Still No Picture, but Happy New Year!!

I'm ringing in the new year with my new sister-in-law and her family (I have nephews!). I didn't bother to take a picture of my progress today, but trust me, even with all the festivities, I still did a good amount of work on DMC #676, a.k.a. Savannah Gold. Savannah G. and I made a trip around the hoop and still had time to enjoy the movie "Hancock", a margarita or two and "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest."

Happy New Year everyone!

Not Even Worth A Picture Update

Total Time Spent: 15 whole minutes.

So...nothing really to show for today. I simply picked a new color, threaded the needle, and managed to get three tiny stitches done before it was time to load the car and hit the road!

My huz and I are road-tripping to the midwest this week so we can have a belated holiday with family, so today was definitely about packing up and hauling buns across the country. Initially I had these lofty ideas of sitting shotgun, stitching away as the states rolled by, but no such thing happened. Maybe I'll be able to get a couple of hours in tomorrow?

I decided to email the cross-stitch lady and ask for an extension. It never hurts to ask, right? The worst that could happen is that she'll say no. We shall see.

The Extension Dilemma

Total Hours Spent (during the last two days) 10 hours and some odd minutes.

Life happened the last two days and something had to give, so it turned out to be this blog. I still managed to whip out this little project a good bit each day, but with the show closing and getting ready to leave on our trip, my sanity was already on the brink of taking its own vacation so I needed to chill a bit.

As we were getting ready to fall asleep last night, my husband brought up the subject of asking the Cross-Stitch Lady for an extension. I've already thought of this a number of times, as I continue to wonder how on earth I'll manage to finish in a month, but I've come up with a few reasons why I shouldn't ask her for one.

1- If I ask for an extension, I'll be changing the terms of the deal, and I feel like I should take a reduction in pay for being late. At what might amount to 25 cents an hour (if I keep going at this rate), I'd really rather not do that.

2- If I keep barreling through, then I will get this thing done as soon as possible, and that sounds appealing.

3- I still kind of think I can finish in time.

My husband's reason was simple and clear: He wants his wife back.

I see his point. Since the project began I have holed myself up in the guest room, stitching away, playing hours and hours of FRIENDS dvd's on my computer, and stopping only for a few meal and potty breaks. I really haven't allowed myself much fun time, except on Christmas, and even then I put in five hours on this darn thing.

It may be time to swallow my pride and ask, just ask for an extension. If she says no then we can continue barreling, but if she says yes then I can take a second to breathe...

When I Close My Eyes I See Symbols...

Total Time Spent Stitching: 5 hours, 45 minutes.

I thought surely it was going to add up to almost seven hours today. I didn't add up the time until just a minute ago, and after spending what felt like ALL day in my grandmother's rocking chair, I thought surely I'd put well over five and forty five.

Oh well. I think I made significant progress, though. I've learned that when I'm feeling like I need to make 'noticable' progress, I reach for a dark color. The dark purples, grays and brown-blacks really pop out the detail. That's exciting. I don't mind the blocks of pinks and blues, though, because that's much easier to do than skipping all over the place with a purple or a charcoal gray.

Tomorrow we close the show so I probably won't be able to log even five hours. I'll be happy with three.

I've noticed that when I close my eyes I see symbols in tiny squares flashing behind my eyelids. What do you suppose that means??

37 Days Left and I Have a Strategy!

Total Time Spent on Project: 6 Hours 10 minutes

I didn't do a whole lot else today, clearly. Though I did make a quick trip to the after-Christmas sale at Macy's to hopefully get a deal I couldn't refuse on a winter coat I'd been eying. (I got it!) The rest of the day I feverishly tried to make some serious progress on this thing. Comparing the pictures from yesterday to today, what do you think? Does it look like I spent over six hours on it?

Truly, as much as I do (miraculously) enjoy this, my greatest frustration is how little I have to show for so much time. I'll be honest with you: I would have thought I'd see a lot more stuff on that aida fabric after spending all day on it. It's getting to the point where I have had to devise a completion strategy in order to pace myself to the end. My goal is to finish the entire inside of the hoop by January first. That way, I can spend one week on each of the four corners and hopefully (hopefully!) hand the finished project to the cross-stitch lady sometime around the first of February.

The hope of actually getting done on time fuels me.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Total Hours Worked: I can't believe I spent five hours on this project on CHRISTMAS DAY!

Actually, it was great. Today was a very mellow day with just the two of us, and by mid-afternoon we had done all the celebrating we had planned until later that afternoon, when we had planned to go to the movies. So...my husband left to visit his best friend who is in town for just a few days, and I sat in the giant recliner and watched season two of "The Cosby Show" while I stitched away the afternoon. It was very relaxing and peaceful. When I woke up this morning I seriously planned on taking the day off. I can buckle down and finish this project every other day, but I wanted Christmas to be a true holiday.

It still was. It was beautiful, in fact, and very merry!

39 days 'Till the Deadline and It's Christmas Eve

Total Hours Worked: 2 hours 15 minutes.

Not too bad for it being a holiday and all. My husband and I went to his parents' house for the day so I had to find my moments before and after our visit. The last hour and fifteen minutes I managed to squeeze in as we watched the TV broadcast of the Pope's Christmas Eve Mass.

Every once in a while I find a minor mistake that I have to correct. This scares me a bit because I realize it must happen when I get distracted for a second and then try to relocate my previous spot. I've yet to find a problem I haven't been able to fix, but still, it's scary to think I could still find one.

But I won't worry about that now, because it's Christmas Eve and tomorrow will be a wonderful day. To all who are reading I wish you and yours a safe, happy, and warm holiday!

40 Days and a Crisis Averted

Total Hours Worked: 2 hours 30 minutes.

Well, folks, not a lot to show for today. Life happened outside of this project and I was only able to put in a fraction of the time I wanted to, but I'm trusting that it's more important to preserve my sanity and enjoy the holiday that is quickly approaching! I don't want to miss this Christmas on account of the cross-stitch, even though I can almost feel it calling to me.

Like I said before, if I were confident that my pace was what it needed to be, then that would be one thing. Since I haven't been able to figure that out yet, even after two weeks on the project, I still don't know if January 31 is a realistic deadline. I know that's the source of the anxiety I feel. It says, "I have to work on this every single second because if I don't I'll never get it done in time!" Bah humbug! It may be true, but I have to ignore that cry for the next few days.

Anyway, I mentioned in the title a crisis was averted. If you play a little game of "Where's Waldo" with the picture from today and yesterday, you'll notice that one patch of pea-green is missing from the right side of the hoop. That's because around two o'clock this afternoon I realized in horror that I had made a terrible miscalculation and stitched two separate blobs in the wrong spot. When I realized that problem, I literaly said out loud, "What was I thinking??" I immediately took a break and ate some Christmas cookies that our neighbors had kindly brought over last night, in order to sooth my senses and calm down a bit. I began cracking my knuckles and my jaw, two things I do when anxious, and my husband immediately pointed it out to me and said, "You're cracking a lot, babe. Are you all right?" "Actually, (crack, crackety crack) I just found a huge mistake in the cross-stitch and I'm not sure how to fix it. (crack). I need a second before I go back up stairs and try to figure out where I went wrong, (crack, crack)."

Awesome man he is, he gave me a vote of confidence as I shoveled one last cookie in my mouth before heading back upstairs. Thankfully, it didn't take me all that long to figure out what went wrong. I won't try to explain it, because I'm not sure I can, but just rest assured that I managed to undo the damage in less than an hour and it was only one color that was off, not several, thank GOD.

Now I'm back on track.

It's not clear yet how much time I will be able to put in tomorrow, since it's Christmas Eve and we'll be spending the afternoon with my in-laws. I really want to give myself the gift of time away from this, even if it means getting up at six for the next several mornings to make up the time.

Happy Holidays to all!

41 Days Left and an Email from the Lady Who Hired Me

Total Hours Worked: 6 hours 10 minutes.

Today was great for progress! I sat in my Grandmother's rocking chair for a full four hours this morning before going into Hershey for the show. I was pretty squirrelly when I got to the theater, which isn't too much of a surprise since I sat in one place for so long. Thank goodness I got to tap dance in a Santa suit! That's just the ticket when I have some extra energy.

A friend of ours is spending the night tonight so we watched a movie while I stitched the whole time. It's a bit dangerous to try and split my mind on the project and something else. I've already learned that it can slow things down considerably when I get distracted and need to backtrack a few (or several) stitches.

When I got up this morning I had an email from the lady who hired me to do this. It was a simple one-liner: "Just checking on how the progress is going. Merry Christmas." I sent her an honest reply, citing my general enjoyment of the project, but still curious as to whether or not the deadline is realistic. Tonight, she replied with this: "Thanks for getting back to me. I appreciate your hard work. Merry Christmas! "

Merry Christmas to you, too, Cross-Stitch Lady!

Final Tally for the Day

Total hours worked today: 4 hours, 30 minutes.

That's it folks. Feel free to compare the pictures to see what I have to show for it. Hopefully after reading today's entries you can get a feel for what I'm up against these next 42 days.

It's funny what an ordeal this is becoming for me. I don't want to over dramatize it, I mean it IS a cross-stitch for goodness' sake, but the truth is that I have a very real challenge ahead! I'll remember this Christmas season largely for this project, which is taking up every spare second I have.

I'm off to bed now. Tomorrow we have just one show which means I'll have most of the day to pour into this. I'll give you an update at the end of the day!

Stay tuned...more to come!

Matinee Day. 42 Days 'Till Completion

My regular job these days is as a singer in a Christmas show. This being the holiday season and all, many opportunities abound for the singer/dancers of the world to land a gig singing Christmas carols and donning Santa suits and pairs of tap shoes. This Christmas, my husband and I are fortunate enough to work in Hershey, PA doing a nice little Christmas dinner show for the holiday season.

Our normal schedule consists of one show a night, with a call-time of around five o'clock. The past few days I've been able to focus on the cross-stitch almost all day long, save for intermittend bursts of playing Santa's Workshop and wrapping Christmas gifts, or doing laundry, or maybe eating a little lunch. Yesterday I logged four hours on the project and made very little visible progress. It amazes me how four hours of pouring over those tiny stitches yields such minuscule results. That's why I seriously wonder if getting it finished by January 31 is realistic.

According to my calculations, I need to complete three square inches of space every day. So far, I maybe have six days worth done, and I've been at it for 13. That means my pace is about half what it should be. I honestly don't know how I can work faster and not compromise accuracy and neatness. There is something of an art to this and I want it to look great, not sloppy. I am getting paid for this, after all!

We have two shows today, so my time will be less than usual. I'll post another entry at the end of the day. 'Till then, happy stitching...

Behind the Project: How it All Began

Cross Stitcher Needed
Reply to:
Date: 2008-11-22, 7:27AM
I have some unfinished cross stitch patterns that I would like completed, but I dont have the time. They are pretty big (maybe 9 inches by 11 inches), but I am willing to pay $200 to anyone who is willing to complete one.

***

Our story begins with this ad on Craigslist. My husband is incredibly resourceful and has a knack for finding interesting ways for us as a couple to (legally and honorably) make some extra cash. It’s good he is this way, as he and I are performers and have a catch-as-catch-can means of making a living. Any extra money we can legitimately make is well-worth our efforts...most of the time.

When he found this ad and proceeded to send it to me, I read it with a shrug and figured it would be an easy two hundred bucks. I’d done a cross-stich for a friend’s Christmas gift a few years ago and had enjoyed it, plus, it had fit into an 11x14 frame so I figured a diminutive 9x11 would be easy-peasy.

I didn’t quite gather the full extent of the project, however, until the exchange had been made and I had the actual pattern in my hands. It printed out on four sheets of 8x11.5 of paper and every single square inch was covered in teeny tiny stitch. Look to the right for what the finished product should look like.

The official alarms went off after my first day of stitching, on December 9. According to the deal, I am to complete the project by the end of January, for a total of 54 days, or about three square inches a day. By the end of the first week, I had barely one square inch done, and that was after hours and hours of work. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and my work is certainly cut out for me.

Enjoy the following entries for daily updates, pictures of my progress, and a countdown to the deadline.

Welcome!

Welcome and thank you for visiting!

In the following entries, you will journey with me as I attempt to meet the biggest deadline I have ever had. With every passing day I face a challenge to complete a craft project that I took on in order to make an easy extra two hundred bucks.

With each passing hour, however, it becomes less about the money and more about the sheer determination to get it done on time!

So thanks for joining me and enjoy the ride.