Job-Fair

It’s been an eventful week for me, the store was told on Saturday that it will be closing November 5th, I don’t know what this will mean for me yet, either a transfer to Vernon, 60km away or finding a new job in town. The transfer is unlikely to happen but if it does that’s a long drive especially in winter, however I’d keep my current salary and benefits.  If I get a new job that will mean a cut in pay as much as in half and possibly no benefits, but I’d get to stay in town, there are positive and negatives to both options but I won’t know for a week or two yet what I’ll be offered.
So that was Saturday, on Sunday I started my weeks holiday.  I took this week so I could be free to work at the fair.  Set up and judging went well, I run the fruit division.  I also entered the Game of Thrones bookmarks, Music and a couple photos. I won 2nd on the bookmarks and my pic of Helmcken falls

, so successful fair for me, Really happy about the photo, I put it in the hardest class to win as it’s for experience photographers and nature always has a lot of beautiful entries. I also got and honourable mention on the Lightening shot.
I did get some stitching done amongst all of that, Cindy’s one over one is slowly progressing

And I got my weeks block of Halloween finished by Tuesday this week

As for what I watched.

Critical Role 

Heroes -  S01 E01-05 This was on my Netflix watch list but I wasn’t planning on getting to it this soon, but they’ve been advertising the new series a lot lately so I thought I’d refresh my memory.

Love, Wedding, Marriage - A lovely little rom-com about a newlywed marriage counsellor who’s parents are separating 

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - This was a lot better than I expected, I’ve been a fan of Tom Clancy’s Ryan books since Hunt for Red October came out and it seems like they were completely ignoring that character and just using the name for this movie, and while, yes it was a bit more “James Bond”  than Ryan should be, it wasn’t as much as the trailers made it out to be. It was a good solid espionage thriller, I’ll have to get it to add to the collection

Airplane Vs. Volcano - Well that was stupid, but kind of fun at the same time.

Quiet Week

As weeks go, this has been a quiet one, just work and regular life stuff. Next week I will be on holiday, but it’s a working one, I took the week off so I could work at the fair, which is mainly set up Wednesday and Thursday and take down Sunday which leaves the rest of the days for stitching
I finished another block on the Frosted Pumpkin Halloween Sampler so the one block per week schedule seems to be working fine for me.

Cindy has had progress, which is a little hard to see with those teeny tiny stitches, hope to have more obvious changes next week

As for what I watched.

Critical Role - Another series from Geek and Sundry, this one is a  live stream of voice actors playing D&D

Doctor Who S07 E12 - S08 E12. That’s right I watched all of season 8 this week, I have now caught up and can’t wait for season 9 to start. Love Peter Capaldi as the doctor. 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - The civil war and vampires, what’s not to enjoy.

After - A physiologic thriller or horror or something, two people are in a bus crash and wake up as  the only  people left  in their town, not bad, not great, just a typical low budget movie.

August SFS

SFS
August
Spent $18.78
Earned $4

It’s time again for SFS and I spent a little more than usual, went to Micheals with my 50% off birthday coupon and stocked up on some bobbins and floss, luckily for my budget the other store in Kelowna was closed, I’ll have to remember not to go on Mondays.
My earning was for the third ornament in Magical’s birthstone set,

 I’ve also stitched the silver squares for the rest up to October, and have taken a short break in square stitching to start the Halloween SAL that I’m doing with the NCCIH gang and anyone else that joins in, go to Alaskan Wolf Pack to find out more

And in all of that I haven’t forgotten Cindy, didn’t get tons done but still there is progress.

Everyone is off holiday next week so my hours will go down a bit, but we had one person quit (again, as long as we have the boss we have, we aren’t going to be able to keep new people for long) so hours won’t get cut as much as they used to this time of year

As for what I watched.

Doctor Who S06 E10  to S07 E11 Which marks the end of Amy and Rory (I think Rory might be my favourite companion ever) and the start of Clara.

Volcano - I’ve talked about how much I love disaster movies, but this is my
absolute favourite, I LOVE this movie. One thing I love about disaster movies is how everyone comes together to solve the problems, to help each other stay alive and even sacrificing for the greater good, which actually happens a lot in real disasters a lot.  No disaster movie shows this phenomenon better. While there is a couple “bad guys” and/or stubborn stupid people who should just listen to the experts (see my rant when I watch Dante’s Peak in the next couple months) they are few and far between, mostly this is just a movie about how to get lava out of the way of the people.  Also it has Tommy Lee Jones just to add that extra something.

To Be Takei - Documentary about George Takei, from interment camp to Sulu to politician  to gay right activist to Allegiance, to internet superstar

United  - A good movie about the Manchester United football team of 1958
when the players were in a plane crash, killing most of the team. While it’s a very similar storyline to We Are Marshall (both based on real events) it’s interesting to see how different the British movie  is from the American, United is a much quieter and introspective movie, also it has amazing music by Clint Mansell

Catching Up

I’ve been really bad a keeping this blog the last month, I blame summer busyness and will try to do better in the fall. I have given up on the idea of putting Cindy in the fair, she just won’t be ready in time, I have sent Music to a framer and it MIGHT be ready in time for the fair and if not I can fall back on Future cast (Pitaya) she’s small, but she knows kung fu. Cindy will hit the fair next year. I have been working on her and she’s looking great. But all that backstitching is going to take awhile.

I’ve missed two WIPocalypse questions in my lull,
July 2nd: Reality or Fantasy. Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract? I prefer stitching fantasy pictures, not so much with reality or abstract designs, though I have both that I love, so it does come down to what I’m feeling like doing for a long time as I do love my BAPs. In fact the next big one I start will probably be a fractal design, though there is a little sea monster that wants to budge ahead in line.
July 31st What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece?  I don’t actually have abandoned projects,
This weekend I’ll be starting the Frosted Pumpkin Halloween design as a SAL with the NCCIH girls , Leonore, Carla and I are doing the same piece and Magical and Ashely are joining in with other Halloween realted things, one of the fabrics I got from the Silkweavers fabric of the month is going to be perfect for it.

As for what I watched, my nephew has moved in for a couple months which has put a kink in my movie project as he has taken over the room I watch the DVD’s in, so I’m relying on Netflix for my entertainment, I can sneak in a couple DVD’s when he’s at work though, also he is teaching me to play Magic the Gathering so less is being watched (and stitched) anyway



Glee S05 E03-20 And unfortunately Netflix  does not have season 6,

Titansgrave - This RPG show was amazing, better than most things on TV and they have announced that there will be a second season

Doctor Who S06 E01-E09

The Guild - Felicia Day’s web series about  online gamers who meet up and become friends outside of the game, it very sweet

La  Grande Boucle - A French movie about a guy who rides one day ahead of the Tour De France

Code Breaker - A very interesting documentary about Alan Turing.

Chronicle - For a low budget sci-fi this wasn’t  bad, though I do hate the hand held camera fad the movies have been doing, it constrains the story too much, and leads to having to always explain why the person is carrying around a camera.

View From the Top - Just a cute unassuming rom/com about following your dreams and finding out dreams can shift along the way.

First phase done

A year and a half later I am finally done the main  cross stitch on Stroke of Midnight, now on to the one over one, backstitch and beading, so yes another month or so of work.

July SFS

July SFS
Spent   $37.49
Earned $26

It’s time for the next round of Stitch from Stash and in a rare occasion, I went over budget, however I also actually finished something, actually two somethings.
My spending was a couple patterns, including the lovely Mucha Belle from Make It Pink,  I was going to get Merida as she seemed more my style, but then the Fabric of the Month club sent the absolutely more perfect fabric for Belle. I know I’ll have more spending this coming month as I’m going on shopping trip on Monday which will include a stop at Micheals to use my lovely shiny birthday coupon.
Finishing has been rare for me this year due to Cindy which I have done very little on this week thanks to all the sports on in July, but everything ends tomorrow, so I’ll be hitting her hard to try and finish in time for the fair, but that’s not likely
I did finish If Music.. Which earned me $18And then had the best birthday surprise ever as I got a Daily Deviation on it, in DeviantArt, my first one ever.

I’ve also finished two of Magical’s ornaments found on the NCCIH website, and the third is almost finished which guarantees me a finish for next month. The ornaments are two sided 35x35 each so that’s 4 sides at $2 which gave me and earning of $8













As for what I watched

The Tour De France











The Pan American Games

Sports fanatic

July is a busy month for me, though most of it involves being lazy watching TV.  Work is steady as everyone else is going on vacation so more hours for me (I take mine in June and September).  But it’s all about watching sports for the next two weeks, I am a fanatic about the Tour de France, which is shown live, which means 5am or earlier starts, which means me going to bed early, even on my days off.  And if that wasn’t enough , the PanAm games have started and I love watching multi sport games. The result is stitching has slowed down immensely, you can’t look at the French scenery if you are stitching.
Of course July means fire season around here and this year has been a particularly bad one, luckily none close by, but we are still getting inundated with smoke, bad for lungs, good for sunrises.

I do hope to finish music next week and will put up the pic then,
I am getting really close to finishing the cross stitch part of Cindy, but am beginning to doubt I’ll finish it in time to get it framed for the fair, it might  have to be next years entry, I’ll have to figure out a replacement piece if I’m right.

As for what I watched
Doctor Who S05 E05-E09
Glee S04 E04 to S05 E02

The Tour De France - My usual July obsession, can only stitch during commercials or I might miss something.

The Pan American Games - GO CANADA

Volcanoes of the Deep - A nature documentary about the hydrothermic animals that live in deep sea volcanic fumes.  One of the ones James Cameron made with the money he made from Titanic,  A great show but too pretty to stitch to.

V For Vendetta - This is a rare movie that I prefer the movie to the book.  I
loved the comic, more so than The Watchmen actually. The world the writers built is fantastic, but the comic got bogged down in details a lot and the movie streamlined the whole thing without losing the plot or feel, Evey is also a lot less gullible in the movie but that’s probably just because of the attitude shift of the world between then and now.

Inside Out - The latest one from Pixar and up to their usual standards, it was funny and sweet and well done.