Being thankful

Hi there. Lookie what I have to be thankful for:


Our miracle stitcher, Nicole graced me with this lovely package as part of the Ho Ho Ho exchange. I do so love this Prairie Schooler. Thanks, Nicole!

I even managed a little stitching myself --

This first item has arrived in its new home so it's safe to share --


That's my piece for Shelleen in the Ho ho exchange. Shelleen has a fondness for old-fashioned Santas so this one seemed perfect. However it also spawned my desire to do no more backstitching for a month or so. lol


Ornament season may have started late for me this year, but here's hoping it goes fast now. That star Santa on paper gave me fits for a while (I kept trying to add a row to the side of his beard and then getting all frustrated because his hat didn't fit), but eventually I worked out why I was a lame bunny.

Here's my annual Thanksgiving poll -- turkey or ham? Where do you come down on the great holiday debate? Also, it there some thing your family always makes or does for Thanksgiving that it "wouldn't be Thanksgiving without?"

Me? I'm a turkey girl all the way. We never were a ham family. And Thanksgiving's were never Thanksgiving without mom's cornucopia pilgrim candles on the kitchen counter, those big paper dinner napkins with turkeys on them, and black olives in half the relish boat (I never knew why we wasted half the divided dish on pickles). I just realized this year that we had one family weirdness (ok, we had lots, but that's besides the point)-- we never had mashed potatoes. We'd boil red potatoes and we all had forks -- you want them mashed? mash them yourself was the rule. This means I never had proper mashed potatoes until sometime late in my college career.

I wish you all a peaceful and happy day. For those of you Thanksgivinging I hope you have the perfect holiday. I'll be having excessive amounts of turkey with friends and then waddling my way through LosCon-- yes it's time for another weekend of scifi happiness. I'll say hello to the other worlds for you.

Titles, I don't need no stinkin' titles

Actually, I just can't think of a title. I bet you figured that out already though. You're smart like that. That's why I like you.

I'm at work. I have to be at work, right? After all, it's a weekend, therefore I must be working. Want me to tell you my secret for getting your desk cleaned on the weekend? Well, if you promise not to tell...

You get some boxes and hold them to the edge of the counter and shovel stuff in. It's very effective... and very temporary. Hey, I got a dozen boxes of other stuff dealt with so far just by giving myself 2+ feet of level counter top (Oh, you didn't think 2 boxes clear my WHOLE desk did you? lol Silly you!).

I am being very careful though. No more a** over tea kettle tumbles with boxes. Aside from the fact that it hurts, it causes paperwork like you cannot believe (well, unless you'd ever done an a**-over-tea-kettle adventure of your own). Paperwork and annoyance. I went to my doctor. But my doctor's not a "real" doctor (aka Workers Comp doctor). So I get sent a list of doctor's to choose from. I pick the first closest one to me that says he does knees. I go to my appointment only to find my doctor's actual practice is a little removed from injured knees. he specializes in cosmetic dermatology. So, I'd have been perfectly located if I need a tattoo removed or my lips outlined. I was still just humored until he asked me what I was taking and I told him Advil. He left the room and came back in under a moment and handed me these:

Yup, just handed me pills with no instructions, no warning labels, no nothing. Yeah, like I'm taking those. He wanted me to come back for therapy at his office -- wanna know what his therapy facilities were?--- a single, recumbent exercise bike pushed up against the wall in a hallway. Yeah, not going back there. Now, nearly a month after said tea kettle incident, I have another "initial" appointment with a new, "real" doctor on December 1st. The Worker's Comp insurance company assures me this one knows about knees. I'll keep you posted.

On happier, if not nearly as an amusing notes, I have gotten some stitching in the camera to share. Some of it much belated too. I apologize.

First of all I've been terribly lucky in the mail department lately. From Midge as part of the Ho Ho Ho Exchange --


Jealous? You should be! If you aren't now you will be......

... because from Faye as part of the LHN Exchange Group I received the following lovely --

Look how perfect she is--

And she came with this lovely sentiment--

Yup, told you you'd be jealous, but I'm sooo not done yet.....

... because from my dear buddy Janaina I got this stunner--


Sure, it's pretty, but check out her back --

Ridiculous, isn't it? How does she do that??????

Me, yes, Virginia, I have been stitching. There's nothing much wonderful to show, but I'll show you anyway. First is the floss toss for my Christmas F&S round for Linda

I'm having an awful lot of fun wit it thus far. Linda and I are doing the round as a SAL. So far we've both stressed over picking the "proper" pattern and then losing the floss. Funny how that happens to all of us, eh?

I was home with a vicious attack of allergies and the flu for a week so a very minor bit of stitching got done a couple weeks ago. Much more progress was made during that time in my training for the napping olympics.

Yup, I caught the ornie bug. You can tell how nappy I was given that in 4.5 days I did just those paltry examples and nothing, absolutely nothing else.

Before the advent of the allergy/flu adventure, I also spent a couple weekends early this month working at the shop. while there,, because we all have that blissful strain of wishfulness, I pulled out the framing opps for the Vierlanden though it is still only about 30% done.

The mat, which isn't showing up well, is maroon suede. Some day I'll finish, and if I'm lucky they won't have stopped making maroon suede mats.

Mostly what I did at the shop was dust frames. Remember we had that wooden floor put in, well nobody was dusting and it was driving me nuts so I took to the framing wall with damp paper towels and determination. And I did this:



And my organizational tendencies (hey-- stop laughing so loud!!!) came out--

It really was terribly fun. Yup, I might just be a sick puppy. But I discovered all sorts of new frames and now I feel compelled to go find things to stitch for them. Have you ever done that? Stitched something because you liked the frame? I fear I actually shall do that some day.

Well, I'd best go. Do promise me that you will have a lovely rest of your day. At least do your best.

And the Winner is........

..... Mayte (Magic XStitch)!

and the Honorable Mentions are:
Linda (Litla Skvis)
Edgar (Blacksheep's Bit of the Web)
Mylene (Mylene's Blog)
Valerie (Fog City Dweller)

If you could each shoot me an email with your addy to rbe hling 1916 at ya hoo . com (you now how to format that) I'll get the mailing underway.

Once again, thank you all for your encouragement over the years.... except for your encouragement to stash more. Sheesh! Stop it already. I'm going to have to reinforce the floor soon!

Love ya all !

We have a winner!!!!!!!

... Thank you all for your kind wishes. I have a winner (and a desk for of little slips of folded paper-- lol). But I have to hold off announcing because I decided to have one Winner, but also to have a series of Honorable Mentions. My problem is that I can't remember how many Honorable Mention prizes I made up. I'm sorry. I know. It's really lame of me.

Here's to tomorrow and me having my brain engaged.

No way, really? Another year!

It doesn't seem possible but another year has slipped by in my blogging life.

I guess that means it's time to

[celebrate].

There should definitely be

[presents]!

Someone who comments on this post will get a package. I was feeling Fall-ish when I started collecting for this. Of course now the weather has turned again and it's summer again, but hey, it's Fall in lots of other places right now so we'll stick with the original plan. The pack will primarily be:

Those are mostly Sampler Threads with some Belle Soies and Threadworxs. Some fabric will probably get involved too, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

So, if you'd like to be in the draw for this year's blogiversay prize here in Badgerland, just leave a comment. I'll draw a name next err, I was going to say next Saturday, but I'm out of pocket then so it will have to be next Sunday (Nov 15).

Good luck and I would like to very sincerely thank every one of you for a year of adventures. You never cease to make me smile.

P.S. For those of you who won last year's blogiversary RAKs, I hang my head in shame, I know I'm ridiculously slow. I have NOT forgotten. And you shouldn't give up. Actually there are things that will be arriving for folks soon..... real soon. Honest.

Hi there (Haphhazard Post 247.8)

Well, have you been busy? Have you had fun? Have you refrained from strangling coworkers? Hey! Me too!!!!!!

So far, so one of "those" weeks... err... months .... err.... years.

The Big Plan for me recently has been to finish my Constitution (Ursula Michaels "We the People") by this weekend--

Surprisingly enough I am on target. I know, I know. A miracle and the week is still young.... plenty of time for me to muck it up. And yet I think I can make it. I have the row with the bannery-flag thingy and the final row of text and I'm done. It doesn't seem possible, but this is what you can do if no backstitching is involved!

Since I have absorbed myself in The Big Plan for the last week plus, I have been merely analyzing my other projects. I have come to the conclusion that I vacillate too much on what to stitch, but then again I might be wrong (wink). Even if I had made great strides on my other main projects of the moment I couldn't show you because they might just be for you. No spoilers here. Well, not when I'm sober anyway.

Aside from general work (to support my stash) and The Big Plan, the thing that's taken up a lot of my time recently has been dealing with the bureaucracy on my office fall. I fall, I go boom. I hurt myself. I see doctor. Oh, no, my benefits coordinator (which it took me a week to find) tells me, you must see a different doctor, your doc is not our doctor. But she's on your health plan -- oh but not *that* health plan. So you (I) need to go see these other guys benefits person says... "they are close to your office." ... why can't I see the guys on the next corner rather than the ones 2 miles away? Oh, wait, the guys on the next corner only do workers comp poisoning issues. Sigh. It's like a big black hole -- my time keeps falling into it--- swirling slowly so I can watch it dwindle into nothingness. The upshot is that tomorrow I have an appointment to see one of their "real doctors" who had better dang well agree with my doc and had better not have been lying to me about me being able to use the referral my doc gave me for therapy down the street from my hovel. Sigh..... anyone willing to wager a quarter that they were NOT lying? Yeah, me neither.

For a little humor, since you lived through the above whine -- I finally got the picture of my ice "shin guard" uploaded--

There it is in all its book-taped glory; sliding down my leg instead of unwinding nicely so it could be replaced. For your edification: do not expect to be able to unwind several feet of booktape from your knee. There must be scissors involved. If you don't have scissors you will end up with a very chilly shin guard.

On a cooler (nifitier) front, I would like to introduce you to my LNS' new floor--

Neat, eh? It really is lovely, and I can't help but think it will be much easier to keep clean. Mind you all the dust from the install seems to still be in the shop. I spent a goodly part of my day there this weekend wiping down frame samples. Annoying since I hate dusting, yes, but great because I get to put all the frame samples I hate the most on the bottom of the display wall ... lol Hey, I dust, I should get some perks, right?

I need to warn you I shall probably be a very bad stitcher soon. You see, I'm having this compulsion to do a sampler in greys and red. It's terrible. I just feel like I HAVE to start it. See --

It would look cool. Mind you, I only have those little skeins of Olde Willows that are in the picture, so the colors will have to change, but I can make that happen. Oh no, I feel another WIP coming on! Save me!!!!!!!!!

Toodles for now -- behave yourself (in any manner you so choose)!