The bag dump

It's always fun to play along with a Stitchy Meme from our own Stitch Bitch.  So simple....dump out your stitching bag and show everyone what's in it!

But I need to preface my photo a bit.  I gave up on bags long ago.  It seemed like the moment I put something into a bag, it disappeared (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) forever.  Then, a couple of years ago while I was packing the son away for Freshman year at college, I discovered the joys of plastic totes. 

I wish I could take every untidy aspect of my life and put it into a nice, clean, clear plastic box with a lid on it.  I could use an extra large tote and label it: My Food and Weight Issues.  And I'd have them in every size, all the way down to the smallest little box for my Inability to Commit to Daily Flossing.

Good God.  Did I really just type that?  I know, I know, Too Much Information.

But back to the meme!  Here's my photo, and feel free to click and enlarge:

So, let's start at the top left. 

There's my empty box, turned on its side.  Lovely, lovely box that keeps everything inside of it dry and reasonably clean.  It's been put to the test this year with all of my trips around and through Ohio, most of which have been in the rain. 

To the right you can see my simple around-the-neck magnifier.  Very low tech. 

Behind the magnifier is a small wooden trinket box that houses all of the things in front of it including

• Hand Cream
• Variety of needles
• Wrist Pincushion (made specially for me by the Meme Creator herself
  
• Tape measure in an adorable Vera Bradley case
• Magnetic Neede minder
• Needle Threader
• Star Detailor
• My glasses
  

So all of that goes into the wooden box which goes inside of the plastic box and those things are always, always there. 

Then there's the stuff that floats around inside the box.  Except for the note pad and pencils, it's all related to specific projects.  And those projects are (again, starting on the left):

1. PS Santa chart with threads (in zipped project bag) and 18ct linen and mounted on Q Snaps.  I know - the Q snaps don't fit in the box, but they deserved a place in the photo
2. Carol's Sew Red chart, with some red Needle Necessites thread and white linen
3. CCN's Be Joyful in Hope with threads....waiting for me to rip and replace the words!
4. Autumn Leaves in its scroll frame and with its threads.  Again, I know the frame doesn't fit in the box, but you get it.

You can see that each project gets its own needleminder and scissor set.  What good are trinkets and doodads if you don't use them?

And that's my meme!

Oh and you are all so wonderfully kind for asking about my son!  I spoke to him yesterday and he says he still feels terrible, but feels better than the day before.  I sure hope that trend continues...Thank you all for your caring (and commiseration!).

Why I have grey hair

Son sends me a text message yesterday at noon, saying "I have the swine flu or something". That's it. Nothing more.

Then doesn't answer his phone or my subsequent text messages until 7:00 in the evening.

Says he was too tired to talk at noon and just wanted to go to bed.

But not before making his mother certifiably crazy.

Almost there!

Pictures as promised! Here is my work from the weekend. Hey, this'll be the first year that I'll have a nice collection of Fall designs on my walls!

If I can finish this before the upcoming weekend, I'll be ecstatic.

Do you see the needle minder in the second picture? I've been collecting needle minders for the past couple of years, and this summer I bought that one at The Stitching Post in Baltimore. It's by Puffin and Co., and I have to tell you, it uses the strongest magnet I've ever had. It's certainly not going anywhere. But moving it around can be dangerous to your tender fingers. These little magnets are so determined to be attached to each other that if your fingers get in their way they'll give them a hearty pinch. And my scissors have become stuck to it several times. They're little demons!

Seriously, if you use these, make sure that you don't store anything near them that could be damaged by a strong magnet, like maybe your digital camera or credit cards. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to stitch far away from your fridge....

And you thought only athletes needed to train!

So, as of my last post, I was complaining about preparing to dive head first into my cruddy house. On Friday and even on part of Saturday morning I was working my fingers and various other body parts to the bone, so by lunchtime on Saturday my house looked and felt pretty good. Not perfect, but why tempt the Gods?

And it was a good thing, too, because in less than two weeks it'll be time for Camp Gotta Stitch in nearby Charm, Ohio and I was seriously lacking in my Stitch Butt Training. I suppose I was feeling too guilty to train, what with the house being so gross and all, but by Friday, I was ready to train guilt-free.

I think I'm in pretty good shape now. Here are the things I've been practicing:

1. Not jumping up to answer the phone every time it rings. I've been working on my "What....aren't YOU going to get that?" look. I call it my Game Face.

2. Of course, there IS the need for some kind of aerobic workout, and dashing up the stairs to hide after the neighbor kids ring your doorbell to sell you pizzas/candy/stationary/gift wrap is a very effective way to make you run and raise your heart rate. Phew. Once they're gone, you can settle back into that stitching chair, blissfully still uninterrupted.

3. And just like any professional athlete, you must arrange all of your equipment so that you are prepared for any situation, and you must make sure that all of your new equipment is properly broken in. Side tables, lamps, new scissors, new magnet boards, new needle minder...they've all had a good workout this weekend and will be organized and ready for camp.

4. And now ala Jeff Reed, I think I'll go out and get plastered with friends who like to pee on things in public and then get myself arrested. (What a moron) Or maybe I'll just have a cup of tea.

And while we're on the subject of football, does anyone else feel the urge to throw things at this Fox graphic and knock it down and then step on it with heavy shoes?



Stiching pictures tomorrow!

Thank goodness it's Thursday!

Because my house is gross.

Friday has been my cleaning day lately, and we were away last weekend, so my house is more disgusting than usual.

How does this happen? I mean, I got it when the kids were here and there were dirty gym clothes and muddy spikes and constant showers and messes everywhere. But now it's just Dave and me. Were we the ones to blame all along??

Well! You're not here for housework complaints, so I'm going to move along.
Here is last night's progress on this fun, fun Prairie Schooler. Now that insane looking squirrel has a place to sit. He looked rather maniacal just hanging onto the branch there. I still think he looks a little intimidating. If I still feel that way at the end of this, he may become a bird....


Also, here is the fall version of those little UFO samplers. I had a frame handy - it housed some little TIAG Amish girls, but since I had taken them down off the wall several years ago, I figured that the frame was fair game. I've decided to leave the back of the frame open and switch the samplers according to the season.

Oh! And I want to send a quick get well wish to all of my fellow bloggers who have been hit with the flu lately.

It's a beautiful Indian summer day here in the Laurel Highlands, and I could start my cleaning early today, but......nah.

On the road again

Another cross country meet meant another weekend on the road, so off we went to Oberlin College to see our kids run in the Oberlin Inter-regional Rumble. And I'll tell you, we just can't catch a break with the weather this year. The kids ran and we watched through cold and wind. The rain held off, but it had rained plenty the night before, and the course was slippery at best for Colleen (who ran the first race) and a complete mud bog for John (who ran the last race).

Both kids ran well. Colleen was more pleased than John. Johnny's been struggling a bit this year. But the best part is that they finish their races with smiles. Here they are after Colleen's race. John had just told her that she ran a "solid" race, and she was pretty happy.And here they are again after John's race. Oberlin has a nice indoor field house and they were very relieved to be inside and out of that cold, stiff wind.
I didn't get much stitching accomplished over the weekend. I finished the top part of the wording on this PS's Autumn Leaves, and stitched in the squirrel.

And I took an older PS Santa along with me on the car trip, stitching it over two on 18ct cork linen with #5 perle cotton. I didn't get too far along, because during daylight I was taking my turn at driving. Not making huge progress doesn't bother me, though. I've had this project on my mind for a year now, and I'm happy even if at this point it's only kitted up and in the QSnaps!

Yowza! 3 1/2 weeks till stitch camp (in Ohio this year)! I really, really need this weekend escape!

Wearing it on your sleeve

Now this isn't exactly my cup of tea. But maybe it's yours? I think that for a tatoo, this is kind of attractive and that's saying a lot because I'm completely not into tatoos. For me, I think a lapel pin would suffice.

New Embroidery Tatoo, originally uploaded by Giggly Mama and Fam.

Things we discuss now that the kids are gone

I've always liked sitting at the dinner table and having some conversation and when my two kids are home, that's never a problem. Now that it's just the two of us, Dave and I are feeling sort of conversationally challenged.

For instance, here are a few of our current conversations.

1. When exactly are bananas ripe? When are they too ripe? What should we do about THESE bananas?

2. (Looking out the window) Are those flowers dead? I think those flowers are dead. Yes, those flowers are dead.

3. (Taken from This American Life) If you were ever to decide that you couldn't stand me anymore and you were going to leave me, what singer should I get to give us a private performance to make you change your mind?

Well, my answer was fast and definite. That'd be Chris Isaak, singing almost anything, but Wrong to Love You is aching and sexy and raw. On the other hand, I warned Dave that I may fall in love with Chris Isaak right then and there and then I would still leave him so that I could become some kind of crazy Chris Isaak stalker. Click below and listen to this and tell me that you wouldn't follow this man to the ends of the earth.

Wrong To Love You - Chris Isaa...

Interestingly, Dave has decided that Chris Isaak would be HIS singer of choice, too. Ummm. I'm a little concerned.

In case you've never heard the story about the guy who hired a singer to perform for him and his ex-girlfriend, you can find it here in the This American Life radio archives.

So Darker It Is

Now I just have the hassle of taking out the stitches. Hand dyed fibers are great, but sometimes they'll just do that to you. They can be pesky, fickle, fickle threads.

Nothing much is going on here today. Just the usual. Today will be sales tax day. So...everyone? Please don't gasp excitedly all at once.

I've added a couple of new songs to my sidebar. Last weekend we took Colleen and her friend Laura to WVU to watch another taping of Mountain Stage, where we saw one of their favorite artists, Regina Spektor. She gave a wonderful performance and the girls were thrilled. The rest of the performers were super, too, and in my sidebar you'll see songs from Great Lake Swimmers (good music but seemed to have some difficulties with the live performance. Eh - I still like their music. Click on that link - great stuff.) and Will Hoge. Will Hoge was my favorite performer of the night. Really fabulous. The kind of performance that pushes you back in your seat.

Something else that's been on my mind...I just can't get into Halloween stitching. I like autumn and autumn-y designs, like pumpkins and leaves, but Halloween simply isn't my thing. You guys all stitch such neat stuff and designers seem to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to Halloween. Still - I find myself scratching my head and wondering what all the excitement is about.

It must be genetic, because my mother was awful about Halloween, too. Yes, we were the kids with the plastic Casper the Ghost masks. And since there were five of us, Casper was hauled out every year and when he finally didn't fit you, he was given to the next kid down the line. After we outgrew Casper, we were "bums". Meaning that we wore our dad's worn out work clothes, used Mom's eyebrow pencil to draw on stubble, and we were pushed out the door with a grocery bag.

And I always wanted to be a princess. Thanks, Mom.

But by far the worst Halloween costume was my mummy costume. I was 13 years old and invited to my first ever boy-girl party. It was given by a friend of mine who was older and in high school and she was the picture of cool.

I was so nervous about going to a cool kid party....Obviously the bum costume just wasn't going to cut it. So my mother ripped up a sheet and wrapped me up as a mummy, except that it didn't really work and it was falling apart before I even stepped out the door.

Now it was time to go, and I was a jittery mess, and my dad drove me to this party, which happened to be right next to a church where someone was having a lovely fall wedding. So there were all of these people mulling around waiting for the bride and groom to come out, and my dad and I pulled up in our rumbling car (Muffler? Who needs a muffler?) and I froze. Could. Not. Get. Out. of the Car. My dad was saying, Go, go, go! And I was saying, NO, Not yet, Wait, Wait. Finally, he had had enough, and pushed me out the door and lay rubber down the street. Meaning that all of the wedding guests turned and looked at me - standing in the street with my sheet strips fluttering in the wind.

It's just the situation that every 13 year wishes to find herself in. At least the sheet strips absorbed the armpit sweat.

So Halloween? Not my holiday.

The end of the story is that the party was fun, even though I think I was invited because my mother was friends with Nancy's mother and Mrs. Jones made Nancy invite me. We bobbed for apples, carved miniature pumpkins and giggled about and with the boys. And years and years later, I dressed my son as a mummy for his third grade Halloween party, and I don't think he'll ever forgive me, either.

Dropping BACK onto the face of the earth

Hi gang. It's me...your long lost stitching pal. You'll hear no excuses. I'm busy, but heck, we're all busy. So I'm going to jump right back in and act like I've been here all along.

(I do that at parties, too. It's an art.)

First of all, I didn't get to the EGA marketplace in Pittsburgh. Something came up at work and I couldn't get away at all. Sad, yes, but I've had so many shopping opportunities this year and my table is overflowing with everything I've bought. So maybe it was a good thing that I didn't go, except I would have liked to meet Vikki Clayton. Ah well. That's life.

Secondly, I think I misled you about the UFOs in my October 1 post. The little samplers were by The Needle and I, not Prairie Schooler. Amazingly similar, though, right? I don't even know if they are around any more. I couldn't find any charts on the Hoffman site.

OK, moving on to actual stitching that has occurred more recently than 20 years ago, I've finished this:But I'm not happy with the lettering, so I'm going to have to pick it out. Actually, in real life the letters recede into the fabric color even more and are hardly visible. The photo brings them out more...must have been because I used a flash.

I don't know if I want the lettering to be much lighter or much darker. What do you think? I'd be happy to know.

And I've been working on this and it IS a Prairie Schooler. I bought it a couple of years ago from Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler, when she offered it as a kit with hand dyed fabrics and Crescent Colours threads. Fun, fun, fun and just the ticket at this time of year.

Otherwise, we're having a good time of it here at O'Neil's on the Lake. Dave and I have settled into being a childless couple. (If I hear "empty-nester", followed by a wink-wink and nod-nod one more time I may strangle someone) For instance, our mornings are much less rushed and I actually have time to pack Dave a full meal on the days that he has to work through dinner. We have total control over the "good" TV. Oh...and we've become regulars at the $7 Margarita Pitcher nights at a local restaurant. Which, by the way, we can afford because of all of the money we're saving on the electric bill. So - for instance - I could buy 3 pitchers each Margarita night if I wanted to. And still have enough for cab fare home. That's if cabs existed out here, which they don't. So we stick to one pitcher and spend the rest on really, really bad tacos.

See? All of you with young children? This is what you have to look forward to. Unchallenged dominion over the TV and good margaritas and bad tacos. And you stop missing them so much after a couple of weeks of that and suddenly - life is good.

Besides, they come back frequently enough. We had Colleen home for her fall break over the first weekend of October. First we drove to Delaware, Ohio to watch her run in the All Ohio Championships, where she ran well. Not great, but the conditions were pretty nasty (wet slippery grass and mud...lots of mud) and it was a crowded field with tight turns. And then we brought her home from there.
This is her Please Leave Me Alone for Just Five Minutes look
Then this week John was home for his fall break, but he only stayed here Saturday and Sunday and went back to school early. They had some fun stuff planned for the other couple of days. We haven't seen John run at all this year, but he'll be at a meet at Oberlin College near Cleveland this weekend (in fact, both kids will run in that meet), and we'll be there to watch.

Oh, and his 21st birthday is tomorrow. I bought him the very exciting and party-filled gift of - - - a new bike helmet. We didn't take him out for his first drink, because he wasn't yet 21 over the weekend. Besides, I know that it's hardly his "first", and also because the cross country team has a super-strict policy about drinking when they're in season and kids have been kicked off the team in the past ( one young man was kicked off this year already). So we'll have a grown-up style drink with him over Thanksgiving, when his season is over and he's really and truly legal.

Leaving you with a nice photo of Deer Lake (not taken by me, but sent to me by a friend)

The UFO Museum

After yesterday's post I accepted Chiloe's challenge to find my oldest UFO and tell its story.

What I had forgotten was that over a year ago I decided to purge some UFO's that were gathering dust and making me feel bad. One was a Pennsylvania sampler, designed by Ginger and Spice, and I had started it in 1987 on 20 ct. something-or-other. Haaaated it. If I had kept it, it would have been interesting to look at, but eh. It's gone and good riddance.

However, I'm still hording a couple of really old things. I couldn't bring myself to ditch some afghan projects that I had bought and kitted. So here is my oldest UFO to date, started when I was pregnant with John in 1988. I stitched one single square and then I quit with 12 more to go.I don't know. It's just not well planned. This quilt square doesn't fill up the afghan block well enough, and it looks lost. My mistake. And now I'm being cheap because even though I have no use for anything like this anymore and I don't like the design even a tiny bit, I hate the thought of tossing it because I spent so much money on it. Or at least it seemed like a lot of money 20 years ago. Jeez.

And as far as blankets go, it's itchy. Seriously itchy.

But let's keep moving. These are my oldest Finished-Unfinished projects, also stitched in 1988. I still really like them. I think I meant to sew them together into a bell pull but the aida dye color lots were slightly different and so I put them away and you know the rest of the story. I'm totally going to finish-finish them this year.
Or my name isn't Lee, Curator of the UFO Museum.