How much is too much?

I guess that most cross stitchers agree with me and say there is no such thing as "too much" when it comes to stash, but I guess it's getting close when you wonder when and where you ordered all this stuff when walking back from your mailbox... But still, I have an amazing excuse reason to do it now.

This is a picture heavy entry so consider yourself warned...

One night I was eBay hopping and saw certain Prairie Schooler's Christmas pattern, stitched on black and looking amazing, on sale and of course fell in love with it and just had to get it - and as it was quite expensive there (eBay seems to be insanely expensive nowadays when it comes to stitchy stuff) I googled a bit... and found a real store that had it. And it was cheaper than those ones in eBay.

Of course I justified the postages by buying additional goodies with it, being a good stitcher and all. *grin*

Then I found someone who sells discontinued items and other stitchy stuff cheap (which basically means that I am innocent - I really am!)...

And then I wandered to ABC Stitch Therapy's Clearance section...

I have full series of these, but the scan of the third one wasn't good and I realized it after tossing whole haul to my Secret Stash Cave... but they are all great!

Praying Hand's "Blessed With Friends" has some gorgeous samplers and borders even if you don't care about the sentiments. And hey, it was like really cheap! They basically gave it away for free...

There is one sentiment there why I got this and the last pic explains it all. And it was almost free too. *grin*

"Welcome Friends" just popped to my basket because of the design on right corner... biscornu anyone? *grin*

When it comes to stitching I have done absolutely NOTHING in two-three weeks... my right hand has some nasty carpal tunnel symptoms at the moment and all the energy (not much) I have had has gone to other activities (rearranging the apartment).

And it seems I was tagged by Christine. I will get back to it when I get my brain back.

37+0

And today we are full term!

Though there are still things to do so I hope Baby Wonder is a good statistical first born and stays in the womb for 2-3 more weeks i.e. until due date or few days over it (leap day would be nice DOB though *grin*).
Though if BW comes after me it's more like 5+ weeks, but I hope he is smarter than mommy and decides to born before 42+ weeks.

My antenatal nurse said that she is quite sure that we won't get that far as I have had practise contractions since... before 20th week. (Something my mother never had and she has three kids... all induced and all deliveries were assisted whole way with oxytocin because otherwise it just stopped.)

And, to my surprise, my father promised a while ago to pay for our pram (everyone was shocked about that, I must say) and after some research they are here now!



If we had to pay them ourselves it had been either used (which are also dreadfully expensive if you want relatively good looking ones) or El Cheapo ones from Germany, but eventually I decided upon Ora Taiga as they are at least designed to local weather (which is anything between +35C and -35C and two metres of snow) and have all the essentials I wanted (which wasn't much: big tyres, adjustable/ throw shaft).

It just feels so funny that there is a pram in our home waiting for an user. And said user will be here soon, no later than six weeks from now.

I guess I won't believe it before Baby Wonder actually is here waking me up in the middle of the night...

Unconcscious Mutterings

Week 471

I say ... and you think ... ?

Conditions :: Terms

Transfer :: Movement

August :: Five months

Glasses :: should use

Crown :: Regent

Release :: Liberty

Incriminating :: Discriminating

Island :: Iceland

Manners :: Habits

Sentence :: -d

I think I said something about this? :D

All things bright and beautiful/ --- The Mailman brought them all... *grin*

First picture contains bunch of discontinued Dinky Dyes colours and next one all kinds of silks (that grey one is Caron's wool-silk mix), discontinued colors. But they were cheap!

I hadn't seen a picture of "Halloween Rules" before now, otherwise I had ordered all the parts Sewandso had on clearance...

Well, maybe I can find them from eBay or somewhere later.

On other news there's nothing much: I have managed few stitches, but nothing worth mentioning. Damned migraines, you used to be good stitching time...

Unconscious Mutterings

Week 469

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Rivals :: Competition
2. Automatically :: By itself
3. Bathroom :: Toilet
4. Jerk :: off
5. Preference :: Liking
6. Parenting :: Responsibility
7. Helmet :: Head
8. Wave :: Micro
9. Judo :: *whack* *thud*
10. Flat tire :: Annoying

34+2

... and my maternity leave has officially begun!

Actually it started 10th of this month when doc at antenatal care unit put me on sick leave for no obvious reason - except that my job was quite physical and my cervix was shorter than in last check up, but that could have been just different doc measuring it.

It's just insane to think that if Baby Wonder decides to born now he wont be stopped. As insane is that in three weeks we are full term and I will be in delivery room eight weeks from now if Baby Wonder refuses to born before that.
EIGHT weeks from now we will have a baby - or he is on his merry way out!

It feels like it was only yesterday when I had those two lines in pregnancy test.

And it still feels quite unreal that after all the pain of infertility and all the opinions from doctors I am pregnant, that those funny moves in my tummy is little human being and that soon I will be a mother. Without any treatments, as a result of a cycle where even the most fertile women might not have got pregnant (we had sex once in that whole cycle and I had ovulated week previously... but apparently when I saw Husband again my body decided to produce a good egg cell out of the blue. This is one reason why I call little one Baby Wonder).

I just keep on being amazed. Last night I sat over an hour on the sofa and just watched my tummy move.

Half a victory?

At least that is how I try to see it. My stitching mojo has been mostly non-existent for a long, long time, but lately my stash shopping mojo has come back and it's almost annoyingly healthy.
Though it has been a good sign previously so I'm crossing my fingers that it would eventually also mean more stitching - and maybe even ability to concentrate on projects I have already started...

Actually, coming to think of it, my mojo just has severe ignition issues as if I start stitching I find it fun and could go on and on, but if I have to stop for any reason it's difficult to get back to it again.
Regardless, there is slight progress in something...



Actually there is slight progress in two more things, but I don't have pics of them on this laptop yet (as I may have mentioned I had to get new one)...

Unconscious Muttering

Unconscious Mutterings: Week 468

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Red tape :: Bureaucracy
2. Crush :: Boom Bang
3. Magical :: Enchanted
4. Sticky :: Note
5. Tile :: Tetris
6. Doubt :: No
7. Inconsistent :: Humans
8. Kiss :: Band
9. Inspiration :: Gift
10. Thanks :: You are welcome.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate configuring new computer? Even blogging takes an hour when you try to adjust your blogging client... to no avail, naturally.

Better than chocolate (at least much prettier)

Someone may have taken advantage of Violarium's closeout sale... And Dinky Dyes (20 of them) and Jayne Houtman's Anniversary sampler are from Jayne (she also chose the colours because I wanted a surprise).

Naturally pictures don't do justice to this prettiness, it's dark and I had to use my phone's camera because I don't remember where I put my camera. *grin*

Stitchy Content: Stash & WIP

I've been quite good stash wise lately (we do NOT include Violarium's closeout sale to this *innocent whistling*), but when I saw this at Sewandso's sale bin I had to have it, even it is a kit with aida (as that can always be sold or given away):

I liked the sentiment and fact that it can be stitched bigger(whole thing) or smaller (without border) based on inspiration and frame available.
What I don't understand is that in the picture it has been stitched on green evenweave, but the kit comes with brown aida. First of all those beautiful browns used in this kit won't pop up on brown nearly as well as they do on green (or maybe light blue) and one would assume they provide same colour fabric in the kit as is in the model... apparently assuming stuff, even when it comes to cross stitch kits, is dangerous.

Though one reason for lack of incessant S.E.X.es is lack of my mojo, it has basically vanished during these months of trying to get my thyroid back to balance. It's still out of whack, not much, but enough. But now that I am past worst phase of these issues I have actually had found traces of my mojo and started a new project in hopes that it would kickstart my mojo for good (this is my excuse and I stick with it): Ellen Maurer-Stroh's Zoo Baby Book. I'm stitching the animals on separate pieces of fabric so they can be used for a quilt.
I am lacking some of the colours so I only stitch them partially and will continue each one when I have floss to do so.

I'm enjoying stitching these: designs are actually smaller than I thought, but it's not a bad thing. I got these three to this phase between 24th and 26th of this month and I did cook Yule meal and washed huge pile of laundry and so on during those days so it's not bad progress, even though one always wishes for more.
And they are cute little buggers.

Alive and well: 31st week!

I've just been extremely tired and lacking interest towards anything basically because my thyroid values plummeted again last month. It got so bad that I even got two weeks of sick leave because of it (and in here it is extremely difficult to get sick leave based on hypothyroidism). Also put the leave to good use and had otits (media) while at it...

On brighter side of things the Baby Pack arrived in the beginning of this month and just before Christmas I was granted maternity and parenting leaves and allowances, starting from 23rd of January.

It's actually funny that those customers to whom I have mentioned that I am leaving next month have been surprised to hear that I am pregnant... or rather tragicomic because by no means I look this big normally...

My waist is "only" +26cm to where it started from so one could imagine that they would notice at least something, noticing that they see me all the time (and my belly grows forward, it's not spreading elsewhere)...

Now that I have few days off I have finally started a project I've been planning since I got pregnant: I'm stitching Baby W. a play blanket using Ellen Maurer-Stroh's Zoo Baby Book motifs. I'm doing it one square at the time which means that it will be finished as a quilt.
I'll post progress pictures of it to public entries, but won't mention whose baby I am stitching it for...