I've Moved

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A Merry Christmas to All

The last month has just flown by. It's hard to believe that Christmas will be here in DAYS. I had a weird and bad viral infection that started in my eyes, moved on to my ears and the rest of my body. This had me out of work and out of commission for a week. I was too sick to stitch or knit. Now you know how bad it was.

But until then it seemed that we were right on track with our holiday preparations. Of course, being ill from December 9 until December 17 meant that holiday shopping did not happen. I am so grateful to Al Gore for inventing the internet so I could do my holiday shopping online! Wint Country gift baskets for estranged Dad and wife, favorite Aunt No. 1, and favorite Aunt No. 2 and less favorite aunt and uncle, out the door! Cashmere bathrobe for Nana from Bloomies! Sweater and necklace from Coldwater Creek for MIL! More personal than gift cards, although less personal than drudging through the mall. But sooooo much better for my peace of mind. Tons of money spent on shipping charges to get them there before the Big Day, but worth every penny not to have to fight the crowds in the parking lots and at the mall.


Oh Christmas Tree
DH, Max and I made the trip to the cut-your-own Christmas Tree Farm down the road. We love this tradition. This year we wanted a big big big tree. Max is now 2 1/2 and he is digging the holiday. So we tramp around and DH finds a huge tree. Way too huge for our house. We do have a high sloped ceiling in the family room, but that was too big. So I pick out a more moderately sized tree. This, I declare, is perfect. Except, it's not. We would need to cut off several feet for it to fit in the corner where we wanted it. So we lop off the top and stick it more in the middle of the room. Now this is a well proportioned tree, meaning it is tall and W I D E. So then we end up lopping off a bunch of branches on the back. And now, now it is perfect! It was pretty overwhelming at first, but the more we look at it, the more we love it!

10/25/50 Challenge
It was a challenge all right. Over before it even began really. I went to visit Lisa in Connecticut a few weeks ago and we, of course, had to go to her LNS. I have been coveting the new Mirabilia South Seas Mermaid and gave in to the temptation. I've gotten the floss and some of the beads, the rest I'll have to mail order. But I have been finishing things. 1 BOAF ornament - finished! 2nd BOAF ornament - almost finished! My first knitted project - the basketweave scarf - finished! I've also accumulated some yarn and have started a new project - more on that later.


New Year's Goals:
Lose 10 pounds - ha!
Stitch more
Knit more
Stress less

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

WIP It, WIP It Good

Couldn't help that title.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We drove to Mass. Our usual 3-hour trip turned into 5 hours when we were stuck on the Mass Pike for over 2 1/2 hours. It was fine until we got to the Pike, then it was like hitting a brick wall. A Thanksgiving Blessing: Max fell asleep, so we thankfully did not have a cranky toddler to contend with. We had a lovely joint dinner with my Mom, her family and Sam's family and then dessert with my Dad's family. After this very exhausting day, we decided to go home a day early. I'm so glad that we did!

Here are a few of my WIPs. I intended to add more, but Blogger is not letting me add more photos. So more tomorrow.

First up: the knitting. It isn't first in my heart, of course, but it's what I'm doing right now.

Project: Basketweave scarf
Source: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/
archives/2005/06/magic_scarf_a_b_1.php
Yarn: Ego Tweed Color No. 80
Source: www.purldiva.com
Needles: No. 11 Brittany birch wood - I love them
This is my first knitting project so don't look at it too closely, eh? I am still trying to figure out how to fix it when I drop stitches or knits accidentally morph into purls. The yarn is actually a deeper color than shown. It was really a very sunny day for once!



This is Heloise Williams from The Scarlet Letter. She is much prettier in person than she is on the SL website. I think I started stitching this in 1993. So this probably qualifies more as a UFO than a WIP. But I really do want to finish her!










Catherine's Sampler by Eileen Bennett. This was a class that I took at CATS in Houston. Could have been 2000 or 2001? Lisa took this class at Sampler Gathering and actually finished hers!

More to come later!

It's All Lisa's Fault

It's all Lisa's fault that I don't have any stitching to share. Really! You see, she talked me into learning how to knit. And now I'm obsessed. I started out at AC Moore with plastic needles and some cheapy yarn to practeese, practeese, practeese. Then I found a LYS in Brunswick, called Purl Diva. I spent the entire afternoon there on Monday while my car was conveniently being worked on across the street. It's a wonderful shop run by a terrific, hip chick named Ellen. She every kindly let me hang out for the afternoon and gave me some much needed assistance. I have found out that I love wooden needles. I have now started my first project, a scarf for myself - mostly a confidence booster before I start making gifts.

The only stitching I've done is on Lisa's Christmas gift, so I can't show you any pictures either. I'll have some knitting pictures soon though. I've also got a new photo project in the works -- a photo documentary of all of my WIPs. This should be fun. I'm still in the gathering stages. So far I've found projects that: (a) I don't remember starting, (b) forgot I had, (c) I don't recognize, and (d) love, love, and love and must stitch NOW (but of course I won't). So we have daylight today, but I'm at work, so hopefully sometime over this long holiday weekend I will find both time and daylight to cooperate with my picture taking project.

Some things I am grateful for: a loving family, my sweet son, awesome friends, being able to afford my passions and still put food on the table, having two hands to craft with, the internet for helping me meet new people and try new things.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've posted. I've been doing some stitching (not enough, never enough), but it's been raining for days, which doesn't make for good picture taking. But here is what I have been working on:

1. Celtic Band Sampler. I have been wavering between editing this by deleting some bands to make it go by quicker so I can give it as a Christmas gift, but I just can't make myself do it. I even photocopied the picture, cut out each row and tried to edit it by deleting some. Just not working for me. So I'll keep stitching on it, but it most likely will not be done for Christmas. I have finished rows 1 and 2.

2. Cure Tree by M Designs. I am half done. I was also on the fence about this one. About whether to do it over 1 or over 2, which thread to use if I did it over 2, which fabric. I finally decided upon the original over 1 on the original fabric, but substituted Romance by Weeks Dye Works.

3. White Christmas ornament by Birds of a Feather. This chart has 4 designs and I have almost finished stitching one of them. I can't find the floss (Freedom by GAST) that I was using in the border. I know I found it on the floor one day and then put it somewhere safe. Need to find it because that's all I have left. So I would say I am 95 percent finished on this.

What's next: I am would like to finish Celtic Band by the end of the year. I also have another gift for Christmas, that I only have a few of the silks in my stash for, so I need to place an order ASAP. And that should wrap up the year!

Goals for next year: Lisa & I are going to do another SAL, as the one we did for Frances was such a huge success. We have chosen Bands of Many Colors by Eileen Bennett of The Sampler House (pictured at left). This has been in both of our stashes for a long time. We both love Eileen's samplers and have stitched a few and taken several classes with her. After that, we shall see what pokes its head out of the stash and asks to be stitched next. The chipmunks in BOAF's Welcome Home sampler keep popping up to the top of the pile ...

10/25/50 Projects Challenge

After reviewing the out of control stash situation, it's time for me to join the 10/25/50 project stash challenge. I'm going whole hog and attempting 50! Above is my 1st (new) project, but which will count as the 2nd project finished (if and when I finish it!). I've decided not to "age" it the way it is shown, but will gently tea-dye it when finished to soften it. I'm stitching it on cream Edinborough and the colors look a bit bright to me. I will post my progress at the end of the week.

The rules (as posted at www.hasturtorres.blogspot.com) are:
1. Have fun reducing your stash.
2. There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.
3. Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50 projects have been stitched. Pattern size does not matter.
4. This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.
5. You can make some exemptions - I am not placing limitations on this due to commitments that people might already have. Remember, though, the goal of this challenge is to reduce stash so too many exemptions will sabotage these efforts.
6. Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge. This also applies to purchasing patterns for gifts that give other people. Woohoo!
7. Freebies count as part of your total and you can aquire them at any point.
8. The offical start date of this challenge was Sept 1, 2006 since I have been posting about it for awhile and want to make sure the everyone's projects have been included.
My own modification will be that if, after completing the stitching on a piece, I actually "finish" it into something, either an object or a framed picture, it will count as 2 finishes.

My 50 projects, subject to deletions or additions from my current stash, are:
1. Frances Burwell – The Examplarery (FINISHED! - yea 1 down, 49 to go!)
2. Cure Tree – M Designs (WIP)
3. Celtic Sampler – Homespun Samplar (WIP)
4. Sailing Home – Blackbird Designs (WIP)
5. My Betrothed Sampler – Birds of a Feather (WIP)
6. White Christmas Ornament 1 (WIP)
7. White Christmas Ornament 2
8. White Christmas Ornament 3
9. White Christmas Ornament 4
10. Bands of Many Colors – The Sampler House
11. Take a Lovely Sampler – Lauren Sauer (WIP)
12. Stitching Chair Necessaire – Hillside Samplings (WIP)
13. Sampler Pinkeep – The Heart’s Content (WIP)
14. Noah’s Needle – Just Nan
15. Baby Garden – Just Nan
16. Assissi Band Sampler – Samplar Workes
17. Spanish Sampler – Samplar Workes
18. Nonesuch Band Sampler – Samplar Workes
19. Happy Hearts Sampler – Birds of a Feather
20. Sally Spencer Sampler – Birds of a Feather
21. Welcome Home – Birds of a Feather
22. Bitter Flower Sampler – Birds of a Feather (WIP)
23. Peace – Birds of a Feather
24. Be Kind and True – Blackbird Designs
25. Strawberry Garden – Blackbird Designs
26. Anonymous Sampler – Chartmakers (WIP)
27. Scottish Sampler – The Essamplaire (WIP)
28. The Good Neighbor – The Drawn Thread
29. Flower Scissors Companion – Ewe & Eye & Friends
30. Friends Are Angels on Earth – The Heart’s Content
31. Ann Smith – The Scarlet Letter (WIP)
32. Emmanuel’s Song – Shepherd’s Bush
33. The Toy Gatherer – Shepherd’s Bush
34. Seaology – The Trilogy
35. Time for Tea – Barbara Jackson (WIP)
36. Sampler Slide Purse – CA Wells (WIP)
37. Friendship – Brightneedle
38. Evensong – Brightneedle
39. Hearts & Flowers – Carriage House Samplings
40. Houses of Hawk Run Hollow – Carriage House Samplings
41. Village of Hawk Run Hollow – Carriage House Samplings
42. Stitcher’s Prayer – Carriage House Samplings
43. Bookcover – The Essamplaire (WIP)
44. Abigail Brown – The Examplarery
45. Ann Bowers – The Examplarery
46. Loara Standish – The Examplarery
47. Ann Holewll – The Examplarery
48. Bird in Bough – The Scarlet Letter (WIP)
49. With My Needle – The Goode Huswife (WIP)
50. Heart in Hand – Little Angel in the Clouds

Gratuitious Cute Kid Picture

Here is Max and his Nana in the hotel pool 2 weekends ago. Aren't they cute? Like two peas in a pod, I tell you. I say he is just like her, but she says he is her grandmother reincarnated. Great.

Doesn't my Mom look awesome for 68 years old? Must be the asian genes.

No stitching to show you today. Not that I haven't been trying! I got about 10 stitches in last night before Max's bedtime (and mine).

Has anyone ever been to Edenton, North Carolina? A friend of mine is interviewing in Norfolk, Virginia and she of course, would like to us to move closer to her if she gets the job. Which is sounding good with a Maine winter looming ahead. Of course, we won't move, but it's nice to fantasize. And when I have time on my hands at work, I like to surf the web because people can't tell if you're really working or not. So this week, I've built up a little fantasy about moving South to Edenton, NC. This is a very picturesque, tiny town on the coast. Looks ideal. Now all I need to do is win the lottery so I can afford the $845,000 house I've set my heart on. When I daydream, I go whole hog!

Random Stuff

Thank you everyone so much for your wonderful comments about Frances! I hope to have new photos soon. It's disgustingly dark now when I get home from work and mornings have been hectic. Max had a stomach bug that started on Friday night and is still lingering.

We had a very nice stitch-in at Patti's house on Saturday. Lisa came up from Connecticut and Nancy up from Massachusetts. Patti made an awesome beef stew and we had a nice time stitching and chatting. I made remarkably small progress on a sampler that I'm stitching as a gift - pictures to come when Blogger is more cooperative.

I've also been busy creating on a website for my EGA chapter, which will probably take until the end of the year to get up and running because of all of the people that need to approve the content, etc. But it's fun work. I don't mind "fun work." I do mind grunge work, like cleaning the bathroom. But I love to work on things that mean something to me, not that clean bathrooms don't mean anything.

Here are links to some good things:

UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women
UNIFEM in the United States

Give Life - what a great title, that is what you do when you donate blood - you give life. I'm scheduled to donate on Monday. Do you know that the State of Maine only gets about 200 pints of blood a day and it gets donated to 39 hospitals and clinics? That's not much. In fact, not enough. It's not only accident victims who need the blood, but also people going through cancer treatments, etc. People need it every day. I used to be afraid that I would pass out, or it would hurt, but when my neighbor was diagnosed with cancer, he needed constant transfusions. We were the same blood type, so for him I donated every 6 weeks. It was a good feeling. You really do leave smiling, feeling that you've helped someone and possibly saved a life. PLEASE DONATE BLOOD.

You can open these sites and click on the buttons to help fund free mammograms, health care for kids, animal rescue, etc. It costs nothing to click! I've been doing this for years and they are trusted sites. I will be adding buttons for these to my sidebar when I get around to reorganizing my page. I'm getting sick of the green, so look for a new template here soon!

The Breast Cancer Site
The Child Health Site
The Animal Rescue Site
The Hunger Site
The Literacy Site
The Rainforest Site