Friday, October 02, 2009

Joining in and other things

Here's what I should be doing--
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My sister and BIL's stockings. My sister go the "fiddly bits" done and now it's my turn. In case you've looked closely at how much is left to do on the tree/Santa stocking (the sister's) you can probably guess that that one won't be ready for 2009. The BIL's might. I have to do the top and order the fabric for the finishing. That might work out. Cross your fingers!

What I have been obsessed with instead:
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the belt.... I'm actually more done than this, but I haven't uploaded those pics. I have become completely obsessed with this. It apparently has the perfect balance of color changes and color blocks so nothing ever gets too tedious. I like that in a canvas! I like it a lot!
Oh and I got needlepoint startitis and bought and started this:
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I rationalized this as my trip to NYC momento. The ability to rationalize stash and starts is a talent all stitchers should have.... right?

I've even done some xs instead of working on the stockings --
Beatrix Potter got some time--
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in case you were wondering, that's a lot of beads in that there flower....
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Because I got xs startitis one afternoon, I began work on Ursula Michaels We the People--
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Now, about the joining -- which is kinda like startitis, just not with needles. I am joining Vickie's 10 Book Challenge! The idea is that you make a list of 10 books you want to read by the end of the year. You don't have to stick to the list, but it gives you some place to aim. I mean, you know me. I'm even more of a "mood reader" than I am a "mood stitcher." One of my happiest moments is finishing a book because what I do next is pull down a whole bunch of books I think I want/need to read and surround myself with them on the bed. Then I start picking them up one by one and reading the beginning. When I get to the one I am reluctant to put down, that's the winner. This kind of joy-in-choosing pattern does no bode well for lists (witness the fact that what's it been? 2 years that there's been a reminder on the side bar of this blog that I want to read Smilla's Sense of Snow? lol).

Anyway, I'm joining. I was wanting too sign up even before our friend, Shelleen chided me for not talking about reading even though I torture you all with pictures of authors at scifi cons. But I might not have gotten around to formalizing the joining if it weren't for Shelleen's prodding -- thanks, Social Butterfly!

So here goes. My "list:" [in no particular order and, because I'm me, in pictures]
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1. Sharyn McCrumb's St. Dale
2. Marilyn Robinson's award-winning Gilead (Afterall, I should read something that won something other than a Hugo occasionally. lol)
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3. Sean McMullen's Souls in the Great Machine
4. James White's The Watch Below
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5. the anthology Mean Streets (how can I resist Simon R. Green and Jim Butcher in one volume?!)
6. Barbara Hambly's Redfield
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7. the anthology Enchantment Place (I love short stories.)
8. the anthology The Wizards of Odd
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9. Zakour and Ganems' The Plutonium Blonde
10. Simon R. Green's Nightside -- the first is Something from the Nightside which I have already read, but I should probably re-read to get started on the 6-10 subsequent volumes (yeah, I'm behind.)
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10.1. the anthology Night's Edge Charlaine and Barbara Hambly vampire stories, yeah, I could like that!
10.2 George R.R. Martin's Wildcards
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10.3 Florence's The Perfect Machine
10.4 Rolt's Victorian Engineering
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10.5 an old fav -- Steve Perry's The Man Who Never Missed -- a re-read so I can get on to the other volumes in the series.
10.6 Yarbro's -- A Flame in Byzantium or any of the many St. Germain's I haven't gotten to.
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10.7 Vaughn's Kitty and the Midnight Hour
10.8 the anthology Space, Inc (did I mention I really, really Love short stories?)

Lest you think I'm spoiled for choice:
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there's the McDevitt and McKillip collections
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and the Shinn collection
And still, those are the merely the snowball on the tip of the iceberg. Heck maybe I'll actually read Smilla's! lol

Here's to finishing.... SOMETHING!

10 comments:

Mel said...

I'm glad I'm not the only person with alot of unread books on their shelf. I read about 56 a year... but 325 unread ones on the shelf and keep buying more. yep you do the math. :)

Love all the projects! Looking great.

Mylene said...

Great colours of the stocking, hope you get to work on them soon and good progress on BP.
Wow! I am jealous of your books collection, wish they have more english available here and not that so expensive.

Unknown said...

Go, now. Read Smilla's Sense of Snow. I used to keep this tagline on my emails: "At this moment it becomes more obvious than it has been since I was a child that freedom of choice is an illusion, that life leads us through a series of bitter, involuntarily comical, and repetitive confrontations with the problems that we haven't resolved." Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg, but it is a bit depressing for everyday use.

As for the grey mixer with the beads. Yeah, you might be seeing that at Loscon. Turns out the threads in the kit won't stitch up like the model (colors too similar). Trying to decide if I will pull out 80% of the gray and restitch.

Carolyn NC said...

You definitely sound busy - love all the stitching!

Nina said...

Thank you for visit my blog and for your kind comment :)
Enjoy your weekend!
Kind regards from Hungary,
Nina

mainely stitching said...

I think we've read all but maybe 5 or 10 books out of the 3000+ we have. Two really notable ones that I cannot seem to plough through are The Life of Pi and Perdido Street Station. Both were books I couldn't wait to get, but cannot seem to get past page 50.

Shelleen said...

I read Kitty and the Midnight Hour and I believe 2 others of the series. They are pretty good. I also read the first book of a series by Jim Butcher and enjoyed that.

Dani - tkdchick said...

Ruth, what a great combination of projects and books you've got going there! I don't doubt you'll get all those books read!

Siobhán said...

Great progress on the needlepoint and the stitching! Your book collection is fabulous! Not my usual taste in reading so I'll enjoy hearing what you have to say on each, maybe find a few new authors that way!

Kathy A. said...

Wow, nice post. Love those Christmas stockings. Where ever did you get that nutcracker pattern. You can see my collection of nutcrackers on my blog posted this week. That pattern would be just perfect for me. I LOVE IT. Can you tell lol?
That is quite the book challenge ahead of you. good luck.