A Mouse with Idle Hands

For the most part, a cross stitch blog, with a sprinkle of Lucifer antics and cooking joy. they/them 💜🤍🖤 ace 🏳️‍🌈

[acelibrarymouse]

Perhaps not the best pictures but I'm too tired to really get a good one. 😂😂 My booklet arrived yesterday! I once attempted the one to the right of the sampler years ago when my skills were still eeehh... It'll definitely go better if I were to try again. But it's the sampler I want to do soon. Might be a lil bit before I take a break from the dragon.. I was kinda a lil obsessed over the weekend.

Published in 91. Count the Ways to Say I Love You.

[acelibrarymouse]

We are at 10% completion, folks!

And nearly a quarter of the black done, just past 23%. I started my 3rd skein last night.

Can you tell I did little else but stitch when I was awake for the weekend? 😂😂

[acelibrarymouse]

We have reached 7% folks! A delightful amount of progress for today's #wipwednesday. 🥰 Over the weekend when I finished around his eye, there was a part of me that wanted to color it in. But then I didn't want him staring at me while I worked through all the black. I get enough judging looks from the kitties. 😂

I also want to do some work on it today but I'm bloody exhausted. It's been a very physically taxing week at work. One more night to go. It doesn't help it's raining pretty heavy outside. Prefect sleeping weather.

[acelibrarymouse]

I may take a break from my dragon in the near future because I managed to do something I thought was impossible.

See, crafts is what the women in our family do. My grandma can knit, crochet, and paint. I think she may have done cross stitch too. My aunt used to quilt and do cross stitch; half of my current thread stash I inherited from her. I've got several of those cool Lavendar and Lace seasonal patterns that I would also like to do someday. My mom does knitting, crochet, and used to cross stitch. Not so much with her hands these days.

She had this booklet I loved when I first started. When she was downsizing from the 4 bedroom house the family used to live in to something smaller for herself after my dad passed, I was visiting and got to take some books from the library. While I took some cross stitch magazines she still had, that booklet was gone. Most likely I was allowed to take it when I moved across the country for my first marriage. I left that relationship with the clothes on my back and temporary custody of my son. Everything else was lost. My clothes, cookbooks, my 3k Pokemon cards, and more. Honestly, I was more upset over the cookbooks and the pizzelle press that was a wedding gift.

Every now and then, I would think of that booklet. It had a sampler I always wanted to do when my skill improved. Not a hard one, but I was very rough in the beginning. My stitches weren't even in tension in the least, my back was a disaster, and I would start by knotting my threads in the back (just makes me shudder to think of now, haha). I would make an attempt at Google to find it. It doesn't help that it's out of print. 😂 Never with any luck.

Yesterday, I found it!!

It's called Count the Ways to Say I Love You Cross Stitch. The sampler is "I love you" in different languages, with cute bears in each frame. You could do them separately or together and I always wanted to do the full thing. There are a few other patterns in it as well that I've wanted to do. It cost more in shipping than the booklet but was just $12 total and I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

It'll be a week or two before I get it. So we'll see if I'm tired of always stitching in 310 by then. Or how worn out I may be in general. I have quit my previous side job because I needed something more structured as I adjust to having my son again... and I have an interview for a new one later today. Nothing fancy, just pizza delivery. If I don't get that, I'll be hunting for something. 🤞 It's getting rough in this growing disaster of an economy, and I'll be glad when a certain someone is out of office, however he goes. Not soon enough!

If you read this far, thanks for the follow/support/whatnot. 🥰 There will be a wip post tomorrow, wait til you see how much I've done. For now, bed. I hurt from having to take part in rearranging the locking cases at the main job. 😭

[acelibrarymouse]

Well since #wipwednesday is a thing, why not share progress here? Also, anyone ever just randomly run their fingers over the stitches of a project like between sessions? Just me?

We are now at 5.23% in the stained glass dragon project and you can even see that it's a dragon now. 😁 There's a part of me that just wants to keep going but the older adult side of me is wanting to curl up and sleep. Unfortunately it wins. Ah well, one more night to work and then I'm off for 3 because it might be unlikely I can score any overtime this week.

Also, in grabbing a random number of 310 before I started, I did not get enough. Found a site that can calculate roughly how many skeins you need. Between the one used, the one on the bobbin now, and the ones I bought, my total is 8. It estimated the need for 13 minimum. 😵‍💫 So much black.

Kinda enjoying PK, kinda miss just doing it by the page. I did a random poll with a couple people because I couldn't decide where to continue from next. 😂 Totally wish I had gridded before starting, don't feel brave enough to grid now.

Until next time, my loves. 😘

[acelibrarymouse]

We have a nose!

After the cuddling ended, I got some stitching in while we watched a few game shows, slept without an alarm at last, stitched, finally did some dishes, and stitched through the night while my husband foolishly slept in his recliner. I just had the urge to stitch at the beginning. I'm sure fellow crafters get it. 😁

Now I'm tired, so the need has eased...faded? Something. My turn to sleep, but the boy wants to go for bike rides later. 🥰

I'm just a bit over 4% complete so far. It's been interesting to use PK but feels weird sometimes to not be limited to a single sheet/part of a pattern.

[acelibrarymouse]

The last few weeks have been rough with the family (3 ER visits and an urgent care) and work (store is going to digital labels). This morning, since I felt better--2 of the ER visits were me--I decided I was going to work on my dragon with some good ol' Criminal Minds in the background.

The furbabies have a different idea:

So in case you can't keep track... 🤣 that's Fergus on the left curled into Gabriel, who has become so adept at opening drawers we'll be installing child locks soon. And the lil queen Claire. The only one missing is Lucifer, and he's most likely upstairs in bed with the hubs.

It won't last long, so I'll enjoy the cuddle pile while I can. 💜💜

[acelibrarymouse]

When you want to stitch but cat law...

And no one else is awake to fetch it for me. 🤣

[acelibrarymouse]

Stained Glass Dragon take two. The first fabric was definitely a different count, 20 or 22. I'm trying to use Pattern Keeper, which still feels weird because I'm a bit old school. But it's okay. Kinda fun because I can tell you I'm almost 1% done so far. 🤣 So much 310. 😵‍💫 28k stitches alone.

[acelibrarymouse]

I have a finish! 🥰 I was almost late to work last night to finish, I was so close. I still had the needle in my shirt, which is my habit between threads, while I was at work. 🤣 It'll just need a wash and join the others until the maybe someday I frame them.

Now to get my q snap frame adjusted so I can restart the dragon. 😜

Edit to add, since a dear friend on here gave me the heads up. You can buy the pattern here! I just omitted the black lines framing the top and bottom.

[acelibrarymouse]

Gabriel in the tree, lil Claire in the Zonna bed (was the only thing of hers I kept when we donated everything else to the humane society where we got Lu), and Fergus is in his favorite spot. Complete with snoring. 😂 Pretty sure Lu is in bed with Josh, and my son tends to go to sleep after his shift.

And since Fergus is asleep, it's safe to stitch! The dragon project is going to be restarted because I thought I was using 18 ct but I think it was 20. I got the 18 but just need to adjust my Qsnap and try to learn how to use Pattern Keeper. Meanwhile, picked up an older wip:

Unfortunately I cannot share the pattern from this. I bought this several years ago from Etsy among others from one shop but it no longer exists. It was the same person who designed this, which I know my mom has hanging in her kitchen. 🥰 There's another wip from that shop floating around somewhere, which I also meant to give to my mom. This one, I'll be keeping. It goes:

Am I perfect?

No.

But am I

striving every

day to be a

better person?

Also no.

[acelibrarymouse]

I want to work on a smaller project today because the pattern prints too small for my preference in the stained glass dragon to continue. Investing in a tablet to use pattern keeper and it'll be a couple days. My husband was nice enough to fetch my boxes so I could get the colors for the new project but now he's too comfy to take them back up and bring down fabric. 😂

As you can see, someone else is also too comfy to let me do it myself. 🤣🤣 And I just can't disturb Fergus when he's out like that. He's even snoring and twitching as I make this post. Besides, it's cat law to not move. My son found the needle he flung out yesterday, and I'm surprised no one stepped on it with where it was.

[acelibrarymouse]

Smooth start to a new project, thread-wise. 😂

Fergus was on my lap and ignored me until the thread touched him apparently when I had to fix a stitch. Right after I had rethread the needle, he tried to go after the string. I tried to stop him and he tried to run off with it. End result, kitty on the floor and project on my lap ... with the needle pulled clear from the thread.

Where the needle is now, no idea. It's somewhere in the living room. 🤦I doubt he swallowed it or anything, but there's no telling which way it flew off.

As for what I'm doing: Stained Glass Dragon on Etsy. It's 300 x 300 so I'm using my preferred 18ct. 28k stitches alone in the ever so fun 310. But I legit let out a lil squeal when I was assembling the colors because 3 of the colors are the "new" (not so new at this point) DMC colors that I haven't used yet.

[acelibrarymouse]

And by the way....

A few weeks ago, before I was put in my boot, we added another fur baby to the house. The first non-void and first girl since the days of my queen Zonna. 🥰

Her name is Claire, and she was estimated to be about 5 months old when we took her in for the first time. Gabriel took the longest to accept the addition and now he loves playing with her. Lucifer was the only one to never hiss at her because he is the best big brother.

[acelibrarymouse]

Got put in this for Achilles tendonitis/tendinosis two weeks ago. When my manager saw it, told me I'd have to take a leave of absence for the duration of the boot.

I have 4 more weeks. I miss going to work.

Perfect opportunity to get back into cross stitch and I even know what one I want to do. Just not sure I have a big enough piece of fabric, and there's still things to get in place from moving first.

[acelibrarymouse]

Yet again, an absence!

Not as long this time around but the last few months have been a bit of a doozy!

Last summer, closer to fall, I get a message from my ex husband that he got fired and soon he and our son would be homeless. Thankfully, after talking to my child myself, he agreed to move in with me rather than go to Mexico with his father. Unfortunately for our job, our lease was ending in November so we had to take time off just before Thanksgiving to move from a one bedroom to a two bedroom place.

First week of December, I went to Cali and brought him back home. It's been hectic between me having two jobs both busy with holidays, adjusting to having custody of my son (though he's technically an adult, he'll be 19 soon), still getting settled in the new house. I knew having him was going to be rough but we're all trying, as he's possibly autistic and has ADHD. Freaking healthcare in the US, the soonest I can get him tested is not until late June. It's a fun dance between getting him all the support and care he needs, helping him adjust to new climate and everything, getting him working with plans to help him get his GED.

As for the new home, we're more unpacked than packed at this point. There's still work to be done but both jobs are settling down a little and we're getting into a groove for being a family of 3.

The only thing that hasn't changed in our lives is the number of cats. All 3 voids are happy and healthy. 💜

Recently, I've been wanting to get back into cross stitch and I want to buy a new pattern but I've only narrowed it down to like 4 choices. 🤣

[acelibrarymouse]

The first full moon of 2025 was a rough day. I almost lost my only key to my car, my wonderful husband found it buried in the snow. We were without Internet for most the day because someone hit the line. The news with Fergus that I've already mentioned. (He's starting to do better I think!)

But the last one will hurt my blog and crafting. My PC tower apparently died. 🫠 If my patterns aren't saved on a disc somewhere, I've lost most of them. I have a few still printed out thank God.

Even though one of the worst things is about to happen in just a few more days, I really hope this is not going to be how the year is going to be. (By the way, if you're an American follower in favor of the upcoming inauguration, unfollow me.)