Another page finished

I just put in the last few stitches in page 25 of Jolly Old Fellow.  It's exciting to have finished the first page of the last full row of charts!  The actual last (sixth) row of charts are only half the height of all the other rows of charts, so I figure once I get Row 5 finished, the rest will be a snap!

My computer made it home!

I am so happy.  I had despaired of seeing it again, but the repairman did eventually respond to one of my many messages, and he did turn up - three days and 6 hours after the time he had promised to return it.  He had it for just on 7 weeks in all, but all he did was clean it and replace the fan.  He had done that when he rang me about it on Day 3, so for most of the tme he had it,  the computer just sat on his bench.  He said he decided it wasn't worth putting money into the computer as it was over 4 yrs old and unlikely to last long.  I know there are massive gaps in my understanding of computers, but I had thought replacing the mother board (which is what he said he would do) was in fact updating the computer .  Silly me!  I was just so pleased to get my data back and, yes,  I have now saved it all to an external source.  I have plans now to upgrade the computer sooner rather than later - but I won't be ringing that computer repairnman to arrange it!. 

To celebrate getting my data back, here's a pic I thought I had lost - it's the entrance to the Tower of London, taken last year in London.  I won't bore you with the 3000 other pics which I could also have lost, but which are now saved!

Yay! Major progress ...

I have just finished pages 23 & 24 of Jolly Old Fellolw.  This completes the fourth row of charts, and brings the amount stitched to 75% of the chart!!!   Happy me!!!  Here's what he looks like now:

The stitching outline looks a bit wonky, but that's only because I had the fabric draped over the back of the lounge for the photo.  The colour appears more washed out than it really is - put that down to my lack of camera skills.

I am SO pleased with how much of this project I have stitched in 2012 (10+ chart pages) and now I am really confident that I can finish JOF this year, God willing.  So I will definitely be pressing ahead, starting with page 25 tonight.

Not such good news about my poor computer.  The repairman seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth.  Of course, the fact that I omitted to find out his surname or the address of his workshop has really not helped me in tracking him down - a very good lesson learned there!  It's now been over 6 weeks since he took the computer, and over 5 weeks since I last heard from him.  I'm almost at the stage of spending the repair money on a replacement computer, and starting the long job of replicating my data (no, I hadn't backed up recently, and yes, I do know that it would have been a good idea!). 

Miss Maddie is enjoying good health, and becoming even more definite about getting her needs met now that she is a teenager.  She's a real little fluff-bucket, and cute as a button.  The Vet says she has me well trained, and I guess that's right - but who wouldn't want to make this little cutie happy!

 
The adults in the house are on the mend as well.  I have just 3 weeks more to tolerate my daily Pagets Disease tablets (and the tummy upsets that come with them), and Maxine is recovering her health slowly after the chemo and radiation treatment.  Her blood tests are still a bit out of whack, but moving in the right direction. So that's all good.

WIPocalypse Report for March

I've been stitching only on my HAED Jolly Old Fellow again in the past  month, and I am quite pleased with my pogress.  I am currently working on pages 23 and 24, and when they are finished the fourth row of chart pages will be done, leaving me only two rows of pages (12 chart pages in all) to complete the design.

Here's where I stopped stitchuing tonight:

Another page finished ...

I'm still having computer issues.  I have the periodic use of my sister's portable, but my computer is still in sick bay - over a month now, and I am REALLY missing it. I am also very stressed by the fact that the computer shop isn't returning my calls, and I have no idea what is happening - I so hope my computer will be back home soon, with the data it contains safe.

I've been working on my HAED Jolly Old Fellow over the past month.  Here's a current pic:

I have now finished page 22 (over 70% stitched now!), and have made a tiny start on page 23.  I have passed my target for this year, and this has motivated me to continue stitching on JOF with a view to finishing it this year, even if that means little else gets stitched in 2012. 

My little Madalyn had a birthday this week - she turned 13.  We marked her birthday with a little family celebration (BBQ chicken for all - it's Maddie's favourite food).  This is how Maddie finished the day - flat out asleep on the lounge chair.

At last ...

I finally finished page 21.  It seems to have taken ages, but at least I know why.  In the last two weeks I've not had as much stitching time as I would have liked.  My house-mate has been dealt another health blow.  She's still recovering from the chemo and radiation therapy, and has now been diagnosed with glaucoma.  She's had laser treatment on both her eyes in the past week.  And just so I don't feel out of it, my Pagets Disease (affecting mainly my skull), which has been in remission for the past few years, had become active again, so I'm back on the daily tablets to knock it back down.  Not happy, Jan!

Sometimes life just doesn't seem to be playing fair.  This is one of those times in my house!

WIPocalypse February Report

I'm late with this report - because of my computer troubles.

I am so very pleased with my progress on my HAED Jolly Old Fellow.  It's the only project I have worked on this year.  I have now finished page 20, which was my target for 2012.  I am quite astounded at reaching this target so early - I expected (based on how long it took me to stitch each page of this design  in previous years) that it would take me till May or June to stitch pages 14-20. 

So, here's where I am now:

I'll continue stitching on Jolly old Fellow through till the end of March.  If I manage to stitch pages 21-24 in that time (and I now expect that I will) I will probably keep working on it, with a view to actually finishing it this year.