Monday, October 17, 2005

Bonus stitching day

I got an extra day of stitching on Friday... courtesy of my car. The brake indicator was coming on way too frequently, so I took it in for new brakes. I had the ridiculous thought that if I dropped it off on Thursday afternoon, they just might get it done Friday morning and *maybe* I could go to work. No such luck! They had to get parts from the dealer, and the car wasn't ready until late Friday afternoon. That's okay-- I can think of worse things than not being able to get to work on a Friday.

We drove out to the country on Saturday morning and didn't return until Sunday evening. Every time I'm there, I feel like I should be doing something and this trip was no different. So I spent the first couple of hours feeling very restless and doing lots of pacing. I keep hoping that will pass and I'll eventually be able to enjoy being there, but right now it feels like work most of the time. I put a concerted effort into NOT "working" while there this weekend, and I think I was pretty successful.

Saturday evening was spent at a family function-- a "surprise" birthday party that turned out not to be a surprise at all. It would have been a surprise, if the not-so-bright hostess hadn't asked the guest of honor if she was there for the PARTY the moment she walked in the door. DUH!!! Oh well, it was a nice gathering anyway.

We no longer have cable out there, so we were relegated to watching videos... mostly from old family reunions. They're funny... and sad at the same time.

The weather is turning a bit cooler, but we finally had some sunshine over the weekend. It was a nice change after all of the rain last week. On Sunday morning, I was able to pull one of the big wicker chairs onto the deck and sat outside in the sun while working on Castle Sampler. I discovered some flavored hot cocoa mix in the pantry and added that to a cup of coffee-- I may have eliminated my "need" for my weekend coffeeshop mocha. I didn't accomplish too much on my stitching, but I had a wonderful spot to sit and admire the view of the mountains. I wish I had discovered that little spot sooner, before the weather started getting colder.

The house is growing on me... maybe I'll keep it, after all.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

My first blog

A bit of rainy-day boredom coupled with some random Internet wanderings through various stitching sites, and voila!... my very own blog is born. It's a rather forlorn little thing at the moment, but perhaps with a bit of nurturing, it will grow and mature.

This has been a less-than-exciting week at work. A holiday week (Columbus Day was Monday) means that lots of folks have taken time off, which means there isn't much going on here. Invariably, that leads to thoughts of the multitude of things that I could be doing if I wasn't stuck here... in cubicle-land. Things like stitching or scrapbooking.

I've been on a stitching roll this week, starting with last weekend's marathon two-day stitching event. Okay, so it wasn't exaclty an "event" but there was a lot of stitching nonetheless. Going into the holiday weekend, I was determined to have ONE DAY where I did nothing but stitch... I lucked out and got two. Such luxury!!! I spent those two precious days working furiously on Teresa Wentzler's Castle Sampler. I made quite a bit of progress, but there is still much left to do.

I enjoy stitching Teresa Wentzler's designs, but have a hard time coming back to them after putting them away for a while. It's hard to find where I left off and I always have difficulty figuring out what I've stitched. I also worry about missing stray stitches-- easy to do with so much confetti stitching. I guess I'll stick with this project for as long as I can. Or at least until the pull of my Spanish Geometric Sampler becomes too strong. That one is getting closer to completion... not so close that I will be done soon, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.