Last Day!

Posted on September 4, 2007 by Jenna Magee

I’m so relieved that this is my last day on the antibiotic/Prevacid cocktail for stomach ulcers. Maybe I will stop sleeping like a zombie now. 😆

Seriously, I was so out of it this morning that I vaguely remember Terry getting up and getting the shower, then he left and I didn’t wake up until 11:11 AM. It’s crazy, but my body either needed it after sailing two days over the long weekend or it’s the antibiotics.

Either way, I’m glad to be done taking 4 big capsules twice a day! YAY! I have to admit, though, that going back to work is a bit intimidating. I’ve gotten to really like working from home and on my own schedule. I’m sure I’ll do fine, though. I feel like I’m constantly on the verge of spilling over into the mixed state mania again, but right now, I’m pretty stable and I’ll take it. 😀

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

Two More Ornaments

Posted on September 3, 2007 by Jenna Magee

We went sailing today, so I don’t have much of anything to report. However, I did finish painting two more jumping jack Christmas ornaments last night and this morning.

I only had four of these, so now I’ll have to keep an eye out at places like ACMoore and Michaels so that I can pick up some more. I think they are going to look great on our tree in a few months. 😉

Posted in Crafting | 3 Comments

What Am I Working On?

Posted on September 2, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Well, I’m still in a mild manic state, so the answer is a lot. I had a can barely sit still day today and part of yesterday, as well. I tried painting plaster Christmas houses, tried painting wooden Christmas ornaments and neither of these took (I wasn’t able to get the detail on the houses and the stain for the ornaments that came with the kit was dried out). So, I broke out the quilling and also found a couple of wooden jumping jack ornaments to paint, as well. Oh, I also made 3 different pillows for the boat.

Without further ado, here’s what I got done:







I love the purple iris quilled piece. I’m going to frame it and give it to either my mom or my grandmother for Christmas. The rest was practice. The book I have on quilling is full of great projects like this, so more will be coming along in the future. As long as I can find the time… 😉

Posted in Crafting | 6 Comments

One Star’s Light’s Six Month Anniversary!

Posted on September 1, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Today, One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies celebrates the six month anniversary of our grand opening.

As the proprietress, I can hardly believe that the time has flown by so quickly. I would like to thank everyone who has purchased stash from us.

In order to reward our customers, we are offering 15% off of all orders from now until midnight EDT on September 7th. To take advantage of this discount, use the coupon code 6MonthAnniversary when you check out.

Thank you for helping to make this business a success!

The coupon code is now working again; thanks for your patience!

Posted in Shop Talk | 5 Comments

September Stitching Goals

Posted on September 1, 2007 by Jenna Magee
  • Stitch and send Fall Dragon
  • Finish Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest (?)
  • Work on The Sweetheart Tree – Pretty Posies
  • Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha
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August Stitching Goals in Review

Posted on September 1, 2007 by Jenna Magee
  • :mrgreen: Finish, pack up and send secret stitching
  • Finish Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest (?)
  • Work on The Sweetheart Tree – Pretty Posies

I may have only made 1 goal out of 3, but I sure did get a lot of other things done! 🙂

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It’s Friday?

Posted on August 31, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Is it really Friday? Working from home all week and have my various problems has led to a complete lack of time awareness on my part. Wednesday and Thursday already felt like Friday, so now that it’s here, it feels strange. 😆

We’re hoping to have good sailing weather tomorrow. I’m going to go to WalMart at some point and buy an inexpensive Gazelle elliptical to help with the exercise issue. I want to be able to work out on it while I’m watching tv at night. Of course, I need to convince Terry to take the CrossBow gym down into the basement so that there’s room for my elliptical. He hasn’t used it in quite some time, so I think I should be able to talk him into it… eventually. It won’t be lonely for long, since we will be finishing the basement this winter.

Still stitching, but less today. Everything I picked up, I was bored with. Including other hobbies. Quite annoying, really, but now I’m settled in my stitching corner for the night. 🙂 We will probably be sailing tomorrow, so nothing but the usual month-end goal check and next month’s goals will probably be posted. Sunday, though, I should have some more stitching to show off.

Posted in Life in General | 2 Comments

All’s Well on the Stitching Front

Posted on August 30, 2007 by Jenna Magee

Now that I’ve had my nice little whine (anyone care for some cheese with that?), I can update you on what I’ve been stitching and how things are going on the stitching front.

I still have start-itis pretty badly. Being part of the Halloween SAL on the Wonderful XS World Yahoo! group doesn’t help. I’m addicted to the designers’ quick and easy ornaments. The first one I stitched was from Periphaeria Designs, called Skull Crossing:

I didn’t stitch the border around the ornament because I figured out too late that one of the bats was in the wrong place. So, I folded it over on itself so that only the skulls showed on the front and the bats on the back. It helped cover the mistake a little better, but the ornament is less than 2″ wide.

Next up was a design by Helga Mandl called Beware of Cat. I stitched this one on dark grey fabric that I hand-dyed myself:





After that, I stitched up another design by Helga Mandl called Frog Spit. I think this one cursed me because I could not seem to put in a single correct stitch on Wednesday. I’m glad I’m finished with him; he’s uber-cute!





And then another by Helga called Guess Who Day. Love, love, LOVE the bright blue in these quirky witches’ shoes:





I made a little bit more progress on Betsy’s Butterfly Wednesday night, but I had to frog a bunch first. We went to JoAnn’s after my psychiatrist appointment so that we could pick a pattern for Terry and then get all of the fabric for both of our Renaissance styled costumes. Friends of ours that we’ve known since college got married a few months ago and are have a wedding reception in late October. They are really big on the Renaissance fair scene, so costumes are optional.

We chose a gorgeous royal blue velvet that is so soft, it feels like it could just melt in your hands. Yummy! Here’s a scan of the dress that I’m going to be making for myself, and a scan of hubby’s costume (the one on the left), as well.

I also bought some DMCs that I needed and I had a little stash splurge on a purse that I’ve had my eye on in The Stitchery catalog for some time, but I hadn’t seen it with a purple hydrangea on it. I snapped it up with no time to waste:





I also bought some more fabric for potential dyeing, or just for the heck of it.

And, speaking of dyeing, I went to the grocery store the other day, picked up 4 more colors of RIT Dye (black, royal blue, teal and wine) and played with them. These are all solids, except for some that I dyed in a primary color, then wadded up the fabric and dunked in the black dye briefly. I forgot to take photos and don’t want to bother with it now. Sorry. 🙂

I think that’s more than enough for now. Next time, hopefully I’ll have even more stitching to share!

Posted in Stitching | 8 Comments

Today, I’m Normal

Posted on August 30, 2007 by Jenna Magee

That’s right, today I actually feel normal. For the first time in about a week. It feels so good to just be normal.

I know that most people think that I’ve been doing okay, since I’ve been blogging a lot. The truth is that I’ve had a terrible time of it lately. I started Abilify, an anti-psychotic mood stabilizer, last Wednesday (I think) and by Friday, I was cycling up into a hypomanic state. By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was in pretty bad shape. I was manic like I’ve never been before. I literally, seriously could not stand or sit still for any period of time. I was just uncomfortable inside of my own body, no matter what position I tried. I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin. I was all over the place – baking, cooking, cleaning, stitching, trying to work from home, the whole nine yards. On Tuesday night, I finally cracked. I was tired of being tired, but not being able to nap because I couldn’t lay down. I was tired of not having enough energy to sit up straight. I was tired of the whole thing, so I just broke down into inconsolable tears. At that point, I had Terry call the psychiatrist’s cell phone (it was 9 PM-ish) and I talked to him about what was going on. He explained that I was in a “mixed state” and that instead of experiencing euphoria, I was anxious and agitated. Not surprising, since I paced the first floor of our house the entire time I was on the phone with him. So, he called in a prescription for Zyprexa to help bring me down from the mania. We had to drive nearly an hour each way (keep in mind, this is around 9:00 PM; it was a long night) to a 24-hour pharmacy to pick up the pills. I also had to go in and see the psychiatrist yesterday as a follow-up.

We discussed the meds I’m on and what other alternative medications there were. I have to say that I’m not convinced that the Abilify didn’t spark this whole episode, but the doctor seems to think that this episode would have happened anyway and that I’m just not on a high enough dosage of Abilify. We talked about other drugs and I decided that since the Zyprexa brought me down nicely (I started feeling pretty normal yesterday), we’ll try it as an additional maintenance medication.

All of this means that I’m really going to have to start exercising. Abilify is the only drug out right now for treatment of bipolar disorder that doesn’t have significant side effects of weight gain and sedation. I saw a relatively cheap elliptical at Walmart, so I think I’m going to go get it sometime soon. Hopefully, starting an exercise routine will help prevent the weight gain. Hopefully…

BTW, all of those posts? Written ahead of time. I cheated. 😆

Posted in Life in General | 10 Comments

Who’s Going to CATS?

Posted on August 29, 2007 by Jenna Magee

We’re less than a month away from this year’s stitching festival in Hershey. Some have said it’s the last one, so I’ve decided to live it up while I still can.

I will be driving up on Thursday, staying Thursday and Friday nights and hopefully attending two classes on Saturday.

So, who else is going that I can meet up with?

I know that Cathy is going. 😀 And Suz, too. Anyone else?

I think that I’m starting to get excited, just like Cathy! I want to get to the market early on Thursday to see all of the wondrous items before all of the shops are picked over.

If they do continue the stitching festival, I would love to have OSL there, sharing a booth with someone. I can’t wait to see Sandie Vanosdall again; this time as one of her model stitchers instead of just a rabid fanatic. I can’t wait to see my Blackberry Heart model framed, too! 😉

So, if you’re reading this and planning on going to Hershey, please leave a comment so that we can arrange a meeting at some point. Hopefully, Cathy will be up to another dinner at Friendly’s at least one of those nights.

Posted in Stitching | 7 Comments