June 2009Monthly Archives

Sorry for not posting in a while. I left last Thursday afternoon and was out of town for nearly a week visiting my friend Tracy up in eastern Washington. Even though she was feeling a bit under the weather, we still had a great visit.

On Friday, we headed over to Pasco for the day. I had an appointment with her brother Kevin to get another tattoo. I had him do a piece in memory of my beloved grandmother. She grew beautiful irises and loved hummingbirds, so that was the inspiration for the design. Lastly, I had him add in “Gran” in a nice script since that’s what I always called her. Here’s a pic of the finish product taken immediately after he finished it:

The colors are a bit softer now that it’s healed for a little over a week. I’ll take another photo to post once the healing process is completed. I know you can’t really tell from the pic, but it’s on the side of my right thigh about halfway up. As a size reference, it’s probably about 6″ across at the widest part.

On Saturday we just kind of hung around at Tracy’s house. I got in quite a bit of good stitching time on Moonlit Garden. It’s the Loose Feathers #22 design from Blackbird Designs. Here’s my latest WIP photo of this design:

Design: Moonlit Garden (Loose Feathers #22)
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 30-count Broomstick Brown from R&R Reproductions
Fibers: Weeks Dye Works
Progress as of June 23, 2009

On Sunday, we headed over to Seattle. Her dad was riding in the 100-mile Livestrong Challenge, so we went over to be his cheerleaders. Even though he had to ride through some rain and a bit of hail at one point, he still finished the full 100-mile ride and raised nearly $1000, too! WTG Jim!! Here’s a photo I snapped of him right after he finished the ride:

Monday was my last full day in Washington. We just kind of took is easy most of the day. We did head over to Moses Lake mid-afternoon to take in a movie. We went to see “The Proposal” and had a great time. It was a really fun chick-flick to see together. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it starred hunky Ryan Reynolds either. Oh yeah, Sandra Bullock was in it, too. The main cast was rounded out with Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and Betty White (who was hilarious!). In an ironic twist of art imitating life, Reynolds is actually a Canadian married to an American (Scarlett Johansson).

After the movie, we headed back over to Tracy’s place and spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching TV. We both did a bit of stitching, too. Tracy spent some time working on Psalm 145 from Little House Needleworks. Instead of working on Moonlit Garden again, I did a bit of guest stitcher work on her Sistine Chapel project. I’m still amazed she decided to undertake this project, but I must admit that it was kind of cool to put some stitches in it. Here’s a photo of me working on it with the full 2.5 yards of linen sitting in my lap. Following that is a photo showing what I stitched on the piece.

That’s pretty much it for the photos from my trip that I’m going to post to my blog. If you want to see more, you can find them here.

I’m also nearly a week late posting my monthly photo for the Totally Useless SAL. The new moon fell on June 22, but I was still out of town at the time. I actually haven’t had much time for stitching since I got home, so even though it’s nearly a week late, it’s still pretty accurate.

In this photo, I temporarily set my ort bucket on my canvas WIP of Plum Blossom Kimono by Margaret Bendig. This is a class that I’m taking through my LNS, and I’m behind on my stitching right now due to my vacations. Canvas projects just don’t travel as compactly as cross stitching projects. You might also notice the quarter on the canvas. It’s not actually sitting on the canvas. It’s a needle park that was given to me by my friend Cindi. It’s a California state quarter mounted to a rare earth magnet. She gave one to my BSF Darla, too. You can see a better photo of it here.

Now that I’ve rambled on so much, I thought I should finally explain why I used “Updating on the Run” as the subject for this post. Even though I was on vacation last week, I’m heading out again tonight. I have an all-day class with Ellen Chester at the LNS today, but then I’ll be catching the red-eye to Detroit tonight to spend some time with my friend Nick. I’ll be there for nine days, and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for updating my blog while I’m gone. If you want to know what’s going on with me, the best option would be to follow my Twitter feed (info in the side bar on the right).

Well, that’s it for now. I desperately need to get into bed since I have such a long day tomorrow. I still need to finish packing, too. Eek!

Until next time …

28 June 2009

Cross Stitch, Travel

6 comments

Blackbird Designs, Class, Darla, Ellen Chester, Moonlit Garden, Nick, Totally Useless SAL, Tracy, vacation

SYTYCD Recap – Top 18

Last night was the second round of voting night for the new season of So You Think You Can Dance. The Top 18 took the stage as 9 couples. This week’s judges were Lil’ C, Mary Murphy, and Nigel Lythgoe.

I’m packing and getting ready to leave on vacation a bit later today. Unfortunately, that means I didn’t have time to find video clips of last night’s performances & links to the choreographers like I did last week. Sorry!

Here is my recap of last night’s show:

Couple 1: Randi and Evan
Music: “Shake a Tail Feather” by Ray Charles
Dance Style: Ballroom – Jive
Choreography: Louis Van Amstel

Well, if their goal was to show the audience they were having fun, they succeeded. I LOVED when Evan jumped over Randi. That was awesome! The little ass grabs were cute, too. Lack of chemistry is definitely not a problem with this couple. It may not have been the most technically perfect Jive ever, but it was FUN! *ding*

Couple 2: Melissa and Ade
Music: 24 Hours by Terry Poison (Ashton Shuffle A-Bomb Remix)
Dance Style: Jazz
Choreography: Sonya Tayeh

As soon as I heard Sonya’s premise of the dance, I figured Melissa would have have no problem playing a high-maintenance girl given how much she liked to remind us she was a ballerina in the audition rounds. I’m not sure I thought of her in that light watching the dance, but I did enjoy it. Sonya’s choreography was awesome, as usual, and Melissa & Ade did a great job with it.

Couple 3: Caitlin and Jason
Music: “Missin You” by Trey Songz
Dance Style: Hip-hop
Choreography: Shane Sparks

As soon as I heard Shane Sparks would be choregraphing their dance, I was psyched. Shane Sparks is probably my favorite hip-hop choreographer, and I’m so glad he’s back on SYTYCD this year! Personally, I thought Jason was absolutely amazing! For me though, Caitlin was just OK, although that reverse flip thing she did was unbelievable! All in all though, I just didn’t think she was hitting things quite hard enough. Even though it was a softer style of hip-hop, she was too soft and didn’t really come across as hip-hop to me. Not sure if they’ll make the cut this week with that performance.

Couple 4: Janette and Brandon
Music: “Loving is Really My Game” by Brainstorm
Dance Style: Disco
Choreography: Doriana Sanchez

I <3 disco! Perhaps it's because of my age, but I just love fun & funky disco music, and this dance did not disappoint! OMG that leg-split lift of Janette's was caaa-raaaaa-zyyyyyyyy! I'm still amazed how high she lifted her legs in that split. Then, no sooner than I had recovered from that, Brandon did his full layout backflip! This couple is absolutely amazing and are definitely giving everyone else a run for the money!! I have to say that I was completely :lol: at Lil' C's commentary on their dance.

Couple 5: Asuka and Vitolio
Music: “Dreams are More Precious” by Enya
Dance Style: Waltz
Choreography: Louis Van Amstel

I usually feel sorry for couples when they draw the waltz because it’s not a dance style that generally excites people. However, I loved this waltz! I actually got goosebumps a couple of times watching them dance. Even though they performed immediately after the high-energy disco of Janette & Brandon, this couple completely captivated my attention and I was mesmerized watching their performance. The dance was graceful, elegant, and beautiful to watch.

Couple 6: Kayla and Max
Music: “Hot Like Wow” by Nadia Oh
Dance Style: Pop Jazz
Choreography: Brian Friedman

Well, the song title completely sums up this dance. Hot Like Wow!! Max and Kayla definitely brought it again this week. Lil’ C was on a roll still when providing his commentary on Max. I don’t know what was up with him, but he was saying silly ass stuff all night. Then, to top that, he said absolutely nothing about Kayla other than implying he hope she screws up in the future so he’ll have something to say to her. WTF?! Along with Janette & Brandon, this is definitely a couple to watch!

Couple 7: Karla and Jonathan
Music: “Falling Slowly” by The Frames
Dance Style: Contemporary
Choreography: Stacey Tookey

This was our first time seeing Canadian choreographer Stacey Tookey on SYTYCD. I definitely didn’t care for this performance as much as the judges clearly did. I loved Stacey’s choreography, but wasn’t really moved by the performance of the dancers. For me, it was just OK and nothing really that special. I fear they will find themselves in the bottom three again. Personally, I would love to see this dance performed by Katie & Joshua from last season!

Couple 8: Jeanine and Phillip
Music: “Violento (Up Mix)” by Bailango!
Dance Style: Tango
Choreography: Tony Meredith

This was another just OK dance for me. They did OK, but there just wasn’t the “heat” between them that I expect for a tango. I did love when Mary called Lil’ C on the carpet over the bent knees comment! Will they be in the bottom three? They should be, but will America’s love of Phillip keep them safe? I think it might.

Couple 9: Ashley and Kupono
Music: “Imma Be” by The Black Eyed Peas
Dance Style: Hip-hop
Choreography: Shane Sparks

Yeah, this dance was bad, and it had nothing to do with the choreography. Shane, as always, had some very creative choreography going in this dance, but it just wasn’t executed very well. They didn’t hit things hard like they should, and they weren’t synchronized. They absolutely should be in the bottom three.

Well, that’s my recap of all the dances from last night. Here are my predictions for the bottom three couples: Ashley & Kupono, Caitlin & Jason, and Jeanine & Phillip. If America’s love for Phillip does keep them safe, then I think Karla & Jonathan will find themselves in the bottom three instead.

Until next time …

Going Green

My blog is going green today in support of the freedom movement in Iran. The people of Iran seem to be clamoring for freedom & democracy. Going into this past Friday’s election, it seemed pretty likely that incumbent President Ahmadinejad would be defeated and the former Prime Minister Mousavi (a reformist) would become the new President. However, post election, there seems to be substantial speculation that the election outcome was rigged in order to keep Ahmadinejad in power.

Following the election results being announced, the country has been in chaos. There are hundreds of thousands of people protesting, communications (satellite TV, cell phone, internet access, etc.) have been jammed & blocked, riot police have been attacking the protesters, people have been shot, and access to hospitals have been denied so the injured have been unable to receive treatment.

Regardless of how all this ends up, my thoughts go out to the people of Iran. I hope the bloodshed ends quickly, and that the true results, whatever that might be, will be verified.

Cool Mary Wigham Conversion

I love this conversion that I saw for the Mary Wigham sampler so much that I just had to share it on my blog. This conversion was done by Katrina who prefers softer colors in her samplers, so she converted it to more muted tones using cotton over-dyed cottons (GAST, WDW, and CC).

Here is a photo of her floss toss followed by her substitutions:

DMC		Substitution
Blanc		GAST Shaker White
Ecru		GAST Lambswool
225		CC Rosy Glow
310		WDW Charcoal
352		CC Dulce de Leche
356		WDW Red Pear
407		GAST Woodrose
433		WDW Chestnut
435		WDW Pecan
519		CC Deep Fennel
725		GAST Gold Leaf
739		GAST Flax
746		GAST Straw Bonnet
927		WDW Dove
930		WDW Gunmetal
934		WDW Collards
966		GAST Grape Leaf
3052		CC Joshua Tree
3768		CC Dublin Bay
3822		WDW Honeysuckle
3855		WDW Straw
3857		WDW Baked Apple