Category Archives: Goals

2012 Stitching Thoughts

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday didn’t go as I thought it would. It started out as any other day — get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Quadrantids meteor shower, go back to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m., fall down steps from kitchen to family room, nearly faint from the pain of falling down, while trying to not freak M out too much when I yelled for him….yeah, not so much what I had planned. Spent as much time as possible getting up and down all day so I wouldn’t get too stiff. Was shaky all day and very thankful that the worst injury seemed to be to my pride. Don’t know exactly what damage I did but when I finally came to a rest I was sitting on my butt with my left leg bent out to the side of me. I heard a loud pop when I fell and was scared to death to move afterward, thus my yelling for M, who was still upstairs sleeping. In the end, I hurt my right palm, left wrist, left knee, left ankle, and my neck and shoulders were stiff. This morning I’m stiff, but not feeling anything like I was worried I would be feeling. I’m moving sort of slow and walking around like an old lady, but I’m up and about, and not going to miss going to my Thursday evening stitchin or to Vegas next week.

Now, for the original reason behind this post:

As shown by my ort jars for 2011, I had several months where I barely touched any of my stitching. Even then, I stitched more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I’m hoping, now that I’m no longer working, that I can at least double the amount of stitching in 2012!

For the past couple of weeks while unpacking my stash, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2012. It’s been fun reading what other stitchers are hoping to accomplish and nice to know I’ll be in good company whether or not I succeed. I think I do better with goals, or rather putting down what I’d like to see happen, on “paper.” Sometimes I get caught up in the crowd mentality and forget what I wanted to do if I don’t have some sort of written plan to bring me back to earth!

So, for 2012 I plan on:

Get back to blogging more frequently. I stitch more when I blog. I am a horrible photographer, but I enjoy sharing my stitching just like everyone else!
Get back to rotating my stitching and tracking my time. I know a lot of people think this is too much work but when I was doing it before I felt such a sense of accomplishment and I seemed to stitch more, just like when I blog more.
Stick to my WIPocalypes goals and keep my page updated.
Post to the Theme-a-licious challenge as often as my rotation works into it.
Post my monthly TUSAL.
Participate in at least 6 Fair and Square exchanges.
Finish out all 6 received Fair and Square exchanges. I plan on taking advantage of the great finishing tutorials in bloggy land.
Stitch 3 Santa ornaments for my Santa display.
Take at least 1 stitching related class.
Finish logging my charts into my spreadsheet.
Start organizing my freebies.
Organize my magazine designs.

When I read back over my list I feel like I’ve set an extremely overloaded year for myself and am so tempted to “downsize” that list.

What I don’t plan on doing….depriving myself. I don’t handle deprivation well. Just see how I respond when you try to take chocolate away from me — and it never fails that just as soon as I say “I’m not going to buy anymore stash until I stitch ____ number of pieces” someone publishes something I can’t live without. I’m just going to take it month by month. Or maybe, newsletter by newsletter 😉

I have non-stitching goals this year too! But those, I’m keeping to myself.

I picked up Peacock Tapestry Tuesday and immediately remembered why it became a UFO instead of a WIP.

Back in 1999, when I first started it, gridding was something new to the stitching world. I didn’t grid before I started it and while I love stitching on it, the backstitching is what got me. I have requested a copy of the backstitching chart. I tried to backstitch it Tuesday, but gave up. Yesterday I started stitching on it, but decided the smart thing for me to do is to grid it. So, that’s where I’m at. I’m 5+ hours into it this rotation. I’ll finishe the gridding during this time, and get some more stitching done, too. Next time I pick it up I should have the backstitching chart and I’ll go back to that before adding more stitches.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to take it with me tonight if I don’t finish up the 10 hours by then, or to take Hannah Beeby again, since she’s so “easy.”

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Posted in Goals, Hannah Beeby, Injury, Peacock Tapestry

January's "goal" progress report

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

I don’t think I set any monthly goals and I don’t know if I’m going to. I think what I’d rather do is just post progress reports for myself on my goals for this year. So here’s where I am so far:

1. Actual Stitching

What I want: Mirabilia Summer Queen – I’m already stitching this and it has to be finished and framed by mid-May in order to be entered into the fair. I’m thinking I may stitch on this every Saturday and Sunday as well as devoting a full week to it. The rest of the items I’ll stitch on Monday – Friday.

Where I am: I have faithfully stitched on Summer Queen every Saturday and Sunday, plus 1 week (this past week). I’m pleased with my progress so far.

What I want: Carriage House Houses of Hawk Run Hollow – It will satisfy more than one ‘requirement’ for my rotation. There are 12 blocks and I am going to attempt to stitch one a month. I have a yard size piece of 40 ct Vintage Maple Sugar already in my stash, and I have been collecting the NPIs over the past year for this design and the Village. Just need to measure twice, cut once, surge and go!(Fortunately, the other two HRH designs have not tempted me, but I hear there’s an autumnal design in the works and I may be in B.I.G. trouble when it comes out.)

Where I am: I started this design but switched to Vintage Sand Dune. Since Kathy announced Autumn of Hawk Run Hollow is going to be on Sand Dune, I’m really glad I did. I don’t know if I am too ambitious, or if my preparing my fabric put me behind, but I didn’t get the first block finished.

What I want: Glory Bee Flying Monkies – new and small. I want to put this over my desk at work so I can just point to it 🙂

Where I am: I finished this and it’s sitting on my desk right this second. I purchased fabric and fibers for finishing yesterday and it’s going in the mail today to be finished off! Woohoo! This stitching slot will be filled by Home of a Needleworker, Too!

What I want: With My Needle Quaker Needlework Treasures – this has been around for over a year (I think even over 2!) and will fall into the ‘smalls’ category. I will decide whether or not to attempt the actual finishing once I get all the stitching done. I may just ‘farm’ it out. I do have everything for all the parts, etc., kitted.

Where I am: I made such great progress on this project this month. I am going to start looking for someone to finish it for me. I’ll first contact the sweet lady who’s doing the work on Flying Monkeys to see if she’s interested. If I happen to finish the stitching on this design during February, I’ll probably be slotting in another already started “necessities” project. If I don’t have one, then I’ll be starting a new one from my stash, that’s already kitted.

2. Framing –

What I want: Most of the designs I would like to see framed this year will be going on a ‘sampler wall’ in my bedroom. I am aiming for at least 6 designs.

Where I am: I have Token of Love ready to go to the framers, I’m just waiting on them to have a sale.

3. Stash Enhancement – I have myself on a stitching budget. I am going to try really, really hard to not purchase anything but we all know how that usually goes 😆 so I’m budgeting. I have tons of fabric, so really can’t see myself buying any of that in the future and am going to try to stitch as much from my stash as possible. One thing that has worked for me in the past is to trade for things. I may try that when I start on #4 below.

Where I am: I knew going in this one was going to be hard on me. I’m doing better than I thought I would though. I did make some purchases, but when it came to kitting a new design, I switched fibers to make sure I could stitch as much as possible from my stash. I think in future months, I’m going to list everything I buy so I can see just how *bad* I’m being 😉

4. Stash Downsizing – I am going to be thinning out my stash. I have some fibers to get rid of (anyone need to purchase the complete set of Vikki Clayton silks for HoHRH?) and I even want to sell some of my fabric. I know I have some duplicates in charts to weed through, plus my tastes have changed over the past 30+ years. I’ll be doing a lot of eBaying (user name is mcbcpsdca) and will post here when new stuff is going up and may even post things for trade before putting them up on eBay.

Where I am: I suppose stitching from my stash falls into this category somewhat. I did pass my Flying Monkeys on to another stitcher for a cup of coffee! 😆 I have started pulling things and listing them on my blog and linking to them on my photopage.

So that’s where I am. I need to post a photo of Summer Queen (was too tired to drag the camera out last night) and a before picture of Home of a Needleworker, and post the fiber changes I’m making. I can’t believe it’s Monday already. Saturday was spent up north stitching with friends all day, and Sunday was errand day. I really don’t like weekends like this past one because I feel like I don’t get any downtime, even though I’m spending all day Saturday stitching.

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Posted in Carriage House Samplings, Framing, Goals, Mirabilia, Stitching, With My Needle

Stitchy Saturday

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

Stitchy Saturday happened at my house instead of at the LNS. I just didn’t feel well enough to subject the others attending to what I may still have. So instead I played in my stash to help me with my stitching goals and then I stitched.

I think I have come to some firm goals:

1. Actual Stitching

Mirabilia Summer Queen – I’m already stitching this and it has to be finished and framed by mid-May in order to be entered into the fair. I’m thinking I may stitch on this every Saturday and Sunday as well as devoting a full week to it. The rest of the items I’ll stitch on Monday – Friday.

Carriage House Houses of Hawk Run Hollow – It will satisfy more than one ‘requirement’ for my rotation. There are 12 blocks and I am going to attempt to stitch one a month. I have a yard size piece of 40 ct Vintage Maple Sugar already in my stash, and I have been collecting the NPIs over the past year for this design and the Village. Just need to measure twice, cut once, surge and go!(Fortunately, the other two HRH designs have not tempted me, but I hear there’s an autumnal design in the works and I may be in B.I.G. trouble when it comes out.)

Glory Bee Flying Monkies – new and small. I want to put this over my desk at work so I can just point to it 🙂

With My Needle Quaker Needlework Treasures – this has been around for over a year (I think even over 2!) and will fall into the ‘smalls’ category. I will decide whether or not to attempt the actual finishing once I get all the stitching done. I may just ‘farm’ it out. I do have everything for all the parts, etc., kitted.

Once Summer Queen is finished I’ll probably add in my French Alphabet Sampler or La Marquoir de Justine. I really would like for the two of them to be finished and framed this year.

2. Framing – Most of the designs I would like to see framed this year will be going on a ‘sampler wall’ in my bedroom. I am aiming for at least 6 designs.

So for now, that’s it! And can I just say that with all the football that’s on TV, this feels like Sunday to me so I feel like I’m getting a free day for stitching tomorrow ! !

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Posted in Carriage House Samplings, Glory Bee, Goals, Mirabilia, With My Needle

Woohoo 2010 is here and I have a plan.

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

I don’t know where 2010 is going to take me yet as far as where I’ll be living at the end of this year. Kahuna is still not being decisive on whether or not he’s retiring or extending his enlistment to his 30 year EAS. If he doesn’t extend he’ll be retired on October 17, 2010. If he does extend he’ll be retired on January 12, 2012.

One thing I’m definitely doing this year is keeping my checkbook balanced. I made this a ‘resolution’ a couple of years ago and stuck to it faithfully. I was so impressed with how much money I had when I was keeping track of it. I quit doing it when I took my current job. I don’t know why, it just happened, and I am constantly transferring money from savings to checking and back again. This is stopping today. I have some financial goals I want to meet by the 10/10/10. If Kahuna decides to retire this year, then that is hopefully the first day of my new job….Kept Woman.

As to my weight, well I do have some thoughts but can’t exactly get them down until I have my surgery date. I’ll revisit that issue at that time.

I’m thinking really hard about making some stitching goals for 2010. I’ve stitched more this week than I think I have all of 2009. I’ve found myself not wanting to read and have grabbed a cup of coffee and my needle as fast as I could every morning. So here are some thoughts to help me gel a plan:

One of the things I keep promising myself is to frame more of my finished work. There’s really no excuse for this to not happen this year since Kahuna has said he’s more than happy to finance it. I did pull The Token out earlier this week to trim it down and surge the edges.

I’m thinking I need to get back to rotating. I’ve been thinking of a 4-5 item rotation: Large, Small, Old, New, or something similar. I love charts with salt box houses and American flags, so I may make these one of my categories. I also have a ton of ‘smalls’ charts/kits. Maybe AmFlag-House, Old, New, Smalls…ack! I don’t know, but I do need to clear up some ‘old’ projects. I have many projects that only have a few stitches in them. They’re from my craziness of starting tons of new projects during the month of January in years past. I pull them out and look at them periodically and still like them and would like to get more stitching done on them.

I’ve posted on my facebook, but I’ll put here that both puppies have been sick. I think they have puppy stomach flu or something. I got Jasper well (after a trip to the Vet), and Harley was up all night long with it. It’s making for a very tired me and Kahuna.

Tomorrow is Stitchy Saturday and I’ll post a progress picture of Summer Queen after that.

Happy New Year all.

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Posted in Goals

Plans for March

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I will be glad when March is over. I admit to getting a little tired of Kahuna’s training taking priority over everything, even though I understand why it is so.

I’m trying to get my act back together this month by making me the primary focus. I know it’s probably going to take some juggling to keep doing everything I want to do, but I’m going to give it my all. I’ve slacked off in a lot of areas lately, and I’ll be taking steps to get it all back under control.

I will actively look for another job.
I will get back to WW meetings, faithfully.
I will get back to eating better, faithfully.
- 1 free day a week. Period.
- 1 fully vegetarian day a week.
I will get back to the gym, faithfully, and build up to:
- Walk 3x a week
- Swim 3x a week.
- Bike 2x a week.
I will continue plugging away at my finances. I’ve divided everything out and know that if I continue on the path I’m on now I can easily be ready to retire on Kahuna’s retirement date, if I decide to go that route at that time.
I will continue to stitch in my stash as much as possible.
- I will get The Token framed. The fairgrounds has already notified me about this year’s entries.
- I will get my TSL patterns up for sale.
- This month’s stitching goals include:
  - Start stitchalong for Hannah Beeby
  - Next lesson on Ann Holewll
  - Page 5 & 6 on French Alphabet Sampler
  - if any time left over, start Flying Monkies

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Posted in Fitness, Goals, Stitching

February finally coming to an end

Posted on February 29, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

Man this month has felt long to me. Then again I can’t believe tomorrow is March! The year is going okay, so far!

February’s Goals:

Stitching: Finish the 5th page of French Alphabet Sampler. Finish the 1st 3 bands of Ann Holewll; reveal what I’ve been up to. The reveal was Melissa’s birthday bourse and meal ;). I did finish 1-3 on Ann Holewll, but didn’t get the 5th page of FAS done because I took time out to stitch on a RR.

Fitness: Doctor appointment Feb. 4. Do whatever doc thinks is necessary to get myself back on track for my triathlon training. Maintain weight. The doc has me sleeping in a brace and wearing orthotics. I’m having some trouble with both and am working on it. Maintain weight! 😆

Professional: Continue working on personnel and accounting records. Slowly but surely. However, I have started actively looking for a new position.

Other: Continue to work 15 minutes reorganizing my home office. I did excellent in this until this week. I haven’t done anything. I’ll start back tonight though and continue into March with this. The room is looking a LOT better.

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Posted in Goals

And it's February!

Posted on February 1, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

We had a great time at our tri-club meeting last night. Kahuna picked me up from work and when we got there ~~100~~ a lot of boxes of pizza were arriving. It was staged outside, brrrr cold, but the pizza was nice and warm and the people were very welcoming. We have been to 2 networking meetings, but this was our first monthly meeting (which was held inside). They had several announcements, one of which was a list of who the sponsors are for the club, and let me tell you, the club is WELL sponsored. They also held raffles for ~~several~~ many great prizes (several gift certificates and a wetsuit come to mind). After the announcements we had a guest speaker – Sam McGlone. She is cute as a bug, and I had a wonderful time listening to how she got to Kona.

On the way home I received a call from Melissa that her sister’s husband had been killed in a weather related car accident. My heart is just breaking for her because she’s so worried for her sister and the children. Please pray for them all.

This morning, I’ve spent a nice quiet hour at work getting caught up. Now, it’s noisy and I’m feeling cranky and I’m so glad that it’s Friday. In addition to being payday, I’m looking forward to getting home and reading the stash I received in the mail last night. We got home too late for me to do anything except rip the envelope/box open and get excited about starting a new project!

In addition to this quarter’s SANQ, I received Drawn Thread’s Random Thoughts and Souvenir Sampler. Both have been wants for a long time and I was able to get them both fully kitted at a great discount from someone who was selling her mother’s “estate” stash.

I also received my Ann Holewll kit for the stitch-along that’s happening through the With My Needle newsletter. The silks are just scrumptious looking and I can’t wait to get home to start reading the directions and baste my fabric. The first lesson is up and I need to do the first three bands this month. Between this, and FAS, and that little something I’ve been up to I’m hoping I haven’t tried to stretch myself too far for the month.

February’s Goals:

Stitching: Finish the 5th page of French Alphabet Sampler. Finish the 1st 3 bands of Ann Holewll; reveal what I’ve been up to.

Fitness: Doctor appointment Feb. 4. Do whatever doc thinks is necessary to get myself back on track for my triathlon training. Maintain weight.

Professional: Continue working on personnel and accounting records.

Other: Continue to work 15 minutes reorganizing my home office.

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Posted in Ann Holewll, FAS, Goals, Stash

January is over?

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

How the heck did we get to the last day of January already? At the rate this month passed me by, I’ll be setting down my 2009 goals in a heartbeat.

I’m thrilled by all the interest in Hannah Beeby. And it’s been so nice to hear from so many of you. I think since there’s interest in a weekly and weekend only stitchalong, I’ll set it out for a week, and those who can only stitch on Fri, Sat, and Sun., can join in at the end of the week. How does starting March 24th sound? Would you like for me to set up a separate blog for progress photos? If so, I can do that early so we can start sharing fabric and fiber choosing woes! Please post a comment and let me know your preferences.

Am I the only person (besides Darla) that will stress over deciding on fabric and fibers?? I’m determined to stitch from my stash so I think I’ll do some sample stitching with the fibers I pick out to see what they’ll look like together. I would hate to get really far in and discover I don’t like the way my fibers look.

The puppies had their shots and heartworm checks yesterday and with the exception of me being fussed at for not keeping their nails short enough (this was a stab to my heart that I wasn’t taking proper care of them!) they are in excellent very spoiled puppy health. They were very glad to get back home.

Since I have a meeting tonight after work, I know I won’t have anything more to contribute toward my goals for January, so I think I’ll do my recap today and set down February’s goals tomorrow.

For January I said:

Fitness goal 1: this month I’m in a cycling challenge. My goal is to cycle 78 miles. My first ride is tomorrow. Most of this month’s riding will probably be on a trainer. Well this didn’t happen. My heel ended up sending me to the doctor who said she preferred I not do any activity until I see a podiatrist, told me to wear inserts and gave me naproxen to take twice a day.

Fitness goal 2: do not miss a WW meeting and lose 6 pounds. I did miss 2 meetings. I forgot when I set this goal that I had plans for 2 Sunday mornings this month. I also didn’t lose 6 pounds because of the naproxen. For some reason when I take it I retain water. Add that to no activity, and well, I’m just glad I didn’t GAIN 6 pounds instead.

Stitching: complete page 4 of French Alphabet Sampler. Post picture when page 3 finished. Woohoo, I actually accomplished some goals! I did post a picture and I did finish page 4. In fact, I finished page 4 so fast, that I was able to start and finish 1 design and start and almost finish a 2nd design. But since I’m up to something secret I got a bit sidetracked and didn’t finish the 2nd design. I’ll get it finished after my February FAS goal of page 5. 😉

Professional: this is the new addition to my goals for 2008. Revamp personnel and accounting records. Scan in client billing records. NOTE: This will take more than a month to accomplish. I actually got all of the billing records scanned in (shocker!) and have started on the accounting and personnel records. I still have much to do in that department though, so this will be added to next month’s goals.

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Posted in FAS, Fitness, Goals, Hannah Beeby, Puppies

Getting back to normal

Posted on January 16, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I spent an hour at the gym last night. I was actually very disappointed when my PT session was over, even though she kicked my butt. We talked a bit about my goals and Thursday (my last session with her) we’re going to sit down and work up a plan. I may extend my sessions with her since she said I could transfer them to another center if I move.

I managed 5 miles on the bike last night. My behind isn’t as sore as I thought it would be, but that was on the lifecycle. Tonight I’ll be back on it before I swim and then when I get home I’m going to get on the trainer and see how that feels. That’s where the most bruising is occurring because of the position of the saddle to my sitbones. My legs hold out just fine, which is still surprising.

Looks like I’m going to get an extra long weekend this weekend. We have housing maintenance coming on Friday to install garage door openers. They’re installing them in the whole neighborhood. We got notice a little over a week ago and after we talked about it I thought Kahuna was going to be there, but this morning he told me he was not going to be able to, so I’m taking the day off. It’ll be a nice weekend, with a tri-club meeting on Saturday night, Kahuna’s half-marathon on Sunday morning, football Sunday afternoon, and stitching.

I’ve been really good about getting my routine back into swing this week. I feel really good about it too. I’ve been trying to declutter my house 15 minutes at a time every evening. I’m focusing on my office during the week and will hit the other rooms on the weekends. The first room is my kitchen. My pantry is a disaster. I try to toss out a couple of things every weekend when I grocery shop, but it’s so crammed full right now I don’t know what we actually have in there. I need to get a better handle on that to make sure we continue to eat healthy.

No stitching last night. I need to take a photo of FAS since I’ve finished the 4th page. I still haven’t decided on what smaller thing to start or even if I want to start something else. I’m really enjoying watching it grow, letter by letter. Part of me feels like I should grab another WIP. Decisions, decisions. Maybe laziness will help me since if I continue on with FAS I won’t have to make that decision or get any supplies together 😉

It’s half way through the month (and week) and I can report that I’m doing well on my monthly goals. I still have a lot of miles to catch up, but I’m cycling away toward my 78 miles. I haven’t missed a WW meeting and have lost some weight. I’ve completed page 4 of FAS and posted a photo after I finished the 3rd page. And professionally, I have been plugging away on the revamping of the records. I purged a bunch of stuff from past years and have almost all of our accounts payable files in one drawer, and alphabetized. They were by category and it was always hard to find something that wasn’t used very often. There’s still a lot to do toward that goal though.

It’s back to the gym tonight for a 5 mile ride and a 400 yard swim.

Happy hump day!

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Posted in Fitness, Goals, Stitching

January Goals

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I figure since it’s a new year, I’m going to try something new with my monthly goals. Before I do that, I want to look back at December:

Fitness goal 1: I’m in a swim challenge right now. My goal is to swim 3,550 ~~meters~~ yards.

Fitness goal 2: stick with my training.

Stitching: Continue working on French Alphabet Sampler as often as possible.

I managed to swim 2800 of the 3550 yards I set for myself in the swim challenge. I would have easily exceeded it if it were not for the head cold I managed to catch. This also has kept me from sticking completely to my training schedule, but except for that week, I’m hanging in there. As to stitching, I’ve been a stitching fool these past several days. I have a counting error in FAS, but it’ll work out in the end, I hope.

For January:

Fitness goal 1: this month I’m in a cycling challenge. My goal is to cycle 78 miles. My first ride is tomorrow. Most of this month’s riding will probably be on a trainer.

Fitness goal 2: do not miss a WW meeting and lose 6 pounds.

Stitching: complete page 4 of French Alphabet Sampler. Post picture when page 3 finished.

Professional: this is the new addition to my goals for 2008. Revamp personnel and accounting records. Scan in client billing records. NOTE: This will take more than a month to accomplish.