Happy Dance!

I finally finished Spot of Coffee. It took me almost a month, but then there were some days when I didn't get to stitch at all. Also, having multiple projects slowed it down. I stitched it on 28 count tea-dyed Charles Craft linen using DMC floss. I did not like the linen at all. The weave was very lose and the texture was a bit rough. I really like the design though. I haven't decided where to stitch my name and date on the piece.

TW's Beginner's Whitework Ornie V2

As promised, here is Version 2 of TW's ornie. I used some cream ribbon for the handle and the bottom bits. I originally wanted to have a bow for the bottom, but my bow making skills aren't as good as I would like.

I also wanted to thank you guys for the comments on Inspiration. I have a couple more designs in the works. I have a basic idea of what I want them to look like but the execution part is a little bit tricky. And some parts of the design are still stuck in my head!

See you next time!

Working Girl

I have a job!!! Whooohooo!!!!!! My old boss sent me an IM yesterday asking me to call the office. He said that if I was interested he had a job for me. So you're offering me a job that I can do from home, working with people I like... of course I'm interested! Its nothing glamorous or exciting. I will be doing a lot of grunt work (research, Excel sheets, database stuff), but its work. I have never been so excited to look at an Excel sheet before. :) I started today and it was really good. I worked for 4 hours while Ayame took a nap. It feels so good to have a job again. My ego really needed this.

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In stitching news... I worked on the back piece for my TW Ornie Versions 2. I chose the letters used in TW's Birth Announcement, charting it over 2 instead of over 1. I really like the result. I finished stitching the ornie in 2005, so that's the date that I put in. Tonight I will work on actually turning it into an ornament. Come back tomorrow to see the final product! :)

Inspiration!

Lo and behold! Happy Dance number 14 for this year!


I stitched it on a piece of hand dyed linen purchased from The Needle Hive using DMC 3865. The design is called Inspiration and ***I*** designed it! :) Yes, I am so proud of myself. I originally designed it to be a little bigger, but I excluded the outer bits. It looks so light and delicate right now and the waffle stitches that I was going to stitch on the outside would just make it too heavy, distracting from the delicate center. Anyway, I had so much fun designing this piece. I have DH to thank for inspiring (yes, pun intended) me to design. :) He encouraged me to try it and I did! Sooo much fun! I have a couple more designs in the works. They still need a lot of tweaking though. What I really love about this is that I am trying out new-to-me stitches and I get to experiment with textures.

No, Spot of Coffee isn't finished yet. It sat on the scanner until I had to take it out to scan Inspiration. Oh well. I will try to work on it some tonight and this weekend.

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Noreen, I buy generic diapers from Stop and Shop. Each pack costs $6.99 (48 pieces for size 2). Sometimes I buy Pampers or Huggies, but only if I have a coupon and if it comes out to be less than $6.99. I've also tried Walgreens' generic diapers, but SNS is still cheaper. I tried generic wipes, but I didn't like the ones from SNS. They tore easily and even the unscented ones still smelled a bit. I much prefer Pampers Sensitive Wipes.

Shh... Baby is Sleeping

Bassinet: $125. Formula: $25. Diapers and wipes: $15. Baby who soothes herself to sleep: Priceless!

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As promised, here is a progress pic of Spot of Coffee. I didn't get to stitch at all last night. A design idea popped in my head and I had to focus on that before it went away.

Ta Da!!!

As promised, here is my TW Whitework Ornie. You can get the chart here. I stitched this in 2005 and finally *finished* it properly over the weekend. As you can see, I chose the simplest method of finishing. I didn't know better back in the day and didn't leave much room for margins. I purchased the ribbon back in 2005 after all the stitching was done. I think it needs a bow though. It looks to plain. It's missing something. What do you think?

I have 2 other versions of this design. I will probably work on finishing them next weekend.

I didn't get to work on Spot of Coffee yesterday. I will try to work on it a little bit tonight as soon as I finish all my chores. I will post a progress pic tomorrow.

See ya!

Weekend Recap

We didn't go to Salem but we did walk around the mall and had dinner out. It was so much fun to get out of the house. Ayame loved the mall and was just fascinated with everything she saw. She did really good and wasn't fussy at all. She fell asleep when we got to the restaurant and I was looking forward to a nice dinner. Ayame had other plans. She woke up and was sooo fussy. I ended up changing her diaper twice and she ended up drinking 3 servings of 3 oz of formula one after the other. I still got to eat so it wasn't bad. And the entree I picked (steak tips) was really good. We even managed to get some dessert! It was a bit frustrating that Ayame started fussing, but I still had fun. :)

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DH and I tried Brunswick Pro Bowling for the Wii. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. This game has nothing on Wii Bowling. Yeah , you can customize your character, but you can only play your character in career mode. If you want to do 2 players, then you're stuck with a set of characters. It was also very frustrating to play. My character didn;t swing when I wanted to, and it was difficult to control the swinging and releasing. It was not worth buying.

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I stitched a little this weekend. I still haven't finished Spot of Coffee. But I worked on 2 projects. One is my attempt at designing and the other was finishing TW's Beginner's Whitework Ornie into an actual ornie. Photo coming soon! I stitched it in 2005 back when I had no idea how to finish ornies. There wasn't much fabric to work with, but I managed. :) I like the end result and I will be finishing all my other unfinished ornies soon.

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Have you ever had a Pluot? I tried one for the first time last week. It tastes really good! Its a hybrid fruit made of 3/4 plum and 1/4 apricot. It is very very sweet and very juicy. The skin is very smooth and the fruit itself is very fleshy. I can't really compare it to a plum or apricot though as I don't think I've ever had a fresh apricot and I can't remember the last time I had a plum.

The fruit was developed by Zaiger's Genetics in California. They have also developed Aprium (3/4 apricot, 1/4 plum), Plumcot (1/2 plum, 1/2 apricot) and coming in 2008 to a grocer near you... the Peacotum (peach, apricot and plum). The Peacotum is supposed to taste like fruit punch. Can't wait to try that one!

September 11, 2007

Susan's blog reminded me of my first ever visit to NY/NJ. It was the summer of 2001 and I had a wonderful time. My dad's cousin in NJ took me on a tour of Liberty Island. I'm not sure exactly where this photo was taken (I think it was before we got on the boat going to the island). I remember being absolutely upset that I couldn't get a picture of me with the Empire State Building in the background. I didn't even know what the WTC was and I didn't understand the big deal or why everyone was crowding the area trying to get a nice picture. Little did I know that in a few days, the WTC would be all over the news. :( This was taken on September 2, 2001.

Spot of Coffee 1

My current WIP is LHN's Spot of Coffee. I am stitching it on a piece of Charles Craft 28 count Tea Irish Linen using the recommended DMC floss. I am enjoying the project so far despite cutting the fabric wrong. There seems to be enough margin on the right side, so its not so bad. One thing though... I am not too fond of this fabric. I only bought a small roll to try and I will not be purchasing anymore. The fabric is rough and the weave is very loose. I much prefer Charles Craft's Monaco which is soft and has a very tight weave. Anyway, I hope to finish this project by the weekend.

Spot of Coffee © Little House Needleworks

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I signed up for the Attic Needlework newsletter ages ago and it has been absolutely horrible. Every week I see something I like! LOL. The latest newsletter is no exception. I am drooling over these two charts:

Cappuccino © Little House Needleworks

Black Dahlia © Examplar Dames Design

*Drool drool* I love, love, love both designs. Both have found their way into my ever-growing wish list of course.

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Ayame is doing great. She is now sleeping through the night, 8 hours straight! Yay SLEEP!!! She does get REALLY FUSSY before she finally falls asleep though. A nice feeding helps a lot. She smiles all the time and is talking so much! She loves to look at Daddy and its just so adorable. DH plays around with her and tries to hide and poor baby would probably turn her head 180 degrees if she could just so she can see Daddy. :)

Arabesque Alphabet Take 2

As promised, here is Arabesque Alphabet A by Passione Ricamo. I stitched it on 32 count Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan using Iris Waterlilies.

I am still working on my LHN project. I think its going well considering I don't have as much time to stitch as I used to. I'm hoping to finish that in about a week.

Postpartum Hair Loss

Before giving birth, I read somewhere to expect some postpartum hair loss. Fine, whatever. No problem. I've been told more than once that I have enough hair for 3 people. I pity the poor girl who has to wash my hair at the salon, and I feel totally horrible for the poor girl who has to blow dry my hair. But I digress. No one told me CHUNKS would fall out! I'm not even exaggerating. I showered and there was hair EVERYWHERE. Really scary. After doing some research, I found out that an insane amount is to be expected. I still have a lot of hair, but I think it would be less scary if my hair wasn't so long... the clumps falling out wouldn't look so alarming... I hope.

In stitching news, I am still working on LHN's Spot of Coffee. I realized last night that I cut my fabric wrong. I went by the measurements given on the chart. The only problem is the model was stitched on 32 count. I'm using 24 count. My right and bottom margins will be smaller than I'd like (about an inch), but it should still be okay. *fingers crossed*

A New Look

I decided that it was time for a new look. I'm sticking to the coffee theme, but the look is completely different. I also did a blogger upgrade. I kinda like how you can just drag and drop blog elements.

I know I promised a scan of my latest happy dance, but I'm still waiting for UPS to deliver my new power supply. The old one died back in Buffalo and I mailed it back to Antec a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness I have kept all our receipts since getting married. We bought the power supply last year and its still under warranty. I cannot wait to get my PC back.

Not much is going on. I'm currently working on LHN's Spot of Coffee. This chart went AWOL on me several months ago. I looked ALL OVER for it. I finally found it last week while looking for a different chart. Somehow, this tiny chart decided to join all my kits. I have no idea how it ended up there as all my charts are on a hutch, and the kits are in a chest. Oh well. I'm just glad I found it. I also found the other chart that went AWOL a couple of days later.

Oops! House is on. See you guys next time!