Saturday, November 25, 2017

Greek Mandala #18 (Parts 1-4 done)

Before:

After:


I finished part 4 of the Greek Mandala! H³ has chosen the flapping parrot as the next stitch. Not sure if I mentioned this but together we have worked my WIP list down to 6 active stitches. Whenever I finish one, I'll rotate another one I've started, and so on. We'll see how this whole thing works out but probably better in terms of seeing measurable progress but on fewer projects. So stay tuned for the flapping parrot.

If you're wondering if I worked over the Thanksgiving holidays the answer is, of course, yes. I was told not to log on by the partners. Then we realized (at 9:30 on Wednesday night) that there was a filing that was due Wednesday that I didn't make on time (that's the official story, whatever). So I have to make it on Friday. I log on Friday and immediately get "I need this today!" e-mails (not filing related). I respond with "It's a holiday, I'll do it Monday." To which I get the classic, "okay, tell me who's working today and I'll ask them because I don't know how to _____." When I was done with all the things I passive aggressively shut down my computer before more e-mails could come in. I've been playing video games and stitching since. NO REGRETS. Until I come in on Monday.

Funny story, though, as I was taking the progress photos I had closed to door so the dog wouldn't come in and step on the stitching. She noses the door open anyway and waltzes in. I protected the stitching and made her sit/stay until I was done. This is the result:

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us over here, even our furry little monster (it's her favorite day of the year, after all), and happy stitching!

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Greek Mandala #17

So, first of all, NOT DEAD! Still blogging! Things have just taken an unexpected turn. Work has been busy, as always, but I also "noped" out on vacation out of the country for 2.5 weeks. Since I have the kind of job that requires people to cover for me, I felt compelled to line things up as well as I could so I wouldn't be dumping on people, which meant long hours finishing things up. I went dark for the 2.5 weeks I was in Poland, vacationing and having a great time (check out my Instagram for photos), and when I came back it was to a total $h!7storm at work. I've been working every night and weekend since.

On top of that pretty much everyone I know is pregnant so I've been ass-deep in baby blanket knitting.

But, there will always be work, and I just can't look at another knit-stitch right now, and this weekend I'm TIRED. So I stitched. For the first time in a long time. And guess what! I finished the third corner of Greek Mandala.

Before:

After:

Slowly but surely the Mandala grows! One more corner and it will be time to rotate to the next stitching piece.

Life in general has been interesting. I turned 31 in August. I'm becoming a bit disenchanted with work. Not sure how to really handle that. H³ and I are starting to look into buying a house but the market in the Bay Area is insane, to say the least. Vacation was magnificent, but I'm all stressed out again.

I do have a new project going, which has taken up a lot of my time recently. I've been writing fiction since I was about 9 years old. I'm not good. I just enjoy it. Then I met some other people who enjoy it. Then we created a blog where we decided to serialize our writing and publish it. I write under a pen name, but you can find our work here. I hope you enjoy it. And if you don't then... I don't know. Don't keep reading, I guess.

With that, I'm going to go do some stuff. Stitching. Or knitting. Or writing. Definitely not working.

Happy stitching, everyone!