Floss Porn

Ha!  Got your attention, didn't I??

Yesterday I received a package (in a plain brown wrapper) from Danielle because I won a giveaway on her blog.  She was giving away some threads and Wowee!  She sent such a generous package of threads in a gorgeous variety of colors. 

So I opened it up.  Slowly.  And my breath quickened.  And my heart pounded.  My hands tingled.  And then the threads spilled out and I gasped.  Yes, yes, yes!  And then I reached for a cigarette.  (Just kidding about that part...I don't really smoke.  The rest is true, though.)  But oh-baby do I have plans for these!  Thanks Danielle!

Bee Mine

Hiya gang!

It's hard for me to believe that I've gone 11 days without posting.  I was doing pretty well there in November and December, but January has been another story.

I've been busy, but not stitching very much and that's probably why I've been so quiet.  The rest of my life this month has been pretty blah.  I've worked more than usual and if you want to know from boring, just ask me about work.   I'll fill you in on how to finely craft a 1099-Misc, and on the delicate creation of W-2's. And I'll tell you about the joy of nice even rows of numbers that all add up correctly. 

Yeah.  It's that much fun.

BUT, extra work can also be a good thing, because I decided to reward myself for a really productive work week by going to a Stitch Night at The French Knot.  I'm glad that I went, too.  It's a nice little shop and it was a friendly group of stitchers.  I took Lo How a Rose with me, but we were a little crowded and it was hard to manage the scroll frames. Still, I made a little progress and please forgive the stray threads and flash photography, but if I wait for a nice, sunny day AND a day that all of my working threads are tucked away neatly, you may never see this project again.:

I didn't buy much there. I like the shop, but I'm not crazy about most of the designs that she carries. Laura does have a nice selection of fabrics, though. And threads.  So I'll buy those things from her.

Another nice thing? She has loads of freebies in the shop. One is a cute little spring design by Waxing Moon and she matched some really pretty blue fabric with it, so of course I bought the fabric. The other is this older LK freebie. I stitched and finished this over the weekend and I'll mail it to Miss College. She doesn't eat much candy, so maybe she'll take the money and buy some nice fruit. Or oatmeal. Since she lives on both of those things.

It's charted for DMC or GAST, but I decided to use my Old Willow Stitchery threads, instead.  And You may remember that I've done this kind of finish before, last Christmas when I needed a something for a $10 exchange gift for our Ladies' Auxiliary.  It's really just a pinkeep with a pocket and a hanger.

So, now what kind of cutesy thing can I send to College Boy? He's not a big LK fan...Maybe I'll tack $10 to a recipe for Fuzzy Navel Slush, which is his favorite drink now that he's over 21.   Yes.  He's weird.

In reading news, I've finished The Red Scarf and it was very enjoyable.  The sex scene?  Nothing remarkable?  Listen, my mom let me read some pretty racy stuff when I was in high school and that 70's fiction was not for those easily shocked.  Was there even a YA category in the 70's? 

I'm listening to The Help and I have to say that I'm 5 hours in and I'd never know it.  The narration is beautifully done and the minutes fly by when you're listening.

And I'm halfway through The Curse of the Spellmans, which is wonderful and lighthearted and a joy to read. 

Can you tell that both kids are back to college now???

OH....MY....GOSH!  I'm sitting here, looking at those photos and I can see a big, big mistake in my stitching. 

Look at the top right side of the heart. 

Good grief, I didn't stitch a whole dark pink section at the top!  What an ultra-maroon! (for you Bugs Bunny fans out there). I can't believe I did that.  Oh well.  She'll love it anyway.  And now you all know that I'm not perfect.  Sigh.

My Exciting Saturday

If you have a weak heart, maybe you should skip this post.

Today I will:

1. Work till noon
2. Watch the WVU basketball game and fold laundry till 3PM
3. Try to stitch a little during the game
4. Punish the treadmill
5. Make dinner
6. Fiddle around till I go to bed.

Try to contain your excitement for me.

Books

I finished Olive Kitteridge last night.  Wonderful, just wonderful.

I'm really picking up speed and enjoying The Red Scarf, too.  I emailed my book club friend because she was the one who chose it as our book for February, and I told her how much I was liking it.  She sent an email back to me, saying that she enjoyed it very much, too, but had been hesitant to suggest it to our club because there was a sex scene described near the end of the book.

Wait.....does that mean that this book will get EVEN BETTER??  Dang.  Now I want to skip ahead to the end.  But I'll stop myself.

Looks like my stitching hiatus will last a bit longer.

Sometimes I complain about snow too much

Because it can be unspeakably beautiful.  Here are some pictures that Colleen took Sunday morning as the sun was just peeking out after 10 or more days of snow and darkness.  This is part of my backyard

And my front yard

Close up of the Adirondack chairs. If you were sitting in them...the snow would be up to your neck.


These next two are the bridge that you see in my blog header.




Then Dave took these pictures, also on Sunday morning. Just a few miles from here, there's a resort called the Summit Inn and it sits right on Route 40, at the top of Summit Mountain. It's a very old, dating back to 1907. The top of Summit Mountain is very beautiful, but subject to extremes of cold, wind, fog and ice through the winter and early spring.   So even though the sun was out at my house, the top of the mountain was still in the clouds and still getting snow.   And with that kind of weather, the Summit Inn closes from November until April (sometimes even May). And it reminds me exactly of the hotel in The Shining. 
Peaceful looking, isn't it?

What I've been doing these days

I'll tell you - it hasn't been stitching. 

I've had lots of work to do.  And not to be a crybaby, but I still have lots of work to do.  It's just that time of year and there's no use whining over it.

I've been reading more.  With both kids at home, I totally lost control of the TV.  But maybe that's a good thing because I've read two books that I really enjoyed and I've started a third book.  Over the holidays I read Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland.  It's the second book in her three-book series about Josephine Bonaparte.  I liked it, although not as much as her first book,  The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.  Her third book is waiting on my bed table, The Last Great Dance on Earth, and I'm sure I'll like that, too.  Although we know that it won't end well.

I'm very close to finishing Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout.  Something about this book really sucked me in.  Maybe it was because it started with a short story about Olive's pharmacist husband and I felt attached to a character right away.  Maybe because sometimes I feel like Olive myself, who is a combination of awful and wonderful all at the same time. Whatever it is, I finish one short story in the book and I can't wait to start the next one. (but you should know this - the jacket blurbs say that it's funny.  So far I haven't found anything funny at all, and unless it's going to get funny in the last 50 pages, the book is rather sad.  Very not-funny.  Just FYI)


And my third book is The Red Scarf, by Kate Furnivall.  It's our book club selection for February.  So far I'm liking it.

Good Lord, it's snowing again!  At least I've had the college kids home through all of the snow we've had since the New Year and they've kept my driveway shoveled and passable.  So they're good for something besides endless TV watching.

The weirdness of snow

I woke up to this on Wednesday and it's still hanging there from my porch roof. Does anyone have an explanation for this snow curtain?? I can't understand why it doesn't just fall off.

Then yesterday, in between the snow showers, we were hit with a couple episodes of freezing drizzle. And now you know about my poor deck-keeping skills.
If I don't see some sun soon, I'm going to shrivel up and die.

A bright, shiny new decade!

So my friends, here we are at the start of a new decade.  I love this feeling.  The whole clean slate thing.  Of course, it would help if I could clear out all of the clutter of the last decade.  I'm working on that...starting with getting these college kids back to school (and back to those rooms and apartments that I'm paying for) and making them take all of their clutter back, too.  And after I've taken down the trees and all of the other Christmas hoo-haw, things will return to being boring around here.  Normally, blissfully boring.

But back to the New Year theme:  I don't "do" resolutions very well, but this year I'd like to be more organized in my work-work and housework, because what I really want is more time to play.  So I hope that being more organized will let me get more work done in less time.  And stitching is so much more relaxing when you can actually let your mind rest and not wander to all of the things sitting on your desk, you know?

I went to Philadelphia over the long weekend of New Years.  It was a nice trip, but it was exhausting, too.  I missed being home for New Years Day, which is usually a rest day for me.  But my good friend's 50th birthday bash was on January 2nd, and what a party!  I'm glad that I could go.  Came home on Sunday and with all that running around I'm sorry to say that I haven't picked up a needle in over a week.

Lucky for me though, I have friends who stitch, including the ever-wonderful Barbara.  She sent me this perfect ornament.  Honestly? I'm so happy with this and now I think every stitcher should have one of these on their tree!  She also sent me that cool ceramic mug and I've already enjoyed many cups of tea in it.  Thanks again Barb!