More Black Belt Stitching Wizard Stuff

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Weekend Begins

This week for me was one of those weeks where every morning you fight with yourself to get out of bed and go to work. Then once you're at work you're watching the clock so you can leave. It wasn't a bad week, there was no reason... I just would of rather of been at home sleeping I suppose. I also had to fight with myself to go to the gym like I promised and go to Taekwon-Do, I did make it to both.

I had some success at the scale this week! I'm down 1.5 lbs, just 2 lbs left to go to get back to my goal weight. I hope this week I'm down enough to make weigh in. According to my scale I'm just barely legal (for Weight Watchers you have to be within 2 lbs of your goal weight or you pay), but that's my scale not theirs. So I'd like to drop a little more for this week's weigh in.



I'm still plugging away at Tour and loving every moment of it.

Are you ready for this week's pictures? There's nothing artsy or inspirational here... probably due to my desire to do nothing and go nowhere. Its also hard to find things to shoot when by the time you get home its dark outside, and when you leave in the morning, its dark outside! The days are getting longer but not soon enough for me!


Monday January 18 - "My favourite box of crayons!" What stitcher doesn't drool over a beautiful box full of floss. I was playing with the macro lens again, intentionally making one section of the floss box in full focus and the rest start to blur out.


Tuesday January 19 - This is Pete my Mum's Parrot. He hates cameras so I had to do this quickly, thus it needed quite a bit of attention in Elements just to make it look okay. I used the burn and dodge techniques (not the burn and dodge button as it doesn't do as nice of a job) I learnt in my photography course two years ago.


Wednesday January 20 - "My Needle and Thread They Comfort Me" I had a pretty crappy evening Tuesday I spent every free moment that night fighting with my cellular company. As usual they won and I'm paying more. I wasn't going to stitch that night but I grudgingly pulled Tour out and I realized just how much my stitching calmed me and comforted me.


Thursday January 21 - Heading off into the sunset. I pass this snowmobile trail on my way home almost every evening (depending on which way I go). The sun is just starting its trip down to the horizon. You may see this path again in the near future when there's a fresh dusting of snow on the trees, its so pretty!


Firday January 22 - Ahhhhh the end of a week at work, time to take my shoes off, put on my boots, and go home! I did this by creating hue/saturation layer and level layers in Elements and playing with the sliders on the histogram. This took a pretty insignificant picture and made it a little more interesting.

23 comments:

Kathy A. said...

Love those photos!!!
Great progress on Tour.
I hope you have a very nice weekend girlfriend!

Lesleyanne said...

I had one of those weeks too. Lovely progress on Tour and your photos are fantastic.

Anonymous said...

I read somewhere that this past week is the hardest week of the year for lots of people, particularly 21st January. I can certainly understand exactly how you are feeling. Here's to a better week next week, with lots more stitching! Tour looks amazing. Loved the photos.

Anonymous said...

more stunning photos ^^ and your Tour is looking brilliant, really 3 dimensional against your sky effect fabric

Hazel said...

I'm also trying to lose a few pounds to get back to my goal weight but I'm doing Slimming World and you get 3lbs either way. Love your photos esp the threads. Your wip is coming along nicely. It's amazing isn't it when it seems so hard to pick up a project but once you do you just relax right into it. Have a great weekend. x

Bonnie Brown said...

Love the pics dani!!

Becky K in OK said...

Chock it up to hormones. Hope you have a cozy stitching weekend.

jayne@~an eye for threads~ said...

Have a great weekend and I love the pics.
Be always in stitches.

Anonymous said...

I think I LOVE Pete! We used to have a parrot just like Pete, but it was a girl, Penny.

Good progress on your castle. Yes, I find when I'm annoyed stitching takes my mind off it. Glad it works for you too.

Carolyn NC said...

Great photos - nice progress on Tour!

Heidi said...

Your pictures are great!! I love the box of floss! The angle combined with the macro! It's a great host!

It's been one of those weeks here too, the kids have missed so much school due to weather, and we're all getting a bit of cabin fever on top of it all!

Hope next week is a great week for you!

Blu said...

Nice progress on Tour. Great photos!

tkdquintmom said...

Castle is looking great...nice progress. It appears to be one of those labor of love but yet is a joy to work on. I know what you mean about the week...we didn't work Monday because of MLK but yet people were high maintanence and the week just dragged! I was so ready for Friday.

http://ingridsknitting.blogspot.be/ said...

love your pictures en nice progress on Tour.

Jo said...

Your photos look wonderful and artsy to me - especially the wonderful colours in your floss box. It's hard to find inspiration at this time of year, and I think you did a wonderful job!

Tour is looking wonderful - I hope you manage to find time to make good use of your new stitching chair this weekend!

Thanks for your words of encouragement, they really mean something. Hope your scales aren't lying to you.

Bette said...

Love the picture of the floss. Makes me want to grab my boxes of floss and stitch. And Petey is gorgeous!

Laural said...

I hope you've had some rest this weekend. We only had a four day week and while I do it every day I was struggling with the "two feet on the floor" in the morning.

Great progress! On TDM! I love all your pictures this week with crayon box definitely being up there.

We started my son in Taekwon Do this week! I'm Goggle-ing terms and Lori said that she would help me. I'm used to calling the martial arts uniform a Gi.

Striving for a Simple Life said...

Great photos!

Stephanie

Casa Pearl said...

A wonderful photo commmentary! I know just what you mean about "one of those weeks". I've got something and I'm not sure what it is - the blahs, winter fever or cabin fever but I'm longing for spring too. And your stitching looks great - it does have such a wonderful way of calming the stress of the week and relaxing us. Hope this week is a better one!

Crazee4books said...

Hi Dani,

Glad to hear that you've been able
to drop some weight this week. I'm
still loosing (as of Tuesday's
weigh in) and was assigned more
points to eat. I'm up to 31 points
per day now. Should've eaten more
of those chocolate biscuits.

I wish I could tell you why I've
been so lucky in this weight loss
effort. I know that I don't work
out half as hard as you do with
your visits to the gym and TKD.
All I can attribute it to is the
fact that before March of last
year I was the ultimate couch
potato who never did anything
remotely like exercise. So when
I started walking and so forth
my body responded (in shock, I'm
sure) and continues to do so.

This Tuesday is week 6 of my
adjusted goal and I need to
gain over 2 lbs to be within
the 2 lb range of goal. I've
been eating lots of protein
and lots of everything else as
well so we'll see what happens.

I must admit that although I
find it hard to wrap my head
around gaining weight it is
necessary because I am getting
too skinny from the waist up.
Everyone tells me to stop
loosing weight because of this.
Whenever I weigh in and have
lost, although it frustrates me
on the outside, in my head I'm
secretly pleased as punch. Got
to stop thinking that way and
focus on being a healthy weight,
not on a weight that is ultimately
unhealthy for me and will most
likely be impossible to maintain.

As for Spring....the sooner it
arrives the happier I'll be too.
Getting up at 5:30 am is so hard
when it's dark and dreary, and
the rest of the day is the same.

Hang in there Dani!!!

Cheers.

mbroider said...

I am always in here for a Tour pic, and then i am happy i am here:) Thanks

Is Tour possible on Aida, or does it need over one stitching too?

Wanda said...

Oh Dani...your photographs are so wonderful! and yes...shoes usually don't make such a great topic (for me anyway) but you captured something wonderful! Tours is so beautiful. Really wonderful stitching

Karan said...

Sounds like you're ready for Spring too - think there's a lot of us feeling like that this year. Fab photos as always Dani. :0)