Another progress picture of my PAD:



I've completed 12 bands so far, only 9 more to go This has moved pretty quickly once I got going. Early in the week I discoverd a mistake and had to frog a big seciton, including most of the stitches using the 4 strands of BF. I was so not looking forward to having to re-do them but I figured out a better way. I threaded my needle with just 2 strands of the BF and went over each leg of the stitch twice. It was much easier to work with and I like the results much better. They looked so much nicer that I decided to pull out all the other stitches and re-did them. Why didn't I think of that sooner?

Even though the SAL goes through the weekend I think this is a good place to stop. The next bands, both top and bottom, are 4-sided stithces. Not a hard stitch but not one I really like so I'll will now move on to my Mike Vickery.

I tried to get some stithcing done last night while DH was at hockey but couldn't concentrate. I ended up watching Monk and going to sleep instead.

It's going to be a quiet weekend around here. Just a few errands to run, grocery shopping and hope to run off by myself for a little while this afternoon.....if I feel like getting dressed.

Stitching goals for 2006

I thought I would put my stitching goals for 2006 in writing:

1. Finish Christmas Flourishes(DONE)
2. Finish Sapphire Celtic Cross for my MIL
3. Finish Mira's Elf Fairy
4. Do one ornament a month, at least(did 2 this month)
5. Participate in the Patricia Ann Stitch Along(started)
6. Participate in the Michigan area Stitchers RR(passed mine on to Ruth, got Misty's last weekend)
7. Finish at least one, maybe two, of the Dragon Dreams projects I have as WIP's all over the place
8. Finish Celtic Spring(just need to finish a few gold swirls in her dress, and the beading)
9. Stay focused on goals, don't get sidetracked
10. No new finishes until I have *finished* other stuff

You'll notice a theme here, finishing. I have so much started, so much kitted up and ready to start that I need to try to stay focused on that. I know stitching is a hobby and it's supposed to be *fun* but not finishing anything is not a lot of fun.

Now if I can just stay away from the new Mira, I'll be ok, because I really, really, really want it!!!

I think I have a new musical obsession brewing. I still love my Jason but I must admit I haven't listened to him in a couple of months. He is not updating his blog anymore(I know he's busy), refuses to come any where near me(of course if I realized that Cleveland was as close as he was going to get I may of made an effort for that concert), and every interview I read with him lately he is going on and on about his girlfriend(ok, I get it, she's HOT, you're in love, blah, blah, blah). I'll always love him but I think the daily "must" listen to him has waned...At least until some new stuff comes out or he comes to Detroit(or at least Michigan)

My new emerging obsession...Michael Buble. Man, what a smooth voice he has. I have no clue what he looks like but this voice is amazing and it's nice to hear some old standards and such a crooning voice. I'm trying to eek some money out of the budget for one of his CD's but for now I'll have to make due with the two songs I got on I-tunes. I've dropped big hints with DH for Valentines Day....

Today some stitching pictures.

The Michigan area stitchers started our Patricia Ann Designs SAL this weekend. It's the third week of every month and I started it at the GTG at Delphine's house on Saturday. Even though I was there the entire day I didn't' get much done:



The design is called "Twilight Star" and I had a hard time working with the 4 strands of BF. Nasty stuff on it's own, put 4 strands together and it's a pain.

I would have gotten more done if I hadn't talked, laughed, and ate so much, but it was really a lot of fun!

Here is my latest progress picture of my Elf Fairy:



I work on her mostly in the afternoon's while the boys are in school and with so many days off and 1/2 days so far this month she hasn't had a lot of time.

Here is my second ornament of the month:



It's a Lori Birmingham design and was meant to go along with 2 other Snowmen and done on banding to hang on a a bellpull but I decided to do them individually. I got the pattern/charms in a grab bag and I suspected that it had been opened and I think I am right because some of the "special" stitching instructions were missing. I had to use the model picture and guess on some of the backstitching colors and how many strands to do his scarf with. I think he turned out nice though! You can't tell from the picture but there is BF with the white and he's kind of sparkly too. I think most of my ornaments will be snowmen this year. I just love them so I declared 2006 the year of the "Snowman". I have two more of the Lori Birmingham's plus a cute Cooler Design studio freebie. I'll have to hunt down a few more to complete one for every month of the year.

Here is my big goal for the 2006...To finish this "Sapphire Celtic Cross" by Mike Vickery:



I'd like to give it to my MIL for Christmas this year. It's not a hard design and it has such wonderful colors in it but it's filled with 1/4 stitches and what feels like miles of BS. Still I'm determined to finish it and my goal is to be done by October so I have time for framing. It should be easy if I stay focused(snicker)

DH and I have had a kind of rough month. We've been doing a lot of fighting which is unusual for us. In fact we had one of our biggest fights of our marriage. It got so heated that I asked him to leave, and he did, and spent the night on his moms couch. We've done some patching up from there but it's still so frustrating that he doesn't hear me until I'm really, really mad.

The money situation doesn't help I'm sure. We are still struggling and it didn't help that we had major problems with our car. The water pump went one morning while DH was on the way to work. He had to have a tow and along with that there was a bunch of other stuff that had to be done. We were without a car for about 4 days(which is hard) and it was a lot more money than we had at the moment. My MIL was awesome though and stepped in and paid for the car repairs and told us to pay us back when we could. It's hard to take money from family but I don't know what we would of done without her help.

I try to make myself feel better by reminding myself that in 17 years of being together this is only the 3rd time we've asked for help and it's been almost 10 years since the last time we needed help so I guess it's not to bad...Still don't like it. I have to say that DH handled it really well. He didn't call me until he was already at work after his brother was kind enough to pick him up. He had already worked out how to get to work while the car was being repaired and had already talked to his mom about some financial help. By the time I heard about it, it was all worked out. He never did tell me the final total, I have a ballpark idea but he just told me it was handled. I'm glad he did that because if I knew the exact amount it would drive me crazy with worry.

The last major hurdle is tax time. With collecting unemployment I'm worried that we may end up owing uncle sam. He is not the kindest of creditors! We have the W-2's so I suspect we will do the taxes this weekend. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

It could be worse, we still have a roof over a head, money for food and while we keep the temp pretty low in the house it is warmer than a box. We just have to keep plugging away and we will eventually just make our way out of it.

Report cards for both boys come home sometime this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what Donovan's teacher has to say this time around. She was so positive on his last one and had only good things to say at the parent conferences. He seems to be doing excellent in reading and spelling. Every week they are given 20 spelling words to learn. During the week they practice them by writing sentences so he is doing awesome with sentence structure. On Friday's they are tested on 15 of the words and his last 5 tests have been 100%(before that he never missed more than 2 words). His reading is great, even if he still doesn't really like to do it(which is frustrating since I'm such an avid reader and he sees both DH and I reading on almost a daily basis). He is still a bit shaky in math, still doesn't always understand money but he's willing to try.

I'm looking forward to hearing from the speech therapist and how she feels G is progressing. He seems to be doing better to us and it seems like more people are understanding him. He loves going and seeing her. They seem to play a lot of games which G loves and he says she likes to hear his stories. I worried that he would not like it but so far it's "fun" for him and seems to be helping.

Time sure does fly sometimes!!

The month of December was just a blur. It seems like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving and BAM it's now almost mid-Jan and I have a hard time remembering what I did in all that time.

I thought today I would share some pictures from the last few weeks.

First is DS #1 before his Winter concert at school:


Both boys on Christmas Eve:


Me and the boys on Christmas Eve:


I did have a big XS finish. I finished my Christmas Flourishes. I had hoped to complete it before Christmas but with the problems with the beads set me back and then I just got too wrapped out in the holidays. But here she is:

Designed by Nora Corbett, Copyright Mirabilia Designs

Here are all my completed ornaments for 2005:


More:


A couple of other finishes:

designed by Jenifer Aikman-Smith, copyright Dragon Dreams designs

and one more that I just finished last night:


It's a Lori Birmingham design and took less than a day to complete. I even sewed it by hand!! It's a bit tiny but I think he is cute.

Not much else to say. Things are going about the same. The holidays were nice. All the gifts were well received. Me and DH have been having fun playing some of the video games we bought the boys(mainly Star Wars Battlefront) and at night after they are in bed we've been playing together which is fun!

He continues to really like his job and it's a good fit for him. The company he got laid off from this past July was sold just before it was to file bankruptcy. DH heard through the grapevine that lots of people were laid off, salaries were cut as well as benefits are not so great anymore(that is one thing I miss they had awesome medical/dental/optical). At the time of his lay off it seemed like the worst thing in the world but I guess it was really a blessing. We are waiting for March when DH get's his first bonus check and we will see from there.

The money situation is still dicey. We've been keeping the house pretty cool and down right chilly over night. We bought everyone a new blanket this year and instead of turning up the heat we put on a sweater, or throw a blanket over our lap. I was sick of being cold until we got our most recent heating bill which covered the month of December when the temps were unusually cold and it was actually $6 less than our bill last year so I guess being chilly has been paying off. We've also been really reminding the kids about turning lights and TV off when they leave the room so I was able to save some money on the electric bill to so I was happy about that. Luckily the boys hang out in our finished basement when they are home from school. It's a well insulated, dry basement so once it gets warm, it stays that way. I also have a little stitching "nest" on my couch where I tend to stitch or watch TV at. I have a small space heater that warms up that area so I haven't been as cold as we could.

I'm still plugging away on my CC, sending them money every month. We did finally have our land line cancelled so I'm not talking to them on a daily basis anymore...THANK GOODNESS for that. I did try to talk to their special collections once again and again their idea of a reasonable payment plan and mine are different and theirs is just out of our reach, especially if we want to eat too. It sucks because if I'm not on a payment plan then the fee's continue to rack up, at this point close to 1/3 of what they say I owe them is all fee's. Still it could be worse and I'll get them paid off eventually, I may be 100 but they will be paid. It's the best we can do.