yacoba | Entries tagged with kiba

New year = new experiences, like having a tooth pulled...yay...

It had to be done, the molar broke on Christmas Eve but thankfully didn't hurt unless something hot or cold touched it, that made taking my pills a little awkward. I've always had weak teeth, when I was young I could never seem to leave the dentist without having to return for a filling. But I'll tell you, my jaw did not want to give up the tooth, I don't know how long it usually takes to remove one, but the dentist was working hard at it for over half an hour.

It's been a week now and I'm a little concerned that hole might be infected. I see the dentist again next Wednesday so until then I'm just going to frequently rinse with Listerine and hope that fixes the problem.

Now onto some awesome! I received a care package from Shuffles ^____^ It gave me such happy feet! Kiba [my new laptop] like Toboe only has two USB ports, but now, thanks to Shuffles I have 5!

5 in style!

When the sound is turned on it makes the Tardis noise whenever you plug a device into it ^_^

Max [my toxic mold] thinks the Tardis makes a lovely home!

I like that he covers up the very bright LED light ^_~

And finally here's a recent picture of my current cross stitch.

Current Mood: discontent

I has a new laptop!

It has awesomely glowy keys, see

To continue my Wolf's Rain theme, I've named this lappy Kiba, he's not exactly white like the macbook I intended to give that name to, but he is silvers so that's close enough for me. Kiba is a Dell which I got through their payment plan [is the only way I could afford to replace my old clunker]

Kiba and I are on speaking terms right now, but I wouldn't say we're exactly friends yet...I'm still trying to get him all squared away the way I like ^_~ in the mean time I've been stitching away on a newish project.

Since I finished Berlin, I've moved back to the wedding gift I'm stitching for my uncle and his new wife. Here's the most recent picture.

Current Mood: pleased

I've recently been struggling with a brain--whose first response is to say 'What's the point?'--when faced with any question. As un-fun as that has been, that question quickly spirals into the thought of 'What's the point of anything?' which is really kind of depressing.

One of the big things I just can't see a point in, is posting to any of my journals [not including update post for the cross-stitch community] 'cause of this I'm going to let my lj paid account laps, I really can't justify paying for it or any of them right now. [I should say--considering past post--that this has nothing to do with not hearing from friends, only that I really see no point in sharing my thoughts or plans. This may or may not change]

Beyond the stupidity of my current mind set at the moment, I've been trying to work on three of my current works in progress. Although I hate having deadlines when working, I've found that without a tentative goal I have a hard time settling on which project needs my attention most. So here's how he next couple of months ought to look.

Ome Jan - goal: finish by end of September so it can arrive in Holland before Nov. 4th

Murphy - goal: finished in time for my uncle's birthday late Nov.

Kiba 2.0 - goal: finished in time for Christmas if not sooner.

No doubt I'll pick up other patterns as I go but these will be my main three until one of them is done.

Other than stitching, I've been helping out an old man from the church. He wanted me to call him Ol'crusty, mum couldn't remember that the first time he called to speak to me, so she refer to him as Grumpy Curmugen [which he approves of ^_~] he needed someone to type up articles that he writes for a magazine that he used to put out and would like to again. I love typing and have far too much time on my hands so why not?

I met him downtown this morning to show him the first piece and make sure that everything was how he wanted it before giving him the final draft that would be sent out. Although I was alright with it at the time [he's a wonderful old man, great talker, excellent story teller] he's definitely more social than I am [which reminds me of a little rant I'll add at the end] Ol'crusty is on a first name basis with all the employees and it wasn't enough for us to just sit and talk, no he needed to introduce me to everyone.

Wasn't until I got home that I realized how much that situation bothered me, but despite that I'll go again tomorrow to deliver the final draft and collect more notes from him.

Rant - Why do people constantly feel that they need to change me? What is so wrong with being antisocial if I'm happy with it?! I'm continually met with people telling me I should get out more hang out with people I don't know and I've run out of ways to tell people I don't want any part in that. If you're not doing what makes them happy clearly you can't be yourself.

I am beyond tired of people making me feel like there's something wrong with me 'cause I'm more happy to be around family and a small circle of friends than a bunch of people I don't want to get close to. And unfortunately with a rant like this if I don't just stop all that will happen is I get more pissed off, something I can do without.

So that's it.

Current Mood: tired

I have done it!

I've finished Whiskers for

seregil \o/

Started: December 5th 2009
Finished: May 2nd 2010

This is huge! Not only is she my first finish of 2010 [here's hoping for many more!] but she was also the first pattern that I stitched where 100% of the picture was cross-stitched. Up until now my patterns have only been partial, letting the fabric show through.

So there you have it. I hardly know what to do with myself right now.

After taking a few minutes to let it all sink in, I brought out Kiba and put him back on a frame so I could continue work on him. Present top priority is Ome Jan though, since that pattern has a deadline and I want it finished well before.

Current Mood: ecstatic

In what may end up being a futile attempt to keep this all straight in my head I'm going to make a list of the cross-stitching projects I need/would like to do in the not too distant future. After the first two these are in no particular order it'll come down to what colors I have on hand.

1. Kiba [for Makenna's birthday]
2. Whiskers [for Shuffles birthday if I can't get it ready for Christmas]
3. Surprise [for starrbeam]
4. Surprise [for honourable_fool]
5. Surprise [for neekabe]
6. Surprise [for neekabe's mum provided neekabe approves]
7. Dodger [for Christine]
8. Jack [commissioned by Oma]
9. Sheppard [for Wendy]
10. Berlin [commissioned by aunt Danielle]
11. Murphy [commissioned by uncle Erwin]
12. Wolf [for AJ]
13. Peggy's Cove [first I might try to sell]

I have a lot of other pictures that I want to stitch at some point but I won't list them all here 'cause chances are it'll be more than a year before I can get to any of them. But we'll see. I've already got work done on Kiba and Whiskers but at the moment I feel like I'm moving in slow motion I think I might feel a little better once they both start looking like their subject matter.

Current Mood: cold [freezing actually]

I've made some little progress on my new project. [I've had a hard time getting into it but since I have a deadline looming over my head I can't be all that lazy about it. Not that I ever was with my other projects]

As you can see this looks remarkably like a hippo in water or perhaps a car up on a lift. I'd bet money you'd never actually guess that it is in fact a wolf. [I'll let that sink in for a moment]

You see it now right?

No?

Clearly you lack imagination!

Since finishing Romeo for my mum I've been told by a lot of people that I should start selling my finished patterns. Legally I don't know if store bought pattern could be sold. I believe the woman who runs the cross-stitching store in Peterborough sells them, and for a pretty penny too. Personally I prefer to work on my own pictures which I don't have to worry about copy rights or what have you.

I know this isn't something I could do to live off of, not unless I was charging people $10 bucks an hour for the work. For Romeo that would have worked out to $1000+ as it took me 17 days and several of those days were close to if not over 16 hours. As it stand with all the patterns people would like for me to do [this doesn't include pictures I'm making as gifts] I've asked that they at least pay for the supplies which isn't a lot and it keeps me from going broke trying to do something I love.

Wendy suggested selling them [obviously depending on size and what not] for $200 like she said no matter what I charged I would be up. I really have no idea how this would work out for me. I know my sister's boss has already offered to let me sell my work in her clothing store. But I have no idea what sort of market there is in the area for buying this sort of thing. As I've always seen it people prefer to make these themselves rather than buy them completed [although I'll be the first to admit my view is incredibly limited]

I'm eager to see what sort of interest my work might catch at the local Christmas teas and bazaars next year. That might give me a better idea of whether or not this is something I could actually make some money on as a hobby. I figure so long as I have the spare time I might as well make the most of it.

And I'll put this out here, though I'm not expecting too much interest [but feel free to surprise me!]

Announcement

If you have a photo you'd like to have made into a cross-stitch [whether a pattern you'd like to make yourself or something you'd like me to do] Please feel free to contact me.

At minimum I'd ask you to pay for the supplies, this includes fabric [which you'd have your choice of] and thread. Depending on the fabric you want the price could vary a lot [linen costs more than the Aida. example: Romeo is on linen, Kiba on 18ct Aida] but I'd tentatively say the price would be in the $40 range. Though of course I'd certainly know better once I had the pattern made.

My program allows for a lot of various sizes and the number of colors I use. I won't have time to do anything before Christmas as I'm working on Kiba for Makenna and I'll soon be starting Whiskers for Shuffles [these are the two patterns with real deadlines] I'm pretty sure once I'm not worried about meeting a deadline I shouldn't have any problem at all working on a few patterns at once [but I guess I'll have to wait and see]

Merry Christmas!

Current Mood: cheerful

Yesterday I finished my work on the Romeo cross-stitch but decided to wait until this morning to get a picture since unnatural light tends to make the colors look more orange.

So here he is in all his glory, I've included the original photo for reference.

I love looking at the pattern from a distance suddenly I can see everything as it is, what was just a mess of colors to me is now definition to his face, highlights from the sun those little nubs on his face where his whiskers grow.

I'm quite thrilled and also rather depressed. I don't feel much like working on Kiba I've started the pattern but as I said it isn't my pattern so its not as much fun.

Current Mood: accomplished

Today's been kinda good.

My cross-stitching pattern maker came in the mail and I've created my first pattern [I've got a lot of them in mind] But I told my mum months ago that I'd cross-stitch a picture of her kitty Romeo. She picked this picture

I thought it would look rather striking against black fabric. So this is the first pattern I'll attempt on linen [lady at the store thought I was crazy]

Also the pattern for Kiba [white wolf] came today as well. Now I have lots to do but not all the thread I need. I managed to pick up more than half of the thread for Romeo and Tuesday I'll get the rest along with supplies for Kiba.

Despite the fact that I've been keeping busy my moods have been down, frustrated and discouraged I guess. Still haven't written a word...not sure managing anything would help me all that much right now. Just thinking too much, I must learn to shut off my brain.