Fair & Square round 5

An enormous wedding-recap post is on the way, but these deserve a special post of their own. Here is my Fair & Square exchange from Michele!



I'd never *met* Michele (in the blogosphere) before partnering with her for this exchange, but I was immediately struck by how similar our stitching tastes are. As I was looking through her albums of finishes the thought in my head was either "Oh, I've stitched that too!", "I love that design", "That's in my queue", or "I'd totally stitch that if not for the [insert holiday that I don't celebrate here]-y theme".

So it's no surprise to me that Michele picked such a perfect-for-me design. This wasn't even on my radar to stitch, and now I can't believe that I missed it. I love the dark fabric that she chose to stitch on too, much more "me" than the "recommended" color from the website.

Michele sent along some eerily perfect goodies with her exchange packet:

• a Little Notebook - how did she know that I LOVE little notebooks and writing lists and reminders to myself
• a small photo frame - I took nearly a gigabyte of photos on Sunday at the wedding (and I'll share some later :-D
• a packet of really cute tissues - I caught a cold yesterday. (however I'm using plain white tissues because the others are too pretty to use, of course!)

Michele, your exchange was spot on. Thank you so much for being my partner this round!

I'm going to borrow Michele's photo of what I sent her, because hers came out much better than the one I took (Hope you don't mind! :)

Thursday night I went out to Karaoke with Other Kim, a friend from college, and M, a friend of hers from college. Other Kim, aka Kimberly, found a great little place in the West Village that's reasonably priced and has small private rooms, so the 3 of us had our own. I'm not a fan of those karaoke bars where you're singing in front of strangers and have to share the mike.

This was our second time going just the three of us, we went last week too. It was soooo much fun!, and a great way to end a busy, stressful week at work. We're going back next week :-)

Friday was crazy at work. I had 2 high-priority deadlines, and then JC tells me that the French team bounced back his report again, and asked would I take a look at it? It turned out that there was one glaring problem (which I caught and fixed), and one problem that took until 3:30 to diagnose... and I leave at 3 on Fridays. I didn't mind staying late, especially since the guy from the French office was at work still at 9:30 on a Friday night. My boss rocks, he knew I had to get home for for Shabbat so he took over troubleshooting so I could leave.

I didn't go straight home, I stopped at my Grandma's a couple of blocks away from my house. It was her birthday Friday, so everyone went over there with cake and cards and flowers. She's really out of it, but she seemed okay yesterday and happy to see us. She really liked the sparklers on her cake, so we relit it and resang happy birthday. She was joking a little and gave my dad a hard time. It was good to see her.

I called my LNS on Thursday night and asked them to mail me a couple of things I'd ordered, because I haven't had time to go out there to pick them up. Well guess what showed up in the mail Saturday! It takes me 30-45 minutes to drive to my LNS and I usually have to leave work early to do it, so I think I'll be ordering from them a lot more in the future. It was a small order this time - just some buttons for my F & S exchange and the LHN Iced Tea Threadpack. I'm doing the Tea threadpacks on 1 piece of fabric, and I'm considering finishing them as a boxtop for a teabox, if I can find a pretty wooden box that fits them.

This morning I woke up with a sore throat and the worst cold, so I canceled my plans to go meet my friends and see their new baby. Don't want to get a baby sick! I got an email from the French guy that they needed their report rerun, so I did that... and hopefully built a little goodwill towards the NY office.

There's a superbowl party on the UWS but I'm really not in the mood to take all those trains with my cold. Oh well, my dad's having some friends over here to watch the game, I can crash with them :-)

Happy Sunday!

Thursday update

Work was a lot less fun today. There's a (very important) report I used to run that has so many finicky parts that something breaks every time you run it, so you have to check everything. Big PITA. Well it got passed along to JC about 2 months ago, which was fine with me, except that he's a little... technologically inept. He usually can't diagnose or correct any problems that happen, so I get called in to fix it. Which is fine, my department is very friendly and we all help each other out whenever asked, no glory hounds :-) But I just hate running the report, and I don't love getting dragged back into it.

Today was a really tough problem. It turned out that a field broke due to the new year, but it took us from 10-2 to figure out what exactly since there are so many finicky parts to the process, and we went through a lot of them before finding the error. So no AC Moore during lunch again. It felt really good to fix the thing though :-)

After work I went to my LNS. I picked up some fabric I needed, some blue fabric I didn't need but really liked, and a chart to stitch JF for her birthday. Haha, I now have 2 friends that're JF! I meant my singing friend. I also got a couple of Casey Buonaugurio charts to stitch on some sparkly pink fabric I'd ordered from Silkweaver. They just fit on the fabric I got! Can't wait to stitch them, they look like quick stitches.

Partner assignments for Round 5 of the Fair & Square Exchange came yesterday :-D I got Michele, and aside from being super friendly, we also have the same taste in cross stitch designers! I picked something to stitch for her in record time. And if I find something better in the next week or two it's no problem, because I'm planning to stitch it for myself too :-)

It was snowing and raining when I left my LNS but I had 2 more stops to make. I did a return to Best Buy and then stopped in at Borders. I went to exchange the Veronica Mars DVDs I got for my b-day, because one of the disks came scratched and wouldn't play. Thank goodness for gift receipts :-) I also found a new release by an author I like and picked up a Grey's Anatomy calendar for LN (she's a huge fan).

Off to go play with my new stash. Have a great night!

Fair & Square, Socks

My Fair Square exchange from Pokua arrived. She stitched me squares that she designed herslef, using elements of Drawn Thread charts. Aren't they gorgeous?!? Those big birds in the middle *must* be emus. Pokua also sent some postcards of Australia and a boomerang keychain. I hope that means when I lose my keys they will come back to me ;-)


In other news, I figured I should get ready for my sock kit swap by knitting some socks. I've been hearing a lot about South West Trading Company so I looked up where their yarn is sold, and found thepointnyc.com. It's a cute store in Greenwich Village, very little in a very Manhattan way. I picked up a pattern book, some Tofutsies yarn, and some tiny DPNs. I am all for supporting the small retailers of the world, but yarn stores make it tough - I could've printed a couple of coupons and got the same for about 1/3 the cost at AC Moore. And maybe it's an NYC thing, but the store is very small so selection's not great. I wasn't keen on the uber-beginner book but it didn't seem like they had any other sock pattern books. Whatever, I found enough to do one pair and Raverly will take care of all future patterns :-)

**** Updated ****
By the way, I ended up on a 6am flight Monday morning... which meant that I had to be up at 3:30. Is rocks, she drove me to the airport and everything! She got to go back to sleep for a couple of hours while some of us went to work. The morning went well but by 4 I was starting to fall asleep at my desk. I was waaaay too tired to post yesterday when I got home!

All in all, the DC trip was a complete sucess & I'm looking forward to going back. Probably in the summer so I can take the bike ;-D

Short Post

This is gonna be a short post. I have a headache, and when that happens the best thing to do is sign off the computer ASAP.

I mailed off my exchange today to Australia. We'll see when it gets there. I went for the bubble-lined envelope at the post office, so it *should* arrive in good condition. We'll see. They only had either tiny envelopes or enormous ones (like, 11x14), so my exchange partner might think I'm a bit strange. Oh well.

This morning I went dress shopping with my mom for a dress for my cousin D's wedding, which will be this March. She already ordered her dress and was going in for a fitting. I'm kinda picky and not everything looks good on me so I was only cautiously optimistic. And I found a dress! A really, really pretty dress, and it's black so I'm going be able to wear it a zillion times after this wedding :-)

On the topic of dresses, JS and I have been discussing bridesmaid dresses. It looks like I'm going dress shopping again next week :-\ We wanted to go Sunday but places are closed for Christmas, even though Christmas is Tuesday. I don't understand why they are closed on Sunday already, but ok.

Anyways, I'm being a good little bridesmaid and helping her find shops that sell the designers she likes. I think I'm getting the hang of this bridesmaid gig :)

We've picked a date for the shower - May 4th - and I think everyone's on board with having it here. NYC apartments are so small, and shopping w/out a car is kinda hard, so this is probably the best choice. Am I being too OCD trying to plan the shower stuff now? I just feel like all of April is going to be so Passover-crazy, and it's April 20th-27th, so by the time it's over it's too late to plan for the shower the 4th. This way we'll get the planning done with and it'll be so stress free for everyone.

I'm watching Clash of the Choirs now, which means I need to go stitch something. If you can, definitely tune in. It's a great show. Nick Lachey's team is the best and the one I'm rooting for to win.

Keep rocking out, even if it's choir style.

w00t!

My brother sent me an email this morning, subject: competitive knitting and this link in the body of the email. He's not a big fan of my knitting/crocheting/craftsiness so I was intrigued by what he would find that has to do with knitting, and then be cool/interesting enough to forward on to me. He didn't disappoint.

Sock Wars!!! (If I understand it correctly), everyone gets the name of a target to *kill* and the same sock pattern. If you receive a pair of socks you have *been killed* and have to turn over your started pair to your assasin to finish & use to kill the next person. Last person *alive* is the winner.

Best. Idea. Ever. Knitting is plenty combative already - it's all about poking and stabbing yarn with needles. And now they've turned it into a kill-or-be-killed game. w00t! I got googling right away and signed up for the Yahoo Group. I've knit for years but I've never done socks before, so I'm going to hit the library for some pattern books & practice. Next round starts in the new year and I can't wait!!!

Hmm, I wonder if we could do a similar cross stitch war?

In other news, my Fair Square exchange is complete! Now I just need to mail the darn thing off to Australia and hope/wish/dream that it gets there eventually and unscathed. MaryKathryn warned me that her package tore open last round so I'm wrapping this one better. It'll help that I'm not sending a heavy-ish book in an unlined envelope this time around, lol.

Ok that's all, just a quick update. Ttys!

The party Sunday night was fun. My 4 cousins (ages 16 - 25) threw it for their parents, and my mom is really OCD about being early for things, so we ended up helping them clean & set up. My poor cousin (the 16 yr old), her siblings all ran out *to run errands* and keep their mom occupied. They left her to arrange the house and bake a pie - she was making crust from scratch when we walked in! My mom & I & a neighbor pitched in (the guys were useless) and it was done in no time :)

You might be wondering how the *surprise* aspect worked. Well, my new cousin-in-law Erica3 took my aunt shopping to keep her out of the house & busy. Pretty normal stuff. My uncle, on the other hand, was asleep upstairs in the house that had the party. Apparently he sleeps through everything, including 30+ people invading his house. I think they kinda lost the element of surprise when they woke him up & he heard the racket downstairs, but it's still awesome & hilarious. Don't get any ideas though about doing the same to me - my *morning hair* is not acceptable for a party, lol.

I'm going on my first NCSY shabbaton! Ten years too late - NCSY is for middle & high school kids - but whatever :-) My 25-yr-old cousin & his friends run their local chapter, & he asked me to come on the shabbaton as *technical* staff, something about setting up and catering. It's volunteer and it should be interesting. I won't be dealing directly with the kiddies (a good thing, even though I like kiddies) and at the very least I'll be spending Shabbat with my cousin & his wife (lol still don't believe he's married). I aksed E3 about the guy prospects on these things, and she confirmed my suspicions: they're all pretty nebbish. Nebbish is jewish for, like, sad & pathetic. Eh, you'll get the report in January when I get back :-)

Did you know that Robert Jordan died? This according to the NYTimes. The Eye of the World was the first grownup book I read in high school that wasn't assigned reading, and it literally got me started reading. I had the best, dorkiest, geekiest friends in high school. The summer before freshman year As. read the first 5 or so books from the WoT series. She got S. to read tEotW first. They then bullied Ay. and me into starting the series. 3500 pages later we'd all read the 7 books that'd been published and we'd become best friends. The 12th & final book of the series is going to be written or finished by another writer using notes/plotlines that Robert Jordan left behind. If they really do publish it, I'm going to have to pull a marathon reading session and re-read 1-7, then read 8-12 for the first time.

In other news, I pulled a marathon stitching session tonight in an attempt to finish my Fair Square exchange. Clash of the Choirs is my new favorite reality TV show (yes, even trumping PR). I think Nick Lachay and Patti Labelle have the best choirs. I'm rooting for NL because I love him and PL made the weirdest comments throughout the episode. Blake Sheldon or Sheldon Blake or whomever s/b the one to go in my opinion. I don't like his song choice, and the others were just better. Plus, it wasn't a nice move that he grilled this choral director that auditioned for advice on putting together a choir, and then totally didn't pick him. But Michael Bolton is my guess for the one to actually go.

Due to some frogging (grr) the Fair Square thing is still not done, but I *will* mail tomorrow. So I need to get back to that.

It sounds like some more frogging is in my future - on the P+tP project. I knew that color contrast wasn't *right*. Ah well, I have some other grays to play around with, and it's not *so* much to frog. :-(

Mercy got me started thinking about beaded scissor fobs. Maybe this weekend... Oh, this is so not good for making progress on my SAL or the BC Snappers!

Have a good night :-)

Starbucks and Scissors

I went into Manhattan last night for a birthday party for a friend from HS. As anticipated, I knew most of the other people, but just to say hello to, so I was really relieved when Nicki (one of my college roomates) showed up. Eventually the party moved to a different bar where we could play flip cup. It was too loud and too crowded, so Nicki & I ditched & went to Starbucks instead. It was a great call, we had so much more fun catching up than if we'd stayed with the group.

We were supposed to go to Mohegan Sun today but the roads are too slushy. So instead I've been stitching & cleaning, and Dad & I winterized the motorcycle. I won't show you the cleaning, but here's a stitching update on Princess & the Pea by LHN, the SAL I'm doing with SweetPea.


Before you compare this to my last update on P+tP and marvel at my speedy stitching, I had finished the pillow & bedspread before this weekend. I also need some advice: see how on the right side of the dog there's a row of missing stitches between the parts of the leg? The chart calls for a white dog with light gray shadowing, but I'm doing a black dog, since Sky is black, so I need to find a new color for the shadowing too. I stitched the shadowy part on the left leg, so take a look & let me know if the gray I picked for the left leg too dark? I can't tell if there's enough contrast, but it looks like I'll be frogging & restitching in a lighter shade of grey.


Until about a month ago I didn't have special *stitching* scissors, I just used whatever old scissors I had on hand. After reading so many of other peoples' blog entries about their scissor collections, I picked up the 3.5" black gingher scissors at Michaels. Now I completely understand what the fuss is about :-) It's so nice to work with small, sharp scissors that cut threads so precisely and cleanly!

Joann.com is having great deals on Gingher scissors and I keep getting emails with free shipping coupons, so I caved and ordered a second pair of scissors. I got the 5" Bianca sewing sheers, and while they aren't as tiny and don't have the same snip sound as the black ones, I think they'll be great for cutting fabric :-) I'm not going to start collecting scissors because they're too expensive. Now that I have 1 pair to keep by each of my 2 stitching places, I think I'm good :-)

I signed up for a scissor fob exchange, so I think I'll wait to see what (if anything) comes of that, and then make my own fob for the other pair.

I got my stitching assignment for the exchange last night, and my person's from Europe! :-) Her blog is in 3 languages, and I'm going to have so much fun tomorrow deciphering it. Nope, that's not sarcasm, I'm really that big a dork & foreign language geek.

Speaking of exchanges, I'm *this* close to finishing my Fair Square exchange piece. I'll probably stay up tonight stitching so I can mail it tomorrow - I have time before the deadline, but it's going to Australia so better earlier than later, right? That's the plan anyways, I'll let you know what happens.

So, I'm blogging & watching one of my favorite movies (Legally Blonde) when I really should be getting ready for the surprise party. We're leaving in like 15 minutes. So ttyl!

Snow

Last night was Sit & Stitch at Lazy Daisy :-) I recognized everyone from the last one I went to, in October. I brought BC Snappers and my exchange... and got a lot of the November block done.

I picked up some threads I'm missing for BC Snappers (hopefully the last of them), some extras to send along to my Fair Square exchange partner, an LHN chart about winter, and the new Just Cross Stitch magazine. I was on the fence about the mag until I saw Diane Williams' chart "Winter Symphony". I used to love the Tikki Room at Disney, and the phrase on the chart is one of the songs from the Tikki Room show. Well it was, they might have cut it when they redesigned the *ride* with Iago and Zazu a few years ago. I have a ton of stuff to stitch now, but eventually I'll get to it.

It started snowing around 10, 10:30 this morning. A. decided at 11:30 not to come to the office & go bowling since she'd have a hard time getting home again. At 1:00 bowling was canceled. At 3:15 it got dark out and stayed that way - over an hour early. So Snow & I didn't get off to a good start today.

For some reason, 3-4 people approached me independently to ask whether I'd brought my motorcycle to work. What's up with that, schadenfreude?

I left the office at 5:30. At some point in the afternoon the snow had turned to sleet so the parking lot was a slushy mush, but I could drive through it. Snow would've been a problem. My problem was trying to get out of the parking lot - who's the genius who makes both exits uphill? Worried about not being able to stop at the top, I went a bit too slow & didn't make it all the way up to the exit, and once I stopped & had no more momentum, I couldn't go forward at all.

Luckily I had the worst time driving in the snow last year too, so I knew some tricks. Like that I'd need momentum. And to try reversing. So 15 minutes later I'd gotten stuck, reversed, driven to the other (less steep) exit, gotten stuck again, uturned, gotten stuck again, and was ready to storm the exit again. With the whole momentum thing in mind I *floored* it to 20mph, steered straight, and made it out, all on my own :)

The rest of the roads were cleared, so I went shopping as I'd planned to before I got the bowling invite. At AC Moore I picked up some DMC threads on sale and the rest of the things for my Fair Square exchange. I also got a couple of things for the gift exchange we're doing at work. I'm buying for someone that I know but don't work with. He travels and likes casinos so I'm going with that. For $2 I got some chocolate coins - which are gambly and also Chanukah-y (I think he's also Jewish), and a huge book of sudoku puzzles, which is something he could take to do on a plane. I have another $13 in my budget but I'm not sure what to get. Maybe some sort of book? I forsee plenty of googling in my future until I figure out what to get.

To do tomorrow:
Figure out gift for DK
Get some books out of the library
Call S. & make sure that Rummikub is on for Saturday.

May you accomplish what you need to tomorrow and enjoy your weekend.

Makeover & Making Plans

Last night was the last night of Chanukah :-( The menorot were pretty with all their candles, but I'm still gonna miss the holiday. And of course this morning, on the last day of the holiday, I find this article to bum me out even more. People are ridiculous. And give me a break, you can still be anti-semetic even if you have some Jewish relatives. Racists clearly aren't the brightest people to begin with, I'm sure a little thing like logic won't stop them!

Changing the subject.

Now that I've been on Blogger a while I decided it's time to give my blog a makeover. My original style was fine to start out with but I've learned more about what I like (sidebar elements) & dislike (orange, gray, and "897"). It was time for a change. Let me know how you like the new sidebar elements (did I go overboard with the adding?) and keep an eye out for my new favorite find: polls. I also posted some of the blogs I follow - not a comprehensive list, so if I've forgotten the obvious please drop me an email.

No new Bones or NCIS last night, but I worked on my Fair Square exchange. It's coming along really well, just 1 or 2 nights more should do it. I'm looking forward to sending out this exchange, it's going all the way to Australia and that is definitely the farthest I've mailed anything ever. Last year I received a postcard from a friend traveling in Thailand and it took over a month to get to me; I'm hoping it was the countries involved and not the distance that caused the delay.

Speaking of Australians, we're going bowling again tomorrow after work as a welcome for a new hire in Brian's group, and she's Australian! I wonder if they have the same rules as we do? Maybe I won't be the worst this time around :-)

I got my email from Edgar with the info on my partner for the SBBC yesterday :!) (=snowman smiley). I'm really happy with who I got for timing reasons but also because we seem to have similar stitching tastes so it should be easy to chose what to send. I've also been to this person's nearest NS and liked it a lot, so I'm going to check his/her blog and if they don't already go I can matchmake. I love using my superpowers for the forces of good, and networking is one of the best to use on someone else's behalf.

In case you were wondering, my other superpowers include: creating order out of chaos, untangling knots, and riding a bicycle through Parisian traffic. I reserve the right to claim more at a later date, that's just what I can think of now. Feel free to comment with a list your own superpowers :-)

Have a super-powered day!

What a busy week!

Last Wednesday night began one of my favorite holidays, Sukkot, the third and final installment of the Jewish "Holiday Season". The holiday lasts for 8 days, and the first and final 2 days have virtually all the restrictions of a typical Saturday. However, on years such as this year, when the holiday falls begins Wednesday night, the Thursday and Friday holidays roll right into Shabbat, creating a 3-day holiday. Now not only does this mean no crafting, TV, internet, turning on or off lights, or other modern electricity-based comforts, but my relatives that normally spend this 2 day holiday at our house each year were also restricted from traveling home until Saturday night. Three whole days of non-stop family time, without the TV to distract anyone, is pretty intense. But I think everyone enjoyed it, and it was really quality time. Hey, after the holiday ended it took 2 hours to get everyone out of the house, so they must've not hated it or they'd have been packed and ready to go, right?

Saturday night was a marathon stitching session since I was too mentally tired and it was too late to start making plans to go out at 10 when they left. Plus my DVR was full of 3 nights worth of season and series premieres, so I had my work cut out for me! I made some headway on a bunch of cross stitch projects, getting a lot done but finishing nothing. I did however find out what happened to Chloe on Smallville (I was worried), watched them catch the miniature killer and search for Sara on CSI, make my peace with Colby on Numb3rs, and made sure that Sam was okay on Las Vegas - no thanks to the crack security team at the Montecito for once.

I had to work again Sunday in order to not lose all my vacation for the holidays, as I mentioned in a previous post. I worked in an afternoon excursion to Michaels, Staples, and LNT though, and picked up some stitching supplies, stitching organizational supplies, and some storage bins. My cross stitch charts used to be in piles all over the place - I now have a lovely, drab grey binder for unstarted charts, one for some works in progress, and a tangerine binder to organize the freebie charts I've started printing from this great blog. Now if I could only find someplace that sells Rainbow threads I'm set for the next 8 trillion birthdays =)

Yesterday I took care of some painful-but-necessary errands that I won't get into. The evening was much better. My friend Aj had another yoga class last night, and it was even better than the first! We did the Crow again which was so fun! and partner stretching! and you know it was a great workout when body parts don't move or work the day or two after =) Plus yoga was just the thing to clear my head from earlier in the day.

I finished my Fair + Square block last night (of course staying up til 3am to do so was stupid stupid stupid!) Now I need to design my name and town on a block, figure out what small treats to include, and mail the darn thing. Tomorrow. I'd rather not wait until after the holiday to send it Monday, but we'll see how far I get on my name block tonight. I need some sleep!

Oh, yesterday also brought some great news in the form on an email from a former coworker, who quit and moved home to Uruguay recently because she is about to have her first baby. I really like her and was seriously disappointed to learn only 2 days in advance of her leaving the country and the company - I definitely would've crocheted her a baby blanket if I'd known. Anyways, she sent a lovely picture of herself and a little message about what she's up to. Today I even got to Google-chat with her, and she sounds like she is doing very well. She's due in a week! I hope everything goes well for her, her husband and the baby.

I also spoke to an old, old friend from London who's currently living in Paris today. She's invited me to visit and stay by her, and I think I might take her up on it for Thanksgiving week. I might even be able to work in the Paris office a couple of days, which is great because I get to meet people I'd normally only email with, but more importantly, the building that houses the Paris office is the world headquarters for DMC! No kidding. I think I have a picture from the last time I was there, I'll have to post it sometime.

Okay enough blogging, I'd better go start my square if I want to mail it off tomorrow. I have an idea of what to put in the package as extras but I'll need to hit a few stores during lunch. I hope I'll be able to pull it off!

K