Art on the Green or Crap on the Grass, you pick

One of my favorite events of the year in this area is an event called "Art on the Green"In conjunction with AOTG, there's two other events happening the same weekend all within walking distance of each other - if not within the tolerance limits of a 7 year old boy-The Taste of the Coeur d'Alenes and the Downtown Sherman Street Fair. All of which lend themselves to several irreverent nicknames-crap on the grass/junk on the lawn/shit on sherman. This is why they do not let me name events. They don't even let me describe pictures for publications at work. Their descriptions are things like "Bob and Sue stroll along the picturesque beachfront enjoying the shade of the 100 year old evergreens that line the Dike Road." When I write captions as space holders it ends up more like "Two dumbasses walking the wrong way down the street under a bunch of trees wearing what could only loosely be described as appropriate clothing." This is why they have writers and I just have to put the pictures and the text in some sort of readable format. Yay, graphic designers!

What this says about me marrying a writer? Apparently it wasn't just for his charming good looks and his ability to wash dishes.

Back to Art on the Green. This year I found this beautiful little glass bauble that caught my eye and wouldn't let it go. The artist was patient enough to explain to Boybat how he made these solid glass globes that had layers of colors and shapes in them that seemed to defy the physical space it occupied, but in Boybat terms. It was obviously a ploy to free me up to look around. 10 minutes I stood there staring in this glass ball before I put it down and walked away. Didn't get more than two booths away before I told Joe we had to turn around and buy it because it needed to be in our home. After the "incident"-where another piece of art wanted to come home with me, he said no way, and I pouted about it every year we went back and saw that artists work get out of our price range-he just turned around and led the way back to the booth. It's like having my own little universe.

I've had a few "finishes" since I last checked in.

Finished up Lizzie Kate's Snowman. I obsessed about this pattern for a while. It was the colors that made me want to stitch it, but I was "eh" about the subject matter. I don't like to do "seasonal" patterns because I like to put my finished pieces up on the wall year round. Finally told myself, "Hell with that, I can put whatever I want on my wall." Hence the second finish, Shepherd's Bush Green Snowman. They both have buttons I still have to sew, but that's not happening 'til I'm ready to have them framed.

Halle-freakin'-luja, I got Lo How a Rose done and did a little dance  that was mainly me pumping my fist in the air singing "Suck on it you f'ing project from Hell, I win!" Unfortunately, boy bat was in the next room and informed me that those were bad words.

I'm pretty sure that he's going to end up being the kid in Catholic school that teaches the other kids all the curse words and I'll be getting a call from his teacher asking if I was the one who taught him to swear in whole sentences. Oh well, it's a family tradition.

Eclectic is good

Stitchers are an eclectic lot. Eclectic is good. I love the ones who actually appreciate geekdom and laugh at zombie jokes. The fun thing is, you can't always tell who they are.

At a stitching group I go to once a month, there is a very nice lady who I would have pegged as the kind of woman you would imagine hosting dinners with the right ratio of guests, know where the silverware belongs at a place setting (including the funny little lobster fork), and knows exactly what Miss Manners would do in every situation. I was completely wrong! She got all the geek movie references, laughed at the bizarre jokes with the rest of us. I'm pretty sure she said "damn" a couple of times.

Bad on me for doing the proverbial book cover judgy thing.

Stupid Sun

Stupid sun being all warm and inviting, teasing me with its happy sun rays, enticing me to go outside and not blog.

At least I've been stitching while I'm out there. I've shocked a few neighbors who apparently never thought of me as a stitcher. You'd have thought I was slaughtering bunnies in the nude when they see me working on a cross stitch out on the steps. 

The Demon Bean

How to tell your coffee habit is out of control?

Your son is making coffee shops out of Legos with little Lego baristas and a drive up window.

I will no longer be bringing the little vice barometer on my morning mocha run.

After I get my mocha, I'm going to head out to the patio–spent yesterday finding the edges of it after I ignored the creeping grass slowly covering the bricks all last summer– with my latest project and curse the wasps that are trying to build nests in the patio umbrella.

Baseball and little boys

Back in May, I bought tickets to see the Spokane Indians (minor league team) this weekend, forgetting that summer in the inland northwest starts mid-July.

Like most little boys, Boybat is impervious to the elements and wasn't phased by the rain or the cold. I, on the other hand, was in competition with my dad as to who could string together whole sentences (quietly) using nothing but curse words to describe how stupid it was for us to be sitting there in the rain.

Fortunately, Grandma Ginny was there to explain what was going on on the field, taught him how to read the scoreboard, remembered to bring a blanket and bought him a stuffed team mascot that he hasn't let go of yet.

He loved the whole experience–the game, the crowd, the food.

After I defrosted and dried out, I realized I had fun there, too. We'll go again.

Not til mid-July, though.

DINKs and garage sales

It’s been so nice out that I haven’t been able to make myself sit down and write this past week.

What I have done tho' is get the "seasonal" yard work almost finished and as a bonus, get the garage cleaned out.

What the hell were you doing cleaning the garage you might ask? I couldn’t find the damned weed sprayer and when I did see the tiny hint of it, I couldn’t get to it. 

Grrr!

Only because it was necessary, I cleaned and organized the garage that has been wallowing in basement cast-offs for the past year. By the end of summer last year, there was a path from the garage door to the inside door. If you needed to go anywhere in that maze of crap, you would need to tie a rope around your waist to find your way back (I exaggerate, but not too much).

I blame the DINK (Double Income No Kids) era of mine and Joe’s relationship. We had disposable income then and I had a home décor bug up my tuckus. When the whirlwind of destruction-otherwise referred to as Boybat-was toddling, a lot of that stuff went into storage and never came out. It made it from upstairs closets, to the basement, to the garage and is now destined for a garage “why would someone want to buy this” sale.

Mind you, I’m not having a sale, I’m commissioning my neighbor to tack it on to her sale, while I cross stitch outside on my lovely patio enjoying the sun and telling Boybat to quit trying to hit the neighborhood cats with his suction cup bow and arrow set.

One year later and a person less

I lost a person and all I can say is, it’s about time! When I say I “lost a person”, I mean I’ve lost over 115 lbs. this past year (which would be a skinny little person, weight-wise). Hot freekin’ damn!  

When we drove to Wisconsin last year, we were able to drive through Yellowstone and see a few sights. When I compared last year’s photos to this year’s photos, I did a little dance that no one should ever have to see (sorry, Joe).

A year ago, I barely wanted to get out of the car to do the hikes and found myself sitting on a bench waiting for my guys to finish their walks.  Last week, Joe and Boybat had to keep up with me on the hikes!

No! I dont want to go back to real life!

Where to start? I know, VACATION!

We just got back from a week at Yellowstone National Park. It was fantastic, beautiful, amazing. I figured out this week that I’ve been there 7 times now and still haven’t been able to visit all the places that I want to see. In all the times that I’ve been there, I’ve never seen it with snow on the ground–until last week. It snowed everyday we were there with accumulations in some parts of the park being over two feet in one evening. It was stunning to drive into there with the snow in the trees and the blue sky.
 

My friend, Stacy, calls it my “Happy Place." She knows me pretty well (which means that I should move to another town where people haven't realized that I'm sarcastic for a reason). 

For as much as I really dislike being outside, nature in general, Raging waters, and walking around in blizzards, when I’m in Yellowstone, life is good. Joe has accepted that when we retire we’re going to volunteer at the park so we can stay there in the summers. I think he agreed because I’m a much more pleasant person when I’m there.

I did get some stitching done when there was down time in the hotel. Picked out some different colors for the Dandy Dreams pattern, with brighter colors.
 

Did I already mention that I finished Lo How a Rose? I’ll put pictures of it up soon.
 

Artists Point in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Am I the only one who saw a dragon in this rock?

Holy crap! Look at the snow bank on the road side

Norris Geyser Basin with Boybat

Coming into the park

Please forgive me if I go on about my vacation, I’ll try to keep it down to just a few posts.

Close, but not perfect

My morning conversation with Boybat on the way to school.

Boybat: Do you love me?

Me: I love you to the sun and back. 

Boybat: Mom you'll burn up before you even get to the sun.

Me: OK, I love you to the moon and back.

Boybat: There's no air on the moon.

Me: I love you from here to school and back?

Boybat: Close, but not perfect.

Me: Alright then, what would be perfect?

Boybat: From here to Africa and back.

No stitching today, I was out enjoying the sun and how the neighborhood comes alive when the weather turns good.

Sacrificial Patterns for Pélé (not the soccer guy, the volcano one)

Holy Hell! If I actually get Lo How a Rose done before it sends me into the nut house, I'll have a party and burn that pattern in some ceremonial volcano ritual.
It started out so promising, and has turned into the project from hell. It's making me feel very stabby. Maybe I should trade the embroidery scissors out for Boybat's safety scissors?
Last night as I was finishing up the vines in the corner, I noticed that the words "was" and "Night" weren't lining up right. More ripping and cursing and then the discovery that I'm out of the floss I need to redo the text (curse mumble mumble curse mumble curse).

Very little stitching otherwise. This past weekend was the second decent weekend that we've had with no rain or snow. Boybat, Joe, and I picked out flowers for the pots and planted sunflowers seeds. I rebuilt the little rock ledge since it was shifting (little boys climbing on it probably didn't help). Broke out the patio furniture and even put little solar lights in the flower beds. I'm feeling like quite the outdoor goddess this week. Oh, and painting. After painting the front door and the bathroom, along with the gardening, holding a tiny little needle was out of the question.

Are Wind-up Chickens that "Poop' Jellybeans Appropriate Gifts?

What I consider an appropriate gift vastly differs from what Joe considers appropriate. After the jellybean pooping wind-up chicken, I "help" Joe when it comes to gift giving holidays.

Two Sundays ago, I found book of cross stitch fonts that I was coveting on a website, filled out all the necessary information including billing and shipping info and stopped just short of clicking the "pay here" button. I woke up my extraordinarily patient spouse and informed him that I found what I wanted for Mother's day and he should get out of bed to click the pay button. Suddenly, I realize that he puts up with a lot of crap from me.

It isn't really a present if I bought it myself, right?

The past two years he and Boybat have gone camping with his family during Mother's Day weekend, leaving me at home. For which I am eternally grateful. I hate camping. Tents are like stay fresh bags for bears. Ursine ziplocks. When I leave my house for an extended period of time, there had better be outlets, hot water, and cable involved.

This left me with an entire weekend with only one chore, paint the front door, which took all of two hours–only because I had to let the paint dry between coats. The rest of the weekend I spent watching BBC America (Supernatural Saturday, Yipee!), and stitching.

I've un-banished Lo How a Rose. After much soul searching and pirate-like cursing, I found peace with the fact that I had to frog the bright pink stitches-have I explained frog to all you non-stitchy readers? No? It's a term stitcher's use to refer to removing stitches when you make a mistake. When you remove a stitch you have to rip it, rip it. 

I also finished up Green Snowman and just have to sew on the buttons. I ran out of the oatmeal scone thread that the snowman and the hill are stitched in. No idea if it didn't come with enough or maybe the cat ate it. I thought I was going to have to rip out all the stitching in the snow guy and the hill and start with a new color, but after talking with the ladies in the local stitch shop, they suggested calling Shepherd's Bush and getting another piece of thread. Brilliant! They're my new best friends for the week.

I'm fickle, it'll be someone else next week.

C'mon, it'll be fun! No, really!

Group activities? 

Nope, no way, uh uh. If there's more than three people, count me out. That's just too many people that could potentially find out that I'm a socially awkward geek.

So, imagine my surprise when I was actually anticipating going to a group stitch Friday night. 

 

It was a blast! Those four hours seemed to fly by. 

I might have to try new group activities. Group skydiving? Probably too much right now. Group hugs? Uhg, too much physical contact. Maybe group cleaning? That's it! Anyone who wants to do group cleaning can come to my house this afternoon and we'll all clean my closets together. I'll even get pizza!

I did put a pretty good dent into the Green Snowman pattern and I'm already trying to decide what to do next. 

C'mon, cleaning my closets will be fun if we do it all together!

Framing Day

I do love picking up my finished pieces from the frame shop. I was able to bring home 2 of the 3 that I had framed.

This one is a pattern I designed myself, still no idea what to call it. After hunting for a mat that wasn't overbearing,  I decided to go with just the frame.

This one is Shepherd's Bush "Shepherd's Hill". Framed it with a traditional frame and green mats in similar shades of green, but different textures.

I'm hoping to pick up the third one this weekend, it needed to have the mat adjusted. Then I get to add them to the wall o' cross stitch I've started. My goal is to fill up the wall by the end of this year and start a new wall. 

I should have gotten MUCH larger frames.

Yay Short Attention Span!

Yay short attention span!

Which means that I started another pattern and don't feel guilty about it! Now, if I studiously avoid the basket of WIP's I can maintain this reckless disregard I have for ever finishing a project. Go reckless disregard!

With quite a bit of uninterrupted stitching time this weekend, I started Shepherd's Bush Green Snowman and cant seem to put it down. I think it's the green linen. Ooooo, green, pretty...

Started this long weekend off with an awards dinner (I won two awards for graphic design, so, Yipee!) and finished the weekend off today with a rainy day of cross stitching. Stuff happened in the middle there, too.

Yard work on the first nice day of the season. I did have an eager little helper who decided it was his job to relocate the slugs we found under a pile of leaves. Seriously though, if someone had come to me even three years ago and said "You will willingly pick up slugs so Boybat can see them better" I would have snorted in my fruity-flavored adult beverage.

Easter is a low-key holiday for us. I'm still trying to clean the egg dye off of Boybat, and I'm pretty sure he's been on some freaked out jellybean, chocolate bunny high since yesterday morning. I even hid the candy today. Probably doesn't help that he's still finding little plastic eggs with chocolate in them around the house (I forgot where I put them all–next year I'm making notes).

Hope you all had a happy Easter!

WTH Mother Nature?

C'mon, really?

This is just rubbing salt on the wound now.

Gardening by Neglect

I want to plant flowers. I don’t normally want to garden, mainly because if I come in contact with flowers they wither and die of what I can only imagine is plant terror. 

The only plants I can keep alive are ones that thrive on neglect. Cactus. I have three cactus plants that are alive because I never water them. I don’t know how they get watered. They’re above the sink, so maybe they water themselves at night after everyone’s asleep (OK, I just creeped myself out).

The outdoor plants are only alive because there’s a sprinkler system. When I go to the plant stores, and some nice lady who probably loves to garden asks me if I need help, then starts inching away from me when I say “I want flowers that are supposed to come back next year providing that I don’t kill them first."
 

My need for flowers is brought about by the fact that it’s the end of April and we have yet to hit the 60 degree mark here. In fact it snowed today. I want some flippin’ sun. I shouldn’t have to scrape my car windows in April, damn it!

Haven’t got a lot of stitching done this week. This week seems like a whirlwind of crap I have to do, but when I try to nail down what I did with my week, I cant think of anything important. Boybat made me an organizer box. It’s just the right size for some floss and scissors. As far as I’m concerned he’s a architectural genius in the popsicle stick genre and he’s thrilled that I’m using it. 

Because everyone loves FREE stuff

I called this post "Because everyone loves FREE stuff" because the only other way I figured I could grab your attention was to call this "Hot guys and free beer" and I didn't want to disappoint  anyone when they figured out I was lying. 

I was experimenting with my new software this week! In the process, I charted the heart cross stitch that I designed and stitched for Joe's Valentine gift.

Go to this link  Heart String and get the free pattern. If you use it, I'd love to see your finished project!

Update: The link is active now, sorry about that.

Brand New Distraction

I've been on an organizing/cleaning/decluttering thing this week. My problem?

I usually get half way and then have to go do something else, like work, sleep, feed boybat.

This weekend I've distracted myself with my new cross stitch program. Oooooo, shiny new toy!

I charted a pattern I drew a while ago and hope to start it tomorrow after I find the right floss...which I could have probably found if I would actually finish a organizing/cleaning/decluttering project (Eh, screw that, I'll just go to the store and get some during my lunch break).

Lo How a Rose has to go away for a while. Seems like every time I pick it up, it sucks my soul. OK, that's a little exaggeration, but I do get frustrated with that piece so it's going in the bottom of the rotation.

The Evils of Organization

Rainy days rock! They're the perfect excuse for planting your butt on the couch and stitching. Which I did this weekend and managed to finish In the Sweet from La-D-Da. Yay rain!

I also snuck in some cross stitch supplies organization time. Now I have everything in one place, I think. In my house, you never know.

I weeded through a two foot stack of stitching magazines and patterns.
If I hadn't brought all of my cross stitch crap together in one place, I would never have realized that I have more patterns than I could ever stitch in a lifetime. Patterns from 1980, faceless bunnies, things like that. Admitting that I actually bought a pattern with faceless bunnies at one time in my life is embarrassing. There, I got it out in the open (I can live with that shame, but there's absolutely NO WAY I'm going to tell you what "reality" show I'm addicted to. I just can't face the ridicule. I will tell you it has nothing to do with Jersey anything. I do have some standards, even if they're pretty low).

This should probably be considered a parable on the evils of organization. This glut of patterns isn't going to stop me from getting more, I'm just going to convince myself that I'm making room for better stuff.

The lesson, don't organize.

Drum Roll please...

After disqualifying Joe from the list of 7 people, the winning number was chosen.

The winner of the sampler is Daffy Cat.

If you didn't win, don't despair, there's another giveaway coming in a few weeks!

Thank you to everyone who is following this blog, signed up or not.

Exercise Bad.

Exercise is bad.

You know how I know? I've been doing it for a while now and all it leads to is sweating and me screaming "OH MY GOD" and trying to move as little as possible.

OK, that last part only happened once. Friday, I picked up boybat's towel from the changing room and my spine twisted into some double helix pretzel shape that it hasn't untwisted from yet. Good God, throwing your back out really freeking hurts.

 
On the plus side of this, about the only thing I've been able to do this weekend is lay in bed and stitch. In the Sweet is going pretty fast. I've been using magnifying glasses to do the one over stitching.  They're funny looking but they also keep your hands free.

Boys with Paint

Eight 7 year-old boys with tempera paint and too much energy. That's how my week started. Oh, and parents shooting me laser death ray eyes about the paint. It wasn't really that bad, I did make sure that the paint was washable, and they boys all had on their tiger cub shirts, which are normally navy blue unless some irresponsible/mischievous adult gives them paint with the only instruction being to mix it up and make art.

It was fun though, I like watching kids create. They aren't intimidated by the idea of creating. I enjoy watching their willingness to just try. If you put  a big sheet of white paper in front of them, they'll go to town, painting and coloring and drawing whatever they can imagine. A lump of clay will become a spaceship, dinosaurs, zoo animals or with boys, a gun. (I don't know whats up with that, but Boybat will nibble his toast into the shape of a gun. It must be boy genes. I used to get concerned about his obsession until I saw that all his friends did the same thing.)

The rest of my week has been chiropractor visits and massages. Tomorrow is a parent teacher conference that I'm assuming will go well. I haven't heard from any of the other moms that Boybat is the demon spawn of Beelzebub. And he does his homework, so how bad could it be? After that I'm dragging his little Boybat butt to the cross stitch store in Spokane.

I put a small dent into Sweet By and By on Sunday, but have ignored all things stitching the last three days.

Back to it tonight.

If you get a chance, remember to become a follower by March 31st so you'll be eligible to win the sampler below. I'll announce the winner that evening.

Pondering Youth and Teeny Tiny Stitches

Things I don't miss from when I was 25

Fashion

Dating

Roommates

Things I do miss from when I was 25

Endurance

Good joints

Eyesight

What brings this on you ask?  Just that I think bizarre things when I'm on a treadmill walking nowhere at 2.8 mph. That and I have decided to do this new project on 32 count linen over 1 thread. 

I don't miss thinking that I have to wear uncomfortable clothes to look good. Now, I wear giant, clunky, amazingly comfortable, Frankenstein shoes and pants that I can zip without standing on my head.

I don't miss dating. No explanation here, it was just really hard work which usually ended with sobbing and ice cream.

I don't miss roommates. Although, when I think about it, I technically have roommates, but we are all stuck with each other.

I do miss being able to stay up and out all night doing things that would put me in the emergency room or a coma today. Or, lets face it, just staying up past 10 pm on a Saturday.

I miss being able to get out of bed, walk or work out without sounding like a breakfast cereal or one of those toys Boybat had when he was a toddler. You know which ones, you push along this little clear dome with balls in it and as the toddler walks, the balls jump around and make popcorn noises.

My brain likes to pretend that its 25 sometimes. That is probably why it convinced me that doing 1 over on a 32 count linen would look great. I'm sure this looks great. Maybe someone could let me know, because, damned if I can see it without holding it up to my nose and peering through a magnifying glass. 

However, because I am an delusional masochist, I'm finishing this piece at this size.

Creepy gnomes

Time to start a new project! Why you ask? Because Lo How a Rose is making me cranky. It's the pinks. I've almost reconciled myself that I'm going to have to rip out all that stitching and use a different color. Uhgg.

So, I'll start a new project and hope that Lo How a Rose will fix itself. Maybe little scary gnomes will fix it.

Those things are creepy.

A contest, because I'm not above bribery!

I bribe Boybat. I know there are soon to be and looking forward to being moms out there right now who are cringing, exclaiming "I would never use bribery, that's just lazy parenting."

Hah! Have fun with that! I admit it, I'm not above bribery. I prefer to call it "postive reinforcement" or preparing him for real life, where people give you money to do stuff you don't want to do.

So this brings me to my point...sorta.

I finished the Ewe and Eye and Friends piece, Nancy's Sampler. I want to bribe you with it (Oh wait, positive reinforcement)! If you become a follower of this blog, Cross Stitching Mom you'll be eligible to win this piece. I'll stitch the winner's initials into the two blank boxes on the sampler, put it in a nice frame and get it to you. I'll draw the name March 31st.

Positive reinforcement, bribery, whatever, I'll use it. Good Luck

Brain Monkeys Win Again

While we were on our Seattle adventure, I got to stop at a little cross-stitch/needlepoint store in Issaquah, WA called Threadneedle Street. Every time I go in there and look at the gorgeous hand-painted canvases on the wall I consider trying needlepoint. Then, what Joe refers to as the "brain monkeys," beat that idea with a stick until it goes away ("brain monkeys" are what you have when there's so many things going on inside your head that you can't think. "Brain Gorillas" carry much bigger sticks). Eventually, I figured out that they're like the ones you see in the movies. You know the ones, locked in cages, infected with some deadly zombie virus and then "somehow" let loose on an unwitting population. Now you know why I'm like this. 

I picked up a couple nice pieces of linen and a few patterns that I mentioned earlier. Including one that I didn't even know I wanted. It was done on a gorgeous green linen that called to me...."Heaaathher, buy me, I'm greeeeeen." No seriously, my car, 40% of my clothes, Lunch bags, umbrellas, mugs, almost everything in my studio. They're all spring green. I can't help it, it's an addiction. 

I also had some time to work on a small sampler I bought almost 10 years ago. It's an Ewe & Eye & Friends pattern called Nancy's Sampler. It's going pretty fast and I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, barring any family drama and or trauma.

Tales from Seattle

We're back! Back from Seattle. We took off bright and early Saturday morning and just got back home. It was a blast and very needed here int the Butler house.

I took a small sampler project with me to work on when we were done for the day, but honestly, by the time we were done for the day, all I wanted to do was lay down and try to convince Joe that he should rub my feet (it only worked once).

Good God, we walked almost everywhere! I did actually put my very tired and sore foot down on Monday and suggested we take a cab to the aquarium. The cab ride saved my feet, but it was also like some amusement park terror ride that made me question my very existence and my choice to eat breakfast.

Back tomorrow with tales of stitching progress and what apparently is referred to as a road in Seattle, but should be called the "path to hell with no freaking exits", the viaduct.

Bye, Deef. You were a good cat

Tonight sucks. It sucks awful.

Tonight, my cat, Deformity, died. He was 19 years old. He's been my cat since I was in college. He was older than my relationship with Joe. He drooled buckets when you petted him and he loved to crawl into empty laps. He always knew who would pet him, even new visitors to the house. He knew when I was upset and would come and slam his head into my arm until I let him on my lap. He got his name because he had 7 toes on three feet and 6 on the fourth foot.

He stopped eating or drinking last week. Tonight he was still in the same place I left him in the morning. He couldn't get up. Even thinking about it right now hurts.

He was a good cat. I love him.
Bye, Deef.

Gym vs. Happy hour

Usually after a stressful week, I like to "center" myself with a fruity martini at ritual event I call Happy Hour. Alas, no more drinking the fruity alcoholic drinks for me. Nowadays, it's water and Crystal Light. Neither of which achieve the all important centering. People tell me working out can do the same thing, they're lying. I go to the gym at least twice a week and all I ever get is tired and sweaty.

Although, in the plus category, Joe agrees that a mini vacation to Seattle will be much less expensive than redecorating–I think I scared him when I came home with photos of new furniture on my phone. What can I say, I had 2 hours to waste until Boybat's pack meeting. Hello, furniture stores.

I did a bit of stitching on Lo How a Rose this weekend. I was hoping to get more done but I've hit a road block with it. I don't know that I like the color linen that its on. I'm debating tea dying the whole thing when its done. Maybe that will help tone down the pink, too.

I did get Marriage of the Minds out again. Started filling in the green around the motifs, and stitching the motifs above the path. I want to start on the people right above this, but I've convinced myself that I have to get the green done before I can move on to the next band.

Sorry about the color of the photos, it's late and I was relying on the dining room light.

Restless Brain Syndrome

I can't get to sleep. I've got restless brain syndrome. It's kinda like restless leg syndrome but it's my brain that keeps twitching. These past two weeks at work have had my brain jumping around like an ant on crack that drank 6 cups of coffee right before bed. Stupid ant. 

As a side note, apparently, when I don't get enough sleep and am stressed, I curse. A lot. I can make entire sentences that are nothing but curse words. It's a talent. I didn't say it was a good talent. Most of Friday consisted of me apologizing to various friends for shocking their delicate sensibilities. 

Disclaimer specifically for Joe–quit reading now, go look at something else.

So here I am, cruising cross stitch websites to look at all the new patterns available. I've already found a few that I'm going to pick up and hide away. "In the Sweet" from La D Da, "Bluebird Alphabet" from Just Nan,  and "Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler" from Shakespeares Peddler are on my list now. 

 

Irradiated Pink Floss

This past three day weekend gave me some time to work on "Lo How a Rose." Of course, I didn't use it. Every so often, a weekend fills up with activities. This time it was getting the taxes done, going to a birthday party (which we missed, because I am a dumbass and thought the party started a 2 instead of 12:30), a memorial service for a past coworker and Boybat's pinewood derby race–he won a trophy for the most creative car. The dance/jig he did on his way to show Joe and I the trophy was priceless.

Which gave me Monday morning to cross stitch. Until Boybat decided to sort his Legos according to color. Apparently he's inherited my obsessive compulsive nature.

I've decided to rip out the box around the L on this pattern and use a darker pink instead. The one that's there now looks like it was exposed to some sort of gamma radiation and could glow in the dark.

Crazy busy

Sorry I haven't written much in the past week. It's been crazy busy at work and this coming week promises to be more of the same. I'll try to write something tomorrow!

Must. Leave. Town.

I can't stand it anymore. I need to get out of town, maybe go to Seattle.

I'm going stir crazy.

 I must leave town or I'm going to start repainting and redecorating, and nobody wants that.

That would be bad.

Happy sorta Valentine

In keeping with my recurring theme of "Where the Hell did I put that?" I bring you my Valentine's Day present for Joe.

I designed and stitched this little heart one day last month when I wanted to do something quick. I set it aside with the intention of giving it to Joe today.

I'm sure you can all see where this is going...

I can't find it. I found the frame for it, but no little heart.

So, Happy Valentines Day Joe! Here's what you'll get when it shows up!

Could have been worse

Made a bit of progress with Lo How a Rose this weekend. This after distracting myself with a trip to the cross stitch store in Spokane. As usual, I went to get one thing, and walked out with another project and all that goes with it. I was especially thrilled that I managed to get out for under $30 when my average visit is around $70.

Puff balls vs. zombie crafts

2 bills, 3 pieces of junk mail, 1 catalog, 2 magazines and a package full of floss, linen and pattern goodies.

Everything I ordered to start "Lo How a Rose" arrived today. I have the book next to me right now and the floss laid out, waiting for me to get going.

After I help glue 100 fuzzy puff balls to a cowboy hat for Boybats' 100 day celebration at school.

100 fuzzy neon puff balls. On a hat. I was all for finding 100 tiny zombie figures and have them marching around but apparently the stores around here do not share my views that zombie hoards could be amusing. Especially when used for first grade craft projects.

Nothing good can come from power tools and liquor

There's only one power tool in our house. A drill. Okay, a drill and a Dremel tool I got for craft stuff. So, two power tools in our house. Neither Joe or I are inclined to build things. It usually ends up with us not speaking to each other and a dresser with upside down drawers. We've accepted that we should never assemble things together unless counseling and liquor are involved (the same thing with furniture moving, nothing good comes from furniture moving). Even then, should liquor, bad carpentry skills and power tools be combined?

So imagine my trepidation when Boybat came home with his pinewood derby car.

I thought at least the damn thing would be vaguely car shaped–add some paint, some stickers and call it good. Noooo, It's a freakin' rectangular block of wood with 4 nails and some wheels. What the hell Boy Scouts? I'm not letting a 7 year old loose with a hand saw and a block of wood.

There's not much you can do to a block of wood with a drill to make it look like a car.

After Boybat and I got as far as we were going to get with the hand saw, Elmer's glue and a Dremel tool, I got to settle in for some stitching this weekend.

I put a pretty good dent in the as yet unnamed project that I've been working on. I decided to back stitch a few of the flowers just to see if I like the shapes. I'm still trying to decide if I prefer the medium pink or the dark pink back stitching on the large flowers.