Mystery Sampler

Today I am hoping to get a chance to work on my mystery sampler. Yesterday, I spent the entire day cleaning my room and organising everything. There's more to do, but I ran out of steam around 7 last night. Believe me, I had a mess going on in there! It's amazing that I could even get to the bed to sleep in it! Today, I will do some more organizing and putting more things away. Hopefully, then I can just come home from work and do my stitching like I want.
I finally found a quilt pattern that I like and want stitch up for my grandson's birthday. A-hem...I hope to stitch up for his birthday. That is not all that far away. And since the shortest month of the year is between now and then, I have even less time. I kind of know which fabrics I want to use, that will be the hardest part of the whole thing...just deciding on the fabric! And that is the reason I have been doing all the organising...so I have space in my little corner of the house to get it done. If I work in other parts of the house, I would have to get everything out to work on it and put everything back each night I finish...too much time wasted.
I heard a rumor from my daughter that my next door neighbor passed away. The rumor was; that she and her husband had gotten sick and she ended up in the hopital and then died. I wanted to go to their house yesterday to ask them to tell me the truth, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I don't want to know the truth unless it is that she is actually recovering. She and I are friends...she is a very private person and would occasionally come outside and visit. In the eleven plus years I have lived here, I have only been in their house three times. I always wanted to respect their needs. I don't know what to do...I am very afraid of the truth. The person who told my daughter would have no need to embellish or outright lie. I like this woman so much. She is a retired police officer from a long line of police "people". She has a great sense of humor. She is only in her late 40's! I guess I just need to get over myself and go find out, then offer her husband my help. If this rumor is true, I am sure that there are things that need to be done that he won't want to do. I don't know...this just bites...

Mystery Sampler

This is the start of Mystery Sampler, Part 1, from The Gift of Stitching, January Issue. It's an 18th Century Band Sampler by Long Dog Samplers. I am stitching it on the recommended linen 28 count, with all the colors recommended. I will tell you, I was very nervous about stitching on the linen, because I haven't done very well with the Aida cloth. I don't have much time to practice and I do okay, but I can see where I need lots of improvement! But, I LOVE stitching on the linen! It's been very smooth and easy, and my work looks a lot better on the linen than on any Aida I have ever used. I am hooked! So far (which isn't far at all) I love this! I hope I can get enough stitching done on this before the next installment comes out. I did just start it yesterday and that was setting up the linen to be stitched and getting out all the floss, etc. I couldn't wait to get home from work to work on it!

Road Trip Done

This is what it is all about. My grandson, being entertained by his auntie. Seeing my grandson was the first stop on our two day road trip. My youngest daughter hadn't met her nephew yet...and he will be a year old in March.
We visited for a little over three hours and then went on our way to Fresno. We made good time. What a difference a good car makes on a road trip. All my other cars have been kind of barely doing it types of cars...this one is actually a luxury car compared to them! (It's a pick up, with a shell to match) It's the newest auto I have owned in a long time.
We got to Fresno and our hotel room around 4PM...not bad. Looked up a friend we wanted to visit with while there. We met up with him and spent some time shopping at WalMart for stuff to entertain us at the hotel room...you know, snacky things, a couple of puzzle books...stuff you don't get at home. We got back to the room around 7:30. I felt like it was 10PM! We settled in, got comfy, and passed out. I woke up at six in the morning, took the dog out for a walk (26 degrees outside!!!!!) Came back in took a shower...hot, hot, hot...made coffee and sat and watched my daughter sleep til her alarm went off. Do you know how long it's been since I watched my daughter sleep?!? She hasn't been a baby for a long time...well, 17-18 years! I probably did watch her sleep when she was around 4 or 5 though too. I forgot what that means to me. And even though she's 19 + now, I can still see the child like innocence in her face. Once she got up it was whirlwind moves. We packed up, checked out and went over to her storage unit to hopefully get her belongings. Thank God it was all still there. There had been a possibility that her girlfriend (no longer friends) had taken out everything, but she didn't. In fact the other girl left a lot of her own stuff in there, so I guess she has to make another trip. We loaded up everything of Erica's and checked out of the storage place. Erica has been paying storage for both of their belongings for over a year and some of the stuff she had in there was priceless stuff. Hundreds of pictures, her stuffed koala bear that she got when she was hospitalized around Christmas when she was two...things like that. I wish I had a camera to get the look on her face when she found that koala! That was priceless!
We got back on the road and drove about a half hour til it was time to find a place to eat breakfast. After that it was drive, drive, drive til we came across a Super WalMart and had to stop to pick up things that we wanted, but wouldn't afford ourselves unless it was at the WalMart! We arrived home around 5PM yesterday. Whew!
I guess I am not much of a traveler anymore. I am still disoriented. I am so grateful that I don't go back to work til tomorrow.
I haven't done any stitching the last couple of days.. But today I think I will make up for it. We'll see. I have to catch up with laundry, then re-straighten out my bedroom. I kind of just plopped everything down and put just a few things away. Naw...I think I'll get some stitching in...

Weigh In Day

I did go to my meeting. I am not happy with myself. I gained .8 pound, but I am over it...got to get myself back up on that horse and ride it proper this time. I got too cocky, with losing the 6 pounds without trying. So...I am staying on program, at least this week, and we'll see what my results are next Tuesday. It will be a challenge; I have the trip to Fresno Sunday/Monday and I have already promised pastries to my son and dtr in law. So I'll pick up some low cal thing for me while I am at it. I have already planned for my dinner...Applebee's, since they have W.W. plan type meals.
Just a tad on the stitching front. I had a hard time getting going on my project for the bathroom. I had to frog something twice and re-do. I finally got that and a few other stripes done. I'll snap a picture maybe tomorrow night. There's really not much to show, but I am babbling on about it, so I think you should see it.
That's it for tonight. I should have been in bed long ago...UGH! Work tomorrow. See Yas!

Not a week yet...

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU!

I got my little mouse stitched up. Isn't he adorable? Happy Dance for me. Now, I just need to turn him into an ornament. That will be a first in years for me. I have dabbled in cross stitch on and off for years. I managed to completely finish a couple of projects for my sisters. Of course no pictures, because they were done long before puters and blogging happened. (WOW, that was a while back)

I started another project for my bathroom. I worked on it one night and did pretty good, didn't miss a stitch. But I have been working on the computer all day at work this past week and when I get home the eyes, brain and hands are not working well together. I was continuing my stitching, got to the bottom of a stripe and realized I was off a stitch at the beginning (of course). So I frogged it. Started the stripe again, and found when I got to the bottom, that I was off a stitch in the other direction! I over compensated. I frogged that and put everything away until after I am off the computer at work all day. Which will be tomorrow, cause I still have an all day seige of input today. I may try it anyway tonight, cause the project is calling to me!

We are a week away from our road trip. One week from right now, I will be half way to Sacramento and seeing my son, daughter in law and 10 month old grandson! YAY! Tomorrow, I am going to clean out the new truck really thoroughly and get it all ready to go. Can you say excited?!?

See you Tuesday after weigh in. I may not have done well this week. Now that I am conscious of what I am eating, I want to eat everything! Dang, why does it have to be that way???

Yippee!!!

It's amazing, I think! I did go to my WeightWatchers meeting this morning, and...I lost weight over the holidays! I was so pleasantly surprized. I did not follow "the plan", I strayed so far from what WeightWatchers teaches, but I LOST. Another 6.2 whopping pounds. That is 9 pounds altogether. So...I owe 9 quilt blocks. I am going to have to do that now I think. Just think, a quilt after losing weight. I now only need to lose 87.4 pounds to get to my initial goal weight, another 4 for the recommended goal weight. Can you imagine what I would have lost if I had stayed program faithful! That's okay...it doesn't matter now. I am so encouraged to keep it up now. I kind of knew I was losing, cause my pants slide down. At this rate I will have to go buy new clothes...darn.

I'm headed to Fresno the 14th and 15th. I don't want to mess with the weight loss, so I already scoped out an Applebee's. Their menu looks fantastic. WeightWatchers is in kahoots with them (or vice versa) and they have a WeightWatchers menu with all the points figured out for you...even a yummy looking dessert. I already chose what I will have...and it comes to 13 points. What with a balanced diet early in the day, and maybe having to use my weekly flex points, that should be good. That's appetizer, entree, and DESSERT!

Well, I am off to JoAnns to pick up some floss and fabric for the Mystery Sampler out of "The Gift of Stitching" I really want to do that...at least one of them, just to experience it. It's an 18th Century Band Sampler from Long Dog Samplers.

See you all next time! Hopefully soon, well at least once a week, cause I have to track the weight loss here.

Not a Creature Was Stirring...

Okay, okay, it's past that time, I know. But I started this BEFORE Christmas, I did! He's still not finished. All he needs is a little more back stitching and some BEAD-y little eyes and some Holly Berry beads. He's cute in real life, the picture didn't turn out too well. I got the pattern from the December issue of "The Gift of Stitching". He is called Mr. Christmas Mouse by Twisted Oak Designs. As I figure it, if I do one of these a month, I will have ornaments to give at Christmas this year...instead of the usual thought process of..."Oh man! I should have started ornaments...it's too late now!" Ya see, I tend to not get into the mood until a couple of weeks before Christmas. I will finish him by cutting a circle around him and then the same size of a Christmas-y color fabric for the back and then maybe some red and white cording made from floss around the edges, and for the loop to hang it. I'll take a finish photo when I get there.

Earth Goddess is on a back burner until she gets a voice and calls out to me. I think the fact that I made a boo boo made me stop, cause I had to fudge to fix it. Boo boo was found too far into the process to frog it, so fudging is called for. I will finish it, some day.

I'm going back to Weight Watchers tomorrow morning. It'll be better for me to go in the morning and now since my days off have changed to Mon., Tues. I can go to the local meeting Tuesday mornings! I have been on the monthly pass (wasted money since I kept forgetting to go after work on Wednesdays...or I'd be too tired to move once I get home. Gee, do you think if I lost some weight I'd have the energy to go after work then? I'm going to post losses here for that as well. I will have some other sense of accountablity if I know somebody may read this. I have just under 94 pounds to lose...keep checking back to watch it roll off!!!

Another blogger I read does a quilt block for each pound she loses. I thought that was pretty cool. I would have enough blocks to cover quite a large area if I do that. I want to try it out. I won't commit to it just yet, we'll see how it goes when I start making blocks per pound. Technically, I should have 2.8 blocks made so far, but since I took a leave of absence (or maybe it was...I took a leave of my mind) I will start this endeavor this year. So...what ever I have lost (a-hem) since the last time I was there, I will do blocks. (I say a-hem, because of course I didn't go throughout the entire holiday season...hmmm, can you say avoiding the issues?)

I just realized that it is 11:50 PM! ACK!!! I slept a lot in my chair today and I guess it really had an affect on my sense of where the day is at! Got to go for now. Check back, see if I stick to my words!