Laurel doesn't blog here anymore.....

I'm rolling this blog into my Xanga site. From now on, my stitching pics and progress, and my 101 Things and 50 Project Challenge progress will be noted and tracked on Theology After Midnight.

As I said on that site, you don't need a Xanga account to comment. Simply click on Anonymous and it will give you a space to put in your name. I hope to see and hear from all of you over there!

Looking for me??

I'm guilty - I haven't been posting here lately. I haven't been stitching much, so that doesn't help, but mostly I've just been having more fun with my Xanga blog, so I've been posting over there. So if you don't see me here, check over there. (Theology After Midnight, linked on the right.) I'm actually considering combining them both into Xanga and closing this one.

As for stitching, I haven't done much since May. I was working on Anna's Hummingbird



then I decided to stitch for a coworker's baby



which was going well until she went out on maternity leave early, so I haven't finished yet. She's probably not going to come back for a while longer.

So then I got busy with other things



and stopped stitching. Last Monday was my birthday, and as per my practice, I chose a new project to start - this year it's Rosemarkie



So I'm back to stitching, at least for now. I also went to see the needlework competition at the Orange County fair, and that helped my motivation too! I'll probably jump between Rosemarkie and Anna's Hummingbird for a bit. I wanted AH done for my friend's birthday next week, but it won't happen. It'll just wait until Christmas or something.

So there's the update. If you don't see me here, come on over to Xanga.

Joining the TW SAL

And I grabbed the button! Thanks Annette! I even managed to post it correctly on my sidebar, lol. I've decided to participate in the Mondays with TW SAL as part of my new rotation. First up will be Enchanter. Here's where I am now:



I'll be in the SAL for this for quite a while....

My rotation looks like this at this point - we'll see how long it lasts.

May –
Quaker Gameboard – finish border
Anna’s Hummingbird – finish flowers
Elf Fairy – finish dress and hat
Prayer 16th Century – whatever time is left

June-
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Anna’s Hummingbird – finish
Elf Fairy – finish wings
Prayer 16th Century – whatever time is left

July-
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Ohio map – at least half
Elf Fairy – finish tree and legs
Prayer 16th Century

August –
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Ohio map – finish
Elf Fairy – bead and finish
Prayer 16th Century

September
Quaker Gameboard – maybe finish or another row

And as of now, I'll spend Mondays on Enchanter.

I finally finished Cherished Rose in April, no pic here though at this point because the intended recipient has been known to read this blog....after she gets it, maybe I'll post a pic.

Project 4 and 5

I finished this today.



This is Autumn Charm by Dimensions Daydreams. It's going to be a gift for my supervisor. And it is project 4 of my 50 projects! Woohoo!

I spent all of 5 minutes tonight assembling Star Snow Charmer:



This is one of those embarassing pieces that sat for several weeks waiting for a few minutes worth of work to finish. But now it's done and going down as finish 5!

Here's the pic I promised

St. Patrick's Shamrock, ornamentified:

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On a completely different topic, do you have any shows you like because they make you feel better about yourself? lol. I don't mean feel-good shows like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, but shows that make you go "Whew! At least I'm not that bad!"

I have 2. One is A&E's Big Spender, which I've blogged about in the past, about financially irresponsible people. My finances aren't perfect, but I do live within my means. I have debt, but I got an education out of it, not an overpriced pair of jeans. I am not about to go into debt over some clothes. And I'm making payments on my loans.

The other is How Clean Is Your House? on Lifetime Real Women. This show makes even my mom's house not look so bad! My mom has a lot of stuff in her house, but she has 2 things over most of the people on this show: She throws out food and she has no animals. I can actually see the floors and tabletops in my house.

Challenge updates

I have updated both my 50 project challenge and my 101 in 1001. I'm making progress on both! Yay!

Let's talk about 50 projects first. I've finished projects 2 and 3 now. The first of the finishes is my Sunbonnet Sue quilt.



This was a kit I bought a couple years ago and I'm glad to finally have it done. I'm going to hang it in my living room.

The other finish is St. Patrick's Shamrock by our lovely Belinda. She graciously granted me permission to use it in my EGA chapter's newsletter and I decided to stitch it for our meeting this week. I'm in the process of finishing it into an ornament, so no pics quite yet. All I have to say about finishing work is that cording covers a multitude of sins! (Got any spring/Easter designs coming up Belinda?? lol!)

Next up on the list will be a small gift for my supervisor, as I did end up putting my name on the transfer list last week and will likely transfer out within a few weeks. This is what I've settled on for now. I doubt I'll change it, but if something different comes along that I can finish relatively quickly, I might. I'm pretty happy with this though. I will definitely miss her.

On to 101 in 1001. The quilt did double duty, as it was also on my list of things to do (#18). I also made Nancy's Chinese chicken salad recipe (#74) last weekend. I think I need some more practice. It was good, but not quite as good as when Nancy made it for a gtg. I think I might have overcooked the chicken. Anyhow, I will definitely make it again sometime! Thanks Nancy! (If Nancy has a blog, please someone give me the link so I can link her!)

I found a side benefit of making this salad, and I'm not sure whether to thank Nancy or blame her! I've officially discovered Trader Joe's. My neighborhood chain grocery store does not carry sesame oil. Well, not that I could find anyway. I mentioned it to a friend and she invited me to go to TJ's with her as she was fairly sure they had it. Oh. My. Gosh. I love love love the bread aisle. So much variety! This week I'm trying the cranberry walnut. Next week I think might be orange or cinammon raisin or..or..who knows. I loved that they had a lot of things packaged in reasonable quantities for cooking for one. And they have great prices! After I finished at TJ's, I went to my regular grocery to fill in some gaps and got half the stuff for the same price. Sigh. I think I will be shopping at TJ's more regularly from now on....

Reconsidering

I've posted a few times about working at the call center and enjoying my supervisor and such, how I wasn't going to transfer just yet, but now I'm reconsidering. Sigh. I still enjoy my supervisor, and I'm really not ready to give her up yet, I'd really miss her, but the prospect of a drastically shorter commute - meaning more sleep in the morning and more time to do stuff at night (like stitch!), is becoming hard to resist. Another sigh.

When I lived at my mom's the commute was ok. Not great, but it was doable. Living here, not so much. It just takes too much time. I get home, I eat, I read my email, watch TV for a couple hours and that's it. And I'm not stitching because I'm tired when I get home. I live so close to so many things, but I almost never go anywhere during the week except a couple local fast food places because I don't want to get home any later than I already do.

But then I think about working in a new office. It's not so new to me, I used to work there and know a lot of the people who still do. The friends that I had when I was there have mostly moved on. A lot of the supervisors have retired and I don't know any of the new ones. I have a good thing going with my supervisor now. I might not like the new one as much.

It'd be nice not answering the phone, I'll say that. Some think files and papers are overwhelming or whatever and like call center for the lack of those things, but they don't talk back or call you names and such either! But I don't want to be bored either. I know what each team does, and a couple of them sound boring. And I know I won't get to choose.

I guess my choices are deal with the commute or take the chance and transfer to be closer to home. Any thoughts?