I'm procrastinating

I'm supposed to be working on our community newsletter. Bah. I'm not feeling very community-like right now, and that's not mood to be in when you're working on what is supposed to be an upbeat and informative communication tool. Mostly I'm feeling aggravated....with neighbor issues. I don't think that telling you the details will dispel my evil mood though, but I'll tell you it centers around their dogs and their junk.

I swear, it's like I live next to a freakin' gypsy camp sometimes.

If I try to write this newsletter now, I'll probably write some scathing and scolding articles about loose dogs and their inconsiderate and sloppy owners.

So I had better procrastinate some more.

It's amazing what you can finish

When there are no teenagers hanging around your house, you can do all sorts of things.

Like wipe a kitchen counter and it stays wiped.
Like see your laundry room floor for the first time in years.
Like get rid of that odd unidentifiable smell coming from the one bedroom.
Like sit in your living room without the TV on.

But mostly, you just miss them...and their crumbs and puddles and their dirty wash and their unique odors and the sound of them laughing at Sponge Bob.

So, over the weekend I wallowed in self-pity for a while, then got up off my butt to sort, clean, and trash things. Then I got down to the serious business of an empty-nester with books to read and things to stitch!

Stitching is up first: I finished Indigo Rose's Bee Charmer. I completed the stitching Friday night, then put it together as a biscornu on Sunday. I was going to finish it as a mattress pincushion, but this came as a kit and there wasn't enough fabric to make the mattress sides. And after looking at it closely, the design was really made to work as a biscornu. If I had finished it as a square, the design would have looked wrong. If you are familiar with this project, you'll notice that I left off the tassels. I didn't like them. Too fussy. So I'm happy with this!




Sunday I finished a book that I'd put aside for a while, The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. The beginning was a bit slow - I just couldn't understand the main character's attraction to this painter...but then history comes into play and the book picks up speed. I really enjoyed it.

Also, when I drove John to Allegheny Thursday, I started an audiobook, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Now, it's categorized as a children's book, but let me tell you, I thought it was wonderful. It's not very long - 7 hours long - I was captivated every minute. If I had kids that were 8 or 9 or thereabouts, I'd absolutely read this aloud to them. Gaiman is an excellent narrator, so if you're not into reading aloud, you could listen along with your kids, but I think that being the reader would be just as much fun as being the listener.

And now I'll close with pictures of my New College Girl.
Her Dorm, and her room is on the third floor:
Herself, humoring her parents:

Move-in day went well!

Yesterday we moved Colleen to the College of Wooster, and things went reasonably well. (I've learned that there's always some little glitch to overcome and not to get too crazy about it) It was a very hot day, though. But it was also dry, and that's always a good thing.

And I didn't shed a tear. Got a little choked up, but no open weeping. Yes. I was quite mature.

So anyway...

First day of school 1996

First day of school 2009

Boy, I sure miss those lacy anklets and blue MaryJanes...NOW I'll go have myself a good cry!

This subtle dance - and a little stitching

We take Colleen to college this Sunday. I try not to think about it too much. After all, for as much as I'd like to stop the clock sometimes, time marches on, and we have no choice other than to deal with it.

Lately, I've noticed that my relationship with my daughter is changing, and I'm trying to be ok with that. She's subtly (and probably not even consciously) been moving away, and I feel like I'm always checking and then stopping myself from trying to pull her back. Sometimes I push away, trying to give her more freedom and space and life experience, and then she'll pull me.

It's like we're in this mother-daughter dance and we're trying so hard not step on each others toes. I guess that, just like dancing, we'll need to keep practicing until we can be effortless and graceful in this new phase in our relationship. But meanwhile, I think we're in for a few sore toes.

Truthfully, I'm happy for both of my kids as they take bigger and bigger steps (and sometimes leaps!) away from Dave and me. It does leave me with this vague emptiness, though. Like I've finished a big job that I really liked. A lot. And wonder if I'll ever like any new job as much as that one.

(You may call me the First Lady of Analogies today.)

So - last weekend I had really small stitching goals, but one of the things that I had wanted to do was to sit outside and finish the over-one stitching on the Busy Bee biscornu. No way could I do that in artificial light!

By the way, that cute little Mother Nature story I told you a few posts ago? Well, that one sweet little bee was a member of a much larger family that has built a hive under my deck that's virtually impossible to get rid of because of its weird location. How's that for gratitude for letting him sit on my fabric?? Bees. Ingrates.

And I've been hauling this LHN kit around for almost ever. Every time I go on a trip, I take it with me, and I've never once put a stitch in it. So it was time for a start. And it should be a quick finish. Simple as 3.14592

The third try's charmed

This will be the third time I've tried to write a post here. I keep getting side-tracked.

There are teenagers coming and going all the time.

With all of this activity and with them moving in and out, there are boxes and bags and piles of things and nothing is in its rightful place.

My house is a disaster area.

And we're trying to cram in all of the things that we meant to do this summer but ran out of time to do.

But he sure looks relaxed, doesn't he?

Men. Steeler Training Camp. Relaxed happiness.

You undoubtedly see that I'm not in this photo.

Be still my heart

Look here, if I post twice in one day, you know it must be important.

Ho boy. I just found out that the next season of Mad Men premiers on August 16.

Don Draper = Hotness

Besides, you have to love a show that comes with its own cocktail guide.

Questions, questions

Melissa, over at Musings From A Three Bedroom Ranch, has some questions for us.

1. Why do you stitch?

I think that most of us have thought a lot about this over the years, and our answers will change from year to year. For instance, 20 years ago, I would have said it was because stitching to me meant following a pattern. There were so many other decisions that I had to make every day, and I liked that stitching took me to a place where someone else had made all of the decisions. Make 5 stitches in this color. Stop and make 7 stitches in another color. It was all laid out. Believe me...I never varied a color of thread or fabric. EVER. And I was completely cool with that.

Today, 20 years later, my reasons for stitching are much different. My life is different - I'm having to give up control over so many areas of my life. Aging parents, young adult children, the unpredictable pharmacy business, looming retirement...Now I kind of have to roll with the punches. So now I find that I swap floss colors and fabrics as easily as I change my socks and I love pre-project brainstorming. See? Totally different. I get to feel like the Queen of My Stitching Domain. Being the Queen is relaxing and stimulating all at the same time. And lastly, it also helps that I love the look of the finished product.

2) On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important what is your cross stitch passion level?
This one is a toughie. I think I'd put myself at a 6 or 7. Stitching is a part if my identity. If something happened that I couldn't do it anymore - as in permanently - I'd be heartbroken. The only reason that I don't rate my passion level higher is because there were long periods of my life when I didn't lift a needle. I missed it, but not enough to stay up very late or get up very early to do it. So Level 6 or 7 seems like an avid stitcher, but not a life-dependent stitcher.

3)If your only option for cross stitch supplies and patterns happened to be the major chain craft stores would you just walk away from the little X? Kiss it goodbye?
If the chains were all that I had to choose from at the beginning of my needlework discoveries, yes, I would have become terribly bored and probably stopped stitching.

If tomorrow, all other shops (online and brick and mortar) and distributors and suppliers were to phhhht - vanish - into thin air, I would probably still continue stitching, because I'd be brave enough to take what I've learned about dying fabrics and floss and about re-working designs already in my stash in order to keep my stitching unique and exciting. The major chains would only need to keep lots of white and ecru floss and fabric, and I think most of us would hit the ground running from there. (I think this answers Melissa's fourth question, too.)

5)Finally what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself?

I just don't like cross stitch magazines. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast - In order to sell magazines, the editors are trying to appeal to many tastes and skill levels and techniques and they're not being very successful at any of those things. So to me - magazines seem like a waste of my money.

It's an interesting concept that magazines could fulfill the role of ambassadors for the art, but I just don't see it. I believe that the only living, breathing stitchers can fulfill that role. To that end, we need to be OUT THERE.

I know that our finished product isn't like a scarf or a sweater that we wear and can say, "Oh this?? I made it myself!" But look at the buzz and excitement that still surrounds quilting, and quilters don't haul quilts around with them all day. What do they do? They meet for group quilting (bees). They have contests. They have shows. Boy-oh-boy, do they have shows! Big, crazy, lotsa-money-changing-hands shows. And it works for them. It could work for us, too.

And I believe it's working right now, right here on the internet. We're meeting loads of very cool stitchers online and seeing some fantastic stitching. More and more of us are getting together in real life. (I found both of my stitching camps online. Never would have heard of them otherwise) We're holding and participating in contests and challenges. It's all very positive and stimulating and I believe that the excitement generated by internet stitchers is finding its way to others we're in contact with in real life. If we are excited, we like to pass that excitement along. Obviously, I'm pretty optimistic about the future of our craft.

Phew...That's enough evaluative thinking about stitching for one day. Now I need to watch a Judge Judy rerun.

When Mother Nature Talks

So Saturday, I was outside stitching away on a very cool project - and I can't show it to you yet because it's for this challenge and it's supposed to be secret.

Anyway, there I was, and this bee came and landed right on my stitching. And he just sat there. Usually, bees completely freak me out and I jump around like someone in Riverdance. Well, a crazy uncoordinated version of Riverdance. But Saturday this bee and I just hung out for a little while, and he flew away after a few seconds. And then I remembered that last year I had started but never finished a project about a bee, so this became my Sunday project:

I stitched this side Sunday afternoon:

It's supposed to be a biscornu, but I'm thinking it's going to be mattress pincushion. I bought this before I realized that biscornus are most dreaded of all finishes.

Back to work...

How did they know?

I've been outside on the deck, stitching away on this beautiful afternoon, when I decided to take a break and check out what's happening today on the internets.

Look at the latest design offered by Long Dog Samplers.



Very pretty, but how did they know that my neighbors were idiots? Sheesh. It's uncanny.