Marvelous Monday Update 11/22/10 (on Tues)

For those of you in the U.S., I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

How many of you watch the Charlie Brown specials during the holidays? I do! My siblings and I watched them every year as children, and I still watch them now. I can still remember us kids getting excited when the commercials started popping up on the TV... and my Dad grumbling about how we'd seen the shows before... and my Mom telling my Dad that we are only kids once. LOL


SCHOOL
We got our midterm results. The instructor listed the grades on the white board:

A's - 3
B's - 6
C's - 4
D's - 0

I said to myself, "Self... at least you didn't get a D" *whew* I really thought I got a C, but was secretly hoping for a B. I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw my test. I was one of the 3 people who got an A! (I *must* be a really good guesser!) Talk about a huge relief off my shoulders. Funny thing about one of the questions I got wrong... I rarely change my answers once I put them down, because the first one is usually right. I even debated in my head when I changed it. And guess what? The first answer I put down was right! Doh!


I spent the weekend writing papers for class. The first was a 4-page case study. The second was our group project paper (again, We're doing Ford -- just a different slant). The last few weeks of the semester is going to be hectic... again!




RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
A few weeks ago, Jo from Tuscon RAK'd me with some stitchy goodies. I've been remiss in putting them on my blog.

Thank you, Jo! :)

BLOG GIVEAWAY
A few weeks ago, Katrien of Little Stitches sponsored a blog giveaway in honor of her 30th birthday. Guess who was the winner? Moi! Here's what she sent me:

Thank you, Katrien!

STITCHY STUFF
Let's see. I finished an ornament for an exchange, but can't show pics until it's been received. I finished "Blessed Be", but won't show pics until I make it into something. This will be going to a new home also. Last night, I was able to do some stitching on TMQ. Not much, but a little is better than nothing, right?

Other WIP pics can be found HERE.


JUST CUZ...
I wanted to share what sits on my fireplace mantle.


I appreciate each and every kindnesses my online friends have shown me over the past year. Thank you very much!

Life for me....

... drags on day-by-day. Sounds melodramatic, doesn't it? I just feel bogged down by everything. :(

WORK
Work is well... still as frustrating as ever. It doesn't matter what level of employee you talk to, all of them say the same thing. The merger is overwhelming, and no one is seeing the benefits that the partners (our bosses) claimed was going to happen. Several coworkers are talking about retiring... One of them pointed out that they were glad they have that option. They also pointed out that I have an option, too. Once I get my degree... *sigh*


GIVEAWAY
Shelley at Shelley's Artsy Fartsy Life is hosting a giveaway in honor of her hubby's 41st birthday. Go on over and wish him a happy birthday and see what she's up to.


SCHOOL
Midterms were last week. I might as well not even have studied. I do *not* think it went well at all. I swear the instructor created questions that he pulled as sentences out of the textbook. How can one be expected to memorize 200+ pages of text. Yes, I read the chapters. Yes, I took notes on the chapters. Yes, I paid attention during lectures. Yes, I studied for the midterm. And Yes, I more than likely did NOT do well.

On the upside, I did get 24 out of 25 on my first written paper. The one bright spot of the night! One thing I do know I am good at, and that's writing papers. *big grin* What struck me as odd is the instructors comments regarding how well the class did on the written assignment. He gave us the impression he didn't expect the students to do well. *hmmm* We have another of these babies due in a couple weeks, in addition to our written group project paper.


STITCHY STUFF
I hardly did any stitching last week, but I did finish Quaker Snowman. Now, I just have to get it made into an ornament by the end of the month.

Since things have been so rough for me lately, I needed some retail therapy. :) I got this for a great price on eBay. It's been on my wishlist for quite a while now.

The Japanese Garden
a kit by Maia Embroidery


IT'S A SMALL, SMALL WORLD
Some of my long time readers may remember back in 2008 when I stitched LK's "Peace Love & a Cure" for a lady I met on my local freecycle group. If you'd like to read about it, there's a post HERE, HERE, and HERE. We've kept in touch via emails, cards, and such.

More recently, I stitched another LK piece called "C is for Cure" (HERE) for a client of mine who was diagnosed with breast cancer. This past week she sent me another update via email. I recognized a name in her "Sent To" list. It was the lady I knew from freecycle!


To make a long story short. Freecycle lady is my client's cousin!! I found it extremely weird and very cool that I stitched cancer pieces for these ladies, neither knowing I knew the other, and me not knowing they knew each other, let alone be related!

Marvelous Monday Update 11/8/10

Hard to believe by the end of this week, the month will be half over. Where does the time go?

WORK
Had my last annual review at J1 performed by the "old" company which is no longer in existence. My review went OK (i.e. I still have my job, lol). Everyone seems to think I'm in a good place seeing as I am finishing my degree, and the service line I am in is supposed to be having some "good" changes in the upcoming year that they're hoping will affect me in a good way. J2 is the same, and I plan on staying until I can find something else.


SCHOOL
Had a seminar last week in Chicago for J1, which resulted in a 12 1/2 hour day by the time we all arrived back at the office. Then I rushed off to class because I mistakenly thought the instructor was going to do a review for the midterm exam. Instead, he told us how many of each type of question was on the test. :( I was REALLY tired by the time we got to work on our group project. I just wanted to discuss what we had to, and go home. By the end of class I was going on 18 hours and draggin' butt!

Wish me luck on the exam!


CHARLEY
I think I may have mentioned that Charley loves to sit on the keyboard of my laptop. I nudge her off, she walks around the back and comes around the other side to get back on. LOL She must think she's helping me.

"Hmmm... What's going on here?"
"I think I'll get a closer look!"

STITCHY STUFF
Last night was the first time I've stitched in over a week. Progress on a couple of smalls.

Blessed Be
Quaker Snowman
Remember Froggie? He decided to make a visit and stay awhile. I have frogged more on this project than any I can remember recently. I think it's the fabric. I'm not liking it at all!

I'm almost 3/4 done with this one despite the frogging. I just haven't had a chance to take an updated photo.

Marvelous Monday Update 10/25/10

SCHOOL
It's off to the races! My instructor this semester is the city finance director. He's not very technologically advanced. Five hours of class time included no visual aids... just lecture and discussion. The upside is that he gives us a 15 minute break every hour. Just like all my other in-seat classes, there is a group project that requires a written and oral presentation. We formed our groups. I have two new group partners. The third one has previously been a group member with me in two other classes. Each time we've gotten an "A" on our project so we figure why mess with a good thing!


CHARLEY
Last week Veronica asked about Charley. She's still doing well. Her latest favorite thing to do is fly to the top of the drapes and sit on the curtain rods. Charley flying around the house drives Celeste crazy. For some reason, Charley thinks the dust bunnies on the window trim are "good eats" LOL. Her way of "grooming" me is to taste under my fingernails. Maybe she figures if it tastes like me, it must be me. Who knows? When I give her millet, there is nothing and I mean nothing that will drag her attention away from it until it's gone... gone... gone.



GARDENING
I harvested my last veggies from my pathetic garden. These are the only carrots my garden produced. These were supposed to grow to about 7". See that FAT one?



STITCHY STUFF
Last week, I worked on three (Yes, three!) different projects.

TMQ
Gingerbread House
A New Start: Blessed Be

FLOSS ORGANIZATION CONTEST
With all that went on last week, I forgot to post who the winner of the QOTW contest. I know... I know... How could I?!

Thank you to everyone who participated and shared how their floss was organized. I put all the names in a bowl and drew one. The lucky gal is.......

Julie M
Julie, please send me your address and I'll get a prize out to you.

If you don't know Julie, she blogs about life and stitching over at I'll Cross That Leg When I Get To It. To see how she stores her floss, go HERE.

Since we're talking about giveaways... Cindi at Cindi's Stitching & Stuff is hosting a giveaway. Make a visit over there and while you're at it, check out her progress on LK's Dog Lessons.


FINISHES OF A DIFFERENT SORT
Several months ago, Mel sent me some stitched pieces to make into finishes. Two semesters of school later, here they are (with her permission, of course):


Two pin pillows and one flatfold. Although it's hard to tell from the pic, the green coffee one is the flatfold. And I'm not sure why the fabric looks wrinkly in the photo either because I ironed it before hand. *hmph*

Marvelous Monday Update 10/18/10 (on Tues)

WORK
Where do I start?! Things have been a whirlwind with J1 and the "merger". I had my one-to-one meeting with our HR person, who told me that she thinks the merger will be a good thing for me personally... especially since I will be getting my degree soon. In talking with a coworker of the same staff level as me, the other two in my office were told their jobs were "squishy". Time will tell what will happen.

Aside from that, we've all been going through webinars and meetings to get us up to speed on paperwork and software. Our "new" time & billing system is
H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E.It's a DOS program converted to Windows and is very clunky and not user friendly. It took me 3 hours just to enter my time for a 2 week period... just so I can get paid.

I have been working my tush off at J2. Due to working for prominent accounting firms over the past 15 years, I'm expected to uphold ethical standards.* There are several unethical business practices going on at J2, that I do not agree with and have never dealt with during my career. Thus, I'm having a difficult time working for this employer. In addition, the president of the company has a calendar of scantily clad women hanging on the wall of his office. Add to that the f-words being slung around, I totally find it distasteful, unprofessional, and uncomfortable.

*J2 is not an accounting firm.

A "funny" note: Right before starting at J2, I was kicking around the idea of contacting another company for PT work. A friend of mine called today. Apparently, the owner of the same company called her about the same time I started at J2 asking her if she knew anyone. Since I'd just started at J2, she never said anything. She called the owner today, and he will be calling me this week.


SCHOOL
Guess what? School starts back up this week. I am already not impressed with the instructor. Over three weeks ago, I started emailing him and got no response. I then talked to the director of the college and she was going to contact him. He claimed he didn't get any (really none?) of my emails and told her to have me call him. So, I did... voicemail. Two days later (TWO!), he finally called me back. This was last week. I had a question about the textbook. That left me a WEEK to order and get a textbook. I was not a happy camper. Luckily, the seller shipped right away and I just got it yesterday... three days before class starts. Hopefully, I can get all the homework done before the first day of class. Yes, the instructors assign homework before school even starts!


GIVEAWAYS
Must be the week for giveaways!
• Evalina of This and That is hosting a giveaway on her blog.
• Sarah at Crafty Moo is also hosting a giveway.
• Terri at Dixie Samplar is hosting a Halloween giveaway.
• Teresa at A Willow Tree Pond is celebrating her 100th post by hosting yet another giveaway.

Check out their blogs and stitching, too!


STITCHY STUFF
As you know from last week, JG saw the light of day and even received some stitching. I was *really* getting into it again when.... I misplaced couldn't find "lost" the Gloriana and Thread Gatherer silks. I spent an evening searching tearing my house apart looking for these threads. I needed those to work on the section! I contemplated buying new ones, but at $8 a piece, I held off. Disappointed, I put JG away and hoped I could find the silks on another day.

Fast forward several days... I inherited (OK, I actually snatched it) an antique library table from my parents that I used to do homework on when I was a kid. While cleaning my 4 season room so I could put the desk in there, I had to put some stitchy stuff where it belonged (in the armoire). Guess what? I found the Glo & TG floss!! I swear I looked in there 3 times earlier in the week.


Didn't use the newly found floss yet, but I do have a JG update:


Also worked a bit more on TMQ:

Other WIP pics can be seen HERE and HERE.
I worked on SE scissor case, but didn't take a photo. Bad me.