"moon and stars" crap

OK. There's some commercial I keep hearing where the guy is telling his girlfriend/wife that he'll give her the moon and the stars. We hear the "moon and stars" thing all the time. Why is that romantic? I mean, really! Anyone can say that, but it's not really his to give away, is it? I guess I never figured out why that was so romantic.

Maybe I'm too practical about things sometimes (my mother would laugh at that one!), but it you want to give me something, give me grocery money. Better yet, give me a vacation to someplace simple where we can just hang out and do what we want and go where we want. I don't really want a lot or expect a lot, don't need fancy vacations, cars or roses every week. I guess that's why the moon and stars stuff just makes me roll my eyes.

Although, a 1967 Mustang would also be a pretty nice gesture... :)

Darn it!

Blogger is all goofy again! I think it doesn't like my long verbose posts and sometimes there's something odd going on and the sidebar all goes to the bottom. It's a shame -- I like seeing Smokey's little face when I visit my blog. :)

On the heels of my Goals post...

I just saw this entry at SavingAdvice.com


What You're Not

By S. Shugars


In this consumer centered world that we live in, it is often easy to forget that:

You are not the car you drive.
You are not the house you live in.
You are not the clothes you wear.
You are not the toys you play with.
You are not the people you know.
You are not the job you have.
You are not the credit card you carry.
You are not the jewelry you own.
You are not the school you attend.
You are not the things you buy.
And when you believe that you are these things, that is when you have substituted image for life and no matter how much money you have, you will never be happy. Because when it comes right down to it, money is for buying freedom to do the
things you love to do and does not make you the person you’re pretending to be
with all the the stuff above.

How about those New Year's Resolutions?

I've been working steadily on at least one of my goals for 2007 and wanted to check on the others that I listed here. This is a long post, but it's good for me to get it "on paper," so to speak.

1. Financial -- I don't want to share a lot of my financial stuff here. Suffice it to say that I have created a reasonable spending plan that will allow me to slowly pay off debt while allowing me to save and still buy little luxuries. I've tried depriving myself of basics in order to pay off debt, and it doesn't work for me. All that happens is I fall off the wagon and give up and spend more money than I did before.

Today: This is the goal I've really been paying attention to. I still don't want to go into details here as it's embarassing. Suffice it to say I've paid off all my small acounts (small = under $200) and have been paying all my bills on time and having extra money to spend here and there, as figured into my spending plan. I actually overpaid my car insurance and got a refund back and don't have to pay again until I renew in November! I spent that money this weekend on new spring/summer clothes as a reward to myself, as I've REALLY been wanting to buy some but haven't because I wanted to get some more debts paid off. Now I'm working on my initial emergency savings before I continue to pay off the bigger debts. I'm following Dave Ramsey's plan, thanks to Bea in TN who sent me the book years ago. I am finally taking it seriously after reading it a few times.


2. Health/Weight Lost -- yes, I'm back to this again. I'm in better shape than a year ago, but I've really stalled on this one. My goal is to lose forty pounds by 2008. I think that's pretty realistic; I'm not over-reaching but it will take general effort to make it. I'd like to get back down to where I was when I met Tim almost 8 years ago. I was still overweight at that point, but I wasn't in too bad shape.

Today: Oy. I haven't gotten far on this one at all. A few weeks ago I did a great job exercising, but then stopped for no real reason. I'm going to get back on this bandwagon. It's still possible for me to lose 40 pounds by the end of the year, as it averages 6-7 pounds a month through November, assuming I can control myself during the holidays, lol.


3. I will make a living will and regular will. That's on my 101 List, but it's something I've been putting off and really need to just do.


Today: It's funny, I've been thinking about this lately and forgot it was on the list. It was in the Ramsey book that I reread over the weekend for motivation. I really don't have much to leave to people, but need to think about these things. Once I actually get debt paid off and lots of money in savings, it will be important. I need to get my living will together, most importantly. I keep putting it off because I don't want to think about it, but I don't want to be in the same position as poor Terri Schiavo.


4. I have work goals in my office that I need to refer to every so often so I don't lose track of them. In addition, I will create weekly and monthly goals at work to help keep me focused. I'm going to try to do that at home, too. It's hard for me, as I'm not an organized person by nature and it takes a lot of energy to do it at work. I often come home and don't want to be organized anymore, but I need to apply the same rules here.

Today: I've been on and off on this one at work. I'm going to work harder this week to start making these weekly and monthly goals a habit. It's so easy to lose track of these things when you're in the middle of several projects, but I know it will help.


5. I will visit Gettysburg in 2007. I'd prefer to be there for a few days, but even if I just go for the day it's something. It's a 2-3 hour drive, so I'd really be happier staying over at least one night.

Today: I'm thinking of doing this during Rosh Hashanah. We get those two days off at work, Thursday and Friday. It would be a perfect time to go out there as the September weather should be nice and Thursday and Friday probably won't be as busy as it would on Saturday and Sunday. Of course, two weeks later I'm going to Hershey CATS, so it's a matter of how much money I want to spend. If I go to Gettysburg, I want to stay overnight at least one night if not two. I'll have to see how things are as I get closer. If nothing else, maybe I'll take some days off in November or December when it's cheaper to stay out there -- colder, yes, but I can handle cold better than hot and humid.


6. I will attend a Quaker meeting to see if it's for me. I've been toying with this for some time, but haven't done it yet.

Today: Nope, still haven't done this. I'm still planning on it but have been procrastinating. I will attend one this summer, either close to home or downtown after work.

Thank you to all vets and fallen soldiers

I always feel strange thanking fallen soldiers, as they aren't around to hear it, but I feel it's important to remember. I appreciate the sacrifices made by people in the current wars and in past wars, and am thankful for my ancestors who fought in wars in order for me to have the freedoms I have today. I guess that's why I'm so gung-ho about freedom of speech and our duty as Americans to question our government. I feel it's the least I owe to my ancestors who sacrificed themselves so that we could have these rights.

So, thank you to everyone who has gone to war or fought here at home to help keep our country safe. Also, thank you to the families of those soldiers, as they have also made sacrifices.

Stitching pics

Here are my pictures of finished Easter Fairy and my progress on Why Hoard Gold. The dragon is coming along, slowly but surely. I'm working on Skeleton Crew today to get a break from the rayon floss. :)

Finished Easter Fairy

I finished Easter Fairy last night. I think she's adorable. :) I ended up leaving her legs as they are. When I checked the model on the cover of the chart, their legs look the same and I'm bad enough with arms and legs WITH the directions, let alone trying to make them look better. Chances are I'd end up stitching very unshapely tree trunks.

I used normal seed beads instead of petite beads. I really can't stand stitching with petite beads and avoid it when I can. Usually the only needles I can find that have a small enough eye to go through the petite beads are also sharp (and sometimes long) and I end up stabbing myself. I don't want my little fairy to look like she got attacked by the Big Bad Wolf.

I'm thinking about working on Why Hoard Gold for a while, but I may end up working on Skeleton Crew either instead of it or in addition to it this weekend. I haven't worked on Skeleton Crew in a long time, but I think it's an adorable design.

So, according to my StRIP list:

When I finish Why Hoard Gold I'll start Couer de St. Valentin
When I finish Skeleton Crew I'll start Christmas Elf Fairy.

However, since Why Hoard Gold is on my 10 Project Challenge list at The Wagon and Skeleton Crw isn't, I probably should be good and finish the Dragon Dreams. We'll see how long I can stitch with the rayon before I decide to change projects so I don't get too sloppy.

I haven't taken a picture of Easter Fairy, but will get one up here this weekend. It's funny -- I tend to go a long time without any finishes and my picture on the sidebar remains the same, then I finish a bunch within a few weeks and that picture changes quite a bit.

Just got back from Pirates!

I was pleasantly surprised! I really was let down by the second one. It was OK, but very much a middle movie and I still think the Davey Jones and his crew were overdone in the makeup/special effects department.

However, I really enjoyed POTC3. It was much more emotional than the other two, had a bit more dimension. I don't want to say too much because I know most people haven't seen it yet. As you may have guessed, you need to pay attention because there's a lot going on -- but that's typical of the POTC movies. Keith Richards' character isn't in much of it, but you won't be able to miss him and I like the way they played his character.

OK, that's all I'm going to say. Much more and I'll say something I shouldn't. :)

Woohoo!

After I go home in an hour I won't be back in the office until Tuesday! I'm not completely free tomorrow, as I'm going to training in the morning and working from home in the afternoon, but it's still different from being in the office. I'm so thankful that I actually like my job, because I still have the need for down time and I can't imagine truly hating my job and being stuck there all the time. I've had jobs that didn't thrill me (Burger King comes to mind), but at least I worked with fun people that helped take the crapiness away... a little. :)

So, Friday I'm going to see Pirates, probably at 12:30 so that it (hopefully) won't be as crowded as later. I really have no idea what to expect, but hope I'm not crammed in like a sardine. Tim isn't into it, so I figured that would be the perfect day to take off and go see it. I have Memorial Day off, so that makes a very nice long weekend for me.

I'm going to finish Easter Fairy tonight. I received the Kreinik a few days ago and started filling in her wings and can finish it tonight. I think I can do the beading tonight as there's not a lot and it's all one color. After all that beading I just finished on Mermaid of the Pearls, this will fly by, lol. I meant to stitch on her last night but read instead. I read Harry Potter 5 the other day to refresh my memory for the movie. Of course, after that I just HAD to re-read Harry Potter 6. It's a good thing, as I read them all in sequence in a few weeks about a year ago, so I'm catching/remembering some things that I didn't before. I think the fifth movie is going to be great and am impatiently waiting for the seventh book.

So, not sure what I'm going to stitch on over this lovely long weekend. This week I also worked a little on Why Hoard Gold, so I may do some more of that. I doubt I'll spend all weekend on it, though. As adorable as the Dragon Dreams designs are, the rayon floss drives me nuts and I only stitch on them a little at a time. Of course, I don't HAVE to use the rayon and can substitute DMC, but I must admit that I love seeing that shiney look on those dragons. Her dragons are so adorable that I'm willing to tough it out with the rayon to make it look right. One of my stitching friends works with rayon floss on patterns that don't call for it and she uses it a lot. I tell her she's nuts, but she definitely has a knack for it and her pieces look beautiful.

OK, enought blathering for now. :)

Say it with me, everyone!

I will not put off tallying my time allocation for four months ever again.
I will not put off tallying my time allocation for four months ever again.

Yeesh! I've been keeping a general record of it in my organizer, but didn't realize that I hadn't actually recorded it in my spreadsheet since early December! Good grief! Time flies, and all that. Well, believe me when I say I'm being very good about recording my time for May while going back and fixing my goof. Lesson learned.

(The problem was that I was so busy for those months that I wasn't taking the time to do it, but it wouldn't have taken me THAT long if I'd just done it daily, or even weekly.)

Immigration

OK, I'm a liberal and I'm no fan of what I've read of the proposed legislation. My main issue was reading that if a background check couldn't be confirmed in 24 hours the person would still be allowed into the US. I really hope I read that wrong. Yikes!

Also, I'm very interested in why some people are putting all the blame on the Democrats. This was put together by a committee made of both Democrats and Republicans, and Bush is the one saying it will get passed and he supports it. Yes, the Republican President is backing it, so why all the backlash at the Democrats? For once I wish people would stop blaming everything on the other party.

Frankly, I don't care who came up with it, I think there are some problems with this legislation. I need to read more about it, as I hope the tidbits I read yesterday were not entirely correct. No, I don't think we can just boot out all the illegals that are here, and there are many reasons why I think that's not realistic. However, I don't think we should just allow anyone and everyone to come into this country. I'm not one to say, "Have you forgotten 9/11?" but I really think it applies here.

Updated StRIP list

Since I'm going to give Sleeping Beauty away, I've revamped my goals and StRIP list. Of course, I really haven't been paying THAT much attention to my StRIP list lately, but I really should. :) I snuck The Castle in there because I already started it. I may as well get it on there somewhere and I'm close to finishing Liberty Sampler and thought that's the best place to put it. I also took out a few lines that included some items I wanted to start this year but haven't started yet. If I'm trying to use this to get my WIP list down, what's the point of adding items that haven't even made it to my WIP list yet?

StRIP List

Liberty Sampler (80%) + I Shall Wear Purple (finished) > The Castle (TW)
Mermaid of the Pearls (finished) + Why Hoard Gold? (25%) > Coeur de Saint Valentin
Easter Fairy (80%) + Skeleton Crew (10%) > Christmas Elf Fairy
Angel of the New Dawn (25%) + Ouroborus (15%) > Christmas Cat
Spring Queen (15%) + Sweet Dreams Santa (20%) > Blossom Harvest
Garden Verses (20%) + Rose Celebration (10%) > Valentine Fairy
Stretch (5%) + Alpine Garden (15%) > L&L County Fair
Fairie Treasure (5%) + Angel of the Sea (15%) > Moon Fairy Spirit
Autumn Angel (5%) + Oh Christmas Tree (5%) > Halloween Fairy
Earth Dragon (5%) + TW English Garden Welcome (30%) > Titanic
Misty Morning Vineyard (5%) > Egyptian Garden

Finally - some pics!

Finally got some pictures of my recent stitching progress.

1. Finished Mermaid of the Pearls last night! I really was only missing a few green beads and I got them in earlier this week, then added the treasures. I am so thrilled with how she turned out! I normally wouldn't think to use that fabric for anything as I'm not a big fan of that color green, but it works very well with the colors in this design.




2. Almost done with Easter Fairy. She hasn't taken long to stitch, although now that I see her in a picture I think I need to try to even up her legs a little. I always have a hard time stitching legs, lol. I'm waiting for my Kreinik to come in, but I should have it today or tomorrow, then can do the beading. I think she's a very sweet little fairy.




3. Here's my progress on Liberty Sampler. It's very different from what I usually stitch and I have to take a break from it every so often because it's very repetitive. I really like it though. Originally it was going to be for me, but I think I'll give it to my dad. I enjoy stitching the part where all my threads are loose, as it's a fun little satin stitch design. The hard part was the ship. All that blue and off-white was driving me crazy. :)




I think I may start my Silkweaver FOTM club again this summer. I used to belong to it and later to the Dyeing4U club (miss them!). I'd end up getting fabric I wouldn't usually buy, but would find it gave a different look to a design, a look that I wouldnt' have thought of if I'd just bought my first impulse. Hmmmm, will have to think about that.

Stitching and exercise

Today I finally ordered the beads I need to finish Mermaid of the Pearls. I usually order from Stitching Bits and Bobs. I know a lot of people have had problems because they end up waiting a long time, but I don't mind waiting. I figure I'm getting a good deal and don't mind waiting for my shipment. The poor mermaid has waited this long, a few more weeks won't matter.

Tonight when I get home I'm going to get a picture of my progress on Liberty Sampler. I got much farther along on this last stint, but had to put it away as much of it is very repetitive.

I was looking through some of my unkitted fabric over the weekend and found some designs to go with them. After that, somehow TW's The Castle was started. Before I knew it, I was stitching the top of the left at the far left, near the castle turret. Funny how these things happen. I actually have another TW that's been a WIP for years (English Garden Welcome), but The Castle has a lot more color blocks than English Garden Welcome does. Perhaps that's why I've made very slow progress on the other one.

I have made a decision about Sleeping Beauty. I can't stand the Wichelt fabric I chose for her and have decided to give her away to anyone on the Mirabilia BB who wants to finish her. I'll send along the chart and the floss so there's no difference in dye lots. She's beautiful, but I just don't enjoy stitching her on that Wichelt. I've learned a lesson at least -- only Zweigart for me. It's also an opportunity to buy one very large piece of fabric, cut it, and use it for both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I'm going to offer it up soon, probably over the weekend. I hate to see her go, but I'd rather she go to a good home and get finished. :)

Oh, along with ordering the beads for Mermaid of the Pearls, I also ordered some Mirabilias I've been meaning to purchase: Fern, Ivy, South Seas Mermaid and Mermaid of Atlantis. That last mermaid really looks stunning and I figured I may as well order a few things to make it worth the shipping, hee hee. There are more Mirabilias I need to order, but this is enough for now. It's not like I have none to work on or waiting in the wings.

Finally, I need to report that I'm back on the wagon when it comes to my diet and fitness. I've been working out sporadically for the last few weeks, but this week I seem to be getting back into the groove. A huge part of it is that I'm no longer working the crazy hours I worked for months. I don't mind doing that when needed, but a few days of working late turned into a few months. Now that I don't have as much on my plate I'm able to work out in the morning before work or in the evening after work, depending on Tim's schedule. I try not to work out when he's here, as I feel a little self-conscious.