Happy Halloween

Happy Hallowein(er)!

Pictures Galore

I can never get the pictures in blog to line up
right grrrr.

Explanation of Pictures: I have Princess and the Dragon before and a third of the way through the TWOctober stitch along the Wagon BB. I am really enjoying this stitch. I also posted a picture of Hastur that was taken while he was sleeping in this morning. The creature does not rise from bed until 11 am or noon if he can. I toil away on my dissertation while he lounges about. The last picture is I love Penguins by Brittercup designs. I stitched it for my DH. He luvs penguins! I am almost done with the Chatelaine Mini Mystery Mandala II. I would post pictures but it is a gift for someone.

Two finishes

I have had two finishes within the past month, Mini Mystery Mandala 01 by Chatelaine and Needle Guardian by Teresa Wentzler. I made a few changes to the Mini Mystery. I changed out on the of the blue flosses for a lighter one and left off the most outer row of the border. For the Needle Guardian I used the cotton version of the Dinky Dyes instead of the silk. It was a very colorful and fun skein of overdyed floss to work with.

Needle Guardian took me over two weeks to stitch instead of just a few days. It is not that big of a project. I have been drowning in work related activities. For the past two weeks I have been working 12-14 hour days without any real breaks, even during lunch I had errands or meetings to attend (I lost 4 pounds-this is a good thing). Getting a Ph.D. can really suck sometimes. I have two weeks off from the workshop scene and we start again for two more weeks of torture. Excuse me while I go scream in frustration. End of whine.

I have finally started my best friends wedding gift. I discovered last night while rooting around in my stash that I had all the necessary speciality fibers to complete it. I also discovered something about my stitching habits in the process. The great discovery is that there is no reason for when I decide to stitch something...I just get obsessed over a project and I have to do it. Normally this happens when I have an open pair of scroll bars. I have resisted working on this project for well over a year now and all of a sudden I have to do it. I don't know what changed but the good news is that by the end of August I will finally have a wedding gift to send to my best friend...three and half years late... Oh the project is Cockatoo's Two of the Feather Friends collection by Britter Cup designs. http://brittercupdesigns.com/featherfriends.html Not a difficult project by any means but I just had to get my stitching mojo in gear and focus it on that particular project.

Pictures Galore

I am too lazy to come up with much of a written entry today...so you get lots of pictures. Yippeeeeee...pictures. I must include the obligatory pictures of the adorable dachshund.

Picture list: The Dreaming by Dinky Dyes with changed floss and fabric colors. Mystery Mini Mandala 01 by Chatelaine. It is stitched on black fabric. I changed one of the floss colors from DMC 831 to 830 (or vice versa- I went with the lighter blue). I used the DMC conversion list instead of the NPIs. Last is a freebie You Are Never Too Old. Adorable but stitching with that many metallics totally sucked. Never again....

Bribing Myself with Stitching Goodies

I must confess to all of the participants of the 50 Project Challenge that I have broken my promise not to buy any charts with non-gift money. It is for a good cause. See, I love the mini-mystery Mandalas from Chatelaine. They are lovely, small, and affordable. I brought the first one and I have been working on it. Pictures of it should soon appear. The camera is in my DH's backpack. I just need to fish it out of there. I am bribing myself to lose weight with the Chatelaine mini-mysteries as the prize. For every 15 pounds I lose I get to buy the chart. I lost 21 pounds so I could buy the first one. I have from April 1st to July 1st to lose another 15 pounds so I can purchase the 2nd one. I have lost 8 pounds of it and have a little over a month to lose 7 more pounds. Bribing myself works really well and 15 pounds in three months at my weight is a very conservative and realistic weight loss goal. It works especially well in this case because of my great "hunger" to obtain new charts. Given this information please decide my punishment. I am thinking of adding 5 projects to the challenge before I can buy new charts. Is this adequate?

Shameless Plug (again): todays post by Library Overlord was especially funny. http://libraryoverlord.blogspot.com/2008/05/tales-from-dungeon-part-ii.html

The Camera Saga

I promise I have pictures of projects...but they are trapped on the camera. I haven't been able to find the cord to connect the camera to the computer. Today I found it!!! Of course the camera is MIA. Some days I just can't win.

Up date on stitching. I have been working on Chatelaine Mini-Mandala Mystery 1 and I am almost finished with the second part. I have taken some lovely pictures of it...

DMC Scare: I normally don't kit anything up until I am ready to work on it. Hence my stash is full of lovely charts and not much else. Well due to the DMC scare I "flossed" 25 projects. Most of them are TWs since they are hardest ones to convert to Anchor if the worst happens and DMC actually folds in 6 months. This whole DMC floss has been a total nightmare and it made me realize just how vunerable my stash is to the loss of key stitching industry players. On a side note flossed when you kit up a project with only the basic flosses .(I don't know if this is an actual stitching term. I just made it up to describe the lack of completely kitting up a project)

Shameless Plug: check out http://www.libraryoverlord.blogspot.com/ It is a humerous blog about one library workers saga at a large library. He is a gamer, comic book geek, and fanatasy fan. It shows but in an awesome way. Make sure you check out the links in the text.

So how well did I do last year

Below is the list of goal for 2007. Lets take a look at how much I failed to accomplish.

1. Finish Olde World Map
2. Finish Ouroborus by Dracolair
3. Finish Rose Tree in Bloom by Teresa Wentzler
4. Finish Red Dragon Bookmark by Dracolair
5. Finish Christmas Labyrinth
6. Finish Mini Mandala 1C by Chatelaine
7. Finish Wisdom from the Legends of the Dragons
8. Start and Finish other two Mini Mandalas (1a and 1b) by Chatelaine
9. Start and Finish Mystery Sampler III by Chatelaine
10. Start and Finish Japanese Octagonal Box by Chatelaine
11. At least 3 Christmas Ornies
12. At least 3 freebies- Finished one
13. Start wedding gift for best friend (married two years ago)
14. Start wedding gift for brother (married last summer)
15. Start Fantasy Sampler by Dragon Dreams
16. Start The Guardian by Teresa Wentzler
17. Start Tricky Treat Cats
18. Start and Finish Griffon Bookmark by Dracolair

Well, I guess 3.33 out of 18 isn't too bad. Hehehehe.......

I have gone over how fickle I am with projects. So below is what I finished last year.

1. I love birds by Brittercup started and finished March 2007
2. Assisi Dragon Scissor Fob- Finished June 28, 2007
3. Chirstmas Labyrinth- Started April 7, 2007 Finished July 17, 2007
4. Emerald Orchid Bee by Dimples Designs- started July 20, 2007 Finished July 23, 2007
5. Ouroborus by Dracolair- WIP started June 27, 2006 Finished July 28, 2007
6. Mystery Dinky Dyes Contest Piece August 2007
7. Chatelaine Mystery Sampler III- WIP started Jan. 4, 2007 Finished Sept. 4, 2007
8. Sun Dragon by TW- started Oct 1. 2007 Finished Oct. 16, 2007 9. "wheat" posted on My Aunt's Attic - started and completed Dec. 21, 2007

Completed Mystery Samper III

It is finally done...after 9 months. This piece had lots of beads, metallic floss, and used Dinky Dyes silk floss. The wording was all over one. The swans were my favorite part of the piece to stitch but I did love all of the beading. I am not joking. Beading was used as a reward for finishing all of the Algerian Eyelets (over 260 of them). My favorite floss was used in this piece. It is called Day Dream by Dinky Dyes and was used in the border. It is a highly varigated floss that ranges from pink to purple and blue to green.

Summer Finishes

Yipee. I found my camera and could finally take some pics. I finished the little Assassi Dragon Scissor Fob last month. It is over one and tiny. The Emerald Orchid Bee by Dimples Designs took several nights and inspite of its small size is farily complex piece. It is really sparkly and fuzzy. In the green portion of the head there are 14 stiches comprised of 5 metallic/DMC blends. There is one color that is used for a grand total of 1.5 stiches in the entire piece. Lots of color changes, fractionals, and blends but as usual Dimples Designs are worth it. I have at least a dozen more insects in my collection to go. Ouroborus is done. It took a year, a month, and a day to finish. Of course I have absolutely no project fidelity so I worked on lots of stuff in between. I loved working this piece and was almost sad to finish it. It was like losing an old friend. It is one of my all time favorite designs.

Hastur is Fine

I dropped Hastur off at the vet's this morning and was not expecting to hear how the surgery went until early afternoon. The vet calls me at 11 am to tell me that he did not have the surgery. The size of the lump had gone down and she redid some of the cytology. He just had an infection and it was causing the area to swell, however, his initial tests had tumor like symptoms. Apparently there are some scavenger cells that can mimic the atypical multi-nucleated cells of a tumor. So he came home at 11:30 with an even more shaved neck and lots of antibiotics but surgery free. We have to keep an eye on him for the next couple of weeks but all should be well. Thank you for your kind words.

Hastur the Dachshund Goes into Surgery Tomorrow

This past week has been a wild ride for myself and my tiny family. My dissertation topic has been change but there is a lot of political B.S. attached to it. Thank goodness I have a wonderful and powerful committee chair who supports me. I have been offered a PostDoc at my current institution (I keep getting offers from different places even though I won't graduate for another year) and decided to accept it. I will have the freedom to continue my own research in addition to my PostDoc requirements.

So with all that going on I find a lump on Hastur's neck and some of it is scabbed over. I take him to the vet's fully expecting it to be an abcess. It is a tumor and due to the sample she evaluated yesterday there a good possiblity that is cancerous. We will remove the entire tumor tomorrow and wait about a week for the verdict. So please keep your fingers crossed for this little guy.

Finally some finishes

Greetings. Sorry about the delay between postings. I was having a ton of problems with my old laptop. I now have a shiny red and silver piece of efficient machinery in front of me. Her name is Dr. Vibby Girlfriend and she is fast. Her name is due to several in jokes between Persian Pen Name and I. It would take an entire post to explain how she got her name and probably would not be all that funny to you. Microsoft Vista is not all that but it was the only OS they were putting on the higher grade laptops.

On to the stitching.

I have actually finished two projects within the past month. A little Assassi dragon scissor fob and Christmas Labyrinth. Christmas Labyrinth has been a UFO/WIP since March of 2006...for good reason. Lots of quarter stitches and metallic fibers. For anyone who wants to do this project...convert the recommended metallics to Rainbow Gallery Petite Braid. The metallic I was using was a PITA to work with and also keep ripping up the beautiful silk variagated fiber. Also, the green backstiching color as charted does not exist. I used Krienick 009V, emerald green. I am done complaining about a truly annoying project that is totally worth it in the end. I have posted pics with and without the back stitching, so you can see the fun fractionals. So without further yammering the pictures.

Blogger ate my pictures

Blogger does not like progress pictures to be shown. Blogger is hungry and has determined that feasting upon the pictures is a good and noble thing to do.
Sorry about the pictures. Iwill give blogger a few days to become sastified and then post some new pictures.

Blogger ate my pictures

Blogger does not like progress pictures to be shown. Blogger is hungry and has determined that feasting upon the pictures is a good and noble thing to do.
Sorry about the pictures. I give blogger a few days to become sastified and post some new pictures.

Some WIPs

I actually got to do some stitching this month inspite of being really ill with bronchitis and being out of town for almost a week. New Orleans was a combination of beautiful and horrific. The French Quarter had bounced back from the Hurricane nicely for the most part. There was still some major reconstruction going on and some buildings that had been abandoned. Then there was the rest of the city. I shudder to think of some of the images that I observed.

SBQ about Blogs

This is from the SBQ April 5: How do you decide which stitching blogs are worth repeat and/or regular viewings? Are there certain things you look for in particular? Are there things you wish there were more of? Less of? Is your blog a good example of what you like to read?

I like blogs that have lots of pictures, talk primarily about the subject I am interested in, and can make me laugh. I like stitching blogs to contain stuff about stitching. I am not so interested in the day to day personal things. If the person has been ill or having a hard time, that is good to know, especially if they are an online buddy. But I really don't want to know that you were out of lemon zest yesterday or your Lucky Charms cereal didn't have any marshmallows. On bulletin boards, I typically like to avoid religious or political discussions (what I would have to say would probably piss off 95% of the readers). Blogs, I am a bit more flexible towards. Blots are some one's personal space that I go to read. So if they want to cuss or talk about about something it is their choice. If it annoys me too much then I just won't go back . I can put up with annoying personal stuff if people post lots of pictures, especially stitching designs that I like. I also enjoy when people talk about technique, floss usage or the pitfalls of a design. If someone is on The Challenge I try to visit their blog on a regular basis to keep track of their progress and offer words of encouragement. If someone leaves a comment on my blog I try to look at their blog the same day.
I do visit stitchers' blogs that don't have a lot to do with stitching. If the blog is amusing or informative, I will continue to go back to it on a regular basis. I love things that make me laugh.
I try to limit personal stuff on my own blog unless it effects my stitching. Being ill effects my stitching. Going to California effects my stitching. But I try to limit these discussions. My blog is primarily stitching and I try to include pictures as much as possible.

With this said, I am off to New Orleans for a conference! Be back in 5 days.

The Fickleness Continues

I decided that I did not like the DMC variegated floss on the purple piece of fabric for The Dreaming by Dinky Dyes. Oh, how I wish that I had two skeins of the limited edition floss since it was perfect. Why...why did the perfect floss have to be limited edition? So think I have decided on using Caron Waterlilies Mulberry for the design. I feel like a traitor using Waterlilies on a Dinky Dye design. I am stealing Mulberry from a different project...giggle giggle giggle. This will probably come back and bite me in the butt. When I decide that I have to do those other two Mini Mandalas and I can't because I have used the necessary skein of Mulberry. Oh well, my fickle mind has decided that it must work on The Dreaming.

"Hastur...your love is so fickle"

"Hastur...your love is so fickle" was said one evening when I had a group of my table top roleplaying game friends over. The real HasturTorres is a very gregarious little dachshund. He loves people, other dogs, and will cozy up next to a plate of food in a heartbeat. When alone the little pup is a stalker. He sits on my feet under my desk when I work on the computer. Curls up next to me on couch or begs at my feet during dinner. This changes when guests arrive. The newer the person the better to him. He ignores his momma and dadda and goes straight for the guests. If he knows the vistors equally well he makes his rounds to each one of them (ignoring his parents) thus the line "Hastur...your love is so fickle"
This line is also applicable to me and cross stitch. See if I have a new project I go bonkers...must work on new project. Soon the newness wears off. I have lots of other WIPs. So like the real Hastur I make my rounds with them. My love is so fickle. Sometimes I find it hard to stick with a project for more than a night. So I have to switch. As soon as I stitch I want to work on that project again. That would be fine if I had the attitude for just one project but no....I have it for 9. Thus nothing is getting done. I should have finished Ori the Ouroborus last month but no I just had to be fickle.
Last night I worked on kitting up a new project instead of on existing ones. You see I got the Winter Pack from Jo at Dinky Dyes. It is gorgeous. The handdyed fabric is amazing and the silks/cottons are the usual wonderfulness that is Dinky Dyes floss. So I go through my exisiting stash trying to find a chart that would work. I have the Dreaming which was a gift from one of the members of the Wagon but unfortunetly I only have one skien of each limited ediition floss and it takes two skiens of the same color. So I tried lots of different ideas including looking at the freebies at Ink Circles. I finally pulled out two skiens of variagated purple floss from the DMC color collection box and some purple evenweave. I was hoping to use some silks but the DMC worked better. Of course I could order some more silks from Jo but I am on the Wagon so I can not feed my Dinky Dyes addiction. Soon I shall start the Dreaming but only until after I finish Ori and one other small project. Must keep my WIPs below 10! Must not give into temptation. Will not give in...will not give in...will not....

Californa Trip

Earlier this month I had a trip out to California to pick up my "new" sports utility vehicle that I purchased from my parents. It is nice to have my own car again. DH and I shared his SUV for over year after my car died a slow death from which it could not be saved. SUVs are gas guzzlers and I wish I could afford a better car for the environment but beggars can't be choosers... and being a graduate student I am definitely not in a position to afford a different vehicle. Also, the SUVs are easier on my bad knees to drive and get in and out of.
Persian Pen Name travelled with me. Thank heavens for that. It over a 24 hour drive (no stops) from my parents place in California to where I live in Texas, with almost half of the drive in Texas. We stayed at a family friends' home in Arizona on the way back to Texas. It was great to see them after almost a decade. PPN got to experience night time in the desert, which is absolutely beautiful. Tucson has an law against "light pollution" thus you can see a ton of stars from a back porch. The wind was blowing slightly, the temperature had dropped to where you almost need a sweater, and the patio was radiating heat from its exposure to the sun keeping the bare toes warm.
I also got to hear magic words that all sewing impaired stitchers love to hear. "I would be happy to sew your stitching into pillows if you need me too" and "sure I can sew up a stocking for you". One of the family friends, who sews beautifully, volunteered to help me finish some of my projects. I am ever so grateful!!!

I was a very good stashaholic while in California. I am on my own Project Challenge but in addition I had also put myself on the celibate/abstinence wagon challenge from the Wagon BB ( http://thewagon.yuku.com/bthewagon ). My trip to California was my stash buying exception for the celibate/abstinence challenge. This made for fun stash money calculations because I am on two challenges and only some of the material was exempt. The charts I purchased for myself came out of Chirstmas money. The charts are purchased using gift money so I would not violate the Project Challenge are: Treetop Sampler by TW, Britty Puppy Christmas Stocking, and Snap Dragon by Kustom Krafts. Of course I can't buy any supplies for these projects until next year unless I spend gift money. I got I'll Make My Own Happy Ending by Dragon Dreams as a gift for a fellow sticher, Dragon Hatchling by Dracolair for baby gifts (need to experiment with other more gender neutral colors), and Feather Friends by Brittercup for my BF's wedding gift. The friend who got married over two years and who I promised a stitched gift to before the wedding. (she is the one with me in the shark cage) Yeah...I am a slacker! the fibers you see go with the Feather Friends. I also picked up a piece of pale pink fabric for the I love my Bird portion of Feather Friends (finished the stiching will post pic soon), a piec of purple fabric for ? (I just liked the color), some 32 count lambswool linen, and piece of blue handyed fabric again for ? project. So overall I was a very good stash junkie. Now I just hope that I don't give into any cravings during this next year!

On to the most exciting part of the trip...drumroll...I got to meet stichers while out in California. TKDchick was in San Diego very briefly and so was I. Yippeee!!! That is one stitcher I had never thought I would get a chance to meet due to the whole living in two different countries thing. I also got to meet some of the California stitchers at the zoo. Now the San Diego Zoo is one of my favorite places to go. My parents used to take me there all the time when I was growing up. It was one of the key inspirations for my interest in critters and science. I am a zoologist, thanks in great part to the zoo. I was totally thrilled that I got to go to one of my all time favorite places with stitchers! I got to meet Branch52 and JillJinCa and hang out with them at the zoo along with TKDchick and Persian Pen Name. It was soo totally awesome! What could be better than a day filled with critters and stitchers? I enjoyed listening to Branch52 and Persian Pen Name discuss their mutual obsession with sheepies. Jill took her son to the zoo. It is so much fun watching a child at the zoo. They run everywhere and want to see everything...such beautiful thing to observe. I consider myself lucky that I got meet those fellow stitchers.

I took Persian Pen Name to the Stephen Birch Aquarium located on the University of California, San Deigo's campus. Say hi to the Sea Star! My Best Friend went with us. She is a total fish (and bird) freak. Her husband is the founder and owner of a sucessful aquarium business in San Diego. So we learned lots of fish stuff from her.

This weekend I am having a get together at my home in Texas. I get to meet more stitchers! This is a month for meeting people. I am stoked. For years I felt very isolated with my hobby and then I discovered the Bulletin Boards and have gotten to interact with lots of great people. The stiching/crafting community is full of so many nice and kind hearted people. They have really spoiled me. I have a hard time hanging out on non-stitching BB now due to all the nastiness, immaturity, and cruelty that isn't really present on the stitching boards (yes there are good non stitching BBs out there but permit me my sweeping generalizations). So kudos to y'all.
Egads. I almost forgot about Bernardo, the Stash Devil. He is a stuffed Tasmanian Devil that I picked up at the zoo. Observe as he watches over the stash haul!

Hastur has been sick

In the last post I mentioned how busy I was. Well this past month as been worse...not in workload...but in health. I have a chronic health problem that came to head a few weeks ago. So I got to see my doctor about having certain test done which I am able to do. She also recommends, however, that I get over an hour of exercise 6 days a week. I had been doing a half hour a day on regular basis but apparently I need to do more. So now I have to drag my exhausted carcass to the park everyday for over an hour and take the dachshund walking. He loves it of course...traitor. My specialist supports my doctors exercise position. In addition I had to spend the night in clinic. That was loads of fun. Screwed my sleep for the next week. On top of it all, I stepped on the plug of a hairdryer...at the same time I was announcing to the dachshund that we were going for one of the WALKS. I was unable to walk on it for days because of the lovely puncture wound. In summary I have been on sick and exhausted stitcher who was occansionally in a tremendous amount of pain. So I hope this explains my absence from my Bulletin Boards and this blog.

So onto why you come here- THE STITCHING
I had set some modest goals for the month of Feb. none of which were accomplished.
1. Finish Ori the Ouroborus- Only worked on her a little bit
2. Finish border for Mystery Sampler III- Almost done. I will finish it later when I am less tramatized with the insanly larger border this was. I just need to finish the eyelets (from hell- 64 of those buggers left), metallic flosses, and beading. I don't want to finish the beading until I am done with the bottom halfs so my floss doesn't catch on them.
3. Finish part II of the Mystery Sampler. I got a quarter of the side vines finished and a single swan neck.
4. I started on Dragons of the Fire. Check out the hearth

Goals for March
1. Finish Ori
2. Finish Mystery sampler part I, II, and III with the exception of the beads
3. Work on Dragons by the Fire
4. Start and Finish Griffon book mark by Dracolair
5. Finish Mini Mandala IC
6. Finish Celtic Labyrinth

The last three are easily transported stitching projects. I am going visit my folks in So California on Friday. Yippee!!!! I get to meet some of the SD stitchers and even a Canadian one. I am totally stoked about this trip. I will also get to hang out with my best friend K of 20 years who I haven't seen for almost two years. I am giving her the L&L Autumn Angel kit. K's mom has a bunch of L&L angels all over her wall and K would like to do one for herself. K is also the person that I need to finish (well actually start) a seahorse stitching project for. The wedding gift for a wedding that was over two years ago. Go me!