Feeling Lucky

There's so many reasons to feel lucky.

First of all, I kept my job.  That's really good news in light of the recent reduction of employees at my company.  Many of my friends were let go.  Honestly, it feels like I was holding a winning job ticket!

Next, I have my health.  Yay!  But since I just made it through some unexplained flu/food poisoning/bug this weekend, I was reminded how precious it is to have good health.

Unfortunately, I just learned of the sudden passing of one of my colleagues.  So sad.  Life is very fragile and the loss of my friend reminds me how lucky I am to be alive!

Third, I just received this beautiful fabric and floss to start an old Halloween favorite cross stitch project called Tombstone Angel from Carriage House Samplings.  I guess that's not luck, since I purchased these beautiful supplies!  

40 Count Pear linen

Floss from Needlepoint Silk Inc

There is a possibility I might be lucky in winning some beautiful hand dyed floss from the Victorian Motto Sampler blog.  Gorgeous colored floss in special patriotic colors.  These can be purchased on Nancy's eBay store or you can enter her free drawing on her blog.  I entered and hope I am a lucky winner!!

Victorian Motto Sampler

Mini Proust Questionnaire

I love the back page of Vanity Fair magazine which publishes celebrities’ answers to the Proust Questionnaire.

According to Wikipedia, in the late nineteenth century answering lists of questions was a popular activity where people could express their tastes and aspirations.

In 1890 Proust recorded his answers to the questions and the questionnaire has taken on his name although he was not the author.  The original manuscript with his answers was sold in 2003 in England for an exorbitant sum.

I have always wanted to try answering these questions and recently attempted it.  It’s harder than I imagined it would be.  

You can try Vanity Fair’s interactive questionnaire at this link:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/proust-questionnaire

I’ve selected the following 8 questions as my ‘mini Proust questionnaire’.

1) What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Perfect happiness is both starting and completing my cross-stitch projects!  

There's much joy at both ends of a project. 

Here’s a picture of a project that is simultaneously started and in progress.  Six of the twelve patterns have been completed and the remaining six are being worked.

2) What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Selfishness.  It’s a terrible failing and a deplorable trait to have.

3) What is your favorite journey?

Travelling home.  It really is ‘Home Sweet Home’ and ‘There’s no place like home’ for me.

4) What is it that you most dislike?

Being away from home.

5) What is your most marked characteristic?

I require a lot of solitary time.

6) What is the quality you most admire in a man?

Generosity

Here’s a picture of the most generous man I know!

 7) What is your most treasured possession?

All of the handmade pieces I inherited from my grandmother, mother and aunt.  

I can feel their presence when I touch their needlework.  If I had to pick one particular piece, I think it would be the crochet tablecloth my mom made for me from a pattern I selected without regard to how difficult it might be for her to work.  She completed it rather quickly and it’s a beauty.

Here’s a picture of another favorite made by my mother in the 1950's in the classic pineapple pattern. It always covered our kitchen table.

8) What is your motto?

It’s better to laugh than cry

Mystery Book Series are the Best!

I love reading mystery books in a series.  

When the same cast of characters continues to appear in sequential stories, the author has time to build more depth and breadth into them to flesh out their personalities.  The readers can grow to love (or hate) the cast as they 'live' through various situations.

Sometimes the authors must get a little tired of their creations.  Next thing you know, a main character gets killed.   (See Elizabeth George's book With No One as Witness where she kills off a main character)

Also, consider the relationship between Sir Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.  After killing Sherlock in the Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem, Doyle was forced to bring him back due to fan fervor, including his own mother's request.

Sidney Paget's illustration of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls

I've been following Sue Grafton's alphabet series starting with A, of course, and currently at letter W.  A is for Alibi and W is for Wasted and many good stories in between featuring Kinsey Millhone as the feisty female detective.Wonder what clever title Sue will find for X? We'll have to wait for it to be published in 2105.

I have a great memory of meeting Sue Grafton at a book signing in a Squirrel Hill bookshop outside of Pittsburgh, PA.  That bookstore is long gone.

For 'Santa Teresa!' - Nice personal touch from the author

A new favorite is the Gaslight series by Victoria Thompson.  I started reading these somewhere in the middle with Murder on Marble Row and have read all of them up to the last one published - Murder in Murray Hill.  I  can't wait for the next one to come out.  In the meantime, I have gone back to the beginning to read the ones I missed starting with Murder on Astor Place.

My bookshelf is full so these are double-stacked.  Uh-oh, that's a no-no!

Dame Frevisse series by Margaret Frazer.  The first one I read was The Widow’s Tale and it got me hooked.  I also loved The Sempster’s Tale as both a mystery and love story.  I have collected as many hardbound editions in this series as I could find.  The early ones apparently were not published as hardbound so I've been looking for e-reader versions.  I love this series due to the wonderful Dame Frevisse and her life as a nun in the 1400's.  

If I love this series so much, I'm sure I will love the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters which was serialized on PBS's Masterpiece Theater.  There's 21 books in the Cadfael Chronicals for me to read one day.

A few of the 21 in the series

Anne Perry has several series that I've been following since the beginning - Monk, the ex-policeman turned detective who lost all memory of his prior life, and the charming Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. There is also an annual Christmas series of tales.  And the 5 book WWI mystery series.  All very enjoyable!

5 of the Christmas Mysteries

World War I mystery series

 Many years ago, I drove to Pasadena to the Book'em Mysteries bookstore for one of Anne's many book signings there.  Too bad this independent book store went out of business in May 2014.

Pentecost Alley featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt autographed by Anne Perry

Book'em Mysteries in Pasadena

Elizabeth George's Thomas Linley series has been my favorite since her first - A Great Deliverance in 1988.  That was an awesome start to a wonderful series.  I've only skipped one in this series - What Came Before He Shot Her.  It didn't get very good fan reviews and readers were unhappy that a main character was killed.  Unlike Conan Doyle, it was impossible to revive this character.  George used this death to build more substance and layers into the remaining characters in the following books.  We're all still reeling from it - the fans and the characters.

She explained very clearly why she made the choice to kill one of her 5 main characters on her website.  Her argument is rational, well thought out and supports why I love her books so much.  She does not want her characters to stop growing and thus get boring.

I met Elizabeth George at a book signing in Orange County, California.  Yet another bookstore gone...

To Terry - With Best Wishes from Elizabeth George 12-June-1993

And recently a new series for me featuring Armand Gamache by Louise Penny is completely captivating.  The mysteries are very good but the emotional lives of the characters stays with you long after each book ends.  Her latest The Long Way Home was just published and I can't wait to dive in.  She's also very active on Facebook and her posts are a pleasure to follow.

So many great series- so little time to read all of them!

A few last thoughts...

While I mourn the loss of so many brick and mortar bookstores, I confess that I've probably contributed to their demise by ordering most of my books on the web.  I enjoy browsing in bookstores and I especially love the remainders table for great deals.  But a majority of my purchases are via amazon.com.  Unfortunately, 'Engulf and Devour' is toppling many of the independent booksellers!

Just thought I'd mention this so you'd know I am aware...

Reading the Instructions and Following Them

I decided to knit a new scarf to wear for St. Patrick’s Day this year.  A pattern named Irish Mesh Cowl in beautiful green Koigu yarn caught my eye.

Irish Mesh Cowl by Jo Strong

Ordered 2 skeins of yarn from Jimmy Beans online yarn store which were delivered in a flash.

Beautiful skein of Koigu KPM wound and ready for knitting

So of course I can’t wait to start a new project with this beautiful yarn even though I’m not quite finished with my current work in process, the Canaletto Cowl knitted in Noro Ayatori.  Also quite beautiful.

My Canaletto Cowl is in process and the end is in sight

Nevertheless, approaching midnight last night I decided to try casting on 220 stitches for the Irish Mesh Cowl.  When that proved successful after only one attempt with the long tail cast on method, I was primed to begin knitting the 5 border rows of seed stitch in the round.  You can’t beat the great feeling of estimating the correct length of yarn for the long tail cast-on!

Knitting in the round is a new technique for me, only done twice before on the Canaletto Cowls.  So I decided to search for some on-line help.  I found the ‘how-to’ instruction guide that I used previously and reviewed it again to jog my memory on how to get the stitches connected on my circular needles.

Picture with big needles shows how it's done!

Make sure to keep your stitches untwisted!

The instructions warned several times about ensuring that your stitches don't get twisted on the needle.  As I knitted my first row and then the second, I wondered how is it possible that the stitches would get twisted.  Mine look just fine. Knit, knit, knit. 

Maybe you can see where this is going.

Deep into the third round of knitting the seed stitch border, I noticed a little twist.  But no, it can’t be.  Keep knitting; it’s just my imagination.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.  There is a definite twist in the knitting no matter how many times I try to straighten out the loops on the needle!

The unfortunate twist

What's a knitter to do?  Naturally, pull the yarn off the needles and try again!

Halloween is coming

I really enjoy Halloween.  Not sure why.  I always loved it as a kid.  Getting dressed up and going house to house for all that candy.  Who wouldn't love that?  I wonder why there aren't any pictures of me in my costumes.  I don't remember any of the costumes I wore.  Maybe I only had a mask? 

Well, as an adult, I love giving out candy to the kids.  But these days, not many kids come by.  And I'm hardly ever home on Halloween due to being on the road for my job. 

So what's so much fun about it?  Still the candy!

I love the Halloween motifs.  Not the scary horror ones.  Just sort of scary.  With witches.  And haunted houses.

This one has it all - the witch, the black cat, and the haunted house.  Oh, and the huge moon.

How about this little witch?  I love her looks.  And her locks!

I also love pumpkins.

This one is beautiful!

And this one is scary. Sorta...

There are so many wonderful cross stitch projects.  I've made a few.

This is a Halloween ornament.

Here's my haunted house, black cat, pumpkin, and the rising moon.

This is also a small ornament with a bat button.

This biscornu pincushion cracks me up.  After it was all stitched together, I noticed that one of the cats is missing his whiskers!

I also have a new large cross stitch project for Halloween in the works.  It may be completed by Halloween 2015!  It's pretty big and I'm pretty slow.  Here's a picture of some progress.

And more progress...  With a long way to go!

It's March 2011 and time keeps ticking into the future

How did so much time fly by since my last post?  Makes me think I must not like as many things as I thought when I started this blog!

Actually, I was going to add a sub-title to my blog -  'And Some Things I Don't'.  But that seemed too curmudgeonly. 

On the other hand, maybe I am turning into a curmudgeon!  Or maybe there's just more material for things I don't like. 

Here is one thing that I do like.  It's a picture of me that was found in my mom's house by my sister and niece.  They have been cleaning up and getting her house ready to sell.  Since she's moved into assisted living, the only recourse is to sell her home...  It's a sad transition in life that can't be helped.

Guess we'll just keep on our path and hope for the best in life.  What else can we do?

As for the picture, at first I denied that it was me.  I don't recognize myself.  She's a cute baby, whoever she is.  But here's the thing that made me reconsider that it might be me.  Along with the picture, they found a little yellow dress and baby shoes that look just like the dress and shoes in the picture.  So why would my mom keep that little yellow dress and shoes with the picture for all these years if it wasn't her child.  Really, who else could it be?  So after much contemplation, I've accepted that this baby must be me.

Cute little kid...

A few of my favorite things - Thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

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Not exactly a Christmas song, but still a few of my favorite things!