Holiday de-Stressing

I am so fortunate to have saved a couple of days vacation. I am now off until the 29th and do I need it . Work - I love my job - but the workload is heavy, the interruptions many, the stress level high and there are too too many fires that crop up each day that need to be put out. Sure I'm just an Admin but there are times that I seem to be the Admin everyone goes to because they know I will have or get the answer. Great! I am responsible so I get responsibility.

At last posting I was worried about my loan applications for work. All five have been completed, the exhibits pulled and everything was left with one of girls who works for me to copy and bind. When I do return to work, most will be off still so in addition to putting in an hour a day at home over the break to catch up, a week with little or no interruptions will help me put my best foot forward for the new year.

But anyway.....that is the work family.......now for my real family.........

One daughter is on her way trekking the interstate through snowy New England. We hope to see her around 6 tonight. She will be here for a 8 days. That will be so nice! Eldest daughter has been sick and has been on edge worrying about the economy and threatened layoffs at her job. She thinks it could go either way.......but did get a reprieve and found out she is good until June 30 at least. Her husband started a new job and is very happy as we are for him! Yeah Mikey! My son, who was out of work for close to a year, now has been working again since the end of September. Thank heavens he got a job before the economy took its turn for the worse. Never having been out of work, except by choice, I can't imagine how devastating it is to keep putting yourself out there and getting the thanks but no thanks. He tried and succeeded for the most part in keeping his desperateness from me. It is hard to not know what the right thing to say is. We finally did have a heart to heart and I explained that althougth he was trying to keep the pain from his father and I, it appeared to us that he was appathetic and just floundering along. There can be a fine line between encouragement and nagging. Thankfully, all are employed, all are healthy and all is well.

So for all the things I thought I would not get done I say Bah Humbug! I decorated the house today as well as cleaned. The beds are made up for when my family arrives. Tomorrow I will grocery shop and bake cookies all day long! All that will leave is to wrap. I feel that will take all of Monday. Now that we have a 6 year step grandson, I can no longer put out the packages ahead of time so wrapping in the upstairs spare bedroom it will be. For now, he thinks I am working on a glass project and don't want him to get hurt on my tools. Oh the shame of it and how trusting little ones can be. He, of course, thinks I walk on water.

But anyway, the the point is to not stress out. It will all get done. It always does. Maybe a little of lowering the expectations along the way so as to not overwhelm ourselves. I mean who really puts up three full size Christmas trees and who really notices that every towel is folded the same way and every magazine is tilted at just the same angle and that all the holiday bows throughout the house match! I mean, I need to get a life and not be so absorbed in appearances. Really, who will see it other than my children and they have to like me!

........for now, I have my to-do list and for the most part content with my progress. As for the list, I have a perpetual list! What's that all about? Some never have a list and get along fine............I need to refer to the above paragraph about expectations and take my own advise.

Have you been there?

Geez! Another night and no sleep for me. Wide awake, tossing, turning. So what do you do after an hour of that.....you get up. I guess it is the time of the year or a mom thing or a busy person thing. I have had a thousand thoughts running through my brain at lightning speed. How will I get the wrapping done, I haven't finished decorating, what are we eating, the house needs cleaning, the Christmas cards aren't done, the laundry is backed up, and then there is work, minutes are behind, loan applications are due, month end reports, year end reports ....... all this and the million ways to solve them and then worst of all......I am wide awake worrying that I won't get up on time.

Again with the New Year's Resolutions!!!

Enough already. Like why would this year be different? The promised to keep up with the cleaning and ironing and to complete projects and to not work too hard and to use the treadmill. I will go on record now that whatever I pledge to do.................has the high probability of not making in to next December. Not that I want to be negative and defeat myself before I start, I am a realist.

Take for example, I log on and post so often. And as I reread my last post - May 2008 - I am well aware I had good plans and good intentions but not necessarily good follow through. Let's recap....

A year in review -
I joined a needlework guild - Delaware Valley Historical Samplers Guild. These women are so very talented, so very knowledgeable not to mention so very friendly. Month after month interesting speakers or hands on projects are on the agenda. I sit and absorb their knowledge. Having no formal education in stitching I think it better to just attend and take it all in. These women (and the occasional man) do beautiful work and each month come in with a batch of completed projects. I have never seen such prolific stitchers. I look forward each month to the meetings and regret having missed the November meeting ( I was in Massachusetts) and the December meeting (doing much needed Christmas shopping and a baby shower).

My daughters and I again went to Celebrations in May in Nashua NH. We had a great 4 day visit with my younger daughter who lives in Massachusetts. Lots of laughing, lots of shopping, lots of stitching and a few 'beverages' as well. We all took the Jeannette Douglas Pineapple Stitches class together. It has been fun to compare progress with each other or to call and say....what do we do here? Absolutely feel in love with Jeanette's "My Stitching Album" and signed on for the whole deal. Getting mine auto-ship from Mimi's Attic in PA.

June - July - August
...kind of melded together. Lots of weekends and almost every other one was a day trip or weekend here or there. Went to NYC - never really had been except to drive across the dreaded the George Washington Bridge - The GW - and use the Cross Bronx Expressway. It had to be the hottest weekend of the year. We actually went into the subways just to get the rush of air to cool off. Great day of shopping and walking through Central Park. We plan another trip to visit museums, etc.

Always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon....well I didn't ride but I went to a hot air balloon festival in north Jersey and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the town. It was in Hunterdon County. It was so incredibly awesome to watch the whole event unfold. The whole ritual from the vehicles pulling up, unloading, laying mats, unfolding, inflation and liftoff. Learned a bit about ballooning along the way. Did you know the best time to take off is at sunrise and sunset? Well we watched the sunset launch and yes we did get up to watch the 6 a.m. launch the next day. I have such a great friend - Debbie - who trudges along with me as I fulfill these fantasies.

Old fashioned Ice Cream Social - the Salem County Arts Alliance, of which I am a member, hosted the first annual Ice Cream Social. Ice cream, lemonade and an authentic civil war band in a gazebo. It was a neat event and well received. Hopefully we started a new town tradition. So many people pulled together to make it happen: The PG-CP Women's Club, the Salem County YMCA and the Penns Grove Rotary Club.

More day trips to Chestnut Hill in Philly, to Old New Castle in Delaware, to Lambertville and New Hope ......... and a weekend in Cape May. For a while there is was one weekend home, one weekend away. And although that sounds like a blast, boy did my yard and house show the lack of attention by September. The thing is my husband travels with a youth group every weekend so I am left to my own devices.

In September we had a local landscaping re-do our front yard. The soil was a mess and the grass all sparse no matter what we did. Also the remaining roots from a tree that came down three years ago were doing nothing but sprouting these mushrooms that were like potatoes! Yuck. Of course, my husband who was kind of like,"why do we need someone to do this? Can't you do it?" is now of the opinion, ......"bring Frank back in the spring to do the other side!" It does look nice and it is all part of the spruce-the-place-up-before-we-move (STPUBWM) plan. That plan has also involved painting..........

Managed to paint one bedroom upstairs and of course it is not as simple as on those home shows to which I am addicted. Painting the room including making new curtains, ripping up the wall to wall, new light covers, new outlets, repurposing some furniture, new interior doors for the closet and entry doors and all the other little touches that help make it complete. So of course one bedroom leads to the bathroom, the other bedroom and you know how it goes. The bathroom got new fixtures, new shelving, new light bar and new ceiling light. Some of the work is yet to be complete but that is on the contractor not me. I would like to tie up the loose ends before the holidays and touch up the paint and paint the trim but alas the contractor is busy just as the rest of us. In January I plan to recruit my sister to help me finish up the last bedroom. The entire upstairs will be in a soft cafe au lait color with white trim and all with new 6 panel doors. So for about $600 everything is updated and fresh. Again part of the before STPUBWM Plan. All that will remain is to have the hardwood floors redone. Got an estimate and hopefully we will able to pull off in the summer of 2009.

Another trip to Massachusetts in the fall to surprise my younger daughter on the event of her 30th birthday. Had been in cahoots with her boss for 10 or 11 months to make sure my daughter was not off on a business trip to the west coast. We pulled it off and showed up at her office with cake and balloons. It was great. She had no idea. So again a great four day weekend full of shopping, stitching, laughing and beverages! Of course beverages. While there we went to a fashion show at her LNS - Yarn and Fiber in Derry, NH. Pretty cool. The fashion show was in collaboration with Twist (I think, I will have to look that up and correct as necessary.) Derry NH is in the news this weekend because of the crippling ice storm. Researching the internet after the storm I read that the "Merrimack Valley is hardest hit" and that is exactly where my daughter is. Spoke with her and she lost power sometime Thursday night and spent Friday night in a hotel which was apparently not an easy task to find an open room. She was hopefully spending Saturday night with friends if she was still without power.

Another trip to NYC last weekend. Again my good mate Debbie hopped on the bus with me. Rockefeller Center was awesome the crowds were more awesome and yes those New Yorkers for the most part were friendly. You always have the irritated dad with no patience and assorted cuss words about the crowds and you have the privileged valley girl type that is a patron in Starbucks who makes the experience for the rest of us totally unpleasant because of her lack of patience and her being verbal about it. Right in front of her I gave the counter girl a tip and told her I knew what is was like to work behind a counter. The girls behind the counter were working hand over fist to keep up and the patron just stirred everyone up because there was a delay in the coffees being served. All I can say it get a real concern.....so what, you have to wait for coffee. Big deal. It is all good, we took a carriage ride in Central Park and Deb and I were happy with the world.

So that is my year in review and perhaps if I looked through my check register or credit card statements I would remember more events..........

In closing I wish all a joyous, peaceful, safe, healthy and happy holiday season. And as the season winds down, I am sure we ALL will be making those New Year's Resolutions.

God Bless America!

Happy Memorial Day one and all. It is the start of another summer. Summer brings to mind, lazy days along the river, swimming, walking barefoot, living in your bathing suit, blowing bubbles, flying kits, fireflies and just plain relaxing.



That said, it will be great to enjoy the above once the yard work is done. Thank heavens for these three day weekends. Yard is cut and sidewalks edged, fertilizer has been spread, flower beds spruced up and best of all, the pool cover came off this morning. So sounds like we are done and ready for fun.



Spring always brings such feelings of rebirth and makes me brim with ideas of things I want to paint or repaint, plant or repot, .... you get the drill. And that feeling just gets you started to be able to continue full force when summer arrives. The beach is nice but like everyone else gas prices and crowds turn me off. Let's keep it simple. Some of my best memories are the simple summer memories.



For this summer, I pledge to take every Sunday afternoon off. I could, if I didn't stop myself, find something to do 18 hours out of the day on both Saturday and Sunday. Then I go back to work only to feel like I had no time off. Why do I fuss so much about my yard and deck yet never take the time to enjoy it? Now that is a question we could debate for years.



Why is it that I always seem to be able to find something to do? Why is my list of jobs never completed? Could my husband be right - oh shutter at the thought - that I need to start one job and complete it before I start another? I didn't get the title of Queen of Unfinished Projects without a lot of effort on my part. I have friends that I drive by there house and there they lay on the deck soaking up the rays. When do they clean their houses and edge their sidewalks? Am I just too picky? I must just be a poor planner, a slower worked or someone who attempts to do too many things. I prefer the last option. Watch out when all of a sudden I complete a slew of all those projects.



I am on my way out to sit under the umbrella and work on a shawl I am knitting. Yes, sort of another new porject. But alas, my daughters are knitters and spinners so the cards are against me. We were recently in Lisbon Maine at Spunky Eclectic and I bought some beautiful mauve and blue and gray and green dyed alpaca. I need to make myself a shawl for when I sit on the sofa in the evening and the cold air from the windows chills me. I don't need something to cover my hold body, just something when the draft comes in. So if I start now, maybe by next fall or winter I will be finished. I have about 50 rows done and I am actually getting a bit creative and trying to work in a pattern of ribs up the back. I am not a knitter but I am really bored with the back and forth knit knit knit. I have to try something. Off to knit..........and enjoy the birds and the breeze and the lemonade and not much else.........





The pool cover can wait to be scrubbed, the pillows that hold on the cover that need to be scrubbed can wait, the weeds and planting of my flower pots can wait.....for now I will sit with a big glass of Crystal Light Lemomade with a fresh orange slice in it (sorry, no lemons) and I will listen to the birds singing and the leaves blowing in the window....I'll watch my extremely intelligent cat catch a rock...somewhere in the distance is a holiday cookout with patriotic songs playing and the smell of their burgers and dogs fill me with more memories and I will truly make this my first of many weekends to come that I relax.......that is til we have to repeat the mowing, edging, raking, sprucing up routine again.......

Sorry Trina!

Sorry I have not signed into my blog since OCTOBER. Please see my comment below as well as the email I sent to your account. :-(

Stampin Up

Like I need another craft!



What cute cute cute stuff these demonstrators do. One of the girls at work is a demonstrator. Every other month she has a class in our lunch room after work.

Some things I have completed

Scroll down the right side to view some of my completed projects..........

Is it October? The calendar says so but not the thermometer!

Just back from the CATS Festival in Hershey. Sorry to say, they announced this is the last year. It is disappointing. There is certainly the interest. Like anything, I am sure it is no picnic to organize and run it. I can only imagine the headaches.

At any rate, my girls and I had a blast. We shopped and browsed the marketplace. There was not nearly as many vendors as in the past. We may not have bought a whole lot at the marketplace, but we did indulge. Those chocolate martinis are to die for. Great food and dinners were had.

Let's back track some.....arrival day is an afternoon at the Hershey Spa. OMG! Is this what people from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous live like! Cocoa scrubs, manicures, pedicures, facials. You know that spare change you throw in a jar? Well this is what mine is saved for!!!!

The marketplace was so minimal that we took a side trip on Friday to Mannings Wool and Yarn Shop in East Berlin, PA. Both daughters knit and one spins as well. Even mom bought yarn and pattern for a lacy scarf. I can knit but I am a challenged knitter at best. The highlight was the GPS directions on my daughter's phone telling us to ....'turn right on Peepytown Road'..... well if we didn't get the giggles over what I thought was PeePeetown Road. What can I say......sometimes we have no couth!

So back to the cross stitching part. Bought Jan Nan's Queen Bee pin cushion, bought another needle book - I think I subconciously believe I need a needle book for every WIP - bought a few JBW designs. So cute and so quick to stitch. Working on "le pumpkin" on Picture This Plus "Fossil" with Gentle Arts "Pumpkin" floss. (Or it may be Weeks Dye Works "Pumpkin"). Should be able to finish up this week and may a pillow out of it. Pix to follow

By far the least amount I have every spent at the show......but then we visited the outlets on the way home. Hey a girl needs new undies!

Three's a Crowd

I completed the Three's a Crowd design of Valerie Pfeiffer, Heritage Stitchcraft from England. Cute cross stitch of 3 chick-a-dees on a branch. Of course each has a personality that matches one of my children. I inserted the finished project in the opening of a trinket box. I purchase the DMC box last year as a Christmas present to myself. One of those things that I always wanted so I just got it. It was filled with needles, clover cutter, threaders, floss, linen, patterns and more. This is now my coffee table box to hold my current stitching project. Who am I fooling....current stitching projects! Multiply projects don't fit but I had good intentions.

Currently working on a Penny Rug Needle Case that I purchased in Nashua. It is a Donna Stefanik design from Heartsong Primitives.

Also, a graduation sampler for my son-in-law from Sweetheart Tree. I love the intricacies of Sweetheart Tree as much as they frustrate me. That project has been put aside for a couple of months. (photos may never follow!)

Lastly I am working on Autumn Roses Necessities Bag from Wendy White of Wee Works Sandwich, MA. This is on 40 count. I have not progressed too far and need to get moving. The deal with this one is that both my daughter and I took the class in Nashua in May and she is done! I will see her at the Stitching Festival in Hershey and we are going to compare progress which means I better get stitching. For the most part, this is stitched in one color so it makes it a great project to take a few minutes at lunch time and sit outside in the bright sunlight and do a bit.

Of course, you say I jest that this is all I am working on but remember the key word currently working on. That doesn't mean there are not a few more WIP - works in progress. These are the ones that I am actively working on! and of course there are more.....

Before the CATS Stitching Festival at the end of September, I need to review my project flyers, brochures, etc. and create a list of the linens and fabrics I need. Great booth at the convention of hand dyed linens, lugana, aida, and more from Picture that Plus. It will be my first stop when I attend the show. One needs to get there early before they are picked over and sold out of what you may want or need.

Summer's Over!

Where did it go? As we get older it seems to fly by even faster. This summer, for me, was filled with a lot of overtime Monday to Friday and weekend day trips. Some might think, wow, Overtime! but there is no money associated with it when you are salaried. It's all good. As with anything, there are push times and crunch times. We are down five employees in my department due to everything from resignation, retirement, disability to termination! We do what we have to do to get through these times.

I think the pace at work set the pace for my weekends. My husband supports a youth group and it lends him to be away a lot of weekends and leaves me to my own devices. So this summer - in no particular order .....

• I did some some landscaped rearranging - built a dry creek bed on my property - more like a little gully then a full fledged creek bed.


• Went to the theater with my daughter and saw Wicked! It was great. The show was great as was the walking around the city and strolling through the parks and shops around Rittenhouse Square.


• Had a graduation picnic for my son-in-law. What a guy! He spent 14 years in night school to get his engineering degree and he deserved a picnic! Of course, it was the hottest day of the summer and we all melted! Enlarge it, i is hard to see but it says 120! Silly me, I can' find the clearer photo. Must be on the other computer. Folks don't believe you get those temps. in Jersey.




• The annual removal of everything from the garage and the great purge of stuff.


• The annual sorting of closets and drawers followed by the huge drop off at Goodwill.


• Spent the day in St. Micheal's on the eastern shore. Road the ferry across the bay to the town of Oxford and walked the streets there. My travel companion had spent her summers as a child at a great aunt's house. We found the house and it is has been converted into apartments. As she was telling me about her memories of the old porch swing we looked up and the hooks were still there. It was an especially nice day for her.


• Deck parties! The son of a friend plays in a three piece acoustic band. They were called to perform last minute for a cancellation at a local restaurant with a deck on the river. They played to a packed house and have been invited back on subsequent weekends. It is great to have been able to watch these kids grow from babies to having babies of their own!


• Weddings - boy did I have weddings! I think there was a period of 4 months that I had a shower or a wedding almost EVERY weekend. Like I said, it is great to have watched these kids grow up and marry. Boy do I feel like my mother when I say....I can remember changing your diapers!


• Bought a book on Speedwriting to learn something new and to help with the fact that I am covering 6 to 8 meetings week due to turnovers at work. hmmm, I wonder where that book is? Must be buried in a pile of cross stitch.


• DCA Finals in Rochester New York and a side trip to the shores of Lake Ontario.


• Afternoons by the pool with either my sister or brother or both!


• Kutztown Folk Festival - I always wanted to go and finally did this summer. The crafts, the cloggers, the quilt display and the food! Need I say more?
• Porch painting - I decided to give the front of the house a little curb appear. I spruced up my front porch by getting rid of the tired stain by replacing it with crisp gray and what paint and a couple of Cracker Barrel rockers. Sweet! I meet with resistance from my husband and my son who thought it unnatural to paint the fir decking. Come on! It was at least 15 if not 20 years old. I like the end result and have even more plans. I think they protested just enough to get out of helping. Hopefully the before and after are obvious.


• Cross stitch and more. Not only did I do a fair bit of stitching, I started the summer with a trip to the Celebrations of Needlework in Nashua, New Hampshire in May, I am ending the summer with the Creative Arts and Textiles Show (CATS) in Hershey PA at the end of September. This will be the 8th year I have gone to CATS and it is a special treat because my daughters join me. They both stitch, knit and crochet beautifully. This year as well as last, we will treat ourselves to an afternoon at the Hershey Spa for choco scrubs and pedicure and facials. Followed quickly by the Chocolate Martini's once we check into the Convention center. Three days of heaven for a stitcher. We have even been known to do somersaults down the wide lush hallways. I watch, they roll!