I think I'll keep him.

SO has really impressed me with how he's accepted this cross stitch, well, fetish that I have. He gave me my sewing room, which I cleaned up this weekend, since we had the rug from the livingroom in there while the tree was up for Christmas, and it was a mess because I could not keep the rest of the room clean while there was this ginormous rug in there. He stayed out of the room the whole month. He has learned the lingo, and I am pretty sure he would only fuss momentarily if I borrowed the coffee maker and took it into the garage to use for hot water for dyeing. He doesn't understand why I need so much floss, but he's trying to learn

The only thing we really butt heads about is why I start so many projects while I have so many started (they should start support groups for partners of stitchers so they can discuss this). We've had a few, umm, disagreements on the topic. He thinks I should finish things I start in a timely manner. I've tried to explain, it doesn't work like that, not with me. I had to finish one at a time when I was young, and now that I pay for my passion, I buy and stitch as I see fit. I just have so much I must do, and not nearly enough life left to do it in an orderly manner (I'm 32, that leaves me 68 years to get this stash stitched at most). I see his point, I just dance around it.

Anyway, last night, I started the annual, "Oh, crap, I have just 7 months to get everything done for the fair, and I have not a thing to enter," panic attack. I realize there is something fundamentally wrong with me in regards to the fair. Others enter one or two things, yours truly feels compelled to enter 100 projects. SO understands that I have this wierd competitive streak; he doesn't play basketball with me anymore because I talk too much smack, but he does enjoy that I take things seriously. I was working on my Like Feathered Wings, and he wanted to know what I was planning on doing with it. Was that for the fair? No? Why not? Because it's not "show quality," and I was just getting it done to get it done. Maybe I'll make a pillow, maybe not. So anyway, in his extremely calm, thoughtful way (btw, he's probably been cogitating on how to say this), he says, "Why don't you make a list of what you want to enter in the fair and finish those? And not start new things unless they're for the fair?" And . . . ya know . . .I couldn't dance around that point. This is why we are a good team: I deal in theory, he deals in details. So I need to sit down and make a list of what needs to be finished and get it finished. I know I won't be able to get all the stuff done I want, but I can try.

We went on our trip to the Quilted Cat on Friday. It was cold. I have NEVER been that cold. It was so cold that my veneered tooth hurt under the veneer. As bad as it had hurt when there was no veneer on it and he was shooting cold air on it, which I guess makes sense because porcelain is porous. And I had a sinus incident, so I was reeling around with a headache and an earache. And I slipped while sweeping snow on Thursday, much to the pittybulls' delight, and hurt my ankle, so bad I had to walk around the yard and think for a few moments (thank God the neighbors weren't around). So I hauled my battered self into the car and we were off. Did I mention it never got above 16 the entire trip? Yeah it was cold.

The quilt store is a dream come true. I loved it. I spent quite a bit of money there. Quite a bit. Almost $100. And I still don't have thread for the sewing machine, so it's pretty useless, except to finger and chortle over. They still had Christmas fabric, so I got some of that (we may end up eating peanut butter and jelly for a few meals to pay for it, but life is too short to pass up dog-themed Christmas fabric--it's just that simple). They also had some cute Valentine-themed fabric with tiny cats on it that I can use to do SO's Valentine's present. Which I need to start. I probably ended up with 10 yards of fabric, but about 20 cuts. I was running around like a FOOL, because they had fabric for every holiday, with animals on it.

I know there was fabric with other animals on it. I saw zebras. I saw bears. I saw farm animals. I bought a half yard with seagulls on it. They won't work on the quilt, but they'll work for something. I saw gorgeous quilts, all completed. It was lovely. It was how I would feel when I was little and was placed in front of a display of model horses. If I could have drooled, I would have. Our quilt stores here are not NEARLY that nice. Or themed. I seriously want to join their fat quarter club, but perhaps I should use what I have.