Keebles World

Yes, I totally failed on the WIPocalypse for this year! I had a major stitching gap that lasted more than 6 months due to Disney planning and have just now started up again. So lets first visit my 2013 goals: I wanted to finish A Walk Through The Highlands, which I did, so SUCCESS. I started here: And finished here: A Summer Ball didn't even get close to finished, but I did complete the first two pages. I started here: Finished page 2: And I'm now here at the start of page 3 of 6: 35th Anniversary Celebration barely got touched (I really hate working with this navy material). I started here: And only made it here: None of my "Plan To Start" projects got touched other than the secret project (which got finished): The rest stay in the stash for next year: Sleepy Hollow Mural: Angel In Lilac: Tanglewood: Or Abigail Patecleaver: I did start a new project not on the "Plan To Start" list - The Princess And The Pea. It ...

As much progress as I've made on The Princess and the Pea over the past week, I had a major incident that caused four (yes, I said FOUR) hours of frogging! I have a bruise on my thumb to prove it (thread goes in much easier than it comes out). There have been numerous times where I've picked up the wrong thread, but I have never actually forgotten to change a color with a symbol before, but that is exactly what I did on Saturday. Here is my before the weekend progress: I really should have taken a picture of all the thread I had to frog out, but you can still see the remnants of the carnage and here it is after the fun: And I did manage to still get to here by the end of last night: It really doesn't look like much on the picture, but it is 28ct Monaco, so you can only imagine the huge area it covered...probably approximately a third of a chart page. Oh well, all done and fixed now. That's the really good thing about HAED's...they move along extraordi...

You know, I could whine about a lot of things...I'm poor, I'm alone, I'm still fat (although working on it), I'm not happy with my job, etc, etc...but I have the most wonderful pups in the world and that makes everything else ok! My little old man Zachary (who is more like a loner cat than a dog) doesn't like to be touched or played with, but he stares at me constantly and you can feel the palpable jealousy when Bam comes anywhere near me. Then there is my baby Bam, who in public seems like the sweetest, most docile creature in the world, but when he is in the privacy of his own home, has demonic-like qualities that only a mother could love. It's really hard to get both to show their true nature, but here ya go...Bam sticking out his tongue only moments before he pounces on Zach and Zach just staring in that creepy, stalkerish sort of way that only (again) a mother could love: Merry Christmas to all my blog friends from Keebs, Zachary, and Baby Bammers!

This is the first International and Hermit Stitch Weekend I've done since the spring, but I did manage a pretty good chunk of work. I didn't work much on A Summer Ball...I had made it through page 2 before the weekend started: And was here: But only made it this far (I really HATE working on this project...HAED's have spoiled me for life): I spent the majority of the weekend working on The Princess And The Pea (I really forgot how much I miss working on this!). I ended here back in April: Got here on Saturday night: And here on Sunday night: That B5200 is a MAJOR pain to work with and you can't even tell from the pictures that it's any different than regular white! Oh well, at least there wasn't a lot of it! My major conundrum now is how to handle the "Stitching My First Heaven & Earth Design & Friends" Blog post...the last time I posted Princess was "Week 4-April 3". If I continue counting in weeks, should ...

The day after I got back from Disney was diet doctor day and I had gained 16 lbs, but most (according to the nurse) could be attributed to water weight (since she couldn't get blood out of me, not an easy feat on a normal day, but darn impossible when I'm retaining fluids). Today was my first real return to the clinic and, although I have lost 12 lbs from last Tuesday, I'm still in the gain category, so my ticker has gone down. It happens. As much as I was glad vacation was over food-wise (I was really sick of eating), getting back on track this week has been really hard! The day after last week's visit threw me into a Sonic run and got me hooked back on popcorn chicken. I've had them a couple of times this past week. Then, we had our work Christmas party Saturday night, which means food and booze consumption (and there was no way I was gonna sit in a room with people I work with without food and enough booze to forget where I am, but not enough to lose the f...

The "secret" project is completed and it's been gifted to its recipient, so I guess it's OK to show it: I've also made a bit of progress on A Summer Ball - From here: To here: I'm filling in the white bits now, and it's pretty slow going. I also had a pretty nasty fall on the ice and it has caused a lot of difficulty with stitching. I hate ice! I much prefer snow, but we don't get a lot of that around here, we just get ice. Oh well, as long as I'm making a little bit of stitching progress, it's still progress!

Well, I'm back...again! This trip was much better overall, although it did have lots of "moments". Am and I had an amazing time...when we were alone. I've decided that traveling with our Mother is hell on earth and don't even get me started on Am's godmother...that woman has satanic qualities and if I never see her again for the rest of my life, it will be way too soon!! The whole MagicBand experience was much better this time and I did eventually start to enjoy using it (might as well, it's going to be Disney-norm soon enough). I kept my annual pass separate from the band and I think that helped as well. My little monsters didn’t take too kindly to being boarded either and now they both have colds. Poor Bammers had a panic attack when they were bringing him out to me and everyone in the waiting room was freaking out! He does sound like he’s dying when he does that. Once he realized it was me holding him, he calmed down and literally hugged me!...