Here we are with 2012 quickly approaching.  In fact, in many parts of the world, it’s already arrived.  I still have just a little over three hours to go until it arrives for me here in California.  That gives me just enough time to outline my plans for the 2012 WIPocalypse and my own Great Stash Diet™!

Part of the WIPocalypse SAL is to post a list of the WIPs you want to work on during the year.  I sorted through all of my WIPs (*gulp*) and then decided which pieces I want to focus on as part of the WIPocalypse SAL.  With that, here’s my plan with links to my current progress photos on the existing WIPs:

• Finish at least 12 pieces in 2012

1. Celtic Christmas – Lavendar & Lace (started 25-Sep-05)
2. Hannah Beeby 1816 – Timeless Designs [started 24-Mar-08]
3. Sophie’s Stocking – Shepherd’s Bush (started 16-Feb-09)
4. Lady Alexandra – Mirabilia (started 13-Aug-11)
5. My Mirabilia Round Robin piece – RR starting late February/early March
6. Debbie’s Mira RR
7. Jocelyn’s Mira RR
8. Julie’s Mira RR
9. Sophia’s Mira RR
10. Stephanie’s Mira RR
11. Tanya’s Mira RR
12. Tracy‘s Mira RR

• As time allows, work the additional pieces below (in no particular order but listed by start date) as well as any other new pieces I start (must already be kitted and will be added to this list once started).  I don’t have current current progress pics of most of these pieces.  I’ll link the ones that are available and I’ll post the others if and when the time comes that I work on the piece.

1. Taj Mahal Garden Mandala – Chatelaine (started 1-Jan-07)
2. Le Quaker a 6 Mains – Broder Ensemble/Le 498/AMAP (started 5-Jan-07)
3. Moonlit Garden – Blackbird Designs (started 19-Jan-07)
4. Halloween Fairy – Nora Corbett [started 12-Aug-08]
5. Plum Blossom Kimono (canvas) – Margaret Bendig (started 20-Jun-09)
6. The Southwest (Sea to Shining Sea series) – Little House Needleworks (started 10-Oct-09)
7. Book of Spells – The Good Huswife (started 13-Feb-10)
8. Needle (Dictionary Series) – CherryWood Design Studios (started 01-Jan-11)
9. Snowed In (6 Fat Men series) – Lizzie Kate (started 22-Dec-11)
10. Royal Holiday – Mirabilia (planned Jan. 1 2012 start)

If you want more information, check out the FAQs here.  If you’re interested in joining us, you can sign up here. Who’s taking part you ask?  Check out the huge list of participants!

In addition to taking on the WIPocalypse, I’ve also decided to undertake my own Great Stash Diet™ for 2012.  Since my stitching goals for the year are pretty clearly defined, there’s really no need for me to be spending lots of money on stash as I normally do.  So, my goal for 2012 is NO stash buying, with the following exceptions:

• Any fibers needed for the RR or existing works in progress.
• Stash purchased with gift certificates.
• Kit for a class I’m tentatively planning to take in June.
• One birthday stash order in February from Drema using my birthday discount.
• My auto-ship ornament of the month series from Little House Needleworks.

So, that’s it.  That pretty much encompasses my stitching plans for 2012.  What about you?  Do you have any stitching, craft, or hobby plans for 2012?

Until next time …

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Time for another weekly day book journal entry. Given how busy my life is right now, doing these entries may be about the only way my blog gets updated for a while.

Outside my window …. it’s dark … again.

I am thinking …. that my life is just going to be complete chaos for the next 2.5 weeks between interviewing to hire a new employee, studying for school, and packing to move.

I am thankful for …. the last U.S. combat troops leaving Iraq today. I just wanted to share my immense thanks to all of our troops for their service to our country, especially to one of my tri buddies (Jennifer) who is in the Air Force and flew 113 missions while in Iraq.

Around the house …. boxes, boxes everywhere.

I am wearing …. my favorite jammy jams.

I am loving …. the new laptop I got for work.

I am hoping …. that the weather breaks soon and that there will be some relief from the hot temperatures we’ve had this week.

I am stitching …. Plum Blossom Kimono by Margaret Bending (pics below)

I am drooling over …. the Penne Alla Vodka recipe I’m planning to try on Friday.

I am sorely tempted by …. the new graphite WiFi Kindle.

I am reading …. Sadly, still plugging away at CompTIA A+ Certification: Essentials 2009 Edition for my A+ certification for work.

On my iPod …. Catching up on the Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone podcast.

On my mind …. nothing at the moment. I’m just chillin’ out and catching up on my DVR.

On my To Do list …. For Thursday: interview a potential candidate for the D.C. job, 2 meetings, setting up a new system for network monitoring, plus all of my regular day-to-day tasks.

From my picture journal ….

The top photo shows my current progress on my Plum Blossom Kimono counted canvas piece designed by Margaret Bendig. I’m stitching it on Congress Cloth using various silks and a few metallics. The lower photo shows a close-up of the Milanese Stitch (the dark gold square) which was a new stitch I learned last weekend.

Until next time …

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Amazingly enough, I’m still sick, but think I may finally be rounding the corner to good health again. I’ve literally been sick since July 1. It initially started as just a summer cold. It then progressed into a sinus infection, so I went to the doctor and was put on antibiotics.

As of Friday (July 9) I still wasn’t feeling well, so I went back to the doctor. After another exam and a chest x-ray, I learned that it had developed into an upper respiratory infection. The doctor was concerned it might turn into pneumonia, so I was put on a stronger antibiotic with a steroid pack booster. I actually felt a LOT worse on Saturday, but I think it was my body finally just trying to get all the crap out of my lungs. Each subsequent day has been a bit better, so I’m hoping by mid-week that I’ll be back to my normal self again free of the hacking cough.

So, what’s the good side to all this illness? I’ve gotten in quite a bit of stitching time. I participated in the July Weekend Stitch-A-Long on Facebook. I decided to pull out my Plum Blossom Kimono to work on it. This was a class I took last summer at my LNS from local designer/teacher, Margaret Bendig. I haven’t worked on it in quite some time, so I thought this SAL would be a good time to give it some attention. Here are my before & after pics showing the progress I made this weekend:

Before (as of Saturday morning):

After (as of Sunday night):

I’m so excited to have all of the outlining done! Doing that much pearl cotton outlining on Congress Cloth is pretty boring, but I made it through. Now I’m really for the fun part which is filling in all those little boxes with lots of pretty silks.

Of course, the whole weekend wasn’t spent just stitching. There was a lot of studying that happened as well. My college classes started on July 1, so I’m back into the world of having to study. It hasn’t been very fun given I’ve been sick, but I’m doing OK since it’s mostly been a lot of reading so far. I might not have felt the same way if I had been sick and was trying to write papers, too.

I’m currently in the process of studying for the CompTIA A+ certification exams. I have to obtain this certification for my job per a DoD requirement by the end of the year. The nice thing is I can kill two birds with one stone because I can use the A+ certification to knock out two of my college courses as well (IT Fundamentals II & III). It’s basically an entry-level IT certification, but it’s been long enough since I’ve done basic hardware/software troubleshooting that I’m definitely having to study to brush up on all the various beep codes, printer error codes, etc.

In other personal news, as if I didn’t have enough going on already, I’ve decided to move. I’ve been living in a one-bedroom apartment since my divorce six years ago. I finally decided I’ve had enough of being so cramped and will be moving into a two-bedroom apartment. Not only will I have a larger living room/dining room area, but I’ll finally have a craft room again, too!

Until next time …

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Yes, the time has come for me to admit that I have hopelessly fallen off my no-stash diet challenge. Thank goodness I’m doing better on my actual weight loss diet than I did on this challenge. I did manage to get 11 projects finished, so I made it almost halfway.

My latest finish was the first shoe for the Hagatha’s Slipper class that I took recently from Margaret Bendig. I finished this part up on Friday night, so now I just need to do it again in reverse for the opposite side.

What caused me to stray from my challenge? Well, once all of the Halloween designs started coming out recently, I knew I was doomed. I *love* Halloween stitching! Here are my latest purchases that I picked up at my LNS yesterday when I was there for our monthly Saturday Stitch.

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I’m going to leave my 25 Projects page (also linked at the top of my blog) in place. After I make a few purchases from the St. Charles fall market for TNNA coming up in a couple of weeks, I plan to get back on my challenge and make NO MORE purchases until I finish the remaining 14 projects to reach my goal of 25.

Speaking of the St. Charles market, have you seen one of the new designs coming out from Paulette at Plum Street Samplers? I’m not usually much on the whole Adam & Eve samplers deal, but this one is a MUST have for me! It’s called “Garden of Eerie” and cracks me up every time I look at it. What an incredibly fun design!! (Hey Darla, did you spot there’s a vulture on it?! )

Paulette has three other designs coming out at market as well. You can see them on the Kelmscott website since they are the distributor for her designs.

Oh yeah, as long as I’m confessing, I should probably ‘fess up to not sticking with my new rotation plan either. I am actually in the process of reworking it though, so I’m not saying yet that I’m completely abandoning it. I’m playing around with a concept that Terri mentioned to me. Rather than selecting particular designs to incorporate into the rotation, each slot would be a particular theme instead. Here is what I’ve come up with so far:

10 hours on current projects (started within the past 6 months)
10 hours on older projects (started more than 6 months ago)
10 hours on seasonal projects (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.)
10 hours on samplers
10 hours on canvas projects
10 hours on “anything goes” project(s) of my choice

I’ll just have to decide if I want to go forward with it. I made it through three slots of the previous rotation I had set up and found myself hating it the whole time. I think it’s the rebellious child in me. I just want to stitch on what I want when I want without some stinkin’ rotation telling me what to do.

I have a couple of floss toss pics to share with you all as well. I think since this entry is already getting pretty long, I’ll save those for another day.

Until next time …

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I love long weekends. The only bad thing about a long weekend is when it ends. Oh well, at least I have another one coming up this next weekend, so I only have to work three days this week.

I managed to put together a bundle this weekend for the Iraqi Bundles of Love project that I posted about on Friday. If I had more time to gather stuff up, I could easily have filled far more than one box, but this was what I was able to assemble on such short notice.

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Since it’s already bundled up, you can’t see the contents, but it has a variety of eight quilting fat quarters, 10 balls of matching yarn (can’t remember the brand now), five balls of novelty scarf yarn, two skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn, knitting needles, and crochet hooks. It’s then all wrapped up in a half yard of Moda sampler fabric. I also included a handmade greeting card thanking Major La Flamme and the other volunteers for coordinating this project.

In other stitching news, I was surprised at the end of last week with a gift certificate to my LNS from my friend Nicole in Chicago. I headed over to the shop on Friday to pick it up and, naturally, had no trouble putting it right to use. Here are the goodies I picked up:

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The charts are “Pumpkins 4-Sale” from Little House Needleworks and “An Apple a Day” from Plum Pudding Needleart. The fibers are for the new “Romantic Rose Garden Mandala” design from Chatelaine Designs that appears on the cover of the September issue of The Gift of Stitching digital magazine. I have no clue when I’ll ever get around to stitching it, but it’s definitely one I want to stitch at some point, so I figured I might as well go on and kit up the fibers. Here’s a partial pic of it from the cover:

After I left my LNS, I headed over to Joann to buy the ribbon to tie up my bundle for IBOL. While I was there, I stumbled across a little bundle of fat quarters of Halloween fabric that was on sale for $1 off. As much Halloween stitching as I do, I grabbed it for finishing. Here are a couple of pics. The first shows the whole bundle, and then the second one shows a better view of one of them since it was a large print.

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Lastly, I put in some stitching on Hagatha’s Slipper. It’s amazing how much longer it takes to put in that purple background stitching than you would think. I’m really trying not to focus on the fact that I have to do this all over again for the other side when I finish this piece. I’m really hoping this doesn’t turn out to be like so many single socks I’ve knitted over the years.

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Ok, that’s it for now. I really need to be in bed! Until next time …

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