This is Nauvoo Sunstone, designed by The Posy Collection. I purchased it in Nauvoo, IL, when we stopped on our way out to Utah and Idaho in March 2011. The designer does not have any chart information on her website other than to say that she designs pieces for historical sites and that the kits are only available at those locations. Which is a bit of a bummer because I would have liked to see what else she has available without doing a ton of traveling…. even if it meant knowing I would need to travel to acquire.

This is stitched on 14 ct. mushroom Jobelan with DMC flosses. The finished size is approximately 7″ wide by 4.25″ tall. The kit came with pre-cut DMC and Aida. And anyone who knows me well also knows how much I despise Aida. I haven’t been keeping track of when I start projects or how long I spend on them anymore. But I do know I was working on it the night I was at church for the swap n save drop-off even though I had been called to the Primary by then, because I remember being frustrated that my highlighter walked off while I was helping someone bring in boxes.

The next traveling project will be the Thirteenth Article of Faith sampler that I bought at Shepherd’s Bush in Ogden, UT.

I’m not officially participating in the WIPocalypse, but I am going to knock out a few of these buggers.

• Starry Night – started October 2004, 2 pages of 15 complete, approximately 14%
• Nordic Needle Rose – started September 2004, 3+ pages of 6 complete, approximately 60%
• Autumn Sunset Sampler – started June 2005, 1.5 of 4 pages complete, approximately 30%
• Nauvoo Sunstone – started April 2011, finished size  6×6, approximately 50%
• We Seek After These Things – started July 2011, finished size 8.5×7, approximately 5%
• crocheted scarf
• ummmm….

I’m sure there’s more. There just has to be LOL. If and when I find more, I’ll add them to the list.

I’m surprised to see that Nordic Needle Rose is actually my oldest WIP. I was sure that Starry was. And what was I thinking starting two big pieces so close together? Sheesh.

The scarves (and sometimes baby blankets) only get worked on during church. I listen better when I can do something with my hands, and these sorts of projects don’t require consulting a pattern to distract me. I get funny looks on occasion from people who don’t normally sit near me, and once a visitor decided to confront me about it.  When I was able to show the visitor and her member friends that I got more out of the talks than they did, they backed off, and I think word spread a bit LOL.

My goals for 2012 are to have 12 actual cross-stitch finishes (Nauvoo Sunstone will definitely be one of those), plus some undetermined number of crochet finishes, and to complete page 3 of Starry Night. I think I’m going to keep Starry on the stand all year rather than switch out at some point. But if I manage to finish page 4 as well, I might decide to swap.

By invoking my own particular brand of convoluted logic that involves cross stitching, self-imposed and therefore largely irrelevant deadlines, and some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, I hereby declare that page 2 of Starry Night is a 2011 finish LOL

2 pages complete…. out of 15. The ritual chart burnination will take place tomorrow. It’s too wet and blech to be firing up the grill tonight, and Buggie likes to participate in the burnination for some reason.

About that last post being the last of the year, that is…

Did some reorganizing last night and came across a cross stitch project that was just waiting for its beads, so I went ahead and finished it off.

This is Serenity Sampler by The Sweetheart Tree. It was a limited edition kit put out in 2005, I don’t know when I bought it or started working on it, but I’m reasonably sure it’s been waiting for me to finish it since before I left the downtown firm in late 2008, based on where I found it. Finished size is about 5×7, lots of specialty stitches in this.

And then I started and finished this one last night as well:

This one is by Tor Rhuann Designs, and this piece is the 2011 Christmas freebie. Finished size is roughly 3" across, I have no idea how I’m going to finish this off, being a hexagon.

I may be doing this a bit early, but I’m reasonably sure I won’t be able to get back here before next weekend anyway. And with my track record, probably quite a bit later than that.

So my 2011 goals were:

For 2011, I’m going to keep it simple again. Continue to lose weight (and again, I’m not setting a goal number, that seems to actually jinx me), work on building my food storage to a 3 month supply level in all categories, and finish Lady of the Flag. Uh oh. Did I just say that?

I don’t have anything documented showing how much I weighed last year. So I don’t know whether I managed to lose weight over the course of the year. I do know that I’ve lost weight in the last couple months, but I also suspect that I gained weight before doing so, based on the way clothes have been fitting.

Food storage – I may not be quite at a full 3 months across teh board, but it’s really close if not there yet. I”m calling it a win. I got a pressure canner for Christmas last year (well, technically I got gift cards that I used to buy the canner LOL), and I’ve been processing meats at least once a month. I keep about a 3 month supply of chunked chicken, chunked beef roast, seasoned taco filling, homemade barbecue sauce, and most recently, homemade turkey soup from Thanksgiving leftovers. I’m not canning stuff like fruits and veggies, largely because the things I want to can (in order to free up freezer space, mostly) don’t hold up well, but also because we don’t eat a whole lot of them anyway. Also, I acquired a bunch of can organizers and completely reorganized the main pantry so I could figure out exactly what I do have and how much more I need.

Lady of the Flag – complete! I haven’t framed her yet, that’s going to be insanely expensive. But she’s done!

So let’s see… what am I going to do for 2012?

- Going back to school. Really. I’m going to get my paralegal certification, which is an Associates in Applied Sciences. It’ll take me about 3 years because I can only go to school part time, but this is going to happen.
- Finish Nordic Needle Rose
- Finish Nauvoo Sunstone
- Start and finish at least one baby blanket (this seems small, but consider that the only time I’m able to sit and crochet without guilt is during sacrament meeting on Sundays, and even then only if it’s something simple that doesn’t require consulting with a written pattern)

The days just keep slipping out from under me. Oy.

Buggie’s almost finished with her first term of college. She comes home in a week and a half, even though a large part of her does not want to. She’s met a boy out there. Well, sort of. She’s in Idaho. He’s in Utah. They met online, and I think they’re meeting in person this weekend because he’s going to be in her town (or a nearby one, perhaps) for a family event. I also know that she loves the independence, the scenery, the overall vibe, the quiet. So it’s not just the boy.

Speaking of college, I’m getting ready to go back to college myself. I’m going to get my paralegal certification, which is an associate’s level degree. The local community college is certified by the American Bar Association and is a heck of a lot less expensive than the online self study programs friends have referred me to. I’ve got my application for financial aid already in progress, and I’m planning to register for either 2 or 3 of the prerequisite classes for the spring term, which starts in January. Yeah, just a few weeks away. Yikes.

Mini’s doing well. Still making steady progress at school, still straddling the line between little girl interests and wanting to be all grown up. She’s very recently decided that she wants to be baptised, so we’re also getting together with friends from the ward on Saturday mornings to go through the missionary discussions and prepare her for that.

I finished a crochet baby blanket in October. I’m still slowly working on the Nauvoo sunstone piece, and I’ve been crocheting hats during church rather than starting a new blanket. I wish I had money to get a mannequin head (or styrofoam form, whatever) and room to store it, so I could effectively block and shape these hats when they’re done. But I need to be weeding out stuff, not adding more.

Speaking of adding more stuff… my sister recently lost her job. She’s breaking her lease and moving in with our aunt because her landlord is not as understanding and accommodating as mine is. She just gave me a box full of yarns and another box of Ball jars. And if I can figure out how the heck to get them home, I’m also getting her Billy bookcases, which will replace the Walmart bookcases I currently have in my bedroom that have less capacity. I’m already in the process of ripping all of my DVD movies to digital files so I can put the actual movies into storage somewhere and not damage the discs further, so the tentative plan there is to put the Billy cases where my DVD racks currently sit, move my food storage and paperbacks out of the bedroom onto those shelves, and rearrange my bedroom to take advantage of the now-bare inside wall without a baseboard heater.

I also finally finished reading the books that have been published to date in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Yes, I know GRRM is still working on them. With the TV show on HBO, though, I decided to go ahead and get started anyway. While working my way through those, though, I realized just how much slower I read on my Sony Touch than I do on hardcopy. I had to renew the library loan on each book…. three times on Dance. The e-book loans are only 2 weeks instead of 3, but still. Three renewals means I needed at least 7 weeks to get through it. Sadly, there isn’t going to be much time for entertainment reading for a while after school begins.

Whoa. Has it seriously been six months since I’ve posted here?

I’ve had all kinds of craziness going on around here, although looking back now it doesn’t seem like so much. Maybe just because the day-to-day insanity gets hidden in the rear-view mirror.

Buggie’s doing the pre-college thing now. We traveled to Utah and Idaho during spring break to check out the schools she was accepted to, and she decided on BYU-Idaho as a result of those tours. She graduated high school with honors (which is absolutely no surprise at all to anyone that knows her). She received a maximum grant from Pell and was offered a couple Stafford loans as well. She may have to get a job out there to help with living expenses, but we’ll see.

Mini’s emotional status has been stabilizing and we’re working to wean her down on her meds. She broke a tooth on the playground during summer school, which we had to get bonded. It looks great, and it’s caused her to be more aware of the need to brush her teeth regularly, which has been an ongoing problem. She’ll be in 8th grade when school starts back up. Five more years before I have to figure out whether college is for her, and what options are available.

I’ve been at my job for about 16 months. Finally in the last week, we were able to file our initial documents on the few properties remaining out of the massive batch that was why I was hired in the first place. Sadly, the ones we couldn’t file on are dead in the water for one reason or another. The client thought they had a half million in accounts payable owed, we’re down to about 75 thousand. Yes, the client is looking into a malpractice suit against the attorney that started all this work.

Meanwhile, at church, I’ve been called to be the secretary to the children’s program. I’m working with about 60 kids, and at the time I was called, I knew the names of maybe 10% of that number. It’s been about 3 months and I’m definitely getting better with names, I’m probably up to 20-25%.

Yes, I’m still crafting, but not as much as I would like. I’m still plugging away at Nordic Needle Rose periodically. I’ve been working on a crocheted baby blanket at church, only about an hour a week. I haven’t touched the sewing machine in months, but I really need to get back to that as well.

It’s taken me 7 years, 6 months and 20 days. But at looooooooooooooooooong last, The Lady of the Flag is COMPLETE!!!!!

Edit: et voila! It’s too bad that you can’t see the sparklies as easy in the full size shot. I’ll probably post a cropped close-up of her head and the torch in the gallery later.

Before…. 10/28/2008

Yes, this sat for over a year completely untouched.

As of 01/08/2011. This is under a fluorescent light indoors so the colors are off. I may take another picture later.

So yeah, the second arm is complete, except for the backstitching. I still need to stitch the torch there, but because of teh way beads lay on these scroll bars, I decided to stop here and go back to the neck and head, back down by those flowers in her other hand.

Sewing project, that is.

I actually did start with the cotton shell. But somewhere along the way I managed to jump to the assembly instructions for a different view with sleeves. And the existence of sleeves changed how a facing was inset. Which means now I have to frog the facing to get it in right, because I can’t get it flipped around to the inside of the shirt as is.

So then I switched gears and moved to a black-and-white polkadot dress. I managed to buy enough extra fabric (because I misread the pattern envelope) to have a piece large enough for a simple straight skirt with elastic waist. That’ll be basically 3 seams – sew the fabric into a tube, sew one open side to a piece of wide elastic, hem up the other side. I jsut don’t have the wide elastic I want, so that particular skirt is on hold.

But the dress is done. I had to make a major adjustment in assembly. It has a cross-over bodice, and knowing that all of my blouses and dresses with that kind of neckline require a cami or pinning, I planned ahead. I had Mini put on just the bodice part so I could adjust the location of the cross over, and I’m glad I did. If I had sewn it as marked, the crossing point would have been down around her sternum. Not cool. Of course, that adjustment changes how the skirt fits to the bodice, but that’s not so hard and the extra gathers were easily disguised by elastic. I just hope it fits her okay, she went to bed before I could do a second fitting with the skirt attached.

She of course wants to wear it for church tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a picture.