Long Week

This week has been a long one. I spent most of the working hours on my convention which will be next week. Although I only put in a little over 2.5 hours of overtime this week, I feel like it was so much more! I got a lot done but I still have a ton to do next week. Next week I will work approximately 70 hours between Monday and Saturday. Yikes!!! But I just keep telling myself, "Big Check". You have to love being paid hourly at times like these!

Because I have been coming home later than usual every night and tired, I haven't been cooking. So my evening meals have been terrible! Cereal, leftovers, anything I can scrounge up without too much effort. So tonight on the way home I stopped off at Whole Foods. For just over $10 I picked up fried chicken, twice baked potato and broccoli crunch. I also picked up dessert, a small cup of chocolate mousse.

I am now looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Stitching, crafting, catching up on soap operas (a dirty secret of mine!), and getting ready to be gone the latter half of next week!

I hope everyone survived this week!

The Spreader of Love Award

Margie over at It's All About Cross Stitch has kindly bestowed upon me the Spreader of Love Award because "your words of encouragement always keep me going." That is just too sweet for words!

The rules of the award are to select 5 people that I think deserve this award. No easy task. But here it goes:

Rene at Rene la Frog's Ramblings because she always has kind words for any project you are doing.

Noreen at Needle Caboodle because even though she isn't around the blogging world much these days, she does try to keep up with everyone and leave comments.

Chiloe at Chiloe's Corner because she always leaves her comments with such enthusiasm!

Meari at Meari's Musings because she is always encouraging and she comes up with the cutest dating stories (horrors) on her blog!

Terri at Threads Throughout Times for showing concern the other day on a statement made by me of receiving bad news!

There are my 5. (Deep breath!) That only took about 30 minutes to decide upon! LOL! That wore me out!

HAED Pattern Give Away

If you like HAED or have ever consider doing a HAED pattern, here's your chance. These two patterns are ones that I first started with to see if I would enjoy stitching these beautiful patterns. I was hooked. I have already stitched these patterns once and they were gifts so I have no intention of ever stitching again so I would love to give it to someone instead of deleting them! So just leave a comment on my blog and I will enter you in the drawing. Drawing will be held on Tuesday, February 3rd!

Amore:

Iris:

A new start!

Last night, while watching the Hallmark movie "Loving Leah" (which was a very good, down to earth romantic movie!), I started up on Parker's next gift, a Buzz Light Year photo album. You can tell by the picture (I apologize for it being so fuzzy) that I started on his face.

I still am currently working on 3 projects: Dragon Knot, Eeyore, and now Buzz. I'm going to try a rotation. I'm not going to designate days but I will try to work on Buzz, then Dragon Knot and then Eeyore. And because I am under a "deadline" to get Buzz and a new baby blanket done by April (which I haven't even started), I need to work as quickly and diligently as I can. Although my stitching right now may be sporadice because I am concentrating on a convention that I am prepping for. But it will be over next Sunday.

On a side note: Work is still kicking my butt and well, I got some news in my private life that threw me for a loop. But sometimes, you get news that makes you realize what is important and how strong you can be. And that's kind of what is happening now. So although it is bad news, it's good in a way. But the good news is that I slept 2 nights in a row! woo hoo! Now, tonight is a whole other story!

A finish!

I have finally finished Poppy! I am so happy to have finally finished this. It's been sitting around here for weeks with only the beading left. So I sat down last night and finally finished it out since I am wanting to start a new project! I do believe I will be framing this one and keeping it for myself. It will be the first one I have ever kept for myself!

The below photo is what I was able to complete on Dragon Knot. It's slow going on that one and sometimes because you work so much on just one color, I get bored with it! I'm really hoping this will be one that I finish this year though!

I also worked a little bit on the Eeyore blanket. I just don't like stamped cross stitch so this is another one that is going along very slowly.

Saturday Indulgence

Typically on the weekends I spend my time catching up on housework that I neglected throughout the week and stitching. Today I took some time for myself and indulged (meaning spent money) on myself!

I started off with a trip to Hobby Lobby where I purchased some material for a new project. I am going to make my nephew Parker a Buzz LightYear photo album. I thought this was really cute! So I checked my materials and I have all the DMC threads. Just needed the material!

Then I went and took a stroll around an open air shopping center in town. Went in a few shops, just browsed, got some home decorating ideas. Then went to the movies. I saw Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Don't let the title fool you! There is actually a love story that runs through the whole movie. A tragic one that does not end happily but nevertheless a love story! I saw some pretty good previews also! There's this horror movie coming out soon "Haunting in Connecticut" that I can't wait to see! The preview alone made my skin crawl! I can't wait! (Yep, I'm a horror movie fan! Big time!)

Upon leaving the movie theatre, discovered that the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees! I was not prepared for that!!!! I had on jeans, t-shirt and flip flops! It was quite frigid and raining! The temperature dropped to 54 degrees! I ran across the street to California Pizza Kitchen where I had a yummy grilled vegetable foccacia sandwich for lunch! Then on to Barnes and Nobles were I browsed a little bit more!

On my way home I stopped at the convenience store for my lottery tickets (can't win if you don't buy!) and indulged some more by purchasing Ding Dongs! Yep! I haven't had one of those in years! It's been so long that I can't even remember the last time!

So overall, this Saturday has been very pleasant!!! And it is not over yet! I have plenty of hours to do some stitching and tonight I will watch the men's LSU basketball team play #15 Xavier on tv! Geaux Tigers!

TGIF

Thank goodness this week is over! I have 2 more weeks until my convention! And still a lot to be done. Especially this upcoming week when I have to have my materials to the printer! And the good/bad news is that my registration numbers are way up from previous years!!!!! I hope I am ordering enough!

With that being said, I am looking forward to a somewhat relaxing weekend. I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a 6 pack of Shiner Bock which I plan on enjoying throughout the weekend! It was a toss up between this and Blue Moon. Shiner won this weekend!

But before I did that I stopped at Hobby Lobby. I was looking for some cutesy Valentine crafty gifts for the nieces and nephew and ended up buying a Mardi Gras decoration for the door! With my 40% off coupon! I've been wanting something Mardi Gras for the door for years and I finally found something that I liked and was affordable!

I hope to get a lot of stitching accomplished this weekend (there's a possibility I could have a finish if I put my mind to it!) and also maybe see a movie. There are a few out right now that I would enoy seeing. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and Revolutionary Road. I know, two very different movies but both interest me. It will depend on what mood I am in when I head to the theater.

Hopefully I will have some progress stitching pictures after this weekend!

Presents!

Just about everyone I know loves presents. Especially ones that are a suprise! I personally LOVE presents. It's not so much what the present is but just the fact that the person thought about me!

As most know who reads my blog, my Sailor is home after a 6 month tour. I believe that during his tour he visited Scotland, Norway, and Spain. Maybe some other places to but I'm not sure. Anyway, upon his return he told me that he bought me some presents! I love the presents he buys me. The man is quite skilled at it! I adore all the things that he bought me the last time he went overseas.

Anyway, the problem is that he hasn't sent them yet. I am going nuts wanting to see what he bought for me. What makes it even worse is the fact that he told me that in one stop he bought me some handmade jewelry. When I asked what kind of jewelry he said he didn't know because he's bad at that kind of thing. Are you kidding me? You don't tell a woman you bought her jewelry and then not tell her what it is and not send it!

The sad thing is that I can't even get mad at him for not sending it because he is so completely honest about it. He tells me he is lazy and doesn't want to go to the postoffice. He expects me to wait till March when he comes for a visit. Seriously? The man knows I have no patience. While I appreciate the fact that he would like to probably see me open these goodies, I have braved the post office more than a few times to send him things. And it's not an easy thing! It requires documentation for customs!

I'm hoping that the surprise will be that I will get them before March!

Tuesday Mumblings

Today was the inauguration of the 44th president. While I did have to work today, I was able to watch it over live feed. Thank goodness for double screens at work! One held the live video feed of the inauguration while the other screen held the document I was currently working on.

I spent 40 minutes at the post office today. 40 minutes. There was one person working. When I walked in, I was 15th in line. It took me 40 minutes to get served. The teller was nice and actually quite comical and kept us all entertained but when he mentioned that it is like that every afternoon at that same time, I began to wonder, why don't they staff it better then? I mean, seriously? You are going to leave one person working at a high traffic time? Not much sense in that!

Have you ever had those days where you feel like that no matter what you do, it just isn't good enough? Welcome to my life these days! I feel that I am continuously failing those that I care for. It's driving me slightly insane, in addition to the delirium caused by lack of sleep. And while I know it is ONLY the 20th day of the new year, I feel as though my goals are so far ahead of me. I have to keep reminding myself though that it is only the 20th day of the year!

I have been stitching up a storm though! I hope to have some good progress pictures at the end of the week! At least on Dragon Knot. Maybe even Eeyore will be even closer to being finished!

A friend called today to tell me about the new Christine Feehan book coming out in 2009 in her Dark series. This one will be Dark Slayer. After reading the synopsis for this book, I do believe that it is going to be a very intense and "dark" book. The synopsis alone gave me the chills! If you have never read a Christine Feehan book and you like vampires, you should check her out: www.christinefeehan.com.

Well, I am off to make some dinner and pay some bills! Ugh! Then I will watch some of the inaugural ball and stitch tonight!

Monday Madness

After another sleepless night and a very long day at work, I have come home to put on my favorite 80's music channel and am jamming to the music! I am singing my favorite songs out loud and dancing around the kitchen as I make homemade blueberry muffins!

This weekend the grocery store had blueberries on sale so I picked up a small box of them. Yesterday morning I made blueberry pancakes which were so very yummy! Tonight as I pondered what to do with the rest I thought of blueberry muffins! So I am trying a Bisquick recipe that I downloaded from their website, http://www.bisquick.com/.
Ok, so the picture really doesn't do it any justice but if you could smell how good they smell and see the blueberries popping open and their juices running out! I hope they taste as good as they smell and look! And they do! Yummy!




I also posted on my Facebook page my dilemma of not sleeping for 2 nights (now 3) in a row. My sister, being a smart butt, suggested drugs. However, a friend of mine suggested melatonin. It's supposed to be a supplement that you find on the vitamin aisle. I'd rather try that than the drugs option! And it's probably better than drinking a whole bottle of wine! So tomorrow I will go to the health food store and see if I can find it and what information I can find on it.



Now I am going to get ready for an evening of my three indulgences: stitching, The Bachelor and One Tree Hill! I get enough reality during the day time and at night when I can't sleep! LOL!

Weekend Update

While mentally I am not feeling any better, I did get some stitching done this weekend along with a little bit of shopping. In an effort to boost my spirits I went shopping and bought some new clothes, bought ingredients for a new recipe, and hung out at the bookstore. The clothes are nice, time at the bookstore was peaceful and the new recipe, well, it was a new recipe. Definite tweaks are needed for next time!

This week I stitched on Dragon Knot. I finished all stitching with DMC 168 on page 4. Then I got bored and put it down. LOL!

I then picked up Eeyore and completed the 2nd page. I'll be moving on to the 3rd and last page. I'm hoping to have this one done very soon so I can get it finished as a blanket and then shipped off!

It's also mardi gras time down here! Not sure if I will make it to New Orleans this year, although I certainly do need a good party, I did find this single serving size of King Cake. Original King Cake (no filling). I love King Cake but it always comes in the big rings. I found this little one at Fresh Market. Just the perfect size!

Fathers and Cars

My car is old. The poor thing. I do love my car but it is now 12 years old. The last week when I go to start it, it's been difficult. You have to be gentle and coax it to start. I just figured it was because of this extremely rare cold weather we were having. My dad told me to go and have it checked out. Now of course I had every intention of doing that but next week. Next week I would have gotten paid and if I had to get a new battery, I could do it.

Well, my car decided it had other ideas. This morning it decided to not start at all. It wanted to. You could tell. It tried it's hardest to start but just couldn't do it. So when I called to tell my Dad that the car had died, first question, "Did you have it checked?" "No, Dad. I didn't. I was waiting till next week when I got paid so I could do it." "Don't ever wait! Just call me and I'll take care of it." Yep, that's right. I got in trouble for NOT asking for money. Now had I called and asked for money I'd be getting in trouble for asking for money. Never ending.

I was lucky enough that a co-worker lives fairly close to me and I was able to get to work this morning for half a day so I could get some work done because I am swamped. My mom came and got me at lunch and we gave it a go to get the car running but no luck. And she was too chicken to jump the car off because my dad said we would blow it up. LOL So now I am waiting for my dad to come over. Last I talked to him he was not in a good mood! Ugh! But if I try to do anything on my own I'll just get into more trouble.

Does the overprotectiveness end once you get married? Or if I moved away? Or does it just get worse?

Note: The car has been resusciated! It was the battery just as I thought. As soon as he attached the jumper cables to the batteries, my car started up right away. Made it to the auto parts store and got a new battery installed! Thank goodness I won't feel stranded anymore!

Cantankerous

Did I spell that correctly? Cantankerous? Yep, I sure did. I looked it up on Dictionary.com. The definition: Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable. That would sum me up! That is how I've been acting these days. And who has had the brunt of it? My family and my sailor.

Work is kicking my butt these days. Not getting what I want, to see my sailor, is frustrating me to no end. And this cold weather? Well, what can one say about it other than it needs to end! I've run out of sweaters to wear we've had so many cold days in a row now! I live in the South! I don't have that many sweaters!

Stress + lousy sinuses + hormones = Cantankerous! I have been needy, whiny, brattish, spoiled, completely despicable. It's like I know I'm being that way, but I can't stop. And when I do, the damage is done and there is nothing you can do to take it back. My sailor calls it the "Mel Factor". Yes, isn't that sad? He's named it.

So, I am taking this opportunity to apologize. I'm sorry. I'm working on it! I promise!

On a happier note: Tomorrow is Friday! Yay! As long as my car starts (it's been giving me problems) I will go to work, put in my 8 hours and then head home for a relaxing weekend because the next week I will probably have to be putting in some major overtime to get ready for my convention.

Last night my friend Chris came over and we watched Singin' in the Rain. I'd never seen it before and that is the next production he is working on at the theatre where he is employed. He does set design and wanted to refresh his memory. It was a cute movie. Gene Kelly. Debbie Reynolds. Very bright colors. Not a lot of story but I loved the dancing in it! And they do have some very memorable songs in it!

Did anyone catch Nip/Tuck the other night? Can you believe that Christian and Lizzie did the deed? And how did she not know he was awake? I dislike saying this, but he does deserve everything he is going through for what he has done to others! The writers definitely write you to dislike this man! For as zany, crazy, whacky this show is, I can't stop watching it! It's like when you pass a car accident. You just have to stop and look!

Weekend Round Up

This weekend I spent much time, when I wasn't reading Breaking Dawn, stitching on Dragon Knot. Here is my progress:

I was on a great roll when I ran out of DMC thread 168. Of course I wouldn't have this in my extra stash. I had 169 but not 168! And it was already after 6 p.m. on Sunday so even Micheal's wasn't open! I did dash to Hobby Lobby today at lunch and made sure that I picked up enough through the rest of the pattern!

Hobby Lobby is having their final mark downs on Christmas items. 90% off! I was able to get next year's Christmas cards for $1.00! Yay!

This weekend I also went to Whole Foods. Do you have one by you? You should go. On Saturdays you can walk through and try different things that they have. I bought a smoothie while I was there that was quite tasty! It had mango, banana, strawberries, non-fat milk and pineapple juice! And on an impulse as I was having red beans and rice for dinner that night, I bought a box of their cream cheese biscuits. If you get a chance to try these, do it! They are one of the best biscuits I have ever eaten!

It was such a lovely quiet weekend. Stitching, reading and catching up on tv. I hope that future weekends are also like that, with the exception of next weekend. I hope thta I get a visitor! You know who you are!

Well, I am off to make dinner. I am determined to have a "decent" meal. I have ground italian sausage browning right now which I will add to a jar of spaghetti sauce that will go over penne pasta and a salad on the side. I really need to start eating better!

Updated Look

Now that the holiday season is over, it is time to update my blog layout! I picked this one because it reminded me of my favorite flower, the sunflower.

I have spent this weekend reading, stitching, looking for new job opportunities and catching up on tv and movies.

My dad bought me the fourth book of the Twilight series and well I admit, I started it last night and finished it this morning. It was so good. The story tied up all the pieces very nicely but yet you still want to know more!

I've gotten a lot of stitching done on Dragon Knot this week. I was on a roll and didn't want to put it down! I'll post some pictures later. I'm hoping to finish the 4th page, perhaps this week! As I sit stitching though, I look at the other projects and wish that I could pick them up and finish them. It's like a circle of guilt. If I work on one, then I can't work on another. Rotations never did work for me! I just work on whatever strikes my mood! And Dragon Knot has been the focus so far!

Well, off I go to do some more stitching and catching up on all the shows I DVR'd this week!

2 HAED Patterns for Trade

I have 2 HAED patterns that I am willing to trade. I've done them once and I know that I will never do them again as I don't typically stitch a pattern more than once, actually I have NEVER stitched a pattern more than once. So, if someone would like to make a trade for one or both, let me know! Otherwise, I'm just going to get rid of them as I don't need them taking up the space on my computer! :(

They are smaller HAED patterns. I think they are meant to be like book marks but they are bigger than that. They probably each took me about 6 months to complete, but then I'm not a very fast stitcher! But I certainly did enjoy stitching each! They were the first 2 HAED's I completed. I have already purchased several other HAED patterns as I love the pictures and the fact that there is no backstitching, knots, beading, etc. on them. All purely cross stitch!

Here they are:

Storykeep Amore

Iris Keeper Storykeep

Vicious Circle

Oh, today was another bad work day. I say work day because now that I am home, I'm feeling better. I do try my best to leave work at work. I, unfortunately, have the type of boss that likes to focus on ALL the bad and never acknowledges the good work that was done. Today was one of those days and I was just done with it. I hate to admit it, I was at my desk with tears in my eyes I was so angry at him. I even texted my sailor asking him to "rescue me." Which resulted in me getting even angrier because I don't want to be rescued. Like I said, vicious circle.

However, I left work 1/2 hour early because I had worked extra the other 4 days and I headed to one of my favorite stores, which shall remain nameless for the time being. It will remain nameless because I purchased my sailor's Christmas presents there today and if I state the name of the store, he could guess what he is getting. Did I say Christmas? Yeah, I"m a little behind. But that's ok, if he comes to visit it's not till next week and so I am now right on time! LOL!

So after having to work a FULL five days, I am going to relax this weekend. Watch movies and stitch. I have 3 movies to watch from Netflix: Casablanca, Shrek 3, and In the Land of Women. I'm hoping all 3 are winners. I'm also going to go to my favorite grocery store, Fresh Market, and pick up some yummy healthy foods after a week of eating kind of crappy. Maybe that will make me feel better too!

This week I've been working on Dragon Knot and this is my update photos. I couldn't decide which picture looked better so I am posting both. I typically scan the piece, but it's now just a tad too big to go on the scanner!

Rant

I don't normally use my blog as an outlet for frustration as one never knows who might be reading! (Lesson well learned this past weekend- You know who you are! LOL!) Anyway, today I am going to make an exception.

Work has been crazy busy. Lots of events coming up! Today the boss came into the office and asked that we (I have an office mate) help one of the new girls with a meeting she has coming up this weekend. So we are like "Fine" "Sure" "Whatever she needs." So anyway, after that little conversation, the new girl comes in asking for some help. So I help her. It's a question that while easily answered does need to be verified by the boss. So I volunteer to go in and talk to him since she has an appointment she needs to leave for on time and he is very long winded. Needless to say when I go into his office to get verification I am ACCUSED by him of taking away the new girl's tasks and doing them myself. Now, this is only maybe 15 minutes after he has asked us to help her and she came to our office seeking help. It infuriated me to no end. This is only the tip of the iceberg with this man. It just spirals downward from there. We didn't research the question or answer adequately enough. How dare we try to solve the problem through email! This needs to be taken care of with a personal phone call. And on and on and on!

Every day it feels that I go in and work my absolute hardest and it is never good enough. It's extremely tiring and draining. So I'll admit it, I'm job searching. I'm really hoping to get a job in the same state as my sailor! :) That would make me extremely happy! Although winning the lottery would help a lot, which is why I bought a ticket tonight. Can't win without buying a ticket!

So anyway, on a happy note, my dad ordered me the 4th book of Twilight! Yeah! He was trying to put together a shipment through Amazon and was short to get the free shipping or something. So I can't wait to get it! I'll be counting down the days!

Also, did anyone catch Nip/Tuck last night? It was the season premiere and I swear to you that every season is getting more and more outrageous! They gave arrogant, condescending, chauvenistic, womanizing Christian stage 2 breast cancer! Is that supposed to be irony? I guess that since they have "cancelled" Dirty Sexy Money I will have to settle for just Nip/Tuck!

Busy Monday

Back to the grind. A full five days of work, well, now four. Boy, is it going to be tough! After two weeks of 2 to 3 days of work! My convention is coming up and so now it is getting to be crunch time and I am having to start looking at those small things that have not been completed! It's going to be rough but I know that I will get through it!

Now for my update on what I've been working on. I am still slowly doing the beading on Poppy. I'm hoping to finish that very soon. I don't have a picture yet because I don't feel the need to show just beading! I also worked on Dragon Knot and Eeyore this past week. I feel like I am making progress!

On Dragon Knot, I've begun the 4th page. I finished one column of stitching. I'm hoping to get even more finished this week as I will be working on this one, trading off of course with Eeyore.

On Eeyore I've made much more progress than I had thought. For a previous picture, click here. I'm excited that I've accomplished this much on it. Typically with a stamped cross stitch I get really bored and put it down. But this has been the perfect thing to stitch on while watching football. Doesn't require a lot of thought and concentration on a pattern! You can really see that his face is shaping up!

Well off I go to make dinner and get to some stitching! Hope everyone has a great week!

No denying it

It amazes me every time I sit down to think about "my sailor." How we are so comfortable with each other, the affection we feel for each other, and how a simple phone call can be so satisfying. Although we live approximately 1,114 miles apart (when he's on land and not in a submarine), it's really like we are never apart. We live our lives knowing in the back of our heads that someday we are going to be together again or when I finally move to his state, which I can see coming very soon.

My sailor is finally back on land and that makes me very happy. I know that he is generally safe when he goes on his 6 month + "business trips", but there is still that air of uncertainness that surrounds it. It is the military after all. But now he is back in port for a while. Hopefully we can find time to see each other. But with my convention coming up in early February, my work schedule is crazy and makes it impossible for me to get away.

I just found out tonight that he keeps up with me through my blog! I didn't even know he knew I had a blog. The bad thing about that is that I've been posting updates on a project, Dragon Knot, that I am working on for him. It was supposed to be a surprise and I figured he didn't know about my blog so why would he be looking at it? Ha! The man is sneakier than I thought! Good thing I have never written anything bad about him! Not that I could even make up anything bad about him.

Tomorrow he is supposed to be looking at a "new" old car. He's into cars. He likes to work on them and rebuild them. He is looking at a 1972 (?)Dodge Dart. He said it was 37 years old so I'm assuming that his math was correct. I have to admit that I had to look that up on the internet. This is what it looks like:

He has his cars and I have my books and cross stitching!

We had a nice, long conversation tonight and I feel so incredibly happy! He does that. No matter what I am thinking or what is going on in my life, just a simple chat with him takes all my cares away. I also can't wait to see all the stuff that he bought me over seas! He's not very good at describing items, and that is ok, so I have to wait till they are in my hand, which I hope is before next year. He's not very good at getting to the post office!

While the weekend was not the best, I had some good times. I saw the movie Twilight, finished the 3rd book in the Twilight series, watched some football, had dinner with a friend, did some stitching, and had a phone call from my sailor. And on that note, I will end this post! I am very happy and am now going to have some sweet dreams! Well, after I've had a glass of wine. I'm kind of keyed up after talking to him! But I wouldn't have it any other way!

Twilight

For those who have yet to read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series here's a brief (somewhat) synopis from Amazon.com:

Product Description"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. ''Be very still,'' he whispered, as if I wasn''t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat. " As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he''s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward''s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer''s writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up)

I can't even begin to tell you what drew me into this story or why I am currently addicted to finding out how it ends. I read it for two reasons: 1) everyone was talking about it and I wanted to see what it was all about and 2) I received it as a gift from my sister at Christmas. Once I started to read it, I could not put this book down. Maybe it's because right now, anything is much better than reality?

I'm currently reading book 3 of the series. I'm trying to slow down since I won't be able to purchase book 4 till next payday. I also went to see the movie today. If you have read the book, don't bother with the movie. The movie is good but the book is MUCH BETTER. The movie is as much true to the actual written word as a movie can get with some exceptions but I do not believe that the actors chosen do the characters much justice. If you are not a reader and just want to know what the story is about, go see the movie.

Now I am off to do some stitching as it has been neglected due to my obsession with Twilight!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that everyone had a lovely evening last night and a great start to the new year! This year I actually sat down and put some thought into my resolutions. They are simple but I hope to accomplish them:

1) Stop trying to please everyone and please myself first

2) Think before I speak or type

3) A new home: a new apartment, home, or even maybe moving to a new city/state!

4) A new car

5) Travel more

I had a nice relaxing quiet New Year's eve. Just a gathering of friends to watch the Chick-Fil-A Bowl game. It was quite a pleasure to have LSU win the last game of the year! We also unwrapped presents. Below are some pictures of what I was given. I must have been a good girl this year!

I am really enjoying the koozie. I used it today as I watched the many bowl games on tv! I also cooked dinner for my parents today. They enjoyed that. Dad said we need to do that more often as he didn't have to cook or clean!

Not much stitching accomplished today but the weekend is only 1 day away! I hope to get a lot done then!

I hope 2009 treats everyone well!

3 Pages Completed

I have finally completed 3 out of the 16 pages for the Dragon Knot pattern by HAED. Not all of the 16 pages are "complete" pages but the 3 I did finish were full pages of pattern! Maybe sometime next year I'll finally complete the whole thing!

This week will be a weird one with the one random holiday kind of at the end of the week. It kind of sucks because I have to work Monday thru Wednesday and then again on Friday. I'm hoping to get some more stitching done this week. I'm not going to set the goal of finishing another one before the year ends but that just means I'll have a finish earlier in 2009!

Christmas

I am back from Austin! What a LONG trip. 8 hours one way. Duke was really a good boy. He sat the entire trip in his car seat. If you have never seen a dog car seat, basically it is a soft box that straps to the chair that the dog can sit in and you can strap him in by his collar so he can't jump out. Makes driving much easier since Duke wants to always sit in my lap! He wasn't very comfortable going to Austin but on the way back he finally figured out he could just sleep the whole way!



Christmas was an extremely lazy day with my parents and sister. Actually, both me and my sister were feeling ill that day so we sat on the couch, slept and let our parents take care of us! That was so nice! But in our family, it really isn't Christmas unless one of us is sick! This year it was both of us! LOL!



I did receive some really nice gifts this year. I got a new flat screen tv that I am absolutely loving! The 5 Harry Potter movie DVDs. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian CD. A Gone With the Wind Afghan. Various gift cards. 2 new books: Dark Curse and Twilight. A new cookbook: Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book.

Twilight is ADDICTING! I started the book last night with the intention to read just the first 5 chapters. Yeah, that didn't happen. I'm more than half way through it. I couldn't put it down. I didn't get to sleep till 1 a.m.! In fact, this morning I have already gone to the book store and purchased the 2nd book. A new series to be hooked on! I have not yet seen the movie and really don't plan to. I'm always disappointed with movies after having read the book!

I have not gotten any stitching done this week! I'm hoping to sit down this afternoon and work on some projects that are feeling neglected! I'm also hoping to do some online shopping as I have a few ideas for some projects that I want to do in 2009! I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas!

So this past week I've been working on the baby quilt. I've got a lot done and hope to finish within the next month! I am leaving on Wednesday to visit my sister so I will probably be bringing Dragon Knot with me in the event I have some quiet time!

On Sunday I went shopping for Duke's christmas presents. He has a stocking full of things to open on Christmas day. But one of the things I found for him, I just couldn't resist giving to him and torturing....I mean, dressing him up in! I just thought it was too adorable! He now has his very own hat and scarf set for those cold days. Although they are now predicting it to be 78 on Christmas day. Yuck!

I hope that everyone has a very lovely Christmas! Be safe and be happy!

Update on Dragon Knot

This past week I spent time working on Dragon Knot. It was supposed to be a Christmas present this year, but there's always next year!

This week I think I may work on another project. I have a couple that are pretty close to being finished. I may try to finish up the baby quilt this week. Or perhaps even start a new project!

I didn't work on Poppy's beading this weekend as the lighting was terrible with it being overcast most of the time! Maybe next weekend!

Hope everyone has a great week!

A small finish

Today I had a small finish. It's for a Christmas card for a friend. I took a picture of it when I finished the piece but forgot to take a picture of the finished project once I made it into a card!

Then I decided to torture the dog! LOL! Poor Duke. But doesn't he look so cute in his Santa outfit?

Snow Day

Today was a day that I really never thought I would see in South Louisiana. It snowed! Like really snowed! I am the type of person that when I get up in the morning I go straight to the bathroom to take my morning shower. By the time I had gotten out of the shower, my cell phone was going off like crazy. The text messages were coming in so fast I couldn't keep up. It was snowing! I figured it was just a light dusting of snow but it wasn't! It was actually inches of snow!

I took some pictures, they are kind of dark but then it was early this morning. It definitely made driving to work kind of stressful! I've never driven in snow or ice before. Not to mention the time it took to get the car prepared to drive! I had to literally dig the car out! I wish I had a picture of that! There were about 10 of us out in the parking lot this morning trying to determine which car was ours and then proceed to scoop the snow off the windows! But about as fast as you cleared one window, the window you had just cleared before that was full of snow again!

Duke did not like the snow. He would not leave the sidewalk! I think he was not very sure about it all. What was that white stuff? :)

Christmas and updates

My little apartment has been decorated for Christmas. Although I am not home much and I won't be home for Christmas, I still like to decorate. I have a little tree and stockings for myself and my dog.

I've also been doing some stitching and beading. While the beading has been going slow as I am new to it and I loathe doing any type of embellishment on cross stitches, I've been trying to do a little bit each weekend. I find that I need a lot of light and so the middle of the day on Saturdays and Sundays are best.

I've also been working on the stamped cross stitch quilt for my friend's oldest daughter. It's coming along. While it's not going quite as fast as I would like so I can finish it and pick up some other projects, it's coming along quite nicely!

Time is Flying!

Wow! It's December already! Where is the time going! Just last week was Thanksgiving and yet it already feels like it was a month ago!

I was successful in getting my tree up this year already. It's just a little one (4 foot) but it took all last weekend to do because I decided it would be a good idea to rearrange my furniture in my living room so I could put it up in a new spot. Bleh!

Another week of work is done. This week literally flew by. I had such grand intentions when I went into work on Monday and while I did get some things accomplished, I didn't get the main things done! But I'll go in with good intentions once again next week!

This week's weather has been crazy down here! On Tuesday I was scraping ice off of my car's windows. Wednesday we were having a pleasant springy type of day. Thursday was rainy and temperatures dropped drastically from the time we got to work to the time that we got out. Today has been sunny but chilly. I think we are supposed to have a few days in a row that are cold. Which I don't mind, it's the cold one day, hot the next that is killing me!

I have been working on some cross stitch projects and I hope to have some progress photos soon! There's just so much with work, chores at home, Christmas shopping, friends, families, etc. It's a very busy time! I'm hoping to get some relaxing done this weekend along with stitching!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day full of family, friends and good food! I currently have a sweet potato pie cooking in the oven and am packing things so that I am ready to spend the day at my parents house! It is predicted to rain on Thanksgiving Day so I am hoping to get some stitching done!

I will take some pictures this weekend of the stitching I have done up to this point and post them!

Happy Thanksgiving! Good luck to those who are going out shopping on Black Friday!

Facebook

Ok, so how many of you have a profile on facebook? A friend of mine recently "invited" me to view his profile, thus meaning I had to create a profile to see his. Just another reason to be on the computer! I am now spending way too much time on the computer, between reading emails, facebook, reading blogs, blogging, etc.......I have to admit that the upside to the facebook is that I have been able to start catching up with some friends from high school. We all sorted of drifted apart due to life, distance, families, etc. But now, we can actually catch up with each other! I've even found an ex-boyfriend on there! So while it's definitely a great networking tool, it encourages way too much time on the computer!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! And I don't know what ya'lls weather is like, but here it is COLD! So, stay warm!

New WIP

I've had this quilt for two years. Last week, I finally dragged it out to start it. It's for my good friend Sarah's oldest daughter who will be 2 next month. The newest baby, born in October, will just have to wait 2 years for hers! LOL! I don't typically do stamped cross stitch as I see absolutely no challenge to do it, but it's Eeyore!

I finished the backstitching on Poppy today and started the beading. This is my first time beading and I have to stay I find it very tedious and slow. So after probably only 10 beads, I had to put it down. I am just not in the mood to bead! I think you have to be in an incredibly good, happy, patient mood to bead! And the invisible thread! It really is invisible! You can't see the darn thread! I thought I would be able to finish this one quickly, but I think it is going to be a challenge!

A New Look

Hi ya'll! I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Recently I've begun to get bored with the look of my blog so I did some searching and found this template which I think is appropriate for the upcoming holiday season! Plus I just like the way it looks! I hope you enjoy it! I'll try to post some pictures soon of what I've been stitching on lately!

Another Finish!

Since I didn't have the thread to finish Poppy, I started a new one last Sunday. It took me exactaly one week to finish. This is one for my nephew as he picked this one out for me to do for him. Had I known it would have been such a quick stitch, I would have done it much sooner!





Now off to work on another project or maybe kit up a new one! Not sure! Hope you all have a good week!

****Update: it was asked who this was designed by. It is by Sue Hillis Designs, Inc. This pattern is Boo-gie Fever. There was a website on the pattern, www.suehillisdesigns.net. Happy Stitching!