The Proof

That I am on Day 4 of a kitchen table that is no longer covered in people's underwear, socks and t-shirts. This is a remarkable thing around here because it really doesn't take much to lure me back to my lazy, slacker ways. It's so easy to pile up laundry on the table and go about my business, but now, after four solid days of a cleaned off table, having laundry on it seems wrong. I do fold clothes here but they are put away immediately because leaving them there would be wrong. I never wanted to become that person, but where laundry is concerned, it feels pretty good. I'm not obsessed, I do my one load a day, I put the stuff away, and it's done. Not piled there waiting on me to do something with it. I hate that it feels so good and that maybe my mother was right. I really hate admitting that. You see my mother has a laundry obsession. Laundry must be placed in the washer just so, whites must go it alone. You have to use Tide and Downey. You must remove the clothes from the dryer and fold them or hang them up immediately(I am still not there, we are so very much that wrinkled family from the Lowe's or Home Depot commercial. I may have changed a few bad habits but I have not lost my mind, yet!) So I don't know if I have spent the last 25 years of doing my laundry my way to show my mother that it doesn't have to be that way. So what if all our white underwear and t-shirts are gray. Gray is a good neutral color. Take that mom! And Tide, that is not always in the budget, Arm & Hammer and Publix laundry detergent are just fine thank you very much--or even homemade with Washing soda, Borax and Fels Naptha. (Ok I've been buying Tide with Bleach Alternative lately but I do not do whites in a separate load, it's just wasteful--unless it's something red or something I absolutely know will bleed on the whites) oh and I do not wash whites in hot water, all my laundry is done in cold water. My mother would cringe at that.

My Pistoulet Chicken makes me happier than it should. Granny Smith apples, buy a bag, get a bag free at Winn Dixie, also have two bags of Red Delicious, same deal. I see apple pie in our future.

I'm currently coveting Amanda's new breadmachine. It looks awesome on Amazon.

Amazon.com: Cuisinart CBK-200 2-Pound Convection Automatic Bread Maker: Kitche

I did two batches of pizza dough in mine yesterday and I think the motor was about to give up, it was hot, hot, hot and that was just on the dough cycle. I like that the Cuisinart makes long regular loaves. Very cool.

I made these cookies this morning:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Spicy Molasses Cookies

Not bad but do not in any way overcook them. I did my first batch, decided to let them go another two minutes and that was a mistake. I also think I went a little too heavy on the cardamom and I tried to be careful to use the exact amount but it's a pretty strong spice and mine was from a freshly opened jar.

I've read a few reviews of this book and had hoped my library would have it but they don't:

http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Hungry-Feeding-Men-Boys/dp/1579653561/ref=wl_it_dp_o

The reviews I've read have all been positive. Although one person does point out that girls get hungry too, yes we do! And the text is a bit annoying about cooking for men and boys but that is the point of the book, but we girls we like us some food too! But reviews of the recipes I've read on various blogs have all been good.

I've also been wanting this cookbook for a while:

http://www.amazon.com/Rustic-Fruit-Desserts-Crumbles-Pandowdies/dp/1580089763/

And my library hasn't gotten it in either. Another book where the reviews have all been good.

Something about the holidays and a bit of a chill in the air that really gets me in a cooking mood.

Seeing Knitting Iris photos of recent meals really makes me long for wide open spaces, a large garden and cabin in the wilds of Montana. Although I don't think I could eat a heart sandwich. It looks good in the picture, but I'm not a vital organs consuming kind of girl. My friend Cassie used to force me to eat liver and onions once a month because it was good for me. Hard to believe we're still friends after that gastronomical torture.

Recently I rearranged the living room. I set up a new stitching area and once I get the Rubbermaid bucket out from under the table and replace it with a basket of some sort with a lid to keep the cats out of the yarn I'll take a picture of the whole corner but for now you get Sabrina:

She took my spot. She likes curling up on the unfinished Vintage Vertical Strip blanket that I folded up and use for a cushion.

She is annoyed that I interrupted her bath and she's not impressed. The Breeze as we call her runs the house. She terrorizes Pineapple and Naomi the two other cats and pretty much scares my Polly Prissypants too.

Here's the queen telling me to go away, leave her alone, let her cuddle up and lay in the afternoon sun.

I am currently listening to Stephen King's Under the Dome. I love it. I am up to hour twenty something of thirty five and I don't want to stop listening. I think that's what has aided my cleaning mojo.

The Spousal Unit says I will not be able to stay up until midnight to see New Moon tonight. It's going to be hard, I'm usually asleep by ten, I hope I can get a nap in today.

Odds & Ends

How's it going gang? I uploaded my pics all out of order and Blogger isn't letting me move them around but that's ok. I'll make it work. This weekend I ventured out in the world at large. My how things have changed. Gas has gone up like 40¢ a gallon, it's like waking up in another world, ok not that bad but still. Saturday I went out with my big blue boot on, it was hot and annoying so Sunday I shoved a sneaker on my foot and called it good. The spousal unit and I went for a drive out the beach road between Pensacola and my hick town and we saw this:


So much nicer than the TV or my neighbor's house across the road. You know you think when you're laid up it might get all exciting like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window but it doesn't(at least I do because I have a pretty good imagination) but I know my neighbors and the one who might be nuts, well I can't see that house from mine.

My kids are right, we do live on the most boring street in the world, which we tell them, is why we moved here in the first place. So they could be wild and free and safe and also because the beach is like five minutes away and that's really why we moved here. The whole safety thing is just an added perk.

The picture above was taken at about 50 miles an hour flying by the beach. I love this stretch of road so much. It's Gulf Islands National Seashore I believe that's the official title, but there's no development accept for a few parking lots and one or two parks with picnic pavillions and bathrooms and I do not begrudge beachgoers parking or bathroom facilities. My heart sings that there are no condos or houses here. I'm a firm believer that the beach belongs to everyone and it's wrong for it to be privatized(is that a word) in any way.

In Topsy Turvy Gardening news up there you can see the beginnings of some Roma tomatoes. How cute are they? Can't wait for them redden right up and become tasty bruschetta or a tomato/basil/mozzarella sandwich.

We moved the Topsy Turveys to the back yard. We have a wooden swingset, this side used to be a single swing and it broke a few years ago. This area of the backyard gets lots of sun so we moved these bad boys back here. Yes, that's picket fencing laying there on the ground. My friend gave us their old fence and when the spousal unit was trying to dig postholes he kept running into pesky tree roots so we have to rent an auger to do the job. So right now the fencing is just laying in it's possible future home. The Brandwine tomato plant there on the right, I was watering it yesterday and noticed that the stem on one of the blossoms is broken. I don't know how it happened and wonder if maybe birds might have gotten at it or squirrels.

We are going to plant a Topsy Turvy zucchini plant and also a cucumber plant and I want to do a cantalope plant but the spousal unit has this bizzare plan of doing a Topsy Turvy corn plant. Yeah, he's a little bit crazy.

On the Craft Front:

One day last week I was assessing my WIP pile and what I still loved and what I no longer felt the love for and why and I pulled out my HAED Sampler Large. I had started it on a big ol' hunk of bland, vanilla, 25ct cream lugana. I have been checking different hand-dyed fabrics and decided that a new piece of fabric was just not in the budget. So I took a deep breath, pulled my unsweet tea out of the fridge, dumped out a little, took my morning's coffee and poured it in the tea pitcher and just crammed my ginormous cut of lugana, with a tiny bit of stitching on it in the pitcher. I let it soak for about two hours. Then I pulled it out, rinsed it off and decided that the tea/coffee bath was a vast improvement over the bland cream color but it needed a little something else, a finishing touch, so I hobbled over to the dye cabinet, ok it's a Fiesta Orange hutch in the kitchen and it's where I store my bottle or two of RIT dye but "Dye Cabinet" makes it sound like I have a clue what I'm doing. Anyway I pull out the handy dandy bottle of Tan RIT Dye and start splattering up my fabric and smooshing the fabric together. I let it sit out on a cookie sheet in the sink for an hour or so and then rinse it off, and move it to the patio table and let the afternoon sun bake it a bit. Below you can see a bit of my antiquing and I'm pretty stoked about the result. Sorry the picture isn't any better, I took one of the whole piece of fabric and it was blurred. I think my poor camera is on it's last leg.

As you can see I hadn't stitched too much and since I wasn't loving the fabric I was either going to dye it and love it or start over anyway. I'm pretty sure now I can keep on stitching and be happy with the piece. Unlike most HAED this piece has a lot of fabric showing and it was screaming for a handdyed fabric which I knew from the very beginning but I'm hardheaded and cheap and wanted to use what I had already in the stash. This is what the finished piece will look like:

Sampler Large [FENECH51007L] - $15.00 : Heaven and Earth Designs, The Art of C

A lot of my stitching friends ask why I like stitching HAED when I could just buy the artwork and stitch something else and well, I have to say, I have always enjoyed stitching art. I tend to want to stitch things I like to think I would have the imagination to paint if I were an artist. I also find stitching these huge pieces comforting. I am not pressured to finish them like some other projects. You know when you sit down with needle and thread and think to yourself, "I'll finish this during this stitching session" and then you don't? That is such a frustrating feeling, especially since my finishes are few and far between. The HAED projects take that pressure out of the stitching. I am just stitching for the sake of stitching, no urgency to finish, no possibility of finishing, just little Xs on fabric and hopefully with each stitching session the picture comes a little more to life.

My stitching time lately has been devoted to The Primitive Needle's Salem Remembered. I think I might just finish it this week. See there I go, setting a goal I might not be able to keep. I'm in the process of kitting up Cape Cod Girl's and ABC Hornbook and if you check Lisa's blog, Witch Stitches The Primitive Needle , you can see her Mystic Sampler which will also get bumped up to the top of my "To Be Stitched Immediately" pile. I have Ichabod Seabury to start when I finish Salem Remembered. He's stitched on PTP(http://www.picturethisplus.com/) Swamp linen. I love that color.

The fascination with tombstones, well I've always had one. When I was a kid, every Sunday before Mother's Day the whole family would make a trip to Woodville cemetery for Decoration. That's when you clean all the dead flowers and weeds off the graves so that it's all pretty for Mother's Day when people come to put fresh flowers out. We would spend all day there and people would bring folding tables, card tables and food and we'd picnic right there among the tombstones talking about those that had gone on to the great unknown and hear their stories and where they fit in the family tree. It was never a time of sadness for me, I only personally knew one person buried in that cemetary and he passed away when I was four or five, my great grandfather, Papa Sparks. I remember him vividly. My Mamaw and Great Aunt Lila would take care of him and I would run up to him and kiss his hand and Mamaw would make us tea cakes that we would eat hot from the oven with butter and cold glasses of milk. Yes, technically a tea cake was a sugar cookie, not quite as sweet but sweeter and more cookie like than a biscuit but big and softer than a true cookie. Papa liked his hot, dripping in butter and to this day I like them that way too. We would play and hide and seek among the tombstones, because this is one of those great old country cemetaries with real tombstones, above ground, not hidden away flush with the grass. I think about these weekends this time every year and how my mamaw was so worried that after she and her sisters were gone no one would go up there and tend her mother and father's graves. If I get home sometime this summer I plan to make a trip up there and make sure the graves are taken care of, I owe Mamaw that much.

The tombstone love, well I found it in novel form, thanks to a tip from my friend Siobhan. I've read two of Sarah Stewart Taylor's novels over the last week and enjoyed them both.

I've been trying to listen to Cormac McCarthy's The Road on CD and OMFG it's the most depressing book in the world. Of course I want to know if the Man and the Boy make it down the road to warmer temperatures but this post nuclear bomb world is a horrible place and I'm not finding much to love about it and the Man happens to be a man of few words and I keep worrying something really bad is going to happen to the Boy. I've stopped at the third CD and am not sure I can go on. I think I'm going to go with The Historian this week. I've read the book and enjoy the story, it remains one of my all time favorite books.

OK while doing our long drive this Sunday morning, I had to take a picture of the cheesy beach ball water tower on Pensacola Beach. I love Pensacola Beach. It is a constant reminder of happy family vacations, sunburns, seafood, staying in little beach cottages, called "motor inns" back in the day. I miss those. High rise Comfort Inns are just not as homey as those sweet cinderblock beach cottages, and yes, even back in the day they were dumps but I loved them and was broken hearted when they bulldozed them in the name of progress. Another thing I love about Pensacola Beach is the neon Swordfish sign that directs people to the beaches:

Pensacola Beach travel guide - Wikitravel

There was a time not too long ago when some uppity folks bought their million dollar homes on Penscacola Beach and wanted the swordfish gone, it was tacky they said. What they didn't understand was that locals have a very warm place in their hearts for that tacky swordfish. It represents Pensacola Beach, that it's not an uptight place to vacation, but a nice, comfortable, fun place to spend your time. I'm so glad the swordfish still stands and was repaired after the last hurricane. When I see that ginormous swordfish, my heart swells with love for this beach town. I remember driving across Three Mile bridge with my uncle's feet hanging out the back window while he slept and I slept across dashboard above the backseat and would occaisionally roll off on top of him. I remember almost drowning not once but twice in one day. Once in the Gulf when I was on a raft floating out to sea, my Mamaw swore I was a dot on the horizon, and my uncle who had just had an appendectomy had to swim out to save me, and then going down the slide in the pool in the deep end and not having a clue how to swim. I remember being sunburned and eating fried oysters in the coldest oyster bar in the world. Good times.

Forgot to mention for all you crocheters or those needing inspiration, I always need inspiration where my color choices are concerned, check out this blog:

Attic24

I'm already planning my football knitting and crocheting. Can't really cross stitch at the football field so I'm going to save my crochet projects for practices. I can't stop looking at her pictures. I want to make tons of things using her palette.

Ike

We aren't anywhere in the storm cone for Ike but he has decided to visit my area any way. When the 12 yr old got out of school we drove over to the beach to see what was up. The surf apparently. Highway 98 between Oakaloosa Island and Destin was closed today. It was partially underwater at 7 a.m. Not a good sign.
Funny in this day and age beaches have to put up these flags because stupid goobers think it's cool to wade out in the water. I mean look at the surf, is it really necessary to put up a no swimming flag? Of course it is because someone will sue the county because they assumed since there was no flag that the water is safe. It doesn't matter what it looks like, since there wasn't an official symbol of some kind, let's swim! Is this where I mention how one time at the McD's in Destin this tourist was complaining about all the jellyfish in the Gulf and couldn't they do something about it. I had to explain to her that if she doesn't want to be around jelly fish to swim in a pool. The Gulf is a living body of water, that means it's has fish, jellies, sharks, grouper, they live there.

The youngest son is not down with the paparazzi:

This picture was taken with my digital camera. A Nikon Coolpix. It looks to me like it could have been taken in the 1970s with a Kodak Instamatic. 11o film anyone?

I wish my camera had done better, or I had. My friend Pam got some great pics today. If she posts them on her blog I'll post a link for you all.

Anna-the bagel recipe can be found here:

Homemade Bagels Tammy's Recipes.

and the pita recipe here:

Farmgirl Fare: Pita, Pita, I Too Much Eata!
How To Make Pita Bread & My Sea

I had good luck with both.

I Seriously, Madly, Truly, want one of these:

Amazon.com: Kindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store

I want it BAD! I've been jonesing over one for the last six months and now it appears that people( Yarn-A-Go-Go: Kindling! ) are buying them and loving them. I dreamed about one last night. I know I'm sick.

In Other News

The summer was a sad one for me in a lot of ways. I lost my dad and my book that I spent a year writing and even got paid to write, well it's not going to be published this year. Thank you tanking economy. I have a wonderful agent and she believes in the project and I've moved on to attempt to write a second book, a little different, but maybe it will appeal to a wider audience and publishers and if there is success with that proposal maybe the first book will get a second look.

I cried really hard for six weeks, because it's that whole, hopes, dreams, everything you ever wanted, you tell someone your deepest, darkest secrets, and poof, it's a reality, like you never even considered hoping could possibly come true, and it does-- only to be so freakin' close, I mean so very close to that one and only dream, and it vanishes. Like it never ever happened.

From the Workbasket:

I've been working on Plum Street Samplers Coffin Buzz complimentary chart. I might get it finished this weekend, or maybe not. I have several projects going, some I'm trying to figure out what the heck to do, they are sewing related, and others I just don't know what to work on. I'm thinking when I finish Coffin Buzz I'll pull out Long Dog's Sonne Spotte. It's been on my mind lately and I ran across it when I was looking for something. I'm always looking for something it seems.

I'm kind of obsessing over making my own clothes, not sure why(probably the whole melt down in the dressing room thing). I can't sew worth a flip. I have a skirt here I made a few months ago and still haven't sewn the waistband--or the hem but it's cute and I put it on and wear it around the house sometimes. The back seems shorter than the front because baby I got me some back.

In Some Totally Crazy

Probably shouldn't say that outloud news: I can button and zip my shorts and pull them down over my fat butt. The way I know this is that my shorts have been feeling funny and I wasn't sure why. They seemed longer than normal. I was sagging like my 17 yr old and let me tell ya, the granny panties peaking out over the top of some shorts is soooooo hot....I mean people look, that does mean I'm hot right? Anyway, today while at the beach taking some horrible pictures, see above, my shorts almost blew right off my body. I freaked out, came home and I'll be darned if they just didn't slip right off. Talk about being a bit overwhelmed. Then my neighbors got home from work and right in the front yard I said, "Hey y'all, check it!" and proceeded to pull my shorts down just a bit. They were shocked and then awed when they saw what I was doing. At first they thought I had lost my ever lovin' mind stripping right there in the front yard but then it clicked, OMG she's lost some weight. Yeah, I have my idiosyncracies, one happens to be, I go with the flow and the excitement of the moment, and it's why I hide out in my house most of the time because I can really humiliate myself when I live in the moment.

Thanks Y'all!

Thank you for all the notes and emails about my dad. They were all appreciated more than you know.



If you read my friend Sharon's Blog this little biscornu will look familiar. I went to my mailbox one day last week and found the frogs. I am deeply in love with these guys. They have beads on their toes. Frogs with bling. Sharon ROCKS! I am so honored to be the recipient of these guys. Thanks Sharon--for so many things but most of all for being my friend.



Here's the back:

It's overcast here, of course I post no pictures for ages and the first day we get rain I decide it's the perfect time for a photo shoot. The spousal unit is probably correct that I really don't need a Hasselblad camera. I'm kind of obsessing over one right now. Ashton Kutchner humping Nikon has really put me off wanting a D80 Nikon now. I know I'm weird.

Some stitching has been going on:

Above you see part of page 10 and part of page 11 of HAED Dark Waters based on the artwork of Selena Fenech. And below you see how the table looked right behind the stitching. Crystal will not move and she hisses when you try to move her yourself. I left her alone and just propped the Q-snaps on the cat. Whatever works right?

Chick With No Skilz

That would be me. I thought zigzaging around some wave borders for my Just Beachy quilt would be easy. Wrong. Even going S-L-O-W I messed it up in some spots. I need a little bit more control and some practice.

My library has started getting in books on Playaway. They are so freakin' cool. It's the convenience of an iPod without spending time loading the material on the computer and then loading it up on the iPod. I price checked these on Amazon and they are only a little more than a book on CD.

Haven't had a picture of my guys on here lately. Here they are at the hotel where my SILS were staying a few weeks ago. The youngest is refusing to cut his hair. I'm letting it go. Picking my battles. He keeps it clean so we'll see how long he can suffer with the Fabio look.

BTW-I conducted a taste test, McD's iced coffees vs. Burger King. If a Starbucks Frappe is no longer in the budget go with the Mocha Joe at Burger King. The McD's are awful. JMHO of course. But the Mocha Joe has a really rich taste and I've tried several at McD's different times of the day, different McD's and they all taste watery and why don't they have a mocha flavor? Vanilla, Hazelnut and Coffee are the choices around here. Don't they know people love mocha?

Domestification

The last few days I've been catching up on some blog reading, I saw where yarnstorm's book had been reviewed, you can read the article here.

I found this quote particlarly offensive, "The woman who did it first, and best, was right. Shirley Conran's Superwoman was a "slut's guide" to speeding through the chores and getting out to do more interesting things. If, back in the Seventies, life was too short to stuff a mushroom, then it's definitely too short to ice a cup cake now."

I am in no way Martha Stewart, I am not a Jane Brocket, but I don't feel that their pursuit of domesiticity makes me feel inadequate. I'm sure I could walk into any of your homes and feel the same sense of inadequacy. My home is as much as disaster with me being home everyday as it was when I left the house everyday to go to a job outside the home. I'm not a good housekeeper. I can have advance notice that someone is coming for a visit, I can clean nonstop for a week, and when the guests arrive I can apologise, I haven't had time to clean, so sorry, and I swear my home does not in any way look like someone has been cleaning for a whole week. I try, I'm not good at it. That does not stop me from finding Martha and Jane inspiring.

This article is insulting to anyone who pursues any kind of craft. The author seems to think that if you find joy in baking, sewing, knitting, you have too much time on your hands or you married rich.

What a crock of B.S.

I have friends that rush home from work, prepare dinner, eat, probably do a load of laundry or two and then they look forward to an hour or two in front of the tv to stitch or knit. It's relaxing. According to the author of this article they aren't doing anything interesting. My friends' lives are more organized than mine and they all manage to accomplish a lot more with a needle than I do. Their houses are also clean.

My house is so far from perfect that the light from perfect would take 10,000 light years to reach it. It's just that bad. I'm doing better, I try to embrace the joys of the small things, scrubbing a toilet, vacuuming up mountians of animal hair, cleaning baseboards, but the big things seems to take over.

For example, just the other day the middle son forgot to jiggle the handle on the toilet. The toilet ran and ran, the bathroom, the hallway and part of my bedroom flooded. It took two days with a shopvac to get it close to dry. It took a whole can of carpet fresh to get the funky wet carpet, ooops a cat must of peed here smell, out of the house. Who has time to make the kitchen sink sparkle or get the pile of crap off the desk when you are gooshing your way down a wet hallway? You're probably wondering, why not just call those people that come in and dry out your carpets for you? What SAHM wants to spend household money on that? So I shopvac for two days. I'm a SAHM, I have nothing but time anyway right? Should I mention here that this happened at the same time as the most important deadline of my entire life? I may be SAHM but the last few months I've been pursuing a dream or two so not all my neglectful housewifieness is all about leisurely crafty pursuits.

Now that you all see that I suck at housekeeping, I have to say that while a well kept house is something to be proud of what in the world do women do when it's all done if they don't have a creative outlet? Why does the author of this article believe that a little time spent making jam is ridiculous? Why is knitting a scarf a waste of time? Would it be better to waste that time just watching tv? Truthfully, if I'm not working on a needlework project of some kind while watching tv I fall asleep.

I don't like her tone when she talks about the projects that Jane Brocket has completed over the last year. She has obviously checked out her blog as the Quince article was a recent one. I am in awe of people that do several things well, and I'm sure Jane would pursue her love of craft whether she married well or not. I've created some kind of needlework as far back as I can remember. Money is always an issue for me but unless I really need new shoes I always opt to spend the money on my hobbies instead of the necessities unless I really, really need the necessities which, come to think of it, the puppy ate three pair of my good shoes so I'll have to replace those this winter but only when I can no longer make it with just my flipflops. I do have my priorities! I aspire to be Jane. I think she's wonderful, she's creative, she bakes, the pictures I've seen of her home are lovely. Maybe one day that will be me.

I find that there really are two kinds of women. There are women who find a joy, a love, a passion for creating a plethora of things from baking, to knitting, to needlework, to crocheting, to painting, to photography. It's called creativity. Then there are women, like the author of this article, who apparently have no understanding whatsoever for the pleasure of handwork, for the time spent baking a cake, people who are creatively frigid. Those people, for whatever reason, like to belittle those of use that pursue a love for handwork. I think and this is just my opinion, they really believe they are smarter than those of us that have a creative outlet related to the needlearts or baking. I throw baking in there because she seemed to think that baking a pineapple upside down cake was something extraordinary that only some freakish being would do.

I find it sad that she had nothing positive to say about Jane's book. Why did she have to attempt to tear her(Jane) apart? I don't get it. I'll say it again, I found the article insulting to anyone who chooses to make their own clothes, cook their own food, and who loves any or all forms of needlework. It reminds me of something I read years ago about the early days of the feminist movement and how the feminists hated that women still did needlepoint and crewel and knitted because they thought it set them back a hundred years when feminism should mean that we as women could all do our own thing and be accepting of each other and our choices.

In the article she asks the reader if Jane's life resembles their's and then points out that it doesn't resemble her life or any women she knows. I don't understand her point. My life doesn't resemble Martha Stewart's or Jane Brocket's so what? I'm not sure what point the author is trying to make. Is she saying that no other women on earth make quilts, make jam, bake cakes? Is she saying that Jane Brocket is the only woman knitting, baking, finding joy in keeping house? You have got to be kidding me. I realize I don't get out enough but just from Googling craft blogs I think that the people that don't have a creative outlet, that don't take pleasure in their homes, is more the exception than the norm. HGTV, the Food Network, and DIY would not be as successful as they are without all of us looking for the next home project, the next decorating project, the next crafty pursuit, the next new recipe to try.

I do realize that this article is more about the issue of having it all, working women and pursuing the dream of the perfect house and still being able to knit socks, it's an ideal and the author doesn't seem to believe anyone can meet that ideal or should they want to. Hasn't the issue of having it all been beaten to death? Haven't most women figured out their own definition of having it all and are making the best of it? I accept that my house is a wreck, I do the best I can and I find a lot more pleasure in stitching than I do in scrubbing the toilet. I admit it. I'll choose stitching over housework any day of the week and personally I believe I'm a lot more interesting because of that.

*Ok so we all know that I am not Martha Stewart not even on the same planet as her and we also know that it infuriates me that someone believes I'm not worthy because I love creating something with my hands when time allows instead of, I don't know, skydiving? So now on to

What I've Been Doing:



Once again my lack of photography skills amazes me. Above you see my inprogress Fatbottom bags. The one with the pink and brown fabric is Red Heart Coffee, then there's the orchid one with pink lining which will be my practice bag and then one in a shade of red that I can't recall the name of the color.



What do you think of the Spongebob Stitchmarkers? Okay they are shoe charms I purchased at Target. But they work nicely as stitchmarkers.

Let the Christmas stitching begin. There are several ornaments in here I plan to stitch. This is one of the better ornament issues in my humble opinion.

I've been reading The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue. Whatever your opinion of metal or Motley or Nikki Sixx this book is worth reading. It's a look deep in the heart of addiction. Some parts of it have made me sick to my stomach, some made me angry. Sure it's full of self loathing, whining, general jerkishness, but that's what journals are and for Nikki Sixx to make this public, to let people in on this very dark side of his life, very brave. Other people that knew him at the time also commented on entries, filled in some blanks.

For the first time in a few weeks I plan to stitch the afternoon away. I'm looking forward to it. After the stress of last week, major deadline, insane teens, I may spend every morning next week at the beach. I wonder if Ms. Hunt would approve?

*I realize the above rant is all over the place and rambling but that article really made me mad on so many different levels!

Greetings From

The surface of the sun!

Scary how you can actually see the air in this picture isn't it? I'm southern. Heat is nothing new to me. We southerners love our heat. This summer though, I can't remember it ever being this hot. Seriously. You feel the air. It's like walking through a force field. One day this week Pensacola, FL was the hottest place on earth. I believe it. The picture above was taken about 7:30 this morning.


Here's another angle. My favorite view of the beach a spot where there are no humans. Yes, there were people there and in a few hours they will be elbow to elbow but this morning I was able to snap my first quiet beach shot in months. I'm not sure what the rippley things are above the lifeguard stand but I'm guess it's more solid air!

Why Publix is the Greatest Grocery Store on Earth:



They now carry Dunkin' Donuts coffee beans. The nectar of the gods I tell you. All you Northeasterners can't appreciate how lucky you are to have Dunkin' coffee readily available to you. We are stuck with Starbucks and Krispy Kreme coffee. Krispy Kreme coffee is not my favorite. I dislike it so much I drink milk with my hot donuts. Starbucks, if only the Dulce de Leche Latte was a permanent menu item. I might be your BFF but don't lure me in and get me addicted to a certain latte and then decide not to keep it on the menu. That is so cold. So Publix, I love you!

School starts here on Monday. Thank you, thank you, thank you! This has been one long, hot summer. It doesn't help that the 12 yr old has hit puberty and all the B.O. that comes with it. I feel for him. He actually requested deodorant. The brand he requested doesn't appear to be working though. We've informed him he needs the strong stuff. He's also gotten a little hormonal and most of the summer has been spent trying to stay out of his way.

Reading:

I just finished The Woods by Harlan Coban and Tumbling Blocks by Earlene Fowler.

I'm listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I just started reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.

I love my library.

The One Where

I get to be the stitcher who starts the project as soon as it's released. The only thing better would be finishing it this weekend. Don't hold your breath because that will so not happen! Apologies once again for the yucky picture, we've been having lots of cloud cover lately, so primo photography time is limited. Not that good lighting ever helps where my skilz are concerned. But I did put in the first stitches on Blackbird Designs Beneath the Sunlit Sky. I love this design. It's the new Loose Feathers. I picked this up the other day when I made a trip over to Needle Delights in Pensacola.

For a taste of summer, see above. I restarted my Grandmother's Flower Garden Afghan. I believe I started this as a CAL over at Crochetville a year ago, maybe more. Sue at Good Yarns

finished her's a long, long time ago. I was not at all happy with my previous color choices so I rootled through the good old Red Heart stash and found some brighter, happier colors and called it good. I love crocheting these hexes. The pattern can be found here:

Grandmother's Flower Garden

I can't decide if I am going to connect them with cream/white hexes or black. Once I get more flowers completed I will crochet a few in each color and see what I like best with the flowers.

After reading this post:

Knitting Iris: Quilt Retrospective. 4th Quilt.

I was reminded how much I love the Dresden Plate quilt pattern. I've been digging through the fabric in my bin and pulling out all the bright mod looking prints I can find. Mod might not be the exact right word but it's the one that comes to mind. You know, wild, 1970s inspired prints? I may just start cutting out some plates this weekend. I have a pile of fabric freshly washed, waiting to be ironed and then I'm good to go.

I'm still working on my Just Beachy quilt but have sewing machine issues so until I fix the machine I have or decide to buy a new machine, it's on hold for the time being. I don't see me handsewing through the Heat N Bond.

I finally finished listening to Shrink Rap and have moved on to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I'm trying to finish Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert so I can then start The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.

On DVD, I'm working my way through season one of Rescue Me.

Random Thoughts

Life is quiet for the moment. Days spent driving kids back and forth to where ever, not much else.

Stitching time has been hit or miss the last few days. I've been obsessed with Sonne Spotte but feel 13th Colony Bay calling me. My plan had been to have that completed by July 4th. I'm no where near having it finished. Fortunately I'm not one of those people that bases the quality of their stitching life by how many things I finish. If that were the case I'd be pretty miserable.

Don't get me wrong. I love finishing things, I love them framed, I love them hanging on the wall, but that's not what it's all about for me. It's just being able to sit down, needle in hand, and chill. That is IT for me.

Today I started thinking about what is happiness. It's one of those simple yet complex questions.

The vision that popped in my mind was my Mamaw's cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. Then I started thinking about her popcorn popped in an old iron skillet sprinkled with Lawry's seasoning salt and an icy cold Coke. My Mamaw thought she was a genius the first time she sprinkled Lawry's on the popcorn. Then I thought about the swing in her yard, twilight and fireflies. I thought about how she smelled. I guess happiness to me is my Mamaw and everything she was to me. I also think of her as summer. She lived across the road from us so I saw her everyday but she was, is summer, to me. Sitting on the carport talking, watching Johnny Carson until it was time to go to bed. Reading a book sitting in her swing, writing in my diary. I found that old diary the other day, I mostly wrote, "Boring" or "Didn't do anything today". But I did write in it every boring day of the summer between 7th and 8th grade.

Over the last week or so I've read a few books:

Twelve Sharp-Janet Evanovich
On Writing-Stephen King(third time I've read this)
Plum Lovin'-Janet Evanovich
How I Write-Janet Evanovich
Grave Surprise-Charlaine Harris-I really loved this book. Compelling main character. It's the second book in this new series, I need to track down the first one.

I've listened to:

The Beach House-James Patterson
To the Nines-Janet Evanovich

I'm currently reading:

Eat, Pray, Love-Elizabeth Gilbert

Currently in the walkman-Shrink Rap-Robert B. Parker

Anyone see Coming to America-Victoria Beckham the other night? I liked it. She's a lot more entertaining than some of our American celebrities. I thought it was a hoot. But there's no accounting for taste huh?

Scary Friday the 13th!

Okay Friday the 13th isn't so scary, you haven't met my kids! Tonight we are doing the whole Friday the 13th movie marathon. I bet we're the only ones that thought of that!


Old School:

The other day I went to the library in search of some fresh audiobooks. What I found on the shelves were all the books they had on tape. Fine with me but my family was going nuts with me blaring them from the home stereo. I decided to dig around in the garage and see if I could find my old Sony Walkman. No where to be found. I must have trashed it when I discovered the joy that is the iPOD. So I pop into the store who shall not be named in search of a cassette walkman. I felt a lot like Brendan Fraser's character, Adam, from the movie
Blast from the Past (1999). Believe it or not as you can see in the above photo, I found a cassette walkman! Never expected to find one. I was very, very excited. I forgot how much I missed the sound of the tape swooshing through the reels of the cassette player. Comfort let me tell ya.

What was I doing while listening to a book on tape? Why working on Sonne Spotte.

I'm trying to get as much of the outline cross stitching done as along as I can stand it so I can save the filling in for times when I don't want to pay a lot of attention to what I'm stitching. I'm so addicted to this piece of needlework it's just wrong. I don't want to put it down.

I didn't work on it last week because of out of town family visiting. Here are a few random shots:

The child wanted me to take a picture of her with a fry in her mouth. I thought she was Julie the Mermaid but no she's just Laney at dinner. She performed a whole water ballet at the pool where she was Julie the Mermaid, the spousal unit was the evil mermaid monster who turned good when he was under the spell of her powerful mermaid dance. No, really.

Number 1!

My niece said to my middle son as I was taking this picture, "Come on Jack, scoot closer, pretend you like me for a minute!"

Sweetest baby girl in that room!

R.I.P.

You totally rockin' hot momma shoes:

Last year I found these shoes at TJ Maxx on clearance for $5. At the time they represented everything I wanted to be when Summer 2007 arrived. Thinner, uh no, didn't happen. Shaking my badonkadonk butt on the hood of Nikki Sixx's car, (because baby I got back), uh no. What they do represent is a house where the animals rule and humans are just pawns in their wicked games. You see, these shoes were safely tucked away in my closet, but my cat Sabrina(who looks a lot like Laurie's Soba) can open doors. I used to never lock my front door until one day I came home and every animal in the house was in the front yard except Heidi the black lab who will not walk through the front or back door without being told to, she was sitting just inside the front door. She's such a good girl, anyway, Sabrina loves to open doors, she runs through the house opening all the closets, has a blast let me tell ya. Well since acquiring Polly PrissyPants the yellow lab puppy, none of our shoes are safe. The oldest son, the middle son, and youngest have managed to protect their shoes except for two pair of flip flops. Unfortunately the Spousal Unit has lost two pair of sandals and one pair of sneakers to Polly. Fortunately the sneakers were his yardmowing shoes so no great loss. Now I am Sabrina's favorite victim. She loves my closet and most of the time I keep it blocked with a pillow so she can try to open it but can't ever get it open. Well for whatever reason, maybe to put on some clothes, I opened the closet and shut the door and forgot to put the pillow back in place between the door and tv cabinet. Sabrina opened the door and Polly ate the shoes seen above. I'd have put the other shoe in the picture but the damage is heartbreaking. She also ate 5 pair of Old Navy flip flops. I live in Florida and currently have no flip flops. I see a trip to the mall in my future.

What's really sad is I never got a chance to wear these shoes out. I did wear them around the house listening to I'll Remember You by Skid Row, Wild Side by Motley Crue, Photograph by Def Leppard, you know the whole Monster Rock deal, wait should I have said that outloud?

Thanks for all the compliments on my version of Faith's Doris Daymat. It was a fun, fast project. I do think I will attempt another one following her pattern. I'm use to the feel of the twine now and believe if I play around with hook sizes I might get a positive result using the thinner twine.

I want to make a few things from Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. I started a box made of kitchen twine a few years ago and never got it finished. I'm thinking of mixing the kitchen twine with the garden twine and making some stripey baskets or big bowls. I love using different kind of fibers and seeing how they work up. The mason twine is cool too, kind of slippery but I love how it shines.

In cross stitch news I put in about 10 stitches on the Monkey Sampler this morning and that's been about it for the last week or so. It's going to be my mall project this summer. My kids like to go wander around the mall and I tend to park myself in the food court with a Cafe Carmel or an iced tea and sit and stitch. It gets me out of cleaning and the food court has pretty good lighting and food that I don't have to cook!

In book news, I read Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich and am currently listening to Metro Girl. I ♥ my library. So far I like the characters and the silliness. Good summer reading or listening rather.

I also finished Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur thanks to Deep Inside Missy.

I'm loving the new Fountians of Wayne CD and my favorite track so far is 92 Subaru. The youngest son is enjoying it a lot too and he didn't want to admit it but I caught him singing along with the songs.

Running All Around My Brain

This time of year is when I attempt to declutter the house and plan what to do with hopeless patches of green that we loosely refer to as the yard.

Today's project: the spousal unit's closet. It's a nightmare because it's the closet we throw stuff in when people show up unexpectedly and then we just ignore the piles of crap until we start looking for something we haven't seen in a while and think, "maybe we threw it in there". So far I've filled up two garbage bags and am in the process of emptying out a huge rubbermaid bucket tote I shoved in there a while back. I had high hopes of running across my Beatrix Potter Quaker chart but it wasn't in that particular bucket. I found more jeans the kids have outgrown for a denim throw I plan to make one day. I still have the other half of the floor of his closet to clean, this is a project that takes baby steps. If I work longer than 30 minutes at a time I get overwhelmed. I still can't figure out how we accumulate so much junk. Well I do, I'm a magazine whore and those create piles everywhere and I hate throwing them out because you never know when you have to look something up in a back issue of Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. Although the one I really wanted to save, there was a quilt I wanted to attempt to copy, I can't find. It's probably hanging out with Beatrix Potter laughing at me.

I've also been trying to plan the backyard. From pictures you can tell we have very little grass up near the house so I'm thinking about extending the patio using those large square stones. I have to get the grill off the patio and I'm thinking three rows of three stones will be perfect for that and then six rows of three on the other side and I can get the patio table off the porch. That way when we open the back doors we won't bang against chairs or the grill. I'm sure my neighbors appreciate that at 4 am when I'm letting the dogs out.

We're going to build a raised bed for a garden this weekend. Last year I did the container garden thing and my tomatoes would only get so big so we're going to put a raised bed on the south side of the house. I don't think it'll look tacky. Once it's nice and green and leafy it'll be pretty. We enjoyed home grown tomatoes last summer. Didn't have a large crop but made some killer bruschetta a couple of times. I'm going to try Square Foot Gardening this year. We're going to try watermelons again but a smaller kind instead of the congo watermelons we planted last year, very unsuccessful, we'll go with something that's not supposed to get 30lbs in size. I want to plant my herbs in big pots and set them around my extended patio created by the stones I mentioned above. Yes, I do understand that these plans are primed for disaster but I want to make the backyard a sanctuary. We're also going to put up some privacy fencing between the houses on either side of us. I've been pricing it and think we can do it pretty cheap to just connect us up on either side. We'll have to build our own gate unless Home Depot has premade gates, Lowes doesn't.

We have these new kids that have moved in and they are making me nuts. Don't get me wrong I don't mind other people's kids, but if I'm outside they are in my face talking to me constantly. Now they have started ringing the bell and wanting to tortureplay with the cats, they want me to bring the puppy out, I want to say go bother your own mom. So a fence it is and I'll never have to go out in the front yard again. The one girl is also clumsy and has fallen off the swing in my backyard twice. That's all I need a kid getting hurt on our swing. Although this little girl told me that I really should give them our swing because she doesn't have one. What is up with that? Every time she comes around my house into the backyard I'm sitting in the swing. I believe that means we use it! Anyway, I have plans for the backyard to make it a nice place to hang out expand the patio on the cheap and be able to leave my back doors open and the dogs can stay out as much as they want.

No stitching news, I worked a little this weekend on that BBD freebie, First Offerings.

We did watch a lot of movies this weekend. We watched The Departed-brutal. We also watched Snakes on a Plane. How good would that movie be in 3-D? We screamed all the way through it and kept pulling our feet off the floor on to the couch, lots of fun. We also watched Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell. I loved this movie and Rumor Has It with Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Costner, very enjoyable. We wasted Sunday finishing up season 1 of Dawson's Creek and starting season 2. Yes, our weekend was as lazy as you're thinking. Sometimes you just have to lay around on the couch and let all your brain cells chill for a while.

I started reading The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan and I can't get into it. I should have never read the acknowledgements before finishing the book. It has really taken some of the magic from the story. Sometimes I just don't need to know the backstory. Let me just enjoy this work of fiction and not know the author's journey. Sometimes too much information is too much information.