June WIPocalypse and TUSAL

It is time for the June WIPocalypse post. This SAL is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings. If you want to learn more about this SAL you can click here.

Here is where I started the month...

And here is where I am now, one month and 3850 stitches later.

I am so happy with my progress on this piece this month. Looking back at my log, I didn't really have that much more time to work on this, but I think I finally graduated from being a 'beginner' to a 'slightly experienced' stitcher. I was just more productive with the time available.

The discussion topic for this month is to show off our stitching space. Well, I stitch in a few different places, but I did set up a space in our bedroom to use as a reading nook and stitching corner.

In the summer I have my fan to cool off, in the winter I have my little space heater if the house is a little too cool, and of course I have a great lamp. As you can see the table to the right and the radiator cover to the left get used for supply staging. What you cannot see is the TV. I usually stitch while 'watching' TV. I usually have the news on, so really I'm just listening, or my guilty pleasure -- WWE Wrestling. (I stop stitching to watch the really good looking wrestlers)

Unfortunately, I did have a bit of a decrease in the amount of stitching time available for my travel piece. Although the atmosphere at work has really improved over the last few weeks, we have entered the summer crush of summer help, summer students, summer volunteers, summer OMG! So I have been jumping on my computer as soon as I enter the building to try to get through all my e-mails before the end of the day. Still happy that I have made progress, and I will have this done before the end of the month. 

It's also time for the TUSAL, a totally fun SAL hosted at It's Daffycat. You can learn more about this SAL here. My little containers are getting full! I am hoping they will be overflowing by next month, because that will mean lots of stitching has gotten done.

In non-stitching life, my DH and I took off on Wednesday and just spent a wonderful day on the North Fork of Long Island. We started at Lavender on the Bay, a wonderful lavender farm. Most of the lavender had not even bloomed, and yet the fragrance in the air was amazing...

We even met some really friendly chickens. We didn't get a picture petting them, but they were totally willing to let us pet them!

Just a second or two down the road, we stopped in the Kontokosta Winery. The wine was lovely, but the view incredible!

From there we went to LIV - Long Island Vodka Distillery, and did a little tasting. Very yummy vodkas. I wished I enjoyed whiskey as they also had a whiskey tasting menu.

We were going home from there, but we could see the driveway to the Baiting Hollow Wine Vineyards from the distillery... So we had one last glass of wine that was really delicious. As we sat on the terrace enjoying our drinks, we realized how much fun we had during the day. And we agreed that we needed to spend this sort of day together more often. We agreed we would do the same thing 4 times a year -- just take a day off and do something. Nothing fancy, or exhausting, just something together. We went into work on Thursday and both requested September 20th off for our next adventure.

Thank you for visiting!

A Positive Week

I really had a very positive week this week. First, I got a lot of stitching in on my BAP, Lobo. For the last two weeks I was able to get almost 1000 stitches in each week. My goal is 50 stitches per day (350/week), and the last two weeks I was able to get 950 stitches in each week! Very happy!

I've also gotten a good amount of work in on what I call my travel piece, Marriage Recipe. In fact, I have completed all the cross stitch and almost all the backstitch on the top half of the project. I probably need one more day of backstitching and then it's just the french knots, which I have decided to hold off on until the very end. Before I do them, I am going to spend a day practicing them. I think if I get good at them... and they come out the same from one to the next... I will hate them less. Who knows, maybe I will even like them!

Other positivity happened at work. I was able to get a good deal of work done, and my boss, who is usually very difficult to deal with, actually gave me a lot of credit and a lot of recognition for my abilities. We had a very frank conversation last week about perceptions of favoritism in our section. I think I was able to help her see how some of us were perceiving her relationship with one of our coworkers. I told her that while she may not be favoring her, since they are so close, no one feels comfortable telling her when this coworker is not pulling her weight, or is not following strict instructions the way the rest of us are expected to. So is she aware that this person is not working on the same level as the rest of us? Maybe not. Perhaps this person knows no one is going to say anything, so she isn't even trying as hard? And maybe none of that is happening, but because of their relationship, that is the perception and it leads to negativity.

It was not a comfortable position, but I took a leap of faith, and decided that if I spoke calmly, and rationally with factual references, and not with emotion, she would recognize what I was trying to say. And she did. She asked if there was something specific that has happened that lead me to believe she has treated this person differently. So I told her a very specific item. She was not happy, but I could tell it was not with me. She said, you need to trust me and tell me immediately when things like this happen.

Then the other people I work with told me that she gave them similar instructions. So, I honestly feel that whatever was going on in the past, may change going forward. And then, when she gave me recognition and compliments at our staff meeting, I really felt positive about the future. Hey, work is never going to be easy... and that is okay... as long as it is closer to being fair. So we will see how things turn out going forward.

Thanks for visiting!!

Some Finishes?

Unlike last week, this was a successful stitching week. I was able to achieve a page finish on Lobo and I was able to finish the cross stitching part of the top half of Marriage Recipe. I know neither is really a finish, but for me... I'm happy!

I've got a lot of back stitching to do on Marriage Recipe... and french knots... I hate french knots! But I have faith that I can get it all done by the end of this week.

Thanks for visiting!