Monthly Archives: January 2022

Summing up the month

Holly Doyne Posted on by

This ends January. The first month of the year on the Western Calendar. A time of no resolutions (hence no guilt because we all know they don’t last longer than it takes to write them down. At least for me…. queue the clipboard for example..)

I added  two projects to the finished pile – Tiny Modernist’s Fairy Tales  

& The Witchy Stitcher’s Cryptids to the finished pile. 

I have frames left to finish on last year’s Zodiac & Seasonal Skies stitch alongs. Not finished this month, but progress made on both as well as progress on several sections of Alice. Maple Lane Trolley & Rooky Woods are two more stitch-alongs from last year which still have portions to be released. 

And January has been a month of new starts for formal Stitch-a-Longs  (Folk Art House – Ship’s Manor, ABC Dinos – Clouds Factory, Temperature Bookcase – Kristi’s Corner, Red Riding Hood – The Frosted Pumpkin, Supernatural Monsters – Malice Domestica).

And then there is the start on the Spangler book – 

 

More importantly, I did some organizing, sorted out clothes, and accomplished a few of those domestic tasks that we all complain about. I read some books, listened to some audio books. Finished watching US Football…

What I didn’t do: Dani & I didn’t get our cruise to Hawaii which might have explained the increase in stitching time; I didn’t get any packages mailed which means a stack for this week; and I didn’t get all the planned sewing done. 

Overall, a decent start to the year. 

 

 

 

Lost & Found

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and at high risk of being lost again.

Once again this intrepid explorer braved the craft room on a mission to find that blasted clip board.

And, once all the non-obvious places have been searched, perhaps looking in the obvious places might be in order? Like on top of a side table, underneath a pile of t-shirts waiting to be embroidered? The ones that were moved from the ironing board to the side table?

Argh.

Then I spent a few minutes transferring numbers from scraps of paper to my tracking sheets and deciding that, while they were ok, they probably weren’t the best format. Do I want to spend time in Numbers or Excel playing with spreadsheets? Nah.

Instead, I “attended” the Acorns & Threads gathering on line, stitched a fair about and watched the 49ers lose to the LA Rams (US Football playoffs). I even fixed dinner (my cooking contribution for the month) during half-time. Completely wiped up, I am going to bed extremely early. 

But – there is stitching progress –

You Belong to Me – by Long Dog

 

 

And all but the 30th on the Temperature Tracker + the shelf for Feb is ready to go.

Now, where do I put these so as to not loose them again?

I lost my clipboard

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which, as it turns out, is very close to saying that I have lost my mind. Or at least my external brain. Not my schedule mind you, that shows up on everything electronic so that I can have a partial clue of what I had promised and where I should be. If I remember to set reminders, there is a fair chance of my life potentially staying on track.

Except for the clipboard.

I think it was last seen two or three days ago in the craft room. It was Thursday that I loaded up the sewing machine and headed to that class. Which means that I managed almost no stitching on Thursday. Last night I couldn’t  locate the clipboard, so I just grabbed some extra paper and made some notes. Today, it is still missing and I am about to have a melt down.

What is so important you might ask?

At the start of this year, I decided that I was going to try and be organized. So on that clipboard is

  1. a list of all my stitching WIPs (works in progress)
  2. a master project list that includes start, due, and finishing dates
  3. a list of needed supplies that I don’t have on hand
  4. a monthly tracker sheet where I can enter # of stitches that day (with each project having its own line)
  5. hard copies of patterns not available in electronic form

 

anyway you get the idea. My whole planning, accountability, and stitching life is on that clipboard.  (I should be so organized about my CME….)  By looking at the list and time (by stitches) against projects I can see where I am, and what is up next.

I attempted this system last year and made it as far as March when it became OBE, as my schedule was under continuous change mostly from all the clinics I was working. I managed at least some tracking this fall while I was on the Star Legend.

My clipboard is obviously not downstairs. Downstairs is much neater, more organized (less of my stuff) and I have checked all the obvious as well as the not so obvious places.  I have also checked the upstairs hall which just leaves me taking a deep breath before I go through all accessible surfaces in the craft room once more…

But Cryptid is DONE!

No game

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“Having game” is an English language expression which I don’t remember from childhood. Maybe it is American? Probably not polite enough to be of Canadian origin. And not quite stuffy enough to be of English origin.

According to the Urban Dictionary – it relates guys being good at getting girls (my comment – complete with bullshit).

The Free Dictionary usually does a better job at idioms. In this case there are two offerings:

  1. slang To be good or adept (at something).
  2. in. to have skill; to have spirit or willingness to get involved in the action.

 

Both of which make a lot more sense to me. But neither explains the confusion when you attempt to use the negative. As is, I have no game [to go to]. Which was interpreted various ways – mostly having to do with something not operating on my computer.

What it really meant was that the Cal Women’s Basketball game was cancelled. It would have been nice to know this prior to 1800….

“Oh,” he said, “I received an email about that earlier in the week.”

“Might have been nice to share that information earlier” was my reply.

He might not always have game?

But the kids? Miriam now has a driver’s license with a pass on her first road test. Dani has the wallpaper up and that floor sealed.

Me? I should be able to finish Cryptid tomorrow as I have stitched the last critter and just have a few more stitches to complete the frame.

to Dublin and back

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And regretfully, I am not speaking of Ireland but of rather one of the small cities south of Oakland. Realistically, I would say it is more of a suburb with a local government than a real city.

(brief detour to Wiki here. )  The town post office  tipped its hat to the significant numbers of Irish immigrants and changed the name in the 1890s. And I stand corrected, the city and its 75k inhabitants are located east of Oakland, not south. Go figure. Just following the freeway signs – Officer…

Anyway, Dublin is the location of the Dublin Sewing Center, one of the last real sewing machine stores in the region. They carry just about everything, their service department is excellent, plus they are really nice people. 

Why am I telling you all of this? I know how to do a fair amount of sewing. I have learned a few tailoring techniques over the years. But I know little to nothing about purse and bag construction. Their class schedule is starting up again after an almost two year hiatus. Good size room, four separate tables, everyone immunized and masked. And, believe it or not, everyone was actually capable of keeping their mask on their face. 

Amazing.

Anyway – This was a bag with an external flap pocket, a divided inner pocket with lining, a zipper and some fancy hardware with straps. The instructor was the kind I like best. She came around and individually helped and everyone moved at their own speed. I learned a number of things – both about bag construction and myself. 

  1. I am not ever again going to “make my own zipper off a roll.” Sorry, I understand how to add the pull and block the far end. Just – no. If I want a zipper, I will buy one
  2. I don’t want chains on a bag – jingle? Not me
  3. Ironing is important, figure pressing just doesn’t cut it. 
  4. Next time, I will bring an additional light. It will be interesting to see how much further my cataracts have developed at my next Optometrist visit. 
  5. Heavy fabric doesn’t need that much interacting or padding
  6. I needed more coffee.

 

So tomorrow I am probably going to add sturdy side straps at home and call it a day…

And I would show you a picture, but I left all the supplies in the car in favor of Noah hauling the machine upstairs where we safely stowed it in the cabinet. 

 

 

Why am I up

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sometimes I think I am insane, and other times I know it. THis morning was totally and completely a case in point. I enjoy staying educated, up to date, and informed on the public health issues that were part of my job for decades. One of those duties involved dealing with various WHO agencies, committees, and programs.

So, to make an even longer story short, I received an email notice from WHO about a Webinar this morning relating to Neglected Tropical Diseases. It is interesting (for me) to learn the current status of guinea worm, leprosy, and other diseases that I saw in Africa but are not exactly common in the developed countries.  

The Webinar was not what I expected. It was a long, long announcement with bits and bobs from here and there as the opening sally for a Congress and World whatever day. Now, I like singing and people making speeches (not) as well as the next person. But seriously, I would not have gotten on line at 0500 (GMT-7) for a listen. Yes, I understand that 1400 in Geneva is about as good as one is going to get in terms of time zone fairness for the maximum number of people world wide.

But I am going to be a lot more cautious about agreeing to anything that early in the morning. 

Oh, duh

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Early, or was it middle of the day? It all blurs after a while. I became the delegated driver to transport keys so as to let the carpenter in to finish door jams and weather stripping on Dani & Alex’s house. I don’t blame the carpenter for not wanting to have a ring of client keys. He fixed the gate while waiting for me, so I didn’t feel too badly.

I don’t travel without something to do, so I occupied myself for the next few hours. If I had been brave, I could have hung a few more strips of wallpaper, but that is really a two person job. It also might have helped had I remembered to bring along some lunch. But I made progress on the LongDog. 

 

It was when I was locking up downstairs that I realized that I really hadn’t needed to stay. There are two sets of locks on the door. Yes, I prefer the deadbolt also locked, but the main lock, which the carpenter had engaged, would have been fine.

Trundling on home, I had enough time to find lunch (or was that breakfast) before a Zoom meeting. Two hours later, I had made some progress after a significant amount of picking out and restitching. 

Tomorrow is an early day and I am wiped. 

 

Wallpaper DIY

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Perhaps a member of my family or Carmen can update me, but I don’t think that I have ever personally done decorating DIY. In that I specifically mean painting or wallpapering of any of the several dozen places I have lived over my lifetime. It may explain why I have a tendency to have completely bare walls once past the tape&poster portion of my life.

Since marriage, I may have said “where” on occasion, but George has been the primary person responsible for getting things hung on the wall. Wait – we were talking paint and wallpaper. And I was about to describe my help in doing something I have never before tackled.

First off – YouTube is a wonderful place to find explicit and contradicting explanations on how to do just about anything. Certainly there are instructional videos on how to hang wallpaper. None of them seem to begin with “First select your wallpaper and buy the following supplies.” Except for one who did the “check to make sure that you have ……. and listed the essential supplies.” He didn’t mention a ladder, but that one is kind of obvious. Of all things useful, we didn’t have a screwdriver.

Wallpaper sheets – check. Wallpaper paste – check. Brush&Roller&pan for the paste – check. Misc – ladder, floor covering, open windows, room lights, level&ladder& marker – also check.  Honestly, I was just there to be the second pair of hands.

After measuring over and drawing her plumb line, we added the wallpaper paste to the back of the first sheet and also a bunch to the wall, she climbed the ladder and the first sheet went up. Then we added more (I was about to say library paste – but you get the idea) paste and started the smoothing process, and adding more paste and adding more paste as we worked our way down. As it looked pretty good, we went for the second sheet.. And yes, the sheets were printed – Sheet #1 or Sheet #2 – on the bottom in an attempt to make sure that the incompetent had half a chance of matching sheets as we went.

Turns out, I am fine with operating an Exacto knife in trimming edges. After all – it is just a highly expensive and retractable scalpel. We hung the first two sheets, then decided to see if they stayed up before proceeding. The lack of hanging the rest also might have had something to do with not having a screwdriver so that we couldn’t take off the outlet cover which was right there in at the bottom of the next sheet to be hung.

 

 

I worked on a few stitching projects yesterday. Of all – this was the quick one – the first monster in the Supernatural’s SAL. I made one substitution for a Weeks Dye Works to a Forbidden Fiber Co green. Anyone with a clue as to what monster she is?

I wish it was the last time

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that weekend stitching would be interrupted by US football but noooooo. Two games yesterday. Two games today.

Now that the previous discussion is finished since I had, have, and will never have, a team in those particular games – what was the rest of the day?

Quiet, stitching. A bit more clean-up. More stitching and a consideration of audiobooks on sale. Then I checked with HooplaDigital (courtesy of my library) and decided that I needed no shopping.

Oh, then there was the basket. It is a normal laundry basket which has been living next to the dresser. I dumped it on the floor and proceeded to sort it out. Mostly long sleeve tops with a few t-shirts tossed in for good measure.

I almost never wear t-shirts – so all of those can go into the donation pile. Then there are the colors that I never wear. Another handful into donate. Then I looked at what were essentially duplicates, and 1 of each pair went into the going out pile. Satisfied, before I could change my mind, I moved the donate pile to the front entryway,

You know the principle? Out of sight, out of mind?  This should apply.

and went back to dealing with the endless borders of Alice –

Of which the bottom 2/3 is completely finished – leaving me the flowers in the two containers, plus the section for the Mad Hatter on the one side and the Tea Party across the top. If I can’t finish it this week, I will certainly have it done by the end of February.

 

 

Another day

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more cross stitch, another football game.

Wash, rinse, repeat!

In actuality, I managed to do some of the other basic life chores, like shower, make a bed, fold some laundry (note, I did not say it was put away). Dealing with excess clothes is on my list of things to do Sunday. 

Different rabbit hole than the one that I had planned. Like many of us my age, I have more clothes than I realistically need. They all fit, so I don’t have that excuse – you know the one that is all wrapped around a plan to ditch a few kilos and be young, fit and ….. you know. But I actually wear most of them. I also could get by with a lot fewer. Stuff just accumulates. I don’t see a reason to get rid of the business clothes, there is actually the rare occasion where “California Business” isn’t enough. That being defined as what ever you want to wear that is clean and covers a reasonable amount of skin. My mother’s generation (those that wore stockings and pumps to go into the city) would be appalled at the idea of jeans at the Opera or Symphony. 

Well, I am attending either of the above. First is no interest; second is no interest in sitting in a crowd of strangers. So there you go – you can, I am not.  I have actually become a bit too comfortable at home, except for cruising. I need the ocean on occasion.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the need to go through my closet, a basket of stuff, several drawers, and my closet shelf. And the business clothes. I can hang on to a couple of outfits, just in case. Maybe as insurance so that I won’t ever have to do that again? Anyway – most of the rest is serviceable and gets worn if it cycles to the top.  

This is too many decisions – I need to stitch.

This week’s Cryptid – The Death Worm (Mongolian Death Worm) can be meters long and spews acid. Not someone you want to invite home.

And more progress on the Spangler Book

 

and it will be an attempt to finish another section of “Alice” while watching the 49ers survive the cold of Wisconsin.

Glad that is over

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today was ever so much better than yesterday. Not only did I know who I was, but I had more than a vague idea of where I was as well. My fever broke somewhere around mid morning, so I staggered around the house generally failing at anything I attempted to do. But hey, at least I was trying – or so I told myself.

It became obvious after the fourth attempt that this was not the day on which to start a new cross-stitch project. Especially as complicated as one of the Zodiac Girls from Nora Corbett. It is not the there are 15 (or is it 16 colors) and beads – I would love to forget about the beads. It is a matter of – no matter how hard I try – this pattern is just not going to work in Pattern Keeper. 

Which means back to the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s or whatever. Paper and pencil. Ugh. Or Goodreader or good notes (and we will not talk about developers who don’t update apps. So I am attempting to use PDF Expert so that I can blow the pattern up a lot and mark off stitches as I go. 

But I don’t know that you really care about all of that. What is important is that I feel like I am back in the land of the living. Meanwhile, George still has his cold and sounds like he is trying to hack up a lung. I really doubt COVID – he simply hasn’t been anywhere or done anything too stupid. I am contemplating him checking in with his docs on Monday if this is still going on. Also, because I have been around him and failed to get sick (and his cold started a couple of days before my booster) lends credence to the ordinary cold belief.

Frankly, most of us have managed the last almost two years without getting even one cold. When you aren’t around a ton of people, physically you stay a lot healthier. I certainly have. So here we are, one more thing conquered and waiting for the next challenge!

 

A lost day

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Everyone around me knows that Thursday happened. Could have fooled me. Yes, I know that there is a Thursday every week, so obviously the day happened. 

It leaves me wondering why, when I get repeatedly tested for antibodies, that I never show up with any. If I was brave, I would go get a Zoster immunization and figure out whether it was the mRNA type of vaccine which knocks me flat, or Moderna in particular. 

I attempted to stitch on a very simply band sampler. After ripping out the area three times because I couldn’t get it right, I gave up. So, back to sleep after finding the ASA, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen.

Ouch

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And I thought yesterday was a disorganized disaster – today trumped that in spades then ran the table (ok, mixing metaphors here, but you get the idea). And, as attempt to write this for the third time, the fun has simply not ended. Safest if I take my shivering self to bed.

Let me explain: today was supposed to be a pair of quick check-ups at the VA. And this is the Med Center on the far end of San Francisco – yes Virginia, you can practically toss a stone in the Pacific from the back picnic tables – the only way I would be driving any further would involve a trip to Travis AFB or the Sacramento VA. Those 21 miles seem to take forever and involve city streets, stoplights, stop signs, interstate freeways, the Bay Bridge and a circuitous route through SF itself.

Anyway. First up – I failed to set an alarm so woke up 20 minutes late. The only positive thing I can say about starting late was that Peet’s had just opened so there might be coffee – at least if there wasn’t a line of 10 people. At 0530 in the morning?  It took 20 minutes to get my coffee and I was starting to get even more panicky. Obviously, I am not someone who takes being late well at all.

So there I go, Down Vine street, left on MLK, right on University heading toward the Interstate. But wait, something feels wrong when I start driving. A slub-dup that has just started. I pull over and check. Left rear tire is now flat. ARGH! A block further on the left, there is a filling station with parking spaces. Carefully crawling the car across two lanes and turning left, I ease the car into a side space. The absolutely wonderful man working in the station says it is fine to park the car for a couple of hours if someone is going to be coming to get it as he agrees that driving on a flat tire is stupid.

I call and wake George up and leave him with the challenge of calling AAA and getting the tire changed. I would do it if I had time, it wasn’t dark, and I wasn’t freezing cold. All of them together? Nuts – that is why we pay for AAA right?

I call a Lyft as there is no way I can make it on public transport in the time I have left. 10 minutes later, my driver pulls up. She quietly, efficiently, and without the use of GPS takes me to the VA by the same route I would use, Through screening and up to the waiting room.

I have my dental appointment, followed by my next appointment. I am fine, but since on the last checkup I had zero antibodies against COVID in-spite of 2 immunizations and an augmentation dose, my doc thinks a booster is in order, Otherwise, back in 3 months. Over to the immunization clinic. They inform me I am 8 days too early for a dose. Back to my doc. He puts the requirement for the early dose in my record. Back to the immunization clinic where they do the whole information and consent thing before sticking me.

Finally back home, I find that George came to the gas station (in Dani’s car) saw to the tire change. Drove it to the tire place. Walked back (3 km) and drove home. This was after getting Dani to work and Alex out to the new place to oversee the upgrade on the back yard fence.

It is now almost 2200. It is cold upstairs, at least that is what I am blaming for my chills and tremors. Couldn’t possibly be the vaccine now could it? The day has sucked. If the past is any indication, I may well spend tomorrow feeling sorry for myself.

Just glad I didn’t sign up to work any clinics for the rest of the week.

(not spell checked or edited – sorry about that…….

Glasses gone

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It was a while back that I mentioned that I probably had more pairs of glasses than I needed.

As it turned out, not so.

There were the four older pairs, plus the current prescription. Then I bought one more pair to make sure that I could always find a pair. This morning I was reduced to pulling out a really old, old pair.

How do I know that they are old, considering that they all come from the military/VA glasses source? This pair, which looks identical to a new pair, has a slight difference. It is old enough that it is a bifocal. Now, I have had progressive lenses for at least 10 years and probably longer. This might just give you an idea of how long I hang on to glasses.

Admittedly, I can pretty much stumble around the house without glasses. After all, there are walls and railings to keep me pointed in approximately the right direction. But walking to the mailbox or driving a car – not in this lifetime. Or, there will not be any future in my life. 

I think, as it has been suggested by at least a couple of people, that I need to invest in what I grew up calling a “librarian’s chain.”  You know what I mean. That chain, usually full of fake rhinestones that had an elastic loop on each end. Take that end, place it over the ear piece of your pair of glasses and tighten. You now can just drop your glasses off your face and be assured that an hour later they will still be hanging around your neck. I have to get overt the idea of age and/or dorkiness.

After all, being able to find my glasses, especially when I am the only one home ranks high on the critical list. Right up there with my husband being able to locate his wallet and phone. The phone? Not so hard, just call it from the land line. The wallet? It is a lovely, very dark brown.

Wild Card Playoffs

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First comes the whine, then the observation. Just saying….

A long time ago in my world, US football ended around New Years. There were two leagues and the top team from each played each other for the obnoxiously named “Super Bowl.”  Which, on reflection probably was an OK name considering that most other countries have more sense than to play American style football preferring the more sensible soccer. I like soccer, it takes brains, speed, agility, and stamina. The players have to run the game, not the coach directing everything from the sidelines. You don’t have to weigh 120+kg to be on the field. I am pretty sure that butting the ball with your head isn’t all that wise, but compared to slamming into the ground on each and every play?

So here we are on a Sunday – there are now Wild Card games. I am sure someone reading this cares about how the teams were chosen to be Wild Cards. I certainly don’t. Apparently there are a total of four games, which means eight teams.  -Should I go look up how many total teams there are? It seems that just about everyone was in the playoffs. Nah, I really don’t care. Anyway – there are three games today and one tomorrow night. I saw part of two games. The only thing wild about the whole day was the first quarter of the last game where there were enough mistakes to make it interesting.

The observations: The Dallas Cowboys commit the most offenses of any team in the leagues and essentially lost today’s game on penalties. Few of the fans were wearing masks. Yes, they are outdoors, but hello? 65-72k fans packed in and screaming? I would like to see the comparison stats over the next three weeks, allowing for immunization rates, of the major cities whose teams played today.,

The obvious reason that the playoffs – which now don’t end for at least another week or two – extend into February is money. The league, the owners, want to make money. Unlike US Baseball which has a 160 game schedule, there are only 8-10 regular season games. This may explain both the ticket prices if you want to go in person (astronomical) and the desire to extend the season to generate revenue. And then there are all the advertising to be had and made a profit from.  The main advertisements were beer, cars, insurance, and phones/internet. Additionally, there were home sales app, drug company pitches, job hunting apps, and a rare public service announcement. Oh yes, and Pfizer has joined the splash.

Otherwise, I spent the day stitching, put in my hour of organizing, and served the raw edges of a bunch of yard goods destined for backings. I like my life boring!

a normal Saturday

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Our vaccination site was moved for today, on rather short notice as it turns out. My best guess is that the church where we normally hold the clinic had a funeral and didn’t want to mix the mourners with those coming in for immunizations, much less the chaos created by parking. I attempted to look on time, but gave it up for a bad cause.

What I did learn was that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management ….) started providing financial assistance for funeral expenses related to COVID-19 deaths starting in Jan 2020. (link here). I have never seen a reference to this in the press or on any news programs. But then FEMA, under the previous US Administration, seemed to be much more about not providing services than making it easy for anyone to access their claims services.

Back to East Oakland Youth Center which is where we were. It is located only a few blocks from our regular site. Parking was insane (just saying). Since this was a new location, we had the challenge of a completely new set-up which started out with unloading the vans and ended, I am sure, at the end of the day with complete tear-down.

Because we are still seeing a lot of Omicron in our area, masking and distancing were strictly enforced. Lots of Pfizer and Moderna today – and not that many kids. Again, I had a couple of people who wanted Janssen so that they would be work eligible in 2 weeks. Also, a lot of those who originally received J&J are in for boosters. We are using Moderna because we have more of it.

By 1330, the line had dwindled to just about no one, so I got an early release (and skipped the teardown).

Spent the rest of the day in a little bit of clean up, a lot of stitching, and a Zoom call with a stitching group based in Australia.

ORTs

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Stands for Old Raggedy Thread(s). It is what cross-stitchers call the thread ends snipped off the ends of threads. Mostly when they are too short to be used. There are those who drop them in a small container (of which you can buy various fancy versions on Etsy) or drop them in a cup or a wastebasket. At the end of the year, or so the story goes, you will have an idea of all the stitching you did.

I thought about it for a while, when I started stitching again and decided it was a cross-stitch community/Facebook/Instagram/Flosstube thing. It is not like weaving where the thrums, those end left at the beginning and end of a warp which can’t be woven, might actually be long and bulky enough to stuff pillows or ornaments. In the case of stitching, we are talking small, thin and almost weightless even when smashed into a ball.

All of this led me, while tossing mine in a wastebasket, to think about the origin of the practice. Was it like the story many of us heard during med school rotations about the surgeon  on his first job, at a small town hospital. Being handed a suture for closure, he quickly and efficiently made the stitch and tied it off, Middle of the suture at that. The OR nurse looked at him. Quietly reloaded the needle holder with the remaining suture and handed it back. By the fourth time, he was attempting to close the wound with just a tiny bit of suture, almost too small even for an instrument tie. He turned around and asked “Why are you doing this?” The answer – don’t be wasteful. We are careful here and the patient pays for each and every suture pack opened.

Given when I graduated and started my internship – 1975-  this story probably has its origin in   frugalness and responsibility learned during the depression. Of the Waste not, Want not variety, My mother, as well as her mother were this kind of responsible when I was growing up. My grandmother first worked as a Public Health Nurse in southern, rural Minnesota and then as a bookkeeper for her brother-in-law. My mother grew up with homemade clothes, hand-me-downs and day old bakery bread. My father, on the other hand, grew up in the same era as a child of privilege and never was responsible. Not so, his sister, my aunt, who was one of the most lovely, hardworking, and generous women I have ever met.

Where am I going with all of this? I was evaluating my tendency not to waste thread. To stitch to the end of each length even if it was a bit ragged. It doesn’t make sense, I can afford more floss. DMC here in the US varies from $0.40-0.79/skein. I have a significant supply. Nor is it because I just don’t want to rethread the needle. I am doing that constantly on full-coverage pieces.  It might be because, if I run out of a color I am going to have to dig out more? No, actually, I think it stems from a generational knowledge that things may not always be bountiful and that being conservative with the use of one’s things is smart.

In defiance, I stopped off a moderately ok bit about 5 cm long and rethreaded my needle.

Empty Project Bags

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I could sew them, it is simply not that hard a task. But on the list of things that I want to do, it falls above cleaning and way below stitching and reading. So, I it seems I have been collecting them over the last couple of years.

In reality, I had absolutely no idea how many I had. Admittedly, I was haunting the Etsy shop of the 801 Stitcher, CrabShackStitchery, and maybe one or two others – (as well as getting a monthly set from Garon Stitchery (none of those names mean anything to you, but that is fine – you get the idea).

This morning I decided that it was time that I sorted out a few patterns. The decision wasn’t easy – there are a couple of bins that are a total mess. What I don’t want to do is buy the same pattern twice and I am now past the point where I really want paper patterns unless there is absolutely no choice. Keeping hardcopy patterns in project bags might have made sense at one time but I can’t see them….

where, once I start pulling them out….

it starts to look overwhelming. 

After sorting by designer, except for the cats and quakers, and Halloween –

I was able to tuck those see through zipper bags (sourced from amazon, not real people) I was able to uncover the floor again. 

And I found this –

which says it all

It keeps getting out of control

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Remember when I said that I had spent several hours trying to get the craft room organized? Two days and it seems that everything has exploded once again.

But I have a plan. It might just. be a cunning plan.

It starts like this – with a lot of moving pieces/parts- or works like a Tetris puzzle depending on your opinion. First, Dani & Alex will be moving to their own place sometime in the next month. This means they will also take their few remaining things out of the garage which have been there since they moved out from Chicago sometime a lifetime ago. Next, Noah will relocate downstairs which means that his furniture, which is also living in the garage, will go into the downstair apartment. That should clear out almost one bay. Then I can get at the back boxes which have been blocked almost since they were shipped from Germany in 2014. 

 Yes, it was that long ago. I know that there are still some boxes back there that belong to Miriam and also some that are Shana’s. What is likely is that neither one of them wants anything they have done without for close to 10 years, but I am not going to make that determination. Then there is the small matter of all the little kids stuff that has come along and accumulated. I need to resort and properly pack many of the things. They aren’t sorted by age/size. And then there are the Legos – the first of which Lev should be ready for within the next year. Eight months is too young for those blocks but I see the time coming.

From there, I can tackle the back shelved room. Right now, I think that the Pandemic might just be over before I finish…

 

and further challenges

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I think I am just about done rescheduling the trip Dani and I had planned.

We were all set to just move it to “same time next year” but the fine print on the airline tickets turned out to be the long pole. Yes they are flexible – meaning that they can be rebooked – once. And the rebooking has to be at least 24 hours prior to our original departure. Ok – that is next week, I can handle that. Next tho – the window for reuse t is not 12 months from planned flight – it is 12 months from purchase.

And no one in their right minds pays a premium for cruising in December without a very good reason. Not to mention the challenge of getting time off work. Or sacrificing the extra pay that goes along with pulling shifts on 25 Dec.

In stead, I dropped a note to my lovely travel agent, which I hope she finds first thing in the morning and looks at the new requested dates prior to dealign with NCL.  Since she is on Central time, this may work.

Meanwhile, I am spending about an hour each day working on organizing the craft room which leaves me stitching as a reward. 

Today was. a day for bright colors –

This is the first room in this year’s Folk Art House by Ship’s Manor. I will have to get a daylight picture as it is bright. The fabric is 16 ct and the floss is a combination of Ship’s Manor and DMC. I am going to be doing the frame as I go since the room segment is a reasonable number (~1200) but the frame is not (almost 8k)

And then there is the Spangler full coverage.

which is starting to look more like something and less like random stitches on gridded fabric.

And, if I get sunshine tomorrow, I will update the Flamingo gallery.