About time?

Yes, I know I have been derelict in my duties, but apparently that is the story of my life.   Want a summary of what you have been "missing?"  Well ok then.

I have been working, and work has been annoying.  (status quo)
I have been stitching some.  (nothing particularly new in that)
I have been reading some.  (yes, still pretty predictably normal here)
I have been cleaning some. (ok, that I know is shocking)
I have not stashed a bit.  Oh wait, there was some thread, but I think maybe not--- Ethel has such a big bag of threads that go with her that it is hard to remember whether it was stuff already pulled for her or something new to replace a thread that I shouldn't have bothered with in the first place.

Here are some bits of progress -- some especially humorful.  

Leading the rank of the funny stories is my pathetic progress on my By the Bay Serenity Harbor SAL:

If you are doing Serenity, then you recognize this as about 1/4 of installment #1 --- and we are allegedly on installment #4 now.   The fun began with the roses which I wanted to be red like the Mr. Lincoln tree rose which I had bought my mom years ago.  So I picked 3 "perfect colors" and stitched away.  Oh man they didn't work at all once they were actually stitched-- perfect in skeins laying next to each other on the fabric, but not perfect stitched.  Sigh.  Rip.  Replace "the offending color."  Try.  Nope. Rip.  So I pulled EVERY FLIPPING red or red-ish floss or solid silk in the shop (about 30-40 choices), and I sat and played and compared and re compared and arranged and rearranged.  Finally picked the above 3, even though when sitting in the skeins they didn't quite please me.  I once again put the right-most rose in the picture in.  The colors worked, but it still didn't look right.  Looked at the pattern (which, mind you, had been firmly with me the entire time-- and which I had carefully followed and counted and recounted).  Guess what?   While I was VERY careful about my counting.  I was not careful enough about my symbol to thread matching.  Sigh.  Rip.  Replace.   Happy now.  What a dork!

In the last couple nights The Engineering has come out to play -- she's got more jeans now.  But now I'm thinking that the T-stitch which I was going to use for the legs of the overalls is too small to be bothered with.  This weekend maybe I'll find a new stitch for them......  stay tuned!

Ethel got two baskets last weekend.   A miracle!!!!!  This weekend is either going to be the other 3 baskets or more sky.   Probably sky --- what do you think -- I'm leaning towards putting in all the blue of the sky and then laying in the clouds in Whisper over it.  Thoughts?

In other inspirational news, we had art in action in the 'hood this week -- first we painted (sorry, I need to go find out the artist's name):

Then installed "artists" and neon

I liked the effect even though I never saw it at night.  I bet it was cool-- what can I say, I'm a color magpie apparently.

I'm going to close with what I hope will be an inspirational to-do list for the weekend for me.  I'm trying to get my act in gear... dammit stop laughing.  Ok, I know it's funny.  Me?  With an act in gear.  Pardon me while I snicker at myself.

Anyway, right this very moment I want be able to see some of the following accomplished by Monday:

• Ethel progress -- those 3 small baskets and some sky
• Mr. Engineer -- figure out new stitch for the pants
• progress on Boothy -- this should not be so difficult dang it
• a finish
• 2 books completed
• something actually cooked... in my kitchen!  
• the dang pots back in the one cupboard I have in Maison d'Hovel's kitchen (the stovetop is looking like the leaning tower of cookware)
• winter clothes tucked away (rather than blocking my path to the closet of spring-appropriate choices)
• progress on putting stash in some reasonably "away" place (Much as I love my stash I really don't need immediate access to it so it ought to get out of the way!)
• books on shelves ( love them too.... and don't have nearly enough shelf space, but they too need to be out of the way and where I can actually ind them)

 Let's see how I do by Monday.  I would cross my fingers, but I need them for all of the above.


Pratchett thought of the day:

You get a wonderful view from the point of no return.

Moist von Lipwig -- Making Money

Progress on many fronts and something ridiculous

Greetings gentle reader.  So good to see you.  I have resettled into life in the land of Really-This-Is-Winter?-Who-Knew-?!  Today we are supposed to hit 71F  This weekend we needed to air condition the shop. Honestly, last Thursday it snowed on me and now I'm trying to find light enough sweaters to wear to the office.  Oh well.  I guess I will just have to muddle through.

On to the exciting news ----   I stitched!   I know-- it is gasp worthy.

This weekend after the customer flurry left for the day (Saturday was the first day of my needlepoint shop's annual post-TNNA sale, and the shoppers were out IN FORCE!), my little stitching country club settled in for a get together and Ethel got all the leaves (Sampler Thread) in the uppermost basket and the flowers started going in (French knots in white Flair which may be joined by very, very pale blue and pale blue Flairs as well).  And, she also got a bit more sky because that's where I started only to quickly work out that to do any more sky I needed to rid myself of the waste knots  in my way and to do that I needed to get those threads running through the white flowers anchored.   If I had done a better pic you could tell that the Flair makes the flowers sparkle a bit.

On Sunday I hunkered down at Chez Hovel, put on an Agatha Christie audio book, and stitched and napped the day away.  It was blissful!   First up on Blissday was starting my By the Bay Serenity Harbor.  I am loving it.  

I am changing the roses in the border from pink to red.  As far as I can tell I have not messed up my counting yet, but I am accepting all prayers and good thoughts that not only is that assumption true but that they continue to be true.  I have a habit of just giving up on things where I get off in count and can't find the mistake in an hour of hunting.  It's a character flaw, but life it too short to be frustrated for long.

And Ellen's flag came out to play --

That's By Gone Stitches' One Nation -- and it got some new stars and an "O" in Connecticut.  I know, I know.  A 10-year old could stitch faster, but hey, I'm getting there.  

I am going to leave you with a little ridiculousness from DC.
Behold, Sound Suit by Nick Cave. (from the Smithsonian American Art Museum)

The front:

The back:

Details:

My first reaction was "dang it someone's grandma did those."  Eventually after circling the thing for a while I decided I might have to come back from the grave to shoot someone who did that to my stitching.

Good morning, snow!

This morning we have fluffy white stuff falling from the sky!

That was at 6:45-ish.  Now that it is almost 9am the flakes are a lot bigger and there are a lot more of them.  Lots and lots more of them. [I think the herbs in the planter box may be toast-- -don't you?]   Save for the driving in it part (my poor sister!), it is really cool.

For comparison, yesterday it looked like this:

My American friends, that's your National Christmas Tree.  It is probably undecked today as they were dismantling its compound yesterday morning.    And yesterday's chilly winds did not dissuade the "photo club" at the White House (though it did bring down the numbers considerably)--

Oh, something I never noticed/paid attention to before was this monument in the sidewalk between the White House and the National Christmas Tree.  It is the official Zero Milestone marker set in 1920 and from which all roads in the U.S. were supposed to be measured -- apparently that didn't happen, but we still have the milestone and a remembrance of the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy which went from DC to San Francisco in 1919.

I'm going to break the cool travel-ness here, and shoe-horn some stitching in -- otherwise you might think I was avoiding the issue...... you would be right!

I joined the By the Bay's Serenity Harbor SAL for the year, and for the last few days I've been jealously watching people's progress.  When i was packing I just could not see my way clear to packing this bundle:

That is a badly-lighted (sorry) pic of my floss toss for this.  See-- that's a pretty big bundle to pack.  So I am just going to have to wait until I give up my East Coast fling to get needles in to this one.

Ok, warning,  I am saying this up front:  this is NOT mine.  I merely facilitate the finishing for my friend Judy.

Isn't it pretty?  And we had the perfect shade of velvet in the finishing corral at the shop!  Such miracles do not happen every day!

She did a great job.  I sure would love to claim it as mine!...... especially since the eagle-eyed amongst you will note there are no pictures of my stitching progress since I have very little to show for the last few days.  Oops!

Ok, enough slight of hand,,,,   back to pretty vacation pics.

I was in DC a day before the family and I decamped for an early Christmas in St. Louis with one family bundle.  The first night in St. Loius we headed out to the light display at the Botanical Gardens and it was SPECTACULAR!  Kudos STL!!!!!!

Nope. That is not part of the Christmas lights, but I love Chihuly.

How cool is what I call "the light saber garden?!!"

For the Doctor Who fans... I don't think they meant to do this... or maybe they are fans too who could not resist......

And I leave you with a minor theme of my photos ...  the first pet of the holidays (besides Princess, of course).  Meet Q -- totally mellow and peaceful until you mention the "S" word.  [Squirrel]

Happy Tuesday!

P.S.  In case there is a very observant person out there who pays attention to my sidebar, you will note that in my Reads Allegedly in Process, Stephen King has appeared.  Now, that's not something I EVER imagined happening... ever.  But the 13-year-old nephew gave it to me for Christmas explaining that he remembered us talking about Edgar Allan Poe last year and he understood that King had his roots in Poe so obviously it was the perfect thing for Aunt Ruth.  Gulp.  What's an aunt to do? ---- Suck it up and read, that's what!  lol  Preening proudly that I've "raised" another generation of book people.