I really enjoy working on this. The colors are just lovely. I don't know why don't stitch more HAEDs that are predominately blue because I just love the way the stitches look when you get them on the fabric. But I just seem to gravitate to the darker designs. I wonder what that says about my personality? Probably not worth thinking about! Click here for more info.

I have been stitching and faithfully taking pictures, but somehow those pictures aren't making it onto the blog. I've also been obsessing a bit over the Days of Advent Sampler that I have started twice so far. I've decided to use cream Newcastle linen -- always a safe choice! And I've been tweaking the HDF conversion a bit here and there. So that has taken up a bit of my time.

I'm going to try to get progress pics posted over the next couple of days. Here's Martyr's. I was good and worked on the black top until it was caught up with the rest of my stitching. I might move down to her face the next time it comes up in my rotation. I worry that I'll lose track of where I am if I do that though. Which actually happened with Dragon Skies. I got it out today and had to do some comparing and counting to figure out where I left off!

On the non-stitching front. The child support hearing went okay. I managed to keep my cool and not say any of the bad things I was thinking. It helped that the ex wasn't there physically -- he did it over the phone. Turns out what he really wanted out of all this was his driver's license. Which he got. It was actually kind of funny, the CSE attorney suggested this before we went in and told me that he'd probably screw up and they'd just take it away again. The Commissioner told us he'd try to make a decision that week since he was going on vacation the next week. And since I haven't heard from the Court, I guess he didn't get to it. I didn't leave the courtroom with a positive feeling, but the CSE attorney did. So I guess that's good and now I'm just trying to put it out of my mind.

And some good news. My daughter has not been sick for almost two weeks now!! She's started working again since they've opened up the shop on the boardwalk on the weekends. So she's happy. Although I hope they don't have her working there too often -- it's bad enough driving her to the Outlets on the weekends. I'd hate to have to take her all the way down to the beach!

My daughter is finally feeling better. Thank all that is holy!! I've certainly learned a lesson here -- DON'T wait to go to the doctor!


I also wanted to share this picture. These are a couple of magnets I recently got from Nordic Needle. I'm of Scandinavian decent, so I had to have the Viking ship as soon as I saw it. They are really strong, to the point of having to pry them apart, and one holds my scissors very nicely. So now I don't have to worry about my scissors getting tangled with my floss and falling on the floor every time I need a new strand!

I love the way she is stitching up! This is another example of how my tastes change. When HAED first charted Ching-Chou Kuik's artwork, I didn't really care much for it. There is just something off about those tiny little mouths and huge eyes. But after seeing how her work stitched up, her designs began to grow on me. I'm so glad they did because this mermaid is so much fun to stitch!

I'm reworking my rotation a bit. I'm dropping Morning Dew and adding Days of Advent Sampler. I love the colors in Morning Dew and the flowers are so pretty, but the fact of the matter is I don't enjoy working on it very much, probably because I'm doing it on Aida. It's one of the first things I started and I just used the fabric that came with the kit. If I was to do it over, I'd switch that out for an evenweave, but now it's too late for that.

I'm adding Days of Advent Sampler. I converted the NPI to Hand Dyed Fibers -- that sample book was certainly well worth the investment! I wanted it brighter, and I'm eager to see how my color choices work out. I haven't decided on a fabric yet. I'm going to do a floss toss with the fabrics I already have, but I'm kind of leaning toward Silkweaver's Porcelain. I'm somewhat reluctant to order another fabric for this sight-unseen -- I've already got two that I didn't care for. But we'll see.

I'm probably not coming down with the flu. The sore throat was probably because I left the heat up. I know this because I took my daughter who's been sick since Saturday to the doctors and found out she doesn't have the flu, she has a kidney infection. I feel terrible for not taking her sooner. Her brother did have the flu the weekend prior and so when she wasn't feeling well I figured she had caught it from him. Plus she's not having any pain when she pees. If she had, I would have known right away that I needed to get her to the doctor. Anyway, she started an antibiotic last night, so she should be okay. Kind of scary, though.

I have to be in court Tuesday for a child support modification mediation/hearing. I'm a bit nervous about it (and so will certainly need some positive energy sent in my direction on that day)! I've been preparing for it, though, and the law is on my side so I think it will turn out for the best. What worries me is two of my kids have been down with the flu over the last couple of weeks and this morning I woke up with a sore throat! I simply CANNOT get sick.

Yesterday I was forced to upgrade to Office 2007. It has a totally different interface. And I can't get Outlook to show me due dates on my tasks. And I really want to know, why? What was wrong with the old set up? It's been around for years and it worked, didn't it? I'll adjust because I'm good at figuring out software. And thank goodness I don't have to use those programs much. But I feel really sorry for all those secretaries out there who will turn to their computer one morning and discover that everything they have known is gone. Okay, perhaps I exaggerate. But seriously, what is the point?

I had just gotten to the end of a somewhat lengthy post and somehow most of it got erased. I've already spent too much time on this, so here's my updates

Sea of Roses

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Rose

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Revelation

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The rotation is going on hiatus for a bit while my daughter and I work on a gift for her babysitter's (or should I say second mother's?) daughter. It's Something in Common's Stars and Moon Baby Sampler, which my little one picked out herself. We're stitching it on 28 count Summer Sky Jobelan with silks from Hand Dyed Fibers. The colors in this are simply gorgeous! I was a wee bit concerned about her being able to stitch over two, but so far she's doing great!