Sunday, February 21, 2010

Forward Progress and Staying on Task

Last night was Saturday Night Stitch and I worked on my LHN Seasonal Saltbox project. I am happy to report that I made much more progress this Saturday than last Saturday! I got in about 2.5 hours while watching all kinds of winter games and cheering the US team on to victory. (DH doesn't like it when I cheer loudly, so I have to contain my excitement. LOL)

Here's where I started...


And here's where I stopped, after watching Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Anton Ohno win bronze medals in their respective sports, as well as watching the men's bobsledding heats on that very, very fast track!



This year with my stitching, I'm trying something new. Since I stitch on several projects each month, I like to record my time (just to see where it's going), and I have goals I'd like to meet I'm trying to do a better job on keeping organized. I have a terrible habit of setting goals, posting them, and then going off and doing something totally different! My stitching friend, Mary, does something similar, so I'm really borrowing her idea and then tweaking it to suit me and my personality.

First of all, I found some free calendars on the internet I could download. I found them at Graphic Garden and you can download the entire year at once or by the month. I know there are tons of other sites you can get calendars from, so do a search and find something that works for you. I like these because they have nice big blocks and room to write notes at the bottom or top of the calendar.

After printing off the calendar, I then pencil in what I'm going to work on for each week. Saturdays are SNS night and Sundays are usually my day for stitching on my incentive project. When I'm in between incentive projects, I stitch on one of my WIPs. For example, the last incentive round has finished and the next one starts the end of March, so on Sundays I'll be stitching on Quaker Friendship Sampler, which hasn't seen the light of day in who knows how long! One week is usually for an ornament, and if I'm involved in any exchanges, that goes on there as well. The rest of the weeks are either projects from the WIPs pile or something new. At the bottom of the calendar, I write my monthly goals. When I sit down stitch, I start my little hot pink stopwatch/timer. When I get up, I stop it, if I remember! At the end of the night, I record my day's time on the calendar, then I reset the timer for the next day. (Yeah, I always remember this part! NOT! LOL) Here's what my calendar for February looks like. You can click the pic to see it in all it's detail.



You will notice that it's not the neatest thing in the world, but it works!

This week in my little stitching world, I'll finish up my colours exchange piece and move onto my Jan. 1st piece, which I should be able to knock out before the end of the month!

:>)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It's Thursday! Time to Find out What Those Pics Were!

This is my progress on LHN's Seasonal Saltbox threadpack, Blessed are the Pure. I've been stitching on this on Saturdays for my Saturday Night Stitch project.

Tater progress. These are the Fingerlings (back) and the Kennebecs. I'll be cutting them and coating them with wood ash in the next day or so in preparation of planting.

These are Red Norland taters. Look at that growth! So pretty and green, which is what you want when you plant them.

Damage to our tree from the recent snow storm. DH pulled out and cut out all the broken limbs yesterday to take to the curb for weekly pickup. He still needs to get the saw and climb the ladder to tidy up the bigger branches.

Signs of spring! These are some of my daylilies coming back from their dormant period. Take heart, all of those in the north with feet of snow on the ground! Spring is coming!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Olympics are Good for Stitching

Like many of you, I've been following the Olympics. I am not a huge winter sport fan, but when it's time for the Olympics, I love rooting for my country. Who cares that I don't have a clue about snowboarding or luge and wouldn't think of putting my body on a pair of ice skates! I still like to watch and get caught up in all the excitement. In the evenings, I have almost 3 hours of stitching time while the Games are on, not that I stitch for that long, but it's nice to know I have something to entertain myself with while stitching. Even though he's not an American, I think the whole world has fallen in live with Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau, the men's skier with an older brother who has Cerebral Palsy and they absolutely adore and support one another. He won Canada's first Gold medal on home soil! Yay for Bilodeau and for Canada! To see the medal count, click on the link below. I tried to get a little image to insert here, but that didn't work, so you get a link.

Olympic Medals: Gold, Silver, Bronze : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

I have been stitching on a little exchange piece, so I can't show you the progress I made during last night's Olympic watching. But soon, I will!!

In other news, I'm still hacking and coughing and going through Puffs like crazy! I did call in sick to work yesterday and haul myself to the doctor, where I spent almost 2 hours. Good thing I took along a book! The DH went along as well, but he was more into napping than talking and keeping me entertained. The doctor was totally surprised that it was me who was honking and coughing so loud he could hear my down the hallway! (It's usually the DH who sounds like this.) After listening to my lungs and proclaiming they sounded "rough", which he was less than thrilled about, he had the nurse give me a big ol' shot in the right glut (which still hurts this morning!), made me sit for 30 mins to make sure I didn't have a reaction to it, then sent me on my way with 3 prescriptions. One is an antibiotic so I'll have to make sure to double my intake of acidophilus. One is a steroid inhaler thing (yuck!) to help open up the bronchial tubes. The last one was another prescription for cough syrup which makes me hyper. LOL It eventually does quiet the cough, but takes about an hour or so to kick in. Not that I like taking drugs, but I'm glad I went to the doctor. I'm really tired of coughing and blowing my nose!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sunday Update

The past few days have been a bust for me. I blame it on the snow. That's thrown everything out of whack and off kilter. I still have snow in my yard! Friday was the DH's birthday and I didn't remember until I'd been at work for about an hour. I also started coming down with something either a cold or a sinus infection (again!). Needless to say, I'd not planned anything nice for dinner or gotten any kind of gift or anything! Of course today is Valentine's Day and I'm feeling so unvalentiney. Really, how attractive can coughing, snorting, blowing, and hacking be?? But my valentine wuvs me, red nose and all! I told him we'd celebrate next weekend!

I did manage to get my little ornie completed before getting sick. This is Christmas, a complimentary design by AuryTM stitched on 28 ct. Fossil linen from Picture This Plus using WDW's Bethlehem fiber.


Honestly, I'm not too thrilled with the outcome. I'm going to stitch it again, though, at some point in time. My non-blogging friend, Robin, has stitched this one recently and I like her version. I think I might have to copy her!

Friday, February 12, 2010

More Snow Pics (Lots of 'Em!)

Please humor me as I share more snow pics. I know that many of you are in parts of the country where you're sick of seeing snow, but I live in a part of the country where this much snow is a monumental occasion. I think the last time I saw this much snow here in North Texas was in the 80s when I was in college. That's a loooonnnngggg time ago, folks! Here we go!

My across the street neighbor's pretty snow covered tree.

Our tree, loaded down with snow.

Our house from the other side. You can see the snow on the roof.

The end of our street. The big oak tree was so heavy with snow this morning, you couldn't drive under it.

Our covered area in the back and DH's shed. See the snow piled up on top of the awning?

The neighbor's crepe myrtle tree along our driveway.

The oak tree in our front yard touching our roof! Yikes! I'm really surprised one of these branches didn't snap under the weight of the snow.

A tree on the corner of the overpass on my way to work.

Our house. Notice Trusty Steed in the driveway. I gave him the day off today!

My boss shoveling the snow in front of our store. He actually had a real snow shovel! He's from Baltimore originally and has also lived in Missouri, so he has LOTS of experience shoveling. He said it was just like riding a bike. I bet he'll be thinking something different tomorrow! LOL

Our store from across the parking lot.

Looking at Mimi's from our front door at work. I always love the way Mimi's looks in the snow.

Looking across the service road to I-20 from the front sidewalk of our store. It was soooo pretty!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

SNOW!

I woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground this morning, strange for North Texas, but not totally unheard of. It continued to snow NON-STOP all day and we have had about 6" so far. They're predicting it to continue all evening, so no telling how many inches we'll end up with. It's going to be in the upper 20s tonight, so all this slush is going to turn to ice and that's going to be a nightmare in the morning. I'm so not looking forward to the mess on my drive to work in the morning.

Here are a few shots from our snowy day.

These are the winter sowing jugs I posted on yesterday's Wordless Wednesday post. That's how much snow we've had!

There was very little wind today so the snow pretty much fell straight down. There's no snow under the eaves of the house, but where there is snow, it's deep!

Our house in the snow. I'm hoping those limbs on that tree don't snap! Notice my truck parked under the tree. That's my Trusty Steed! He got me safely to and from work today. :)

One of the snow covered crepe myrtles in our backyard.

Lastly, the view down our street after I got home from work this evening.

Thursday Captions

Some of my future garden things. The blue things DH is going to use to build another potato planter. The tall teepee thing, I'm going to use for my pole beans.

My winter sowing project for 2010 has begun! Today they're buried in the snow.

The lettuce bed is continuing to grow strong!

My little ornie for February, Bethlehem Quaker or Quaker Bethlehem. I'll have to find the official name!

Sunday, February 07, 2010

A Finish and Catching Up

I put the final stitches in "Give" by Plum Street Samplers during the first half of the Super Bowl game. I have thoroughly enjoyed stitching this piece. I just love everything about it, the design, the colors, the fibers...everything!


Give by Plum Street Samplers

Stitched on 32 ct. Chalice linen from Picture This Plus

Fibers: Belle Soie silks from Crescent Colours


Conversions, for those of you who've asked~
Attic Tea~vines
Fawn~bodies on birds, lg. nut on top left, sm. nut on bottom right
Mudpie~cluster of nuts on top right, nut on bottom left
Pumpkin Carriage~light wings on birds, crown motif
Lasagna~flowers, heart motif, flowers on vine in center
Tortoise Shell~words, initials, date, eyes on birds, inside and outside borders

Now then, the captions for the pics from Wordless Wednesday.
Sedum "Autumn Joy" starting to stick its nose out from the ground. This goes dormant during the winter but is usually one of the first things to show life in late winter/early spring.

Hannah Grace enjoying the clean afghan on the back of the couch. It's unusual for her to be up here, so I couldn't resist the photo op.

A woodpecker on the telephone pole!

My pound cake. Looks lovely, doesn't it?

After I turned it out onto the plate. Not so lovely, is it? You'll be glad to know it was absolutely delicious, though! I might have to make another one!