Friday, July 28, 2006

Broken A/C and Bloodletting

Ok, not as bad as the title implies.
Today was my appointment with the blood center, where I donate on a regular basis. I urge all who can donate, do so. You never know whose life you will save with your blood; the next Einstein, world leader...Your own child?
Since I turned 18, I've wanted to help by giving blood, but was unable to do so until I was in my mid-20's (that was when I finally got over the minimum weight). Even now, I'm plagued with migraines, illness and low iron that stop from donating from time to time, but I shrug it off, get better, eat my greens, and reschedule; their online scheduling makes it even easier for me to do so.

So, find out if you can donate at www.giveblood.org and if you can, do so. Think you can't because of the medications you take? Look at their FAQ's. You might be surprised.


Now on to the broken A/C...
That is as bad as is sounds, especially with it hitting 96°F today. To slightly backtrack, when I got home last night from work, the A/C was not working. The fan was blowing but the air was not cooling. The family stripped down to the bare minimum, we ordered takeout (so as not to make it hotter), and we pulled all the fans out of the garage that we could find (one for each room). Oh yes, and called a repairman. The repairman would not be able to make it here until 5:30 or later the next day (today). I felt I could handle it today. I spent the morning giving blood (oh glorious A/C), then came home and made sure the blinds were closed and no lights were on, to keep it as cool as possible inside the house. It got to 90°!!! Inside!!! By 5pm, it was cooler outside than in, so the doors are open and the fans are pulling in as much air as possible. Oh yes, and the repairman arrived at 6. YEAH!!!!! I would cross body parts in the hopes this will be fixed tonight, but it tooooooooo hot and I’m covered in a layer of sweat. Off to jump in the cold shower for the dozenth time…

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Bakers Dozen RR

The first square for my son's couch blanket is complete. As he loves the outdoors, I found a tree, in each season, to put on the corner of the blanket. The first is a free pattern called "Spring Tree" by Designs by Stitch Witch from www.cyberstitchers.com . There was a lot of confetti stitches, but my son loves it.
Image hosted by Webshots.com
by libhita

Now it is getting packaged up for its journey to Wisconsin. I'm writing a little story for my son about the travels of his blanket, so he'll have a fun little tale to go with it when it returns a year from now. I've already got the beginning written:

The Travel’s Of Trey’s Couch Blanket

The blanket knew, as it came out of its package, who it would belong to and where it would reside. It knew, because Trey’s mommy told it.
“Your going to be Trey’s couch blanket,” she said, “So Trey and his sitter will stop fighting over whose blanket is whose. You will only belong to Trey and no one else.”
The blanket was scared. It was just it a plain white piece of cloth, it thought; no little boy would want me.
But Trey’s mommy knew better.
“You’re going to be the best blanket in the living room,’ she said.
“When?” asked the blanket.
“In about a year, and even better, you’ll get to see the world (well, North America at least), before you come back here and spend the rest of your life with Trey. A wonderful lady will put a new picture on you at each stop of your journey, and I’ll put the first one on you now.”
Trey’s mommy pulled out her needle, colored threads, and an oddly looking black and white picture.
“I certainly hope THAT isn’t what I’m going to look like!” the blanket thought.
But Mommy knew what to do. She created a pretty little tree, with the buds of spring on it in the corner of the blanket.
“Oh! How pretty!” exclaimed Trey, “Is it done?”
“No,” said Mommy, “Now it is going to travel to a bunch of different places, and when it returns, there will be 12 pictures on the blanket, and a whole year will have past.”
“But that’s too long!” Trey cried.
Mommy was sad to see Trey so sad, “Yes, it is a long time for you, but you can help me make lots of other things while we wait for your blanket to return.”
“Like bookmarks!”
“Yes.”
“Yea!!!!” he yelled, and Trey ran off to his treasure room to get the book of bookmarks that he had ‘borrowed’ from his mommy.

Monday, July 24, 2006

No Husbands, No Children: Just the Women

So if you ever wonder what a group of women do when they get together with no men...

I was at our quarterly WIFR (Women's Inter-Faith Retreat) this weekend. How refreshed and relaxed I am today! This weekend's theme was Decluttering and Decadence. Discussions throughout the weekend involved, not only decluttering your house and life, but your soul as well. And the different ways each of us has started the decluttering process (One of my favorite ways is www.flylady.net). Let the routine become the ritual.

For inspiration, read "Mother Holle" by the Grimm Brothers. (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/mother_holle.html)

As for the decadence...
Champagne with cherries, Special Dark chocolate syrup, whip cream, ice cream (Rocky Road, Dulce de Leche, peach sorbet, bon-bons), Merci chocolate, rum, amaretto...

Now to catch up on sleep.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Husband's view

A question was asked on one of the BB's I frequent, and it's a question that is asked alot:
"I was wondering since our hubby's or partner's are so much a part of
our lives, just how they feel about our hobby? Do they have their own
hobbies? Are they very supportive? Do they like some of our stitching
pieces more than others? Do they have favorite designs, designers or
subject matter?"

My husband loves what I do, but sometimes I think its more because it de-stresses me and makes me happy. I overheard a conversation between him and a friend. His friend was asking what the point really was, and my husband replied "I look at it as she is making heirlooms for the family that will be passed on for generations. Besides, they make better gifts than cards or gift certificates.".

He's also my sounding board if I missed a stitch (or an entire line). If he can pick up the mistake, then I definitely have to change it.

His favorites that I work on are the Norse flavored (like “A Vikings World” By Designs by Lisa) and Scandinavian designs. I like those too, and make those for keeping. Most everything else he’ll say that it’s pretty but not his taste.

He does question, sometimes, the amount of thing I buy (fabric, thread, etc.) but since I don't stash buy compulsively, I can usually point out exactly what I'll be using for what pattern, and who it will go to.

As to his own hobby…
When I met him, he did leatherworking (I have a beautiful day planner than he made for me while we were dating), but lately, he’s been so busy with work, that he has made the time to work on it. I wouldn’t have a problem with it if we didn’t have half a cow in our garage waiting to be made into something. But it’s his garage and he has to clean it.

Now as to asking my husband about colors to use, he has asked me to pass on this. (I am quoting him now) “Do not ask a guy which shade of blue (or what have you) is better. WE see in 5 colors; red, blue, green, orange, brown, black, white. And that is if we aren’t color blind. So don’t ask me which shade of blue is better…it’s all blue! But you can ask us which shade of red looks more like blood. We hunted food for centuries, we know red.”

This from the same man whose answer to the question “what color karate belt do you have?” was “I’m not wearing one today. It broke and I need to cut a new one. I haven’t decided if I’m going to dye it brown or black. Oh well, might as well make two belts, save me the hassle when one of them get around to breaking again.”

Monday, July 17, 2006

Let the sarcasm begin!

Out of the mouths of babes…

After my son (4) got home today, he set his drink down in our computer room and then went into the living room to watch TV. Not 5 minutes later, he yells to us asking us to bring him his drink because his “legs hurt!” (Read: some cool Xiolin Showdown move is on and I don’t want to get up and get my own drink)
Our answer: “Get it yourself. Your legs aren’t broken.”
20 minutes later, when the show is done, he walks into the room, picks up his drink with a heavy sigh and says “Thank you!” while leaving the room. I raise my eyebrow at my husband, and he to me, as we both “Boy!” followed by a “Sorry!” from our son.

Now, I know who he learned sarcasm from, but my question is, Why could he wait until he was 6, like his sister did?

Sunday, July 16, 2006

And so it began...Again?

Not even lunch time and I'm having a rough day. I'm sure it would be better if it didn't feel like yesterday's migraine was trying to make a come back.

I did get my mother's birthday present done a couple weeks ago. Now I just need to find a frame for it, or a framer (anyone know any good one's in Houston?). My mom is simple when it comes to framing embroidery. She just wants a simple frame around it, not mats, no fuss, no muss.



This is Mom's present. It's "Faerie Godmother" from American School of Needlework's "Faeries: 6 Magical Designs" by Barbara Baatz. When I first saw the face, it reminded me of my mom, when I (and she) was younger. She loves children, and will probably never have enough grandchildren, not from her lack of asking her children for them. At least I'm not the only child being asked to provide them anymore. :P