Is it time to build an Ark?

It has been raining since Saturday night and isn’t supposed to end until this coming Saturday. Our basement is quite wet already. Today we even had rain mixed with snow. Thankfully nothing is sticking on the ground. They say we will be in the top 5 wettest April’s on record. We continue to set all kinds of weather related records but we are pretty tired of it now. Hoping once this is over that spring actually decides to stay. We really do like spring here!

Last week my baby boys turned 22. Where does the time go?

On to the stitching update. This post will have more pics than usual so hopefully it doesn’t slow the upload too much.

On Saturday I picked up 5 pieces from the framer. Two for my mom (she paid for her framing), one for each of the boys (framing was their birthday present), and one for myself (my mom paid for this one as well…gift for Christmas and birthday since it cost a small fortune to frame).

Barnwood Buttons (for my mom)

Closeup of double frame on Barnwood Buttons

Waterlily (for my mom)

Panda (for Sean)

Duality (for Tyler)

South Seas Mermaid (for me)

Closeup of frame on South Seas Mermaid

And last but not least is my progress on Gypsy Mermaid. I finally finished all the stitching and can move on to the beads. Not sure if I will start the beading tonight or tomorrow.

Gypsy Mermaid – ready to start beading

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone. Hope you had a wonderful day filled with family, friends, or what you like most. We had a great day. The weather was absolutely beautiful with temps in the 70’s. The dogs did not hurry when out doing their business so I enjoyed some of the weather with them. I also got some stitching time in. We had a delicious dinner with family and friends. Tyler didn’t have dinner with us. He chose to spend the day outside skateboarding. I can’t blame him though, we haven’t had the best of weather so far this spring. We have some rain and cooler temps for mid week so he should enjoy his time outside. I am sure we will all be going out to eat for their birthday later this week.

Stitching update on Gypsy: I have the bottom half done with an exception of the beads. The top half I have a majority of the border in. I have to finish the border, stitch the moon and circles as well as the medallion. After that I can start the beads.

I am hoping to have a finish next weekend sometime since I took Thursday and Friday off. I do have to start clearing out the living and dining rooms or stuff so that I can get the carpet out and new flooring in. I am also hoping to go out and get some pricing done for flooring. I should probably make sure I can afford it before I get too excited about it. Might have to come up with a plan B. 

All the furry babies are doing great. Kurby and Merlin are best buddies. They play all the time. They take turns chasing each other around the house and wrestle quite frequently. Sassi joins in as well but not for as long of periods. Rebel thinks they are all crazy and chooses to watch them from his spot on the ottoman. Xander doesn’t mind the kitten but lets him know when he is getting tired of being attacked. Kalia wishes he would go away. She still does a lot of growling and hissing but it lessens each day. My biggest surprise is Peek-A-Boo. He hissed at first but he just watches him and doesn’t seem to care too much. Somehow Merlin must know that he is old and doesn’t mess with him at all.

 

Have a great week everyone. Hope to have an update on Gypsy soon!

 

 

 

And a quick furry update

Sassi and Kurby are still my little loves. I love taking them places and they are both so good when we are out. Rebel is starting to show a bit of his age. His eye sight isn’t the greatest anymore so he won’t do stairs. He gets a free ride up and down the stairs. Sassi and Kurby both had pics taken for an animal talent place recently. I like that they post pics for you to see and download. Wish I had known more in advance though, they both are in need of haircuts.

Sassi:

Kurby:

 

Cats are doing pretty good. Peek-A-Boo is now 17 years old and we don’t think he will be around too much longer. He only eats half or less of his food and he has stopped grooming himself. We give him lots of love and will let him go when we think he is ready. Xander and Kalia are doing good as well. Wish I could figure out how to get Kalia to lose weight. I have tried everything that I can think of as well as reducing the food intake per the vet. I swear she is heavier not lighter. Not good!

We have added a furry friend to our home. His name is Merlin. He is 3 months old and boy is he a little stinker! He is so full of energy and way too curious for his own good.

Merlin the day we brought him home (abt 9 weeks old)

No idea how they can sleep in such odd positions (3 months old)

 

Stitching update since my last post.

South Seas Mermaid by Mirabilia. Stitched on 28 ct Aurora by CWC. Finished 8/3/13

 

 

 

 

Panda – Janlynn kit. FInished 12/1/13

Snow Days by Mirabilia. Stitched on 32 ct Platinum Belafast linen. Completed 1/1/14

Barnwood Buttons stitched on 32 ct French Lilac linen by PTP. FInished 2/16/14

 

I am currently working on Gypsy Mermaid by MIrabilia. Hope to post a progress picture on Sunday.

Has Spring finally sprung in MN?

I know I have not posted in a very long time. I let one person get under my skin and was going to change to another blog site where I would have more control over who could view my posts. I have decided that I am not going to let one person get me so wound up. So I am back! I have lots of updates since my last post and I will try hard to get updated soon with any finishes that have occurred since my last post.

And to the person that annoys me, well, if you don’t like what I post then that is just tough shit. Take your little self off by blog and go whine to someone else! I have no patience for negative people.

Feels like Fall outside

It was a nice weekend. Friday was beautiful. I took Sassi and Kurby for a nice walk around the lake. Saturday was my craft club. We get together the 2nd Saturday of the month and everyone does their own thing. We have a good time chatting and catching up with everyone. Saturday late afternoon we finally got some much needed rain. Sunday was quite cool out. Nice to have the windows open. I was going to take the dogs on another walk around one of the lakes but decided it was perfect stitching weather instead.

It has been kind of quiet around my house lately. Tyler started his new job and so far it is going well. I hope once the training is over that he will continue to like it. It is so different from what he has ever done. Sitting all day may be a challenge for him. He may find that he needs to get some meds for his ADD to help him out again. We will see. He really doesn’t like taking them if at all possible.

I am still stitching on Sean’s Panda. I am making decent progress but I wish it would go just a little faster. I really have so many things I want to start. I don’t even know for sure what will be next since they are all screaming at me. LOL

Here is the panda so far:

Panda progress 9/15/13

That is all I have at the moment. I just don’t have a very exciting life.

Here is some cuteness to end my post…..

Kurby’s first birthday 8/15/13

 

Labor Day

It was a very quiet day here for Labor Day. Even the neighborhood was quiet. I did go with a friend to take advantage of the DMC sale at Joann’s. We both ended up spending about 40.00 apiece on floss. I should be good for a while now.

Not must going on in my life, it has been uneventful lately which is nice. Tyler starts his new job in a week and seems excited about it. I really do hope this works out for him.

On to the stitching. I posted my last finish on FB but not here so to make it official I finished Duality by Fire Wing Designs. This piece is for Tyler. I am hoping to get it framed and wrap it up for Christmas. He knows he is getting it and has seen it finished but the framing will be a secret. I am going to say that I don’t have the money to frame it yet.

Duality by Fire Wing Designs. Stitched on 28 ct Crystal Sterling (PTP)

My plan was to work on some WIP’s but Sean asked if I would stitch a panda for him. He finally picked one out. I ordered it and when it came I decided to start it. Hoping this one can be finished and framed for him for Christmas as well. It is much larger than Tyler’s so we will see what happens. It is a kit called Panda by Anchor. So far he has a head and a start on the continent in the upper right corner.

Panda by Anchor – progress 090213

 

Tomorrow it is back to work. Should be a busy day with having to finish up some entries for month end. Crossing my fingers that they have the issues from last week fixed so that I can complete everything on time. No other specific plans for the week. The weather yesterday and today has been wonderful. We finally got out of the heat wave and humidity that was making it a bit miserable outside. This week it looks like mid 80’s for highs and 89 for Saturday. Hoping that 89 doesn’t hit until later in the afternoon as I was going to go to Woofstock with my cousin and it is outside.

I survived month end!

I really thought that my first month end would be horribly busy and stressful. I found out that it really wasn’t bad at all and I only had a few questions to get me through. Gives me more confidence for the next one.

Since my last update I finished South Seas Mermaid:

South Seas Mermaid – Mirabilia; stitched on 28 count Aurora by CWC

Do you think I could work on something that I already had started? Nope! I just had to start something new. Tyler has been asking me to stitch him a dragon for a very long time. I finally sat down with him and gave him some options. I was happy with his choice as this one is going very fast. I hit the half way mark in a week. Here is Duality by Fire Wing Designs:

Duality – Fire Wing Designs

This week my sweet little Kurby turns 1 year old. I still remember bringing him home and how he looked like a fluffy little bear. He has turned out to have the cutest personality. I would make the drive again to get a puppy from that breeder.

Kurby – 10 weeks and 5 days old

Kurby – 11 months old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much else going on around here. A bit of drama between Tyler and his girlfriend. I really like her but she is already tiring of Tyler’s immaturity. The kid never takes responsibility for his actions. He can find anyone to take the blame other than himself. Sigh! Hoping he keeps himself in line at least until after we go to the Renaissance Festival. We invited her to go and she is very excited. Fingers crossed!

This and that

I know I haven’t posted any current progress pics and I promise one will be coming soon. I am currently beading South Seas Mermaid. I thought I would have been done by this past weekend but am just past the half way mark. I knew there were a lot of beads but good it sure is taking far longer than I thought it would.

Two weeks ago I pinched my sciatic nerve and made my first trip to the chiropractor. I sure love when they crack your back. By this past weekend I was feeling great so I decided it was time to finish taking down the border in my bathroom. I got all the walls scrubbed and it is pretty darn clean in there. The one thing I left was the floor. I figured I would scrub that when I scrubbed the kitchen floors on Sunday. Well….I think I overdid it because my lower back is not very happy. It isn’t too bad and I don’t think I will have to head to the chiro if I behave for at least a few days.

Since I wasn’t able to get that done I decided it was time to get out and look at buying a new couch. Mine is pretty worn out in my stitching spot. I have a reclining couch so it doesn’t allow me to rotate cushions or flip them over from time to time. It was to the point where I was sitting on a pillow as a cushion so I wouldn’t sit on the board. Not good. I had a hard time choosing but I did find one that I think will work with the animals and being just right for stitching.

This is what I chose:

Newton Pebble by Ashley Furniture

This is a bit different than what I normally like but I think what I have gone with in the past is no longer popular. It is all good though. Makes me be open minded and look for other things I like. Took a bit but I really do like it. It only took me going to that store 3 times to decide. No new pics of Sassi and Kurby this week. We went for a walk around the lake on Friday with a friend and we got rained on. They both need a serious bath now.

Job change

I am not sure how much I have said about my job. This year has been full of changes. With all the changes in our entire department it has impacted my job in a big way. My job responsibilities have almost all been eliminated. I have stayed busy doing things here and there but really had no idea where my job was going. My lead swore to me she wasn’t going to let me go. She knows how hard I work and how fast I can get things done.  I started learning some things to back up another gal because she was going on a cruise and since she is a department of one she really needed a backup. This has been very interesting and some of it makes my head swim! Lol. I love learning new things so it has been nice to have something different to do.

Last week I was informed that the gal that has been training me as her backup is going to be taking a different position….and that I will now be taking on most of her responsibilities! This is exciting and scary all at the same time. There is so much that still confuses the crap out of me. I have been doing the same job for nearly 15 years so to do something so different feels a bit strange.  I am up for the challenge. I hope and pray that I will start putting everything together soon and can start feeling more comfortable with my new role.

I do have one question….I wonder who will be my backup?