IN WHICH A SPINSTER, KING LEAR, DONALD DRAPER, KATHY REESE, AND W SOMERSET MAUGHAM WALK INTO A BAR...

Yup.

Dropped the basket completely. 

Right there in front of God and everybody on a beastly summer morning.

(At least that's how my novel starts in my head anyways.)

Hello, Dearies.  I'm coming to you from the friendly confines of CS2, and not, it would seem, from the psychiatric ward of a very special mental health facility in some place far far away. I am well, just discombobulated by back pain and several months of solitude and spinstering while my Jersey Boy administers tender loving care to his mom.

I've kind of fallen into a monastic routine...I've been writing morning pages and reading/studying non-fiction in the mornings, eating my cottage cheese/fruit plate for a very late breakfast/lunch, doing a small core or two, and then spending the rest if the day with eyeballs glued to the Mad Men. In between there is a salad with either grilled chicken or salmon, vats and vats of iced water with lemon, and enough damn good/cold brew to open a Starbucks drive-through. At midnight-ish (OK, 3am), I finally turn out the lights and hit a few pages of a novel before falling into a weird sleep.

(Yes, Betty, my sleep/wake schedule is screwed up, and I know that my stitching and diamond painting production has dropped to zero, but if you know me, you know that the deep summer months have always been somewhat problematic for me.)

Speaking of problematic...

See what I did there?

I was taught that the selvedge side (in the photo, the bottom with the orange stripe), should always be to the right or left when stitching on canvas. Something about the warp and weft of the fibers? Well, I have had nothing but trouble with this since starting it, and in the midst of frogging the middle portion, I realized that I was probably having trouble because I have been trying to stitch against the grain, as it were.

So I think this is going to come off of the stretcher bars, a new piece is going to get fished out of the cube room studio, and I will try try again later this afternoon.

As for me, Don Draper and King Lear...let's just say that I finished a binge of all 94 episodes of one and re-started it from the beginning again yesterday afternoon, and finally read a Cliff Notes summary of the other to get some characters straight in my tiny little brain that really shouldn't be reading The Bard without adult supervision.

Somerset, however, delighted me completely, and when I couldn't sleep at 2:22 this morning (*) I turned the final page and had a good long weepy cry all over the front of my Costco pajamas. I didn't expect to love this book so much, but it hit me...deep. I guess now I need to go watch the film version with Bette Davis to truly get knocked out.

That's the full report from here in Hoosierville on what I think is another hot and steamy Tuesday. I have no idea what the weather is actually doing out there, since moving about or attempting to climb down or up a staircase is more than I think these back muscles will allow.

I hope your August is off to a roaring start! How are you faring during these last few weeks of Summer? Come tell me all about it!

SUNDAY SPINSTER DRAMA BROUGHT TO YOU BY PINTEREST

7:30 AM

9:30 AM

2:45 PM

3:30 PM

5:15 PM

CURRENTLY:

 

FRIDAY

Iced lemon water in the big floral sippy cup and cold brew with sugar free syrup and a little cream in the other. This was breakfast, lunch, and dinner today.

Phooey.

I'm missing Donaldson this year and I. Am. Not. Happy. About. It.

Taking myself to bed at 7:30 like a toddler because I just can't have one more meltdown, Dearies. I hope your weekend is wonderful.
 

WHAT A MESS I HAVE BECOME

 

I gotta tell ya, Dearies...it's just not easy being me sometimes.

My stupid lower back muscles all got together when I was sleeping and decided to REVOLT. I thought I was getting a little better yesterday, but the pain level has ratcheted up from a level seven to a HOLEY SCHMOLEY, and I am one big fat weepy miserable little cow..

I promised myself that if it wasn't substantially better by tomorrow I would call my PCP (that's Primary Care Physician in insurance speak), but methinks I might do that this afternoon instead.

Thank you for all of your tips and suggestions. I am ridiculously limited as to the things I can take/do because of BellyBean, but it does make me feel a bit better knowing that I am not the only human person on the planet who has pulled a muscle before.

Needless to say, there has been no stitching or diamond painting progress to report. Here's where we left things on the Cotton & Twine June project:

And here's what I've been doing all morning/afternoon:

The selection was serendipitous, since I googled "Shakespeare at Notre Dame" and discovered that there is quite a program/department of Shakespeare studies there. I knew that there was something called Actors From The London Stage, and I kind of knew that performances were common on campus, but little did I realize that there is quite an advanced Shakespeare Program at Notre Dame! AND...in August, they have a Shakespeare Festival and this year's performance selection is King Lear! If all goes according to plan, I'll get to see it the last weekend of August!

So that's the report from the friendly confines of CS2 today. I hope that your corner of the world is exactly what you need it to be! 

HOOSIERVILLE ICE PACK 🤭

 

IN WHICH THE HEATING PAD AND THE SPINSTER BECOME BEST FRIENDS

Guess who managed to screw her back up in the shower on Saturday?

I've been having a little problem with passing out when I take a shower (🙄), so on Saturday, I decided to bend over to wash my hair instead of lifting my arms over my head to see if that made a difference. Yeah. It made a difference alright. It pulled the muscle in my lower right back so bad that the pain from it almost made me pass out.

So I guess that's progress....the almost part.

Anywhoooo...the heating pad and I have been having 15 minute play dates for the last few days, and I am actually able to stand up without invoking all of the demons from the seventh circle of hell this morning, so methinks I might survive.

But just barely.

Not much of anything to report, but I did have a little progress on Friday with my various and sundry bits of fun. 

First, I finished a little diamond painting that I got on the amazons a few months ago. This one would have been a simple day-long project had I not been distracted by a binge of the SisterWives:

And I did make a little progress on the Cotton & Twine June project, despite giving Don Draper and the Mad Men all of my attention:

If I can manage it today, I might try to push through a few hours of stitching and documentary watching. Yesterday I watched Tea With The Dames...very very good. Today, I think I might watch a doc on John Irving. Anything educational/interesting lately has kept me happy and out of trouble. Virginia Woolf and I are becoming more and more acquainted, and I am thinking that my next adventure will be a bit of Shakespeare. (😮).

I decided to up my reading game a bit, so my evenings are still spent with a good novel, but I've added a little "deeper" reading in the mornings. Nothing too serious. Just a half hour or so of something that makes my gears move.

Well, time for my second cup of damn good. It's hitting especially well today, so I'm going to enjoy it! What are you up to? Come tell me all about it!

 

 

MONDAY...A LITTLE TEENIE BIT OF PROGRESS

 

I have no earthly idea why the stitching of this is dragging on. Is it the fact that this is 32ct and I have been in a 28ct mode? Is it the recent acquisition of all of these stitches from the skin cancer removal? Is it the heat? Or maybe it's just my normal annual Summer Schlump.

In looking back over previous years' entries, I see a pattern of hitting a bit fat sweaty wall right about this time every year. I had always suspected that it was the fact that my summer inventory of projects was somewhat lacking, but I think it's just...me.

Yes, the heat and humidity (*) are certainly factors, and this year I have the added bonus of an extended length of time without my Jersey Boy to entertain me. (No, Betty, he didn't finally come to his senses and leave my miserable blankety-blank. He's in New Jersey taking care of his mom for a bit because she needed a little extra TLC.)

But I digress.

I'm not complaining. Really, Dearies. I am only too happy to have entire days with nothing to do. But my pace of things has just completely...halted. I am spending a lot of time sleeping in. And reading. And writing. And organizing and re-organizing vegetables from the Costcos in the fridge. 

It's not a bad thing, really. Just different from the days when I felt like I was running around with my hair on fire. The funny thing is that I'm not too sure that anything that was on fire at that time was worth saving. Instead of constantly throwing myself on the flames and slapping bandaids on all of the wounds, I should have just let it all burn and then moved on to peace and quiet.

Whoa. That went dark.

OK. Back to me being slow and quiet. I have two more weeks of healing to do, and then I can return to my old lady exercising in the pool. In the meantime, I think I'm just going to enjoy the slower pace and let it come what may.

What's the pace of things in your corner of the world, Dearies? Come tell me all about it!

(*) I'm a Midwestern girl, born in Ohio and living here in Indiana since 1984, and I heard something on the TeeVee the other night that stopped me in my tracks. At first, I thought it was a joke, or perhaps some internets thing, but then I looked it up. Do you know why it gets so miserably muggy here in the Summer? (Muggy means that when you step outside you are immediately struck by the sensation of being covered with a hot wet blanket and told to just breathe normally).  

So, do you know why the humidity levels approach "steam bath" levels here in late July/early August?

CORN SWEAT

Nope. You didn't read that wrong and I'm not making it up. 

Apparently, there is so much farmland here in Hoosierville and elsewhere in the Midwest, that when the corn grows it literally gives off so much moisture it affects the environment by way of increased humidity levels.

So if you're a portly gal like me and you are mopping boob sweat every time you open your front door to bring the trash can in, or you're sporting your coolest old lady big top to go get stitches out...blame it on the corn sweating its little kernals off out there in the fields.

This concludes your AgDay minute. Back to regular programming tomorrow!

 

I LOVE INDIANAPOLIS

SOMETHING NEW

I feel like I haven't stitched in a month, even though it's only been a few days. I received the June edition of the Cotton & Twine subscription box, so...

The fabric that came in the box is a white linen, but I thought this one might look pretty...Chesapeake from Colour&Cotton:

 

IF I HAVE TO READ A BOOK ABOUT THE BOOK I'VE JUST FINISHED READING, DOES THAT MEAN I SHOULD BE READING DIFFERENT BOOKS?

OK. Confession.

When all of my classmates in the Program of Liberal Studies ( the Great Books Program at Notre Dame) were reading Woolf and Tolstoy and Herodotus...I was reading Glamour Magazine and the latest Jackie Collins mass market paperback.

I decided to remedy that by revisiting some of the classic novels from the pantheon of literature, and I'm happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed Les Mis, Don Quixote, and Moby Dick very much.

But Mrs Dalloway?

Mrs Dalloway and I had a bit of trouble. 

I really loved the book...truly, I did. But I felt like I was understanding about 7% of it. Surely, a 59-year old portly Spinster is capable of going deeper into a work of interiority and meaning, no?

Well, the YouTubes lead me to this book, so I'm hoping it gives me a good insight into all of the crap I missed or was just too emotionally immature to truly appreciate. 

(But I still really loved the novel.)

(In case you're wondering, I'm reading Of Human Bondage at the moment, so we've gone from a middle-aged housewife planning a party to a little boy with a club foot making his way through boarding school and examining the nature of Faith.)

(What could possibly confuse me about THAT?)

In other news, I haven't stitched since my surgery. I'm feeling a bit "banged up"...

Never fear, though. I am truly feeling a hankering to pick up needle and thread as soon as my third or fourth cup of damn good kicks in. 

(Or maybe I'll completely abandon my usual routine and just go right to the cold brew and not wait for the 3:00 hour.)

So that's the report from Hoosierville, Dearies. What do you suppose Stewey would have to say about my sudden interest in having a life of the mind? I can see him rolling his eyes now, and warning me not to get anything sticky on his Proust collection.

Happy Saturday! Yes...it's still hot enough to boil potatoes out there, so until this passes...I'm in a deep interiority of my own with the a/c and lots of water! (No sploshing until the stitches come out on the 21st, and then you'll find me sporting a full-on hazmat suit to do my old lady arm exercises in the early morning hours!)

Ciao for now! Do something fun and come tell me all about it!

 

WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN, DEARIES

They told me it would eventually get me, and it did. One of the problems with the drugs I take for BellyBean, is that they greatly increase the risk of skin cancer. When they told me this, I nodded politely and said to myself  "I never leave the house, and when I do, I apply 100spf on my face and 80spf everyplace else", but despite these precautions, as well as full body skin checks at the dermatologist's office twice a year, I just had an excision of skin cancer from my forearm.

I'm fine. A bit shaky and dizzy, but that very well could be from my vat of cold brew I slurped down before heading out.

Twelve days of wound care, and then I'll get the stitches out.

In other news...I have a finish for you of Teresa Kogut's Patriotic Tweet:

The fabric is called Spacious Skies and is from Colour&Cotton, and I converted the threads to ones from my stash. Please also note that I made the flag pole and the letters and numbers brown...the chart called for them to be grey and dark blue, respectively.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think it's time for a couple of Tylenol and a nap.

What's new with you?

TWENTY YEARS...HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

 

Twenty years ago today, I met the little fuzzy dog that became the very love of my life. If you've never married and never had kids, you wonder if you have the capacity to be a mom, and then you trek through the cornfields of Ligonier, Indiana to find out that you do, in fact, have the ability to love something more than you could have ever imagined.

Thank you, Stewey.  

Mommie Dearest loves and misses you.

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE WEEKEND, DEARIES

 

ANOTHER FINISH!

 

She is large, Dearies. I enjoyed every single placement of every single little itty bitty drill. According to my notes, I started this one on April 21st, so a little over two months isn't too bad, in my humble opinion.

This kit came from Diamond Art Club and is called Copeton Floral Lilac. It measures 26x36 inches and has 60 different drills, plus a special square sparkly one.

No idea what the heck I'll do with it. I've just been hanging the larger ones I've finished on the door knob of my china cabinet. Like with stitching, I love doing this whole diamond painting thing for the process of it rather than the final product.

Hope your day was wonderful! What shenanigans were had? Come tell me all about it!

PROGRESS...AND A PLAN

Hello, Dearies!

Here we are on a Summer Monday. The sun is trying to decide if it wants to come out fully today, but according to the weather report, thunderstorms might just be the order of the day instead. I contemplated a morning splosh, but as soon as I started for the laundry room to fetch my big girl swimming suit, I heard a rumble of what I presume to be thunder.

(But it could be the trash truck emptying the dumpster at the end of the parking lot.)

In any event, I have a bit of progress on Patriotic Tweet, as well as a plan for the remainder of the day. I finished Moby Dick and watched several good YouTube lectures on it, and am now getting ready to dive into Mrs Dalloway. I just looked back through my BoB, and discovered that I read it back in 1999 right after I had read The Hours by Michael Cunningham, but for the life of me cannot remember it. I do, however, remember the movie version of The Hours, and might see about watching that this afternoon if I finish my binge of Billions.

I might also have a big diamond painting finish to share in the next day or two. I have come to the last section of the big floral with birds that I have been playing with since April! 

Hmmm. If I time this right, I will have a big book finish, a small/medium stitching finish, and a huge dp finish all within days of one another! WooHoo! If that's not a cause for celebration, I don't know what is!

What are you celebrating today? Come tell me all about it!

WHY SHOULD THEY HAVE ALL THE FUN?

 

Apparently, this is a new thing that you do for a toddler on their birthday...have all of their favorite toys greet them at their door in the morning with balloons.

Do you suppose this would work with a big ass cup of coffee, a stack of books, and a basket full of stitchy projects for a portly old broken down Spinster of a certain age?

(Asking for a friend).

IN WHICH THE SPINSTER CARRIES A HANDBAG

So I did a thing a few weeks ago.

Well, several things, actually.

I started watching the Read Well podcast on the YouTubes and became fascinated with the idea of being a better reader. I've always had my nose in a book in one way or another, but it was always casual/light/fun reading on the back porch swing or tucked into bed before lights out. 

I also started watching/listening to The Daily Stoic, and this made me want to start some new and better habits that would serve me well as I move into "the age in which one really should know better". The guy in this podcast wants me to read and study stoic philosophy as well as do something I used to do for years and years but haven't since starting this here blog...keep a daily journal.

So I found some videos about journaling and morning pages, and $11 later (because I had to have a new notebook from the amazons)...I was off. You'll be happy to note that I studiously avoided all of the videos that showed amazing art journals and scrap journals and perfectly curated memory journals, and decided instead that this would be a simple brain dump/morning pages book where I could exorcise my demons and clear my head every day before sitting in my chair doing nothing all day except running to the bathroom. (Sorry. TMI.)

Not to be forgotten in all of this is my Erin Condren Life Planner. Yes...I still have one, yet I do confess that it is a huge struggle trying to figure out how to use it. I don't exactly have a lot to "plan", I keep all of my tests and appointments on my phone, and actually committing a to-do list to paper is damn near impossible since I'm never quite sure if it's going to be a good day physically or a big girl sleigh bed day.

But I digress...

I also have a BOB...a book of books...that I've kept since 1991. This is basically just a little book in which I record the title and author of whatever book I've just finished reading. It's a bit beat up and falling apart, but I love being able to look back and remember what I was doing and where I was doing it and what book I had along for the adventure.

In short...this new life involved GEAR. A stack of books and journals and pens and chapstick and hair clips and a reading light and a portable fan and...

Cue the handbag.

I remembered that I had purchased a "planner tote" about a hundred years ago for the two weeks when I was obsessed with all things planner. It was grey felt, and I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a diaper bag, but I kinda sorta remembered it being perfect for what I needed. Well, Dearies, I went on a massive search for the damn thing, and after about two hours of peeking into every nook and cranny and even venturing down to the garage/storage tower of crap from my life that I'm more attached to than my liver...I came up empty and it was back to the amazons I went.

Perfection! Bliss! Wonderful addition to my day! I put all of my stuff into the newly acquired tote and started carrying it out to the balcony for morning coffee, or over to the kitchen table for planning, or in to bed for pre-sleep reading.

I did this for about a week when Rich took one look at me in my crazy "they're pajamas, but let's just think of them as my inside clothers" getup and said "Con? What's with the handbag?" before going back to the Phillies game.

So me and my handbag are doing very nicely, thankyouverymuch. I am presently working on a plan for adding my stitchy project to the mix, but at the moment I'm letting it live on my ottoman because I don't have to worry about stashing things away into the project bag.

I'll leave you with a progress pic so Betty doesn't get her knickers twisted. Happy Futzingday!

Please, please, please be safe and well, Dearies. If you are in this heat, take all of the precautions. As for Yours Truly...it's me, the A/C, and vats and vats of water today (and for the foreseeable future)!

Shenanigans to follow! 

WHERE I'D LIKE TO GO...AND HOW I'D LIKE TO GET THERE

 

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF WHY I SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO PREPARE A SIMPLE "PRE-DINNER SNACK" WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION

 

SORRY, BETTY

I got yelled at today. Betty sent me an email that said "WHY DO YOU POST THINGS WITHOUT ANY INFORMATION.!?!"

You know what? 

You're right, Betty. When I am unwell, I tend to just post simple pictures or funny things I find on the Pinterest. 

No bueno.

So, to make Betty happy (and to answer some of the nicer questions I received on the Instagrams)...herewith are all of the details of my new start:

The chart is Patriotic Tweet by Teresa Kogut:

The fabric is from my stash..."Spacious Skies" by Colour & Cotton. It's a 28ct Lugana that was from the June 2022 fabric club.

The threads are all Colour & Cotton, plus one DMC. All are from my stash, and I selected them by sitting with my DMC color card and pulling whatever I had that was closest. I used to be completely terrified of substituting colors, but seem to have gotten out of my own way lately, and now I really enjoy it.

The Bitsy is from That's So Kelly Co. (The Bitsy is the thread pallett. I use DMC bobbin labels to write the chart symbol and then twist a length of thread on and pat it there for easy access):

The scissors are Gingher, and the bling is from Siggy's Closet on the etsy:

And the q-snap cover/grime guard and project bag are from SewMuch2Luv, also on the etsy:

NEW START