Taneya & Kalonji

I have had problems focusing on my stitching the past couple of days. I seem to get distracted by my computer! So, as a result, I have only 9 hours in the past three days, and those have not been a good solid 9 hours as I kept stopping, stitching slow, etc. Who knows what my problem is?

I have indexed four magazines though — and been browsing the bay of evil way too much Maybe i’m just not adjusting to my Tapesty of Life very well — the section I have worked on is very repetitive, no color changes and just rows of stitches. So, I think I will switch out and tomorrow night move onto something else. Here is my new pic of Tapestry of Life. There is some oddness with the lighting and how it was on the scanner, but the section I was working on is the bottom part — with the two blocks of rows and the beginning of the blue geometric band that goes between them.

[link to pic deleted]

At work today we received notification that a grant that we wrote has been funded!!! The money is from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the money has come from an initiative of the First Lady to address the shortage of librarians. Over 20 grants were funded — so if you’ve ever entertained the thought of being a librarian you really should check out the insitutions that got funded. Many are paying for the degree program. For more info visit the IMLS Website.

And my friend whom I am stitching TW’s Birth Sampler for sent me a picture of her little girl today. She is 8 weeks old, so I guess I need to get my act together and work on it again huh! I think I will do that this weekend. Until then, I think I hear a sub full of animals calling my name. (that would be Noah’s Submarine)

Well, today I was only able to stitch for a little over two hours. I ended up working most of the day as I had to crunch some numbers at work. I did work on Tapestry of My Life though. I have not scanned it in yet as I didn’t think I had enough progress to see a huge difference, but keep this pic in your mind –[edited 10/28 -- newer pic in later post]

But, with all the number crunching at work, I decided to take a look at my stitching statistics over the past couple of years to see where I was at. I was curious to know if I had spent as many hours stitching this year. This is what it looks like so far.

You know, it’s funny how I can look at these numbers and see a direct correlation with what was going on in my life. See that dip in September 2001? That was when I started seeing Kalonji. Funny how a new relationship can just absorb all of your time! But, it picked back up after that. The dip in March 2002?? Kalonji was home for 2 weeks. Same deal. And then, this summer – June & July – I was again very busy. My sister was staying with me, so every weekend we were off doing something, then Kalonji came home again for two weeks and we had the boys.

But so far I am on track. At this point in the year, I have stitched more hours than I did at this same time two years ago. My goal is to break 900 hours this year. Next year, I want to break 1000 hours of stitching in one year. There are 8760 hours in one year. If I stitched for 1000 of them, that is equal to 11% of the year. So, when I tell myself I’m stitching half of my life away – I’m really not. (Edited to add — Assuming 8 hours of sleep a night, and 45 hours a week at work — that really only leaves 3590 stitchable hours in a year — so if I made it 1000 then I’d be stitching a third of my life away!)

So there is your numbers lesson for the day. I’m off to bed!

You gotta love the time change – that gives me an extra hour to stitch!
It’s now 2 am (with the time change — 1 am) and I have a new update picture of my Geisha Girl. I have now put her away as I’m ready to move on to some of the projects that I have not worked on in awhile.

Though I have a screaming rotation, I have lately been feeling like I need to spread the love around, so have been working on several different projects. For the next round of stitching, I pulled out Tapestry of My Life, TW’s Noah’s Ark, TW’s Birth Announcement, Noah’s Sub and the Biltmore Esate. I think I will work on Tapestry of My Life next, but don’t hold me to it. Stay tuned to find out what I end up working on tomorrow!

Today was my sister’s 18th Birthday! I can hardly believe it. I always joke with her and tell her I remember when her belly button fell off! how quickly they grow.

Here is a pic of her when she was 2 years old. I remember this day well – she said she was doing her exercises. And here she is in a pic she took today, and another one with her balloons. She is a big I Love Lucy fan — can ya tell ?? happy birthday kelli!

Today I also got an issue of Treasures in Needlework that I won off Ebay. It is the issue with the Spanish Sampler in it. I have been admiring this piece for some time now and was excited to get this issue. I am going to try and refrain from starting until next year.

It is 10:45pm and I still haven’t picked up my stitching. So, i’m off to go get a little bit in before I have to turn in for the night.

I am SO ready for the weekend to be here!

Not much new to report this night. Of course I have been stitching on the geisha girl still. Latest pic:

[edited - update pic in new post]

I’ll continue on her through the weekend i’m sure.

On Friday I thought I was ready to move on past working on the geisha. Apparently not!

I did put down Oriental Lady Wisdom – so here is my latest progress picture of her. Not too much extra since the last one.

But my weekend did not go as I had planned. On thursday, I had the urge to rearrange furniture, so that is what I did on Friday night. Was up til the wee hours of the morning straightening up and rearranging stuff. I am happy with how I’ve done it though! Here are some pics, so you can also see where all my xs stuff is at around the apt. You can also see exactly where Oriental Lady Grace is hanging.

I did work on Yew Tree Cottage like I thought I might. I worked on it for several hours and completed most of the bottom row of trees save two colors that I don’t have on hand. Here is my latest pic on that one.

And speaking of geishas…. in going through more of my xs magazines while preparing them for indexing, I came across another geisha pattern that I had forgotten I had (this is the danger in going through magazines!). So, I had some extra fabric handy, and I had most of the colors that I needed, to start this geisha girl. I have done four hours on her and the stitching goes fast on this one. I thought the colors were nice and I already have a spot picked out for her when I finish it. I think she’ll look nice in our bathrooom.

{edited on 10/22 to remove picture — got a new update picture in new post}

And I even found time to go to the movies this weekend. I saw Runaway Jury and loved it! It is my favorite Grisham book and I was happy with how they did the movie. They changed a lot, but it was still fun.

I think I am finally at a point where I am ready to move on past my Oriental Lady Wisdom In the past three days I have stitched another three hours on her. But I think the reason I am ready to move on is that I FINALLY brought my Oriental Lady Grace home from my LNS! I had her framed like 5 months ago, but took my sweet time paying it off. I am proud to say that she is hanging in our bedroom now, next to my Angel of the Morning. (here is a pic of where my AOTM is — i hung her between AOTM and the picture of the cougar) So, I think this gave me a sense of completion to the point I feel I can move on.

BTW – I did start to listen to the beginning of Cloud of Sparrows, so I think I will just continue with it over the weekend. No more themed stitching for me right now

What’s next? Who knows! I was thinking I might work on Yew Tree Cottage tomorrow evening. I am stitching it on some Monaco which is very tightly woven and am contemplating starting it over again on a looser woven material. Also, this piece is not exactly evenweave, so it’s coming out to be more rectangular than square like it should be.

If not Yew Tree, then I may choose a Mirabila to work on; i’ve been feeling a Mirabilia urge lately. But really, it will all just come down to what calls me the loudest when I sit down tonight.

In non-stitching news, I got to do something very cool yesterday. I had a meeting with people in our Medical Center’s Lifeflight department, so I got to see an excellent view of Nashville as they are on the very top floor of the hospital. I also saw a helicopter land on the heliopad and they explained some of their operations to me. Very cool!

Well, I finished Memoirs of a Geisha tonite. I did not remember the ending, so I was able to enjoy it all over again. Excellent material to stitch a geisha girl by. So, I have decided that I must keep the theme going – so the next book I am going to listen to is Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka. This book is set in the Edo period of Japan and is an action book about a samarai warrior, his geisha love interest and three missionaries. I know absolutely nothing about it but thought I’d give it a try. And, if I decide after finishing this book too, I have another Japanese book ready to go. (will i ever stop working on the geisha???)

Also today I got some goodies in the mail. Yoonhye, one of the ladies whom I host pictures for, sent me several magazines — including an issue of Treasures in Needlework. That was extremely kind of her and I can’t wait to add them to the database. I also got my order in from 123 from which Kathy, another lady whose gallery I host, got me a gift certificate. With the gift certificate, I ordered Goldie & Jewel. I will probably start one of these soon. (I am so bad!)

I’m off to make some website updates now. Until later…

Since my last picture update I have stitched another 15 hours on my geisha. I went out of town this weekend so I did not get as much stitching in as I had orginally planned. But, I got in more than I expected I would so I guess that’s a good thing! This time around I worked mostly on the left side of her kimono, especially the lower left corner. I am saving the flowers for later.

So, here is my new progress picture. I think I will continue to work on her throughout the week, so expect more progress later on. And, I only have a few more hours left to go on my book, so I expect to be moving on to a new audiobook by Wednesday night.

[pic removed 11/17/03]

I’ve been able to spend the past two nights stitching – yeah! So, I’ve got about 8 more hours in on the geisha. While I was stitching and listening to my book I decided to look online a bit for more information about geishas. That was dangerous, because I now have a list of about 10 other books on geisha that i want to read. The problem though is that they are not available in an audio format. How do i find time to actually read and stitch too??? If you’re interested in geish though, I did find one website that had some interesting information and some pictures too. It is called Immortal Geisha.

I’ve had a few people write and tell me what an interesting idea to do “themed” stitching as in listening to the book about geisha while stitching on one. I have to admit that I do this as often as I can. It only works up to a point though as I don’t have enought movies to sustain any one theme to last one of my marathon stitching days.

Dido was on Jay Leno tonite. May have to go get her CD. And why can’t I get enough of Darius Rucker’s song “This is My World.” Remember Hootie & the Blowfish? Darius was the lead singer. Anyway, this song is in the movie Shallow Hal and one day I heard him singing it on VH1 and I was like – “I know that song!” I am not listening to it again for the 6th time in a row. (Another bad habit of mine – listening to one song over and over and over again)

Okay, I’m not talking about stitching — must get back on track. Tomorrow night is my night to go to my LNS for stitch night (6-8pm) and I should get in another 4 hours at least on my geisha tomorrow. I’ll probably post another picture Friday night.