It's FINISHED!!

My Yester-Year WIP is finally FINISHED after travelling with me through 5 states!  How exciting is that!  Now on to learning how to mount it properly and finding my next Yester-Year project!

A big week!

Hey all!  Sorry for being MIA for a while!  This has certainly been a big week for me!  Took my final Monday, and believe I got the highest grade in the class.  A 98!  Wednesday, turned in my 2 big projects that I've been complaining about forever, and that was also my last day of school until I decide if I want to pursue a Bachelor's Degree or not.  Thursday, as I was getting into the car for work, I got a call from Accountemps about a possible job.  The thing- they wanted me in for an interview THAT day.  So, since I was only going in to scan some files, I skipped work and went to the interview.  Went well, talked with the lady for over an hour.  She said she was impressed with me but had a few other people to interview as well.  Well, less than an hour after getting home, I got a call.  You are looking at the newest employee of Conestoga-Rovers and Associates :-)  I am starting out as a receptionist, but they have lots of projects going on and there is potential for promotion.  Plus, it's only a 15 minute drive!  They just moved into the old paper mill... completely renovated, but kept the original flooring and brick and ceiling.  I'm in love with all the character in this building!  My first day there will be the 7th, and they're fine with me going on my trip in June, which is awesome!  I have been enjoying my new-found freedom from homework, and have made a lot of progress on my long-stitch project- I'm hoping to have it done for my next Yester-Year WIP Project post on the 5th!  My friend Sandy and I treated ourselves to pedicures today too.  Felt wonderful!  There is something so blissful about having someone massage your feet and legs.  I'm slowly working my way towards bolder polish colors too, so I have a gorgeous medium pink on my little piggies now :-P So, that's all my big news for now!  I haven't gotten much further on my paper piecing, but am looking forward to heading on to that after I finish my long-stitch!  I hope everyone is having a fabulous day, and that this dreary weather cheers up soon!

Vets and some sewing updates

So, brought both of my boys to the vet today... and walked out $630 lighter.  Ouch!  May have to start looking into this animal insurance stuff!!  If dogs are this expensive, how much are kids??

Slade, they now think, has a *partially* torn ACL, and they want him on bedrest (read: keep your dog immobile to the extreme) for the next 2 weeks.  Ummm... right.  I'm trying, but he is making that TOTALLY impossible!  I tried to lift him into the car, so instead of jumping in the car, he jumped on me.  Tried to walk him down the steps to go to the bathroom, and he still jumped down them, taking me with him!  It's going to be a long 2 weeks, especially since they put him back on the painkillers, so he's going to have more energy again.

Augie's allergies have been getting worse, so we brought him in too.  His paws are dark red, he has a rash on his belly that's been there for months, the skin around his eye is red, and he's been itching a lot.  We've gone through 200 Benadryl with no success, so it's the doctor's turn now.  She put him on a prescription diet with exactly NO ingredients... seriously, the only word in the ingredients that I know what it means is "starch".  Everything else is a chemical.  The food is white, and about half the weight of his other food.  He's eating it much slower though!  He is allowed to have exactly NO other foods- no treats, no scraps, no sharing food bowls, and has to stay this way for 3 months.  He's also on a new antihistamine and an antibiotic.  The doc found a lot of broken skin on him from all the scratching, so we need to let it heal so it doesn't get infected.  She also thinks he has an environmental allergy, but we're going 1 thing at a time here.

So there's my doggie excitement. 

Now for the fun stuff!

I have been working on figuring out this paper piecing thing... I printed out my pattern, started on the color scheme, and cut out my pieces.  This is my first stash-fabric only project!  I also got the first 2 pieces sewn down.  I still need to press them open and trim and all, but progress is progress!

I also started gathering fabrics for my challenge block for the cruise in June.  I've had it designed for a bit, but have some tweaks floating around in my heat that may come into play when I start the actual sewing.  I think I'm going to be saying "What was I thinking??" the whole time I'm sewing the thing too.  Counting up the pieces in the block.... I'm probably bordering on around 500-600 individual pieces in a 12" finished block?  And then putting them on point... I may be redesigning (read: Scrapping and doing a complete revamping) throughout, lol.  But here's the ideas and start of the fabrics for now.  The purple is probably going to get exchanged for red, and the hideous brown is mandatory, so I'm cutting it into itty bitty pieces for the footprints in order to use as little as possible, lol.  The cream is actually white fairy frost, so it has a gold-ish shimmer, which actually helps out the brown a tiny bit.  The black is for the night sky, and the blue, green, and (future) red will be Northern Lights colors.

I also got a few new toys... I got these Easter weekend, and my "discount egg draw" at the local quilt shop was for 20% off, so I splurged a bit :-)

The color wheel is also for the cruise, although I've been playing with it and learned a few new things about color.  It's dual sided, and has some interesting info on it.  The checkered package is a "spring needle".  Supposedly, you can use this little guy in place of a darning foot while doing free motion or embroidery.  For less than $5, figured it was worth a try :-)

In other news:  I interviewed with Accountemps and OfficeTeam yesterday, and Primerica today.  Accountemps says they can place me, Primerica is a financial planning firm, so it's commission based, which I'm not quite comfortable with yet.  I'd love to learn the trade, but actually building a client base... well... different story.  They don't cold call, but you start out trying to help friends basically, and then get referred out from there.  I know if my friend came up and said, hey, lets go over your finances, I'd say.... no.  And I hate cold calling.  So, I feel already dead in the water there.  I have a couple more things to finish with Accountemps though, so I'm hopeful they may have something for me eventually!

I also only have 2 more classes of school left.  Technically, if I finished my 2 projects this weekend, I could turn them in Monday, take my final, and be done.  We'll see how the weekend goes though :-)  Well, it's quarter till midnight here, so I'm going to say g'night y'all!  Enjoy the weather, and hope it stays!

Whew!

There is something about the last few weeks of school that makes time fly by- and also keeps you super busy!  I have started in on learning how to paper piece and got my fabrics cut up, but that process has been hampered by things I will actually get graded on.  I'm hoping to take some pictures and start getting back here and to my machine more the moment school is done!  In the meantime, back to work!

Snow???

Not a fan of this white stuff falling from the sky in APRIL... Thinking the seasons got put out of order this year!!

Another Linky! 3 for 3rd!

So, was looking at 16 Muddy Feet's blog, and she is linking to the coolest party!  Tracyjay Quilts  is hosting a party where everyone can link up and come up with 3 goals for the month.  I love this!  So here goes- my goals will be:

1) Finish my class with a 4.0 GPA.  I finished every class for my associate's with a 4.0, so even though this one doesn't count towards it (even though it's the capstone class... made a deal with the head of the dept. to graduate early if I still took it ;-) ) I'd still like to maintain the record.  Plus it keeps from post-senioritis from kicking in too much!

2) Try my hand a paper-piecing.  I've found a pretty cool pattern that I'm hoping won't be too hard for a first time... from Carol Doak.

3) Make a waterproof mat for my new plants!  Just bought a new succulent pot today- 1st live plant to come into the house since we bought it- SO exciting.  I'm using a free motion quilting sample I made while learning, which isn't cutting it.  Maybe I can use my paper-pieced design :-)

 Let's see how it goes!!

Sometimes it's hard having sisters

Yester-Year and FAFF!!

Boy has it been a busy week!!  Everyone at work got sick- like fevers, bed-ridden sick- so it was just me in the office!  I'm not usually there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I sure was this week!  The sickies are back in the office today, so thankfully, they told me to stay OUT of the office today :-)  I'm glad I didn't catch whatever they had!  *Knocking on every piece of wood I can find*  So, today is linky parties and coffee dates!  Rough life, I know :-)  The girls are also working hard...

At catching sunbeams!!  It's been rainy and dismal most of the week, so they're soaking it up!  It's such a rough life being a cat.  The boys also got thrown outside for a while today to enjoy the sunshine.  I just love watching them sunbathe in the grass outside!  I didn't get a picture of them though.


So, back to linkies!!  To my FAFF visitors, welcome!  I'd love to hear from you, and hope you enjoy my blog.  I'm still a baby blogger- I haven't even hit 10 posts or 1 month yet!- but I love to ramble...err... talk :-)  Follow me to hear about being the mother to my four fuzzy kids and their antics, my various crafts, our house remodel, my hunt for a career, and any other topics that come out of living life! 

And for the Yester-Year WIP!  Oh boy, this project is from middle school, so... probably about 13+ years old.  It's my first attempt at long stitch.  I wasn't quilting or sewing back then (Do what my mom enjoyed?  NEVER!!!  Gotta love the teenage years :-) )  Here's what I've done so far:

It's hard to see, but it's a cat curled up sleeping in a blanket- much like my cat does.  The best part- the cat is gray!  So this will end up having a place of honor in my sewing room someday (hopefully...)  It's traveled with me from NH to AK, AK to NM, NM to IL, and IL to MI.  The instructions kind of show how old it is... I was marking off the spots I had done with a green highlighter, which has now turned a pretty sickly green...

The picture actually makes it look more normal than it actually looks in person!  Hmm... those came out upside down, but at least you get the picture!!  I haven't been able to do much on them except find all the bits and pieces associated.  I also put it in the frame, which I only got as a present this last Christmas!  Before that, I was doing all the stitching and trying to keep the mesh flat by hand.

I've been working on that project for school, but FINALLY hit a big breakthrough, and hopefully it should be pretty smooth sailing from here!  Plus- school ends later this month, so I will have more free time for fun stuff like this!  I plan on having progress before the next Yester-Year linkup!

Well, off to (try to) be productive!  Thanks for stopping by!