Early Bird

Don't you love it when you wake up at 4 a.m. and then are wide awake unable to go back to sleep. It is definitely "me" time. No one else is up!! I got some quality online research time this morning. I also played a little Spider Solitaire.

The water in Topeka, KS is "safe" but has a foul odor and taste. Lovely!! So I hauled home some gallon jugs of "spring" water from the grocery store in hopes of having a decent cup of coffee. I had also cut back on drinking soda and had been drinking water during the day. Not tap water anymore. Yuk! I noticed some of the water in the store said "from a municipal source". I've not been having a good experience with that lately, thank you.

It really makes you think about our natural resources, right? I heard a presentation given by Jean Michel Cousteau in which he talked about the impact each one of us has on the ocean, even in Topeka, KS. Obviously, Topeka is having issues with the local water, so the ocean is in big trouble.

In addition to stitching my little fingers away, I spent about 7 hours entering data yesterday. The St. Francis Hospital Foundation is hosting the Childrens Miracle Network Radiothon at the Westridge Mall here in Topeka. I am entering each of the pledges and donations into the database. I almost finished Tuesday's information yesterday. My right arm is feeling the strain from the marathon typing and stitching. I will be doing data entry again today, but don't think I'll make 7 hours again. I may have to spread it out a little and plan on some time there next week, also.

STITCHED

A very productive weekend. I started and finished a piece that I need for the September Stitchers' Voice. 2164 stitches (an exact stitch count is a perk of having it in the design program). You know how you get an idea and it really sounds great? Well, kinda like that and it stitched wonderfully. I hope everyone finds it interesting. Here's a color swatch - swamp linen from PTP and bush baby silk from Dinky Dyes. I don't want to give away any more yet. . .

I am working on a list of member blogs, also. The problems with that is, I go wandering off into cyber land reading them. It is fun, but slows down progress. Hopefully, I will figure out the best place to have them on The Stitchers Village and get that on the site soon.

Unfortunately, Moonflower Designs needs to get some new designs finished. I may be stitching around the clock for the next month!!! Better get back to it!

Chatty Patty

The Stitchers' Village August update just went out. There is now a chat module so that Village members can "get together" in a more real-time way. A test run is scheduled for Friday, August 20 at 8p.m. CDT. Hopefully members will register and this will run smoothly. There will be future scheduled chats with designers, etc.

I don't believe I posted about the Kansas Stitchers group get together this past Saturday. We all met in Abilene at Picture This Plus. There were 19 and it was so great to see everyone and their projects, both finished and WIP. I was very pleasantly surprised when I was asked if I had lived in JC. It was a classmate of mine from high school. How great! She knits and has done a little cross stitch. She found a new project to work on at the shop.

Working From Home

I do love having my work from home job. Thanks to wonderful people such as Cheryl from Glendon Place and the telephone, I'm not a complete hermit. She and I had a great conversation this morning. Today has not gone as scheduled, however, and that is the good thing about the situation - flexibility. The bad thing is that putting laundry away was interrupted by the UPS delivery of some paper. Now I find I have lost my cup of tea. I have not launched a serious all points search, but the walk through when I started the last load of laundry did not produce my tea. It was very good - Assam Gold from Teavana. Don't you love that - Teavana? I ordered some fruit mix, also, because I wanted some delicious fruity iced tea. Perhaps it is time to find my cup and work on the email list for the mid-month Stitchers Village update. Have a good one!

Angry Birds

My daughter Jessie introduced me to the Ipad app Angry Birds last night. I left her a message when she didn't answer her cell of the birds making their noises. Hopefully, she got the message that I wish she had not shown me this game!! I had Bloons which my 2yo granddaughter plays. It's sort of like that only more addictive. Jessie didn't tell me until this morning that if you tap after shooting the birds, some of them do other things like turn into three birds. Good thing I needed to recharge or I would still be playing!! OOPS! Better get to work!

Actually, I did work first. I think I figured out how to put a chat room on The Stitchers' Village. As soon as the technical support gets the building mapped and the link up, I will launch it. Which reminds me - need to locate a designer that will host a chat time.

Back to work.

FINISH IDEA FOR STITCHING

small w/loom two medium example showing stitched piece

I discovered the Butterfly Loom in June just before leaving for vacation. When I returned home, I placed my order. In the meantime I made a stop at Michael's for some wired ribbon. In my mind, this was the idea that would work the best to have a more sturdy form on which to mount a stitched piece of needlework.

I got the looms yesterday (like any good hoarder I got two full sets. You know, in case one of my very good friends wants to try them, also.) When my husband got home he wanted to go out to eat which interrupted my "weaving". After we got home and before I went to bed I had made three. Two on the medium loom and one on the small loom. The small and one medium are made with 2.5" wired brown crinkled ribbon. The other medium is made with 1.5" wired Fall decorative ribbon. The overall size of the small is about 7" with the inside square about 3 3/4". The medium two are overall about 9" with the inside 5 1/2". The third picture is showing a small stitched piece (it was the first one I found the right size) which has just been folded for demonstration. I plan to stitch the edges solid and cut the pieces to size then tack them to the woven background. They could be sewn with backing or whatever you want. Needlepoint or hardanger would work. Expect more ideas soon.

Jet Lag

It could be the time flying causing this, I should be over the actual jet lag from July 19. We started at 4 a.m. in Copenhagen, flew to London with a couple hours layover, flew to TX, layover, flew to KC, drove home. We travelled for at least 24 hours. After 3 weeks gone, it has taken some time to get back to real life.

We saw some beautiful places. London was fun and I wish we could have spent more time there. We managed the running tour and made it to several of the "must see" places. I could have stayed in Scotland. Norway was breathtaking!

So, back to work! I should not be blogging now, but in my online research I found so many fun and interesting blogs, that I realize I should update. I ran across a number of blogs that were very dated. A couple of those I wish were current as they were very well done. Why was I researching blogs? I am trying to get some new content on The Stitchers' Village web site and am thinking of creating a blog list.

Have you ever gone online for one thing and ended up "losing" much more time than intended by being led astray (clicking blog links, for example)? That is what happened to me this morning when I should have been sending out the TSV newsletter. Back to work!!