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With a few days break, I had a chance to do some stitching for myself.
Here it is...

After the weekend.

I call it "The Little Crooked House." It was not meant to be crooked, but - it turned out that way. Since this project is all for me - and my family - I try not to fret over it too much. I like it... That's all that matters.

In other matters, my life has been - unchanged. We started to plan a short vacation - just to get away for a few days, nothing major - but financial circumstances changed (as they always do)- and with that our plans went up in smoke. I was looking forward to this break, so I can't pretend I am not disappointed.

I did go to the theater (a real theater) twice over the past few months. First time, back in January, a friend invited me to go see a surreal, bit "Twilight Zone", bit "detective" story. It was good and thought provoking. The second time, just last Friday, I invited a different friend to a play "The Penelopiad" - the events of Trojan War through the eyes of Penelope, Odysseus's abandoned wife. 

While he - the hero - goes around the world, saves women, gains fame and fortune, she is left to care for their son, rule the island, run the house - and, at the same time, be invisible. For twenty years, she has been waiting for a happy ending - for her husband's safe return, for love, for recognition. But, in the end there was no reward. The hero came back, slayed the suitors - and her favorite maids, for good measure. Not quite a happy ending we were hoping for...

Until next time - happy stitching! 

Stitching, Watching and Reading

Hello, my dear friends! Once again, it has been a while - three months since I posted last... Thank you for not giving up on me.
What has happened in those months? First of all - lots of stitching (of course)... Since January, I have been working on a Christmas Stocking - yes, another one - and yesterday night, late - very late - I put in the last stitch! To celebrate the completion, I had a glass of champagne  cup of sparkling cider...

"Toys and Games" Stocking

Here it is - all ready and made.... I enjoyed working on it - so many details, so many French Knots! 

Jack in the Box and Teddy

I have never in my life seen a real Jack in the Box. The closest thing to it might be the one in the episode of "Twilight Zone", when the monster boy turns his neighbor into a Jack in the Box toy and sends him into the corn field. Hmmm, I am getting a bit morbid here, aren't I? 

While working on this project, I have seen a couple of shows, and I also discovered for myself books on tape. Well, to be precise, I discovered them a while ago - on the shelves of a local Barnes and Noble store... Then I also discovered their prices - and realized I would have to take out a loan to have an audio library I would want. But where is a will, there is a way... Long story short, our local library happened to have quite a few audio books on CDs. I checked out "Kiss Me Like a Stranger" by Gene Wilder - best... listen I have ever had in a long time - while also stitching. Now my goal is to listen to "Notes on a Scandal" by Zoe Heller.... 

What was I talking about? Ah, yes, shows... One of the shows I watched this year was "American Horror Story". Amazing actors (Kathy Bates as a Southern slave owner, Jessica Lange - evil power hungry woman), good script... The only down side - for me - was that I often ended up staring at the screen with my mouth open - instead of stitching.

Another good show I discovered was "Once Upon a Time" - fairy tale characters "stuck" in our world by the enchantment of the evil queen... Only, with time we learn that the queen is not so evil - just miserable... Little Red Riding Hood - not so little any more, and required to wear the red cape to avoid turning into a blood thirsty monster.. And in the middle of all - Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin. Could it get any better?

In conclusion, I want to share the results of my experiment. I have got the idea from Laura - my long distance friend and a talented stitcher - when she published a video/slide show of her stitching progress on a project, from beginning to end. So, that got me interested. I asked my DH to help with the Movie Maker program, he obliged - and... voila!

Now that this project is finished, I will have to find a new one... I think I will work on a family sampler, it has been calling my name for a while now...

Thank you for reading my ramblings!