Incoherent Scribblings

(E)MS Notes

The excitement of getting my computer back has finally worn off… today I was back to stitching on “Purr-plexed.” She is going so fast and she is so much fun to stitch!

Today I logged 4.5 hours on her while “watching” Grease and Grease 2. I love both of those movies and they are so much fun to stitch to because a.) I have seen them both at least 100 times and don’t have to pay very close attention and b.) there is so much music in them.

This brings my total stitch time on “Purr-plexed” to 11 hours. Since I work on a very loose 15 hour rotation, I will stitch one more session on her before changing pieces. And here I make a vow: I will NOT start any more new pieces, nor will I work on anything else until I have that baby sampler done!

I know that if I can get back into that baby sampler I will have it done within a 15-20 hour rotation. I have almost completed the main stitching and it doesn’t have very much backstitch. I love Ellen Maurer-Stroh’s designs and have really enjoyed stitching the ones I have done so far, but I have had some problems focusing on this piece.

It wasn’t an obligation piece: I wanted to stitch it for Brooke’s baby, but I think I find it easy to put off since I know that I won’t be keeping it. However, I made a promise to myself that I will finish and send it to her before the baby is 6 months old… and that will be in May, which is closer than I want to admit, so I better get on the ball!

Book Talk

Please ignore the obscenely late timing of this post! When I finish a good book, I just can’t get it out of my head. So instead of stewing in bed, unable to sleep because I was thinking about my latest novel, I decided to blog about it!

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Tonight, I finished Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, the tragic story of the beautiful and cunning Beatrice Lacey and her obsession with her ancestral estate Wideacre.

As the story unfolds, the reader is introduced to a young Beatrice who is constantly at her father’s side as he tends their vast country estate. Not only is Beatrice adored by her father and the villagers alike, she is instinctively connected to the land.

However, her dreams of living out a contented life on her beloved estate are dashed one day when the ugly truth rears its head: Though she is far better equipped to run Wideacre than her brother, because of the social restrictions of her day (18^th century England), she will never inherit it. In fact, she is one day expected to marry and leave her adored home. At that moment, her heart hardens and she begins scheming to claim Wideacre as her own.

During the five years that consist of the bulk of the Wideacre story, Beatrice’s calculating mind knows no limit. Her obsession with her ancestral estate takes her to the heights of passion, the depths of sin, and the brink of madness. And though her obsession with Wideacre finally destroys her, she leaves behind two children to follow in her footsteps.

Truthfully, I haven’t been so enthralled by a novel for quite sometime. I found Beatrice a fascinating character and I couldn’t help but turn the page to find out what depths she would sink to next. I enjoyed the complex plot that, like all good tragedies, was based on deception and a tangled web of lies. And when Beatrice’s secrets are finally revealed things were not tied up too neatly and I was left wanting more… I can’t wait to read the other books in the trilogy!