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!

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!

Greek Mandala #16

This part took me a little longer than the previous, but I think it's looking fantastic! And since I had to take it off the scrolls to get to the next corner, here's a photo!

Before:

After:

On the work front, however, I had to quit my promotion. Things hit the fan about two weeks ago and I decided that it wasn't worth it. Three months of the hardest work I've ever done and pulling the craziest hours I've ever pulled. Two 200+ billed months in a row and I was on track for July being the same. Then some things happened and H³ asked me to quit. So I did. And now I'm back to doing what I did before, and what I do best. And I'm so much happier for it.

We have also booked a vacation to Poland - 2.5 weeks of no work and fun travel. Can't wait.

On that note, I'm going to go play some video games (Witcher III!). Happy stitching, everyone!

Greek Mandala #15

Another blog post less than a week after my last one? It's true! I had a four day weekend last weekend and even though I have to work this weekend, I took today off. It has been a while since Greek Mandala has come out and the part I'm working on is to be repeated on all four corners of the center, but I finished the first one just about 30 minutes ago. So here it is!

Before:

After:

There are some really fantastic silks used in this part, which made it so interesting and fun to stitch.

In terms of work, things are not exactly getting better. I've cut back on my hours and although it's helping my health, I'm completely backlogged. As I said above, I took today off, but will have to get some stuff done tomorrow. In addition, I have another half marathon towards the end of July and haven't been able to train nearly enough. I'm concerned, but will deal.

And with that, I go back to Greek Mandala and the next corner motif. Happy stitching!

Greek Mandala part 3 done, College #70

It's amazing how busy life can get when you're unemployed, but I guess it's a good thing I can find things to fill up my time with. The filming schedule I'm involved with is a little all over the place so my sleep schedule is a little all over the place as well. I have to report tonight at 10pm for an all night shoot so I, naturally, stayed up all night stitching and slept this morning (though I'm pretty sure I'm going to go take a nap soon). As a result, though, I finished part 3 of Greek Mandala!

Before:

After:

Backstitching from 3 until 5am is probably not ideal but oh well. It's done and I think it looks fabulous (if I do say so myself).

But College of Magical Knowledge has not been neglected either! I'm disappointed by how little it looks like I stitched on it, but I put in over 2,500 stitches since I last posted it.

Before:

After:

I hope that the next time I post it will be with a College page finish!

Besides filming and stitching, I've been playing a lot of Diablo III and reading. So not much else to report on the life front, I suppose.

Short post today, I guess, but I think I'm going to go take that nap now...

Happy stitching!

College #69 and Greek Mandala #13

The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic and I feel like I haven't had much time to sit down and breathe. But, finally, I'm taking some time today and updating both stitching and life. As always, stitching first.

College before:

College after:

I'm a little over halfway done with this page and in the entire piece I have only about 40,000 stitches left. That sounds like a lot but in the grand scheme of things, not so much. Getting ever closer to the finish line with this one!

Greek Mandala before:

Greek Mandala after:

Slow and steady on this one and it's an absolute joy to stitch. At one point last week my scroll frame broke and H³ had to fix it. And he did! So back to work on Greek.

I had two job interviews last week. I have already been rejected from one (thank goodness because that interview left me with a bad taste in my mouth) and the other one I was told I'm #3 on the list of eligibility which is the list they consult to fill positions. Basically, it means I passed the interview but they're not quite offering me a job at this time. So we'll see.

I got into the movie shooting January 31 and then found out that they're still looking for paid extras. So I thought, "why not?" and I submitted my photo and measurements. Got a call two days later that production approved me and I have a costume fitting tomorrow in San Francisco. Crazy times. So that's happening. I won't share the movie title right now but rest assured, when it's going to come out, I'll let you guys know what it is.

Two days ago I ran the half marathon with a good friend of mine. It was POURING rain. The kind of pouring rain where it's a wall of water and signs over the highway are lit up with "severe storm" warnings. But we ran it. It was kind of miserable but also pretty badass. My goal was to run it in no more than two and a half hours. Ended up running in 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 15 seconds. WIN! We were absolutely soaked through and exhausted but we did it.

It's only February you say? I feel like an entire year has already gone by 2015 is turning out to be crazy.

Happy stitching, everyone!

Progress, Stash, and Life (Oh my!)

So much has happened that I hardly know where to start, so I'll start with the stitching and move on to life stuff. Prepare for lots of pictures!

First, College.

Before:

After:

That's a little over 2,000 stitches in!

Greek Mandala!

Before:

After:

Slow and steady progress on both that I'm fairly happy with! Greek Mandala is probably my favorite project to stitch.

Which moves me into the stash portion of this post. The Crafty Princess has been naughty once again and completed my collection of seasonal dragons (the collection that she started!). So here they are:

Spring Dragon:

Summer Dragon:

Winter Dragon:

They're all going to be so fun to stitch! I can rotate them on the walls with the seasons once I finish them. Someday.

Now on to the personal stuff. It seems that 2015 is going to be an interesting year if it keeps up the way it has so far. H³ and I listen to a comedy podcast called Uhh Yeah Dude. I have probably mentioned it before because we went to one of their live shows in Dallas in 2013. They were in San Francisco this past weekend so we decided to go see them again. Our adventure started just as we got to San Francisco. We left about two hours before the show (which was at 4) and it was supposed to take us about 45 minutes to an hour to get there. At about 3pm we got to San Francisco and had about 8 miles to go to get to were we needed to park. at 3:15 we still had 7 miles to go. At 3:30 with 6 miles I started getting worried. We parked the car at 4:01pm with 0.4 miles to the venue. So, if anyone was in San Francisco this weekend and saw two people running down Lombard Street like crazy people, that was us. We made it to the venue between 4:07 and 4:10 and they started the show at 4:20. Success!

After the show they had a meet and greet so we lined up. It was really fun to see the UYD guys again (they had done a meet and greet after the Dallas show, too) and I got some photos.

With Jonathan Larroquette:

With Seth Romatelli:

We had a great time and will probably try to go to more shows if the opportunity presents itself.

So now is the time where I ask you guys for your help. I'm a big believer in positive energy, so if you have any to spare to send my way I would really appreciate it! I have an opportunity to potentially be an extra in a movie they're filming out here. I'm very excited but also trying to remain calm and realistic. Shooting is this Saturday so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best - wish me luck, please!

After that's done, I have a job interview and then a half marathon. So like I said - 2015 is turning out to be a very interesting year so far!

Happy stitching, everyone!

Greek Mandala part 2 - done!

I know, I know, I just posted yesterday. Posting too much. Oh well!

After all the excitement passed, I ended up coming down with a cold so I've been in the easy chair all day, in my pajamas still, stitching. I guess I can't complain except for the giant pile of tissues next to me and the inability to breathe through my nose.

BUT! despite all the sniffles and sneezing I finished part 2 of the Greek Mandala!

Before:

After:

I have to say the backstitching really makes this part pop. It was really fun to stitch and I absolutely love the way it has turned out.

Two parts down - ten parts to go!!!

Happy stitching, everyone!

Greek Mandala 10

I realized last week that although all my patterns were with the movers I could still work on my Greek Mandala since I work with the pattern on my computer instead of having a working paper copy. It has been over a year since this came out to play, which is odd since it's one of my favorite patterns to work.

Before:

After:

Definitely still loving this stitch and will continue until I finish the windmills.

The movers brought our stuff on Friday, which was a total ordeal. I got a call around 7:15 asking if I would be able to accept shipment today by 2pm. I said yes, so they gave me a phone number where I could go to pay for the move, which had to be taken care of before delivery. I call the number and they inform me that I went "way" over the weight estimate and would have to pay. Our weight estimate was 2,500 pounds and when we moved to Texas we weighed in at 2,070 (we really don't have a lot of stuff). The lady informed me that we weighed in at 4,250 pounds. And that's when I went to battle. I couldn't see how, after getting rid of furniture and packing up two cars full instead of the one we had before, we would come in at over twice the weight we had. After several phone calls, the company agreed to do a re-weigh for me.

I met the moving guys who had picked up my stuff at a set of scales not far from my new home. Immediately they told me that when they weighed in in Midland there was "debris" on the scales. HMMMM. So many excuses so quickly.... They came drove to our home, unloaded our stuff, and then we drove back to the scales. We came in at 2,710 pounds. 1,500 pounds less than they were claiming at first. 1,500 pounds we would have had to pay for had it not been for my "bad attitude." I consider it a complete success.

In other, happier, news, we did the food tasting at the venue the other day as well as seeing it for the first time after our original venue burned to a fiery crisp. The food was exquisite and I'm very happy with the venue. The inside has open-beamed peaked ceilings with twinkling lights and the whole thing is set on the water over the bay with some gorgeous million dollar homes and hills in the background. The only thing I'm worried about is that the ceremony space might not fit all the guests but either they'll fit or we'll move the ceremony indoors. Those are our only two options, I think. I would rather have it outside, though, if at all possible.

I think that's it for me for now. I'm working on unpacking everything and getting settled, but things are going fairly well. The Battle of the Movers has been won, and I can stitch in piece once I find everything.

Happy stitching, everyone! Wedding is in 27 days (eep!!)

IHSW results - Greek Mandala, part 1!

Finished, minus the beads of course! Without further ado...

Before:

Now:

I can't BELIEVE how beautiful it is. The colors in the photo are somewhat washed out because I was too impatient to wait for natural light, and it's not perfect because I'm still very new at specialty stitches, but I do love the way that it has turned out. The whole mandala is going to be stunning when finished... you know... whenever that is. I do have to say, I'm very proud of myself.

I love it! Handsome helpful boyfriend helped me a lot by being very very supportive while I stitched this and whined.

Moving on, I start school tomorrow. BOOOOO. I'm not looking forward to it, but I will tackle it head-on. Here are some of my goals for this quarter:
1. Don't freak out. Take it one step at a time and one day at a time.
2. Don't procrastinate. Start working on a project early and finish it calmly. There's no point in leaving it until the last minute and freaking out about it.
3. Keep up with my discussion forums. I think this will be the most difficult part since it's what I enjoy least.
4. Take every opportunity to keep up with my reading.
5. Make an effort to stitch every night, even if it's just an hour.

I know I know, kind of difficult but when I have structure I work better so there it is. And I know that Handsome Helpful Boyfriend always helps me out when I'm in school - makes dinner, brings me tea, gives me foot rubs, brings me treats, whatever I need.

And finally I set up some goals for 2013. I don't know how successful I'll be, but again, I work better with structure, so here goes:


Finish College of Magical Knowledge
Finish Riding the Wave
Finish "Secret Stitch"
Finish Santa and the Mouse
Finish Woodhouse Ornament
Mario pages 13-21
Medieval Shelf pages 1-6
Middle Earf pages 2-6
Greek Mandala parts 1-6
First 10 colors of Empress
Parrot pages 1-10
6 coffee cups

The coffee cups are an Alessandra Adelaide design my mom wants me to stitch for her several times into napkins. Which is cool. It'll be a fun and quick stitch to distract me from BAPs.

And with that I say goodnight. Work tomorrow and first day of school and I have to be ready to take on both, so that I have time for stitching, of course ;)

A Finish (!!) and WIPocalypse, the last coming

"You're going to read over my shoulder, aren't you?"
"Yeah, just to make sure you mention me in every other sentence, at least. It's a proof-reading thing. You know you want to."

And that is how Handsome Helpful Boyfriend is helping me write this blog post.

I finally finished his secret Christmas stitching. A few days late and it would have been done a tad earlier if I hadn't lost an entire bobbin of 159. As I didn't have a spare, I ended up having to go to Hobby Lobby the next day and buy another one (and keep from buying all the Thomas Kinkade Disney kits). BUT, all that aside, I finally finished, and here it is:

"Spring Meeting" by Alessandra Adelaide

Stitched on 22-count "Precious Metals" Hardanger by Silkweaver Fabrics

2 over 1 DMC

And there you have it. It took me roughly 3-4 weeks to finish it and it would have been done on time but I ended up getting the fabric a bit late, mostly due to Hurricane Sandy.

I do have another secret stitch going on right now but it's incorporated into my rotation so there should (theoretically) be more updates coming. 

Handsome helpful boyfriend is very handsome and helpful and wonderful. He got me a Golden Kite pattern for Christmas of this beauty:

After a serious bout of handsome helpful puppy boyfriend eyes and "maybe you can start the parrot?" I have now incorporated it into my rotation. My long.... long rotation. Oh well! I just got a finish so I'm not complaining.

Handsome helpful boyfriend's mom also got me a lovely kit:

Definitely itching to start this one (along with all my charts) but holding off... for now. Maybe when I finish the horses I'll pull this one out. It's got beads and blending filament and all sorts of things to make it both a fun and challenging stitch.

Those are all the stitchy Christmas things I got, and it's plenty in my opinion. I will also mention that Lesli of the Fabulous Frogger was super naughty and sent me a $50 gift card to White House Black Market. I will most certainly find a very good use for it, thank you Lesli!

So now the WIPocalypse. Unfortunately I don't have any new stitching to show for any of my regular projects, so I'll just do a recap of the beginning of the year and where they're at now.

College of Magical Knowledge before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Mario before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Riding the Wave before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Tiny Rose Garden Mandala before WIPocalypse:

Tiny Rose Garden Mandala now (FINISHED!):

Middle Earf before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Greek Mandala before WIPocalypse:

NOT STARTED

Now:

So there you have it. I will not be participating in the 2013 WIPocalypse or the 2013 TUSAL, mostly because of Grad school and it being difficult to maintain obligations like that but it was fun this year and I'm glad I did it. Also glad that the world did NOT end because I didn't actually get to finish any (except one) of my WIPs. oops!

So today I go back to my regularly scheduled rotation. If you're curious about what's coming up next, I have posted the next ten rotations on the top of my left sidebar. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that 2013 brings nothing but joy and good things. From Handsome Helpful Boyfriend and myself! 

WIPocalypse, the 10th Coming

I managed to finish another rotation on College last night and start the next rotation on Riding the Wave today. I have stitched an unprecedented 4 hours today - only because I decided to stitch while watching video lectures for school. Super exciting - but 4 hours of stitching! That's almost halfway through my rotation and I've already gotten a ton done.

Anyway, here's my WIPocalypse post for the month, only a day late!

College before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse (and last update):

Now:

I feel like you can barely see the difference. I also feel like this is the most confetti-heavy page I have ever stitched. Ever. EVER.

Mario before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse:

Now:

"Riding the Wave" before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse and as of this morning, but not now:

"Middle Earth" before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse and now:

"Greek Mandala" was not started before WIPocalypse.

Last WIPocalypse and now:

So there you go. A little bit of progress. Not so much but considering school, not too bad.

I'm regulating my sleep patterns. Going to bed between 10 and 11 and waking up between 645 and 7, so not too bad. Feeling better about that. School is still crazy and Boyfriend is still Handsome and Helpful. The only exciting piece of news is the incredible flooding we've had here. I actually got chastised by my boss for coming in to work on Friday. I had watched the news and called the inclement weather hotline and there was no news about closures but my little car would not have made it through the streets, so we got in Handsome Helpful Boyfriend's truck and he got me to work (and picked me up when the county shut down early). The library flooded, too and there were 80 something (if not more) water rescues just that morning. Here's a photo I got in the morning on the way to work:

The water is flowing over the sidewalk. I definitely wouldn't have made it in to work in my car. I kept getting flash flood warnings on my phone all day and throughout the night. But it has calmed down now and is nice and sunny. Also nice and cool - in the low 70s. Kind of nice, for once. I have to say, though, it was scary.

Hope you're all having a great stitchy weekend. Take care!