poodle skirts, which I think is one of those things I’ll never quite grow out of).

We’ve put out invites for a big St. Patrick’s dinner at our house next weekend. A few replies so far. I make a very good corned beef dinner (it takes Polish boiling methods to perfect on Irish ones *grin*). I’ll probably head out to grab the beef this weekend since it’s going to be cheap.

And tomorrow morning we’ll do our brunch ‘n bowl with Tone, his wife Robin, his brother Smallz, and whoever else shows up. I’m planning on checking out the pro shop at the alley for bowling shoes – we’re going often enough that it’s worth buying my own. Nothing too crazy, but I can justify $30-$40 for a pair that won’t be worn by strangers. I’m tempted to buy rental-style shoes, but there are a couple other styles that I really like, too.

It’s supposed to be a miserably rainy weekend, so other than bowling, I’m planning on spending a good portion of it stitching. My Hush Hush piece for LifesAStitch is due to be done this weekend. All of my stitches are done. I’ve backed it with some of the leftover evenweave, but it still felt a bit thin as a “mug rug”, so I’m adding an additional backing fabric. I just need to do some running stitches on it, so it won’t take long to attach.

Other than that, I’m not quite sure what I want to do. I have two small pieces that are very close to being done – Spirit Dragon only needs backstitching, although I think it’s probably about 2-3 hours worth based on my stitching speed. Home is Where the Cat Is has probably about the same amount. It would be nice to have three finishes in a weekend, but… I also wonder whether I should bring those small pieces on the train with me this week and just work on a larger piece that doesn’t transport as well.

I’m not sure. But I’ll definitely get a good amount of stitching done. I have two DVDs of West Wing to watch, a DVD and an episode of DS9 to watch, and probably a couple shows on the DVR as well. :)

It’s been an oddly great week.

No wonder my head is spinning!

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Category: Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Stitching  | Tags: , ,  | Leave a Comment
Life, the Universe, and Everything
Author: Measi
• Wednesday, March 03rd, 2010

Where the HECK did February go?!?

(oh yeah… I spent them in front of the TV watching the Olympics and stitching…)

Ready for a long post? :) I haven’t done one of these in a LONG time. It feels good, actually.

I started this post on March 2nd, by the way, but saved it before heading to lunch and forgot about it.  Since I’m still not as familiar with how WordPress will post things, I’m curious whether it will show up before or after the photo I just posted.

Anyway…

Crazy, crazy month. It flew by entirely too fast. BUT – it was productive, in many ways. I’ll talk about stitching in a sec – but I’ll start with the general life stuff.

Erich and I have *gasp* finally gone bowling. It’s a bit of an in-joke, really. I mean, we’ve been together for nine years this May, and we’d never gone bowling. We’d talked about it – and we live within a mile of three separate bowling alleys (although one’s duck pin only, so that may not count), but we’d never gone.

Our best man and his wife thankfully changed that when they invited us to the Sunday morning bowling hangout they’re doing up in Brockton. So… 9:30 on Sunday morning, we’re now hanging out with them at the lanes, bowling a few games since there’s a special to rent lanes by the hour and bowl as many games as you can. Cheap morning – gets us up and moving (and getting some slight exercise, at least!)

We’ve also decided to start doing one other night of bowling per week down by us – the lane in Cranston just down Rt. 1 from us does dollar per game nights on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after 8 p.m., which works perfectly for us. So tonight we’ll go after we eat dinner at home and bowl 4 or 5 games.

I’m still playing pretty badly – the last time I’d been bowling was at the end of high school, and 17 years and about 140 pounds more weight (yeah… seriously *hangs head in shame) have completely thrown off my approach in every way. I’m rebuilding it from basics – right now focusing on the swing itself to get my accuracy, and then I’ll add steps into it. Right now if I do a step-approach, my swing gets thrown off because of the width of my hip, and I swing my arm diagonally across my body just as I do while walking. If I do a stand and swing, I have far better accuracy.

The plan next paycheck is to buy our own bowling shoes – just a few times at the lanes will pay them off (and they’ll be ours, not the worn out rental ones that god knows who has used). I’m seriously debating buying a pair of tri-color bowling shoes… because they’re bowling shoes - it seems like it’s a requirement! I’ve honestly always thought the rental shoes at the lanes were cute in a ugly rebellious sort of way. :)

So… hooray for hobbies as a couple!

Other stuff… Doctor Who is back on air in the UK on Easter weekend, staring here in the States on Apr. 17th. So my weekends will now be full of geekery again. I’m nervous but excited about the new Doctor. I will miss Tennant a lot in the role, but hopefully Matt Smith is fantastic, too. Steven Moffat is amazing, so if nothing else – I know I’ll enjoy the storylines.

Work’s been busy – quite a bit of overtime lately. Some parts of it are still annoying as hell, but meh, that’s work.  I have a job and for the most part, I enjoy it.  I work for a good company.  The things I do in my job are enjoyable, and most of the people I work with are, too.

Oh… and since I’m in New England, I saw no snow in February. No. Really. All of that crap that dumped on the Mid-Atlantic? Never saw it. We had a decent amount of rain, but that’s all. The first storm that gave Washington almost 30 inches or whatever? The weather forecasters up here actually apologized on air for their bad forecasts because they wound up being absolute duds. Everyone called off school and declared snow emergencies, and we barely got anything that day. Boston even offered to reimburse fines and towing fees for cars that had parked on the street – THAT was how badly off they were!

Stitching Stuff

I’ll get my final Stitching Olympics photos up late this week once I know what our weekend schedule is. The final tally, however – 10 projects worked. I managed to put stitches into all but two of my UFO projects (which I define as anything that has sat untouched for 6 months or more), plus a couple WIPs, plus started a piece for an exchange for the Life’s A Stitch board called “Hush Hush.” That’s due to be mailed out on the 15th, so I’ll be focusing on that piece until it’s done and ready to go.

Two projects are now within a couple hours of finishing – Home is Where the Cat Is (finally!) and Elemental Dragon:Spirit. Both essentially have maybe 90 minutes to two hours of backstitching each. They’re both on my radar for March.

So I’m very pleased… even if my goal list for February went extremely askew:

For February, my goals were

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once  No.  I was a few projects short.  But I DID get through 10 projects last month, so I’m very happy with the progress I made.
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is  So close – I just ran out of time at the end of the month.  I’m 4 hours away from finishing, max.
3) Finish Spirit  All but the backstitching.  So I’m about 90 minuts max on this one from finishing.
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website  One of these months, maybe I’ll get to this.  But it hasn’t happened for 3 now.  So… yeah.  I’ll just focus on some stitching and call a mulligan on this.
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March  Yep.
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month.  OMG I finished one of my goals this month!

Seriously though, I’m pleased with what I did this month, even if it didn’t match the goals.

For March, I want to…

1) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
2) Finish Spirit
3) Get my Hush Hush exchange out on time
4) Get my UFO RR mailing out on time
5) Rotate through my new rotation once by the end of March

Rotation for this month will be:

Hush Hush project (finish and mail by 3/15)
Cats on a Staircase (for Yoyo’s Christmas SAL)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (will finish)
Egyptian Sampler
Apache Wedding Blessing
Home is Where the Cat is (will finish)
Legends of the Dragons (for the TW board SAL)
UFO Round Robin – Round #1

Ah yes… the UFO Round Robin. I’m seriously excited. Our first mailing date is on March 15th, and it’s looking like it’ll be a fantastic robin. Lots of diverse projects that are going around. We’re stitching as one group of eight, and the robin will take nearly a year before it’s over.

And I’m modding this shindig. Heh. I never thought experience with modding friendship book and slam swaps would come in handy!

I’m sending my Magical Night piece, which I adopted from (I believe) Annette back in 2005 or 2006. Due to the proximity to my wedding, it didn’t get the work hours I’d hoped it would. And since I have a glut of Teresa Wentzler pieces (being insane as I am), I decided sending one of them around was probably the best choice. This one’s probably the least far along – so sending it for a robin will give it a very nice push.

Here’s where it currently stands:
Magical Night - 13 Feb 2010

Like I said… it’s not far along. But next year, hopefully it will return with a nice amount of forward progress!

Until next time…

- Mel.

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Category: Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Rotations & Goals, Stitching  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Project Planning for 2010
Author: Measi
• Wednesday, December 09th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m crazy, aren’t I?

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Category: Blog Organization, Rotations & Goals, Stitching  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 2 Comments
Stitching Progress
Author: Measi
• Friday, September 15th, 2006

Apache Wedding Blessing
Originally uploaded by measi.

My computer is finally home from the repair shop! Now I’m able to upload all of my photos to Flickr to show that I am, in fact, making some good progress on my pieces. If you want to see the larger versions, just head over there via the photo to the right. :)

The piece I’ve been focusing on is Apache Wedding Blessing. It’s stitching quite easily, although I was slowed down last month by having to stitch a large area of light yellow on white – it’s rather hard on the eyes! But it’s coming along very well, and I’m still shooting to have it done for the holidays so I can present it to Ivanna. Now that the weather is getting colder, I’ll definitely be in a mood to snuggle on the couch and stitch.

During my morning and evening commutes, I’ve been working on Home is Where the Cat Is. It’s a small piece that I’ve had for… ages. I bought it in either 1999 or 2000 and somehow never got around to stitching it. In the last couple months, I’ve made great progress. It’s about 85% complete now:

Last weekend, I started preparing for the OTHER round robin I’ll be participating in over the next year: a floral-themed round robin with six stitchers. Stitchers can select any designer. The tricky thing for me was figuring out my layout for each person’s block. I first tried a very basic square-on-square format, but I didn’t care for the result. Then I started sketching. I finally came up with a loosely “flower” shaped layout with five blocks for petals, and the center block for myself. You can see my rough sketch of the layout at my Flickr account.

I decided to stitch the Morning Glory block from Teresa Wentzler’s Floral Bellpull as my center block. It conveniently is the 60×60 stitches I decided upon for each stitcher’s area. In about six hours, I’ve made some great progress on the block:

And finally, Jenni’s piece for the UFO round robin showed up yesterday! Her piece is called “The Mighty Samurai.” Here’s how it looks as received yesterday:

Lots of stitching to do! :)


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Broken thoughts on a Saturday…
Author: Measi
• Saturday, July 16th, 2005

I finished Half-Blood Prince yesterday afternoon. Around 4 hours, which makes sense since OOtP took me a bit less than six. I enjoyed it. Still digesting it, since there are the plot turns like all of the other books that need to be thought about. I’ll probably start putting some comments behind a spoiler filter on LiveJournal tomorrow (and can email discussions for anyone who isn’t on LJ but wants my views…)

But without giving anything away– I really did enjoy it, and so far, I like how the story is progressing.

(I can say safely, at least!)

+ + + + + + +

I did a bit of work last night on the revamp of my journal. Blogger’s tags are a bit confusing to me, and my knowledge of CSS is at a “if I cut and paste this, it seems to work…” level, so it’s going slowly. By no means is it finished, but here’s my working copy at the moment. I have a lot of .div tags to add in there, as I improve the text colors and such.

Hopefully by next Friday, it’ll be ready to go live.

+ + + + + + +

We have a D&D game starting around noon today. Erich’s running his campaign. So while I’m not busy in combat, I have plenty of backstitching to do on The Castle. Once I get the backstitching rotation done (probably today… since the game will go for at least 10 hours), I’ll start my new stitching rotation…

1) Egyptian Sampler (TW)
2) Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla OOP)
3) New start- Astrology Sampler (Witches Stitches)
4) The Castle
5) Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus)
6) Home is Where the Cat Is (Leisure Arts)
7) New Start- Elemental Dragons (Dragon Dreams)
*) Backstitching: The Castle (floating slot for whenever our next game is)

#6 should go quickly… I expect to get it nearly done in one rotation round. IT’s very small. Once that’s complete, I’ll most likely start on the wedding sampler for Ivanna & Joe.

Oh… and I received my fabric-of-the-month from Silkweaver yesterday. My pieces were two of the new colors they’re releasing in August: Poltergeist (a grey swirl, with just a hint of purple to my eyes…) and Coral Reef (which is, as it sounds, coral pink). I’m on the “random fabric” plan, so this month, I received 32 ct. fabrics… the Coral Reef is Lugana, and the Poltergeist is Belfast Linen.

Not sure what I’ll use the Coral Reef for yet. Poltergeist I have a plan for– that fits the season, of course.

+ + + + + + +

Thank Goddess for the inventor of portable air conditioners. I wouldn’t be sleeping otherwise. It’s rather muggy up here on the 2nd floor.

Off to game…

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Category: Dungeons, Dragons & Dice, Geeky Stuff, Rotations & Goals, Stitching  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment