One thing leads to another

You know how this happens....all of us do...how one time leads to another. How me buying Hubby a TV leads to new furniture.

Let's see if you can follow this non-sensical progression. I bought my husband a flat panel tv for his birthday in December. My first mistake was not buying but assuming it would go in our computer room. However, it went to the "Man Cave" outback or what some would call a storage building. It's all good. He spends a lot of time in there and he loves the tv but I digress.

So now with this heightened viewing ability we (or rather he) have decided we need one for inside the house as well. This additional purchase is first to be made after tour (August), then before tour (July), then before mini-tour (June), then it was to be with the tax return. So you get the picture. Needless to say, that plan went out the window and we already have the tv, it is mounted on the wall above the fireplace and has been in place several weeks. And again I digress.

So because we are now viewing tv in the family room more often, I needed more light for evening sewing. Enter the accomplice. Floor Dazor Light/Magnifier.

Today as I puttered around the house waiting for a repairman man, I cleaned and scrubbed and dusted and swept. I kept smelling the smell of marshmallows roasting. I look high and low, inside and outside to the neighbors and begin to think I am goofier than I thought. So what do I do, I light a candle. Of course, to make it smell nice for when the repair man gets here. You know that window of between noon and 6 pm.

My cleaning has progressed from the computer room, to the kitchen, to the bath, to the living room and now I am tidying up the family room and then I see it......a hole burnt into my sofa cushion from the sun shining through my magnifying glass. For a moment it took me back to the Lord of the Flies and using the eye glasses to start a fire......

Follow the progression below, #1 the culprit - the tv, #2 the accomplice - the magnifying light, #3 - the resulting burn in the marshmallow foam stuffed cushion and last #4 the solution to avert further tragedy - the cover aka the quilted tote bag. And that is why I have to go furniture shopping. Not really. I can plump and tuck the burnt part to the back and no one will be the wiser!

Finishes

Flying Colors - Just Nan - Really went out there on a limb - at least for me - with my color choice for this pillow but I like the final result. Debating about replacing the buttons with larger ones. This other finish is from a rediscovered completed cross stitch project. This is part of the months of the year from Shepherd's Bush. I completed the stitching on 6 of the 12 and put them away and never did the finishing work. I like the whole upholstered block look but I am no so sure about the bow. Another view showing the dimensional view.

I LOVE this site.

Great ideas, easy to follow directions!

http://www.needlepointers.com/

Calling all UFO's

I mean to tell you I didn't realize I have so much sh&% until I started sorting. I know I have STUFF but I really didn't remember all that I had.

It was almost like window shopping to dump and sort and let me fingers flip through charts as my mind raced at what to do next. Somewhere along the way I came across a jumble of projects that I finished stitching but I didn't do the finishing itself. So one stop and $58 later at Joann's, I have an assortment of fat quarters of which I will use to do the finishing.




Not wanting to do the same old thing and frame this and that, I found a neat little stand to sew and stuff and display. I hope I can accomplish as easily as the directions make it seem. That's the plan anyway for these three Shepard's Bush monthlys. I have the Feb and March complete, April is somewhere and I need to stitch Jan, and August through December! I was quite proud of myself that I kept up with the autoship for six months but alas.........






So, while millions, I mean MILLIONS, are watching the Super Bowl.....I for one will follow my own drummer and be content to stitch, stuff, tuck, turn and hopefully complete a couple of projects.

PS The best laid plans......I curled up on the sofa and watched the commericials on the new flat screen tv. My drummer was not drummer too loudly I guess.

Wedding!

My son was engaged at Christmas and the date is set. August 28, 2009. We are so excited. All the fun of making the plans. Wedding and reception at Brantwyn Estate, a duPont Mansion, in the Brandywine Valley of Delaware. We are going to have fun over the next few months AND be busy!

Break a leg........

The Arts Alliance (SCAARTS), of which I am a member, produced a Mystery Dinner Theater event this weekend. We were sold out! This is a first for SCAARTS. People still love Elvis! Our success is much to the credit of our performers who have their own following. ** See our star in action http://www.johnmonforto.com/ **

As with anything, not to diminish the excellent performers, the show itself is almost anti-climatic for me. My work starts on the drawing board with the other board members. We think about concepts, dates, casts, menus, lighting, sound, advertising. Then there is the running around to pick up plates and napkins, favors, table clothes, lights, centerpieces. (One new member traveled with her husband to three states to get the foil covered chocolates that looked like playing cards - you go Maureen!) This is followed by a long evening of pulling out tables and chairs to set and decorate the room, to place centerpieces and favors. You get the picture.

So again, not to take away from the great performances, the generousity of the patrons, the great food, I am and will always be a behind the scenes worker and have no desire to be under the spotlight. Rather if I think it is coming my way, I will shrink into the woodwork. It is just not me to want to call attention to myself. I can not give enough praise to those who can take the stage and perform and entertain the rest of us. For myself, I will continue to stay behind the scenes doing whatever I can to help those who do perform put on a show with my fingers crossed that all goes well. I guess the point is that many people contribute to a success and one should never diminish their contribution.

All and all it was a great event for SCARTS and hopefully we are on our way to establishing a standard annual calendar of events and, with that, create a larger following.

First 2009 UFO

I managed to finish my Pineapple Stitches, a Jeannette Douglas Teaching Piece. I took the class in Celebration of NW in Nashua in May 08. Great piece, great class. But as I have found after taking many of these classes over the years, I am not a creative type, I am a re-creating type. People oh and ah at my work and I feel somewhat like a I am taking credit for someone else's work. I have a creative tendency but can't think of it on my own. I know what looks good but need to copy what someone else has done. I wonder does that make me a plagiarizer of crafts? I guess I should work on how I could nurture and increase my crafting abilities.


Not the best pix.


At any rate, I find the instructions make sense when I am at a class but when I return home to my comfy couch and cup of tea to stitch, it all seems out of order. I guess I have trouble thinking out of the box. I mean, I need the Step 1, Step 2, do this now, idiot proof instructions. It is like people say that there are different kinds of learners - the visual, the auditory, etc. I am discovering I am the not reader of instructions type of learner. Of course I am SO VERY smart I KNOW what I am doing - not! I blame this in the overload and immediacy to complete tasks that seems to be my life. I am in too much of a hurry to put needle to fabric. Hmmmmmm, sounds like I need to re-evaluate from priorities. I definiately need to slow down and enjoy the moment and read the fine print along the way. We all have learned this could save countless steps to undo and redo later on.

Not to worry, I will continue to stitch or card stamp or craft in whatever way. And when one considers, especially in my cross stitch, that I always need to compensate several places within the piece, that I guess it is my own design after all.

What's next? I guess it is to do a stash search and sort and play and decide what I will work on. I have several started and a sensible crafter would begin there and finish a thing or two. But if you have ever looked at the stash a crafter keeps, you are well aware we are far from sensible. I do have a wedding - *My Son's* - on the horizon. That alone should point me in the direction of my next project - a wedding sampler. Seems to me, I remember having one started. I started the Celebrations 2003 Show piece by Marilyn of Stoney Creek with the idea I would adapt it to a wedding sampler when one of my children married. So without digging and messing about with my stash, I have made the decision. That is not to say on this cold windy day in the northeast that I won't find time devoted to digging and sorting through my stash. Sounds like a perfect afternoon to me.

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.