I See Blue Skies

In some parts of the world this would not be considered unususal but in Rochester in January the sun is rarely seen and when it is the temperatures are usually around zero instead of the balmy 45F it is right now. It feels and smells like spring and we still have the Christmas tree up.

Well I have turned on my relaxation music and I am facing the beautiful blue sky while I try and summarize all that has occurred in the last 12 days. My DD left for London earlier this month and I miss her but I am so happy she has this opportunity to see another part of the world.

My DS has been wrestling and his record is 13 wins to 7 loses. This is much better than last year. He gets better and stronger every year. He is also trying hard to learn how to balance all the demands on his time; school, sports, a girlfriend, video games, friends etc. I get so much joy out of watching them grow up. All too soon they will all be grown and DH and I will be on our own again.

I have been doing a lot of stitching for me. We were all down with a bad cold and I declared the weekend recovery weekend . Everyone stayed in PJs and rested and slept when they weren't resting. I stitched on and off all day both days. That was two weekends ago. I was also able to stitch almost every evening. This past weekend I did quite a bit of stitching even though I also cleaned the entire house.

What have I been working on? Since it is Guilt Free January I have started Michael Powell's Venice and Chatelaine's Mini Mandala Garden I #2. Then the Mirabilia RR arrived on January 13th. That was recovery weekend. On Friday evening I decided which Mira design I was going to stitch and then I went to Jo Ann's to pick up a few colors of floss I did not have. Then on Saturday & Sunday I stitched contently in between coughs and sniffles on Mira's Autum Queen. I am excited about this RR because I have never stitched a Mirabilia design before and now I will have the opportunity to stitch parts of 6 or 7 of them. Autumn Queen has some very beautiful colors in it. During the week that followed I decided that the metallic substitution I made for Kreinik 150V was not working because it was too close in color to the gold metallic. So I made a special trip to the LNS to pick the suggested metallic and the beads. I ended up buying Rainbow Gallery's Nordic Gold instead because it was the right color but much more vibrant than the kreinik color. The beads are very pretty colors and I ordered the two treasures I needed. They should be in by the first week in February which will give me sufficient time to stitch them on before mailing the RR onto it's next recipient.

In addition to working on the Mira RR I try to stitch on MP's Venice in the morning before I go to work and I took a Christmas ornament called Santa's Hat by Twisted Thread to work today so I would have a small project there instead of constantly carrying my rotation project bag and forth to work everyday. I don't get to stitch often at work but it will be nice to have a small project I can pull out to work on during meetings or if I am taking a small break in my office.

I plan to start my TWRR band tonight since it is the BB-wide SAL tonight. I plan to stitch The Reniasance Bookmark horizontally as the first band. It will be exciting to start this one. My only concern is how I am going to keep up with two RR's. I know I will but I won't be doing much else with my leisure time. This is OK since I really love to stitch. I just do it ever so slowly.

Well I must go back to work. I have papers to grade and students lining up outside my door. I hope everyone is having a great day.

Time does fly...

Here it is January 11th already. When I started to blog I thought that it would only take a few minutes a day to keep it up to date. Now the reality has set in. Like all things it requires a commitment to keep it going. I have to include blogging to my daily schedule instead of thinking I can do it in a spare momment here and there. That's what I just did. I had a few minutes so I thought I would put in a new entry. I have done that but I do not have the time now to do a thoughtful and complete job. So I will say goodbye for now and run off to take my son to his wrestling meet. I hope to be back real soon because January has been a very good month and I would like to share it.

In the beginning...

Here it is the beginning of another wonderful new year. How I end one year and begin the next is very important to me because I feel it sets the tone for the coming year. Because this year starts on a Sunday DD & I started the day by going to church. I wanted to spend time with DH and since he likes to shop we went shopping for new kitchen cabinet hardware and other household repair and decorating items. Then we rented some videos to watch this evening. We also did some Christmas returns and looked for a coat for DS. After getting home I baked sweet potato pies and cooked a special dinner. Now we are watching Kingdom of Heaven and I am going to stitch for the rest of the evening. I have also set my personal and stitching goals for the year.

My personal goals are :

1. Lose weight.
2. Exercise regularly and improve my flexibility.
3. Take care of my health.
4. Continue to decorate and improve our home.
5. Get rid of the excess junk in our house.
   
6. Organize my home and my office.
7. Take care of my friendships.
8. Continue to pay off debt & do retirement planning.
9. Continue to build my relationship with DH.
10. Stitch more and learn to knit and quilt.
11. Learn new teaching delivery techniques and add to my content knowledge.
12. Define the Undergraduate Coordinator's role in our department.

My Stitching Goals are:

1. Finish three of my seven WIPs
2. Start and complete two RRs
3. Start six new designs for the new year in addition to the RRs.
4. Finish the year with five or less WIPs.

I feel I have started the year off on the right foot and am looking forward to a happy and properous new year. May all of you have the same. So TTFN and off to my stitching I go.