Happy Veterans Day

Wishing all veterans a day filled with peace, and remembering all of my family members who have served, particularly those still on active duty.

Here's a happy story to make you weepy.
Last Flight

I grew up near Geneseo, which is why this story caught my eye.

Tricky Brussels Sprouts

In my house, Brussels sprouts are fondly known as "the little green balls of death". Neither DH or I like them, although I could be tempted by this recipe.

So, five or more years ago, DH got this idea. When kids come to trick or treat, he would ask them if they wanted a "trick" or a "treat". If they said "treat", they received the usual candy. If they said "trick", well, they received a Brussels sprout.

The first year he did this, I was very nervous. I thought we might get a lot of upset kids or parents, and I was afraid our house might get pelted with Brussels sprouts. One of the rules we quickly adopted was that no kid under 6 got the Brussels sprouts. We felt that they were just too young to understand the joke.

To my surprise, the parents found this outrageously funny. Only one parent in the 5 or so years has been upset with us, and only one couldn't identify a Brussels spout. The 7-12 year old boys are the ones who are the most curious about what the "trick" might be and will try to talk their siblings or friends into the "trick" so they can see what it is. We either get a perplexed look or an "ewww" from the recipients. We had one girl near tears this year, so I relented and gave her some candy as well.

Halloween is a big event in my neighborhood. One street a couple of blocks over is the main drag for all of those in search of treats. The kids who come to our door are mostly from other neighborhoods and only stop as they are on their way to or from the other event. We like to think that our trick breaks up the routine a bit for them. I don't know if we've ever had repeat customers.

Post Halloween

I thought you might enjoy seeing my girls again this year. Yes, same costumes as last year. L had a terrible cold, so we limited ourselves to our block for the trick or treating. DH was up to his usual tricks, handing out Brussels sprouts to unsuspecting kids.

Halloween Card

Amazingly, I managed to pull these cards together one afternoon about a month ago. I think the little frog is really cute. The inside is stamped with "Happy Halloween".

All stamps are from Stampin' Up. The design is adapted from one of the catalogs.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, all!

Here's a photo of a piece I stitched way back in 1998. It's a Sue Hillis design, stitched on white Aida with the given DMC colors. This leaflet contained several charts, and I've stitched most of them.

Twins and Birth Order

After yesterday's post about my own birth order, I thought it would be interesting to explore what the site said about twins. Basically, they had nothing to offer. They said, "Twins can be any one of the three 'main' birth order types, therefore it is nearly impossible to describe them. However, what can be detected is which of the two children is the leader."

I actually disagree with this. Neither of my girls is the nature leader. The site also has wrong information about the differences between fraternal and identical twins.

What I did find interesting was that my girls both exhibit traits of being first borns and being onlies. One daughter has a few more aggressive traits and the other more compliant, but the each also has a few cross traits. Except for the not sharing part, they both exhibit the traits of onlies. Overall, I think they've gotten the best of all situations.

Birth Order

Lee has posted this month's SBQ. She asks:

Where do you fall in the birth order of your family? Do you think that birth order traits have had an effect on your choice of hobby and craft? How so?

Let's see. I'm the oldest of three, but because of the timing/spacing of us, I've often said that my mother has 3 "oldest" children. That's not entirely true, as my sister shows most of the traits of being the middle child, with a few of the oldest child traits. My brother, on the other hand, is truly both an "oldest" and a "youngest" in his characteristics. I also have 3 step-sisters, but they didn't live with me growing up, so they didn't affect the dynamic for me.

I think the need to craft comes from having to fill the time during long winters more than my birth order. And also maybe because we needed to make gifts instead of buy them. All 3 of us kids are handy or crafty. My sister likes to sew. My brother does woodworking.

On the other hand, two of my best friends from college are the oldest and neither of them is crafty. I once mentioned to one of them that I didn't think she had the "crafty" gene. She was terribly insulted. She can fix things, and she can sew, but she really doesn't craft as a hobby. She'd much rather spend her free time outside in her garden.

I do think my oldest child perfectionist tendencies led me to cross-stitching. I like things very neat and orderly. I don't like free form embroidery because I can't make uniform stitches. I'm not an artist or a musician, but cross-stitch allows me the freedom to create, which I very much need. It's also part of why I like baking over cooking (baking is all about measurements and timing) and basketweaving (lining everything up). I've gotten better over the years about "winging it", but I'm still out of my comfort zone when I don't have a plan/pattern/recipe/model to follow. I am pretty good, though, at adapting from the plan to make it uniquely mine.