I'm finally starting to feel better after a week or so of being sickly. Very little got done stitching wise, and I even went two whole days without checking my e-mail! I was concerned I might be suffering delayed withdrawal, but probably not since the little one seems to have contracted whatever it was. I did start taking the pills again, though. More because I was starting to feel very agitated mentally and was crying a lot. I actually choose Prentice Alvin to read because I thought it would be funny and I wouldn't want to cry. Such was not to be, I started crying while reading the acknowledgements!

Once I started stitching again, I got going like gang-busters and did over 1000 stitches yesterday. The dragon not only has a head, but also the remainder of his body. I've decided to call him "Bugs" since I spent a bit of time staring at that single blank eye before I got the second one in, and it was jumping right off the fabric. It's not so bad now that he has two, but the name is going to stick.

I almost didn't think I'd be able to continue on with this one. My printer has decided it is no longer going to print black. I made a special trip to Staples, braving the beach traffic, to get a new printer cartridge. Alas, $13.50 and multiple head cleanings later, still no black. It probably needs a new print head. Or perhaps I really did damage the printer by continuing to use it after it told me it had no ink. Or, more likely, my son did something that broke it! Fortunately, it still prints in color and I discovered I can paste the portion I want to print into my photo-editing software and change the black to something else. The working copy isn't exactly crisp, but it'll do.

My emergency shopping trip wasn't a total bust, however, since I also picked up new bathing suits for the little one and myself. I was even happy with the one I found, the only two piece they had for someone of my (ahem) stature and it doesn't look half bad. Although the top does cling to things I'd rather remain hidden, it's 1000 times better than the one I got last year, which exposed rather than clinged. I really like the design on the top as well. It looks a bit like something from a B. K. Lusk painting, what with the concentric squares and little dots. We also stopped by EB Games and I got the King's Quest Compilation and convinced Randi that she should get Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (rather than yet another Pokemon game). The Perils of Rosella was the first computer game I ever played and I've been wanting the earlier ones ever since. Who knows when I'll get around to playing them, but for $10 I couldn't resist.

And since I had the camera out I thought I'd take a picture of the stash I received today from J&J Collectibles.

I got Rosewood Manor's And a Forest Grew and a fat half of Belfast to stitch it on. I've been pining for this one and decided to treat myself during the sale. I haven't bought charts for quite a while, but I wanted to pick up these before they disappeared. Paw Printings Knot Another Sampler, Abbey Lane A New Beginning and Mirror, Mirror, and Midsummer Night Designs Lady Prim and Proper, The Monkey Sampler, and Heaven Above. I've also decided to restart the Days of Advent Sampler and so got a fat half of 40 count ivory linen for that and also a few NPIs I wanted to check against the ones I have, since my threads seem so muted compared to the WIPs I've seen. Fortunately they all check out, except for the 921. The colors didn't scan true, but the difference between the two still shows up and it's much more marked in real life. I think I'll go through the rest of the NPIs for this project and see if there might be a problem with any of the others. The labels are quite different, so hopefully that will give me an indication if I've got any other off colors.

Labels: Days of Advent Sampler, Tower of Stony Wood