A Series of Unfortunate Events + College #57

I didn't post last week because I got about 44 stitches in over the course of the whole week, and it was a BAD week. This one wasn't much better. But more on that later.

Before:

After:

Got a little bit of the brown in, so there you go. About 3,000 stitches left in the page!

So let's see. I had my second dress fitting about two weeks ago, and I have to say I absolutely LOVE it. It's going to look gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I guess most of the bad parts for the week come from the school front. Everything seemed to be due at once and I was doing nothing but going to work and then coming home to do homework until I went to bed. Not a fun way to spend your time. On top of that, Handsome Helpful Fiancé's employer decided to give us one day's notice that they were sending him "somewhere" for "some time" and that his "travel had been booked." Turns out it was Houston for one week for training, but it would have been nice to have had more notice. I was doing homework last Sunday and was feeling pretty good about things because I was almost caught up, just had an assignment due that night that I was feeling pretty good about.

And then all hell broke loose.

I drove HHF to the airport and as I parked my car back at the apartment, I got an email from one of my professors. Apparently I had misread the instructions for an assignment due the week before, and didn't turn all of it in. So I had to by the end of the night. It's now 4pm and I have an extra assignment due that I hadn't planned on. Yes, because of my own stupidity (this is what happens when you have so much going on, you miss stuff), but that doesn't change the fact that I now had to do it. So I sat down and did it and about 3 hours later I had it turned in. Back to the other assignment. It's due 11:59pm PST which makes that 1:59am for me. I turned it in at 1:39am. My parents had to help me with some formatting because I couldn't get the software to cooperate. And then, at 2:02am as I'm lying down in bed, I realize that I did it wrong. Completely and totally wrong. And at this point there's nothing I can do about it. I still haven't received my grade for it back, but the mistake rested on the fact that not all the instructions for the assignment were in one place, and I hadn't navigated to the second place with more instructions in time. Again, my fault.

And I haven't even STARTED my final portfolio project which is due April 21.

But that's not the kicker. The kicker is that my wedding venue caught fire early Saturday morning. It did not burn to the ground, and I think they'll be able to fix it in time for my wedding. I sent them an email and don't expect to hear from them immediately because they're likely swamped with phone calls and emails about the very same thing, and quite frankly mine is not a priority because my wedding is just over six months away, but I am a little anxious (as, I think, any bride would be).

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen (are there any gentlemen?). I'm a ball of nerves. The good thing is HHF is back now and I'm all caught up on homework.

So here's the plan for the day:

Finish my cup of coffee and watch my episode of Ghost Adventures (season pass!) while stitching on my AAN Halloween Mystery SAL (which I'm behind on - oops!). Then, work on my portfolio until about 6pm after which I sit down to relax and stitch. Maybe make/get dinner somewhere in there. Cross your fingers!

Also, I finally got an Instagram account. It's kind of a personal project where everyday I try to find the beauty in life around me. It hasn't exactly panned out like that, but I'm going to keep trying. It's out there, I just have to find it. Follow me @sherlochnessmonster if you want. Or don't. Up to you!

Stats:
Pounds lost: 4 (I went up a pound. It happens. Whatevs.)
Days until end of school: 58
Days until wedding: 202
Estimated completion for above chart: 10/28/2016

Happy stitching, everyone!

College #56

I missed last week's post, but I got food poisoning Saturday night and spent all of Sunday miserable. Then this morning I woke up with a cold (Handsome Helpful Fiancé decided to share) but I'm persevering and posting anyway!

Haven't been able to get nearly as much stitching done lately. Just finishing up week 6 of 15 of school and things are revving up. I also still have to do my portfolio (which I will be working on most of today) so I don't have much time for anything else. I did manage to have a panic attack this past week because of it all, but such is life. Deal with it and move on, I guess.

Before:

After:

Just a little bit more in the darker tones. Slowly it's coming together, though! Maybe once school is out I'll manage to get in a few more stitches.

I did make myself a spreadsheet, though, that I'm really excited about! It took me maybe a half an hour of tinkering with it to make it do what I wanted it to, but I love it. Every day I track how many stitches I do and enter it into the spreadsheet at the end of my stitching night. This includes days I don't get to stitch (which happens more often than I'd like to admit). Then the spreadsheet calculates my average stitching speed in stitches per day, based on that number and the total number of stitches left how many days it will take me to finish the project if I maintain that average, and spits out a potential end date. I'm going to try to incorporate this number into my posts for whatever pattern I happen to be stitching at the time. You'll see it at the bottom of my posts, like my countdowns.

Not much more has happened on the wedding front. Figured out a few more minor details, and tomorrow I fly to Dallas for a few hours for a dress fitting.

Besides that, it has just been school and work. Work has actually gotten worse, so I have already sent my resume out to several places back in California. The faster we can get out of Texas the better. Weight loss challenge is going very well, though! 5 pounds down so far.

Here are the stats for this week:
Pounds lost: 5
Days until end of school: 72
Days until wedding: 216
Estimated completion for above chart: 8/29/2016

Happy stitching, everyone!

College #55

I'm very happy with this week's progress. I made a conscious effort to sit down every night and although I didn't meet my stitching goal every night, I did stitch every night.

Before:

After:

Got almost all the black in - have a few more stitches to do on that color and then I'll grab the next!

On the everything else front, not much is going on. Work is still being work. And I haven't accomplished much in the way of wedding planning except that our invitations came in, but I guess that's not really anything I've accomplished. I've also lost 1.2 pounds in the 5 pound challenge as of this morning, which some would argue is just water weight. They're probably right, but I like to look at it as a small victory anyway.

So, this week's stats:
Days of school left: 86
Days until wedding: 230

Happy stitching!

College #54

The downside of doing an update every week is that my stitching doesn't look dramatically different. But oh well! I'm enjoying stitching College, but at the same time I kind of want to be done with it. Either way, here it is.

Before:

After:

Just a little bit done.

The AAN Halloween Mystery SAL has also started up and the first part has been released. I've been working on it a little bit during lecture, and College in the evening. When I finish part 1 I'll post a picture of it.

I also forgot to mention some new additions to my stash. QS Tea Party went out to anyone who bought a ticket to the HAED Raffle. I didn't win, but it was a nice consolation prize either way:

Also, the fabulous lesli RAK'd me another chart and here it is, QS Literate Dragon:

I have so many charts I just want to dig into! Can't WAIT for school to be done. About to start week 4 (I can't believe it's already week 4 (of 15)) so hopefully it'll go quick. Lots to do this quarter so really have to hunker down.

Tomorrow we start a 5 pound weight loss challenge at work. It runs from February 10 through March 31 and the goal is to lose 5 pounds. It's $10 to get in. If you lose the 5 pounds, you get to keep your $10. If you don't but others do, your $10 gets distributed among the ones who do. And if nobody loses the 5 pounds then your $10 goes to the charity of your choice. We have 6 participants - so wish us luck!

On the wedding front, we got more done this past week. Booked the group rate at the hotel and we booked our honeymoon tickets! We're going to Iceland! It's going to be awesome!

So here are my current countdowns:
End of school: 93 days
Wedding: 237 days

Woo! Happy stitching, everyone!

College #53

I'm trying to get into the habit of posting once a week, not because I feel like I should but because it's a great escape from all my responsibilities and makes me happy. It seems as though school will be pretty terrible this semester, as far as amount of work goes, but at least it's the last semester and I have an awesome countdown going (100 days left!). I have been trying to set aside some time in the evening to stitch, however, and here is my progress so far:

And now:

That's about 1,300 stitches into the page, which isn't bad!

I must admit I have been doing a lot of knitting lately, mostly because it's easier to sit down and do a row sometimes without having to set anything up. I got some gorgeous yarn for Christmas and a hat knitting book so I have been trying to take full advantage of that.

On the job front, things still aren't great. There's been retaliation, my hours getting cut for no reason, and I'm pretty sure there's one person who is trying to force me out. When school gets closer to being done, however, I'm going to start looking for something else, and that has definitely been a comfort.

Yesterday it was in the mid 70s and today it is snowing. Big, fat snowflakes. I don't really have to deal with snow very often, so I tend to gaze at it in amazement. It's pretty magical.

On the wedding planning front, things are really picking up. 244 days until the wedding! The save the dates have gone out. The invitations have been ordered. The tuxedos for the guys picked out. The band has been hired. The florist has received her deposit. The bridesmaid dresses have been picked out. And the honeymoon destination has been chosen (Iceland!). I guess the next step for me will be to work on the wedding website and the registries and print out the enclosure cards. Whew! Lots still to do!

And with that, I'm off. Happy stitching, everyone!

Flapping Parrot page 2 done!

I finally finished page 2 of Still Life with Parrot (aka Flapping Parrot). Here it is!

Before:

After:

Quite a difference. And you can see just a little peek of the parrot starting to appear in the lower right hand corner.

Over Christmas I stitched a chicken table topper for Handsome Helpful Fiancé but I haven't taken a picture of it so I'll do that another time.

In other news, I joined an AAN mystery Halloween SAL - my first one! It starts in February so I'll update as I finish each part.

Life has been a little tough right now. Things have been going on at work that are bad news and are making me question whether or not I should stay there. Also been having problems with the post office. They claim to attempt delivery on guaranteed packages when, in fact, they haven't, and I'm having a difficult time getting the money back. So that's fun. Basically, 2014 has been extremely frustrating so far and I'm trying to stay positive but with everything going on it's really, really difficult.

Maybe all the bad stuff will get out of the way now and the rest of 2014 will be fabulous. I am getting married in less than 9 months after all (holy crap).

Happy stitching, everyone!

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2014 brings you nothing but joy and happiness.

I'm off school right now but there's plenty going on without that. I haven't been stitching all that much because I've been working on Christmas knitting. I'm still not done, believe it or not, but I have one scarf left!

I'm also almost done with page two of my Still Life with Parrot, but I'll wait to finish before posting that photo. Only about 400 stitches of that left! I was going to stitch it over New Year's Eve but I ended up going to bed a little after 10. And it felt glorious.

I do have some Christmas goodies to share, however. First, Handsome Helpful Fiancé got me a new HAED! Of course he always says I have more than enough charts. Just goes to show how wonderful he is. Without further ado, my new chart:

Randal Spangler's Library Adventures.

As if that wasn't enough, Lesli has (once again) spoiled me and kitted up my Space Traveler:

Absolutely amazing.

That's not even counting all the other ways I've been spoiled this Christmas.

I'll keep this short. All the best wishes for everyone in the new year! Looking forward to some new starts this year, finishing school, and being able to keep up with all your blogs once again.

Happy Stitching!