Incoherent Scribblings

Stitching vs. Life

I hope that everyone who celebrated a holiday last week(end) had a great one, but today is Wednesday and so it is time to get back down to business with an SBQ! This week’s SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

Simple: My husband is neglected and most of the time my house looks like a tornado hit it. Obviously my stitching comes first!

But seriously, I am not sure that I am really qualified to answer this question: After all, I am unashamedly a spoiled housewife who only has a husband and three cats to clean up after. Therefore the only tip that I can offer is that I try to get those pesky domestic chores out of the way by doing them first thing. That way I can spend the rest of the day stitching if I so desire.

Extreme Shaving

The first time I shaved my legs I was eleven or twelve. I didn’t really need to shave them, but you couldn’t have convinced me of that for a million dollars.

Because neither my mom nor dad used straight razors, I used my mom’s electric razor. It was dull and I remember being thoroughly disappointed because instead of the silky smooth skin that I was hoping for, I ended up with nothing more than slightly-shorter-stubble.

When I told Mom I was going buy some straight razors and shaving cream, she showed me a scar on her ankle that explained why she used an electric razor. Let’s just say that I was sufficiently traumatized enough by it that it wasn’t until I was fourteen that I braved shaving with a straight razor for the first time.

I am lucky enough that as a natural blonde the hair on my legs is not easily seen even when it is long and as a result, over the years my shaving pattern has varied wildly. Those first few years I only shaved when “necessary” and then during my most extreme shaving phase in my early 20s I shaved nearly every other day.

When I went to Europe the first time, I thought that I might abandon shaving altogether as a cultural assimilation exercise. However, when I learned that, contrary to popular American opinion, European women shave too I was more than a little bit relieved that I wouldn’t have to suffer through that “need-to-shave” itchy leg syndrome one day longer.

These days I still shave, but laziness has whittled my shaving routine down to approximately once a week… or whenever I can’t stand the “need-to-shave” itchy leg syndrome anymore. And as a result, I have noticed some things that my mom tried to tell me (but I purposefully ignored) when I was eleven. The less I shave…

1.) … the longer I can go without shaving.
2.) … the softer and finer the hair on my legs is.
3.) … the less lotion I need to re-moisturize my skin.

I have not yet become “green” and I don’t think all of the hair on my body will ever reach the point that it is the same length, but I have to admit that I enjoy the liberty that such infrequent shaving has given me and if someday I don’t feel the need to shave my legs anymore at all, then dammit, I won’t!

Sick Kitty

I think I have a sick kitty.

Mouse has been sneezing like a banshee for the last couple of days and we are starting to get worried. At first she just sneezed a couple of times in a row half a dozen times over the period of two or three days and A. and I joked it was because she got cat hair up her nose.

However, today she has been sneezing repeatedly and when she does it is multiple times in a row. In addition to that, if I put my ear close to her and listen I think her breathing is a bit labored. I am a bit concerned that it could be Rhinotracheitis , but she is an indoor cat and her vaccinations are updated, so I am not really sure if that is a realistic possibility.

Nevertheless, since she is also 13 years old, I think a call to the vet first thing in the morning is in order.

Mostly Baby Babbling

I don’t care if you like “cute” things or not. Nor do I care whether or not you would ever stitch a Margaret Sherry pattern: I challenge you to look at this little guy and not smile. See, I didn’t think you could do it… After all, he even made Hubby smile!

So, as you can tell, today I finished Margaret Sherry’s “Snowman” and in all likelihood it will be my last happy dance of the year. I did start a small project a couple of weeks ago that I might be able to finish, but instead of being a 2005 finish it will probably be my first finish of 2006.

However, my first fully-planned project of the New Year is to stitch a baby sampler for my nephew.

When my niece was born in 2000, I stitched her a baby sampler, but when I did it I hadn’t been stitching very long and as a result though it is nice, the pattern is fairly simple and done on Aida cloth. Unfortunately, my niece’s sampler is one of those pieces that I finished and gave away before I started documenting my stitching, so I currently don’t have a picture of it. However, I will be sure to get one when I am home in a few weeks.

Anyway, given its simplicity, and even though I hated it when my sister and I got the “same” things as a kid, I really want to stitch this pattern again for my nephew. I have even thought of a way to change it so that while it will different from the first one, it won’t appear to be “better.”

The pattern is called “Baby Feet” and originally came as a kit with white Aida cloth. In order to personalize it, in addition to the name and birth date, you choose the color of the feet according to the gender of the baby. Luckily it is a Leisure Arts pattern/kit and has DMC numbers instead of some funky proprietary floss color numbers, so it will be easy to do it again.

When I stitched it for my niece I stitched it with the floss and on the cloth that was supplied, but when I started it we didn’t know whether she was going to be a girl or boy. At that point I was very much into giving gender neutral things anyway, so I stitched the feet in some “Baby Green” (DMC 966) from my stash.

Fast forward almost six years and this time around we know that my sister is going to have a boy. (I saw what my sister claims is his “thing” on an ultrasound picture.) As a result, I am going to do the same pattern, but on 28 count light blue Evenweave with white baby feet.

As usual, I will be documenting the stitching on my nephew’s sampler but in all honesty I don’t expect to finish it before I go home. However, I do expect to finish it while I am there and I may even get it done before my nephew actually arrives!

List of 2005 Finishes

I made this list for a bit of fun and though most of my pieces were small, I think I can safely say that I had a pretty good stitching year! (You can see pictures of any and all of the following happy dances in my gallery.)

General Stitching:

• Margaret Sherry’s “Snowman” (Impending HD… will be done before 12/31!)
• Stitchy Kitty’s “Spring Kitty Paw”
• Angela Pullen’s “Passing Admirers” (Begun in September of 2004. This was my first large happy dance and definitely my favorite piece of the year.)
• The Lavender Fairy (A “Flower Fairy”)
• Ellen Maurer-Stroh’s “Little Stitch Devil”
• Dragon Dreams’ “Love Takes Two”
• Mini Cat Sampler
• TW’s “Tempest in a Teacup”
• Margaret Sherry’s “Purr-Pendicular”
• Cherry Flower
• Little Cactus
• Michele Johnson’s “Girl’s Time Out” (For my mom. I will finally get to give it to her in a couple of weeks!)
• Hardanger Fish
• Hardanger Heart
• Spring Violets
• Waiting for Spring
• Ellen Maurer-Stroh’s “Baby Announcement - Oval”
• Margaret Sherry’s “Purr-Plexed”
• Black and White Cat in Window
• Black Cat Beside Table

Round Robins:

• Four Squares for an International Round Robin
• Four Squares for a robin organized on the EMS Cross Stitch Board
• Three Squares for SBRR
• Two Squares for SBSRR

SBEBB Exchanges:

• Self-designed Bee-Themed Piece for Needleroll Exchange (Can you guess who my recipient was?!)
• “Happy Halloween” for Halloween Exchange
• Margaret Sherry’s “Scorpio” for Birthday Exchange
• Secret Piece for Garden Exchange (post date isn’t until January 9!)