Category Archives: Work

The postman has been kind

Yesterday I came home to a wonderful box from Vonna!  It was late when I got home (side trip to the grocery store) and I was too tired to open it.  I sent Flying Monkeys to her for finishing and she did a bang up job.  I was tickled pink by the photos she sent me but they were nothing to the actual piece.  Kahuna was there when I opened the box tonight and he likes it too!

These are the pictures she took (her photography efforts are better than mine!):

I highly suggest you think of Vonna if you need some finishing.  I have been reluctant to stitch so many ornaments because of my poor finishing skills, but now Vonna better watch out, she may have let loose a monster!  😆

The next package I got arrived tonight.  I mentioned on February 14th that I had ordered some more stash.  It was originally requested in January but was never ordered.  I fell in love with Rosewood Manor’s Quaker Diamonds when Becky featured it on her blog as a giveaway.  I wasn’t crazy about the fibers though until I found out from Melissa and Margaret Bendig that they also came in 6 strand floss.  I did a little internet research and found both the pattern and the fibers on sale at Anita’s Little Stitches.  I’ve been reading this lady’s blog for awhile and took a chance placing my first order with her.  I did this over the long weekend and couldn’t be happier with the customer service.  The only reason I didn’t have it earlier was because Monday was a mail holiday.  Let me tell you the Valdani fibers are scrumptious!  This will be high up on my to-do list.  I also ordered LIttle House Needleworks’ Battle Hymn of the Republic to add to my American flag designs.

Work is crazy.  A new person started this past Monday and between helping her learn the ropes and trying to learn new ways to do things myself I feel like I’m running in circles.  Throw in the fact that I’m still sick (8 days now!) and I’m exhausted in the evenings when I get home. 

I got an email from the Fair yesterday telling me when entries were going to start being accepted and they’ve moved it up from May to March!  Eeeeek!  Looks like I’ll be doing a bit of exclusive stitching on Summer Queen to get her ready.

Jasper is 100% officially mine!  We went over to his foster mom’s Tuesday evening and retrieved all of his clothes (yes, he has clothes) and toys.  Poor baby had 2 toys.  You should have seen him when he unearthed his hedgehog.  He was a crazy man and didn’t want to share!  Harley is in love with one of his fleece ‘jammies’ and we’re going to be getting her one or two to wear.  My change in attitude toward him has made a huge difference in how I’m feeling about him.  He really is a sweetheart (I know I keep saying that).  He just came in for an ear scritch 🙂

Guess I’d better get off the computer and settle in for some Olympic stitching.  Ciao!

Things are not as they seem

First, my post below about us going to the superbowl….our team, not us personally 😉

I hate it when I have expectations about something and they don’t pan out.

I just knew I was going to get a ton of stitching done this week but that hasn’t happened.  Work has been crazy.  My hours were increased this week and I’m back to working full time.  While I know I’m going to enjoy the money, I really hate losing those 2 hours a day to stitch.  Doesn’t that just figure that I finally get my stitching mojo back and now I lose stitching time.  When I have been stitching, I keep getting interrupted.

As to work I can’t figure out how those 2 extra hours are helping me.  I’m spending tons of time waiting on stuff to download and process, etc., and not getting any substantive work done…or at least that’s how I feel.  I will say moving to the larger desk has helped.  I now have more desktop to sprawl over, and let me tell you I’m taking advantage of it! 😉

Tonight we’re taking the puppies out to the weekly street market.  They get a hotdog, love the socialization, always get lots of attention, and did I mention they get a hotdog.  In the summertime they get ice cream too.     Tonight they’re getting new clothes.  We’ve had a new harness made for Harley Quinn, and a martingale (same fabric, different color) for Jasper.  We’re celebrating that he’s officially ours.  I got the paperwork back from the rescue society on Tuesday 😀

I wish I had a stitching picture to share, but nope…I’m too lazy/tired to drag the camera out!  😆  I need to dig through my stash this weekend and figure out what I’m going to put in “Flying Monkeys'” stitchy spot.  I’ve got a stitchalong on Saturday and I’ll take FM with me, and then I’m sending it out for finishing…which reminds me, I need to answer an email about that.

Ciao.

Rain, rain, go away

We’re all a little stir crazy around here. It’s been raining non-stop for 5 days. We’ve even made national news, it’s been so wet! That being said, the angry ocean is so beautiful these days. I feel like standing on the beach, arms raised to the sky, and screaming as loud as I can. Great picture, huh! 😆 It’s 43 degrees right this minute and the sun is trying to shine. There are still some rain cells off our coast but hopefully they’ll stay away the rest of the weekend. We could use a break. I know it’s supposed to start back up again on Monday, but it would be nice to have a clear weekend.

Work

I was told yesterday that some changes needed to be done and was actually asked for my input. After our office discussion it was decided that I’m to be moved back to full-time and to take back over more of the work that has been outsourced. (This is a trial run and I have no idea how long it will last, but I’m hoping ‘forever.’) I have been kept dangerously out of the loop since we outsourced our dictation because I haven’t been seeing everything. I have been blessed with a very good memory but in the past month there’s been a lot of “I don’t know” and “I haven’t seen it” coming out of my mouth. That’s not a good thing when you’re in charge of calendaring and following up on deadlines for the Court – not to mention it drives me nuts if I have to say that. So I’m going in to work today to do some rearranging at my desk to make it easier for me to take over those additional duties. We’re also bringing in a once-a-week person to do our filing and work on our notebooks. Thank goodness!

Kahuna

He has a half-marathon scheduled for tomorrow. In addition to the rain we’ve been having this week, he also has a small ‘injury’ he’s dealing with. Something is bothering his calf and now he’s not sure he’s going to race tomorrow. He’s going to attempt a half hour run today to see how it’s doing. I think he’s been overtraining for the half-ironman (he’s running twice a day on most days), but he doesn’t think so. Whatever it is, I hope it clears up soon, since I know it’s bothering him.

Stitching

I am in love with HOHRH. I’ve seen several stitchers mention on their blogs that it was a ‘fun stitch’ but really had no idea what they meant by that until I started stitching it. I got off to a slow start since at the last minute I decided to put my name in the first block and it took some stitching and unstitching several times to get it where it is right now, and I’m still not completely happy with it! 😆 I’ve left off the date since I don’t know if I can get it done by the end of the year, but am thinking maybe I should have put it in there for more incentive to have it done. Anyway, I may go back and adjust my name later. I’m sad that I’m putting it away today for Summer Queen, but she does have a deadline. I’ll be stitching on her for 9 days this go-around.

The photo is a little darker that normal on my screen, but you can see the vintage look of the fabric really well.

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Free days aren't really

I have a love/hate relationship with extra days off work.

I hate that I only have 4 days to do 5 days work in, and add on to that the fact that my days are still only 6 hours long and I feel like I’m required to put in 8 hours of work, well, let’s just say that it makes me look all the more forward to the next weekend.  Since today is a no-pay day for me, I hate it for that reason as well.  I know I could use vacation time, but I’m saving it for my surgery recovery.

I love that I get an extra day for a weekend because I’m not rushed to get all my ‘chores’ done so I can sit to stitch, read, play with the puppies, watch stoopid stuff on TV.  I normally don’t have a ton of laundry because I do a load every night after work, but when I know I have a long weekend, I’ll put it off (I have no idea why my brain works this way) so today will be spent climbing Mt. Washmore (or rather getting to the bottom of the laundry barrel).  I have an extra day to do the grocery shopping.  I have an extra day to read/stitch.  I have an extra day to actually rest.

Today is an extra good extra day off because it’s raining.   We have some huge water headed our way.  People here do NOT know how to drive in the sprinkle, much less in the rain 😉  I’ll stay home (unless Kahuna drags me out to a movie or something). 

Today is a good day because I’m starting a new stitching project.  It was hard for me to actually stitch on Summer Queen yesterday and not start HOHRH 😀

So, before I get on to HOHRH, here’s my latest progress on Summer Queen.

Oh, and a word to the wise (which sometimes I’m not). When I pulled out my fabric to cut this morning I discovered 2 things. It was no longer a full yard (I cannot for the life of me remember when I cut it much less what I cut it for) and I had 2 pieces of 40 ct Vintage Sand Dune bagged and tagged already for HOHRH and VOHRH! This is what happens when you go on a mega-long stitching hiatus and have way too much stash. All I could think after my discovery was thank goodness I had the Sand Dune because I would have been one upset stitchy person if I didn’t have fabric like I thought I did.

Unexpected pleasures

I’ve had a very good all around week.

Work

Received a memo that I will definitely be doing mostly work for atty J! Woohoo! I was also told yesterday that I could move my stuff to the ‘big desk’ which means more spreading out room for me. I think it also means that someone else is going to be brought in. The case settled on Thursday, which means the attorneys are back in the office. Late yesterday afternoon head attorney said he wanted to close the office on Monday so I’m getting an unexpected three-day weekend!

Puppies

Have caught them several times snuggled up to each other 🙂

Stitching

I spent the better part of the past week working on Needlework Treasures. While it did stitch up faster than I thought, and I was further along that I remembered, it didn’t get finished this week. I’ll post a picture later, when I put it away and pull out Summer Queen.

I don’t know how much stitching I’ll get done on Summer Queen this weekend because I have been bitten by the stash bug. Not the buying one, the organizing one. I have been trying to post my stash on the picture portion of my webpage.  As of right this minute, this is how far I’ve gotten.  Oh my!  What a mistake this has been.  I have forgotten more than remembered what I have.  It’s almost like being turned loose in a stitching shop.  Part of me is tempted to see how long I could stitch without ever spending another dime…but what would be the fun in that.  I’m almost embarrassed by how much I have, though.

One design I’ve come across that I have forgotten was Industrious Ladies.  Such a beautiful thing. 

As I’ve been going through it, I’ve pulled out more stuff to sell.  I think instead of posting all of it on the page tab above, I’m going to list what I can on my webpage.  I’ll post updates here.

I’m really looking foward to my day off on Monday since I’ll be starting Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  I have the supplies to make up some thread drops and creating those is also going to put a dent in my Summer Queen stitching.  I’m not too worried about that though, since the next week will be devoted strictly to stitching on her.

Happy dancing

Kahuna
Today marks 28 years since Kahuna stood on the yellow bootprints at MCRD. It’s rather hard for me to believe that we’ve been married as long as we have, and that he’s been a Marine for this long. While it hasn’t always been easy, being a military wife, I wouldn’t give up a day of it. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of anything in my life, than being his wife.

Work
It’s so nice to be at work and have peace and quiet.  The attorneys are in trial and I’m slowing getting caught up.  I can already tell the difference just after one day.  I have grand plans of having the filing, supply ordering, and medical records updates all done by the time trial is over.

Puppies
They continue to bond.  Both are camera shy though so I don’t have pictures of some of their cutest moments.  I do have these tho:

Watching mom type

Just hanging out

Stitching
I have my first 2010 finish! I met with Melissa and Darla this past Saturday for an impromptu stitch-together. Thursday and Friday were rough at work and I needed some ‘me’ time and what better way to recharge than hanging out with your BSF (best stitchy friends). Since I was too pooped to stitch those nights, and was so close to finishing, I continued to work on Flying Monkeys and am thrilled to say that I finished it (I love that bat button!). I’m currently making arrangements to have it finished.

Flying Monkeys

When I got home Saturday night I immediately picked up Summer Queen and worked on her throughout the rest of the weekend when Kahuna and I weren’t out running errands.

Summer Queen

As soon as I hit ‘publish’ I’ll be off to work on this week’s project, With My Needle’s Quaker Needlework Treasures.

The storm before the calm

Work

It’s absolutely crazy in my office right now.  We have a trial starting on Monday and it’s the Attys first solo trial on a case we’ve had for 5 years.  It’s a really good case, and I think she’s really organized and ready.  There are always last minute details that crop up and that’s what we’re running around taking care of.  It’s a little stressful to me since I only work 6 hours a day.  I have an “if I could work those 2 extra hours a day things would get done” mentality.  We have another trial that starts immediately after this one and I’m still waiting to find out about subpoenas!  I have been pushing aside a bunch of work that I’m hoping to get caught up on over the next two-three weeks the attys are in trial.  I’ll be ready for this weekend!

Puppies

The dogs continue to bond.  Harley is feeling more comfortable around Jasper and becoming a bit more submissive to him.  She’s a little put out with us because her routine has changed somewhat but she’s adjusting.  Tonight we’re taking them both downtown for a walk around our weekly evening market.

Stitching

I’m more than half way through Flying Monkeys.  I think I’ll get it finished by tomorrow night, even with our trip out tonight.  I’m trying to decide whether or not to include the bat button or not.  I can’t remember if I said or not but I want it finished as a ‘door knocker.’

Flying Monkeys
Flying Monkeys

 

Kahuna is in half-ironman training mode. He’s running and biking almost every day, plus some days he’s running twice. He’s built himself a new roadbike that he’s training on at work (another Cervelo). I swear my garage looks like a sports shop between all the bikes, surfboards, workout equipment, spare parts etc. His surfmobile is down and out and he hasn’t been surfing for almost 2 months. Gasp! The latest thought from him on retirement is that he’s going to gather his paperwork and turn it in for an extension. Everyone hold your breath, ok? tee hee!

Still no word on my surgery date.

This might just work out

Puppies

I got home from work yesterday to two very happy puppies! It’s so much fun to walk in the door and be happy danced to death. Jasper was yipping at me and Harley was trying to climb up my leg. That’s the way it used to be when we had Bandit, and I missed it terribly when Harley didn’t meet me at the door. She did, however, take up watching for us out the front bedroom window. She’s a growly girl so we’ve nicknamed her Mrs. Bruiser Cravetz. Jasper has been nicknamed Mr. Prissy Pants, since he’s such a prissy momma’s boy. 🙂

Stitching

I got off my lazy heinie and trimmed The Token back last night and surged the edges. I’ll wait until I’m walking out the door to the framers before ironing it. Hopefully I can take it in this weekend.

I also cut, surged, and started stitching on Flying Monkeys last night. I’m thinking it’ll be finished by Friday. I guess I already need to start thinking about what to slide in its slot.

Work

Things at work were weird yesterday. Atty J told me that she told Atty D that he needs to hire someone to work strictly for him and let me start working strictly for her. She also told me what she wanted me to start doing for her, and I’m excited. Trying to not get my hopes up that it’ll happen, but we have two huge cases going to trial (one may settle beforehand) starting next week and that will free up a lot of time for me. I’ve spent a good part of this a.m. discussing the future with Atty J and I really hope it works out the way she wants it to because that means I’ll be strictly in litigation. Woohoo! maybe!

Lost, found, and wanted

I found my lost camera thingy not 5 minutes after I posted last night.  I also found a stack of designs (I quit counting at 16) — most of them were Little House Needleworks, Sheepish Designs, and Blackbird Designs.  They’re happily filed away where they belong.  The funny thing is that I found all of this in a spot that Bandit like to put things when he was snooping around in my office.  I suspect he was climbing around on my desk and knocked the camera thingy off during one of his nosey sessions.

Wanted:  I’ve been out of the loop for so long that I don’t even know who sells hand died fabrics anymore.  I’m looking for a possible piece to do Mirabilia’s Summer Queen on (Kahuna picked her out for next year’s fair entry).  I have a few bluish pieces in my stash (that I haven’t compared yet) but I’m looking for a 32ct evenweave that will match, as close as possible, DMC 747.

Work is crazy right now.  The paralegal is on vacation, an attorney is leaving Thursday for her vacation, I’m returning after being gone for 2 days vacati0n, and there’s tons of stuff that needs to be sent out to 2 new expert witnesses on a H.U.G.E. traumatic brain injury case.  My feet were killing me when I got off work today from all the trotting back and forth I did between my desk and the copier.  I knew I shouldn’t have worn those 3 1/2″ heels today!

HarleyQuinn had a vet appointment today.  She has some type of bacterial infection that’s making her feet miserable.  It took them 1 1/2 hours to get her seen and tested today and I was beyond stressed when I finally got out of there.  I thought when they took her from me that she’d be gone for about 5 minutes.  At 30 minutes I felt myself going into a full blown panic attack and they brought her to me.   Kahuna freaked out when he got home and couldn’t find her and called me on the phone.  He forgot she had her appointment today and thought she had somehow gotten out of the house and yard.  We’re just a teensy bit overprotective, I guess.

Howdy neighbor

Today is June 1st and I have started a major countdown. Actually the countdown has been ongoing in the back of my brain since the beginning of the year, but today it’s serious. My birthday is coming up (so’s my anniversary). Now for the past 49 years it’s never bothered me that I’m having a birthday. I’ve never been one to care about telling anyone my age, and actually I still don’t mind, but this year my birthday is actually scaring me. I think I’m about to have my mid-life crisis!! 😆

To celebrate this momenteous occasion, I’ve decided to keep with the BIG number theme. Between today (not my birthday) and my birthday in 2010, I’m going to accomplish 50 things. I’ll be posting that list in a few days.

I’ll be upfront now and state that two of those things involve something I’ve let go of over the past 6+ months. I’m going to attempt to post to my blog at least weekly and I’m going to be getting back in contact with two very dear women I’ve neglected horribly over the past 8 months. You two know who you are 🙂

Things are going okay with Kahuna and I. His race season started out with a bang and he has two races done fo this year. Miss Harley Quinn attended the second race with us and was quite the hit with the men. She’s a definite hunk magnet 🙂

I found out last Thursday that my hours were going to be cut at work and I’m determined to look at it as a good thing. When I was originally hired 14 months ago it was for 30 hours a week. The paralegal I work with has just now been released to return to work for 6 hours a day so I’m ratcheting back to 30 hours a week starting today. I’m planning on taking major advantage of it….I went to the gym, straight from work today. I’m thrilled to death that my plantar faciatis is completely gone. I had it for 18 months!!!! Anyway for the past two weeks I’ve managed to drop 5 pounds just cutting back on some bad eating habits I’d picked up. I’m actually looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish adding in the exercise. Kahuna and I have hit the weights a couple of times of the past couple of weeks, but now I’m going to crank that up as well. I hope someone is still reading my blog and will volunteer to help keep me honest and keep posting.

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