Lo How a Rose - Week 7

Weekends are the greatest, especially when they have extra days. Even one extra day makes the weekend so much more relaxed. Yesterday was a comp day for having worked two 12-hour days for conferences last week, so I pretty much took it off. When Nikki came home from work at 4:00 or so, I still had my jammies on (gasp)! I know! What a slob! I'd spent the whole day stitching, paying bills and doing paperwork. At least I accomplished something.

So here you see my LHaR progress for this week. There are only a few gold letters left, and then it looks like we'll have a flower-a-thon for a few weeks. Just as I thought I'd finished all of the grayish letters, I found that I'd left off two little stitches on that same H that made me crazy last week! LOLOL! Do you think focus could be a problem? Hopefully, my mind won't completely desert me until I get more of my stash stitched.

That's all for this edition of "As the Threads Are Counted (or not)". Tune in again next time, and maybe I'll list the many objects that I misplace and have to search for on a daily basis (the inability to count is only one symptom of my lack of focus). I'm running away to Boulder to make some fun. While I'm away, maybe my mind will become more cooperative.

One Small Repair

It started so innocently. It was gonna be easy. And then OCD entered the picture ... again. I know I mention OCD rather often in my posts, and it's true that I'm self-diagnosed (although my daughter Nikki blames me for all of her own OCD traits). But, my goodness, I can turn the simplest task into really hard work.

If you'll think back to my last post, I showed you my progress on Lo How a Rose and confessed that I had made a little boo boo. As I finally sat down to stitch last night (conference week is getting in the way of my fun), I decided to start by fixing the little boo boo, which was one misplaced stitch in the H in HaLF. What do you do when you have just one or two little stitches to fix? I usually try to remove as little as possible from the surrounding area, run my cut threads underneath other stitches, and sneak in there with a needle and thread and repair whatever I've undone. Not so brilliant an idea when it's a letter stitched over-one. It took me a solid hour to do something that should've taken a few minutes! All of those short little threads to pull under not-so-many available threads. Thinking back, it would've been a better idea to just rip out the H altogether and restitch it. But NO! I made it a crazy perfection session.

OK (huge sigh) ... I feel much better now that I have that off my chest. It's occurred to me many times that if I make myself this nutty over a few stitches, I must drive other people over the edge. And there are still people out there who are my friends! So no pics for now ... maybe tomorrow after I've had an evening of sitting and stitching with a vodka & tonic next to me (because of conference week, today is my Friday), and I've completed all of those lovely little letters. I'm so looking forward to it. But first, I'd better stop procrastinating and clean off my desk. There are many more conferences to attend this afternoon and evening.

Make some fun.

Lo How a Rose - Week 6

I'm finally getting around to posting my progress on Lo How a Rose from last week. I had intended to do it on Saturday, but I got busy with other things (laundry, vacuuming, walking miles, running away to Boulder). After I took this picture, I was smugly admiring my work and found a little boo boo, which will have to be fixed this week (damn!). At the time of my goof, I'm pretty sure I was talking on the phone ... never a good idea for me when counting is required. I consider walking while chewing gum multi-tasking, but that doesn't stop me from trying it more often than I should. Anyway, I'm almost finished with all the words, and then look out, flowers!

We're having the world's most fabulous weather in the eastern half of Colorado. It was close to 70 yesterday and set a record in the 70's today. We hit golf balls and then went hiking yesterday. How can anyone stay inside when it's so beautiful? Boy, did I wanna play hooky today. Nice weather will continue all week, with the exception of wind (ugh ... wind, wind, wind) tomorrow, but we really need some moisture. So all of you who are sick to death of your snow and rain, please send it this way. I'm in true need of a snow day, and Colorado's eastern slope is in need of something wet.

I have a man story to tell. While making weekend arrangements on the phone, the man I hang around with was telling me he needed time to straighten up and do some things before I arrived. So I told him I could stay home and stitch for however much time he needed. Then he said (get ready for this), " You should bring your stitching." Really! That's what he said (gasp)! I know! Amazing. Of course, I only had time to do a little bit, because I had to bite my nails and fret during "The Changeling" (probably not a movie I should've watched). Men can be surprising, huh?

I'm off now to spend some time in Eden.