In June I started an enormous cross stitch piece for Empress.  It’s about fifty-something pages of charts for just one large picture.  I have completed three.  Pages.  (I also stitched a quilt for Hanny, made two wall hangings for Kirsteins, whipped up a couple of teeny tiny miniature pillows,  and finished about a 30 ugly displays for a shop.)  I don’t know how to link anything here in the text, so if you want to see what this pattern looks like you will have to go over and see Meredith’s website Scarlet Quince, I’m in the Gallery now.  (There is a connecting link on your right, where you can go to other people’s places, right….. over….. there…..)

    Oh, and Happy New Year too.  (Lynne and Kristin, thanks!  Hoping yours is festive and lovely as well.)

  As I have mentioned before, Ann Leary is one of my all time favorite people in the world.  She has the most amazingly brilliant wit and charm.  She also has a blog that has become an on-line family.  So welcoming and kind.  Several folks have followed me from there to here, and I am overwhelmingly thrilled.  (Not to mention in awe of the distances we all cover, Florida to Washington, Canada to California.  Wink wink Lynne in Calgary.)  (A brief aside here, Tracy broke her leg, so light a candle and send healing thoughts her way.  No, she did not trip over a potty chair or the dog food cupboard like I did, she fell off of a ladder instead.)

On my very own I have updated the sidebars so we can see who said what, and go look at why.  (Hanny is unwell this evening, some grocery store sushi invaded her tummy box and made her leave work early to come home and barf her guts out, so I didn’t feel I should bother her with my wee issues.)

So welcome all Ann Fans, to Julieland.  Be wary of Mercury right now, poke around and see what a ridiculous family I came from and have raised.  Ask anything you like, as we have proven (with photographic proof) nothing embarrasses nor bothers me.

P.S. to Annie, thank you so much.  Those were invented patterns I came up with for my cousin Jannel’s wedding gifts.  Her mother, my lovely Aunt Jenny, told us she liked “jeweled tones” so I just took off from there.

    Envision a wall, in a room.  You face the wall, on the right side is a sliding glass door, to the left is a very large (aluminum frame) window.  Keep in mind now, this is a room in MY house, it is downstairs, where almost no one goes, hardly any person sees it, other than me and Daniel and the dogs (and occasionally the kids).  Now put yourself deep into winter weather, cold and/or wet and cold.  These extremely large pieces of glass have no coverings.  Dan and I have decided to put up draperies.  Listen carefully for the stubborn and argumentative bickering that soon follows.

    I say, “measure the curtains, and hang the rods accordingly.”  He counters with, “no- I’ll just put the rods where the holes already are (from when he took down the useless and hideous vertical blinds that came with the house over 13 years ago).  I am about to lose this battle, and will be forced to hem the bottoms, and bunch up the tops, of perfectly decent (albeit purchased on sale) lined, thermal window treatments.  My point is:  there is NO reason for me to be altering these items.  They now look like shit (yes, so does the room, and the entire house, but THAT is not the main focus of this ramble).  His point is:  the rods should appear in a symmetrical and perfectly straight line (from across the vast expanse of clutter and junk which fills the downstairs space, in a room [haven't I already pointed this out?] that practically NO ONE WILL EVER SEE).

    Keep in mind too, the window drapes and the sliding glass door drapes and NOT THE SAME COLOR.   There is no need to pretend ANYthing even comes close to matching.  (Or is even in the least bit stylish or tasteful.)  If the window covering rod, and the sliding glass door rod, are not precisely aligned, would the earth come crashing to a deadly halt?  I think not.

Update:  The sliding glass door drapes are up, and look as though a blind drunken monkey manufactured and hung them.  The window drapes are still in transit from the warehouse (where ever that happens to be). 

   (Two out of three children voted with their father on this issue.  “My” child had better cast her ballot in her mother’s favor.)

   Happy Solstice, to one and all.  NOW it’s winter, but tomorrow we get a wee bit more day than night.

Be Well.

  First of all, look way over there on your right, and down.  See the new “quilt” reference?  Grand ain’t it?!   Anyone can now click on a month and read back over my archives, and be all current and OCD, the way we like it.  Thank you SO much Hanny, it’s just perfect.  I knew you could read my mind.

    Now, some important events, of the celestial and familial variety, past and present and future, that you may want to take note of:

Monday 12-14  ~Teresa, my sainted sister-in-law, had a birthday, and we failed to celebrate appropriately.  Hope you got my card in the mail and it made you smile.  And Bryan got you something nice.  Or at all.

Tuesday 12-15  ~  Dark Moon was at 4:02 this morning.

Wednesday 12-16  ~  My Aunt Trudy will have a birthday.  I don’t know how old she will be, somewhere more than 50 but less than 65.  But I’m not sure how she feels about it, so we won’t guess.

Thursday 12-17  ~  My Nana passed on this day in 2003.  She was about a week shy of her own birthday, again not entirely positive of her age either, but it was certainly more than 80, possibly as many as 90 plus.  And I do know how she felt about age, couldn’t have cared less who knew, and never gave it second thought.  (Daniel or Cousin Dan, I know one of you have this information, maybe you could supply the vital details.)

Monday 12-21  ~  The Winter Solstice 9:47a.m.  Let there be light!

Saturday 12-26  ~  (get ready, it won’t be good)  Mercury goes retrograde for the last time this year at 6:38 in the morning.  Be prepared and aware.  And carefull!

P.S.  One more thing.  Go read The Hurricane today, it’s very witty and timely.  The link is second from the top under “important things”  -Hanna’s blog.

  Oh it’s a sad day on the Hillside.  After 45 years the Norm/Jeff/Jeffrey/Kelsey household has transferred title.  Everyone’s favorite goofy neighbor took his last shower in his childhood home yesterday.  He hugged me in the road, came by in the morning to see Dan, told us both that he would visit.  It’s just never going to be the same.  Who is going to entertain us?  And who is going to move in across the street?

  Whether you have children of your own, or have just cared for those in your family, or adopted them, or just love them because they are kids, there are things to never forget.  We grow as we need to, depending on circumstances, inner and outer.  We all started as wee ones, small (or, relatively small) beings that needed tending.  Then we grew (most of us) and we could be allowed out, sans guardianship.  Along the way we had folks who watched out for us, gave us advice, received us back “home” when the need arose.  The maturing process is slow, and it travels at the rate it is supposed to.  The point to remember, for all of us (no matter what stage of “adulthood” or age we have reached) is that there is no such thing as a mistake.  Accidents happen, and will continue to happen, as we learn our lessons along our own individual roads.  It is the truth of the Universe, sort of like gravity, not a factor we can easily ignore. 

My children are my life.  No matter what they do, or don’t do, I love them.  Unconditionally.

(So far none of them has ever even come close to testing this.)

  As most of you know, I don’t watch TV, hardly at all.  I do, however, view some (carefully selected) recorded programs from time to time.  One of the family favorites is on a cooking/food channel, it’s called “Good Eats” and it’s got something for just about everyone.  The guy is named Alton Brown and he reminds the kids of Daniel (goofy with sticky-uppy hair and bad puns).  His recent holiday special, the name of which has completely fallen out of my sieve brain, is wonderfully historic and well done.  Very factual in regards to why Americans celebrate the way they do, and who they stole it all from.  Worth a google to see what he says.  (Wish I could remember the title and find you a link, but that doesn’t appear to be possible today.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmi_qFsiHBM

I can’t figure out how to make this just show up as a video, so try the link and tell me what you see.  Ann had it on her blog, and it is so worth the effort.