Waaaaahoooooooooo!

Posted on June 23, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Oh, it hardly seems possible, but I’m finally making some serious headway against my most stressful problems this week. I have made some progress against my project at work, I have made a 101 Things list for myself and… I have finished my model! I thank my lucky stars for that finish. What a huge load off of my mind. And now on to other commitments! 😆

I feel a bit lighter today. Like I’m finally starting to come out of this hole. Thank goodness!

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful words of kindness and support this week. I know that I’ve had a lot of friends and family like you guys sending me positive vibes all week and I really appreciate it. It has made a difference! *hugs*

Posted in Stitching | 5 Comments

SBQ – Need Some Help?

Posted on June 22, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Vash and is:

Have you ever used a magnifying glass while stitching? If so, did you find it helpful?

I had Terry buy one for me a year or more ago. It’s a very nice clip-on magnifier, but I’ve found that my eyesight isn’t quite at the point where I need one. I’m at an in-between stage, I think. My eyes fatigue a bit after stitching for a while, but the magnifier strains my eyes much faster. I have purchased a couple of small cuts of small count fabrics to try and I may want to use it when I work on those. Ultimately, I’m sure that I will be glad to have it at some point. Just not yet. 🙂

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 2 Comments

Out of My Head

Posted on June 21, 2006 by Jenna Magee

My world is currently spinning out of control. Everytime I think I have some sort of tenuous grip on things, some universal lubricant is invisibly applied and they slip out of my grasp again.

I am so crazy busy in seemingly all aspects of my life that my brain is revolting, spinning off mini-tornados of depression, frustration, anxiety, fatigue, anger, exhaustion and various forms of head, neck and shoulder pain.

Stop the world, I want to get off! Truly. And don’t expect a lot from me for a while because, even once the merry-go-round stops turning, I’ll still be reeling drunkly all over the park for a little while until I regain my balance.

But, hey… at least you can enjoy the show! 😈

Posted in Life in General | 9 Comments

MIGRAINE!

Posted on June 19, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I’m shattered. I’ll post tomorrow. I hope. Darned weather… 🙁

Posted in Life in General | 7 Comments

Jacob and Rebecca

Posted on June 17, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Thanks to Lelia for this great funny!

Jacob, age 92, and Rebecca, age 89, living in Florida, are all excited about their decision to get married. They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding, and on the way they pass a drugstore. Jacob suggests they go in.

Jacob addresses the man behind the counter: “Are you the owner?”

The pharmacist answers, “Yes.”

Jacob: “We’re about to get married. Do you sell heart medication?”

Pharmacist: “Of course we do.”

Jacob: “How about medicine for circulation?”

Pharmacist: “All kinds.”

Jacob: “Medicine for rheumatism and scoliosis?”

Pharmacist: “Definitely.”

Jacob: “How about Viagra?”

Pharmacist: “Of course.”

Jacob: “Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, jaundice?”

Pharmacist: “Yes, a large variety. The works.”

Jacob: “What about vitamins, sleeping pills, Geritol, antidotes for
Parkinson’s disease?”

Pharmacist: “Absolutely.”

Jacob: “You sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

Pharmacist: “All speeds and sizes.”

Jacob: “We’d like to use this store as our Bridal Registry.”

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

Miss Unkymoods? Try Punkymoods?

Posted on June 16, 2006 by Jenna Magee

That’s right, you aren’t misreading the title. As some of you may or may not know, after Marc Lutz (the original creator of Unkymoods) discontinued his cleverly cartooned emoticon service at unkymoods.com, he experienced an unfortunate hard drive crash and lost all of his original illustrations. Thus, he was unable to offer to sell the graphics to anyone for any future use.

Some time later, enter a man by the name of Peter Keung. Peter has scoured the web for any and all lingering vestiges of Unkymood icons and, with Marc’s permission, is offering his own free service at punkymoods.com.

I know that many of you have greatly missed Unkymoods and I would greatly encourage you to go and register for his service and fill the void that was left in the wake of Unkymoods. Try Punkymoods today!

Posted in Life in General | 7 Comments

Round Robins Have Landed!

Posted on June 15, 2006 by Jenna Magee

In a stunning move by the USPS, Cathy received my round robin package today (it was just put into the mail yesterday) and I received Sylvie’s round robin package today (it was just put into the mail in France on Monday). What an incredibly quick delivery of both package! I know that Cathy only lives about an hour away from me, but the USPS does not usually work that quickly between local areas. It often has to bounce from one major postal hub before it goes anywhere. Maybe I’m just lucky that I live somewhat near Philadelphia?

Sylvie did a beautiful job of her RR journal. It’s stitched front and back with paper fit in between, folded accordion style, and the whole thing tied with ribbon. A very impressive presentation, indeed! And it makes me feel like a slob. 😆 In fact, her packaging made me feel like a slob, as well, since she divided the floss into bags for each project. Oh well, it’s my first RR, so I have an excuse, right? 😀

I now have more obligations for my stitching time! The model that I’m working on should be finished and ready to go by Monday, at which point I need to stitch my short list of names for my Flight 93 quilt panel, then I’ll move on to Sylvie’s RR. Of course, in the meantime, there is no way that I’ll ever catch up on the Stitching Leporello, considering I haven’t even had time to baste my fabric yet! *sigh* No rest for the weary…

Posted in Stitching | 8 Comments

SBQ – Do You Like Books?

Posted on June 14, 2006 by Jenna Magee

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Angela and is:

How many cross stitch books do you own and how often do you use them?

I’m answering this from the standpoint that a “book” is some sort of instructional book. Patterns might be included, but it’s not solely a book of designs. At least, this will be my definition for this question.

I have several such books:
– The New Anchor Book of Pulled Thread Embroidery Stitches (signed by Christine Wilkins, of Alchemy Stitchcraft, who created the designs used in the book)
– Stitch Sampler (a good visual stitch reference)
– The Cross Stitcher’s Bible (I’m not wild about this one)
– The Embroidery Stitch Bible (I found this one extremely helpful when I was designing my mini band sampler for the Friendship Tapestry)
– Ultimate Big Book of Finishing, Needlework Knowledge and Techniques (handy for finishing ideas)
– Hardanger Basics and Beyond
– Hardanger Fundamentals Made Fancy

I’ve used nearly all of them at some point. The last two I absolutely would not want to live without. They are by Janice Love and are incredible books that I would recommend for anyone who wants to learn or already does hardanger embroidery. I use them on a regular basis, in fact, I use them nearly every time I pick up a hardanger project just to refresh my memory and make sure I’m doing the filling stitches correctly. 🙂

Posted in Stitching Blogger's Question | 4 Comments

And So It Begins…

Posted on June 13, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I finished stitching on my round robin piece last night. The fabric, charts, specialty fibers and beads are packed up and ready to go. The only thing that is not yet finished is the journal that I’m going to stick into the package, as well. I have most of it printed out or nearly so. All I really need to do when I get home is to cut everything out and piece it together. It should be ready to go out in the mail tomorrow, depending on whether or not I need to go to the post office to send it priority mail.

I’ll be VERY excited to be able to cross this off of my list. After assembling the journal tonight, I will be focusing on the model I’m doing that is also loosely due this week. There are several more hours of stitching left on the model (maybe 10?), so I’ll talk to the designer and see if I can send it out on Monday. That would give me the weekend to make sure that everything is stitched to my satisfaction.

I know I said I wouldn’t post this week, but… surprise! I may pop in some other updates, as well. I just wanted to set expectations a little lower than normal so that I could exceed them. 😆 So… drumroll please… here’s my round robin piece:



My Round Robin Start

Actually, it’s a good thing that I just took a good look at the closeup picture of this because I just found an error. I guess I’ll be doing a little bit of frogging tonight first! Bah!

[Edited to say:] I fixed the mistake that evening and updated the picture, so if you’re looking for anything major, you won’t find it. The only boo-boo I left in the piece was a very tiny misplacement of one of the beads. 🙂

Posted in Stitching | 11 Comments

Quiet This Week

Posted on June 12, 2006 by Jenna Magee

I predict that this week will be quiet. I just wanted to clarify that before people wonder where I went. 🙂

It will be a busy week in my personal life. Psychologist visit tomorrow afternoon, neurologist visit Thursday afternoon, round robin due to be mailed on Thursday and model due as soon as I can manage to finish it. As a result, you should not be surprised if I don’t post for a while. I have a lot of my plate and on my mind and the stress is just driving me batty, so the sooner this week is over, the sooner I can start to feel better!

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments