Thanksgiving, the day after

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. I was blessed to have dinner and lunch with my family and SO's family. His niece called me "Aunt Rachel" for the first time yesterday. She was trying to show me how to do an Irish jig. She's really good at it; those little legs were just a-flyin'. Yours truly, although my gramma's grandfather was a Boylan from Dublin, not so good at it. I had to tell her I couldn't do it, I am Pennsylvania Dutch, and we are better cooks than dancers. But it was nice to get called that; I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you?

I came home from work on Wednesday to a wonderful treat for which I am blessedly thankful. I've told you that I have a sewing room at SO's. I've had it for a year and have yet to actually take a stitch in it. Mostly because it seems to function as a catch-all room; as of Monday, there was a growing collection of stufties, the telescope I bought SO for our anniversary, our Halloween decorations, and the middle leaf from the table. I have been buying the occasional decorate-y thing to hang up, but they've not made it up yet. And there were no curtains at the window. I didn't know what kind of rod would be best, and pricing sheers at Lowe's is depressing. Why so much for see-through fabric? SO said he was bringing the bookcase for me to put my binders on, but I wasn't thinking it was going to be ready any time soon.

Anyway, I pulled in the drive and noted that a) the window in the room had a curtain, b) the room was lit up. HRMMMM. Along with the office/shoe room (I like shoes, SO LOVES sneakers and could be a distributor for Timberland, yes, we have a room full of shoes). SO never leaves the lights on in both rooms. Ever. No, seriously, EVER. So I walked in, there's a pile of clothes in the living room, and cleaning music on. I walked into the catchall room, and IT WAS CLEAN. PERFECTLY clean. Large and lovely and clean. And my bookcase was up. And the curtain was up at the window (he took it off our bed to put up there--must replace that).

Him: Is the bookcase OK, there, cause I have to screw it into the wall if that's where you want it?

Me: Ummm, I think so but can we try it on the other wall, just to make sure it's OK?

Him: OK, move your stash (he must love me a great deal to try to learn the lingo, LOL).

So we moved it around. Moved the couch over to the other side, moved it all around the room, for me to decide, in the end, it was in the right place all along. I've always thought that, when I get married, I won't be the kind of woman who does things like that. Apparently, I'm starting to practice for that.

In addition to all that, he cleaned out the closet so I have that to hang my out of season clothes. I am not sure I know what to make of this richness of space. I'm being serious. For ten years I've had a tiny little messed up closet (whatever they were thinking in the 20s when they built that house, I don't know because it's not even wide enough for a coathanger), and my stuff was shoved whereever there was space. Now I have this lovely little peaceful space where I can light a candle, read, watch the sunset, or take a nap. I see Robbie and I spending some good quiet time in here, though he would be content if we lived in a box, as long as we were together.

Happy Thanksgiving

I almost forgot to post this.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families. May our blessings abound in the coming year!

Treaty fairy is finished, and I moved

In my never-ending saga of the camera and my WIP never being in the same house at the same time, I have a new chapter.

The last time I moved was 10 years ago, when I moved back to Maryland from Kentucky after I graduated from college. I had gotten pretty swift at it back then, not owning much anyway, and realizing that everything I owned absolutely, without a doubt, had to fit in the back of a van. It's not quite like that anymore. I seem to have, um, acquired things. Mom at one point asked if I was moving the collection of Garfield things I inherited from my grandmother up. I told her there's no room for that. At least not in this house. Likewise, the model horses. They can't come yet. The model horses need their own house. I've heard of collectors building additions onto their houses to hold their collections, but, um, yeah, that's not happening, at least not in this house. Perhaps this is why people buy McMansions? They need a whole floor to hold their stuff.

I took the first load of my things up to SO's last night. One huge duffel bag of clothes, my Christmas tree, and stitching stuff. And not a lot of stitching stuff. And yet, the car was pretty full. It amused the pitty bulls to watch me haul it all in. My floss is still at my mom's, as are my work clothes, my WIPs, my fabric, most of my charts, all my freebies, and my kit stash. Now that I think about it, what did I really bring up there? And why was it so hard to wrassle it out the car? Because I assure you, it was not so much moving in as a wrassling match.

I finished Treaty Fairy Monday night, though. I am glad to say she is done, and I will not be beading again any time soon. ANY TIME SOON. I swear it. I bow to those who do a lot of beaded projects. I just don't have the patience for it. I did bring both of my current afghan WIPs, Hummingbird Trellis and my Diane Graebner. I am hoping to have Diane Graebner done quickly and ready for the fair next summer. SO is bringing that bookcase home tonight for my binders, but I still have to move my big plastic drawered thing up to put my floss and fabric in.

I got the moving blues

Like Carrie in Sex and the City, I prefer to keep my wealth where I can see it, in stash and clothes. And now I have to move that stuff, and it's killin' me. And the pathetic thing is, I don't even have to move it all right now, and it's still killin' me. SO is bringing me home a large bookcase to put my charts on, but what about the fabric? What about the kits? What about my framed pieces? And my knickknacks? What will I do with those? I can't leave the little cat my grandmother had painted for me by the workers at Fenton. Or my kick ass print of a fantasy land that I bought two years ago at Thanksgiving at a junkshop. Or my teddy bears. Where will I put those. And I have misplaced my DYES. I NEED THOSE. I have plans for a Christmas gift with those. CRAP CRAP CRAP.

And lets not forget my clothes. I have gone through and sorted out a lot of clothes for charity. And yet, my clothes seem to be breeding. I found some perfectly lovely suits that I can wear, and totally zoned on. I don't want to give them up because they're classic suits, they fit,and I was whining about how I don't have the right clothes to wear to the theatre. I always did, they were just hidden. So those have to come. CRUD CRUD CRUD. I am not taking my formal gowns. Now is as good a time as any to give those to charity, probably there are plenty of girls who need a dress for a Christmas dance, and mine are pretty classic, if I do say so myself, and it's not like I attend many formal events.

I did tell my mom I was taking the charts she had bought for me to stitch. I certainly can't stitch them when they are at her house, LOL.

I did stitch last night, after I got so disgusted with packing. I started Mom's Miss Penny doll, which does not look too difficult. It's just stitching her apron, and a needlebook and making her a hat. I worked on that, then pushed myself this morning to finish Treaty. I am almost there, I just have that bunch of fairy dust in her left hand to do and she's done. DONE! DONE, I tell you. Pumpkin, I think we both need a break from beaded designs after this one. I am so paranoid my beads will come out that I am weaving the thread through several lines of threads, plus crossing my x's, and still I am afraid. Perhaps putting her on that sticky back would be best, at least the beading thread wouldn't come loose. Just kidding . . . I know someone has just shrieked in dismay over that comment, LOL.

Slogging through

I'm on day 4 of a 5 day slog through opening weekend at the theatre. Last night was the first night I got to bed before midnight, and I have to admit, I fell asleep on the couch. This morning I slept in til 9 and felt so decadent. To just get through the rest of today and tomorrow, then I am off Tuesday and just have to start moving stuff to my new place, and go shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.

There has not been much stitching occurring. I will be honest. I've poked at Autumn Leaves, but I've been doing so much running around at lunch the last couple days. I had to get a new outfit for the play opening tonight, as everything I have at SOs is either too fancy or summer clothes, and the shoes I have there didn't match any of it. Good thing Sears was having a good sale or I would have been sporting some brown checked Bermuda shorts with denim blue espadrilles, and it snowed last night. Not much down where I live now, but the snow was lying (laying?) at his place. The dogs were not pleased, but it is getting on winter now.

Speaking of which, my Baltimore station has started their Christmas music schedule. If you don't have the luxury of a local station playing music, I'll share with you:

http://www.1019litefm.com/

It's nice to listen to.

A finished finish, and an elegant one at that.

I can't post photos, because this has to go to my exchange partner and I want it to be a pleasure for her to open, but I finished the finishing of my ornament for my partner. I am so pleased with this ornament, how it turned out. I try to be careful and neat in my finishing, but sometimes I can't be as neat as I would like. This time, I far exceeded my expectations. It's a pillow ornament, but it feels elegant. And icy. And wintry.

All my co-workers want me to make these ornaments for them. People in Hell want icewater too, but that don't mean it's going to happen. I'm serious about that. I need to get ornies for me finished! I did contact someone about finishing a round ornie for me. I'm so excited about having that little tree to put them on, I want them done!

Oh, speaking of ornaments, this is the year when all those hours of trudging up and down the rows of Target looking for ways to finish ornaments is paying off. Someone on 123 posted little wooden words that I bought, to put a tiny little stitchery on. I also picked up some plastic snowflakes that could be used the same way--they were 3 for 99 cents, you can't beat that. But the treasure was a gold metallic lacy leaf. I thought it would be so pretty to stitch a little thing and put it there. Now I'm trying to find a small bird to attach, otherwise, it'll be a fall motif.

I've been tagged by Natasha (http://craftyt.blogspot.com/) to share some information about myself. Here are the rules ...

Rule #1 ~ Link to the person that tagged you.
Rule #2 ~ Post the rules on your Blog.
Rule #3 ~ Write 6 random things about yourself.
Rule #4 ~ Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
Rule #5 ~ Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their Blog.
Rule #6 ~ Let the tagger know your entry is up.

1) I'm imfamous with my former University's police department.
2)When I was in high school, I was bi-lingual. I'm very rusty now, but I thought in French at one point.
3)I love to bake, but I hate eating things I made.
4)Ever since I was a little girl, I only ever wanted a black car. I don't want red, I don't want blue, I can't stand white. Just black. Preferably with a sunroof.
5)It occasionally bothers me that when you put in Robbie's registered name, then mine, Robbie gets more Google hits than me.
6)I have an irrational fear of subway grates.