Grab a cuppa! (also, giveaway winner!)

I wanted to thank everyone for entering my little haphazard mini giveaway. It's been a lot of fun reading your answers and today I wrote everyone's names out, put numbers next to them, and had Handsome Helpful Boyfriend pick a number between 1 and 21. He picked "2" which means that the winner of the giveaway is....

SHARINE!

Yay! Congratulations, Sharine! I've already picked the perfect thing for you, so give me a week or two to get it together and I'll send that out! Thanks again, everyone!

I meant to participate in IHSW this weekend. I signed up and everything, worked on Saturday, got sick today and stitched all day, and then I realized that wait a second - I'm stitching secret stitching and can't show you guys :( It's coming along nicely, though, and I really hope I have it finished for Handsome Helpful Boyfriend by Christmas, but I'll definitely report back. 

In other news, a few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Jo of Serendipitous Stitching asking me if she could send Handsome Helpful Boyfriend a present. I had no objections and about two weeks later got a neat little packet in the mail. We opened it up and imagine our surprise at the loveliness enclosed! Picture below, along with my last TUSAL jar of the year.

Isn't it WONDERFUL! Thanks so much, Jo! We really love it! The Hobbit is one of Handsome Helpful Boyfriend's favorite books, so this was quite a treat getting us very excited for the movie.

Which brings me to my next story for this post. Handsome Helpful Boyfriend finished the well he was on Wednesday night, and came home at 3am Thursday morning! We had been invited to go see the midnight showing of the Hobbit Thursday night, but declined thinking that Handsome Helpful Boyfriend had to get up at 5 to go to work Friday morning. This was no longer the case, but we still thought we'd just go see the noon showing Friday since we both had the day off work. Well Thursday night we went out to dinner with a bunch of people who were going to the midnight screening. Turns out they had extra tickets and somehow convinced Handsome Helpful Boyfriend to go to the midnight screening. Here I was thinking I was going to be enjoying my warm soft bed that night but no... off to the movies we went after a quick stop at home for a cup of coffee. 

It was a good time, though. This is a small town so only about 1/3 of the theater was full and some people dressed up as characters as well. The tickets were for the 3D screening, which didn't have much effect on me because of my eyesight, but the movie itself was immensely enjoyable. I loved all the tie-ins with LOTR and the little extras they added. True, it was a tad long, but at least I had fun. And Benedict Cumberbatch plays Smaug and the Necromancer, which brings me to my next (and final) story for the night.

SHERLOCK.

Holy crap I'm super addicted to that show! If you haven't seen it yet and have access to it via Netflix Instant or other avenues, WATCH IT, I say! It is such a refreshingly modern take on a classic without being annoying or over-the-top. Well, ok, a little over the top but Sherlock Holmes' character has to be a LITTLE over the top. There are two seasons out so far, with three episodes per season, each episode being an hour and a half long. I have watched both seasons all the way through, and then watched season one all over again. I keep looking over at Handsome Helpful Boyfriend and saying, "I want more Sherlock." "ok, I'll go produce some." Season three is coming... and I wants it now, precious.

TUSAL and Goodies

It's about that time. Actually, it was about that time a few days ago, but it's that time for me so there. It's also the last three weeks or so of school, which means that I'm a hermit zombie.

TUSAL for November:

I'm hanging out with William Shatner again. I also flattened my threads a bit. Plenty of bits from my secret stitching - which I wish I could show you guys! :(

I can show you some goodies I got from the SNEAKY Lesli of the Fabulous Frogger. Originally she was just supposed to send me a book she had a million copies of. Well, she did send a book. And other things!

Check out this gorgeous hand made stitching kit to go!

And inside...

I feel so spoiled!! There are pockets and needles and hand-dyed threads and gorgeous scissors and check out that adorable little scissor fob!! What a great little travel case! It's absolutely beautiful, thank you, Lesli!

Besides that I mentioned above that it's the last few weeks of school. I woke up at 5:45 this morning, helped Handsome Helpful Boyfriend out, and have been doing homework since. The hardest part isn't the homework. No. It's keeping myself from gorging on chocolate. Sigh. I've self-imposed a "chocolate only once a day after dinner" rule. I've also been exercising more, eating better, and drinking more water. I have to admit, I don't actually have a lot of weight to lose, but man I can already see a difference. It feels good. I probably would feel even better if I'd showered today but... umm... I was homeworking, what can I say.

I promise to have a stitchy update soon on Riding the Wave. I've been alternating it with my secret stitching and I have two hours left in my rotation. Once it's done I promise to do a stitchy update! Until then, have a great one!

It's Been A While

I know, I'm terrible. Not only have I been swamped but I also haven't been in the mood to blog. Being very cranky lately and since I don't like to write about how cranky I am, I haven't been writing at all. So what have I been up to, then? Lots.

First of all, Halloween. I'm going to be BATMAN. I have a costume reserved and I'm going to be working circulation Halloween day - so I'm excited. Dressing up as Lelu (from The Fifth Element) for the employee party after work since I have to return the costume right after I get off work. So pictures of that forthcoming.

Second, I went to Michigan two weeks ago for a wedding, and what a trip that was! I was flying in to Grand Rapids and had a layover in Houston. On the flight from Midland to Houston I actually threw up. I do get airsick, but never to that point. But man... I just lost it. Awesome, right? On the way back I made it to Houston, and then got kicked off my flight despite having a confirmed seat because they sent a smaller plane and were overbooked by 16. Awesome. What made it worse was that Handsome Helpful Boyfriend had driven all the way out just to pick me up from the airport, and I couldn't make it home to see him. He'd even made me dinner! Instead, I got booked at a super shady hotel that I didn't get to until about 11:30pm, didn't get to eat anything from 2pm until about 5am the next day at which point I had to eat McDonald's since it was the only thing open (for those of you who don't know, I do NOT like fast food), and got up at 4:30am just so I could make it to the airport in time. The airport attendants were treating us like we cause the problem and were booking us on the "first flight out" which was at 5:45pm. I was THE ONLY ONE who was put on standby for all the flights of the day starting at 7:28am and they weren't happy about the fact that I insisted. They told me that I'd have to get up early (oh boo hoo) and if I didn't and they called my name I'd lose my 5:45pm reservation. Whatever. I'm glad I did it because instead of waiting around all day I showed up early to the airport and got on the 7:28am flight without a problem - and there were still seats open on it! At least two more people could have made it home on that flight if they had been aware of the option of standby. What idiocy. At least I got a travel voucher out of it that will more than cover tickets to California.

Michigan was beautiful, though. And the wedding was lovely. Here are a couple of pictures.

I managed to get there right at the peak of fall colors and was completely mesmerized by the beauty of it. It was extremely inspirational and awesome.

Next, I would like to say that Lesli RAKed me a gorgeous Halloween Spangler chart. I don't usually go for holiday themed charts but this one is just so lovely and wonderful.

It's also the biggest chart in my stash, stitch-wise. So cute!

Next, I think I'll do the TUSAL:

Guess what I was watching tonight...

Oh, you came here for stitching? Yeah... none of that to show. I have some secret Christmas stitching going on but can't show it.

I CAN tell you guys that there's a SAL going on right now started by myself and the beautiful Lesli. HAED released another Middle Earth map with higher resolution. a lot of people were interested. So October 25 (the date that Frodo decided to set out for Frodo) and for 5 days we're all stitching Middle Earth. So on the 25th of every month for 5 days (or however many days you want) we're stitching Middle Earth (or any other LOTR chart)! There's a facebook group for it - so whoever wants to should join!

And  I think that's it for now... whew.

I Have No Willpower

Both in the stitching world and in the personal world, though the title refers to the personal world, in this case. I'll go over that at the end of the post for whoever is here just for stitching.

I just finished up my 10 hour rotation on Mario, just in time for the IHSW post!

Before:

After:

Wow... last time was back in April. That's a world away. I'm pretty happy with how much I managed to do, and I think it's looking awesome! Maybe next rotation I'll have a page finish. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but hey, it's looking good! I may have been stitching while watching Lord of the Rings. When I should have been doing my homework. Oops.

Also, here's my TUSAL. I'm using my living/dining room as a background.

You can also get a rough idea of how big Mario actually is. Answer: Big. I'll take a picture with him (and any other BAP I finish) when he's all done. Still a ways off, but not as long as my brain thinks!

So what's up with the willpower? I've always been the kind of person who seizes the moment. I used to get up at 5:30 just so I could make it to the gym. I would go to the gym 5 days a week, no excuses. And go to bed by 10 every night. Now, unless I have work, I'm lucky to be in bed by midnight and up by 8:30. No gym. Plenty of excuses. I'm feeling... doughy. My productivity sucks. Something needs to change.

It doesn't help that I haven't had the best of times in Texas. I won't get into it, but it's been a little rough. I'm doing my best, though.

Change does not come easily to me, and I know this, and lately there have been a LOT of changes in my life. I haven't really been dealing with them well. Read: I'm SUPER WHINY.

I also know that if you try to make too many positive changes in your life at once, you're setting yourself up for failure. So, baby steps. Step 1: bed earlier, wake up earlier. I can get back on my schedule, I think, and be able to fit everything in. Step 2: get less dough-y. Ok, ok I know I'm exaggerating I'm far from dough-y, but when you study for 8-10 hours a day and don't move off the couch, man it gets to you.

That's it for tonight everyone. I've still got about 400 blogs to catch up on. I've been neglecting you all dreadfully.

Have a wonderful week and take care!

I'm not dead!

Meaning, I'm still alive. I've been around, mostly ridiculously busy. Work, school, housekeeping, etc. etc. But I managed to get a little bit of stitching in. Last Monday was my birthday, which was nice. Very low-key and not a big deal. My parents sent me a bouquet of roses, my friends blew up my phone and facebook, and Handsome Helpful AMAZING Boyfriend got me some Keurig cups and... drumroll... pearls! That's right ladies, I'm keeping him. We also went out to dinner and I got some cake.

Besides that, I have received the 22-count sample from Crafty Princess (THANK YOU!) but have yet to test it out. I'll definitely let you guys know when I do! I'm not in a particular hurry. This is because I'm completely insane and fixed up a schedule for myself - which projects I'm going to do when. Meaning, when I finish one, what am I going to do next, etc. etc. It's all a little bizarre, but has made me very happy.

Now on to the stitching. I took part in IHSW this weekend so I have some pictures and limited progress.

Before:

After but before IHSW:

After IHSW:

The last picture was taken in sunlight and most accurately represents the colors. Also, page 10 is an absolute confetti NIGHTMARE and considering how much of this piece I've done already, that's saying a lot. I'll be lucky to still be 26 by the time I'm done with it the way things look. I actually spent a good amount of time stitching on it this weekend, but what you see is all I got done - I really thought there'd be more! Ah well.

And, of course, TUSAL.

I know I'm really behind with all of your blogs. I've been working about 39 hours a week, doing the school thing, and cleaning, and by the time I'm all done for the night it's time to go to bed and wake up at 6am. No fun... But I'm doing my best and wanted you to know that even if I don't comment, I have been looking! I try to comment as much as I can but sometimes I only have a few minutes in front of the computer for non-school stuff. Either way, I hope you all understand. HUGS!

GUESS WHAT!

I finished page 9 of College! That was what I did during IHSW and I was so close to finishing that I just kept going instead of showing you guys. I keep doing that - sorry! But I was working, too, and Saturday I drove out to New Mexico to go to Carlsbad Caverns with Handsome Helpful Boyfriend. More on that later. For now, here's College.

Before:

After:

I think it looks AWESOME if I do say so myself. Granted I can't take credit for Michele's amazing charting skills. This puts me officially at 40% complete. Which isn't halfway. But it's closer to halfway than it was!

I was e-mailing the Fabulous Lesli, telling her about all my WIPs and who they are for. She insisted that I work on something for myself. I haven't worked on Greek in forever... and I really want to. Why not? I'll work on that for a bit and get back to do the next page of College. Hooray for progress!

I'm also late with my TUSAL post, so here it is:

Taken on our new coffee table (pictures to come soon) which we bought just for me, to be honest. It has a rolling top and drawers so I can get all my stitching stuff in there, take it out easily, and put it away to keep it clutter free. I'm a bit of a freak like that.

Went to Carlsbad Caverns on Saturday, which was AWESOME. It wasn't quite what we did in Iceland when we went into a lava tube:

It was a lot more tourist-y, with elevators up and down, hand rails and flat trails everywhere. But if you're in New  Mexico, I do recommend it because they're absolutely insanely gorgeous:

So yeah, insanely beautiful. We might do Slaughter Canyon Cave next if Handsome Helpful Boyfriend has to be in New Mexico for much longer.

In other news, I loathe FedEx. We ordered a bookcase for which I waited all day. No knock on the door and the tracking miraculously says "delivered." No note on my door either. So I go to the office and, of course, they left it there, not even bothering to check if anyone was home. I have to now lug all 80 pounds of this thing to my apartment and up the stairs by myself. The office let me borrow a dolly to get it to my apartment, but I still needed to get it up the stairs. Which I did. By myself. That thing was MORE THAN HALF my weight. I might be flexing at the screen right now. Ok, I totally am. HRRRR GRRRR ROWR!!!!

Happy stitching everyone!

A Finish, TUSAL, and more!

I think it's only fitting that post 100 for me would be a finish. I didn't plan it, I actually just logged into blogger and noticed that I have 99 posts. So for my 100th, I have a finish.

Tiny Rose Garden Mandala Before:

Finished!

A Tiny Rose Garden Mandala by Chatelaine Designs (freebie)
Stitching on 32 count hardanger
2 threads over 2
DMC, Thread Gatherer Silk n' Colors, and Mill Hill Seed Beads


I have already mailed it off to California for my mom to use her magical sewing skills and turn it into a pillow since I've broken every sewing machine I've ever touched. Ever. I'll be sure to post pictures of that once it's finished, but my work here is done. It feels good to remove one of the projects off my sidebar!

Next up is the TUSAL. My TUSAL and threads stayed in California (the threads are getting shipped out with the movers but I'm going to have to get a new jar). So until then I have a temporary slot in my stitching box where I've been putting them and here it is:

Exclusively Rose Garden Mandala threads in there.

Next up, I bought my first pair of fancy sunglasses ever today! By fancy I mean actually good for your eyes. The Texas sun is a lot stronger than the California sun I'm used to and it hurts my eyes. So I've been doing a lot of squinting. Now, because I wear contacts (for severe astigmatism) the squinting causes my contacts to move, which causes me to not be able to see very well, which makes driving really difficult (and terrifying, did I mention terrifying?). I have some cheap sunglasses, but they weren't really solving the problem. So I dragged handsome helpful Boyfriend out today on a mission to buy good sunglasses. I ended up spending a bit more than I hoped (but way less than I expected) and got a pair of Ralph Lauren aviators. Now, honestly, I'm the kind of person who looks absolutely ridiculous in sunglasses, but I feel like a total badass in these. So here they are:

That's my best badass face. I need an FBI badge.

And last, but certainly not least, I have the creepiest Boyfriend in the existence of time. And to prove it, I have this photo:

I think that explains just about everything.

Happy stitching everyone!

IHSW, TUSAL, and more news!

First, IHSW. We're still in California so I'm taking every opportunity I have to stitch in between taking care of things for a cross-country move (YIKES!). The upcoming move has changed my rotation a bit. I really want to finish Tiny Rose Garden Mandala before I leave since I need my mom (and her sewing machine) to finish it into a pillow. I'm also still working on the secret stitch, which I'll show you guys next week (super excited!).

So here's my Tiny Rose Garden Mandala before and after IHSW.

Before:

After:

Next step, the TUSAL for the month!

And the last stitch-related update is I won a giveaway! I actually won this giveaway May 15, but I didn't know since I've been going crazy lately! I won Nancy's hand-dyed floss giveaway over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I'm super excited about this because I've never won a giveaway before! Looking forward to getting my floss and sharing it with you all.

I've been going a bit crazy lately because of the move. I'm going to be honest - I'm really excited about moving to Texas. It's a brand new adventure for us and it will be exciting. BUT we're moving to Midland, Texas. There's nothing wrong with Midland as a town, but they're currently going through a boom and there are no places to live! Boyfriend has 30 days to relocate for work and I was starting to get worried about us actually finding a place! I was seriously ready to just get on a plane and fly out there blind just to find a place. But last week, on a whim, I sent a rental application to a complex via FedEx overnight. Afterwards I wondered why I bothered sending it overnight since per their email they didn't have anything until August. The next morning I received an email from one of their leasing agents that they had an apartment, within our budget, available mid-July. Do we want it? YES WE WANT IT. I jumped on it. Granted now we have to figure out what to do for June, but we'll hotel hop and it will all work out. I hope. At least we've got an apartment lined up!

The bathroom reno is going really well. We've picked out all the appliances, tile, colors, everything. Now we just have to get the house re-piped and next week the reno should start. I anticipate it looking really nice. Will provide you all with a before and after, which I anticipate will be really dramatic.

Last night Boyfriend and I went to a fancy dinner at Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino for our anniversary. Our anniversary isn't until May 29th, but considering the move and everything we decided to do it a little earlier. Oh my oh my it was AMAZING. This was a dining experience quite unlike any other. It was FANCY. And it was amazing. They asked what the occasion was, so we told them anniversary and at the end they brought out this beautifully decorated plate with a dessert with a candle and some champagne, all on the house. It was really lovely. An absolutely amazing night.

So, if you're still here with me after that novel of a post, thanks for all of your lovely supportive comments. You are all AMAZING and don't worry, I'll keep posting! You'll all get Texas updates and posts of the roadtrip (did I mention we're driving to Texas?) Thank you all for being here for me - you're all wonderful.

April TUSAL

I did some IHSW work yesterday but none today! Boyfriend and I had a choice between going to Davis for Picnic Day (a fun event, but one that we'd been to before having both gone to Davis) or going hiking at Pinnacles National Monument. So Pinnacles won. What was supposed to be a simple 5 mile hike including cave exploration turned into an 8.5 mile hike. Boyfriend and I are both utterly and completely exhausted.

The reason the hike ended up being so long was because the park rangers told us that there were no parking lots farther up the trail, even though they were clearly marked on the map. Hey, guess what Park Rangers, YOU LIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED. And thus added about 4 miles to our hike. Oh, did I mention that it was 90 degrees today? Yeah... I owe Boyfriend. There was a shuttle running back and forth from our parking lot to where we WANTED to park originally. The trail leading back was near the road. He saw the shuttle approach and waved at it and THANK YOU DIVINE INTERVENTION (and Boyfriend for thinking of waving) it stopped for us. In the middle of the road. The driver said, "you looked like really wanted a ride." Accurate. We actually dove through bushes, risking poison oak just to get onto that air-conditioned vehicle of mercy.

Anyway, here's my April TUSAL along with some photos from today.

Pinnacles National Monument

What you see behind (handsome) Boyfriend there is the trail. Lots of climbing or, in my case, scrambling awkwardly over rocks while trying not to fall in the river.

About to go into the Balconies Cave.

After the cave, still have a buttload of hiking to do. 

TUSAL (and other news)

One day late with my TUSAL. You'll have to forgive me but I've been not feeling bloggy lately. I've been stitching like mad for the giveaway winners (all done, ladies! Will go out with the post tomorrow!) and I've been focusing on my newest project of trying to get a six-pack (HAHAHA). That's a six pack of abs, not a six pack of beer. When (if?) I do, John (my photographer friend I did the original photo shoot with) wants to do another shoot. Then Boyfriend, who already refers to me as his "model girlfriend") might spontaneously combust. We'll see. But that's kind of what I've been up to. That and... drumroll... oh wait - TUSAL!

You can see a lot of threads in there from my mystery giveaway stitch.

drumroll continues... I just got into grad school. Just found out this morning, actually. I applied for a Masters in Library and Information Sciences and upon checking my application status it states: "Accepted - Classified Graduate" so I assume that means I'm in. That and the welcome e-mail I received. So yay!

In celebration I leave you with this photo of me being cold as all heck during some horizontal rain in Iceland. That is the Grjótagjá fissure near Mývatn. I was cranky.

At Boyfriend's right now - prepare yourselves for an actual stitching update come Monday! Have a great weekend, everyone!

IHSW fail, TUSAL, and a baby rant

I'll just go in order of post title.

IHSW was a bit of a bust for me this month. I was really excited and eager to stitch, especially since I implemented that new rotation schedule (more on that later). So Saturday evening I sat down to stitch and my right hand started to hurt. Really really hurt. To the point where I just couldn't stitch anymore. I was also a little wary to stitch Sunday because my hand still hurt so basically, not much stitching happened. I finished my first rotation on Middle Earth and started on Greek Mandala but didn't get enough done on Greek to show anything, but I'll show Middle Earth!

Before:

After:

I have FINALLY figured out why Middle Earth is so hard to stitch. In projects like College and Medieval Shelf, etc., you have areas of color. If you're working on trees, it will be mostly tree colors. If you're working on buildings or rooftops, etc., there's a set of colors you're working in so despite the fact that there are 90 colors in a project, you're only working within a set palette at any given time. Middle Earth is different, because practically all the colors are on each page. Just means that it's a little slower - but looks awesome!

I'm enjoying the rotation so far. Everything is getting a little bit of love and despite it being SUPER difficult to put down a project after only 10 hours, I feel really good about picking up another one that had been neglected for a while and giving it some love, knowing full well that I'll get back to what I really want to be stitching soon.

TUSAL!

Lots of blues from College, browns from Middle Earth and sparklies from Greek - guarded by my dragon incense burner (the smoke comes out of the different dragon mouths!).

Baby Rant

Not a small rant but a rant about babies (and I'll keep it short). Boyfriend and I went to the movies on Sunday. We decided to catch the matinee because tickets are cheaper and we didn't think the movie would be all that good so we didn't want to pay full price. Everything was fine until halfway through the movie someone's baby started crying.

Here's what my problem was. The movie was not a kid's movie. Small children should not have been there. Second of all, if you HAVE to bring your kid to a movie, and the kid starts crying - leave the theater. Don't sit there because you absolutely can't miss the movie while your baby is crying, ruining the movie for everyone. I call it a "baby rant" but honestly, it wasn't the fault of the baby. It was the parent.

The movie was pretty bad. Crying baby just made it worse.

I'm really behind on blogs right now. Slowly working my way through them. Also, I went the way of Joyce from Random Ramblings and disabled the word verification on my comments because they were super annoying and difficult to read. I might enable comment approval if spam becomes a problem but until then - enjoy!

Thanks for looking and happy stitching, everyone!

IHSW & TUSAL!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous thread spread post! Made me warm and fuzzy inside! I have since organized all the threads into their own individually-labeled ready-for-stitching baggies and Boyfriend and I went to my LNS and I bought a 30" scroll frame. Since Greek Mandala is the only thing I'm going to be working on that requires a scroll frame, I'll sew it on (read: I'll have my mom sew it on) which will hopefully help with the tension. If it doesn't, I'm buying those clampy thingies Joyce showed me (thanks Joyce!). And, since I have decided to go with a scroll frame for Greek - I'll probably bead as I go, except for the Swarovski crystals since they're huge - those I will do at the end. The delica beads are tiny enough, though, that I don't think it will be an issue.

Now on to the subject of this post: IHSW and TUSAL! IHSW first!

Before:

After:

Middle Earth from Heaven and  Earth Designs

Stitching on 25 count antique white Evenweave

1 thread over 1 with DMC

I didn't make as much progress as I wanted to. I seem to be stitching this piece a lot slower than some of my other ones. Could be the 70-something shades of brown, but I could be wrong ;)

And now, for my first ever TUSAL pic. Being Polish, I naturally keep it in a beer glass. It's not located anywhere exciting, unfortunately - just on my nightstand. But here it is!

Boyfriend has gotten into the habit of putting any blonde hairs he finds on me or him in that cup - specifically for the purpose of driving me crazy, so I have to empty it of hair once in a while. Currently it is hair-free and filled with bits and pieces of Tiny Rose Garden, Mario, Middle Earth and College!

EDIT: Boyfriend wishes his side of the story to be heard regarding this. Apparently he does this because my hair gets everywhere. Including into the mouth of his best friend while they were out on a jog and I was nowhere to be seen. True story.