March 29-31

Okay, so the weekend was a bust as far as stitching goes, but I did finally get most of my stash organized and I pulled out the things that I know I'll never stitch. Since I'm spending next weekend with two stitchers, I'm taking those items with me so they can take a look at them and take what they want.

To my shock and amazement, Uncle Wes told me when I woke up Saturday morning that he's going to finally change the kitchen faucet since it's leaking so bad nothing's coming out of the spout. I honestly thought he'd wait a while. Considering the number of dishes waiting to be washed, I wasn't looking forward to that. The new faucet is in and it works great. The best part is that I don't have water shooting out the back and running all over the counter anymore!

I spent my day periodically picking up in the livingroom and helping Wessy, as well as watching some of the movies on my DVR. My main focus, however, was my blog. I caught it up to Friday and finally completed "My Life in Blinkies" which was alot of fun. I've gathered some from others' sites as well as some free Blinkies sites. Basically, they describe an aspect of me or something I strongly believe in. There are things I like, and the last section is for laughs but still pertain to me. See how organized I am? There's a method to my madness! MUHHAHAHAHAHAH!

I spent most of Sunday organizing my stash and pulling out things I know I'll never stitch. I also continued cleaning up the livingroom and getting rid of all the things piled up around my chair. Now I have a tray on my end table for my meds, my camera (because I use it to take my "Daily Progress" photos), my salt flakes (for when I'm dehydrated), and my cell phone and bluetooth headset. My end table has been cleaned off to also hold my Golden Retriever page-a-day calendar and my two coasters (Alot of times I have my 1/2 gallon for iced tea and a mug of hot tea or chocolate in here). My "Laptop Table" finally has just that on it, but my third table-yes, I have three!-is a little junked up still. I put a basket on the floor by my chair to hold my stitching bag and a couple other things.

I was talking to Debi Murray tonight on Messenger and we were discussing my stitching slump. I didn't do any stitching at home all weekend, nor have I stitched at home for a quite a while now. I really want Deftly Wrought finished, but I just don't want to stitch on it. I've finally come to the conclusion that I need to put it aside rather than continue to mentally beat myself up about not stitching it. Instead, I'm going to take a little break and completely switch stitching directions to work on one of the two Navy Emblems I need to do for Uncle Wes this year. He picked an off-white Aida that I bought at the Upscale Retail Boutique run by Partners in Care. The emblem is approximately 7 2/3 x 7 2/3" on 18ct. I figured that, since I have to do two of them, I'll do one now and one later in the year because I know I don't want to have to do two in a row! Right before I went to bed, I pulled the floss and put it in an empty Stitch Bow page and stuck the page and the chart pack with fabric in my stitching bag to take with me to dialysis tomorrow. I also pulled out two UFO's. One just needs backstitching and the other is A Bird For All Seasons by Dimensions that I'm re-starting. I'm hoping to work on them on Tuesdays because it's the ILCS UFO Day SAL.

Today (Monday), I did stitch at dialysis. I almost finished the eagle's head on the Navy Emblem. Unfortunately, I had to stop stitching because I got a really bad headache. It felt like it was going to escalate into a migraine, so I took two Aleve right away.

We only have one bathroom at home, so I called Uncle Wes to explain the situation and ask him to take a shower before I got there because I was either going straight to bed or soaking in the bathtub. I know it's unconventional, but alot of times I find relief from pain by soaking in a very hot tub of water. Add a lightly-scented votive candle and some soft iPod music and I'm asleep and pain-free! It may only last a while, but anyone who has chronic or recurring pain will tell you any time is better than no time!

When I got home at quarter after six, I put my iPod on my iHome radio, turned on a Flute Podcast softly, and went straight to bed. I didn't wake up til 9pm and the headache was gone!

I saw the Golden Retriever by Pegasus Originals chart pack in my recliner when I woke up and considered pulling the floss for it. I was going to put it in a Stitch Bow page so I could work on it as well, but remembered the floss that needed to be put in my storage binders.

I got all my floss except for duplicates put away, but my three storage binders were stretched to maxium capacity. They're designed to hold eight full pages each and mine had ten to twelve pages. I looked up and noticed the four 3-ring binders sitting on the floor beside my stash tote and thought "Why pay $7.99 for a Stitch Bow binder when you have some right here?" So I grabbed the three white ones and only left eight pages in each of the Stitch Bow binders. I even made separate pages for the variegated and metallic flosses now that I have extra room. There are five binders of floss and there's room to grow! The fifth binder only has one and a half pages of variegated floss and a half a page of metallic. I looked up and saw it was 11:57pm and wanted to say I stitched at home but I had to end my floss and it was midnight before I got the needle threaded. GRR! Needless to say...no stitching at home...again (WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!). At least I can say I did stitch today, though!

January 8, 2007

Today is the UFO SAL at ILCS, so I worked on A Bird for All Seasons by Dimensions. This is the very first BP I ever started. It's a kit my grandma bought years ago and never stitched. She gave me the kit and asked me if I would stitch it "when you have time" because she can't see to do it. I first started it in November 2005, just 2 1/2 months after I started stitching, and I have to admit that, at the time, this was too advanced for me.

I got it about 1/3 of the way done when, one day at dialysis, the shelf on the side of my chair collapsed and my RED Icee fell to the floor. Of course, a gob of Icee flew and landed right on ABFAS! It was in the margin, but it was a bright red stain! I was able to get the stain out with Ivory liquid dishwashing detergent, but the fabric had a "dirty" look to it even after I dried it flat overnight. Since there were several counting mistakes, and I did some cross stitches where there were supposed to be 1/2 stitches, the project became a UFO. Grandma didn't mind, but I felt guilty.

Then one day about a year ago, I found the kit in the clearance bin at AC Moore! This kit is from the 80's, so I was very fortunate to even see it in a store. I thought it would be best just to start back from scratch and get this done for Grandma, finally! So I re-started it last summer, but I started on other projects and this got put to the side again. Now it's my UFO SAL piece and I'm hoping to have it done by August 6, Grandma's 75th birthday.

The top picture is today's progress and the bottom one is where I left off last year, along with what it's supposed to look like. Since this piece is basically 11 separate scenes joined by the vine, I'm stitching the details as I go as well. I'm hoping working ABFAS in this manner will keep it fresh for me so I don't get bored with it.And just a quick note for everyone worrying about me being home alone: Uncle Wes arrived back home safely at 3:05am today. Kasey was especially happy to have her "Unkie" home and promptly went downstairs to "woof!" at him to take her for a walk! So all is back to normal around Wilde Acres! (that's Wil-DE, not wild)