SBQ

I decided to do these - it gives me something to blog about and seeing people answer them on other blogs is interesting and sometimes helpful to read the answers so here goes...

*****
Today's SBQ was suggested by Lee (http://lakestitcher.blogspot.com/)
and is:

As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the
hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter
months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a
special regimen that you would like to share?

Being a nurse my hands are always dry since I'm constantly washing them. The only thing that prevents this is not washing them so much but I'm a nurse and that isn't an option. My mom uses this oatmeal mixture that softens hands immediately I forget whats the second ingredient I think it's honey (she works with chemicals that dry out her hands) I've never tried it but if my hands get really bad I would try it. What I do is just put this Bath and Body works lotion on them - It's C.O. Bigelow brand and it's called Dr. Hiosous Quince Hand Lotion. Doesn't smell the greatest (actually it smells like carrots to me) but it does the job and my hands can even handle silk threads afterwards :-)

Here's the picture of Spring Snapperland as promised. I didn't realize how delirious I was earlier LOL. After eating and sleeping I felt much better though.

I get paid to search cross stitch blogs while at work LOL. Not really but it's been not so busy at work the last 2 nights that I've pretty much been relaxing between rounds. I like it when its like that. I know this weekend it will probably be hectic which sucks because I work 3 days in a row. I may call out hehe I doubt it though. I always say I'm going to call out today but end up going to work, but I think that's how it is with every job no?

Ok enough blah blah blahing - my progress on Spring Snapperville is ok. Like I said work has been easy so I get time to stitch. I don't have a picture right now but I'll add one later. I'm sleepy and really just wanted to blog right now before I forget later on.

Oh I'm also hungry - I feel like I should be in that McDs Snack Wrap commercial because Kelly is talking to me and I like can't concentrate on him. Wonder what my blood glucose is right now...

Ok so this is where my pic would be LOL. TTYL!!

It's pretty late - well early for some but I haven't been to bed yet so it's late. Here's my progress on Spring Snapperland. Wish I could stitch more but I work tonight and need my sleep. Have a great day everyone!

Ana Post

I made the decision to sleep for as long as I could today last night. Apparently Ana felt otherwise because she decided to get into God only knows what this morning which required me to wake up and give her a bath *sigh* She was nice enough to wait until 11am to be discovered though.

I've had problems washing her the last 2 times so believe me I was pissed that I had to wash her. I've been keeping her clean by limiting her outside time and brushing her daily. It's not that I don't like washing her, she's rather cooperative while in the tub compared to Kobe who I use to yell at "and you think about what you just did" while turning off the lights, slamming the bathroom door and leaving him in the tub lol. She's just been breaking out in these horribe bumps no matter what shampoo I use and if you have pets then you know the vet bill isn't so cheap. So anyway, I used puppy shampoo that's soap free this time, didn't brush her while she was wet, rinsed her with a bucket instead of the showerhead, and dried her off with the blower - nothing to irritate her skin so we'll see what happens. Right now she's laying down on her bed licking her paws so we're not out of the woods yet. I'm praying that tomorrow she doesn't have bumps. They always appear the 2nd or 3rd day after a bath.

On a happy note, I can now start my stitching since it's still early (2pm is early for me) I usually go visit Kelly and take him to work on the Sundays that I'm off but today I just want to stay home and veg. TTFN!

Some stuff

I want to stitch but I'm sneezing like crazy again...this is how it started last week when I was getting sick, I feel ok now but I hope I'm not getting worse. It's late and I just wanted to show my progress. I frogged the row that I messed up and re-stitched it. I think that's what got me down. Tomorrow or rather in the morning starts a new day. Ana was also kind enough to model my new scissors - they are Penelope and I tracked them down online. Sweet dreams everyone! (if anyone reads this blog lol)

I'm GREEN!!!!

And not with envy. It's more like green like The Hulk. I pulled out my stitching yesterday at work and finally stitched to the point where I could start on the part that I had been waiting for - the border. I got 2 flowers done and today when we were on the train (Kelly and me) I pull it out again because I'm so excited to stitch on these flowers. Three stops before our stop Kelly goes to me (he knows I'm excited about these flowers) "I don't want to rain on your parade but I think that box is bigger than the other." Of course this was something that I did not notice until he pointed it out. All my excitement over the flowers went down the drain. I counted and on the first square that I stitched I was one off *grrrrr* one measly stitch!!!! So I ended up ripping it out. I still have a picture to show though, but you will notice that I'm in the process of ripping out part of one of the squares! I must go to bed now I work tonight and should have been sleeping an hour ago but honestly aren't my 3 flowers cute? LOL Enjoy!!

Changed the layout and had S.E.X.

So I played around with my layout all morning, haven't really decided on it so this is sort of a test drive so far I like it.

Went to the cross stitch store in NJ today *yeah* It was mainly to get my last 3 finishes framed. I'm getting EDs Green Old Gardens with the same frame it shows on the model picture as well as SBs Spooky Spots. The mat and frame for Spooky Spots was the most expensive, I almost cheaped out and didn't get it framed but I figured I'm there it's there might as well just do it. I did get a new pair of scissors (hehe) as well as 2 new charts that I want to start now and the materials I was missing for other things.

I'm going to stop shopping for a while I know it's going to be EXTREMELY hard since I'm like a shopaholic. I want to save a little and get all of my cc's paid. The next time I spend is when I pick up my framing in about a month or longer. Of course I'm going to spend money to buy little things but nothing that I don't need. While I write this I'm thinking of the things that I buy that are not "needs" and I'm like OMG I can't buy those things anymore?!?!? LOL

Well I took pictures of the things I bought as well as the progress on my new WIP, I decided not to start any of my new things until I get maybe 1/2 way through this one.
TTFN!

This is the one I want to start ASAP! I'm gonna go blind doing it but I love love love it. I saw it stitched up on someone else's blog and it was so pretty.

Can't really see the model picture that well. I got the fabric and will probably stitch it in good ol' DMC but it really calls for silks which don't work well with my dry hands. Here's a link of better picture http://www.arachnessilkenweb.com/acorns_-_german_sampler_series.html

And this is the rest. Yes, those are the new Julia's :) I got fabric for the things I wanted to stitch as well as the floss.

Look familiar? It feels like I'm stitching Winter Snapperville again hehe.
It's BCs Spring Snapperland. Dunno how long it will take but I think I have the patience to see it to the end.

Another finish :)

So my medicine didn't agree with me yesterday. I don't know if it was because I took it late and went to sleep later than usual but I'm usually able to wake up at 6p and my mom couldn't get me to open my eyes until 9p and even then I would sit up and fall over to go to sleep. I'm thinking maybe I just needed to rest since I worked the last 2 days...

Well anyway the real reason for this post is to share my finish! I just realized that the fabric is dirty (a first for me) so I'm hoping when I spot clean it it won't get ruined, this piece has gone through enough already I just want to put it away. Ok so here's a picture with and without the buttons and with the bottom satin stitched fixed hehe. I think I'm going to do something small next - the top 3 list I made the other days on here has changed but I don't think I have all of the materials for the things I want to stitch. For one I don't have some of the threads or fabric, for the other one I don't even have the pattern so let's not even talk about fabric and threads, and for the other one same as the first. Well I'm going to look through my stash. Thanks for looking and enjoy the pics!

TRAGEDY! (well almost)

So I'm on the train and I figured to keep Kelly up for a minute longer I'll show him the progress I've made on my Spooky Spots, little did I know that what I'd see when I opened my bookbag would break my heart.

It seems that when I put my stethescope in my bag I pulled down the ziplock bag off of my fabric and then while moving around the pencil I had in my bag (ready for this?)went through my fabric! I didn't know what to do and of course Kelly did not know the severity of this. I made major progress on it last night and to see that pencil go through my fabric was just horrible. Kelly (my knight in shining honour)just grabbed it from me took the pencil out and sort of shook the fabric and fixed it.

Well I just wanted to share that with you, I took my usual sick medicine cocktail and its starting to kick in and I'm getting sleepy. I'm off tonight so *maybe* I'll have a finish tomorrow!! Okies I'm off - if you get a chance watch Kicking&Screaming it's a dumb movie but it makes me laugh :) I love Will Ferrell!!!!

I'm sick and happy!

I'm so sick that I feel like dying! Of course I'm really not because if I was I wouldn't be blogging about my illness, instead I'd be in bed resting. I have something exciting I want to share :) I stitched last night at work during my break and afterwards since it was a quiet night and I'm so happy with my progrss. I love specialy stitches ALOT, they're so fun and sometimes easy and go so quick. I'm almost done although if I go to work tonight (remember I'm dying so I may stay home) I may not find time to stitch so who knows when's the next time I pick this up - I'm really close to finishing this and I don't know if I'm happy because I'll have another finish or because I'll get to start something new...anyhoo here's a picture of my progress. I'm now off to drug myself into a peaceful slumber, hopefully what I take decongests me and I'll be able to breath through my nose. TTFN!

P.S. Pay no attention to the last row satin stitch I have to pull that out because its wrong *sigh*

Spooky Spots

So I went back to Spooky Spots. It was slow at first and I didn't think I'd get into it but last night I did. I'm almost done with all stitching and back stitching and will finally get to all the specialty stitches, which to me is the BEST part and the reason I saved it for last. I've already been eyeing my next project. Not sure whether to start SBs Autumn Blessings (there's a specialty stitch in their that seems scary) or on Bent Creek's Spring Snapperland or BCs Snapperville. Of course there are more that I want to start but so far these are my top 3. As always here are some pictures of my progress, I haven't decided if I want to add any other pictures of my growing scissor collection LOL. I got a comment on my space from someone who read my blog that I needed to get out more b/c of my scissor habit lol - some people just don't understand hehe. I'm off to get ready to get out of here, woke up at 4pm and my day is just about ruined - tomorrow it's off to work!

Okies so this is before I started stitching on it yesterday.

This is after stitching on it. I'll probably do somemore tonight. Can you see a difference? I sort of do but don't at the same time.

Ok so just one pic of scissors. I'm taking a quilting class this Nov-Dec as a b-day present to myself :) and figured I'll need scissors so I bought the 8" Amanda's. Now that I think of it I should have bought them in left handed but I've been living in a Right handed world all my life so maybe it shouldn't make such a difference!

FINISHED!!!!

Just ironed and put in the snaps and now my Winter Snapperville is officially done! I'm so happy, haven't felt the happiness or finishing something in a while :)

I don't know what I'm going to do next - I sort of want to finish SBs Spooky/Halloween Spots but at the same time I want to start something new. We'll see...
Here are some pics :)

This is a shot of the entire thing.

This is it minus snaps and buttons.

A closeup of the last square I stitched.

A closeup of the first half.

A closeup of the last half.

Certified Crazy!

I knew something like this was going to happen. I am completely obsessed with these stupid Gingher Scissors. I use to hide the fact that I collected these scissors but then some other people in my yahoo group said they collected also and *poof* I've become a crazy person. Whenever I come online I look for them, mainly because I'm looking for the name of my first pair - which I found out today is Leah. You would think ok she's just looking at them but NO! if I see a new pair that I don't have (so far I've found 4) I just buy them and these aren't cheap scissors. I even had a dream about them Saturday morning, I told Kelly and he laughed at me! It's so crazy that I keep looking at this bid on Ebay for the Katelynn's and am too tempted to bid on them (the bid is now over $130) I want to stay home and stitch today but I think I have to get out and stay away from this computer or any computer LOL. No but seriously I really need to stop buying these, I know of one more pair that are coming out and once I buy those that's it - no more scissor for a while. I can already see my next obsession - finding the perfect scissor fobs for them - oh vey!

As promised :)

A picture of the entire Winter Snapperville. I'm starting to think that I'm not going to get this done by the time I go back to work. Maybe I would have if I stitched today but here it is 12:46am and not one stitch in. I've spent the entire day online searching for Gingher Scissors to add to my collection - PITIFUL! I am going to stitch after this though, right after I put in Nip/Tuck Season 2 Disc 4 in to watch. Enjoy the picture - I've also included some of funny Kyle :-P

Kyle likes to lay like this on Kelly whenever we're watching tv.

The flash sometimes bothers him and I'm able to catch picture that look as if he's laughing.

And this is my wonderful Winter Snapperville! Coming along nicely eh?

I'm off from work for the next five days*yea* really four since the first day is already over. I slept and stitched which is always good. I finished the 3rd square (which is really the 4th square) tonight and I'm hoping to finish the entire thing by the time I go back to work. Here's a picture of the square - next time I update it will a picture of it finished (I hope!). Kelly took the camera to work tonight so I had to scan it. I tried to paste both of the scans together but couldn't so the picture is just a crop of the square, maybe tomorrow I'll add a picture of the entire thing. Good night!

In the world of hospital patients...

there is always one that makes you think why in the hell did I ever become a nurse? I usually like my patients, most of them are pretty cool, even my crazy patient that I currently have (which I have to say I love my crazy patient - like I want to bring him home with me in the morning lol.) Last night I got a new patient that was the patient from hmmm if there's a place worse than hell then that's where she came from. Screaming and cursing at me where is the medication she was suppose to get in the emergency room. Everytime I would try to explain to her (in a nice way even though she was an ass mind you) that ER orders are not valid on the floor and she would have to wait for the night team of doctors to admit her she'd cut me off and continue to yell. It got to a point that I had to call the supervisor because she said I'm going to keep fucking yelling at you and being a bitch until I get what I want. At that point I left the room, her roommate was even disgusted with her. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so meek, because then I would really have had her have it. She was a total BITCH!! She was yelling at everyone - I hate people like that. The her medication gets to the floor 30 mintues later and she says she doesn't want it and she wants to go to sleep and be undisturbed, we were like you stupid bitch. She won't be gone before I go back to work tomorrow I don't think but I hope she is. People like her need to not exist.

I mean think about it - if your nice about things people would want to work harder to get you what you wanted. At the end she gave me some bullshit apology. I say bullshit because she goes oh I'm sorry for carrying on like that but you know what I was right. HUH?!?! WTF was that??? I kept walking out on her - I really wanted to strangle her. You get some people in the hospital that really don't understand that they are there to get better and its not a freaking hotel. Some patients after their stay write to complain that they didn't have a view of Park Avenue and were dissatisfied. In the morning she tells the doctor that the she would have slept better if she never took the sleeping pill I gave her and gave me a look, then said I was woken up at 3am and looked at me again. Umm excuse me but you're in the hospital not a hotel and I have to walk in the room in the middle of the night to make sure you're still alive.

I, of course, can find the bright side to everything. The other night I got another PIA patient and she made him now seem like a dream hehe.

Well I'm in pain, after I work alot of days too close together my knee starts to hurt pretty bad. I know I only worked 3 days so far but that's alot in the 12 hour shift world, atleast for me it is. I'm back to work tomorrow and Wednesday then I'm off for 5 wonderful days. I'm telling you those days can't come any quicker. Tonight I'm staying in to stitch and watch some Nip/Tuck with Kelly. No update pics of Winter Snapperville yet. I'm still stitching on the 3rd square maybe after tonight I'll post a picture of it.

Night all - and remember if you're ever hospitalized please be nice to your nurse.

Another sort of finish :)

I got the the Palomino in the mail today and stitched up the little guy's jacket. I decided not to do the french knot on his hat because he looks a little too old for that. I've been working on the snowflakes in the border today. I have 2 more to do then the border is done. I have 2 more hours left until I leave the house and go to work - I want to cry!!!! LOL. Well here's a picture of my sort of finish :)

Last Day

Today was my last day of my little time off from work. Of course I'm tired now that I know I go to work tomorrow. Why does that always happen? I spent the day stitching, I wanted to go get a pedicure but I banged my little toe pretty bad yesterday and feel I should wait (my nail sort of detached itself.)

I have some pictures to share some are pictures I took on 9/11. We took the dog to the dog run and it's across from where the Twin Towers use to be, really nice view. I love that they put up lights where they use to be. Also a picture of Winter Snapperville - I think I got pretty far for today, guess I'll resume stitching on this next week or Friday. Next time I'm off for a stretch will be around the 20th when I'm off for 5 days, I'm already looking forward to my days off and then my vacation in November LOL. I'm off to sleep - enjoy the pics!


These are my new scissors Alyssa and Jamie.

Close Up of the 2nd square I "finished." I was missing Palomino
so I couldn't stitch the guy's coat

My progress for the day.

They have never sat so close together so I had to take this pic, usually Kyle wants to cuddle and Ana walks away.

This was another shocker, I think she was just tired from the park.

And these are my 9/11 pics.



This is of course during the day.

So I guess it wasn't that serious :(

I tried to stitch but Kelly had laundry to do and I decided to help him. I did get some stitches in and here they are...

Probably could have gotten more done but I didn't have

WDW Palomino and sort of got distracted by that.

And this is me stitching :)

Before I sit and do some serious stitching...

I wanted to share another picture of my Winter Snapperville and a picture of lazy Kyle eating. We just got back from the dog run so he's a bit tired hehe. There were lots of dogs at the run today so he had fun. Ana doesn't do to well at the dog run so I left her home. She rather be with the humans and usually gets scared/sad if too many dogs bother her. She won't snap at them but will come running to me and hide. Plus if she's playing with Kyle and another dog takes him away from her she gets angry...she has issues LOL. I do take her sometimes but today was one of those days I didn't.

Yesterday

My 26th birthday was yesterday, it was ok. Every year I feel older and wake up with a new body part hurting me LOL. I didn't do anything special just hung out with my family, stitched, played video games, and went out to the dinner.

This morning I woke up early again and cleaned my room. I'm still trying to decide if I want to stitch or take a shower first. Tomorrow my family is coming over to celebrate my birthday. What was suppose to be a small gathering of cousins turned out to become a huge party :( I hate that it happened, hopefully it won't be too bad. Maybe we can get a poker game going on while the "older" people entertain themselves doing whatever it is they do.

I guess that's all - not much to report really. I think I'm going to stitch first, I have to take my mom to buy another turkey for tomorrow soon so I'll shower after we come back. I'm just sitting in the car so no need to shower beforehand.

TTYL!

Update pic of Winter Snapperville :)

A finish! Well sort of...

I've been stitching on this since this morning when I woke up. I don't have my glasses so it made it a bit hard but I finished the first square in my Winter Snapperville. I'm so happy. Here's a pic of it minus the snaps and face. I'm still waiting for my WDW Sand to come in and of course I'll probably wait until the end to put the snaps in.


And here's a picture of the entire thing.

Bloc Party

"
This has to be my favorite band EVER!!! I love them. They are coming back to the states this November and hopefully I'll be able to get tickets. This was at McCarren Pool Park in Williamsburg. Nice place to have a concert. It's this HUGE emptied out pool with a stage built on one side of it that's elevated. Nice view from everywhere, really nice. I found this at You Tube (obviously) it was the first concert I've ever been too. :) The song is called Waiting for the 7:18 and it's going to be on their new album which comes out this Fall I think if not later grrr, dunno if I can wait that long.
Just wanted to share this with you, you may or may not like them. I'm off to stitch :)

I've been up since 4:30-5am. That's one of things I hate about going to sleep so early, I wake up with hmmm whatever the hell wakes up that early I guess. I've been spending my time reading email, catching up with Tivo, and stitching. I just had to force myself to stop stitching can you believe that?!?! I think if I didn't have to get ready to start my day I'd be able to finish stitching my first square called "Ze Rink." I'll probably be able to pick this up again to stitch on it when I'm on my mini vacation from work in 3 days!! I'm so excited :) Well here's a pic of my progress. Later all!

New Stuff

I started stitching something new. I've been looking at the Snapperville series like everyday and just couldn't wait to finish Halloween Spots to start stitching on one of these. I'm almost done with Spooky Spots as you can see in the last post and hopefully before Halloween it will be finished.

I bought a small tree (?) today after work. It was a total impulse buy but it made me happy when I saw it after waking up this evening. I actually passed the florist when going to the needlepoint store which was closed for the weekend (so upsetting I tell you) I wanted to buy myself a new needle magnet and I bought my last 2 there (they come in sets.) If you interested in seeing them you can check them out here http://www.zecca.net They make really nice things. Wish I could find somewhere that sold all of their things.

Ok so I'm going to try and upload some pics so you can see my new tree and what I've stitched on Snapperville. I'm working on Winter now. I ordered some new fabric for spring and I'm not sure if I'm going to stitch Summer (never liked summer things too much.) Can't wait to see Autumn/Fall. I wanted to stitch after this but I'm gonna go to sleep, I have to wake up early to do some things and then in the afternoon we're (my cousins and me) are going on a Brewery tour, I'm so excited!!! Brooklyn Brewery has this one beer that is yum yum yummy! And I can't find it at any store so tomorrow we stock up on it LOL. I don't really drink but this beer is yummy I tell you!

Ok TTYL!!

These are the "older" plants. I didn't want them to get jeolous so I took pics of them too.

This is the new tree. Pretty isn't she?

She came wrapped up in a box with pretty purple and pink tissue paper.

She's a little lopsidded but I think it's because she was growing towards the sun in the shop window.

This is after the first time I stitched on Winter Snapperville,

nothing to write home about really.

And this is what it looks like now - still nothing to write home about.