Marvelous Monday Update 4/25/2011

STITCHY STUFF
Again, I worked on the mailart pieces. I'm about half done with the front motif for the second mailart. No pics yet, cuz it's a soo-prise! Since I'm not showing pics of the mailart pieces I'm working on, I thought I'd share past mailart.

Here are one's I've received from Finland, Malaysia, Australia. The ones from Finland and Austrailia were actually sent through the postal system. As you can see, they arrived unscathed.

Click on photos to enlarge
STASH FOR SALE
Just a heads up for anyone looking for a flower frog. I have another one on my stash-for-sale blog (link on the sidebar). I've also recently put up some Lizzie Kate Christmas Blessings Flip-Its with charms.


GIVEAWAYS
Sierra of Patchwork Stitches is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her first 50 followers. She recently finished CCN's Dragonfly of the Garden Bug series. She's also working on her version of JG. :)

Angela at Hooked on Stitches is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 3rd blogversary. She does great finishes!

Edgar from Blacksheep's Bit of the Web is celebrating 4 years of blogging bliss. Click on over to his blog to see what's up!


SCHOOL
To me, it seems this semester has drug on and on. I'm in Week 6 of 8, so in reality it has gone by pretty fast. Today is the start of registration for next semester. I'm really excited about this because it means only two more semesters (16 weeks + the remaining 3 of this semester!!) and I'll be done -- graduating with a BSBA, double major in accounting and finance. Woo Hoo!

Revised: Ack! I had the college do a degree audit and found out I actually have 3 semesters left. :( 2 more finance classes and 1 accounting class. Bummer.

Mighty Bright LED Floor Light and Magnifier

Let me present my newest acquisition...

LED Floor Light and Magnifier
by Mighty Bright

I saw one of these when I went to the GTG at Welcome Stitchery several weeks back. I got a bit excited when I saw one at Hobby Lobby. I opened the box and tested the magnifier, it didn't seem to distort the object like other magnifiers I'd seen. With 40% off coupon in hand, I snatched up the last remaining box and toted it to the check-out counter.


It has a 24" solid stand with a weighted base, and a 17" flexible neck. In reading reviews about the lamp, several reviewers said they had a difficult time getting the solid stand to stay in the base. I'm thinking it was "operator error" on their part because I had no issue getting it to stay in the base and it doesn't seem top heavy to me.


The 2X magnifier is 5" wide and has a 1" 5X inset. Not sure how helpful that would be, but it's there nonetheless.


There are 12 super-LED bulbs that last up to 100,000 hours. The downside? The bulbs are not replaceable. However... being the numbers person I am, I did a calculation. If the lamp was used 24hrs a day, it would take 11½ years before the bulbs wear out. That's a pretty long time, and no one will use it 24 hours a day. So my guess is that it could last a lifetime.


Two other nice features are: It can be battery-operated for portability. It also has a nice long 6ft AC adapter cord.

My review: I tested it one night by using it to stitch Blossom Splendor. It's 32ct so I didn't really need a magnifier, but the lamp worked really well. Another thing I liked is that I could slide the base under the edge of the sofa if I needed to, in order to get the magnifier closer to my body. I'm itchin' to try it out with 40ct over-two -- I have another ruler to stitch up. Quaker Rule (below) about made me go blind since I didn't have a magnifier.


By using Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon, you can't get the Mighty Bright Floor Light cheaper anywhere else.

Gloomy Friday

What's a girl to do on Gloomy Good Friday?

*This* girl woke up with a sinus headache and congestion. Fun. Fun.

Looked out the window and what did I spy? Rain. More rain. *sigh*

After some meds, the headache became a dull roar and I decided to be productive. The area under the kitchen sink has been bothering me for a quite a while.


How much crap stuff.... What exactly was under there??? Well let's see....


Regular Flashlight - needed new batteries. I broke the flashlight when trying to change batteries. (Good goin, girl)

6-Volt Flashlight - actually works!

Cuttlebone

2 Bags of Bird Food

1 Container of Bird Food

Millet Sprays

2 Nectar Sugar Concentrate Packets - for hummingbirds

Dog Food

2 Fire Extinguishers - one was empty! Why was I keeping it???

Baby Shampoo

Dog Shampoo

Softscrub

Ceiling Fan Cleaner - Didn't even know I had this. Maybe I should try using it on my ceiling fans. What a novel idea!

Easy Off Oven Cleaner

Dish Soap

Cleaning Erasers

Mr Clean

PineSol

Lysol Disinfecting Spray

Resolve Spot Carpet Cleaner - not just one, but TWO!

Cascade Dishwasher Packets

Barkeepers Friend

Spray Bottle of Purple RIT dye - from last year's fabric dye-ing adventure

Miracle Grow Fertilizer

Renuzit Air Freshener

and lastly.... a HUGE container of matches.

How OLD are these??
I haven't worked at the Holiday Inn for 25 years, and it went out of business at least 10+ years ago. Do these matches even work?

Yep!
I guess I'll keep them.

With a little PineSol fumigation and re-allocation of items, and I ended up with a more spacious sink cabinet:


After a job well done, some lunch was in order. Some stir fry sounded good...


I just threw together a bunch of veggies I had in the fridge that needed to be used up. Not bad for a "throw together".

Finally.... Some stitching. Started the second mailart piece.

Tell It All Tuesday 4/19/2011

GIVEAWAYS

Ruth is hosting a birthday giveaway on her blog, Ruth's Running Stitch. Click on over and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Sharon of Crescent Colours is celebrating her birthday also. She's got such a pretty blog. Go over and check it out.



WEATHER
Ugh! We had SNOW yesterday. Temps are about 20 degrees colder than they're supposed to be at this time of year. The upside? We've had rain, too... and the grass is green. So warmer weather has to come, right? Right!



STITCHY STUFF
I spent all of last week working on my mailart piece. Can't show pics yet, but I really like it. I'm thinking about doing another one for my Mom for Mother's Day. I've chosen an Asian theme, and have most of the front of the envelope done. Just have to stitch the recipient's name on it, then I can start the back. Sorry, no pics until it wings its way to its new home.

No work on JG or Blossom Splendor.


SCHOOL
School seems to be dragging on this semester. Last semster, I took Corporate Finance. This semester I'm taking Investments. I am a bit ticked off peturbed that I've spent almost $700 in tuition only to have this instructor give the exact same term paper assignment and for the last two weeks has been posting the exact same online discussion questions as last semester. Two different classes, same questions! I don't want to say anything to the instructor since his grading of the online discussions seems to be subjective to his whim. *sigh* I keep telling myself: "Only 3 more weeks... 3 more weeks."

Marvelous Monday Update 4/11/11

Not too much to report this week, so this post will be pretty short.

STITCHY STUFF
I made some good progress on Blossom Splendor. I'll be working on her face soon! It bothers me that she has no face, lol. As you can see, I've finished her sleeve. A little backstitching, and the details should pop out on it.

Other WIP pics can be seen HERE.

I've signed up for another mailart exchange, so I've set aside Blossom for now. I decided on the design I'm going to stitch and started it last night. Of course, it couldn't be easy... no... I decided to stitch it opposite of the way it's charted, so that's been a trick. Looks good so far. Speaking of mailart, I was showing off the exchanges I've received in the past and realized that I have 3 envelopes from 3 different countries: Malaysia, Australia, and Finland. How cool is that?!?


GIVEAWAY
Amy from Cross Stitch and Cupcakes is hosting a giveaway. She has the cutest blog, ever! Go check it out. :)


DIY
For the past three years, I've been using a teeny-tiny battery powered weed trimmer that I'd gotten from a lady on Freecycle, or conned asked someone else to do it for me. The little trimmer only stays charged for 15 minutes and really isn't big enough for what I need. I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a gas-powered weed trimmer. 16" 25cc. Oh yeah... More power!! (insert Tool Time grunts here, lol) This, of course, will be a learning experience for me seeing as I've never mixed gas, nor have I used a full size weed trimmer. Hopefully, my flowers survive... and I don't hurt myself!

Also invested in a lawn spreader to try and get a handle on the weeds growing all over my yard. Another first!

Marvelous Monday Update 4/4/11

WEATHER
Ack! I thought March was a crazy month for weather. April is starting out just as crazy. All weekend it was a bit cool and windy. Temps in the lower 40's. Yesterday afternoon, the temperature shot up to 70-74F and it was really humid. Then the tornado watches were issued, along with thunderstorm and flood warnings. Forecasters didn't stop there - no. They also warned of 2-3" diameter hail possible. Luckily, my area didn't get hail - but 40 minutes west of me did (1" sized). We got the thunder rumbling and rain, but that's it. Today, temps are back into the 40's again.


A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE
This past weekend, the local college put on Arsenic and Old Lace. The set was fabulous, and the actors did a really good job putting on the play.


The play is a comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims); and a murderous brother who received plastic surgery to conceal his identity and ends up looking like horror-film actor Boris Karloff.

Arsenic and Old Lace is best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.


WELCOME STITCHERY GTG
I've been a follower of Ranae's blog (Stitch by Stitch) for quite a while. She announced on her blog that there was going to be a get together at Welcome Stitchery. It was a really fun time. The store looks small on the website, but it's pretty good size and has a LOT of stitchy goodness! After shopping, we (all 19 of us!) went to Public House for lunch. The food was really good and very filling. It was the first time I'd met any of the ladies, including Ranae. She's really friendly and a great gal. :) We had two ladies from Canada also. Welcome Stitchery had been their 5th cross stitch shop in 5 days and I think they said they'd be going to a couple more. That's a lotta stashing!

I couldn't go all that way and not buy anything. Here's what I came home with (minus a few things I bought as gifties):



GIVEAWAY
Dawn (GoldenAngelWorks) is hosting a giveaway to celebrate seven years of blogging. Click on over and wish her a Happy Blogversary!


STITCHY STUFF
It didn't seem like I did a lot of stitching all week, but from the looks of my recent WIP pic, apparently I did. I did quite a bit on the the parasol I started last week.