Cross Stitch Goals For 2017

My main hobby these days is cross stitching. It's fun, it's relaxing and it's kind of like coloring, but with thread. I honestly didn't get a ton of projects done last year and I want to up my cross stitch game in 2017.

I'm currently working on a birth chart sampler for Emily. I'm to the back stitch stage so it's nearly done. I'm not a huge fan of back stitching but it makes the piece look finished. I'm also still working on my Beauty and the Beast Thomas Kinkade kit. It's huge and the stitches are small so that's going to take me years to finish.

My next project, once the birth chart is done, is a Haunted Mansion pattern I bought on esty. I'm really excited to start this one but it's going to be massive and will probably take me a while.

I also treated myself to a subscription to The World of Cross Stitching. It's my favorite cross stitching magazine and it comes with an extra project every month. So I'm sure I'll be doing smaller projects from there.

My main goal, though, is to start making small Christmas pieces to use for Christmas cards. There are a ton out there and they are all really cute. I'd love to be able to send out some homemade cards for Christmas!

My Ghost Adventures - Knocks in the Night

To start at the beginning of this series, click here!

Even though I live in a haunted house, we have periods were there is no activity at all. And usually the activity we get isn't very scary. But a few days after Halloween, I did get a little scared.

It was evening and Emily was already in bed. I had been in the bathroom when I got very cold all of a sudden. It's been really unseasonably warm here in NC, so I knew at once that it was a cold spot. The hair on my arms started to stand on end so I finished up quickly and went back to my room.

I love to cross stitch but I generally only do it in my bedroom after an unfortunate experience where one of my cats got my threaded needle in his mouth. I got it out before he swallowed it, but it freaked me out. If they eat even the thread, it can give the cats issues.

So on this night, I was sitting up in bed watching TV and cross stitching. My orange cat, Sam, kept scratching at the door, trying to get in. I got up several times to shoo him away, but one time amid the pawing at the door, there was an actual knock.

It was 'knock knock' like a human would do. It wasn't a noise that Sam could have made. I got up, turned all the lights on in my bedroom and opened the door. No-one was on the other side besides Sam the cat. It freaked me out enough that I didn't go to sleep until Todd came home from work!

Up Next - Ghostly Whispers!

The Need To Be Right

Image: becominghiseve.wordpress.com 

I come from an unique generation. Having been born in the late 70's, I spent my childhood without the internet. But when I hit college, I 'found' the internet and have been a fan ever since. The internet is a great thing but it has led to some odd behavior in people.

Because you aren't taking to someone in front of you, trolls came about. But not just trolls, normal people feel the need to argue a point to death in order to prove that they are 'right'.

Admittedly in my many years on the internet, I've done that a time or two. But as I've grow older, I haven't seen the point. Most of the arguments end in an impasse because both sides feel the need to be right. And sometimes the need to be right can transform a normal person into a troll.

I'm on a lot of different Facebook groups for all my different interests. One is for Christians who are all geeks, Someone posted there how they had been arguing with an atheist about the existence of God.

This seemed completely pointless to me. We Christians can't prove that God exists, it's a belief we have. We've felt His Hand in our lives. An atheist hasn't felt that so they believe firmly that there is no God. It's not something that they could even have found a middle ground on.

I have lots of atheist friends as well as friends of other religions. Trying to prove that I'm right and they are wrong seems like a way to lose friends. Sadly the internet, for all it's good things, fosters the want in some people to browbeat them into believing what they want.

Later that evening, I posted the start of my newest cross stitch project in the cross stitch group I'm in. It is a kit that I've been wanting to do forever and a friend gifted it to me.

I started it at the tippy top of the fabric because I've had issues with kits and running out of room. So I wanted to make sure that I had enough fabric. This is also the most complicated chart that I've ever done, so I've been putting off starting because I was intimidated by it.

After stitching a little bit, I posted on my cross stitch group. Basically a 'Yay I started' and a picture. And then I got the 'advice' I didn't want. Several people told me that I was doing it "wrong".

I told them that I was doing it this way, and while I appreciated the advice, I was going to do it this way. Most of them stopped with the advice, but a couple didn't. One in particular was very fervent in proving how wrong I was. It got to the point that I had to get the group owner involved.

As it's my project, I do have the right to stitch it they way I want, but this person's need to be right pushed her over into troll territory. Even after the owner stepped in and posted for them to leave me be, she had to continue trolling.

It's a strange internet phenomenon because you wouldn't scream at a person in real life about how wrong they are. It does happen over the phone, but it wouldn't generally if you were calling someone you knew.

Being right is nice, I suppose, but I think more people need to realized that there are other ways to do things, and other opinions. In our diverse world today, there are many things that aren't just right or wrong.

Cross Stitch and Technology

I'm not terribly crafty though I try to be. The hobby I enjoy the most is cross stitching. I started back when I was in high school - probably learned during Camp Fire Girls - but I don't remember exactly. I do remember stitching an elaborate Christmas scene for my mom one year. 

For the last few years, I've been working on a Christmas stocking for Emily. I finished that earlier this year and I found that the world of cross stitch has changed a bit. For one, there are a lot of legitimately free patterns out there to download. There are also several websites out there where you can turn your pictures into cross stitch patterns.

I got some patterns - ok a lot of patterns - and I printed some out. I am used to having a paper pattern to stitch from. I got a tablet for the first time this year, and I decided to put the pdf of the pattern I was working on onto the tablet.

Working from the tablet is wonderful! I can change the size so I can zoom in on the part of the pattern I'm working on. It took a while to get used to it, but I don't think I'll go back to papers. Even when I use a kit that isn't digital, I'll probably scan it so I can use it on my iPad.

Even though I've been cross stitching for nearly 20 years, it's nice when technology can make it easier!

The Finished Stocking!

When I was a kid, my Christmas stocking was handmade for me by my grandmother (on my dad's side). I still have it and it's a great family heirloom. When Emily was a baby, I decided that I wanted to make her a stocking. I can't knit or crochet, but I can cross stitch.

This stocking has been a long project - it's taken me probably three years to finish it. I actually started it once but had miscounted, so I had to get another kit and start from the beginning.

I had been stitching a lot because I had wanted to finish it before this past Christmas, but I didn't get it done. So I put finishing the 'sock', as Emily calls it, as one of my big goals for this year.

A week or so ago I finished all the stitching, but I left it for a while because I was afraid of cutting it out. I was really afraid I was going to mess something up after all the year's of work I put in. Finishing up was actually easier than I though and I finished it all on Tuesday night.

Emily was very happy with how her stocking turned out and wanted me to hang it up in her room. I'm proud that I was able to finish it and give Emily her own family heirloom to enjoy for years to come. Now she can stop using her 'Baby's First Christmas' stocking!

Pain in the Way of Plans

Emily with Chronic Pain Bear

I have chronic pain and am in pain every day but I’m luckily than a lot of people who have constant pain. My pain levels are generally low enough that I can live a mostly normal life. But sometimes the pain flares up and slams me down, reminding me that I am sick and will be for the rest of my life.

Saturday night I went to bed feeling ok with plans of working and then doing some housework on Sunday. I slept the whole night but I woke up feeling exhausted with high pain levels. It had been raining and I think that’s what triggered this flare.

I managed to work my whole shift but felt awful afterwards so it was off to bed. I didn’t get anything done that I had wanted plus I couldn’t even find a comfortable position in bed so I couldn’t even work on my cross stitch. My pain derailed all the plans I had for that day.

All I can do when I get a flare is rest because there is no medicine that works for me. I’m feeling a little better today but the pain levels are still higher than normal.

I’m still lucky though. Some people in my chronic pain support groups can’t work, can’t do much of anything because the pain is so bad. For me flares come and go, but the pain always goes down after a while.

Goals for 2014

Now that Christmas is over with, thoughts turn to the new year that is almost upon us. I’m really hoping that 2014 is better than 2013. This year had a lot of down moments though the bright spot was Disney. Next year, we are hoping to have fewer issues and just save in case anything comes up.

A lot of people make resolutions for the new year, but I prefer to think that these are goals. The theme of my goals for 2014 is to finish all the things. I have a lot of unfinished projects and I’d like to get them done.

The first one is finish the 2nd draft of my novel. I’ve been finding it hard to find time to write. I work in the morning and then after work I often feel drained because of my chronic pain. But I really need to make time to finish this novel if I ever want to be published.

The second is to finish Emily’s cross stitch Christmas stocking. It’s one of the biggest cross stitch projects I’ve done and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t finish it in time for this Christmas. But I now have plenty of time to get it finished. I do hope to have it finished early in the year because I have three costumes I want to make for this year’s convention season.

The third is finish Couch to 5K. This one may prove to be the hardest. I’ll run and get pretty far though but often I’ll have a pain flare and end up too sick to do anything but work and take care of Emily. Our tree is where the treadmill is so I haven’t run in quite a while. As soon as we take the tree down next week, I’m starting from the beginning and really going to try to get through the program all the way this time.

These are my main goals for 2014. There are other things I want to accomplish like making three different costumes and organizing my office. But these three things are a holdover from 2013 (and before) and I’d like to be able to move forward.