Up to some good for a change

Hello dear friends,  I know it may me hard to believe, but I have been up to some stitching.  I almost feel like I have to ramp up the action before it hits the height of summer when it always feels too hot to stitch once I get home in the evenings.  That little ompf moved my needle in a few different directions over the last week.

Mrs. (the giant penguin) came back out to play for a couple nights during which I:

1. finished the light pink band which had been languishing mostly done)
2. figured out what to stitch in the purple band (and got the whole band put in)
3. put in the bottom edge of the flipper (that was because I thought I knew what I was going to do with the gold bracelet and I needed the flipper part out of the way.  Turns out I didn't know.  Oh well.)
4. figured out what to stitch in the black band and got it partially put in.  

Also I have allegedly worked out what to do in the medium and dark pink bands, but until those sections actually start I have learned that I am prone to vacillation.

I don't think I had a picture of this last time -- this way my last finish.  A LK Flip It which was easy as pie.  Why did it take me forever to get around to it?????

Last weekend (I think) I had a flag marathon.  I just settled my fanny in and basketwove my little fingers off.  I got from here:

to here:

And, why yes, I am very proud of myself.   Just to put int in perspective -- that's probably 6-8 hours of stitching.  See!  I told you my needles were slow!

Also, one night another star appeared in my sky --

While I know that is rather pathetic.  It was actually quite amazing given that I was too tired to really start stitching when I pulled it out, but I powered through..... and then collapsed into my pillow.

On a bookish front, I went with our friend So Many Books to The Last Bookstore -- an amazing space for books (mostly used) in L.A.  It really is a neat space --

 with cool book art -- (I think this is a security cam picture of what my bookshelves do when I'm not home)

Now, while I loved the book art, I am a bibliophile at heart.  Book art is all well and good, but I need to be able to get to books and I kept getting stymied in my progress by people trying to get the perfect pic for instagram or facebook.  I swear this one pair of 20-something women took a dozen pictures each of themselves posed in a book "window."  There was a certain undercurrent to their repeats of "people in the background"-- well, duh, Buffy -- it's a store. We're here to shop.  Take your blooming picture and get out of the way!

Another annoyance was that I found it hard to come away with a pile.  It seems that my authors are just too awesome in general for people to give them up.  So I came away with this small collection of goodies:

Happy Stitching and Reading to you all -- may your needles be faster and trendsetters not be in your book shopping way!

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Pratchett thought of the day:

Nothing-to-see is what most of the universe consists of.

Going Postal – Terry Pratchett

SFSing Successes (unless you count finding the &*@*#^&*@#%$ pictures)

Greetings, Gentle Reader, and a Happy day unto you.

First thing up --
The SFS May Report of Joy:
Month:  May
Spent:  $0.00   -- (Don't worry.  It will NOT last.)
Allotted:  $25
Earned:  $10.00 
Subtotal of May's accumulated earnings:  $35.00  
Holdover from last month:  -$2.40
Ultimate May total: $31.60  --- Woohoooo!   Extra hooooo!   

Yes, as a matter of fact I am as shocked as you are.  But never fear, I'm working at the shop this weekend so no doubt the joy of being in the black will overtake me.

Here are my earning finishes--- with big thank yous to my friend who needed dog/house sitting.  Her excellent light and comfy recliner helped immensely with my productivity.

LKs (nope, not the colors they were charted for).  They have their charms too.  Can I figure where I put that photo? Nope.  I guess it is high time I sorted out the flash drives.

A little bell ornie I've been wanting to do for years.  I just love him.  O believe another one of these will happen soon.

Another LK that happened post-house sitting.  Possibly under the influence of the house-sitting high.

There's another finish -- a little candy cane from the same series as the bell.  Apparently *someone* did not take a picture of that.  Sigh.   And there should be two more LKs, but *someone* can't find them to attach their charms.  *Someone* has a lot to answer for!

And then some little bits of progress --  Prairie Moon's Home of the Brave which hadn't seem the light of day in a while.  I do really like working on this piece.  It is a nice balance of blocks of color and yet enough color changes to make it interesting.   It just got sidelined because of commitments to other things, but I really want to see it under my needle more regularly.

One of those commitments... the baseball flag came back out to play a couple nights ago.  This one.... I tell you.  I stitch and stitch and stitch and get maybe an inch done.  Sometimes I think that even if you left me in good light, in a cozy spot, with perfect audio books, no TV, and only this piece for a long weekend, I'd still only get maybe a row of those dang balls done.

Another powwow offering for your enjoyment because:
        1.  I promised you
        2.  I can't figure out where I filed the other pics I was supposed to be adding here.
I just loved the rainbow dying on the middle guy's head piece.

Though I am most partial to the shawl dancers.

...and shopping.....

Now, sally forth and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Pratchett Thought of the Day:

Insanity and Fun .....

.... two things that often go together for me.

Hello, dear friends, last weekend I decamped Chez Hovel (or The Untidy Sett as I am inclined to think of my digs) for a friend's house to dog/house sit.  You see, I was the one who set her up to adopt said dog therefore she declared it really was rather my responsibility to watch it while she gallivanted off to NYC.  Since she has wifi which allowed me to keep my coworkers from imploding and I was once again maxed out on vacation time, I saw no reason not to head off for what I thought of as a resort retreat without pool boys.  I mean a choice of recliners, a devoted dog, really good natural lighting --- what's not to love, right?

So on Thursday morning I arrived at my temporary home and unpacked part one of my insanity:

Now, I was there from Thursday morning through Monday night.  So of course I apparently thought I could finish every major project I had going.    The white corner showing at the top is my Boothy (that didn't come out of the bag the whole time I was there), the green fabric in the hoop on the left is a Celtic cross ornament that I also didn't get out of its bag, the baseball flag I could stitch for hours and hours on and still only finish an inch (that didn't come out either), and the states flag in the right corner also did not make an appearance.   I did manage to do 2 of the 5 LK Flip Its (they haven't made it to the "dope" list because I didn't bring a thread matching the fabric to attach the charms with), one of the little ornies (from the sheets between the flags in the picture), and a batch of Ethel's sky.

Pathetic!   II mean I did stitch a lot... I'm just that slow.   Ok, I did cook a lot too.   And I swear on my stash I did not nap the weekend away.  I never got a nap in actually, because my four-footed charge seemed to think napping indicated a lack of "better" things to do like walking or petting.

My roomie was at first very suspicious of this stitching stuff --

Then she went with the crisis of confidence look -- the apparently-I'm-not-cute-enough-to-put-down-that-thread-crap pose.

But she did seem to like the audio book effect.  She really had to since the TV only came on for the hockey game.  Which leads me to part two of my insanity.  Not only did I bring enough stitching to make it through 6 months, I also came with reading--

That's 6 paperbacks and two books on CD.  That is IN ADDITION to the 20-ish audio books I had checked out from the library and loaded on my computer (and we'll not mention the 100+ Audible titles also on said computer).  I believe I finished 5 books -- 4 library check outs and an Audible title.  I did open the top book on the above pile (a Kate Carlisle), but really I could have skipped that bag.

Oh and it gets funnier.  My buddy is also a reading fiend, so it's not like I could have lacked for books at her house.  As a matter of fact she told me to check out the box she was putting together to donate and I pulled the items below out because she'd been singing their praises for a while and I thought I'd try them (mind you, I gave her the Charlaine series, but apparently I didn't buy it all for myself.  or at least I didn't get it all input into my online catalog).  

Currently they are on my floor waiting for me to figure out a path to the shelves so they can join their friends.  [You think I'm kidding?  Silly you.]

Regardless of my insanity, or possibly because of it, I had a lovely time.  I stitched, I read, I got a lot of these walk-me/pet-me/what's-that-you're-doing-now looks:

I picked strawberries in the backyard while my furry friend had breakfast al fresco.

I sniffed heavily from the gardenia bush.

In short, I had a grand ole time.  I can only wish you as pleasant a weekend as I had last weekend.  And, for my American friends, a peaceful Memorial Day possibly filled by red,white, and blue stitching.  I'll be at the local national cemetery.  Where will you be?

************

Pratchett thought of the day:

Little things

Friday greetings, gentle reader--   How has your week been treating you?   Hopefully well -- hopefully gently.  

Mine has been singularly annoying and unproductive.  Now you won't believe that when I share the pics below since I actually have some stitching to show, but I hasten to say that these little bits were accomplished last weekend at LosCon--- it is what happens when there aren't panels that are worthy of much note taking.  

So, save of the charm placement, LK's Home is done--  a very fast and easy stitch.... bless you LK!

And Peace is done save for a charm and bird eye--

Also completed over the weekend was the finishing on my two exchange ornies.  The Post Office has them now.  Soon I hope to show you them in all their ornie glory.

While LosCon did not offer too many fascinating notes on what to read, it did continue to add to my jewelry collection.....     I go the earrings that match this last year:

And I needed more purple and green jewels for Leukemia and Lymphoma events so this amethyst and green semi-precious stone whose name I don't remember right now had to come home with me:

And even without any real book recommendation alerts from the panels, two more books made their way home with me.

And, yes, you can possibly guess form the tenor of the comments above that I did not find it a particularly good convention experience.  I actually thought of packing it in and checking out of the hotel early.  Yes, day one was *that* lame.  I stayed the course though and things got better -- though I expect that I just lowered my expectations and focused on chatting with my tribe rather than getting any of the usual convention joys -- like finding new books, new authors, science fiction chatter (spies as a theme -- now which dunderhead came up with that?), masquerade fun (only 4 entries, really?????),  and damned funny panel debates.  There has to be some really amazing story about how all the programming managers were hit by an asteroid and the chairperson had a lobotomy so she was unable to see her con degenerating.   I almost did not buy a membership for next year, but I caved in the end -- though another disappointing showing next year will probably spell the end of my 20+ year Thanksgiving tradition.

Have yourself a peaceful and productive weekend.  May the stitching fairies be kind to you!