PIE! An Update

It's now officially summer, and we are now officially out of the Cup, as is England (wtf?). But MEXICO is also OUT of the cup - Woohoo!! There are about 6 more weeks before school starts again (again, wtf?). And wow could I use a week at the beach - a non-oil-polluted beach, of course (again, wtf? WTG, BP). All of which means nothing, except it's strawberry pie season - see?
 
Not pictured: Cool Whip - because it's wrong to eat it right out of the bowl, hence the pie :) No, really, I get yelled at every time, so it must be wrong, even though the kids do it and the dogs are standing right there the whole time...

In other news, the stitching slump might be winding down - I ran into a little hurdle with another thing I've been working on, so while I tried to figure out how to get over that, I picked up a needle pretty often over the last week or two, despite losing all of past Tuesday night to fall soccer sign-up - yes, I'm still the damn manager, but now I am the sole manager, I am AUTONOMOUS!!! Yippee. Translation - more work for me! GO ME! Someday, they tell me, the Kid will appreciate it; so far, I ain't seein' it...


Anywho, back to the needle bits. I HAD to finish up my goof on Paula's RR, and was bound & determined to get to the cutwork section - so I kept it for an extra week, and got that band done. I had the top part of it done when it was supposed to move on to Jodie, but I figured I'd better do the bottom half, too, so the tension would match in the weird Honeycomb stitch. I really, really liked this piece (even if it does have hearts & pink in it - I can make exceptions for exceptional pieces); if the border doesn't get done, send it back, I'll finish it up :)

Overall to date:



The cutwork section:



I worked on Tanglewood again at last week's stitch in, and got the next branch outlined. I'll likely work on it tonight, too, and get that one filled in, get a start on the next outline.



And then, because I've been into the impulse starts lately, I also started Tracy's latest freebie, Ink Spot #11, which came out in her newsletter last week. I had a piece of Vikki Clayton's linen left over from Samplar 4 Saisons, so there it is. That's for lunch, when I can put the book down.



This past Saturday was the local stitcher's group, PINS. I worked on Mary Wigham again, and got the squirrel on!!! I've been working towards him from the beginning - he and the carnation are the only 2 colors I picked out specifically for the motif - the squirrel is in HDF BeSeeded :) There's a dime beside the squirrel for scale on the over-1 - he'd fit under it :) My eyes have been chewed the last few weeks (gee, I've gone 42 years without glasses, can't I go a little longer? PLEASE?), but I still don't have any problem with that French Country linen over-1 :) Good stuff, need yards & yards more...



And even though the rotation has been scrapped (temporarily or permanently, dunno), I did get MTM out Friday night - and will keep it out for an unknown length of time. I finally got that 3rd center building done! Man, it's not difficult, it's just freaking big! I may do that one first on the 4th side, just to get it out of the way - IF I can manage the counting :) I'll get this 3rd side done in pretty short order this week, I think, and then I'll decide if I move around to the left town, or put it up. This is the overall shown - detail here.



Other than MTM continuing, I have no idea what is planned for this week; I do know EGS isn't likely to make an appearance - totally don't care about it at the moment. I've never said that about any project before - have I hit maximum density on TWs? Again, don't know. Maybe I just need to work on some of this other stuff more, for a while :)



Anyway, that's the news, or what passes for news. Have a great week, and for those of you in the US, have a safe 4th of July weekend! The next update should include potato salad :) Because mine's the best :) :) :)

8000% Humidity - an Update

Everybody knows I hate the cold - but the heat the last few days has been utterly ridiculous! I know, I know, I'm getting old, thus my window of comfort is getting smaller and smaller. Yeah, yeah, never happy, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. But bitching about the weather keeps me from bitching about other things out of my control, such as...

This little tidbit: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/34297/
Here is a tiny little rant that you can skip over if you'd like. If, like me, you think illegal immigration is a HUGE issue, then the above article is for you. Why? Because the people in that article are who my kids have share space with. We know half of those criminals, not to speak to, but on sight. The kid that died was the brother of one of our players. My kids have cops in their schools because of the gangs. And I'm not in LA, not in metro Atlanta - I'm in the sticks, just 30 short miles from where Deliverance was filmed, in a little place I like to call Tijuana East. And who gets to foot the bill for the ER and the incarceration and investigation? I do. I also get to pay for these useless dregs to drag my sons' education further into the toilet, thanks to No Child Left Behind, for people who have no intention of using their education, but take it and demand more because they think they are entitled to it. You think this couldn't happen where you are? Wait - they're coming.... You want to know the real Montezuma's revenge? It's the first authentic Mexican place opening in small town America, and they lure you in with the kick-ass margaritas and salsa, and then the next one opens, and the next one. I've been watching this evolution for the last 16 years - it ain't a pretty picture, folks. I can make you a margarita, when it comes right down to it.

Enough - I don't like to discuss political issues, but this one's pretty much right in my backyard, soooo.... Here endeth the rant.


On to lighter things. Still slumping, stitching wise. Over the last couple of weeks, though, I have done some. Apparently my rotation is on hiatus. Maybe I have too many things going, and I have project confusion? Don't know. Just not into it, I have other concerns at the moment. Last time I updated, I had been working on Chat Noir. I kept him out for a bit longer, and though it looks almost exactly identical to the last time, I did actually fill in several blanks.
Last time, I also updated Tanglewood; I took it to last week's stitch in at The Stitch Store and worked on it again, filling in another branch. Maybe if I take this to a few stitch ins (which was canceled tonight, btw), I'll get a side done :) I'm just so used to all you guys here knowing what it is, that I think it's weird when the local stitchers don't immediately recognize the name; then when I show them the picture, they're like "Oh, yeah, I remember that one. Is that what that looks like?" It's strange knowing there are two very distinct stitching communities, online and offline - and maybe that's why it's in decline? Not enough cross-over? Maybe I'm just too eclectic for my own good? Or maybe eccentric is a better word...? No comments from you peanuts, okay? Anyway, here's the latest:

And because Chat just doesn't provide enough confetti, I decided to break out World Tree for a few hours. I got to put in a new color!!! WooHoo! Finally got to that turquoise :) This really is going to be an amazing piece, all these colors against the black. I am kinda thinking the 939 around the edge of the black is a bit of overkill - I can't see it when I get it in, so why make the distinction? Because I am either nuts, or I realllllyyyy like a challenge :) I just hope I get this beast done while the eyes still work....

As for this week - don't know. World Tree is still out. I need to work on Paula's RR, as it has to ship out soon - and I need to finish putting back what I had to take out during that vicious frog attack a month ago (which just happens to coincide with the beginning of this slump). Might not work on anything, especially if this heat continues. This is good reading weather - and I get to go pick up Echo in the Bone next week :) Won't get to read it until I finish The Fountainhead & another Karen Harper Elizabethan mystery that I have here from the library - but right after those - I can't wait!! There was a time when I read a thousand-page book every week or two, before my life became consumed by thread; maybe I'm just reverting back? Dunno. Anyway, if you are stitching or not, have a great week!

And We Wonder Why...

Seen on a Kia from Missouri on the way home today:
A cheesy cartoon of a wizard, similar to this one, but not this one, since I stole this one from the internet:






And written below that, this legend:
Fastener Sourcerer
XXX-XXX-XXXX

Fastener Sourcerer? Sour - cerer? Sorcerer? WTF? Clearly suffering an addled brain from the previous twenty miles of 80-stop, 80-stop, 80-stop, oh-look-no-blinker, I am not able to puzzle this out. It's every bit as bad as 90% of the stupid-ass vanity plates that only the owner gets. Except the one PRNSSS has (scroll down to the next to last paragraph for that tirade).

Anyway, finally, it comes to me. Fastener SOURCE-erer. Oh, look, Ethel, it's a Play On Words, says Delbert. (If the car had been from anywhere other than Missouri, I would have imagined that conversation in Monty Pythonese) (Except possibly Arkansas - pronounced R Kansas, btw)

And we wonder why all the kids are growing up retarded??? Um, because people think it's okay to just take any old word in the language and bastardize it to suit their idiotic needs??? Now, we can't blame everything on gangstas and Ebonics, if this Kia is any indication. Assuming, of course, that both gangstas and Ebonics are relatively scarce in Missouri...

If it ain't in the Oxford English, then maybe you should stop trying to be clever. Because you FAIL, in some cases EPIC FAIL. And "ain't" is in there, so :b~~~~~~~~ (my sister would slap me if she lived closer).

People, just remember that for those of us with photographic memory (out of film or otherwise), we can't usually Un-See a thing once it's been seen, and bleach just isn't suitable.

Show Me State, huh? Come here, you dumb shit, let me show you how I'm going to smack you right in the damn head....

Thanks to Chris Cornell for helping me survive today's drive; if you haven't listened to all of his 1999 solo effort, Euphoria Morning, I highly recommend it, regardless of your driving conditions...

A Small Update

Not a lot going on here - survived the tourney in Columbus, though it was, as usual, largely a waste of time, though a good entry on the Kid's resume. Tryouts are this week for the upcoming season - no rest for the weary. I'm hoping it works out that I don't have to manage this year - I'm over it. We'll see...

In other news, not much stitching going on - just not into it, still, though I had more mojo over the weekend than I've had. I did go to the day stitch in last Tuesday - we talked Terrie into moving the Monday one, since she was going to be closed for Memorial Day, to Tuesday, which I also had off. I couldn't decide what to take, so I took 4-5 projects with me, and ended up working on Tanglewood, getting a branch filled in and another outlined.

I'll be taking Tanglewood with me tonight, too. Following the knotwork is meditative, which fits my mood the last couple of weeks. Anyone else wonder why "mojo" isn't recognized by the Multiply dictionary??? Hmmm...

I haven't worked on my rotation pieces for the lat two weeks - could give a s#%$ less about EGS right now, and not really feeling it for Knotgarden, either. The few nights I did put any stitches in the last two weeks, I worked on Chat Noir. I got in a few hundred stitches over the two weeks - if you look at the previous picture, you can see how much got filled in. Who knew whiskers were such a PITA???

And that's it, for 2 whole weeks. No, really. You guys probably think I'm really ill, huh? Well, who knows? Preoccupied, for sure. Just needing a change of pace, maybe. We'll see if I get Samplar 4 Saisons out this week, or keep on with Chat, whom I kept on the stand last night. For those of you NOT slumping, happy stitching this week :)