Taneya & Kalonji

Tomorrow night I leave for Texas to go visit Kalonji for several days. I’m so excited! Although, I almost feel guilty for leaving b/c we have a big project going on at work and I want to be there too – but this break will be good for us so, i can’t feel too bad

Over the past few days I’ve been working on Stoney Creek’s The Doctor & The Doll. Even though I’ve only done 8 more hours since the last time I worked on it (sept 2003), I feel like I got a lot done. Here is my current photo and this is where I was at before I started.

Everyone have a good weekend and I’ll be back in a week.

I got my tables all working correctly in the new webapge design! I am very happy about it as now, the menu navigation on the left stays in one place no matter how much text is in the right side column. Just took some patience to sit down and analyze the HTML code. So, at this point the only pages I have left to convert to the new design are Kalonji’s poems.

Stiching wise, I decided to work on Yew Tree Cottage this weekend. Over the last two days I’ve put in several hours and made quite a bit a progress. This design is so colorful. Here’s my latest progress. It had been January since I last worked on this, so this is where I started.

Movie wise, I finished three Netflix movies this weekend – Punch Drunk Love, Run Lola Run and Mystic River. Punch Drunk was too weird for my tates – an interesting movie though. I liked Run Lola Run a lot and loved Mystic River – a very emotional movie.

A few days ago I got a wild hair and decided I was itching to redesign our main webpage. I was just getting tired of what we I had done previously and I haven’t even had it like that for very long!

So, when I get an idea, I usually have an impulse to work on it right away — so I have just spent the past three hours reformatting. I got a template for free off of a webpage and just modified it some. However, there are always problem inherent in that. The template I chose is very much table-based and I still get confused when there are too many nested tables. So, I need to figure out how to get the navigation menu to stay in one place and not get pushed down when the other half of the page has a lot of text/pictures. It’s mildly annoying to me now, and I just know it it only going to get more so. Maybe later this weekend i’ll get to fix it!

Meanwhile — take a look at our new page

And late in the night, I finished this small design for one of Kalonji’s senior officers. I haven’t decided how I’m going to finish it yet though –

Today is my mommy’s birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!! This is my mother’s favorite picture – -her glamour shot some years ago.

I’ve been doing a lot of web stuff the past couple of days. I have a new email address and have a new email address through Google’s GMAIL service. (thanks Suz!) I’ve been playing around with the Gmail featurs and so far really like it.

not much else to report. I haven’t stitched much either the past couple of days, but i really need to.

Learned a lesson this weekend — it’s hard work packing and assembling furniture when you’re 7 months pregnant!

I did not stitch very much at all this weekend, maybe 3 hours total at best. I was rather busy packing and cleaning up in preparation for my move in early september to a larger apt. I’ve already started b/c I know i need to get as much done as early as I can b/c come late august/early september, i will not be in any condition to do it! So, along that realm, I finally assembled a desk I got from a coworker a few months ago b/c it helped me reorganize, tidy up and pack certain items as I relocated my computer to it.

Then, I bought a small entertainment center and assemble it too yesterday. I was initially going to wait until I moved to buy it, but then, given that I’ll be 9 months when I move, I KNEW i was not going to be able to assemble it then. So, I did it yesterday. Took me over 3 hours to put it together and now my joints all hurt from all the sitting on the floor, screwing in nails, etc. I can definitely tell that my body is “looser” now that i’m pregnant! As a result, I now get to experience the joys of sore hips and sore hands today. I gotta get packed asap and get it over with. I’ve had people offer to help me pack, but I decline because that is such a personal thing to me — I’m not sure I want others all up in my stuff like that so, that just leaves me myself and I to do it.

Oh, but as far as stitching goes, I do have a stash report! I received three issues of Cross Stitch Gold that I acquired from the bay of evil not too long ago and I was drooling!! they are lovely! I LOVE this magazine! I can’t find it in town anymore, so I definitely have to keep my eye out for the new issues via their website, or otherwise, go ahead and get a subscription. But back to the mags I received (issues 21, 21 and 23) — I was particularly excited by a few things:

1) Maria Diaz has a series of four art nouveau ladies that I must stitch. They are too pretty. So far, there have been two published — Spring Beauty and Summer Beauty.

2) Sue Page has another geisha design that I must stitch

3) Then, in one of the issues, they started a series of cat designs in these beautiful and bold colors. The first one is in an issue I don’t yet have (Issue 22) but will be backordering – it is the Colorful Night Cat. And, the second one is okay, but I really want the third one which is coming out in the next issue.

So, if you are in the UK and can hook me up with a monthly trade for this mag, do let me know! There really is just not enough time in the day to stitch everything I want to.

Now, if you’ve read all this, I’m sure you won’t mind reading a little more. Here is a pic of Kalonji & I. We took it last month and while I still have yet to get the pictures picked up, they did give them to us on disk — but the quality is not that great. Once I get the real pics in, I’ll scan them and put them on our main website. But I just love this picture and think it is too cute!

As a late birthday present Kalonji bought me an All-in-one printer! I got it online today and picked it up at Best Buy tonite. I was able to install it very easily and I’m in love already! It is a Lexmark printer and is very easy to use.

I continue to stitch on Madonna of the Garden. I don’t have enough new progress to share a new scan, but I hope to get more done this over the weekend and then share it then. Tonite at my LNS I picked up the September 2004 issue of Stitcher’s World. As I was playing with my new printer I went ahead and scanned the images and indexed it in my database. There are some cute designs in there — I really like the Avalon Piillow — check the issue out. In fact, this month already I’ve added 11 issues of various magazines to the database as I do want to continue to keep making progress on it. Of course, it’s one of those never-ending WIPs.

And, I had a check-up to day with the midwife. I took the glucose screen test and the drink that they give you really does taste like an orange soda. I will need to sign up for childbirth classes soon as well as start educating myself on breastfeeding. I am 28 weeks this week and in month 7.

Oh, and I got the apt issue all resolved. I still don’t like them.

I need to rant right now and I’m gonna do it here

I AM SO P’OD at my apt complex! We are moving from this complex in early September, to a larger apt across town where I will also be a lot closer to many of my coworkers. So, at the beginning of June, I began the search and found a wonderful complex to move to. However, when my new complex called my current complex to get my rental history, I was told that my current complex would not give my new complex any information until I filled out a form indicating my intent to leave after my lease expires. Fine, i did that. (I won’t even go into how my current complex then gave my new complex INCORRECT information about my rental hx and how I had to get that fixed!).

Okay, so, a couple of weeks later (mid-June) I receive a letter from my complex saying they are sorry to see me go, what can they do to make me stay. A week after that, I receive a letter from my complex saying that they needed to know what I planned to do about my lease and that if I didn’t renew my lease, the rate would go to a monthly rate. Now, I ignored this b/c I had just received a letter from them saying they knew I was leaving! So, I chalked it up as being a mistake. Then, the next week, I received another letter saying that they received notification that I was leaving, they were sorry to see me go, what could they do to make me stay. Fine, I figured they had gotten it straightened out.

So, what do I find on my door today? Yet ANOTHER letter that says they have not heard from me on what I plan to do about my lease and that I need to let them know or else I will go on a month-to-month rate. (WTF!). I am so livid right now, I can’t even express it. This is obviously a case of one hand not talking to the other and now I have to go in tomorrow and get this straightened out.

What can they do to make me stay? Nothing! they are so disorganized it is not even funny! Funny enough however, my move had nothing to do with them and had considered the complex and the management just fine to deal with. But after this fiasco, I am not sure I would even recommend anyone to move here. There is only one girl in the office that I even think knows what she is doing, but she doesn’t deal with leases anymore…. craziness.

Yesterday, I went with my coworker to Baby Depot and we picked out cribs! We are due only two weeks apart from each other and people at our job are all pitching in to get us cribs. Isn’t that an amazingly nice gesture? Kalonji and I had picked out a crib last time he was home, but when I realized that it had a double trigger release that would require two hands to life the guardrail up and down, I knew i’d need to pick a different crib. I am much happier with this one and it also converts to a toddler bed. It is made by Babi Italia which gets great consumer ratings.

I have also decided that a few of my projects are now UFO’s. So, I created a UFO folder for them. I would almost feel sad about it, but there are so many projects that I have that I enjoy working on, why should i lament over those I don’t enjoy anymore? So, check out my UFO folder — if you want to adopt one, let me know.

I continued to stitch on Madonna of the Garden today. Here’s my pic

I am also watching movies today. I finished the Royal Tennenbaums yesterday. It was weird and I was afraid I was not going to make it through the whole movie, but I did and I enjoyed it. Not sure I’ll add it to my collection though. Then, this morning, I watched Adaptation. This is done by the same director as Being John Malkovich (which I watched last weekend), so it was just as odd of a movie, but it too was good. I liked Nicholas Cage’s performance, yet, I do think I liked Being John Malkovich better. I may have to add both of these to my permanent movie collection one day. Now, I’m off to watch Stuck on You (don’t even ask!)

Today was my birthday! (July 9th that is — as I post this, it’s almost over now) but I had a good day. Unfortunately, I had to work, but that’s okay b/c I had a great day. Got taken out to lunch and then got roses from DH. Even got some clothes for the baby from another friend. One more year older I am now… time just flies!

I finally took a picture of my Fairy Idyll progress. I have not been very strict in keeping track of my time, so my best guesstimate for the number of hours I have put into it is about 45 hours. As I mentioned earlier, the colors are not exactly true to form (the fabric is waterlily) but you’ll get the picture.

I am off to bed now, it’s way past my bedtime.

I am such a bad girl! At my LNS tonite I got the new Madonna In the Garden design from Mirabilia. The colros in her robe are just gorgeous and I plan on getting in a few stitches tonite before I go to bed. It is stitched on Dapple Grey linen which is actually a nice pale purple color. The design is not that large either so it should be a quick stitch. I’m so excited!

And, I also got the latest issue of Jill Oxton that has a design of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. There is an option to do a smaller portion of it that can be done and an option is given for beading. I think I am going to try that and to the smaller version in all beads. I’ve never done a strictly beaded project before, so I think that will be cool.