RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS

Whew! What a weekend! I have to say that I accomplished more in the last two days than I seem to have accomplished in the last two years (or so it seems).

The vegetable garden is planted and well-watered thanks to a lovely shower we're having. I haven't a clue as to whether or not I put anything in the right place or whether or not anything will actually grow, but I put my hands in the dirt and I tried, so amen.

Aunt Chrissy added to my pear collection this weekend...woo hoo! There we were in Lowe's, looking for stuff to keep the bugs and critters at bay, when we spotted this: Isn't she lovely? And huge! (I imagine that she bought this for me to distract me from the eight-foot tall fountains that were lurking just beyond the sliding doors). This was MUCH easier to get in the car. Trust me.

I re-organized my stitchy basket, yet again, and picked up an oldie but goodie:This is a bargello project that was featured in several issues of Needlepoint Now. I started this all the way back in 2006 and figured that now was as good a time as any to see about finishing it. I remember when I first started stitching....I decided that I would do bargello and nothing but bargello. That lasted about ten minutes, but I have never stopped loving it. I am, by the way, stitching this on 22 count Zweigart canvas with all of the suggested threads. The chart calls for Waterlilies, Needle Necessities, and DMC floss, and I managed to have them all and not pilfer them over the years for other projects. (Yay, me!).

I also cut and looped all of the Gentle Art Sampler Threads onto the Annie's threadkeeps. I practiced, and found out that I can use the needle to pull one single ply off of the loop at a time. Since I'm stitching this 2/2, I guess that means that I will have to pull two ply and stick 'em back together. I was (gasp), using one long ply of thread and folding it in half so that I would have a loop to secure it, but I have since realized that one should NOT do this with overdyed threads, since you loose the variegated effect. I know that Aunt Chrissy taught me that early on, but I forgot. (There goes my A+ in Stitchy 101).

We're off to a good start for the week here at Chez Spinster. Stewey only has one load of laundry to fold and then I can accurately say that all of the chores on our list are finally finished. I bribed him with an extra cookie this morning to unload the dishwasher, so methinks we've found a new motivational tool. Considering the fact that he bribed me last night with some coffee crunch ice cream to load the damn thing, methinks I'm not really the one in charge in our little household. Damn dog.