This-and-that and UM

Ask anyone and they will say that I am not a bit patriotic. Ask me and I say I am not a bit patriotic. (No, I don't think the fact that my grandfathers and their fathers have fought in several wars oblidges me to be patriotic - I have reason to believe that my Pa' (paternal grandfather) was pacifist because of Winter War and the Continuation War (both of these equal WWII). Anyway...)
But I have to say that now I understand it better... For reason or another I was deeply moved by Finland's opening video in Eurovision Song Contest (as some of you may remember we won ESC last year).
But still, it was about third time every when I have any kind of patriotic feelings (1995 Finland won Hockey World Championship (this year we have 50/50 chance) and 2006 we won ESC), so it doesn't make me a patriot.

But, on important things...

UM: Week 223

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

1. Film :: Clip
2. Dragon :: Round Robin
3. Hunger :: Desire (*innocent cough*)
4. Plucked :: Chicken
5. Dissolving :: Water soluble
6. Executive :: Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet)
7. Ridiculous :: My sleeping...
8. Mist :: Night
9. Minority :: Me
10. Map :: Paper

Re-installation

Will probably happen tomorrow, or day after it, despite of my estimation, as I am still making off-site backup... Blah!

Yeah, I need bigger external hard drive for situations like this.

אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי aka. What's all this then?!

Could someone tell me why I got this odd, uncontrollable urge to buy this in last night?! (For those of you who don't read Hebrew: אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי equals 'Ani l'dodi v'dodi li' which equals 'I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine' (note to self: interesting little linky).)

[Digress] I have just got in the phase of actually enjoying being single and I have absolutely no one in my life. I am not even interested of anyone at this moment (it's simpler that way) and here I am buying a wedding sampler (which, admittedly, has been in my wish list for a while).
(... not to mention few other current "limitations".)

Have I lost my mind?!
First there was Something Blue... and now this... what's next? I begin to plan huge princess wedding just in case? (I am not princess wedding type at all (as you may have noticed) - if it would happen that I'd met a man who'd like to have big wedding I'd probably wear simple crimson dress (with corset, probably *evil grin*) or something... Do you know that traditionally Finnish wedding dresses were actually black?)[/Digress]

Now, my vision: stitched with shades of crimson, and little touch of gold (ie. metallics) on something completely different than 18 count aida, and I would modify the design a bit (ie. leave some parts unstitched).

Still... I don't understand why I had to get it now.

SBQ: Choosing Exchanges

Today's

Stitching Bloggers' Question

was suggested by Ish and is:

How do you choose a project for an exchange? Do you pick solely on what you know of the taste of the recipient or are there other reasons you pick the piece you do?

It depends on

1. Do I know the person, and if so, how well?
2. How good wish list they have?
3. How broad likes/ dislikes list they have?
4. How many WIPs you can find from their blog (if they blog - I prefer stitching blogger exchanges as with them it's always easier to choose)?

Sometimes I choose the colour based on my recipient's blog colours, or if they have listed their favourite colours I choose according to them, and if it's obvious that my recipient likes certain style and I have suitable design/ I know suitable design (and I can afford to buy it) I will, of course, stitch it - taking that it strikes my stitching fancy at least a bit.
Of course there are moments when you can't deduce what your recipient might like. In those cases I try to choose something neutral (politically correct with generally liked colours) which I would like and just hope for the best.
When it comes to finishing the piece I go with either their wish list (Sometimes person's wish list reveals that they have blooming addiction for something), a hunch or what the design calls for.

It makes you wonder...

... my mother got asthma when she was about 31 (I have always said that she got asthma because of me, as she got sick after I was born). I am soon 28 and I am having shortness of breath when I walk.
I know I am in good physical condition and until recently I had no troubles to climb up the stairs with groceries or walk to the store and back. Some time ago I was still able to walk 2 kilometres in 20 minutes, when walking leisurely (I like to give myself some time to look at my surroundings and think), today... 4 kilometers and couple of errands (errands themselves took about 20 minutes) took almost two hours - and I was wasted when I got back home... My lungs felt, and still do, like they were imploding.

So, someone calls GP and makes an appointment - and, hopefully, this someone gets into tests.
Anyway, I need to get this-and-that for my allergy, bigger prescription for levocetirizine (it was meant for a year, it lasted less than six months), and, if GP is willing, something to help with my lungs. (You kind of need oxygen, m'kay?)

Computer problems

Either XP is crashing (my user profile at least) or it really is all about the fact that C drive is running short of space... HP has been acting up (losing and finding drivers, freezing up, losing my Quick launch icons) since yesterday, and I have spent my day taking backups and making list of softwares I need to install if I really go to the way of reinstalling from the scratch.
In theory, I could just reinstall system's partition (C:), but if it really is a space problem it wouldn't help in the end. (Oh well, maybe I could survive with few less music files on my laptop and give some more gigabytes to the system.)

When it rains, it pours, right?

Under the weather

- literally. Air pressure has stayed low and I have been sleeping like a baby most of the day. Ngh. Though, at some point there was minor thunderstorm so I am living in hope that air pressure will get over 1000 hPa soon and I will get back to that phase where I actually stay awake 16 hours per day instead of sleeping 16 hours per day...
But, I am not only one who's tired:

That position just can't be comfortable. But then, Masa is a rubber cat and I do doubt sometimes that he has no spine at all...

On a brighter note...

I started Angi's birthday gift today... luscious silk on a delicious hand-dyed - and that is all I'll tell you for now.

Old lady update

New cat breed: Siamese half fold. Cute as a button. ^^
(She is still wearing the collar as her ear hasn't healed completely yet.)

"This version of snowprincipessa is not compatible with...

... low air pressure."

Which is, at this moment, 993.2 hPa.
How so I am not compatible with it? I woke up 8 am, had a four hour nap between 11 am and 3 pm, woke up, got coffee, went to store, came home, went to bed, slept almost four hours... I have been awake about 2½ hours and I am already wanting to go back to bed. (Now, just keep your thumbs up that I can stay awake tomorrow as I have loads of things to do.)

But, there was something good in this day too... Crescent Colours silks from One Star's Light came!

Beautiful, aren't they?

Say Hello! to Sparky...

the skeleton butler.
Poor Ezmeralda's House has been abandoned for few months, but today I felt like stitching something simple (because my hands are still shaking - still having traces of that da*ned migraine), so, I dug it out from its box and stitched a bit...

(I love my scanner. ^^)

Double HD

 

Her Highness has been general PITA today so these took quite a bit longer to finish than I anticipated, but now they are done and waiting to be photographed and finished in file level.

Unconscious Mutterings

Week 222

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

1. Tumor :: Brain
2. Bunch :: Brady Bunch
3. Gratitude :: Thankfulness
4. Feel alive :: Live
5. Connect :: Attach
6. Temptation :: Within Temptation
7. Brighten :: Light up
8. Jewelry :: Choker
9. Tough :: Hard
10. Harmless :: Mostly Harmless

In other news I had a killer migraine yesterday, but apparently I am already getting better - thanks to stitching. Its medicational value is underestimated.
That means that I'll do a little bit stitching and then I have not one, but two new models to finish today. (And I should really do the laundry... nggh.)

On disappointments

I was thinking about aspect of disappointment after someone, with whom I had exchanged about two emails, said (or rather yelled, as much as you can yell in an email) that he's disappointed at me. (I think that is first time in long, long time (or ever) when anyone says that to me.)
How can he be disappointed at me when he doesn't even know me? When he doesn't know what I wish for, what I am afraid of or what keeps me going...

Let me lighten up the definition of a disappointment a bit:

Disappointment:
"...emotion felt when a strongly held expectation of something desired is not met."

In other words this person was actually mad at me because I broke the faulty image he had created about who I am based on one cute face, one profile and one email. He didn't want to know me, he wanted that I am what he thought or wished I am. (I am rather hated for what I am than loved for what I am not.)

Doesn't this apply with all the disappointments we experience: when someone reveals to be something else we thought they just reveal that we have created a false image and our disappointment is all about being angry to the person who broke that image. Because we love our castles in the sky and our predictable lives.
It would be too much to accept the fact that you can never control anything nor know someone completely (that would be boring).

Like I didn't have enough things to do already...

I have been asked would I be interested to take part to a book project, and I have given preliminary promise to be one of the writers.
It will never be a best seller, but I see it as a possibility to affect opinions and, do what I have always wanted to do, be a publishing writer.
It would also be a good possibility to practise my writing style.

Stitching

I have been practising my French knots (-> best tutorial ever <-) and realised that silk may not be the best choice of fiber when doing it. I have also been wondering how it is possible to fell in love with your own design?
It is partially due choice of floss, as Atalie's Lhassa is simply beautiful when stitched, but partially it is about the design being just so... me, but so unlike me.
Nevertheless, it's beautiful.

Kitties

Her Highness has been very co-operative: she didn't kill me when I gave her her antibiotics last night and this morning she took her painkillers nicely. Though I am quite sure that that paté I had mixed it with had something to do with it.
Now I will just wait a while and give her morning meds when she's high enough not to care.

And, as I have no stitchy pictures, let me introduce you gorgeous man who sleeps on my left side:

How time flies...

Could you believe that I made my first ever biscornu only one year ago? Neither do I, but I have a proof: this entry.

Old lady...

..got her painkillers (my mother came to rescue again) and will be kept intoxicated whole weekend.
You can say she doesn't feel very good. I haven't been able to do anything today (until now) because she has been clingier than usual (remember that she is a Siamese and they are naturally extremely clingy) and has either slept on my lap or hugged my thigh (I really don't know why she likes my thighs) - with the obvious demand of being petted.

Her Highness, part II aka. I am *broke*

Back from the vet, again. Same problem as in last Sunday. They would have stitched her ear, but as HH's ear lobe has inflammation in it it would have probably caused more problems than good.
She's on antibiotics now and I have to find some money from somewhere to get her her painkillers - and I still owe the vet 5 euros... But this time her ear looks completely empty and she has a collar to prevent her scratching her ear - and that pain medication should also prevent her to shake her head.

Keep your thumbs and toes up that her ear will get better - for her sake and for my finances' sake.

Happy birthday...

... to me. Exactly two months too early, but happy birthday to me nevertheless: my baby is home! Even better, my baby works!

Masa is happy too, he got printer's box to play and sleep in... (You know, it's like the best toy/ place ever: a cardboard box. *HUGE* cardboard box.)

And... I love and deeply adore myself Lady P., she let me buy some yummy Crescent Colours silks from One Star's Light Needlework Supplies (have you noticed that I like to buy my things from my distributors?) - what made it even better was that my lovelies are already in the mail even I ordered them this afternoon (notice the time difference between OSL and me). ^^

l33t: Knitty Happy Dance

I just finished little something for little someone, but as it is a gift I won't reveal it before it has been received.

By the way, new ¡The Anticraft! is out.

SBQ: WIPs and UFOs

This week's

Stitching Bloggers' Question

was suggested Kathryn and is:

How many WIPs do you have? How many UFOs do you have? When does a WIP become a UFO?

In WIP front I have seven personal ones (which you can find from my blog's sidebar - one of them has become an UFO) and Lady Periphaeria has from three to four models in her WIP pile - so, altogether 11-12.
When it comes to UFOs I have one big, which I discarded because I dislike aida (when you are young and stupid...) - though it is a gift so maybe I should finish it some day..? - and three smaller ones.

The difference between WIP and UFO is do I want to work on said project or not. If I do, it can be WIP even though I may not touch the project in months - if I don't feel like stitching said project it becomes an UFO. (So, in my case it's more motivation based than time based difference.)

Off to have some coffee...

Who needs chemicals when...

1. ... you get extreme high from just launching designs?
2. ... those two of your cats who caused you to worry few days back are sleeping happily together in your feet and seem to be getting better.

Lady's ear is getting floppier (you can also see that there is some fluid in it still), but it actually makes her rather cute.

Ah...

Before I forget, update on a date: it has been proved that I am good guy type. You know, all that you are nice, intelligent, cute and all, but... yadda.
So, next victim wanted.

If you begin to think of...

...men in my life in any degree during last four months:

1st got freaked out by the fact that I had feelings for him.
2nd realised that I am an evil bitch because I want to have man who proves his intellect with his behaviour.
3rd got freaked out because he was falling in love with me, according to him that is (I still do think that I was too kinky to his taste).
4th said he misses me, but did not behave according to it (I believe in emails more often than once a week or so if one actually misses me..).
5th decided to judge me without knowing what I actually want or am.

I am beginning to think that I have some invisible stigma or a really bad karma. And I remember that I have felt like this before, wondering what the heck is wrong with this world or in me...
Though, there are days when I am happy that I am not committed to anyone - but there are also those days when I really need someone who believes in me, someone who loves me either because who I am or despite of who I am.

I have always believed that lack of touch can kill you. At least it drives you insane and makes you bitter.

Goal check

Goals for April were:

1. Stitch rest of Spring Dragon, send RR off to Christine in 15th. Done. Sent in 16th, but 15th was Sunday anyway.
2. Finish all models before deadline. Two days prior actually (incl. writing instructions and preparing the files - and week's worth of migraine).
3. Stitch Monochromatic Exchange piece. Done, waiting to be finished.
4. Redo Periphaeria's site partially. Done: added Exclusive category. Also moved domain, rewrote whole thing (again) and added Gallery.
5. Participate SAT with Loy - with March's goal. In the end I did and reached my goal.
6. Stitch Egyptian Sampler as much as you can.
7. Try to stay in rotation.
8. Decide models for July launch. Done.
9. Play around with chanda_m's PIF piece. Been thinking of it and may, once again, change it a bit.

   Additional:
   
   

10. I designed, stitched and finished a design for my mother/ new complimentary design for Periphaeria's site.

Even I didn't achieve every goal I did it quite well.

Goals for May:

1. Finish Monochromatic Exchange and send it to $PERSON.
2. Stitch one model.
3. Stitch Angi's gift.
4. Send 4th part of Birthday Thread Exchange.
5. Participate Stitch-A-Thon 18th - 20h of May. Goal: 3/4 of Loy's page four.
6. Make illustrated tutorial about my needleroll finishing method on Periphaeria's site. (This will probably move to be June's goal, but anyway...)
7. Play around with chanda_m's PIF piece.

Noticing that I have only one exchange item to stitch I should have time to concentrate on PIFs and those delayed gifts...

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn! (aka. May launch)

Now, little update on some things I have stitched since March 1st.

Ia! Ia! (What's all this then?)

As promised, something geeky (notice the seaweed):

Little something for your inner geek, a geeky stitching friend or the geek of your life - or for you to remind you of the geek of your life.
Spread that sweet tentacle love or just keep it all to yourself, this is the thing to have.

I love mine.

And then for... Something Blue...

Something old, something new,
Something borrowed, something blue,
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

Yes, it is a ring biscornu - what else could I come around with?!

One day I found myself wanting to publish this, noticing that it is 'too' big for a regular biscornu and its theme may also be a bit off... it reminded me of weddings, and what goes with a wedding? A ring pillow! And as ring pillow is an old idea I made a question: how about a ring biscornu then?
I liked the idea, even I am not huge wedding fan myself (if I am about to remarry I prefer two witnesses style) and this was the result. (Those rings are my former engagement and wedding ring.)

Now... where's my next victim other-half-to-be?

Protection

XO motifs are known in anglosaxic world as hugs and kisses, but they do exist elsewhere with different meanings. In Nordic countries they have been used in knitted items, such as fishermen's sweaters, to protect person who wears them.

This little one is stitched over one and moved to Malta to live with Natasha, who was my receiver in Challenge #1.

Thistle Square Needleroll

This little piggy moved to Netherlands to live with my Mystery Exchange partner Judith, who, based on her wishlist, has a blossoming needleroll addiction. I decided to feed it a bit.

This is one of the first needlerolls I have ever designed, but I like its simplicity - and the fact that its ornamentations are in endless loop ie. turn it around and those bands repeat ad nauseam.
In my opinion that is how they are supposed to go and inconsistency in needlerolls' ornamentation's continuity has always bothered me (if they are band based).

So, this is what I have been up to.