Good Grief!!!

Where on earth have I been? I can't believe I haven't posted here since February. So many wonderful things have happened I don't know where to start. Most importantly, I discovered a miracle: the love of my life. At age 55, I never anticipated meeting THE ONE...what joy!!! We are happily ensconced in his home on the river in a beautiful natural setting and just thoroughly enjoying the miracle of having found each other. It was an internet dating website encounter that took us both entirely by surprise. We met in December and have spent nearly all of our available time together since. He is a true soulmate.

I've been knitting like a fiend and consequently have aggravated an old repetitive motion injury in my left hand. So now I've had to take up my hand pieced quilting for a while to give it a rest. I'm also getting ready to dive into rug hooking again. I took lessons about 16 years ago so hopefully I will still remember how.

Enough with the update...duty calls. Thank God it's Friday and bonus check payout day to boot! Bye for now.

Where Have I Been?

Oh! The Places I've Been! These last few months have been amazing beyond mere words. I embarked on a 180 degree turnaround in my thinking about three or four months ago-I've turned away from 54 years of negativity to embrace a more positive attitude. One of the first results of that was that I found a true soul mate...so that's where I've been...developing the new me and enjoying the beginnings of what promises to be the best and healthiest relationship I've ever experienced. I've also lost 40 pounds and feel physically better than I have in years...yay me!

Additionally, I've embarked on a new blog collaboration with a friend. We wanted to present some debate and discussion about issues of concern (big ones and little ones) in a nonpolitical folksy kind of way that wouldn't require a dictionary or a doctorate degree to understand. We created this blog . Please take a look and leave a comment about what you think.

I haven't been doing much in the fiber or textiles much as my left hand needed a nice long rest to heal a repetitive motion injury. I'm just beginning to return to knitting and spinninng a wee bit at a time...hopefully soon I'll have some FO's to share with you.

A Little Christmas Stitching

Every year I attempt to stitch at least one new Christmas ornament. Although I finish the cross stitching I never seem to "finish" the ornament. Consequently, I have a bag chock full of cross-stitch Christmas designs waiting to become ornaments. This year's contribution to the bag is from Just Cross Stitch 2009 Ornament issue. It's called Caroline from Miss Crescent's Crowne and it really is adorable. I was fortunate enough to find the PERFECT fabric for "finishing" it at Hancock's (that's it in the background-don't some of those snowflakes look exactly like the cross stitched ones?). I used a DMC variegated thread for the body of the bird and whatever DMC floss looked good to me for the green and gold and DMC white for the snowflakes. Since the picture was taken I have finished the cross stitch but of course I haven't "finished" the ornament.

NaNiNaNiBooBoo

Okay...so I couldn't remember what it's called but I know there's an effort underway to encourage bloggers to post every day in November. If you see my history, I'm an erratic blogger at best so it would be fruitless to even think about participating in the "official effort". So, I'm starting my own blogging challenge called NaNiNaNiBooBoo and here are the rules:

1. Post once (any day, any month, any year). Blog entries prior to November 1, 2009 can count towards your total.

Yep...that's it...one rule. So I'm done...having successfully completed the NaNiNaNiBooBoo challenge I can feel good about finally having finished SOMETHING!!!

I'm so excited...

No, the Pointer Sisters haven't asked me to sing with them (boy did they dodge a bullet there :)). Some time ago I purchased a quaker sampler chart and cross stitch software combo from Needleprint and I have been putzing around with the software ever since. I created a little Christmas sampler and an ornament and sent it to Jacqueline (the owner of the Needleprint blog) and she has "published" it on her blog today. You can see here . She is offering it free in pdf or in jgg format (jgg is the Jane Greenoff cross stitch software format). This is my first foray into cross stitch design and I am so delighted that she deemed it worthy of posting to her website. I'll be watching anxiously to see if anyone actually stitches it-then I'll feel like a real designer.

Yes, I Really Do Tat

See...I told you I was a tatter. I recently tatted this from a pattern I got off the interwebz. I'll try to look it up for you and post the website later {Found it: http://tatslife.voskes.eu/e/index.htm }. It is tatted from some Tencel "yarn" (more like a thread-about the size of #5 perle cotton) from an etsy shop called Yarntopia Treasures. I just love the bright colorway-quite a departure from what you expect for tatting.

It's clipped to my office cubicle wall at the present moment to remind me that there's more to me than just my job. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in work that I forget that work is not who I really am. It brightens my day to look at it and remember that I am actually a much more creative person than my job allows.

StitchMAP Stitch Challenge

Since it's been 26 years since my last attempt at Crazy Quilting (heretofore to be known as CQ cuz I'm a lazy blogger). I've joined the StitchMAP Yahoo group. It's a wonderful group of stitchers who offer mentoring services and classes for those interested in pursuing needlearts and stitchery. They are a really kind, funny and generous group of stitchers.

I signed up for a Stitch Challenge while I wait for the next CQ class to start so I can brush up on my long neglected embroidery skills. Here's a pic of my fabric preparation for the challenge. We will be learning three stitches and using what we create to cover an Altoid tin.

Stay tuned for further developments.