More Pictures

Yesterday, I got my birthday order from SB&B. It had everything except for my Pomegranate GAST. These LHN charts were calling out to me the loudest. If I could spend like crazy, I would probably buy them all. :) For this order, I got:
Dear Diary - Abigail Winslow
Lavender Hill
Thread Gathering Kit
Cappuccino
Frappuccino
Home Sweet Home by CCN
All Heart by Elizabeth's Designs


I also got some piecemaker needles and a black scissor sheath for my Solingens. I also got lots of floss! (More to sort and bag and inventory, but I don't mind.) I got the whole Cottage Colours set, a whole bunch of Crescent Colours, some GAST, a skein of WDW, and two of the new DMC Color Variations.

I am very happy with what I got. The CC floss are soooo pretty!

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Last night, T was craving dessert so I made pumpkin pie. Yes, a few days early for Thanksgiving, but why wait for good dessert when I can have it now? I tried fluting my edges but it wasn't turning out right. I knew all I had to do was pinch the pastry using my thumb and forefingers but it just looked horrible. Finally, I checked how to do it online. I forgot one crucial part. You have to tuck the edges! Thus making the edge two layers of pastry, making it thicker, making it be able to "stand" and pinchable. :) Here are the results:



The fluted edges look so much better than crimping it with a fork. My plating skills needs improvement. Look at that mess! I have to confess that I took two pictures of the slice. The first slice was on a red plate and didn't show off the color of the pie too well, so I sliced a piece for me and used the blue plate. LOL.

This Post Has Lots of Pictures

I admit, I get a bit crazy with the camera. I take pictures of almost everything. This post will have lots and lots of pics. I hope it doesn't take too long to load for you.

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Two nights ago I decided that it was time to really organize my floss. I need a better system. I am supposed to have a complete set of DMC wound up in bobbins and stored in 4 bead boxes. The extra DMC are semi-sorted (1-599, 600-999, etc) and stored in ziplock bags. The special floss (Caron, CC, DD, WDW, etc) are in Floss-A-Way bags and stored in a plastic shoe box. Seems like a decent enough system except that while I was looking through my fabric stash, I found a whole bunch of floss. And while I was looking in the plastic tub where all my finished items hibernate, I saw more floss. I started an inventory system about a year ago in Excel and I know for a fact that it is no longer accurate. And so it began:




I gathered up all the floss I could find. There were bobbins and Floss-A-Way bags of floss from past projects that never got put back in the storage cases. There were used skeins from when I was too lazy to go look for the bobbin that was missing from the case. There were RAKs and purchases of special floss... it was a mess. So I started sorting slowly. There were fewer special floss compared to DMC, so I started there:

Caron Floss

Crescent/Cottage Colours, WDW, GAST

Dinky Dyes, Needle Necessities, etc

Then I tackled the DMC mess:



Once again, I sorted:

DMC Variegated Floss

DMC Color Variations

After that, I went through all the bobbins and put them in the proper case:



Then it was time to sort out the extra bits:


This will make finding something so much easier. I was too tired to finish sorting and I still have this pile left to go through:

The goal is to have all floss (excluding the ones that are set aside for specific projects already) sorted, organized and entered in Excel. I'm hoping I can get it done by the weekend.

What Happened?

I can't believe its been 2 weeks since my last post. I've been busy with this and that (work and family). Ayame went to the doctor on October 25 to get her shots. Yes, a bit late but we had insurance issues. Anyway, she cried a lot when they gave her the shots (5!!! I'd cry too). She weighed 14 lbs 6 oz (up 5 lbs since the end of July). She is now 25 inches long and her head measures 40 cm. They told me that put her in the 50 percentile (not too big, not too small). She was grumpy for a little bit, but a dose of baby Tylenol helped.

On October 29, my cousins A & D & their mom, Tita V came for a visit. We met up with them for dinner in South Boston. It was fun to see them again. I hadn't seen D or Tita V since 2001 and A I saw during Thanksgiving 2004. Ayame loved the attention! Ayame & I met up withem again on the 31st at Quincy Market and did a little bit of window shopping. I had Ayame in her costume. So cute! She did pretty good that day. She only screamed once. I should have known that would happen. She HAS to eat when everyone else is eating. Other than that, it was great. She didn't mind the subway, she smiled at everyone and even managed to take a nap while on the Baby Bjorn. T then met up with us at the hotel and we headed home.

I'm still working on Coffee Menu by LHN. I just realized that I still don't have a progress pic for it. I'll have one tomorrow, I promise. I've gotten quite a bit done on it. Its a very relaxing piece and I usually work on it while watching TV with T.

Oh! Today I got a wonderful surprise from Tami Lynne. :) She sent me the 2007 JCS Ornie issue. Thanks so much Tami!

Stash Lust

Oooh. I am in love with this design! It's ABC Tapestry by Rosewood Manor. It is GORGEOUS! I wish someone would post a better picture. I would love to see the details on it.
I am really lusting over all the monochromatic designs that are coming out. Now do I really need to buy all of them? No, but its not a question of need anyway. :)

I also recently purchased Long Dog's Paradigm Lost. I haven't decided on what color to use yet. I love purple, but do I really want to have another Gigantic Purple Project? Maybe. If I found the right floss.

Right now I am working on a mini Purple Project for Ayame. Its the letter A from Passione Ricamo's Arabesque Alphabet Collection. I am stitching it on 32 count Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan using Waterlilies in Iris. How appropriate (Ayame is Japanese for Iris). I love how its coming along. I would like to find a nice frame for it, though I haven't decided on the color yet.

Happy Dance #13!!!

OH MY GOD! I finally finished The Token aka The Purple Project!!!! Whooohooo!!! It used up a little over 10 skeins of DMC 3041, stitched on 28 count light gray Jobelan. I am so happy to finish this project. I don't understand why I dragged my feet with finishing it, but it is finally done. :)

In baby news, I had FIVE medical appointments this week. FIVE! Monday, sonogram and non-stress test at the hospital. Tuesday, blood sucking at the lab for my endocrinologist. Thursday, appointment with endo (who made me wait 40 freaking minutes) and appointment with the OBGYN. Friday, another non-stress test at the hospital. I'm exhausted! The baby is doing really well though. She is definitely a girl. And she is definitely stubborn. For the first NST, she basically sat there like a lump. The test was supposed to take 30 minutes. I was there for over an hour, waiting for her to move. Today, she would NOT sit still. The nurse could not get her resting heart rate because she refused to sit still. She was kicking around so much, the thingies they had strapped around my belly kept falling off. The nurse finally had to stand next to me and hold the thingy down.

And now for a public plea. If you know of any way to relieve the itch from stretch marks, please, please, please let me know. The OBGYN suggested cocoa butter and silly me forgot to get some while I was at the store last night. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. My stretch marks are HUGE and look like welts and they **ITCH**. Please help make the itching stop.

In other news, DH and I were in Chicago last week. I basically tagged along a business trip. I got the chance to meet Jenn L from The Wagon. :) Susan was supposed to join us, but work got in the way. Jenn was a very gracious host. She drove me around and took me to a Hobby Lobby and 2 LNSs. She also took me to Giordano's which was AMAZING pizza!

DH unfortunately got horribly sick. Jenn once again came to our aid and gave us directions to the nearest ER. We were in the ER from 7 pm Wednesday night until 2:30 am Thursday. It was horrible. DH had a fever of 104 and his heart rate went crazy for a little bit. He was diagnosed with a high fever and bronchitis. We spent the rest of our time in Chicago resting in the hotel room and flew back home on Friday afternoon.

He is doing much better. His primary care wrote him a script for some super strong cough medicine and it has helped a lot. Now he just needs to take it easy so he doesn't get sick again.

On The Hunt

I went off my schedule a bit and started stitching On The Hunt from Brittercup Designs' A Touch of Wilderness instead of working on Long Dog's The Token. I started this project on March 15th. It seems like a very simple design, but I've had to re-stitch the foxie's back 4 times. I was off by 1 stitch the first time, off by 2 stitches the 2nd time and off by 1 stitch the 3rd time. 4th time is a charm. Its so cute! I don't have a lot left to do, just the ground and 2 plants left. I'm hoping to finish this by next weekend then I can work on The Token.

Oh! I am now missing another LHN chart (Spot of Coffee). Its a teeny tiny thing so I can understand how I've misplaced it. But I've checked everywhere twice already and I still cannot find it. What is it with me and my LHN charts? I should get a bin for my smaller charts so I don't keep losing them.

I Am Not Amused

I purchased LHN's Home of a Needleworker in late December. I received my order in January. And now I cannot find it anywhere!!!! Argh!!!!


UPDATE: All I had to do to find it was to bitch about not finding it! Whooohooo! It was stuck inside a Herrschners catalog. :) Sooo happy now. :)

Four Years Ago

Four years ago, on Saturday March 8, T & I were married in the little town hall of Middletown, NY. :) I cannot believe that it has been 4 years already. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday.

Fast forward to present time, I am now 25 weeks and 4 days into my pregnancy. Here are some pics taken last Tuesday.





Talk about a big belly! I knew I was big, but I didn't realize just how big until we took pictures. I think I would like to start taking weekly pictures to see just exactly how much I grow. I went from wearing size 0-1 jeans to now wearing size 7 (juniors). My pants that we purchased 2 months ago do not fit me anymore. Its really insane considering that when we went shopping, a size 3 would've fit me just fine. I think its time to just go ahead and purchase maternity pants that have the belly panel. My mom sent me a pair of maternity capris with the panel and they are soooo comfy! So much better than regular pants.

As for cravings, I am completely over the strawberry milkshake phase as well as the chicken phase. Right now, its beef, beef, and more beef. Oh! I love chocolate again too! I'm actually craving it. What I really miss is coffee. I haven't craved it in months, but now all I want to do is go to Starbucks and get a Venti Raspberry Soy Latte. Yummmmm.

In other news, my order from SB&B finally shipped today! Yay! I should get it on Monday. I *cannot* wait any longer! I'm so excited to see all my new stuff. :)

Cravings

I think my Japanese food craving has finally passed. I had it for lunch AND dinner on Friday, lunch on Monday and lunch again today. My meal was great but as soon as I finished it, I knew the craving was gone. It was the same feeling I had after I finished my last strawberry milkshake. I can't really describe it, I just know it.

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I've been playing around with my blog. I wanted to change the whole look of it, but I couldn't find one that I liked. Well, no. That's a lie. I really like Jo's blog. But that's Jo's blog, not mine. I want to have something that screams ME or at the very least, something I really, really like. So in the meantime, I've been playing around with my sidebar. I moved the blinkies to the bottom of the page, added a list of my March goals and I will highlight my 3 most recent finishes. If that doesn't motivate me to stitch more, I don't know what will.

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Last night, I was feeling quite productive so I decided to inventory my stash. I decided to tackle the easiest bit and started with my non DMC floss collection. I have more than I thought I did! LOL. I just used Excel to make life easier. Each company had its own spreadsheet (NN, Caron, WDW, etc). Each spreadsheet has columns for code, color, number of skeins, type (silk, cotton), and notes. Under notes I would put in if its a full or partial skein. Next step will be to organize my DMC collection. I'm supposed to have a full set in bobbins, but I can never find anything. I also have my extra skeins in various bags and bins. I really need to organize that. I have decided to put my extra skeins in Floss-A-Way bags. I have less than 100 bags here right now, I have another 100 that I ordered. I will buy more as soon as I can and get organized. I still haven't decided how to inventory/catalog and organize my charts yet. Any ideas?