Well look at this, the end of yet another year. What have I been doing since I last posted on here. Let me think! Well it has been a bit of a crazy year, but aren’t they all any more.
Let me start with the bad news first. Bailey our oldest sheepdog had to be put down in August. He would have been 10 this December. He had massive liver failure and it came on suddenly. He never really complained of any thing, we knew because he quit eating, and he was throwing up whatever he did eat. Took him to the vet on a Friday, and had to have him put down on Saturday. That about wrecked both of us, but it did make us appreciate the other 5 we still have here and to treasure the time we have with them. It’s just so sad to think that these fur children we have give us so much, and they live for such a short period of time.What also amazes me is how empty the house seems now that Bailey is gone. He was the sheepie in the store, and if there are actually old customers out there that read this blog, you will remember that he grew up at Needle Nutz. He came to work with me every day, slept under the stitching table, and on occasion even helped keep your kids occupied as you shopped. He was a very gentle soul, my first champion Sheepdog and Andy’s and my first fur child. He was a very much loved member of this family and he is very much missed.
The next major thing with me is that I started working again. No I’m not doing the baking thing, even though I did think about it for a nanosecond. I am driving a school bus again. I did that a while back when Andy and I fist got married. It was an interesting job, and I decided that it would be a good thing for me to do again. I’m driving for a different district this time, so the whole adventure is totally different as well. I have a really good route, not one of the longest routes that they have there, but then again I have no seniority so I would not get a long one to start out with. I like the job, it’s totally different than the last time I drove. Trip down memory lane time, my last time driving, I drove regular ed, and had a bus load of screaming kids. The middle schoolers were totally out of control, no matter what I did. The high schoolers were awesome and the elementary school kids were somewhere in the middle. All in all it was an ok route. Fast forward to the here and now, and I drive a special needs bus, I have 3 students, adding 1 more to the mix in January and it takes me 1.5 hours to get them picked up, and delivered to school. I end up driving from way out east of the city to down near the southern part of the city. If you know the area, I drive from Falcon, way down to Southgate. Round trip for those 3 students is 53 miles, during rush hour traffic in the morning. I hit all the traffic going into Peterson AFB. Now how fun is that? I get to drive that bus 65 miles per hour, on highway 24, 50 mph on Platte and Powers, and I get to drive on the interstate as well. It takes all my skills. Now for those of you that know me really well, you know that I hate to drive. I would much prefer to be the passenger which is why I go with Shelly to dog shows because she wants to drive.
I have done some designing, but not a whole lot, I did get Martina’s Alpine Seasons completed, now I need to get it framed. That’s a next year project. I am currently working on Martina’s PIG… or Persian Iris Garden, and I’m over 1/2 way done with that one. It’s awesome!
Guess thats all for now, I hope to actually keep the resolution i’m making to write on this more often, and to get my charts available on here for downloading.
Let me know what your interested in seeing, I have 3 more Santa’s ready to go, they are even charted, I have a very cute Santer sampler that has no decorative stitches in it, but I might see if JCS is interested. If not, well then it will be available here soon.
Well here we are, mid June and I find out that there are only 26 more days till the world ends.
Rats, I had so much planned for the rest of the year. I was actually thinking that I would decorate for Christmas this year. Well I guess I won’t have to worry about that now.
So should I wash the dogs? Wash my van? Clean out the pantry, or the Linen closet? Should I fix the rod in our closet and clean out all my excess shoes? Or should I just wait till the 7th of July and see if we are still here? I wonder if I should start a diet or actually eat all the crap I want to eat? Should I start an exercise program or just watch more mind trashing TV? Man this means I’m not going to see the next season of Numbers or Hero’s!
All this time I thought that I was going to be around until I got all my major stitching projects completed. So in an effort to leave something for posterity I have decided that I can complete Martina Weber’s Alpine Seasons Garden in 26 days. Since I have a large portion of it already done I should get it out and get it finished. Just in case there is someone left after they flip the switch in Switzerland.
Now this actually has me thinking (never a good thing) Science is supposed to be our friend. Look at all the stuff science has given us, the microwave for example. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t live without my microwave. How would I get my water hot quickly or re-heat my leftovers without my trusty microwave. Then there is electricity, my computer, my car all that kind of stuff. So why are we worried that the guys at CERNE in Switzerland are going to destroy the world by trying to prove the big bang theory? Didn’t Dan Brown write a book about something sort of like this in Angels and Demons? Well not exactly this, but something along those lines. I am not the scientific one in this family. Nor am I the one that reads all sorts of stuff on the web. I’m the look at pictures and stuff like that person in this family. I also play a mean game of Mahjong on the computer. So what’s all this talk about the Hadrons Particle, and the big bang theory or looking for the God Particle? I have no freaking idea! So I guess they are ready to prove or disprove this theory in 26 days. Ok, so what’s that really mean to the average person? If there really is a chance that they could make the entire world go “bang” who’s going to stop them? I can’t, can you? Just wondering but do these guys have a boss someplace that can just say no to flipping the switch? And if so, would they? Do they have a back up plan? Now that’s a stupid question, because if they blow the place up, there really isn’t going to be someone around to instigate a back up plan now is there?
So does this mean I still need to mail in the house payment for July? Maybe I should only send them half the payment since we won’t be around for the entire month. Or better yet, I could wait till the 9th to mail it in, that way it would get there before the 16th, and I could see if we are still here after the 7th. But if we aren’t who cares anyway because it’s not like I can go to the local needlework shop and buy more fibers now can I? My next question is who’s going to get blown up worse? The people in Switzerland and the adjoining countries, or are we all going to go as well? Would my family in South Africa be safer than we are here in the United States? Well who knows, this is something for better minds than mine! So I guess I’m going to go upstairs, get out that Martina Weber that I have not worked on in several months, and “get er done”.
I’ll post a picture of it when it’s completed. I’ll actually do it, then I’ll know how, just in case.
Yep, you got that right, Hibernation. That’s what I want to do!
I don’t want to go out; I don’t want to go find a new job. I’m even having trouble focusing on stuff.
Lack of concentration totally and I have the attention span of a banana right now.
I’m actually amazed that I am writing this down.
I quit my job! Yep, not doing the bagel thing anymore, amazing. I need to find a new job. Yes I do.
I really don’t know what I want to do. My DH has given me guidelines as to what he would prefer I not do. OK, I can live by those. I really don’t want to work at McDonalds’ anyway. I also did the 7/11 thing years ago, and even though the system has changed, I really don’t want to go there either.
Now what do I want to do? Good question.
Honestly, even though I don’t want to do retail, it’s going to have to be retail. That’s all there really is for someone like me now.
I have been out of the REAL job thing for too many years to go back to that. I would really like to find something that did not require me to be on my feet all day long, but that’s not going to happen either.
I would really LOVE to be a full time needlework designer, but we need a bit more money coming in than that does right now. Which is nothing; I have not had a published design in something like 3 years. The designs are there, but that’s about as far as they have gotten. Seriously thinking about just doing it for me now, problem is, I’m not stitching a whole lot right now either. I have a great snowflake design that I should complete because it will be really stunning when I get it done and framed. Maybe later!
I need to brush a dog and several of them need to have a bath, maybe later. I need to get my act together, quit feeling sorry for myself and go get a job. Wow unemployed for 3 days and I’m already feeling the stress and 2 of those days I would have been off anyway.
I should write Sony and volunteer to be a paid game player for them. I’m not very good, I’m female, and I’m old! Great combination work out all kinds of stuff for them before it goes public. If I can do it, then you know the whiz kids can do it right? I mean, honestly, I have no computer skills to speak of and I game. I’m awful at it too, so I should be the answer to the prayers they did not know they even had.
Ok, never mind. I guess I’ll go feed the dogs, take a shower, get dressed and go find a job. So much for hibernation.
If your here for the 2 freebies, they are at the bottom of the post entitled WE DID IT!
I’m looking out our front window this morning to a beautiful, clear day. The sun is shining and you can see that the air is crisp and clean. Ok maybe not! The sky is overcast, it’s cold outside and we have 2 inches of fresh powder on the ground. The dogs are having a great time outside playing in the white stuff, back to my front window now. The people across the street have had a visitor in the night. There are several brightly colored objects lying in the snow. The 2 granddaughters are bundled up like Eskimos with big bulky mittens on. They are barely able to carry their Easter Baskets around the yard. Grandma has to help them pick up all the objects that are lying about and place them in the basket. Oh! We just found one under that bush and there is another one up on the limb of this little tree. How cute is this? I guess The Bunny comes no matter what the weather.
May your Easter be filled with colorful memories, good company and the joy that comes with every new season.
HAPPY EASTER
Well I think we have gotten the problem solved and I can now post freebies on this web site. My DH has done all the necessary work this morning after of course my Grapher had cleaned up the charts and put the stitch diagrams in as well. Then there was my sister that figured out that she needed to send them to me just the right way! All in all it was a team effort and I have the best team anyone could want. So today we will actually post the Valentine’s Day chart and the Easter chart. So 2 for the price of one visit, I’m also learning how to do some of this stuff myself so that I can do it without bothering my husband too much.
Now the next bit of news is this. I have teamed up with Tonya, from Six Strand Sweets and Heather, from England and we are going to do a series of designs featuring Needle Nutz Designs, Six Strand Sweets and Heather’s Buttons. there will be more details as I actually get this whole thing worked out with my new team members.
You can also learn more from going to the SSS message board on Yahoo.
Now for the charts.
Feedback would be appreciated so that we can make these user friendly. They are in .pdf format .