College - 15

I ended up surprising Boyfriend last Wednesday. He had absolutely no idea I was coming. I pulled up in front of his house, crept out of my car and stood outside his bedroom window. Then I said, "PSST!" and scared the crap out of him. After he realized it was me, though, all was good. 

Saturday we were giant nerds and saw The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in concert. Meaning that the movie was displayed on a giant screen above a stage on which an orchestra and choir were located. The music track was removed from the movie that was playing and the orchestra played the music to the movie. It was amazing. AMAZING. They're doing one movie a year through 2013 for the 10th anniversary of each movie. They also had original props from the movie set up which was SO COOL. SEAN BEAN TOUCHED THAT SWORD!!! 

Now, for stitchy updated:

Before:

After:

You can see the confetti awesomeness...

Also, I've recently been getting into card making.  As in, I'm totally excited to start doing it and am grabbing every sort of literature I can find on the subject, but I have yet to make a card. Tomorrow I'm stopping by a craft store to pick up some beginner things and start tinkering. We'll see what happens. But don't worry, I will never give up the stitch :)

Haircut Thursday. EEEEEEP!

Happy stitching!

Riding the Wave - 5

Hello all!

I'm posting this tonight because I don't know what tomorrow will bring. I originally planned to visit Boyfriend Thursday, but am considering surprise pouncing him tomorrow without his knowledge. Hopefully the plan will work out and if it does, I won't be able to stitch tomorrow, hence the update.

I've been slaving over these horses. I really just want to get them done. Unfortunately, I've been busy running errands and trying to help my parents out to justify my freeloading so I've only been stitching an hour here and there every night. But, here goes!

Before:

After:

Just 1.5 horses left and then it's all easy background stuff! YESSSSSSS!

I don't know if you guys have noticed (since I know a lot of you view this in reader and don't see individual changes to blog layouts) but I made a minor change to mine. I have posted all my current, future, and stash (well, almost all) projects on the left side of my posts. It's really more for me to motivate me to stitch more so I can make that huge long list shorter and shorter by removing a picture for every finished project. And I hope Riding the Wave is the first to go.

Now for a funny story which you're totally welcome to completely skip. I was out running errands today and it being a very warm October day and me liking to get pretty because it makes me feel good, I put on a nice dress and some heels and went out to do my errands. Now, this dress is of the low-cut variety, and I have a rather large bosom. This doesn't bother me and I figure I might as well enjoy it while I'm still young since in about 5 years it will become rather inappropriate (or inapropro as my friends like to say) to display the girls in such a fashion. But, until then, freedom for the ladies.

Ahem.

Anyway, I wanted to pick up one more video game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time since it would complete my trilogy and it's only $10. So I walked into GameStop. In a very low cut dress and heels. I was the only female there. I speak Geekinese. I felt like I walked into the scene of a sitcom.

And let me tell you, it felt damn good.

Hugs to all and happy stitching!

IHSW - October

Hello and welcome to all my followers - new and old alike! Wow 72 people actually read my senseless babble. I appreciate each and every one of you guys :)

This weekend was IHSW which I participated in, though not as much as I would like. Last Tuesday I got a migraine that lasted through until the end of Wednesday and has been giving me trouble ever since. Also, I was "crankers" as Boyfriend puts it. So not as much stitching was done as I would have liked. I did, however, FINALLY pick a color to paint my bedroom. It's a Kelly Moore color called Colcannon and it's kind of a sage-y green. I like it because it's happy and springlike but calming at the same time. I went through so many samples it was comical by the end. I currently have 9 different colors painted on my walls in an attempt to make the decision. But when Colcannon went up I kept going back to it, so I know I made the right choice.

I also signed up for the gym this weekend. Before I quit my job and moved out here I belonged to a gym, had a personal trainer, and went running with Boyfriend three times a week. Now I'm lucky if I go running on my own twice a week. So this weekend I picked myself up and signed up for gym membership. My goal is to lose 15 pounds.

Anyway, enough of that, on to the stitching!

Before:

After:

There's a total of four colors stitched in now!

Alright well, I bought two video games today: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. $20 all together so not too bad, really. I suppose I should test them out ;)

Also, I'm grossly behind on blogs. I'm progressively catching up but my comments may appear a bit slowly. Sorry guys! I'm working on it!

Happy stitching!

My First Chatelaine!

Alright, so as promised, here's a picture of my first Chatelaine. Except that it's not done. I couldn't get to start stitching it until late today as I had my aforementioned dentist appointment this morning. That filling that fell out? Yeah...  not a filling that fell out. A piece of my tooth that cracked and sheared off. The good news though is that it didn't hurt and it's a back tooth so you can't tell when I smile. I'm always very sad when something goes wrong with my teeth since I take such good care of them :(

ANYWAY, I'm rambling. It's past midnight right now and when I'm tired I ramble. So here we go:

The picture isn't great because my camera is broken (hopefully getting a new one for Christmas) but there you go! The border is almost done. I'm saving the beading for last. First time using Kreinik, too, and I actually don't mind it. This is probably a good thing since Mystic Mermand, whenever I get to her, is just absolutely covered in different shades of green Kreinik.

I chose to stitch this on a 32-count Hardanger. First time working with Hardanger and I actually really like it. Some of you may not agree with the fabric color for this particular project, but I really like it. It feels kind of old-fashioned and classic without being stereotypically grandma-y.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to post my pre-IHSW photo:

Nope, nothing has changed.

Also, welcome to all my new followers and thank you so much for commenting. It warms the cockles of my heart to hear all the nice things you all say. I'm sorry to say I'm currently very, very behind on blog reading, but I'm working on catching up, so you may see some comments pop up soon!

Thanks for reading, everyone, and have a wonderful stitchy night!

FREEDOM! and IHSW

I'm FREE! No more temp job! Today was the last day and I suffered through it. Big Boss was super cranky and I was getting yelled at for everything, including the fact that someone else, wholly unrelated to anything I do, has a dentist appointment next month. No joke. I got yelled at for that. Sigh. Giant Butthead told me I had to come in tomorrow. I said "no." Valid reason, too. One of my fillings fell out TWO WEEKS ago and I haven't had it taken care of because I've had to work. Appointment tomorrow at 9am. So I grabbed my check (yay car insurance paid off for the whole year and a set of new tires for my car!) and got out of there as fast as I could.

So now on to the fun part. IHSW this weekend! The turnout is growing every month so spread the word, join up, and stitch! You can either click here or the little hermit crab on my right side bar :) I SHOULD be working on Riding the Wave, but I WILL be working on Middle Earth because Boyfriend is coming to visit and I like to work on his project when he's here. Just to be clear, I really have no set rotation except for working on College and Medieval Shelf at Boyfriend's and Middle Earth, Riding the Wave, and Mario when I'm at home. Other than that I stitch what calls to me.

Which brings me to the part where I'm going to attempt to buy fabric tomorrow and stitch the first freebie Chatelaine, Kathy's Violets. It's mocked up on black but I'll see what fabric I end up getting, if any. If this venture is successful, I shall post photos.

Happy Stitching, and Hermit Away!

WWIII Monster Post

After a lovely weekend with Boyfriend in San Francisco watching the Blue Angels, I'm now home and ready to share my WWIII story since I have time. I'll keep it condensed since I do have to go to bed in about 15 minutes, but here goes! If you want just the stitching update, scroll down to the bottom of this post. I won't get mad, promise.

Tuesday it was a pretty standard day of work. Big Boss wanted me to do the client billing, so I followed all the directions up until he told me that all the attorneys had already gotten their time in so I should just run it. Although this was not the procedure that I was told to follow by the girl I'm temping for, since it's the Big Boss, that's what I did. Well Giant Butthead saw that I'd run the billing and pulled a hissy fit. See, doing the billing is a long and complicated process, made even longer and more complicated by the fact that I have to run everything by Giant Butthead and wait for his email reply. I had sent the email the previous day, and a follow up email that morning, and received no response, so when Big Boss said, "run the billing," I ran the billing.

Giant Butthead got upset. Started giving me a speech about policies and procedures being in place for a reason and I have to follow them and Big Boss doesn't know how it's done so I have to ignore him. Now I've been putting up with Giant Butthead for two weeks now. I refer to him as something other than Giant Butthead in my mind, but I'm trying to keep this blog fairly nice so Giant Butthead will suffice as it gets my points across. I was fed up with putting up with Giant Butthead. So talking back commences. "I was just doing what Big Boss told me to do." "Big Boss doesn't know what's going on. The policies and procedures are in place for a reason." "I am a temp. I don't know who knows what, I do what I'm told and when Big Boss tells me to do something, I do it. If you have a problem with it talk to Big Boss." "Policies and procedures blablabla my head is up my butt." Ok, maybe he didn't say that part, but he was acting like it. It is a sad moment in my life when someone thinks I'm so stupid that I don't know what policies and procedures are. Yes, I know what they are. Yes, I know they're there for a reason. But I'm a temp, working for Big Boss, so when he tells me to do something I do it. The communication at this firm is so poor.

After this whole exchange Giant Butthead goes back into his cave (I call it that because he has all his blinds closed, no natural light coming in despite two HUGE windows, and his office is painted a deep scarlet red) and Awesome  Lady comes out, pulls me into her office and high fives me for standing up to Giant Butthead. Apparently they have had many, MANY people quit because of how he treats people. Interesting. Then Big Boss approaches me and asks why the bills aren't done. I tell him Giant Butthead wouldn't let me. Why? You'll have to ask him. Big Boss goes into Giant Butthead's office. The door is closed. Raised voices are heard. Awesome Lady pages me on the phone system to congratulate me further.

Anyway, the day kind of goes on and Nice Attorney comes up to me at 4pm and says he has a very important mission for me. Apparently one of the clients of the firm who has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets is in the hospital and they need to get her an appropriate and tasteful get well card to be FedEx-ed that day. I ask if I can have some of her assets. He says no, but there might be a bonus in it for me (hahaha). I desire a pair of shoes. He says he'll see what he can do.

Next day. Wednesday. A bunch of checks come in that I have no idea what to do with (they have to go into special accounts that I received no instruction about). I ask Giant Butthead because I have no choice. He tells me nothing. He leaves me to fend for myself. I ask him again and he again gives me no useful information. This has to be done TODAY. People are pressuring me and asking me when it will be done. Receptionist Lady keeps saying it has to be done. Giant Butthead gives vague instructions that tell me nothing. I ask Awesome Lady but she doesn't know. I'm freaking out, looking for deposit slips that I can't find. The instruction that was given to me literally states, and I quote, "oh, don't worry about that. I don't think you'll get any." Gee, thanks. Awesome Lady and Big Boss walk by and Awesome Lady asks if I found the deposit slips. I burst into tears. Big Boss pulls me into his office and I start hyperventilating, sobbing, and tell Big Boss that for two weeks I've been trying my best and for two weeks Giant Butthead has been treating me like a piece of human garbage and not offering me any help. I was very up front about the fact that I have no experience doing what they are asking me to do, and yet it seems that I am expected to do it. Yet when I asked for help, I'm answered with, "Wellaydunno." Well I don't know, either. And if he doesn't know (which he does) and I don't know, how am I supposed to do it?

Big Boss is displeased with Giant Butthead. Big Boss also pulls me off financial stuff I can't handle. If I don't know how to do something, I'm to go to him. VICTORY! Big Boss exchanges words with Giant Butthead. Suddenly, everything gets solved and there's no more "Wellaydunno"s. It took Giant Butthead all of TWO MINUTES to do what he was making my life miserable over for an hour. Nice Attorney comes up to me. "Whatever it is [Nice Attorney] the answer is no." I was swamped and stressed out and couldn't handle another task.

Later, Nice Attorney asks, via email, if he can offer any assistance or if I needed anything. I answer vodka. He asks what size. I answer Industrial. He says he'd see what he could do. Next day he shows up with a 750mL bottle of vodka and Bloody Mary mix. Friday after we had Bloody Marys at work. Then I got to drive down and visit Boyfriend and have a wonderful weekend with him. Never did get the shoes, though.

So that's my  WWIII story. Giant Butthead and I are not friends. BUT I HAVE 3 MORE DAYS LEFT!!!!! October 12th is my last day. They asked me to stay longer but I said no. I just can't handle it for longer. 

So now, the stitchy update. I've been focusing on Riding the Wave when I'm at home, and College of Magical Knowledge when I'm at Boyfriend's. I'm pretty pleased with both, though I was only at Boyfriend's for two days and we did stuff both days so not much stitching. Saturday we watched the Blue Angels in San Francisco and Sunday we got all dressed up and had fancy Brunch at a really nice place. So, without further ado, here is my progress on both.

Riding the Wave before:

Riding the Wave after:

College of Magical Knowledge before:

College of Magical Knowledge after:

Boyfriend and I have a fun thing with HAEDs now that I'm gridding where he chooses the symbol for me to stitch. So I stitch all of that symbol, and he chooses the next one until the whole page is done. I kind of love it and so does he. He gets so excited to choose the next symbol.

Also, I got some questions about what I use to grid. I use Easy Count Guideline (available at 123stitch.com) and I really like it. It's kind of like fishing line except really easy to see (as you can see above) and it pulls right out without leaving marks. 

Anyway, it's 12 minutes past my bedtime. Welcome to all my new followers and thanks to everyone who comments! I try to respond to everyone via email, and those who don't have email listed, I respond to within the comments section, so if you think I'm ignoring you, I'm sorry! I do try to respond to everyone!

Bring it on, Giant Butthead. Three days left. Happy stitching!

Quick Post

Hey everyone,

Just got back from the airport, have a pounding headache, and for the second day in a row I started WWIII in the office. Story to follow in a post soon, but it involves getting into a fight with an attorney, the "policies and procedures" speech, a pair of shoes and a bottle of vodka. It also ended up with me sobbing/hyperventilating in an attorney's office. FUN!

The main purpose of this post, however, is to encourage you all to check out Nikki's Stitching! Nikki just started her own stitching blog, so I wanted to give her a warm welcome and introduce her to all of you awesome wonderful people who have kept me sane and motivated all this time. :)

Visiting Boyfriend this weekend. Will try to blog again Sunday with the full WWIII story and perhaps a stitching update if I can manage one. Until then, happy stitching!

Gridding is my New Best Friend

I decided to grid up Middle Earth as soon as I got my gridding wire. It was such a good decision! If it's at all possible, I'm enjoying stitching even more now! I know that I'll be gridding up my other projects from now on. I'll be working on Riding the Wave this week. I want to finish those horses and get them done.

So this weekend I was stitching up Middle Earth, Boyfriend was reading Game of Thrones, and I was torturing him with Bridezillas. Poor soul managed to sit through two episodes before breaking down and refusing to watch more. I think that's not half bad.

Anyway, here goes. The start of Middle Earth:

We're getting our first rain of the season. I'm sitting in my bed, cozy, watching Paranormal State in oversized pajamas while the cold night air streams in through the window and I listen to the sound of the rain. I missed this.

Happy stitching, everyone!