HERE SHE GOES AGAIN...

I managed to tear myself away from Anthony Bourdain long enough to get a few stitches in last night. "Jaws" was on the TeeVee, so I picked up "The Big Zipper" to see if I might make a little progress on that tree down in the corner (why there is a connection between "Jaws" and "The Big Zipper" completely escapes me, but by now you're used to the fact that I am just a little "different" when it comes to the thinking department: Unfortunately, I seem to have the attention span of a hummingbird lately, so within about 10 minutes I was bored (the shark had only eaten two people by then).

I then did what any rational Laura J. Perin fan would do. I smacked myself on the forehead and said "DOH! I spent all that time stitching the borders of the "Lily of the Valley Collage" and then I put it down! The borders are the hardest part! Now that the borders are stitched, the insides of the boxes are a blast to stitch and will keep my attention!" Up to the studio (pant pant pant on the stairs), paw through my LJP basket, back downstairs and into the Happy Chair, and we have this: And yes, I have already decided that I will find a beautiful silk stem of lily of the valley to adorn the center of this so that it will match the Daisy Collage piece that I did a while back. Are you detecting a theme here? (If you were totally horrified by that daisy, by the way, I promise to give you fair warning when I post the finish pic of this one with a silk flower sewed to the canvas).

I find it fascinating that my brain requires me to flit from one thing to another when it comes to this stitchy thing of ours. I suppose that it indicates a total lack of discipline, but this fact does not surprise me in the least little bit. I do not posses one ounce of discipline when it comes to ANYTHING in my stupid little life, so why should I expect to have any when it comes to stitching?

I've tried the rotation thing. I've tried setting goals for myself. I've even tried threatening myself with physical bodily harm if I don't have at least one finish in a respectable amount of time.

But it never works.

When my heiney hits the Happy Chair in the evening, I invariably reach for a project that will fit my "mood". I use "mood" loosely, because I am so blah blah blah lately that I don't think I really have a "mood" (unless blah blah blah just happens to be one). So every now and then I look over at whatever happens to be on the TeeVee tray and say "Blech. I want something different." And then it's off the the studio I go in search of the perfect antidote for stitchy ennui.

(This would be the point where anybody who commands the English language has had enough of my ridiculous hacking and clicks off, but for those of you who "get" my blathering, I shall continue).

So mood stitching seems to be my modus operandi these days and I am rather happy with the decision to just fly by the seat of my big girl underpants. Stitching is supposed to be my relaxing hobby and creative outlet, after all, so why make it stressful work?

Now having said that, you can bet that I will be upstairs today re-thinking my entire stitchy universe situation, and I'll probably fret the day away over the perfect method by which one stores one's variegated threads. (This falls into the old dog/new tricks category).

Besides, it's been quite some time since I re-arranged the deck chairs on my stitchy Titanic, and I feel the need to re-create the wheel for a few hours today. I'll let you know if I stumble upon anything earth-shattering, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Chances are everything will end up in exactly the same place it was when I started this crazy-ass obsession six years ago.

Oh well. At least I'm consistent.