a night before the exam...

Last few days have been painful... I didn't do  anything extraordinary, just band over to see what's in the box and, that's it, couldn't get back to normal position. Can I blame this on Mercury also?!? I do not think so, I am a human not a robot!

Or maybe it is just an excuse for not studying hard enough... Today I'm feeling much, much better but still... can't force myself  to a little practice before exam. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with me! 

My exam will be an "open book" exam, which means that I can take with me to the exam room this lovely book, all three thousand pages! I'm also allowed to have a little (1.5"x2") hand written sticky notes, one per page and I can write on all margins and any "white spaces in the book. What that tells ya? The exam will be brutal! So I'm preparing for it in a little different way...

I was stitching a little

and checked on tomatoes

and soon I can harvest rose hips (we have tons of wild roses), if you have any recipe what to do from rose hips, please share with me

Our beautiful, purple flower fireweed turned into some kind of cotton... has some charm to it...

and a close up

After long day preparations for the exam I went shopping. Heaven and Earth Design has sale this week so I bought:

Poppies, and

Winter Wings

Aren't they beautiful? I have no idea when I will stitch them but I'm happy to have them in my stash collection.

GIVEAWAYS!!!

Shelley of the Shelley's Artsy Fartsy Life has an awesome book collection giveaway. Make sure to check it out!


Did you check my giveaway? You still have time until September 12th! Just dig out your UFO, start stitching it again and post message here.

I love Friday!

Do you want to know why? Well, I checked my snail-mail... and, there it was, an envelope from Katrien - all the way from Belgium! Katrien was stitching Egyptian Empire and I was drooling over... Now the chart is all mine! I just have to pick fabric and floss and start stitching it!!!

I am so excited! Thank  you so much Katrien, you are an angel!

Hardware failure, can I blame Mercury for it?

The last few days were disastrous! My laptop started acting weird... it was shutting down and restarting while I was in the middle of solving corporate tax problems and other very important stuff, like working on my blog for example. The laptop refused to open some programs and was telling me that this or that file was missing. I was just screaming and puling my hair out... It would not be so scary if I would live in the civilized world but here, north of 60, we do not have a decent computer technician. So here I am, doing tons of tricks and diagnoses and... no luck... until last night. With a screwdriver I opened compartment after compartment and BINGO!!! I have a hardware problem... bad RAM. I am so relieved, because I know that now it will cost me just around 100 bucks and I can fix it myself! I am one proud cookie!!! 

And for years I've been hearing of communication disasters  while Mercury being in retrograde mode. I decided to explore that subject a little more...

Stephanie Gailing of Planetary Apothecary writes: "Mercury represents the bridges and channels that allow us to connect varied pieces of information in order to synthesize them into the whole of understanding. During Mercury retrograde periods, the inherent weaknesses of these conduits may be revealed. As such, this period is known for the breakdown of tools that help us to share information (such as phones, computers, and printers) and well as those that assist us as we move from place to place (such as cars, bikes, and buses); therefore, do what you can to make sure they are in good working order, before Mercury goes retrograde if possible. With data and information transfer stressed, it’s a great time to ensure you’re backing up your hard drive, keeping track of whether you’re due for an oil change, or inventorying your supply of extra batteries necessary for the remote or your child’s favorite toy." 


Well, now my mystery is solved, I can blame Mercury for my computer's funny acting!!! I also read somewhere that during those 3 weeks we should not enroll to courses,  buy expensive Mercurian items (books, cars, mobile phones etc.), sign important contracts and not marry. That's all fine but what abaut final exams?!? Should I postpone or should I be brave and tackle it while that red planet is retrograding...

From NASA I learned that there is no real backwards movement of Mercury; it's just that we see it this way from Earth, because of the combined movement of the Earth and Mercury around the Sun. (Mercury retrograde).


Astrologers are saying that Mercury rules over the mind's processes, studying, communication, businesses, travels and the like. When Mercury reverses (just an illusion!) its direction, all these areas are affected as well.

The mind turns naturally inwards and people tend to analyze more the own thoughts and follow the common thinking patterns, rather then be curious and eager of new intellectual experiences or challenges. This helps the meditation or the thorough lonely long-term study of a specific matter, but it affects the study of new subjects, the communication with the others, the attention oriented outwards.


So, what is this Mercury retrograde period good for?


It is definitely a very good period for some actions. I strongly believe that no time is completely bad for anything, that there is a reason in everything happens. The key is the illusion of reversed direction of movement: take any known Mercurian action, reverse its flow, consider the keywords "re-doing something", "double-checking", "finish the old projects" and there you are, you've found the good side of Mercury retrograde. For instance, you may want to read again a book you particularly liked, a subject you studied before, meet and discuss with old friends you haven't met for a long time, travel to places you've already been to before.


This is an excellent time to work on old projects that never got to be finished. So, think about the things you started and never finalized. All those UFOs on the bottom of the drawer!!! I challenge you to work on those UFOs until September 12. Would you accept my challenge? For those who will, I'll have a givaway!!! $30 gift certificate to 123stitch.com Just leave a comment to this post, make sure that your email address is included (if your blog doesn't link back) so I have a way to contact you if you are a winner.

Now, going back to our Mercury...  you might wish to prevent any bad things to happen to you, so: double-check your agenda, call your business partners to confirm that everything goes as planned, have everything ready before the deadline and leave some extra time for unexpected events. Make copies of your important files and documents, save your work more often.


The other solution is to go on vacation (I'm going to Dawson City!) or at least slow down the pace of your projects. You will find that going slowly during the Mercury retrograde period will spare you many efforts of redoing the same action that wasn't performed right the first time.


Above all, be generous and compassionate: you are already aware about the influence of this period, but the others aren't aware of it or there may be uncontrollable events. That's why you should have more diligence with the others and give them some more time. It'll be your mental health that you'll be sparing actually.

So long friends,
Evalina

Happy Day!

Rest of my birthday presents arrived safely! Heidi, Kathy, Nancy and Melinda surprised me with gift certificates (thank you so much ladies!!!) to my favorite on line store so I went shopping!!! This is what I bought:

bunch of ornament kits

kitties

all supplies for the Egyptian Sampler. I received this leaflet from Carolyn last year, I had some floss and fabric  but needed so much more. Finally I was able to complete the kit up portion!

and hens friends. I've got so excited (and my computer was acting very weird) so I started new project...

Tomatoes update

Poor green tomatoes are getting some colour! I do not have any hopes though for them to turn red on vine. It's cold and rains last couple days. But, you never know, sometimes miracles can happen!!!

So long friends!

Evalina

ZoomZoom is 4!!!

4 years ago I rescued a little kitten from natives village of Haines Junction. He was so little, had no idea how to eat cat food and he moved in right into my heart with all his little 4 paws and scared eyes. I had no idea when he was born but he couldn't be older that 4-5 weeks at that time and it was middle of September. So I figured that his birthday should be sometime in mid-August. Since in mid-August we have a holiday in the Yukon (Discovery Day), he became a Discovery Day boy. I named him ZoomZoom because he was zooming all over the house with an amazing speed.

On his 4th birthday he was chasing squirrels (they were racing on the roof and he was racing on the ceiling beam:

and absolutely nothing could distract him, he was on the mission and his eyes were glued to the ceiling...

of course after very busy day he was napping for long time...

It looks like the end of summer...

Fireweed lost all his flowers, leaves are changing colours and falling dawn... definitely the autumn is in the air. And my tomatoes didn't change much at all! If I look very closely I can see just a hint of yellow...

oh, well... I guess I will have green, fried tomatoes.

I'm getting ready for another final exam and there is not much time for stitching. Regardless the pressure, I was able to stitch a little and here is my progress on the Provence:

It is a kind of slow stitching... the part with roosters is done over 1 on 28 count... (click on the picture to see close up) I'm almost going blind! and there is three more roosters to go... after that it will be easy sailing.

Finally, I decided to go to Dawson City and I am so excited! I live in the Yukon close to 6 years and for some reason this town never was on my way but always on the "to go" list. I already reserved room in the hotel and Saturday, September 4th I will be on the road. I think that after writing the final (September 1st) I deserve to have some kind of holidays... and I will drive during my 2 favorite weeks of the whole year! First 2 weeks of September are the most colorful in the Yukon. No bugs, days are still quite long and hopefully the weather will be good. Shortly after will be time to dress the car for the winter with winter tires...