new start

Here is my new start - Cherry Heart from Shepherd's Bush. I did a quick look at my stash and I didn't feel like tossing through my fibers and linens last night. Then I remembered that I have another stash of prepacked kits and things that I have already kitted up. Cherry Heart jumped right out. It's small and quick and will be a nice break from the counted needlepoint.

Have a great weekend.

Margie

Cluster of Lilies finis

Cluster of Lilies - design by Laura J. Perin

24 count congress cloth

Various #8 DMC floss

I finished up Cluster of Lilies on my way home from work last night. Three down three to go! Yeah, half way. :-)

I really want to take a break but these are working so well I'm feeling like I should continue to go with this. I'm working from home today so I'll have a little more time tonight to look at my stash and make the call. I kinda want to do some cross stitch. Stay tuned!

almost!

Just the dark green border to go and I'm finished with Cluster of Lilies. I'd like to take a break before starting number four and am eyeing the new BBD series as a start. But I need the big piece of linen and I really don't want to spend $50 on it right now. I've got a lot of other expenses right now and that seems a little out of line for what I should be spending on my stitching.

I did receive a small gift check award from work a couple of weeks ago and I put the money toward a new project. :-) Have you ever seen this?

It's called Scott Lee and it's a teaching piece that Jean Hilton designed before she died. It's a counted needlepoint piece. My friend Kelly had wanted to do it for some time and she found a shop that was selling them. So I got one too. :-) My supplies should be here by the end of the week. I'll only be able to do this at home though as it's 13 x 20 inches and way to big for the train.

I've done a ton of Jean Hilton pieces and this one is going to be fun! A challenge but fun!

moving quickly now

The white border is all finished now on Cluster of Lilies and I've started on the last couple of bits. Just this little solid dark maroon border, and slighter larger multi-colored border and then the last solid border in the dark green. I like the white - it's so bright and clean looking. :-)

Today I finished up week six of my running program, Couch to 5K. No more walking breaks from here on out. Three weeks to go and the only difference in the weeks is slightly more running each week - from 25 to 35 minutes. Now all I need to do is find a 5k in mid August. :-)

Have a great weekend! My plans include: stitching, playing with the pugs and the smallest amount of lawn work I can get away with. Toss in a couple of naps and some grilling and it will be perfect.

Just two more trips around with the white #8 and I'm done with this section of Cluster of Lilies. Then it's one multicolored band and then a solid band and I can say good-bye to this puppy. :-) I have no plans for anything this weekend so I hope to get most of what is left finished. I really want to take a break and do some cross stitch before I start on the second half of this designs.

Here are a couple of photos from summer camp a couple of weeks ago. The first one is a shot of Aoife (left) and Clancy (right) in their new puptent. :-) It's the coolest vented tent that sets up in seconds.

I love this shot. It's Aoife on the last day of camp. She fell asleep with her face mushed up against the tent screen in front of the fan. It was hot that day for sure but the pugs were nice and cool with the fan and their cool collars on. And the occasional dip in the dog pools helped. :-)

Don't pugs travel nice? They even pack themselves. This is Aoife ready to go home after three very full days.

not much progress

I haven't made much progress on Cluster of Lilies since my last post. I did bring it everyday to the agility trial but I never opened up my stitching bag. There was way too much going on. It was a local trial and I had a ton of friends there and I was running two dogs.

We had an uneven trial with no qualifying scores. I was hoping to get at least one or two so I'm pretty bummed with the outcome. Nothing is scheduled for the near future. I really don't have the money right now for the entry fees so we are taking a break. :-)

border time

I finished up the center portion last night and have started on the border. This one is as complected as the last one - multiple times around and around. :-)

I have a three day agility trial starting tomorrow with both Aoife and Clancy - I hope to do well with both. :-)

Have a great weekend!

I made a ton of progress considering I only worked on this puppy this morning on the way into work. I slept the entire train ride home yesterday. :-) I was lucky I woke up in time for my stop. :-) The train tracks are really rough three stops before mine and I always get jarred awake. At least I have so far. One of these days I might wake up in Wisconsin!

I ran almost 3 miles this morning at dawn! It was warm (70 degrees and humid) but so pretty outside. The sun was peaking out of the clouds. I had forgotten how much I like to run outside. Since I bought my treadmill I totally stopped doing anything outside. But now that I've started back running outside I want to keep it up as long as I can. I don't like to run in the dark or in extreme cold so I figure I have about two more months to enjoy the mornings and then it's back to the treadmill if I want to run before I leave for work.

Remember me?

I'm back from vacation. Such a bummer. I had a wonderful 10 or so days off. I started it with Summer Agility Camp with Aoife and Clancy. Aoife rocked and many, many people had really nice things to say about her. Clancy got his chance to play on day three because Aoife was so tired as most of the classes were outside and it was hot in Eau Claire. :-) He did great as always. Then it was back home for a week of nothing. And I mean nothing. I barely stitched, never quilted, hooked rugs? what rugs? Didn't do any lawn work except for what I had to. I did nap. :-) And play with the pugs. It was really hot the entire week and that is all I really left like doing.

Above is my start on my next counted needlepoint project, Cluster of Lilies by Laura J. Perin. This is probably my least favorite of the six I'm doing in terms of both color and pattern but I got a deal on the chart so I went with it. I'm having a harder time finding the rhythm of the piece - maybe because it's a nine block center rather than the four block center that I did with the other two. But it's quick and that is what I want. I need to get around to ordering the boxes that I need for the six pieces. They are custom made from my box guy and he will need some lead time. All my quilted needlepoint designs with end up as the top of the box.

In totally unrelated news, I've started running again! I ran a marathon back in 2001 but injury sidelined me in 2002 and I more or less gave up all exercise at that time. I've tried to get back into some sort of regular program for years and over the past five or so weeks I've been doing pretty good. And I need too! Over the past 10 months I've gained 15 or so of the almost 70 pounds I lost last year and the year before and I can't stand myself. Even though most folks said I looked too thin I loved it and I want to get back there. So I've been doing a starting to run program like I did back in '01. The one I'm doing now is called Couch to 5k and I'm half way through the 9 week long program. And what I think is the most amazing thing is, I'm actually faster now than I was nine years ago. I'm a slow runner and in my best shape could run a 12 minute pace on shorter runs and ended up with a six hour marathon. This time around I'm running much faster - I guess weighting less is really helping. :-) I'm also cross training, mostly biking and I want to start swimming in the fall. I've joined a yoga group and I'm loving that also. My short term goal currently is to run a 30 minute 5k - I'm looking for one in September. Longer term goals are run a half marathon next May (Indy Half) and start training for more triathlons. I did a sprint tri in 2002 and really enjoyed it but I really need to work on my swimming. I'm not a very strong swimmer by any stretch and never had any correct form. So I think adult swim classes are in order.

Now I just need to find time for all of this between working 40 hours, commuting 20 hours a week, agility and crafting!