Taking A Break

I am in the middle of getting another post ready but you know what? I don't feel like doing this anymore. I haven't really felt like blogging for a long time. I kept at it though because I thought eventually I would get back into it but that's not happening. After I lost my license and quit my job, reading blogs and posting stuff here, along with all my stupid little craft projects, was what kept me from going completely insane. But it's been three years now and I'm still not back to driving or back to work. I pretty much have no life whatsoever. During the month of September, I only left the house for a trip to the ER. The incision from my foot surgery was infected so I spent the night in the hospital. That was actually a nice change from my usual day-today. In October, my big outing was to see a doctor. I didn't leave the house at all in November, except to take a long walk around my neighborhood. I had to get out of the house that day so I wouldn't sit on my bed and just scream at the top of my lungs which is what I felt like doing at the time. And what I feel like doing now. But instead of screaming, I'm going to bed. So this is my last post for awhile. I'll come back after things change and I feel better. And when pigs fly. :P

(My apologies if this was your first visit to my blog.)

I Got Nothing Except A TUSAL Report

I do believe I've used "I Got Nothing" as a title once before.

Remember that cheer that went "N-O-T-H-I-N-G, that's what [insert name of opposing team] means to me"? Well, I am chanting the N-O-T-H-I-N-G part right now. I had hoped to have something that I had finished this week to share today but I got nothing. My reindeer is all cross-stitched but I still need to turn him into something and I'm still working on that garland that I took apart and was re-doing.

If you'd like to see what others have finished this week, check out Finished for Friday over at Lit and Laundry. And, please join in next week (that's me talking to myself).

Oh, crap. I just realized two things: 1.) you really can't type and eat cheese puffs at the same time and 2.) Friday is the New Moon so time to share a picture of my TUSAL ort jar. Where's my camera...

...so I just took this photo now and it's night time but I turned off the flash so it's not that bad. I give you my brand new ort jar, started on January 5th, for the 2010 Totallty Useless Stitch-A-Long:

See that piece of dark yarn in there? I really should take that out since it came off a sweater I was wearing. All that ecru floss is from when I took my garland apart and also from blanket stitching felt circles for the new version. You can't see it here but there's also some pale pink floss in the jar from cross stitching the reindeer chart.

When I was posing my jar on the bed for its photo shoot, I noticed it has "Don't Forgetta the Mezzetta" in raised letters on the glass. Before I volunteered it to hold my orts, my jar was full of either peperoncini, cherry peppers, banana wax peppers, or that caulifower-carrot mixture from Mezzetta. (I eat them all.) (In fact, I wish I had a cherry pepper right now.)

If you would like to join the TUSAL over at Dragon My Needle, go to the sign-up page and leave some comments.

And, I am off to find that cherry pepper.

How About Some Links to Some Freebies

Is Friday the New Moon or is it Saturday? Whichever it is, I have to remember to take a picture of my ort jar for the TUSAL before then so I can post it.

Bustle and Sew has the cutest hedgehog & turtle embroidery pattern for Valentine's day [via One Pretty Thing].

It's been awhile since I visited LaGattaC, a blog for links to free cross stitch charts . Most of the freebies are on blogs written in languages other than English, but when it comes to cross stitch, that doesn't matter all that much. And if you have to translate something, there's always Google translate.

There's a monthly Postcard Stitch-A-Long on Les grilles de Maryse. The January chart and floss list is on this post (English translation here). Some day I plan to stitch the 2007 Country Houses SAL (in English). Because I want to see pigs fly.

Stofnest is a Dutch blog with several free charts (monochromatic sampler type) that I really like. According to Google, Stofnest means Nest Material.

Over on TipNut, are two embroiderered potholder patterns of a sugar bowl and a creamer.

Look at this cute Quadropus made from a glove on Family Fun (that's an octopus with only four arms) [via One Pretty Thing].

Don't freak out but I may actually have something to share for Finished for Friday over at Lit and Laundry this week. I finished x-stitching my little reindeer and now just have to figure out what to do with him next.

My Half Finished Garland

I take the crappiest pictures. They're usually out of focus, even though I use my camera's macro and super macro settings. Sometimes I hit auto-fix once I upload them but most of the time I leave them as is. But I have to say I really like the photo in my blog header. Which brings me to my new garland:

Well, that's what it looked like before I took it apart. After I saw the photo I used in my banner, I decided to blanket stitch pairs of felt circles together, and then turn the pairs into a garland. By the way, the colors are a little off in that picture. Some of the circles are more blue and not so purple-y.

My garland was inspired by the tutorial on The Purl Bee, except I did not use invisible thread -- I have no idea why but I have a whole spool of it and it reminded me way too much of thin, blond strands of hair and that was kind of creepy so I just didn't use it. And I was too impatient to backstitch all the way across each circle so I just stitched a big X to attach them to one another. I figured the garland would be hanging up high so no one would see the X's. But now that I'm in the mood to do some blanket stitching, so much for the big X's. The Purl Bee garland was for New Year's so hopefully I'll finish mine by next January.

How cute are these decoupaged hangers over at Mod Podge Rocks? I also found out that every Sunday, there will be a giveaway of a Mod Podge Starter Set over there. It's too late to enter the one for this week but I'm writing myself a note as a reminder to get in on the next one.

Speaking of Mod Podge, there's a tutorial for covering tins with fabric on Think Crafts that I want to try. (It was written by Amy of Mod Podge Rocks.) I have a few tins that I wanted to cover in some way, plus I have a bunch of containers from The Republic of Tea that I have been saving because I'm insane. I need to get them out of the cupboard (I need the room!) and do something with them, like cover them with fabric.

Embroideroo shows you how to make a cute strawberry pincushion from fabric and felt. [Link via Tip Nut.] I'd like to make one of these too.

Of Course I'm Out Of Toner

I'm linking to the free artwork at Feed Your Soul because I want to print out a few of them but my printer is currently out of toner so I have to wait until we get some more and I need a reminder or else I'll forget all about it.

I also want to print out the adorable free 2010 calendar at Non dairy Diary

File this under Christmas: Over at What Katie Does is a link to a set of holiday patterns that you could use for embroidery or to stitch cards, like Katie did.

I did a little blog house cleaning last night and was reminded of two Stitch-A-Longs that I never finished in 2008 so I've sent emails to the bloggers in charge and asked to join them again. For both SAL's, you x-stitch an ornament according to the monthly theme, although I believe you can pretty much use any design you want. One is the Bride's Tree SAL (I completed three ornaments for that one) and the other is the Christmas Ornament SAL (I finished four of those). And since I already did January, February, March and an August ornament, I can start two Aprils now and have them all done before May hits. I hope.

By the way, I began a cute little reindeer cross stitch right before Xmas and I had just about finished with his head when I realized my count was really off. I tried removing the incorrect stitches, and since they were done in a deep red floss, they left marks on my Aida I decided I would stitch a background to cover them up. Then I got bored ripping out my mistakes so I just started the whole thing again. And when I finished cross stitching little Blitzen, I decided to add a background. Because I'm nuts. I'm still working on that as of today. I only went three X's out from the edge of the reindeer but it's taking me forever to get it done. Then again, I do have until next December to turn him into an ornament.

Mollie at Wild Olive has posted a cute embroidery freebie for January, the Perplexed Stump. And January's free pattern at Bad Birds is up too (it's squirrels).

I love that Blogger's Spellchecker tells me that bloggers is misspelled. They suggest I use loggers or floggers. It considers blogger a real word. Just don't make it plural.

The TUSAL 2010

Last March, I joined the TUSAL -- Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long -- over at Dragon My Needle. Once a month, on the New Moon, you were supposed to post a photo of your orts jar. (Orts as in thread ends or anything else leftover from your stitching projects.) Since I didn't keep up with it -- I only posted pictures through July and then fell off the wagon for some reason -- I was happy to see there will be a TUSAL for 2010.

You can join any time throughout the year but the first New Moon is on January 16th so why not register now? Go to the Sign Up post and leave some comments to let Yoyo know you'd like to participate in the 2010 TUSAL. If you'd like more information on the TUSAl, check out the rules on this post.

I think I ended up with two ort jars last year and I am ready to start a new one. New jar and new TUSAL: perfect timing.

And I am going to keep up with posting the monthly pictures no matter what. (Stop snickering, MaryBT.)