Recital week...

is killing me. Not only is Aislin doing two dances, but so am I. I'm taking an adult jazz dance class at the studio where Aislin studies. Our group is known as the "Hot Mamas" since all but two of us are in our late 30s and have children. It's a lot of fun and great exercise, but right now I'm exhausted with all the extra practices to prepare for the recital this weekend. Wish us luck!

I've been slowly making progress on my niece's birth sampler. I really like the darker pink overdyed I bought. I think it's a nice change and it works well with the colors that are already in the sampler. I have tweaked a few other things, so it's taking me a bit longer than I would like. My OCD keeps me from saying "Yes, that looks pretty good" and instead I say "Wow, that looks really stupid!" and tear it out. I guess that's what creative license is about.

On the not-so-creative front, I've started a new round of classes for teaching, and I'm enrolled in 6 hours for summer school. I'm taking a 1 hour class on using technology in the classroom. You wouldn't believe the amount of work we have to do for a 1 credit class. It might as well be 3 credits like everything else. But it gets me closer to my certification.

I've set aside mornings for work/class time, so I have my afternoons free for errands or plain 'ole free time...think nap time here. By Monday I should have more time to work on other things as well, but until then...

...Lord give me the strength to make it through the weekend!

Apparently...

the adage "Be careful what you wish for" is right on target. In previous posts, I complained that I had too many jobs and not enough free time. Well, guess what? Yep, that's right! I haven't any jobs right now. Well, that's not entirely true. My full time, put-food-on-the-table job, well the company is downsizing and outsourcing. That was good money too! But I do have my part time online teaching still. Not much but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.

And so, as I have some free time, I decided to go back to school. I am going to finish up my certification for Elementary Education. I have been doing this for several years...taking a class here and there and then taking time off. Maybe now I will get it finished so I can actually teach.

I did start back on the Bride's Tree ornaments for my sister and brother-in-law. I have no idea what I was thinking when I thought an over one swirly fish was a good idea. You'll see what I mean when it's finished.

On the positive side, I did get back to my niece's birth sampler. Her birthday was May 12, and I was hoping to have this finished by the end of April but that didn't happen, again. One of the colors used in the sampler is a very light varigated pink. The thread is hand painted Japanese silk, and oh-so-yummy! Unfortunately, it wasn't a good design choice, and it didn't show up on the white linen. So begrudgingly, I had to hit the local LNS and get something in the same color family but dark enough for it to show up on the linen. I didn't get silk, but I did get a very pretty overdyed, and it shows up nicely! So this will be the focus piece until it's done.

I have some catching up to do on the QOTW and update my blog, as a lot of things are out of date. But since I have all this free time now...

...bring on the beach!

A little of this and a little of that...

February is almost over, and I realized that all I do is work. I started classes this semester also, to finish up my elementary education certification. I get very little time with my girls, and I certainly don't get to do anything that I like to do. Relaxation is NOT my middle name here!

I have made the decision that after this weekend (since I'm grading final essays right now) that I will spend at least 30 minutes stitching or doing something that I want to do every night after the girls go to bed. To get me back into "stitching mode" I uploaded a picture of my current favorite WIP, Desiderata Sampler. This picture was taken last September. There's a full-size picture of it in my webshots album.



I love(d) stitching this piece! In addition to having lots of different types of stitches, it includes silk thread, which those of you who know me know that I have an obsession with crunching silk. It's a very relaxing piece to stitch, and it actually keeps my attention for longer than 2 days.

2008 passed by so quickly that my resolutions and goals I made at the beginning of the year were pretty much made in vain. I made the lists when I was unemployed, and had no clue that the year would end the way it did.

So here are my resolutions, revamped for 2009 (which means they will probably be exactly the same!). If you feel you *must* know what my resolutions were in 2008, here you go.

Stitching Related
1. Finish Guardian, which is my longest running TW wip.
2. Finish Desiderata.
3. Finish my neice's birth sampler by her 2nd birthday in May.
4. Finish the Bride's Tree SAL.
5. Stitch 1 ornament a month.
6. Keep up with the SBQ.
7. Join the local EGA and go to the meetings/stitch ins. (This will probably have to wait until at least fall.)

Work/School Related
1. Teach two classes 4 times a year with UOP online.
2. Get the book I'm editing into production by May 31st.
3. Get my beading and calligraphy businesses up and going, on a minimal basis of course. My BIL finally finished my logo, but I have a few tweaks I want done on it.
4. Take two classes a semester toward certification.

Personal
1. Continue in my dance class. It's so much fun!
2. Go to the gym. I did sign up, but I don't have time to go. Wasting money!
3. Lose 20 pounds.
4. Pay off whatever bills I can.
5. Save at least $5000 by the end of the year.
6. Start a college savings fund for both girls and contribute to it often.
7. Have at least 2 Alyssa-only dates a month. I worked hard to keep this up last year, and even had "Mommy-Aislin" days. Even if I had to skip on something I was supposed to do, I made time for them. Granted, it wasn't as much as I would have liked, but it's better than nothing!
8. Go on a real vacation with the girls. Myrtle Beach here I come!

That's probably enough for the year. I will add or delete as needed...

...yep, probably delete.

Nothing!

I have finished nothing this year!

On the positive side, my girls are great and my sister is here with her family. Joy!

Too many jobs equals...

not enough time for Sandy to do what she wants to do. I have a 45-minute commute (one way mind you) to my regular job. That means I have to be out of the house extraordinarily early and worry whether or not I'm going to be able to pick up my baby on time at the end of the day.

I have about an hour to spend with my girls, and then it's time to teach online. I am contracted to spend four hours a night online, which means I get to bed after 11 pm every night. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to be up by 5 am. I feel like a walking zombie most of the time.

Let's not even talk about stitching. I won't make any of my goals this year. I was supposed to have finished my niece's birth sampler for her first birthday in may. Not even close. I haven't worked on an ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL in months. Even Desiderata has been languishing in the closet for a long time.

I am dying to do creative, fun things, to spend time with my girls, and to just have time to relax. If this is what being a grown up is all about...

...I refuse to grow up!

No thread means...

I had to go to an LNS downtown and order thread for my heart. So that means I am almost 3 months behind on the Bride's Tree SAL. I'm very irritated and disappointed, as the person I ordered from originally has been my ONS for many years. She has always been very dedicated to the best service and has always been very fast. I'm not sure what happened but I won't be ordering from her again.

I did finish the first section of Desiderata and took a picture. Hopefully sometime today I will get it off of my camera. I am going to start the wrapping on the heart and get a scan of that up. I have also been working on my niece's birth sampler, which is not difficult. It's a lot of white on white though. But it's going to be very pretty and dainty. I have been put way behind, between helping my mother with her classes and working on that book.

Spring has finally come to North Carolina (I think!) and we have had a few nice days. The trees are blooming and the Japanese maples outside the house look amazing! I always feel better mentally and physically when things start blossoming again, like we have come out of purgatory or something. Maybe not the best comparison, but there's nothing like seeing the first hummingbird of the year flittering around the empty feeders.

I am determined to get a good picture of a cardinal this year!

There is no end...

to the amount of things I do. Especially for other people. My poor mother is taking classes to get an add-on to her teaching license, and this project she had to do was so unbelievably ridiculous! But it's finished now, and I doubt she would have even gotten finished if it weren't for me.

On the stitching front, I STILL haven't received my one tiny spool of thread to finish my February heart for the Bride's Tree SAL. I ordered it on February 2. It's really getting on my nerves, and even though I ordered it from the shop that always came through and got things to me within a week, I'm thinking of finding a new place to shop. I have even started the March ornament because I want to finish the February one first!

I am almost finished with the first part of Desiderata (probably tonight!) so I will post a picture of it tomorrow. Then I have to move on to my niece's birth sampler, or it will never be finished and framed by her first birthday.

I found a neat book list on Terri's site. Just follow the directions!

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

There are a few on the list that I have absolutely no interest in. Like the Ayn Rand books. I really hate her writing. I started Atlas Shrugged in graduate school and just couldn't stomach it. So anyway, have fun with the list! I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow to catch up on the SBQ.