Tuesday Tidbits

HEALTH
Ugh. I've been in pain since Sunday. My Dad came over to till my garden... Well, he needed help loading and unloading the tiller from the back of his truck. While loading it, I hurt my upper back muscles. It was so bad that it was all I could do not to drop the tiller and get it to the tailgate of the truck before falling forward on the tailgate myself. I went to work yesterday. The morning went fine, but by the end of the day the muscles were spasming. Driving home was excrutiating! Instead of doing homework last night, I spent the evening on the sofa with a heating pad. I've been taking Flexeril and liquid vicodin before going to bed. Today, isn't as bad (but the day isn't over, lol).


STITCHY STUFF
For those of you who asked: My Mom really loved the mailart envelope. She put it in her display cabinet and got it out to show my brothers. :)

I'm working on a second mailart and will be starting a snowman ornament soon. Both are for exchanges, so no pics until they arrive at their new homes. After that, I can go back to working on Blossom Splendor.

Several weeks back, I was the winner of Ruth's birthday giveaway. Look what came all the way from Ireland!


Aren't they wonderful goodies? Thank you, Ruth!



WEATHER
From one extreme to the other. Today temps were supposed to be in the low 80's, but ended up getting to 91F! Add in some humidity and it's just wonderful... not! By the weekened it's only supposed to be in the 50's.

Just In Time!

I've been experiencing some major anxiety as to whether or not I was going to be able to pull this off. Envelope and card are finished and ready to be put in the mail tomorrow... hopefully to arrive on my Mom's doorstep in time for Mother's Day.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out *big grins and happy dancin'*.


Designs from book "A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey" by Joan Elliott
Fabric: 18ct Antique White Aida
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: Pink fabric lining, Asian coin, and snaps
(Click on photo to Enlarge)
In case you're wondering about the writing above the snap, it says "Happy Mother's Day Mom" in Japanese. I free-hand embroidered it using Google language translator.

No envelope would be complete without a card, right? Right! Sooo... I made a card, too. Not as impressive as the envelope, but I think Mom will like it.



Until next time,

Marvelous Monday Update 5/2/2011

STITCHY STUFF
Remember the bottle of RIT dye I found under the sink last week? I decided to put it to good use! Behold... My works of art!

14ct Hand-Dyed Aida
22ct Hand-Dyed Hardanger

And L@@K... I have a finish I can actually show!

Rabbit Heart
by Alexandrina (Matrioska Biscornu)
Fabric: 22ct Hand-Dyed Purple Hardanger
Fiber: Anchor 112
Time: 3½ Hrs

Is that not the cutest bunny silhoutte ever?! My plan is to make it into a scissor fob. I changed the chart a bit, and added a tail to the bunny.

A couple weeks ago, Amy from Cross Stitch and Cupcakes hosted a giveaway to celebrate 3 years of blogging bliss. I was thrilled to find out I had won one of the prizes. In looking at her photo (HERE), I thought I was getting like 5 kits. I literally said, "Holy Crap!" to the postal clerk when I went to get my package, lol.


Froggy is always sooooo nosey whenever I get a package. Excitedly, he hopped up on the box. "Ribbit! Rib-It! What is it? What is it?"


There were not 5 kits and pillow forms... Amy sent me SEVENTEEN Pine Mountain pillow kits! It was like Christmas.... ahhhh, stashy goodness. I can hear ya'll now... "Which ones did she send? Which ones, huh huh?!?!"

Deck the Halls
Bits of Love
Apples
Oh Boy!
Boo
Best Witches
Be Scarey
April Square Dance
New Love New Joy
March is Breezy
Love & Home
Fright Night
February is Sweet
Pumpkin Pie
October
Stockings Were Hung
Spots of Christmas
Scaredy Cat
Thank you, Amy. You were way too generous!

If you haven't visited Amy's blog, please do so... She's got a very cute blog!


GIVEAWAYS
Deborah at Cranberry Samplings is hosting a giveaway. Click on over to her blog and see her beautiful stitching!

My friend, CJ of Tea and Stitches, is hosting a giveaway. Go see her cute finishes and what she's got up for grabs.


SCHOOL
Thank you to everyone who left comments regarding my dismay at having to take another freakin' unexpected class.

I'm signed up for the next semester. Happily, I don't have the same instructor I've had the last two semesters. :) This time around I'm taking Comprehensive Financial Planning. I'm really looking forward to this class.

When I went to the campus to sign the paperwork for class, the advisor informed me that I had no financial aid for summer. I looked at her and laughed, "You're really just making my week. First, you tell me I have to take another class and now you tell me I have no finacial aid." Because of the way the college sets up financial aid packages, they can only do 4 semesters at a time. If a student wants to take a summer course, they have to re-allocate money from the 4 semesters and then fill out another form to have it put toward the summer semester.


Well, it would've been nice to have known this when they put together the package! Luckily, I saved ALL the leftover money from every semester's financial aid so I can just use some of it to pay for my next semester.

I realized this morning that I have two weeks left in the semester, which means I need to finish up my term paper this week! Yikes...

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.