I could never be accused of being an optimistic person. Glass half full? Glass half empty? I tend towards the third option my glass has been empty from the beginning.

Despite this I found myself settling into the way I was feeling on this combination. Not 100% but definitely better than I was. Overall I'd have to say my moods have been pretty stable and its been wonderful. But the last couple of days haven't really been like that.

I realize that these days could just be a passing event that they don't mean Concerta, Prozac and Ritalin are no longer working for me. Considering my track record for the last 4 years can anyone blame me for thinking the worst?

I don't want to be this pessimistic about how I've been feeling 'cause I can't help but think that thinking like that will further influence the days to come. *sigh* not much else I can do but continue as I have been.

Whisker's is coming along nicely, I've got her head entirely outlined and I'm beginning to fill in her face. I'll probably take a progress shot tomorrow, best to do it in day light so you might actually be able to see the difference between the black and navy blue. shuffles no worries I'll make sure it's hidden so you can't accidentally catch a glimpse of it. Now the only question is can you resist looking at it?

Look another shiny thing to distract me! I've wanted to do this for a long time now but didn't know how, I'm not familiar with CCS so making my own or using code I could find online wasn't going to make this possible for me. However this is a very useful progress bar that I can customize myself however I like.

I could go by percentage but I'm not sure I'd be able to accurately gage what my progress would amount to. So rather I'll keep a count of the pages each pattern requires, and from that figure out what I've done. In the case of Kiba I'm doing a bit of guessing as I've been working on multiple pages but considering what I've accomplished I believe it amounts to at least three of the pages.

Whiskers


Kiba


Once again I'm amused by little things! So there will definitely be more of this.

i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

My brother came home last night and all went very well, although his flight was a little late *fist shake* stupid Air Canada.

We'd been waiting to get our Christmas Tree until my brother came home so he could take part in the hunt. this is actually quite a bit longer than we usually go before getting our tree but I don't mind it was great to have him there.

Each year we have to find two trees, one for us and one for my dad's sister, not many people in my extended family get real trees anymore most if not all have fake trees. Sometimes I think my mum wonders if fake wouldn't be the easier way to go. My dad's always had the real tree which is why we did every year. I do love the scent of the pine and with the way we care for our trees they actually star sprouting new growth.

My mum is usually the one to take pictures of the hunt but she wasn't feeling good today and so had to stay home [We still have no idea what's wrong with her, all the test keep coming back negative. So yay to it not being cancer or whatever, but boo to not having any answers] So it fell to me to take some shots for her.

My brothers!

Since picking up the tendency to name things I've been naming trees for the past two years. I'd have to go back and look to see if I mentioned the name or not last year....*searches* apparently I didn't and now I can't remember what the name was...oh well

This is my dad with Tim [the tree for my aunt]

Josh scanning the horizon for a good tree, he was our final judge today and let me tell you, he was picky ^_~

This is Stanly a tree I thought would look rather nice

Josh thought it was too thin around the top.

So I pointed to this one instead ^_^


In the end we all agreed on Henry

*laughs* I wanted AJ in the picture and he say if I get any closer I'll be hugging the tree, so I asked him to do just that ^_^

Good times!

Henry is up and lit we're waiting to decorate until my sister gets home from work, which is fine by me I don't really do much decorating. I just can't seem to get myself to be interested in it but I do enjoy sitting and watching! Now to cross-stitch like the wind! *woosh*

Merry Christmas!

Am taking a brief break from winding dozens and dozens of bobbins I've been waiting for the past couple of weeks to make a trip to Peterborough so I could get the colors I was missing for Whiskers and a bunch of others so I'm ready when I'm done my current two.

I give you list of Doom!

This is the colors I needed for three different patterns

Now because I am poor and must be careful with my moneiz I didn't pick up the colors that have a + beside them, as I'll get them online when I order the fabric for two of these patterns next month. I also didn't get every double that I needed only a few, especially the colors I have a hard time finding or the ones they were almost out of. I also discovered that I needed a color that Micheal's doesn't even carry but I'm pretty sure I can get it online.

I feel bad for the woman at the cash as you have to scan each of those skeins in one at a time and half the time their bar codes don't even want to read. Ah well she was very pleasant about it. And as it turns out I probably could have got all the colors I needed with doubles as they had some really nice discounts going I didn't even know about. I ended up getting 20% off everything so I was very happy with the final total.

But of course I can't just sit at home and continue cross-stitching pulling out new colors as I need them, I'm far to OCD for that, I must put them all away! So that is what I'm doing now and I've hardly made a dent but that's okay. I do feel rather like a zombie right now, probably because my head was trying to esplode all day >_<

Exciting news! My brother's coming home tomorrow night! and I can't wait to see him! it's been way Way too long! I miss him so much! *happy feet*

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

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Get ready to check your vital statistics!. To begin, mouse over Journal in the upper nav bar and select My Stats from the dropdown menu (Horizon) or select My Stats under Journal in the side bar (Vertigo). If you're using another design scheme, you can visit My Stats directly. You'll find My Guests on the My Stats tool bar.

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You can view more awesome user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Until next time, stay snug!

I have every intention of being more productive than I was the day before, but unfortunately the ability seems to escape me...I keep getting distracted by shiny things

I took a picture this morning of Kiba before I started working on him as my aunt wanted to see what I had done.

As you can see there's little rhyme or reason to how I've approached this pattern. Since starting on Kiba's face I've mostly been working to outline it. However when I made it to his eye I really wanted to get that mostly done so my aunt could see something that actually was something.

Right now I'm working on his muzzle though I'll probably tackle his nose and lips in much the same way I did his one eye. I'm actually really enjoying the haphazard approach although I think I'll be very pleased when I've actually finished a page.

Now for your awwing/squeeing pleasure I give you this video of my mum's boy Romeo, he's in his element when he has people lavishing attention on him.

Well it looks like my plans for seeing what sort of interest I might get in my cross-stitching at next years Tea and Bazaars has been kiboshed. I spoke to my aunt who I knew from years back was in the know about these things and I wanted an idea of what a table would cost or at the very least how soon we'd need to get in contact with the comity.

It turns out that Cobourg [the one I'm most familiar with] hasn't been happening for a couple of years now. And even if it had she doubted it would be the right place to do this, as most things are sold on the cheap. I remember from years back they had tables of junk [read: garage sale type stuff] I would have been nice though to have at least been there to promote the commissions I'm willing to do. Hopefully by then I'd have a good understanding of what I could do.

So that down I went looking to see what might be available in my area, the crafty gatherings and what not. I don't think that's going to work out much either as the prices on tables/insurance required to sell is way out of my field. That aside the Port Hope Farmer's Market might be a good place for us to start. I don't know yet if you need to pay to be there or have some sort of licence.

neekabe you know anything about that from your brief time there?

I doubt I'd be ready to take part in this by next year, there are a lot of patterns I'd like to do and try and sell but if I'm continually busy with commissions I'd say the point is moot. Part of me really wants to promote the commissions I've done/would be more than happy to do. But I figure I ought to wait until I don't have so many patterns on my plate. I might take a page out of aimeekitty's book and when I'm ready to take on more projects give a sign up or something.

I find it hard to believe that people might actually want me to do this for them [I'll specify outside of my family 'cause its already pretty clear they like it] I kind of feel like I think I'm an artist or something, but have no right to be here doing this, perhaps not good enough, or insane, whatever! I think to much.

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Awhile back I agreed to finish a cross-stitch pattern for a friend of my dad. I didn't know it would be a kit, I certainly didn't expect it to be a kit with a stamped on picture.

What the hell is the draw?!

Not only do the holes not actually line up with picture but the stamp itself is crooked!!! Anyone who knows how OCD I can be I'm sure can imagine how twitchy this makes me.

I thought I could be happy saying to hell with the pattern. But I find myself second guessing everything I do which definitely isn't making this easy. I'm getting aggravated at the thought of working on this pattern. neekabe thank you so much for getting me started with a self made kit! I think if I'd been given something like this I might never have touched cross-stitching again. Although it's really hard to say since I wouldn't have had any experience with it before then.

I would be so much happier if I could just stitch my own picture and on that note I keep adding more pictures to the list of things I want to stitch ^_~ I do however have my first paid commission, my uncle is insisting on paying me for my time. He hasn't decided yet what picture he wants me to use but he does want it to be relatively small with a high stitch count and lots of colors so this makes me happy. I'm going to stitch a pattern in the near future on 28ct using all the holes.

I had one of those completely black 'duh...' moments the other day. I was discussing stitching on 28ct and that I was sure the holes would manage two strands and it might just get really messy or whatever. I was about to post a question on the cross-stitch community to see what their experience was. And that's when it occurred to me, in all its shining glory! whether doing over-2 or over-1 you're using the same sized holes....yep...but at least it came to me ^_~

How could you White Collar?

How could you drop a bomb like that?

Is there a good way to interpret this new information?

I sure as hell hope so! 'Cause you have an awesome thing going, don't screw it up!!

That is all

*sad feet*

Stolen from the_tim_world

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2009. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your "Year In Review."

January: don't feel like I've accomplished near enough in these last couple of days, and it's starting to frustrate me more than a little.

February: I have finished Too Little Too Late I'd really hoped my first post of the month could have been the last chapter, but that will have to wait.

March: Not a good start to the week...

April: Where did March go?

May: Author's Note: I've been searching for oneshot ideas for a while now, when I started reading a tag to 'Born Under a Bad Sign' and I felt compelled to write something a little different from the standard stories I've been reading about that episode. I'm not sure if I managed to pull it off, but either way I hope you enjoy.

June: Too much! [apparently a reference to how much time I have on my hands]

July: I've watched Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Continuum today and absolutely loved them both

August: Apparently I got pulled into this meme just by reading my flist [Damn you flist!! *fist shake*] Oh well ^_~ I really like my desktop wallpaper right now so I'm game to share! [of course saying 'Game' makes me Loose the Game]

September: I have tried Jelly Babies! and they're kind of weird ^_~

October: So I keep getting asked what I think of Supernatural so far, generally I've avoided answering the questions as part of me just doesn't want to think about it.

[Update: I've decided I'm still really enjoying Supernatural, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it won't go down a road I can't follow]

November: It's been well over a month and I still can't seem to find what I need to write and I'm struggling with a lot of guilt because of that [which might possibly be adding to the problem] right now all I want to do is cross-stitch but I feel the pressure of finishing The Same Coin I don't want it to take forever for the final chapter to be finished, but I also can't focus to work on it

December: I don't believe it!

Tweaks and enhancements

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Holiday vgifts are here!

We've added some fantastic new vgifts to help you spread holiday cheer. We also hope you'll honor AIDS Awareness Month by purchasing virtual red ribbons. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine.

Introducing: LJLimericks

We cordially here do invite you
To craft a fine limerick. Might you?
Each week, a new theme,
Then a poll, that's our dream
Winner posted on news to delight you!

In honor of all the brilliant writers on LiveJournal, we've created a brand new community: ljlimericks! Each week, we'll enter a handful of limericks into a poll (which we'll tuck snugly under an LJ-Cut). The winning poem will be published in the following newsletter. In addition, the author will receive a virtual blue ribbon! If you have the time, come drop us a rhyme. Please keep the "Nantucket" stuff on the downlow, since this is a youth-friendly community. Our first prompt is: Insomnia in winter.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible images from our global photography community. Congratulations to sempre_marseeya, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our second lj_photophile poll.

We hate to squelch your creativity, but, as a courtesy to other users, please post only one photo at a time and keep the main photo no larger than 350x350 (so images display properly via mobile and on friends pages). You can link to a larger image and/or post photos under a cut. Just so you know, we select photos for the poll blindly, based on user comments and staff feedback. Please continue to vote, comment, and, of course, enjoy. You can check out the week in pictures and view more awesome user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay warm and safe out there!

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're tall on adventurous spirit, but short on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about bargain hotels and hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

\o/ we finally have some snow!

I know most people don't like snow and I'm sure if it was keeping me from getting somewhere I needed I'd dislike it too. But for now I'm just enjoying how it makes everything look and feel more Christmassy to me. Unfortunately since the snow stopped falling we've been getting some rain which is making everything look rather slushy but there might be enough snow for it to hold out against the rain.

I feel very out of focus today, I've been cross-stitching but I'm feeling like I'm not getting anything done. This feeling doesn't have anything to do with the patterns, its just the way my brain is choosing to process my day.

Here have some pictures my sister took with my camera this morning of our kitties enjoying her old comforter which she most certainly did not put in the dryer for 20 minutes to make it all nice and toasty warm for said kitties. Nope! Definitely not!



In this picture you can see Dodger is pretending to be a blanket for Romeo

I'm actually quite happy with this arrangement, it means for the vast majority of the day the kitties happily sleep. However this isn't so good for my sister as she takes both Romeo and Dodger into her room at night and Romeo can be very energetic at night ^_~

I'm really wishing I lived closer to a Micheal's or if not that, that I actually had a craft store with a decent supply of thread. The only one in my immediate area is in Cobourg and they charge .79 cents for their floss while I can get it at Micheal's for .49

I'm always really disappointed at how little selection of colors the one in Cobourg has, and its like that every time I go in there. The woman who owns the business keeps telling me that she's waiting on a shipment but for how long? I'm not all that pleased with how that business is run anyways. I have asked to be called with an order I put in comes, but I haven't heard back. I went in there to ask if they could order in patterns for me [I was hoping to avoid having to go all the way to Peterborough] the owner wasn't in so the girl took down my name and number and told me she'd have the owner call me. Never happened. The point is mute now as I have my Pattern Maker.

Merry Christmas