A time comes in every mother’s life where she looks at her child and wonders where the time went. Yesterday, I was holding my baby close and today I put her on a plane to New York. I’ve seen her change from a reserved “dress me in pink and lace” girl to an exuberant grunge fashioned teenager who only wears dresses for concert performances and church. I keep wondering where did the time go? It was only yesterday that she was sitting on the floor of the apartment using her dad’s racing bike as a washing machine for her socks while playing Cinderella. Now she’s saying things such as, “I wish I was in Paul’s travel group but Jason’s okay to talk to.” What scares me most is that in 3 years she may be gone out of my house, out on her own. But isn’t that my job as a mother - To raise a responsible adult that will strike out on her own and do her own thing? So why does doing my job right hurt so much?
1. Do you take something new to stitch when you travel - a special travel stitching project? Not really, I may take something small that I already have going depending on the trip. If I’m going camping, I’m probably not taking stitching. 2. Do you plan your trips around stitching shops? Sometimes. 3. Do you believe that if you cross state lines you MUST buy fibers? What? No, I live in stitching Mecca why would I have to buy fibers when I leave the state. 4. Where have you stitched? Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Finland, Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Washington DC. 5. Do your friends/family bring you stitching related gifts when they travel? Friends, yes. Family, no.
An Open Letter to Psychics sending mail to my PO box
Do you check your mailing lists while using your insight? If so then you must not be doing very well as my mother in law died 3 years ago and you’re still sending her mail about important events that you see upcoming in her life. This wouldn’t be bad if you were sending it to her but you keep sending it to my mailbox. Her current address is the Mt. Olivet Cemetery. I’m hoping that by writing DECEASED on the envelope and sending it back to you that the mailing list will be updated. I’m also hoping that maybe some postal employee that believes in your powers of perception will see that and have cause to doubt. I would like you to know that your mailing list error has helped me convince my kids that psychics are just people out for money. I appreciate you giving me ample proof. However, just from an environmental standpoint, I really wish you wouldn’t send the 4 page letters biweekly. They clutter my mailbox and the landfill. So please, as a favor to the earth, please use your insight while looking at your list this week and if you see important events upcoming in my Mother in law's afterlife, find a different way to send her the message.
I consider being an election judge one of my civic duties. This was the first time I was in my own precinct too.
It was great. I got tons of stitching done. We had 48 out of a possible 307 registered voters. Still 14% is better than the state average of 12%.
The only bad part was the supply judge. A friend has dubbed her the "Queen of Consuming Everything within Sight." This rather larger woman in the course of a 14 hour day was chain eating. She consumed several sandwiches, a large bottle of Planter's peanuts, grapes, apples, a 1 lb bag of carrots, a bag of chips, package of cookies and when I went to lunch she gave me money to buy her a hamburger. It's put me right off eating.
The even funnier part was one judge had to get up and walk every so often or she felt bad. The Queen of Consumption gave us a lecture on how excess exercise was a danger. After the walking judge got back, I found myself with a overwhelming desire to not only walk around the building but RUN!!!
1. What was your first finished stitched piece? It was a Needlepoint kit done in half cross and I didn’t have all of the stitches in the same direction. 2. What was the first piece you used beads on? Teresa Wentzler’s Fantasy sampler. I decided that the border would look better with beads. 3. What was the first piece you used blends on? Do TW’s Rocking Horses have blends? If not then it was Fantasy Sampler. 4. What was the first piece you used speciality stitches on? A Unicorn Kit that I did as a teenager. 5. What was the first piece you stitched on evenweave or linen as opposed to aida? That same Unicorn embroidery kit. It now hangs in my sons bedroom.
How did you honor your father today? Do you have a father to honor? My husband decided that what he wanted was to head out with a camera and shoot the sun tunnels on the solstice. So he went after the kids gave him the DVD's they selected for him as presents.
As for my dad, I have my grandpa's 1966 Mustang. I took it to dinner with my dad. He took it for a ride while I kept my grandma company. I hope dad and grandpa had a good time.
If I lived in a different area or belonged to a different congregation, it would be no big deal to put a notice in the church bulletin that the quilting bee will be on such and such date. I’ve seen this done in other areas and in other congregations. Or an announcement that Mrs. X has a quilt up please drop by her house in the evenings if you wish to work on it. Several of the older members of the congregation I'm in now say that they remember announcements like that on a regular basis when they were younger. There were also announcements that Mrs. Y has several bushels of peaches or tomatoes and could use help canning. People would bring a potluck dish and their canning tools and come help. The same attitude prevailed with the quilting bees. I can’t help but wonder if the ease of modern life hasn’t isolated us from our neighbors and made us friends with people we’ve never met that live thousands of miles away but have computer access daily. Too bad you can’t come help me quilt.
There will be no stitching tonight. It’s “help your husband in his photo career night.” I get to be a model for portrait lighting then I get to go to Karoke band competition to help convince musicians that they want to have their pictures taken. So no stitching for me tonight even though I’m dying to get back to [url=www.shondratasha.com/gallery/wip/fireice_1 0.jpg]Fire and Ice[/url] , I’m about an hour from having the first page 100% completed.
Last night I finished the 10 hour rotation slot for [url=www.shondratasha.com/gallery/wip/fbp40.jpg]Fruit Bell Pull[/url] , according to the schedule I drew up at the beginning of the year the next slot should be Fire and Ice but I’m more in the mood to start something new. I know if I pulled Fire and Ice out and started working on it I would change my mind and would just be happy working on it. Maybe that’s what I’ll do, pull it out and start while listening to an audio book tonight.
1. Is your DH/partner supportive of your stitching? Most of the time, he doesn't like it when I stitch in public (ball games, soccer matches) but most of the time he's very supportive especially when compared to other DH's I know. 2. Do you ever stitch in company? Only when it wouldn't be rude. 3. Been to a GTG (Get ToGether)? Yes, and I'm planning the world wide Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board Get Together for Las Vegas in August. Information is at the TWBB in the Get Together forum for anyone that would like to join us. 4. Does anyone complain about your stitching? I complain when I do shoddy work. 5. Ever had a stranger comment on your stitching? I have pieces hanging in my front room that have had favorable comments. I think the worst comment I ever had was a neighbor at church who was teaching the teenage girls to stitch. She didn't realize that my daughter knows how and has been inculcated with my biases. She doesn't like DMC, she would prefer a frame to a hoop, and she doesn't lick her floss. After having to deal with my daughter, this neighbor said to me, "Well you think you know how to cross-stitch, but......" I forget the rest since I was twitching at that point. Mind you the piece she was teaching the girls was a "primitive" - pencil traced on muslin. It wasn't cross-stitch, it was embroidery, she didn't know the difference; thus, to my mind, her opinion didn't matter.
I just did my first employee orientation meeting. I was nervous but it wasn’t too bad. Only 8 out of the 31 people were there. The only question people had was, “How much does it cost?” The answer to that is “Ask HR.” So it went well.
Stepford Wives (movie spoiler if you didn't read the book)
I'm really looking forward to this movie. I re-read the book this week in anticipation, just to check and see if they stay with the storyline from the original.
Since the publication of Levin’s book in 1972, Congress has looked at and defeated the ERA amendment and women have made incredible strides in the workplace.
Interestingly, the new edition has an afterword that rather than being a comment on feminism, Levin intended Stepford Wives to be a commentary on men being unable to mature and picture women as being anything other than a cleaning service and sex toy. He points out several things that he purposely put in; Herb who doesn't stutter around the robotic women but does stutter around the real ones, how the men are more interested in the new toy that they're making than the one that they already have at home, and how Walter comes home and masturbates after hearing about the great new toy that he can have instead of waking his wife when he gets home from his first men’s association meeting, the way that the boy children treat their sisters. Now for my commentary: I would like to think that Walter does have some reservations about what he's doing as shown by his unwillingness to kiss Bobbie (the Bette Midler character) after the robot has replaced her, his willingness to discuss moving when Joanna first starts to suspect something but by December he has made up his mind. He resents doing things around the house, he hides the bank books so Joanna doesn't see the payments he's made on his toy, he gets upset that Joanna isn't at home waiting for him every night no matter how late he stays out, his attitude changes in his conversations with Joanna, he becomes nit-picky. I find it interesting too that when talking about the real women (prior to their replacements) they all disparaged their husbands. Charmaine makes it clear that she married for money and hates sex and her husband. Bobbie describes her husband as a big wuss. The newspaper articles about the other wives show them as women who are more interested in civic duty and furthering their pet causes than in taking care of family, house or husband. But then the point of satire is to talk in extremes.
It will be interesting to see if they stay true to the book and Bette Midler kills Nicole Kidman. I'll lay money down that they don't mention Walken's character was a head of Disney Animatronics, thus the nickname Diz.
What part of “This is our largest client, do anything they say.” means that you can bump my copy of their bill which has to be delivered at 1 pm for your daily check registers that have no delivery time set? I’m getting really tired of being told that the items I request are priority by management but having the supervisors treat me like I’m the bottom of the heap. I’ve actually had a few of the new people ask me why I let the supervisors treat me like I’m dirt. Now in one case, it’s because I get the data I need faster if I let her feel that she’s more important and can boss me around. In one case, it’s because management has made it clear that I’m powerless to stop her but I can’t say that to a coworker. The third is only because I know she’s having a bad day or she wouldn’t be treating me this way. I’ve learned a long time ago that people treat you the way you let them. If you don’t like being treated like dirt, speak up and change the situation. Sometimes that means a new job, sometimes it just means standing up for yourself and pointing the offending behaviour out to the offender. Either way, you take control of the situation. Now, bump the priorities on the jobq and get me my reports!!!
I learned long ago that stitching and spending time with the kids was more important than House work. Still there are those times when the dust bunnies get large enough to demand their dinner plates and one must vacuum. I hate to vacuum. I'm not sure why, I just detest it. I would rather clean the bathrooms than vacuum. I think it may be part of the psychological factors that came into play growing up. Most men are content with just having diagonal lines in the grass when they mow, my father wanted no lines, that meant you had to mow vertically, then again horizontally. Vacuuming, however, was different; he wanted to see the lines to show it had been done. Therefore, vacuuming must be done in a strict overlapping path so that you have nice straight vertical lines, no going around the furniture, one should pick it up and move it or plan the route around the room so that the line ended at the edge of the couch. Needless to say, when I vacuum in my own home, I really don't care where the lines are as long as all the dust bunnies go screaming into the bag. Better yet, I have the kids vacuum. I don't care how, as long as it gets done. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dust bunnies to feed before they start complaining loud enough for me to call one of the kids to bring the Kirby.
[i]1. Do you give away any of your finished stitching as gifts?[/i] A lot less than I used too. I used to stitch small things to give away all the time and large things for people I cared about. I stitched a piece about thanking a MIL for her son and gave it to my MIL. It was in bottom of a closet in her house for ages. She finally hung it to hide a water mark on her wall. [i]2. Do you sell any of you finished stitching?[/i] If you count stitching for a shop and getting paid in stash then, Yes. I don’t do that as much as I used to though. [i]3. Do you give any of your stitching away to charities?[/i] I did one charity piece. It was a custom order for a silent auction. Never, never again. [i]4. Do you keep any of your stitching for yourself?[/i] I’m keeping more and more of it. That may change as I run out of wall space but I’m reaching the point where I put in enough time and effort that I should have something to show for it. [i]5. Do you stitch anything as part of exchanges or round robins?[/i] I love exchanges and sometimes I love round robins if I know I can trust the people in them. I’m currently in a unique round robin based on the premise that if you buy the supplies to stitch an ornament, you usually have enough left over to do it 5 more times. So we each bought the supplies for an ornament, stitched it, and mailed the supplies on to the next person. At the end, you have 6 ornaments for the price of your supplies. This is a lot nicer than the mail out all your supplies and hope and pray they come back. So far though the only bad experience I've had with an exchange or Round robin is when I organized one and one person didn't get her stuff from another person in the group. I sent a replacement package to make up for it, and never heard from the recipient so I'm not sure who to believe, the person who swears they mailed it or the person who complained they never got it but then dropped off the mailing list and refused to answer my emails.
Well I figured out how to update my gallery. There's a new section for this year's finishes (those I took pictures of), more pictures of Mr. Darwin, and some updated WIP's. The link is on the left.
We were working in the yard and DS#2 starts complaining that his eye hurts. I send him to wash and tell him to quit rubbing it and to go show it to his dad. Dad yells, "GET HIM TO THE ER STAT, HIS EYEBALL IS SWELLING!" Well, turns out that you can get hives on your eyeball. There must have been an allergen in the yard that got into his eye. I looked so weird though, like there was a huge blister on his eyeball. I now have a $150 co-pay, and a stack of meds. They want me to come back tomorrow. Right, another $150 co-pay. Nope, going to call the on call pediatrician tomorrow morning as long as the swelling hasn't increased. He'll probably say to hold off until Monday which works for me since that is only $42.55 for the office call. ========================= ========================= ====================== On another topic, apparently Roundup has a scent that appeals to the beagle. As soon as we sprayed the plants, the beagle would go rub against them. So as soon as I post this, I'm going to go bathe Stupid.
Have I been boring lately? I have no comments and my view count has only gone up a couple numbers.
Anyway, I finished Noah's Ark and I'm anxious to start a bunch of small things instead of working on the next big finish. I may go Ex Rotatio for a few days.
Usually I have really bad completion anxiety but with Noah's Ark, I've been on a finishing frenzy. I can't remember the last time that I put in 20 hours stitching in a single week. With about 2-3 hours more, it will be finished. Luckily there have been some great shows on PBS about WWII this week and there are some more tonight. It’s been interesting hearing about the race riots and the war protests from that time. Somehow that part of history was just swept under the rug when I was in school. Based on the history in school, one would think the first anti-war protests were for Vietnam. It was also interesting hearing about how Lindbergh and Ford supported Hitler and agreed with his racial cleansing philosophies. Tonight’s show is D-Day 20 years later with Eisenhower and Walter Cronkite. This could be interesting to watch too. I should be able to finish the sky on Noah’s Ark and then move on to the next project. ========================= ========================= ====================== This has also been a good mail week. Yesterday I got 3 packages. A coaster from the Rainbow hardanger exchange, the next ornament in my ornament exchange (and I need to mail the one I have right now out), and a pattern that was for a Just Nan class project that someone had and was willing to sell to me. I attached both the new projects to stretcher bars and added Diamond Bouquet to bars too. But I couldn’t bring myself to start them while I had Noah’s Ark to work on.
The weekend was great; sleep, playing in the park with the kids, Van Helsing with my hubby, and a picnic with friends. Stitching on Noah’s Ark - Usually I have completion anxiety but with this piece I’m running on a finishing frenzy. I have a goose, two small birds and the sky to finish and then it’s DONE. There’s an updated picture on the homepage (link to the side). I have another canvas that will be added to the rotation when this is done but Fortunate Traveller is going into the focus slot. I realize that the focus slot should really go to something older or maybe the piece I’m stitching for my sister but I want to work on FT so that’s what is going into the focus slot.
