One Woman Learning to Live Her Best Life

StitchingCategory Archives

January TUSAL Update

I’m a day late in getting my January update for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long posted.  I meant to get it up yesterday, but time just got away from me.  So, without further adieu …

January 2012 TUSAL

The orts in the bottom of the jar are from my new start on Royal Holiday by Mirabilia.  Next up is a bunch of red from work on Celtic Christmas from Lavender & Lace.  Sadly, a good portion of that big chuck of red orts is the result of having to frog nearly 600 stitches from that piece a couple of weeks ago.  no   The darker orts on the top of the pile are from some recent stitching I’ve done on my Hannah Beeby 1816 reproduction sampler from Timeless Designs.

My little jar has now been emptied into my larger clear paint bucket.  I didn’t bother taking a photo of it this month since it would just be the same orts.  I’ll include a photo of it in next month’s TUSAL update after I’ve added my February orts to it.

Until next time …

Viva Las Vegas! (Part 2)

I gave most of the stitchy part of the trip in yesterday’s Viva Las Vegas (Part 1) post.  Today’s second (and final) installment of the Viva Las Vegas series will cover the gambling part of the trip. 8)

As I mentioned yesterday, we all won a little something.  That really made the trip that much more fun.  I was actually the first person in our group to hit for a win.  It happened on Thursday night after dinner.  I was playing one of my favorite games — the 5X Diamond slot machine.

5X Diamond

I actually like all the Diamond slot machines, but having the chance of getting that 5X multiplier is pretty appealing.  Speaking of which, if you look closely at the photo, you may have noticed that I did indeed hit on the 5X multiplier with a couple of 7′s on the wheels.  Normally speaking, having any combination of three 7′s on the wheels would yield 120 credits.  Since I had the 5X multiplier, that gave me a 600 credit win.  w00t!!  Needless to say, I cashed out immediately rather than risk losing it all again.  lol   So, what exactly did that mean?

Slots Winner

Yep, $150!!  The other $4.75 was what I had left of the $10 I put into the machine initially.  Who says playing quarter slots can’t pay off?! 8)

Still high from my slots win the night before, I was a bit hesitant initially about gambling more the next morning.  I ended up deciding to give it a go though and threw $20 into a video poker game since Annette was already set up playing on one.  Well, I’m glad I did since I won again!  As soon as I hit for a small win, as is my way, I cashed out. Yeah, casinos probably hate me because I take the money and run! lol

Video Poker Winner

Last up in the gambling department was bingo on Friday night.  It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve played bingo and it’s definitely come a long way in the interim.  Did you know that bingo has gone all high-tech?!  Well, it has!

Bingo & Booze

They have electronic bingo “cards” now that even mark themselves.  Gone are the days of big paper sheets of bingo cards and ink daubers.  These days, all you have to do is sit and enjoy your drink until it’s time to yell BINGO when you win, which I did!  I hit for a $100 win on a triple bingo game.

Bingo Winner!

Annette’s mom, Pat, also won a $100 game.  The big winner at bingo was definitely Terri though!  She cashed in winning two games and took home a tidy sum.  I’ll let her share that news on her blog if she wants. )   While Annette didn’t cash in on bingo, she did manage a nice win on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine I posted about yesterday.  Again, I’ll let her post about that if she wants.

Speaking of Annette, please keep her family in your thoughts.  Her grandmother passed away early yesterday morning.  Due to that, she’ll be taking a short break from blogging.  You can certainly go by and leave a condolence note in her comments though.  I’m sure she would appreciate the love & support now.

Oh, and thanks to some enabling help from Cheryl, I found some great brick fabric for the stand-up that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.  I ordered it today, so hopefully I can actually figure out how to make a stand-up and finally finish-finish my Ho Ho Ho piece nearly four years after I stitched it. blush   Oh, and I may or may not have ordered a few other pieces of fabric, too.  For those wondering about my stash diet, I never said anything about not buying finishing fabrics, so there! P

That’s it from me for now.  Until next time …

Viva Las Vegas! (Part 1)

Sorry I haven’t posted in several days.  I was off having an awesome weekend in Vegas with friends.  We had an a.maz.ing time and even all came away winners on the gambling front to boot!  We all won at least $100 or more.   I was up $222 at one point, but ended up gambling a bit more and came home “only” $180 to the good.  Given I usually break even or lose a bit, I’ll take it. lol

We all arrived in Vegas pretty late on Wednesday night, so we pretty much just crashed at the hotel.  Thursday marked the day the fun stuff began!  To kick things off, Terri surprised me while we were still in our hotel room with an early birthday present since we won’t see each other next month for my real birthday.  It’s the Chocolate Sampler design by Jean Lea who owns the Attic Needlework shop in Mesa, AZ.

Birthday Stash

We then headed downstairs to meet up with Annette and her mom, Pat.  We grabbed some breakfast at one of the hotel restaurants (remind me sometime to tell y’all about the vegan shrimp cocktail! ) ) and then headed out to Stitcher’s Paradise for some stash shopping!

Since I’m on a stash diet, I limited myself to only what I needed for the Chocolate Sampler.  Ok, ok, I know I shouldn’t have even bought that, but it doesn’t really count since it’s for something I got as a birthday present, right? )   Annette also added to the birthday stash list by gifting me with the couple of charts on the left as well!

Birthday Stash - Part 2

While we were at the shop, I saw an adorable finishing idea for a piece I have stitched!  It’s the Lizzie Kate 2007 Special Edition Christmas piece.  I’ve had it stitched for around four years, but I’ve never finished into anything.  Well, they had that same piece on display at Stitcher’s Paradise finished as a chimney stand-up made using brick fabric.  So, now my quest is on for some brick fabric so I can duplicate this idea.   I wish I could’ve gotten a better photo, but the piece was on a shelf almost at the ceiling.  Anyway, isn’t it just awesome?!

Chimney Stand-Up

After the stash shopping fun, it was back to the hotel for some stitching time.  Unfortunately for me, I realized I made a HORRIBLE error on my Celtic Christmas piece and had to do some massive frogging.  In fact, frogging was about the only stitching time I had while we were in Vegas.  At least I’m ready to start making some forward progress again.  By the time it was all said and done, I had to frog about 580 stitches to get myself back on the right track. no

Frogging in Vegas

Ok, that’s about it for part one of my Vegas trip recap.  I’ll post part two about the trip in the new few days.  I’ll leave you all with this photo which I’m also using as my entry for this week’s PhotoHunt theme which is circular.  Given I was in Vegas, it seemed only appropriate. )   This is the Wheel of Fortune slot machine which was definitely a favorite of our group this weekend!  I think we all played on a WoF slot at least once over the course of our stay.

PhotoHunt - Circular

I know I’m several days behind in my 30 Day Blog Challenge.  I’ll try to get caught up on those over the next couple of days, too.

Until next time …

 

WIPocalypse January Update

Well, this full moon is here, so that means it’s time for our first update as part of the 2012 WIPocalypse stitch-a-long.  I posted my full list of planned projects on my dedicated WIPocalypse page.  I’ll just post my monthly progress updates here on the main page.

Celtic Christmas

This is my oldest WIP (work in progress), so I decided this is the year to finally knock it out!  I started it in 2007, so it’s long overdue. lol I didn’t make a whole of progress on her so far given it’s just been a week, but at least it’s something which is more than has happened in a looooooooong time. P

Celtic Christmas

Progress as of Dec. 31, 2011

Celtic Christmas - January 9 Update

Progress as of January 7, 2012

Royal Holiday

I also (sort of) got started on Royal Holiday.  I can’t say it’s much of a start, but it’s something.  I had planned on stitching on it for an hour or two beginning at 12:01am on January 1.  Well, I actually only made it about 25-30 minutes before I found myself falling asleep in my chair.  Yeah, I’m such a party animal. )

Royal Holiday - January Update

Progress as of January 1, 2012

As I said, I really haven’t gotten much done so far this year.  I’ve been busy studying for school, so that’s had me distracted.  I did manage to make it by my LNS on Saturday for our monthly Saturday Stitch.  That’s where I made most of the progress on Celtic Christmas.  While there, I also picked up some Kreinik braids I need for my upcoming Mirabilia round robin.  I’ll use these for stitching the borders for my piece.  This photo also satisfies today’s assignment for the 30 Day Blog Challenge which is to post a photo of the last thing you purchased.

Kreinik Braid

Kreinik Braid

We were also very fortunate to witness an amazing finish from Lorraine who is one of the older women who still joins us most months.  She’s in her 80′s, but her stitching is absolutely breathtaking!  This is her St. Basil’s Cathedral done on canvas.

St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral Stitched by Lorraine

Well, that’s it on the stitching update front. Here’s to hoping I’ll have a lot more progress to show at the February WIPocalypse update!

Until next time …

Saturday PhotoHunt: Bling

This week’s PhotoHunt theme is *BLING*.  Given my love of needlework, one of my favorite forms of bling is stitching designs with lots of sparkle and embellishments.  This is the Letter M fairy designed by Nora Corbett.  As you can see, she’s definitely blinged out. yes

Letter M Close-Up #2

Letter M Close-Up #1

Letter M Fairy

I have a Flickr account that houses all of PhotoHunt photos.  If you would like to view them all, you can find the set here.

30 Day Blog Challenge

Today’s assignment for the 30 Day Blog Challenge is posting about your dream wedding.  Given I’m twice divorced, I think I’ll sit out on this round. P

Until next time …

A New Year – A New Start

New Year 2012

Photo courtesy of photo8.org

 

Ahhh, here we are.  A brand new year, all shiny, clean, and sparkling new.  Can’t you just smell the new all over it?  You know, kind of like the awesomeness of new car smell.  I just love the anticipation of a New Year.  Much like that new car smell, there’s just nothing else quite like it.

For me, this new year means making a new start.  As I mentioned in my post several days ago about Scale Reality & New Year Goals, I knew I was going to end this year at pretty much the same weight I started it.  I was feeling pretty down about myself about it initially, but then my wonderful friend Karen reminded me that there’s no shame in maintaining for a while.  After all, at least I’m not ending the year weighing MORE than when I started.

But, enough of the past!  This is 2012 and I’m all geared up for a NEW START to go with the new year.  Thankfully, my Weight Watchers center was open on New Year’s Day this year.  I can’t remember a time in the past where they’ve ever done that, so  I was thrilled that not only could I get to my regular Sunday meeting, I could get to one on January 1, too.  How awesome is that?!  So, I got myself up bright and early this morning and headed over to my Weight Watchers meeting, by way of Starbucks. )   Sadly, the red holiday cups are gone for another, but at least I was still able to get a Skinny Peppermint Mocha still (4 PP for the Venti).

Skinny Peppermint Mocha

The topic for this week’s meeting was all about “believe” which goes hand-in-hand with their new ad campaign.  Have you see any of the new commercials?  If you were watching ABC’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve last night, you probably spotted one of them.  If you looked closely, you might’ve spotted the awesome @SuziStorm who blogs over at Ok, Just One More Beer.  She’s lost 91 pounds on Weight Watchers and looks amazeballs!!  If you want to see even more Weight Watchers videos, check our their YouTube channel!

Back to the meeting, we talked a lot about what things have caused us to stumble on our weight loss journey in the past.  We then brain-stormed about tools that we have available as Weight Watchers members that will help us overcome those old issues.  Using those tools will help us be successful and we can believe and have faith that we can reach our goals.  We even ended the meeting with an awesome quote seen in the photo which also includes my incredible leader, Jacki (can you believe she was once 100 pounds heavier?!!).  If you can’t read the quote, just click on the photo for a large version which should be easier to read.

Jacki - Believe Quote

As if the quote wasn’t inspiring enough on it’s own, I happened to glance to my left and see this poster hanging on the wall next to me.  It’s the cumulative total of all the weight loss at our center during 2011.  Amazing!!  Hopefully we can smash that total in 2012!

2011 Total Loss

After I left the meeting, I headed over to the supermarket and stocked up on lots of healthy foods, including lots of fresh fruit & veggies.  When I got it home, I decided Jan. 1 would be a great day to get my kitchen all organized again as I was putting the food away.  I feel so ready to go with my healthy eating in 2012!  There’s just nothing quite like being organized to make sticking with a plan so much more manageable.

Once I had that done, I prepared myself a nice healthy lunch (sorry, no pic) and then settled in for an afternoon of relaxation which included a bit of stitching time.  My January 1 new stitching start for this year (yes, I do it one every year) was Royal Holiday from one of my favorite designers, Mirabilia.  I don’t have enough done yet to really post a photo, so I’ll do that in a few days after I have a bit more done.

I had planned on including my goals for the next two months in this post, but I think it’s long enough already. lol   I’ll save my goals for tomorrow’s post.   I’ll also be writing about an exciting year-long project I’ll be taking part in over at the Sisterhood, too.  I can’t wait to tell you all more about that!

30 Day Blog Challenge Button

I do have one last thing to share about before I go for today.  I’ve decided to take part in the 30 Day Blog Challenge hosted by Jamee over at A New Kind of Normal.  Since I’m really striving to blog on a daily basis again after merging my blogs, I thought this would be a great way to ensure it actually happens. P   It will also give new readers to my blog (hello weight loss resolutioners ) ) a chance to learn a little bit more about me.  The challenge for today is to post a photo of yourself and description how your day went.  Since I’ve already posted about how my day went, I’ll just leave you with a photo of me taken recently with my sweet kitty, Brandi.

Mel & Brandi

Until next time …