This and That for the end of January

Well January wraps up at the end of the week and I'm not quite sure what happened to the month.  Work has been crazy trying to close up the books for December and then doing all the additional year end stuff plus the tax reports that need to go out to the investors before we start the whole process closing the monthly books again at the end of the week.  I feel like I'm about three days behind with everything!

I've managed to get to the gym regularly this past two weeks and I'm starting to see a drop off from all the people who started at the beginning of the year with their new years resolutions.  I can find a parking spot, get my favorite machine, and not wait for the dressing room again.  Yay!

I started working on one of the Valentine Trifles by Shepherds Bush this week.  I bought most of the stuff for it when I went up to the shop a few weeks ago.  I'm using the called for flosses and fabrics and I've already managed to get off a stitch.  I stared at that last 'e' for quite a while before deciding I was just going to go with it.

The color is a bit off since the project is on a blue table cloth.  The linen is really quite a bit whiter.  This one will turn out cute as can be.

It's time for the monthly Stitch from Stash report. For January I spent $24.90 and all of it was for the Valentine Trifles.  The pattern, the linen, and a couple of the flosses that I didn't have in my stash.  What's been hard is avoiding buying some beautiful kits that Herschners has had on sale.  So many pretty pansy kits that I want!

I'm back to trying to take a decent picture of my nails.  I've been feeling a bit valentinesie and so that's the theme I've rocked the past couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago I wore this pink princess of a combo:

The base it two coats of OPI's  Princesses Rule! which is a sheer shimmery polish.  I have two coats on and the demarcation line on my nails is visible.  I was impatient and spread it on a bit thick so I got bubbles as it dried.  I need to learn to be more patient.  On top of that I layered KBShimmer polish's Candy Cane Crush which is a mix of white and red hex and round polishes with some tiny gold flecks mixed in for good measure.  Sure it's a Christmas polish, but pink, red, and white is Valentines day.  Above is a slightly fuzzy/blurry pic with out the flash, below is a pic with the flash on.

Now this past week I went with a darker base polish and more glitter.  Well... maybe not as much glitter, but still!

The base coat is OPI's Ate Berries in the Canaries which is a nice creme polish. I put on two coats and like last week was not as patient as I should be and got some bubbles.  On top of that I layered Nicole by OPI's Love Your Life.  This polish was hard to use because all the hearts fall to the bottom.  I kept the bottle upside down all week and I still had to fish around for the hearts.  As a result the micro glitters weren't spread out evenly over the nail.  Still cute.  Above is the flashless pic, below is the flashfull pic.

Coming up in February I'm going to get to be a dresser for a local production of Les Miserable.  I'm very excited.  Although this means that I will get less sleep, less stitching, and less time at the gym.  I'll get paid a small amount and all that will go to my new fund for a down payment on a house.  Did I mention that I'm excited?

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Happy 2014

Happy 2014 everyone. I know about nearly two weeks late, but that's just how things seem to be going recently. I did spend some time on January 1st updating the tab that has my WIP's (aka the WIPocalypse/Turtle Trot tab) and I've updated the Lose to Cruise tab again. I'm still a chubby girl working to be less chubby.

I haven't been stitching as much as I'd like. Since I'm the Primary Secretary for my Ward I've been spending a bit of time making up the rolls and rosters, putting together the schedules for our teachers so they know which lesson to teach when, and other random minutia of keeping things organized. One thing that I'm excited about is our private facebook group that helps us keep in touch with the kids and their parents. It makes sending out reminders so much easier. I also started back working at the Temple on Saturday mornings. I've missed it while the Temple was closed for cleaning over the Holidays. It's nice to be back.

Work is cranking up with end of the year accounting stuff that needs to be done in addition to the usual list of things. I feel like I'm always about three days behind schedule, but so do all of my fellow accountants so I guess that means I'm not that far behind after all.

It was Crafty-Stitchy night with the girls this past week. LBH was working on making tons of white pom-pom balls from white yarn. Her youngest has a birthday coming up and he wants to have a snowball fight at part of the party. Since snow is not guaranteed, she was making the pom-poms. I worked away on the Holly & Hearts mystery sampler by Lizzie*Kate. I have discovered that I'm not a big fan of primitive alphabets. So I force myself to stitch a few letters and then I work on something else, and then a few more letters. Here is where I am at thus far.

I officially joined one SAL this year, it's the Stitch from Stash SAL run by Mel over at Epic Stitching. The deadline for joining has past, but you can click on the button there to the left to read all about it. The goal, of course, is to stitch from stash this year, but you can spend $25 a month on stitchy stuff. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I've already blown my allowance for January. LMS and I went to Shepherds Bush back on the 5th and I spotted their new Valentines pattern. So I picked up the pattern and some small cuts of fabric and a couple of flosses to stitch with. I came in just under the limit at $24.90. I think I'll have to wait until February before I can pick up the buttons that need to go on the pattern.

No new nail pictures for y'all. I did buy a few new polishes over the long silence, my favorite being a KBShimmer glitter polish for Christmas. When layered over a nice silver base it looks like I'm wearing Christmas on my fingers. I loved it. I'm a little bummed that I have to wait another 10 months before I can wear it again. With Valentines Day coming up, I'm thinking it'll be a lot of red, pink, and white on my nails. I don't know if I'll do pictures or not... I'm abysmal with nail photos.

Thank you so much for all the nice comments I've received from you all wondering where I've been. I've been here, just quieter than usual. I'll try to keep up the stitching and blogging this year. I can't believe my 3rd blogoversary was the other day... I guess really I blogged for 1 year, half of the second year, and maybe a third of the third year. It's not such a great pattern!

I think that's it for me for this evening. I hope the beginning of the year is going good for you as well as it has for me.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay