I'm back!

I think I am back from this year's Plague at last. I wheeze and cough, but basically I'm human. Well, possibly human. And I'm still semi-employed. I was to be laid off, but I was rescued as "essential" and "irreplaceable" so I'm still working. A mere 24 hours a week though. Mutter mutter... must find new home.... mutter mutter.

I owe so many thanks and updates it's insane. So let me get to it--- in no order whatsoever so please don't feel shirked!!!!!!

Thank you to my dear friend Jody who sent me a lovely, cranberry-laced bday package--

Jody knows I have this huuuuge soft spot for cranberries so she sent me cranberry trail mix and a drum full of cranberry bath goodies. Yahoo! Bless you, Jody!!!!!

And, yes, it was my bday a couple weeks ago, but I was too sick and too busy to contemplate it. More on that later.

Thank you to Amy for her wonderful bday surprise:

Patterns and goodies galore! I am such a lucky ole so and so. And check out that sheep's face--

Isn't he a cutie? Thank you Amy for such a wonderful bundle of goodness. I've already used some of the floss which is absolutely lovely!

And thanks and blessings to Sally for the total happiness of her PIF's arrival. There it was on my chair in the midst of piles and piles of work and notes about how I wasn't really laid off even though I was going to be getting letters at home indicating I had been. Sigh..... anyway, there was this package on my chair and it made me sooooo happy:

Isn't it lovely? Oh how I wish I were sitting under a tree with a good book.... about a dragon too! Thanks so much, Sally!

As for what I've been up to besides looking for a better place to work, I have been stitching on stuff I can't show you, but let's see what I can show you. I have to admit up front that I haven't been stitching as much as you would think what with all the time I spent in bed. Most of my 6 weeks of the plague I spent either barely vertical at work doing things that "simply had to get done" or in bed. And when I did stay out of the office pretty much the most energetic thing I did was change the channel. lol Honest. Oh, ok there was this one week, but we'll have to come back to that another time.

I can show a shot of the F&S Easter Round squares I sent to Gillie:


She said she liked band samplers and bright colors so I did my own little take on Easter egg dying with a bunch of Belle Soies, Silk n Colors, and Ole Willows. It was really a lot of fun. One day I have to do a big ole band sampler for myself.

Gillie sent me such pretty squares that she designed herself, but lame ole me still has the pictures in the camera. Sigh. Cross your fingers my brain works tomorrow.

Early in march I got started on my neighborhood

I'm doing the CCN garden cottages over one in their Crescent Colors on Wichelt's overdyed jobelan "watercress." So far so fun, but then again I haven't worked on it in 3-4 weeks.

I've made progress on my Taking the 5th needlepoint

Actually, as of right now all the green, white, and grey bits are in and I've begun the black parts of the labels and caps. The black, white, and grey are in Neon Rays which I enjoy working with most of the time, but on this piece I have to be extra careful that it lays nice and flat so it covers. It slows me down a bit, but I like the sheen.

I even made progress on my shawl dancer:

You can see better from the back (any other needlepointers find it annoying that you can judge your progress better from the back than the front?)


My poor ole snowman has been languishing for quite some time.

Maybe he should be my plane project.... did I mention I was going to Arizona on Wednesday? lol I'll get back to that too.
For the record, Chris, he's done in Silk and Ivory, which is the thickness of traditional yarn rather than floss. I'm kinda wishing now I'd done him in floss on a smaller linen, but c'est la.

And I have even progressed on my Beatrix Potter Quaker--

And, once again, there is a more recent pic of this on my camera where the entire cream wreath is in. I have been pleasantly surprised that I have really enjoyed the tone-on-tone stitching. I thought it would drive me nuts, but it hasn't thusfar.

Let's see, getting back to Arizona. The Inaugural Meeting of the Grand Canyon Girls Club is taking place later this week/weekend. The GCGC consists of Michele, Chris, Karen, Sharon, and me. We're coalescing around Karen's neighborhood, heading off to a family cabin, and even visiting the Grand Canyon (hence the group name). They'll be stash shopping (we're visiting Bette at her shop, general frivolity, festive eating, and probably excessive alcohol. Oh and I promise lots and lots and lots of pictures.

As for trip planning I've really been out of the loop, but last Thursday I did my pre-pack. Silly me -- a week before I go and I have bags on the floor with t-shirts, sweaters, makeup, and stash. So far I estimate that 12 projects have been tossed into the pre-pack collection. Who am I kidding??? This is not like going round the corner to my house sitting resort. This involves a plane for Heaven's sake! I will whittle that pile down. I know I want to take either the Vierlanden or the Beatrix Potter, and I want to take the RAKs so I can get them all done and bring back a pile of finishing (we all know how good I am at that!). lol Besides that I remember putting 4 Heritage Collection floral pieces in the bag (let's see there were fuscias, daffodils, roses, and orange blossoms I think). The snowman got tossed in that direction yesterday. Last night I think a few Christmas ornies went in the bag. Today I'm thinking that the Black Swan dragon should come along. Stop me before I pack the entire hovel!!!!

Ok, gotta get stuff done. Cross your fingers for a last minute update tomorrow. And thanks to you all for your healthy wishes and good thoughts. I'm sure that's why I'm not STILL in bed.

Hey everyone, Eeyore here

Hi folks. Little ole sickie me is here for a bit. The Eeyore comment is because when sick, I sound like Eeyore. For the record, I would recommend avoiding whatever is going around. I seem to be maybe back to 75%. Let's hope it is just up, up, up from here.

I want to thank you all for your kind comments on An Interview with a Dork. And for all the semi-hesitant volunteers. lol Since Barbara volunteered despite being already interviewed, what say we let her rest on her previous interview laurels? I'll contact Beth, Cynthia, and Chris seperately to get the ball(s) rolling on those interviews. Thanks guys!

As to what I've been up to, not much besides hacking and raising the price/share of Kleenix--- you're welcome if your a shareholder, you might get a short cruise out of my plague. I've been home in bed 8 of the last 14 days and I've stitched some on maybe two of those days. Mostly it's been napping and watching DVDs on the laptop. I had to resort to the laptop becuse the *@#(@&$&#&!@*( cable went out and my cable company (Time Idiocy Incorporated Warner) took a full week to get it fixed. Oh well, it's not like there's anything on anyway. I can give you the helpful hint that if you're home feeling miserable possibly the best plan of action isn't to watch the entire series of Painkiller Jane DVDs---- it's not like it was the world's most uplifting show. After maybe 4 hours I found myself wondering why I felt so depressed... welll duh!

Ok, so stitching. Before coming down with the plague (that's how I refer to all my illnesses, please do not freak) I started a new office project (that's what I leave in my desk drawer for when I forget to bring something to work on at lunch):

I'm going to do it on Summer Sky over-dyed jobelan instead of the hideous aida. So far I have gotten the black tip in on the feather to the left of the wolf's chin.

I also "had" to start:

And here's progress on that from more than a week ago --

I've gotten a significant bit more done, but then I got sick and he's been languishing.

I have recent progress to report on my Me, Myself, and I RR (I'm in community 2) -- I have settled on doing the LHN garden cottages. I'm doing them over-1 on an over-dyed green jobelan. I'd have a picture if I weren't lame/sick.
I'd also have pictures of my Taking the 5th and powwow shawl dancer needlepoint progress if I weren't sick/lame. Something for you to look forward too.

Oh, I have some LONG overdue pics of finishes:
This is a make-up square for Chris

As a surprise for her, before I sent it back to her I had our mutual buddy, Judy, stitch another of the available squares:

And here's Herbert -- my last office project:


More soon, maybe....... Remember, don't catch this bug!