Thursday, May 19, 2011

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.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

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.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

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.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

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!