Crafting with the Stitch Witch

African Update and Birthday Present

2009-11-09T20:44:00.005-05:00

Spoke with my eldest daughter and she has been able to talk to her husband. He has ascended and descended Mt. Kilomanjiro. He is apparently a legend in Arusha for some unknown reason. Maybe they consider him that crazy american? He is back in Arusha and prepping to leave tomorrow for Amsterdam for his connecting flight back to the US. Asked what the next mountain he will climb is his reply was....he doesn't think he will climb again for a while. We both think it is the exhaustion talking. He will be planning his next (his second) climb probably before he lands back in the USA. It may not be year or two but I bet he does it again. I can't wait to see him, hear the stories and see the photos.

Since my other daughter was home for a family funeral, I gave her her birthday present rather than having to making it at the end of the week. Well before she opened all the way, she said......"You didn't get me a Big Shot, did you?" Yes, of course I did. I introduced her to Stampin Up and card stamping last year on a visit home. She now meets regularly with a group near her and is even in a club, She told me all about SplitCoasters.com and puts me to shame with all the new and different stamping techniques she has learned and made. So guess what, she already has one. Well, there is no dilemma. I wanted one but wouldn't spend the money on myself for one. Sure, I'd spend it on my kids....you know how that goes. I am excited. We went to Joanne's yesterday afternoon and got a couple fo Sizzix dyes and played last night. I need to stitch for next couple of nights to make up for lost time but will have to make up some Christmas Cards this weekend. As for my daughter's birthday, looks like I am buying her a new jacket. All's well. I was secretly happy that I had picked out something that she liked....afterall she had already bought one which proves it.

For those who asked.....here is my Big Shot ...... It is a tool for card cutting and more. You can cut fabric, paper, tin, felt. It consists of a platform and a roller you crank your dies through.

It is hard to see here, but this is the general deal. You have two lucite plates. Between the plates you sandwich your paper and the die. Of course, don't be silly, yes they are sold separately.

You then feed this 'sandwich' through the machine and it does the rest.

You get a perfect cut, everytime.

Stampin Up has some really cool dies. I of course coudn't wait to mail order one and we ran to Joanne's to buy a couple. Staying with the season, I got the christmas tree and the snowflake. I especially like the little gift tags and the little favor boxes that Stampin Up offers. It is perfect for those times you want to mass produce.

Blogoversary! Give-away

2009-11-07T13:09:00.002-05:00

Okay, Official Giveaway Stuff to celebrate my Blogoversary.

I have had a blog for 3 years but it has not been until the last year that I really got into it. Not only into my blog but a more regular follower of others blogs. To celebrate the joy of sharing with others, I created a very eclectic giveaway.

1) I'm giving an assortment to one lucky reader of my blog. More pix and contents listed below.

2) Enter the giveaway by leaving me a Happy Blogoversary comment on this post only.

3) Get a second entry by being a Follower of my blog. Let me know in your comment that you are a Follower.

4) Get another entry by posting about my giveaway on your blog. Leave a comment to let me know, please.
5) You can leave all your info in one comment - a blog comment, follower info and posting on your blog comment. I will still count each individually.

6) No blog, no problem...but leave your email!

7) The winner will be chosen by random drawing on Thanksgiving Day.

8) I will post the winner's name and we will work out delivery instructions at that time.

a) Stitchers Journal

b) JBW French Country Amore'

c) DMC Linen Floss collection

d) Little House Needleworks - Two Red Houses

This giveaway is hosted to thank all of your for reading my blog, for leaving me lovely comments, and for broadening my horizons with your clever blogs as well. I know I have fun 'window shopping' and looking at the eye candy on others sites. I have seen and learned so much by following others. Thank you all for visiting my blog today.

All the items are unused. Some are from my stash and some are from my LNS.

e) Thread cutter and magnifying glass with 3 x 5 graph tablet

f) Magnifying glass** This is everso 'gently' used. I used it like twice and decided I didn't like it

g) Milleneum ABC Sampler

h) Bent Creek Christmas Row

i) Rosewood Manor Charming Tulips

Blogoversary!

2009-11-07T07:50:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delay in the Blogoversary posting. We have had a death in the family. Although it was following a long illness one is never really prepared. My time since last week has been spent making arrangements with family and going over details. We have had some warm thoughts and good laughs remembering a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grandmother.

I hope to be able to photograph my give-a-way and post by tomorrow (Sunday). Right now I have kids sleeping in the room with my stash! I hope to get some stitching in this morning as things wind down after yesterday's services. Stitching is always what calms me, releaves my tension and keeps my blood pressure down. All of you who stitch know the therapeutic value of needle and thread.

Becky's got us all beat!

2009-11-04T05:51:00.003-05:00

I follow Becky's Bee Stitching Hive http://beckysc.blogspot.com/. Her site and work are beautiful and equal to her decorating for holidays. She goes right from Halloween to Christmas.

I was checking her site out this morning and see she has a Christmas tree in her kitchen. A few years ago when I started doing the same, no one got it. It was just more evidence to my family that I was goofy. But I figured why not? So, for Becky, here's the photo I dug out of my album. Not the best photo. I don't remember the tree looking so skimpy on the decorations. I used cookie cutters, little whisks, strung popcorn and cranberries, other kitcheny stuff and somewhere on there are gingerbread men. Actually if you click on the photo you will see the cookie cutters that are not showing up.

Not much stitching going on so far today

2009-11-01T14:20:00.009-05:00

First, my little Gavers in his Halloween costume last night giving me his Batman pose, then his mom, or rather my wonderful d-in-l!.

Yesterday after work - yes another Saturday spent at the office - I went to the Goodwill Store. I am usually at the back door dropping off but went inside to shop today. I got a sparkling holiday shell, a gray wool blazer, a BRAND new Jones New York white blouse and you know you can never have too many of white tops. I also got two new sweathers and neither of these looks like they have ever been worn. Five items for $19. What an inexpensive way to broaden my wardrobe. The is the ultimate recycling.

I did manage a bit of stitching during the week. You know how sometime you stitch and stitch and don't see or feel any progress? Well at least it happens to me......sometimes I feel like I am stitching in slow motion. That was not the case this week. I seemed to be able to show progress even if I didn't stitch for hours on end. It's too bad the pink peony intersecting hearts in the center don't show up to well.

Picked up a new book last week and I can be almost as obsessed with reading as stitching. I can't put this book down. It is called "Turning Angel" by Greg Iles. A very easy read and a real page turner. It is set in small town south. A prominent doctor has an affair with an underage girl and she gets murdered. Oh course he is a suspect and the powers to be seem to be trying to railroad him. All kinds of twists and turns, drugs and back room politics and that is all I can say without giving too much away. This is the first book by Iles that I have read and I know it won't be the last. I can just picture the antebellum mansions and the spanish moss on the trees and Smokey and the Bandit cops.

I hope to post my Blogoversary giveaway this week. I have a pile of things and need to do a little stash cleanout to see what else I can come up with as well as hit the LNS for some fibers.

Off to the treadmill and then need to bake a birthday cake for Gavin. He is 8 years old and wants a Devil's Food cake and the homemade ice cream that I will wait and make with him after dinner tonight will be a surprise. Lord knows we have enough Reese's peanut butter cups to smash up and add.

Note: My daughter has spoken to her husband who is in his hotel in Tanzania getting ready for bed. He is there to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! Why? Because he can. He has to be 'in country' for 24 hours before the expedition. His climb starts on Monday. This is his first big climb and we are happy, anxious and excited for him all at the same time. Go Mikey!

Fitness Plan Challenge

2009-10-30T20:30:00.003-04:00

I've got to do something here. The menopause pounds, the quitting smoking pounds and the need to help justify the hours spend on the internet which has comtributed to the lack of physical activity.....need I say more. Face it, cross stitching does not exactly keep one in shape. I log in everyday to check email, update my website, check blog posts, look at ebay sales, window shop at cross stitch sites and why not obligate myself to log in a record my treadmill progress? I need to get my incentive somewhere so if it is because others are watching is what it takes, here goes. Watch carefully for if I faulter........I just might delete this section. For now, I will list the date, the distance and the time I walk. I do not plan to walk everyday but plan to walk more days than not. If anyone wants to join in, please just add a comment to this post. I will add your name, date, time and distance on the sidebar with mine. As Bugs Bunny would do, let hope I don't end up in Pismo Beach. Remembering that each journey starts with a single step here goes.

10/30 30 minutes 1.55 miles

Great Weekend

2009-10-28T22:40:00.009-04:00

The view on the interstate - foilage was much prettier than it looks

The sky was so pretty. So BLUE it almost hurt the eyes!

The upside of the Walt Whitman Bridge

The city in the distance from the Walt Whitman. Click on the pic and you can

see IKEA through the hand rails. A favorite store!

The city from the Schukyll Expressway

On my way home, Kelly Drive near Hunting Park

There is a statue of a man on a horse in the center of the shot.

Not sure how I managed to get this centered to perfectly. It is a statue of what appears to be Athen's wrestler. The Schullkyll is in the background. As always they were sculling and you can see them to the right.

Cool stone trusses for the train bridge. I almost want to hold my breath

for fear four cars wide won't fit at the same time.

Nice view as I get on the Vine Street Expressway

The Vine Street Expressway

I meant to get around to posting about my great weekend. I went to spend the day with my daughter in Philly. We always have a good time and we laugh a lot and get a little crafting in too. As I prepared to pack the car with my WIP's and my sewing machine and a few fat quarters to boot, I thought about how a few short years ago - well maybe 10 - I would have froze in terror at the thought of riding to the city, I would have had the white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, let alone driving it and by myself! Cells phones and GPS have taken away much of the fear of driving alone. I can't believe how far I have come from the little country bumpkin where there are literally no cars down the main street after 10 pm and for me who is accustomed to the unmonitored table of fresh produce that sits at the side of the road with the old coffee can for your money in it each summer to THE CITY! I am grateful for what I have learned from my children! So I took my camera with me and randomly shot photos along the way. There was no aiming; I was just pointing and clicking. I of course got the shots of my forehead and the headliner of the car as well at the shots of my lap and the shots of my floormats but I got some good ones too. First the leaves along my ride up the interstate. The photo does not do the brilliant colors justice. Now, over the river and into the city. The shots I took of Citizen's Bank Park (where the Phillies play) were not so good so I deleted them. But I got the skyline from the Schulkyll. I also got bumper to bumper traffic from South Street on. I had to stop taking pictures because the batteries in the camera were so low I had to let it sit on the passenger seat to kind of get its energy up. And I thought for fleeting moment someone might spy me taking photos and turn me into Homeland Security because no one but a terrorist would be randomly taking photos while driving on the expressway. I got some photos on the way home along Kelly Drive. How did I manage to get these two? And then there is the Vine Street Express Way...not a bad ride this time. The Ben Franklin Bridge....this is one of the coolest bridges. Again, pangs of fear that I may be construed as a terrorist. This bridge is a beautiful specimen. The train runs along the sides. It is really pretty at night with the lighting they have.

The Ben Franklin Bridge - the trains run right next to the car lanes.

Cool view for both the car passenger and the train passenger.

The Ben Franklin Bridge

A few years ago they discovered subway stations that were built in the uprights but apparently closed or never used. WOW!

Triple A Ball Park, Camden NJ

It was a different drive taking a camera. Here is a ball park where the Triple A team the Riversharks play. This is a cool view when there is a night game! You can see uprights for the Walt in the background. All photos should be clickable to enlarge. Hope all enjoy my photo journal as much as I did during the experience.

Oh yeah, and we crafted in between my commute to and from.

PS 11 p.m. @#$^^$@$!!!! Why is uploading photos sometimes impossible!!! And of course I deleted them off my camera. I will try again tomorrow by emailing them to myself and uploading from my laptop!

PS Duh! Why not just download them on to my Cruzer stick and then upload. Works like a charm! I need to do a little rearranging but at least I got them uploaded and labeled!

I need to make a decision

2009-10-27T05:46:00.000-04:00

It is the economy? maybe...... I put out a Pay It Forward and have not gotten any interest. I got me wondering if it is economics. I listed I would name winners this weekend and so far no takers. I don't want to not do my obligation (as a PIF winner!!) and not continue with the pay it forward concept but I think I may be pulling my offer until the spring. I guess there is not a timeline for me to actually offer the PIF other than within 365 days. Yeah, that's what I am doing. Moving out for 6 months. I have a Blogoversary coming up and that will generate more traffic and perhaps followers so check out my PIF in April 2010! What I have bought so far certainly won't spoil. lol! This whole economic depression hit just as the last of the kids moved out so while $$'s are tight the utilities and food bill are lower. That's not to say I am rolling around on a bed of money either. We have tightened our belts like everyone. Those 30 minutes showers kids take! Putting a shirt in the dryer for 10 minutes to get the wrinkles out! Not to mention their ravenous appetites. I actually have a half quart of milk that will spoil vs. the gallon a day consumed previously. If you have kids, you know what I mean.

So that's it. I made the decision. Stay tuned for a Pay It Forward in April 2010. Hmmm, that may even give my time to stitch a little something something to include.......may give me time.

The Crafting Moo

2009-10-25T06:19:00.003-04:00

Here's another nice give-a-way! See the Crafting Moo.

Comment Moderation

2009-10-25T05:38:00.000-04:00

I am so hopelessly computer illiterate! I turned on the little "Comment Moderation" thingie that means I have to approve comments before they are posted which is a good thing. Problem is I didn't know I did it or how or when. See, that is the computer illiterate part......the part that appartently goes on these happy clicking binges and doesn't know what she has turned off or on. Anyway, I am glad I did it and had wondered how to do it when I got the message on ther posted......comments will be reviewed by the moderator before posting......

A good evening

2009-10-24T23:26:00.001-04:00

hard to imagine if no stitching was involved.....met my brother and road together to pick up our sister and we all went to dinner to celebrate his birthday. No matter where we went because it could have been a hot dog stand. The point is we were together. We laughed until we cried, seriously. After dinner we went to the movies. We saw "Where the wild things are" and all I can say is....it was goofy. I thought it was a kids movie along the lines of Bridge to Taribithia or similar. Maybe it was a kids movie but......I had the feeling it might make more sense if you were high......or that in years to come we will find out that it has some sort of counter culture following with hidden meanings. Remember Peter Paul and Mary and that majic dragon? There was a message to the movie but it was still goofy. No matter, we still laughed and ejnoyed each others company and had a great evening.

I'm off to work

2009-10-24T07:37:00.005-04:00

Yes it is a Saturday and I am (supposed) to be a M-F/9 to 5er. Now that's a hoot. Anyway, off to work today is all on me. The past couple of months I have reigned in the extra hours but alas the work backs up. Somedays I feel like a ball in a pinball machine bouncing about and not really doing a heck of a lot. This week has been a series of those days. I figure I can get three days worth of work done on a Saturday morning because I will be there only one there!!! That pile of undone items prays on me and starts to seep into my senses and gets me down. So before I start to freak out about it, in I will go. This is a triple play though for me.......I need to take my Jeannette Douglas Pineapple stitches to the

framer. This is not the best picture but it is what I have as my desktop background on my laptop. I completed it almost two years ago, rolled it in tissue paper and put is with the other completed but not finished pieces. I had it with me yesterday and intended to stop in on my lunch hour but stuff came up. It wasn't a big deal to delay my trip one more day after 22 months! I will also be doing some stash enhancement today. Criss Cross Row, internet shop, is having a sidewalk sale at a local yarn shop. Unfortunately Martha C. who ran that shop has decided it is time to close. This was my motivation a few weeks back to sort and organize my stash and make my spreadsheet of fabrics needed. The past few years for Martha C. have been filled with her husband's illness and passing. If not from Criss Cross Row, you may know her from The (successful) Academy of Needlework event she held in Newark DE a couple of years back. My guild, Delaware Valley Historical Sampler, which she is one of the founders, keeps the members informed on her status. Anyway, I will be heading there after I leave work to stock up on fabrics, fibers and the like. I will make sure I pick up items for my Blogoversary give away that is coming up and for the PIF I have posted. After shopping, an early dinner with my sister and brother for his birthday......then home to stitch away the evening and play and fiddle with my new purchases. PS. I have one finish this week that I will post tomorrow and maybe if I am good tonight, I will have two to post tomorrow!!!

Pay it forward

2009-10-21T21:49:00.002-04:00

Random acts of kindness are the best.   To do things with no motive or hope for any personal gain is truly selfless. Have you ever done something nice for someone without expecting something in return? Or, has someone done something for you just because? Didn't it make you feel warm inside? That is the premise behind paying it forward. When something good happens to you to share that good fortune and good feeling with someone else is to pay it forward.

In the spirit of PIF'ing, Meari of Meari's Musings offered to Pay It Forward. I thought it sounded like fun, so I commented to her post and said please count me in.....and I was one of her lucky winners.  It is now my turn to Pay It Foward! It is easy. No sewing involved, and I have have 365 days to send out my Pay It Forwards surprises.

To Pay It Forward here's what you need to do:
1. Send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. Send things you would be happy to receive.
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

To be included in my Pay It Forward -
I'm going to draw for three winners. If you are interested in Paying It Forward, please comment on this post. Feel free to tell your friends too. Remember you have to be willing to reciprocate on your blog. If there are more than three comments, the names will go into a drawing to determine the winners.  I'll announce the PIF receipients Halloween weekend and you can reply at that time with your email address.   Good Luck All!

PS I am just as excited to do the planning and the shopping.
If you haven't seen the movie, put it in your Netflix que and get out the tissues.

PIF

2009-10-20T06:35:00.002-04:00

I wasn't even going to log in this morning. I thought a better way to spend the next 45 minutes before I start to get ready for work would be to stitch. But the laptop is sitting here beckoning and alas I have no will power over it.

I am so happy that after a quick check of emails for verify meetings and dinner dates, I jumped to my blog. What a pleasant surprise to see some fantastic news today..... that I was picked by Meari on her PIF (Pay it forward) blog post! How cool. I can't remember when I won anything. Maybe an office 50/50 but this is better. It's stuff! I will receive 5 stitching related items in the next 365 days. I will have to check out the rules and see if they all are to be sent at once or spread out over the year. This is fun and imagine how exciting to come home from work and find a surprise in the mail.

Now it's my turn to give it to three other people!

I'm gonna be drawing for three people to do this for. Please watch for my post with instructions. Remember you have to be willing to reciprocate on your blog.

If you haven't seen the movie, put it in your Netflix que and get out the tissues.

Brrr!

2009-10-19T06:43:00.001-04:00

The news is talking FROST! Boy I wish I were retired and could just snuggle and stitch away the day. But alas I need to go to work to pay for my (stitching) addiction. Wishing all a good week and happy stitching.

Blog Frog

2009-10-18T22:45:00.002-04:00

This is pretty cool. Check out the new widget in my sidebar: A Blog Frog! It's a fun thing. I think it is neat to see who's been visiting and it gives props to your blog when you visit mine. If you like it, you can add the widget to your blog! You check out mine, then I can check out yours. hmmmm, now that sounds a little dirty. lol

(Near) Finishes

2009-10-18T18:45:00.004-04:00

I had hopes that by the end of the weekend I would have the bottom of my Petit Sampling Etui completed but obligations got in the way. The community theater group that I am part of ---- worker bee, not a stage bee! --- had our annual follies this weekend so it consumed much of my potential stitching time. The pink in the center is hard to see. I am closing the gap on the border and hopefully will be able to finish it this evening. Second, is my Dinah Sampler Name Tag. I needed to work on something I could complete rather than this etui that is consuming so much stitching time with more to do. The name tag is from the Nan Tyson Euler class I took in early September. This is not the best picture since I just wanted to get the shot and get it posted. Nan incorporated in her class the story of Dinah, slave to the Logan family of Philadephia, and how she saved the families possessions from the British while the familiy was abroad. I just need to complete the last band on the sampler and then the finishing into the name tag. I know I will be able to move both of this to the finished column by the end of the week. At last, a finish!

Rain rain and more rain!

2009-10-18T08:59:00.001-04:00

I can't believe it is raining again or rather still raining along the mid-atlantic. My poor daughters came from opposite directions each traveling a couple of hundred miles to meet in Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool Festival. I am sure they are having fun even if the weather is not agreeable. I can't complain about the weather while I sit all comfy in my pj's by the fire. I am thankful I don't have to travel as they do and will feel better when they each reach their respective homes and states.

Nesting

2009-10-17T17:06:00.005-04:00

I pulled out the junk door this morning or rather I should say I tried to pull it out. Or course it would not open all the way and the decision was instantly made to drop all I was doing and have a grand sort out of the imfamous junk draw. We all have one, some of us have more than one. And my children will tell you the grand sort outs in our house never turn out well. When the kids were younger the sort outs of their rooms took longer than the patience allowed. Unfortunately if your room was last you regretted it.

It is hard to imagine all the was crammed into this drawer. It was a walk down memory lane. Four lighters from the days of smoking; a beach tag from the summer of 1999 for Sea Isle City and the memories of that summer; paint chips with colors I chose to use and others that made me wonder what was I thinking; photographs; miniature little stop signs and traffic signs fit for matchbox cars; cup hooks, gum, candy, screws, toggle bolts, alan wrenches (5), matchbooks and business cards from a needlework show or a from a friend with a new position.

First I got rid of the trash - yes trash - candy wrappers, etc. and I must add the cabinet the houses the trash can in directly below the junk drawer. Someone must have had only enough energy to open the drawer and was apparently not strong enough to open the cabinet and pull out the trash can.

I separated all like things and proceeded to put all the nail clippers and files in the victorian flower tin in the bathroom that first housed these things in my mother's bathroom when I was a child and now has a place in my bath. I put all the rubber bands on the magnetic hook on the side of the fridge; all the cough drops were relagated to the tupperware container in the pantry with all the others; and the extreme amount of change ~ not~ all 52 cents went into the rosewood bowl that sits on my dresser waiting for more change. I now know where all the tape is (5 rolls); I have enough lip balm for the winter (5 tubes); and more safety pins then I knew were in my house. I did leave one little compartment for the stray puzzle pieces, little green men and the extra dice for that critical time one is lost.

This got me going. I set off to my walk in closet in my bedroom to switchout the summer and winter clothes; to make a mending pile; to sort like things; get rid of the hopelessly stained; and hopefully I will even part with things that I truly know in my heart that my fat a$$ will never fit into again but I keep because nothing is wrong with them but the fit of course. [Right now I am taking a time out from the mess I created.]

This must be a fall thing. Last weekend I sorted the two cabinets housing canned goods, juices, pastas, and condiments and the other where the crackers, chips and cookies are. I found I had three of the same jelly, a giant jar of peanut butter that without the kids are home I won't use in two years time; two boxes of vanilla wafers among others things that I bagged up and sent home with my son.

There is just something about things being where they belong. When Monday to Friday we are so busy with the rat race I need to be able to not waste time searching for things. ....less time looking for things kind of equates to more time to stitch that way I see it.

Blogoversary!

2009-10-14T21:56:00.002-04:00

My blogoversary is coming up and I have to think of a giveaway. Time to search my stash and see what I have and what I can get together. I know I have fabric and fibers and leaflets. I wanted to go to Lancaster this weekend to the Stitching Jubliee but don't think I will make it. I will try to put something together and get it launched this weekend. Stay tuned!

Yikes! Ebay boo boo

2009-10-11T21:40:00.001-04:00

I thought I was only looking and I thought I only went to the next screen to have a look see. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. So imagine my surprise to open up my hotmail account with an ebay mail that I just purchased something! Well, it was one of those 'buy it now' so I guess that is what happened. That and watching TV and listening to my husband blabbing at the same time. All is not lost because I got a great deal on Item # 250431614860... The Jeannette Douglas, My Stitching Treasures. I wanted it anyway. But after just sorting my stash I swore off buying anything. I guess I am meant to have it!

Sign of the seasons changing

2009-10-11T16:52:00.002-04:00

I like all seasons. Each has an element that I start to crave as I grow tired of the current season. Like so many things as I grow older, the pages on the calendar seem to fly off and bring the change of the seasons without me knowing what happened to the last one.

I rode through town on Friday on my way to work rather then jumping on the interstate. I had to stop at the gas station on my way in. Lou's Sunoco. OMG Lou's has been there since I was a child. I remember growing up and Lou was in the National Guard with my brother-in-law but I digress. Lou still works everyday and pumps gas when the lines are long. And they are frequently for he has the best price. As I road through the tiny village (seriously) where my elementary school used to be before it was torn down and a credit was put in it place, I passed the park where we had our school picnics. The township road department was there preparing to install the roll upon roll of snow fence. I don't want to assume everyone knows what snow fences are so I will take my camera to work one morning and stop to photograph these harbingers of winter. Snow fences are typically temporary fences erected along open roads where wind could cause drifting during snow storms. I'm thinking it may be a bit early but I guess the road department has it on their calendar and know what they are doing.

As I proceeding to the bridge I was greeted by another sure sign winter is not far behind. The grass cutters were out cutting all the wild flowers down in preparing for winter. At lot of the approaches, medians and cloverleaves on the interstate are teeming with wild flowers rather than grass. A pretty ingenious idea I think. No care, all self-seeding and it drastically reduces the amount of grass to be cut and saving the township and state money man hours spent cutting the grass. It is beautiful to see everyday as I travel to work. The cosmos, shasta daisies, black-eyed susans and more, all waving and moving in the breeze. Now gone and soon too be roadways lined with snow fences.

Guild Meeting

2009-10-09T23:28:00.002-04:00

Got a guild meeting in the morning that I am looking forward to. We are have a guest lecturer in to talk about civil war attire. Her presentation is the "Under the Petticoat Tour". I have known the lecturer for 30+ years but never seen her performance. I hope I remember to take my camera!

Update - I forgot my camera in the last minute flurry to get out the door but I have the website of the group who did the lecture. http://www.grandoakplantation.com/index.html

Karma Gods have aligned

2009-10-08T22:51:00.009-04:00

Sometimes it takes months or even years but eventually all the planets align and all is right in the world (of work). Never mind how ancient history and my own desire to please got me into the overwhelmed work load place where I am today.

I sometimes think it is almost a sign of societal times. I am extremely confused about how anyone can take a job and then say there are certain aspects of the job description they don't/won't do. I mean what's up with that?   Isn't it that the person is to learn the job and not the job is to change to match the person?       The apathy some workers have towards work that is. Ever notice the sales people that act like they are doing you a favor waiting on you?   Hello! I pay your salary!!! If I didn't shop in your store, they would not need to have you here paying you to take care of me.

Anyway, the adage is true if you want something done, give it to a busy person and that I am guessing, in part, that is how I got extra 'jobs'.   But is that really fair to the busy person? A busy person has no more skills that then the next person. Does the busy person just have the better work ethic?   It's no big deal. No maliciousness. Sometimes self-imposed. It just happens while you strive to keep things going in the midst of change. But it is another straw on way to breaking the proverbial back.

Times they are a changing........two of the meetings I routinely cover are being re-routed to the appropriate departments and a major tracking report is moving to the appropriate department.   It's simple, if you had to do a report on widgets and didn't work with widgets but worked with gizmos instead, doesn't it make sense for the widget worker to do the widget report?      This is all such a relief.   It is very debilitating to come home ever day, week after week, month after month with more on the backlog list than when you started the day.   It is paralyzing to be in the grips an insurmountable list of to-dos.  It really makes you question your ability and sometimes your sanity. These changes could means about 8 hours of work per week which is about the average extra time I put in each week.   Some may think.....WaHoo! OT.....not a chance. I am a salaried employee.

I am watching the orbits carefully hoping I have not jinxed anything but two of the three are already in the works and the third is my choice when to implement so I feel good "da na da na da na" (imagining Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire singing with the dinosaurs.......). Life is good!

Another great giveway

2009-10-08T22:29:00.000-04:00

Check out Jennifer's blog at http://feathersinthenest.blogspot.com/