Showing posts with label cross-stitching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross-stitching. Show all posts

Monday, April 27, 2020

A Time for the Out of Doors


It's spring in Texas, which mean you have to spend time outside while the weather is nice enough to do so. So I did.

I dragged the kitchen table, which is lightweight and on the small side, to the patio and sat out there for maybe an hour and made some progress on a cross stitch project I'd started last year. It was really pleasant and lovely.

And remember I mentioned that I used to feed the birds...? Well, DD asked me about it and asked me to check at WalMart during my weekly trip to see what they had. Well, they had 20lb. bags of wild bird seed for $7, so I bought some. :0)


So the bird feeder is back in place. I didn't see many birds yesterday, but it does sometimes take a day or two for the birds to realize it's there.

Now that pile of greenery behind it is a very large branch that broke off a very dead tree. It'll get chopped up soon and DH thinks he's going to get around to burning all the logs and branches and sticks we've got piled up around the yard--probably a summer long project...

In other news, the weekend was a productive success. I worked on my WIP early Saturday am as I'd planned and it was lovely! I had a Zoom chat with my writer besties and that was awesome too. And on Sunday, I spent some time working toward creating consistent types and looking files from book to book. Which meant some cleanup on aisles 5, 6, & 7! I didn't get far because of all the various things I found to tweak and then having to circle back to the books I worked on first to make sure they were they way I wanted them to be too.

Hope your weekend was relaxing or productive or whatever you were needing it to be.

Have a great week.




Friday, August 24, 2018

My hockey wall...


My office is an ode to my various interests and obsessions as well as to my odd sense of interior design.

Hard to see with the light glaring at the camera, but you can probably see the fairy lights. And on the right side of the left window is a Stars car window flag. :)


My Charles Wysocki collectors plates (one set of three, actually) that I've had for over 20 years. Just to the right of those is...

My BBC Sherlock wall. Note the sampler there on the left... That was a blog post subject many many moons ago.


My desk and the wall above, chock full of random goodies that make me smile or were gifts.

Now this is the piece de resistance... my shelves full of more randomness, suck as my rubber duckie collection, my dala horse collection, my Matchbox NASCAR collection, along with keepsakes from my trips to Nashville. Draped around the top is a Fourth of July garland, because I love that too.


I have a little section of wall between the window and the corner that has been designated the hockey wall--the back of the door and the wall space next to it is also hockey wall, now that I'm thinking about it...

(The back of the door is really a shrine to Tyler Seguin... Yup, I'm that kind of dork.)


But this particular space only had a Tyler Seguin pennant along with a couple of "posters" -- a.k.a. expired calendar images of Tyler and his teammate Jamie Benn.

Remember those little baby samplers I shared a couple of weeks ago? Well, one got framed and is now on the hockey wall. :0) Of course, Jamie Benn had to come down. He's not a favorite of mine so I passed him along to a friend.

And now the hockey wall looks like this:


And the sampler itself...


The wall still needs a little work, but I have a few plans.

Stay tuned...


Monday, August 20, 2018

My Sunday Project


So I have larger hockey-themed cross stitch sampler I've been itching to start. Unfortunately, I have a couple of smaller projects that are gifts that I'm trying to get done.

Instead of denying myself completely until I'm done with these gifts, I decided to work on this larger project on Sundays.

The gifts fit in a quart-sized zipper bag and I tote one back forth to work each day or the current one sits on the dining room table for quick access when I have a few minutes, like in the mornings when I'm waiting for DH to be ready to leave or when I'm waiting for the kettle to boil.


On Sundays though, I'm going to lay out my new project on the dining room table and work on it.


Sunday before yesterday, I cut it to size and bound the edges.



Yesterday, under the watchful eye of my sweet grand kitty, Karma, I made hash marks along the edges for easier stitching.

 

And then I got ONE letter done... On my way! :0)


Hope you had a great weekend.



Friday, April 6, 2018

So, hey, it's Friday...


And there's supposed to be a post here...but inspiration has been a bit thin. My brain is full of lots of things that y'all don't care much about; mostly hockey, cross stitch, hockey, hockey, and the hero of an(other) anthology I'm mostly coordinating as well as participating in.

But what the hell, it's my blog. :0) I can ramble on about whatever I want, right? You can choose not to read.

So my Dallas Stars are officially out of the playoffs. They play their last game Saturday. The last regular NHL season game will be played Sunday. The first round of the playoffs begins next Wednesday.

My Pittsburgh Penguins play the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second year in a row. The Pens won last year in five games.


My Vegas Golden Knights--one of the sports stories of the last year--play the Anaheim Ducks. This is the Golden Knights first year as a team, so they have no playoff history. The fact that they're here says a lot. Absolutely no one in the hockey world would have taken that bet at the start of the season. Also they're number one in the division. The Ducks made it to the third round last year. I don't how much of last year's team is intact. I do know they were first in the division last year, but slid into the playoffs this year on a wild card slot.



If these two teams face each other at all--it will be in the final round and for the Stanley Cup. I've mentioned before that I want both of them to win. The Pens are going for their third Stanley Cup in as many years and the Golden Knights are going for their first Cup in their first year as a franchise. It's impossible to pick one over the other.


Cross stitching also involves hockey because I'm working on hockey-related patterns for my Etsy shop, so yeah... (speaking of which, I need to upload a few new ones today...)

The new anthology is going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward getting my own story written as well as reading the submissions of the other authors. The premise is all of us female writers are setting up our male writer friend on blind dates because no one can believe this sweetheart is still single.

Okay, I've successfully rambled enough to fill a post, so signing off. Hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to say next week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND--IT'S SPRING IN TEXAS--WOO HOO!

*as a hockey note, first round hockey playoffs are always within a single division, of which there are four in the NHL.



Friday, March 9, 2018

Doing the Friday Snoopy/happy dance...


So it's Friday. :0)

The weather is easing, so it looks like it's time to head back to the gym. Tomorrow. Yep. My body is also griping about the lack of enough physicality. Sure, I've been using the home treadmill, but it doesn't really compare to a workout at the gym.

Writers group contest is winding down, so YAY for that.

Writers group 35th anniversary is this month. Guess who's in charge of that? Yep. That'd be me. In celebration, our group put together a continuity of short stories. The free book can be downloaded from Smashwords. I do have to do a bit more shopping for prizes and decorations for the meeting, but nothing major.



In other exciting news, I finally sold a couple of hockey jersey patterns from my Etsy shop. That was quite exciting. I finished a new pattern and will be working on the stitching this weekend so that I can get a picture of the finished project and make the pattern available online next week. Actually, I finished three patterns that are all variations on a single theme. I'll get around to stitching the others once I'm done with the first one, but one is Christmas themed and the other is winter themed, so there's not a huge rush, right now.


We had  a good visit with the Brown-Eyed Girl and her roomie. She/they opened b-day gifts and Christmas presents and now I'm staring down the calendar at Darling Daughter's birthday as well.

Anyway...time to get this up and start heading toward the weekend.

Have a great one.




Monday, January 29, 2018

Revenue Streams... and Why Am I Working On This Now...?


One of the keys to making money in publishing, as well as in life in general, is to have multiple revenue streams.

As an author/publisher, my revenue streams include, but are not limited to: e-book, trade paperback, hardcover, audio books, and foreign translations of all of the above. Right now, I have one. E-books. Eventually, I'll branch out to print and maybe audio, but we'll see what happens when I get there.

In general, I have my day job income, but I also have my little proofreading / website-updating / series-bible-creating side job. I have an ongoing website-updating client, but everything else is hit or miss. I had some proofing feelers, but everyone's gone dark for whatever reason. It's not like I don't have enough on my plate at the moment, so I'm not worrying about it overmuch.

On the other hand, I have enough on my plate to worry about at the moment, so why am I fussing around with cross stitch patterns to upload to my Etsy Shop?? Yes, that's another revenue stream I'd like to pump a little bit. I have one pattern up there at the moment--my BBC Sherlock sampler. I do have a pattern for my Harry Potter Spells sampler (which I apparently haven't posted about???), but it's not on Etsy as of yet.

And now I'm working on some small hockey related projects...


They're not very big, slightly larger than a coaster, but they are kinda tedious to stitch. I started #14 as a trial and discovered some flaws in my pattern, so I tweaked. Then I started #91 as the second trial run and ran into a few more issues needing resolution. So I tweaked the pattern a little more.

I also want to offer patterns for teams other than the Stars...but I sure as heck don't want to stitch one of everything, so I'm not sure how to resolve that just yet.

Anyway...as to why now... Well, because I can't be writer & publisher all the time. I need time to do the other things I enjoy and to feed my creative side from a different angle. But to be honest, a) I started this project last year and b) I'm not spending excessive amounts of time on it. It's just nice to work on something different every now and then.

But, after a hockey-filled weekend, It's time to get back to the writing/publishing related things on my plate.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Monday, December 4, 2017

The STARS at night are big and bright...


There's not much rattling around in the old noggin right now except hockey and cross stitching--so that's what you get. :0) I've watched or listened/slept through (only last night) the last four games and the STARS are on a bit of tear. They won three of four games prior to that.

They're winning against teams in their own division which is a very good thing as it puts them in a better position to make the playoffs come March and April.

If you want to watch a spectacular diving save by our goalie, click in at the 7:20 mark and watch--it happens right at 7:30!!



In cross stitch news, I finished the major project /Christmas gift I was working on and got it into Michael's for framing and it'll be ready for giving before Christmas, so YAY. I've started on some smaller projects which are also hockey related and for Christmas gifts. I should be able to get a couple of them done.


So anyway Happy Monday and Happy Holidays...


Monday, March 7, 2016

Have I told you lately....


How much I love my iPhone???

Yeah. It's my little pocket pal. It hit home again last Friday when I was waiting in line at the drive through ATM. Oh, three people in front of me??? Let me just pull out my smart phone and pull up the fic I'm reading. Walking to the post office and need some tunes??? No, problem. Hit play. Think of something, anything that I know I'm not gonna remember by the time I get to a pencil and paper??  All I have to do open my Notes app and poke it in!!

 How much I'm enjoying watching NASCAR again???

Yesterday DH and I watched race three taking place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was somewhat of a nail-biter as the weather out there was a bit crazy. We're making race day a bit of an event with special snacks.

How close I am to being done with the epic birth sampler of love???

Yes, indeed. I finished the last E and went on to the N. Gotta stitch like crazy this week to not only finish the N, but to get her birth details added. Then it's off to Michael's for framing.


Hope you had a great weekend!


Monday, February 29, 2016

Talk about productive!


Everything I set out to accomplish this weekend was done. I spent Saturday working in twenty minute sprints in order to make progress on every project without feeling stuck on the less enjoyable tasks (Things like cleaning bathrooms...).

Most importantly -- I completed a letter on the epic birth sampler of love and started the next one. In fact, I got the base done and the letter part done too. I just have to stitch like crazy to get that letter's little girl done so I can go on to the very. last. letter.





I also finished reading my book aloud. It's very helpful to actually hear the flow of the words, the eye will trip where the tongue does. It also forces me to actually read every word, helping me to find missing words. I can also hear repeated words or phrases, and repetitious concepts can also be discovered. The whole process took me about four days--primarily because I had Friday evening and all of Saturday to focus on it.

Sunday I focused on the sampler and the Scottish highlander epic. I'm giving the other writing projects some space so that the next time I read them, they'll be a little bit fresher. Plus I've missed the Scottish highlands and the story needs its fair share of my attention. My goal is another 35K on this one for a total of 80K. If I'm not mistaken, that doesn't include the 22K for part one. Which means, it'll be over 100K when all is said and done--WOW! Where sis all those words come from??

And the house is clean and the laundry is done, so all in all, a very productive weekend-- even with a 3+ hour break for NASCAR. :) (Jimmie Johnson won, btw!)

How was your weekend?


Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Time is running out...


DD's birthday is just over a month away and her epic birth sampler is still a work in progress.

I have 2.5 letters left to complete in addition to her birth stats. Then there's taking it and getting it framed... Probably a week, maybe two for that, leaving me three weeks to finish. Yikes!!! I'm trying to get 20 to 30 stitches at least done per day... More if I can. I'm actually halfway through the E that follows the L, so...





Monday, October 26, 2015

Monday, Monday...


Friday's tree pictures were taken Thursday afternoon...which was probably a good thing because it rained Friday and rained and rained. Then it rained Saturday and rained and rained. Sunday was just cloudy, but the moisture just hung in the air.

Saturday, I watched TV pretty much all darn day. First I watched some documentaries with DH on Netflix, then we watched NCIS, then ST: Voyager. Then DH had to go down to his mom's house so then I watched an episode of Highlander and several of Mad Men. Yeah, it was a very lazy day.

Sunday, after grocery shopping, and around laundry and other random tasks, I cross stitched. All day. You know that special project I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? I had to play catch up and since the weather was conducive to just staying holed up inside,it seemed logical.


I finished the R, though I actually had more complete than what shows in this picture, and started the first letter of her middle name, C... It's actually close to being done since its image is fairly simple. Thank goodness!

How was your weekend???


Friday, August 14, 2015

It's finished, it's finished!!


And I'm super excited!!!

My Sherlock sampler is finally finally done, and while there is one specific thing I'd do differently, overall, I'm terribly pleased with how it turned out.

Here is the whole thing:


All the text comes from the show and are either popular quotes or ones I find particularly amusing.

It took me three or four weeks to created the pattern itself. There was a lot of erasing as I moved things around for optimal placement or to move things one or two stitches to the right, the left, up or down or to fix a mistake. Then it took another two months or so to complete it, although I did not work on it on a daily basis. I already have a frame for it, although I do need to buy a mat for it. More pictures to come, once it's framed and on the wall.




Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Getting crafty...


First of all -- before we get to the crafts -- I need to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my MOM.




Hope you have a super day!!

My love of crafts came from my mom, so what better way to pay tribute than by talking about my crafts. I still haven't quite finished the last Christmas ornament I need to make. I'm so close to being done it really is ridiculous. I need to just get it finished and sent on its way....

I've been working on a secret fan craft project for the last couple of weeks as well. I can't share it yet since I'm making one for a friend as well as one for myself, and I don't want her surprise to be spoiled. I'm putting it in the mail here in the next few days, so once she receives it, we'll have the big reveal.

And the next big thing, which I'm super excited about is a cross stitch sampler...fan girl style! Remember last year I made this for my friend Michelle...

Well, I'm making myself a SHERLOCK sampler for myself to hang in my office with my autographed pictures of Sherlock and Mycroft...




I've seen a couple on Pinterest and I'm using those as a guide to design my own. It'll be awhile to get everything designed and laid out the way I want it and still more time to stitch it, but I'm looking forward to it.

Anyone else crafting??



Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Christmas Traditions


For the last--oh, I don't know...twenty-six Christmases--I've given my children ornaments. Actually--I don't think it started off that way. In fact, I'm sure it didn't because we had to fill in a few early years for the girls. Okay, so not twenty-six years, although they do both have 1st Christmas ornaments, hand made by Mommy dearest.


My girls, especially my Brown-Eyed Girl for some reason, love this tradition. In the lean (and missing) years we've gone with hand made ornaments. In the more prosperous years, they've been store bought. Hallmark can always be counted for something cute. (Sonshine has an inordinate number of Scooby Doo ornaments...)

I love the tradition as well, although, I'm down to only Sonshine's ornaments and after this year, they'll be packed up separately for him to take. I'm really going to miss the mish mash and memories.

This year, I'm making ornaments again. It's a pretty lean year and I have what I need to craft and create.

So this year, more cross stitched ornaments...

 T for Tim...

I for Isabel, Tim's girlfriend...


They're not done yet. I'll trim them down and then affix some felt or something to the back to hide the stitching. The girls will both get one and I may just make an extra for myself.


What about you?? Do you have a favorite thing to collect at Christmas??




Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The evolution of a self-created cross stitch pattern...



So I've been working on a gift for a dear friend. It's a cross stitch project, a sampler of sorts. But I had to create the pattern myself. I've done them before, and usually they're birth samplers and are much easier to throw together. You have pattern books with alphabets and decorative lines and borders and cute little baby patterns. Dig out the graph paper and the pencils and plan it out. Or, you know, you could buy a kit, but where's the fun in that?? But I digress...

I'd seen this tee shirt...

...and an idea sparked!

(Those are names of spells from the Harry Potter universe, if you couldn't tell.
My friend and I share a love of the Harry Potter books/movies.)

I wanted to cross stitch it, but try as I might I couldn't find that Harry Potter "font" in a cross stitch pattern. And it would have taken quite some time to create my own and in the various sizes. Honestly, I couldn't have pulled it off. So I did the next best thing--I dug out my cross stitch alphabet books and looked for alphabet styles in various sizes that looked Harry Potterish.

As a side note, in cross stitch they aren't really called fonts, but the term works for my post so I may interchange the term with alphabets as seems appropriate.

Anyway, once I picked out alphabets in fonts I liked, then I had to create the words from the tee shirt to see how they scaled and mixed and matched. Different fonts are going to end up different sizes. Once I did that and counted the sizes of the words, I had to arrange them on my master pattern. I started with the arrangement found on the tee shirt, but had to move things around to make them fit and look appealing. I ended up looking up a few spells that weren't on the tee to switch out or add into available spaces.

My work product...
 This is determining word-to-font size.

This is the master pattern, though it's hard to see...

Then it was time to stitch. And stitch and stitch and stitch. Because most of the alphabets are outline and require only back-stitching, they went rather quickly, but I took a huge break over the holidays and got back to it almost too late! In fact, I didn't finish by her birthday, which was last Thursday, but I'm going to see her this Saturday and come hell or high water, this thing will be done.
This is what it looks like at the moment...


There's a lot of aida cloth left at the top and the bottom--that's so I can roll it and make the whole thing look like a roll of parchment. However, I need some some sort of fray stopper so I can cut the sides a bit wavy and not have the whole thing shred apart from the sides over time. I'll have finished product pictures next week.
Have you ever received a hand-made gift (aside from your children, if you have them)?

Care to share what it was and the event for which it was given?

Friday, October 25, 2013

Keeping busy offline...


You know I'm almost tired of being online. I'm not sure why. Might have something to do with my depression. But I feel the need to remove my Internet presence. It just seems like everything is so inter-connected there's no separation and anonymity anymore. Not that I want to necessarily be anonymous, but there's something easy about hiding behind a screen name. Maybe hiding's not the best word. Maybe protecting yourself is a better way to phrase it. Or separating your professional self from your personal self.

But short of removing it all...I'll just stay offline.

I've been keeping busy with lots of other things. Reading, as mentioned Wednesday; cross stitching Christmas projects; football season; just hanging out with my family. Not back to yard work yet though...

One of the things the kids and I do is play Rock Band. It's an Xbox game. I play drums. We go in little cycles and we've been back on again. I like to play for several reasons... mainly because the kids ask and are still willing to let me play with them. I also like to play because of the obvious benefit of music to the brain. Despite the fact that I almost always play the easy setting, it's not always easy. I've found a disparity in what the game deems easy. But I digress... I like to play because I want to keep my brain active and challenged as I grow older and this is a fun way to do it.

It took me ages and ages to earn my first 100% (meaning I didn't miss any notes I was supposed to play), then it took me another age to earn the next. But I've earned two 100%s in the last few weeks!

Here's my most recent accomplishment...Minority by Green Day, one of Sonshine's favorite bands.


How do you like to spend your offline time?

Friday, August 23, 2013

I'm at a loss today, so you get potpourri...


First--my cross stitch project is done!!! The stitching part, anyway. Now I just need to trim the aida cloth and attach the image to the frame. Woo hoo!


After that, I'll have to dig up another project or kit. I've really been enjoying the endeavor. Actually, I'm thinking of designing my own next project--a birth sampler for DD. I realize she's twenty-three years old, but she keeps making comments about the fact that Sonshine has one but she doesn't. Mostly she's joking, but Sonshine, as youngest child, has had way more things and spoiling than the girls did, so I think she sometimes feels jealous or deprived or something. So that'll be one of her gifts for Christmas.

Second--that 137 lb. mark is just days away. As I said Wednesday, I've been bobbing over and under the 140 lb. mark, but yesterday morning I was 138.4 and last night I was at 141.4. Still some calories to count and exercise to do, but I'm moving steadily closer.

Third--I love love love the new STAR TREK movie, Into the Darkness.


The digital copy was released several days ago and I've watched it four times already. I watch while I cross stitch and at lunch and while I'm exercising...I don't even have to really watch it, I can just listen when I'm cross stitching. I cry or get teary eyed at the end every time. And I love it more with each viewing. I've got a ways to go to catch up to the number of times I've watched the first film, which is easily over 150 times at this point. :)

Fourth--after too many years to count, I finally have a flag on my house! Sonshine put it up a week or so ago, and I'm super excited.






So what's  new with you???

And don't forget to have a spectacular weekend.



Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Making progress...but more adjustments to come


I'm this close to finally slipping under the 140 lb. mark for good. I keep dipping under, then popping back up. However, the amount I go over gets less and less as the days pass and I keep exercising and watching what I eat. I should make my 137-lb.-by-September-1st goal without a problem.

I've amped up the exercising a bit, so my body's still adjusting, but if I keep on keeping on, then I should be back to my new old self in a few days.

School starts Monday. There will be another round of adjustments as Sonshine gets, not only his class schedule, but his band practice schedule, as well as any other after school club (The Strategy Club) or organization (The National Honor Society) activities on the calender.

I don't know if I've mentioned my love of cross stitch. Back in the day--like twenty/twenty-five years back--I was an avid cross stitcher. I would design samplers and things for new babies and such. I bought pattern booklets and kits. At some point, life got busy and stuff happened and I stopped taking time to work on projects. Several weeks ago, DD started a project and I thought, "You know--I really enjoy cross stitching and I really miss working on crafts."

DD's project:


So I dug out some of my old stuff. I found a project I'd started probably a good twenty years ago, and which is really practically finished, and started working toward getting it done.I spend a little time each evening while I watch TV working on it. And I'm really really enjoying it and I'm looking forward to the project being done so I can put it on display.

My project:


See that little triangular section at the top? That's what I've been working on. I should have it finished in a week, no more than two. Woot!!


Do you do any sort of crafts??


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Discovering an old love...

Not that kind...

The other day, my younger daughter decided she wanted to cross-stitch. I always get tickled when she wants to do something crafty. So we ended up at JoAnn's and found a simple little kit of a couple of hummingbirds fluttering about some honeysuckle blossoms.

After watching her enjoy her crafting, I decided I wanted to cross-stitch again, too. So I dug out an old kit (one my mom gave me many moons ago--remember the house, Mom?) that is about 90% done and added a few stitches. And how amazing is it to see someone else's beautiful pattern and imagery come to life by your own hand?

In my cross-stitching heyday I even designed and stitched birth samplers for my kids. Anyhow, it was an enjoyable evening sitting with my daughter, watching TV and cross-stitching.

If you're crafty, what's your favorite kind to do?