Another Monday Update

edited to add a Hyacinth At Night picture, for Milly :)


I was going to include a pic of my blooming hyacinths - but it's somewhere on m y other computer... So I guess just use your imagination - the hyacinths are in bloom, as are all of the trees. We had temps near 80 this weekend, and will for the next few days, then back to wet & cold for the weekend :( And just for the record, this stupid time change SUCKS! I knew it was going to be rough this year, as I was pretty exhausted before having to get up an hour earlier - I don't think I slep two hours last night, all told. I'm getting by on adrenaline today; tomorrow, it's going to catch up to me, and I will seriously be dragging butt. I really do need to move to AZ, where they don't change the time. Studies have proven how the time change is detrimental to those who are considered night owls, which I have always been. Morning people should be shot on sight. Twice. No offense to morning people, of course - just keep it down until 10:00 - Real Time - please; it's safer for all concerned :) Clearly, the people that think DST is still economically feasible do not get up before 8 a.m. - I have a heck of a lot more lights on getting everyone up & going in the morning than we do at night, all camped in front of various idiot boxes...

Anyway, enough of that ramble... This week's stitching was all in fits & starts. Even though I've had 2 finishes and starts to fill those finishes, I have been battling startitis daily. maybe I have been for a while, adn that's why I got hose ornies done...? At any rate, I finally caved on Wednesday - I started MLI's Celtic Banner. I just couldn't ignore it any longer, as it has been hollering at me for so long! This is one of the few designs that I saw way back when I first started surfing the web, and it screamed BUY ME!!! from the very first sight of it. Well, I finally added it to the stash a couple of years ago (long, stupid story about my so-called LNS in an older post...), and got the DMC for it in one of the big DMC binges - either the erroneous Hancock sale, or Wal Mart clearancing. Thanks to the LNS story, I didn't have fabric until last fall - when Silkweaver had Days Gone By as the color of the week, I took advantage and orderd a piece of 36ct for this, and the 28ct I'm using for MTM :) And I had an idea to swap out the Caron Wildflowers for the same colors in Waterlilies - so I did :) You know, anytime I can sub silk, and it's on sale (Laurel's Stitchery had one of the colors CHEAP!). So, all of this lead to it sitting in the Kitted drawer, and hollering at me every time I walked by. And when I started Tanglewood a couple of weeks ago, that just removed one layer of insulation between it & me - so I caved.
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/72/Celtic_Banner_by_Marilyn_Leavitt-Imblum#2

God, I have no willpower some days - it's a wonder I ever quit smoking cold-turkey, 14 years ago... At any rate, it seems to have cured me of startitis, for now, though, to be fair, I did bring both of my Patricia Allison dragons to work to make working copies, as Autumn Dragon has been hollering almost as loud; technically, there's nothing preventing me starting that one, too, other than I literally have NO ROOM in the WIPs drawers (which means I need to get MMM03 done :) ) I don't even have an overwhelming urge to work on it right now - it's just comforting to know it is started, and sitting there waiting for whenever (just like all of the other part-timers)

Speaking of MMM03, I did some work on it when I had wonderful sunshine on my day off last Monday - but I haven't taken a picture of it, as 1) I forgot, and 2) it really wasn't that much progress, as I spent most of the day staring at the idiot box and playing with the lazy-ass dog :) I got the 2nd vine in that top arch done, added a group of beads, and did roofs on buildings, as well as a bunch of eyelets & Rhodes stitches in that inner border. Maybe I'll get a picture tonight - since I'll have a whole extra hour of daylight when I get home (assuming I don't fall asleep on the drive home...grrrr).

I also received the next installment of our Round Robuin, this time a Santa piece from Lyne. I didn't work on it but about 5 minutes the week I got it, as I was a little fixated on Foursome Reel, and I didn't really get a lot done this week, but he does now have a face, including backstitch, and a beard, which still needs bs. I would like to get his right arm done and more bs before he has to move on - I know bs is not a favorite of most people, but after finishing TW's Triptych, I'm pretty immune to it, so I don't mind doing it; when it's outlining, I can pretty much go on autopilot, too, which makes it good for a brain-dead evening :) Here he is:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/59/2009_RR#8

My main focus of the week was SQ Lady & unicorn, and though I didn't have the banner week I'd been hoping for, mostly because I had to start another project one night, and a bit of lethargy and soccer interruptus, I do think I got in about 1000 stitches, all told. I had a BUNCH of confetti to wade through to get to the solid dark patches you see in the new pics - I was confetti-ing until yesterday evening, to be exact. But if you look at the overall, you can see how close I am to finishing the top row of pages. My 3rd year anniverary is June - I hope to have that row complete by then, putting me on a 12-year completion plan. Crazy, huh? 12 years - maybe my kids will have moved out in that time, and I can have more time for me, and knock off a year or two :) Here are the detail & overall:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/2/SQ_Lady_wUnicorn_-_Current_Progress#48 - Overall
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/2/SQ_Lady_wUnicorn_-_Current_Progress#49 - Detail

This week, back to MTM!!! I can't wait to get home!! Hope I can stay awake to get some in tonight - and not have to frog it all tomorrow :( I have butterflies coming up :) I should also finish the stitching on that Jan Houtman biscornu this week - I really need to stop stitching at lunch and get back to pilates class, if my aching back is any indication, but I really just don't know if I can - I went religiously for 2 years, and just don't know if I can get back into that same boring routine. But my back really needs me to. Maybe when it gets warm to stay, when I am more flexible and my skin doesn't want to shred if I stretch too far :) Of course, I've been aaway for 5 months (?) now, so it'll be starting over for me - hopefully my muscles have better retention than my brain does lately....

Well, that's the news - Happy Stitching to everyone this week!! Think Spring!!!