A finish and a UFO picked up

I was a busy little beaver this weekend.

I was up very late on Friday, working at the theatre. Got home, and finished up some stuff for my full time job, then watched a bit of TV to settle down for the night.

I pretty much spent the whole weekend at the theatre, because I was back on Saturday, working to sell subscriptions for next year's season. It's funny. People will tell you why they are not renewing for next year. I've heard it's because we have too many comedies. I've heard it's because we have too many dramas. People want to subscribe because we have an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. They won't renew because they don't like Andrew Lloyd Webber. It really does make me laugh a good bit of the time. Personally, I prefer the funny--I deal with real life drama all day long, why would I pay to see more people suffer? But that is a personal choice, and I respect their right to make it.

Saturday night was me bache-ing it. I made my mom's meatloaf, but I substituted honey barbecue sauce for ketchup because our ketchup went camping :) It was a brilliant substitute, and it was really good dinner. I finally sat down and watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. I still don't see the innate appeal of Mr. Darcy, and this was a handsome Mr. Darcy. Yes, Lizzie's family was a bit . . . odd, but to tell someone that you love them in spite of their family, that's a slap in the face. If you don't care for your partner's family, that is part of an internal monologue. Whatever is good about Lizzie, her family contributed to; after all, it's not like they're evil, they're just silly people. Not that big of an offense. Maybe I'm not getting the whole picture, though; it's been a while since I had a criticism class, and I'm a bit rusty.

Anyway, I finished Hoppy Halloween. I did sub out for some sparkly thread for the wording. I think it will pull the design and the backing fabric together a bit better. I really like it. Now to get the time to finish it.





I picked this up yesterday morning. It's a kit by Matted Accents, supposedly a kit you can do in a weekend, but they must mean a long weekend. I started this in 2006, on vacation, and didn't get very far til I put it aside. It's a nice kit, just a Dimensions kit, and someone wasn't thinking. Part of the half stitch is done in 5 strands. Pain in my tiny hiney! But I will get it finished--there's a reason I managed to keep the floss, fabric, chart, even the mat, together for 4 years.


So that's all that's been happening here. HTB is due home from his camping trip this afternoon. We'll be watching the track of Hurricane Earl; I am very wary of hurricanes, even so far in from the water, since we did get the effects of Isobel in 2003. And we've got our invitations to mail this week. Even though I'm ready to get married, some part of me still can't believe that it's less than 2 months away. This really means it's happening. Hmm . . .

A year of UFOs?

Could you spend a year working on UFOs or things you started before that year? Could you go a year without starting anything new? Then set out with a clean (or at least cleaner) slate?



Since we're almost done with two thirds of the year, and I have managed to keep within the boundaries I set for myself for this year, I'm pondering doing the impossible. I have a lot of half-finished projects sitting around. Two afghans, two quilts, tons of stuff I just put aside for later. Would it be possible to finish these? Can I work on older projects that I set aside for one reason or another and only those projects? For an entire year?

I know people do it. I see people do it. It's just a rather intimidating idea. I mean, these are projects I set aside. There had to be a good reason, right? Especially since most of my UFOs are very large and were abandoned fairly early on in the project. I know I did work on some UFOs this year, but there was always the push to get commitment stitching, or something free done, and stop wasting time. And there is the pleasure of blank fabric, with fresh threads, and that feeling of a new start. I'd miss that.

But, at the same time, it would be good. Fewer envelopes full of half-finished stuff to deal with. HTB always asks why I start new stuff when there is old stuff sitting around half-done. It's an extension of the discipline I am trying to exert on myself. And there is an inherent challenge in getting something to a finish, particularly if it's something I don't like or intimidated me.

I have to really think about this.

Could you do it?

Would you be willing to do it?

Checking in

I haven't had a chance to updatw much of anything this week. It's been a busy week. Work has been requiring a lot of overtime, we started our counseling this week, and I'm a dogsitter. HTB is going camping with his brother this weekend and my parents went away overnight, so I took care of the twins. I did teach Robbie to "sing" last night, which I am thrilled about; I taught my first Schip to sing years ago, but Chancey never showed an aptitude or desire to learn (highly ironic, given that her real name means "song"), but Robbie is a very vocal dog, and very eager to please. I thought he had the ability to learn, I just had to find the pitch to trigger his voice at. I did that. Fortunately, it's much lower than "The Phantom of the Opera", which I used to teach my first dog, Dana; my parents thought it highly amusing to hear their daughter sing, and the dog howl along to it. Really. I'm not sure Robbie's too into it yet, but I think he'll figure it out.

I have worked a little bit on "Hoppy Halloween." I did ask all over the place about the fabric choice, and it seemed to be evenly split. HTB chose orange, but he can't really see the "bunny in the hat" of it all. "Rabbits . . . for Halloween? Purple . . . for Halloween?" he said. And then he said the words no crafter with a decision to make wants to hear, "I don't know, you pick?" So . . . I went to Joann's. And they had witch hat fabric with purples and oranges. I figured I could spend a couple dollars on fabric that matched a bit better. That way, I'll keep the orange hatband, stitch the lettering in purple and green, and pull it all in together. They had their Christmas fabric out too at Joanns. I don't have a lot of that, so I looked. And . . . I wasn't really pleased. I think Hancock Fabrics had better fabric available when I was in last. I may go back there. I will need fabric to do my exchange piece.

Our counseling sessions started Wednesday. It was interesting. Our therapist is nice. HTB is not that keen on going, but he is talking to her. So that is good. I'm trying to pay attention and get something out of it. I did find it interesting that HTB is the oldest of his family and I'm the youngest, so he's the one who is the caretaker, and I'm the one who wants to be taken care of. That is how our relationship works, when I think about it; I'm the princess, he's the protector. And she is going over how to argue productively, that time outs are OK in arguing. It is funny, though. She kinda looks at us, like, "What are you doing here? You don't need this." We probably do, but most of me figures that our parents didn't have counseling and they're together. But I'm making effort, if for no other reason than I am spending money to do this and it's something I can learn from. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get our marriage off on a good foot.

Otherwise, not much going on. HTB is going on his last camping trip as a single man this weekend. He's going to Assateague. I'm a bit jealous. He said he wished I was going along. I laughed; no, he doesn't, LOL. I'll just use the time to catch up on some work, do some cooking and finishing, watch girly movies. He needs bonding time with his brother.

Need some decision-making help

Can you help me?

I need to pick a backing fabric for Hoppy Halloween. The finished design can be seen
here. Unfortunately, the link to the design doesn't work. I'm thinking it's due to the computer crashing she talks about under that.


This is my WIP on light blue DMC aida. I know, I know, ugh, it's not the best stuff. But it was inexpensive. And, this being an ornament for me, not something I want to spend a great deal of money on.



This is the fabric I have to back it. Or really, this is the best fabric I have to back it. Everything else is just not stylistically right or it's cat-themed, and . . . well, there is something inherently WRONG about having mucho black cats so close to a rabbit. Even if it is a witch rabbit. It's just poor livestock management and I pride myself on running a tight ship in that regard. I can't go and buy other fabric. That is not in my budget right now, not with wedding stuff, and the fact that my car tags are expiring in a week. And I am trying to be a bit more respectful of my possessions by using the things I have, not shoving them away in a box for "later."




There are pros and cons to each of them.

The purple is swirly and mysterious, but there's no purple in the design. I can, however, pull a purple glittery for the wording. So that is fixable. Had I known better, I would have made the hat royal purple, but I didn't. HTB suggested I pick out the black and do it in purple. I gave him such a look!

The middle one is whimsical. You can't automatically tell they're not bunnies. And they very well may be bunnies mixed in with the cats. I don't know. I think it fits the fun style of the piece the best, but I'm not sure about the cat/rabbit issue.

The orange is the safe choice. The matchy-matchy choice. It picks up the hatband. Color theory-wise, it complements the blue fabric. But it's safe. Safe is . . .not always so safe.

I'm torn. What would you pick?

WIP photos

This is my progress on the ring pillow and my new WIP.

Both sides of the ring pillow. HTB's name is covered, just to add a bit of mystery to him, LOL. I will admit, as the day looms closer, I am worried about saying his middle name. It's one of those names that sounds very elegant coming out of people's mouths who do not have an accent, but I am not one of those people. When his full name falls out of my mouth, affected by my Pennsylvania/Kentucky/Maryland country accent, it sounds funny and I always start laughing. He shakes his head and starts laughing. We're a bit . . . special.

It was a PITA to get everything spaced out on here. I did decide to have the wording appear in a line, not around a corner on the finished piece, so had to space that out right. It ended up working out that if I spaced one side 8 stitches out from the stitched line and then counted down 2 from the top for the capital letters, it meant that the other side ended up being 7 stitches from the side, but that the top ended up being 2 squares down, so it works out. Clear as mud, right? In general, the back was a PITA. Yes, I wrote on my fabric with an pen. How else was I supposed to mark out that I had put in 50 stitches? No one will see it. I think this is my last great foray into monochrome stitching for a while. I'm over Morning Glory GAST. Over it.





Hoppy Halloween start, stitched with DMC satin floss and regular DMC. The Satin floss is tricky to deal with. Not exactly springy and evil, but it ain't like the cotton stuff.


It's nothing to write home about yet, but it will be very cute. And it's going pretty fast. I worked on it just a little yesterday at work, and it's moving right along.

Decision made

Thank you for all your input!

You knew I was going to work on that ring pillow, right?

That is what I did. I sat down, put on my big girl panties, and finished the back of that pillow. I cursed. I whined. I procrastinated. HTB heard me utter a gusty sigh, muttering, "Never again, never again." and said, "Would you like me to put in a stitch?" Since everything I have read says the major way to alleviate wedding stress is to accept help when offered, I handed it to him. However, it was backstitching. He's never backstitched. He's never put needle through linen fabric. He's never used light blue thread on cream gauzy linen. True to form, he flipped it over and started trying to stitch from the back. LOL. LOL. I helped him figure out where to put the needle through, and he pulled it. His verdict: "I don't know how you do this. I'm done." Which I was fine with. At least I am marrying a man with mas respect for what I do. Makes me feel kinda tricky--I might not be able to build a deck, or fix a toilet, but I can stitch on linen!

And, in the end, I finished it. I will post a pic later tonight. I put our names, and the date, and a pretty little sentiment I found, "I thine, thee mine," which I simply love, one in each corner. My mother was looking at I still have to press it, add interfacing for body and to keep the stuffing from coming out of that crappy linen(which is a step that I am worried about. I have been known to iron interfacing to the WRONG SIDE of my stitching, and I think I would have to throw up if I did that. I may ask HTB to do this step, he's a bit less dippy than me), and then stitch it together. I think I can handle that. I will be glad to get this finished, though.

My crafting efforts did not go so well. I went to Lowes for sealer and stood in the wood stain aisle for a while before I realized I am clueless. I did figure out what I needed, and got that home. Only to find out I had managed to glue my pretty wood box shut by not letting the paint dry all the way before closing the lid. HTB tried to pry it open and split the box. I told him I could get another one. I did get one of the projects sealed, so now, just need to get it finished--it doesn't look too hard, but then again, I say that all the time. We'll see . . .

I even started a new project last night. It's called "Hoppy Easter," by Little Old Me Designs. It was a freebie offered on the Sanman board two years ago, and I love it! I figured, since I was indulging myself this week, this would be as good a time as any to stitch this. I will try to post photos once I start making actual progress, right now, it's in blob stage, and I'm not sure if there are any pictures of this finished.

Decisions . . . decisions

Finishing two projects has left me in a quandary.

Do I start a new project? I do have my Samhain Exchange due in a month. . .

Do I work on my ring pillow? The wedding is 7 weeks away now . . .

Do I work on something totally unrelated to a freebie, exchange, or wedding stitching? Frankly, the rules are starting to annoy me, and I'm annoyed enough . . .


You'll see what I chose tomorrow.

Two finishes

I managed to get both little WIPs finished in the last day. My needle is smokin'!

Happy Pumpkin Day finished. I will try to find the right felt this weekend to back it, and hopefully, a good inexpensive basket. I thought about getting a basket at Goodwill, but I think this would be cute as a tie on for a basket of baked goods, and it's probably not too good of an idea to buy something that will touch baked goods and can't be washed at the thrift store. Not being snobby, just realistic . . . and germaphobic




My quilt square for the memorial quilt. It's wrinkly from being washed, but will go out in the mail today. I won't iron it before it goes--it would just get wrinkled again, but I always put a note in, explaining what's going on. It would have to be re-ironed anyway as part of the quilting process. I didn't sign it. I rarely if ever sign any of my work. It's one of my wierd quirks, but I didn't think it would work with this in particular. The writing is not centered, but it's OK.

WIPs to share

I wanted to share the stitching I've been doing this week. Can you believe that Labor Day is only two weeks or so away. Where did the summer go? We wait so long for it, and then, when it comes, it flashes by so quickly. Maybe it's that I really didn't have a lot of "vacation" this summer. Hopefully next year . . . I'm starting to get into a fall mood. The weather is starting to cool off, so that may be propelling it. Yesterday it was in the high 70s and rainy, today a little sunnier. It's been pretty rainy here this week, definitely not "Augusty" in Maryland, but I do love a good thunderstorm. Our house faces west, so rather nice to stand in the livingroom and watch the storm roll up over the park and the farmland behind.

Anyway, since I am in a fall mood, I thought I'd work on this this week:




As I said, it's a design by Pumpkin, and very fun. I am using Fiddler's Lite, just because I prefer the way fall colors look on it. It's nubbly and comfy and warm, it's everything good about fall. I think I'm going to do this as a basket tie-on, pending my ability to get the right felt backing at the craft store, and then tie it with some gossamery ribbon. I'm crossing fingers that it will look right.

And my work on the quilt square. I finished the stitching, now just to finish the backstitch. I'm using an old Leisure Arts leaflet, 20 backstitch alphabets, to do the wording. Yes, I know it's not centered, but it works. I had debated actually doing the phrase on there, because who am I to tell these people how to mourn? But part of me wanted to include it. I have always found comfort in grief when I can think of ways to connect to the departed. Perhaps these parents will be able to think of their daughter as a butterfly dancing among the flowers, alighting on the nose of a beloved pet.


Someone asked what color DMC the puppy is. I don't know exactly because I kitted the Britter Critter quilt up in 2006 and just used that floss for this. It is one of the original browns, though. I wish they would do more natural-toned flosses in their Variations, it really is a pleasure to use them to stitch animals. I'd love a nice tabby-colored one, or even a good grey variation.

This weekend is going to be a crafty weekend. I'm going to get spray paint for the birdcages for the centerpieces. HTB has them all gathered together to paint for me. And, while I'm there, I'm getting stuff to finish the wooden boxes I started painting the other week. I bought an antiqueing kit at Michaels, but it didn't have any kind of sealer. Well, once you're finished painting, wouldn't the logical step be to protect it? It looks unfinished, and that is not acceptable to this girl! Maybe if I can get some of these craft things done, it makes doing the other things I have to do a bit easier. At some point, we need to wrap 200 candles as favors. I was going to do them in organza bags, but it's hard to find the right size bag, and they looked unfinished, so I think cellophane and pretty ribbon from the craft store will work. If someone doesn't like it, oh, well.

The story of the rings

Thank you for the comments about my wedding ring.

It is a family heirloom.

My grandparents met while they were students at Indiana Teachers' College in Pennsylvania, now Indiana University of Pennsylvania. My mother tells the story that my grandmother was so poor she had two dresses, one of which was lavendar, and she never wore lavendar after that. She was pretty and popular and vivacious, while my grandfather was shy and bookish, very much the stereotypical school principal he ended up being. We have copies of their yearbooks, and she is all over the pages, while he was a quiet student making his way through school. But she saw something in him; my aunt told me, seeing him enter a classroom one day, she turned to a friend and said, "I'm going to marry that man."

He was the youngest son of a farmer and his wife. My great-grandfather died when he was an infant, and my great-grandmother raised him, with the other 8 children, with the help of her parents. My great great grandmother did not speak English, and it was from her that the kids learned to speak Pennsylvania Dutch (growing up with a smattering of phrases, the think I love the most about my dad's family reunions is that I am with people who understand me, LOL.). Somehow she managed to send a lot of them to school; my father's family is full of teachers. But my grandmother was sick her last years, and, for some reason, my grandfather had to take care of her, and that put the wedding off. Maybe it was the youngest son's duty to take care of the parents, maybe they didn't want to saddle my grandmother with the burden of caring for her mother-in-law, maybe she didn't want to do it. But they had to wait a good amount of time after they graduated from college to marry. I can't imagine how that would feel, knowing your mother had to die in order to marry your love. But they did eventually marry and were together almost 49 years. To hear my father talk, it wasn't an easy life. I'm sure it nearly killed her to lose two members of a set of triplets (my uncle died the day they were born from a heart defect, and then my aunt died when she was 9 months old), and there were times that they couldn't afford a Christmas tree, and so my grandfather would bring the school Christmas tree home after school let out for vacation. But they made a life.

This was not her first ring. Daddy said the first one wore through and this was the replacement. He said it's at least 50 years old, probably older than that. Who knows, it may have the gold from the first ring in it. She would do things like that. But it's hers. HTB had a ring picked out that is apparently very fancy. He asked me didn't I want that one. I told him we could always get that later--I have a coworker who wears her wedding ring, and an anniversary band. This is more precious to me than a new ring.

Wedding bling

This is my ring. Very simple, very plain. At some point there seems to have been a design on the ring, and there is engraving on the inside. I think the inscription was their initials and the wedding date. It's hard to read due to the size of the band and the fact that it's 18K, and so starting to wear away.

My beautiful shabby chic wedding ring:


And with my engagement ring.It's not a traditionally perfect match, but it works. I like that it doesn't compete with the engagement ring, but it showcases it. Both of them are made more beautiful by being together. I really didn't remember it as white gold, and I'm happy it is. It even fits right--I'm amazed it goes on my little sausage finger, LOL. I know HTB never saw it before, so I'd like to think it was meant to be.

Startitis

I know I shouldn't have started anything else til I got that square finished, but I was kinda tired of working on it, so I kitted up a freebie Pumpkin offered last fall. I wanted to get it done so that it would be ready for Halloween. It is stitching up pretty quickly, so I should have a picture soon.


I've been fighting a sinus headache for the past 4 days. It did not make for a fun day when I was at Mom's other house on Saturday, looking for my wedding ring. We did find it, thank the Lord, but I also brought home a lot of other neat stuff: my grandparents' wedding picture, a picture of my dad and his sister, as well as one of my twin aunt and uncle. My aunt died at the age of 9 months, so, to have a photo of her is pretty important. I found a box of my grandmother's cloisonne work; most of it is finished but not mounted--see, this ability to never actually finish something is genetic--and a lot of it is really pretty! I brought home my high school and college diplomas; Mom actually told me to make sure I took care of my college diploma. Hunh? She seems to think I was planning on riding around with it in my trunk or throwing it away. Absolutely not! My parents paid for my schooling and I worked hard to make sure it was a good investment of their money; these are the people who told me that they didn't get up at 4AM to drive to work so that they could see me on national television with my shirt off. I guess she's forgotten that I wanted to be at Kentucky so badly that, after she found out I had mono my freshman year and was going to come get me, I threatened to hide because "Kentucky's a big state and I got a ten-hour lead" (that was the fever working; I intended on hiding in the stacks at the library til they gave up) I would never throw it away. My mother gets some odd ideas . . .

Progress photo-slow but steady

My current progress on the Britter Puppy. He's coming along. I don't know why I think of this puppy as a "he"--maybe cause it looks like Beazer to me, maybe because I want a strong dog for the quilt square, maybe I'm just a freak. I did make another 2 small color changes. The original chart showed the outer petals of the flower in Hibiscus with the inner in Aztec Red. The DMC for this is 3778 and 347. I am not too sure about how good a conversion that is on the Hibiscus; my skeins are a bit pinker, not deep peach. The 3778 looked good with the rest of the colors, but that 347 was going to be JARRING, so I changed the inner part to 224. It looks better, and she liked pink, so I think it was a good choice. I stitched watching "Licence to Kill" last night with HTB. It was not bad, but I'm not a big James Bond fan. I will admit though, I do like Daniel Craig as James far better than Pierce Brosnan, and I still shake my head over the idea of Hugh Grant as James; at one time he was considered for the role. James is suave, confident. Hugh is best when he is being a bumbling Gen Xer. Just my opinion, though . . .

Still here

I know the posting is way down, and not much about my stitching lately. Bear with me. I'm a little stressed and neurotic right now. Most of it stemmed from the counseling requirement, but I finally found a counselor who was willing to talk to me and listen to my concerns. I felt much better after getting off the phone with her. I hoping that things go well with her. I am not stupid enough to believe that the worst is behind us as far as the planning--I have a big ol' to-do list I made today that tells me the worst is just starting, LOL. I'm hopeful that there will be no more major hurdles--it's easier to swat at gnats than dodge a lion.

Thank you for staying with me and continuing to visit and post to my corner of the blogosphere. I appreciate it. Hopefully, I'll have some cute finishes to show soon.

Does anyone have the new JCS? I broke down and re-subscribed to it to get the Halloween issue. So many cute designs from what I've seen. Enough to make a gorgeously spooky tree. I wonder. HTB is supposed to be spray-painting birdcages for me this weekend. Do you think if I asked him to spray-paint me a tree limb from out of the swamp, he would say no, particularly if I told him it was for my Halloween ornaments? He always has been really responsive to things that wouldn't make sense to a non-stitcher, but I am not sure if that falls under stuff he gets.

A quilt square

This is the quilt square I started Thursday. I have stitched this square before for myself for my Britter Critter quilt. It's from Brittercup and will be part of a memorial quilt for the parents of a little girl who passed away. I find these Britter animals so engaging and comforting, with simple lines and bright colors. I think it's appropriate for the loss of a child. I am hoping she liked dogs, but I chose it for the butterfly. The lady who organized the quilt said she loved butterflies, and there was a story how they went to the zoo one time, and a butterfly landed on her, and the keeper of the exhibit said butterflies only land on special people. I thought that was such a lovely memory for her parents to have of her.

I am stitching this mostly with the DMC conversion Michelle uses on this chart. The only think I have swapped out is the black on the dog. I stitched it in the same DMC Variations I stitched my quilt square in. I liked how it looked on the other project, brindle-y vs. black. I think it gives a softer look and I like that. I just realized this may be the only Britter Critter square I've stitched that ends up on a finshed quilt, so I want it to be just right.

I hope her parents like it. I hope I can do the job on it this family deserves.

Flashback Friday: my father's war on childhood culture

I am a child of the 80s. My parents grew up during WW2. They lived in dire fear of hippies and Communists--my brother had a heck of a time convincing them he wasn't going to overthrow the government if he grew a mullet.

Somewhere along the line, my parents decided the curriculum of the school system was hell-bent on turning us into hippies, Communists, or, generally, bad people.

Really Rosie was the object of my father's biggest concern. He hated this movie. LOATHED IT. I guess it was the idea of Rosie sprinkling soup on a bunch of kids including an alligator. Maybe it's just the fact that "One Was Johnny" gets stuck in your head. Apparently this was pretty common with parents; my classmate Chelsea's mom hated it too, only she had the record and played it incessantly. I was not allowed to sing any of the songs from this special. And they showed this fairly often in school. I am not even sure why we were allowed to eat chicken soup and rice. He really got irked by Rosie.








Only slightly under his loathing for Really Rosie was his dislike for



This was the Holy Grail of school movies. A day that included this one was a day that was pretty good! You might even get pizza at lunch. It was worth sitting through the other movies, just for the hope that you'd get to see this.



Dad didn't like it. I guess we were not really free to be "you and me?"

This was more his speed. We rocked out to some Puff. LOL. I guess no one told him it was about drugs? Or it was on that cool 1980s bi-level where things were simply there for kids to enjoy.




Funny thing is, my dad's a lot more open-minded now. He'd probably sing along to Carol King, LOL.

A new start

I started a new project last night, the one I mentioned yesterday. It's a quilt square for a memorial quilt for a little girl who died in an accident. She liked butterflies. I chose a design from Britty Puppies II, and am customizing it to add a quote I found: "Mourn not the cocoon; the butterfly has flown." It seemed like a nice quote for her parents, so that they could think of her as a beautiful butterfly.
I will try to post a picture this weekend, but not sure how soon I can get that accomplished. And it is reminding me of perspective.

Sometimes I need that reminder . . .

A wee slump

I haven't stitched the last couple days. I've been in a bit of a stress-induced slump. Too many looming deadlines, information has not been passed to us in regards to the wedding correctly that has now created an issue. Specifically, we were told we needed one session of counseling, now that has expanded to six, and 6 sessions of pre-marital counseling puts a massive strain on us financially and logistically. My priest is a bit confused as well, as this is the person he recommended us to. He said if it doesn't work, he'll refer us to someone else because we need to have someone we can trust, and I'm a bit irritated that, if my home priest is willing to work with our schedules, I call this guy up, explain HTB is self-employed and that 6 meeting is a lot of time for him to lose workwise, and got silence as a response. We can do a weekend retreat, but not sure how that works, or how much it costs. HTB wants to know if we can share a room (probably not). He is taking it better than I am, he's just irritated. I'm panicking. Even my mother said she understands why people don't get married if this is what it takes to do it. It's not that I don't respect the process of marriage, I do, but we actually don't have a lot of issues in the relationship that we need to talk over and resolve. We resolved a lot of things: we want kids, we realize we have some debt issues to be dealt with, we're honest with each other, we committed that, short of major malfunctions, we see this marriage through. Anything else, we'll work it out,just as our parents did, and their parents. We've had good role models in our parents' marriages--there are 92 years of marriage between the two. I'm not expecting to go into this knowing how to be the perfect wife, and I know he's not the perfect husband. Life is a growing process. Maybe I just have a crappy attitude. As a result, I just didn't want to put needle to linen. I actually didn't want to do much at all.

I'm pulling myself together. Hole-ing up won't fix this. And I've got commitments to meet, stitching wise. I have to do that quilt square. I can start that at work tonight. That is the first step. Then finish my ring pillow. Then work on my ornament. One day at time, one stitch at a time.

A day off

I had my first vacation day off in two months yesterday. I needed it! I'm beginning to forget what it is to have a day off without having to deal with wedding details. Of course, the regular weekend was taken up with wedding planning. We spent Saturday doing invitations, and ran out of wedding stamps after the post office closed, so my usual weekend day off was not that useful, except I did get to watch HTB put invitations together. He was pretty good about it; after I told him to stop trying to fold 10 inserts at once and use the bone folder I bought specifically for this, he stated the bone folder looks like a shank. I agreed. He then requested a union break. I told him that he was in management and management does not join the union. And then he made a pizza and I let him have it. I'm not an ogre!

I found a candle holder that looks like a birdcage on clearance at Michaels on Thursday. The slots are wide enough to allow flowers to be put in there and, worst case, we could partially deconstruct the cage to fit the flowers. My florist had found cages for $19.99 online that I liked but these were 7.99, so I now own 8 birdcages. I still have to find others, but this is a good start and we're better off than we were before.


So I earned a very lazy day yesterday. After I bought the rest of the stamps we needed for the reply cards, I went thrifting. Ostensibly to find storage for my room, but that was pretty unsuccessful. I went to the Salvation Army in Frederick for the first and last time. Nothing there I wanted. Then went to the Goodwill in Westminister. I picked up some knickknacks there: a Charming Tales bunny and ornament for $2, a jewelry case with the center gone, perfect for mountin stitching, two candle holder things that I see all the time, and would be good for mounting stitching, and a book. All together, I spent $7. Not bad, that Charming Tales bunny probably is worth that.

On the way there, I detoured and snapped a picture of this little schoolhouse I put in the blog title. I found this thing on a backroad-running day last summer, and part of me wants to snap a photo in every season. It's such a pretty little building, built in 1854. I love living in a county where there is still so much open farming land. It grounds me, not that I was flying away living in the suburbs, but it just makes me feel calmer to smell fresh-turned earth in the spring, to see the way the colors of grain stalks change as a breeze blows across them in the summer, to hear nothing but the sounds of snow falling in the winter, and to be in the middle of October color. It's sensory overload, but in a good way.

I have managed to put more stitching in on the pandas. They're getting so complete now, but I'm into the troublesome area of the bottom foliage. I just have to keep plugging away. I told HTB last night that I feel better without the fair monkey on my back. Much calmer. I do have to put this aside because I have a quilt square that needs stitched, and then I signed up for a Samhain Exchange as well. I was a bit worried about that because I'm not pagan, but my stitching pal Jamie told me that it's mostly cats and apples and pumpkins so I can do that. LOL

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.