Be Careful Of What You Wish For .......

That's what my Grandma used to tell me when I was much, much younger.  Because you just might get it.  Of course, being very young, I thought that was the most absurd thing I ever heard.  Back then, I was wishing for Barbie Townhouse, kitchen sets, Easy Bake Oven and Baby Alive.  Which my neighbor got for Christmas and I didn't.  I used to think Santa got the houses mixed up, then I decided he was just a jerk. But, I digress and regress, this time.

That looks innocent enough.... just wait... there's more....

Back in 1999, I had the perfect job three days one week, four days the next, making more than I do now.  I lived with a complete jerk, who wouldn't leave and the kids were out of control.  I remember wishing I had more time for my crafts.  Really, I was just wishing the jerk would leave and the kids would settle down.  Instead, I injured my back and was out of work for the next two years.  Two weeks before that, I vacationed in Vermont and wished to move there.  That sure didn't happen.

This past July and August while I was filling out job applications 8 hours a day, I said to Duane,  "I wish I would just find a job, so I can go to work, come home and go to bed."  Yeah, that's what my work days consists of, when I take the bus.  I leave at 7:45am and don't return until a little after 8pm at night.  Eat supper, then in bed by 10pm.

This morning, my friend was supposed to be working the same hours as I.  She called last night and said she would be here between 9 and 9:15 in the morning.   This morning while getting ready for work, I wished I could have an extra day off to get some cleaning done.....

My friend is always a super early, very responsible type.  I was concerned when she hadn't arrived by 9:20.  Thinking she might be stuck in traffic, I called her cell phone and got her voice mail.  She's been out of work since Friday with her blood pressure.  Still nothing by 9:30 and just her voice mail.  That's when Duane got up and we conferred.  If I left on the next bus, I would be two hours late and that's a half a point.  Duane said, "Well, the perfect attendance you were going for November is shot anyhow, just call in and take the whole point."  Besides, I would have been a nervous wreck when I finally arrived, and had a lousy day.

At 5:30 pm, I still haven't heard from my friend.  Which isn't like her and I'm beyond worried that something bad has happened.

Anyway, as tempting as it was to just go back to bed, I'm not one to waste a day off with something silly like sleeping.  I tackled one of the corners I've been wanting to organize since before I started work, but was lazy.

Anyway, onto the insanity.....

This is a very small part of my life insurance.  Nicole thinks this is a small part of her inheritance.  I have her fooled.  I have determined that I can't die until I've finished every WIP in my possession that I have started. This includes any new things I may obtain.  That pile alone insures a very long life.

That's most of my cross stitch minus a few other projects and my books.  I've suggested that I could post a new picture every week for a few years and never have to take a stitch.  I wasn't kidding you.  There is a reason, I call myself the Queen of WIPsluts.

This is a very teeny, tiny portion of my fabric stash.  There is four more huge totes in my closet.  A bit of this is  fabric that will be making it's way to Cambridge very soon.  There is dress fabric and some tapestry fabric I bought to make a knitting bag.  Except I need to clean off the dining room table to set up my sewing machine.  That never lasts more than an hour as there no space in the closet we call our kitchen.

Needles need to be organized and stuck in that yellow box from which they jumped out.  I had been thinking I could use more knitting needles.  Except, that would mean I could start more WIPs and I don't need that.

This tote is full of odds and ends that I can't bear to throw out as I might use the stuff someday. (Who am I kidding?) It also has a jumble of cross stitch thread that I just threw in there when we moved.  I organized the thread this afternoon.  Just have to stuff in the right spots of my floss boxes.

Ah, that corner looks much better now.  Bottom tote is the fabric that could use some more organizing.  Middle tote is all the cross stitch projects.  The thought of that tote is so overwhelming it gives me the vapors just thinking about it.  Maybe I should make a list and try to knock them out one at a time.  I'll be around longer than cock roaches with that one alone.  Nuclear holocaust will happen, cock roaches will die off and here I will be sitting in my rocking chair stitching away, refusing to die until I finish them all.  Satan rests easier at that thought.

This top tote is the yarn for my Bargello Beauty afghan that I worked on for a bit last year with a few other odds and ends of stuff.  It's been in very slow progress since 2007.  One day I will finish it, really I will.

Now, to tackle this corner. In my defense, the large box that you can't really see next to the wheelchair is the bunny cave.  It holds the shower chair that Duane never used.  The bunnies have chewed themselves an entrance and exit holes.  They say we can send the chair back, but they are keeping the box. (That's a post for another day.)  Mostly, it's book boxes back there.  Just a yarn tote, the big box in front of the chair and the bookcase needs sorted.

Then there is my walk in closet. That gives me nightmares just thinking about that and I'm wide awake.

Not to mention the tote and bags beside my chair that holds my current projects.  We'll not talk about the stuff that is stored in my daughter's trailer back in NY that I still need move down here.  When I visit, I think will sort it out and hand much of that off to her.

Whew, I'm going to have to re-think this living long enough to finish it all.

Indecisions And Sunday Randomness

I've been wanting to go through my quilting fabric and sort it out for some time.  I have a ton of organizing to do. One of the biggest problems of moving for someone with many creative hobbies besides packing everything up, is the sorting and organizing afterward.

From Knitting Kitties

To the left is stack and whack quilt blocks I bought from ebay a long while back.  I still can't decide how I want to arrange them.  I have about a yard of the matching fabric.

From Knitting Kitties

That is the rest of the Marcus Brothers Pansy fabric I was able to find when they re-released some of them a couple years ago.  I had the whole collection when they came out about 8 years ago, but I lost it a move.

From Knitting Kitties

This piece of fabric, I bought several years back at Joann Fabric Black Friday sale.  I had just pulled the bolt off the shelf and was looking at it, when a woman came up and tried grabbing it out of my hands.  I hung on and she said, "You not buying all of that are you?"  There wasn't much on the bolt and I should have said yes. Before I could answer, "Do you think you will be getting just a yard?"  Still kinda shocked at her rudeness, I just stammered, "Probably." 

"Well, then I want the rest." she demanded glaring at me.

I had hoped with crowd in the store we would ditch her and we would have.  We went to the back in the home fabrics to wait for cutting.  Then my mom went to the front area and came back saying that area was moving faster and we should go up there.  We no more than got in line when psycho lady swooped down on me.  "I thought I lost you."  She snatches the fabric out of my cart.  "I'm having my stuff cut now, so I'll have the clerk cut off your yard, and I'm getting the rest."  She dashed back to the cutting counter before I could protest. 

I looked at my Mom and said, "I knew we should have stayed in the back of the store."  So Mom, went up to the counter to make sure I got my yard, which the clerk gave her.  Mom stayed there for a second longer and saw that the lady only got 2/3 of a yard.  Psycho glared at the clerk then turned to my Mom like she was going to snatch the yard from her. Mom just spun on her heal and walked away. 

Now, it might be said that maybe she had that fabric at home and needed more.  Had she politely said that, I would have let her have the fabric.  I'm a "too nice" person.  However, she was rude, and I still regret that I let her run over me like that.

From Knitting Kitties

Little by little, I've been collecting fabrics that sort of go with it.

From Knitting Kitties

I got this fabric to make a pillow out of a rose I'm cross stitching. However, when I started it, the rose is more yellow than peach that the cover picture showed. I haven't decided if I want to use that in a quilt or find another cross stitch rose pattern that will work out better.

That wasn't even the tip of tip of the ice berg of my fabrics. I have four 50 gallon Rubbermaid totes to go through. Then to decide which fabric will go with which. Hardest of all for me to decide what pattern I want use. When my kids were very young all my quilts were made of scraps of left other from making their clothes or quarter yards I would buy on sale. Back then 100% cotton was between 1.99 and 2.49 full price. For some reason I didn't have as much trouble deciding what I wanted to do.

From Knitting Kitties

I wandered around the ABC Stitch Therapy site looking at rose patterns. Then came across this painted needlepoint canvas. Pansies are one of my favorite flowers especially blue, purple and pink ones. This kit. Is $170.00. Yeah, that will be sitting in my wishlist for awhile.

From Knitting Kitties

Fresh produce makes me absolutely giddy. Nothing says summer and fall like fresh produce.  I love all the possibilities of it.  It's what I miss most about home, the Saturday Farmer's Markets and roadside stands. It seems not much other than cactus grows in the desert.

Watch out for baked good coming soon.  I need to go decide what I want to make pretty quick, fresh produce won't sit and wait for me like fabric.