January Stitching Recap

I completed eight projects during the month of January and also stitched on one of my WIPs. Seven of the eight projects were for charity, five for Q4OC, one for WOCS and one for SFAC. Four of the ones for Q4OC were for the mismatched alphabet SAL.

I also relegated Quaker Cat project to UFO status, at least temporarily. It was taking way too much time for a charity project and is also a boring stitch. The group I was stitching it for is changing their focus from quilts to totes so not finishing it won't create a hardship for them.

For February, I'd like to complete at least seven projects for my charity groups. Four of these are letters that won't take too much time and one is a square for Q4OC that's almost finished. That leaves two others, one for WOCS and one for Binky, SD. I'm trying to concentrate my obligation stitching in the first half of the month and leave the last half of the month for personal stitching. This worked well in January, so we'll see if I can keep it up.

Bangs Cut

Kyleigh got her bangs cut this morning, but she didn't behave quite as well as she did for her first haircut. She cried and wouldn't sit in the chair so they had her sit on my lap instead. Since that didn't stop the crying they gave her a lollypop which did the trick. The stylist did a good job since Kyleigh wasn't really in the mood to sit still.

After the hair cut, we went to Michaels where I picked up a jar for my orts (the bits and pieces of floss that are left from a project), some white aida and a few colors of floss I needed. Kyleigh spotted a chart with three colorful frogs, said "frog" and reached for the chart. I decided to not buy it this time, though since I still have a Pooh chart that we bought in December to stitch for her.

After that we went to check out a toddler playground that Janice had located. There were two playgrounds side by side and for some reason Kyleigh liked the big kids playground better. She really likes going down the slide, feet first, but on her tummy.

Doctor's Visit

I finally had my internal medicine appointment to clear me for my second knee replacement surgery in February. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday the 26th, but they called me an hour before that appointment to reschedule since the office had lost power.

Fortunately, they rescheduled it for Garden Grove rather than Irvine since that's a lot closer and I'm more familiar with the area. Unfortunately, the doctor didn't like what he saw on the EKG so he wouldn't clear me for the surgery. He referred me to the cardiology department for an echocardiogram and a holter test. Hopefully, I can get them done next week and they won't show any problems.

David decided to drive me to work this morning and pick me up at lunch time to go to Shakey's buffet and then to the doctor. I was at the doctor's office a lot longer than expected since he also requested bloodwork. I got back to work about 3:00 and David picked me up again at 5:00 and we went over to Janice's to play with Kyleigh.

Kyleigh really loves her grandpa and was very excited to see him. She kept giving both of us hugs. We played for awhile and then walked over to In 'n Out and Chick Filet to get dinner. In 'n Out gives the little kids sheets of stickers to play with while they're waiting. BTW, I have a very polite granddaughter. She almost always says "thank you" even without prompting and it's usually accompanied by a smile.

Back to Obligation Stitching

My "break" is over and I'm doing "obligation stitching" again. This is the term I apply to commitments I've made to the various Yahoo groups that stitch for charity, usually with deadlines.

I've signed up for five more letters for the mismatched alphabet SAL at Q4OC and finished the first one tonight. This is the letter G from the Nursery Rhyme ABC's in the World of Cross Stitching #160. This is the first one of these letters that called for Anchor floss, which I used since I have the whole set.

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

This is block 1 of Margaret Sherry's 12 Days of Christmas which was in the UK Cross Stitcher Magazine a couple of years ago. I'm stitching this on 25-count potato Lugana (2 over 2) with Anchor floss. This is the second block I've stitched; I stitched 2 Turtle Doves last month. My goal is to stitch one block a month and so far I'm right on target.

My computer is back in operation, but David hasn't worked on the camera uploading program so I've had to take all my pictures with my cell phone which isn't providing the best quality.

A Year of Events

Since I'd finished all of my "obligation stitching" this month, I decided to work on a personal project, A Year of Events which is a Dimensions kit that I fell in love with the first time I saw it back in September. This is what it looked like when I picked it up on January 16th.

And this is what it looked like when I put it away again tonight.

There are a couple of unintentional customizations in the butterfly and the sun--I used the wrong color floss for backstitching the body and antenae on the butterfly and the sun is off center (but so are several other blocks that I stitched according to the chart).

Kyleigh Visits

Janice wanted to attend a craft show at the convention center today so she asked me to watch Kyleigh this morning. David and I met Janice and Kyleigh for breakfast at IHOP. Then Janice dropped David off at home and Kyleigh and I went to the Village.

We walked through several stores, bought Kyleigh a shirt with a kitten dressed up as a princess on the front (grandma got a couple of new shirts also), sampled some See's Candy, watched the puppies and kittens in the pet shop, played on the playground, rode the fire engine (well, Kyleigh did, anyway) and bought some lemonade to quench our thirst and some fruit for lunch.

We got home and had lunch and I put Kyleigh down for a nap, but before she could fall asleep, mommy showed up and rescued her. She went home for a couple of hours and then came back for a sleepover. Unfortunately, I think she was expecting mommy to rescue her again so she didn't fall asleep until 9:45. Hopefully, she'll sleep all night.

In the process of trying to get her to bed, I let her sit beside me in my stitching chair to quiet down. She did the pull the thread through the fabric and off the needle thing for a couple of stitches, but mostly just sat and watched. I stitch using Q-Snaps on a floor stand and what I thought was cute is that when I put the needle through the fabric, she had to look under the Q-Snaps to see where it went.

I do it!

I finished this breast cancer square for Stitching for a Cure first thing this morning so that I could get it in the mail today. Donna sent me the floss, the chart and the fabric. It was done on 28-count Lugana and required a lot of unstitching and restitching, but now it's done.


We met Janice and Kyleigh for breakfast and then Janice, Kyleigh and I took off the post office, the bank, Babies R Us and Toys R Us. After mailing some packages, getting money and making the necessary purchases at Babies R Us, we went over to Toys R Us to look for dishes to go with the kitchen that Kyleigh received from Santa Claus.

We didn't find what we were looking for, but Kyleigh did get a Dora microphone. She first heard someone else playing with one and started dancing to the music and pointing in the direction of the noise. Once she got one in her hands it was all over. She played with it constantly responding to Dora's questions and singing along.

Our next stop was Penneys because I needed to return a shirt I'd bought the week before (I don't do long sleeves). When I tried to take the Dora microphone from her, she started to cry so I turned it off and gave it back to her. She proceeded to stop crying and inspect it to see why it had stopped talking--and turned it back on. Then I did take it away because I didn't want her to play with it in the store.

When we were done with our shopping, Janice noticed that one of her tires was flat, so we called David to help her change it. When it came time to tighten the lugnuts, Kyleigh watched for a second, then bent down and put her hands on the wrench and said "I do it!". We took Kyleigh in our car while Janice went to get the tire fixed. On the way, David decided to meet her at the tire place in case she needed help.

While the tire was being changed we went to US Toy Company to look for dishes and we did find something that would work. Plus Kyleigh got a bottle for her baby doll. (This kid's not spoiled, is she?)

This evening I started stitching on my Year of Events design again. I finished January and started February.

This 'n that

I had a doctor's appointment this morning for a recheck on my blood pressure since he'd changed my medication last month. It was better than it's been for some time. He also went over the results of the tests I'd had in December. Some of the results could have been better and some were good. They'll retest in March.

Janice and Chad have a new car. Chad bought himself a black 2010 Toyota Corolla Sport. Now they both have Toyota Corolla Sports, but Janice's is four years old (and gray) and she said there have been some changes that make Chad's car roomier inside.

David now has Windows reinstalled and is working on the printer. The good news is that it looks like all my files and pictures are still intact. He's says it will be another couple of days before I can have the computer back, though.

I am stitching, but I'm not making a lot of progress. I'm stitching a sampler style block for a cancer quilt using 28-count Lugana. Even using my light and magnifier, I'm having to do quite a bit of frogging, so it feels like I'm taking two steps forward and one step back every session.

Fun with Kyleigh

I had a dentist appointment this afternoon to fill all the little cracks and crevices the dentist discovered at my cleaning in December. He numbed 3/4 of my mouth, but I think he only did three fillings and I was out of there in less than 45 minutes.

When I got home this evening David said that Chad had called and wanted me to call him as soon as I got home. He wanted me to come babysit Kyleigh for a couple of hours so that he and Janice could go car shopping. I agreed and stopped to pick up food at McDonalds for the two of us on the way.

We had a good time eating together, watching Olivia, getting ready for bed, playing with toys, looking at books, etc.

She has a wooden puzzle of emergency vehicles. These have 1/4" thick wood pieces in the shapes of the vehicles and with the picture of the vehicle on the front. Kyleigh picked up the fire engine and moved it vertically across the floor (like you would a car with actual wheels) and said "vroom, vroom". It amazed me that she made the connection between a two dimensional vehicle and a three dimensional one.

Her communication skills are also improving every day. Tonight while eating, she asked for a bite of my hamburger by saying "bite" and pointing (instead of just pointing). When I asked if that's what she wanted, she said "yes". So of course I had to give her a bite.

BTW, they didn't get a car, because the dealership didn't have the model they wanted in black.

Computer Update: David is still working on it. It looks like he needs to reinstall Windows, Office, etc. I just hope I didn't lose all my files and pictures. Most of them are backed up, but . . .

Computer Problems

I got home from work tonight to discover that I had a computer virus. David was surfing the web this afternoon and thinks he clicked on something he shouldn't have. So I stitched instead of doing my usual computering.

I finished "Chickens" from the UK Cross Stitcher for Q4OC. This is for a gentleman named Rodney who has multiple health issues.

The design in the magazine was shown with only two of the chickens and made into a cone, but the chart was shown with all four chickens so that's the way I stitched it. I added the border, because the design came out a little smaller than I expected.

(The picture was taken with my BlackBerry since I wasn't able to get on my computer to scan and crop it--I'm posting from my work PC. I'll replace it when I can access my home computer again.)

Playing Mommy

Janice called me this afternoon to tell me what Kyleigh was doing. She'd been playing in her room and came out to the livingroom to find mommy eating ice cream. She had a bite then ran back to her room and came back saying "baby sleep". Janice thinks she'd gone to put the baby to bed so she could eat the ice cream.

While we were on the phone, the baby took several naps (about 20 seconds each), watched TV and needed to eat dinner. In the picture below, Kyleigh is feeding her soup.

Busy Saturday

This morning Janice and I both had errands to run and since Chad had taken her car to Tulare for an archery competition, we decided to do them together.

Our first stop was breakfast. We went to IHOP since there was one in the shopping center we needed to go to. Kyleigh spent most of the breakfast saying "More chocolate" meaning that she wanted another spoonful of our hot chocolates--she'd alternate between the two of us.

After breakfast, we went to Payless Kids because Janice wanted to get her another pair of shoes, this time ones that weren't tennis shoes, but weren't really dressy either. She found some Mary Jane type canvas shoes that were sparkly silver with pink bows. Since they went well with the outfit she was wearing, she wore them out of the store.

Since Anna's Linens (Janice's next stop) wasn't open yet we went to Big Lots instead. I'd given Kyleigh the dollar we got in change at IHOP and I only had to add another 63 cents so she could buy a toy that had shapes which connected to each other with S shapes--she ended up wearing the shapes as bracelets more than playing with connecting them.

While we were at Big Lots! we found this tiara. It says "Irish Princess". Since Chad is part Irish (and loves everything Irish) we thought it was appropriate. We didn't buy it, but Janice might go back later and get it. She did a really good job of holding onto that dollar and didn't fuss when it was time to pay for the toy either.

We did go to Anna's Linens, but Janice didn't find what she was looking for. She had a $25 gift card so she'll go back later without Kyleigh to look for something else.

Next, I ordered my new glasses. Bob (my baseball buddy) has a friend that's an optometrist who accepts my insurance and is located not far from work and home so I went to his office and picked out a pair of titanium frames since I'm allergic to the metal in other frames. I can pick them up in about two weeks.

Our final stop was Main Place Mall where Janice had her hair cut in the JC Penneys styling salon and I bought some jeans and blue slacks since the ones I'd been wearing were beginning to look kind of ragged and rough. I actually ended up buying a smaller size than I was wearing, too. We also had lunch at the food court before heading home for naps.

This last picture was taken the day after Christmas when Janice's sister in law's family was visiting from Oregon. This is Kyleigh and her cousin Teddy. In the picture, Kyleigh is almost 21 months and Teddy is almost six months old.

A surprise picture and a finish

I didn't post yesterday because there wasn't really anything to say. Work was busy and I was busy after work doing financial stuff at home. I did stitch a little, but didn't finish anything.

Today, I drove to Costa Mesa to have lunch with some friends I used to work with. We meet at a favorite Chinese restaurant near their office a couple of times a year and I always order the same thing--Crispy Shrimp. Since we all use the same financial software, most of our conversations revolve around that so it can be counted as work related justifying the extra hour it takes for the drive.

This afternoon I found this picture on my phone when I checked for messages. I managed to email it to myself so I thought I'd share it. I love her expression. I understand the picture was taken before more spaghetti landed in her hair.

The finish is the third and final letter that I'm currently signed up for at Q4OC. During this round, we're only allowed to sign up for three at a time. Since there are more letters available, I'll probably sign up for three more once these are received. They are so cute and colorful and I love that they stitch up really quickly.

This time I stitched the letter M from the Balloons & Kites ABC from The World of Cross Stitching #139. The only change I made was to stitch the "sky" in 1/2 cross stitch instead of full cross stitch. I was originally concerned about the color choices, but now I think they worked out rather well!

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 60th birthday! 60 sounds a lot older than 59, but I sure don't feel that old.

This morning I had to drive to the University of LaVerne for a meeting. This is the first time I've driven there without getting lost or making a major wrong turn. It was good to see some of the people that I usually only see at these meetings or at conferences and we had a good session.

I had another meeting scheduled for this afternoon, but it was cancelled. Unfortunately another one was scheduled at the last minute. And I'm still dealing with issues with the new process we implemented on Monday. That and the help requests are keeping me busy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

We went out to dinner with Chad, Janice and Kyleigh this evening. Kyleigh came decorated with hearts and brought me a card that she'd colored and decorated at the babysitter's today. Janice folded a couple pieces of paper and wrote "Happy Birthday Grandma" on one sheet. The sheets came to me held together like a book with curly ribbon and decorated with a heart, a happy face and scribblesthat were labeled lamb, dog, cat and horse, along with stickers and some tiny stick on hearts like the ones Kyleigh was wearing. Kyleigh also gave me a couple of really good hugs without prompting and has taken to pulling me down to her level (she's in a highchair) and whispering "secrets" to me.

We went to Norm's because both David and I like their current specials: steak and shrimp with soup, salad, and desert or a New York steak with soup, salad and desert for $9.99. Plus Wednesday is seniors day so we got 20% off the entire bill.

I did get about 1 1/2 hours of stitching in when we got home. I'm working on another letter for the Mismatched ABC SAL; this time it's the letter M.

Eye Exam

I went to the Kaiser optometrist this morning before going into work. They did several tests, but it was all pretty good news. There are only minor corrections (they're increasing the strength in the middle section of my trifocals) needed in my prescription and although I've been diagnosed with Occular Hypertension (high pressure in the eye), there is no sign of glaucoma at this point. I just need to do yearly visits to have a couple of tests done to keep on top of it. I do need to get new glasses, but I have to go somewhere that takes my vision insurance.

And believe it or not, I have another finish. These little letters are really quick to stitch, taking 2-3 hours each depending on the amount of detail. This is the letter J for Q4OC Mismatched Alphabet Part 2 SAL. This time I used a chart from The World of Cross Stitching ##140 - Strawberry ABC. I love the color of the ice cream!

Another Finish

It was back to work today for the first time since the December 23rd and it was kind of a rough day.My internet worked fine, but my email and financial system didn't want to stay connected. We also implemented a new process today and like all new processes, no matter how well you plan and test, there's always something you'll miss. Plus I had almost two weeks worth of email to read and respond to. So, it was almost 3:00 before I got to the point where I could start crossing things off my to do list.

A bright spot in the day, though was that Janice called. She and Kyleigh were going to take the trash out and she was in short sleeves and Kyleigh was in long sleeves. Janice opened the front door and decided she needed a sweater, so she told Kyleigh she was going to get her sweater and that she'd be right back and went to get her sweater out of the bedroom. When she got back to the livingroom, Kyleigh had gotten her own sweater and was trying to put it on, too.

I forgot to mention that I received the confirmation letter for my second knee replacement. The date is February 25, 2010, less than two months from now.

Today's finish is fairly small and worked up fairly quickly. It's the letter F for the Mismatched ABC's Part 2 SAL for Q4OC from The World of Cross Stitching #143 (Cookie ABC).

My First Finish of 2010

Janice called at 8:00 this morning, again and said that she wasn't going to church this morning since Kyleigh still wasn't 100%. Chad is also feeling better, but not 100% either. Janice called again later in the day to say that the babysitter's entire family was sick so she's going to stay home from work tomorrow, too.

I went to church anyway. They had a guest trumpeter who played accompaniment for the hymns. I really enjoyed it.

My first finish of 2010 is Angel of Hope for WOCS. The chart was a page from the Cross Stitch Pattern a Day Calendar which was sent to me by one of the members.

Current WIPs

It's been suggested/requested that I post my current WIPs in a Yahoo Group Album and since I was going to take pictures of them anyway, I decided to post them here, too. The fabric colors aren't the best, but you get the idea.

The first (I Love Cats) and most active is a long time UFO that became a WIP in October, 2009.

This is Spencer-Cat that I'm stitching for Benevolent Piecemakers.

Tropical Paradise is a Mill Hill Kit that I started this past summer.

Margaret Sherry's 12 Days of Christmas was started in December.

A Year of Events was started in October.

My last WIP will be finished later this afternoon and I don't have a picture of it as of 1/1/10 so I'm not including it here.

I also have a large number of UFOs, but I'm not including them either since I don't have any plans to work on them until the first UFO is completed.

I'm ready for bed, grandma

Janice called at 8:00 this morning to tell us that Kyleigh was better, but that now Chad was sick. She said having a sick husband was definitely worse than having a sick baby.

I offered to cook breakfast again this morning, but David decided he wanted a burger and fries. I don't do burgers and fries at 9:00 in the morning so we went to one of our favorite "hole in the wall" restaurants where he had his cheeseburger and fries and I had bacon and eggs.

After breakfast, David dropped me off at the house and went to several garage sales. He came home with a bucket of Duplo blocks for Kyleigh, a label maker (better than the one I have) and two flash drives.

These pictures were taken on December 27, 2009 when Kyleigh spent the night with us Grandpa was trying to teach her that moving the mouse actually does something on the screen. He doesn't think she quite gets it yet, though.

Kyleigh wasn't eating dinner quite fast enough to please grandpa, plus she was more interested in the mashed potatoes and gravy than the meatloaf so he decided to help.

After her bath, I put Kyleigh in her pajamas and left my bedroom to take care of the wet towel. This is what I came back to. She was quite pleased with herself.

Happy New Year!

We had a quiet evening last night. David went out and got pizza and we watched the final Survivor episodes that we'd tivo'd but never watched. At midnight, we watched the ball drop, listened to the Disneyland fireworks and received our annual midnight phone call from our friend Dunstan.

I did quite a bit of stitching and even had a finish. I've started a new blog (http://www.cathy-mystitchingjournal.blogspot.com)and posted that finish as well as the rest of my December finishes there.

Janice called about 11:00 to tell us that Kyleigh had started vomiting again. She had had a cold and cough and then started vomiting on Wednesday, but had seemed to be almost back to her normal self until this episode. We're really hoping this is just a stomach virus and not H1N1.

Update: Janice has called a couple of times today and Kyleigh is doing much better. They had to go get some apple juice in boxes because she was refusing the pedialyte and the pedialyte mixed with apple juice. When Janice tried to give her just apple juice in a sippy cup, she refused that, too since she didn't recognize it as anything different from what she'd been offered earlier.

I slept in this morning and then actually cooked breakfast which hasn't happened in quite some time. I even did the dishes! I taped the Rose Parade, but haven't watched it yet. I also did laundry and caught up on blog reading and email.

I have stitched today also. I'm working on a project called Angel of Hope for WOCS.