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!

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. 

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. 

 

Premonition

I knew I was going to do this. I said I wouldn't start a new project until I finished the previous one (since I have way too many ufo's to begin with). But I was weak!

I picked up two Shepherd's Bush kits while on mini vacation last month and I REALLY wanted to start "Pumpkin Hill"...No special reason other than I really liked the colors in the project and was anxious to get started on something new.

Four Wishes was almost done and ready to be framed, it just needed the beads and charms sewn on it. I have left it sit there staring at me for three weeks now. OK, it wasn't staring, needlework cant stare, but it was taunting me with it's unfinishedness. It was saying things better left unsaid. It was downright RUDE! OK, it probably wasn't taunting me, its probably the same thing that happens inside my head when I spend money.

WH makes this face inside my head that's a cross between what you'd look like if you came across a smelly, wet monkey and budget-conscious thrift-miester that would rather keep the Goodwill pleather couch that hes had since his bachelor days than buy a new one that's all soft and reclines. He swears he's never made this face and that it was time for that couch to go away, but I know better. Somehow he's managed to get inside my head and implant that image so every time that I try to buy yet another purse, dress, the latest Apple must have, or another cross stitch mail-order order (which as described in previous posts, always leads to another order) that face shows up.

Hmmm, I just realized I went off on some bizzare, run-on tangent that really didn't need to be there, but hey, I typed it and since I can't type all that well to begin with, its staying there as a testament to my ability to type more than two sentences.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, ufo's. I need help getting my butt in gear and getting Four Wishes finished. Any ideas?

Package in the mailbox

In my mailbox today was the cross-stitch order I place on Saturday. I love opening these packages up. Looking at the patterns in way better detail than I could on the web, pulling out the fabric to feel the texture and then look at the colors of the floss for the last order’s pattern. This is a never-ending cycle for me.

You see, I order a pattern that I like, but cant find out what floss is needed. If its anything other than DMC, I can pretty much guarantee that I don’t have it! So I have to order floss for the previous pattern and often find a new pattern! I wonder if this is a well thought out plot by the online needlework shops or that it just would take a small army to list the colors needed for every pattern. I’m opting for answer two (I’m keeping my eye on you, you online cross-stitch stores, If I hear evil cackling then I’m changing my answer!! –picture me making the squinty, suspicious, eye face)

I wish that there were more local cross –stitch stores around here. There’s only one that doesn’t require a 4-hour drive. I imagine that its got its good points but I just cant get over the toe licking dog and a proprietress so excited to show you the new items that I don’t have time to look at the patterns. I’m a browser, I like to look and explore. I could very happily sit on the floor and look through boxes of pamphlets, leaflets and booklets for an hour to find the perfect new project. I’m considering bringing wonderful husband and little one with me to run interference, but I’m afraid that the dog might lick them soggy.

New Patterns

I started a new pattern this weekend.

Maybe I should restate that. I started a pattern that bought 2 months ago. I had originally intended to take it on vacation with me to work on, but when I’m on vacation with wonderfully patient husband and the little guy I am constantly going. By the end of the day, all I want to do is order pizza (no mushrooms, please) and rest on the polyester bedspread and watch trashy TV (no c-span here!). Since then it has been sitting on my dresser, beckoning to me…”start me, start me, I SAID START ME DAMMIT!” I tried burying it under a pile of clothes that I have yet to get into the dresser, but I still heard it.

I thought about it and decided that what was stopping me from starting it was the idea that I won’t finish it. As I said earlier, I have other “on-hold” projects that date back to before I was even married. I get tired of looking at them and they go in the unfinished project basket with the full intention of finishing them. The regular life of being a mom and a wife and an employee and a freelance designer pushes my “me time” to the back of the list (my “me time” generally consists of either reading–Charlaine Harris right now–and sleeping).

So here’s to starting a new pattern! Boy, I hope I finish it!