I decided to do some stitching goals for January after all. I must be feeling a bit better. Besides, I worked on Pretty Posies for a while yesterday, so it’s only fair that I give myself a little nudge to keep working on it.
Barnabee’s Quest will probably come back after I finish Pretty Posies, since that’s the project occupying my stand right now.
I hope you don’t mind the Pearl Jam reference, but I now have that song running through my head.
As if you couldn’t already tell from the silence on my blog, I’ve been in a real funk for several weeks. Part of it might be that I suffer from SAD, part of it might be adjusting to medication changes, or it could just be straight depression. Who knows? I’m starting to come out of it finally, but had a bad and sudden relapse Wednesday night which sent me back to the bottom of this long, winding spiral staircase that I seem to be climbing.
I do actually have a bit of stitching to show, but it’s at home and I’m at work, so I’ll post it later.
Christmas was strange this year. My dad got sick, so my parents couldn’t come down. That made for a change in plans, with an adjusted meal (ham, instead of cooking a whole turkey for just four of us) and just Terry’s dad and his new wife over for dinner. Unfortunately, the changes didn’t help my depression, which has really colored everything in my life with a gray haze.
As a result, we are trying to have Christmas dinner again tomorrow. I call it Christmas, Part 2. My parents should be here in a couple of hours and we’ll cook the turkey and go the whole nine yards (again) tomorrow. I know we’re nuts to do this, but Terry can’t eat turkey, so it would probably go into the trash otherwise. Besides, my parents have yet to meet Terry’s dad’s wife, so we had to get them back over to our house for a little bit. What better excuse than a big meal, right? I have a feeling I’ll be crashing on Sunday.
Other than that, I’ve been sleeping. A lot. I think that’s one of my symptoms of depression, as well. Lack of motivation, sleeping a lot, I even considered closing my ONS, but I know better than to make big decisions when I’m not feeling myself. Besides, I got two orders from new customers this week. That’s always good news.
On the work front, I started back on Wednesday. It’s been a quiet week here, as a lot of people took off the 3 days this week. We’ll be back up to full capacity on Monday, I suspect. I’m finally getting some more work in my new position. I’ve been pushing myself onto the guy whose work I’ll be sharing because a) I don’t have any more work to do in my old position right now and b) he’s so busy that if I wait for him to come to me, it’ll never happen. The busier I get, the happier I’ll be, though I suspect that’s still a while in the making.
I’ve been in a slump on the stitching side. Mostly because I’ve been feeling like hardanger lately, but the past two pieces I’ve done, I’ve accidentally cut threads in the outer buttonhole stitching when I went to cut the pieces out and I actually threw one of the pieces out, as a result. No fun. Of course, what I could do is to stitch them up but not cut them out. I’m not having a problem with cutting the hardanger sections out, just the border. I might just have to start something(s) new to get over the hump. We’ll see.
As I continue to fight to come up out of this depression, I would appreciate your positive thoughts and energy. 🙂
Nothing. I’m having a lot of trouble right now and I may need some new starts to help get me over the hump when it comes to stitching, so I am not posting any goals for this month. I’m just going to do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it!
I’m way late on posting this:
Work on The Sweetheart Tree – Pretty Posies Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and BuddhaI have about 15 minutes left until I leave my cold little cubicle for the work holiday party and I won’t be back until next year. Woohoo! I have a ton of baking to do this weekend, so I may or may not be online at all until after Christmas. With that in mind, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas!
Thanks to Sharon, that is! She was my sender for the Birthday/Christmas club and she spoiled me terribly. Not only did she stitch a sweet Christmas tree design with snowman button finished in a tuck pillow, but she threw in a bunch of extras, including fat quarters of fabric, JBW Designs charts, WDW floss, chocolates, a bookmark, note cards and post-it notes.
I’ll send you to Sharon’s blog entry for pictures.
I am so lucky to have had Sharon as my sender for this year. She was very generous with both gift packages and I hope she had as much fun putting everything together as I did receiving it. 😉
Thank you, Sharon!
As seen on Anna’s blog:
Both, but mostly wrapping paper.
Artificial. I can’t see sacrificing a tree for my decorating purposes. Plus, it keeps us from worrying about Phoebe getting into dropped needles or the tree water.
Sometime after Terry’s birthday on Dec. 8th.
Sometime in January.
Yep. I need to buy some the next time we’re at the grocery store, actually. I usually add some nutmeg to it.
Either my Easy Bake oven or my Hippity Hop. If you don’t know what it is, a Hippity Hop was a large ball with a handle on it that you could sit on and bounce around everywhere.
No.
My father-in-law. He buys everything he wants, when he wants it. I make him Terry’s problem. 😉
Probably my mother. I can usually give her something homemade, plus something retail.
Snail mail. Though I tend to run out of cards.
More like worst set of Christmas gifts received. One year, after my parents divorced, I gave a whole list to my dad and he didn’t get me one single thing on the list! Sorry, Dad, I love you, but I was really bummed.
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
Early fall. Can’t start too early, unless it’s a stitched item, because you run the risk of the recipient buying the gift for themselves.
Probably, but I can’t remember anything specific.
Everything. 😉 Peanut butter kiss cookies.
Multi-colored, please.
I don’t think I have a favorite.
Stay home. When we bought the house, we declared that everyone would come to us. 🙂
Yep. The Rudolph song is forever burned into my brain.
A star, of course. But someday it will be an angel with hardanger wings and gown.
Both. Terry and I open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. We open presents with my parents in the morning, then presents with his parents when they arrive.
The over-commercialization of Christmas. Stores start carrying Christmas items way too early!
Favorite ornament theme would be handmade. I was lax this year in finishing items, but I woud eventually like to have the majority of my ornaments be handmade.
Turkey. Since Terry’s allergic to poultry, this is about the only time of year that I get turkey!
To be happy.
I want to thank everyone who took a few minutes to leave a comment on my post about the “blahs.” There was some sunlight today, which I think helped a little bit. But, more importantly, all of your encouragement has been uplifting. I’m still struggling, but I know that my mood will come around eventually. I really need to get decorating for Christmas and pay my business accounting some attention, so I hope that I’m back to normal soon!
This SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:
What tips would you give to a new stitcher to help her stitch faster and neater while still keeping it enjoyable?
I’m going to deviate from the norm on this one and say that the key is just to enjoy yourself. Yes, it would be nice if your stitches all cross the same way, but this craft isn’t about perfection. It’s about allowing yourself to unwind and relax. Let your needle hang freely every once in a while so that the thread can unwind, especially if you’re starting to get knots. Otherwise, have fun doing something you love!
This SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:
Do you do anything special to your threads before putting them through your fabric to make them more manageable?
This is an easy one. The answer is no. I don’t even use Thread Heaven on my metallics anymore, though I might have to get back to that practice.
