Xs & Other Stuff

My collection of done (X-stitch) stuff...so far...includes 20 Santas, 10 birdies (all Prairie Schooler.......Miss Mary Mack (La-D-Da) and Anna's Bird (The Goode Huswife). Works in progress? I'm on the 7th block of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow (Carriage House) and have stitched a bit of the upper left hand corner on a Moira Blackburn Sampler: Growing Like a Tree. I'll not bore you with photos of my ATCs, painted furniture, carvings, quilts, or mosaics..........yet.

A Second Cuppa Koffee

Having had a restless night, it may be a stretch to think that I'll be able to write anything that makes any sense to the reader. I find it peculiar that I always make perfect sense to myself...in my head...but by the time my thoughts become text things seem to become quite garbley. Well, garbley or not...my compulsion to write has overcome any embarrassment that I might feel at exposing my blog as the product of a messy mind......so......here 'goes. And here's where that second cuppa-koffee comes in handy.

Today, I thought that I'd show you some of what I do that keeps me just on the safe side of sane. One must not only fill the hours of ones life with stuff to do...it is certain to look better (to others) if some of the stuff has value. When I worked at the bank (it's better if I keep this 'bank' part generic...because there might come a day when, after another restless night, I might want to rant about banking) my 'value' was measured by the size and regularity of my salary...well, maybe just by the regularity. Now, it's not salary...but stuff produced...that validates my existence. And I do a lot of stuff. Most of questionable value, I admit (just like the ol' salary), but none the less a validation. Samplers often bear the motto: When this you see, remember me. I guess it's why I do what I do...so I'll be remembered...at least until after the garage sale.

Sitting & Stitching & Watching the Economy Tank

It's good to have something to do with my hands (besides biting my fingernails) while everything around me slides deeper into recession. It is just for times like these that I collected my stash in the first place.....what I call my Just-in-Case stuff. It makes things harder to move...even to find, sometimes. But I'm never without something to do...keep those hands busy, I say...I say (yes, I meant to say that twice :). Sewing machine, lots of thread, needles, thimbles, a roomful of storage cabinets for my huge collection of fabric, art supplies, cross-stitch supplies, mosaic tiles & glass, cutters, carvers, grinders, books (to read and to learn from), etc. etc. etc. I am a 'stuff-to- do' collector and my DH (a practical kind of guy) is the 'food-for-hard-times' collector. Buckets of wheat, beans, freeze dried meals etc...I could go on....and on....and on....and.....on.

In a couple or three years....if times is still tuff...and even if times is not so tuff....we can retire and run off to our cabin in the mountains of Washington state...where I can make quilts, stitch, carve, paint, tile anything that doesn't move and enjoy the music of wind in the trees...and DH can split logs, grind wheat, bake bread. shovel snow, and build stuff (he's thinking of stuff like root cellars and geodesic domes). We'll keep a couple or four laying hens...and maybe a goat or two. The dogs will happily flush rabbits and pheasants and act like country dogs act.

It's a great day-dream, isn't it? Kind of like Little-House-on-the-Prairie meets Green Acres. Co-o-o-o-o-o-l !!!

The Fur Babies

Only two of the five amigos shared my bed last night. The other three seemed content enough to curl up in their kennels next to the bed. Baxter (L) and Angus (2nd from top) kept me warm and the other three: Archie (3rd), Mopsy (top) and Pooper (shown exploring with Mopsy) slept in their own cozy spaces. I could hear little Pooper snoring soft, little snores before I even got into bed.

It Must Be Love

DH is scheduled for classes on Mon and Tue...in Redlands, CA. So he rented a car and drove there from here (Las Vegas)...stop and go the whole way. What was to be about a 3+ hr drive turned into a 6 1/2 hr ordeal. He finally called me from his hotel. Exhausted but safe.

Every time he has to be away from home for something or other I realize again just how much I love and miss him. I know that it's just for two nights this trip...but it's like being half of a whole. I guess that's what being soul mates is. When together some kind of something happens that allows our two halves to become more than just a whole. The bud becomes the flower. (isn't that the most cornball thing to say. or what?!...he brings out the weird in me sometimes.) I love our marriage...and I love saying it...and I guess I will happily anticipate his call tomorrow. Tonight...it's just me and the 5 dogs...and I might just let them all sleep with me in the bed.

Lots of X's...no O's

Love doing counted cross stitch...it's sort of Zen. Meditating on the X...pretty soon the bit becomes part of the whole. Neat, huh? And I don't have to think about anything while doing this....just the X. Not (completely) mindless....almost never boring...and, like the steady, resonant sound of the hall clock's pendulum....a great reliever of stress. If more people did cross stitch....there would be fewer wars. Just a great, smiling mass of humanity focused on......The X. At peace.

2009!

Here it is.....another year (a little late in getting started on mine). Another leaf turned....well maybe another leaf turned. One year is about as good as another for turning leaves...resolving unresolved resolutions....especially if one is just starting their year in February...the middle of February, at that. Anyway, here it is.