Long, rambly post!

Well, it is now almost a whole new year...only 3 more days until 2007 is a gone thing. I really didn't do so well on most of my stitching goals. I didn't get any big finishes done, although I got lots of small ones finished. I finished all 12 of the Erica Micheal's freebies for the year. Plus some of the other smallish freebies she has...the alphabet sampler minis...I have finished letters A and B. No big finishes though. How disappointing. And to think that for most the year I wasn't working. Even though I started school in the Summer, I still had half a year to stitch, although I had lots of other goals as well, such as my 50 book reading goal for the year. I just finished reading #35, and started #36. So, I didn't reach that goal either, but I got sorta close.

I think part of my problem is my addiction to the computer. I spend WAY too much time on here, playing SIMS, and surfing the web, reading blogs, spending time on Myspace.com...things like that. I think I am going to have to do something about that next year, maybe then I will get more stitching done. Oh well, it's all been fun, so why care? Although now looking back, I wished I had spent more time with needle and thread. Oh well.

I do have a finish to share...the last of the Erica Micheal's freebies for the year. I was able to finish it last night while watching one of the DVD seasons that hubby got me for Christmas, because of another gift my hubby got me...my white thread that I needed! He got me 50 new skeins of floss!!! And! he stuffed my stocking with them...but he wrapped them!!! there were 25 individual wrapped things of thread. well, like there were two to a package... unwrapping them was a pain, and he sat and thought it was hilariously funny! It really sorta was! So, I got floss, but he said I had to work for them....funny funny guy!

So, I have to share with you my finish, and show you my progress on my little snowman mini stocking. ornie.

Now I just have to finish out what I want to do with the quilt I want to make all these into.

next up is my snowman...

I got his little face in almost, just have to finish up his cap and scarf and sweater, and the reast of the stitching on the stocking itself. so, that is what I have been up to. not too much, and i am hoping that next year will produce much more stitching from this end, but we shall see.

I had a great Christmas, along with floss, I told hubby I wanted him to get me things that will keep me occupied while he's away for the year. So, he got me some of my favorite TV DVD series, and some jigsaw puzzles, and a bunch of new SIMS games. So, I think I will be kept happily busy. He refuses to buy me any new books or stitching stash, besides the floss, because I have so much already.

My parents sent a huge box of goodies too, so I made out pretty good!

And things with work are slowing way down...all week I have had short 5 hour shifts, so that allows for more relaxing, but hubby is home this week, so we have been spending time together. He goes back to work on Monday. And we only have 13 more nights to throw the route...thank goodness. Then he leaves for a week to go visit his dad who is leaving to move to japan the middle of Jan, which I can't go with him, because of work, which is fine with me. Then he comes home for a few more weeks and leaves for four weeks for training, then he comes home for two or three weeks then leaves for 6 month deployment.

I just can't wait for the route to be done and over with! I am sick of getting up int he middle of the night and throwing papers int he freezing cold, then having to work in the day, although I think it may take my body a bit to adjust to the new sleeping all night thing again, as I find that even when hubby goes and throws the route all by himself because I have to work I still wake up at 2 am without an alarm. So the first week without the route, I may have to take Tylenol PM or something to help me sleep through the night, and get me back on track with an all night sleeping pattern.

Well, that is about it here, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! sorry this is sort of a rambling post, but had a lot to share!

I hope you have a beautiful holiday filled with family and friends and a ton of blessings!

Happy Saturday...er Sunday!

It feels like a Saturday to me as today is the first of two days off in a row from work for me! I am happy to report that I have completed the 2007 Fall semester!!! I am done! Finals are finished,papers and assignments are all written and turned in, all there is now is to await grades! ::biting nails:: But I am not too worried about it, I feel like I did well, despite the end of the semester being so compacted and hurried with life's other little oddities, but it is finished now, and onto Christmas!!! And stitching!

Ok, during winter when I think of a color that describes this season I think white, what about you? Well, I am currently in the middle of two stitching projects that require this particular color...alot of it! And what do you know? But that I have run completely out!!!! So, I need to stock back up on it, which is weird to me, because I see white and black as two basic colors you should always have on hand, and I have run out of white, HOW DID that happen?! ::shaking head:: oh well, and I am not sure that I want to run right out in the holiday rush to acquire one skein of white, or a few to have on hand, so I shall wait. Hubby keeps asking me for a list of DMC's I need so I will put that on the top in BIG bold letters! So he knows to get plenty, and maybe I will be able to finish these two projects before the first of the year, or!!! I can dip into a kitted project and pull white out of one I don't plan on starting for awhile. I might just do that!

And now for some pictures! Here is my December Freebie by Erica Micheals. as you can see all i have left is white to finish and alas cannot, because of my no white onhand predicament, the outlining of the buildings I added as I didn't think the white stood out enough on the fabric, so I added that so you could actually see the sillhouette of the buildings.

And next up is my little snowman stocking/ornament

This is not a very good picture, sorry, but you can see how much I have done and how much I have left to do. I am not enjoying this piece as much as I thought I would, for such a small project, it sure has a ton of color changes, for the detail and shading. And I'm sure that when it's finished and the backstitching is in, it will look wonderful, right now though, it looks a mess. Probably because he's missing his face! Oh well, maybe today I will have to pop in a DVD and watch something Christmas-y and stitch away on it until he looks much cuter! So between school and work (both jobs) and life, not much stitching has gone on here, but I try to do just a little bit at least once a day, usually before I go to work at the store, as it calms me down and ready to face the mob! Especially this time of the year! Good grief! But now with school out of the way I anticipate alot more stitching. I do see a light at the end of the "going crazy" tunnel now, After Christmas my hours at the store will slow way down, and I will be getting rid of the route in less than 25 days, and then hubby will be leaving for his deployment in less than 2 months, and I am not taking "in classroom" classes next semester just online courses, and 1 less class than last semester so I think things will calm down, they already are with no school right now.

Well I think this post is nice and long enough so I shall sign out and go crawl in the Christmas tree, or behind it, I guess, and see if I can't make this snowman look a bit cuter!

Feeling much better now....

For someone who has limited time, I sure am posting alot, huh? I think this is like therapy for me, though, to just write and get things off my chest!!

Thank you once again to everyone who has left me such kind and encouraging comments, I feel bad that I don't have time to do the same right now. I am reading blogs a little, but no commnets. I am done with one final! Woot! (This is this years new proclaimed word by Merriam Webster...anyone see that? It was on my Yahoo news page...funny!) Anyway, So two more to go! Yay! And I put in my letter of resignation at the paper yesterday, so Jan 10th will be my last official day to throw papers. I am counting down! Finally I will get a full 8 hours night sleep, uninterrupted! Yippee!

Also I am kinda excited, because I am not sure what next weeks schedule at work is, but the following one I have a few short days (5 hours instead of 8) Phew!!! So I think things are gonna start looking up here soon! I can't wait!

Plus, don't faint, after I posted this yesterday, I sat in my chair (yes the one hiding behind the Christmas tree, and ornaments be damned, cause I probably knocked 'em all hither and yawn) and I stitched! Not for very long, mind you, but enough to start feeling a sence of calm come over me. It was very , very nice. So, I went to work yesterday with a renewed sence of calm, and it felt so good! There is nothing like stitching to calm a person down! I don't know what it is about it, is it the consistant motion of the needle going in and out of the fabric, kinda like the motion of a rocking chair when our mom's rocked us to sleep? but that sameness of the motion is soothing somehow!

Also, I want to say a big apology, not that my hubby reads this blog, but I have really slammed at him hard here the past few days, and he's really not the monster I sorta made him out to be! He really is a sweetie, like the other day we were at the grocery store and he was all excited, because he wants to make dinner for me this week, he is gonna make some pot roast dish, and I think it is so sweet! He really is very loving and giving. He's the best there is, I think, it's just when I feel all uptight, he seems to get the brunt of my frustrated feelings. I needed space the past couple of days, and between no sleep and going to work and dealing with a ton of people and then coming home and him being here, I just...ugh! He really is wonderful and I love him like no other! I was just fuming because of other things.

Well, I still have a few hours until I have to go work, so I am going to go stitch again...Poor Christmas tree! It is gonna be all smooshed on one side for all my climbing behind it to get to my stitching chair. But it will just have to understand that that chair is my sanity, so once it understands that I'm sure it won't care. LOL!

Thank you!!!

Wow! Thank you all who left me such wonderful comments on my last post. I half expected people to be like "Suck it up, girl, that's just life!" But I should have known better, stitchers are such a kind lot! =)

When I have a clear head and really think about things, I just have to laugh at myself. I sound so selfish! I think I just got so overwhelmed, it was just too much dumped on me all at once! I go from having all day to do my homework and whatever I want to suddenly having to be somewhere at a certain time, it's kind of a shock to the system! I have to watch my clock again, make sure I get to work on time, and then when I'm at work I count the hours until I get off work. Ugh. LOL!

I think things will be better once I am done with school, and then when the route is gone, it will be even better, I'll be able to get a good nights rest, and when Rob leaves for Iraq in a few months, it will be a downright blessing, I will have something to fill my time to keep me busy until his return. Thank you all for listening to me! Hugs!

It is still sorta frustrating that I don't have all sorts of time to just sit and stitch. I have been much more into my reading lately, because it is easy. Plus my favorite chair that I sit in and stitch while watching the TV is being blocked from the TV right now by the Christmas tree, so I have to share the couch with my husband who is 6 foot 2 and thinks he can take up the entire thing, all sprawled out, leaving me NO room to get comfy with needle and thread, plus my stitching light is over by the chair that is hiding behind the Christmas tree, and with the winter weather here it is just so dark, so not a whole lot of stitching is going on.

You know? I know this is going to sound absolutely terrible, but I am almost looking forward to Hubby leaving for Iraq. NOT the fact of where he is going, but just that he's going! Ok, the other night, he made the LAST frozen pizza for dinner, while I was at work and ate THE ENTIRE THING!!! Leaving me with having to scrounge around for food when I got home. I mean, would it have killed him to save me ONE slice? Plus we're on a budget, and he eats so FRICKEN much! That one pizza could have fed me for 4 days! And he polishes it off in one sitting. And this is a Digiorno pizza! It was no tiny thing!

Here I go again with my venting about life. But since I have no stitching, I am just talking about life and the things that seem to frustrate me now. I hope you don't mind. This Thursday I have the day off, ::sigh:: and Hubby will be at work ::another sigh:: and I will possibly have the entire day to just sit on my comfy couch and stitch. So, hang in there I may get some stitchy news/photos up soon!

Again thank you all for your love and support, and Michelle for your prayer, that is the best thing I could use right now! YOu are allt he best friends a girl could have! And you all live in my computer! he he! I saw a comment for myspace it said "I love my computer, all my friends live in it." sometimes I think that is SO true!

A huge rant!

Hi! Sorry about that last post! Could you tell I was frustrated?! I don't know why, but I have been so mad and depressed and upset lately, EVERYthing and ANYthing can set me on edge, my poor hubby gets his head bit off all the time. Basically it all comes down to the fact that I am a spoiled brat, and now I have to work and I don't like it! How dumb! It's life! I just had the most wonderful year of my life, I worked 2 hours a day and had the rest of the day free to do whatever the heck I wanted, I could read, stitch, bum around, do whatever,work on Homework, now my time is nil. I have NO time to do ANYTHING! and so, what I do when I don't have time is I cut my sleeping time! The first thing to go in my book is sleep! Which I guess makes me VERY grumpy!

Also the fact that I sat and wrote a nice long post last time and then when I went to post it the computer decided to freeze didn't help either. So, if I am short on here, that is why, basically I have no time, but I am trying to make time, so I cut alot of corners so I have time. I cannot wait until I can get rid of the stupid paper route!! Then I can actually get a good decent nights sleep, and still wake up early enough to feel as though I have a little life. Like last night I only got 6 hours of sleep. And my husband!!! I don't go to work until 12 in the afternoon, however, I won't get home until after 9 tonight, and so I made myself CRAWL out of bed at 8:00,and he can't understand why!!!! "You don't have to get up, you don't go to work until 12!" I have laundry to do and dishes and cleaning, and I would like some down time before I go have to deal with a million people in a HUGE noisy store all day, a little quiet would be nice! But I guess he wouldn't know, because guys don't do all that stuff, he gets home from work and relaxes sits and watches TV, and plays his games, I guess he thinks some magical elves come out of nowhere to make sure he has clean clothes, because by the way he was acting, he doesn't think I need to get up and get it done, plus, this is finals week, I have STUFF to do!

I am basically hating life right now, it wouldn't be so bad if I only had to go to the store and work but I have the route, and school on top of that, and taking care of hubby and house, and I thought I was stressed before, I am just over the top pissed off at the world right now.

Sorry about this sad post, it's just how I feel right now. When I get my paycheck I will be happy!

Stitchy junk

December freebie started.

Not much stitchin'

Well, things here have been hectic. This is the last week of classes and then finals are next week...phew! Then I can finally throw myself into the holidays! I haven't been stitching too much, but probably more than I should, what with all the schoolwork, but oh well.

I have gotten my old retail job back, so right now I work the paper route from 2-4 am, or so, then I work at the store for about 8 hours a day, and then I try to study somewhere in there and sleep....just crazy! I can't wait for the pressure of school to be over for the semester, then I will just have to worry about the two jobs, which I am quitting the route come the 10th of January, but by then school will be back in session, so I will be doing school and retail job. I am glad though for getting back into my old work place though, because when hubby leaves for Iraq I am going to be glad of the distraction of going to work, of course I'll be taking classes again too, but I am taking online courses next semester and only two classes, so I can put more time into work,so with those two things I am sure I can stay busy! Not to mention all the stitching I will do, and the reading, as well. I am setting a 65 book goal for next year, which is just crazy since I didn't even complete my 50 book goal for this year. But oh well. I got close, I finished #35 last night and am onto #36, so It is going to be close.

In stitching, like I siad I haven't done much, just work on my little tiny stocking, which is coming along, slowly but surely, and I started my Last Erica Micheal's monthly freebie for the year, so there is one stitching goal down, (to finish all the monthly freebies by their given months), so that is good. I am anticipating a lot more stitching after next week is over and done with, since there will be no more school. I will have a little more time, but then I will be working...wow, if it's not one thing it's another!

Hope you are all having a happy holiday season so far!