News flash: Frogging causes stash

I've decided. It is only logical that I join Evalina's Oldest UFO challenge. I'm hauling out my old "friend," the lighthouse needlepoint kit my sister gave me years ago.

As near as I can guess I think I started this in 2004. I believe I had to pause in working on it to do other projects with deadlines. When I came back to it I was annoyed that I hadn't thought to do specialty stitches (who cares that the instructions patiently teach the continental--- yeah, like that's happening). But I had this problem --

-- you see all I had done was the clouds and the tower. I couldn't bear the thought of ripping out the tower for certain, but I figured I could manage the clouds and those were really where I wanted to change the stitching. Well, it seems that it was well-nigh impossible to pull the clouds without the tower. The thought of pulling out that course wool was enough to put me off the plan.... for several years.

Now, spinning time forward, Evalina comes up with this brilliant UFO adventure, and blammo, the lighthouse is on the burner. So this last weekend I pulled ALL the stitching out. It took all bloomin' day. All day -- all SATURDAY. A fine weekend day shot straight to... errr... the trash can. Please believe me when I say that I could have made several small, decorate sheep sculptures from the wool clips I pulled, and pulled, and pulled. And pulled. And then pulled some more.
I had to take several breaks in frogging because my fingers kept developing dents and grooves in them from the needle and the scissors. On one break I tried to find out if the kit was still being made so I could just buy a new one and leave off with my forgging torture. On other breaks (somewhere passed the 4-hour frogging mark) I begun wandering about the store scouting. My scouting missions turned up the following ornaments (on congress cloth-- that's how much my brain was fogged by frogging -- I thought doing a pair of congress cloth ornaments sounded like a joy) which I taped and started the basic threading--

Somewhere aroud hour 6 I decided I DESERVED (!!!!!) the following:

Obviously I not only found it, but also taped, stretchered, and threaded it. I almost pulled down matting and frames to decide whether I was framing it or mounting it in a box. {So much for my plan to "earn" that mask canvas by finishing the lighthouse.}

Now, 4 days on, the grooves in my fingers have faded and I'm mostly over the aversion I have to wooly things. I still think I deserve the ornaments and the rose though!

I'm too lame to have brought the pic of the now frogged canvas and the replacment Silk and Ivory. Soon.....

Finally, on a "literary" front, the following is courtesy of Stitch Bitch who got me thinking....

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.
My little red Bible which I got in the 3rd grade elevation ceremony at my church -- must be one of the mysteries of Methodism that when you start 3rd grade you're old enough for a real Bible [all the "real" words and only a few pictures (mostly maps) at the back].
After that it'd be the ratty ole copy of The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny which I got probably as a junior or senior in high school.


A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).
Well there's the aforementioned little red Bible which I clearly remember standing on the marble steps in front of the altar clutching. I think I was wearing one of the dreaded choir robes at the time-- they were always too short because I was always too tall.
If I shouldn't be repeating then the Science Fiction Book Club edition of The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

It always reminds me of the old staff room at the library where I used to work and the afternoon my to-be friend snorted at me for rambling on with someone else about Star Trek (I was *not* rambling-- it wasn't like I was such a tremendous fan as that I would ramble) and told me he'd fix my problem. The next day in the same staff room he plopped the SFBC version of The Colour of Magic down in front of me and said, "there, read something worth talking about."

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

Ernest K Gann's Fate Is the Hunter which I picked up at a university donated books sale. It came with a letter inside from Gann thanking one of the big Hollywood studios for their interest in his work and their intentions to make another movie from one of his books, possibly Fate. I don't believe it ever got made, but the letter makes me smile.

The book that’s been with you to the most places.
This is kind of hard. I don't tend to repeatedly haul physical books on adventures. Lots of books I own went from home to college and then about college locations, but that's not very interesting. But once I joined Audible, it became a tradition that I'd avoid bad hotel TV by listening to Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun and/or Zombies of the Gene Pool at every con I went/will go to.


The most recent addition to your shelves.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.
Tough again since I have several in process and I'm such a mood reader that it's hard to predict what happens next.
Most recent finish:

Agatha Christie's The Big Four a triumph of the "little grey cells."
Currently Reading:

Going with the "very last thing I was reading" which still yields two answers -- on the way in to work I was listening to the continually fascinating Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes (the fascinating story of the development of the Eiffel Tower and the Paris world's fair that featured it).
The last physical book I had my nose in was The Quest of the Warrior Sheep by the husband and wife team of the Russells.

(One look should tell you it's a gift I needed to be up on in advance... at least I hope that's apparent.) I'm almost done -- thank Heavens!

My next read/finish will hopefully be something else I have in process -- The Nitrogen Murder so I can return it to my booky friend Anita who hasn't goten a chance to read it yet because she's been kindly lending it to weasels like me.