Sleeping like a baby

I’ve been exhausted the last couple of days, and I have to admit yesterday I struggled a bit at work, watching the clock very closely until hometime!  When I got home I finally succumbed to my body’s chatter instead of ignoring it and listening to my brain tell me when I should call it a day.  My eyes were struggling to remain open at 6pm, so by 7pm I gave up and just went straight to bed … although I woke up a few times during the night, I went straight back to sleep again and only just woke up properly with my alarm going off at 6.35am … yikes, that’s nearly 12 hours!!  Oh well, I guess I needed it!

As you can probably guess with my level of tiredness there hasn’t been much stitching happening.  I managed a total of 2 more hours of Egyptian Garden Mandala, which means I’m now halfway through this rotation slot.  I know when I’m finally on my days off (ie Tuesday), I’ll probably finish the rest of the 5 hours in one sitting.  It may just be because I’ve been so tired with my shifts this week, but I can’t say I’ve been enjoying stitching it … or perhaps it’s just this little band itself that I’m not enjoying.  Oh well, it’ll soon be over and I can move on to the next bit 😀

If nothing else, it’s nice to see the little boxes slowly getting filled up on my rotation checklist – although how slowly I’m stitching EGM, I think I may need to re-think how many boxes I’ve allocated to it LOL.  Now if you never thought I was ‘anal’ before, this will surely change your mind haha.  These are the little pages I charted up in December some time especially for my rotation.  Originally I just had one Excel spreadsheet with all the projects listed down the side, but I thought it was messier when you completed one project and had to add one, so I came up with my own version in a Word document.  Now I can print a new page any time I want, and I have them all held together on a clipboard that stays beside my stitching chair.  It’s really easy to work out when the 10 hours slot is finished as I’ve separated the 10 hours into their own little spaces, and each page is for one rotation slot.  Once I’ve stitched my 10 hours on one slot, I take the page out, and move it to the back, and just start straight on the next page.  I find it easier this way to work out where I’m at in my rotation at any time, ‘cos the current project is always on top.  With my Focus Piece I just have the one slip of paper (as below) that sits in a little pocket of the clipboard, then I have another page that just says “Focus Piece” in the actual rotation slot in the pile of pages. It seems to work well for me anyway, anal or not (although I forgot to add my stitching time that I worked on the Leporello when Mum was here, and I keep forgetting to add my stitching times for Bordeaux … oh well)  😉

Not much else has been happening really – I went to check my mail yesterday ‘cos I forgot it was Saturday, and there’s a parcel sitting in there … hmmm, I’m not expecting anything … I’ve just received KarenV’s Quaker RR, so I know it’s not that, and I know there’s something wee coming from Judith, but it shouldn’t be here yet unless they’ve brought the Concorde back into service for Australian Post, so I don’t think so 😉 Luckily I’m going into work again tomorrow for 4 hours overtime so I’ll have chance to pick it up and solve the mystery.  Maybe it’s just a really large bill! 😉 

Talking of which, I suppose I should start thinking about breakfast and getting ready for work … today is day 7 straight, although my personal choice.  I have 4 hours overtime today and tomorrow (originally these were my days off) … while I’m not thrilled to be going in, I’ll be more thrilled in 2 1/2 weeks time when the money is sitting in my pay packet! 😉

Ooh, I just received an email to say I’ve won a door prize drawing from the Online Needlework Show – how cool, I never win anything!!  Woohoo!!!  I’ve won a chart of my choice by Heartfelt Designs … how I’ve just got to choose something, which is gonna be difficult!  So far I’ve narrowed it down from 8 possibilities to 4 … hmmm, better think about it a bit more tonight …  Here are the four I’m trying to decide between: