Remember I said D. was sick Thursday and better Friday? He was sick again Saturday. Sunday, D. was fine, but I was sick. My sister had to take me to the doctor. I spent Monday in quarantine, in the bedroom. I spent most of Tuesday there, too, but in the evening, T. came in to see me and threw up next to my bed. Today, he seemed fine until he took a nap in my bed, and threw up again. He still felt fine, but then I took him to my mom's. He threw up on her front porch. So the three of us have all had the same thing, but in completely different ways. D. got sick and slept for three days. I got sick and spent four hours with my head in the toilet and had to be medicated. The medication made me sleep for three days. T. feels fine, except for right before and right after he throws up. It also turns out I have an ear infection. I had no idea, but the doctor said so and prescribed some antibiotics.
I made my lasagna, and if I do say so myself, it was perfect. J. was surprised. He loved it. Ta-da. That is my one day a year where I become the "Leave It To Beaver" housewife, as opposed to my usual "Peggy Bundy" housewife.



This was my progress on Dragonwings when I put it away, Friday. I miss him. I couldn't work on it while J. was home, though. He took Monday and Tuesday off to take care of the boys so I could get better. Today was going to be his first day back to work. When he checked his pager in the car though, he found out his group was working nights. So he was still here all day! I appreciate all the help he's been while I was sick. He's been very sweet and very attentive to anything and everything I could want or need, but I was so ready to get rid of him! Now he's at work, and I'm not gonna have the whole shift to stitch, like I planned. I have to sleep at some point.



I started The Time I Spend Stitching. I like all the specialty stitches, but I don't like trying to anchor them. I never feel like they're secure enough. The problem now, is with the sale of the shop, employees are not allowed to put in any special orders of custom frame jobs. Customers only until the sale is final. So once I finish stitching (probably next week, maybe the one after), I have to wait until the first of July to get it framed. It's okay though. If the new owner doesn't want to hang it in the shop, I'm not sure what I'll do with it anyway. My hope is to hang it in the shop until we can buy a house and I can have a craft room. Or at least a big enough closet where I can store some craft stuff and hide from the kids once in a while. We had a closet like that in the apartment, but not here. We had to choose between noisy neighbors right though the walls and big closets, or quiet and small closets.
One more tidbit of information for any Lost fans: I know the secret behind it all! It came to me in a dream. The phantom of the opera is behind it all! His secret weapon is broccoli, and they are all just off the coast of San Francisco. Now you know!

D.'s doing better. Last night, he had a fever of 102. At that point, I called my mom, who said to take him to the hospital if he got worse, but he would be okay for the moment. She told me if he still had a fever in the morning, to the doctor. He got up this morning, feeling a little better. His tempature's still about 99, but he wants to eat and drink now. He's still sleeping alot. I think he was only awake maybe four of five hours yesterday. I think he'll be better by tomorrow, with the exception of his runny nose. The lower his tempature, the worse his nose gets. It's all good, though, because I'd much prefer a runny nose to fever and vomitting.
I did a good deed yesterday. On the way back from the grocery store, I saw a woman pushing her daughter in a stroller. It was at least 95 outside, so I stopped and offered her a ride. Come to find out she was pregnant, and the little girl was already sunburned. They were only going a few minutes drive away, but it probably would've taken them another hour walking. I put T. in the middle since the little girl was younger, and needed to sit in the car seat more. Also so she wouldn't be sitting next to D. I felt good having helped someone.
J. got to come home last night. He's back today, but this should be his last day. He has to stay until they serve dinner, but he doesn't have to eat it. He knows I'm going to make a special dinner for him tonight. He called a few minutes ago to make sure D. was feeling better, and that T. hadn't come down with it as well.
I didn't get anything I had planned to do yesterday done, except get the groceries. As D. got worse, he became all I could think about. I spent alot of the day rocking him and singing "I Got You, Babe." I never had a lullaby I always sang to him like I did T. I always just sung what was in my head, but D. always liked "I Got You, Babe."
I called work yesterday, and asked someone to work for me today, so I could be free to take D. to the doctor if neeed be. So when I go in to get my check next week, I'm gonna buy some of th stuff she has on hold. She worked with me during the outage, so I could still work, and didn't even have to think when I asked her to work for me today because D. was sick. I can't tell her how much it means to me, all she's done to help me out. Hopefully, buying something for her will help show her.
I did work a little on Dragonwings yesterday. I only got a few stitches in, but it's been awhile since I took a picture. I got the fabric marked to start The Time I Spend Stitching after J. got home. I'm going to go work a little on Dragonwings before I have to start working on the dishes and dinner. To have it ready when J. gets home, I have to start cooking about four, and I have to start cleaning about three. J. finally got paid, so I guess I should pay the bills, too.

When I was about ten, I read a quote that said, "To have a child is to send a piece of your heart walking around outside of your body," or something to that effect. I thought it was sweet, but I didn't understand how true it was until I had kids. When I checked on the boys around midnight last night, D. sat up and gave me a dirty look and laid back down. Nothing unusual. When I got up this morning, he had a huge stain on his shirt. So I changed it and went to look in his room and see what in the world caused it. Sometime between when I checked on him last night and when I got up this morning, D. got threw up all over his bed. So I got the bed cleaned up, and let D. stay half naked. The doctor had told me that was good for a fever. I held and rocked him for about half an hour. He fell asleep in my arms; he hasn't done that in over a year. It breaks my heart to see my baby not feeling good. He's never been this still. I had an ultrasound at nine weeks; he was like an inch long, but his little arms and legs were going! He looked like a turtle stuck on his back. I've got to get the ingredients for the lasagna, so I'll get some Pedialyte for him, while we're there. It can't hurt him, if he doesn't need it. At least T.'s not sick, too.
I don't know how much stitching I'll get done today. D.'s sick, I've got to get groceries, do laundry, clean the house, wash dishes, and start cooking the lasagna.
There's a good chance J. will get to stay home Saturday, so I'm going to put it together tonight, after the boys go to bed. Then I'll just throw it in the oven when I get home tomorrow. J. called last night about nine. He couldn't believe that I hadn't stitched all day. Of course, after I got off the phone, I watched the season finale of Lost (which was two hours) and a couple other things I had recorded. I got about three hour of stitching in. Not great, but better than the day before. I'm going to stitch now, until D. wakes up. The chores can wait until this evening. They go faster when the boys are asleep.

Here's this week's SBQ:
What is your favorite specialty stitch? Which one is your least favorite? Why?
I haven't done that many specialty stitches, to be honest. I love doing them, but so far, most of my projects have been mainly cross stitches and backstitch. I HATE lazy daisies, French knots, and colonial knots. I enjoyed the herringbone (open herringbone?) stitch I used on the border of Harvest Time. I also enjoyed Smyrna crosses on Tis The Season. I'll have more experience with them once I do The Time I Spend Stitching. That's part of what I'm looking forward to. I'm not sure why I like those, but I do. I do know why I hate lazy daisies and knots: they never look nice for me.
Hatred of the lazy daisies is not uncommon. We had a customer bring in a piece and offer to pay someone to do her lazy daisies for her. They said they'd give it to a model stitcher. She called a week or so later to check on it, but the intended model stitcher had not been by yet. So I offered to take it home and do them. It took me four hours to get them good enough, and put the buttons on for her. I wasn't sure what to charge her, but the manager gave me a price to tell her. It seemed too high to me. I wasn't there when she picked it up, but she left me a little more than I had been told to charge her. I guess she was pleased.
I have been ignoring Dragonwings. I just haven't felt much like stitching the last couple days. All I have to do is sit down and pick it up. Today I sat down to work on it and fell asleep. I've just been exhausted. J.'s like my secuity blankie. I don't feel as safe when he's not here, and I can't sleep at night without him to snuggle up next to. When I do finally fall asleep (around two), I can't stay asleep because there's no one there to kick me and mumble. I miss him so much. He's been able to call me every night, so it's not as bad as last summer, when he was in boot camp.
I've decided that Saturday, I will make real lasagna for his welcome home dinner. I haven't made it in over a year, and every time I cheat and get a frozen one, J. makes sure to let me know it's not half as good as mine. I usually hate making it though, because it takes three hours: one hour to cooke everything, one hour to put it all together, and another hour to bake. Then it takes another two hours to wash all the dishes, since we don't have a dishwasher. Plus, when I make it, I usually end up having a drink, because I have to keep chasing the boys out of the kitchen. I don't mind them being it there when I make tacos, and I have one burner on and that's it. When I've got at least two burners and the oven on, I worry more about them getting hurt. I can only keep track of so many things at once. I'm short cutting the process though, since I have to work Saturday. I'm going to cook everything and put it together Friday night, so Saturday, all I'll have to do is come home and throw it in the oven.

Those oh so wonderful frogs visited me again yesterday. I started the bottom curve of the dragon Sunday night. When I picked it up yesterday morning, I realized I had started at what I had intended to be the top. I considered leaving it; all the stitches would still go the same way. In the end, though, I knew I couldn't live with it. I love the darker spots on the bottom, forming a sort of base. It just looked top heavy to me with the darker on top. So the frog and I spent some more qualtity time together. This is what I put in yesterday. It's going pretty quick. I would've gtten more done, but I ran out of black thread. Don't worry, I've already bought more.






I took T. and D. to my nephew kindergarden graduation today. All the little kindergardeners were so cute! They sang some songs, and got their little certifcates. I was suprised at how good T. and D. were for the whole thing. When we got there, the only seats left were in the back. So T. got to stand on the bench and D. got to sit on my shoulders, which they both thought was cool. Then we all went back to the kids' classroom, where we sat on the floor while the kids sang a couple more songs, showing us what they learned. They could name every president and all the states in alphabetical order! I'm twenty-one and can't do that! T. laid his head in my lap and I held D. down while we watched. T. wanted desperately to get up and dance, too. Our grandma came, too, and had to sit in the teacher's chair. It was the only place they had where she could sit, and after the walk down the hall, she could barely stand. I offered to take her home, but she said no, because she couldn't walk back down the hall again yet.
Anyway. I'm gonna have a piece of cake, and then get back to Dragonwings. I think I'm going to name him Elliott. It's T.'s middle name, I love it, and J. won't know what I'm talking about.

I babysat my niece and nephew today, A. and C. respectively. C. is about a year and half older than T., and they have NEVER liked each other. The first time they met, C. was very much a mama's boy, and he still is, but he was very bothered by his mommy holding and fussing over this other baby. He didn't see T. for about three, maybe four months. By then T. was at that I-have-to-put-everything-I-can-find-in-my-mouth phase. C. gave T. and small soft ball to play with, which, of course T. put in his mouth. C. made faces at him and T. laughed and they were having tons of fun. T. eventually threw the ball back to C., who picked it up and said, "EWWWWWW!" That was the end of the friendliness. After that, C. had to hide all his toys if T. was coming over. He would hide in his room so he didn't have to play with him. Once T. BIT C. and took a small chunk out of his arm! For the three years that we have lived in the same state as their family, and for about eight months before that, C. and T. have been mortal enemies.
Yesterday, when I picked T. and D. up from my sister's, T. gave C. and hug and said, "C****** is my bess fwiend!" Today when C. and A. came over, T. asked C. to play video games with him. He doesn't like to play games with anybody! C. couldn't leave without telling T. goodbye. We (my sister and I) always knew eventually they would get along, but we figured it would be more like when they were teenagers and were banding together against us. To me, it's the cutest thing, but then I'm biased; it's my baby and my nephew, who I love like my own. Here's the six of us when D. was about a month or so old. From left to right, top to bottom: me, my sister, T., C., D., and A. on the floor.

Which is the front, and which is the back? I took the picture on the left, only to realize it was the back. At the moment it's a little hard to tell. This is my progress on Dragonwings. I only got one length of thread in yesterday, but today I finished the border. I plan to stitch more today. I have to; I'm only one episode into the first disc of the fourth season of 3rd Rock From The Sun. Now I've got to make my working copy, since it gets a little more complicated than x stitches across, x down, ect. I am very happy with myself.

I am not so happy with my diet. I learned tonight that under NO circumstances whatsoever can I eat one taco. I ate WAY too many, and am too embarrassed to even say exactly how many. It was good, and I was craving it like you would not believe. I do not regret it (much)!

This is Dragonwings when I started working on it last night, and tonight, before I've worked on it. That's my progress on a work day, when I don't have as much time to stitch.
Now it's about nine at night here, and I still haven't had the chance to get any stitching done. I slept late, and then had to get ready for work. When I got off, I had to get groceries, and the boys, and get them dinner and into bed. D. is in bed, watching cartoons. Hopefully, he'll be asleep soon. T. is playing games, and will go to bed soon, too. Then maybe I can get some work on Dragonwings in.
I had a very bittersweet day at work today. All my favorite customers came in. I went shopping vicariously through one lady, who is also a big Raise The Roof fan. We had alot of fun!
However, in the afternoon, when it was quiet for awhile, I got to thinking. It seemed to me that I wasn't enjoying my job like I used to. Then it dawned on me: I enjoyed it last weekend. I enjoyed this morning, helping the lady find all the Raise The Roof charts. It was just working with the owner I didn't like. She decided to sell the shop, and everything is set, with the exception of all the paperwork. She doesn't want to be there anymore. Anyone else is a blast to work with. I know she's ready to go, and as mean as it sounds, I think just about everyone else is ready for her to go, too. She's a nice person, but she doesn't care about the shop like she used to. She also pointed out that the new owner may not want to keep on all the employees. I would have been much happier not having to worry about that just yet. I would have rather been surprised if I lost my job. The good news is most of the customers today told me (and the current owner) how much they hoped I got to keep my job. One lady even made a big fuss over how much she appreciated that I could always find the charts she was looking for. Of course, I couldn't find anything she was looking for today, but she was very good natured about it. She knew when I told her we were out of the charts, that we were out. There are some customers who don't think I know what I'm talking about because I'm younger than they are.
I read on the message boards that some people have "guilt free January." I seem to be having a guilt free May. I've started Dragonwings, and I still plan to start Persian Iris Garden, The Time I Spend Stitching, and Snowfight: Blue. I also plan to start Liberty Fence as soon as my fabric comes in. I also want to start In Every Nest, Hobb Nob Greta The Witch/Frankie Stein/Vince VamPyre, and I'm considering Raise The Roof My Cone Runneth Over. Maybe I am subconsciously avoiding the projects I already have started because two of them I worked on last summer, and they remind me of that long time while J. was gone. Or maybe it's because all these seem like relatively quick finishes.
Okay, I'm babbling again. Time to go work on J.'s dragon.

Usually, J. spends his spare time thinking up new ways to aggrivate me. Now that he's gone, fate has sent me frogs to irritate me instead. First I had such problems with my model, and today I spent and hour and a half pulling out half my work on Dragonwings. I had almost finished the outside border. On the last stitch (argggggg!) I noticed that I had three threads there! So I had to rip out the top and half of the right side of the border. It was pretty much everything I got done the first day working on it. Now I'm going to spend the rest of today putting it back in. Here's a picture of it after all the frogging. Hopefully this will be my last encounter with these stupid frogs.

Anyway, Here's this week's SBQ:
Lately, it seems that many stitching bloggers have experienced a loss of their stitching mojo. Have you ever lost your stitching mojo? If so, how did you get it back, and how long did it take?
When The Sims 2 came out, I spent all my time playing that instead of stitching for about a month. Other than that, it only lasts a couple days or so. I also seem to lose my mojo after fights with frogs, like today's. I'm thinking about starting The Time I Spend Stitching as soon as I finish fixing the border. New starts always make me feel better! Small ones are best, because then I also have a finish to encourage me, too.

I was almost finished with my model. I was going to finish it last night, but I found two mistakes, which had to be ripped out and fixed. I was up until two this morning. I never sleep well when J.'s not here. It's all good, though, because I finished it this morning, and now it is outside, waiting for the mailman.
I've kitted up Dragonwings. I'll start it today. All I've got left to do is make my working copy.
I've changed my blog again. I couldn't get to the site I wanted last time I changed, so I just picked another one. Now the site is working again, and I got this. The lonely cat seems fitting, since this is supposed to be where I go to get away. I realized last night that for the very first time in my life, I have more dogs than cats.
I felt bad for T. last night. I told him it ws time for bed, and he said, "Can't go to bed. Didn't say goodnight to Daddy." So I let him stay up until J. called at about 8:30. His usual bedtime is eight.
So to sum up: mad at the model, finished with the model (feeling much better about it), starting Dragonwings, and we all miss J.

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

My birthday one said orange was my "power color."
J.'s left again. It was nice to have him home. We got take out, and spent the evening watching an Eddie Izzard special I had recorded off of BBC America. It was nice to have him there for one more night.
I had a very lazy day. I slept in, did breakfast, wasted time on the computer, did lunch, and took a nap! I slept eleven hours yesterday. After I woke up, I finioally started stitching, and got a good amount done. After J. went to bed, I got back up and watched the Absolutely Fabulous Mother's Day marathon I had recorded off BBC America, and got alot of stitching done. The problem is, I watched so many British shows yesterday, I am now thinking with a British accent. It's a good thing J. was already in bed, cause he'd have picked on me to no end. My grandmother was British, so I don't always hear the accent, I'm so used to it.
I've been doing better on my diet. I weighed in yesterday, and I've lost two pounds. I am drinking between eight and nine cups of water everyday. I still need to exercise more, but I'm eating better at least.

I got a new look for my blog. I've been looking for something new. It'll work for a week or two. Anyway, here's a blogthing since I don't have too much to say. I can't stitch until I've woken up a little more.

Your Life Path Number is 11

Your purpose in life is to inspire others Your amazing energy draws people to you, and you give them great insight in return. You hold a great amount of power over others, without even trying. You have the makings of an inventor, artist, religious leader, or prophet. In love, you are sensitive and passionate. You connect with your partner on a very deep level. You have great abilities, but you are often way too critical of yourself. You don't fit in - and instead of celebrating your differences, you dwell on them. You have high expectations of yourself. But sometimes you set them too high and don't achieve anything.

I can see some of myself in that.
J. called to tell me happy Mother's Day. He may get to come tonight. It'll be his only chance. When he goes back Monday morning, he won't get to come back until it's over. I told him to buy me a present, to stop at the grocery store and buy me some flowers. I don't really expect him to, but it's fun to pick on him.
I had planned to get alot of stitching done last night. I was babysitting my neice and nephew. I figured they'd go to bed by 9:30 (they were in bed by nine, but weren't asleep until ten), and since my sister wasn't picking them up until midnight, I'd have all that time to stitch. I was so tired from working all day, chasing four kids, and stopping them from killing each other, I could barely stitch. I got a couple lengths of threads in my model. I should finish it Wednesday, hopefully. Then I'm on to Dragonwings.

In February, right after the Nashville show, I was on Enchanting Lair's website. I was not there to look at the new releases; I was looking for something older. I had the homepage up, and went into the kitchen to check on dinner. While I was there J. came home. His first words were, "I want that one! Do that one for me!" He was referring to Dragonwings, one of Enchanting Lair's February releases. I had already seen it and talked myself out of it. Let's face it, do I really need another dragon pattern? Since J. liked it so much, and had a hissy fit until I told him I would, I ordered it. I talked to him about fabrics, and told him what color it was done on. "Meditation" does mean blue to J. He said it looked like it was on white as far as he could tell and that was fine with him.
The next day, when I went to work, I had to fondle the new fabric colors. There was a half yard of 32 ct. Crystal Baroque, that was absolutely gorgeous! I knew I had to have a piece, even if I didn't know what I would use it for. It would have to be a simple design, so it didn't compete, but was complimented by, the pattern in the fabric. Something fairly monochromatic. Dragonwings! I picked the precise corner I wanted, and bought it. In some places, is was very splotchy, or the green mixed with the red and almost became black, which would not be good. One piece was perfect, and I got it before the store opened!
Now why have I babbled on and on about this? J. has left for his two week duty. I have almost decided (90% sure) that I will start this while he's gone. I have to finish my model first of course. I know I won't have it finished by the time he gets back, but hopefully I'll have some good progress. Once he does come back, I'll only stitch on it while he's at work, and work on my other projects in the evenings. I may hang it in the shop for a year for the framing deal, and then give it to him next year for his birthday.
So that makes four projects started, four I plan to start this month, and one I plan to start as soon as the fabric comes in, whenever that may be. How many are even close to being done? One. There is something wrong with me. I need PSA, Project Starters' Anonymous.

Your Birthdate: May 10

Independent and dominant, you tend to be the alpha dog in most situations. You're very confident, and hardly anything ever shakes you. Mundane tasks tend to drain you - you prefer to be making great plans. You are quite original. When people don't "get" you, it bothers you a lot. Your strength: Your ability to gain respect Your weakness: Caring too much what others think Your power color: Orange-red Your power symbol: Letter X Your power month: October

That's pretty true to me. Yesterday was my birthday! I am now 21, and old enough to buy alcohol! I started off my day to find notes from J. everywhere! There was one on the computer that said, "Happy birthday! Love you!" Then, there was one on the TV and one in the chair, "I love you! Happy Birthday!" On the refrigerator, I found a note saying, "Wow, you're old! Love you! Happy Birthday!" Never mind that J.'s five years older than me! Then, after an hour or so on the computer, I sat down to stitch. When I picked up my model to work on it, I found another note, "Love you! Happy Birthday!" That one touched me the most. I can't explain why. I guess it was just that by the time I found it, I thought I'd found them all, so it was a surprise.
After a little while, I packed the boys bags to spend the night at my mom's. My sister was watching them for me to get my nails done, and as a birthday treat, I also got a pedicure. My sister offered to take the boys straight from her house to our mom's, so I could have the afternoon off. So after my nails, I tanned for a few minutes (I'm just starting and very fair skinned).
Then I came home and had a nice long bath. It was so nice to not have to worry about someone knocking on the door saying, "Mama? Mama, I don't like Daddy anymore. When are you coming out?" I had a nice quiet hour to read.
When J. came home, we got ready to go to dinner. I was right about J.'s parents coming to dinner with us. J.'s grandparents also came along, but I get along better with them. So I wasn't as left out as usual. I did get very tired very quickly of J.'s dad saying soemthing to someone and then looking at me and laughing. It tends to make me a little paranoid. I later found out he was thinking about having them sing Happy Birthday to me.
Then J. took me to Target to buy my birthday present, a new cross stitch cart. My fabric and thread drawers on my old one are so full I can barely open them.
J.'s family gave me cash in a card, as did my grandma, who gave me specific instructions that I was to spend it only on myself. I can't buy J. or the boys anything, and I can't use it for bills or groceries. So all my birthday money is going toward my Persian Iris Garden threads. At the moment, I have 51% of the money I need for the threads. My mom and my sister are also planning to give me money for my birthday, plus, J. took all my ones out of my purse, and I'm taking back what he still has when he gets home.
As for stitching, I'm almost done with my model. I've got one section left. I'm now two days behind where I want to be. I should still finish it next week.
I've decided to start doing the Stitching Bloggers' Question. This week's question is: "When you stitch from a kit and use the supplied floss do you have leftovers? If so, how much and what do you do with them? If not, do you usually have just enough or do you have to dig in your stash to finish?"
I don't stitch from kits very often. They almost always come aida, and I can't stand to stitch on aida. The last kit I did was a Mill Hill beaded pin. The last one before that was seven years ago, and it was just a small ornament. I have always had plenty of thread in kits, because I'm a floss miser. What I had leftover, I cut up and put into my ort ball. I'll post a picture of it when I'm through. I bought some clear acrylic Christmas balls, and I put orts and thread ravelings in in. I didn't feel like finiding all the DMC bags for the leftover threads, and there wasn't that much anyway.

when I said I was a fabric hoarder? These are my hand dyed fabrics ONLY! I didn't bother with the plain fabrics.
These are sixteenth yards of Picture This Plus Crystal Moonglow, Crystal Willow, and Crystal Fog. I'm going to put Black Swan's Winter Fairy on the Fog, but I'm not sure what I'll put on the other two. They're leftover from my Dinky Dyes cats. I've considered doing them again for J.'s mother or grandmother for Christmas, but I doubt I will. Something else will come along.
These are eighth yard pieces of R&R Reproductions Monster Green, Cranberry Bog, and Friendship Blue. I plan to do To Infinty And Beyond, Hey Howdy Hey, and Buzz And Woody from Leisure Arts' Toy Story And Beyond! Woody And Buzz.



These are eighth yards of Picture This Plus Crystal Sorbet, Crystal Meditation, Crystal Aurora, and Crystal Baroque. I originally ordered the Sorbet for Sweetheart Fence, but I changed my mind. Now, I'm going to use it for Cross Eyed Kat's Dragonfly. The Meditation is going to be Brenda Franklin's Sea Foam Sea Serpent, and a couple Christmas ornaments. I plan to put Fanta Cat's The Spirit Within on the Aurora. Soon, hopefully, I'll put Dragonwings on Crystal Baroque for J. I haven't told him that's what the fabric is for; I plan to surprise him. I'll only work on it while he's at work. I have to finish my other things first, though!
These are my quarter yards. They are (from top to bottom) Picture This Plus Crystal Highland, Crystal Glacier, Crystal Sorbet, Crystal Chime, Crystal Whimsey, and Crystal Mercedes. On Highland, I will put Dette Designs' Fixing Up The Fairy, and X's And Oh's Scottish Dragon. I'm going to put Snow Fence and some Christmas ornaments on Glacier. I'm not sure what I'm going to put on the bigger piece of Sorbet. It was February's color of the month from Shakespeare's Peddler. It may be the fabric for Dragon Dreams' Fantasy Wedding Blessing. We'll see. I plan to put Dragon Dreams' free charts Morning Wizard, Morning Fairy, and Morning Dragon on the Chime. The Whimsey is my new choice for Sweetheart Fence. I'm also going to put Black Swan's freebies, Fairy Au Lait and Fire And Ice on it. I bought the Mercedes for Merrick. I should be getting another piece from Shakespeare's Peddler soon. It is my back up color for Liberty Fence. If the fence looks good on the Monster Mash I ordered, I'll use the new piece of Mercedes for Teresa Wentzler's The Castle.
These are my half yards of fabric: Picture This Plus Crystal Fresco, Crystal Zephyr, and Crystal Jazz. For these pieces, the picture doesn't do them justice. The Fresco is a beautiful combination on light tans and pinks. I will use it for Black Swan's Dragon Heart and Dragon's Lair, Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched..., and a Christmas ornament. The Zephyr is very pretty bright blues. I'm going to cut this into quite a few odd cuts. It will be Teresa Wentzler's Above The Clouds and Castle Ridge, Dragon Dreams Fairy Tale Sampler and Imagination Creation, Mike Vickery's Kiss Me Quick, and NVP Design's Celtic Dolphins. The Jazz is one of my favorite fabrics. It's gorgeous blues with purple splashes. I'm going to use it for Black Swan's Dragon Lake, Dragon Fire Designs' Unicorn Window, and Teresa Wentzler's Gentle Creature.

WOW! Can I babble or what? This is my fabric for Persian Iris Garden. It came in! They were checking in the box as I came in to pick up my paycheck. It's nothing too special, just plain black Belfast linen.
In my stitching (actual stitching, not just fabric fondling), I am almost finished with my model. I'm about a day behind where I want to be. I had hoped to finish it on Saturday, but it will probably be more like Monday. That's still not bad. I think when I go to work Friday, I'll order just the threads I need for part one of Persian Iris Garden. I'm not sure. My Liberty Fence and the buttons should be in by then, and I'll need to buy them.
I've been doing better on my diet. I'm still not back on track, but I'm trying.
Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm now starting to worry a little bit. My mom volunteered to babysit the boys all night so J. and I could have a nice quiet dinner alone. The problem is, J.'s parents will call us at six that night to offer to take us out to dinner. I SO want to spend my birthday being ignored. Yay. Of course they'll critize me if we don't bring to boys. Plus, if we don't bring the boys, I won't have anyone to talk to, and no kiddie menus to color. Hopefully, if they call, J. will tell them we already have plans to be alone. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll completely forget about me! They forgot D.'s birthday last year, and they like him. Deep breath. It's all good. Que sera, sera. I'll just hope for the best.

This is the four of us at J.'s grandparents, Christmas of 2004. This is one of the few pictures of all four of us where we all look happy. Usually, one of the boys is crying.
I've been putting off working on my model all week. I have gotten some work done on it, but not nearly as much as I would like. I'm 2/3 of the way there, though. J. has drill this weekend, so I took Saturday off from work. So I have the majority of the next two days to stitch, if I can stay off the computer.
I did good on my diet yesterday, and okay today. I am almost positive I have gained weight this week. I must have more will power!

Monday morning, I watched Sunday night's episode of Desperate Housewives. The end, in which the baby is taken away, made me cry for about half an hour. It brought back all the nightmares I used to have about policemen taking my babies and telling me I was too young to be a good mother. This also explains why I felt nothing but terror when the policeman came in the shop to tell us they were closing the parking lot when the vice president came to town (full story here). I thought it was leftover from my wild teenage days, but I now think it was a subconscious fear of policemen from the dreams. So I spent most of the day playing with the boys. I went for a walk that evening, and then J. and I watch Fun With Dick And Jane after the boys went to bed.
Yesterday, first thing in the morning, I took the boys for haircuts. D. was very well behaved, which was lucky, because T. did not want to cooperate with the hairdresser. I made sure to give them each a very nice tip for their patience with the boys. They each got a sucker, which they had finished by the time we got to the car. Then we went to the shop, and the bank, where they got another sucker. Then we went to Best Buy to pick up a CD J. wanted. Since they were good all day at places they didn't want to be, I treated them to Burger King for lunch. So they had a week's worth of junk food in a day. In the evening, my sister called. She works at a theater, and she and her husband had been invited to a screening of Mission Impossible 3. I was going to babysit, but by the time I got there, my sister told me they weren't going; it would be awkward with some of the other people who were going to be there. I was looking forward to spending some time with C. and A., my nephew and niece respectively. So I stayed, and the four of us played Harry Potter Scene It?. My brother-in-law was still at work. After two games, it was time for the kids to go to bed. We had fun playing together. My sister and I then took their dog, Bagel, out to the backyard to play/potty for a few minutes. After a while, we went back in. I told her I was going to go ahead on home, but everyone would be asleep when I got there. She suggested I take a movie pass, and go see a movie. It sounded good, so I went to see The Sentinel. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was pretty straight forward for a government conspiracy movie.
To sum it up, I'm so off my diet, and I haven't gotten much stitching done. However, I was spending time with people who mean the world to me, so it was more than a fair trade.

My goals for April were: start and finish a model for Cross Eyed Kat (iFob), start and finish Snowfight: Blue by Cross Eyed Kat, ornamentify Christmyth Unicorn, Giant, Griffon, Fairy, and Pheonix by Dragon Dreams, and finish the hull on Skeleton Crew by Cross Eyed Cricket. I finished iFob, and it was released at the online show. I decided the stitch Lizzie Kate's Twelve Blessings Of Christmas Giving and Song as my April Christmas ornaments. I did finish finishing the Christmyth ornaments, along with the Lizzie Kates. I did a good bit more than the hull on Skeleton Crew: I finished it! I'm also about halfway through another model for Cross Eyed Kat.
My May goals are: finish the model for Cross Eyed Kat, ornamentify Christmyth Hippocampus, Salamander, Pegasus, and Satyr by Dragon Dreams, start and finish The Time I Spend Stitching by Dragon Dreams, put in at least one length of thread on Avatar, start and finish a Christmas ornament, and last, but definately not least, start part one of Persian Iris Garden by Chatelaine. That may not be possible, if I can't afford all the supplies. Here's hoping.
My weight loss goal is to los five pounds. I weighed in at 150, so no gain, but no loss either. I've found I eat less if I skip breakfast, but breakfast also helps get your metabolism work better, so I'll eat it if I'm hungry.