Happy Holidays - 2 Small Updates And Other Stuff

Posted by Jan
To all my Pagan friends Happy Yule, and to everyone else Merry Christmas.

I tried my best to finish part 2 of the Berlin Woolwork Sampler. However, I got called back to work after being laid-off for 3 months so I tried to work on it over the weekends but it just didn't happen all that much. So after tackling motifs 11, 12, & 14 I decided to stop working on it and move on to my French Mystery Sampler "Tree of Life". Which I started back in October of this year. As I am now 2 months behind, I really wanna catch up and for once stay current as the free charts are posted on Annick's site. I have this whole week off from work and now that I've got my shopping done for the holidays, I'm gonna give it my best effort to tackle parts 1 & 2. (Click in the thumbnail for a bigger pic)

Click Me
From left to right accross the bottom Motifs: 12, 13, 11, &14

Click Me
Here's the first 6 hours of part 1 "Tree of Life"

I'm still looking for full-time permanent work and a local boyfriend. Hopefully I'll have better luck with both in 2010. I've managed to contract Fibromyalgia this last year and it's taken a toll on my health. Constant joint pain and not being able to sleep soundly through the night has put 33 pounds back on me. This is somewhat depressing knowing that it took me the previous year to lose 88 pounds. I try to explain to people it's not what I eat, it's the fact that I can't workout like I use to. That and the lack of energy (chronic fatigue) makes my body try to shut down to conserve energy, hence the weight gain. Since I have no health insurance or permanent work to pay medical bills, I'm trying a natural supplement and vitamin treatment for the condition. I'm hoping it will work because I have no other alterative.

Anyway, I'm gonna try and stay positive over the holidays and through the New Year. I'm not really one for making resolutions; it's too easy to break them. So I will only say that I'm gonna do my best to keep up with my reduced treadmill workout and stretching exercises, reading my romance books, and stick to a rotational system for my stitchery so I can see some progress on my WiPs.

Happy Holidays everyone and see you next year.
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Book Review: Paranormal Romance

Posted by Jan
Me and My Shadow (Silver Dragons, #3) Me and My Shadow by Katie MacAlister


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Hey what can I say.... I LOVE IT!!!!! Started reading it at 6pm wed and finished at 4am thurs a 10 hour reading marathon... there were just so many good scenes in the book, but I gotta say Magoth "stole the show". The scenes in the woods getting whacked with May's tail and the nakid "butt cheek" leather pants/chaps... Oh and him and Drake's mom talking kinky sex toys... LOL

View all my reviews >>
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Sad News of Needlework Note...

Posted by Jan

Today I read on her blog and on her YUKU message board that Teresa Wentzler is closing TW Designworks permanently. It wasn't that much of a surprise; as back in May 2005 she had decided to take a leave of absence from cross stitch designing and concentrate on traditional artwork design. It looks as if her artwork design side of the business hasn't been as profitable as she'd hoped either.

Like the others who posted their heartfelt thanks and condolences on both her blog & message board; I too am sadden to hear of the closing of TW Designworks. But not the end (I hope) of her designing all together. I too, along with the other members of the TWBB, was hoping for Illuminata as her one last needlework design project. Perhaps with the burden lifted off her shoulders of the business end of design, Illuminata may still be finished and for sale on "PatternsOnLine.Com". The world of needlecraft design is losing it's brightest star. In my view no one will ever come close to matching her rare talent.

It's hard to imagine that 13 years ago (1996) I stumbled across Camelot, English Cottage, and English Garden Samplers in the clearance isle at Michaels craft store. And the rest they say is STASH history. It was Teresa's detailed designs that got me stitching again and becoming part of the family known as the TWBB. Thank You.

Brightest Blessings to you Teresa and to what ever your future may hold.
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Crossing my fingers and knock wood…

Posted by Jan
Today my OEM copy of Windows 7 came in the mail. I’ve been told by a techie friend of mine that because I’m going from Windows XP to 7 I'll be re-installing my system, probably from scratch… Goddess help me I hope not… but just incase, it might be a couple of weeks before I’m able to post here again…. Yea I’ve got that much stuff to re-install. So you’ll either see a stitch update from me by this weekend or not.

In the mean time…. Happy Samhain to all my Pagan friends and Happy Halloween to everyone else!!!!!

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Stitchy Finish - Summer's End - and another French Mystery SAL

Posted by Jan

Summer's End, originally uploaded by Jan J..

Name: Summer's End
Type: Counted Cross Stitch
Finished Chart Size: 17" x 17" (43.18cm x 43.18cm) on 14ct. Fiddlers Cloth
Leaflet/Kit #: E-mail PDF Chart
Designer/Publisher: Pamela Kellogg, Kitty and Me Country Crafts / CraftSoft Inc. © 2004
Finished: October 23, 2009
Misc. Info. : A Stitch-Along Project in 4 parts. Created for Pam's bulletin board group, at http://pamkellogg.yuku.com/ Started September 2004. I plan to finish this as a pillow. The french knots on the butterfly and red berries have been replaced with Mill Hill glass seed beads - #00479 & frosted glass beads - # 62023.

For anyone who still drops in from time to time, I finally got around and finished a WiP, Summer's End by Pam Kellogg. Believe it or not I managed it in 5 years 1 month... LOL

I already have another to take it's place. A new free SAL is being offered by Annick Abril – Mon Arbre de Vie - “My Tree of Life" or simply "Tree of Life" http://www.annickabrial.com/ Look under 'Mon Marquior' on the main page.

It's in 27 parts starting this October. It's a French site, so if you don't speak it you'll need to Google translate it. According to the information on her message board. The chart size is 411 wide x 430 high.

Because she uses her own hand dyed floss. The best I can do is go with DMC Color Variations floss (Art. 417) as the closest match.

While I'm looking for a new job, I thought working on my projects would keep me from getting depressed. And who knows I might get a few off the WiP list and onto the Finished list.
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