Sistine Chapel Uh-Oh

Before I get into my UH-Oh...let's start out with great news...I got my biopsy results back and I do not have skin cancer on my nose!  I was pretty certain that it wasn't nothing but it is better to be safe than sorry.   When I went back to school on Monday it was a great teaching moment.  My kids pointed out that I had a red scab on my nose so I had to tell them what happened.

I got some stitching mail this week!!!!   I had run out of certain DMC colors to finish my husbands Augusta 13th hole golf project.  So I ordered them from 123stitch.  I spent $7.50 (rounding up) on DMC now I can finish his present!!   

Need Advice please!!! Please send me your suggestions!!!!

 Below is my Sistine chapel.  I checked and double check the stitching when I started the new scene.  I finished one page and then moved to the second page...The first page was the border and brown left triangle portion...the next page was the colors, rest of the triangle and the devil.  however....I am off by 2 rows!!!  I have no idea how this happened!  I have emailed the designer for help because the book said that the devil sections may not line up correctly.  So would you move to a different scene and then work your way back down to see if you could find your mistake or rip out two pages and start again???? 

This is  a better close up..see were the purple lines start on the top right???  they should be 2 rows up!  UGH!!!!

Sistine Chapel -Jonah Scene

I had to take a sick day today because I had to have a small cyst removed from my nose.  The last thing I needed to do was to go to work with a band-aid on my nose.  My High School kids would have a field day with that!!!!  So I took a sick day...which I am glad I did.  I did not realize how much pain I would be in after the numbing medicine wore off!!!  I should have the results from the biopsy in a couple of weeks.  The doctor doesn't think it is skin cancer but they are checking just to be on the safe side!!

I spent the afternoon napping and got some stitching done as well.   I finished another scene on my Sistine chapel.  Below you will see the Three completed scenes and then the one I finished tonight.  I have 42 scenes to go and only  322 pages left!!!    My next scene is 12 pages long....sigh.....

So excited that the new fall Thirty-One catalog has come out.  Check out all the bags I won for my fall home shows!!!  I worked my behind off but I won over 22 bags!!!  LOVE them all!!!  I have provided a link so you can see the new catalog.  We have a new feature on website that lets you see what your personalization will look like before you order!!!!

https://www.mythirtyone.com/vickiehartwell

School is going well just a little busy.   I am on the evaluation schedule that the principal has to observe me several times so I have seen him more this year than in the past years combined.   All is well though.....I have decided there is no need to stress over his visits...all will be fine!

Not sure if  have told you guys what Bert my cat has been up too....but he has managed to catch and bring into my house 3 LIVE bats!!!!!  I have let my Dear Husband deal with those critters. I haven't figured out how or where he is catching them especially since the cat is declawed!!!!!!!

Sistine Chapel update, positive thoughts and suggestions needed.

It has been an exciting week for me!!!  I finished another page of Sistine Chapel.  This is page 1 of 4 on this section title Jonah.  So far, I have stitched 4 pages this year.

Since the weatherman said that it was going to snow almost everyday this week and I will probably be stuck on my hill for the week, I decided to bake a turkey.  We have an entire turkey to eat this week. DH will not need me to cook all week!!!

In my stitch and swap group, we have a database for what we want to accomplish for the month.  In January my goals were to:
Goal 1: Finish 1 scene of Sistine chapel - Done
Goal 2: Read 3 books - Done - I read: Skeleton, Deepest Waters, and Cold Case by Kate Wilhelm all legal  thrillers,  Eggsecutive Decision, Buffalo West Wings, an Affairs of Steak by Julie Hzyz.  This is series about the executive chef at the white house who also happens to solve murders.  Then I read Agony of the leaves by Laura Childs.  This is a tea shop owner who solves murders.  Yes, I like murder mysteries.  Favorite types of books. So I read a total of 7 mysteries this month!
Goal 3: Put up my Christmas decorations - DONE

Goal 4:  Finish my friend Janeths rag quilt...NOT DONE!  My embroidery machine just stopped working.  I took it in the authorized Brother sewing repair shop and they kept it for 2 weeks.  I got a call on Wednesday letting me know they CAN"T fix it!  It has be to sent back to Brother for them to fix it.  Since I bought my machine at a different store (she was selling it for $1,000 above the suggested retail price) she can't send it back for me since she doesn't have the warranty information.   The store I bought it at is a 3 hour drive one way.  This store offered to fax all my warranty information to the local store here but she refused.   So I had send my machine via UPS to Mountain Home and it should get there by Tuesday.  I have NO Idea when I will see my machine again....feeling very lost without it.

This is my new light up journal I bought at Disney.  It is so pretty that I have no idea what to write in it!!!  Any suggestions what I should use it for??? The notebook part is replaceable....

This is my new touchscreen laptop.  DH forgot to get me birthday gift last year, so when he asked this year, I reminded him.  So, he took me out on Wednesday and bought me a new toy. Still learning to work it.  The keyboard is bigger than my last laptop and my work laptop.  This is taking some getting used to ....but I love it!!!

Positive Thoughts for the week:

Monday January 27

Thankful for all my students.  They were so happy to see me today and were very concerned that I was sick for 2 days last week.  Just makes you feel good to know you were missed.

Tuesday, January 28

Quiet time at home in order to read.   I love just sitting in my chair reading and eating some popcorn.

Wednesday, January 29

Date night with DH!!!  Went out to dinner and bought a new laptop

Thursday, January 30

Professional Development day - spent the morning at the local tech center working on paperwork.  This was just wonderful!!  I have 33 math portfolios due on Feb 24th and each one is around 90 pages each.  So it was nice to get some quiet time to work.

Friday, January 31

Pizza delivery day!!!  DH went to play cards with the guys, so I could order my favorite pizza- thin crust with beef, mushrooms and green olives  DH hates green olives, so this is just my pizza!!!!

Saturday, February 1

 UPS!  Instead of driving 3 hours to mountain home to drop off my machine and then 3 hours home.  I just took it to UPS they are going to deliver for me!!!  Just made me day!!!

Sunday, February 2

Snow day!!!  So pretty watching it snow all day!  school was cancelled midday so I don't have to set an alarm.  

Sistine Chapel and Positive Thoughts

I spend this weekend working on Scene 16 - Jonah.  It stitched the grey and dark greenish grey colors.  This whole section is nothing but 1/4 stitches all the way through it.  These stitches really make the design pop, but boy did my eyes cross!!!!  I finally figured out what it is meant in the pattern, that the filler made need to be filled in on the next scene.  I followed the pattern to the symbol, and still have one line of filler from the previous scene that needs to be filled in because it wasn't on the scene or the old one.....sigh...

I had a great weekend!  Lots of good things happened, even though on Sunday, I woke up feeling like a NyQuil commercial with all the sniffling, sneezing and coughing. UGH!!  I don't have time to be sick!  I did take my machine into the shop on Saturday.  They said it would be 10 days until they could even look at it...then they have to fix it.  Who knows when I will get it back, I just want it fixed.

Positive thought Friday Day 17
One of my goals for this new semester is to email parents when their child doesn't turn in their homework that day.  I have to stay longer and be more organized but I think it is working.   I received 10 emails from parents thanking me and letting me know they will have them work on it this weekend.  Hoping this will help the kiddos be more responsible.

Positive Though Day 18
Friends are the best thing in the world.  I went out for dinner and shopping with one of my good friends on Saturday.  We tried out a new restaurant and it was yummy!  They had this appetizer that I want to figure out how they made it.  It was deep fried goat cheese bites with Artichokes.  It was so good!!!  We looked at the menu and they sold Long Island tea by the pitchers....we were tempted but we resisted those.  I found some great deals at the Hallmark Store and Bath and Body works.  Love their 75% off sales!!

Positive Thought Day 19- Sunday
Woke up feeling a little yucky today so I thought I would just relax. Laundry could wait until later!   I stitched, caught up on my DVR and then took another 2  1/2/ hour nap.  It was great day.  DH came home from golfing and brought me a Sonic drink!  He grilled us steaks for dinner...wow I am spoiled!

What positive things have been happening with everyone else?

Scene 2 Sistine Chapel! Positive thought day 14 and 15

Met my goal tonight!  I finished one more page on Sistine chapel and finished scene 2!!!!  I am so excited.  I am going to have to change my goal of finishing 12 scenes this year.  I got to looking at the scenes and some are 15 pages long!!!  UGH!...so my Goal is to finish 100 pages this year.  I know that sounds even worse, but some of the pages only have 200 stitches on them...so I think I can do it.  So far I have finished 3 pages this year, so only 97 to go!!

2 scenes of of Sistine Chapel

Page finished tonight!

Scene 2 completed.

Yesterday was such a terrible day at work I came home and popped a bowl of popcorn, melted real butter (GASP!!) and watched Hart of Dixie on my DVR.   I had a meeting after school with a parent who just doesn't want her child in my class.  It really upset me because in the meeting I wasn't a person, I was - She, Her, or That class. It really upsets me when parents do not think I have their childs best interest at heart.

Positive thought day 13:   I have to remember all the students lives I have touched in the past and the ones I am influencing now.  

Positive thought day 14:  I am thankful for a husband that doesn't care if I cook dinner or not.  I can give him a call and say, not cooking either you do or call it in somewhere.  Tonight, we had Bar-b-que from a local restaurant.  I went to pick it up and found out we have 2 of them in our town....want to guess how I found out we have 2 in our town??? That's right...I went to the wrong one!!!!!  Dinner was great though!!!!

Sistine Chapel update and Positive thought day 7

I do love Christmas ornaments so I decided to take some ornaments to Disney with me to have the  characters autograph them.  I got this idea from Cheapskateprincess whose blog is all about Disney.   I loved finding the characters and getting their autographs.  The characters had a ball signing them.  Several of them added special touches.  I am trying to hard not to leave one tree up all year with these on them.  This is just a sampling of my signatures. 

I have been working on Sistine Chapel over my Christmas break and my snow days. My goal is to have finished 12 scenes this year...this scene is 15 pages.  I have 1.5 pages left to go until it is complete.  

 Here is a close up of what I been working on these past few days.  The lower section of beige...lots of beige...

Positive thought Day 7:
I get to go back to work tomorrow!!!  I am so happy!!!  We have missed 7 days this year...2 we can make up during the school year,  so that leaves 5 days so far that is added to the end of the school calendar. Right now we are going into June.  So I am happy to go back to work!

Small finishes to show!

OMG!  It has been over a MONTH since I last posted!!!!  Where has time gone???  I used to be so good at posting every week and now I have become a slacker.  That is the only way to describe me a huge slacker!  I do have some cute finishes to show off and I stitched something that I NEVER thought I would say I stitched....

Here is my Puppy Love design...poor Minnie has a floating head...

Wintery Heirloom is looking good....this is the LAST huge tree I need to stitch and then it is smooth sailing after this!

Finished another page on Sistine Chapel....Only 331 pages to go!  If you look closely, you will see that I stitched a penis.  Yes, you read that correctly, I stitched a penis!  Never thought I would say that phrase but  I did!

Finished Kermit the Frog!  He is such a cutie!!!

Made some Tutu bags for my Halloween exchange.  I will post a tutorial if you want to see how I did it!

My local Cross stitch group picks out an ornament from the JCS halloween issue or the sept./Oct. ornament issue, and we stitch it, kit it up and exchange them.  Today, I came home with 5 new ornaments kitted up and just waiting for me to stitch...

Here is the back of mine.  I got really lazy this time and went to Hobby Lobby, found 2 pieces of wood that were already cut and used that to make my ornaments.  I don't cut straight lines so this was perfect for me!

Today I stitched Tigger!  He is so cute!!!

My Life

I am struggling this year with school, my depression, family issues and my weight.  I have quit working out and started pigging out to make myself feel better.  I have put on 5 lbs and decided that is enough.  I made the decision that I am no longer bringing work home with me.  I am starting a 5 day fat flush challenge to get my weightloss back under control.  This morning, I planned out my menu for the next five days, including all my snacks.  I am really trying to get my life under control.  Once the depression and stress starts to take over, it is really hard to get it under control.  I won't lie.  

Sistine Chapel, Puppy Love and AWH updates!!

 Wow!!  I haven't posted since the 3rd of this month...this is going to be full of pictures.  First of all, I am having a Thirty-One bag party on Sept. 29 and it will close on the 30th (that is when payment will be processed.  In case you are in need of new stitching bags.  The special is if you spend $35 dollars then you can get the Large Organizing tote and Super Organizing tote for 1/2 price!  My Super Organizing Tote holds my entire Sistine Chapel project - a Jammer Box full of threads,  3 in Binder with my working copies, Extra bag with extra threads and small thread box for each scene.  Impressive!!!

These make EXCELLENT Gifts for Christmas!!!

If you are interested in ordering a tote....Click HERE and look under My parties..find My name and then start shopping or just looking.  Now on to stitching

Super Organizing Tote

Super Tote

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Inside Super Tote

Below, is my Keep it Caddy.  It is a very small tote with lots of pockets.  I use it for my car project and to keep ornaments in it.  Very handy little tote.

This is my Room For Two Utility Tote...yes, that is my dirty laundry in it because I use it as a laundry basket.  It has a zipper divider I could put up if I wanted to.  I think I may order another one to store wrapping papers in it.

Here is my puppy love project.  Love how it is turning out.  This is what I will be working on this week.  Hoping to finish Minnies ears this week;

I have put my A Wintery Heirloom back into my rotation....I am stitching another damn tree.  Yes I used a bad word because I am tired of these trees!!!!!

Here is this weeks progress..the tree is slowly taking shape.  I am happy to say this is the last BIG tree I will have to stitch.  After this page and another page of sky, I will finally be stitching the houses!

 The whole project so far....love how it is turning out.

Sistine Chapel....still working on it on Sundays.  This was last sunday's progress. Not much to show since I worked in my classroom for 5 hours last Sunday

Here is today's progress.  I finished another page.  Now I only have 332 pages to go!!!!

Just to get an idea of how big this project is...here is all my fabric stretched out on the floor and my little progress to date.  Bert was a little confused because he was taking a nap and I accidentally woke him up.

My little world:

School/Work - is not any better.  It seems that this is the murphy's law of school years.  That is all I am saying.  We did get the millage to pass so in 2 years we will have a second high school!!!!  Hopefully, I can make it 2 more years!  Last weekend I spent 14 hours grading papers and doing paperwork.  I am still not caught up.  This weekend, I said NO NO NO NO! I watched movies, read a book and just took some me time.  I am really behind, but I will worry about that tomorrow.

I am officially down to double digits on my Disney New Years Eve trip.  I have watched enough videos to have $500 extra spending money for this trip!!  If you are interested in watching videos and earning money by doing it....let me know.  

The furry children are doing well...only a lizard in the house this week. It has been a very tame week.  

Sistine Chapel update and Recipes

I am so happy to be on summer break!  I have been going to the pool, reading trashy novels and stitching.  I have such a hard life!!!  Sistine Chapel has been my stitching focus since I got out on break.  I am happy to show off two completed pages!  Bert has this fascination with needles!  He sees them and tries to grab them with his paw or his mouth.   My needle is below his paw.  He thinks he is being a sneaky kitty.

So one of my goals this summer was try several recipes I had pinned on my Pinterest boards.  The first one I tried was a pork loin, and homemade applesauce in the crock pot.  So the pork loin was supposed to have pan drippings...mine didn't turn out!  It was BAD BAD BAD....not sure what I did wrong but the pork was AWESOME!!!  DH wants me to make it again.

Pork Loin Recipe found HERE

 Here is the applesauce I made.  I like my applesauce tart so I cut the water amount in 1/2 and added 1/2 apple cider vinegar.  It made the house smell heavenly.  I forgot that my husband doesn't like tart and after he tasted it, he proceeded to add 1 cup of brown sugar (I was flabbergasted) to my sauce!  He loved it then, to me it was too sweet.  However, I would make it again and not add the apple cider vinegar and just use water.

Crockpot AppleSauce found HERE

My husband will NOT eat any veggies from a can...just flat out refuses.  But I was wanting greenbeans and all I had was canned so....I cooked up some bacon, chopped it up and tossed the canned green beans into the pan with the bacon and bacon grease.  They were yummy.  I set half the beans aside for him and for me, I tossed in some goat cheese!  YUMMY!!!!

Earlier this year, DH ordered 2 gallons of homemade Vermont maple syrup.  What the heck and I supposed to do with 2 gallons of maple syrup??  Make pancakes!  We now have pancake and bacon night every Thursday night.   I found a recipe on pinterest for PANCAKE SQUARES   I don't have a picture of my pancake squares because DH cut into them before I could take the picture.  They were yummy too, however, he told me he preferred his pancakes round and in stacks.  So...I won't be using this one again since it calls for the pancakes to be baked like a cake.  I prefer these...so much easier than having to put them on the griddle and flipping them.

DH favorite Chinese dish is Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice.  I pinned this recipe thinking it might turn out.  It was very easy, but messy to make.  DH loved it and wants this on the cook again list.  However, he did tell me NOT to attempt the rice again.  I did something wrong and it tasted funky.  I thought I followed the recipe right but alas, something happened.  It looks pretty though!!!  

                                    

Sweet and Sour Recipe found HERE

Sistine Chapel Panel 40 Finished and summer vacation!

I put the final stitches on panel 40 this morning.  This is the first panel of my Sistine Chapel design.  There are 45 panels in all!!  I did a small happy dance and then pulled out Panel 28 to stitch next.  The pattern calls for you to stitch it in a certain order.  This next panel that I will be stitching has a lot of threads.  They took up one whole thread box and 1/4 of the another.

Graduation:

School is out for summer!!!!  You do not know how happy I am.  This has been a very hard year.  Graduation was last weekend and they had a chair with a cap and gown on the stage in honor of my student who passed away earlier this year.  I broke out in tears during graduation when they called his name.  It is just an amazing feeling to see all my little ducks who I have pushed and prodded for the past 4 years walk across that stage and get their diploma.  For graduation day, all the teachers wears gowns and our school colors while the students wear their cap and gowns.  We were able to graduate 807 seniors in 1 hour and 45 minutes!!!

Each year, I make my seniors a pillow case with name embroidered on it.  They LOVE them.  Here is this years fabric.  When my juniors realized that I would not be teaching their senior math class, they were not happy.  They have been with me since 9th grade and they feel they have EARNED a pillowcase.  So I told them if they finished the year and would graduate, then I would make them a pillowcase.   My husband just doesn't get it.  He doesn't understand why the all love a pillowcase.  I tried explaining that it is a personalized gift that they can actually use, and he still doesn't understand.  

Summer Plans:

Last summer I set several goals to get finished by the end of summer.  This year, my plan is be lazy!  I am too tired right now to come up with any goals.    We leave for our vacation soon and I am actually looking forward to it.  We are going to Minneapolis, MN for 4 days.  DH is going to golf and I am going to the Mall of America.  We plan on catching a Twins Baseball game.  Then we are off to Sheboygan, WI, where DH is going to golf.  I am meeting up with my friend, Kim R, and we are going to spend the afternoon together.  Kim lives in WI and I haven't seen in her in a couple of years.  After WI, we are headed to Chicago, IL for 3 days.  DH sister lives there.  Not sure what we will do there but we will be headed home Saturday afternoon.  We will drive until DH gets tired then we will find a hotel for the night.  WE plan on being home by 2:00 pm on Sunday.  My mom is going to dog and house sit for us.  The boys love her and she doesn't mind staying at the house.

Amazing Art work and Sistine Chapel update!!!

If you are a regular reader, you know how much I LOVE disney!!!  There is a little duck in the autism room at my high school that loves Disney as much as I do.  I pop down to that room as much as I can because we have very interesting conversations.  This little duck is an amazing artist so I asked him if could draw the queen of hearts for me on a ceiling tile to place in my room.  We had several conversations about his because he prefers the red queen from the Johnny Depp version of Alice in Wonderland.  I like the queen of hearts since I am an "evil teacher" and my last name is Hartwell...it seems fitting....

I finally convinced him to draw the Queen of Hearts by offering him a copy of my Disney on Ice pictures (which he loved)... This is what he drew and painted for me:

I LOVED IT!!!!!!  He did an amazing job!  Since he is leaving for a Disney trip on Friday, I made a personalized Disney autograph book.  He knew when he finished it, I had an present for him so as soon as it was done, he called my room to let me know.  He LOVED his gift!  I LOVE my ceiling tile...all is well in the world!!!!!

Here it is....page 5 of panel 40 completed.  One more page left and this panel will be finished.  I will have 44 more panels to go!  

Sistine Chapel page finished and update

Happy Mothers day to all the mothers of fleshy children and Moms like me of Furry children.  My boys gave me some beautiful pink roses and wonderful card!

I finished page 4 of Sistine chapel!!!! So happy!!!  Below, the finished page, I started Page 5.  It is coming along very slowly but it is fun to stitch.  

 One of the people are finally finished!!!