Category Archives: Stitching

Financially speaking

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I just realized that I have not been including any tracking on my finances. When I started this blog it was to combine all areas of my life, and a major one is getting my debt paid off. It’s a little intimidating but I’m taking it one paycheck at a time. One of the reasons why I need to cut myself off in the stitching stash department. I seem to have all the other spending areas in my life under control.

I still have packages trickling in, which is helping me to not spend. The latest is Carriage House Samplings’ The Song They Sang. I purchased it as a “kit” so the fabric and NPI silks also arrived. Let me tell you, this is another one of those poor photographic efforts. The silks, 186, 302, 335, 336, 693, 767, 773, 957 and 998, are just beautiful and rich and the design is smaller than I thought it would be so this may be one of those “small starts” that I do this year. Definately sooner rather than later since I also ordered the frame at a discount but it won’t arrive until February some time.

I’m trying to keep my wish list updated so if I do get a financial gift I have some place to look for inspiration. That said, we are probably going to be receiving a tax refund but it will go toward my debt.

Today I received the NPI list for Shores of Hawk Run Hollow 🙂 and have put it on my wishlist.

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Posted in Finances, Stash

What day is it?

Posted on January 23, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

One of the very few reasons I dislike days off work is that for the rest of the week following I have a hard time remember just what day it is! I should know today is Wednesday because I had a session with my PT last night (always Tuesday or Thursday) and Biggest Loser was on last night. I’ve had to look at the calendar every single time I’ve done something today because I cannot remember what day it is.

Last night was my last session with the PT for awhile. We sat down and discussed my carrying on but I’m going to wait awhile for 2 reasons: 1) I’m not prepared to put out that money right now, and 2) I’m starting to feel burned out. I talked to Kahuna last night and we’re going to try swimming in the evenings after supper. I feel too harried to get to the gym for a PT session or to swim before everyone else, or aqua classes. It’s taking the enjoyment away from me and right now I need all the “gym” enjoyment I can get since I’m having major foot pain. Swimming is my joy. Cycling on the other hand…well, I have just got to suck it up, Buttercup, and get my fat ass on that hard bike seat. So. Starting tomorrow, since I no longer have PT sessions, I’m going to be coming home, putting on my sexy, very thickly padded, but obviously not padded enough right now, bike shorts and getting on the ~~drainer~~ trainer. I’m going to take a timer with me and set it and each time I get on it, set for a longer time. I’m going to put that timer across the room where I cannot see it and watch the TV while I toughen up my posterior. Someone please hold me accountable to this!
In the stitching world, thank you for the comments on my pillow cover. I’ll decide this weekend what to do about the pillow that goes with it. I’m enjoying my current project and as usual am trying to remember why it’s taken me so long to get to it. It’s a fairly quick stitch, and it’s cute. I’ll try to post a progress picture tomorrow.

I have a dr. appt. this afternoon. Originally scheduled for my foot, I’m going to be talking to her about a couple of other issues, like my blood pressure meds. I’m looking forward to the check-in portion where they weigh you and take your vitals. I know there is going to be an improvement and I want to be sure to point that out to her.

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Posted in Fitness, Stitching

2008 stitching finish

Posted on January 22, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I finished The Best Things yesterday. Like I said I think it’s a lovely design, but was a pain to stitch. Another complaint is because it was already put together it was hard to figure out the exact center, and you can see I’m a bit off. I’m trying to decide if I want to order the pillow portion or attempt to make one of those as well.
The Best Things by Pine Mountain

I worked on my stitching spreadsheet some yesterday and decided upon 10 new starts fot 2008. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be starting them all but they’re ones I’ve had in my stash for a bit, and except for 2, they’re small designs to work on after I meet my FAS monthly goal. One of those designs is Au Fil des Reves’ Atelier de brodeuse (Stitching Room). I managed to stitch one of the little motifs before it was time for bed.

Back to the gym tonight to meet up with my PT. I’ll decide tonight whether to carry on or wait until we move. I have a dr. appt. tomorrow about my foot. It was reeeeeally bothering me yesterday after walking around and standing on concrete during Kahuna’s race. If I’m going to be in pain, it might as well be from activity that benefits me, but I’ll wait to see what the dr. appt. brings.

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Posted in Fitness, Stitching

Thank you MLK

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I’m one of those people who do not celebrate birthdays that give me a day off work, however, I very much look forward to the paid day off work they give me. This weekend has been a 4-day for me since I had to take a day of vacation to wait for maintenance people who never showed up. Our next door neighbor called the housing people and got a bit short with them when they told him they were a bit behind. He had driven the neighborhood before he called and told them that they might not be behind if they would work. Evidently they received a lot of complaints from our area because they called us this morning to set up an appointment to have the work done tomorrow morning. Kahuna informed them that he would be at the house until 11 then he was locking up the house.

Saturday we ran around doing our errands. Didn’t want to stay out too long since Kahuna had a half-marathon on Sunday morning plus we had a networking meeting that evening with the tri-club. I have been stitching on a Pine Mountain pillow, which is a lovely design, but a pain in the butt to work on because it’s already sewn together. I have convinced myself that I can make one of these so part of our errands Saturday included shopping for some fabric for me to try my hand at one, plus another couple of things that are surprises.

~~Bright and~~ early Sunday morning found me dressed as warm as I could be but shivering while waiting on Kahuna to start his race. Since I had 1 1/2 hours to kill while he was out there pounding the pavement I headed back to the car after the start where I bundled up in a blanket and started reading Becoming Jane Austen. (yes, I’m a wimp, why do you ask?) I have not seen the movie, and was expecting the book to be a fiction about her life. I am surprisingly happy with the book even though it is not a fiction. I was so glad the morning warmed up before I trotted back over to the finish line. The called Kahuna’s name over the loudspeaker which was a real surprise for the both of us. I have got to get a cowbell! He had a great finish time. This was a training run for his half-iron. The rest of the day we hung at the house watching football and me stitching and him snoozing off and on. We had pizza as his recovery food (he had beer too for the extra carbs) and grilled carne asada for supper.

So here it is halfway through Monday and all I’ve done is sleep until 8, go to the grocery store and surf the internet for awhile. I’ll be finishing my Pine Mountain pillow today, enjoying what’s left of my free day off (thank you MLK) and daydreaming about the next person who give me a paid day off, Abraham Lincoln.

But before I do that here’s my French Alphabet Sampler after the 4th page.

FAS - 4th page finished

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Posted in Races, Stitching

Today is my Friday

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

and I’m soooo happy it is.

Last night’s trip to the gym kicked my butt. My behind only lasted 3 miles on the bike and then I headed to the pool where I swam the majority of my swim with 5-stroke breathing. I had to slow myself down because for some reason I’ve been getting in a panic that I need to hurry up and get to the wall. I also managed to swim 100 yards without stopping. Kahuna thinks I’m not pushing myself to my limits.

I came home wiped out. Kahuna was supposed to meet me there to swim but he had played golf with his old unit and walked in the door just as I got to the gym. He stood me up. I was starving and was hoping the soup I had made the night before was heating on the stove but he had forgotten about it. We went out.

I had a stash package waiting for me when we got home. Sheepish Designs is retiring so I ordered some patterns I had on my wish list: Ewe Alone, Eagle, Token of Love, Winghaven and a Sunflower Sampling design Home is Best. I can’t seem to find a link to the last ~~two~~ one right now.

I spent my 15 minutes in the office last night cleaning up stuff on the desktop.

So, what am I going to do tomorrow:

Stitch on something – I’ll make a decision on whether to start something new or now. I’ve decided that if I do start something new it will be one of the designs I already have completely kitted. Less trouble, and I really don’t need to be starting something that I have to go and buy floss for.
Spend 30 minutes decluttering my office – I may haul the shredder in there and work on my school file cabinet. It will make room for stuff I’ve been storing on top of my desk.
Spend 15 minutes decluttering another room in my house.
Laundry – it would be nice if I could get it all done and not have to even think about it for the rest of the weekend.
Go to the gym.

Tonight is my last regular scheduled meeting with my personal trainer. We’re going to sit down and decide what I need/want for the future and maybe schedule more sessions.

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Posted in Stash, Training

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

Finally!

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I finally went back to the gym tonight!

I finally got all my DMC organized!

Carry on.

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Posted in Fitness, Stitching

Friday! Woohoo!

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

No meeting with PT last night. Don’t know why I haven’t heard from her either. That seems to be how things are going for me lately. My manicurist, who has been a friend for 5+ years flaked on me too, and even though I’ve called her 4 times, no return call. I try to give people a 2nd chance, but I think this pretty much wraps up that relationship.

I don’t know why I didn’t just go ahead and hit the gym last night. I’m having a heck of a time getting my mojo back. Kahuna will be getting up bright and early to surf tomorrow morning so I’m putting in a ~~drag my lazy azz out of bed~~ wakeup call in with him to go in the morning.

It looks like I’m way ahead of schedule to finish the 4th page of French Alphabet Sampler (probably because I’m being lazy in the fitness department and have spent it stitching instead). In fact, I might even knock it out tonight, depending on what happens when I get home from work, if not definately this weekend. I’ve decided that since I met that stitching goal, I’ll go ahead and start a small something or other for the rest of the month.

I did start pulling DMC for A Parrot, A Leopard, A Lion last night. The blues are so vivid! I could not believe how many of the colors I didn’t have though. Looking for them forced me to spend some organizing time in my office as well and I’m half-way through converting my DMC over from plastic shoeboxes to the drawers I put in my stash cabinet. The time consuming part of that is making the little labels for the drawers.

I need to make a trip to Joann’s this weekend anyway since my bulb in my OTT finally burned itself out a couple of days ago. I cannot believe it lasted 5 years. I’m fortunate to have 2 floor lamps so I just switched the bulb out of the other one, but need to get it replaced before I forget. I’ll pick up the other DMC as well.

This week’s SBQ is an easy one for me.

What was your favorite finish of 2007? I only had 1 finish in 2007 and it was almost a 2006 finish. The Token. It’s the #1 item on my to-be-framed list and that will happen this year since I’m entering it in the county fair.

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Posted in Fitness, SBQ, Stitching

Stitching Stash

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

The stash that I’ve ordered over the past couple of weeks has started trickling in. Over the past couple of days I have received Au Fil de Reves – Chatelaine Promenade a Bagatelle, Moira Blackburn – Friendship Sampler, and Scarlet Letter – A Parrot, A Leopard, A Lion.

While they all 3 are lovely, I sat and drooled over the Scarlet Letter design for an hour last night. The colors are absolutely beautiful and exactly what I want in our new bedroom. It’s stitched over 1 on 35 count, but I’m going to do it over 2 on 40 count. The cream colored background is also completely stitched, but I’m going to use a cream colored distressed linen instead and save myself all that stitching. I want to start it now, but first I need a trip to the string shop to by DMC. Naturally, the SL design also came with an update to their catalog which showed a picture of The Piping Shepherd, which I fell in love with too. He’ll have to wait awhile though.

Kahuna got a new toy last night. A hula girl lamp. I can’t quite decide if I like her or consider her really tacky, but she was assembled and hula-ing away while I was enjoying my pamphlet. I’ll have to snap a photo. He did give me a bit of a hard time about buying stash, saying something about how he thought I wasn’t going to buy anymore, but I just laughed and said that was last year’s resolution. This year’s resolution is to buy everything I missed out on last year! Just kidding…sort of.

I have an appointment tonight with the personal tonight that I’m looking forward to and dreading all at the same time. I also have an appointment with the bike. 🙂

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Posted in Stash, Training

An unscheduled day off

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I went out to my car this morning and found it flooded inside 🙁

I put a towel in the seat on Sunday when I went to my WW meeting because I noticed the seal over the window had been dripping a bit. The towel is dripping this morning, and when I tried to dry off the seat water just kept creeping to the top. This distresses me on several levels. My seats are leather and heated and I’m worried the water may ruin them; I cannot drive it in this condition (there’s also water leaked into the trunk on the same side, plus my floorboards are also wet). We had horrendous winds off and on this weekend and I know it’s pushed the rain into my car. This is one of the downsides to having a convertible. Plus it rarely rains here so I’m sure the seals between the top and the window dry out somewhat which causes it to drip when it does rain heavily. I’m just glad the top itself doesn’t leak.

Kahuna started his new commute this morning at 6, so I’m stranded at the house unless I want to drive my flooded car, or take his Harley, which would muss up my hair 😉

The downer is I cannot drive it to the gym either so that means instead of going early before the major crowds of people who get off at 5 are there, I’ll be going with Kahuna tonight after we eat….it’ll take some arm twisting though since the college superbowl is tonight! Geaux Tigers!

Guess what I’m going to do today with all this unexpected free time….stitch! and watch my West Wing DVD from Netflix, right after I finish the end of Pride and Prejudice. I managed to get and 1/3 of the 4th page stitched yesterday 🙂

Happy Monday.

P.S. Before I forget…I’m changing my email address. We will be moving shortly and I want to make sure I get it all switched over. So when you get a response to your comments to me, it’ll be from my new address.