Ready. Set. Read...and Stitch!

Woohooo... I just have to make it through today to get to the excitement of (possibly) the month -- the Save Our Cozies Readathon.   It's my opportunity to thank some writers who make my life just that little bit better every day and my opportunity to have my disgruntled opinions of their contract choices ignored by Penguin Random House.

In fine compulsive style I've made list after list.  I've gone shopping.  I've checked out library audio books.  I've sorted and piled and re-sorted and re-piled.    Now, I just need to get to the farmers market at lunch today to pick up healthy nosh and I'm ready.   Well, except for I don't know what I'm going to read first.  OMG!   The decisions!!!!  After all there is so much to choose from. :)

And 'lo, I bring you glad tidings of The Official Badger's Short List of Non-Audio Readathon Opps:

I think that might be the order I read them in, but who knows.  I'm a mood-reader in the exact same way I'm a mood-stitcher.  And speaking of stitching.......

I am hoping the mood strikes me to continue work on my flag while enjoying an audio book during Saturday's readathon.   I did several hours last weekend and made decent progress.

What I want to know is why those flipping stars take me FOREVER to stitch.  OMG!  

Last weekend also saw me finish this Painted Pony canvas.... well, maybe finish.  I can't decide if I'm going to stitch around her in a forest green or have her finished  in the shape and size she is.  All of that is further troubled by the fact that I can't figure out how to cord her.   Sigh.  That will be a problem for another weekend.

Have an excellent Friday, be gentle with yourself, think kindly towards the world (#jesuisNice), and maybe drop in to the readathon blog or facebook page and thank an author.

Finishing things is almost as cool as vacation

Hey there, look who's back already.  Must be vacation perkiness setting in.  That or having a finish to share.

This little guy who got started at the airport on the way here is now complete.  It's from Pickleberry and I did it in Anchor and Kreinik.  The little sheep needle minder is a fresh addition to my life.  I picked him up at In Stitches in Alexandria.   Maybe I will call him Alex though I don't think he looks much like an Alex.

 Aside from my stitching finish, I have also been making headway on a lovely box of custom chocolates that my ever so kind brother-in-law got for me from a chocolatier in Richmond.  I am doing my best to make sure that I don't go hog wild on them..... one every other day.  Yeah, that's the plan.

The reason I'm here on the East Coast "enjoying" the humidity is that I'm hanging with the BIL while my sister is in Peru on a marathon vacation -- part marathon, part vacation.   I wonder if there's an LNS there.   Here's her group kicking off their adventures in Cusco.

So while she's off enjoying Cusco Day (the day she arrived happened to be the city's annual celebration of itself) and getting ready for Inca adventures and trips to the Amazon, I'm adventuring about NoVa.  This morning found the BIL and I at the Alexandria farmers market --

I've got some time...... the squash above and bowls below may find a new home next weekend.....

And check out the yummy yarn!  That cream basket is cotton and it is so soft!

Produce from this morning's shopping is now happily marinating in the fridge......

After the market we headed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for an inspirational brunch for Honored Team Mates in Team and Training.   My BIL is the Honored Team Mate for Team Tom which to date over the last 6-8 months raised $201,000!  GO TEAM !!!

In short, while my sister is off gallivanting in South America, I am "struggling" through life in Northern VA --

It's tough work, but someone's gotta do it, right?

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To exercise my love of lists--

Vacation Stitching Wins:
Pickleberry snowflake heart

Vacation Reading Finishes:
Monica Ferris -- And Then You Dye
Franklin W. Dixon -- The Secret of the Caves
Victoria Hamilton -- A Deadly Grind

Next Stitching Targets:
LK Snippet -- Holly
Painted Pony -- Home of the Brave angel

At Bat in the Reading Realm:
Franklin W. Dixon -- The Missing Chums
Steve Perry -- The Man Who Never Missed

Nearing Summer with Dragging Feet

Somehow, though I have tons I could say, I can't work out what to say.  I have started this post a few times and only ended up deleting it when I stared at the blank screen without a clue as to what to say.
I've decided to go with "say something" just to get yourself going as a strategy.

I trolled pictures and came up with an embarrassment of missing things.  This little dolphin came back to me from the finisher looking very adorable.  He's mine -- all mine! He commemorates my childhood trips with mom to Sea World.  One time I got a stuffed dolphin which I remember to this day because the grey fur on the sides was sewed on so you could only pet it "properly" from the tail to the nose.  I don't know how old I was at the time, but my mom was an amazing seamstress and I knew all about nap.  I remember telling my mom that they should only let people sew these toys together if they knew about how to construct them properly.  :)

This half-done Santa is actually done now and off to the finisher.  He was fun even though I struggled with the background.  I had selected a soft yellow ThreadWorx, but everyone but me thought it was awful.  It took a couple weeks of searching the shop to find a thread that worked--- *every* blue in the world clashes with that teal hat.  I couldn't go white because of the wings.  Light purples looked hideous.  You could have knocked me over with a feather when the color that worked was pink.  Pink?  How did that happen?  The pink quandary is somewhat balanced in my memory by how much fun I had experimenting with the beard.

This little guy is done too.  Nope, I could have sworn I had a finished pick of this too, but Heaven knows where that is.  Possibly it went holidaying with the finished Santa pic of the canvas above.

I recently became obsessed with this piece.  It's for my sister, but no surprise since I sent her a picture of the canvas to see if it made her smile instantly as it did for me.  It did so it will be hers.  It's going to be a tray.  I will do the background in wine Silk and Ivory.

I'm fond of both the grey-gold Crystal whatsitsface I did the glass outlines in and the Kreinik copper metallic for the words.

And now phase two... this is my current obsession -- I pulled him to travel with.  It kept me good company at the airports and on the planes over the weekend.  I got to spend extra unplanned time enjoying Texas hospitality because of the extreme weather that settled over Dallas as my plane was trying to go through.  It's not like I could do anything about the delays so I stitched and did what I could with my impromptu overnight in Dallas.

Before this trip east, my Dove candy had a message for me.  LOL   I shared its thoughts with my dear buddy, Anita, who said I shouldn't ignore important guidance like this.  She tried her hardest to convince me to ignore packing the day before my flight and go book shopping with her instead because obviously I needed more books.

Silly Anita -- I already had these packed... and a Kindle.... and 26 audio books checked out from my local library on my laptop.

When I finally arrived in DC, my brother-in-law had a collection of packages waiting for me--  

I think I'm set for reading material for now.  [And, for the record, I believe I'm set for stitching too -- I brought 3 new, small cnavases; 1 small canvas to finish; by giant flag cross stitch; and 3 xs ornies.  And you know what, when I was picking up the magnifier, I almost bought two patterns.....  I think I have a stash problem.  LOL]

So far on this trip the BIL and I have had one adventure (my sister is off gallivanting in exotic locales so us domestic sorts are staying here at home) -- we were passing George Washington's mill and distillery (on the way to an LNS to get me a small clamp magnifier) and we swung in because neither of us had ever toured the place.  It was wonderful fun and a beautiful day.

Thanks for being patient with me........ Maybe this will help me start getting in gear with writing again.

Traveling Adventures in the Outer Universe (aka On the Road with Missy)

Yes, I know.  I'm bad.  We shall stipulate that and move on.  Much has been going on that has kept me from you convivial society, but maybe today I can start to make inroads back into the fold.

First I was sort of not stitching, and yet sometimes stitching.  Frankly we have been through some weeks of it being too hot to contemplate threads.  But on my most recent adventure to Worldcon in Spokane (yay, Spokane!) I was invigorated by air conditioning and accomplished quite a bit.

Apparently there was a PS deer theme in my life for a bit.  Here's PS' Two-by-Two Deer (nope, not in the threads called for)--

... and PS' Christmas Eve Deer (also not as called for)

And a little Danji ornament to commemorate all the Sea World/San Diego vacation weekends my mom and I took -- I still clearly remember the stuffed dolphin I got at Sea World... and my annoyance, since I was my mother's daughter, that they put the grey fur on one side going from tail to nose so the nap was backwards when you petted it. In honor of the fur faux pas, I did the grey in Very Velvet.

Now, as for that traveling, as I said I headed off to Worldcon in Spokane, the nicest city I have ever convened in!   If you want to feel welcomed some where you need to go to Spokane.   Missy and I had a blast.

Let me explain Missy the polar bear.  A few years ago my sister and I took her oldest grandson (then aged 7) on a trip through SoCal-- Legoland, Seaworld, and the San Diego Zoo.  At the Zoo he bought a pair of polar bears and gave me one (how cute is that!?!).  He named his bear Matthew and my bear Missy.  Ever since then, Missy goes adventuring with me.  One trip she took with me was to the first North American Discworld Convention in Tempe where she got to meet Sir Terry Pratchett and she collected that fetching set of gold beads she proudly wears at the Seamstresses Guild Ball.

So off we go -- breakfast at the airport.....

a befuddlingly loud and sparkly layover in Las Vegas (no, she was not a winner).  For the record, you get some odd looks taking pictures of a stuffed bear in beads on a slot machine.

Spokane was obviously my kind of town.....

Missy and I could have hosted a small floatilla of friends in our hotel room.....

She especially liked the mod chair, which was surprisingly comfy

We dropped our stuff and went exploring and found.......

Wildlife

Art in the river (the Spokane River runs right next to the convention center where we spent the week)

Many flowers and bridges and a nice bell tower.

The famous (apparently so according to all the local maps which just say "the red wagon") Red Wagon which just makes me smile.  I mean how cool is that?????

There was a pretty (smoke induced) sunset sparkling on a cool fountain.

And there was the traditional convention center welcome.  I knew I had made it to my "family" reunion.

Back again soon....   happy stitching to all, and happy New Year to those celebrating today.

Up to some good for a change

Hello dear friends,  I know it may me hard to believe, but I have been up to some stitching.  I almost feel like I have to ramp up the action before it hits the height of summer when it always feels too hot to stitch once I get home in the evenings.  That little ompf moved my needle in a few different directions over the last week.

Mrs. (the giant penguin) came back out to play for a couple nights during which I:

1. finished the light pink band which had been languishing mostly done)
2. figured out what to stitch in the purple band (and got the whole band put in)
3. put in the bottom edge of the flipper (that was because I thought I knew what I was going to do with the gold bracelet and I needed the flipper part out of the way.  Turns out I didn't know.  Oh well.)
4. figured out what to stitch in the black band and got it partially put in.  

Also I have allegedly worked out what to do in the medium and dark pink bands, but until those sections actually start I have learned that I am prone to vacillation.

I don't think I had a picture of this last time -- this way my last finish.  A LK Flip It which was easy as pie.  Why did it take me forever to get around to it?????

Last weekend (I think) I had a flag marathon.  I just settled my fanny in and basketwove my little fingers off.  I got from here:

to here:

And, why yes, I am very proud of myself.   Just to put int in perspective -- that's probably 6-8 hours of stitching.  See!  I told you my needles were slow!

Also, one night another star appeared in my sky --

While I know that is rather pathetic.  It was actually quite amazing given that I was too tired to really start stitching when I pulled it out, but I powered through..... and then collapsed into my pillow.

On a bookish front, I went with our friend So Many Books to The Last Bookstore -- an amazing space for books (mostly used) in L.A.  It really is a neat space --

 with cool book art -- (I think this is a security cam picture of what my bookshelves do when I'm not home)

Now, while I loved the book art, I am a bibliophile at heart.  Book art is all well and good, but I need to be able to get to books and I kept getting stymied in my progress by people trying to get the perfect pic for instagram or facebook.  I swear this one pair of 20-something women took a dozen pictures each of themselves posed in a book "window."  There was a certain undercurrent to their repeats of "people in the background"-- well, duh, Buffy -- it's a store. We're here to shop.  Take your blooming picture and get out of the way!

Another annoyance was that I found it hard to come away with a pile.  It seems that my authors are just too awesome in general for people to give them up.  So I came away with this small collection of goodies:

Happy Stitching and Reading to you all -- may your needles be faster and trendsetters not be in your book shopping way!

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Pratchett thought of the day:

Nothing-to-see is what most of the universe consists of.

Going Postal – Terry Pratchett