I Must Have Them!!!

The new Prairie Schooler designs are out and they are just lovely.

"Old MacDonald"

"Weather Wise"

"Daffodils"

"Farmers' Almanac"

I really must have them all! I like them so much better then the others that have come out in the past few years. Those seemed a bit "stiff" somehow. It is hard to explain, but the past series were not as nice as these are. I can't decide which one I like best, but "Weather Wise" reminds me of Maine, doesn't it Barbara?"

Hopefully I will have the finish of "Blackbird Sampler"later today and then move on to my next UFO on the pile. I am also in the midst of making 120 Italian meatballs in preparation for next Saturdays' party. I really want to start some Spring projects and I also must come up with a 10th Birthday Present for my niece, Julia. Her birthday is 6 March and I still have to mail it to New Jersey. I'm afraid to say it but I think she will get money this year. Her tastes are so "pre-teen" that I hardly know what to get her. I haven't gotten a comment back on the fashion doll I sent her for Christmas. I was planning on sending her new clothes for that doll but that may be "old news" by now in the life of a 10 year-old. I am sure something Hannah Montana would do, but I live under a rock and know nothing about this person. My little gymnasts just laugh at me because I am so ignorant of the current trends.

The kitchen floor is also calling my name and it is screaming "I am filthy, please clean me!"

Team Spirit

Here we are, the 2007-2008 Countryside Gymnastics Team. Photo taken 8 February 2008. The coaches in front are from left to right, me, Jill, Becca, Peggy and her husband Dennis. Missing is my closest friend Brenda. Her twin boys were sick that night.

Not much stitching going on today. I am plotting and planning a surprise 40th birthday party for one of Joe's childhood friends. He live in Kentucky now, but comes to see us about every other month. It was quite a piece of work to convince him to come up specifically on Saturday 8 March. His actually birthday is the 15th, but that is the day "designated doormat coach" is subbing for Jill at the big regional competition, because it is her daughters Sweet Sixteen party. I could have pulled it off on the 15th if I was only coaching my own group, the Level 4s. Now I have the Level 5s also and that section of the competition runs until 9pm! The weird work situation seems to have no end in site. I try to modify my attitude about it to feel less stressed. Of course no one has noticed my attitude either good or bad, so it all seems rather pointless. At least the gymnasts are doing OK, and that is what is really important in the big scheme of things.

The menu for the party is four large pans of home-made lasagna, green beans with garlic and almonds and loaves of Italian bread. Also the guest of honor has requested one of my pudding cakes. They are basically a regular boxed cake mix cake with pudding as the middle layer filling instead of standard icing. That will be quite a balancing act with a large sheet cake, enough to feed 40+ people. Joe and his friends are a real "party crowd" so I will probably last through the food service part of the party and then vanish quietly home to do some stitching. Yes, we have managed to convince Joe's boss to let us use his huge barn for the party. It is fully insulated and heated with a large full-service kitchen set up, about 10 tables with chairs, bandstand area and dance floor. Joe's boss and his wife love to host huge parties and built this building especially for that purpose.

Today is a balmy 37 degrees F, so I am thinking of Springtime craft projects. I dug up this old Martha Stewart magazine that has this amazing "Easter Tree". The ornaments are Styrofoam egg shapes wrapped with DMC pearl cotton threads. I think I could do something like that. The tree itself is a wooden dowel frame wrapped with a yellow feather boa. The rest of the ornaments(bunnies, baskets, carrots, baby chicks) are made from pipe cleaners dyed to soft Spring colors. The carrots are carved from foam and then wrapped the same way as the eggs. I keep dreaming of this project, but it would involve actually buying the supplies to make it all. Oh well, maybe next year.

I Told You So!

Here I am back again after a bit of a self-enforced absence. I actually used the office computer again just yesterday and found that if I do enough searches or enter various website addresses it moves everything down on the "saved sites" list. I did this long enough and now my blog address has been removed from the list because there was simply not enough space anymore! I am sure there was a more technically advanced way of deleting it but this seems to have worked. Even after all of the stress, anxiety and effort(I wish all of that burned more calories) there have been no comments from my boss or coworkers, so they obviously did not even notice my blog address. All that agony for nothing......well, not nothing....it has taught me to be more careful in my computer use. I have also stayed away from the blog for a while because, in the words of my grandmother "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". It would have been all whining and griping about work or my various and sordid plots for revenge. Not what makes for enjoyable reading. I have always wondered why I have such a desire for revenge. Normally I am not a vindictive and mean person, so I can not really find the source of this fault in my personality. I think it stems from the early childhood jealousy over my younger brother. That normal “sibling rivalry” thing where I wished he would vanish from the face of the Earth and I would be an only child again, center of my parents’ world. As an adult I always find myself to be the accepting one, the one who compromises, steps back, avoids confrontation. I have always dreamed of being the one who was A Number One, all-important, star of every grammar school show. I wanted to be the girl in high school who showed up at the parties with someone else’s boyfriend and that other poor girl was left there with her mouth hanging open. The one to drive around with the “in crowd”, the popular group, the “Mean Girls”. Instead, hour upon hour was wasted plotting my revenge against such people. Even now so much time has been wasted agonizing over my work situation…how the “mean girls” have gotten over on me again. Why this craving for revenge? Because I never get it!!! I am never the one who says “I told you so”.
On a more positive note, I am still trying to keep up with my New Years’ Resolution of no new craft/sewing/needlework/hobby supply buying for 6 months. As for the need for fabric…. no there is no great need. I certainly WANT more fabric, but I do not need any. I have one of those large plastic storage bins full of fabrics. I have another storage area too. It is rather interesting and I have thought of submitting it to a magazine under their "Helpful Hints" column. I use a wrapping paper storage container to hold the large "spools" of fabric I have bought. Sometimes I can find clearance stuff at Hobby Lobby or Michael's that are sold on the bolt, so-to-speak, meaning wrapped on those large cardboard tubes. I stand them right up as if they were a roll of wrapping paper and they stay clean and unwrinkled. I am currently being tortured by the latest Herrschner's catalog that has a large selection of cross-stitch Aida and linen at ridiculously low clearance prices. Then I browse at the on-line shops and look at all the beautiful variegated and over-dyed flosses. But no buying. I did break the resolution a bit by buying 6 packages of large snaps to complete some doll clothes and also two spools of thread in colors I ran out of (also for doll clothes). I try to reason this out as a money-making venture, rather then money-spending.
I am still trying to work my way through the UFO bag and complete some more stuff that has been hanging around forever. I am currently working on Birds of a Feather "Blackbird Sampler". With a bit of snow last week and a bit more today I tried to settle in and stitch a bit after taking some time away from cross-stitch to complete more doll clothes. But no luck today. With Joe off from work due to the snow he can hardly stand it to stay at home while I stitch away. He is one of those people who likes to use the house for showering, sleeping and occasional food preparation. He likes to be out and around. I don’t mind it much, except that “out and around” to me means shopping. Here is a bit more done "Blackbird Sampler". I am tempted to buy the frame sections to finish-finish “One Stag a Leaping”, but I will hold out a bit longer. Maybe the tax refund check will come soon. Most of that is allotted to the current Mastercard bill still hovering over us from Christmas time. Ahh, to be free and clear of that and then I wouldn’t feel too bad writing a check to buy some frame sections. You see, already I am trying to modify the resolution to only include credit card “outbursts”.
Speaking of uncontrollable spending, has anyone seen the new Prairie Schooler designs yet? I hear they are coming out soon and I have already gotten the tantalizing e-mail from my eBay connection to pre-order the new charts.

I close for tonight with a photo of Coal and Sammy. Coal is the original "copy cat". Wherever Sammy or Alix go and whatever they do Coal has to be the next to do it. At first we thought he was a bully, being so big. But really he is just a copy cat, trying to do whatever the two older cats do. Here they are side-by-side, but a moment before this photo was snapped Coal had jumped up into the chair and landed on top of Sammy!

With my "excile" from blogland over I will try to keep my postings here more upbeat and positive. There is so much sadness, anger and vengefulness in the World that I will try to keep my little corner of it a pleasant place to visit.

Beautiful Old Things

Since there seems to be nothing new or exciting going on in my own life, I will share some beautiful old things. As some of you may know, my blog is named for the wonderful book by Sue Studebaker "Ohio Is My Dwelling Place-Schoolgirl Embroideries 1800-1850". It is a wonderful documentation of the samplers of Ohio and although I was born and raised in New Jersey I find the rich history of Ohio very interesting. As I discovered in this book, the largest number of documented samplers is from my own county, Warren( lower left area of the map). In nearby Clinton county is Wilmington College, a Quaker university. So those of you interested in Quaker samplers would love this book. I never realised what a treasure-trove of samplers in this style are from my own local area. The sampler below if by Mary Ann Wright, 1823. You can see faintly at the top "Lebanon WC Ohio". Lebanon is the town, 15 miles from my home, wheer I work at the gym. "WC" stands for Warren County.

The sampler below is by Mary Kelly, 1807. Waynesville is about 20 miles to the north of my home. It has wonderful antique and craft shops and a huge fabric and quilting shop! The basket design in the top leftr corner of this sampler holds the distinct "W" amongst the fruit design symbolic of Waynsville School. The spelling has since changed. I have also found a new blog called "Quaker Inspired". The more I look, the more I like this style of needlework.

Lastly for this evening is one of my most favorite "old things", the lovely Alix. Here she is in the glow of the computer screen last night. She will be 16 next month.

Words of Wisdom

In the country life of America there are many moments when a woman can have recourse in nothing but her needle for employment. In a dull company, and in dull weather, for instance, it is ill-manners to read, it is ill-manners to leave them; no card-playing there among genteel people...the needle is then a valuable resource. A letter from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter, Martha-1787

Rain and More Rain

I wish it were snow and more snow! It seems as if we should be building the Ark soon. The yard is a flooded mess and it looks like there is more rain to come today. The forecast always shows the nice little snowflakes coming from the cloud, but in reality it is just more rain! Kind of fits the mood of this "off-season"....not really Winter with all the holidays and not really Spring with all the gardening and being outdoors. Here is Coal looking rather comfortable indoors. Every inch the house-pet now!

Lately I have spent quite a bit of time indoors myself. Specifically at the gym. Wednesday night the Level 6 coach was out ill so I got to stay the duration of my usual old hours. Yesterday another teacher was ill so I spent an extra three hours teaching classes. So as it goes my "demotion" has now netted me more hours then my old schedule. I'll take all I can getn the hopes of saving a bit of money for those lean times to come.

I have also stuck rather well to the New Year's Resolution of not buying any new stash. I did broaden it a bit to include not only cross-stitch items but my other hobbies also.......knitting, quilting, doll clothes making, and miniatures. I see so many things advertised in the shops and on-line; it is torture. On the other hand I get an interesting sense of satisfaction when I am able to resist. I made it through January and now nearly the middle of February. I hope to last until June. I wonder if framing sections should be included on my "forbidden list"? I have "The Planets" finished and I finsihed on "One Stage A Leaping" late last night. My next goal is the seahorse and starfish pillow. That will need some matching fabric and trim to completely finish though. Of course that would mean a new purchase, but also that it would sit around as a finished pillow gathering dust until I give it as a gift. Maybe it is better that the finished items stay rolled up in the drawer until the Summer. Ahhh, that wave of satisfaction rushes over me. Such self-discipline, such will-power! I think I need to go eat some chocolate to make up the difference.

Confusion

The weather is confused, my job is confused and so am I. Last night it poured rain and about 3am came the most horendous thunder and lightnening, as if it were mid-Summer. Bud the dog went absolutely nuts. He hates thunder and lightening. He tries to chase it, running along as if he is following the sound of the thunder across the sky. The only other pet who is upset by such weather is Sammy, the oldest black cat. He is usually a big, brave cat. Friend to all, he is not afraid of much. But just the slightest, most distant rumble sends him under the bed for the duration.
As for the coaching situation. There I was on Monday night, agonizing throughout the first group from 4-7pm. Such a sour mood, but I converted it into a bunch of new teaching ideas that just floored my coaching partner. She really didn't know what to make of my new-found bossiness! It was compounded by the fact that she new perfectly well what was going to occur at 7pm when she went merrily on to work with the Level 5 group and I was uncerimoniously sent home like a naughty child. The clock inched slowly forward, maybe because I kept looking up at it every five minutes. At 7pm the shift in groups occured...the Level 4s leave and the 5,6 and Optional Level groups begin. But where was she? The Level 6 coach was not there. The official training starts at 6:00 when all groups come together for conditioning and flexibility training so she was already an hour late. 7:15, still no sign of her and the boss was shut away in a meeting. Should I just walk out and leave them hanging? Of course not. Human doormat that I am I stayed with the Level 6 group who were quite happy to see me. I was almost brought to tears as one of them had brought me a hand-made card to thank me for my work with them while their usual coach was away. 7:20 Kelly, a former coach shows up. She fills in sometimes when we are short-handed. Short-handed? We weren't short-handed. More approrpiately I was back-handed by the boss again as she told me that she had Kelly come in to cover for Becca, the abscent Level 6 coach, and that I should go home now. This made no sense at all and it felt like even more of a personal insult then ever before. The very shocking thing is, after I had dwelled upon this all night and most of this morning, she came up to me at Noon today and apologized! She said she had been confused about the situation since it was her monthly Monday night Parent League meeting and Kelly always comes in on that Monday. She hadn't put two and two together to also realize Becca was out sick and I was already there to take Becca's place. It did feel a bit better to know she admitted her mistake but the damage has been done. It must be my personality type, but it seems this happens to me quite often. Either I am totally over-looked or I am the first one to accept compromise while everyone else gets exactly what they want no matter what. As I was heading out the door last night, coat on, purse in hand, the Level 6 girls were still asking me questions about certain elements and who would be working with them that night. What a mess. But what sort of stand can I make now? I accepted her apology with sort of a half-smile and a nod...nothing to the effect of "it's OK" or finding any humor at all in it. I am one of those people that gets stepped on and no on seems to notice that I am flattened. So my reaction, or lack of one, to her apologize (and the whole situation in general) I am sure will go quite un-noticed.

Although this pitiful situation is far from finished, I do have a cross-stitch finish to show. "The Planets". I also worked rather diligently at Barrick Samplers "One Stag a Leaping" during the Super Bowl party and completed the grassy hills and part of the over-dyed blue sky. I deleted some of the little flowers and trees, because I like the look of the clean color areas surrounding the stag. I have to complete the clover flowers in the border area and then that one is complete also. I feel I am really pushing forward on emptying that canvas bag of UFOs. I will tackle the tremendous "Citrus Fruits" pillow next. There is a small counting error in one of the oranges and I think it may throw everything else out of whack. I have to figure a way around it and still keep the pillow square. Joe is not feeling well and has gone to bed very early. Although I am lacking in good company and conversation I do get the "good chair" to myself, the one with the good lighting that is, so I can stitch for the next 2 hours. In my browsing of the Internet earlier today I am very happy to see Annemarie back on-line. I missed your sharp sense of humor, Annemarie. Your blog is always filled with interesting stories that give me the proper perspective of Life's ups and downs.
I conclude this post with photos of one of my favorite historical figures. I am fascinated by all the Victorian and Edwardian Era royalty of Europe, but most especially the Romanov Imperial Family of Russia. The Empress Alexandra Feodorvna and her four daughter were, by all I have read about them, quite talented needleworkers.

For those of you interested in more about the Romanovs and their extended family check out the Alexander Palace Time Machine website. It has a wonderful message board filled with interesting information and gorgeous old photographs.