Incoherent Scribblings

Sugar Plums and Protein

I must be getting old.

I used to be able eat a candy bar for breakfast and wash it down with a Coke. I would then repeat the process at lunch time. At dinnertime, (or suppertime as we call it southern Iowa) I would eat something like a hamburger and greasy fries that I once again washed down with Coke. Before bed I would drink chocolate milk and the next day I would get up and, with a few variations, do it again. (Sure, I admit it wasn’t exactly the healthiest of lifestyles, but I was a young adult and immortality was mine!) I guess I had a high metabolism, because I never had a problem with my weight. Sugar and caffeine naturally flowed in my blood stream and never kept me awake.

Even as recently as a few years ago I could consume more sugar and caffeine than your average person and it never had any side effects. (Well, maybe it did… I finally did gain some weight, which I have now lost.) But now days, it seems sugar is not as good as a friend to me as it once was. These days, if I eat nothing else but things with a high sugar content, I just don’t feel so good anymore.

Take this evening for example: I had milk and cookies for brunch (we didn’t get up until noonish today… A. is still on holiday) and by the time dinner rolled around, though I wasn’t particularly hungry, I felt woozy. I think my body was literally crying out for protein. Instead of visions of sugar plums dancing through my head, I envisioned a fat pita bread stuffed with a tasty Gyro meat, dripping with tzaziki, and smothered in raw onions. After we ate a “sensible” dinner, I felt better. But I have begun to notice that while I still like my sweets, more and more often I just don’t want any.

I am sad, for indeed it will be a dark day for me if one day I have give up the sweetness of my youth for the balanced diet of middle age.

Baby Sampler Update

In other news, I am about 5.5 hours into my newest rotation on the baby sampler. It is going pretty fast and is quite fun to stitch while A. and I watch the Special Extended Edition of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy!

See progress pictures of “Brooke’s Baby’s Sampler” in my cross-stitch gallery! (I know I do lots of progress scans, but I find it so neat to look at how my work progresses!)

Round Robin

Thanks to Karen, last evening I joined a Yahoo! Group dedicated to International Round Robins. (See side bar if you are interested in joining.)

Since I have never done a Round Robin before, I have spent the last few days reading up on the concept and contemplating whether or not this is something I truly want to get involved with. It is a time commitment, that’s for sure, but since I have a lot of time on my hands, I don’t really think that is too much of a problem. I also don’t have a problem with deadlines, so as long as I don’t overextend myself, I think I should be able to keep those too. The one thing that concerns me a little is mailing the things: I am terrible about trudging the 250 meters down our street to the post office to mail letters… How will I ever be able to get those things in the mail?! However, if I know someone else is expecting the thing, I imagine I can probably get them to the post office on time.

The other thing I have been considering is what theme(s) I would like to do and the actual piece itself. I have made a list of possible themes, but I am not sure how big I want the finished piece to be or how big to make the participant squares. Since there is a time limit involved, probably the squares shouldn’t be too big. I guess once I actually sign up for a Round Robin those choices become easier.

What I am most looking forward to by joining a Round Robin is experiencing other people’s cross-stitch tastes. I want my finished Round Robin to be a surprise when it returns to me, so I don’t want to supply patterns. Therefore, I think the theme I choose should be something with plenty of available pattern choices.

I have narrowed my theme choices down to three: Cats, Hearts, or Kitchen. I do a lot of cat stuff for myself and while it would be interesting to see other people’s cat choices, I have so many to start with that I am not sold on the idea. A kitchen theme would be nice, but I am really leaning toward hearts. In my experience, there are a plethora of heart patterns out there and they come in all sizes and can be simple or elaborate.

Personally, I am a pretty creative stitcher and don’t hesitate to change colors or “wing it” with a design. However, I know that not everyone is comfortable doing that, so I want to choose a theme that gives flexibility to the inventive stitchers in the Round Robin, while giving structure to the more traditional ones. I think a heart theme could do just that. However, now I need to think about the layout, the size, and whether or not I want to add a border.

I haven’t even “officially” heard about the Round Robin yet, but I am so looking forward to getting involved that I want to be prepared for when I do!