more Happy Dancing!

I finished part 10 of the Celtic Garden Mandala! Well, almost. I ran out of the darkest grey floss while stitching the inner trees, so I have a few more little branches to stitch.

Here ’tis, before I stitched the moon:

This was the first part in which I had to make a big change to the original directions because I’m stitching over-1 instead of over-2. The flowers were charted as 3×3 eyelets. However, on Aida there is no center hole to pull the threads out of, and it just doesn’t look right. So I designed my own little flower instead. You can see it here, along with the moon:

I also stitched the winter and spring moons:

two more Chatelaine updates

I’ve finished the next two parts on the Celtic Mandala Garden (part 9) and the Victorian Secret Garden (part 3):

Both pieces required learning to do Jessica stitches. They more difficult on Aida, since I had to split the weave with my needle, but I’m very happy with how they turned out.

As you can see on the Celtic piece, I’ve stitched my first moon. I decided to change the color from dark gold to a more silvery gold, so it looks like the moon instead of the sun. After I finish part 10, I’ll stitch the moons in the rest of the forest quarters.

Celtic Mandala, part 8

I finished this a couple weeks ago, but haven’t gotten around to posting it yet. Part 8 of the Chatelaine Celtic Mandala (it’s actually the right side, but this is rotated in the photo):

This section represents Spring, with leaves and blossoms on the trees.

part 7

I finished the trees in part 7 of the Celtic Garden Mandala last night. There is supposed to be a full moon in the middle, but I’m going to wait on that. I want to do the phases of the moon in a different order than they are charted. Instead, this quadrant (North/winter) will have a new moon, East will have a waxing (first half) moon, South will have the full moon that was charted here, and West will have the waning (second half) moon. I’m also going to change the color from dark gold to a very light silvery gold, which I think will look better on my fabric.

I also started working on Blackstone Fantasy Garden from Ink Circles, and I’ve gotten a lot done during my Metro commute to and from work. This is going to be a gift for my Irish dance teacher, so I’ve changed to colors to go with our school dresses. The fabric is black and the main threads are Yonder Sky and Zaffre Cobalt from HDF. I’m using metallics for the blackwork areas.

part 6 done, just in time

I wasn’t sure I’d finish part 6 of the Celtic Garden Mandala before the next part was sent out, but I did it! As you can see, it’s quite large now.

I ended up fussing with one of the colors a bit. The DMC conversion lists 370 as a replacement for Silk n Colors 155, so I did the first couple corners that way:

However, after looking at some other people’s WIPs, I wasn’t happy with how the color looked (it’s the dark yellowish brown). I wanted some varigation, plus the color wasn’t quite right.. So I bought some Gentle Arts Sampler Thread in Harvest Basket, which is almost an exact match to the original color. Here is the result, which I’m quite happy with:

Melted??

One important item on my things-to-do on Saturday was to replace an outlet receptacle in my kitchen. It had shorted out a few days earlier, knocking out the whole circuit. This circuit also included the outlets for the stove, washer, and drier, so this needed to be fixed before I could do laundry. There was a scorch mark where the toaster had been plugged in, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. With all the thunderstorms we get, maybe a power surge had done something?

I must note that I had replaced this same outlet sometime last year. I think at that time a bug got in and shorted it out, so I figured the same thing had happened. It had been fairy easy to replace before, so I went off to Home Depot and bought a rew receptacle. Got home, unscrewed the face plate, unscrewed the old receptacle, and tried to pull it out from the wall. This is what I found:

One side and most of the back was melted!

Needless to say, I called an electrician and got an emergency appointment. His theory is that I didn’t wire the previous receptacle properly and it corroded over time. He spliced in new wires (the old ones were pretty fried) and installed the new one I’d just bought. I also bought a new toaster oven, because the plug of the old one was clearly damaged.

Thank goodness this didn’t start a fire!

Cirque des Triangles HD!

I finally completed InkCircles’ CDT this weekend!

1×1 on 25-count white laguna, using Tiger Lily and Autumn Leaves from HDF.

Next up: Blackstone Fantasy Garden, in my own color scheme.

Mystery X – part 2

But first, a shoe delivery update.  Thursday, my boss told me he would bring them to my job site, but then he got stuck in traffic and never made it.  Friday, he told me he would bring them to my other job site, but then had to cancel (probably so he could do the cancelled weekly deliver to the other site).  There’s a rumor he is coming here today and will bring “THE package”, as he is calling it.  We’ll see!

Yesterday I completed the second part of the Victorian Secret Garden from Chatelaine Designs:

 

Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes

Ordering something off the ‘Net is supposed to make life easier, right?  You put in an order, the company puts it in the mail, a package arrives on your doorstep.  No problem.

Except when a package is sent by UPS with a requirement that the addressee must sign for it.  Or if the addressee lives in an apartment or condo that has no front desk, and the delivery people are reluctant to leave it sitting on the floor.  (When I was a kid, they routinely left stuff inside the gas grill in our backyard.)  At my previous apartment, I had a note tacked on my door asking delivery persons to take all my packages to the rental office.  Now I don’t have that option. 

When I receive a package through the Postal Service, I have to sign the slip they leave, with a note begging them to leave it in front of my door.  Sometimes this takes a couple rounds of slips and signatures before they give in.  Occassionally they ignore my notes and make me walk to the post office (which of course is not open late enough on weekdays).

UPS makes things even more difficult by insisting on a signature in person.  Which brings me to my travelling shoes.  Do to a long series of medical issues with my feet, I only wear one specific brand of race-walking sneakers.  Since they are on the pricey side, I look for sales online.  A couple weeks ago, I ordered a new pair.

 They were sent UPS.  I couldn’t stay home and wait for the man in brown to stop by, so I used the UPS website to ask them to redeliver to my job.  Of course, that’s not simple either.  I’m a contractor at two job site and don’t have any idea how to address something to be sure it would be delivered to me.  So I had it sent to my company’s main office instead.  Of course in doing this, they attached a new mailing label that covered my name up.  So someone had to open the box to look at the mailing label.  She passed it along to my boss, who is bringing it to my job site today.  He will in turn give it to my onsite supervisor, who will give it to me when I stop by to drop off my keys at the end of the day.  Hopefully.

How many of me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 8 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Several years ago, I Googled my name and then emailed two people I found with my name.  One was in high school and one was working at a college.  I wonder who the other 5 are.