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!

Still Life with Parrot #4

I had prepared this photo to share a few days ago and somehow I never got around to it. I've been feeling that way with a lot of aspects of my life right now: just can't get around to it. It kind of feels like everyone needs something from me and I just want to lock myself in my room with a Do Not Disturb sign and do my own thing. It is what it is, however, and I'll deal with it and move on. Until then, STITCHING! Keep in mind I have done quite a bit more since this photo was taken, but I'll share that in a few days.

Before:

After:

It's coming along quite nicely, I think.

Last week was kind of a strange week. Most of it was spent with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. Thursday, it was 81. And then Friday it was 28. That night we had freezing rain. Following by more freezing rain and snow on Saturday. It got to the point where on Sunday I couldn't get into my car from the driver's side because the layer of ice was so thick. I couldn't open the door from the inside, either, and the window was so solid that I couldn't punch the ice out. Monday everything melted and this coming week we're supposed to be in the high 70s again. My body is so confused. I can handle the cold and I can handle the heat. Here are some photos to give you an idea of how things looked.

This is my car's antenna, if that gives you any indication of how thick the ice was on my car. I have a really cool shot of the back of my car with icicles all over it and the thickness of the ice warping the Toyota logo, but it also has my license plate number in it and I'm paranoid so... sorry :(

We had a lot of broken tree branches in the neighborhood. Here's a bush outside my apartment.

That stuff on the left looks like snow. And at one point it was. Before it was covered by freezing rain and became solid ice. There was basically no surface you could walk on without almost dying. Handsome Helpful Fiancé and I took a nice stroll down the stairs and across the sidewalk which almost ended tragically.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed those. Stay warm and happy stitching everyone!

Still Life with Parrot, 3

Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful kind words about our engagement photos. I have 10.5 months of planning left so crossing fingers. I was supposed to call the florist today and I didn't. I'll have to call them tomorrow. Either way, I'm super stressed out (mostly because of school) but hanging in there. Not much stitching done, but here it is anyway.

Before:

After:

This one is actually a really quick stitch. It's on 18 count and also there are only about 3,000 stitches per page versus my usual 7,000. However, making Christmas gifts has significantly slowed my progress. That and the fact that my to do list always seems to grow and never shrink, no matter how much I've actually gotten done. I'm whining, I know.

With that, happy stitching everyone!