They're done!!

After 10 long years I have finally completed the 10 counted cross stitch cat pieces for my mom! And she has now framed them and will soon have them hanging in her living room!

Why did it take so long? yah, it's just one of those things... life, work, other  plus I'd forget, plus I'd put them somewhere and 'lose' them for a while.

If you're a long time reader of my blog, I'm sure you've seen them occasionally when I finished one. Each piece features a black cat and background details also in black with one or two items in them image in colour - for example there is a red string with the cat under the rug, or a coloured birdhouse and silver snowflakes in the one where the cat's in front of the window.

If you'd like to see more, you can see this Kats by Kelly Pinterest page.

Cat Cross Stitch # 10

I have finally completed cat cross stitch # 10 - my mom can finally order her frames and get them on the wall. She will frame them in 2 frames, 5 pictures across. Here's the final one:

Now I can get back to my knitting and crocheting and embroidery projects - I haven't done anything since March 18th. Time to get productive and creative again!

Some projects

Here are some cross stitch/embroideries I have been working on -

This one is still in progress

Sorry I didn't iron them yet. It's harder to see them when you're distracted by all the wrinkles isn't it? They are for my mom. When I'm done there will be a total of 10 and she is getting them framed in two horizontal sets of 5. I hope I can show you the finished framed pieces one of these days.

This is a really big deal

For years I've been a customer and followed the path of Jenny Hart and Sublime - an impressive women who has made a career and business out of hand stitched embroidery. She not only sells patterns and the tools but she also has her own branded embroidery floss (what you stitch with) and multiple books over the years. She's also been a speaker on TedTalks as well as multiple TV shows.

Now she's just announced that Restoration Hardware will be carrying one of her kits this Christmas. This is HUGE! This is big for most companies but for a small one practically run out of Jenny's house with a small staff and in the craft market - HUGE I say.

Her story is inspirational and after being a customer and following her for years, I'm very proud of someone who almost feels like a friend! Congratulations Jenny!

BC's First Family Day

Today is a statutory holiday in BC - for many years workers in this province asked for a day off between New Years and Easter, especially when other provinces in Canada had a holiday. This year is our first one. Somewhere along the way there was a vote on when it should be (no one I know knew anything about this vote) and it was decided that since we are unique people we should have it the week before the rest of the country. For many this probably doesn't make much difference, but if you're a national business you have potentially lost two business days in the shortest month of the year   - one for our holiday and one the rest of the country. As well, my family is in another province. Perhaps if we had the holiday on the same weekend one of us would have travelled to see family? Nope, not gonna happen. 

Today is also a special day here at Way Out Wear headquarters because it's the 7th Blogaversary. Yes, I have been writing to you for seven years. Reflecting on that time  one of the biggest things that has changed is my readers - not one person who was with me in the beginning is here with me now - except family. That's just part of being a grown-up isn't it? As the saying goes "people come into your life for reason, a season or a lifetime". I hope you are with me for a long time as I really do enjoy your comments and your company. 

Other things that have changed over the past seven years, just to name a few: 

1) Both my dogs, Maxx and Jazz are no longer with me but now I share my life with my wonderful chocolate lab, Eco. There were lots of stories about Maxx's epilepsy and lots of stories about Jazz's noise phobia, and lots of puppy raising stories

2) I got married

3) I started a business

4) I've changed my page layout and background at least 20 times

5) We replaced our old cars with new ones

6) countless knitting, crochet and embroidery projects

7) multiple thrift store adventures

8) too many stories about the weather

9) lots of cooking/baking stories 

10) and funny things about the family. 

So thank you readers for sharing my journey with me, I'm glad you're part of my family. 

In case you're wondering*...

...why I've slowed down on my projects - it has to do with the fact that my arms and hands keep going numb. Sometimes it's my whole arm, from the shoulder all the way to the fingers. Sometimes I try to work through the numbness but it doesn't go away so I must stop and flex my arm and my hand. My doctor sent me for an x-ray and confirmed that no nerves were pinched or compromised in my neck, so next he's sending me for a nerve conductivity test. This is like hitting your funny bone - except someone else has control of when it will happen and they do it multiple times. And, I really wanted to kick the technician in the head (I know! I'm not a violent person - except when someone causes me pain) but the last time I had it done, the ladies were so nice I couldn't do it, but boy I sure wanted to!!!

Two years ago I was told I had mild to moderate carpal tunnel and that my left hand was worse than my right. No one can figure out why the left is worse because I'm so very right handed. All I can think of is that I walk Eco on my left side and maybe all the leash handling is related to it, although I don't recall even getting numb during our daily walks. Holding the embroidery hoop seems to compress something in my thumb and so it goes numb, and both hands can go numb during knitting, somethings I can't even finish the row. I do wear splints at night which definitely seem to help me to sleep through the night and not wake up with numb arms.

When this subject first came up I wanted to do everything possible to avoid the surgery, and changed a bunch of things at my desk. Jp did some research and bought me a computer mouse that uses your thumb to move the curser around instead of your wrist and I think that's helped a lot. Since the initial diagnosis I've talked to several people who had the surgery and said it was a very good thing for them to have done and they were able to resume all the crafts and activities they used to enjoy without the numbness. Today I am more open to the option of surgery for this issue.

So now you know why I don't post as much about what I have been working on. Just in case you were wondering.

** and actually I'm pretty sure you weren't wondering about it since this quote is so very true: 

"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” 

― Eleanor Roosevelt


PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001469/

Stitching Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of what I'm working on:

That's all I can show you, because that's all I've done!!!

PROJECTS I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON

I'm almost finished my cross-stitch:

I just need to do the outline stitches and there are some silver snowflakes to come and  I should be done by the weekend.

And also, here are some doodles I've been working on:

what do you think? 

Baking and Stitching

Success! After a couple of attempts tweaking the recipe each time, I made a successful loaf of bread - yippee. And yummy too. Now time to get some fruit to try out the jam function.

As you can see there is a slight indent on the top - baking friends, could you please tell me why this happened? Slightly too much yeast?

And since I have't posted a project in a while, this is what I'm working on - a kitty cross-stitch:

Oh yes, and the little bread-machine made cookies too:

Not too bad, but I think I'll stick to making them the old fashioned way. It was pretty easy but it only made about 16 cookies. I don't know about you, but around here that just isn't enough!

How have you been?

This is Jazz last weekend - I made her wear Maxx's winter vest (he was about 10 pounds bigger than her) because he belly fur still hasn't grown back from being shaved in October (for the ultrasound and xrays) and to keep the falling snow on her back. She didn't seem to mind it all that much. It's pretty funky isn't it? It's from Old Navy and it's silver with reflective piping. Here's she's picked up some scent in the snow.

It was so wet here yesterday that EVERY surface outside was wet - it didnt' matter if it was under cover - even the ceiling in my car port was covered with condensation. My family in the prairies just can't fathom that much humidity!

Now the snow is almost gone from the streets, the weather's warmed up and it appears things are almost back to "normal". Today, I'll take Jazz for a chemo treatment - she's missed two and I'm worried all the ground we gained has been lost, but there wasn't much I could do when the clinic was closed or the vet was away, or there was a power outage or the snow was just too much for me to risk the drive - especially when getting to the vet involves some steep hills. So we'll just soldier on and hope for the best - don't have much choice do we?

MAP update - I've been putting in the hours for the cross stitch and things are progressing - although sometimes it's harder to see what I've done - 3 cross stitch here, 5 over there - it all takes time but doesn't look like much. I've written down the dates you've estimated and we'll see who get's to win the prize - I haven't figured out what you get just yet, but I'll make it something good fo sho!

On Wednesday we had a computer technician at our house for 8 hours! Jp had a nasty virus called "Antivirus 2009" on his computer - watch out folks, we suspect it came from a recipe site just before Christmas - apparently it can take 3 weeks before it starts up and each time you turn your computer off and on, it gets worse! And yup, you heard me - recipes! She had some other work to do for my computer as well and was fixing another persons computer remotely too but basically she spend that long cleaning his computer! To the people who create computer viruses for the fun of it - ptooey on you! (And all you Mac user can stop laughing at us!)

I don't know about you but this week flew by so fast - I hope the rest of the year isn't going to be like that! It was a bit scary to wake up and look at my watch and have it confirmed that it was already Friday. Maybe that's normal after the time off during the holidays?

It's all a bit mundane right now - sorry about that chief. But if I had to choose between chaotic and mundane, I think I'd stay right here - wouldn't you?

What did I do?

On Saturday night we went out for dinner with friends, it was a celebration for our wedding and it was really nice. They took us to a nice restaurant and spoiled us. Yummy food and good company - that's the way to do it. We came back to their house and enjoyed a toast with some bubbly and then went home. It was a good night out.

But the next morning, my stomach wasn't so happy - rich food maybe? Mixing alcohol? I'm not sure, but I'm feeling better now. You know, just in time for the work week.

I did get a few hours of cross stitch done - here's what I've done in the past week:

- pretty sad isn't it. I must get this done before Christmas!

And that's all I can write about. The weather was iffy - everything else was mediocre. But sometimes uneventful can be okay.

I'm an idiot & a **SPECIAL OFFER**

Okay, I had been hunting down the stupid Adorn magazine and after 8 stores I finally found it at the Chapters at Metropolis and right next to it was a Craft: Magazine. I was so excited I scooped them both up. But about 1/2 hour later in the car, I remembered that I had already subscribed to Craft:! ACK! Then I joked to JP that my subscription would be sitting in the mailbox when I got home. And it was! Yay & bah!

SO. If you would like a free copy of the new issue of Craft: - leave me a comment and I'll randomly draw from the first five people interested. I chose 5 because I don't think more than 5 people read my blog! ha!

Now also dear Canadian readers, let me tell you this - after running around the Metro Vancouver area looking for that Adorn magazine, I thought I would subscribe. Unfortunately, their website only allows US addresses so I wrote them and asked about shipping to Canada. They said they aren't doing Canadian subscriptions and that I should look for their magazine at major retailers. I think 3 locations of Chapters is considered a major retailer, so I have decided that I will no longer go out of the way for them. When the next issue comes out, I will not make any special trips. If I happen upon it while getting my "normal" magazine fix - well that is jut fine. How hard is it to charge me in US funds and I'll pay for shipping? If you would like to educate me on the issues concerning shipping magazines to Canada from the US, please enlighten me - I would love to learn. *end of rant*

Have a happy Saturday. I'm was planning on working on the cross stitch today but I got sucked into hanging out with JP watching TV and doing nothing. Tonight we go out for dinner with some friends.

It's over, now back to work!

The clouds did clear yesterday, and I did manage to be outside for about 4 hours. I had to wear headphones because of the neighbourhood "battle of the bands", but I took my Sirius Radio with me and listened to comedy so that was all right.

What did I do out there - 4 hours of cross stitch equals the boxed area. That's it! Progress is sloooooooooooooooow!

After dinner, I did another 12 rows of the lace leaf shawl, progress is also sloooooooooooooooow.

Today, it's back to work. It's cloudy though, so that makes it less tempting to want to leave my desk - that's a good thing.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm itching to buy some new yarn - I'm seeing all these gorgeous yarns people are spinning and/or dying and I want some too! Something beautifully coloured, or something wonderfully soft. There is so much out there, it's hard to decide.

~~~~~~~~

I'm interested in learning more about zakka. Wikipedia defines zakka as:

(from the Japanese ‘zak-ka’ or ‘many things’) is a fashion and design phenomenon that has spread from Japan throughout Asia. The term refers to everything and anything that improves your home, life and outlook … Zakka has also been described as “the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane”. … Cute is not enough. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be attractive, sensitive, laden with subtexts.

Let me know if you have any sources for projects. I'm intrigued!