On Vacation

I'm in Los Angeles for a long weekend, visiting friends. It's been a nice break from the house renovations and other craziness that I've had going on at home lately. Right now I'm staying with the friends for whom I stitched the wedding sampler that is pictured in my previous post. I'm happy to report that it's hanging prominently in their living room. I'll also have an opportunity to take a picture of one of the other projects I stitched.

I was hoping to get some stitching done on the 5.5 hour flight out here. No such luck. I and about 20 other adults got the pleasure of sharing the flight with not one, but two, school groups making their way back to the west coast. While they weren't really acting badly, they were loud and a bit more active than a planeful of a regular mix of travellers. Everyone was very happy when the flight attendants (stewardesses is a much more fun word to type, btw) turned the movie on earlier than planned and then also let us watch a second movie.

I haven't made any further progress on my March SAL ornament, the flower basket. It requires a bunch of floss changes for the flowers, and I just haven't been in the mood for it. Since I wasn't working on it, I finally gave myself permission to start another project. I finally found the bunny pattern for the April SAL. It's a lot of color blocking, and it's going together quick. I started it last Sunday and have finished about half of it already. Just what I needed to get the stitching juices flowing again.

Wedding Samplers I've Stitched

Anna's Lists have made me think about all the projects I've completed since I started stitching in the late 1980s. There have been bunches. Despite the fact that I am generally a very organized person, I don't have good records about my stitching projects. I started a notebook at some point, but I was horrible about keeping up with it, and now I'm not sure where it is.

Having started a list from memory, I think I've stitched 11 wedding samplers and two smaller wedding gifts (a music box lid and a bread cloth). Unfortunately, I only have pictures of one of my wedding projects. The good news is that I can obtain photographs of most of the rest of them. I may have the charts for all but one of them.

This was stitched during the winter of 2006-2007 for a friend of mine that I've known since kindergarten. The pattern comes from the June 2000 JCS magazine.

Communicating at Work

As a follow up to my post about how to run a meeting, I point you in the direction of 10 Tools to Rev Up Your Business and Personal Communication. I found it very interesting.

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

When will the TV schedule be back on track?

All fall, I was glued to my TV. I usually don't get sucked into new series until they're at least a season or two old. This year was the exception. We were watching many a new show in the fall line up. There was something on just about every night that we wanted to watch. Granted a lot of these were in the science fiction and fantasy category, shows that often don't make it past a season or two anyway, but still...

All I wanted for Christmas this year was a DVR, which I received. The poor thing has barely been used.

I've not seen a new episode of any of our favorites from the fall yet. We've half-heartedly watched both episodes of Canterbury Law so far, only because they're new and there's nothing else on. I've seen all of the movies I'm interested in that are being offered on cable this month. I've been sick for over a week now. My head hurts too much for reading or stitching for any length of time. All I want to do is veg on my couch in front of the TV with 500 channels AND THERE'S NOTHING ON!!!!

When, oh when, will my TV be normal again? Please, oh please, let it be soon.

My Niece's Sampler

After posting last night, I realized that I hadn't seen my younger niece's birth sampler in a while and that I probably hadn't worked on it since November. This made me curious, and I went looking for it. I found it tucked in a bag on top of the dresser in my craft room. Along with it were the Raspberry Parfait and Old Brick sampler threads I'd been missing when I wanted to stitch my heart ornament for February.

I was right in guessing that I was about 2/3 of the way done. When I pulled it out last night, everything but the two hearts had been stitched. Now I just need to add my niece's details and it will be done. Yea!

A Child was Born by Lizzie-Kate
on 32 ct. Mist. Blue Belfast
with GAST threads, but not the ones recommended

A New Project

I started a new project while I was sick the last few days. Being home during the daylight is conducive to stitching, although I did spend a lot of time napping too.

I'm working on the North Star Sampler from the Sweetheart Tree as a birth sampler for one of my nephews. Right now, I only have some of the viney parts at the top done, and it's not much to see.

Eventually, I'm going to stitch the Bluebells Sampler for another nephew, brother to the first. In both cases, I'm going to replace the recommended charm with a baby bootie charm.

I know, I know. This violates the Selfish Stitching in 2008 mantra. With the ornaments, I've made a good start on the S.S., and I needed a bigger project. Since I didn't have any bigger projects for myself calling loudly, I decided to work on these.

Also, I'm way, way behind on the birth samplers. At the moment, I have 6 niephlets -- 2 nieces and 4 nephews. All of them are under the age of 10. I have completed exactly two birth samplers, one for my older niece and one for my youngest nephew. Since all the niephlets except my youngest nephew belong to my sister's blended family, my sister has been bugging me about doing the rest of them.

I have the sampler for my younger niece about 2/3 of the way done. If I'm a very dedicated stitcher, I will be able to finish stitching the remaining four this year. (I even have the pattern for the last one chosen.) So that's my goal as of now. Wish me luck.

Sick Day and a Photo

I was so excited about Daylight Savings Time starting on Sunday. Yes, I hate to lose the hour, but I love having the daylight in the evenings. This was mitigated by the fact, unfortunately, that I was coming down with something. I stayed home sick from work today as I have a head cold and a horrible sore throat.

In the afternoon, my energy finally popped up a level, and I decided I could work on stitching something. I knew that if I pulled out the flower basket ornament I'm working on, I'd flub it up, as it requires lots of color changes. Instead I went looking through the other SAL ornaments that I needed. I still haven't found a bunny I like, but I found a bird pattern (May's category) that I liked and that I couldn't mess up too badly. I have other bird patterns I like, so this may or may not be my official May ornament.

It's from the 2004 Better Homes and Gardens Cross-Stitch Christmas magazine, designed by Lynda Orme and Wendy Peatross. I stitched it on a scrap piece of linen with threads leftover from a kit. It's about 1.5" square. I almost stitched it over one instead of over two, and I'm really glad that I went over two. Otherwise, it would have been miniscule.

It's going into the pile of things that need to be "ornamentified" for now. I was fortunate enough, though, to score some scrap archival (acid- and lignon- free) mounting board from my office. I'm running out of excuses for not making these projects up into ornaments.

Another Book Meme

This time, I know where the list originated: Poppy Buxom. (And I was reminded of it by Anna.)

Books I'm Amazed Nobody Ever Made Me Read
Anything by... Dickens, Austen, Joyce, the Brontes, Faulkner
Any of those dark, depressing Russian books
(If it's a classic, I probably haven't read it.)

Books I've Never Been Interested in Reading
Anything highbrow. If it's Literature, I'm not terribly interested.
Anything having to do with abusive relationships.
I'll read most genre fiction, although I'm not keen on western, military, or historical novels.
I don't read a lot of nonfiction for pleasure, either, except travel memoirs.

Books I Never Managed to Finish
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury -- It's the first book I didn't finish reading. There have been others since then, including some of the books on the previous book list, but it's the first. Since I'm a compulsive reader, it was very difficult to give myself permission not to finish it. It's still on my bookshelf however, so ...

Books I Finished and Liked Quite a Bit, Although Going Into It, I Felt Extremely Wary
I haven't been able to think of any in this category, but I suppose I started out wary of anything that I was required to read in school. The only book I read for school that I ended up liking was To Kill a Mockingbird.

Books for which the quip "Kill me. Now." was invented
1,000 Acres by Jane Smiley
The Two Towers by J.R.R.Tolkien (all that walking and bad poetry; I thought it would never end)

Books they made me read so often I hated both the books and them
The only book I was made to read more than once, that I can recall, is the aforementioned Gabriela, which I actually like.

One of those weird things about me: Because I grew up in a rural place, the nearest public library wasn't real near by. As a result, I was stuck mostly re-reading whatever books I owned or could borrow from neighbors over the summer, when I couldn't borrow books from the school library. We didn't own a lot of books. I can't tell you how many times I re-read the Little House and Nancy Drew books. One consequence of this is that I tend to forget the details of what I've read, particularly in novels, fairly quickly. To this day, I re-read a lot of books, which some of my friends think is completely bizarre. On the other hand, I can usually remember where I've read something and go back to it fairly quickly.

Stamping, not Stitching

I haven't been stitching much. My March Bride's Tree SAL ornament, a flower basket, has the basket done but no flowers yet. It'd look like a brown lump if I showed it to you, so I won't.

Last night was stamp camp. We made four projects, rather than cards this time: a tissue box for pocket-packs of tissues, a candy bar gift package, a tote bag for cards (my favorite, very cute), and a package for holding little sticky notes. Hopefully pictures of them with be up on my demonstrator's website soon, and I can provide you with a link.

Last night was all about scoring and folding paper and less about stamping. Unfortunately, I left my paper scorer/cutter at camp and had to hand cut the cards I made today. They're Easter cards. I'll post a picture later, after the intended recipients have a chance to receive them first.

Impatience

This morning as I drove to work, I was given "the bird" for not running a late yellow light through a messy and dangerous intersection. Just after I noticed the gesture, I also noticed the lights of the police car behind the offending person. Then tonight I nearly was rear-ended as I tried to parallel park in front of my house, despite having my turning signal and brake lights on.

Both of today's incidences reminded me of something that happened a couple of weeks ago. That morning I woke up to the unmistakable sound of a car bumper crunching. This sound happens all too frequently near my house, as I live on a major commuter street into downtown DC.

The story that morning was the same as it usually is. A commuter driving down a side street, attempting to get across the inbound traffic lane, forgot to check the outbound lane for traffic. (The other variation on this is that the driver on the cross street thinks that the main drag of traffic also has a stop sign, which it doesn't. Shortly after the accident I'm describing, the city finally installed signs reminding drivers of this fact.)

In this case, the damage was limited to the cars of the two drivers who collided. In the past, I've seen wrought-iron fences and trees taken out. There's one corner a couple of blocks down, with a traffic light mind you, where the fence has been hit several times. The worst case of property damage that I've seen was the house that had it's front corner knocked askew. I've not witnessed anybody being gravely injured so far, but I know it could happen and worry that it will.

I reverse commute. Even with the lighter traffic load, there are places where I too become frustrated (like the dangerous intersection mentioned at the top of this post). When I see accidents like the one, it reminds me to slow down and be more careful. It's not worth the risk to me or my car to save an extra minute because I'm impatient.

Everyone needs a Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lady Madame Cindc the Cosmopolitan of Dramble Buzzcock Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Six Word Meme

I found this on Poppy's Blog. The challenge is to describe yourself in 6 words. Here are mine.

Gregarious Washingtonian Librarian Stitches Logical Fun.

Your turn now.

Book List

Stitch Bitch posted this on her blog. I just had to jump on the bandwagon. It’s about books, afterall. I did better than I thought I would, but if you take out Rowling and Tolkien, I’m not doing so well. What an odd list. I wonder who came up with it. Sadly, there aren't any books on the list that I really want to read that I haven't already read. I'm more likely to rent the movie versions.

I added the * star condition, because I think it’s important to know what was required reading. I limited to pre-college schooling, because in college you do have some choice as to what classes you take, which is how I ended up reading Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado three different times.

~~~~~

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. * Star the ones you were forced to read in your schooling before college. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) *
4. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) *
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell) *
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible * (some)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) *
81. Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) *
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) *
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In the Skin of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Card making

Last night, I made a bunch of cards. Most of them are for the monthly swap in which I'm participating. The theme this month is "why did I buy this?" I used a scrapbooking kit I received last year as a bonus as well as a stamp set that I hadn't used yet. The first picture is a sample of the cards I'm submitting in the swap. This card is 4.25" x 5.5".

The second photo is a variation on the theme. This set was made using the leftover scraps from the swap cards. This card is 3" x 6 ".

The third card is yet another variation, since I had everything out. This will be the mother's day card for my Mom. I also made a card for my mother-in-law. This card is 3" x 6 ".

Off now to work on my taxes. Bleah.

Another February Finish

I finished this earlier in the week, but it's been a hectic week for me, so I haven't had a chance to post it until now. I've been wanting to stitch this for a while now, but I didn't know when I was going to get to it. I thought about doing it as the heart, the rose, the bird, or the House for the Bride's Tree SAL, but it didn't feel right for any of them. Since I finished my February ornament for the SAL early in the month, I decided to do this next.

Washington, DC, freebie
Hearts of America Learning Series by Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler
Stitched on off-white evenweave with the recommended flosses

I've since moved on to my March flower basket, a pattern I've stitched before for Mrs. Brave Astronaut. I liked it a lot and had almost enough leftover floss in the kit that I figured I'd go ahead and do it again rather than trying to find a new pattern.

One of these days, I need to go back to stitching larger projects, but for now, I'm enjoying working on the small ones.