New projects...help meeeeeeee...

What is it with the lure of starting a new project? I have way too many WIPs as it is. Saturday night, I started "Wedding Row" by Bent Creek and have it halfway done already. I am supposed to start a quilt square that's not due until early September, but have I started it yet? Nooooooooooo. *sigh*

So what exactly is calling out to me? To sum it up...everything. LOL! Here's a partial list of what I want to start right now but not in any particular order: any of the Tall Guys I have kitted up, Just Nan's "Icy Hill", any Shepherd's Bush needleroll kits, Shepherd's Bush "Americana" scissor fob, one year's worth of Lizzie Kate's flip-its or stamps on one piece of fabric (especially since I got that new mystery fabric in), Hinzeit's "Rise and Shine" for my kitchen, Hinzeit's "Bath Time" for my bathroom (plus I have the frame - woo hoo!), and sooooo many more. That list just scratches the surface!

I just realized that my last post mentioned "work-outs" in the title but I never addressed that subject. I must confess that I have started a work-out program that I purchased on a set of DVDs. Call me vain but it was worrying me that my poochy belly would look bad in scrubs. LOL! Now that I've tried them on, I see that the shirt is long enough and covers the waist area but still...I want to get a bit more "toned" if ya' know what I mean. :)

I guess that's all I'm going to blog for right now or else I'll just start bitching about various stuff. No need to do that. :-)

Awesome S.E.X., work-outs, etc...

Let's cover the awesome S.E.X. updates first...

I got my fabric in today from Cross Stitch Haven that I've been anticipating. It's sooooooo purdy! Of course the receipt doesn't list a fabric count or type or anything. *grrrrrrr* Again, I am promising myself that I'll take pictures and post them here. We'll see how long that takes me. ;-)

Today is the day I get to meet with the Tony Stewart lovin' ex-stitcher customer lady. Woo hoo! She gets off work at 6 and I'm going to meet here there. We spoke on the phone earlier and she said she has found her fabric and threads but that she will find her charts/leaflets soon. It's not even 5:15 at the moment and I can't wait until 6. *jumping around, drooling, and having hyper fits*

The mail was good to me Friday and today. Not only did my fabric arrive, but also a RAK package from a fellow board member arrived with a John Deere chart I just adore!!! Looks like the ol' stitching pile is going to get re-prioritized soon. *hee hee* Plus, on Friday, I received a RAK from someone on a board I used to frequent who I thought had long forgotten about me. What a nice surprise! I don't know if I have her e-mail address but I know she'd rather have a "real" thank you through the snail mail anyway so that's a little something I need to take care of this week. It really touched me that she remembered me. It doesn't matter how big or small an RAK is...it truly is the thought that counts.

My scrubs should be arriving this week for me to try on. The size we think I need comes with a 30" or 31" inseam. The sales rep said for me to try them on and see exactly how much length I need to have added on, then I'll mail those back and they'll get to work on my custom order. Hmmm...considering my normal jeans inseam is 36" or 38", I think we're going to have to add a wee bit. *snort* So, sometime this week, I get to see how I look in scrubs for the very first time. Well, capri-style scrubs anyway. LOL!!! Hey, maybe I can start a new trend. BAHhahahahaha!!!

To whoever may be reading...thanks for taking the time to peek into my world. I hope your world is treating you well, too. :)

Insomniac ramblings again...

Yikes! I let too much time slip by since I last blogged so here goes a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to post. If you read all of this, stay interested, and manage to remain semi-awake, I will bow at your feet upon our next meeting. ;-)

The most important thing to report is that Brad's surgery was a major success! The one large lipoma turned out to be a bunch of small ones. I have no clue if that's good or bad but the surgeon got them all so it doesn't really matter. Yay! He's healing very well with the minor exception that one very small spot is still seeping a teeny amount of blood (like the size of a pin head) but that's it...nothing to call the doctor about at this time. He goes back to the doctor on June 19th to have the sutures removed. Meanwhile, we'll just keep an eye on the incision site. Not hard to do considering it's basically eye-level on his neck. LOL!

Some exciting stitching news (for me, anyway) is that some fabric I ordered from Cross Stitch Haven in Oklahoma City has arrived at their shop. I need to call them tomorrow (er, today) and give them my credit card info so I can get that fabric in my hot little hands. I don't even know the name of the fabric but I saw some models stitched on it and fell totally in love. It's 28 count and I'm not even sure if it's linen or evenweave. How sad is that?!?!? Ha ha ha ha!!! It's got these squares woven in and my LK and BC monthly square patterns will fit perfectly in those squares. It's a neutral color, like a tan, and I just can't wait to get that fabric! *drool drool*

I've been in a "nice" mode lately. I'm trying really hard to be extra-nice to people, both in real life and in cyber life. Why? I don't know for sure. I think my motivation stems from something like a "root for the underdog" kind of thing but on a much deeper level, probably much deeper than even I realize. Regardless, it doesn't hurt anyone. :)

My list of things-to-do is bigger than ever. I have roughly nine weeks left before school starts and still I have a ton of things to do. Tomorrow I will start knocking out some things on my list but I must begin by first writing them down. I'll mark them off as I go so that I can see some accomplishments being made.

I MUST make another date to attempt quitting smoking again. I'm thinking next Monday. (Warning: This blog might get really foul then because I'm sure everyone in the world will piss me off. It won't have anything to do with me being grouchy or irritable, I'm sure.) *hee hee* I wonder if my "nice mode" will suffer. hahahahaha

Why am I wanting to start so many damn projects right now??? I already have five WIPs yet it's a daily fight to not start something new. The Sub, Bluebonnets, MH kit, my afghan, and my all-but-forgotten-about Snapperville is plenty for now, right? Yet I'm dying to start multiple needlerolls, a scissor fob, either (or both - HAH!) of the Just Nan charts I purchased, any of the Tall Guys I have all kitted up (yes, I actually kitted up ALL of them...*thud*), anything on the 40-count linen I bought to try for the very first time, anything over one (again, for the first time), and so much more. *sigh* So far, I have been strong and have promised myself I won't start anything new until I knock out one of the WIPs I already have going. We'll see how strong I remain when my beloved fabric arrives. Aaaaaaaargh, help meeeeeee!

Today, I finished a little snowman for 123 board member's son. It was BC's Snowman Flatbed Zippie chart but I stitched it on 28-count Jobelan over two. I won this pattern in a contest at 123 a few weeks ago so I guess it was meant to be that I stitch it, right? It turned out really cute but when I framed it, somehow it was off 4 stitches too close to the left and 3 stitches too high from the bottom. *sigh* It ate at me and ate at me and ate at me. I couldn't change it or add more stitches because I had already put the dang thing on some of that self-stitck mounting board and put it in the 3.5" X 5" frame. Finally, I called my mother and she suggested that I add a few snowflakes as embellishments or something to even it up. Bingo! I did just that it even Brad and the kids said it looks great. :) Heck, it's for a 5-yr-old boy so it's not like he's gonna care but his mother is a stitcher and might post pictures at 123. *gasp!* I HAD to make it look better and hope it's acceptable to whoever might see it. (No, this project didn't count as one of my WIPs so I can't count it as something knocked out in order to start something new.) :(

Geez, have I rambled enough? *rolling eyes* Congrats if you made it this far. I promise to post pictures...eventually. :) Maybe that'll spruce things up around here. Someday I hope to have a better background, too. Crap -- that just added more stuff on my to-do list. ;-)

Happy stitching and be nice to people, especially me while I'm an aspiring non-smoker next week. LOL!!!

More news and updates...

Okay, scary news and happy news first. I'll save the stitching info for last. :)

Gotta take Brad to the doctor in the morning to hopefully have the lump removed from his neck. We're hoping it's harmless like our family doctor thinks it is. Family doctor also thinks the surgeon can remove it in his office as opposed to a hospital surgery. *crossing everything* The important thing is that the lump really is harmless. Updates to follow as I know more.

I got accepted into the Radiology program! OMG! *thud* We are sooooooo happy and excited, to say the very least. There's lots of things for me to take care of before school starts on August 20th and I'll start tackling those one-by-one after we get through Brad's appointment tomorrow.

Now for the stitching stuff...I got to go to The Silver Needle this past weekend! WOO HOO! It was incredible and more than I had imagined it to be. I behaved pretty good and only spent $160. That was mainly due to the fact that Brad had taken me the day before to Hobby Lobby where we purchased my first Ott Lite. I love it! I used my 40% off coupon and only spent about $100 on the lamp. It's awesome!

At The Silver Needle, I bought my first two Just Nan patterns (4 Wishes and Icy Hill) that came with the beads and charms, two Shepherd's Bush charts (Celebrate Everything and Snow Folio), three Shepherd's Bush needleroll kits (Stitcher's Roll, Americana Roll, and Snow Fall Roll), one Shepherd's Bush scissor fob kit (Americana Scissor Fob), Hinzeit's Charmed Rise and Shine, Smell the Flowers which is the latest release in Bent Creek's Red Thread series, a Pine Mountain pillow kit called Happy Everything, two needle threaders for beading needles, and a Cross Stitch Gauge for a RAK package.

On Saturday, we stopped at Cross Stitch Haven where I purchased a Mill Hill buttoned and beaded kit (On the Range), some white Wisper floss for my mother, two Doodles (Flowers and I'd Pick You), Stoney Creek's More Antique Tractors leaflet, DKT Originals leaflet called Song in My Heart needleroll, and I ordered several cuts of fabric for some LK and BC monthly patterns to do all in one.

When I purchased my Ott Lite, I also found a piece of 27" X 36" 32-ct Latte linen by Permin that was regularly $23.64 but was marked down to $9.50.

What a haul! Woo hoo! I haven't put any of this away yet because I want to stitch on all of it! It's great to get new stash but isn't hard to make yourself keep stitching on stuff you've already started? I don't much self control as it is, but if I didn't have any at all, I'd have 4,671 WIPS. LOL!!!

Recently, I did finish square #5 of 16 on my Town Square afghan. I love that blanket but Brad swears he loves it more than I do. LOL! Crazy man!

Today, I bought two more books at Hasting's. *sigh* I now have 5 books ready to read. I think I'm a borderline book addict. ;)

That's enough for now. Tomorrow might be a long day. Until next time, I hope everyone reading this is doing wonderful and gets many happy hours of stitching.

LoriRay :)

No stitching today...

...but I'm definitely getting some stitching done tomorrow. I'm going to work on the Sub for sure. I might force myself to work on Mom's Bucket of Bluebonnets, and I might even reward myself with some stitching on my afghan. *big huge grin*

Another plan for tomorrow is to try to quit smoking -- AGAIN. (Don't ask. LOL!)

We did a ton -- and I mean a TON -- of yard work today. We hauled off a pick-up bed full of garbage bags full of yard debris (like leaves, sticks, tumbleweeds, etc.) My body is telling me I over-did it - ouch.

Even if we have to move, at least the what-seems-like-miles of bushes are trimmed up nicely and the rock garden thing is all nice and neat again. The lawn is mowed and weed-eated, too, and the huge flower bed is halfway weeded and cleaned out. I hope we don't have to move but we're still playing the waiting game. We didn't run into too many bugs but Brad sprayed anyway. The mosquitos ate us up! I think I have about 20 bites. *itch itch* All in all, I think we spent about 4 hours on this huge yard. I've decided we need to be rich before we retire so we can pay someone to do our yardwork regardless of where we live or how big our yard is. (hahahahaha)

Tomorrow night is the demolition derby race across at the local track. It's not a regular demolition derby, but a RACE, too. No rules...just racing and crashing. We are talking about going to that. We also want to see Shrek 3 but it's still so crowded at the theaters. Plus, we can drink a few before the race and goodness knows I could sure use a drink or two (or eight, LMAO) right now. And before anyone wants to worry or lecture, we live across the street from the track so we can walk if we want to drink. :)

I guess that's all for now. I'm just trying to be a good girl and blog every so often so this place doesn't collect dust. I have enough dust around my house...don't need it here, too. ;)

Insomnia. Time to ramble!

Well, with all the rain and with summer upon us, the bugs are searching for somewhere to go. Unfortunately, their "someplace" is our house. I told Brad that if he didn't spray this weekend then I was getting a hotel room and sending him the bill. Hah!

Finally, a long 3-day weekend and Brad is off, too. Woo hoo! I plan to stitch, stitch, and stitch some more. Gotta love it!

Brad's surgery is June 5th as far as we know. (Have I mentioned this before?) It's supposed to be a harmless cyst and is on the back of his neck. The doctor is thinking it's mostly fat and pus. *EWWW* The consultation fee alone is $162 (ouch!) and no telling how expensive the removal will be, but it has to come out. At times it's been almost baseball size. I'm getting a little antsy about it but I can't let Brad know that.

Found out today that the lady who owns Criss Cross Row is having some major health issues with her husband. My order will just have to wait, understandably so. Frustrating, sure...but totally understandable. If I was in her shoes, I'd take care of my husband first, too.

I miserably failed at quitting smoking today but am determined to make it work on Saturday. No smoking! Period! I gotta make it one day to prove it to myself that I can do it then I can take it one day at a time.

Okay, enough rambling for now...until next time, take care to whoever might be reading this. LOL! ;-)

Ramblings...blah blah blah...

Well, I'm trying to quit smoking (again!). I hope to make it through all day Friday with no smokes. I desperately want to be a non-smoker! I will conquer this nasty, foul, unhealthy, and expensive habit.

I applied to get in to the Radiology program. *deep breath* Now it's time to play the waiting game. The powers-that-be said the applicants would find out sometime in June if we have been accepted into the program or not. I'm nervous!

My cross-stitch needle has been sssssssmokin'! I have worked a bunch on Noah's Sub, very little on my mother's Bucket of Bluebonnets, and really not much on anything else the past few days. I've got to learn to post pictures here but first I need to update my on-line photo albums. First priorities are the Sub and the Bluebonnets, of course, but I'd really like to work some on my Town Square afghan. Meanwhile, the Snapperville might become "Scrapperville" if I just trash the whole damn thing. I screwed it up from the start and have managed to mangle it even worse while I was trying to save it. I don't know what to do with it yet so it's just sitting in my WIP pile.

I got my major stash haul in from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. I am now the proud owner of my first (and certainly not last!) pair of Gingher scissors. They are the limited edition 4" embroidery scissors in the "Glory" pattern. They are awesome! With that order, I also got some Weeks and Gast threads, "Birds" pattern by Heart in Hand plus the little worm button by JABC (that goofy pattern made me laugh and it'll be for my Mom), four Pine Mountain pillow kits (all dealing with snowmen, of course - LOL!) and the pillow forms, too.

I've yet to hear from Criss Cross Row and I'm getting frustrated. No, my credit card has not been charged but still...c'mon now...don't you think two weeks is more than ample time to receive some kind of e-mail about your order? I know, I know...I heard she was having some issues/problems but still...I am not impressed.

ABC Stitch Therapy should be e-mailing me any day now to let me know my Kay's Frames are in. Yay!

We're supposed to go to the NHRA races in Topeka, Kansas, between June 1st and 3rd. We'll see. I'm sort of trying to talk my husband (Brad) out of it for many reasons. One reason is money, of course. Another reason is the weather might not be cooperative. There are a ton of small reasons but the most important is that he went to the doctor today and has to have this cyst surgically removed from his neck on June 5th. We don't have health insurance so we're going to have to pay for it out of our savings account. That's not my complaint. My complaint is that we don't need to be spending the money to travel that far to see a sport we know absolutely nothing about. *slapping self in forehead* We can do something else - a CHEAPER something else! - and still have a mini-vacation, ya' know? *sigh* We'll see...

Lots of news and updates!

First of all, I did it! I really did it! Not only did I pass Anatomy (*doing the wave!*) but I made it through my first year of college. Whew! Whatta relief! My overall GPA is 3.65. I have to turn in my Radiology application packet by Friday and then they will notify me sometime in June if I have been accepted into the program or not. *crossing fingers & everything*

Next news is that I ordered a ton -- and I mean a TON -- of cross-stitch stash for Mother's Day. The first box should be here any day now and that's from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. I haven't yet received my invoice from ABC Stitch Therapy but that's probably because I ordered two Kay's Frames for two Hinzeit patterns and those take a couple of weeks to get in. The last order was with Criss Cross Row and I haven't heard from them at all. :-\ I've been told the lady that owns/runs that shop has some major difficulties right now so I'm being patient.

I've been battling sinus crap since last weekend: off and on low-grade fever, cough, runny nose, chest congestion, blah blah blah. *bitch, whine, moan* Okay, whining over for now.

Three and a half packs of cigarettes to go until I quit smoking. *thud*

My needle has been ssssssssmokin'!!! Lots of finishes lately. I'll have to learn how to post pictures here and see what I can do. :-)

I'm almost done! (and other stuff)

I cannot believe that my first year of college is almost done. Woo hoo! Now I just have my Algebra final tomorrow and my Anatomy final on Monday. I should know sometime Tuesday afternoon if I passed Anatomy or not. *crossing everything*

I still have to get really busy on finishing the teacher's gifts. I think I have until May 18th, so time is running out! Instead of framing everything, I think I might get creative and perhaps make banners or pillows (or something!!!) out of the gifts. Plus, it would be a lot cheaper than framing. We'll see. I might just end up in the car on Friday making a mad dash to my nearest Hobby Lobby. BTW, "nearest" is an oxymoron in this case...I have one HL about an hour away and another HL about an hour and a half away. It figures that there isn't one in my town because I'm in the same area the HL founder grew up in. How bizarre is that?!?!? *grrrr*

"Noah's Sub" is calling my name. I'm ready to get back to work on it, especially because I saw a sign the other day in town that announced our new cancer center is set to open in the Fall of 2007. (which probably means more like Spring 2008...LOL!) I want to get it completed and donate it to that center. :-)

Zales should be calling me soon to tell me that my wedding ring repair is done. I feel totally nekkid without it. (And yes, I spelled "nekkid" that way on purpose. LOL!)

I need to get off of the computer and get some Algebra practice in before tomorrow's final but I'm procrastinating. :-/ Procrastinators unite! (tomorrow) LMAO!!!

Bye until the next update...

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello to whoever may be reading this. I am going to try my hand at blogging. I might post daily or monthly or might even forget I created this blog entirely. (LOL!)

Note -- this is where I plan to ramble, vent, cry, celebrate, show off finished projects, or whatever. At times, I might put you to sleep (which might come in handy for my insomniac friends), I might anger you (flame away, I have flame-proof panties on most of the time), I might make you cry (bring-yer-own-tissues...sorry), and I am prone to using cuss words when I'm emotional so you have been warned. ;-)

As of right now, I have no clue how to go about this whole blogging thing (like posting pictures, handling comments, etc.) so please bear with me as this is a learning process for me if I don't give up. *hee hee* I just know that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading other people's blogs and decided that maybe, just maybe, this could be a good thing for me, too.

Anyway, if you're still with me, then congratulations. You may have won a door prize but I forgot where I put them. *snort*