I Still Hate The New Blogger

Help! Can someone remind me how to change the font and size of my text in my posts please?!  :)

Let's Play Catch-up and a New Start

I used to blog so faithfully, and then life got in the way.  It has not always been kind in the time I have been away either.  My beloved Rudy, the little dachshund who was my inheritance from my mother, died in July 2011 of out of control diabetes and pancreatitis.  Then Daisy, my little Rat Terrier mix who I had loved for almost 13 yrs, died in February 2012 due to renal failure following pancreatitis.  I am convinced that the dog food they were eating was what caused it since they don’t get people food (other than the odd Cheeto that falls under the table) but the vet assured me that it was a fluke.  Rudy was only 7 and I was just heartbroken over both.

Meanwhile, I have 2 new additions to my little furry family.  Freckles is a dapple dachshund adopted from the Humane Society in a neighboring county.  She was taken in after being left outside year-round on a farm with no warm place to sleep.  She had been kicked by either a horse or the man who owned her, and has spinal damage.  She has very little muscle tone in her back legs, but she can run and climb like crazy!  She has some issues with bowel and bladder control but she is doing better…she will probably never be 100% again.  She is my darling!  And most recently, I have Miles, a Jack Russell Terrier mix, who was adopted from animal control in a neighboring city 2 days before his execution date.  He is something else!  He must be part mountain goat because he can climb and balance on anything and he is so busy!  LOL!

 

I’m trying to start stitching more…lately I have been doing more reading than stitching.  I decided to start my first HAED chart!  I’m nothing if not ambitious!  LOL  It is Fireside Embroidery and you can see it here: Fireside Embroidery  I am planning on it taking approx. 3 yrs to finish and that may be a liberal estimate.  I know I’ll work on other things too, but if I go back to it and work on it some too, it will eventually get done.   The material is huge and I have it pinned up with safety pins to make it more manageable…and it’s still heavy.   So this will be a new adventure!  I figure putting it out there on a blog might make me more accountable….

Happy Stitching!

Suzanne (and Rose, Bosco, Freckles, and Miles)

Is There Life Out There?

I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to start keeping up with this blog again.  I have not been stitching much and I'm wanting to do more again, and thought maybe I could get motivated with the blog.  If I am still on your list and you are still interested in following this, please give me some feedback....

Thanks!
Suzanne

I hate the new blogger!

I am still trying to get organized enough to start posting again, and when I was fooling around with it today I realized that there was some new setting that required people to type in those stupid letters in the box to be able to post.  I hope I have turned it off.  Hopefully someone can give kme feedback?

Testing...testing...1 2 3

I finally have a home computer again!  I want to start blogging again since I am also wanting to start stitching again...but I'm wondering if anyone is still out there....

I'm Still Alive!

I have been without a computer since the middle of January and only have limited time at the library on the public computers. So I am still alive but without technology! I am sorry to say that I am not stitching much right now either...have some home projects that have taken priority. But as soon as I can, I hope to start blogging again!

I'm On The Edge

Well, not exactly on the edge, but too close to it.

I ended up starting my project that I had decided not to start after all on New Year's Night. Last night, I had time to sit and stitch on it for 3 hours. And at the end of that time, I realized that the left hand side is only about an inch and a half away from the edge of the fabric. I always leave 3 inches all the way around, so I'm not sure how this happened. I got frustrated and went to bed.

After thinking about it and looking at it a few times today, I think I'm going to start it over on a darker fabric this time. I could spend time pulling the stitches out and saving the entire piece of fabric that it's on now, but since it is on 28 ct and I use a #24 needle, it may not look very good if I do that. I'm just going to cut off the messed up part and use the rest of the fabric for something else. But it's getting late to be starting anything new tonight, so I will wait until tomorrow to tackle it.

The piece is called Raise A Glass Of Cheer by Blackbird Designs. I love it! I hope that 2010 will be a better year for me than the last 3-4 have been, so I'm doing this one in anticipation of that...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I spent last night and today doing some of my favorite things...watching tv and stitching. Last night I watched Four Christmases and A Dog Named Christmas. One was really funny, and one was really touching. I had read the book A Dog Named Christmas last year, and as far as I remember the movie was pretty close to the book. I hate when they change the book up for the movie. Today I have been stitching and watching a Law and Order: SVU marathon on USA.

I had planned to start a new project, but I'm working on some Christmas ornaments that I really wanted to get done this season, and so I kept working on them. I think this will be a year when I try to get some WIPs finished up. There are several that I am going to work on as soon as my ornament binge is over. I have done several ornaments and what will be pinkeeps during this holiday season...I'll have to get pictures posted soon!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010!

My Christmas Presents

Wednesday was the day for nice Christmas presents it seems. I ate dinner with three of my closest friends and got not one but two gift certificates to my LNS! We had a nice dinner and it was great to just be able to spend some time with them.

But my greatest gift came earlier that day, when I met with the regional manager and was offered the job that I had written about earlier! I start January 4th, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and good wishes...it finally paid off! LOL

Merry Christmas...and God bless us everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from me and my furry little family!

Belated Blogaversary To Me

No, I have not fallen off of the face of the earth...LOL

Yesterday was the anniversary of my blog...1 year! Does it still count if I really only wrote for about half of that time? :) My life got busy and it impacted everything.

About the time of my last post, I started a new job after almost 2 years of not working. It was with an agency that does school-based therapy (I'm a mental health therapist...not to be confused with just being a mental therapist LOL) and since the school year was almost over, I got to start at the beginning of the summer program the agency does for the kids to ensure that they keep receiving the services that they need until school starts again. I thought I was going to die by the end of the summer! I am the kind of person who goes inside in late April and doesn't come back out until October or so. Not this year! We went swimming every Monday afternoon, and every other Thursday we went to a local water park for the afternoon. I am not supposed to be exposed to direct sunlight due to one of the medications I am taking, so I stayed sunburned for a good part of the summer. Despite all of that, it really was kind of fun. I came home so tired from the heat and the kids that I didn't get to stitch much, and my blogging and blog reading suffered for it.

Well, as of about 2 weeks ago, I am once again unemployed. I was still in that initial probationary period, and they decided that "it wasn't a good fit" for me. I think that means 2 things really...one is that the director is one of those people who is kind of fake and I'm one of those people who is definitely real and I don't think she liked that, and the other reason is that the hospital that the agency is affiliated with is cutting staff and since I was one of the highest paid therapists (due to my 15+ years of experience)...

I was really hurt by all of that because I really liked the job. I had a really good interview on Tuesday of this past week for another agency and I'm am hopeful about that. This agency does not have much in the way of benefits, but it does pay better so I'm hoping things will even out in the end. The guy who interviewed me said that there has been talk about putting together a benefits package and offering it but that this is not something that will happen anytime soon. The hours are much more flexible but it's a contract job where you are paid by the billable hour instead of by salary and I have never done that before. I have been thinking about it and there are a lot of positives so I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Keep good thoughts for me.

I have had time to start stitching again though. I am currently stitching Midnight Watch by Blackbird Designs and also a small freebie that I got from The Sampler Girl's blog a while back called Quaker Boo. Autumn is my favorite season, and for some reason I'm into Halloween this year as well. I always like it for the memories of my childhood and just for the spirit (no pun intended) of it all, but this year I'm into stitching Halloween designs as well. I also have a larger fall piece started that I will get back to by the end of the month and then in late November it's time to start stitching Christmas stuff...my favorite favorite season!

I hope to do better about writing here and reading the blogs that I follow...I do go catch up on them periodically but I rarely have time to comment.

So hopefully...I'm baaaack!

Question For Other Blogspot Users

Blogspot is really messing with my OCD! Does anyone know why it seems to randomly changing the spacing in posts and how to set the spacing you want? For example, my posts are usually single spaced, but then suddenly they will seem to be spaced at double spacing or more frequently, one and a half spacing (between single and double spacing). This is driving me crazy! Help me fix it!

The only pattern I can see to it is that after you insert a picture, everything after that picture will be spaced wrong.

ANY ideas?!?

Some Pictures

I am so behind in writing! I have had lots of stuff going on, and hopefully I'll have time to update things shortly...

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of recent finishes.

Irish Coffee by The Sampler Girl:

Hippity Hoppity by SanMan from their newsletter:

Bunny Tuck by SanMan:

I bought the fabric this one is stitched on from a remnant basket at my LNS and then found that it was just perfect for this!

I have some other pieces that I am just about finished with (some only need charms sewn on, etc) so look for more pics coming soon!

Happy Gotcha Day Rose!

I can't believe that it's been 8 years since I got my darling Rose!!! Daisy had gotten sick and had to be at the vet's all day. I went to pick her up, and being Daisy, she would not let anyone reach into her cage for her. They asked me to come back and get her, and on the way, I passed a cage with Rosie in it. She looked amazingly like my dog who had died about a year previously, and although I thought about it a week, I went back for her. I had been looking for a playmate for Daisy, and this dog needed a home (the vet had been keeping her for the city animal control since they were out of space there) and the rest was history. I remember going to meet her for the first time on Saturday after considering it for a week, and when I sat down on the floor of the vet's office, she crawled into my lap and sighed. That was it. I guess it really wasn't unexpected, since I had bought a collar and leash to take with me! LOL

I love you with all my heart, Rose. Thank you for 8 wonderful years, and here's looking for many more!

A Dog-gone Good Easter Egg Hunt

I have not been posting due to issues with my computer...I can be typing along, and suddenly the cursor moves to another line or part of the page for no apparent good reason. That was irritating enough and then the monitor on the laptop went out. So I now have a laptop with a screwy cursor that makes it hard to type AND I have it hooked to an external monitor that won't sit in front of the laptop so I have to keep turning around to see where the cursor went next. Sigh. The next time I have disposable income, I'm going to replace this stupid system.

However, today was just too good not to write about! An animal rescue organization here did their Fourth Ever Dog-gone Easter Egg Hunt. This involved the "hiding"of 3000 treat-filled eggs in a local park. Then, when the organizer yelled "Go!", a pack of dogs went running for the treat-filled eggs. This was the most fun I've had in a long time.

My friend Cathy and I had planned to go; I sent an email to my friend David (he of the Christmas photos fame) earlier in the week, but didn't hear from him and really didn't expect he'd want to go. The Christmas photo excursion is about all the dog fun he needs for the year. So Cathy and I decided to take Rudy, because he's great fun and would love to hunt out and eat eggs, and Rose, because she is such a sweet little soul that she can easily get overlooked in the shuffle and gets less time with me than the others because she acts out less and demands less. So I really wanted to do something fun for her. I thought she'd love to sniff out treats...heaven knows she loves to eat them. I felt really bad because Daisy would not get to go, but there was no way I could manage an extra dog. So when David called last night and said he was going too, I was really excited. He volunteered to take Daisy, who is not always friendly and who can be fear-aggressive at times. She used to hate him and would try to bite him every time she saw him, and then suddenly, for some reason known only to her, she became his best friend. She usually does well away from home turf though, so 3 humans with 3 dogs set out to get the eggs.

This is how the eggs were "hidden":

I had wanted to keep track of how many eggs each dog found, but we quickly lost count. Rudy had the best time of all. He found and ate one egg (the treat and was working on the egg itself) before the beginning of the hunt, and that only got him interested in getting more. He found about 7-10 I guess. I was trying to leave some for other dogs since there were big knots of people all in a similar area, but apparently I was one of the only ones to do this. The idea seemed to be like little kids - grab as many and as fast as you can! Cathy and Rose got about 10...she said that Rose was not really interested in looking for the eggs, but was really interested in the treat inside once it was opened for her. David and Daisy found about the same amount...I'm not sure how interested she was in finding the eggs either. I had really thought that since they both love to sniff things out that they would be into it.

They had plates of cookies out on tables with signs by the plate that said "These are dog cookies" or "These are human cookies". The dog cookies were so colorful and had been dipped in icing of some kind and looked so good that it was hard to tell the difference without the signs! There were buckets of dog treats of various kinds all over too. Before I had thought of it, David had started a collection for a "doggie bag" for Bosco, who did not get to go. He is untrained and undisciplined and an incredibly strong 75 lbs so he had to stay at home. I looked in our Easter basket at one point, and was surprised at what all David had collected for him! There were metal garbage cans filled with these decorated cookies, so we brought quite a few home...not to mention the treats from the eggs, and some kind of little drop cookies and something that looked just like Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies.

There were contests for owner/dog look-alike (and the announcer said that you could pick whichever end of your dog that you wanted for the contest lol), an Easter parade for the dogs who were dressed up, and some other contests that we did not stay for. The dogs had a wonderful time sniffing new dogs and new people, and got lots of pets.

And Rose got her picture taken by a photographer who was covering the event for the local newspaper and has her picture on their website!

Speaking of photos...there was a wooden board with the Easter bunny painted on it, and the face was cut out so you could have your dog's picture made as the Easter bunny! I won't get the official ones until next week, and then I'll have to find a way to scan them in to post them, but in the meantime here are some that Cathy took while the photographer was taking the real ones...

Easter Rose:

Easter Daisy:

Easter Rudy:

This was so much FUN!

Sisterhood Award Revisited

In my excitement of receiving an award, I forgot to post the picture of it in the post! LOL I added it to my sidebar, but completely forgot to post it too...

So here we go:

I'm Winning the Acadamy Awards of Blogging!

Thanks to Jan at Belafonte Notes, I have been given another award! This one is the Kreativ Blogger award! I have to nominate 8 blogs this time, and fortunately I have seen this award before it was on some of the other blogs I read, so it whould be easier to do and not duplicate...

The Rules:

1. Copy the Kreativ Blogger Award into your blog

2. Make a link to the person's blog who nominated you.

3. Nominate eight (8) other blogs

4. Add their links to your blog

5. Leave a comment on the blogs that you nominated telling them that you have sent them an award.

And the award goes to:

Rachel

Pam

Cathey

Sharon

Lori-Ann

Mumzy

Lori

Paula

Stay Kreativ!

Sisterhood Award

I have not been posting because my computer is messed up and it is a challenge to get anything written with it. when I get some patience, I'll catch up on all the latest doings here.

Meanwhile, I want to thank Pam at My Stitchalong for the Sisterhood Award! When I put it in the sidebar, I noticed that my other award is not there! So I added it too.

So now I get to nominate 5 blogs! Here's how it works:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate 5 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees in your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received this award.

These are the blogs that I'm tagging with the award:

Rachel at What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day
Cathey at Pumpkin Patch and Co
Stephanie at Stephanie's Stitching and Musings
Paula at Paula's Stitching Place
Sharon at It's Daffycat

Ladies, I really enjoy all of your blogs!

Thank You Stephanie!

Thank you to Stephanie who pointed out that the lovebird freebie is by Midsummer Night Designs. I knew that Blackbird Designs didn't look right when I typed it earlier!

A Finish and Some WIPs

This is a freebie called Lovebird Freebie...I think is is by Blackbird Designs but I'm not sure:

This is Sense and Sensibility by The Sampler Girl. I love the fabric I am stitching this on, both the color and the feel of it while I am stitching, but I have run into a couple of dilemmas. In the house, the windows are supposed to be open. I'm not sure that it looks good on that color fabric though. I played with some cream colors, and finally settled on one to fill in the windows, thinking it would make them show up better. Tell me what you think! Another issue with this is the words "Sense and Sensibility" are in a gold color that don't really show up as well. I have another gold picked out and I may redo those. I don't know if you can see them with it still in the q-snap or not.

And this is my new March project! It was so windy and pretty here on March 1st that I decided to start Prairie Schooler's Daffodil Sampler from the leaflet Daffodils.