Plastic Canvas Work

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Jenna Magee

You may have been wondering what I was working on while we were out on the boat yesterday. Or you may not. 😉

About a month ago, I ordered two plastic canvas kits from The Stitchery. One kit is a coaster set with sailing motifs; the other kit is a matching tissue box cover. I finished two of the six coasters while on the boat. Turns out, plastic canvas is a nice, easy thing to work on while on the water.

Here are the finished coasters. There will be a total of 3 of this anchor design and 3 of a sailboat design.





In other news, my Gazelle (elliptical machine) arrived today. I opened it, put it all together and put in a session of nearly 25 minutes on it already. I think my schedule is now going to be come home, exercise on the elliptical while watching Dr. Phil, then make dinner and eat. I’m still getting used to the machine and am finding it challenging to get into a good rhythm on it, but I know that I’ll figure it out. And it is as easy as I thought it would be to exercise while watching TV. No time wasted now. 🙂 Or, at least, less time wasted. I’m quite satisfied.

Finally, thank you for all of your kind thoughts regarding Mary. I called her today and was able to talk to her for a little while. They didn’t hear me knocking last night; she loved the goodies that I made and left for her. She is feeling ill, but the dcotor believes that it’s just the flu, not side effects of her treatment. They found cancer in her brain recently and her chemo treatments are currently on hold while she goes through radiation to get rid of the lesions on her brain. She continues to fight the good fight and continued good thoughts, prayers and positive energy in her direction would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I finished stitching another copy of Helga Mandl’s Frog Spit today. I’m going to finish it as a pinkeep, I think. The other one was finished as a flat fold.





Posted in Crafting, Life in General, Stitching | 7 Comments

Just Got Home

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Yes, today was chalkful of fun. We left early, went to an office supply store so that I could get labels for my Casio labelmaker. Ended up making the decision to buy a P-Touch label maker, instead.

Then, we went out sailing with Terry’s dad and his new wife. 🙂 Enjoyed our time on the water and I stitched plastic canvas coasters for use on the boat the whole time we were out (I finished 2 of 6 coasters). Then we stopped and had dinner out. Dinner was good, but I started feeling a bit funny partway through dinner, so I took an Imodium and had them pack the rest of it up so that I can have it tomorrow.

We still had to go to Joann fabrics to look at sewing machines. I decided that I don’t trust my current, inexpensive Brother machine that I bought at WalMart several years ago to work through the lovely navy blue velvet that we bought for our renaissance costumes. On the way to the Joann store, we stopped at Mary’s house so that I could drop off her tote bag and wallhanging. No one answered the door, which was odd because I saw lights on inside and hear someone on the stairs. Mary hasn’t returned any of my phone calls, either (I’ve been leaving a message every other day or so, just to see how she’s doing). I’m not sure what’s going on, but I will do whatever she needs to be comfortable, so I left the box on her porch and then called and left a message on her machine so that she knew that something was out there.

We finally got to the Joann store and were inundated with expensive sewing machines. They have a Husqvarna/Viking dealer in the store, so that’s what we ended up getting. They have several different levels of complexity and, of course, I fell in love with an expensive version ($1200, eek!), but I didn’t want to spend anywhere near that much money. My last machine cost me less than $200. We ended up compromising and, instead of buying a higher-end Singer, we went with a middle-of-the-road Viking machine. We’ll be able to trade up for a more expensive version later, if we want, and the warranty was 12 months as opposed to Singer’s 90 days.

I also went into Joann with the intention of getting some scissors in the new Ashley print, but they didn’t have any. Very disappointing!

Now we’re home, it’s late and we’re exhausted. Time for bed!

Posted in Life in General | 6 Comments

Two Pieces Framed

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Jenna Magee

I finally framed these two last night. I had been waiting on them because I was going to lace them. Well, I finally got tired of waiting for myself and, instead, I used glue. I figured they weren’t important enough to fuss about. I will continue to lace large pieces, though. Just to be safe.

So, here they are. First up is Never for Granted, by My Mark Designs:






This one will go on Terry’s desk at work. I chose overdyed floss that I had on hand for the hearts and added the personalization like what you might see carved into a tree trunk.

It looks better in person. The fabric is a crisper antique white and the black of the frame looks really snappy. But, I am left to the whims of my scanner. 😉

The second one is by Cindy Valentine Designs. It was called Christmas Boxtop (I believe), but I totally personalized the colors by choosing an overdyed silk for the border and then pulling out solid colored silks to match. I finished this one a couple of years ago, but never mounted it in its boxtop because I didn’t like the fabric I chose to underlay the hardanger section. I finally soaked off the glue keeping the underlayment in place and replaced it with a darker color. And now it’s all done and mounted in a whitewashed finished Sudberry House box.






Now to find a use for it. Perhaps it will hold my used flosses in my stitching corner before they are put away.

Posted in Stitching | 12 Comments

Doing Better

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Jenna Magee

I was able to get up at a decent time this morning, amazingly enough. I think I will be able to get myself back onto a normal schedule soon. I’m getting some good work done today, too. All good things. I’m biding my time, doing my best imitation of a patient person and it seems to be paying off.

I am WAY behind on blogs right now, BTW. It’s been a toss-up: keep my blog up to date or keep up with all of the blogs I read. My blog won out. Sorry! I may eventually get caught up, or I may just give up. I haven’t figured out which yet. 😉 Just bear with me, please.

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

And Another One’s Gone…

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Another one bites the dust. I started this one yesterday and completed the stitching on it today. I finished it as a wallhanging to give to my friend Mary.





Not so hot in the finishing department, since I intended to do a flanged pillow at first. Also, a major stitching error that I just didn’t care to rip. I’m getting sloppy, I guess, but I’ve been still skittish, so I actually prefer pieces with lots of color changes, believe it or not. At least, I do for now. I’m going to start a HAED bookmark design next, though I really should kit up Fall Dragon for Leslie’s RR piece.

Posted in Stitching | 5 Comments

Sunday Finishing

Posted on September 9, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Another stitching finish for me today. I even finish-finished the piece into a biscornu. I’m definitely on a roll!

This even takes something off of my WIP/UFO list, too. Without further adieu, here is my Sweetheart Tree Ladybug’s Lament, finished as a biscornu:

Posted in Stitching | 19 Comments

Still Moving

Posted on September 8, 2007 by Jenna Magee

We’re back. The overnight trip on the boat was successful, but a bit stressful. I literally have more than 20 mosquito bites on my right leg alone. And we were trying to find a place to anchor after dark in an area we’re never sailed in before, which caused me to have a panic attack. Otherwise, though… 😉 Seriously, the winds were great today, once Terry was able to bend them to his will.

I’m still feeling like I’m on the boat and the ground is moving, even though it isn’t. I found the perfect spot for stitching in the boat cabin, where a light is right behind my head. I just didn’t get to stitch too much because I was tired. So now I’ll get to stitch the day away tomorrow. Woohoo! 😀

Posted in Life in General | 8 Comments

Sailing, Sailing Away

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Jenna Magee

We are taking today off and going for our first overnight trip on the boat. I’m pretty excited. I’ve been trying to find spots to stow everything and the idea of being rocked to sleep by the waves of the Chesapeake Bay is an inticing prospect. As is stitching a lot because there’s nothing else to do once we’ve anchored for the night. Tee hee! 😀 Or, playing some card or board games with Terry. What a treat this is going to be!

Phoebe will be with us, of course. We took her on the boat with us again this past Saturday and she was fine. Terry took the life vest off and let her roam around below deck. She just laid there and seemed comfortable. At one point, she jumped up onto one of the seats and took her “Queenie” position, all curled up on a pillow. I think she’s going to do just fine, though the life vest will go back on anytime she’s not in the cabin. I’ll try to get a picture of her with her sporty life vest. I even bought her a matching red harness and leash to go with her red life vest. 😉

Posted in Life in General | 7 Comments

For Outi

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Jenna Magee

As a member of the Yahoo! group called Wonderful XS World, I have been able to take part in a Halloween ornament SAL full of great designs, mostly by Helga Mandl and Periphaeria Designs.

I’ve stitched 3 of Helga’s designs at this point:



My favorites, though, are by Outi, of course. In looking at 5 of them, I realized that, since they were all the same size, and similarly themed, I could line them up in a symmetrical manner and create a bellpull:





Posted in Stitching | 8 Comments

Back to Normal, Except…

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Jenna Magee

… that I think I’m experiencing the sedation side effect of the Zyprexa. Tuesday morning, I was sleeping like a zombie and didn’t wake up until 11:11 AM. This morning, I was sleeping soundly again and wasn’t able to get out of bed in time to go in to work with Terry. Yes, we have two cars and technically I could have driven myself to work once I got up, but if the excessive sleeping is medication-related, there’s no way I’m getting behind the wheel of a dangerous weapon. Instead, Terry came and picked me up when he was between meetings. What a sweetie he is. Barely an ill word about anything during this whole ordeal.

But, it’s not an ordeal. You see, I’m trying to think very positively about myself, my situation, my body, my diagnoses, etc. I believe strongly in the power of positive thinking. And not in the sense of “I’m POSITIVE that I feel rotten and my life’s a mess.” 😆 I love my mother, but she seems to get really gloomy sometimes and refers to my “health issues” like it’s some deadly curse that she thinks is going to send me down the same road that she’s gone, having to go on disability, not being able to afford our house, etc. I hate to even type the words because I don’t want to lend any credibility to those thoughts.

The funny thing is that I don’t even consider myself to have “health issues.” Yes, I have IBS, but so do A LOT of people. Yes, apparently I had an ulcer, but hopefully it’s gone now. And stomach ulcers are very minor in the grand scheme of things. Finally, yes, I have bipolar disorder, but I am FULLY FUNCTIONAL. At least, the vast majority of the time I am.

So, for my sake and my mother’s and that of anyone else who may be wondering: I am fine. I am happy. I am me. My life is good. I have a job that pays wells. I have a fantastic husband. I have a lovely home. I really can’t complain. And that’s where I am. Happy to be me. 😀

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 10 Comments