The Kat Gets Cross Eyed

We're moving!

2007-05-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

We have a new home on the web: http://www.katgetscrosseyed.com Please come check it out, update your bookmarks, yada yada yada. I realize it is a pain when a blog moves homes, but now we have our own website, so hopefully it will be easier to remember, plus it comes with more space and stuff!

I apologize for the inconvience. (Thank you Douglas Adams).

This just in

2007-05-10T15:05:00.000-05:00

The results of the Door Prize Patrol...

1st - Vickie M of LA

2nd - Regina D of NY

3rd - Claudia L of AR

Winners have been notified by email and will be recieving their prize packages soon.

For anyone interested, here is how the winners were chosen. First I counted up all the entries from the blog comments and email responses. There were 133. These were numbered in order received. Finally 3 random numbers were chosen. Since I am a computer geek, I wrote a short program (so technically, these are pseudo-random numbers):

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace myRandom
{
class Generator
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Random RandomClass = new Random();
Console.WriteLine("The first Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("The second Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("The third Winner is entry #{0}", RandomClass.Next(133));
Console.WriteLine("\nCongrats to all the Winners!!");
}
}
}

I took the numbers generated by the program and then matched them up to the entries.

Not much to report in other news. I have been under the weather and now my allergies are kicking up again. I'm stitching like crazy to get my model done; hopefully there won't be any more frogs in it. I finally managed to chart the next Snowfight dragon. I lost my original sketch for this and had to redo it. Things are about to hit a frantic pace in getting ready for TNNA at the end of the month.

Even Designers Get the Frogs

2007-04-30T09:29:00.000-05:00

Do you see the three sided square below?

Is it mocking me? It had been completely filled in. See the progression of circles below it? One circle managed to escape being stitched, throwing the whole thing off! Yes, this is a small bit of a new design I am working frantically to finish by the end of the month. When you are a designer, you suddenly have things like DEADLINES looming. So frog, I did, and restitching I am now doing. Other than that, things are going swimmingly. The design is fun to stitch - it is done all in an overdye, so it is fun to see how the colors land. It is a bit modernistic and abstract, but it will have a useful purpose. I hope that's not too mysterious, but I have to keep things under wraps until the June TNNA show.

Speaking of June, for those stitchers lucky enough to be in the Houston area, I will be teaching a class at 3 Stitches on June 21st in the evening. Actually, it is a presentation on "The Design Process", a glimpse into the secret life of a designer and how a design goes from idea to real chart.

There's still time to enter the Needlework Show doorprize drawing - I'll take entries up until the time that the Show officially closes. In fact, I've been so pleased reading all of the responses, I'll draw a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners (ok, they'll all be random winners, but I'll make the prizes varying sizes).

Combining Hobbies

2007-04-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

Proof that crafts can be done almost anywhere:

That is me knitting while waiting for the MS 150 to start. I wasn't biking this year, so I just had to carry stuff for my bicyclists. I had a little bag with me to carry yarn and an easy blanket project, so that I could fill the otherwise wasted time. The only difficulty was that it was a bit wet outside. At the top of the picture, that is the flash reflecting off of the mist in the air. The start of the bike ride was actually delayed by a rather heavy fog, which made it difficult for the cyclists to see very far. It also made it difficult for the yarn to slide through my fingers properly.

One of the newer Cross Eyed Kat designs had a bit of hobby cross-over as well. Kolya's Sampler took some scrapbooking lettering elements and incorporated them into the design. I thought, why stitch what is already available? Of course, the letters are fully charted in the chartpack if someone does want to stitch them. Nina's Sampler (coming this June), will be similar, but slightly different. I'm actually planning to use more of the stitchable fabric "buttons" which I can fully customize.

Keep your doorprize entries coming, I'm enjoying them all. The drawing will be at the end of the Needlework show and it will be a good one! If you have trouble posting in the comments, email me directly and I'll count that. Please try to post here first, though as I'm processing show orders. One entry per person!

The Stitches are Blowing in the Wind

2007-04-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

This weekend, model stitching went on the road. The MS 150 was going on again and I was roped into doing SAG support. For those not familiar with the technical biking terms. SAG is Support And Gear. The MS 150 from Houston to Austin is a bicycle ride that raises funds for the MS Society. This particular MS 150 ride is the largest in the nation with 13,000 riders (there would probably be more, but the registration is capped at that number). I have done the ride four times in the past.

We set out at 5:15 in the morning and saw the riders off, then headed out to the overnight campsite, where our other SAG buddies were putting up the tents. Once all the tents were up and the gear was unloaded, we waited for the cyclists to come in. The weather was nice, if a bit windy (note the parabola my floss is making):

I found out that it is quite tricky to stitch in windy weather, as you have to be careful not to get your stitches tangled.

I stitched, watched riders come in, we ate, we held the Aggie Muster (whoop!), ate some more, then we slept some much needed sleep. The next morning, it was up again at 5, to get the riders prepped and off by 7. Sunday, they would end up in Austin. Here is the stitching visiting the state capitol in Austin (note the bicyclists in the background).

Then we packed it all in and headed home, where Mocha was glad to see us.

On a separate note, there is much rejoicing as The Needlework Show reopens today. I am running a doorprize for consumers who visit the blog and the Needlework Show. Simply post in the comments what your favorite Cross Eyed Kat design is (although I'd love to also here why). After the show, I'll draw a winner from the comments and post the winner here!

Enjoy the show!

Crash!

2007-04-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

And that is the sound of thousands of needleworkers bringing an online wholesale show to the ground in a rush to register for...doorprizes. Yes, if you've tried to access the Needlework show that I talked about yesterday in the past 12 hours or so, you've probably had trouble. Apparently, many people rushed through the virtual open doors, and due to the new doorprize registration procedure, the servers got flooded with lots of requests, and thus the hosting servers believed they were under attack (which they sort of were, it just wasn't inherently malicious), and so the whole thing came apart. So the show is closed until it can be brought up again is a way that will stay up, but the good news is that because the show is virtual, it will go on! Yay!

So why was there a rush? Well, a bunch of vendors got together in a virtual way and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if people could register for a doorprize in my booth? That way, only people who actually like my designs would receive my doorprizes." Which sounds all fine and dandy, and the show code was changed so that visitors had to register on each vendors page for a doorprize, if one was offered. Except that the vendors forgot about the "Lure of the Free" and that people were apparently registering for doorprizes on every page without actually looking at what the vendor was offering - essentially dropping their names in the bucket and then running to the next virtual booth. So the system broke down and doorprizes have been suspended for now.

I find it ironic since the IRS/turbotax servers apparently also backed up with all of the people filing electronically at the last minute.

In other news, the canvas kitty cat is complete! Say that three times fast! Now to paint another one. Shops have to see the painted canvas to see how well your painting skills are - lines have to be straight, that sort of thing. I'm stitching on my other model and hoping to work on some other projects soon.

Busy busy busy

2007-04-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a hint at things to come:

It is a bit blurry, but that is what happens when you only have a webcam for picture taking. All I will say is that stitching hand painted canvas is evilly addictive and silk silk silk!

I have a picture of the tree growing, but forgot the camera cable, so you will have to imagine its exponential growth for a day or so. The plants have survived the past two weekends of weirdly, unimaginably, cold and rainy weather. I mean, really, who thinks that it might sleet in HOUSTON for Easter? Ok, it didn't, but it barely made it to 40 degrees the Saturday before.

Luckily with all of the cold weather, I have been getting down to crafting business! Yay! One new design out to the model stitchers, which will be a collaboration design with Dinky Dyes. Of course that means it uses silk! (Say it with me, silk silk silk). Two new colors and two existing colors. It was quite interesting to send instructions off to a model stitcher with an as yet unnamed color. "This symbol is stitched with the funky xyz color." Another design wrapped up for the very patient model stitcher who completed half of it and then waited for me to decide what I wanted the rest to look like. Sometimes creativity comes in spurts. I'm stitching on another model, and had an inspiration strike for another design. Meanwhile, I need to paint and I'd like to complete another experiment. Oh, and I have to get my teaching piece done, which will then be available as a design/kit. All of this before the end of May! Insanity will reign.

But I got my taxes done a week ago!

Oh, just wanted to remind everyone that the Needlework Show opens tonight! http://www.theneedleworkshow.com Stop in and have a look. Although I don't have much new for this show, ok, it all has been out before, you can take the chance to request your favorite designs from needleworks stores. I'm also showcasing stitching T-shirts and the "X Marks the Spot" design!

This is one show where your input can help tell the shop-owners where you think the industry should be going! Your opinions (and dollars) count! Do you want more designs that are the same old same old? Or new, cool, and innovative designs (like Cross Eyed Kat designs)? Obviously, I think we need more new, cool, and innovative designs, but that's my personal opinion. :) If you don't see some of your favorite CEK designs in my Needlework Show "booth", that's because we're limited to 20, and it is a tough choice. I tried to choose mostly newish designs and ones that aren't carried by the major distributors, with a couple of old favorites. Remember, that all CEK designs are available, just ask for them by name from your favorite needlework shop!

Enjoy the show!

Much sadness

2007-04-17T16:48:00.000-05:00

In the face of yesterday's tragedy, words fail me. I ask the question, "Why?" and find it unanswerable. I can only find hope in the innumerable bits of courage as people reached out to each other, professors tried to save students, and students did what they could for each other that humanity is greater than the rampaging few. It is amazing how interconnected our lives are on this little planet are. Here, 1000 miles away from Virginia, I have a co-worker, whose sister was in the building next to the tragedy. Luckily, his family is safe, but our lives are all touched.

Today we grieve.

I forgot to take a picture!

2007-04-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture!

Today I taught my first needlearts-related class and there is no photographic record! Well, it actually wasn't a class, it was more of a presentation. I presented "The Design Process" to The Woodlands chapter of the EGA. I had models, fabric samples, thread sample, drawings, charts and powerpoint. Hopefully I didn't say "ummm" too many times. I had a fabulous time doing the presentation, and I hope the ladies there had fun, too!

It has been a quiet week, blogwise, as I have been preparing for the presentation, getting the taxes done, and trying to wrap up some designs! My mom came to visit Easter weekend, and I dragged her to all the craft shops on Saturday (in the rain and cold) and Sunday after church we went to the Met exhibit at the MFAH, which was fabulous! http://www.mfah.org/main.asp?target=exhibition&par1=1&par2=1&par3=358 Lots of Monet, which I love, also some Degas, and a very powerful Van Gogh. Van Gogh paintings have to be seen in person, where you can feel the energy that it took to create them in the thickness of the brush-strokes. I sometimes contemplate how to capture this in needleart. Monday I finished up a new design and got it mailed off to the model stitcher on Tuesday. Wish her fast fingers so that we can see it in June! I'm also working on a model myself that I picked the colors out at my stitch-in on Thursday.

I still have a bit of design work to do - wrap up a border for one piece that's already being model stitched, and work on my teaching piece (which looks terrific in my head). Oh, and I have to get my booth together for the Needlework show. Still busy busy busy!

But the taxes are done!

Spring rains

2007-04-03T15:12:00.000-05:00

Same peeps, just a closer picture. They have now been mailed off. I spent an hour last week in Post Office Purgatory - a line to the door, and only one clerk. Usually, I just use the APM (Automated Postal Machine), but two of these peeps were going to Germany.

Thursday, while leaving work, I saw two deer and tried to take a picture.

You'll have to take my word for it - they are in the picture, but the camera phone doesn't capture that much.

Over the weekend, I was a good girl and worked on the new design(s) and taxes. Last year, I told myself I wouldn't get so far behind in recording the business stuff, but here it is again. Thank goodness it is almost all done. The joys of being a small business owner!

I'm also prepping for the April Needlework show (http://www.theneedleworkshow.com ) and for the June TNNA show. I finally booked my travel for the June show, so all those details are set! Now to get the designs wrapped up!

By the way, who let April in?

The Weeble Wobbled

2007-03-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

I was weak - this is what happens when I don't have an active cross stitch pattern to work on:

I did get my drawing done and the line chart done in the middle of all of these. Now it just has to be transferred into the computer and the colors have to be selected. I am refraining from more peep madness.

Over the weekend, I also ran/walked 5k, did dishes, laundry, took bikes to the bike shop, bought new plants for the flowerbed, and cleaned up cat vomit. That last one was just lovely. Mocha got sick Sunday night and by Monday morning wasn't keeping anything down, not even water. Of course, I didn't sleep very well Sunday, and called the vet Monday. She doesn't eat any of those Menu foods, she's on a special diet because three years ago she developed an allergic reaction to her food and was switched to this special diet. Her symptoms seemed to repeat the symptoms of three years ago. The vet believed it was just a sensitivity flare up, so she got an anti-nausea shot and an anti-inflammatory shot, which they were able to do without sedating her, although she was not pleased. A day later, she seems to be keeping her food down, so fingers are crossed that all is well in the kitty tummy.

Completions

2007-03-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

First, a finish:

And there was much rejoicing! Hat and blanket made from the same yarn: TLC Essentials, color: Oasis. A little over 2 skeins used for both hat and blanket.

Second: impromptu cupcake baking for DH's co-worker expecting baby boy. Cupcakes were made Wednesday night for said co-worker's last day of work.

The tree continues to expand:

And we're pushing up daisies.

Needless to say, I didn't get any drawing done. However, I have hight hopes for this weekend. Especially now that I don't have any knitting projects officially going. Although I do have yarn for this: http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm and these: http://kat-knits.blogspot.com/2007/03/some-easter-peeps.html Must not pick up knitting needles!

I'm looking at what flights to take to TNNA this summer - I was crazy enough to drive to Nashville, I'm not crazy enough to drive to Ohio. My quandry is that I can either leave at 6am the day I leave Texas (at the beginning of the trip) or 6am the day I leave Ohio (the end of the trip) depending on what airline I take. Or, I could spend $100 more and get a better flight. What to do?

I'm going to try and get at least one new thing charted this weekend, so that I have something to stitch at the next stitch-in at the LNSes. I also have some experimentation to work on for the class I'm going to teach at TNNA, plus painting and TAXES starting to breathe down my neck.

It will probably be a fairly busy weekend. It is somewhat unfortunate that so much tradeshow stuff is going on in the early part of the year - the weather outside is fabulous right now! Maybe I'll take the computer outside for when I work on charting!

Spring is sprung

2007-03-21T14:32:00.000-05:00

The crepe myrtles budded out this weekend and got this far by the first official day of spring. I'll try to remember to take progress pictures over the next couple of weeks to see how fast they grow. We didn't hack off the tops of the crepe myrtles when I was a kid, but everyone around here does, and it has taken a couple of years to get the lawn guy to not cut ours back quite so far. I saw last night that the hibiscus has tiny buds - it suffered terribly in our early November freezes last year. The daisies have come back and are blooming again, but I haven't put in any new color this year. Perennial, that's the kind of plant I like!

A couple of nights ago, I finished the book series I was reading, so now I'm left floundering. What do I read now? I had been reading a fantasy series called "The Bridge of D'Arnath" by Carol Berg (for more information: http://www.sff.net/people/carolberg/darnath.html). I stumbled across Berg's fantasy novels about a year ago and really enjoyed them. Her stories are very engaging and very intelligent. They are also very unique: she tends to write in what I would call a first-person omniscient perspective. That is, the narrative is first person, but the reader doesn't feel limited by just the narrator's perspective. It is different and she makes it work.

The baby blanket has entered some kind of knitting purgatory where it is not getting any closer to finishing. I would swear that I counted stitches at lunch yesterday to see how many rows I had left to do, then I stitched a few rows. When I was stitching last night, I counted again and came up with the same number! So either the knitting I did in between evaporated, or my count got off, due to other numbers being thrown about (we were playing poker at the same time - yes, I knit during poker).

I sent off another package to a model stitcher - this is always a very exciting time. It is like sending your creation off to grow up and come home all done. The most aggravating thing was that I had to stand in line at the post office; the USPS has removed the option to mail items to Canada from the Automated Postal Machines (which I found out when shipping to a shop). So I had to stand in line for 20 minutes instead of taking just 2 minutes at the APM.

Tonight, I've got to get back to drawing. I've got one drawing done, but I need to revise it and make it smaller. Usually I like bigger as better, but I'm hoping to make a deadline, so smaller it must be. It is really cute though!

It lives

2007-03-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

I am alive - I just disappeared into a hole last week.

Over the weekend, I discovered the addiction that is needlepointing on handpainted canvas.
I think the addictive part is that once I had the stitch I wanted to do figured out, there was no pattern to double check, no counting to do. Stitching the cat on this went incredibly fast. It took a couple of tries to figure out what I wanted to do with the background, but now I'm ready to fill it all in.

A second lesson is that a blanket, even one for a baby, takes a while to do. Booties are a pain to sew up, but much faster. I got alot done while watching the last stage of Paris-Nice, though. Bicycling, like most sports events, is good for knitting and needlework because if you miss something important (like a crash or an attack), the station will always replay the event. And yay for Discovery Channel winning Paris-Nice!

I also spent the weekend working on some new drawings and refining colorways for some models. If only I had 6 hands! Then I could knit, needlepoint, and draw all at the same time! Oh, well, I'll just have to manage with two hands.

Somethings coming...

2007-03-09T10:33:00.000-06:00

This may not look like much to you, but after weeks of flailing around, it is big progress:

A color test! On real fabric! Of course, I don't know what else I would do a color test on, but there it is. Anyway, this was as far as I got before I was hungry enough to stop for a snack. The design isn't completely done, but it is coming along - and is far enough along for some stitching to be done.

Secondly, this arrived on my doorstep yesterday:

Shhh - don't tell anyone that's needlepoint canvas. We're just going to put it in a magic spot and see if anything happens to it.

I'm finally getting my shipments out to my distributors; that is just a cycle of inventory counting, extra printing, ink buying, box buying and packaging. Now I have labels ready and I'll stop by UPS on the way home.

Ok, here's my box buying story. I needed to pop into the Container Store to get a special sized shipping box. Then I was going to go home, get my stitching stuff, stop by Hobby Lobby, stop and get food, and then finally make it to the stitch-in Wednesday night. So, the Container Store stop was first and I wanted it to be fast! I found my boxes, and then went up to the counter to pay. Well, is it just me or have the CS clerks just become overly friendly lately? At Christmas, I was practically accosted by a clerk with "wrapping suggestions" when I was just browsing! Well, the clerk and the lady who was checking out had a gushing conversation about all the things the lady was buying and how wonderful they were. And I'm trapped with my $5 worth of boxes I need to buy. Yes, the service was friendly, but I would've liked to have had another cashier to check me out, or something to speed up the service. As it was, it took me over an hour from my stop before CS to make it to the stitch-in.

It is hard to believe the weekend is almost here again. I'm still working on getting the website completely up to date. There are just a few design pages missing. The shops pages has been updated, so look for a store near you!

Mocha's big day

2007-03-08T15:10:00.000-06:00

This week, Mocha the cat had to make her annual trip to the vet for a check up. She is not a big fan of this, so I kitty "relaxation pill" to give her to try and make the trip go more smoothly. Two years ago I got rather furry trying to just give her the pill - she was only slightly drowsy for the trip and was still cranky at the vet. Last year I was smart and crushed it up in some tuna water, which worked pretty well. I tried the same trick this year, but she smelled something wrong with the tuna water (and probably remembered from last year). She only took about two sips of the tuna water and wouldn't drink anymore! So then I tried the pill in the tuna bit. She licked the pill a bit; then I tried pushing it in her mouth - this resulted in an unhappy cat with about half a pill in her mouth. However, about 20 minutes later, she started to get groggy and I was able to get most of the rest of the pill in her (with some more tuna). By the time we went to the vet, she was quite groggy, although not asleep. Did you know that cats have a third eyelid? It is very weird to see a cat looking around with that third eyelid covering about half their eyes, but the eyes otherwise open. Anyway, she still hissed and spat and growled at the vet, but she got her shots and her heart listened to, and we don't have to do that again for another year. Although I'm not really sure how we're going to do it next year.

I had my second stitch-in for the month last night. This month was one of the few where they were not back to back. Again, I didn't have anything ready to work on. I have one new design 70% graphed, it is just lacking the border, but I couldn't start on the center portion because I'm waiting for fabric to show up (knowing my luck, that will show up today). I was hoping some threads would show up so I could play with some needlepoint canvas stuff, but that was delayed. Ce la vi. Everything else is in the sketch to half-graphed stage.

Ok, I asked this on The Wagon, but I'll ask here for more opinions: Would you wear stitched jewellery?

Where is the rewind button?

2007-02-27T17:11:00.000-06:00

Seriously, I need to find the rewind button for this year. I just looked at the calendar and realized that today is the last day of February. How did that happen? That leaves a month and half before the April online Needlework show and just at 3 months before June TNNA. And I was just recovering from Nashville insanity! Seriously, my head is busting with ideas, but I need time for them to get out!

Progress has been made: almost all of the house is at a relatively clean state. I probably wouldn't invite the Queen of England over, but she's not likely to drop in unexpectedly. The dishes need doing again, but most of the laundry is done.

Most of the baby gift are made, which is good because one baby has arrive, and another two are imminent.

I am working on new designs, at least on paper. I need to get something graphed because tomorrow is stitch night - what will I stitch?

Do Do Do Da Da Da

2007-02-23T11:18:00.000-06:00

Whoosh! Was that the sound of a week going by? How did that happen? I'm still scratching my head. Well, at least it has been a somewhat productive week.

First, the weekend revolved around this activity:

That is DH completing the Jalepeno Hundred in Haligen, Texas. Yes, 100 miles on a bicycle. And it was very windy. I went shopping (and was there for the start and finish of the ride). This also involved driving from Houston to south Texas and back for the weekend, so much time was spent on the road. Again.

Luckily, I had President's day off to recover, so much laundry was done (yay). Preparations for Nashville Market had also left a trail of destruction that somehow invovled most of the house, so I have been slowly cleaning. Not my favorite activity, but I know I function better when the house is cleaned up. My craft room/office is usable again! I can sit in there and draw/pull colors/paint! More cleaning remains for the weekend.

I made it to one of the two LNS's near me with my new products (I should get to the other one today or tomorrow). I dropped off copies of all of the new designs as well as a sample T-Shirt. I'm so excited about this - I didn't sell any t-shirts at market, but the LNS owner took orders the first day it was hanging up in the shop!

The big event of the week relates to the title of the post. If you don't recognize it then, "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da is all I want to say to you!" That's right, it is The Police! And we have tickets! If you are a fan and are interested in going to one of the concerts, then I highly recommend getting in on a presale, either through Best Buy (if you're already a Reward Zone Member) or through joining the Police Fan Club.

Finally, a confession: I haven't been working on my cross stitch much this week. I have been trying to figure out booties to go with all the hats that were in the previous post. One came out too big, so I'll have to alter the pattern and do it again. The designs are starting to shout at me in my head, so I'll work on them this weekend!

In the meantime, here is a better picture of "X Marks the Spot":

Everyone I know is having a boy

2007-02-16T15:37:00.000-06:00

That's three hads done in shades of blue and one almost done in white with blue hearts. All of our friends who are currently due to have a kid are expecting boys. Booties will follow. However, somehow my knitting is speeding up because I think the second one of these only took me about 3 hours, and the same with the third. The last one is taking longer because of the hearts, but it will fly now.

I'm also working on some color conversions for more Ribbons and sketching for June! Cool new designs on their way, I promise!

Mayan Mystery

2007-02-15T17:21:00.000-06:00

To everyone out there who shops at INS's, this is what "Myan Mystery" really looks like:

It doesn't have the same quote as the Roman design, and the glyphs aren't blue (unless you don't stitch them with the variegated thread). The top left corner looks different because it is showing what the hardanger alternative looks like when it is stitched up.

Also, "Triangularity" was actually stitched on a light-brown background, not white as is being shown on many websites:

Some preliminary computer mock-ups of designs were sent out, and I didn't realize that they would be used on a web site. Now other web sites are scarfing the images from the original website, so the problem is being compounded. I have sent better images to the orginal website, but I don't know if all the scarfers will re-scarf the images. Very sad.

Anyway, if you like the concept of these designs (and Easter Ellipse and Violet), they stitch up beautifully! Ok, I am a bit biased. You can see more pictures from one model stitcher here: http://stop-the-world-i-want-to-get-off.blogspot.com/

2000 miles to Nashville (and back)

2007-02-14T13:39:00.000-06:00

This may be a bit like a hobbits tale: there and back again.

I left on a balmy Wednesday night; my Houston helper had bummed her knee out, so instead of doing the drive in one big jump, I was doing it in stages. I went to lovely Baton Rouge and caught some Z's at Mom's Manor.

Thursday I got up early and started the journey North.

It wasn't long before I was entering the third state of my journey: Mississippi. I made a brief stop at the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson. No, I wasn't in trouble or anything, a good friend of mine works there and we met up for lunch! After lunch, I was on my way again, although the temperature was rapidly dropping. I stopped for the night in Southhaven, MS and visited with my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle. I stayed in my Grandmother's house, which was a bit strange since it was now empty. Well, it wasn't completely empty; my father is getting it ready to be sold, so there are tools and cans of paint everywhere. In a way that was comforting because it reminded me of Dad. I took my Great-Aunt out for dinner (we had the early-bird), then after chatting for a while, I went back to the house to finish putting patterns together! I thought I would never get done! But I did (after watching Survivor, CSI and ER). The next morning, I was supposed to get up early and pick up Amy, who was going to help me out at the show, but I woke up to reports of freezing rain and bridges and overpasses closed. I waited a bit and then called the 1-800 number for Tennessee road information. I was expecting a recorded message, but someone answered the phone! He very nicely told me that all the roads were open, so out I went. The roads were indeed fine, but nice and empty. I did see several accidents, so it must've been slick earlier. I picked up Amy, and away to Nashville we went.

Finally, headed east, the weather was quite different:

Once we got to Nashville, we unloaded the car and started to set up the room. It doesn't take too long, and this is what it looked like when it was done:

Friday we had one last hurrah before all the hustle and bustle of Market and went to dinner at the Grand Ole Opry (although we almost didn't because of the $12 + tax parking). In the end it was all worth it. The hotel is really neat inside and the food was fabulous!

Unfortunately, after dinner we had to package Snowfight accessory packs and Map Action Packs (for the new complimentary design). The Snowfight accessory packs weren't too bad, there were only 30 of them, but I had made 250 maps to go with the new design, so we were cutting, stuffing and labelling those for quite a while.

Here are pictures of the new releases:

Mayan Mystery: Note there is now a hardanger alternative included for those who don't want to cut their fabric. The glyphs around the border represent the 20 days of the month.

Easter Ellipse: A companion to Angle of Love.

Triangularity: A companion to Labyrinth and Maze

Snowfight: Violet - a new dragon in the snowfight series!

This isn't the best picture (I'll put a better one up later), but I forgot to take a direct picture of this one: "X Marks the Spot", which is the newest in the complimentary design series, The Adventures of Oscar and Ralph. You can see the treasure map in the center of this design, which Oscar (the dragon) is holding and Ralph (the mouse) is studying. The map is actually a Stitchable Fabric Button and is washable and colorfast. A very cool enhancement to the stitching!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with the usual Market stuff, then it was break it all down and pack it all up again. The drive home was long, and I pit-stopped in Baton Rouge again, but I made it home safe and sound.

Moving right along

2007-02-07T14:32:00.001-06:00

Nashville Market awaits. The stitching is, miraculously, all done. The printing is, again, miraculously, all done. That's not to say that there isn't some work left to be done.

What got done:

Mayan Mystery turned out beautifully! (Even if I do say so myself) There's even an alternative to the hardanger included.

A little dragon that took a detour in the mail showed up Monday and got turned into an ornament on Tuesday using some gorgeous batik fabric. I love how this one came out.

There are two other designs that were already done.

There is also a new complimentary design (available through shops that buy from Cross Eyed Kat) featuring Oscar the dragon and Ralph the mouse (as seen in "Wanna Trade?", "Celebrate with Me", and "Making Christmas"). This design will also feature a brand new type of embellishment: a stitchable fabric "button".

We will also have mucho cool T-shirts.

Five reams of paper and close to five cartridges of ink went into making patterns for the show. Plus cardstock, bags and other sundries.

Pictures will be up on the website next week. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post from Market, but if not - everyone stay warm out there! And keep stitching!

Moving right along

2007-02-07T14:32:00.000-06:00

Race to the finish

2007-02-05T16:31:00.000-06:00

I didn't get quite as much stitching done as I planned to this weekend. I did finish making the charts for everything except the model that isn't done. I also printed out everything for the patterns for the model that isn't done. Then there was this little thing called the Superbowl. The lights were dim, it was hard to see, I was in charge of some food, so less stitching got done than I had hoped. I did attach a new embellishment to the new complimentary design that will premier at Market. It is something completely new and cool, so I hope people will like it! Pictures will be up after Market.

Anyway, I did bag up some charts after the Superbowl, then I got back to stitching and I finished stitching the entire first line of the quote when I realized that the first word was misspelled. D'oh! Luckily, just two letters were reversed, so they can be switched without having to rejigger the entire line. But remember when I said I had printed out everything for the pattern already? Double d'oh. The first page has to be reprinted again! Guess what I'm doing tonight? Printing and stitching.

I'm going crazy!

2007-02-02T15:17:00.000-06:00

Nashville Nashville Nashville Nashville

Ok, that is sort of out of my system. I am getting closer to being ready. The model is almost done. Just the backstitching on the columns to do, then the quote, then the corner motifs. The two other designs have been stretched, now they just have to be matted and photographed. Then they can be printed. I'm running low on cover stock, so I have to run to the store for that.

One little model is still in the hands of the US Postal Service. If it doesn't show up, this will be the first time I've lost a model. And of course, there's no time to stitch a new one before the show. The best we can do is have a printout and get it redone. I'm still crossing my fingers that it will show up today - it is so adorable!

Then of course, there's the Superbowl. I love watching it, especially for the commercials, but it is always the weekend before Nashville Market, and we always have company, so I'm always busy.

Ok, I need a disco ball and an ornament/fob display tree - any thoughts on where I can find these on short notice and cheap?

Around and around we go

2007-01-30T16:44:00.000-06:00

I'm happy to report that the border is complete and that it came together properly. We are progressing. Still much remains to be done. Today I'll go to the LNS to pick up the other models and see if any of them require sprucing up. That may be the big job for the weekend beyond the remaining printing. As usual, I have to balance Superbowl Sunday with Nashville preparations. T-minus 9 days and counting. One of these days (I keep promising myself) I will be completely organized well in advance of all these tradeshows. Someday. :)

Production and productivity

2007-01-29T16:39:00.000-06:00

This weekend, my home turned into a cross-stitch pattern manufacturing plant:

Phase one is almost done, which includes production of samples of all currently available patterns. Phase two is started, as I cut the foam core for two models that have to be stretched. Then the prototype patterns have to be developed, photography of the models has to take place, and finally pattern production of the new designs can take place as well. One of those models has a small snag:

As you can see from the needle on the left side of this picture, the model is not quite done yet! And for some reason, it is not stitching itself! Actually, it is quite close to being done, so there is no need to panic yet.

Nashville, 10 days and counting.

Busy days

2007-01-24T10:38:00.000-06:00

Again, I have been delinquent in posting. Which I know I shouldn't be, because I love reading new blog entries in other people's blogs, so when I neglect my own, I am breaking the circle.

So here is a brief synopsis of the past two weeks. The weekend before last, I spent travelling to Baton Rouge. I had a grand time, celebrating a belated birthday with my folks, and shopping for Saints shirts after their playoff win. The whole weekend, we were anticipating the arrival of the big cold front (the one that brought all of those ice storms), but it didn't come and didn't come. When I left Monday morning it was 74 degrees. However, we were on the verge of the front, because by the time I got to the Mississippi River bridge, it was 64 degrees! Here's what the cold front looked like in Louisiana:

The reason for my trip to Louisiana was a very important one. Mocha the cat had spent the Christmas holidays at her Grandmother's house and it was time for her to come home:

She travels very well and although she enjoyed her stay in Baton Rouge (it was better than being boarded after all), she was happy to be going home.

Beyond the trip to Baton Rouge, the past two weeks have been a blur of stitching, cleaning, stitching, laundry, being slightly sick, stitching, and more stitching. Can you tell the madness of Nashville Market is fast approaching?

Nashville Nashville Nashville. Okay, I can officially go crazy now. New packaging bags arrived yesterday and my ink shipment will arrive today. Two models are pressed and ready to be stretched and mounted. One more is at a model stitcher. Yes, I am still frantically stitching on the Ancient World Sampler - 10 points to the person who guessed that it is Mayan - you are correct! Unfortunately Mayan glyphs are slightly more complicated than the other alphabets in the other samplers, which means they take multiple colors and backstitching. I have all 20 glyphs stitched and only 5 glyphs left to backstitch. Then the border to finish,the center columns, and the quote. And less than two weeks. Plus production of all the other charts to do. This is the life of a designer. But, it is looking really cool. Must stitch.

A Series of Misadventures

2007-01-10T14:22:00.000-06:00

My first post back from the holidays was supposed to be chock full of pictures - a photologue of all the places that the cross-stitch went in two weeks. Instead there is a series of misadventures and you'll have to use your imaginations.

First, imagine sunny and very windy South Texas. When I say South Texas, I'm talking the Rio Grande Valley here. Christmas was the usual events: MIL put the turkey in the oven, then we all went to midnight mass; next day we got up and packed everything up to take it to Brownsville (about an hour away) - so the cross stitch visited Brownsville. The days after Christmas were a series of shopping events (amid other get togethers): shopping in Mercedes, Harlingen, McAllen and finally Brownsville. Alas, I forgot to take pictures until trying to go to Brownsville, which is when I discovered that the battery on the digital camera was dead. I took some fun pictures of the cross stitch and the Gulf of Mexico with my cell phone on the drive back.

On the 30th, we returned home, and on the 31st we packed for a trip to Denver, which is when I discovered that I had left the digital camera on the back seat of MIL's car. D'oh.
On the 1st we arrived in Denver, tired from staying up too late to celebrate the New Year, but not too tired to not go sledding. We borrowed FIL's camera and took the cross stitch to Aspen. We also had fun hiking in the Garden of the Gods and visiting the Denver Botanical Gardens at night (they had lots of Christmas lights up). Our last night in Denver, I discover that (1) my cell phone is missing and (2) FIL's computer is being difficult about burning the pictures we took to CD.

So, the cross stitch visited lots of interesting places, and I took pictures to show on the blog, but the pictures from the cell phone are permanently lost, and the other pictures will show up someday when the other pictures get burned to CD. On the other hand, I had lots of fun in snow - I even cleared a driveway (half shovel, half snow blower).

Progress was made on the Ancient world sampler, but not as much as I wanted - too many "family events" going on and not enough stitching time. I have replaced my cell phone, so I no longer feel lost.

'Twas the fifth day after Christmas

2006-12-30T23:50:00.000-06:00

And a new celebration begins - no, it is not yet New Year's Eve - it is my birthday!

One advantage of having a birthday at this time of year is almost always having the day off. The disadvantage is that many people are travelling. So a safe journey to anyone out there still traveling and a Happy New Year to all!

I hope that I look a bit better than this cat on its birthday: http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/06/fringe/oldest.cat/index.html

All your cupcakes are belong to us

2006-12-21T13:39:00.000-06:00

This is what almost 90 cupcakes looks like. No, I am not going to eat them all. And yes, it is rather difficult to make red icing. For the record: 12 egg whites, 4 boxes of cake mix, two ovens going, and a partidge in a pear tree. Oh, wait, forget that last one. These will be delivered tonight.

This went in the mail today:

And contains a secret message:

To make up for being knit in that color. These have been mostly finished for a while, although it took me some time to get around to putting the booties together and then I had to buy the buttons for them. I did size them down from the original pattern by knitting with smaller needles, but after seeing a friend's 6 week old girl today, the booties have to get much smaller for newborns. Oh, well.

On the stitching front: A new model arrived and it is gorgeous! Kudos to Faye my model stitcher this time! Sorry, no pictures until after Nashville Market opens - lets just say that if you like Labyrinth and Maze, you'll like this one (and it will complete the series). Speaking of completing a series, I'm coming along on the Ancient world sampler. Although I haven't gotten to stitch on it much this week (did you see the 90 cupcakes at the top of this post), I have gotten some more design work done on it, including the border. For all of these pieces, there is a certain amount of research that goes into the work aside from the designing, so the border had to reflect the design styles and motifs of the people who are represented by the sampler. It also has to fit in the space of the sampler (all of the Ancient World samplers are exactly the same size). Next, I have to work on the columns and then the glyphs/alphabet for the piece. I'm personally hoping to get a bunch of stitching done over the holidays.

I don't know how much I'll post in the coming days as the holiday rush creeps in, so for everyone reading, happy holidays, happy New Year, stay safe and stay warm.

What's wrong with this picture?

2006-12-15T10:08:00.000-06:00

Well, unless you live in a Dr. Seuss kind of world, the sky usually isn't that shade of pink. In fact it isn't pink at all here right now. It is very grey and foggy - which is why you can see the weird rectangle in the middle, that is a reflection of the door in the window. It hasn't been that cold here, but we've had some very grey and foggy days lately.

That was Friday - now it is raining, not much of an improvement. It is the kind of weather that makes you want to sing that John Lennon song, "And so this is Christmas and what have you done." I am almost done with the Christmas shopping - just one more thing to get. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is. I did get my last packages mailed off on Saturday. It only took 45 minutes - 30 minutes to stand in line the first time, then 15 more to rebox my international package in something other than a priority mail box (which is for domestic use only, mea culpa). I must say that the Post Office lady was very nice and let me use her tape and I didn't have to stand in the whole line again.

I did get a bit of stitching done this weekend and one design is nearing completion (not the blobby grey one). Which means I'll have some work to do to make sure I stay busy during the holidays.

Tour Day France

2006-12-13T16:50:00.000-06:00

Ten points to those who can correctly name these two gentlemen:

Give up?

Greg LeMond, 3 time winner of the Tour de France:

Bob Roll (aka Bobke), former professional cyclist and current Vs. Cycling commentator:

They gave a talk at a local bike shop, then were kind enough to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Really a great couple of guys, it was an amazing evening!

Teaser

2006-12-05T13:50:00.000-06:00

This may not look like much, but it is proof of two things: (1) I am dutifully refraining from knitting and (2) I started to make progress on the Final Ancient World Sampler, hearafter referred to as FAWS.
Yes, it looks like a grey blob. But, more importantly, all of the greys flow together and don't clash. No one has guessed the ancient location yet! This will be the last Ancient World Sampler. I like the concept, and felt I could do a bunch of these, but I keep falling into doing different series, which is both good and bad. I think a quadrangle of these deisgns will make a nice set. The "Triangularity" design will also be the last in its set.

Double stitch-ins this week! Hopefully I'll get lots accomplished.

I tried really hard to get ahead on Christmas this year. In fact, I did some of my shopping in July. I have a bunch done, and I even wrapped up what I had done. My biggest problem is that people are now asking me what I want for Christmas and I really don't know! A real Time-turner would be terrific (or a TARDIS), then I could get all the stuff done that I really want to get done. A personal chef would be great, too. I guess it just means I'm mostly content, which is a good thing. (ok, I do have a small list of books and DVDs on Amazon, but the people asking don't want to look at those things).

Well, seasons greetings to all.

Brrrrr

2006-12-01T16:46:00.000-06:00

Look it is cold enough for me to wear my glove/mittens and hat! No, I didn't knit them (I only learned to knit in June, after all) - I got them at REI in Denver. I was glad to have them for the drive home last night. Luckily we don't have any ice or snow to contend with, so I hope those who do are staying safe and staying warm! I remember the two winters I spent in Minnesota and having to scrape ice and shovel snow just to go to work - not fun. If we got any of that down here, the city would just shut down. Of course, that would mean more stitching time, but I don't really want the power to go out.

I have been working on stitching the new design and I think tonight or tomorrow I'm going to pull the threads for the final "Old World Sampler" Any guesses as to the location/culture that will be pictured? I have at least one idea for another Snowfight ornament. I might see if I can make it two, then eventually have a rainbow of dragons in a snowfight. No promises, though!

Countdown time: 30 days until my birthday. The terrible thing is, I have no idea what I want for Christmas or my birthday this year. I'd really like some time, but I don't think that's available at the store. It is bad, I have so many ideas in my head, but not enough time to get them out as fast as I would like. Guess I will just have to go slow!

Winter has arrived!

2006-11-30T17:22:00.000-06:00

We saw the snow in Seattle on Monday Night Football, then saw it coming across the country. The cold front arrived in Houston this morning. It is colder now than it was when I woke up this morning! And we'll almost get to freezing tonight - time to turn on the fireplace! Ok, it may not seem like much to anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line, or, in fact, for anyone 100 miles north of us, but that's pretty cold around here.

I was very good last night. First - I went to the gym. I did the treadmill for 45 minutes (or the length of one Battlestar Galactica episode). Then, after dinner, I stitched on a new design! Yay! Unfortuantely, that means no pictures for now.

I am thankful to be loved

2006-11-27T16:28:00.000-06:00

As you may have guessed, last week's hiatus was due to the Thanksgiving holiday. DH and I took a little jaunt to Baton Rouge where we celebrated with my folks, and communed long-distance with my brother, who cooks a celebratory turkey in Germany. Although the weather was nice on Black Friday, we only did minimal shopping, preferring instead to revel in the victory of the Aggies (Whoop!) and stay far from the madding crowds.

Mocha the cat had spent a month in Baton Rouge so that she didn't have to go to boarding school when we went to Denver earlier in November. She seemed very excited to see us, jumping up on the screen door to watch us as we unloaded the car after arriving. What was funnier was her behavior when we were packing up to leave. After four days, she had gotten used to us coming and going again. This time, however, there were suitcases involved, so she was on alert! When I got her carrier out, she went right in. We weren't quite ready for her to go in the car, though, so we opened the top of the carrier (it has a secondary opening). She would poke her head out to watch us, but she wouldn't get out of the carrier - she was going to go with us this time!

The trip back home was uneventful; Mocha didn't meow too much. However, she didn't want me to go to work this morning - she meowed and cried and rubbed on my legs. I told her I wouldn't be gone long, though.

Good news on the stitching front: The orange hat is done (oh, wait that's the knitting front). Well, the baby is due soon. On the stitching front, I do have another new design done and ready to be stitched. It is not very big and there's Math invovled. I like it. I have also started on the last of the "Ancient World Samplers". I've charted out the center design - now I have to work on getting the colors right. Sometimes this is the most complicated part, especially for something that exists in the real world. The Colesseum was 3/4 stitched when I ripped it out and redid the colors on it. I'll probably end up stitching this sampler as I still have to design the border, the alphabet and the quote. Oh, and the fabric for the girl baby sampler arrived, and it is so pretty and pink - I love it! So there is a lot going on on the stitching front!

Knitters Anonymous

2006-11-17T10:08:00.000-06:00

Hello, my name is Kat and I have a knitting problem.

This is a baby hat. It is for some friends who have a baby due in December. I also plan to make matching booties.

This is a sock swatch.

And this is the beginning of a sock:

There is also a green sweater that is in progress somewhere. I'm going to blame the explosion of knitting projects on the cat. She is currently on holiday at her grandmother's house, so there is no danger of leaving yarn out around the house right now. I really do need to work on the scrapbook for Mom, her birthday is next weekend, so time is getting short. Also, I have cross-stitch designs that are screaming at me to come alive.

But what if I just knit one more row on the sock - would that be ok?

Fall, are you sure?

2006-11-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

I think the problem I'm having with time passing has to do with the weather. We're still having 70-80+ degree days here and although the crepe myrtle has decided to loose all of its leaves, not many of the other trees have decided that it is fall. It just doesn't feel like it should be the middle of November. Of course, I write this today, and we'll have a severe cold front arrive tomorrow. Anyway, without a weather change, since I'm not in school, and work is pretty much the same regardless of season.

The upshot of all this is while I keep telling myself that Thanksgiving is next week, it just doesn't feel like it. So, while I know I am way way way behind for Nashville, it just doesn't feel like it. I'm trying very hard to be diligent and get some work done, but other stuff has been interfering. I do have one new design half-charted. I think it is lovely (just my humble opinion) and it was inspired by my recent trip to Colorado.

Speaking of Colorado, here are some pictures, finally:

The new Art Museum in Denver:

Which leads to some interesting interior rooms:

We love Leadville, too! A very nice little town to visit at 10,200 feet! And it has a terrific view of Mt. Massive (which I didn't take a picture of).

See the tallest two peaks in the picture below? Those are Gray's and Torrey's Peaks. I walked to the top of Gray's Peak in July. Three months later, one of my toenails fell off. Walking up a mountain is not to be taken lightly. Have good shoes.

This is Pike's Peak (in the background) and the Garden of the Gods (and me!)

Ok, back to designing so that I will hopefully have something to stitch over Thanksgiving!

Miss me?

2006-11-06T16:40:00.000-06:00

I didn't fall off the earth after hitting 2000 charts - but I did leave town. When I left the blog last week, I was off to the post office and the LNS. How could I not go to the LNS when it is open late and right across the street from the post office? Also, I had new patterns to show the owner, so the latest releases are now available at 3 Stitches in Spring, TX, as well as from many fine retailers who bought during the online show. Which reminds me - I need to update the website hopefully this week. Anyway, I only bought a few things, including some floss for a pink thing that should come out this winter.

Sometime during that week, I did manage to finish the blue sweater as seen here:

One thing to note: this sweater is supposed to be one size fits all. Notice that it hits right at my waist, luckily where I like it. This is where Kat learns that gauge is important in knitting and is lucky that she is short enought for the sweater to fit!

On Thursday, October 26, we learned that Maw-Maw, my step-mother's mother, passed away. She was a sweet lady who loved all those around her. This precipitated an unexpected trip to Baton Rouge for the funeral and a rearrangement of our already planned vacation plans. After much haggling with the airline, we got our travel plans rearranged and Sunday were on the road to Baton Rouge. The cat went with us to have an extended stay with her Kitty-Granny (my Mom) rather than spend a week in boarding school (the vet). We'll pick her back up during the holidays. After a whirlwind two days in BR, we were back in Houston, and Tuesday on a plan to Denver, CO!

Denver was another world! Snow still on the ground, chill in the air (what air - not enough oxygen to call it air), and so dry everything crackled. This trip was a vacation/family visit so we were doing free-form sight-seeing and didn't have too much planned out ahead of time. We spent one day trolling around downtown Denver - the new art museum is very cool, although I don't know if I'd like to walk into the corner in the bathroom. All the walls are funky angles, so some of the rooms are strangely shaped. We spent two days visiting mountain towns. Although it doesn't sound nice, Leadville is a great place to visit, and at 10,200 feet, has some great views! We also spent some time in Colorado Springs and briefly saw the Garden of the Gods. Hopefully, I'll have pictures tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't have an active cross stitch project to take touring. I'll have to remedy that for future trips. We caught the early flight back yesterday and it was very nice to spend a day doing almost nothing but watching TV, drawing (new designs!), and stitching. I hope to do more of that this week - and maybe the laundry. Oh, and wait for my skin to fill out again as I absorb more moisture from the air. Yay humidity!

Cross Eyed Kat hits a Milestone!

2006-10-24T16:59:00.000-05:00

Last night, I was working very dilligently putting patterns together for the online show orders when something crazy happened - I ran out the big bags that I put the charts in. Luckily, this didn't happen until I was done making all the charts that I needed to make, but this is a very important milestone. Running out of big bags means that there over 2000 Cross Eyed Kat charts have been produced! Now, there are some sitting in my storage tubs in the craft room, but I'd estimate that there are less than 150 in the tubs, so a large portion of that 2000 are in circulation. And that's not even counting the half-size designs and the single page designs like the Fantasy Faire charts! I'm not sure I ever thought about how many charts would go out there in two and a half years. I'm very happy to hit this milestone. Now if we could just make a profit... :)

Putting charts together took way longer than I thought it would last night - of course, I did watch Heroes as well. It probably took longer because it was several different charts (the three new releases, and the covers had to be tweaked because it was a first printing), instead of just one print run. Tonight I'm off to the post office, which will feel good. I also hope to get some charting done tonight! On the other hand, I'm also trying to finish Blue Thing #2 aka the blue sweater. It only has 6 rows left (long rows), some grafting and sewing up the sleeves. I try to only stitch on it at lunch.

The LNS is open late tonight and it is across the street from the post office. What are the odds that I'll have to stop in? I'm thinking pretty good.

2006-10-23T16:57:00.000-05:00

First: Shannon L. - Contact me so that you can get your prize! New blogger ate your email!

Now, pictures of the finished Blue Thing:

Pictures of Blue Thing #3 are, unfortunately on the other computer. It has the "It's a Boy" fully stitched, and the border, hand and foot all done in DMC instead of in Weeks Dye Works. The date is stitched in US format (e.g. January 30, 2004) and the weight and lenght are in English units.

Also premiering are Fiber Fobs:

And Fab Fobs:

Why so many fobs? Well, because stitchers have such large scissor collections - here's a perfect way to justify them all. A fob to designate a pair of scissors for every fiber and fiber activity! The "No Paper" design can be made into an individual fob or used on the back of any of the others! These were fun to design and I had fun picking out backing fabric and cording for each of them. And my model stitcher did a lovely job doing them super-fast, too!

Now it is time to move on to some new designs! Or so I hope! Still some things left to address and ship out after the online show. The process never ends.

Above the flood

2006-10-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

If you didn't guess from last week's trivia's questions, I spent a good portion of last week in Kansas City (on the Missouri side). I was attending the National Society of Women Engineers Conference. It was my first time to attend the conference and it was quite amazing! Consider gathering a couple thousand collegiate and professional engineers of every flavor in one place and then offering sessions on technology and career development. The lines for the bathroom were a bit long, though. Kansas City was a bit cold and dry for me. I also managed to get myself lost a couple of times in the myriad of highways (that end mysteriously before you turn left to get on again?). I ended up in Kansas (the state) at least once by accident. Unfortunately, my conference kept me too busy to visit any LNS's or LYS's in the area. I did manage not to get delayed by rain coming back to Houston. And then it rained and rained and rained. Luckily no flooding in our area. This morning, it wasn't so much foggy as it was a migrating mist. As I was driving into work, I saw some strange things on the grass. If it had been cold, I would've thought they were patches of ice, but it is not cold enough for ice. I wondered if they were little bits of plastic, but they looked too perfectly star shaped for that. When I got close, I realized that they were cobwebs, hanging flat in the tall grass, covered in dew droplets.

Trivia contest winner: (drumroll please) Shannon L.!

Below are the unanswered questions (and answers):

Question 13: What was the first word said from the Moon?
Answer: Houston

Question 14: What Shuttle Mission is scheduled to launch on July 1, 2006?
Answer: Discover’s STS 121

Question 15: Nasa Rd. 1 outside of Johnson Space Center was briefly renamed for what Astronaut in 1998?
John Glenn (It was named John Glenn Parkway from October 13-November 13, 1998)

Question 16: The Astros currently play in Minutemaid Park - what was the previous name of the ballfield before it was called Minutemaid Park?
Answer: Enron Field

Question 17: How many times have the Astros appeared in the World Series?
Answer: once

Question 18: In Superman II, what do the evil Kryptonians mistakenly think Earth is called?
Answer: Planet Houston

Question 19: What two universities did your favorite designer (ok, the designer who writes this blog) get degrees from?
Answer: Texas A&M University and Georgia Institute of Technology

Question 20: What are the mascots for those universities?
Answer: TAMU: Reveille (a collie); Georgia Tech: Buzz (a yellow jacket)

Question 21: Which was established first, Texas A&M or the University of Texas?
Answer: Texas A&M

Question 22: Which UT is older?
Answer: The University of Tennessee

What musical contains the song that contains the line "Everythings up to date in Kansas City/They've gone about as far as they can go"?
Answer: Oklahoma!

What American city is second in the world for number of fountains (after Rome) giving it the nickname "City of Fountains"?Answer: Kansas City

In other news, I entered a haiku contest on another blog, and although I didn't win, I did get honorable mention (top 30 or so out of 400+ isn't too bad, I think), so here's a link to the winners: http://www.januaryone.com/archives/2006/10/haiku_you.php#more

Now that the online show is over, hopefully I can buckle down on some new designs! I have wonderful plans, but we all know what happens to the best plans!

Trivia Contest and the Online Show

2006-10-12T22:43:00.000-05:00

One last chance to answer unanswered questions in the Trivia contest! I know there are some in the archives - although you may have to hunt for them. Post answers in the comments or email them to me if you can't post comments due to blogger problems. Contest runs until the end of the Online show. Winner get their choice of three Cross Eyed Kat charts.

Final questions:

What musical contains the song that contains the line "Everythings up to date in Kansas City/They've gone about as far as they can go"?

What American city is second in the world for number of fountains (after Rome) giving it the nickname "City of Fountains"?

Good Luck!

Finished stitching - now what?

2006-10-09T16:56:00.000-05:00

Somehow, in the middle of a hectic weekend, I managed to finish stitching Blue Thing #3! That only leaves one blue thing left to work on, which is the sweater! Yay! I also managed to get my photography done and my virtual booth set up in time (not early, but on time). I still have to stretch Blue Thing #3 and frame both #1 and #3 for chart photography, work on the three new charts, print charts for a new order that came in, order bags, and some other things that I know I'll think of along the way. However, the most important stuff for the online show is done! So be sure to check out my booth at http://www.needleworkshow.com starting Wednesday night! Meanwhile, it is time to get to work on some new designs!

This weekend, I had an interesting experience. I went to a National Portfolio Day with my sister, who is interested in attending an art-centric college. Now, this is not something I had ever seen before, having majored in engineering in college. So imagine, if you will, a hotel ballroom filled to the brim with budding young artists, toting portfolios of their artwork around, some large boxes, some small, all waiting in lines to have their art reviewed by representatives of different art schools. I'm still a bit fuzzy on how this all fits into the whole process of getting into a college, except that each reviewer took notes on the budding young artists after critiquing the work. It did lead me to wonder what there was a review group for budding cross-stitch designers? Would we still get diversity or would the review group look for the same things? Would it help turn away people who aren't ready yet? In fact, we do have a review group - the end consumers who buy product and before them, the shop owners and the distributors who decide what goes into the marketplace. Our reviews are done by the toughest critiquers of all - marketplace economics - where a bad design review doesn't just get hurt feelings, it can loose money.

The week in summary

2006-10-06T15:14:00.000-05:00

My apologies for not posting, it has been busy around here. A report on my activities:

First, we went to Waco. I realize this sounds contrary to getting any work done, and it was for the most part, but there was this bike ride, and things just went from there. I did get some knitting done. Then we had to help some friends move. This was also contrary to getting real work done, but what can you do?

So what did get accomplished? Blue Thing #1 was stretched and photographed for the Needlework Retailer ad. Some more Blue Things came into existence:

Mostly this was just finishing work, and the hat had already been started. The in-transit models arrived and much finishing work was accomplished - here's a teaser:

The virtual booth is about half done - I'll see what I can do tonight and Sunday (sorry Cindy).

I still need to order bags and take a picture of Model set #2 for the chart cover, finish blue thing #3 (other version of #1) for the chart cover and work on making charts (oh, yeah, we have to have finished product to sell!)

Did I mention that my parents are coming into town this weekend and we have other company? Anyway, life goes on. Sometimes a little sleep is sacrificed.

Time is getting short

2006-09-29T14:31:00.000-05:00

It feels like there is so much to do here in Cross Eyed Kat land, and so little time to get it done in. The Needlework Show deadline is looming. Here is what needs to be done in the next week to be ready for it:

Blue Thing #1 must be stretched, framed and photographed
Blue Thing #3 should be finished, stretched, framed and photographed
Model set #1 must be finished and photographed
Model set #2 (currently in the hands of the US Postal Service) must be finished and photographed
Virtual booth setup needs to be completed
Bags need to be ordered

Additionally, it would be really nice if I could complete the layout of the charts for the Blue Things and Model sets 1 and 2, so that things would be ready for orders when the Needlework Show actually opens. Finally, I have to ship another order that came in today (yay) and order more ink. On top of all this, I have some baby gifts to finish (the baby is due very soon - the planned birthday is next week) and major cleaning to do as parental units are coming to visit. Where's a TARDIS when you need one?

Time to try and put the cat to work!

The Cat Ate My Knitting!

2006-09-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

The cat, once pictured here, who never ever messes with my cross stitch flosses has decided that knitting yarn is very interesting. Admittedly, before I started knitting, large pieces of yarn and/or string were viable toys for her. So, I'm knitting on my little baby booties a few rows every night, then I put it and the dpns back in the yarn and put the yarn in the big basket of yarn on the floor. Now a few mornings ago, I did find a ball of yarn had apparently escaped from the basket. This should have been my first clue that the cat was having fun messing with the yarn in the yarn basket. Two nights ago, I go to pick up the bootie and, upon taking it out of the yarn skein, I discover that the working yarn is no longer attached to the skein of yarn! The cat has bitten right through the yarn while playing with it! Since I was at the end of a row, I fearlessly rejoin new yarn (far away from any residual cat spit) and knit a few more rows. Then I make the big mistake: I put the bootie and yarn away in the same spot. What did I discover this morning? The partially knit bootie, on the needle, no longer in the yarn and no longer attached to the skein of yarn - again! That's right, the cat ate the knitting twice. At this point, I may start over as I really hate joining yarn anyway.

The real reason the cat has been able to do all of this is because I haven't finished said bootie because I've been diligently working on my cross stitch. Blue thing #1 is completely finished! Yay! Now it just needs to be stretched and matted. Blue thing #3 is progressing - just the quote, baby stats and beading left. of course, I need to rechart the baby weight and date from European/Metric stats to American/English stats. I also bought fabric and other goodies for finishing the other models. Hopefully, I'll find time to do the finishing on them this weekend. Then I really need to be a good designer and wrap up some designing! Oh, and I'll try to post some final questions for the trivia contest next week.

Blues progressing

2006-09-25T16:47:00.000-05:00

Blue thing number 3 is progressing well. I'd like to get both blue thing number 1 and 3 done this week if possible. The beading took me three evenings, though, so I'm not sure. There's lots of cleaning that needs to be done with a parental unit visit coming up in the near future. If I ever retrieve the camera from DH, I might document how bad my craft room/office has become.

Anyway, all this blue stitching has made me feel somewhat blue. I don't know if I'll keep to it strictly tonight, or if I'll slack and say, knit 3 rows on some multi-colored booties. I've also got some finishing work to get done (which would be easier if the office was cleaner).

Ziplocks now ahead 2-0.

Upgrades

2006-09-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

Recently, I upgraded to the newer beta Blogger. It has a few differences, but seems overall much the same. One of the main differences was that I had to change my login to a Google account and this now means that I can't leave comments on non-upgraded blogs who require a login. This seems somewhat weird to me, since the blogs are run by blogger, and it would seem that it could cross reference the user database, but I guess it can't.

I also recently upgraded my iTunes to version seven. I'm liking this upgrade. The interface is just somehow slicker, especially when I hook up my iPod and select the different options. Of course, I still haven't managed to get it to sync up with Outlook, but that's a different story.

Finally got my print job finished off and shipped. Sometimes shipping is a job in itself; I was all ready to ship everything off on Tuesday and managed to walk out the door without the address. D'oh. Yesterday I was very good and got a bunch of stitching on blue thing #3 done. It is progressing nicely and showing no signs of frogs. Keeping fingers crossed on that one, as deadlines are looming. Now to start thinking of a name. Some designs come already named, but this one I'm still thinking on. "Baby Boy", "It's a Boy", may be functional, but aren't that grabby. On the other hand, if I call it "Kolya" after my nephew, I may confuse everyone. And obviously, there will be a girl version to follow (I have a niece, too), so I can't just call it "Baby Sampler". Quandry to solve.

So far ziplocks are ahead 1-0. :)

Arg! Stitch Like a Pirate!

2006-09-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

Yar(n)! It is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! And to celebrate, I've made a little complimentarrrrry design for stitching (not pirating - arg!). Here's the picture:

You can get a pdf of the design on my website. Enjoy, and if ye be stitchin' it up, send in a picture and I'll post it!

In non-pirate-y news, I took a quick trip over the weekend to Baton Rouge to visit my folks. It was fun, but short. Mom and I went shopping and a trip to Hobby Lobby just for some thread managed to find some silk flowers (on sale) and some more yarn (also on sale) and some new knitting needles (because I needed them) and of course the thread. However, I spent more at Office Depot buying ink! We twiddled around some antique stores and ate shrimp (yum)! At my Dad's house, there was football to watch, although the local teams lost, and jambalya to eat. I also got to pick up some of my Grandmother's paintings to bring home with me. Looking at these paintings it is as if I can reach through time and reach out to her through the brushstrokes. This is the legacy of any art or handwork that is passed down through the ages. On the way back from Baton Rouge, I got to talk to my brother a bit and hear my nephew jabber in the background - he is turning into such a talker! All in all, a good, although short trip.

In stitching news, some models returned home, yay! Now to get to work on finishing them off into their final forms. I'm trying to be good and working on Blue thing number 3; it is coming along. Some more baby booties have come into existance, I'm not sure how. I was also trying to print off a batch of designs to send off when my printer ran out of black ink. When I replaced it, it tried to tell me it was out of cyan and magenta as well. Luckily I was able to coax the seven pages I needed printed out of it without it stopping completely again. I'll have to gear up on ink and new bags before the Needlework show.

Speaking of new bags, any opinions - ziplock top vs. foldover (resealable) adhesive bottom?

The Good and The Bad

2006-09-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

We don't have any Ugly to talk about.

First the good: I was very good and went to the gym last night. It has been a while since I've been. Just this and that get in the way. I wanted to get home, and I forgot my iPod, so I only did about 30 minutes, or about 1.5 miles. I could tell that I wasn't as up to the running as I used to be, so I really need to keep going. Of course, I'm not going tonight.

Second the bad:

I did not stitch last night, instead this came into being. Here's the story. This was made from my Texas A&M sock yarn. We have some friends who have moved out of town, who are now expecting a bundle of joy. Unfortunately, they are not Aggies, they attended another school slightly west of Texas A&M. Anyway, it was postulated that some booties in the other schools colors might be appreciated by them. But before I bought new yarn, I needed to see how the sock yarn would do with the pattern. Because, to further complicate things, the bootie pattern I decided upon was designed for a larger weight yarn, but made to fit a 3-6 month old child. Therefore, I reasoned that a smaller weight yarn might fit well on a 0-3 month old child. Alas, it appears slightly on the small size. (Alas because I also know someone who attened A&M who is expecting early next year). Anyway, this pattern can probably be used with the sock yarn with some small finagling.

Tonight - back in blue? Maybe? Tonight - to the printer with me! Orders to be filled!

What's right with this picture?

2006-09-13T17:05:00.000-05:00

That's right - so far, we are avoiding the frogs that so plagued Blue Thing number 1. I didn't officially count the side to make sure it was 155 stitches; it was stitched in three sections and I counted each of those. However, the squiggly line between the top box and the bottom box landed in the right spot. Also, the rest of the border connected in all of the right places - deep breaths there.

I was sorely tempted last night to make some things that were like blue things 4 and 5, but that weren't blue. I think I'm suffering from a blue overload. Today I wrapped up the design work for "Triangularity", which will be a companion for "Maze" and "Labyrinth". I didn't really intend to make this design, but what started out as an off-hand comment somehow stuck in my brain that just one day attacked and came out as a design. That will be the end of that series, though. No more. I'm hoping to start soon on the last of the "Old World Samplers" - or maybe they're more like funny alphabet samplers. I've also got some other original ideas to try out. All the designs cry for their time, but it is hard to get to them all. We'll just have to wait to see what happens.

I had to upgrade my iTunes yesterday and I poked around a bit in the music store, so I've got my brain churning on some podcasting ideas (did I get a magic time machine somewhere?). Since I've started knitting, I've been wondering - what has knitting got that stitching doesn't? Why do they podcast and have so many books and stuff and we don't? Let's get cross-stitch into the cool zone! I'm hip and I stitch too! (Ok, well, maybe I'm not that hip, but I'm Gen X) There's also some other Cross Stitch as Art ideas flickering in my head - I wish those would come out as well.

c:>copy brain:\cross-stitch\ideas\*.* c:\

Anyone?

What happened?

2006-09-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

I came to the blog and actually hit refresh because I really thought I had posted more recently. Apparently I am posting in my head again. Whoops. Anyway, I had a somewhat busy weekend. The blue things multiplied and we now have:
Blue Things 3, 4 and 5. Blue Thing 3 is a variation of Blue Thing 1 done in all DMC, but on a dyed Jobelan fabric from Wichelt. Blue Things 4 and 5 make a pair of bootees (funky Brits can't spell booties right) and are from Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees book. They are for a co-worker whose wife is expecting a baby boy soon. They are also my first knit object to be completed. (And there was much rejoicing). I bought this book because (1) the booties (or bootees, whatever you want to call them) were terribly cute and (2) it seems like coworkers at both my office and DH's office and other friends are suddenly expecting new family members in the next 9 months (or less). Knitting bootees seemed like a good idea. We'll see how it goes. Maybe the first pair will just breed.

Other stitching happiness: model supplies got sent out! Yay! This means that I should have something other than Blue Things 1 and 3 for the October Needlework Show (now looming dreadfully close). I'm also working furiously on several ideas for Nashville. Must cram more hours in a day somehow.

On Labor Day, we labor

2006-09-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

Not that kind of labor - the move furniture around the house, clean rooms down to the kitty-cat dust-balls, rearrange the house kind of labor. This was our second annual Labor Day house-cleaning, rearranging fun fest, and since we're Aggies, that makes it a Tradition (note the capital T). My arms and legs still hurt. We'd somewhat recently received a large number of books from DFIL, and while they were doing okay in the garage, it wasn't the optimal place to store them, primarily because it is hard to read books that are in boxes in a garage, but also because it tends to be an invitation for book worms (or the equivalent) to take up residence. So the books needed a home inside the house. Which means room had to be made for them. So some rearranging was done. I think it was less than last year's rearranging, but we still have bookshelves to get.

As a side note, the craft room/my office was not touched and is still a complete disaster area. Another project for another day. But not tonight - tonight it is stitch night at the LNS (tomorrow night it is stitch night at the other LNS). I will finally get some stitching done. I may start on blue thing #3, which will be a non-embellished version of blue thing #1. I'll also finish picking some fun fibers for a model to send out to a stitcher. We're officially 5 weeks away from the online Needlework show (and maybe some cooler weather). Time to get cracking on those Nashville designs!

How did it get to be September?

Two sleeves make a...

2006-08-31T17:07:00.000-05:00

This morning, someone didn't want me to go to work:

That's Mocha the cat, doing her best to keep me at home to play with her. Her ingenious plan of lying in front of the door was foiled, however, as we have another door to the house and she got up to investigate when I walked towards it. I'm not sure why she did this, although she sometimes is especially meowy in the mornings. She had gotten plenty of attention the night before as I pet her and played with her while I stitched dutifully on the blue thing all evening.

In other news, at some point this week, two sleeves became....

...a sweater. Or at least the bottom half of the sweater. We will call this "the other blue thing" as it needs about 50 more rows of blue knitting to go, then a big band of black before it is close to done. No need to start the socks yet.

But I did start working on a new design yesterday! Of course, I should have been wrapping up the other ones, but that's another story. Let's jsut concentrate on the fact that I stitched all night on "blue thing number 1" with no frogging involved and that was very happy.

Six shades of blue

2006-08-28T17:00:00.000-05:00

I finished the frogging fixing! Hooray! Of course, when I went to stitch with the second color, I wasn't quite satisfied with how it went with the variegated thread. So began a long period of experimentation, and a close association with the DMC color card. What color thread was the appropriate darkness, appropriate contrasting blue, and yet did not clash with the alread stitched thread? We don't need to go into how much time has already been spent stitching, frogging and restitching the base color of this design. And to complicate factors, this thread needs to go with other colors in an all-solid version of the design (not yet stitched) and with beads that go in the design (already picked). This is one of the difficult parts of designing - working with a limited color palette. After probably two hours of test stitching, comparing colors in different light, I found one that I was satisfied with. Luckily, the stitching itself didn't take very long. Now I am onto the beading. Usually, I'd wait to do this at the end, but I wanted to make sure I liked how the colors went together; I do like the colors.

I have a confession to make. I went to a knitting conference market and bought stash:

Ok, I wasn't too bad. Just a travel bag for yarn, some fun stitch markers, a present for my sister (not pictured), dpns (I have none) and two skeins of sock yarn. Not just any sock yarn, though - sock yarn specially dyed in Texas A&M Maroon and White. Please note that I don't yet know how to knit socks, but the A&M yarn was not to be resisted. Keen observers may see the blue project partially obsuscured by the knitting stash, and so my have their interest peaked by the design teaser. Note that I continued to stitch, even though I bought new knitting supplies. I think this shows great fortitude on my part.

Also this weekend, I *gasp* worked on new designs! I actually put drafts of them in the computer! This is a major step in the right direction. We won't mention that the October online show is, well, in October and that September is starting to peek around the corner. We also won't mention that Nashville is just over five short months away. Make that five good months.

Finally, special kudos to my DH for completing this years Hotter N' Hell Hundred. He was one of several thousand bicyclers crazy enough to brave the heat in Wichita Falls, TX. It was in fact, the second HHH on record, getting up to 104F. What an amazing accomplishment! Remember to share the road!

Feeling Froggy

2006-08-23T17:16:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am being diligent and making some progress on my 10-stitch mistake. All of this has opened up some really important questions, though. For example: why does it take longer to remove stitches than it does to make stitches? Why does thread have a tendency to break when being taken out of fabric more than when being put into fabric? Why is there so much blue? (Oh, Baby Sampler for a boy - go figure). Some readers may be wondering why I'm carefully removing the thread instead of just ripping it out willy nilly and going forward with the restitching. Careful inspection of the picture may reveal that I did, in fact, use a variegated thread for this fiasco and don't want to buy too many skeins. Although I'm rethinking the plan already.

So after carefully unstitching and then restitching a whole length of thread, I rewarded myself with some other needlework:

Yes, I realize it is blue. I'm trying to work on some other charts for variety.

In other random news, I'm starting to train to do a 5K run this January. It is held at the same time as the city marathon, so if I start talking about doing the 5K at the marathon, I'm not confused about how long a marathon is, I'm wisely choosing to do a shorter course (at least this year). I've never been a big runner, so this is a pretty big step for me.

Houston, we have a problem

2006-08-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

Has this ever happened to you? When two things that are supposed to meet up don't?

Actually, the mistake was realized when the curvey section above didn't hit the box below after the correct number of stitches. These pictures were taken after corrective action was begun. Yes, that "bad" indicator is a gap of 10 stitches. Why are 10 stitches missing? Upon deeper investigation, I found that when doing the long vertical straight stitching on the left side of this design, I some how came up with a stitch count of 165 when there should only be 155 stitches.

Of course, had I just looked at my chart, I would've seen that the numbers on every 10 grid lines only went up to 160, so there was no way the whole thing could be 165. Anyway, a very silly mistake on my part. And since the whole border is stitched, there is nothing to do but frog the whole bottom bit (including a large motif in the bottom right-hand corner) and restitch it - 10 rows higher.

Please pass the knitting.

Productivity

2006-08-17T16:16:00.000-05:00

As proof that I did some of the work that I was supposed to do last night. Here is some of my test stitching. I'm still not entirely happy with the color combinations, so today I'm playing with them on the computer. Also, DH stole the lamp last night, so there was a limit to what I could do.

I also got a load of laundry done! Amazing!

Now back to my stitching story, since it appears that I have to write it myself. First, for posterity, here is a picture of the first major project I ever stitched. There are three major errors in this project. Do you see them?

1. I started stitching way too close to the top of the fabric. There's about 5 rows from the top of the stitching to the top of the fabric. Someday I'll finish this off as a bellpull, so it is really not that big of a deal. 2. The top plane has at least one incorrect color due to reading the chart wrong. Obviously I wasn't a perfectionist in middle school, so I didn't fix it. 3. I was still learning when I started stitching this, so there are a few (a very few) stitches where the top part of the stitch goes the wrong way. But you can't see that in this picture.

Here is the first original design I ever did. The lettering is taken from a book of alphabets, but I charted the constellations from an astronomy book. This won a prize at the state Latin Convention, but I can't remember if it placed at the National Convention.

Ok, stitch snobs, quick avert your eyes before looking at the following picture. Everyone else, just remember that I was probably in eigth grade when I did the following and didn't know any better.

On the other hand, it has held up remarkably well as a finishing job - there is absolutely no discoloration on the front of the piece in about 20 years of being held together with duct tape.

Needless to say, I don't use duct tape anymore. I still remember working on that first chart, though. I didn't have any graph paper small enough, so I took my regular 4 squares/inch paper and simply divided all the squares in half where the stiches would be.

Shortly after entering into high school, I started a crochet phase. This coincided with someone teaching me to crochet and a fascination with scarves. The fascination with scarves arose from watching way too much Doctor Who on PBS. I did attempt to teach myself to knit, but it didn't work out well, so I crocheted a 30 foot Doctor Who scarf. I came back to the cross-stitch fold when I happened to be looking through the pattern books in Michaels and found one full of space designs. It had Voyager and the planets, the moon and "The Eagle has Landed" with and eagle in front. It was very cool for cross-stitch patterns to an 11th grader. But it was different from everything else I has ever gotten before. It wasn't a kit. And so I learned to collect stash. I figured out how to buy DMC skeins, put them on bobbins and store them, how to buy fabric. Then I bought other patterns. I stitched a bunch of the patterns from that space book, and let me tell you, there is a lot of grey when you stitch the moon!

In college, I was lucky enough to find a friend who also liked cross stitch. Together we were luck enough to find a stitching store (my first LNS experience). Between this store and a Teresa Wentzler kit I was doing for a friend, I somehow crossed over from Aida to evenweave/linen fabrics. I also bought "The Castle" pattern by Teresa Wentzler, but remeber not liking the placement of one of the feet and wondering how hard it would be to change. I never got around to stitching it. I eventually designed several dragons while in college because there just weren't enough dragons to stitch.

Luckily, today there are far more dragons out there for people to stitch. And it is neat to see the variety of dragons that come out of people's imaginations. I really enjoy designing when the creativity comes, and sometimes it just comes, and sometimes it has to be coaxed. Even if I wasn't designing, I'd be stitching, or crafting in some way. So I say to everyone "Stitch on!"

Houston, we have a design!

2006-08-16T16:47:00.000-05:00

I think the baby design is really really close to done! Yay! This one has been in the "tinker" phase for about a year. Now, just to double check colors and such. Of course, I have to finish making a whole alphabet so that other people can customize it. I guess not everyone will want to stitch my nephew's name, although I can't imagine why. So tonight, if I'm really productive, I will test stitch the colors. I'm writing it here for everyone to see so that tomorrow I have to own up to whether or not I was productive or not. Of course, I can say that I got this design laid out last night and got some laundry done (all the way to being hung up). Oh, and went to the gym for 30 minutes. That's a pretty darn productive evening. No, I don't have kids, just the cat.

Anyway, goals for this evening: colors for baby sampler (most important), grid other design number 1 (I can't tell all my secrets), try to refrain from too much knitting, even though the second sleeve is getting close to halfway. Oh, wait - most important goal for the evening: feed myself and DH. I don't like going without food.

It is back to school time here in Texas, and in light of the recent graduation pictures, I thought I'd resume the trivia contest with some school-based trivia.

Question 19: What two universities did your favorite designer (ok, the designer who writes this blog) get degrees from?

Question 20: What are the mascots for those universities?

Question 21: Which was established first, Texas A&M or the University of Texas?

Question 22: Which UT is older?

Don't forget, questions 13-18 are still unanswered, though you may have to hunt for them!

And a good time was had by all

2006-08-14T17:07:00.000-05:00

With much Pomp and Circumstance, a new doctor was added to the family:

Don't ask for a perscription, its a Doctor of Philosophy in there.

And this is how long a Texas A&M Graduation is:

That's 5 inches of seed stitch for those counting at home, or just under three hours. Just for the record, I think this occasion took around four hours (and I wasn't able to knit or stitch). Afterwards, there was lovely food, also an interesting trip to the Galleria, where we searched for a store that kept moving mysteriously, and a baseball game (unfortunately the Astros lost). Sunday it was time to put everyone back on planes and look at retackling the laundy.

In stitching news, I did actually put the knitting down and make some progress on one design. Two more are drawn up, but need to go from drawing to graph paper. Where are those elves? They really are shirking a lot of work around here. Another is in early "computer work" stages, but looks really cool in my head. What will be done in time for the October Needlework show? Hmm... I'm starting to wonder myself. There is a month in between September and October, right? Guess that means I'd better stop blogging and get to work.

Still waiting on the elves

2006-08-10T15:07:00.000-05:00

Actually, I need some pictures for the rest of the story, which I keep meaning to take, so bear with me. All will resolve itself in time. And look, I am being betting at blogging!

The last couple of days have been mostly uneventful. I have been attempting to get ready for an "Invasion of the Relatives" which is now extremely imminent. Really, the relatives are terrific, and I love them, but their arrival does require a certain amount of cleaning in advance. I mean, who doesn't watch "Everybody Loves Raymond" and then think, "Uh-oh, my MIL is coming this weekend, what will she think of the *****" fill in your undone house duty here. Although I must say that my MIL is very easy going and we're not likely to be spending much time at the house examining the state of my kitchen floor. Although, come to think of it, I never did get around to cleaning the stove top - well nothing to be done about now except eat out! :) Just kidding.

Also, this lovely terrorist catching event this morning (and terrorist-catching is always better than terrorist-not-catching) has thrown things for a slight loop, as carryon items had to be double checked not to be liquidy and coordinating flights were delayed. But all will be well.

Please expect regularly scheduled blogging to reappear Monday - Tuesday at the latest.

And remind me to stitch and not knit, even though I'm very close to finishing a sleeve.

What, no elves?

2006-08-08T16:32:00.000-05:00

I see the elves did not come and finish my story yesterday, but I'll give them one more day because I have another story to tell. This story is not of any more importance, but it did happen more recently (today) and I feel compelled to tell it while it still amuses me.

While delivering patterns last Thursday during the LNS stitch-in, the LNS owner asked for more copies of Le Tour Septieme. Ok, I'll have those to you by Tuesday at the latest, I said, since I knew that Tuesday the LNS is open late (and it is closed on Sunday and Monday). I went on my merry way and didn't think much of it because I knew I had a bunch of these "bicycle" patterns in my inventory from an earlier print run. On Saturday, I got a follow up call from the same LNS owner wanting copies of "the cat pattern" - this would be the now famous Post Modern Cats. Ok, I say, I'll bring those on Tuesday as well. Now I'm nervous. I know I don't have any Po Mo Cats in inventory. I just finished printing up a bunch of them for a new distributor and shipped them off on Friday. (aside: Yay! New Distributor!) Why am I nervous? Because in doing said print run for new distributor, your intrepid designer started to get really low on (1) paper (2) yellow ink (3) cyan ink and (4) black ink. In fact, we are so low on black ink that the line on the printer is blinking constantly. Luckily, the printer will keep printing until it completely runs out of one color of ink. Then it will refuse to print until it has been topped off. So I'm nervous because I'd really like to print the Po Mo Cats for the LNS owner without incurring a rather expensive trip to Office Despot for more ink. This also means that I'm holding out in the paper department as well. Anyway, being me, I completely forgot to do my printing on Sunday, and yesterday saw Mr. Migraine cut out any fun activies for the evening. That means that the printing job now had to occur over lunch (1) because I do have to go to the day job and (2) in case I ran out of ink/paper, I would then have one last chance to run out for supplies. And so the scene is set.

I get home. I eat. (Who wants to face this kind of trauma on an empty stomach?) I scrounge up enough paper for the patterns (whew). First: The covers, because if anything, I'll run out of ink printing the covers. They use the most ink. I make it through the covers. (Are you feeling the suspense yet?) Then the back covers. Done. I start the print job on the patterns. I can't just sit there and watch the printer, so I go into the other room to stitch and watch TV. After a few minutes, I don't hear the printer going any more. Is this it? Have I run out of ink on the patterns themselves? No, just a paper jam. Clear it, keep going. Back to the other room to stitch. The printer gets quiet again. I check - out of ink? No, the paper has shifted and it thinks it is out of paper. Put the paper back in place. A miracle happens - the print run finishes with out running out of ink! I merrily go about collating the patterns and bagging them. Then I stitch for a couple more minutes before I have to go back to work. Finally, I think, better get those "bicylce patterns" together as well. I go to the inventory. I have half of what the LNS owner wanted! Oh no! I have to coax a few more patterns from the printer! Will the ink last? Nothing to do but try. Covers. Done. Backs. Made it. I'm really sweating now. All that's standing between me and sucess is a few pattern pages. Ok, print and go. Yay! The story does have a happy ending after all. The ink lasts. How many patterns do I think I can still print? Better not to press my luck. Now I have to hurry up, bag these and head back to work.

I just realized I left the order form at home - now I have to go there before going to the LNS. Good thing they are open late tonight!

Difficulties

2006-08-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

Do you know how difficult it is to achieve a state of relaxation while trying to rest your head on your desk (propped up by your arms) and not have your lower body roll out from under you (since the chair is on rollers)? And yet this is what I try to do in a vain attempt to thwart a migraine that has been dogging me all afternoon. Ok, then I gave up and blogged this because my arms were starting to complain about having to hold everything together.

The rest of the sewing/cross-stitching evolution story hopefully tomorrow. Unless little elves come in and write it for me tonight.

In the beginning

2006-08-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this isn't tomorrow, it is the day after that. What can I say? Sometimes life happens. Honestly, I do think about writing daily, but then I read other blogs, and the day just slips by. On the other hand, some days, I also get annoyed when there are no new entries in all the blogs I have bookmarked and the morning drags out (damn you Whil Wheaton, aren't you back from Vegas yet?). Also, there was much sadness this morning when I found out that You Knit What? is shutting down. I only just discovered it this week! And I've already read all the archives! Now, I will just have Stuff on my Cat to keep me amused on a daily basis (yes, the SomC daily calendar has already made it to my Amazon wish list).

Anyway, the story (or maybe just the beginning of the story as this is a Friday afternoon): In the beginning, there was handsewing. I don't really remember how old I was when my mother taught me to sew by hand, but this is when I learned the basics: how to thread a needle, knot the end of the thread, basic up and down stitching, how to sew on a button and a snap. We made clothes out of fabric scraps for my stuffed animals. I was not a doll-type girl, I was a stuffed-animal type girl. So my teddy bear got little shirts, pants and the like. Mom had lots of fabric scraps because she occasionally made clothes for herself and for my brother and I. She also made wonderful Halloween costumes for my brother and I.

So that was the beginning of the sewing. There were many other crafts in the house, as required for school projects and Girl Scouts. However, another critical juncture was probably the entry of plastic canvas into my world. I don't remember how or exactly when it happened, but it was probably sometime between 3rd and 5th grade. I do remember doing many bright projects, making magnets, and generally learning to follow a pattern. There was some accumulation of yarn and a kid's fishing-tackle box converted to a yarn box. From plastic canvas came a mystical progression to cross stitch. I think this was somehow due to proximity of the two craft in the aisle at Michael's. I would guess that this happened sometime in 6th or 7th grade. I don't remember my first project, but I remember my first really big kit. It was a long, bellpull like thing with a bunch of airplanes on it. I think I begged my Mom to get it so that I could do it for my brother, who was in college at the time. I remember working really hard on it, even working on it at school. I did start too close to the top, though. I did finish it in time for his college graduation, but it was never finished into anything. I think I still have it. I think I entered a slight stash aquisition phase at this time because I remember contemplating making bookcovers with cross stitch cloth. Come to think of it, I think I did do one with an embroidered candle in 8th grade, but it was muslin, not aida.

Coming next week: I design my first patterns, the crochet phase, and real stash acquisition begins.

Art vs. Craft

2006-08-01T09:52:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, I found myself in the bookstore perusing the craft magazines, and given my new knitting obsession, I took a look at the knitting magazines which I hadn't done before. I noticed that several of them had patterns, or at least ads, for designs that were a bit on the avant garde side. Then I looked through the cross-stitch magazine, which were way in the back, and many of the designs seemed, well, cute, tired, old. "Is it just me?" I wondered. "Is it the medium?" What is it about knitting that has people trying new and exciting, artistic things? Is it the influences of the fashion industry? The haute coutre? Hmmm..... Like the grinch, I puzzled and puzzled until my puzzler was sore. I still don't know, but I'm bound and determined to stay my course and stay away from cute and tired. I think we have enough interesting fabric and fibers available to us as a stitching industry to make really cool design work, to make Art.

Of course the knitters have their problems, too. I found the site You Knit What? (see side link) that points out almost daily bad knitting patterns. Very funny. I've often wondered where would the cross-stitch industry be if we designers had to go through an American Idol audition process. Would that be a good way of winnowing away many startups with a computer and not much design talent who get store shelf space anyway? Or would heretics who push the envelope (like me) also be left out in the cold? Interesting to think about anyway.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell the story of how I really got into cross-stitching. If I haven't done so already.

Where do the days go?

2006-07-28T10:11:00.000-05:00

Somehow it has been a week since I last blogged. I don't know how that happened. Really, I write a lot more frequently in my head, but that is probably hard for everyone else to read. Knitting continues. The good news is that I've made some headway on some new designs (yay)! Being creative to a deadline is hard; it is also difficult to take time out of a day and say, "Ok, right now I am going to go an create something new." I find it easier sometimes to work the creativity into the nooks and crannies of the day. Of course, when the creative juices really get flowing, that's when I'm screaming for a big chunk of time, and that's when I don't have it. Murphy's law will always get you. I'd really like to take some time out and do some "funky art stuff" but I haven't found any time lying around in bottles. I'll keep looking, though.

Nashville registration got mailed off Monday - hopefully we'll make the cut again this year. I've really got to get on the ball because February is much closer than you think (stitching-wise)! Unfotunately, all of my best ideas right now are Halloween-themed - which need to be released in early summer. I'll stick those on the back burner for next summer.

I've got some other goodies simmering in the works, but I dont' want to say anything official yet, so I'll just have to tease you by saying that hopefully you'll be seeing Cross Eyed Kat in more LNS's soon. Also, I hope to be diversifying a bit soon. :) We'll see how it goes.

My new obsession

2006-07-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

Recently, a pair of light-up knitting needles came into my possesion. For a techno-geek crafter, these were just too cool. They appeal on some fundamental level both geekiness and crafting. It became apparent that I must learn to knit - these light-up knitting needles had to be put to use! Luckily, my manager at the day job is a knitter and gave me a lesson and some extra yarn. Soon I was making a baby blanket! Now, I don't know what baby I was making the blanket for, but I was tootling along fairly well. A blanket, even for a baby, is a fairly large item, and I was starting to run out of room on my super cool light-up knitting needles. I also found that they were a bit awkward at the baseball game; I had to be careful not to hit anyone sitting next to me. An expedition to the "Yarn Store" was in order as I needed to upgrade my needles to circular needles.

The Yarn Store was much like an LNS for a craft-junkie: fiber heaven. I was very good, and bought only the circular needles I needes and one pattern I really liked.

One pattern, is all it takes though. Much like a new cross-stitch design that begs to be started, the knitting pattern occupied my thoughts. What yarn would work with it? I had to learn about gauges and weights. I was sent links to online yarn stores. I had another problem: the pattern was written in another language that was accented by cryptography. Full of funny letters and symbols, I borrowed a book to dycrypt the secret language and learn the stitches I didn't know. Finally I found a yarn that would work I started the design. I worked through the border and was very excited when I changed to the second color. Then I had a problem. I didn't like the second color. I thought about another color, and a third. I bought balls of these colors of yarn (luckily I wasn't using very expensive yarn). I did a test bit with the second color, even stitching a portion of the sleeve. Hmmm...maybe. I stitched on one portion, then the other. I did a test swatch with the third color. Definitely no. Finally, I went back to look at the yarn colors (why weren't there more?) and made a terrible decision. I would have to start over again. Two brand new colors were selected, but they would definitely work this time.

So that is where I am. Knitting away. But I will put the knitting away for a time this weekend and work on the cross-stitch designs because they are starting to invade my dreams! They are demanding attention!

Jury Duty and Migraines

2006-07-18T16:22:00.000-05:00

I had put it off long enough, twice in fact, so it was finally time to go and do my public duty. Although the county has this handy-dandy website that lets you reschedule your jury duty if it does fall on an inconvienent day, you only get to do that twice. I got to the jury room in plenty of time, and settled in with my latest obession, knitting (a post on that later). An hour later, they started calling jury pools, and I was in the first one. Lucky number 42 of 65. Roll call and then they troop us all down to the criminal courthouse. I managed to cause a bit of a stir at the security station with my knitting needles and the scissors I had forgotten were in my stitching bag, but the nice security guy decided my scissors were too small to cause any damage, so they didn't have to hold them for me. Then up to the 16th floor and more waiting. Finally we go into the courtroom. The last time I had jury duty we never went into the courtroom - the person plead out while we were standing in the hallway. Anyway, we sit in the benches in order so the lawyers can know what number we are. The judge talks to us for about 45 minutes and asks a few questions of the panel like, "Does anyone think a policeman is always right, or has anyone ever had a problem with a policeman?" and "Would anyone hold it against someone if they didn't testify in their own defense" Then each set of lawyers talked for a while and asked their own set of questions. The only time I raised my hand was when they asked if anyone was related to a police officer. I thought for sure I was going to be picked because a bunch of people had raised their hands to other questions. About halfway through, I started to get a headache and feel bad. I knew this wouldn't end well. Luckily they didn't pick me - I guess they didn't like something basic on my form or that I was related to a police officer. Unfortunately, now I had a migraine hitting in full force. How to get from downtown Houston back home? The only way was to drive and drive fast! Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad yet. I made it home, barely. The couch was the only place for me the rest of the evening.

Tonight we watch the Tour de France go to L'Alpe d'Huez. I've been avoiding hearing the results all day, so it should be exciting!

What I did on my summer vacation

2006-07-12T16:04:00.000-05:00

It has been pretty quiet around here, hasn't it? Well, that's because the cat went to the kitty hotel (i.e. the vet's) and DH and I went to visit the FIL at his new digs in Denver. We did help some with the unpacking and reorganizing, but we also found some time to enjoy the change of scenery!

And what a change of scenery it is! Here I am on the approach to Independence Pass - which is around 12000 ft above sea level. Independence Pass is also on the Continental Divide and is closed in winter. A Ferrari passed us on this road (we believe it was headed to Aspen). We had dinner in Aspen at a nice little Italian place. Everyone in Aspen has dogs - big ones. We passes a Needlepoint and Yarn store in the shopping district there, but it was already closed. By a strange coincidence, we were in Aspen the day Kenneth Lay died there, though we wouldn't find that out until later.

My husband, being the wonderful person he is, suprised me with a Fourth of July Hot Air Balloon Ride in the mountains!

It was fabulous! There's no sensation of movement at all - you just glide through the air. We saw a red-tailed hawk, a herd of elk, deer, and a guy in a hot-tub! The mountain views were magnificent, and when we landed there were mimosas and muffins for everyone!

For the rest of the 4th of July, we took in a baseball game in Denver - but it was rain delayed. I'm not quite sure how this happens, we never have a problem with rain at the baseball games in Houston and our friends tell us it never rains that much in Denver! So we missed the fireworks, but I heard the Rockies still won. Oh, yeah, we've got a retractable roof at Minute Maid Park in Houston - that would keep out the rain (and the heat).

Late in the week, we decided to go on a little hike up a little mountain.

Here's the trail (it is the light brown squiggly line along the bottom left - the car is somewhere back in the dark green blob in the middle):

And here we are at the top:

And here's the Altimeter reading near the top:

In case you can't read that - it is over 14200 feet. Yes, we joined the 14er's club. Ow ow ow. That's my leg five days later complaining about the climb. By the way, 14000 feet is really really high (we started at around 11200) and the whole hike was 8 miles - 4 miles in, 4 miles out. Eight miles wouldn't have been a problem at sea level but I have a problem breathing at 11000 feet because someone left out the oxygen. Lets just say it took a while, but I made it. Of course, once you make it up, you do have to make it back down, so as Dory might say, "Just keep hiking, just keep hiking." And for the record, I'm not afraid of heights, I'm allergic to them.

Made it to the top of Gray's Peak, check. Made it back to the car, check. Had fantastic pizza in Denver post hike - mental note to have post hiking comfy shoes ready next time (if there is a next time). Also post hike we went to see "Wired to Win" at the Denver Museum of Natural Science IMAX which combines a storyline about the Tour de France and some science of learning stuff. I think the science part was a way of getting funding to make an IMAX movie about the Tour de France. If this movie is showing in your area (and you like cycling), go and see it. The Tour shots are gorgeous. And you learn things about nerouns.

All in all, Denver was fun, but extremely busy; I didn't even make it to the LNS which is shocking! I know we'll be back, so that is good as it takes the pressure off to see everything - 16th St Mall, Royal Gorge, Estes Park, and the like. Now to settle back into the real world, back into a world where the air is so thick I can slice it with a knife and eat it. Yum. Oxygen.

I Survived

2006-06-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that we had guests coming for the weekend? Did I mention that they included a 4 year old and a nearly 1 year old? I survived, but barely. We went swimming, we went to the resteraunt with a sand/play area, we drew mermaids, we made sure the cat wasn't chased into a corner, we went to Space Center Houston and the Kemah Boardwalk, we stayed up too late after the kids finally went to bed - we needed a nap ourselves when the kids finally left! I also learned a valuable lesson: don't leave knitting out with small children around (even after telling them how it is bad to play with it). After they left, I discovered that one needle had been pulled out of half a row of stitching, so I had to recover that and fix a couple of dropped stitches. All in all, we had a great time together, though!

Question 12 has now been answered - SPQR has words in Latin, Hero and Journey both contains words in Chinese.

New trivia questions:

Question 13: What was the first word said from the Moon?

Question 14: What Shuttle Mission is scheduled to launch on July 1, 2006?

Question 15: Nasa Rd. 1 outside of Johnson Space Center was briefly renamed for what Astronaut in 1998?

Question 16: The Astros currently play in Minutemaid Park - what was the previous name of the ballfield before it was called Minutemaid Park?

Question 17: How many times have the Astros appeared in the World Series?

Question 18: In Superman II, what do the evil Kryptonians mistakenly think Earth is called?

Ready, set, SHIP!

2006-06-23T14:16:00.000-05:00

Everything is ready to go, I just have to stop by the post office and the UPS store tonight.

Here's a preview of the latest Cross Eyed Kat design:

I'm just tickled with the way it came out! Now, normally, I'm not a bright blue, green and pink person, but this design does coordinate with the iFobs.

I finished the printing just in time as our friends arrived in town Wednesday (although they're not staying with us until the weekend), so evenings have been taken up with dinners and chasing around a 4 year old and almost 1 year old. I still need to update the website with new shops, and of course get new designs out of my head and onto paper. Can I get someone to volunteer to do my laundry? Thanks.

Question 12 is still up for grabs. There are three designs that have words in a language other than English on them (not just letters).

Getting there

2006-06-20T14:17:00.000-05:00

I got almost all of my work done last night. All of the April releases were reprinted, and I wrote up the finishing directions for "Melodies." I should wrap up the charting work for "Melodies" tonight and do the photography for it, then that can be printed as well. I really need to get all of this work done this week because we have some friends and their little ones coming to visit this weekend, so there's no hope of getting anything done over the weekend. Something to remember is that when you buy a Cross Eyed Kat design, it is highly likely that every piece of the package has been touched by the designer. DH does get roped into the large collating sessions before trade shows, but I still run the in-house printer (including cursing at the paper jams). In fact, I was a one-woman show at Indianapolis. Here are a couple of shots of the booth.

Before (this is what the booth looked like when I first arrived and deposited my stuff there):

And after setup was complete:

Wow! It is hard to believe that so many designs have been released in two years! Yes, Cross Eyed Kat celebrated two years of offical releases May 25th, 2006.

Trivia Question 10: What was the first design released by Cross Eyed Kat?

Trivia Question 11: What Cross Eyed Kat design benefits the Lance Armstrong Foundation?

Trivia Question 12: What Cross Eyed Kat designs contain words in a language other than English(in the design)? (There are 3)

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And in response to the comments: Jenn, you're right, Oscar is similar to the Snowfight: Red dragon. I think he is smaller, though. He was drawn completely separately. I do tend to like red dragons, and then that leads me to a similar color palatte of DMC. Lets just say they're cousins. :) No ark yet, the water has subsided for now, but Winnie the Pooh used to say, "Tut-tut, it looks like rain!" I just hope it is not another 6 inches!

Shannon, for David Brin reading, I most recommend Startide Rising along with its sequel The Uplift War; I also like Earth; which may be interesting to go back and read now, considering it touched on privacy issues and South Lousiana flooding (although not New Orleans focused).

Another one of my favorite authors is Tad Williams, although I'm working to get through his Otherland series. I've read several other books this spring while having the first one of this series "in progress" mostly because it is hardback and I've been travelling. On the other hand, it hasn't been the page turner that several of his other books/series have been for me. I must say that Tad Williams is a very nice author and when he came as a guest to a sci-fi convention several years ago, I brought my entire collection of his works. I had bought a couple of hardback copies of his books which I had in paper back, and he had one book which was released in two parts in paperback. All in all, I think I had nine books of his with me. He took the time to sign every single one with personal messages. It is so fun to pick up those books now to re-read and find those messages at the front. If you've never read Tad Williams, and you like cats, run out and get a copy of Tailchaser's Song and read it!

Making Christmas

2006-06-19T15:49:00.000-05:00

Isn't it just too adorable? I think it took me about 3 nights to stitch up. The Estaz was fun to use, but a little big for the 28 count fabric. Arctic Rays or a Kreinik braid could also be used - whatever floats your boat as a tree garland.

We did get a bunch of rain this morning to go with all the rain we've had the past two days, and although the backyard drains aren't quite working and the yard is swampy, we're not flooding. It did fall fast and heavy this morning - I could just tell from the sound that it was a really hard rain. Yesterday we had a rainbow over our house after driving through a hard rain.

Tonight will be a full night (and I'm already tired from the rain waking me up) - I'm trying to finish off the chart for "Melodies", the iPod cover. I also have to do a bunch of printing to send charts out to my distributor. I hope to have those ready to ship tomorrow or the next day. If I can get it all done today and tomorrow, then I will have all of the Indianapolis work behind me and can start concentrating on new stuff, which is of course more fun.

Something dangerous happened to me last week - I learned how to knit! I can see why this knitting craze took off. It is almost a viral type of craft. Just get going, keep it with you, knit where ever you are. Now, how to make cross stitch like that?

I'm also reading a really great book. It is obviously a great book because I've read it so much the pages have broken out of the binding in one spot (that or the glue wasn't that good). It is Startide Rising by David Brin and I highly recommend it. It is a bit odd because some major events that pertain to the story occur before the book starts, but they get explained as the book goes along.

The Further Adventures of Oscar and Ralph

2006-06-14T17:22:00.000-05:00

There's a new addition to the complementary designs featuring Oscar the dragon and Ralph the mouse - and yes, I did get the model stitched in time for the show! This design is only available through shops that order Cross Eyed Kat designs, so you'll have to bug your LNS (wait, I mean, ask politely) for a copy. And if they don't have the newest one, it means they need to order the new, cool designs! I'll be sure to dig the model out of the suitcase tonight to get a picture and update this. The design is called "Making Christmas" and Oscar and Ralph are decorating a Christmas tree. I experimented with a new (to me) fiber on this one: Estaz from Glissen Gloss. It makes a terrific garland, but it was a bit big for the fabric I used. I ended up couching it on the top of the design, but it still looks really cool.

A picture soon, I promise!

The Kat is Cross Eyed

2006-06-13T17:31:00.000-05:00

This morning I was touring downtown Indianapolis in a stretch limo - this afternoon, I'm sitting in my office in Houston. It still feels weird. If you happen to need a ride from the airport to downtown Indianapolis, it is cheaper to ride in a stretch limo than to take a taxi. Go figure. And a lot more fun! On a sad note, I saw far more of Indianapolis this morning than I did the previous 4 days during the trade show!

So why did I ask a question yesterday about the Animaniac's US State Capitals song? Sing it with me... "Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus is the capital of Ohio..." The TNNA show was held in Indianapolis this year, although it is usually heald in Columbus, Ohio. And guess what town is the Cross Eyed Kat's home town? That's right - Baton Rouge! What an amazing coincidince!

Ok, time to relax and recover!

Gary Indiana Gary Indiana

2006-06-11T20:58:00.000-05:00

Shannon got all the questions right!

I had a fabulous time visiting Mt. St. Helens and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area. The day was rainy, but it cleared every now and then. I stopped at every visitors station on the way up and watched every movie. I learned all about Harry Truman and his cats. The difference between where trees have been replanted and where they haven't in the blast zone is just amazing.

Working the Indianapolis trade show has been crazy - setup all day the first day, then two full days so far of working the booth. Meetings at night, so the days are long.

I'm ready to get back home and get back to the work of designing.

Ok, more trivia questions:

Question 6: How many trombones led the symphony (according to the Music Man)?

Question 7: What baseball team calls Indianapolis home?

Question 8: In the Animaniac's song with all of the US state capitals, which state capital comes first? (Indianapolis is second)

And in light of my poker winnings last week:

Question 9: In Texas Hold'em what are the first three cards dealt to the community called?

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Texas here I come!

Trivia Contest

2006-06-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm gong to run a trivia contest starting now and running until the October Needlework Show. I'll sporadically post questions and readers can post answers in the comments. First person to post the correct answer gets credit for the answer to that question. The person with the most correct answers by October gets a choice of three Cross Eyed Kat cross stitch charts!

Fine print: not responsible for blogger problems, web problems, and the like. In case of disputes, my decision is final. In case of a tie, I'll decide a winner by random draw.

Ready? Ok, go!

Question 1: What mountain am I standing in front of?

Question 2: What ridge am I standing on?

Question 3: The ridge I'm standing on is named for somebody. What were his last (known) words?

Question 4: What day did the mountain I'm standing in front of erupt? (Ok, I guess technically, you'd call it a volcano, not a mountain)

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In other news, I'm frantically trying to get ready for the big summer tradeshow. This one is a completely different format from the ones I've been to before, so I hope I've got my bases covered. I'll have two brand new designs, in additions to the new releases from April. The new designs are Post Modern Dogs, which the people at one of the LNS's near me have been bugging me to do for at least a year. It is smaller than PoMo Cats - maybe people will see that you don't have to do the whole design.

Here's a preview:
Woof woof! I also finished another new design I'm calling Melodies - it is an iPod holder and the colors match the iFobs. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that. I just finished making the bead fringe for it Sunday and then finished it so it hangs around my neck. I love how it turned out!

Ok, time to start making lists and figuring out what I'm forgetting....

The Great Debate and other matters

2006-05-15T13:31:00.000-05:00

Is it Coke vs. Pepsi? No, it was the myriad of choices I had to debate between to treat my measly runny nose. Sudafed? Tylenol Allergey? Benadryl? Claritin-D? Ones available right there on the shelf, or the ones that I have to read the little paper picture of and then take to the pharmacist? Too many choices! Of course the one I finally picked and then took to the pharmacist they didn't have behind the counter. Actually, they did, the packaging had just changed color, but the little paper hanger hadn't been changed to keep up.

The answer to the Coke vs. Pepsi debate is Coke, of course.

The odd thing about funerals is that while they are unhappy occasions, they do bring families together. I don't think all of my cousins and I have gotten together in about five years - we're just so spread out. I hadn't seen my brother in over a year since he lives overseas, so it was an unexpected pleasure to see him, although a sad occasion that brought us together. I am happy that I got to see my Granny several times this year and tell her how much I loved her.

In stitching news, I really hope the second half of the year is calmer than the first half so that I can get some real designing done. I feel so scattered! I have so many things I want to get out of me, but I can't find any time to bring them to real fruition. There will be at least one new design for June thanks to a wonderful model stitcher. There should be a new dragon-mouse freebie design as well. That went from sketch to rough chart yesterday. These are going to be called "The Adventures of Oscar and Ralph" to keep them straight in my head. The dragon is Oscar and the mouse is named Ralph. This one will be a Christmas design. I still have hopes for one more design that I'm working on, but I had a slight size miscalculation, so the design will have to be adjusted. D'oh!

In Memory of Granny

2006-05-12T16:36:00.000-05:00

My Granny made the best caramel cake and would always have a chocolate cake and ice cream ready for your birthday. She started painting when she retired and yet had a painting career that spanned more than 30 years. She loved to talk about flowers and to tend growing things. She took care of all the people that came into her life. She remembered the Great Depression. At age 95, she had a long and good life. She loved life and the people in it. We will all miss her and try our best to live our lives like hers: love others, love God, and it is never too late to learn to do something new!

The mind is working faster than the hands can keep up

2006-05-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

I have so many ideas that I wish I could sit down and draw out right now. I really wish the TNNA show was in late July or even September to give me more time to get some done. Hopefully I'll get one or two done, then have more releases coming out this fall. Once the creative juices get going, they just keep on going, which is a good thing. I have a model stitcher who seems to be working her fingers off, so it looks like there is a high probability that one new design at least will be ready for the show. I'm working on stitching another small one, which is about 25-30% done, so that's a good sign. I'd like to finish charting out a third that has been in stages in my head for quite a while. If only there were more hours in the day!

The good news is that I did get my flight booked yesterday. The airfare even dropped from Tuesday when I last looked at it. Don't know if that was just good timing, or the fall in barrel oil prices, but either way, I'm happier than I was on Tuesday.

In off the wall news - I won a poker tournament at lunch! The place where we usually go for lunch on Fridays has free video Texas Hold'em games and in May they are doing tournament games at noon. So the group I went with joined in, since it is all free, and I ended up winning! When it got down to me and one other person, it was pretty tough. We'd trade hands back and forth, then I'd win a big one, then he'd win a big one. Then I'd bluff my way back in and so forth. Finally, he went all in and I ended up with two pair and the winning hand! I won 6 hot wings and got entered into a drawing for a trip to Vegas. I doubt I'll win the big prize, but I was pretty happy to win the little tournament.

What is a season?

2006-05-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like travelling due north (or in some cases, South) to lead you to wonder what makes a season. Here in Texas, we are enjoying late Spring (although the calendar may say otherwise) burgeoning on the edge of summer. This past weekend, I travelled to Detroit and it was like stepping back 8-10 weeks in time since they are experiencing what would be our early spring. All of the early spring flowers were blooming - the tulips, the Bradford Pears, the pansies. The days were in the 60's and the evenings were definitely chilly! Here's a comparision:

These are my tulips; I planted them on MLK day and they bloomed about 3 weeks later (early February):

Here we are visiting a park in Canada on April 27 (note the tulips in the background):

So what season is it? Almost summer or just early spring? Looks like it depends upon your latitude. All I know is that I'm looking forward to going to the pool pretty soon!

Stitching news: Almost recovered from the Needlework Show. Still have a few packages to mail out - those should go out this week. That's the problem with having a major bicycle event and a family wedding scheduled in and around a tradeshow! Also, I'm trying to work out two more designs that I hope I can quickly stitch up before June - who wants to place bets on how many I get done. For one I have some really fun ideas on combining cross-stitch with scrapbooking elements. Now, I'm trying to get focused on TNNA in Indianapolis, so lots to do and plan. Somehow I survived the month of April, though, so that is a major accomplishment! This week is double stitch-nights, and I missed the stitch-ins last month due to a nasty stomach bug, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Better run, got some xxx's to make!

Printing, Packing, Mailing

2006-04-25T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well, the Needlework Show is over for another 6 months or so. And somehow I survived it, even with being gone for the weekend. (See previous post about bicycling event from Houston to Austin). Now I've been printing, packing and getting everything ready to mail like a mad woman. Actually, I had almost everything on hand from Nashville leftovers. The new designs needed theire layouts finished, and several of the Nashville releases needed reprinting. I'm very happy with how it went, considering how overwhelmed I was the 2 weeks before the event and I didn't get the publicity out that I wanted to. I will do better next time!

Now to focus on some new stuff for June - oh yes, that is only a month away. What can I get done in a month? Anybody out there want to lend me some fast fingers? I really wish the TNNA show was a little bit later in the summer. The first half of the year is just a little front-loaded with tradeshows - Nashville in February, Online show in April, and TNNA in June. Guess that means I should spend the rest of the year gearing up for next spring! :)

Ok, my dolphins need a little bit of love. They didn't get nearly the orders that the Dragons got during the online show. Maybe the picture doesn't do them justice? Maybe people don't want to stray from pure cross-stitch? Maybe people don't want to use all silks? Maybe the central dolphins are too simplistic? I don't know, but I do know that I will enjoy looking at this one! That's not to say that the dragons aren't pretty too (and my model stitcher did an awesome job on them). I guess I just had a lot of fun experimenting with the textures of the silk threads and the different stitches and I really love the way they came out. Oh, well. Nobody gives any love to "Summer Wind" and "Signs of Spring" either. :)

If he did the bike ride - why do I have the injuries?

2006-04-24T16:08:00.000-05:00

DH participated in the BP MS 150 this weekend - that's a bike ride from Houston to Austin over the course of two days that includes some challenging hills for those of us who live in a flat city like Houston. I was doing what we call SAG support (Support And Gear). After seeing DH off from the starting line just after dawn on Saturday, I drove out to the overnight site, found a camping spot and proceeded to set up the tents - one for us, and one for his cousin who was also riding. Another friend joined me a couple of hours later to keep me company, so we set his tent up. Then it was off to the finish line to make sure we saw DH rolling in - which we did. He got washed up, then we all got some food and went back to the tents to chill out for a while (DH had just bicycled over 80 miles and we'd both been up since 4 in the morning!) Then he got a voicemail from his cousin that she was three miles out from the finish line, so we hurried over to try and catch her coming in. 45 minutes later, we hadn't seen her. I managed to raise her on the cell phone and she was already eating dinner! We went over to the dinner area and we saw that we'd seen her whole team come in, we just hadn't recognized her with the different jersey and helmet on! D'oh! Oh well, we grabbed dinner, and then the sun was starting to set so we went back to the tents to try and get some sleep because we knew we'd be up before dawn again. And we were - we got to sleep in until 5 am this time, but DH had to get to the starting line by 6am (when there are 13,000 riders, the starting line gets long early). After packing up the tents, I headed out to Austin and finally made it there by 11. There is something very mesmorizing about watching huge groups of bikers on the side of the road while you're driving by. All those bright jerseys, with the black shorts and the little legs flashing up and down - ok and I was running on very little sleep to begin with. The finish line in Austin was also mesmorizing! I think I saw a Discovery Channel Team member cross the line at 11:30! I finally found a shady spot to stand/sit and wait. DH had an awesome time and came in at 1:30 - even with doing the really hilly park. I saw him cross the finish line, then had to try and dash around to the end of the biker's funnel to where I could meet him - that's where I tripped and skinned up both knees and ripped a hole in my capris! So I'm the one who got the injury - plus the sunburn from standing at the finish lines (and yes, I did put on sun screen). After we met up and I got proper sympathy for my injuries and he got congratulations for doing such a good job, there was the usual routine of cleanup, bike stowage, waiting for cousin, her cleanup, bag retrieval, then getting home! Whew! We surived the bicycle experience one more year (well, mostly survived it!)

There's a Spirit Can Ne'er Be Told

2006-04-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, time to break into song:

Some may boast of prowess bold

Of the schools they think so grand

But there's a spirit can ne'er be told

Its the Spirit of Aggieland!

We are the Aggies, the Aggies are We

True to each other as Aggies can be

We've got to fight, boys, we've got to fight

We've got to fight for maroon and white

After they've boosted all the rest

They will come and join the best

For we are the Aggies, the Aggies are we

We're from Texas A M C

For those that don't know, today is Aggie Muster Day (and incidentally San Jacinto Day here in Texas), and any two Aggies who are within 100 miles of each other are supposed to get together and remember their times at Texas A&M. On campus, a memorial is held for those Aggies who have died in the past year. The Muster is the roll call for the absent, and as each name is called a candle is lit and someone answers "here" for that person because they are with us in spirit. Aggie Muster is an amazing experience - the campus ceremony is quite moving. The one spring I was co-oping in Minnesota, I found an A&M group in the Twin Cities and attended their Muster gathering (and a few other outings). Today it is much easier to get together with other Aggies as my husband also went to A&M and I work with several other Aggies. Still, it is nice to take a little time to remember the traditions that drew me to Texas and make the the Spirit of Aggieland so very special.

Just in time

2006-04-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

I got all of my stitching and finishing work done just in time for the Online show! Yay!

Here is the project which would never end, "Dolphins of Delos"

I started it in the fall, and just had to intersperse it with too many other projects. It is actually a very simple design to stitch. The dolphins took no time at all. The bright part of the background is stitched in a scotch stitch, with cross stitch filled in between (blue silk alternating with sparkling blending filament). The border was also simple - just a repeating pattern done in straight satin stitch. I did have a hard time deciding on the colors for it, though. Finally the corners are filled with a Rhodes square and some cross-stitching and the space between the central design and the outer border is filled with smyrna crosses alternating in blue and white. This model was done all in silk, so it was really fun to do, and I used some different weights for texture. It is so vibrant - I love how it turned out. Some people may not immediately understand why two dolphins are pictured on a bright yellow and red background - that is because this design is inspired by mosaics from the Greek island of Delos, so the background is meant to look like a mosaic (also it makes the whole thing brighter than doing it all in blues and greys). Anyway, I'm really happy with the way it came out, and I'm really happy that it is finally done!

Also done and finished are the iFobs:

Each one has the scissor picture on the front and the word "iFob" in the matching color in the back. I stitched the blue and green ones and had a model stitcher do the pink one. I did the finishing on all three - and they are my first ever scissor fobs to do! I'm so proud that they came out! I had to hunt down the right kind of cording because it just had to be white like an iPod! (Finally found it at Hobby Lobby).

I also finally got around to the finishing work on "Dragons Welcome":

My poor model stitcher - she worked to get this done for Nashville, but it couldn't get finished in time. Then of course, I waited until the last minute to do the finishing for the online show. But now it is done. It is so bright and sparkly in person. Do you know how hard it is to make five different looking dragons in one design? And not have it be too big? This is actually the second incarnation of this design idea - the first one never made it past the graph paper stage.

Tonight is the first night of the Online Needlework show. This was the first time I really had to decide what designs to put in the show - we only get twenty slots and I now at close to thirty designs. Crossing my fingers that it goes well.

Now back to the designing with me!

Spoke too soon...

2006-04-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

Apparently I spoke too sooon, or didn't knock on wood or something, when I posted about not being sick previously. Shortly after that a nasty bug decided to hit me in the stomach. Said stomach decided to kick nasty bug out. A fight ensued and I was the miserable host. After a morning of being miserably sick, but deciding that it wasn't food poisoning, and that I was approaching a state of dehydration and needing to know if I was carrying a contagious something in light of my impending trip to Memphis, I took myself off to the doctor's office. They were kind enough to see me that afternoon and pronounced that I had a stomach infection, which they had seen many people with lately; prescribed antibiotics and said that I would be fit to travel and non-contagious by the weekend (this all happening on a Tuesday). I spent the next two days recovering - first from lack of food, then from all the bug-fighting that my body did. However, by Friday, I was definitely feeling better, which was good, since that was the day I was travelling to Memphis.

Technically, I was only travelling to Southaven, Mississippi, but my Grandmother lived for so many years in Memphis, that I still refer to visiting her as, "Going to Memphis." This was kindof an impromptly-planned trip for her 95th birthday, so to save on airfare, I had booked a flight to Jackson, MS, where my Dad would pick me up on his way to Southaven. Normally, this would be a very good plan - except when there was a mechanical issue with the plane that made our departure 3 hours delayed! Luckily, there was a golf course close to the airport for Dad to have some fun. I was stuck at the airport - although I did find a power outlet to juice up my iPod. Finally make it to Jackson (luckily the luggage makes it as well) and we head up the road to Southaven. I drive through some really major storms - no tornados, though.

The weekend was rough. Granny is much weaker than she was at New Year's when I was last there (except for a brief visit coming through for the Nashville Market). 95 years is catching up to her at last. It is hard to see, partly because I identify with her so much. I my height from her side of the family (I'm smaller than both my parents), she did a lot of art work in her later years, and she's very considerate and giving, but she also has a stibborn streak in her. My Dad got sick while we were there, so my Aunt and I ended up taking care of her through most of the weekend and I can see a little bit of what full time caregivers have to do. Monday it was back to the Jackson Airport with me and by then I was exhausted!

Stitching news: The online show is coming up soon and I think I'm going to go crazy! Dragons Welcome still has to have its finishing work done (although I bought the prettiest fabric for it two weeks ago). That will probably happen tomorrow night. Dolphins of Delos has turned into the never-ending project. Just one more border element to do, then it needs to be stretched and matted. One other release will be ready (I hope): The iFob available in three colors! Green and Pink need to be made into fobs, but Blue is done.

I'm also frantically working to get new things ready for TNNA in June. This is the "Big Show" or what needs to be the industry's big show. Unforturnately, the first have of this year has not been personally condusive to getting designs done. Well, I can hope that there will be shops that attend who haven't been to the smaller cash and carry markets and so most of my stuff will be new to them.

On a positive note, I got my taxes done two days earlier this year than last year. And since the deadline is two days later, that should count as four days earlier!

It's alive!

2006-03-28T16:41:00.000-06:00

And I haven't even been sick or anything, just really, really busy. Mostly I'm just suffering under the typical Spring-overload. Work is busy in its own way. In stitching, I'm trying to wrap up stitching on a new design (yes, I'm still stitching on the dolphins) and I still need to do the finishing work on another model. I've started another design, a little fun fob! I've also just found out that I did get a space in the big summer trade show, so I need to shift into overdrive to get some new stuff ready for that. (Yikes!) There's also been a bunch of discussion in the designing world about copyright lately as another pattern-sharing site was uncovered. It was very sad to see there for all to download full patterns in blatant copyright infringment of some of my favorite designers/friends.

In other overload areas, DH is still getting ready for the big bike ride. I still have to do some dress shopping as DBIL's wedding is soon. I didn't get my plane ticket booked in time, so I won't be able to get to Memphis for my grandmother's birthday, but that may be good. Things are just too busy right now and I wouldn't be able to go for very long. Still...I probably should've booked the ticket a month ago.

My bluebonnets are still growing! We had a week of cold weather (no more cold weather from Canada, please!), well I guess the right term would be chilly weather. I really need some time to get out and weed the flower beds again, but who knows when that will happen?

I'm happy to see that there are some new additions to the frapper map of Cross Eyed Kat stitchers! Pretty cool. If you ever want to see if there is a store that carries Cross Eyed Kat designs near you, you can check out the map on the Cross Eyed Kat web site.

It's not easy being green

2006-03-16T17:00:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, and on a whim, I decided to wear green all week. Today, I had a co-worker say, "Hey it's March - when are we supposed to wear green?" That's right, four days of wearing green and nobody really notices. I will admit that today I was wearing a REALLY BRIGHT green as opposed to Tuesday's pastel green, but still. And these aren't shirts with just one green stripe - these are all solid green shirts (I don't own green pants). It really isn't easy being green.

The bluebonnets are coming, the bluebonnets are coming!

2006-03-14T15:46:00.000-06:00

The calendar on my wall says something about the first day of spring being next Monday, but it lies. Spring has been here for at least a week and the bluebonnets know it. They're starting to show up in great, lush, blue-white carpets along the highways. I actually planted some bluebonnet seeds in my porch planters last weekend and already I have three (three!) sprouts! All of the trees are leafing out as well in that bright, kelly-spring green way as well. Just don't stand still outside too long or you might end up covered in flourescent green pine pollen.

Spring for us is invariably busy, and this year seems doubly so. DH is doing his training for the MS 150, I'm trying to get new designs ready for April and beyond, plus there's taxes, preparing for a family wedding in late April, and some other work stuff going on.

I did manage to make it to the gym yesterday. Which was a good thing, since the in-laws came in for a visit over the weekend and we did lots of eating out (including a trip out to a lovely little cafe in Round Top, Texas, which has the most decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie). I have a slight problem, though, because I'm currently watching season 3 of 24 on my iPod (which means I watch it at the gym). I'm about halfway through the season, so I worked out on the eliptical while watching one episode (about 45 minutes), then came home and watched the new episode for the new season. Keeping the plot lines straight can be a bit confusing. And who elected this President Logan? After having Palmer president? Well, I've got a trip coming up, so maybe I can plow through a bunch of season 3 while I'm travelling.

Special Kudos to the nice lady who let me go in front of her to check out at Walmart. I had so few items, I didn't even have a cart, but as usual, there weren't any short lines. This lady had a full cart and had just found a short line, but she pointed it out to me and let me go in front of her. Seems there are still kind people out in the world. Something we should all remember to be - kind people.

Weeds weeds weeds!

2006-03-06T22:17:00.000-06:00

It is definitely spring here - and starting to get hot! The tulips are all a-bloom (pictures to come soon, I promise). I needed to replace some azaleas that had kicked the bucket last year (it was a hot, dry summer), so off I went Saturday to Home Depot for some new plants. I got the right kind of azaleas, and some color plants for our patio pots. I also went by another nursery and got some snapdragons, poppys (yay - a perennial!), alyssa for the patio pots, and some bluebonnet seeds. Sunday before lunch, I was good and dug up the dead azaleas and got all the new plants planted. In the course of doing this, I notice that the weeds were starting to make a resurgence in the backyard. Only one week after being severly beat down by the yard guys, too! After lunch, I dutifully took myself to the backyard, trowel and bag in hand and started to attack weeds. The more I dug the more I saw. Everywhere I looked there just seemed to be more weeds. Now, most of them were little, so they were just sprouting. You also have to understand that this is Texas, and our yard is Texas-sized, so there is just lots of space to do the weeding! Anyway, after a while, I had to say enough - I'm just going to dig up all the thistles and be happy with that for this week. And now, I'll be happy if I never see another thistle again (and you'll probably never see a thistle design from me).

I did get some stitching in this weekend. It feels like it has been forever since I've really stitched! The border is coming along on the dolphin design, but I did take a break to do the back stitching. While not completely done (and back stitching is not my favorite part of any design), it is so amazing to see how it makes the design really pop out and come alive.

By special request, I'm working on alternatives to the hardanger corners in the Ancient World Samplers. A Greek one is done, I should be adding it to the website soon. These additions will be available on the website for people who've already purchased the design and included in future publications of the design.

For everyone still suffering (like my brother) in snow and cold weather, just think that my blooming flowers are being balanced out by the weeds. :)

Who let March in?

2006-03-02T13:09:00.000-06:00

Could somebody press rewind, please? I'd like about five more days back. Life is just too busy around here. First there's work life - that's just generally busy, although there are some extra things going on there for complication. Second there's cross-stitch business life - wrapping up Nashville orders, getting the website updated, getting reorders out (yay), sending catalogues out, not to mention trying to get data entry done so I can do my taxes (yikes) and registering for the next big tradeshow (should I mention how long I've been meaning to put a stamp on that envelope?). Then there's cross-stitch design life - some stitching, some doodling, some ideas noodling in the brain, some sketching on paper that really needs to get done. Then there's real life - laundry, feeding the cat, buying the groceries, feeding the husband, changing the oil in the car, keeping the lawn looking decent - and I don't even have kids! Somehow it all has to get done in the 24 hours of a day - oh, and I get pretty cranky when I don't get 8 hours of sleep. :) So we prioritize around here and loose a few days occasionally, then play catchup, which is what I think I'll be doing this weekend. Oh, and planting some flowers before spring entirely passes me by. Hopefully, I'll get the camera out while my tulips are all blooming right now and post a picture soon!

Bad Combination

2006-02-24T15:46:00.000-06:00

Duly noted: grilled cheese and french fries was a bad choice for dinner and my stomach punished me for it. Luckily I recovered in time to watch the women's figure skating wrap up with the long program. I'm going to blame the Olympics for keeping me from getting anything really productive done this week - just when I think I'll take a break from watching it and get up to do something, they'll start a new, interesting event, or start up a series that's not interrupted by commercials, or I'll notice that it is somehow 10:30 at night (how did that happen?). Somehow, I managed to be minorly productive last night and address envelopes for catalogues.

I also managed to get the website updated (yay!). Both the newsletter and the gallery pages have been updated with the new designs. I must say, as much as I like drawing and detailing the big dragons, the little dragons (the ornaments and the freebie designs) just seem to have their own character. It is funny how they seem to live in such a small design space - and believe me, it is not easy getting a dragon squished into a 50x50 grid!

Anyway, plans for this weekend include clearing up the chaos that is the design room. Then hopefully, playing with paper and pencil for some new design ideas that are germinating. Of course, there's always the business side to take work on, somebody has to do it, and I don't think I can talk the cat into doing the work!

Sooo Tired Again...

2006-02-21T16:58:00.000-06:00

I tried to catch up on some rest President's Day, but somehow it didn't seem to happen. I did get caught up in printing, so a bunch of packages are going out to the post office this afternoon. Yay! Still have to finish cleaning up the disaster area that is my design room. Maybe tomorrow. And I think I've just about talked myself into doing the big summer trade show, so I'll be preparing the paper work for that tonight. That's a big, scary step, especially after last year's trade show fiascos. But this is where the industry should be going (doesn't mean it is where it is going, though). And somewhere along the line, I need to find some time to sit doiwn and work on the new designs that ticking around in my head and get them out on to paper!

Anyway, time to dash. I promise to (1) get the website updated with the new designs real soon (2) write longer entries in the blog (3) get more sleep

Oh, I did add something to the website, a Frapper map with all of the shops that carry Cross Eyed Kat designs (and the shop list has been updated from Nashville). If you go to http://www.crosseyedkat.com/purchase%20frame.htm and click on the link in the map (or better yet, just go to http://www.frappr.com/crosseyedkatshops) you'll see it. There are actually two Canadian shops, but Frapper wouldn't take the cities (complain to Google, not to me), and be sure to scroll up to see the pin in Alaska, too (of course I didn't map the online shops)! You may have to click the link that says "show rest of markers" to force all the markers to show up.

I think I'm awake

2006-02-14T16:51:00.000-06:00

We did manage to make it home last night, or should I say very early this morning. Mocha (the cat) was extremely happy to see us (or at least me) and insisted on some petting and loving before I could go to bed. The trip took a little extra time because we had to stop in Memphis and visit my Grandmother who is in the hospital. She is getting better, though, so that is good news. The last part of the drive from Texarkana to Houston is the hardest, because it goes through all the small towns and there is alot of slowing down and speeding up to do.

Market overall went very well. We beat the snow in Friday and were one of the lucky ones who's room was ready. We started to set up the room and had it mostly done before I had to run off to the "Meet and Greet" event Friday night. There I handed out all of the catalogues that I brought and had a sneak preview of the Fantasy Faire for those shop owners who were interested in that. Saturday was an early start for breakfast before Market, then the final preparations before opening the doors. The first hour was very quiet, but everyone must've started on a different floor because we were busy before lunch! I had fortune cookies to give out (and still have some left over) to go with the new "Fortune Cookie" designs. By the end of the day Saturday, my feet were really protesting! It was snowing again outside, so we decided to just stay in for dinner. Sunday was quiet, as is usual for market, but we tried to keep resonably busy. I ran a few errands that day as well - doing some networking. I think the new designs went over very well - I know I sold out of one of the Fortune Cookies, and came close on the other one. I didn't have very many of Egypt left and I definitely didn't do a large enough initial print run of the snowfighting dragons, so a bunch will have to be shipped this week.

Tonight I'm ready for a good night sleep!

Snow fell on Nashville

2006-02-12T09:49:00.000-06:00

Well, it is not quite as bad as in the Monica Ferris book Crewel Yule, but we did just beat the snow getting into Nashville. It seemed to fall for quite a long time, but luckily it did not stick on the ground, so I don't know how badly it has impacted the market. There still seem to be quite a few shops here. We're pretty much in the hotel for the duration anyway! Market seems fairly busy regardless of the snow. I forgot the camera connector, so pictures will have to wait until next week.

Almost time to go, almost ready!

2006-02-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

All the patterns are done! Yay! That's the imporant thing. Printer was giving me trouble last night on the catalogues, so I gave it up to finish bagging patterns. Tonight will be a flurry of packing, then print as many catalogues as possible until I either run out of ink or get fed up with the printer and give it a swift kick.

Tomorrow, I'll be visiting my Grandmother, who lives near Memphis. Then Friday, off to Nashville for set up and Market! If there's time, I'll try to do a couple of live blog updates while the market is going on. I did manage to finish the Cross Eyed Kat quilt top, so I'll have pictures of that to post once it is hung up.

Sometimes I wonder how I got myself into all of this. Me, hanging out with the likes of Dragon Dreams Jen, Teresa Wentzler (who sadly won't be there this year), and Doug Kreinik. Me, selling my designs at the same market as Just Nan and other "Big Names" in the industry. But there I am, (or will be shortly) and even though we're all told "Cross Stitch is in an industry slump", I'm determined to pull through because, hey, my designs are just different enough to attract a different kind of stitcher (or so I think). Anyway, Nashville, here we come!

Now previewing for a limited time only....

2006-02-07T13:28:00.000-06:00

Ok, now run out to your LNS and tell them that you MUST have the Cross Eyed Kat Fantasy Faire Limited Edition AND the companion design, Snowfight: Red and Snowfight: Blue. :)

Ok, I might be able to eek out on just 4 ink cartridges. The printer is complaining about being low on black ink, but it will do that until it runs out. I think I have printed what I will of the designs. If I run out of something, it will have to be shipped. That just leaves the catalogue. And there was much rejoicing!

Coming down to the wire

2006-02-07T09:52:00.000-06:00

All of the full sized patterns have been printed and bagged - yay! All of the half sized patterns have been printed, but they still needed to be cut, folded and bagged - arg! And a few more of Snowfight: Blue could be printed, and catalogues need to be printed (and stapled) - arg! And I'm going to run out of ink again soon. And I'm leaving Thursday. Yikes!

So the final tally will come out somewhere close to 4 reams of paper, three packages of cardstock, bags for all patterns (we're into our second thousand - quite a milestone), and probably 7 cartridges of ink. I really wish Nashville was a take orders show :)

The weird, worry dreams have started as well. I dreamed that Mocha, the cat, kept trying to get in the suitcases as I was packing as well as get out of the house as various doors were left open. So I was running around trying to pack and keep her in the house and feeling guilty about leaving her behind. Then I woke up and went back to sleep and had a different dream. In this one, I was driving, trying to leave from Baton Rouge and a hurricane was coming up the east coast (in February?) We were trying to figure out if the radius of it would impact my route.

So much work still remains to be done, plus packing and sundry other details.

I was going to try and do a preview, but blogger is having problems. Please check back later - I will try and post it this afternoon.