Just Some Stuff

Today's my anniversary, sort of. I was at work today, typing something, and the date seemed familiar. Hummmmm. June 22nd. Then it occurred to me--35 years ago today, I married my first husband. Really weird. The whole marriage was. I wrote about it on my blog some time back--in May 2007--but just to recap for those of you who weren't reading my blog back then or don't know me in "real life," I discovered about a year into the marriage that the man was a transvestite. The marriage lasted less than two years. Now the man is a woman. No, I haven't seen her since the change, but my brother-in-law ran into her some years back at a high school reunion. Weird, huh?! It seems like a whole other life--and, of course, I was awfully young at the time. Thank goodness the second husband has worked out a WHOLE lot better!

Tonight was embroidery night at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks, with Gran leading the show. I was so inspired that when I got home, I whipped these out:

No, you're right: I'm lying! I actually bought these on Etsy and they arrived today. You can find some really neat things on Etsy! Just click that link in my sidebar, and it will take you to my shop. After you buy a couple of my patterns, you can search for all sorts of things there. These two table runners probably cost about what I'd have paid at the thrift store. (Okay, I'm lying again--you don't HAVE to buy my patterns before you can search for other stuff.)

But, speaking of thrift stores, I found this at Goodwill a couple weeks ago for $3.99:

I'm not a big Hummel fan, and they had a couple other framed Hummel cross-stitcheries (is that what they're called?), but those didn't appeal to me as much as the one I bought. I just couldn't resist the little boy with cherries and a dog! And all the work someone put into it--well, it had to come home with me.

We were supposed to start embroidering a dish towel tonight, but I didn't realize until I got an email from Gran this morning that we were supposed to pre-wash the towel and I hadn't. That was okay, though, because I had another little project I was working on in class. I'll make the dish towel later. I think I'd like to do some bluework with a tea theme anyway--the other gals are doing a fruit bowl. (Yes, I always have to be different!) Now that I think about it, a bowl of cherries wouldn't be bad either! I'm sure I'll have a little time to decide. After all, I still have to wash that towel, and who knows when I'll remember to do that!

Gran made us do exercises--yoga for stitchers or something like that. Breathing and stuff. I kind of wanted to do it fast and get it over with so I could embroider some more, but I realized I'd probably hyperventilate and pass out. Then she made us stretch up our arms and hold it, and I think mine popped out of the shoulder sockets. I don't remember reading about this in the class description.

My friend Julia was in class tonight--it took me awhile to realize she WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IN THAT CLASS since she's in most of the other classes I take! One of her friends IS in the class, though, and Julia's been doing more of the homework than I have, so she was just sitting in tonight to see if she might like to sign up for the class. I hope she'll join, but I don't know--with all that breathing and yoga stuff, she might get scared off. Oh, and I finished my "M is for May's Flowers" stitchery last week--something Julia finished about a week after the first class (even though she wasn't THERE):

Somehow we all got to talking about how hard it is to get the oils from things like jalapeno peppers off your skin, and that reminded me of a story Soccer Son told last night. He LOVES spicy stuff, the hotter the better, and he's a pretty good cook--if you like your food REALLY spicy. So the other day, he was making something using chili oil. After eating and washing up, he went to the bathroom. Well, let's just say he realized that not all the chili oil had washed off his hands. I'm sure you can imagine the rest! His girlfriend said she was in the bedroom when she heard him in the bathroom say something like, "Uh oh!" At least he didn't scream.

I was looking back through my blog a bit and came across this photo of a quilt top I'd made:

You know, I really, REALLY love this quilt top, and I TOTALLY forgot I'd made it! No, it hasn't been quilted yet--it's rolled up in my "waiting to be quilted" basket. I seriously have to devote some time in the next couple months to getting quilts QUILTED. I'll need my arms and shoulders for that kind of work though, and after yoga tonight, I'm not sure they'll ever be the same again. I guess embroidery's not for wimps!