Uh-oh!

We had a major hardware failure on one of our servers last night. Terry was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out how to bypass the corrupted hardware. Unfortunately, the hardware held the key to all of our data, including my blog, One Star’s Light, etc.

For whatever reason, the most recent data that Terry could pull from backup was from March 30th. This means that I’m missing a few blog entries. It also means that OSL is minus an order, but fortunately, I keep all of the order emails generated from the system, so I was still able to ship the order and manually reconciled the store inventory.

In the meantime, poor Terry has been dealing with aftershocks all day. We lost wireless connectivity for a while, my web mail is still down (but I can get into it in other ways) and other random things have been been working, then breaking, then working again. I think that Terry is fried. He slept in until I woke him up at 3 PM.

On the stitching front, I’m working on a model, so I can’t share anything. Again. I want to try to complete the model this weekend and get some serious time in on Spring Dragon, as well as maybe Barnabee’s Quest.

My parents are coming for a visit this weekend, arriving sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Hopefully, Mom won’t mind that I’m going to take my stitching corner from her (that’s where she usually sits). I’m going to try to stick to my normal weekend routine of sleeping in and stitching. So, I may or may not have some stitching to share Sunday night or so.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 6 Comments

April Stitching Goals

  • Stitch and send back model
  • Stitch Spring Dragon and send out for Round Robin
  • Start and complete one Christmas ornament
  • Work on Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest
  • Work on Alma Lynne – Computer Wizard
  • Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha
Posted in Stitching | 1 Comment

March Stitching Goals in Review

  • Start and complete one Christmas ornament
  • :mrgreen: Work on Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest
  • :mrgreen: Work on Alma Lynne – Computer Wizard
  • Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha

Doesn’t look like much, but I also did a lot of work on PIF gifts and stitched up some other miscellaneous items.

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What’s on Tap?

What’s on tap for this weekend? Well, let’s see. There’s that mountain of yardwork that could be done. We’re going out tonight after work to buy fertilizer, temporary fencing to keep Phoebe off of the muddy areas in the back and a roller to try and regrade the backyard. You may or may not remember that we had a geothermal heating/cooling system installed last November. They had to dig up the backyard to put it in and the well drilling truck sank its wheels into the soft, muddy ground because it had been raining for days before. So, we have some huge ruts that will snap your ankle if you walk on them the wrong way and generally muddiness in the backyard. It’s like the first spring after the house was built, all over again!

So, we need to roll and dig and roll and rake and hope to get it back to some semblance of smoothness again and then sow some starter seed. A lot of that is going to be heavy and/or tractor work, so that will be Terry’s domain. I want to try to do it this weekend because the ground is nice and soft, so it should be more malleable.

Add to that mess the fact that Terry installed a sump pump (though I never see water in the basement) and the outlet has been making a nice, muddy pit a couple of feet from the foundation in the back and, well, he has some work to do. 😉 We’ll have to dig a trench, line it with stone, lay down black, perforated pipe and run the outlet pipe underground to meet up. Fortunately, there is an untouched section of yard for Phoebe to do her business. Hence the need for temporary fencing. I’m tired of her coming in with muddy paws!

I will probably weed, spray and put down some more mulch in areas. There are other areas that need to be cleared out, so some combination of pruners (hand or bypass) and shovels will be needed. And then maybe I will play with the tiller a bit. It’s so light that it tends to bounce on our clay and rock-ridden soil, so I have trouble keeping it down.

I also need to (more importantly) start some seeds in the house for vegetables in the garden and lavender plants that I eventually want to line the driveway. I know, I should have started them much earlier, but I didn’t want any seedlings to dry out and die while we were in Utah, so I do what I can. 🙂

Add to that, copious amounts of stitching. I want to finish my fourth (and last, at least for now) incarnation of Alegria and then I have to baste my RR fabric and work on Barnabee’s Quest and Computer Wizard. They are calling for rain on Sunday, which would be good, to keep me inside!

And so starts that time of year where my desire to stitch and my desire to be outside war with each other on a fairly constant basis…

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 2 Comments

Carrie’s Threads Are In!

Just a note to say that we just finished loading 211 colors of Carrie’s Threads to One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies. A few don’t have pictures, so I will have to scan them and load them separately, but the vast majority are good to go.

Enjoy! 😀

Posted in Shop Talk | 3 Comments

For Outi

Ask and ye shall receive…

I was home today with a migraine, so what did I do to relax? Why, stitched on black fabric, of course! I’m twisted, I know. 😉

So, here it is, dear Outi. Alegria by Periphaeria Designs stitched on 27 ct. black Linda fabric with Simply Shaker floss by The Gentle Art in Geranium:





Which now has me curious to do it one more time on black. Wait and see… 😉

Posted in Stitching | 6 Comments

Two Down

Well, I knocked two items off of my yardwork list last night. I cut back my clematis and the decorative grasses surrounding the cover for our septic system. The clematis had actually started to sprout already, so I unhappily cut off green bits as well as old dead bits. They tend to take off like a rocket. Apparently, they really like their current location. Anyway, I had promised myself that I was going to cut them down to within a foot or so of the ground this year and I made myself do it, like it or not. Ths means that my blooms this year will not overflow onto the back side of the trellis that’s against the house and no one sees. 😆 It also means that I can replace the trellis this year, which was plastic and has now warped and cracked mercilessly. I think I might go with wood this time.

Cutting back the grasses was the hardest part. Using the hedge shears (manual, not electric) exercised muscles that I didn’t even realize I had. I’m a little sore today as a result, but it’s a good kind of sore. I was just glad to be outside for a while. I worked up quite a sweat, even though I didn’t go out until after 6 PM.

Today is a bit cooler (highs in the low 60’s) and overcast, plus we have a work celebration tonight, so we won’t be home until later than normal. I’m actually glad to be back in at work, for some wierd reason. 😉 I got a lot of work done yesterday afternoon and night, so I’m quite pleased with what I accomplished. I completely redesigned the back-end of a Notes database that I originally wrote many years ago and was ugly as sin. I’ve been putting it off forever, but took the time while in Utah to get started and last night I put all of the pieces together and got it working. Now I have to verify and debug. Woohoo. 😉

I was supposed to have a meeting first thing this morning, so I was agitating about it, dropped Terry off and drove over. Had to park way off in Timbuktu, walked the whole way around the building, into reception and then found out that the meeting was canceled. So I had to walk the whole way back around to the car, drive back to my building, park in Timbuktu and walk the whole way to the building and up the unforgiving metal stairs. I was actually tired by the time I reached my cubicle. Does that count as my exercise for the day?

Speaking of exercise, I am being a good girl. I finally ordered a new PlayStation 2 to go upstairs in the master bedroom so that I can DDR without bumping into things (since the living room is too cramped for the dance pad, really). It should hopefully arrive early next week. I need to work off all of that restaurant food from last week.

No stitching last night, but I did cut a chunk of black fabric for the Seasonal Dragons RR and I made sure I had the fibers pulled for it. I also started the tedious work of entering all 200+ colors of Carrie’s Threads into Excel. I entered all of the colors, but need to tweak the entries. From there, it will get imported into my accounting software and then into the storefront. I’ll try to finish the spreadsheet and do the import into MS Accounting tonight. If not, I’ll stitch on Computer Wizard, since I have been such a horrible SAL partner to date.

We will see what the day brings. Have a happy one!

Posted in Life in General, Shop Talk, Stitching | 6 Comments

Pinch Me

… I must be dreaming. It’s still March and we’re in the 70’s today. It’s actually HOT outside! As in, keep the doors and windows closed because it’s cooler inside than out. As in, I ran out to the post office and then did a survey of the “grounds” when I got home and when I went inside, I was (and still am) sweating. My goodness!

It makes me want to take a vacation day, so I think I will take a few hours off today. It also makes me want to do (gasp!) yardwork. Can you believe it? Actually, it seems to be an ideal time to do a lot of things, like clear out areas before the weeds take over so that I can keep on top of things this year. I actually want to spread mulch, cut back decorative grasses, pull weeds, cut back my clematis and plant things. This is nuts. 😉

It is a gorgeous day!

Posted in Life in General | 8 Comments

Stitching to Share!

The first of what I expect to be at least a couple of photo-loaded posts this week, this one contains last week’s stitching finishes that I can share. There are two more that I can’t and one that isn’t yet finished.

First off were the two parts of Tor Rhuann Designs‘ Celtic Mission to Assisi:





Part 1 is a daffodil symbolizing St. David, the patron saint of Wales.
Stitched on white 28 ct. evenweave with GAST in Willow.
Part 2 is a shamrock symbolizing St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Stitched on white 28 ct. evenweave with WDW in Hunter.

And then there are my two reproductions of Periphaeria Designs‘ Alegria (a freebie available only from One Star’s Light Needlework Designs). I made a mistake on the one and the colors didn’t sequence as nicely, so I will make the two parts into a biscornu and hide the defective one on the bottom. 😉





Stitched on 28 ct. white Annabelle with Dragon Floss in Rudolf Red. Stitched on 28 ct. white Annabelle with Carrie’s Creation Thread in Wildberry Breeze.

And that’s all there is to share, for now!

Posted in Stitching | 12 Comments

Friday Adventures

I’m currently freezing cold in my hotel room, but outside of my window, it looks like yet another beautiful, sunny day in Salt Lake City! It’s our last day here and, to be honest, I could not be more relieved. While staying in a hotel can be fun, being in here nearly 24 hours a day for a week has just turned out to be a little much for me.

Actually, I think that the thing I like the least is eating out every night. Every once in a while is a nice treat, but every night has me feeling like I’m going to need to start walking when I get home to drop some extra weight. More than anything, though, I miss my sweet, fuzzy companion and bed-buddy, Phoebe. We saw a Pomeranian yesterday on the way to dinner. She was the same color as Phoebe, though about half the size, and being walked downtown. I just wanted to snatch her up and give her kisses galore!

We’re going to get out and about for a little bit today, which should be a nice way to end our stay here. Terry rented a car for the day and when he gets back from the conference around 2 PM, we’re going to take off for Ogden and the Shepherd’s Bush store! I’m going to try to refrain from buying too much, but I will try to remember to bring my camera with me so that I can take pictures to share with all of you. Can you believe he actually kept asking me if I wanted to go to Ogden? I think he just wanted an excuse to get out of the city, as well. Or he’s delirious. 😉

I may not post again until Sunday or so. Our flight leaves at 9 AM tomorrow, so we’ll have to be up outrageously early to catch a shuttle to the airport. We’ll get home after 4 PM, where Terry’s dad will pick us up from the airport, we’ll go back to his house to pack up Phoebe and then we’ll head home. I can’t wait to be home, even I’ll just be working on laundry and stitching on Barnabee’s Quest. It will just be nice to be back in the peace, quiet and comfort of my own home.

On the stitching front, I was unable to complete the one PIF gift that is nearly done because I didn’t bring any beading needles with me. Might see if I can pick one or two up at Shepherd’s Bush. I also started two new pieces with a third ready to start today. I started two copies of Alegria from Periphaeria Designs yesterday, finishing one last night and another one today. I think I’m going to start Kokopelli by Periphaeria Designs sometime today, as well. I was going to work on more PIF projects, but decided to have some fun just for me instead. I’ll share pictures when I get home, so watch out for some loaded posts in the near future! Oh, and please note that Alegria is a freebie that is now available with every purchase from One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies! This is an exclusive freebie available only at OSL. 😉

Posted in Life in General | 8 Comments