OEY

I'm nursing a hangover of epic proportions today. This, of course, is quite an accomplishment in light of the fact that I don't drink alcohol. (Considering how completely crappy I feel today though, I'm thinking that I might want to revisit that decision and go put my face into a vat of martinis.)

It all started with The Tudors. If you've been reading this here blog for any length of time, you know that I watched the whole entire series last year, and then I watched the whole entire series again because apparently all of the boobies and beheadings weren't enough for me the first time around. So I decided to catch the whole entire series a THIRD time, but I reasoned that seeing things on the big ass TeeVee would really make a difference and that perhaps I might be able to follow something in the thing other than the boobies and beheadings.

Nope.

This time the boobies and beheadings were just larger and in better color.

(Now before you think that I am completely fixatated on the boobies, might I just point out that I am Mommie Dearest to an impressionable young puppy tot, and every time something nekked comes on the TeeVee, I have to jump up and run over to his little perch on the back of the sofa to cover his eyes.)

Exhausting, I tell ya. Just exhausting.

Then the storms hit, and despite the fact that we are all warm and safe and dry here in Hoosierville, I wept right along with those who lost everything. I simply cannot imagine what it was like to have lived through that, and I pray that those who need it will find as much love and comfort as they can.

On Friday morning I got up at 3:45 to put the coffee on for Aunt Chrissy's arrival, and she and I sat in the dark living room watching the Royal Wedding. I will confess that I really hadn't paid too much attention to it, so when Aunt Chrissy asked me if we could watch it together, I thought "Sure? Why not? I'll probably just watch a few minutes of it and then go back to bed", but I was a weepy mess from the moment the coverage started right up until the President came on the TeeVee late last night. (More on that later). I swear, I really didn't expect to get so emotionally involved in the wedding, but for some reason I couldn't keep it together and just sat there and snotted all over my pajamas.

What was the part that got me the most, you ask? Believe it or not, it was when they sang "God Save The Queen", and there she was in her dress and her hat with her pocketbook and her sensible shoes...standing in a cathedral listening to about eight billion people sing to her. Why that got me so much, I'll never know, but I wondered what it must be like to be her at that very moment. (Stop that snickering....I told you I was a nut job a long time ago, so if you've made it this far with me, you know that I'm going to go off my nut over the wackiest thing, so don't act all surprised that I bawled my eyes out watching the Queen of England wear a yellow dress.)

Now through all of this mess that has been my life these last few days, I have been stitching my eyeballs out on a piece that has been the rock in my shoe for the last several years.

The moment I first saw Tony Minieri's Stars for the New Millennium, I knew I wanted to stitch it. And I'm pretty sure that I've pulled/bought/pawed through threads for it at least a dozen and a half times. I've even started it six or seven times, and each time I have, I swear that there's something that's "just not quite what I was thinking" and then I abandon it until it's time to colorize it again.

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about the fact that it's been ten years since 9/11, and I started feeling like I might want to stitch something for it. We all know how that big flag project went during the Olympics....remember? the project that shall never been spoken of?

Well, this time I got the forehead-smacking realization that I could combine a 9/11 commemoration with Stars and that the result might be something that would finally give me what I've been looking for.

I pulled all of the red, white, and blue threads that I could find, and then I pulled few gold threads to use as the fourth "kicker" color. As luck would have it, I also had several skeins of a red, white, and blue overdyed cotton, so I go to work:


I've decided to do all of the sashing and the borders first, and then I'll go back in to do the individual blocks. They are quite intense, so I wanted to be able to just enjoy them one by one and not fret over whether or not I would run out of red for the borders.

I hesitated to blog about this project, since it seems like the minute I do, I give up on it and off it goes to the Island of Misfit Toys, but I'm determined to get this one done this time. I've got four months to finish the borders and twelve blocks. How hard can that be, right?

Today I've decided that the TeeVee is going to stay off, especially since I was riveted to the coverage of all things "Vindication -- The Killing of bin Laden" until the wee hours of the morning, and I awoke with the realization that my tiny little brain is not equipped for twenty-six hours of breaking news a day. Methinks I need to ask Stewey to turn on the parental controls again.

That's the report for a Monday. I hope that wherever you are is exactly where you want to be today! Stewey sends his love and promises to write again soon! Woo Hoo!