My New Home Sweet Home

I am working on getting this WordPress thing up & going - I HOPE to figure out how to make it push to Blogger, too, but I'm not there yet...
http://rifestitch.jaysez.org/

Bah, humbug...

The End is Nigh

I am not going to post a lengthy update, since at some point in the near future, posting anything to Multiply will be null & void. I just want to get this week's progress up and over to my other blog, which I will hopefully be able to continue to mirror from my new home, which will probably be Word Press. I haven't gotten all the facts yet, so haven't even made an attempt to start a new gig up there; it would be great if I could figure out WHY I can't get photos into my Blogger blog itself, but am not sure I care to work on it, since I have to deal with data here first and foremost.



Fortunately, I only have progress on 2 things to share, which will help to keep this short :) I'll start with an update to the L*K Very Scary Mystery SAL; I have not quite half of Part 2 done. I didn't go to Tuesday night at the IHOP, and was busy all through the week & weekend; what did get done was done during a couple of lunches and one night after work, before I had to get dinner going. Here is where I am now:



I may be able to finish up this part (and maybe start the bonus) this week; I am going to the IHOP tomorrow, barometer-head-willing, so ought to make a dent there, if I can see it.

My main piece for the week was Chat Noir, which was pretty simple after coming away from L&U :) I could have sworn that I worked on it a few months ago; turns out, that few months ago was last December. Man, has it been that long? Anyway, I have about 15 stitches to go to finish Page 1 (yes, still on Page 1, but AM working on Page 2 at the same time, which is roughly 1/3-1/2 done, too). Here he is, as of last night:

And where he was before I started this turn on him, for reference:


Once I realized this is the first time I've worked on him this calendar year, I wondered if I should keep him out another week, or move on as I had planned? I can't decide. I was kinda ready to move on to Halloween Quaker, since I have all this Halloween stuff piling up around me :) I'll decide when I sit down tonight, I guess. I definitely think working on Chat right after I finish working on L&U is a good idea - still in confetti mode, but it's NOT RED :)

Well, that's it from here for now. For some pretty well-written pieces on the closing of Multiply, Mel has several posts, both on her Muliply page and her WordPress page; just some good info all in one spot...

Sheer Folly - an ATTEMPT at a Monday Update

Folly, in that I would normally have posted this early Monday morning on MULTIPLY, except that it was to be AWOL for a few hours, which (and maybe I'm just paranoid) is suspicious after last week's announcement that they will be closing down the social/blogging aspect of their service... So then I attempted to go post directly to my Blogger blog (which mirrors the Multiply one) - but to no avail - I cannot get photos INTO the posts, which is about half of my post, now, innit? This whole thing just makes me ill - the beauty of Multiply was two-fold; 1) a community approach, so my circle of friends would be in on the updates with the convenience of the Inbox (and e-mails of those new posts, for those of you who were still on the mailing list), and 2) the ability to have all of my photos stored and accessible to be able to add to my blog posts, OR to just skim through. Though when I lost access to MY high-res versions when they introduced the Premium (paid) subscription, I wasn't as happy as I was before. But still, you could see them by clicking on them in the posts, so not a total loss.... And $20 for the paid subscription wasn't too bad a deal, really, all things considered. But apparently, Multiply-run-from-Indonesia wasn't satisfied as it was when it was run from Boca Raton, so....

So now, I will be forced to re-build. I have some research to do, and compare what's out there with what I have with Blogger. Supposedly I have photo storage with Picasa through Blogger, and I actually uploaded a couple of photos - but could NOT get them to go INTO the post. Picasa is one that I have seen but am not that familiar with; I AM familiar with Photobucket, which I do NOT like, and I also have seen Flickr, which might be my most viable option for long-term, high volume photo storage. I just have to make the time to sit down and try to determine what features I MUST have, and what is easy to use and doesn't have a crappy interface (my main hatred of Photobucket is the interface - it's ugly, IMO - and if I want an ugly interface, well, I have Oracle all day long for that :) or maybe :( ). Anywho, we'll see what shakes out. I guess the main folly here is just me posting yet another update, which I will then have to figure how to migrate somewhere else (as though I don't already have 900 pages cut & pasted from here into Word - not including ANY of the comments and not including reviews or album thumbnails).

So, I guess before this disappears again, I should probably get the stitching bits in, so I can hopefully get them saved. First off, Part 2 of the L*K Very Scary Mystery arrived on Wednesday (I think), and while I didn't get it out but once, I DID get a few stitches into it. This is going to be really cool, and it h as one of my favorite sayings in it - but you'll either have to go find one done that far, or check back - somewhere, sometime, depending on when this blog move happens - to see it :) Here's the bit I did:

Since this didn't arrive before Tuesday night at the IHOP, I worked on Bone Cheeks, and am plowing away on the bottom half, with lots of color :) This really is a fun little stitch!

And lastly, I continued to make SIGNIFICANT progress on Lady & Unicorn. Considering I hadn't gotten it out until last Wednesday, technically, I only worked on it for 11 days, and I think I have well over 1/3 of Page 7 completed. Now why couldn't I have done that on the last 6 pages? Oh yeah, CONFETTI HELL. Here is where I left it for last week's update:

And here it is now (the orange threads are the page boundaries):

I do have a page coming up in the next row that probably WILL kill me - it's the cloth that covers the table under this instrument, and it has a zillion round motifs in a group of colors - the page, just glancing at the symbols, looks an absolute mess :( SO if I can pump myself up with the pages between now & then, it might help me get through that one. Yikes... The Unicorn page is right after that one, though, I think, and since he has less than 40 symbols in him (give or take) that will be a well-deserved breather :) Here's the model photo, you should be able to figure out roughly what page I'm referring to:

In other news, I FINALLY got the irises all divided. It took m e 5 hours on Saturday, bent over and elbow-deep in the dirt, to get them all uprooted, bad & old bits cut off and pitched. I have a HEAP of tubers in the garage, giving them a few days to let the wounds harden up some. We need to re-build the beds while I have them all out - the termites made lunch out of my landscape timbers. I also had a lengthy argument with the &%$@(#)$*^ pampas grass that took over the one end of the original bed - I had to cut it back, with small cutters, in order to get TO the bed - and have the cuts to show for it. Everywhere. I hate that stuff, and wish now we hadn't planted it. Time to figure out how to get that massive thing OUT of there, though I expect all of my lizards will be mad at me. Too bad, I'm tired of it.

That's the news, I better quit here while I am ahead (I hope). I will be looking into where/how/when this blog migration will happen; losing the "unlimited" photo hosting is going to be the biggest bite - I really don't want to have to go back to Webshots and link stuff in.... Thanks, Multiply, for leaving us hanging out to dry - I can't wait to see what "help" they plan to provide for us to successfully move stuff. Pretend I'm a DBA - been there, done that, am STILL paying the price....

Multiply BS

In case you have not already seen this, MULTIPLY IS CLOSING THE BLOG/SOCIAL NETWORKING side, leaving all of us bloggers hung out to dry. I will copy the post from the new & brilliant (NOT!) CEO, found here: http://multiply.multiply.com/notes/item/5

Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia.

As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.

From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.

For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.

Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.

I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.

I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.

Stef

SO, if you follow that link to the actual post and read all of the follow-on comments, it seems pretty obvious that even the Indonesian sellers that this is supposed to be FOR are not happy. So while the sellers get to deal with that whole aspect, the rest of us have to find a new home and place to put our posts, photos, journals - and who the hell knows if they will actually HELP us get our stuff from here to there, wherever there happens to be? Since there's no MONEY in it for them, I would say NO. I guess, with the continuing loss of functionality and Customer Service, that the end was obviously coming - but really? Because some bonehead somewhere thinks this is Indonesian ebay? WHICH GOT IT'S START FROM ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SET UP BLOGS???? Wow, now there's the business decision of the century. You're welcome, Stef - I am so happy I could generate the traffic I did for Multiply, and I sure hope all the work I now have to do, AGAIN, is compatible with your finely tuned business plan. It's a good thing that I had a BLOGGER blog before this one, so at least my posts are preserved. Hey, Stef, were you ever in banking, by any chance? This story seems kinda familiar.....

So watch this space for a new address eventually. I have to do some research, and have joined a MULTIPLY GROUP, strangely enough, that will be lots of people who know their way around the WWW better than me, who will hopefully come up with some great options, soon. See The Death Of Multiply group....

T-Minus 4 Days - an Update

4 days until school starts, that is. 4 days until we have to start the early-morning whinging when I try to get a certain 15yo UP and MOVING! Last week's band camp wakings were rough, though he was just getting back onto a DAYTIME schedule after spending the entire summer up all night, sleeping all day. Speaking of band camp, this year's Flowery Branch High School Marching Falcon's show looks like it is going to be realllyyy cool - they are doing music from a band I grew up with, Styx. The Kid needs a trombone upgrade, which we'll try to get done before the first game in 4 weeks. Here is their show shirt:



The Olympic Medal count as of this morning:

Country	Medalists				Total
China	See names	31	17	14	62
United States	See names	28	14	18	60
Great Britain	See names	16	11	10	37
Russia	See names	4	16	15	35
Japan	See names	2	12	13	27

Sure hope we end up with more than China when it's over. And way to go Michael Phelps! Beat that, anyone!

Again, I apologize for the photos on this page not automatically linking to their high-res versions - the links are THERE, I've removed & re-added them in, but they just don't go :( Stupid HTML, or stupid Multiply, which hasn't been cooperating with FB lately, either. IF you want to see these (my) photos in high res, here is the link to the original, Multiply, post, and clicking on them there will take you to the high res....

Okay, on with the stitching bits, which, despite stopping to watch the TV every minute when my favorite events were on (swimming, diving, rowing), I did get some in :)



First, I finished up Iris Fairy's face, as I mentioned last week. MUCH better with a face :) I also did a bit more on the right-hand start of the irises, so I could finish up her Kreinik hair. Next time, I should get down to her dress, and/or work on those irises more.



Also, over in The Stitcher's Village social area, I made a Joan Elliott group, with various discussions, if you'd care to check it out :) If you haven't been there (or not recently), you have to have a separate account than the one you get the newsletter from, in order to participate in the social area; but we have a LOT of great discussions there, LOTS of pictures, and all kinds of goings-on. Follow the link above, and enter through the Tea Shoppe, at the bottom right - unless you need to do some shopping first, like at PTP or Laurel's :)



Speaking of Laurel's, since the 2nd part of the L*K Very Scary Mystery is on its way to me, I finished up the Part 1 Bonus chart - the fabric came out a bit grey in this photo, as it was very overcast when I took it; it's actually a very subtle lavender, and the thread is WDW Onyx:



So now I am ready for Part 2, which should be here this week :)



I also worked some more on Bone Cheeks this week - he now has teeth :) Though they are kinda hard to see on this fabric, until I get the black done around them....



And finally, the main focus of the week, once I put Iris away, was Lady & Unicorn. I spent a couple of nights filling in blanks in the confetti - and no, you can't really see where those were. So by Saturday, I decided to cheat, and started working on some of the sections of continuous stitching! I will regret later leaving all those blanks to fill in, but I needed to make some forward progress, so I did :) Here is the area I worked on Page 7:



And here's a shot with the chart for comparison - all the pink highlighter is what I did last week:



This week, I will continue with L&U, and Bone Cheeks at lunch, if possible, as well as Tuesday night at IHOP (weather & barometer-head permitting). DH and I really need to do some work outside - those irises aren't going to divide themselves, apparently - as well as get that Kid some school clothes this weekend - a tax-free weekend in GA, so we'll have swarms of people to battle through :( We are also keeping an eye on the Gulf - we want to go to the beach for a few days in September, which will negate me going to the fair (and all the hassle to go with), IF we can manage to avoid the hurricanes. We will see...



Well, that's the news. Happy Stitching this week, and here's hoping we pull ahead & stay ahead of China in the medals!!

An Olympic Update

Let's start with this:



JUST BRILLIANT! I was absolutely in tears, laughing as the 86 yo Bond Girl's chute opened over the stadium! And I just have to say, how lucky was the Queen to get to do a bit with Mr. Bond? YUM! And Corgis, too :) Also, so glad to see Prince Philip looking better, from being peaked at the Jubilee. The whole show was very well done; the boy & girl story was a bit cheesy, but the music more than made up for that, and I WILL be getting the soundtrack, since, essentially, that is the soundtrack to my life to date :) Zeppelin & Prodigy - great mix! I have to mention that I was also teared up at Danny Boy, and then God Save the Queen; wasn't aware those pieces had any particular pull on me, unless maybe it was the kids' singing that made a difference? Hmmm....

I was a little sad to see Sir Paul looking a tad melted - he needs to let his hair go natural, and be age-appropriate, so it doesn't draw so much attention to the southern reaches of his chin. And while I do love Hey, Jude, wow, enough with the NaNaNaNaNa bit - it's the Opening Ceremonies, not a concert. Anyway, good show, London - and the cauldron is AMAZING!


The week's stitching wasn't entirely Olympian, though I DID finish Part 1 of the L*K Very Scary Mystery - since Part 2 is being shipped from Norden to shops NOW, I figured I'd better get it done :) Again, I won't post the photo here in the main blurb, but you can see it here. I will think about doing the bonus piece this week, time permitting.


I also started Bone Cheeks on Wednesday; we had a network outage at work, and once I did the 10 minutes of offline work that I had, and cleaned my office, and played BeSpelled on my phone, etc., I broke out A New Project and put the first stitches into it. I then worked on it again Saturday at the July PINS get together, as the light just wasn't right for Very Scary (at least, not for the Loden on that Tin Roof fabric). Here he is so far:


And then, for the rest of the week, I worked on Iris Fairy, doing her hair & face - I really hate having faceless people looking at me, but I literally got to this part last night, so I WILL put her eyeball & mouth on TODAY. I tell you, those two colors for her hair (927 & 928) - hard to see on that fabric, especially when peeking around the thing every few minutes to see the TV screen :)


In other news, my JJs order from the 4th of July sale arrived, finally - I knew it would get held up by at least one of the fabrics I ordered, and turns out, it was COMPLETELY worth the wait for the 36ct Eek! from PTP, for Bat Banner - I couldn't have had something better dyed special if I'd tried - check this out:


And then here's the rest, the 3 Prairie Schooler charts I ordered, along with a mini freebie, the fabric to go with, along with the Bat Banner fabric:


DH had to go in to do month-end payroll Saturday morning, so I begged him to go do a floss run for me; he actually DID, if you can believe that! He did say, though, that he would never wear his Chelsea shirt into Hobby Lobby again...? So now I have 4 MORE projects all ready to go :) Halloween Rules is going to get realllyyyy mad at me :) It can stand in line behind Deep Blue Sea & Hummingbird, I guess.


This week, I will finish up Iris's face and then put her up again. I am planning to go to IHOP tomorrow - I will go vote on my way in to work - where I will either work on the L*K Bonus or Bone Cheeks - or both. Then, assuming I have Iris done tonight, or Wednesday, if I don't get all of the Kreinik in tonight, I will get Lady & Unicorn out, and work on her for the next little while. IF I can just chew through the confetti at the left-hand side of the new page, I do come to a relatively easy section - may not get there this go, though, we'll just have to see how it goes. The schedule's all screwed up this week with band camp, starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 9:00 at night, so we'll be eating late (yuck - I hate eating after 9), and then the mad dash to get school stuff ready this weekend for the first day on the 10th. I also need to decide on fair or no fair; DH and I were talking last night about really needing a long weekend at the beach in September, since it's been 5+ years since we took an actual vacation. Let's just say I need some sand & sea a lot more than I need the hassle of driving 80 miles three times for some possible recognition amongst the little ol' church lady crowd :) Guess I'd better decide...


Until next week, Happy Stitching, and GO USA!!

Another Monday Update

Hmmm, I appear to be all out of clever today, so boring title it is... I think it's due to the sun finally making an extended appearance after 14 days in a row with storms, some of them pretty bad in areas. Not that I am complaining, because after several years of drought, the rain is always welcome, as so many other parts of the country are finding out this year. But the storm that came through Saturday did knock out the internet for the better part of the day - not that big a deal to me, since I was busy, but I do so hate 15yos whinging because they can't play their games - especially as band camp evenings start this week, before full-on camp next week (14-hour days), then school starts on the 10th, at which time his computer gets moth balled... Going to be a busy couple of weeks....



SPOILER ALERT! IF you want to see the Lizzie * Kate Very Scary Mystery SAL, I have put up my start & progress photos here. If you don't want to see them, then don't look! At any rate, I did get some progress on Part 1, over lunch, a conference call, and then more than pictured last night (I got the owl done last night!). So far, it's really fun, and I love the colors so far - and am amazed that I can see the 35ct in my office. I didn't go to IHOP on Tuesday, so don't know yet if I can see it there, but I will test it this week.

Maybe the last skink in the area, though you can tell Beanie has gotten a hold of him at least once; the end of his tail is new. Damn cat, leave my lizards alone!

I did finally finish all of the Tuscany beads on parts 2 & 3; I was HIGHLY over-confidant of my beading abilities last week when I said I'd have 'em done Monday night. Ummm, yeah, I had 1/4 of it done Monday night - and it took one night each to done the other 3/4! Holy moley, it wasn't even that many beads, it was just going from the solid part in the outer corner, to the scattered ones in the lazy daisies and along the edge of Part 3 that seemed to take the time. Meh, whatever - at any rate, parts 2 & 3 are DONE, and with the beads in the daisies, I think they might now actually STAY where I put 'em, the damn things. For the record, I'd do French knots (or knots of any nationality) over lazy daisies, any day. Which will KILL ME if TW gets Illuminata done & released :) ANYWAY, here's Tuscany in all it's beaded glory:



And a wonky bead shot:



Speaking of Glory, it's DONE! Since I put Tuscany away late on Friday, I wanted to get Iris Fairy out, but just never managed to do it, since Glory was arguing with Very Scary about who needed to be worked on more (you shoulda heard them, screaming in the travel bag; silly projects, they are so cheeky). And not 2 minutes after getting DH to realize that yes, I was ironing it because it was done, he again laid claim to it: "That's mine, right? We gotta get that framed." Yeah, it's on the list... LOVE the colors I used (in case I hadn't already mentioned that 12-30 times):


And so, the week ended with no Iris Fairy progress. Chat Noir was actually starting to whine a little bit, too, and though Bone Cheeks is waiting slightly impatiently in the travel bag, after having been line-jumped by Glory, Spooky Row seems to have made it's way into the bag, too, so who knows what will get worked on tomorrow at IHOP? So what to do tonight? I still want to work on Iris, maybe for just a few days before Lady & Unicorn comes out - the calm before the storm, so to speak :) Give me something easy before I pick up the red beast again? Yeah, we'll see. Heck, I might get home tonight with something else entirely planned. We'll see what's screaming loudest when I get there. Until next week, Happy Stitching, everyone!