Earth Sampler

Guess what I did this weekend...

Earth Sampler
The Primitive Needle
GAST and Weeks on 40ct Ale from Picture This Plus
Finished 7/27/09

I am so in love with this piece. Of course, you know I substituted GAST Cinnamon for GAST Sable. And you may notice also from my photo that I restitched the stripes on the snake. I wanted them to all be that bright green. And I dealt with the crazy eyes on the sheep. I actually did stitch those in Sable. And I think they're fine. And the yeti fabric is still absolutely impossible to photograph. Just imagine it warmer and less gray. It's gorgeous. I will most certainly be ordering more PTP fabric in the future. I will also be stitching more of Miss Lisa's designs - she totally rocks. I definitely took Glenna's advice and spent most of my weekend planted firmly on the couch stitching. I decided that since I haven't made it to see the new Harry Potter movie yet, I would amuse myself with the DVDs.

credit

I watched the first three movies this weekend and am looking forward to time with numbers four and five soon. And although I came very very close to finishing Earth Sampler on Sunday, I had to put the final stitches in last night before class. It was a much-needed restful and wonderful weekend. And I lost 3.6 pounds at WW this week, which allowed me to hit some really good goals! Yay!! And I got a little charm for having signed up for my 5k, which was totally cool. Now all I need is to test out my feet this coming Saturday. I should have healed heels by then! Then the 5k is August 8th.

So, after much debate on what to stitch next I think I'm going to pick up BBD's The Simple Things again. I didn't get very far on my start on this and I think it will be another relatively quick stitch. Here's where I left off, in case you were thinking I was kidding when I said I didn't get very far.

So, that's what's going on in my little world. I finished the book I was reading for my book club and don't really know what I want to pick back up to read. I will probably go back to reading Drums of Autumn, because I'd really like to finish that series. I've also started re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, because why not? So, you can see I'm kind of jumping around on my reading as well as jumping around on my stitching. And I'm feeling the need to do some other crafting too - like quilting or knitting sometime soon. I am all over the place!! But, I am trying to contain myself.

I am grateful for being able to breathe today. And finally seeing the doctor about my shoulder. Yes, Eric, you can say I told you so.

Stripey Snake

On Wednesday, I took my Microsoft certification exam for Access 2007 and passed with flying colors! Soooo glad that is over. I am now moving into my Project Management classes, starting with Microsoft Project. I am really wanting to be finished with school before the holidays this year. I'm ready to be done! As a reward to myself for my certification, I was able to skip school and go to Barnes & Noble for stitching with a buddy. I had so much fun and we got to sit in the comfy chairs. I think once again I spent more time chatting than I did stitching. Oh well! My stitching buddy brought the new Loose Feathers to stitch on, and she is doing it over one. Sooooo pretty. I wanted to go right home and get mine out...but I am being good (for now). I decided to take Earth Sampler with me this time, since I'm making good progress on it. See the little snake?

Two more fingers and I would have finished the hand. That row of numbers is the bottom of the sampler. After I finish the hand, I'll move back up to stitch the top three rows. I am loving this fabric, this pattern, stitching on 40ct, the colors, all of it. I am just having so much fun. And since the past couple of weeks have been a little rough studying for my certification exam and then of course, this...

My poor blistered heels. I really needed a night of stitching to relax, and a fun piece to stitch on! Oh, and just to give you a further idea how bad my poor blisters were, when I came home Tuesday night from school, I found this on the counter.

Eric's been a sweetie and has been reading up on blister care and what to do to keep them from getting infected, etc. He takes good care of me. The vaseline is supposed to keep you from developing blisters too, so once mine heal I'll be trying that the next time I go walking. I'm taking tomorrow off from my 5k training, since I still can't put shoes on, but I hope to be healed and back at it next week. And thanks to all of you for your suggestions on helping my blisters!

And in non-blister-related news, I thought I show you my latest stitching purchase. I have fallen in love with the VB Night Owl fabric, and so of course I had to have a little wristlet to go with my ginormous bag, right? And since it was half price, I couldn't resist.

It's the perfect size to hold my packs of needles, scissors and a pencil. I love it!!! And it's nice to have a little bag that I can transfer around to other bags and know I've got needles and scissors.

Oooh, somebody needs a manicure. Yikes! Anyway, that's all for me today. I am hopeful I'll be getting a whole lot of stitching done on Earth Sampler this weekend. I have book club tonight, but other than that a weekend of some couch time I hope. Have a great weekend!!!

I am grateful for my blisters getting better and even with weird workouts this week, still seeing a loss on the scale! Yay!

Whale of a Time

The past week has not been conducive to stitching. As usual, there's lots going on in my little world. So, no stitching at all during the week. And I think it was only over the weekend that I was able to pick up a needle. On Saturday, I got up early for my 5K training. We actually ended up walking 3.2 miles in under an hour. I was so excited about that!! I felt really good, and finally felt like "ok, I can really do this!". Then I went and weighed in for the week and had a pretty good loss. Then Eric and I went to Lone Star Park for our annual day at the races. I'll have photos soon. And the horse I picked for the last race came in second, so we won some good money on that last race! Thank you Diamante de Oro!! Unfortunately, by the end of our afternoon, I began to feel that all was not right with the world. During the latter part of my walk that morning I knew my shoes were rubbing and that I was probably getting blisters. My heels didn't look too bad when I got home, and it wasn't until later that afternoon that the blisters actually started to show up. And I have never had blisters this bad before. I can barely walk today and I look like a complete idiot hobbling around work. So, not sure how this bodes for my walk on Saturday (luckily the 5k is a couple of weeks away still). But relaxing stitching time was definitely necessary yesterday!

So, as you can see I made pretty good progress on Earth Sampler. We finished watching Season 1 of True Blood and I stitched. I finished up the row with the whale, ripped out the h, i, j that I'd stitched in Sable and restitched it in Cinnamon, and then I stitched p through v on the next row, and finally started the row below it too. So excited I got to finally use the Peacock thread! Love that blue!! Now that I've switched out to the Cinnamon from the Sable that wasn't working I am absolutely in love with this piece. I love stitching on it and it is turning out so pretty (in my opinion). Of course, the yeti fabric is still difficult to photograph, but I'm getting closer I think. Such a super fun stitch! And I sure needed that after dealing with my blistered self all weekend.

And, although my mail carrier is a complete ass who loves to bend and fold any piece of mail he or she is delivering, I got some good mail this weekend! I don't know if I've mentioned before that I signed up at the Country Sampler for their Stacy Nash club? Back at the beginning of the year, I received the first installment. The back of the heart will have a wool pocket to hold scissors.

Then, a few months later I received the second installment. This is a sweet little piece that has a velvet pocket on the inside, and then a little wool heart-shaped pocket to hold scissors and of course a place to put your needles.

And then this weekend, I received package #3. Isn't this the cutest thing?

One of these days I'll make some time to stitch these up. Until then, I'll just keep stitching along on my Earth Sampler.

Jetting Around

Eric and I are back from Miami! I may have alluded in my previous posts that we were heading out for an adventure. Well, Eric surprised me with a trip to Miami over the 4th of July weekend. We left on Thursday night (flying First Class - woohoo!) and came back on Monday. We had so much fun, and I will have photos to share soon. As you may imagine, though, there wasn't any stitching while I was gone. In the past week though, there's been a tiny bit of stitching. As you can see above, I pulled out Earth Sampler and stitched on it a bit last night. I took Andrea's lead and replaced the GAST Sable with GAST Cinnamon. I am so much happier with it. So, I'll definitely be pulling out the h,i,j in the middle to replace it with Cinnamon. My little bit of stitching last night while watching True Blood was the only stitching I did all weekend. Friday night I went with a friend to see The Hangover - so funny! Saturday we had a dinner guest and then Sunday was of course cleaning and laundry during the day. But, I think I am happy with the piece again after the color switch.

On Monday night after we returned, I did settle down and do a little bit of stitching on my new start, Sweet Treats. I finished block 1, minus the buttons, and I've started the border.

I think the buttons will look really cute once I stitch them on. Any suggestions on what to stitch them on with? Matching thread?

Wednesday night I took my final for Access, and happily did very well on it. I just need to schedule my vendor certification exam now. But, having my final behind me allowed me to spend Thursday night with some stitching friends. I took Mystery 9 and did a little more stitching on the swirl. I was doing more talking than stitching though, so not much progress to show.

And I would like to provide a little update on my vent from a few posts ago. After calling the needlework shop with my credit card information for the one chart that was sent, I did also cancel my order for the second chart. I politely explained to the person on the phone that I'd been waiting for four months for the order, and at this point I just wanted to cancel the order. So, imagine my surprise when on Saturday a package arrived from the needlework shop. In it was the chart I'd been waiting on, for no charge, a letter of apology from the owner, and some extras. I sent the owner an email this morning thanking them. So, I wanted to update everyone on what happened, so that I didn't also leave you with a bad taste in your mouth about the situation (even though I haven't mentioned which shop this is, as I'm sure we all from time to time have a bad experience). Anyway, while never expecting to see this chart, much less the way in which the owner handled rectifying the situation, I was pleasantly surprised. So, anyway, the situation is resolved.

So, I will have photos from Miami to show you all soon. And if you want to take a look at more of my Dallas After Dark photos, you can see them here. I hope to get some more stitching in this week. I'm itching to get back to Earth Sampler now!

I am grateful for a fun vacation to Hot Miami.

After Dark Sneak Peek

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by my little part of the world. I always appreciate that you do. Our Dallas after Dark photowalk was fun (although h.o.t.). I think I got some good photos, although I haven't had time to really sit down and go through them. But, I thought I'd share at least one of them with you for now. This is taken at the West End in downtown Dallas. I haven't made any edits to this photo other than resizing, so I'd say that's pretty damn good. I love how you can see the green building in the background through the arches. I can't wait to go through the rest and see what I've got. I'll be sure to post them when I do, probably over on my alternate universe (ie the other blog). I will of course also have photos of the other adventure that is forthcoming. Yay!

Not much stitching to report. Last weekend was a full one, as I'm sure you can imagine. I did, however, manage a new start (like I need another WIP). But, whatever, it's summer...I can do what I want. I wanted a new summery start, so I decided to pull out a piece that had been calling to me for awhile.

Can you guess what it is? Why yes, it's Sweet Treats (block 1) from Country Cottage Needleworks. I've had all the fixings for this piece in my hot little hands for some time now, and it was finally time to start it. So much fun. I should be able to finish up this block pretty quickly I think. I'm using the Crescent Colors threads that came with the pattern, of course. I am also using the suggested 28ct Vintage Lentil from Lakeside (so that the buttons will fit). Love it!

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th, if you're here in the states. And for everyone else, a wonderful stitchy Saturday!

The quilt top below is one I finished several years ago, and it has yet to be quilted but I thought it was appropriate for an Independence Day post.