Unavoidable Distractions

I've been busy with stitch stuff the past week or so, just not stitching per se. I did switch off Alice and the B's because it was turning into "work". It must have been all that Petit Treasure Braid. For some reason, Everest by Addict To Cross Stitch from Etsy was calling to me (I'm not even sure if they are still a shop, I've had this pattern forever). I had barely started this back in 2020 and haven't stitched on it since 2021. Since it's been so long, and I'm not very far, here is what the design is supposed to look like:

Granted, despite the animated nature of the picture, it is a real bridge in Animal Kingdom in Disney World, although, with all the changes, I'm not sure if it's even still there now. It was one of my favorite places to get away from all the traffic of the park because not a lot of people would usually go back in that corner. Whether it's still there or not though, I still love the design, so I decided not to give up on it. I left off here back in Feb of 2021:

And I had only stitched one night before I ended up with a super-migraine that lasted almost a week:

Instead, for the days I could, I started winding bobbins for my new starts that will be coming (I've decided to start them on Feb 29th, since this is a Leap Year, it will be interesting to see how far I will be by next Leap Year, maybe I'll have more than one of them finished in four years, who knows!). It's taken me well over a week, but all the projects are bound up:

The bottom one there is a two-sided bobbin box, that's where my super-sized/max-color one lives now. That container was originally bought to help expand my thread collection (I keep my spare threads in those boxes and the three I had were running over, so I bought the fourth, but by the time I cleaned them out, I'm at two and a half now, so this one was a spare again). The one above that was the original box I got for that project, but I very quickly realized it wouldn't fit. When I got to Blue Marble, I realized it wouldn't fit in a regular bobbin box, so it all worked out. Also, there were so many of the little paper thingees from the skeins, it half-filled a small trash can:

I also learned a valuable lesson, when ordering thread for projects, only order thread for one project at a time. The two I ordered on their own was perfect...no extra thread, no missing thread. The order I made for five projects was missing thread and, for some weird reason, I ordered 42 skeins of 208...I only needed two! Granted, 123 Stitch's ordering system is a bit weird and you have to be careful how you click on the numbers, if you hover too long the number goes up exponentially (and, if you don't click off, it will drop down to zero), so that must have been what I did, I forgot to click off and just ran 208 up to 42. I just chalked it up to the question of life (if you know, you know), and wound those too:

I'm sure they will come in handy someday, although it's not MY color of purple (I prefer a more blue-purple). I still have to go to Michaels and get the missing thread I didn't order properly, but it's only like maybe 8 skeins or so. And here is a better picture of my DMC "trash" for comparison (shame those aren't recyclable, but boy, I need to run that trash can through the dishwasher, sheesh!):

As another side project, I had gotten myself a magnetic board for my needle minders to get them off the fridge (since the fridge was already covered in Disney magnets) and the new board was looking pretty sparse with my 8-10 needle minders, so I went around the house, pulling out my spare (or duplicate) Disney pins, old buttons, duplicate magnets, duplicate keychains, even seashells I thought might work, and made myself enough needle minders to fill the board! I did have to order some new magnets for all the bits I found, but with a headache that wouldn't go away and all the bobbin winding, I was busy enough until they arrived. Anything Harry Potter, Outlander, Supernatural, Marvel or the pave Disney stuff are basically the bought ones I think, maybe a couple of other ones...I probably should have taken the bought ones off the board and just taken a picture of the ones I made. Oh, and for the record, the one on Everest is one I made a long time ago from an old Disney pin.

I do still have to make my scroll rods, but that's for another week or something. I might have to watch another YouTube video on making those before I attempt it. I still have some time before Leap Day and I'm ready to get back to stitching before I lose my bug again.

I had a day where I left work after just 30 minutes when the migraine just got to be too much. In hindsight though, I'm not sure how much of it was headache, and how much of it was a panic attack...there was a lot of extraneous noise in the office, I was in a lot of pain, and I just really wanted to be home and not there, so I was already hyper-sensitive. I've worked through worse headaches. When I went to the office manager and told her I was going home, I was met with a bit of resistence, and I just kind of freaked even more and I just left (they weren't going to stop me, but I could tell they didn't want me to go). But once I got home, even the headache eased, so I'm thinking it was more panic attack and I probably could have suffered through the pain if not for the attack, but I have sick days, so why? If pressured (which I won't be), I'll call it a mental health day instead of a sick day, although we don't get those here, it is Arkansas after all.

We (surprisingly) got a fair bit of snow this week, not ice, but actual snow! It has been below 20 degrees here for over a week (and that will continue for another week, as well as below 10 at night with a wind chill in the negatives). At least I got to work from home for a whole day. We did get more than this, but it was just got too cold to open the door later, so this is the best I got.

I do live in a trailer, so we have to be extra careful about pipes freezing, although, in the South, we all have to worry about this because our houses aren't really built for cold weather. For me, every water cabinet door has to be open, every tap has to be running...it's super wasteful in my opinion, but at least I don't have to pay the water bill, that's on the park (although I do pay my gas and electric). On Sunday, the water went off completely. The park "claimed" the main water froze (which, in 28 years of living there, that has NEVER happened, even with colder weather and harsher weather conditions). Even though that put my own pipes in greater danger, there was nothing I could do. I typically don't buy bottled water because I don't like the taste of water from plastic bottles (so, of course I had no spare water other than what was in the Brita in the fridge). I only drink tea (made from tap water), so I had some of that in the fridge, but I don't drink sodas or anything else, so no other fluids. We were pretty SOL on the liquid situation. I drove up to the lab and filled what large containers I had (and a few water containers from my office), so at least I had water for the pups and to boil and bathe with (and believe you-me, they weren't that big, but it was a desperate situation at that point).

Then, a strange pattern started emerging, about Monday night, the park water would come on, but only between 7a-10a and 7p-10p. After initially calling the trailer park the second the water went off and seriously questioning her explanation initially (she sounded like she wasn't telling the truth), it didn't take me long to figure out that they had probably (allegedly) turned off the water on purpose. They have more rentals out there now than owners, so they were probably (allegedly) protecting their own properties from freezing up. I'm hoping it was just a coincidence that the water was freezing and unfreezing at "scheduled" times, but even I'm not that stupid. The water is officially back on full time now, although the pressure is leaving something to be desired. It's probably the same as what it's like to take a shower in an RV. But I'm not complaining, a shower is a shower and, when you haven't had one in several days, you are grateful for whatever you can get!

And, to add to the "fun", we are expecting our typical ice tomorrow. The amounts keep varying, so I'm not quite sure yet if it's enough to keep me working from home yet. I'm far less stressed when I do that and, probably, far more, regimented. I sit at my desk at home, I don't listen to any podcasts or music, which I have to have, at minimum, at least earbuds in at work (even with nothing playing) to tune out the noise of the office because even people's voices can be upsetting sometimes, and I just work. Certainly no TV or other distractions (maybe a puppy snuggle or two, but that's it). I even tried to listen to a podcast Monday and I had to shut it off almost immediately because it was too distracting at home. I almost work like there is a hidden camera on me at home, whereas at work, I'm horrible about distractions and probably am way more lackadaisical than I should be, without fear of consequences (although I should have, I'm almost daring them sometimes to do something...maybe it's my ODD). I managed to get caught up on everything I got behind on last week at work with my headache, on Monday, it was great! But now that I'm back in the office, I'm stressed again and the headache is coming back.

But tonight, I say I'm going back to stitching, although, as I have been winding bobbins, I have been glancing back over to Everest, and I'm thinking I might want to change to something else. It might be because I'm in the boring sky and it's just not fun. I keep trying to remind myself that I have to get through the boring sky to get to the "good stuff", but it's a LONG way to the duck. I'm not sure if there are mice ears in this top row or not. It's a long project, but I'm not sure how tall it is (it is horizontal, so definitely not as tall as wide). The mock picture doesn't make it look very big, but even on 28ct, it's almost as wide as Alice and the B's. Maybe halfway between Alice and Maleficient. And the dithered nature of the pattern is also a bit of a bore, especially in the sky (although it looks great in the wall). Time will tell though. It's the first I've stitched from this company and, like I said, I'm not sure if they are still in business, or even if I have more of their patterns (I think I do), but so far, so good!

And that's this week's update...for a week of no stitching, I had a ton of stitching-related updates I think! I wound probably several hundred bobbins, sorted seven new projects, and made quite a few new needle minders, all with a migraine that ranged from severe to mild, so I think I did pretty well!