1. What is your most treasured needlework possession? Of my own, Odyssey. Altogether it is the pillowcases that I stitched and my great grandmother embroidered.
2. What is your greatest fear when doing needlework? That the kids or the dog will destroy it before it's finished.
3. What is your greatest extravagance in needlework? SILK!!! If I could have my way, I would never work with Anchor again, I would stitch everything in silk. It's just too expensive to do it that way though.
4. What is your stitching motto? I'm supposed to have a motto?
5. What do you dislike most about your needlework? My stitches aren't always as even as other peoples.
1. [u]How many have you framed on the wall?[/u] Are we just counting cross-stitch or all needlework? In my sitting room I have Susan Portra’s Odyssey and Mirabilia’s Scent of Old Roses, and framed but not on the wall I have MLI’s Catch the Wind. In the entry way I have my VS Round Robin and in my stash room I have the first piece that I ever designed. Fantasy Sampler hangs in DD’s room.
2. [u]How many do you have finished in other ways?[/u] Right you want me to count? In the sitting room I have pillows of all 6 Teresa Wentzler Rocking Horses, DD has a dinosaur pillow, a birth sampler pillow, a wall hanging of her name, and a Mystery canvas pillow. DS#2 has a Dumbo pillow and a Turtle canvas that was made into a turtle that he could play with. DS#1 went to the darkroom and has wrapped his Zebra and Lion needlepoint pillows in acid free archival paper. See why I make things for this one? Throughout the house are more pillows, needlerolls, and sundry items. The most precious alternate finishing is my ornament box. I’m working this year to correct imbalance since right now; there are more ornaments that have been stitched by other people than ornaments that I have stitched.
3. [u]What was the most expensive finishing?[/u] Scent of Old Roses was $295 – it has hand drawn French lines on the oval cut mat.
4. [u]Have you finished anything yourself?[/u] Yes, I make many of my own ornaments. Some of the pillows are my work. I’ve framed several things myself. I discovered a frame wholesaler and my DH has matte board for the framing. I still don’t have a matte cutter but I’m saving up for it.
5. [u]Describe your favourite finished piece?[/u] You want me to pick a favourite? That’s actually pretty hard to do. The Turtle is a good one. It’s sewed into a turtle shape and DS#2 plays make believe with it. Odyssey was originally framed in a simple black frame (to show off the needlework), but I’ve had it redone in a more elaborate frame, the 2nd framer cut down the original frame and used it as one of the mattes. The Christmas stockings are another possibility as a favourite. One of these years though, I’m going to do a Needlepoint Gingerbread house. I just haven’t the money for the canvas yet and general rule of thumb is double the cost of the canvas for the fiber. I’m just not ready for a $1000 gingerbread house yet ($100 in finishing).
Once upon a time, I read voraciously. I shocked my aunt’s new husband when he found me reading Robert Frost at 6, and found I could discuss it intelligently. I loved literature and books that were considered “above my grade level.” But somewhere after college I stopped reading adult books. I can, however, quote “Sheep in a Jeep” and “One Fish Two Fish.” [u]DaVinci Code[/u] and everything else Dan Brown wrote are the last adult books I completed. I’m not counting the adult fluff books; things like Suzanne Brockmann or Jo Beverly that don’t involve any thought processes and are just a relaxing evening read. DD has been trying to drag me into [u]DragonLance[/u] but I did that and [u]Elfquest[/u] in college and didn’t enjoy them much then. I wish Spider Robinson would come out with something new. I wonder how he took the Bush announcement about revamping NASA and going back out to space, it’s the sort of announcement he would cheer while still despising the rest of the administration’s work. It’s not like I haven’t tried to read adult work. I just find myself getting bored, and nitpicking the grammar. I should mention that I love Ray Bradbury. My favorite phrase is from [u]Something Wicked this Way Comes[/u]: “We ran breathing ice cream all the way.” I just love the imagery evoked in that phrase. I enjoyed Faulkner in high school. I find much of the “popular” adult literature today feels like slogging through instead of reading. Maybe I just need a good biography. I’ve started several in the last few months. Currently I’ve started Scenes from an Afterlife: The Legacy of George Orwell. It’s not a biography though; it’s a social commentary and criticism on the effect of Eric Blair’s work following his death, including a section on the effects in the Communist countries following the fall in 1989. I’m actually enjoying it but I’m finding that my vocabulary has diminished since the days of my degree in English and Comparative Literature. I’ve had to resort to making a list of words to look up later. The frustrating part is I know that I was familiar with these terms in the past. I have made a book list though of “grown-up” books that I want to get from the library. We’ll see if they can keep my interest. In the meantime, I’m returning Bill Gates’ [u]Business at the Speed of Thought[/u] before the tapes put me to sleep while driving.
Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. -Les Brown
I grew up with one parent teaching me that what was important was how I felt about myself and other’s opinions of you didn’t matter and one parent teaching me that the most important thing was having people like you and being popular. It was a mixed message and I chose the one that I agreed with most (and shared it with my kids which is why my daughter “doesn’t give a fish” what other people think). This can be a problem though. She should give a fish when she does something that purposely offends like laughing out loud at a church youth leader’s suggestion. While I agree it is a stupid idea, she should be more discreet and I still think that she should apologize to the youth leader. But then I think back at the times that my strange sense of humor has hurt other people (who didn’t understand it was joke). It’s at times like this that I’m glad I have a parent card in order to dispense advice without having always followed that same advice.
Sorry that it's been a few days. I've been busy. I hate when things conflict and I have to choose between good and better. Today was the choice of that hug and kiss when your son pins that first cub scout pin on you (DS#2's Bobcat) and the orientation for 6th grade with the other son.
I went to pack meeting.
DH has to be at pack meeting because he's the Packmaster or what ever they call it - he's in charge of the committee and has all the awards. If he's not there, no one gets awards.
So, we sent DS#1 with a friend and his mother. This is fair. She can stand in for me, since DH is standing in for her son's dad at the Father/Son campout tomorrow.
In the meantime, comments seem to be down (my sql error according to the accounts page). So if you want, comments can be left in the guestbook on the homepage.
Well this is the second time they've moved servers. I'm just glad to see them back.
Just in case, I've backed everything up to hard copy. Not that I would reprint them. I just put the hard copies in my journals in the hopes that some day my kids or grandkids will care enough to look through them.
Course it would be nice if I could get a copy of Nana's journal.... but that's another story and I'm so far down on the list of Great grandkids, I'm just grateful that I got one of her paintings.
1. Do you keep a wishlist? Yep, I have one on [url=http://p212.ezboard.com/fthew...]The Wagon [/url] and I keep a copy of it in my dayplanner. Then if I'm in an LNS, I can keep to those items on the list.
2. If so how many items are on it? Stuff from 8 designers and a plethora of fibers (and two quilting items)
3. Name three of those items Dragons everywhere - Applique Quilt pattern Pieces of Eight - Needlepoint Soie D'alger for Just Nan's Spring is in the Air.
4. Do you let other people see it? What's the point of having a wish list if you don't share it?
5. How often do you add to it? Whenever something new bothers me for over a week.
Just got back from the eye candy of Troy. Peter O'Toole was incredible as always. Orlando Bloom did the pretty brainless boy very well. My opinion of Brad Pitt as an actor went up. But I left drooling for Sean Bean. It was enough that I came home and popped in the first of DH's Sharpe's Rifles DVD's.
The saddest part of the movie Troy was when the credits were rolling, Based on Homer's Iliad popped up and the girl behind me (in her early 20's) turned to her date and said, "There's a book about this? Cool."
Friday Five from Daily Dirt (they were actually Thursday)
1. Do you speak any other languages than the one you speak everyday? I used to speak French, Finnish and a smattering of Korean but if you don’t use it you lose it.
2. Would you like to speak another language? Been there done that only works if you have someone to talk to on a routine basis. I have enough reading material in French that I really should brush up on my vocabulary.
3. Have you ever tried to learn how to speak another language? Yes
4. If so how did that turn out? Languages have always come easy to me.
5. Have you ever tried to speak another language without knowing what you were saying? No but strangely enough, I’ve been able to understand what other people were saying without knowing the language.
I think my strangest language incident was when I was a teenager on the flight back from the World Track and Field events in Helsinki, Finland. I was giving one of the athletes a shoulder rub and another athlete asked me a question in Finnish and I responded in French which was fine with him because he just changed to French and proceeded to tell me what a forward little git I was, but he didn’t turn down his turn at a shoulder rub.
I used to get strange letters from a Finnish customer. He thought that I should be notified of any conspiracies that he came across. The big one that he was most concerned about was how McDonalds was corrupting women. You see McDonalds is colluding with the grocery stores to make sure that women don’t know how to cook. You can see the proof by the way produce sections in the markets are shrinking. (Personally I don’t think it’s McDonalds, I think it’s the loss of the smaller farmer and the growth of the larger chains and peoples perception that produce must look perfect but that’s another topic)
His other concern was that by offering food cheaper than it could be purchased in the stores, McDonalds would soon take over all the food processing and delivery systems and those that didn’t want to eat at McDonalds would have to starve if they didn’t grow their own. I would have loved to see his apartment with tomatoes and squash in pots. But McDonald’s isn’t the only food conspiracy out there.
As one of my friends recently wrote:“It's all a government conspiracy anyway. They've drugged the pop tarts, and malign thousands of children and adults daily into believing everything the media says to be true because of eating the drugged pop tarts.”
And they’ve also drugged the prepackaged cereals for those who don’t eat “cardboard covered with jam and frosting.” It’s actually the most reasonable argument that I’ve heard lately for why people swallow the muck that media sources put out. I was channel surfing the news last night and not one station covered any international news. Everything was local to the state or nation. Luckily there is the Internet so that I can get my news from BBC or other international sources. I can see a more rounded picture of what is really happening. After all, truth is a constant, but the perception can easily be skewed by what is shown or not shown. Anyone heard from Hong Kong, Ethiopia, or Haiti lately?
1. Which type of beads do you prefer Mill Hill, Delica or other brand? No particular brand, I’m just as likely to run to the bead shops as the LNS for beads. And they’re less expensive by the hank or tube than the little box Mill Hill sells. 2. Why? Price, color and size are the most important factors. 3. What do you use to stitch beads on with? Clear Quilting thread. 4. When to bead as you go or at the end? Depends on the piece and how I’m feeling. 5. Do you bead only with cross-stitch or do you use them on their own? I do bead weaving, make jewelry with them, and use them on Needlepoint as well as cross-stitch.
So, I’m at the gym last night and this guy comes up to me and tells me that I’m doing my workout backwards. He said that I should do no more than a 5 minute cardio warm-up, then do my weights and then do as much cardio (stationary bike) as I can tolerate. He told me that if I did the weights first it would work the sugar/carbs out of my system and then the cardio afterward would burn fat. I asked DH about this and he said he’s heard the theory before but he’s also heard that the 25 minute cardio followed by weights is the way to do it too. So, let me throw it out to you? What have you heard on this?
Today when I picked my daughter up from school she seemed agitated. She started talking about the upcoming symphony tour. She mentioned that it would be the farthest that she would have gone from home alone. Then she loudly proclaimed, “ and don’t forget that I need 300 ducks by Wednesday.” I looked at her and said, “Drakes or mud hens and how do they want those packaged?” She looked confused and then said, “Would a semi work?” We continued in this vein finally deciding that 10 ducks per wood case could be strapped into the pickup on the appropriate day. Sometimes malapropisms can be a lot of fun.
You have to wonder about a job that the listing states, must be saavy about office politics, self directed and self motivated - bosses are unforgiving but not mean.
I remember reading Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer, I don't remember much of the story but I remember one line - Women were banned from the torturer's guild because they enjoyed the work too much. Add to that the Kipling poem - [url=http://whitewolf.newcastle.ed...]Female of the Species[/url] -
[i]Unprovoked and awful charges-even so the she-bear fights, Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons-even so the cobra bites, Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw And the victim writhes in anguish-like the Jesuit with the squaw! So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands To some God of Abstract justice-which no woman understands. And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him Must command but may not govern-shall enthrall but not enslave him. And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail, That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male. [/i]
Why are people finding it hard to believe that it was a WOMAN in charge of the jail where the Iraqi prisoners were tortured?
Sometimes we forget the beauty in simple things: Lying in on a Sunday morning with the sun shining through the windows warming the bed. The feel of a warm beagle snuggled up with you in a chair on a cold night The touch of silk on your skin A full stomach at bedtime A touch A smile The sun breaking over the mountains after a cloudy day A difficult report balancing the first time out That it’s not your fault when something bad happens and you can prove it Watching your son design his first cross-stitch piece Listening to your children in school concerts Watching a plan come together
1.)Which is your favourite brand of specialty thread? A month or so ago I would have said Waterlilies but I’m really enjoying working with Soie d’alger right now. 2.)Why? There is just something about the feel and look of silk 3)How many other brands of thread do you have in your stash? Not sure of the exact number but I have Anchor – both floss and perle, Rainbow Gallery (which encompasses a huge variety of stuff),Vikki Clayton, Gumnut, Weeks Dye works, Caron, some hand-dyed from a small place in Indiana that are ideal, Quilting thread from JP Coats, Krenik (two pencil boxes full), another quilting thread that is wonderful but I can’t remember the name here at work, Pateryan yarns, Thread Gatherer, 4.) How do you store your threads? Most are in zip lock baggies either in plastic containers or on rings. Ideally, I would love to have pegs to hang things on. One thing that I would love is what a designer I know has, it looks like a cat post with arms and she hangs her yarns from the arms. I want one like that. 5.) How confident do you feel at substituting between thread types and colours compared to what the chart calls for? Very. There are few designs that I haven’t changed something on them. The biggest change I made was on Morning Song. My sister wanted the kids to be red heads and the mom to have dark hair. Those changes meant that I needed to change the background (or mom’s head would have been lost in the trees.)
You know you're spending too much time on the computer when your fingers cramp from holding the mouse. This cramping can seriously interfere with stitching time. Of course, if I wasn't on the computer in the first place, I could be stitching.
