Who the hell plays the drums at this time!

It should be a crime but a marching band just passed the house. It's too late for this sort of behaviour to be happening! It's an outrage! Had I been in a better mood I don't think it would bother me none but I've been in a pissy mood all day and I know I can thank work for it. Out of 11 days I've worked 8 of them. I've had no time for myself and when that happens I'm not a happy person. Tomorrow I should feel better I *hope*.

Anyhoo, I did manage to get in some stitching on the train and at the hospital when it's not busy, it's been busy though so not so much stitching. I started Lizzie*Kate's Good Things, I don't know how I feel about it yet LOL. I use to be L*K's #1 fan and now while I think some of her things are "cute," I don't feel like stitching her anymore. Good Things did make me go back to her and I think it would look cute finished on top of a box to put some stitchy goodies in so I started it, hopefully I'll finish it. I'm already dreading the border! Here's my progress:

This is a scan, Kelly still has the camera. I hope it's clickable, I don't know why my things aren't clickable anymore...blogger must not like me. I f anyone knows how to fix this please help me :) Stitching this on the train was such a hassle, I'm doing it on 32ct (recommended count) and whenever the train moves it's like the holes disappear LOL.

I'm in a finishing mood so I'm going to start on a flat fold...just have to print out the directions! TTFN and thanks for visiting!

The Stitching Bug Has Left :(

So after finishing Scatter Sunshine (thanks for all the comments!!) I haven't had the desire to stitch *blah* I'm going to try and not let it get me down because if I do it will just extend the amount of time I feel this way. I did, however, get the urge to finish my stitching into something so that's good, no? If I had this weekend off I think I would do more but I don't so I can't. Yesterday after running my morning/afternoon errands I made this:

The Pinkeep you've seen before but yesterday I made the bourse and the scissor fob. I love how everything looks together! The scissor fob isn't the greatest and I'm NOT doing it over (I re-did it like 5 times!) So I'll just keep on practicing until I get it right next time. The thing that I'm having a hard time on is the ribbon part but I think I know how to fix it next time. I was showing EVERYONE my bourse. I'm so proud of it! I used the instructions from Focus on Finishing. They were REALLY good. I hope Cindy likes the gift. The scissor handles are in the shape of a bunny, just in case you thought it was a squirel (that's what my cousin thought, she asked me "Where does the squirel fit it?" *grrr*) The teeny bunny buttons I got from Joann's yesterday. I first picked up these not so great buttons but just as I was going to leave the button aisle I spotted these and I'm glad I did! They had the most adorable hippo buttons too but I've never seen any cross stitch hippos so I didn't get them. I think I may take my bourse to work to show it off LOL. They always ask me what I do with the things I finish, I tell them I get mostly everything framed but now I can show them this! :-) Next I'm going to try to make a flat fold, Lisa has this great tutorial she made up on her blog. And I have an idea on how to finish up Scatter Sunshine! Until next time! I'm going to *try* and stitch on the new L*K that I have kitted up, after I take a shower.

Yet Another Finish!

My needles are on FUEGO this month LOL. Watch in August I get nothing finished hehe. Well I just finished my SB freebie Scatter Sunshine and I ♥ IT! (cool heart huh?) Kelly has the camera with him so I had to scan it. I made a few changes to it and I'm really pleased with how it came out.

It shows up small on my screen hopefully you can click on it and see it bigger - but there it goes. The changes I made are as follows: I used a brighter color for the fabric, I think it's Yellow 18ct Cork Linen. Since I changed the fabric I had to change the yellow of the sun since the color it called for (Crushed Pineapple) would have gotten lost. I, instead, used Golden Star, which is more orangy. The pink it called for was also changed (Organza Pink.) Since everything was coming out brighter and that one was more pastel I went with Little Peony Pink - it's not as bright as I wanted but I like how it looks so I didn't go crazy looking for a replacement. I inverted 3 of the flowers so that the bright pink would be on the outside and the light pink would be on the inside. Same thing with the small pink buds on the bottom. I long stitched the stems of the smaller flowers - I at first did it with the larger flowers but didn't like it so I just backstitched those. And I left out the charm and stitched the bee and added another bee next to the first "S." I did order the button pack and when that comes in I'm going to add the lady bugs and flower buttons to see how it looks but I'll leave the bees out. I kinda like my stitched bees. Oh and two of the bees have mistakes on them, the line is suppose to go across the body but I didn't realize I made them up/down and didn't feel like frogging for something so small. Plus it just happened to be every other bee so it looks like I did it on purpose LOL.

I'm going back to stitching on Awake the Dawning Day I think. I did get my partner for the Fair and Square Friendship Exchange but so far I don't know what to stitch and will keep on looking. It's hard stitching for other people, there's always that fear that your stitching isn't good enough or what if the other person doesn't like it.

Well I'm gonna go. We found this casino that will allow people 18 and over gamble and since one of my close cousins is only 20 we figured we'll go tonight to check it out. I hope we don't come home too late, working all those days really kicked my ass. My legs hurt as well as my back. It's not going to get easier either since I'm assigned to one of the heaviest districts this month. I hate getting assigned...I feel so trapped and it depresses me that I have to stay in one place all month. *Sigh*

Update from me :-)

I finished Betsy's Butterfly this morning *yea* All that's missing is the Butterfly charm that I'll put on the next time I go to WVAS.

While waiting for the floss for leaves in Betsy's Butterfly I started the new Shepherd's Bush Freebie Scatter Sunshine. I love Crescent Colours now! They are like the greatest LOL. I changed the color of the fabric to a brighter yellow and the sun instead of being Crushed Pineapple is Golden Star. I'm also going to change some of the little flowers because Organza Pink may be too pale, we'll see. Maybe next week I'll be done with this one and I can go back to Awake the Dawning Day. This piece is actually easy to stitch on the train and that's where the majority of my stitching has taken place. Maybe not so much this weekend since I have to take an alternate route which requires me to take 3 trains. The actual time spent on the train isn't enough to take out my stitching but it takes me longer to get to work and with that steam pipe blowing up I don't know what's the status of the trains this weekend *ugh*

Tonight is the Harry Potter Book 7 release party...sadly I work so I won't be able to attend. The kid in me tells me that I should call out sick but the adult tells me I should save my sick days for when I'm really sick. The adult wins because I'll be going to work tonight *sigh* Kelly is picking it up for me and I'll get it from him Saturday morning, if he didn't work I'd ask him to drop it off for me at work after he picked it up LOL yes I'm that fanatical about it. Well actually if I was such a fanatic I'd call out...hmmm. No, I'm going to work - the sick people need me hehe :-)

I'm going to shower for work (I have to wash my hair or else I'd go stitch) but before I leave here's one last picture of one of my favorite gals. When I sleep I'm covered up but whenever I wake up only my feet are covered and I'm shivering (we sleep with the thermostat at 67-70) and here's the reason why. How she wraps herself in the blankets I guess I'll never know.
*EDITED* I forgot to mention that I joined the Fair and Square Exchange and am excited!!! Can't wait to start stitching, receive, and make new stitchy friends! :-)

A new WIP, TV, and finish!

One of my Yahoo groups has this thing called Pass it Forward. What it basically is you finish stitching something and if you choose you can pass it forward to another stitcher. Petra started it and lucky me I decided to act on one of her latest finishes :) Above is Betsy's Butterfly by Elizabeth's Designs. I'm almost done with, the only thing left are the leaves in the outer border. The picture does it no justice. The linen is like a creamy color and the colors used makes it creamier - it's just so pretty IRL! I'm going to try and finish this and *maybe* give it away.

A while ago I know I blogged about buying a new TV. Well towards the end there were problems with the shipping (it showed that it was shipped but it never got here and in reality it was never shipped.) I didn't want to go through the headache of re-ordering it so I just cancelled the order. Yesterday I got sick and tired of having to actually stand up to watch TV whenever there were words on the TV that I went out to Circuit City and bought a new TV. I got a Sony Bravia 32" which is a HUGE upgrade from my teeny 13". I can now watch TV without my glasses if I choose to and can FINALLY watch this documentary "Shame" that I tivo'ed a few weeks ago. The entire thing is in arabic with written translation and I just couldn't stand in front of the TV for an hour to watch it LOL. My savings account took a hit but it felt good paying in cash for it, as well as saving up the money. I'm going to cut back more on my spending to see what else I can save for. I really need a car but I'm still to cheapskate to pay for insurance to have it sitting in my driveway unloved LOL. Anyhoo the TV isn't going to stay where it's at. I'm going to mount it on the wall that way I can place my satelite box and Tivo where it's at Right now I have a ghetto set-up LOL. The 2 boxes are on a teeny plant table near the bottom of the dresser. I also have to upgrade my direct tv to HD so the picture can look better. I figured I'd do that next week when my work schedule calms down.
Now onto my finish! This is something I stitched for Cindy (duh!) I don't think she reads my blog so I didn't block out her name. I'm going to make it into a bourse for her and put in the "smalls" I made for her (still have to make her scissor fob) along with a few other goodies. It's nice no? I wanted to add something around her name but I don't want to over crowd it so I'm going to leave it as it is. Once I'm done with actually finishing it I'll post a picture, so look for it sometime next week.
In non-stitching, non-new TV news - I got a new tattoo! I LOVE IT! I got more stars (5 of them)but this time on my inner wrist in purple, I'm going to wait until it's healed to show a picture of it. I'm already planning on getting my next one - I really want to add more to my foot but just don't want to go through the pain right now so it will have to wait. Well I'm off - I work tonight and want to pack up a work project. I'm going to to another 5 days in a 6 day span this weekend which I'm not looking forward to and I think I have another week like that at the end of the next schedule I'd like to know what I was thinking?!?!? I only work tonight and tomorrow night with 2 days to rest which actually aren't going to be spent resting. Kelly and I make 8 years of being together on Wednesday and those 2 days are booked (minds out the gutter please! hehe) Wednesday he goes for tutoring at my cousin's house (he has an entrance exam that my cousin is helping him study for) and Thursday we're going to have a picnic :-) TTFN!

Herb Garden Finish!

It's done! Next up is a gift which is basically just like this one with a few changes I made. It's all charted up and I'm going to start stitching on it ASAP! After that I have something else I have to stitch and then I can take a break from deadline stitching. I already have what I want to stitch in mind - it's something bright and fun! TTFN I'm going to start or sleep!

Herb Garden by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 28ct Lavender Cashel Linen
Using recommended DMC Floss

For some reason I can't title this post so let me just say "I made a pinkeep!"
It's not the greatest, it still needs a bit more tweaking but since I go back to work today I'll show you a picture of what I have and what I "think" is wrong with it and hopefully later on I'll show you a picture of the tweaked version :-) It wasn't hard to actually put together I used these instructions and like Meari I used hot glue instead of Tacky Glue. I only used 2 pieces of batting for the middle since I didn't want mine too fluffy. I like my pinkeep because I made it but what I don't like and think I'll change is the border. I'll go buy some ribbon or cording to put around it instead of the little piece of the backing fabric that I used and I also think I need bigger pin heads. I planned on using ribbon in the beginning but the ribbon I bought was too thin to use as a border and the bigger ribbon I had didn't match my backing fabric. If anyone has any more suggestions on how to make it better feel free to comment :-)

I haven't been doing much stitching...on my days off I've been going out. We went to the musuem Friday and Thursday I was so drained from working all those days that I slept and at night played Guitar Hero with my cousin. Yesterday Kelly switched his days to work and we went to my stitch-in in Jersey. I had fun but what stitcher doesn't have fun at a stitch in??? Kelly picked up something else to stitch, he's cute sometimes. I saw him fingering the floss when I went out to look at some stash and last night when I went to make my pinkeep he pulls out a project. I think next stitch-in if he comes I'm going to make him stitch with us LOL. I think the only reason he tries to stitch is that he sees things that he'd like to stitch for me and tries it...it almost never gets done but it's the thought that counts no? Anyway here's my update on Herb Garden, I'll stitch some more on it today before my nap and hopefully on the train.
This is actually something I'm going to stitch twice. The second piece I'm going to alter but as I write this I think I've mentioned it before so I'll stop. I may leave this one alone to go stitch on the other one because it's a gift and I'd like to have it done before the deadline. I'm off to clean up, I've been just throwing my stash in a pile and it's starting to bother me that's it's all over the place. You know what, I don't feel like cleaning anymore so it will just have to wait LOL only because I want to sort through my stuff and give some of it away. I'm instead going to make the pile look nicer and change the bed sheets and then stitch - sounds like a much better plan :) TTFN

Happy Halloween!

I know it's July but really Halloween is right around the corner and what a better way to celebrate my favorite holiday but with some Halloween Stash!!! I ordered this from The Silver Needle a while ago and it was out of stock for a while *but* today the UPS lady delivered it to me! I want to start stitching my tree (hmm drawing a blank!) the round thing that goes under the tree what's it called...jeez don't you hate when that happens LOL. Anyway I want to start stitching that :-)
I also got some pretty pretty scissors for my scissor collection. Now that I know that I'm not the only one that collects scissors I can openly talk about it. I bought these:

These are Bohin scissors from France and are called Giakarta I think.

They are so pretty :)

These are the Ice Cream Swirl scissors. I don't know if all of them come in this swirly pattern, they didn't seem so on the website but I love purple and just had to have them.

And for a stitching update here's my new WIP:

It's Herb Garden by Little House Needlework.

I started it Friday night on the train. The majority got done last night though. I literally only had time to stitch "With Friends" during my 3 nights of working. I'm taking a break from Awake the Dawning Day to stitch up some gifts. Herb Garden was suppose to be a gift but I changed my mind and will only stitch a portion of it for the recipient and ummm (jeez I'm drawing up blanks left and right!) alter! Yes I will alter it some way to make a bourse out of it so I can put my other stitchy things in it.

I must go now, I work the holiday (tonight and the 4th) so I have to get ready now. I think I'm drawing up so many blanks because I'm doing 5 nights in the span of 6, these are my last 2. Ask anyone working 12hr nights and they'll tell you it's hard! TTFN TREE SKIRT!