Life in General
Impulse Control
I have none. Seriously. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
I just went out on eBay, bid on and won a larger (19-hole instead of 11-hole) version of the clear flower frog with milk glass footed vase that I showed off in my previous post.
I really need to learn a little self-discipline. Did I mention that I have more stash on the way? Yeah, some self-discipline would be good, although, in my defense, I first started the in-transit stash order a couple of months ago…
Lots of Purchases and General Catch-Up
I totally can’t seem to keep up with blogging. I spend WAY too much time on Facebook. I can’t help but get sucked into the games. It’s my competitive nature; I just have to get in there and see who I can level up past. Yeah, I really need to start cutting back.
I’ve also started exercising. Right now I’m doing 25 minutes at a time (once a day). I was originally doing 30 minutes when I was exercising before, but I have been working myself pretty hard, so I go until I can’t easily go any longer and that’s at the 25 minute mark for me right now. I’ve exercised 5 out of the last 7 days and I actually feel guilty about not having done it today, so I think that’s a great improvement. In fact, I actually really enjoyed it yesterday. I must be feeling ill. 
I really need to do this, though, for multiple reasons. One, I’m starting to get serious about my health. Two, I’m hoping that it will help with my headaches. Three, the migraine preventative that I’ve started has weight gain as one of its most common side effects and I really don’t want to go there if I can possibly avoid it.
Speaking of the migraines, I’ve been doing okay lately. We changed my anti-depressant medication over a month ago to something that should also help with the pain and I’ve seen a positive increase in my mood as a result, which is lovely, as I thought I was already doing well to begin with and didn’t even realize that I had further that I can go. In addition, I saw a neurologist two weeks ago and have started a preventative medication. We tried this one 6 years ago or so and I didn’t find that it helped any, but I feel like the migraines have shifted in nature, so I’m trying to be positive. There are actually multiple directions in which we can proceed, if this one doesn’t work. I’m on a really low dose of the anti-depressant; the neurologist said that it’s common for people to be on 3 times the amount I’m taking, so we have a lot of wiggle room there. We can also increase the preventative medication a good bit. I haven’t even finished ramping up on the full dosage of it, as currently prescribed, so it’s hard to tell what’s having a positive effect right now. It could be the anti-depressant switch, it could be the addition of the preventative, or it could be some combination of the two. Regardless, while the frequency of my headaches hasn’t decreased (I’m still getting several a week), I haven’t needed the heavy-duty migraine abortant medication in a couple of weeks and I’ve actually only taken two doses of Excedrin Migraine in the span of a week. Now, if I could stop the muscle spasms in my trapezius muscles that have been nearly constant over the past week or so, I could probably get an even better handle on the headaches. I have a muscle relaxer to take, but I’m nervous about developing any sort of dependency, so I’m trying not to take it. I might have to check with my doctor and see if I’m just being silly.
And now to the good stuff. Purchases and their associated photos! Hooray!
First up, we have the designs I bought from Jennifer of Always Time to Stitch. She saw that I purchased one of her punch needle designs from Stitching Bits & Bobs a couple of weeks ago and offered to sell me another one, along with her copy of Just Nan’s Summer in the Square, which she saw on my wishlist. Now I only have Autumn in the Square left to finish that set (*hint-hint*). 
For the punch needle design, I chose Jennifer’s lovely Beach Cottage. She said that she was inspired by the scenery she took in during a trip to the Caribbean a few years ago. I absolutely love the colors, plus the sailboat on the water.
Next, we have the materials I bought from WalMart to sew up a project bag for my first canvas work design. None of my plastic mesh bags are large enough and the larger ones aren’t the proper dimensions anyway. I want something square to be slightly larger than the stretcher bars and the associated supplies. Walmart didn’t have a whole lot to work with, but I was feeling desperate to kit this sewing project up and too lazy to plan a trip out to the nearest JoAnn fabric, so I took what I could get. The white flower patterned fabric is actually a canvas fabric that should wipe clean. The black with white polka dots is for the lining.
The same day I went to WalMart, I stopped by my LNS (Strawberry Sampler) to drop off Brush Em with Molly (she’s building me a custom frame) and pick up a couple of things. Molly had set aside Quaker Pendants I by Milady’s Needle at my request, so I grabbed that and a couple of threads that I needed to kit up a couple of projects. Of course, I didn’t like the color of fabric that came with Quaker Pendants I (it comes with a dark ivory, even though the models look like they were stitched on antique white), plus I wanted to do the one design in purples (of course), so I bought some 36 ct. antique white linen and two colors of overdyed purple floss, only to get home and find out that I already had a cut of 36 ct. antique white linen. *sigh* I bought the 32 ct. dusk linen for a project that I then ended up kitting up with a different fabric. But hey, it’s purple and I’m sure I’ll use it elsewhere. Or just pull it out and admire it every once in a while like I do everything else in my extensive stash. 
Florin and Guilder are the latest releases from Tracy at Ink Circles. I just happened to find them in the window and had forgotten that I wanted to buy them, plus I was pleasantly surprised at the price, so I added them to the pile. Finally, you can’t really see the scissors, but they are a cute little pair of purple scissors with a matching plastic sheath that they snap into. I just thought they were sweet, which is why they jumped onto the pile, but then I got them home and realized that they actually cut really well and have tiny tips. Bonus!
And now the last acquisition for this post. I actually have a mail order coming soon that’s been in the works for a couple of months, which is why I say “for this post.” 
I’ve been reading about people buying flower frogs to hold and display their scissors for a while. I don’t really visit antique or thrift shops, so I just decided to break down and troll the internet. I ended up making some finds on eBay and buying one. This one has a milk glass vase that was made to go with the clear flower frog insert. It’s really sweet.
Turns out, much to my chagrin, that my collection of scissors is larger than I had thought. Eep! So, now I need to find another one. Hahahaha!
Okay, that’s more than enough from me for now. I finished a small stitched piece today, but it’s a surprise gift, so I can’t show it off yet. Besides, I’m way late for bed and have to get up early to drop my car off for a software update in the morning. TTFN.
Dear Brain
My dearest, precious, little Brain: We need to have a little talk, you and I. I appreciate your decision to decide to kick into overdrive and start really firing on all cylinders all of a sudden. But, can you not do it at night, please? I find myself rolling over and jotting down all sorts of notes just to capture everything you’re coming up with, but it comes at a price. Now, I think that this may be related to the steroids I’ve just started taking for the poison ivy and, if so, I have 8 more days of steroids to go, so you and I need to find a compromise if I’m going to get through this with my sanity intact. I’ll give you between 8 AM and midnight every day to just go nuts. Process as much as you want. Throw as many magnificent thoughts, to dos, reminders and all sorts of marvelous things that I might otherwise forget at me as you can possibly create. Because I really do appreciate your incredible power and I’m getting a lot out of these sessions with you. But midnight to 8 AM is time to shut down and take a break, okay? Do you think you can do that?
Please and thank you.
Kindle Love
I was having trouble getting out of bed Tuesday morning. I mean, SERIOUSLY having trouble getting out of bed. So, Terry comes up and tells me that he has something that might help wake me up. He happened to go out to Amazon.com and saw that they just dropped the price of the standard Kindle – by $70!!! So, yes, I have finally reached the breaking point, at which it makes sense to go for it. I have no more space on my bookshelves and no room to add more. And while I haven’t reached the end of the physical books that I have left to read, the significant change in price point and recent negative effect that holding physical books open has had on my wrists made it irresistible.
So, I have a Kindle, a case and a lovely skin for it, all for the same price as the Kindle less than a week ago.
So, here’s a shot of the front and back of my new (and newly skinned) Kindle:
The skin is called Moon Tree, from DecalGirl.com. They have hundreds and hundreds of skins for the Kindle 2, so it was quite difficult to make a decision, but this one kept grabbing my eye every time I saw it, so I bought it. It’s not on perfectly straight, but it’s mostly close. There might be some sort of art to applying the decals, but if there is, I don’t know it.
Anyway, I’m tickled with it. I loaded a ton of free books onto it and started one today, even though I have other things that I should be reading.
I Fought the Squirrel
… and I think I may have won! It’s probably too early to declare victory, but I put a paving stone on top of the seed pail yesterday afternoon. A couple of hours later, I heard Mr. Squirrel attempting another robbery. He was able to get the handle of the pail down (despite the fact that I had wedged the paver up against it), but no further. He gave up surprisingly quickly. I’m not sure if that’s because he knew that resistance would be futile, or if he needed to go off and hatch another plan. He did come back a little bit later, but his attempts were even more brief that time.
I may yet end up coming home to an open pail because he might conceivably get enough leverage on the side of the lid opposite the stone to flip it off of the lid, but I think that the weight might just be too much for him.
Honestly, I would just let him have as much seed as he likes, but when I went to fill the feeders yesterday, there was a solid layer of sunflower seed hulls at the top due to his piggishness. Having to scrape all of those hulls off and throw them away just so that I could get to the viable seed is what sealed his fate. I might consider getting a squirrel feeder at some point because I do love those wacky, clever little vermin, but for now, he’s going to have to find food elsewhere.
Sorry, buddy. Human: 1; Squirrel: well, I’ve lost count. You may have won countless battles, but you lost the war. You came close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Another Backyard Visitor and Unexpected Expenses
Another regular to my backyard is our resident groundhog. I’m pretty sure he is the same big boy that I caught ducking into his den under the foundation of our shed this past winter. Especially since he lumbered off in that direction again after I took his picture. I can’t tell exactly where he went because the boat is in the way. Yes, the boat still isn’t in the water. Let’s not go there.
At any rate, here’s my chubby buddy. He’s a beaut!
He’s going to be in for a rude awakening when we deconstruct the shed and have a detached garage built in its place. Not sure when that’s going to happen. We had originally thought that we would do it this year, but it looks like we may have some large, unplanned expenses coming our way soon. The sensor in the microwave seems to have died, as I found out the last time I tried to make popcorn and it got partway through the cycle and then started beeping quite loudly and angrily at me. It works for regular functions, though, so I think I’m going to go back to having to actually listen to my popcorn to determine if it’s done and just suck it up until it completely dies. The oven isn’t working correctly, either. It takes forever to get up to temperature and when it decides to fire periodically to maintain the temperature, it sounds like a blast furnace. Not good. Plus, I have all sorts of issues with the stovetop burners. But again, I’ll limp it along as long as possible. The refrigerator has not been taking very kindly to the power outages lately and the compressor is starting to sound a bit wonky. So, 3 out of 4 major appliances in my kitchen, all of which are less than 10 years old, are on their way out. I am NOT pleased. This whole disposable mentality concerning just about any products in our society really irritates me, especially as someone who is mildly environmentally conscious. So, if things really do start to bite the dust, I will have someone come in and see if they can be repaired. I had someone come in and repair the freezer portion of the refrigerator several years ago and it only cost a couple of hundred dollars. Not bad when you consider the whole appliance was about $1500 when we bought it.
And finally, the biggest ticket item of all is our riding lawnmower. Every time Terry has tried to mow the lawn this season so far, there has been something wrong with it, making it unusable. He has replaced a bunch of parts on it already and manages to get one more session of mowing out of it each time. But the next time he goes out to get it going, something else goes kaput. This is after we had a problem with it over the winter, too, during one of those big snowstorms, when we really needed to blow ourselves out (we have a snowblower attachment for the front of the mower). I’m afraid to even start looking at the prices for a replacement. The blower attachment alone cost $700, so if we can’t find another model of mower that will accept the same blower, then we’ll really be in for a world of hurt.
These are the days when I wish I was a millionaire.
Battling the Squirrel and HMS Progress
One of the many local squirrels and I are fighting an ongoing war over ownership of the can of birdseed on my front porch. I say I own it and the contents belong to the neighborhood bird population, but he seems to think that it’s his personal dinner pail. This is a metal can with one of the handles that swings over the lid to hold it in place. There’s a small bump on each side of the handle that barely serves to lock on the lid. Mr. Squirrel has figured out how to deftly bypass that minimal security measure. I actually watched him in action yesterday (he’s a bold little boy and doesn’t care if we’re watching him through the sidelight, about 2 feet away from him). Interestingly enough, he does most of the work with his teeth and not his paws/claws. He grabs the handle and works it back and forth until he finally pops it off of the lid, then lifts up the lid and usually flicks it off so that it lands noisily on the concrete porch and announces his latest raid. Then he parks his fuzzy little buttocks inside the can and munches to his heart’s content. I can tap on the sidelight and he just looks at me as he continues to munch on a sunflower seed. Little stinker. So, last night, as I was replacing the lid for the half-dozenth (is that even a word?) time that day, I decided to grab the heavy pitchfork that was leaning up against the wall a couple of feet away and lean it up against the can. I figured that might slow him down a bit, though honestly I just expected to hear a heavy thud and he somehow managed to toss the pitchfork off of the can. I came down this morning to a squirrel sized opening of the lid – under the pitchfork. He got the handle down off of the lid and managed to open it just far enough to get in without having to budge the pitchfork.
I know the easy answer is to find a more secure can, though I can’t go with plastic because he’ll chew right through it (we’ve had this argument before and he wins). I’ll have to troll the Lowe’s or the hardware store down the street and weigh my options. I think Terry still gets a kick out of the little guy managing to continue to weasel his way in, but I’m starting to get annoyed. I respect that he wants a meal, but the birds have a right to one, as well.
Anyway, squirrel wars aside, I put a little bit of work into Heirloom Memories Sampler last night. I decided that, despite having spent a couple of hours practicing my bullion roses the other night, I need to skip down and do the hardanger section at the bottom first. I don’t want to try to roll those bulky bullion roses into the scroll frame and still try to maintain decent tension on the piece. I just don’t think it will work out well. So, I cut out the hardanger sections last night while watching a marathon of Say Yes to the Dress. I absolutely hate working with silk perle and Thea seems to adore it, so I keep getting stuck in this trap with her designs when I buy her accessory packs. I have the same problem every time. When cutting out the hardanger sections, the tip of my scissors inevitably ends up pulling one of the perle stitches in a kloster block. It snags, I have to compensate and, somewhere in the process, I get frustrated and swear off silk perle all over again. There are some cases where silk is heavenly to work with and there are some cases where it is just a nightmare. To me, silk perle and hardanger just don’t mix well. Especially when worked on 32 count fabric where each little section to corner to cut out is just that much tighter. I have this problem every time I work with silk perle. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open to them.
And now, I’m off the start the needleweaving process. I’m really skeptical about what the results of using white silk to weave next to ecru silk kloster blocks are going to look like, though….
A Backyard Visitor
I was glancing out of the kitchen window this afternoon and happened to see a turtle scooting across the backyard at a decent clip. I immediately grabbed my camera and ran out to snap some pictures of him. He was a beautiful box turtle, sitting in the hot sun. He even let me stroke his shell and his outstretched leg, but he drew the line when I touched his head. He promptly retracted everything into his shell. Fortunately, I got some good shots before I tried to pet him. 
Another Quick Post
So much and yet so little going on. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?
As far as stitching goes, I’ve started on Thea Dueck’s panel for the Savannah reticule. Which just served to further my understanding that I am a slow stitcher. It’s okay, because I think my results are worth the time, but it certainly doesn’t help me to accomplish massive amounts of stitching in the limited amounts of time that I allot to it. I went to Stitching at the Ford on Friday and got a chance to catch up with Anna. I actually got there before they opened the doors and left right around 10, so I got a good bit of stitching done, which was lovely. The next day, I dragged Terry out to our LNS, The Strawberry Sampler, for their framing sale. I brought along two pieces to be framed. My Vintner’s Sampler by The Sweetheart Tree that I stitched in December of 2006 and my Seasonal Dragons by Sherrie Stepp-Aweau round robin from 2007. I apparently don’t even have a photo of the completed round robin. I had a feeling that I should take a picture of it before I took it in, but I studiously ignored myself. So, I’ll take a pic of it after I get it back. Instead, I only have a picture of my square, from the beginning of the RR. I worked with a woman at the shop named Nancy and she was fantastic. I had the Vintner’s Sampler framed similarly to how the model was matted and framed; I brought the picture from the kit with me. The round robin piece actually just got a frame and glass – no mat. I paid a good deal less than I had expected, even before the 20% sale discount. I’m not sure if it’s good that I overestimated the cost so drastically or not? On one hand, I came out of the experience very pleasantly surprised; on the other hand, I have probably been putting off all sorts of framing because I thought it would be too expensive. Now, I think I have at least one more piece that I would like to finish up and get framed before Christmas. While there, I picked up one kit and two charts. So, I dropped off 2 finished pieces and brought home 3 new ones. I bought Lizzie Kate’s Dog Lessons for People, Hinzeit’s Brush ‘Em (which will be a gift for my dental hygienist, who is also a good friend; I even know how I want to customize the frame and I hope that Molly at TSS will be able to help me) and Pine Mountain’s My Dad pillow.
I spent all weekend stitching the design for the pillow, finished it on Monday, took pictures and was ready to post them tonight when I just now realized why I had such a problem with the design fitting into the dimensions of the tuck pillow opening. I’ll show a picture, but I think I’m going to restitch it now. The kit came with aida, which I assumed was 14 count, so I substituted a piece of 28 count fabric. I also had a problem with one of the thread colors in the kit not working very well and not having enough of another color. So, generally, the kit was a miserable flop, except for the design and the pillow. Now, in looking it up on their website, I see that it was actually 16 count aida, which explains why my completed stitching didn’t fit the pillow. Rats. I was going to send it to my dad for his birthday next week. I guess I’ll be redoing it on 32 count and mailing it with his father’s day card instead. Bummer.
Here’s my current attempt:
While I’m at it, I think I might make another color change and get rid of the green, replacing it with a dark chocolate color. Might as well, right? Hopefully, I’ll have a new version to post in a couple of days.
Where Have I Been?!?
And the answer is – I don’t know! In all honesty, I spend WAY too much time on Facebook. I really need to tone that down a little bit, but several of the games that I play have this “hook” where bad things happen if you don’t log into them once a day. So, I do. Those are actually the easy ones, where I can stop in briefly and be done with it. There are others, though, that I have allowed to be far too time-consuming. I have to admit that it is much easier to update people with a quick sentence or two every couple of days than it is to write a full blog entry. So, for those of you who still keep up with me, if I’m not friends with you on Facebook already and you are on there, send me a friend request or let me know and I’ll send you one.
Add to that Facebook addiction a plethora of overtime at work (being salaried sucks) and you get very little “me” time. In fact, most of my downtime lately has come courtesy of headaches which keep me off of the computer. This has allowed me time to read, which is something I love to do, but haven’t had/made time for in quite a while. Jenn (don’t go to her blog looking for any content, as she’s gotten caught up in Facebook, as well), Annette, and several other bad, bad, evil ladies have coerced me into the lives of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, on which I have become hooked. I’ve read the first two books in the series and even mailed my extra copy of the first one (I bought one at an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore and then promptly ordered the set from Amazon) to Cathy, whom I think may also now be hooked. Just passing along the evil, I guess. I also snuck a Monica Ferris book into the mix yesterday. Someday I will get back to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I have several books to catch up on before I make it to the latest one, which was actually written by another fantasy author using the late Jordan’s notes. There are still 2 books left to close out the series; Jordan certainly was good about leaving a lot of loose ends from book to book. I just really have not felt that I have the time to sit down and get into a complex, 900+ page book. You really need to allot a good chunk of time to really immerse yourself in that world properly. So, rather quick and light material is just where I’m at right now.
I’ve been considering getting a Kindle from Amazon so that I can carry any book I like with me, but Amazon is currently is an argument with one of the big publishing houses so I can’t get books like the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Thanks, Steve Jobs. Way to be a jerk and ruin it for the consumers.
I’m hoping that Amazon has worked out an agreement before my birthday so that I can get a Kindle and save some room on my bookshelves for my existing collection.
On the stitching front, I am working on my entry for the Spring Biscornu contest on the Victoria Sampler Yahoo! group. The deadline is May 10th, which is rapidly approaching. I originally thought that it was funny that the deadline was so far out from the beginning of the contest, but now I am very grateful. It took me a couple of hours just to kit up my selection of fabric and thread colors for the design, then I modified the design of the hardanger sections, only to realize after stitching one side that what I did wasn’t very different from Thea’s design. Rats. I’m hoping that what I came up with for the other side of the biscornu will be a little more effective.
And just to prove that I have actually stitched something, I ran upstairs and took a scan of side 1 of the biscornu:
The effect of the overdyed pearl cottons in the hardanger sections ended up being way too subtle, as did some of the floss colors that I chose to coordinate with them. Unfortunately, this seems to happen to me with fair regularity. You’d think I would have learned by now, but they truly do look better in person, in my opinion. The trick will be to get decent photographs of them for the contest. I see special lighting and Terry’s light box in my future.
