Happy New Year!!

The past six months have been so hectic, I don't know where to start to cover it at. While I avoid discussing work in detail, I will admit to taking a class for ITIL Foundations and passing the certification test. I've tried the self-paced training for this before, to no availe, so hubby and I saved up so I could take the class from a group who is good at training for it (thank you Pink Elephant!). So now that done, and will hopefully add a bonus to my status at work. (The company I work for recently merged with/was bought out by another company and I'm feeling the need to keep myself marketable.)

On the home front, things are smoothing out. Three (or four) months back, hubby was able to find a "9-5" job. With the housing market bottoming out, he just wasn't pulling in enough for cover basic bills (combined with my income). We do not live outside our means (haven't done that in over 6 years) and it was really stressing me out to borrow money from my parents just to buy the kids one birthday gift, all the while getting further behind on our regular bills. The stress got to me so badly, that I ended up in physical therapy for the tense neck and sholder muscles (which put us further in debt...typical pattern, yes?), heck strong doses of muscle relaxers and pain killers weren't relaxing the muscles. That's when hubby annouced that he was going to pick up steady temp work. This is something I know he hated to do; he loves his business. But he (very) quickley found a month long contract being the IT deparment for a small company.

It turns out they loved him and after two weeks, offered him a permanent full time position. So now, he runs IT for them, reporting to the VP ans President of the company. He is severly under-paid for his job (have I mentioned he ~IS~ the IT department for 100-150 people?), but since he creates the budget for his department, he's factored in raises and paid training for the next year.
As cool as this ended up being, it still ate at me that he had to stop doing what he loved, even though no money was being made, just to make money. We worked long and hard to get him doing what he loves, and it was going to be my turn next to figurre out what i wanted to be "when I grow up". BUT, it turns out he loves it! Right before Christmas, out of no-where he said to me, "I love that I get paid to play!"
Big stress relief! So now he has two 'jobs' he loves to do, and one of them has a steady paycheck.

On the homefront, my stress has put a big dent in working on my own hobby. I find I can only stitch an hour or two a week (instead of the ten I use to do), and play time on the computer is even more limited.
I was, however, able to get one last thing completed in 2008 (finished it on Dec 27). Here it is, hubby's requested bookmark; "Renaissance Bookmark" by Teresa Wentzler.


I did the pattern on 28c Country French Chantilly and used the recomended threads (DMC and Kreinik). It is Finished with a buttonhole edge using DMC thread that matched the material. It took approximitley 39 hours to complete (10 of that was the buttonhole stitch...I should have went with the blanket stitch, but then maybe it wouldn't look so great). There is nothing on th back of it, but I've told hubby to let me know that if the threads on the back keep catching on things or if it's not stiff enough for him, I'll iron on some fusing. I barely had time to get a picture of it before he put it into use.

On the stashing front, I'm still in "diet"-mode. However this was made much easier when hubby signed me up for Vikki Clayton's Floss of the Monthfor a Christmas present! Now for the next year I'll be getting some wonderful floss and it will help keep the edge off wanting to impulse buy.
Also, since the Stash-to-Go blog has slowed down alot, I'm thinking I need to start giving things away. Where for it to go....

A happy New Year to all and I'll leave you with a picture of the antics of The Teen.

That's a candle she put on top of one of my statues.

I said "yes" to what?!?

First of all, thank you to everyone who has recommended a stitch book. I will be checking them out to see what I want to get the next time I'm allowed in a bookstore.

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I agreed to take a commission for a couple of cross stitch pieces from GhostStitchers last Thursday. Of course I got home that night, looked at the calendar and kicked myself. The first of the month! I'm inundated with reports due at work, working 9+ hours a day to get them done (the load slackens off around the 20th of the month), plus my medical problems of late, and the children. Did I forget my husband in there somewhere?

This is not anything new though. I have a tendency to "overload" myself with work, not necessarily to see how much I can take, but because, I know it all works out in the end. It drives my husband to distraction too, but he is an organized list person, who doesn't like deviating from the path ~HE~ has set.

Me? I ~LIKE~ the path less traveled!

Gets me home from work quicker too.

SBQ - First one for 2007

SBQ is back! And the first question for 2007:
Do you dream of running your own LNS/ONS? If so, tell us about your dream. If not, tell us about your cross stitch dream… maybe you dream of designing, dyeing your own floss or fabric, etc.

Yes, I do dream of owning my own LNS/ONS. In fact, last summer I was a bank loan away from acheiving that dream; I was going to buy an ONS from someone wanting to retire. Unfortunatly, someone else got their money before I could. No hard feeling though. So I'm still working my regular job and when hubby can get enough saved up for me to retire, I'll start looking into starting my own again.

Unless someone has an ONS or LNS that they would like to retire from and sell to me!

Most people want to start something of their own from scratch; I'm not sure I'd know how to even do that. You see, my whole career is based on looking at a company's business/procedures and determining what is not woprking and how to improve upon it. That is why I have no problem taking over someone else's business.

New finish, Christmas bonus', and general ^@$!%

The good news.
I finished the ornament my daughter picked this year.

"Snow Kitty" by Cross My Heart, INC. from JCS Christmas Ornaments: 10th Anniversary Collention. 28ct Ice Blue Alma with DMC and Kreinik floss.

The other good news.
The company I work for actually gave me a Christmas bonus this year of $250. Considering this is the first one from them I've gotten in the 7 years I've worked for the company, not a bad sum. It sure beats the Bic pens one manager gave out one year to some of his underlings. The sucky part is I will be taxed on this, the the tax coming out of my paycheck (And all US citizen know, we get taxed 55-60% on "gifts" like this). Seriously bites.

As if money isn't tight in my house right now as it is; it looks like I'll have to use this "gift" to but the kids present for Yule. Hubby and I talked and we'll get the kids one or two really special things from Santa, but anything else will wait until the middle of January, when we celebrate with my mom (whose out of town visiting her parents this year, so she's having Christmas for the grandkids when she gets back in January).

I love my husband, and I love that he found something that he loves doing. But not paying bills on time and not being able to do little things like get something for the kids, really stress me out and ticks me off. I'm working my ass off (and my hands into disability) at job I hate, and still looks like I'll have to go find a forth job just to make ends meet.

I saw the orthopedist for my hands last week and she tells me I now have arthritis in the right one. Frickin' great. I can understand my knee and ankle. I injured those a lot of times in sports when I was younger. But my hand! I'm 33 and this should NOT have happened! And it's not like I can take some disability time off for it to heal...then the bills really wouldn't get paid.

A little here...a little there.

I've just realized that it's been a couple weeks since I posted any stiching updates. I finished the piece for GhostStitchers:

I love how the Hungarian flame stitch turned out.

I also finished the tree ornament from M-Designs "Christmas Duo". This was one of the classes taught at the 2006 PALS Fall Fling. On 32ct linen in Moonglow from Picture This Plus with JAR Designs thread.


And here are the pieces I've made progress on.

"The Enchanter"


And from the JCS 10th Anniversary Collection:
"Sadie Snowflake"- This is a color conversion from the original colors. My son picked these out.

"Snow Kitty"

Various bits and pieces

Work is killing me this week. By the time I get home, my hands hurt so much that I don't even WANT to stitch. But I have received a new project from GhostStitchers. It's a UFO that is already 3/4 finshed. It is Scottish Band Sampler.



It's the Hungarian flame stitch and 'blackwork' at the bottom that I'll be finishing. The 'blackwork' will be easy, however the flame stitch would be alot easier if the instructions had the entire pattern, rather than a few guidelines and instructions that say "you will see the pattern emerge" and not to worry because "the model stitched is wrong". Let's just say I didn't see the pattern emerging and since I couldn't use the picture above as reference (remember, it's wrong), I had to do lots of research trying to find a Hungarian flame stitch pattern (found lots of pictures). Luckily, one of the ladies on the PALS BB pointed me to a pattern for flame stitches and I was able to figure out the pattern on this one. The repeating pattern doesn't go side to side; it goes up and down. I'll get pictures of my progress on it on Friday before I head out of town for the weekend.
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Work has gotten so bad, in the way some people treat me, that I have almost walked out twice since last Thursday. Hubby "talked me off the ledge" once and a co-worker another time. As I'm sick of my hands hurting, I've taken the stance, if my work isn't finished on time, then someone needs to stop overburdening me. Now to find out if any of my managers in the past year have ever gotten around to filing the workman's comp paper work. My doctor won't let me make an appointment for my hands until they recieve the paperwork.

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Meari, thank you offering to send me my missing DMC skiens, but it is no problem for me to get them. I have a Hobby Lobby, Joanns, Michaels and Hancock stores near me. Next time I'm in one, which should be soon to get fabric for finishing ornaments, I'll pick up the missing skiens then. Even when the are not on sale, they are less than 30 cent for me.

Insomniatic musings and SBQ

I hate having insomnia. Even more so when the next day is a weekday. Not even laying in bed for an hour, getting up for an hour is enough to wear me out so I can sleep. And the brain works overtime. I'm picking apart every little thing. Sheesh, even if I passed out right this second, I would only get one and a half hours of sleep before having to get and go to work. Like driving a car would be safe at this point; I'm defiantly NOT 18 anymore.
Luckily I am able to telecommute for work, so as soon as I'm done typing this, I'll login and email my boss letting her know I'll be working from home today, and why. Then leave a note (you know, just in case I really do fall asleep anytime soon) for my husband to have him wake me up by a certain time and only allow me to take 1-one hour nap today. I already have a wet towel in the freezer for if I need "nudging" to wake me up (you take the frozen towel out, run it under cold water to soften it up, lightly squeeze out the excess, and casually drop on the sleeper).

Last week was really rough at work, hence having no time to blog, or do much of anything else (read as: Lisa had no time to stitch, so she had no time to unwind, which made her CRANKY by Wednesday) except to get sick with a cold, which I was nice enough to share with my daughter. I know I gave it to her, and not the other way around, because I had the milder version. Open cubicle and floor concept at work=BAD idea.
However, Friday was my day off, so I played catch-up in the stitching department (much to my numb fingers horror) and worked on Tanager and a piece for the Bakers Dozen RR. No pictures yet, I'll do that later in the week.
Saturday was spent packing Granny's dining room and kitchen. The family is taking turns on the weekend packing up her house, so we can (among several things) replace the floor in her house before she falls through it. We're hoping to have her all packed up in the next three weeks, so that all the repairs needed will be done by Thanksgiving.
Saturday night, hubby and I were supposed to see a friend, who had a gig with her band, but as I was still feeling crummy (and not want to spread the cold), I stayed home and sent hubby out for a night of fun. He had fun, loved the music, and bought their CD (yep, I'm linking it again). However, I have yet to hear it, because he won't give it up.
Sunday was the usual uneventful house cleaning and stitching. Although, I've been watching BBC's ShakespeaRe-told on Sundays lately. Last night's was the retelling of "The Taming of the Shrew", and it was hilarious. Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter movies) played Kate (Katherine) and Rufus Sewell (Count Adhemar from "A Knight's Tale") as Pete (Petruchio) were great together. I've added to my list of must have movies. I've always been a fan of Shakespeare, and a little snobbish when it come to the retelling of his works. BUT, I was impressed with this one. It has bumped "10 Things I Hate About You" down the list, but lets be honest. I really like that one for the eye-candy of Heath Ledger.

Time: 4:43 AM and my body is saying it's time to lay down and close my eyes. Now guarantees I'll get sleep, but at least the eyes will get some rest. Also, did you know that the spell check on this thing does not recognize the word 'blog'?

Time: 10:53 AM and still no sleep. I believe I'm on my 20th wind now. Only one cup of caffeine; my morning tea.

A news article caught my eye this morning, "Many in hurricane-prone areas still aren't prepared."
I have to answer that with a big 'ol responding "DUH!"
They people who don't need to panic, do. And the people who need to get the hell out of the path of a catastrophic storm sit back and wait for it.
My husband and I have pretty much agreed that for a Cat 1-3 hurricane, we will stay in our house, as long as the windows get boarded. A Cat 4+, we will vacate to higher ground. Not because we need to worry about flooding or damage (although the trees could cause damage), but because if there is going to be looting, we want to be able to see them coming from a mile or two away, literally. Besides, the farm is the best place to handle living "in the rough", everything is already there.
I must say that hurricanes are good for cleaning out your freezer of food that has been there for awhile. When Hurricane Rita headed towards us, we were eating steak and lobster, chicken and dumplings, and my son was chasing the animals asking if we were going to eat them when the power went off. The dogs were not amused.

On to the :
This weeks SBQ was suggested by Anna M. and is:
What do you keep your WIPs and other stitching supplies in when traveling?

I have a tote bag with an section of Aida on it, that someone sent me (I'm sorry whoever did, I forgot who), on which I stitched the phrase "Need has nothing to do with it". In that I carry at least 2 projects in their own large ziploc bags, one hoop, and a little deco bag (that I receive from Silkweaver when they had their SOTM club) that has a magnetized Needle Nest (with spare needles and straight pins), a pair of folding sissors, a clover cutter, and a needle threader. I also usually carry spare DMC kits and freebies to hand out to people who are interested in what I'm working on. The occational book slips in too.