Monday, June 27, 2011

Panda...

Here are the characters I'm going to digitize and sew out for a quilt for the baby. I digitized the monkey this weekend but didn't have time to sew it out.
I finished the panda and it's shown below.
I think I know what I'm going to do with the lion but it's a bit vague in my brain. Sometimes I don't know what I'll do until I'm actually in the process of doing it.
This is why I do a sew out. Look between his eyes. I didn't get the fabric flat enough and he looks like he's been hit in the head and has a bump there. Hahahaha!

The bear went to the vet and it turns out she didn't have an anal gland rupture. Are you ready for this? I looks like a foxtail went in one side of her thigh and worked its way out the other. Ewwww....ouch and ick.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Stressful Friday.

Yesterday was very stressful so I thought I'd start out with this little guy who was standing on the back lawn staring at me in the office. Sorry it isn't a sharp picture but I had to take it through the glass door and screen. He took off seconds after shooting this. What a beauty!

Are ya seeing why I don't have plants in the yard? And they've taken to eating the back lawn so it's almost gone. I told Dave we should look into fake lawn for that spot.

Yesterday was very stressful. D showed up at work very upset, he quit his new job. Turns out the owner was a Jekyl and Hyde. He was a yeller who talked down to you and made you feel stupid. D figured he got enough of that crap at Home Depot, he didn't need it 40 hours a week.

He was so upset it broke my heart. The good/bad news is, he didn't quit HD. He told them he'll work weekends. I think he's going to leave it that way for a little while because he's got a summer job working on the neighbors yard and rebuilding their deck and now our friend in Australia wants us to find 10 cars for him. So, we'll have a little income coming in and he'll keep busy. He's still looking for a full time job so keep your ears open.
This is where I work. I'm supposed to be at the front desk in the mornings but the girl who is to be covering the afternoons has been training on her new job and hasn't made it out there yet. I've been covering full time for 4 weeks now so the work in my cubicle has been piling up. Literally. My boss said she put some filing on the stack I had sitting there and it fell over so she started a second pile. Friday I noticed there's a third stack now.

She's been fabulous about my falling behind and knows I'll catch up once my afternoon replacement can step in and help. It's just my cubicle is always current and clean, so she's not used to seeing me fall behind but knows I can't be two places at once.
If you always wondered what's behind that reception desk, here it is. Not much to see. Although Friday I took out the rinky dink little cabinet on the left and put in a locking two drawer file cabinet. Sometimes Janeen and I need to work on something confidential so I figured a locking cabinet made sense. So this area is much more organized and cleaner now.
This is the reception area for guests. It's a bit sparse and I've been promised a nice coffee table to fill in the space but it's not appeared yet. Friday I switched the plants around so the big one is on the left away from the window. It keeps stopping the curtains from raising and lowering. And, it's getting burned from the sun.
This has got to be one of the prettiest parking lots to view. During the winter when the trees didn't have leaves, I had a view of the hills. It was beautiful. Now if you don't like gross stuff, don't look any farther than the picture below.
This is another view of outside my window.
This is the bear's butt. She had an anal gland rupture Friday. D didn't notice it. He had dealt with Nissie getting a foxtail up her nose and a trip to the vet which also resulted in her getting her teeth cleaned and 4 pulled. A $600 visit. CRAP!

Anyway, the bear hasn't been feeling very well. She went to the vet a week ago and we thought it was a tumor or pulled muscle or arthritus. Good news, it wasn't a tumor! Bad news, she has two huge holes in her poor tush. I called the vet last night just before 6 when I got home and noticed it. She said to put hot compresses on it and bring her in this morning at 8:40. The bear is loving the hot compresses. I took this picture a few minutes ago avoiding making you have to look in the big holes. She looks like she's been shot in the butt with an arrow and it was a through and through. Last night it was much more swollen and uglier.

Well, speaking of the vet. I've got to go get the dog and get out of here. I am so glad Friday is over!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

A Good Friday!

Yesterday morning, the Bear couldn't stand to eat her breakfast. I had to hold her right hindquarters up and balance her. She's been having trouble walking and it's been getting worse. D had the day off so he was assigned taking her to the vet in the morning.

I took this picture of her sleeping before I left for work knowing D would have to put her down. I was angry with her because we'd had a conversation that she would just go to sleep and not wake up instead of making us decide when to end her life.

D took her to the vet and Dr. Dowd came up with three conclusions. 1. She pulled a muscle jumping. 2. Arthritis. 3. A tumor.

She gave D some meds and said if it was the muscle or arthritis she would feel better in a few hours. He said within an hour she was walking more and without the stiffness. So when I came home, there she was trying to jump around while greeting me.

Yep, she's still slow but now much more comfortable than before. She never showed or acted like she was in pain, just slow. So the Bear will be with awhile longer. Sigh.....
At 4:30 yesterday a delivery came to the office. I was at the front desk and said, "Oh...for me?" and laughed. The guy said, "If you're Patricia Ward, they're for you." I was shocked! My husband sent me flowers.

When I got pregnant with both kids, I sent him flowers in ceramic cradles announcing the arrival of a new baby. This is what he sent me.
Yes, you read it right. He got a job! He starts Monday and didn't have any problem going to Home Depot and telling them he can't work Monday through Friday anymore. He's still going to work weekends when they'll give them to him because the extra money certainly won't hurt.

The timing is perfect because they've cut his hours down to almost nothing. He actually isn't working this weekend at all so he's got time to bone up on QuickBooks.

Last weekend I put an ad on CL saying "Hire My Husband Please!!!!!" Then I proceeded to be honest and give his good and bad points. I got several responses, some were scams and some were jobs you wouldn't do no matter how destitute you were.

Then one interesting response came in and the guy said he thought my ad was a joke until he continued to read it and found I was serious. He's the President and CEO of a small company in Hercules with a staff of 12. Most of which are traveling salesmen. This is the 3rd company he's bought. He's looking for someone to start out as grunt and bookkeeper who could eventually turn into the CFO and Comptroller. He loved D's qualifications and the fact that he's "Mature".

He'd tried younger people and they turned out to be unreliable, flakes and didn't like talking to customers. The President is 64 and was looking for someone "Mature" and with business experience but never thought he'd find someone of D's caliber because of being a struggling 2 year old business.

Anyway, D went for the interview and they hit it off along with the second in command who is young (35ish). The youngster was afraid of D's ego and asked him about it. His response was, "I don't have one". Dude, he's an ex VP mucky muck working at Home Depot! Hahahahaha!

Anyway, he'll be doing lots of stuff including cleaning along with his bookkeeping duties. He knows it's a young business and everyone has to pull together to do what has to get done even if it's sweeping the warehouse.

D loves the idea that it sounds like the company I work for in its infancy. Which is exactly what he was looking for.

Also, it turns out the President used to live on our road and my kids used to play with his son. So there was an immediate connection because they kinda knew each other. You know, not as friends but neighbors who'd wave and talk once in awhile.

So....it's a great weekend. The dog is alive and comfortable and my husband is employed. They'll discuss salary Monday which won't be anything like the bank but the opportunity to contribute to a company that already has a bright future is exciting for D. Also, he has the impression he'll make about what I make (maybe more) which will definitely cover the house and car payments. But most of all, he'll be using his brain again. I can't wait to watch him flourish and his self esteem improve.

So...today we're going to the neighbors where D. is fixing their sprinkler system and rebuilding their deck for extra cash. So I'd better hush up now and head next door to give him a hand. We're marking and moving sprinkler heads today. Whoopie!


Sunday, June 12, 2011

First Attempt.....

Well, it's time to start the grandchild's quilt. I haven't decided how large to make it yet. I need to figure that out pretty soon. This is my first attempt at converting a cartoon into an embroidered applique.

At first I was going to do the entire hippo as embroidery but that's a ton of stitches so I decided to applique the design and embroider the details. This is my first sample. You'll notice I used weird colors, that so it's easy for me to see the stitches and detail so I can decide what and how to change it.

First off, the scan came out weird. The design is on lighter purple and is a flat solid color. Actually, I like the washed out colors on this and now either need to add embroidery to highlight more areas or see if I can 'stone wash' the fabric so it's faded here and there like the scan.

Next all the black outline will be a shade darker than the purple of the fabric so it'll blend and contrast at the same time.

I know you can't tell but each hoof nail is a different stitch. I think I've decided on satin stitch that split for each nail and going different directions so it stands out. I'm not sure if I'll outline it though. If I do, it might look clunky instead of outlined. Thread does that, ya know.....

It was a bit of a pain basing the fabric then cutting around the hippo while it's still in the hoop and putting it back in the machine for the rest of the sewout. I'm thinking I might want to do an outline of the hippo, cut it out, do another outline of the hippo on the quilt block, then glue the hippo on and do the sew out that way. I'm thinking that might be faster and have cleaner edges.

All this work and it's just one out of, I think S had 12 different characters she wanted done. I believe the monkey and panda will be the most work and fun at the same time.

Well, back to working on the little hippo and watching old episodes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on Hulu. There are distinct advantages of having two computers on one desk. LOL!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

This is for Peggy...

Peggy and I were talking about computers when we were working a couple of weekends ago and I mentioned D had a cube. She couldn't get a picture of it in her head. Anyway Peggy, here it is. It's the one on top. It's 6.5" x 6.5" x 2".

The thing it's sitting on is an external hard drive. His computer automatically backs up everything if you attach it to an outside hard drive. Then if his computer ever crashes, he has everything safe and sound in a secondary location. I upgraded my computer to Snow Leopard so now mine will automatically back up to an outside source too.
That goofy looking wire thing is a base he made for my beautiful black lamp. I could have killed him for modifying my lamp. Anyway, he thinks it's great because he has his computer goodies under the lamp.

Both of our computers will run Windows but for now we'll use the PC's for that and keep the Macs free of the bugs associated with it. I'm letting the person I take digitizing lessons from experiment with using Windows on her iMac for her work. In the beginning she said it was a nightmare and now it's settled down. Once she gives the, 'go ahead', I might venture into doing an occasional design on the Mac using Windows.

So there ya go, Peggy. That's a Macintosh Cube.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Saturday was soooo busy!

Last weekend I went to my best friend's house and helped her make some sense of her office area. It took us all day but it was beautiful before I left.

When I came home I got a bug to start working on my sewing room but was too pooped to do it so I did it Saturday. Ya know things are a mess but have a tendency of leaving that room so you don't have to deal with it.

I'm ashamed to say this is my hooping stations before I started.
Dang it feels so much better to have this area nice and clean.
My hoops which I should lovingly take care of because they're expensive were all over the place.
Now they're where they belong and all but one heater is put away for the season.
If Babylock saw this, they'd take my machines away. The upside is, nowhere in this room will you find food or food wrappers. I keep food and liquids away from the machines.
I need to take machine #1 in to get fixed. The threads keep pulling out of the needles or breaking. I'm putting it off because it'll be expensive.
My desk was in pretty good shape. I'd moved the laptop into the closet a couple of weeks ago so I can get into the left drawers in my desk. It's a much better set up.
I cleared off the top shelf of the bookcase and now can put the important digitizing disks where I can get them in a pinch.
Nissie is such a smart cookie. I moved her box and she immediately found it and went potty. What a good girl!
When I finished working the sun was going down but before it got dark, I was met with this beautiful rainbow. What a nice finish to a very exhausting day.

And then came Sunday!

After working my butt off Saturday, I thought I'd take it easy and work on some quilt squares for the new baby quilt. I walked into the office and got hit with the bug from the day before.

I had boxes of computer stuff all over from trying to find a cat5 cable the week before.
I know you think the closet is just as messy but really there's a madness to it. I moved the eBay and CL stuff to the bottom and the computer stuff to the top. Now I know what to sell and what not to. Ya have to look real close to see the difference.
Nuttie has been upset because she couldn't get to her chair. She'd whine and we'd have to lift her over the crap.
Now she can either nap in the chair or her little bed on the floor. What's funny is she'll continue to take the big chair while the Bear sleeps in that tiny bed. I'll have to take a picture of that someday.
Now out of fairness, some of these papers came from the sewing room yesterday.
I swear I either filed them or tossed them in the garbage/shredder. I do have a tiny stack that needs file folders made for them. Maybe tomorrow I'll do that.
The chair is covered with Class Reunion stuff and the floor is taxes and medical expenses I've been dreading putting away.
Look ma! The taxes are filed and that box in the back is the Class Reunion stuff.
Unlike yesterday I didn't have a beautiful rainbow to look at when I finished working my fingers to the bone. Nope it rained and the winds were like winter. It blew a ton of leaves off the trees and looked like fall.
I just love how this branch decided to get stuck in the crossbars of the gazebo. Looks a bit like holly doesn't it?

Well, I'm bushed and will now head to the family room and veg out for the rest of the evening. It was a tiring but definitely productive weekend.