I told myself that I wasn't going to post again until I had "good" news... not that things have been horrible, but this year has had its personal challenges for me. Well, since I don't see a fairy tale ending in sight anytime soon, I'll update you all who have been so good at checking my blog and pinging me on Facebook.
March 10 - I left my work family of over 6 years to take a job still within Boeing, still within the same organization, but a different role in a different location. Between the different work statement, different programs, and different people, it has been an uphill climb at best for me these last five months. All of my emotional energy is expended at work, and I have no motivation or concern for most other things. The learning curve has been more of a roller coaster, and I continue to hold on and try not to scream. ;-) It is getting better, but it's still a source of great stress for me. I was battling some emotional health issues before that, so it's been doubly hard.
July - Lucky me, I received my first ever Washington state jury summons. At least they had the courtesy to make it after my vacation. The fun part will be when I have to explain to them why I never updated my name on my voter registration so my name is no longer as it appears on the summons. Do they have wi-fi in jail? It's rather inconvenient, though, since I just got back from vacation and I'm going to be out of work another 1-5 days. I hate burdening other people with my work.
August 4-8 - Just to show that not everything in our lives sucks, Bill and I went to Minnesota for his family reunion for his mother's extended family. It was my second reunion, and I actually remembered a few people there that I had seen in 2008. However, I did manage to embarrass myself by calling someone the wrong name... I hope they don't think too poorly of Bill's choice in a wife. ;-) All of Bill's mother's five siblings made it, and 4 of Bill's 6 siblings were there, along with cousins galore.
August 5 - I got an email from our pettsitter during vacation that she found a flea on Milla. We figured out after a fashion that Bill probably brought the fleas from his rental house that he checked in on before he left for vacation. Fleas are a catastrophic deal for us because fleas LOVE to chew on my mother, so Bill, Milla, and I are quarantined for the foreseeable future from my mother. *sigh*
August 12 - I went to the doctor for a follow-up appointment after a mammogram that I had in July. No worries... I've been called back for all three mammos I've had. Then they wanted an ultrasound. Never had that before. Then I was informed that they wanted to biopsy a most likely benign tissue they had found. It looked fine to the doctor, but since it was new since last year, they wanted to check it out. Okay, I hate the idea of needle location and surgical biopsy, but I don't have cancer in all likelihood, so it's just an inconvenience and another couple of appointments and more days away from work where someone else has to cover my stuff again. I thought that was the worst news I was going to receive on Friday.
August 12 - About 1:30pm, as I'm running errands, I see that I had missed a call and voicemail from Bill. How I didn't hear my phone, I don't know. Bill had received a voicemail from his mother, telling him that his brother Steve (age 57) was dead. I could go on for pages about it, but some of the details are sketchy and may have to be retracted later, and you really don't want all the information or to read about all the thoughts, opinions, and feelings I've had in the last two days. The tentative date for Steve's funeral is August 27. I may stay behind and give Bill's parents the money I would have spent on airfare to help defray funeral expenses. Or, i may go with him and miss another day of work for travel. Please pray for comfort for Steve's parents, siblings, and children, and for strength for the family as they go through the logistics of taking care of business associated with Steve's death.
I hate to end on such a crappy note... maybe I'll have some good stories from jury duty next week that I can share and cheer us all up a little. ;-)
Blessings,
Kristin
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Bill got a job!!!!!
For those of you where were wondering / praying, Bill starts a job this week. It's a 12-month contract position with Microsoft. Of course we'd rather have something direct and permanent, but we're sure this will lead to good things one way or another. God is good!!!
More news another time...
Blessings,
Kristin
More news another time...
Blessings,
Kristin
Monday, August 23, 2010
You know it's been too long...
... when your mother tells you she's been looking at your blog and not seeing anything new. ;-)
Hi, Everyone! I've got lots to talk about since it's been a long while, but I'll try to break it up into bite-sized pieces for you.
The most exciting thing that's happened since I wrote last is vacation! We went back to Binghamton, NY at the beginning of August. We visited friends and family, saw the sights, and attended events. One of the events we attended was the SpiedieFest and Balloon Rally. We were right in the midst of the balloons when they launched, so we didn't miss too much. You can see a few of our pictures here. I bought a wire-wrapped pendant from a vendor there, and saw another vendor who I thought was cool. Visit Kathy at artworkbykd.etsy.com. She does great things with recycled materials, and even her business cards are on recycled material. I saw a pair of Diet Coke earrings that I maybe should have bought. They were heart-shaped dangles and were really cool. I just wasn't sure I'd wear them. Seriously, though - check out her shop.
The main reason we went is because my friend of 17 years was having her wedding reception. They got married in June in a family ceremony, and had a reception in August for all their rowdy friends. ;-) It was great to meet Kim's husband and his two boys (we had private visit time earlier in the week). The reception was fun, the food was great, and it was wonderful to see people I hadn't seen since I moved to Seattle. Thanks, Kim and Don, for a great party, and congratulations!! Love ya!
Another visit that I have to mention was to long time friend Verna. We've known each other since elementary school and had never sat down and had an adult visit. It was great sharing about what our lives looked like these days and she was a very gracious hostess. Thanks, Verna!
We also had a visit with my brother and his wife of almost 3 years (whom we'd not met). We'd also not met their two-year-old daughter, my littlest niece. She kept us entertained on her hobby horse, in the pool, and out for ice cream.
Other activities included a visit with my aunt and uncle, my friends Dale and Mary, eating local food, a local art walk, going to a minor league baseball game, and going to calling hours / visitation for someone I used to go to church with. I was apprehensive about going because I knew I would run into people that I didn't want to run into. But, Thank you Lord, the whole thing was uneventful as far as that was concerned. I got to talk to the widow for a little while - we used to be good friends before I moved away. It was good to see her again - I just wish it had been under better circumstances.
Now that we're back home, we've been busy with work and other things. We just finished a book group at church, I'm back to my workout routine (kinda), and life is hectic once again. I have an event coming up - I have the opportunity to display and sell my jewelry for the month of September at the Curves where I work out. They have a "business member of the month" and it's made it around to my turn. I've known about this for many months - have I done anything to prepare? Not really. I've bought some displays, but I haven't made my poster or signage or anything. And there's a week left and I'm busy both days this weekend. Guess my nights are going to be pretty full for the next week. Tonight I'm going to put price tags on things and figure out my display, and hopefully figure out signage. Friday night maybe I'll work on the poster. I'm kind of writing off tomorrow since I'm working out, and I'm beyond exhausted and brain-fried by the time I work all day and then work out. Friday will be a better day (night). :-)
September promises to be busy for us - we've got something on the calendar every weekend already. How does that happen? Maybe October will be mellower - there are five weekends and no holidays (unless you count Halloween falling on a Sunday). I guess I'm going to have to get up the gumption to get things done on the weeknights in September. I usually save hobby things for the weekends, but that's not working for September - except for....
... QUILT RETREAT! Yes, it's that time again!! In two weeks I'll be madly trying to figure out what to work on in preparation for retreat. I have a project I want to do, but it involves machine embroidery and my embroidery has been behaving badly lately, so we'll see. I'm hoping to run a couple test projects Labor Day weekend and see how they go. Wish me luck! And that reminds me that I need to go buy embroidery thread. It's always something.
Well, I think that's all the news for now. I did this in two sittings, so I have no idea if I captured all I wanted to when I started. :-p Hope everyone is well - drop a note on my Facebook wall if you want to check in. I haven't had much time for Facebook since we got back from vacation, so I'm not up to date on how you all are doing.
Blessings!
Kristin
Hi, Everyone! I've got lots to talk about since it's been a long while, but I'll try to break it up into bite-sized pieces for you.
The most exciting thing that's happened since I wrote last is vacation! We went back to Binghamton, NY at the beginning of August. We visited friends and family, saw the sights, and attended events. One of the events we attended was the SpiedieFest and Balloon Rally. We were right in the midst of the balloons when they launched, so we didn't miss too much. You can see a few of our pictures here. I bought a wire-wrapped pendant from a vendor there, and saw another vendor who I thought was cool. Visit Kathy at artworkbykd.etsy.com. She does great things with recycled materials, and even her business cards are on recycled material. I saw a pair of Diet Coke earrings that I maybe should have bought. They were heart-shaped dangles and were really cool. I just wasn't sure I'd wear them. Seriously, though - check out her shop.
The main reason we went is because my friend of 17 years was having her wedding reception. They got married in June in a family ceremony, and had a reception in August for all their rowdy friends. ;-) It was great to meet Kim's husband and his two boys (we had private visit time earlier in the week). The reception was fun, the food was great, and it was wonderful to see people I hadn't seen since I moved to Seattle. Thanks, Kim and Don, for a great party, and congratulations!! Love ya!
Another visit that I have to mention was to long time friend Verna. We've known each other since elementary school and had never sat down and had an adult visit. It was great sharing about what our lives looked like these days and she was a very gracious hostess. Thanks, Verna!
We also had a visit with my brother and his wife of almost 3 years (whom we'd not met). We'd also not met their two-year-old daughter, my littlest niece. She kept us entertained on her hobby horse, in the pool, and out for ice cream.
Other activities included a visit with my aunt and uncle, my friends Dale and Mary, eating local food, a local art walk, going to a minor league baseball game, and going to calling hours / visitation for someone I used to go to church with. I was apprehensive about going because I knew I would run into people that I didn't want to run into. But, Thank you Lord, the whole thing was uneventful as far as that was concerned. I got to talk to the widow for a little while - we used to be good friends before I moved away. It was good to see her again - I just wish it had been under better circumstances.
Now that we're back home, we've been busy with work and other things. We just finished a book group at church, I'm back to my workout routine (kinda), and life is hectic once again. I have an event coming up - I have the opportunity to display and sell my jewelry for the month of September at the Curves where I work out. They have a "business member of the month" and it's made it around to my turn. I've known about this for many months - have I done anything to prepare? Not really. I've bought some displays, but I haven't made my poster or signage or anything. And there's a week left and I'm busy both days this weekend. Guess my nights are going to be pretty full for the next week. Tonight I'm going to put price tags on things and figure out my display, and hopefully figure out signage. Friday night maybe I'll work on the poster. I'm kind of writing off tomorrow since I'm working out, and I'm beyond exhausted and brain-fried by the time I work all day and then work out. Friday will be a better day (night). :-)
September promises to be busy for us - we've got something on the calendar every weekend already. How does that happen? Maybe October will be mellower - there are five weekends and no holidays (unless you count Halloween falling on a Sunday). I guess I'm going to have to get up the gumption to get things done on the weeknights in September. I usually save hobby things for the weekends, but that's not working for September - except for....
... QUILT RETREAT! Yes, it's that time again!! In two weeks I'll be madly trying to figure out what to work on in preparation for retreat. I have a project I want to do, but it involves machine embroidery and my embroidery has been behaving badly lately, so we'll see. I'm hoping to run a couple test projects Labor Day weekend and see how they go. Wish me luck! And that reminds me that I need to go buy embroidery thread. It's always something.
Well, I think that's all the news for now. I did this in two sittings, so I have no idea if I captured all I wanted to when I started. :-p Hope everyone is well - drop a note on my Facebook wall if you want to check in. I haven't had much time for Facebook since we got back from vacation, so I'm not up to date on how you all are doing.
Blessings!
Kristin
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Another month goes by.....
... without an update from me. You all are probably used to it. ;-) I've been in a funk over the last month (except for my birthday, which I'll talk about later). I haven't felt like doing anything, and for the most part, I haven't.
I did manage to get some things sewn and some jewelry made, but haven't gotten around to taking the pictures to list them in my Etsy store. The great news is that I did sell three of my purse organizers to one of my friends! YAY! I do hope they sell on Etsy, too, along with the wine charms I've been making. I need to stock up on things because in September I'm doing a month-long display at the Curves I belong to for the Business Member of the Month. I also have to get signage and display stuff done, preferably before the last minute.
So the highlight of the time since you heard from me was my birthday! Usually it's a rather ordinary day, but a couple of my coworkers found out about it and decorated my cube. I've worked in the same place for years and no one has cared before - I was even going to pay for my own cake for my birthday - but they did a great job decorating and brought me a cake. Chocolate with chocolate frosting! YUM!!!! I was really touched that they went to that effort for little old me. :-) I got some great gifts from friends and family, and had dinner out at my favorite restaurant.
I also signed up for retreat in September, so I have to figure out projects to work on between now and then. ;-) I do have a project that I didn't get to at the May retreat... maybe I'll try to work on that. Or bind these quilts that I had quilted but aren't bound yet. Ugh. I'm so lazy. Or maybe it's all the blind hand stitching I know I'll have to do. Yeah, we'll blame the hand stitching. ;-)
In other news, we have our vacation plans in order, the pet sitter scheduled, and a new suitcase bought that hopefully won't go over the weight limit like our big one does. *rolls eyes* I'm hoping that the less we can take, the less the suitcase will weigh. I'm also more confident that the slightly smaller suitcase will fit in the Aveo we're renting where the big suitcase very well might not fit in the trunk. All these details!
Well, that's about all the news I have for now. "Talk" to you next month (I hope!)! :-)
Blessings,
Kristin
I did manage to get some things sewn and some jewelry made, but haven't gotten around to taking the pictures to list them in my Etsy store. The great news is that I did sell three of my purse organizers to one of my friends! YAY! I do hope they sell on Etsy, too, along with the wine charms I've been making. I need to stock up on things because in September I'm doing a month-long display at the Curves I belong to for the Business Member of the Month. I also have to get signage and display stuff done, preferably before the last minute.
So the highlight of the time since you heard from me was my birthday! Usually it's a rather ordinary day, but a couple of my coworkers found out about it and decorated my cube. I've worked in the same place for years and no one has cared before - I was even going to pay for my own cake for my birthday - but they did a great job decorating and brought me a cake. Chocolate with chocolate frosting! YUM!!!! I was really touched that they went to that effort for little old me. :-) I got some great gifts from friends and family, and had dinner out at my favorite restaurant.
I also signed up for retreat in September, so I have to figure out projects to work on between now and then. ;-) I do have a project that I didn't get to at the May retreat... maybe I'll try to work on that. Or bind these quilts that I had quilted but aren't bound yet. Ugh. I'm so lazy. Or maybe it's all the blind hand stitching I know I'll have to do. Yeah, we'll blame the hand stitching. ;-)
In other news, we have our vacation plans in order, the pet sitter scheduled, and a new suitcase bought that hopefully won't go over the weight limit like our big one does. *rolls eyes* I'm hoping that the less we can take, the less the suitcase will weigh. I'm also more confident that the slightly smaller suitcase will fit in the Aveo we're renting where the big suitcase very well might not fit in the trunk. All these details!
Well, that's about all the news I have for now. "Talk" to you next month (I hope!)! :-)
Blessings,
Kristin
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Retreat report and other things
Hi, all!
It’s been almost two weeks since retreat, and I haven’t posted an update yet. Mostly because I was waiting until I wasn’t so lazy about posting pictures. ;-) The pictures are now posted and can be found at my Picasa site and the individual links are in the paragraphs below.
There were a few bumps in the road (as happens when you have six women in close proximity) but overall the retreat was good. Here's a picture of our retreat space and my station.
I finished a purse that I had started a while ago but was waiting for machine embroidery on the outside pocket, which Mom and I got done with on Friday before we left. YAY!
I started and finished a quilt top for my couch time. The pattern ended up being a little different than I had planned, so it got longer until it was symmetrical top to bottom (I have a “thing” about balance). So it’s about 48”x88” (long and narrow) and will be great for being under on the couch. I’m contemplating doing some machine embroidery in the white spaces before I have it quilted.
I started and finished a purse from a new pattern I got - it’s a little more fussy than a similar purse I have a pattern for, but I really like how it turned out. I started cutting for another purse from the same pattern Sunday before we left, but didn’t get all the fabric cut and haven’t touched it since. I’m planning on finishing that at sew day on Saturday.
I bought another purse pattern (can you sense an addiction here?) last Saturday when Mom and I were out, and I’m hoping to try that soon, too. I have really nice fabric that I’m going to use, and hope that it all turns out since it will be the first time I’ve made the pattern. It’s not THAT much different than the ones I’ve been making, so I should be okay. I hope. Since I’m using my “good” fabric. ;-)
Last Saturday included trips to a Gee-Gee’s quilt shop, Shipwreck Beads, and a consignment shop. I dropped money all three places. ;-)
Since I got back from retreat I’ve been pretty much a tired slug. The week right after I was out almost every night of the week (including Sew Fun where I showed my retreat treasures at show and tell) and then this week I’ve just been a slug and not felt like doing anything. I can’t even get a few pictures uploaded, let alone work on anything fabric or bead related. I’m hoping our little sew day on Saturday will get me in the mood to do more sewing or beading or something besides being on the couch. I haven’t felt like I’ve been getting enough sleep, even though I’ve been working to get more sleep at night.
This weekend if our plans stay, Sunday I’m going to a paper arts festival with my friend Kelli. She has free passes, so why not? I usually don’t stamp or scrapbook unless I’m at a friend’s house for that purpose - I have too many distractions in my craft room. But it’ll be fun to see all the new trends and maybe pick up a few things for future projects. I’ve been working (slowly but surely) on an album of pictures of my late grandmother. The first few layouts I did were really good, and then the ones I’ve done recently have been less than impressive. It’s hard to scrap at someone else’s house because I don’t have all my stuff, yet I won’t do it when I’m at home. *sigh* I can’t win. ;-)
More news and pictures as they become available! Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Kristin
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thinkin' about RETREAT!!!
About this time tomorrow, I should be getting my sewing machine and other things settled in at the quilting retreat. YAY! Sleep, eat, and sew for 48 hours. Well, 46 hours once you take out the set up and tear down time. ;-) I've been to this venue before, and the scenery and meals are fabulous! My Mom and my friend Wendy will also be going, so I'll have someone I know to talk to as well as being able to meet new people.
I have a quilt (lap size) that I plan on making, and hopefully I'll have enough room on the floor for my "design wall" since I don't know 100% yet how I'm going to lay out the blocks. I'm PRETTY sure I know where I'm going with it, but you never know until you get the fabrics and blocks together how it's going to look. Unless you use Electric Quilt. But that's too much work for me in this case. ;-)
If I have time left over after I get the lap quilt top done, I'm going to either start on a wall hanging (if I can remember what fabrics go where for the block) or make some more purses. I bought a new pattern the other day that's a lot like the Thimbleberries purse (see Purse mania) but it is a little bigger and doesn't have outside pockets. My struggle now is to figure out what fabric I want to use for it out of the many purse fabrics I've purchased lately. ;-) I'm also wondering how many projects I should take. More purses? Different purses? Purse organizers? I don't want to have nothing to do at any given point in time. It's always hard to know how long things are going to take. The quilt I'm doing is a pretty straightforward block, so it shouldn't take me the whole weekend. The wall hanging could take me the whole weekend to figure out my notes and where I was going with it! But it could also frustrate me greatly, and then I'd need something else to work on.
I also have a wallet in work that I might have to take with me to finish up. I'm pretty sure I won't get it done tonight before I need to start packing up for retreat (I haven't even started packing yet). I also want to try the machine embroidery thing on my backpack pocket. Oh, I didn't tell you that story! I got my old XP laptop and Janome to talk, so I tried out a machine embroidery design last weekend, with the Queen of Machine Embroidery (Mom) by my side. The thread broke. And broke. And broke. Adjustment A. Broke. Adjustment B. Broke. On and on to about Adjustment M. I finally after the fourth hooping got the design to stitch with only one thread breakage. So I'm going to try it on real fabric tomorrow when Mom's around and see if it cooperates. I wrote down all the adjustments we made (tension, thread cone position, needle, room temperature, planetary alignment....), so we'll see how it goes. If that goes well, I can finish up that backpack at retreat, too.
I think that's all the news I have for now... I've just been looking forward to retreat for the last couple of days and wanted to let you in on the ramblings in my head about it. ;-) I'll report after I get back, and hopefully have some pictures. The camera is on my list, but will I remember I have it with me??
Blessings,
Kristin
I have a quilt (lap size) that I plan on making, and hopefully I'll have enough room on the floor for my "design wall" since I don't know 100% yet how I'm going to lay out the blocks. I'm PRETTY sure I know where I'm going with it, but you never know until you get the fabrics and blocks together how it's going to look. Unless you use Electric Quilt. But that's too much work for me in this case. ;-)
If I have time left over after I get the lap quilt top done, I'm going to either start on a wall hanging (if I can remember what fabrics go where for the block) or make some more purses. I bought a new pattern the other day that's a lot like the Thimbleberries purse (see Purse mania) but it is a little bigger and doesn't have outside pockets. My struggle now is to figure out what fabric I want to use for it out of the many purse fabrics I've purchased lately. ;-) I'm also wondering how many projects I should take. More purses? Different purses? Purse organizers? I don't want to have nothing to do at any given point in time. It's always hard to know how long things are going to take. The quilt I'm doing is a pretty straightforward block, so it shouldn't take me the whole weekend. The wall hanging could take me the whole weekend to figure out my notes and where I was going with it! But it could also frustrate me greatly, and then I'd need something else to work on.
I also have a wallet in work that I might have to take with me to finish up. I'm pretty sure I won't get it done tonight before I need to start packing up for retreat (I haven't even started packing yet). I also want to try the machine embroidery thing on my backpack pocket. Oh, I didn't tell you that story! I got my old XP laptop and Janome to talk, so I tried out a machine embroidery design last weekend, with the Queen of Machine Embroidery (Mom) by my side. The thread broke. And broke. And broke. Adjustment A. Broke. Adjustment B. Broke. On and on to about Adjustment M. I finally after the fourth hooping got the design to stitch with only one thread breakage. So I'm going to try it on real fabric tomorrow when Mom's around and see if it cooperates. I wrote down all the adjustments we made (tension, thread cone position, needle, room temperature, planetary alignment....), so we'll see how it goes. If that goes well, I can finish up that backpack at retreat, too.
I think that's all the news I have for now... I've just been looking forward to retreat for the last couple of days and wanted to let you in on the ramblings in my head about it. ;-) I'll report after I get back, and hopefully have some pictures. The camera is on my list, but will I remember I have it with me??
Blessings,
Kristin
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