Wacko weather!

Yesterday the high in West Michigan was 48 degrees - we got up this morning to 4 degrees. Due to the rain that fell before the temperatures dropped all the roads were iced up and due to the high winds (gusts of 40 mph) and dry snow, we had whiteouts. I worked at home today!

Exchange days!

I sent out a winter exchange a few weeks ago - I'm hoping that it has been received! There hasn't been a posting on SBEBB yet. I received a lovely frosty hued biscornu from Carol in New Hampshire on the 20th, as well as some lovely goodies. Carol is a wonderful exchange partner!

I'm working now on a goodie for the SBEBB Valentine's Exchange which is to be mailed this Friday. I'm on schedule for a Wednesday finish so I may be sending it out on Thursday. I also have a little something in process for a Valentine's exchange that was organized on the Hand Dyed Fibers Forums - it's to be mailed on Monday, February 4 (which is my mother's birthday). I'll probably send Mom's birthday present out on Thursday with the SBEBB exchange so that she receives it on or before her birthday. Yes, I have the present!

In addition to working on my exchange responsibilities, I have to do a small wall hanging from Marie Therese Saint Aubin's book representing Wilson - our fourth cat - for DH. As Wilson is all black, colors are easy and DH has selected the fabric he wants. I love the MTSA designs - so elegant! Because she suggests the shape of the cat rather than actually drawing the cat, they work up quickly.

Then I'll go back to my rotation on Marriage of the Minds and the 2004 Marquoir for DH plus a third project, yet to be decided. I have some spools of Vikki Clayton's new colors and I'm trying to decide which one I want to use in a project. I also got some charts for the AMAP smalls during the HDF's group buy, so I'm thinking one of those projects on the antique white linen that I got from Vikki. I like doing small projects right now.

This year I want to overcome my finishing fears - If I take my time, I can do a respectable job of finishing. If I rush, especially doing something new, I am usually disappointed. So I'm giving myself plenty of time to do the finishing on these latest projects.

snow snow and more snow!

We've had the strangest weather! Snow last night and today following temperatures of 52 last week! A thunderstorm last Friday! Bizarre - perhaps more attention needs to be paid to global warming!

On the stitching front - finished a small for the winter quaker exchange at SBEBB, started the Marquoir 2004 on the midas linen DH picked out - with HDF's Gandy Tango, I'm plugging along on "A New Beginning" - I'm almost half done! I'm 60% on Marriage of the Minds and need to start Sarabande again. I've signed up for 2 valentine exchanges - 1 at SBEBB and the other on the Hand Dyed Fibers forums. These will be fun stitches! I'll post photos of the winter quaker finish after I find out that it's been received.

I need to post here again!

It's funny how some things get neglected... I haven't posted here in a very long time - when I changed computers, the favorites setting didn't come over and I sort of forgot to go find it to book mark again.

Life has changed a lot and has stayed the same - a contradiction it seems, but it isn't really. What I mean is the specifics of what I do daily have changed yet the pattern remains the same.

I have a freebie Halloween design that is almost complete and need to finish for a Halloween Sweet Bag exchange. I've just signed up for a Winter Quaker exchange. I'm trying to complete the Marriage of the Minds still - I hit some section that is especially difficult or find that I've miscounted and have to rip out a huge number of stitches, so I get discouraged and park it for a while then come back to it. I won't have it completed for this coming anniversary - it took me too long to realize that I needed to plan out a number of hours each week on this in order to make the anniversary, so my target completion date is now year end 2007. I have finished a french alphabet sampler, some smalls, some exchange items and ornaments over the past year. I have Sarabande in process but it seems that the stitch-a-long at the semiLNS will not be restarting this fall. So I'll put that in a rotation. I also have A New Beginning in process, using mystery floss from detrius bags that are premiums from Vikki Clayton.

I've built my stash up to tremendously - almost too much stuff I think. Don't tell DH I said that! I am planning to sell somethings because my tastes have changed and some of those are no longer interesting. That's my winter project!

Wishlist

Today is a good day for a wishlist - mine is fairly simple.
world peace,
an end to hunger (which would be relatively easy if the billions spent on armaments were redirected toward food),
education for anyone who really wanted it,
a better environment,
a world in better shape than it is now for the generation to follow...

all of it is more easily said than done...

midlife musing

End of the Summer!
I've been AWOL for a while - some minor health issues that just wiped me out and then there is the summer... I still work but DH and DGS do not have school to occupy them selves. So I do the camp shuttle thing for GS, and I find it takes a lot of energy just to deal with the home havoc wreaked by DH's home improvements.

School has started for everyone. Life is good! I have made excellent progress on my ABC Rouge sampler. I have DSL installed which speeds up everything, and I've also started a couple of garment sewing projects with my new sewing machine. Started a stitch-a-long at a semi-local NS on Sarabande, which is just wonderful! The photo does not do justice to the colors of the threads! Very cool! when I have enough to show, I'll post a photo!

In the interest of fairness...

OK - last night when I got home from my EGA meeting, DH had a second present under my pillow - a silver and turquoise necklace. He told me that I couldn't seriously think that he wouldn't mark the day. Which was very sweet.
I'm still going to get the card and birthday cake from the kitties - I got one of the new blue ribbon designs charts that I've been wanting but couldn't justify last night at the LNS, and I will wrap that as a present from the kitties. To make the point, because to date, neither DGS or SD have figured out that they missed the birthday. Also to make the point that no matter what the age of the person, there needs to be a card, a cake of some sort and good wishes. And because SD has not properly acknowledged DH's birthday for years (it happens to be Christmas day, so he gets 2 toiletries instead of one... and this past one, she told him that she knew it was a different type than he asked for, but the department store gave it to her free...) - Tacky. But I am more concerned that DGS get the point that he needs to recognize other people's special events - especially the people who participate actively in his life.
So, I'm thinking either an angel food cake or a carrot cake... :-)

Birthday musings

Yesterday was my birthday - the 22nd celebration of my 29th birthday to be exact. That in itself did not bother me - but here's what did. Until my mother and youngest sister called at 8PM, no one (yes, NO ONE other than the one person I told that the day was my birthday) wished me "happy birthday". Not DH, not my friend I work with, no one. As a matter of fact, until I told DH at bed time that he did not recognize my birthday (after his rant on why I was asking him about the book he misplaced, because he never does) he didn't get it. Not even after the 2 phone calls from my family. (My mom wished me a happy birthday tomorrow on the actual day). DH claims that he thought the 22nd was Thursday (today). He didn't forget the gift - he took me out last Saturday to choose my present (a very very nice bracelet) - but he forgot the day.

I'm not quite sure what my emotions on this are. Somewhere between disappointment, sadness, irritation, and loneliness. My sister asked me if DH had taken me out for dinner or gotten me a cake - No on both counts. Unfortunately, the only way I would get a birthday cake now would be if I made it for myself. DH doesn't think it's important... And he's never quite figured out that I am not like him.

I am irritated with myself that I'm feeling sorry for myself - after all, I am not in Iran or Iraq. I have a good home, loving husband and great friends. Yet, there's this little voice that whispers if DH is so loving, why didn't he say "Happy Birthday"? Why didn't my friends get me a card or call? I guess I'm feeling a bit like the wallpaper - taken for granted. I thought I was old enough to be past needing this recognition.

At least Mama Kitty is always glad to see me, especially now that she's nursing! Enough of the whining!

Happy Spring!

March Madness

What can I tell you? Due to years of basketball watching, the phrase is embedded in my psyche. Actually my form of March Madness has to do with multiple birthdays to attend to this month and spring break.

On the home front - Mama kitty (the feral cat in my back yard that I can't persuade to come in) has survived another attempt to increase the wild cat population. In a few weeks I'll know if the kittens did - it was 20 degrees the night she had them! I was hoping that this year the winter would be tough enough that she would be tempted to join her older babies inside.

I've had a great stitching month so far - not in quantity but in quality. First of all, I got to test drive a class for Eileen Bennett last weekend - a blackwork sampler! Wonderful design and we earned our keep, as we found things that we were able to make suggestions for that will improve the course. Eileen's work is always top-flight, and it's a privilege to be able to help her! One of the great perks of belonging to the same EGA chapter that she does.

I have been working on a UFO of an Ellen Chester design for lining one of the mini-Whitman sampler tins. It was an EGA project from 2003 that I had an error on - I frogged that and now I'm almost finished with the stitching. It's all over 1 with 1 thread, which in some ways is easier than trying to get 2 over 2 to lie smoothly. But having to rip out is the pits! I've also been working on Marriage of the Minds one day a week.

Then there's my good deed project. One of my friends asked me to do something about her father's favorite coat that he was given by his father when he was 13 years old. The coat is over 54 years old! That's older than me! And it has been worn fairly frequently over the years without repair. So, this is the good dead - I am patching it, inside and out. By hand.

I have always had tremendous admiration for all of our foremothers who sewed clothing by hand and patched everything to make it last. I have much more now! My hands get sore even with a thimble and needle puller. That surprised me, as I spend several hours a day most days of the week with a needle in hand. But linen is a lot easier to pull a needle through than canvas and wool batting! However, her father is delighted, and that is why I'm doing this.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone's having a happy St. Valentine's Day. West Michigan is getting a break from the low temps and a high of 38 is predicted for today with sun!
Good news at my WW weigh-in yesterday - I lost 3 pounds! This is over 2 weeks, as I missed last week's weigh in while I was at my Mom's for her birthday. Once I start seeing results, it gets easier to do all the things I need to do to get back to being healthier.
I also had a completion of a small - the WildHeart Designs flower needle minder that went out on the Elegant Needle's series of smalls for breast cancer. The most recent one that I received is from our very own Diane of Sampler Cove designs. Halle's Heart - to be finished as a little pin/broach - it came with the tiniest straight pins I have ever seen for finishing the stitching into the tin pin frame!
I have also picked up a WIP/UFO to finish. It is something from when I first joined EGA - Designed by Ellen Chester, it is a little design to go into the tiny Whitman's Sampler tin with the sampler on it. I had finished the band to go around the inside of the tin, and now I'm doing the stitching on the part that will go into the bottom of the tin. After this one, I have given myself permission to start something BRAND New - I'm leaning toword the Quaker Blues Sampler that I downloaded from here or the Wild Heart Designs Spanish Splash that I got Vikki's conversion for. Hmmmm. Decisions! Decisions!

One of those A-HA moments

02/16/2006. Thursday, 12:26
Actually I had 2 of them in the past 24 hours!
Work's been slow and the boss is away at a conference, so I didn't go into work yesterday. I had great plans for starting the process of organizing the attic AKA "My Big Mess", but as we were due for a severe winter storm, DH asked me to go to the market, etc., etc. And he let me sleep in until after 9AM! Wow! So off I go to run my errands, and by the time I finish all but 2 of the errands, it is past lunch time. And I'm driving right in front of the Dairy Queen - yes, we have 2 'real' Dairy Queens in town and 1 is open year round, while the other one is on the same schedule as all the other DQ knockoffs in the area. This was the one that is open year round - and there was a special on Blizzards! I swear that the car drove itself into that drive through without any help from me - I was just along for the ride. Of course, I am the one who ordered the extra large Cherry Chocolate Limited Time Special Blizzard flavor! Weight watchers be darned - I was hungry! LOL Then I parked my car, tuned to the classical music station and very slowly savored every bite, promising myself that I would make an extra trip to the gym after I went home and put away the groceries. However, by the time I got home I had the worst stomach ache you can imagine! And so, as I spent some meaningful time in the bathroom, reflecting on how awful I felt, it hit me! I have been betrayed by my body! I actually am happier and feel much better eating healthfully. My body prefers Weight Watchers! I went and took a nap in hopes that the healthy preference messages from my body would go away by the time I woke up, and I am sad to report that it didn't happen - I am going to have to stay with healthy eating thing. I feel much better today! Rats!
The other Ah-ha moment is actually sort of tied to the first one. I got a haircut Monday. I have one of those chin length bob haircuts and my hairdresser spends a lot of time getting the hair perfectly straight and rolled under. Sleek fashion magazine hair, straight part and everything. DH always looks at my hair after a cut and says, what did he do to your hair?!? Then he walks around muttering under his breath: "I don't know about that haircut". I used to wash it immediately to put an end to the muttering, but I've been a bit lazy lately and so didn't wash my hair until yesterday. This morning as I was getting ready for work and brushing my hair, I thought about how Dan manages to make my hair look longer but flatter, and the first time I wash and dry it after a haircut, it's even more wavy than usual and sort of rebellious - Just like the rest of me!
The connection to the DQ incident is that I have driven by that DQ weekly and haven't stopped for anything in months. I can't remember the last time I had anything but a cone when I did stop. But yesterday when I got the idea that DQ is "Forbidden" because I'm doing the WW plan, and I had to get a huge chocolate cherry ice cream thing that I wouldn't normally have eaten, my body said - "Are you nuts!?! I'm not going to deal with this stuff!" And promptly eliminated it! My hair does the same thing - Try to make it into fashion magazine hair with all the goop, and special brushes - First opportunity to escape all that, and I look as if I have twice the amount of hair as usual. Sort of like Hermoine Granger hair in the Harry Potter books! So the moral is that when I try to over-rule my "natural" self, the self wins! So all that stuff about listening to what your body wants - is true!
All I can say is that it's a darn good thing my 'self' enjoys stitching!

March - further adventures

I have been spending a lot of time at Hand-dyed fibers blogging, so this one has not gotten much attention. So I'm going to cheat and copy those last few entries into here!

Where did January go???

Today is the last day of January. Can you believe it? Where did the month go? I did have a project completion this month, and that's great, but somehow I seem to feel that I didn't get enough done this month. Do you suppose it's because of the grey gloomy weather? Hard to say...
I got my most recent order from Vikki at Hand-dyed Fibers yesterday. 10-year old GS thought the Limited Edition Herpetology floss names were sooo cool! Nothing like Snake Scales, Coral Snake and Black Mamba to excite the imagination of a boy!

As it's Tuesday, I worked this morning on a pin cushion with a French pattern (freebie) in conjunction with the French Sampler SAL on Tuesdays! This is "Biscornu de Mamouette" and instead of using red floss on white linen, I'm using some Caron Watercolors in a shade called 'Desert sunrise' on some ivory wool aida that I got somewhere - Silkweaver's, I think, in a grab bag. It's pretty and as I put my old pin cushion away somewhere safe from the cats (so safe that I can't find it now), I decided to make myself one for the sewing room. I'll stuff it with wool roving - it is supposed to keep the pins from rusting.

Bumper Stickers

Seen on a very small car: "First draft the SUV drivers!".

Very interesting to think about. Was the driver around when the US still had an active draft? Obviously, the driver feels that the war in Iraq is about oil. And that those who use the most gas should be the first ones to go and fight in the oil war... Interesting.

I may have seen this bumper sticker before and not remember it. I've been reading a book by Ferenc Mate called "A Reasonable Life: toward a simpler, secure, more humane existence" which is funny and provocative and interesting. I didn't like it when I first started reading - too strident and in my face, decrying (truthfully) how the environment has been messed up by the North American/Western lifestyle. I happen to agree, and due to seeing myself as Native American rather than European, I dislike being yelled at. Sort of like when DH gets on a tear about the Bush Administration policies, saying "we can't do this, that or the other thing" - my response (inner and outer) is "don't count me in that action - I didn't vote for the man!".

But Mate has a point which I started seeing when I got past the deliberately provocative start to the book - when we choose to purchase things we don't need, we have created a need or authorized the use of natural resources in that thing. When buy strawberries grown in Florida out of season, I have verified for that producer that it was justified to use hundreds of gallons of gasoline in transporting those strawberries to Michigan... Not to mention the packaging, etc. Involved in transferring out of season produce to my neck of the woods. Will that stop DH from purchasing strawberries in January? I doubt it - but as I am refocusing my attitude about food to consider the quality and quantity I ingest, so too am I reconsidering my shopping habits and following the chain of cost in terms of damage to the environment through use of resources as well as the monetary cost.

Will I make a huge difference? Probably not. Will I make an incremental difference - Yes, I believe I can. One step at a time.

January Already!

It's midway through January - which makes me happy as that means it will be Spring sooner, and also makes me wonder where time went... The holidays just put me off kilter due to the DGS being out of school, DH being out of school and the expectations that there are things that I must do even if I don't happen to agree... DH is always much more agreeable when he is back teaching (as of last Wednesday) and settled into a routine. Now I just have to clear the remnants of his efforts to do all the things that come into his mind while he had the free time. The temporary job is going to continue, so there is no respite there and I simply have to adjust! ;-)

Just kidding - I tried not working and went stir-crazy. I'd like to not work full time and I'm going to negotiate with the temp job if possible, but I need the external stimulus and gratification that comes from the job. I'm having fun with it and for the first time, I'm not internalizing all the "stuff" that comes with any job. It's good to be able to keep my perspective.

I'm working on completing a project from a class I took in 2003. Lovely set of smalls by Patricia Preston. I have the needlebook stitched, the front of the pincushion and am 1/3 of the way through the back of the pincushion. After that there's a cute quaker-type scissors fob. All done with a pretty fall-colors NeedleNeccessities floss with perle cotton in sandstone, and silks in green, 2 golds and 3 shades of burgundy on sandstone silk and linen. It also came with a small and large project envelopes to make in a coordinating cotton. those of us who took the class got some more of the fabric, and I have a basket lined to match the envelopes. I am amazed, as I always am, at the beauty of the design as it evolves from the 15 minutes spent here and there stitching. It boggles my mind that someone can create designs like these from their imagination! I so admire the designers who create such lovelies for the rest of us - which allows me to feel artistic and accomplished as I create these small useful things.

Forget "A stitch in time saves nine"! For me, it's "A stitch a day keeps insanity at bay"!

It's Winter!

West Michigan is such a pretty place in the winter - as long as one does not have to go anywhere or do anything. This morning we woke to an additional 8 inches of white stuff, and the snow plow guy apparently decided to sleep in this morning, as the drive was not plowed. I couldn't get the car backed out of the garage and turned to go down the drive until DH and I had shoveled the snow. That took care of any excess calories that I might have consumed in the past week!

Last night I learned that one of the ladies in EGA who had some fairly routine surgery to remove some suspected cancerous growths is in critical condition due to peritonitis. She is one of those poor souls that I marvel at, wondering how much can a single person bear? She has some sort of spinal problem which bends her over almost parallel to the floor, had a progressive case of MS and now this. I am reminded how fragile our existence on this earth really is, and how lucky I am to be reasonably healthy, able work and do pretty much what ever I want to. I don't know that I would bear the burdens that this lady does with as much grace and cheer as she shares with the world. She is a very accomplished stitcher and in that way brings a lot of beauty to this world. I pray that God holds her in the palm of His hand - more than that is up to His mercy.

This time of year, I look forward to being home, reading, stitching, making soup and hanging out with the cats. When I can't, I seem to do a lot of ordering of stitching supplies! Displacement of frustration, I guess!

I haven't posted in such a long time - too much work, too much family and nasty weather adding commute time! I have lived in Michigan for over 2o years, and I am still shocked everytime winter comes - you would think I would learn. The plus side is that I start wanting to stitch - I have a fun ornament for an exchange tomorrow night going (yeah, I know - nothing like pressure!). But this is fun - I am working with Vikki Clayton's premium silk overdyes on a piece of sparkly gold and cream fabric from my stash and making a free snowflake chart that came with New Stitches a while back. I am already 2/3 done and that is not bad for the world's slowest stitcher (or runner up). I went at lunch and got some fat quarters to try for the backing - and tonight I have nothing on the docket but to finish it. Fun! Fun!

Indian Summer?

It's unbelievable but we have been having temperatures in the low 70's. Really amazing for Michigan and November. I am not complaining! Marvelling is more like it.

I have not heard if my little surprise made it to ??? yet. I had another surprise - DH took me out on Saturday and replaced my 25-year old Singer Golden Touch and Sew with a brand new Viking Scandinavia 2oo. Of course, nothing else got done from that point as I have been playing with the new machine.

I did go and workout at Contours on Thursday and I am going this afternoon as well. I hit work at 7:10 this and worked through lunch, so I can be out by 4:10 and make it to the bank and to exercise!

wonderful surprise from France!

I signed up for the Redwork exchange on the Stitching Bloggers' Exchange EZBoard. After much trial and tribulation (nothing like a deadline to bring out every possible obstacle!), I finished my contribution and sent it off to ??? yesterday! Then to my utter and complete surprise, my goodie was waiting for me when I got home from work. A lovely package from Bea in France with a lovely natural linen bag embroidered with birds in dark red (my favorite style of redwork and what my contribution is done in) with a lovely red handle trimmed in lace. With my initial! She enclosed some darling paper napkins with a redwork sampler on them, a skein of overdyed floss, and a post card with a pattern on the front and a message in French. Luckily, DH is fluent in all the Latin based languages and translated for me! DH has decreed that the bag is far too precious for use and is to be "On Display"! Interesting reaction given that sometimes I feel as if he just tolerates my embroidery!

I am delighted with Bea's gifts and I hope that the receipient of my efforts enjoys her package just as much. I'll try to get photos and publish them later this week!

musings on autumn

Here in West Michigan, the colors are just about at their peak. Somehow, even with the gloomy weather we've had the past 3 days, the glowing colors of the trees cheer up the days. Having moved the work site not only makes getting to work much easier (avoiding the bottlenecks) but the new expressway goes through a lot of undeveloped land with gorgeous woods. Sometimes I can't identify trees while they are leafing out, but I usually can when I see their colors in the fall. All those fall leaves I had to collect and label years ago have stuck with me!

Of course, now that I want to stay home and nest, the temporary job has been extended at least another 6 weeks. But, it gives me Christmas money, stash money and book money... for those times when I am not working.

It's perfect soup and stew weather, which are my assigned dishes in the family cooking scheme(also most appetizers, vegetables and desserts). So I am coming into my time of the year for cooking - I don't care for hot weather and I certainly do not want to make anything that isn't cold. I haven't cooked in any real fashion since April, since we spent May in Mexico, then came back to hot weather. I'm sort of looking forward to it.

And of course, it's grand stitching weather. I have started to do an assessment of the stash and WIPs. I am close to the point of starting serious organization efforts in the house, after having it up side down for far too long. The big issue of course is that I didn't expect to keep working more than a month last February, and thought I would get back to completing all the sorting and throwing away that I had started. I realize that the nature of contract work is that there is no way to predict how long an assignment will be, and so when starting one, it is better to complete whatever home projects are in flight as soon as possible. If it ends on time or early, then I can start another home project. That is why I am doing the assessment - I'm breaking those big in-flight projects from the beginning of the year (I don't regret the projects, as I was really making wonderful progress for the first time with my New Year's resolutions) and breaking them up into mini projects that can be done in a couple of hours or so. With working full time, and at least an hour on the road every day, and DH wanting to go places on weekends, 2 hour projects are the most realistic. Who knows, perhaps they'll all be done in time for the 2006 resolutions!