SBQOTW

Stitching Blogger’s Question of the Week:

What do you use to hold your fabric while you stitch? A hoop, a
Q-Snap, a scroll frame, something else, or do you stitch in hand? Have
you always used just the one thing or have you tried one or more of
the others? Which do you like best? Why?

I pretty much use either a spring tension hoop or Q-Snaps. Those are really the only things I’ve ever used other than back in my very early days of stitching when I used the older style wooden hoops.

I’ve never tried scroll frames, but would love, too. Lately, I’ve really been eyeing the Elan lapstand. It will hold Q-snaps, but I may give the scroll frame a try if and when I purchase the Elan.

Happy stitching!

Damn Garage!

Ok, I’m feeling VERY frustrated this morning! For the 5th time in the year I’ve been in this apartment, my garage door is not working AGAIN! It will only open about 8 inches and then sticks. The bad part, my car is INSIDE the garage. I am supposed to be at work in a training class this morning, but instead I’m sitting here at home waiting for the office to open so the maintenance man can come and free my car.

Well, I guess I’m left with no alternative. I’ll just have to go stitch now. At least this problem DOES have that silver lining.

Happy stitching!

Still Here and Alive…

Yes, I’m still alive! Life is just really busy this week. I’m enrolled in a Project Management class at work, please have my college class as well. We have our first exam next week and our first programming project due the following week, so I’ve been trying to stay ahead of the game with all of that. Thankfully, I have a 4-day weekend coming up, so I’m hoping to have time to go through and read the 3 chapters that will be covered on the exam again.

Stitching-wise, I’ve not done any since Sunday. I’ve just had too much going on between work and school. I will get back to it soon though as my much-anticipated order for the Long Dog charts are in the mail to me from Stitching Bits and Bobs.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve had NO fun this week so far. I have managed to fit in a few SuDoku puzzles each day just to help keep me sane.

Happy stitching…and I WILL get back to it this weekend!

Profound Thoughts

Ok, so I know I just posted about a half hour ago, but I was just reading an email from a very dear friend of mine in Nashville. She has been my friend for (*gasp*) 17 years and has been with me through a lot. She said something in her email that really gave me pause to think, so I thought I would share it here:

“Sometimes I wish that I could erase my friends hurtful pasts but then they wouldn’t be the person that I love! The experiences that they had are what make them what and who they are today.”

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard something similar to this, but I think I had really lost touch with it during everything I’ve gone through recently. I have been through quite a bit in my life, but she’s right, it’s because of those collected experiences & events that I am the person that I am today. While I hate some of the things I’ve been through, in one sense, I need to embrace them realizing they have molded me into who I am now.

As much as I have bitched lately about things, please know that I DO like who I am as a person, for the most part, at this point in my life. Yes, I do wish some things were different, but they are pretty much all external things (losing weight, finishing school, etc.) and not the internal things any more.

So, my dear friend (and you know who you are), thank you for always being there for me, caring about me, and blessing my life through the joy of knowing you. Meeting you all those years ago at the office in Nashville was the beginning of me turning my life around, dealing with my past, and not taking the bullshit any longer. I love you and you will ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart!

Turkish Sampler HD

I have a happy dance for a small project today. I started it last Friday night and finished it last night. It took less than 10 hours of stitching time, so it was a pretty quick project. Here’s a pic followed by the particulars:

Design Name: Small Turkish Sampler
Designer: Pelin Terez (freebie from Cyberstitchers)
Fabric: 28 count white Monaco
Fiber: Gloriana silk (color: Monet’s Pond)

I still haven’t decided for sure how I’m going to finish it. It will most probably end up either being framed or perhaps made into a small tuck pillow. This was just a quick project to try out the Gloriana silk, so I had no plans for it in mind for finishing.

There’s not been much going on for me today. I’ve mostly been reading for my Visual Basic Programming class for college. The reading is pretty dry, so I’m looking forward to getting more into the hands-on part of the actual programming as the semester progresses.

I’ve also spent most of the afternoon glued to The Weather Channel watching coverage of hurricane Katrina. My thoughts are with all of those in her path that they will be safe!!

Happy stitching!

Random Act of Kindess…

First of all, let me start by sending out a BIG “Thank You” to whomever sent me the anonymous gift certificate to Joann’s as a Random Act of Kindness. Yes, it did indeed cheer me up. Thank you SO much! You are such an angel! Another friend of mine locally jumped right on the RAK bandwagon with some early Christmas money, so I went and picked up an Ott-Lite they had on sale this week.

With my new light in place and working wonderfully, I did get in about 90 minutes of stitching last night on my Small Turkish Sampler. I’ve not added it to my WIPs progress over in the side bar because it’s a fairly small project. I’m hoping to finish it today. I’m working it over 2 on 28 count Monaco using Gloriana silk (Monet’s Pond). I’ll post a pic once I have it finished. I’m guessing the whole thing will take no more than 10 hours of stitching time. It was a freebie I found on the Cyberstitchers website.

Eating-wise, things are getting better. I’m still not 100% back on track, but it is SO much better than it was last week. I think just getting my vent out helped a lot. Thanks for the emails of support! A few of you gave me some things that I’m really going to have to spend some time on in thought.

Ok, I’m off to stitch under my new …

Happy stitching!

Ok, so I’m back. I found this on Annette’s blog and thought it was cool, so I decided to pop back on and add it.

1 . What time did you get up this morning? 8am - gotta love the weekend!
2 . Diamonds or pearls? Both
3 . What was the last film you saw at the cinema? War of the Worlds
4 . What is your favourite tv show at the moment? Miami Ink
5 . What did you have for breakfast? Eggbeaters cheese omelette, whole wheat toast, and
6 . What is your middle name? I don’t have one.
7 . What is your favourite cuisine? Vegetarian
8 . What food do you dislike? Broccoli and Cauliflower. Ironic, eh?
9 . What is your favourite crisp flavour? Assuming this would be chips here in the US, original flavor Sun Chips
10. What is your favourite song? I don’t think I can name just one.
11. What kind of car do you drive? Toyota
12. Favourite sandwich? Garden Veggie from Panera
13. What characteristic do you despise? Lying and cheating
14. Favourite item of clothing? My Old Navy black hoodie
15. If you could go any where in the world on vacation, where would it be? Ireland
16. What colour is your bathroom? Dusty Rose & White
17. Favourite brand of clothing? I don’t know if I’d say it’s my favorite, but I have quite a bit of stuff from Old Navy
18. Where would you retire? Hmmm…never really thought about it
19. Favourite time of day? Evening
20. What was your most memorable birthday? The last one. A dear friend made sure it was special.
21. Where were you born? Manchester, Tennessee
22. Favourite sport to watch? Baseball
23. What fabric detergent do you use? Purex
24. Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke with Splenda or Diet Rite
25. Are you a morning person or a night? I am definitely a night owl!
26. Do you have any pets? No
27. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? None that I can think of right now.
28. What did you want to be when you were little? An astronaut, and here I am all these years later working in the Aerospace industry, although NOT as an astronaut. Maybe it has something to do with the STUPID STUPID STUPID decision I made at 21 to drop out of college 22 credits shy of graduation?

Really Shitty Day/Night

Let me start today’s post by sending out a big “Thanks” to those of you who have taken the time to email me with words of encouragement and advice regarding my relationship post yesterday. A couple of you really gave me some things to think about, even though I do already know the answer to your question. Based on how the questions were posed in your emails, I’m assuming you already know my answer as well.

Ok, it was a REALLY shitty day/night. How, you might ask? Well, for starters, the college cancelled my calculus class I was planning to take because not enough students had enrolled. So, I spent most of my morning scampering about trying to figure out another class I could take that wasn’t already full and would still go toward my degree requirements.

When I went to the bookstore tonight to exchange the textbooks, my new car (barely had it 5 weeks) was the victim of a hit & run side-swipe in the parking lot. I now have a dent that pretty much runs the full length of my rear passenger-side door. Thankfully, the paint doesn’t appear to be scratched, so I guess I should be thankful for that.

I had planned over the next couple of weeks on buying my plane ticket for my November trip to Mazatlan, an Ott-Lite stitching lamp that Joann’s has on sale this week (seems like a really good deal in case anyone is interested), and even possibly a trip to go to CATS Santa Clara coming up in October. Well, I should still be able to pick up the Mazatlan ticket, but it looks like neither of the others are going to happen now since I’ll be spending that money on repairing my car now.

I just KNEW I should have stayed in bed this morning! I guess what that say about “when it rains, it pours” really IS true.

Now, on a more fun note …

What Kind of Knitter am I?

You’re a hip knitter! Anything in style, in vogue,
in fashion, or expensive is your thing! I bet
you’re a big fan of the Tiny Diva….

Are you a knitter?
brought to you by Quizilla

Keys to My Heart

Hmmmm….very interesting.

Too much time to think…

Ok, so I’ll forewarn that there is probably going to be nothing about stitching in this post. Well, ok, so here is somethig about stitching … I didn’t get to do any today. Now that that’s out of the way, on to what I really came here to discuss.

Even though work was insanely busy for me today, I found myself with a LOT of time for thinking. Some things that I thought about were good, while others left me a bit perturbed/disturbed.

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent woman. I’m 41 years old, so I’ve definitely experienced a bit of life and am long since past the “being wet behind the ears” stage. Why is it then that I allow my own self-worth be controlled by the men, or lack thereof, in my life?

I did take enough psychology in college to realize that a lot of this probably stems from the fact that my father wasn’t around much when I was going through my formulative years. He always worked long hours on night shift, so I was lucky to see him a couple of hours each week. When I did see him, I would go out of my way to show interest in whatever he was doing at the time just to get to spend time with him. Most of the time, he seemed pretty unaware of my presence. This generally left me feeling as if I wasn’t good enough for him to be bothered to even notice me.

Fast forward many years to my adulthood and my relationship history. The first guy I ever seriously dated cheated on me and broke my heart (at least, I thought so at the time).

The first man that I ever actually DID fall in love with was killed in a car accident that left me devastated for a long time. I honestly believe that had he not been killed, we would have been married for many years now.

My next relationship resulted in my first marriage. We got engaged after only 3 weeks and were married in just over 3 months of meeting one another. I tried so desparately to make the marriage work, and stayed with him for many years longer than I should have. After we were married, he became a drug addict, was abusive toward me, and cheated on me. After we split up, he stalked me and threatened to kill me.

After that came my second marriage. While I definitely took longer before walking down the aisle the second time around, the result ended up the same. He basically didn’t work during our marriage, and was very demanding and domineering. When I told him to move out last year, I suspected that he had begun cheating on me, but didn’t know for sure. I learned from him last week that not only had he been cheating, but he had been doing it for most of our marriage. Initially I was stunned. Later, I felt hurt. Lately, I’ve just been angry because of how he played me.

My most recent “relationship” was so very different from my previous ones. We were never in an exclusive committed relationship, but, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t trying to change myself to be who/what I thought he wanted. I decided I was just going to be myself and see where things went, and they seemed to be going great. We enjoyed the same things, laughed at the same jokes, and could easily spend hours talking as if it were mere minutes. I truly felt I had found my soulmate, but, ultimately, things just didn’t work out for us romantically. We’re still wonderful friends and will be until the day we die. It was just another bittersweet pill to swallow because I really felt we had found something very beautiful and special in one another on a romantic level, which is probably why I’m still struggling so much to get over him.

So, now you may be asking yourself, what on earth does all this relationship history have to do with my sense of self-worth? I’ve come to realize that all these experiences I’ve had as an adult have left me feeling much like I did as a child desparately longing for and trying to grasp the attention of my father. I feel invisible. I feel like I’m lacking something somewhere and that I’m just not enough to hold onto the man in my life. I feel like I’m not smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, etc., etc., etc. I just not enough SOMETHING, dammit, and I don’t know what.

I’m not sure, per se, why I’m writing all of this. Perhaps it’s just for the sheer cathartic nature of actually writing it all down. I’m also not sure where I go from here, but I do know that I need to start living my life for ME and realize that I AM worthy of whatever I choose to do with my life. I owe no explanations to anyone. I owe no consideration to anyone. I am wonderful and beautiful because I’m ME, regardless of whether or not I’m in a relationship. As a result of that, I need to take care of me. I need to nuture me. Most importantly, I need to LOVE me.

My Mom used to always tell me something when I was younger that I usually let go in one ear and out the other. She would always tell me that I needed to learn to be happy just being by myself because I would never be able to be happy with anyone until I could be happy alone. I thought she was crazy then, but now I think I understand just how wise she was on that one!

I know this has rambled quite a bit, and I do apologize. If you’re still actually reading at this point, then you clearly have no life, are insane , or you’re one of my dear friends who love me and are willing to listen to me prattle, as I tend to do. Whatever the case may be, thanks for reading and hearing me out. Perhaps some day this will all make sense to me. In the meantime, I’m just trying to learn from it and grow.

Stitchin’ & Thinkin’ Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone …

Sorry for not posting again in several days. My family and then my ex-husband all really threw me a curve ball earlier this week and I ended up out of sorts and pretty much withdrew from the world. I know it’s not a good thing to me, but I just tend to retreat when things start bothering me.

I have had a really nice weekend, however. Friday was my regular every other Friday off day, so I had the gang (my former in-laws whom I just adore!) over for what has become our monthly poker night. OMG, we drank WAY too much! We all had a good time though and took precautions that everyone who shouldn’t be driving didn’t. On the upside, I even won 40 bucks. Any ideas on how I plan to spend the money! My guess is you wouldn’t be reading this blog if you can’t figure that one out! So, part of today will be spent daydreaming about potential stash purchases.

Yesterday I went and spent the afternoon with a friend and had an awesome time! We mostly just sat around and bitched about the shit in our lives, but it was all good. Of course, since she is also a stitcher, several new things will be making their way to my wish list soon.

After I got home from there, I met up with another friend online. We chatted online for a while and competed against one another working SuDoku puzzles. Of course, the only down side was that we did that for HOURS and it was after 3am before I got in bed and went to sleep.

I putzed around and got a few things done around here earlier today, and now the rest of my day will be split between getting in some stitching time (I think I only got in a total of 6 stitches yesterday ) and getting in some journaling. I have been VERY off track with my eating lately. I have GOT to find my Mojo again! I finally stepped on the scale this morning and saw a number I DID NOT like! Hopefully that will help motivate me to get my ass in gear and work on this again. I have come WAY to far to go backward now!

Happy Stitching …