The 12 Disasters of Christmas

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And now for a special holiday edition of First World Problems! Here's your post-holiday quiz...which of the following twelve disasters befell the Lottloft before Christmas?

1. The Christmas tree sustained a terrible gash at the hands of incompetent Home Depot staff, so it died in like a week.
2. Aforementioned injured tree fell with a spectacular crash. Three ornaments remain unbroken.
3. Although we own approximately 62 strings of lights, only two of them actually worked.
4. Michael gets sick enough to have to go to the doctor, resulting in loss of cookie baking time.
5. Michael loses a toe when he drops a stocking holder on his foot in a bout of illness-induced vertigo.
6. While taking a vacation day, I am made late for a Christmas party because my office calls me to fix a problem created by someone else...who is also on vacation but is NOT called to fix his problem.
7. Our house fills with toxic black smoke and we have to evacuate.
8. Problems at work continue for a second day, meaning that to get ready for dinner and a show out with Michael's parents, I have to get ready one-handed while I type with the other.
9. On the third day of issues from work, there were no French hens, but ugly tears when I realize there's no way I can still get all the cookies baked and presents made on time.
10. Even though I've made the same cookies for six years in a row, this year's batch turns out flat as crispy little pancakes.
11. Pre-Christmas rain exacerbated some leaks in the Lottloft, causing water to pour through new holes in the ceiling.
12. I realize I've made a mistake on my sister's knitted mitts...50 rounds back.

One of these is made up, three are exaggerated, but the rest TOTALLY HAPPENED. Ready to see the answers?

1. Gashed Christmas tree - TRUE
   I always take a piece of ribbon with me the same length as our tree stand is deep, so I know which branches to tell them to cut off. A "helpful" employee made a mark on the trunk at that height, but the guy with the buzz saw thought that meant where he should CUT OFF THE TRUNK. My high-pitched screeches stopped his saw after he'd cut through the trunk about 1/3 of the way. They offered to give us a taller tree (duh...it wouldn't fit), but we'd already spent an hour picking this one out, so we decided to risk it. The tree refused to drink any water and is now a nine-foot-tall fire hazard.
2. Tree crash - FALSE
   I am an engineer, after all.
3. Massive light failure - EXAGGERATED
   There were a few strands of lights that didn't work, but they were old outside lights, and no big loss.
4. Michael's ill - TRUE
   Poor guy; he had a sinus infection. He was laid flat for two days (ministrations caused me to lose some additional prep time) and had to go in to work later, on the day before family festivities.
5. Michael loses a toe - EXAGGERATED
   He "just" hurt his foot pretty bad. But in later days, continuing sickness-induced clumsiness caused him to kick a door with the other foot, and bang each of his knees several times.
6. Idiot coworker ruins Christmas - TRUE
   Did I mention that I received the call right after we got home from taking Michael to the doctor and the pharmacy? When I was thinking, OK, I CAN STILL MAKE THIS CHRISTMAS THING HAPPEN!
7. Toxic black smoke - TRUE
   A rubber-handled pizza cutter fell on the heating element in the dishwasher. I realized soon that I needed to get my spouse's infected sinuses to fresh air, so we went up to the deck. Luckily, it was 60 (degrees F). Unluckily, it was windy and the wifi only reached so far, so I had to sit with my back against the deck door (on the floor) to get reception. Because I was working. Yeah...this happened pretty much right after the call. I had to throw out another batch of cookies due to smoke pollution.
8. Getting ready one-handed - TRUE
   Yeah. Although I told them I needed to leave, they kept asking questions. I finally just shut the computer and left.
9. Work still can't do anything without me - TRUE
   It's nice to be needed, but this is ridiculous. All told, I lost over 12 hours of baking and prep time.
10. Sudden cookie problems - TRUE
    Not tragic, but did I mention this happened after the whole illness-noxious fumes-work apocalypse thing?
11. Water pours through the ceiling - TRUE
    Seriously?? My Christmas present was supposed to be having leaks fixed, not having more turn up!
12. Knit mitt mistake - EXAGGERATED
    It was only four rows back. I did however take about six tries...I think?...to pick up stitches on the cuff for the mitt just before I realized my mistake. I managed to get one mitt done for my sister. *sigh* At least she crafts, too, so she understands. Plus, she showed up with a handmade ornament for me...that she was supposed to give me last year. =)

So how'd you do? Did you guess correctly?

I hope your New Year has fewer problems than my run up to Christmas!

JiffNotes
No real disasters, my holiday plans were just derailed a bit by an idiot at work!

Boxing Day Book Winners

There were three of you who said you'd like a Kindle book in my Advent Blog Hop giveaway: Gillie, Brenda, and Carolyn. Three is such a nice, round number, so I'm happy to say you each win a book! Please send me your selection by the 31st (you'd better send me a second choice just in case you all end up wanting the same book).

Coming up in my next post, a quiz: who out there thinks they can name all the disasters that occurred at the lottloft leading up to Christmas??

Christmas Blessings

 

May the love and peace of the season surround your heart.

Online Advent Calendar

 
Dasher by Mirabilia

Welcome, welcome! For those of you that have never been here before, I'm glad to have you! And for my regular readers, in case you don't know what's going on, I'm participating in Jo's annual Advent calendar blog hop. Click on that link and you can enjoy previous days and wait around for days to come!

Now stop dashing around for just a little while (see what I did there?) and let's hang out and talk about...COOKIES!!

Jo asked us to talk about festive foods we enjoy. Well, for me, Christmas means cookies. Ever since college, I have made at least six or seven varieties each year. It all started with one Christmas cookies cookbook (from Better Homes and Gardens) that came as a freebie with some other book my mom ordered. I confiscated it and started out trying new cookies each year. As time went on, though, my family started DEMANDING barring the door if I showed up without requesting certain cookies, so now there are three favorites that get made every year: Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies (recipe here...they're the bottom right cookies in the picture above), Eggnog Thumbprints (above the gingerbread...this recipe is close, and you can substitute milk + rum extract for the rum), and Buried Cherry cookies (here, which my family continually amuses me by pronouncing "burrrried churrries"). Yeah...these:

NOM.

I really do enjoy trying new cookies, though. This was a fun one...

 

A Dutch Stroopwafel, filled with caramel. You set it on top of your teacup (or coffee mug, if you're into that sort of thing) to melt the caramel before munching and dunking away!

Each year I give away some cookies to a select few who really appreciate them.

 

One year I gave some to a friend and never heard a thing from him. I finally asked, "Did you enjoy the cookies?" His response was, "Oh, yeah, they were good." He was off the list!

This year I joined the Cookie A Sock Club, and in addition to two beautiful patterns and an oh-so-squishable skein of sock yarn every two months, I also get two cookie recipes.

 

I've tried a lot of new things this year thanks to the club, and I've baked a lot more, so maybe in the future it won't seem so onerous to "only" try three or four new cookies at Christmas.

If you have read this far (whether or not you had to get up and take a cookie break), CONGRATULATIONS!! You're entitled to a giveaway! I went a little nuts on Black Friday ordering Kindle books, and I ended up getting a few special offers as a result. Since I'd already gotten a lot of new books, I wasn't that interested in getting more, so I thought I'd share with you guys! Even if you don't have a Kindle, you can use the free Kindle app on almost any device, or you can read online. So if you'd like one of these books, leave a comment on this post (you don't need to tell me which book you'd like now). Here's the list:
Fiction books
Mystery books
Science Fiction books
Young Adult books

I'll pick some winners on Boxing Day (the 26th). I *think* I can gift the books even if you're not in the US, but if that turns out not to be true, I'll substitute something else. =) If you win, you'll need to get your email address to me before the 31st.

Thanks for joining me, and I hope you all have a blessed Christmas filled with fun, friends and family...and COOKIES!

Theme-a-licious Detritus December Check-in

You guys, I continue to be very impressed with the themes you're sending in! You're all so inspiring! For those of you that haven't sent in a theme suggestion yet...what are you waiting for? (See here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Remember, your theme can be as carefully crafted or as simple as you'd like...I'll take care of writing it up if you just want to send me one word! And you'll get a prize if your theme is chosen!

This is going to be a yarn-heavy post!!

The Cookie A Sock Club has caused me to get a lot more things finished because there are potential PRIZES...each shipment, Cookie draws a winner from all the FOs from the past shipment. This time around, the entries were worth double...and the prize was membership for next year! Although I sadly didn't win, I did finish two more socks. First, these are Vamps:

They are still blocking here, and it's not the best picture, since it was really just for "proof" that I'd finished. I'll take a better picture with them actually on my feet (and it'll probably be coming to a Finished Object Friday near you. ;)

Next, I had a pair of socks that only needed a couple inches and a toe done; I had put them away to start the next shipment. These were actually the second pair of socks I knit in the same shipment! I guess my track record isn't too bad; out of five shipments, I knit both socks from two of them. In fact, there's only one of the shipments that I don't plan to knit both socks!! Anyway, without further ado, here are my Pirouettes:

 

Also not a great picture...and also pre-blocking.

And in case you missed it in the last post, I also finished a cowl.

Whoah. Of course, I have finished ZERO needlework projects. That's OK; I have done a little work on my hardanger piece, but it doesn't look that much different than it did at the end of November. I've only done half of the filling of the section I cut out. I WILL finish this this month!!

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So how is Detritus December going? Are you clearing anything off your WIP list...or at least making some progress in that direction? Please add your link below (to your check in post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) Our next post will be on the 1st of January (not the 31st of December like usual...we're switching to the 2014 beginning-of-month dates), when we'll wrap up Detritus December and embark on the New Year of Theme-a-licious, starting with Jardin January!

Remember to go here if you want a sidebar graphic for your blog (or a header graphic for a blog post)!

Finished Object Friday: Honey Wine Cowl

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I can't believe I'm posting two Finished Object Fridays in a row!! Hmmm...I notice I haven't posted much else. I'm waiting for the Christmas tree to be completely, completely done to post about that (it's been mostly done for a week!). Of course, Theme-a-licious check-in is coming up, and you are all doing SO WELL with sending in your themes! I'm greatly enjoying your creativity and I've giggled over several of them! But remember that, along with the finely-crafted, alliterative and generally clever themes you've been sending in, you can also just send me something simple, like "hearts". I can spin it into a particular month. So if your creative juices are drying up like a batch of gingerbread you left in the oven too long, don't let that stop you from participating!

So now...on with the finished object!

This is a Honey Cowl, knit in Malabrigo Rios. YUM, this yarn is sooo soft! It's knit with only one skein, as I didn't want a super-wide cowl (plus I only had one skein due to a bone-headed purchase--towards the end there). I'm excited to have one more thing off the needles! Soon I'll be in single-digits with knitting WIPs!

BWAHAHAHA!! None of you buy THAT, do you?

Jiff Notes
Two Finished Object Fridays in a row?? What is the world coming to around here??? For more lovely knits, head over to Tami's Amis and Wisdom Begins in Wonder!

Finished Object Friday: Istanbul (not Constantinople)

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I have two...TWO!...things to show you today. First off, here is another installment in the Cookie A Sock Club, Istanbul (not Constantinople...sorry; still genetically incapable of saying one without the other):

 

I tried a new heel on these (short rows with wrap & turn) because I DETEST picking up gusset stitches. It looks a little strange to me and I was worried I'd feel the decrease there along the heel, but I wore these the other day and only noticed it once.

 

My real disappointment with these socks is how HUGE they are. It seems I'm a very loose lace knitter (which is odd to me given the death grip I have on the needles all the time). I knit the small size, and even went down a needle size, but I guess I should have gone down another needle size. That being said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color of these (Inkwell by Miss Babs) and the lace is beautiful.

And to answer the question I know you all have, NO, I am not wearing white tights underneath these. My legs are really that white in sunlight.

Next, I finally FINALLY finished a square box that I started...back in May?? Gee whiz.

 

I still love my sewing machine, and although some bits of the bag are kind of wonky, I'm pretty pleased with it. It's lined an everything!

 

This is not for the faint of heart, though, and I gotta tell you that you should go pay those sellers on Etsy whatever they want for one of these bags!! One bit of the instructions I followed had me staring at the screen for about five minutes straight before I understood them!

JiffNotes
For more finished objects, check out Tami's Amis and Wisdom Begins in Wonder!

Theme-a-licious 2014...This Year, It's Personal!

Finally! I know some of you have been waiting for this post, and I'm sorry it's so late!

Since some of you demanded a theme every month (*cough*Jo*cough*), I have obliged...but you're going to have to help! Only half the themes will be set at the beginning of the year, and the other months I will draw a theme that one of YOU has sent in! If your theme is drawn, you'll get a little prize from me. =) We'll only post once per month, on the first, to wrap up the previous month and talk about the coming month...or would you rather continue on the last day of the month? I'm flexible.

So...here are the themes! I'm afraid I couldn't give up my favorites. =)

Jardin January

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

February

It's a Mystery...for now!

March Madness

Work on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

April

It's a Mystery...for now!

Menagerie May

Is it a zoo in your stack of WIPs? How many projects can you find that include animals or birds?

June

It's a Mystery...for now!

Jubilee July

It's time to celebrate! What are you celebrating this year? Stitch on your holiday-related projects, OR find some WIPs you know you'll never finish and set them free.

August

It's a Mystery...for now!

Supersize September

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

October

It's a Mystery...for now!

No-Xs November

What can you make without making an X?? Blackwork, hardanger, embroidery, needlelace, and the list goes on! Don't panic...you can even backstitch for the month!

December

It's a Mystery...for now!

Well, I guess that's about it! Oh, what's that? You want graphics?? ;)

What do you think? =) There's also a plain version for those of you that don't care for Sherlock (say what??)

Now, to use the graphics, just link to the ones on my site, because if you download and upload to Blogger, the banner won't animate. Just click in the box under the graphic you want, copy, and paste into your post (or your sidebar, for the small graphic).

The theme's afoot! Version:

<a href="http://lottloft.blogspot.com/p/theme-licious-2014.html"><img src="http://www.lottloft.com/images/themeBanner_2014.gif"/></a>

Non-geeky, plain version (not that there's anything wrong with that):

<a href="http://lottloft.blogspot.com/p/theme-licious-2014.html"><img src="http://www.lottloft.com/images/themeBanner_2014_basic.gif"/></a>

Sidebar graphic:

<a href="http://lottloft.blogspot.com/p/theme-licious-2014.html"><img src="http://www.lottloft.com/images/themeButton_2014.gif"/></a>

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with...email me your themes now! You can email as many as you want, so email early and often. ;)

Theme-a-licious No-Xs November Wrap Up

I was really hoping to have this finished, but I am slowly getting there.

 

Southpaw Stitcher asked who designed this. It's Emie Bishop (Cross 'N Patch). This one is called Eight-Pointed Star, and it's from the 1997 (!) Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue. It's charted for red and green, but I'm using some Hand-Dyed Fibers. The light blue actually has metallic gold painted over it in some spots. I think she did a series of these, so if I find any more, I'll do them in the same colors.

I also made more progress on my stumpwork piece.

 

Just a couple more leaves (one done and one in progress)...kinda boring, but it's progress!

We're almost to the finish line! And speaking of finish lines...

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Detritus December

It's the end of the year...are there some projects you thought you'd have done by now? Let's take a walk down memory lane and start the new year with a clean plate.

Ornament Theme
your choice--or do some ornament finishing

So what's in your WIP pile that you can finish off this month? I personally need to do a LOT of ornament finishing. I am sure I have double-digits of ornaments that are stitched but not "ornamentified"!! I also need to finish up that hardanger ornament. I will have to search to see what else is close....

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So how was No-Xs November? Did you enjoy going off the grid? Please add your link below (to your wrap up post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) We'll check-in on December 15th to see what you're wrapping up.

Still Questioning...

Round Two of the stitching questions, courtesy of Bonnie...

11) Who is your favorite designer?
That's tough. All-time, probably Teresa Wentzler. But I have a lot of favorites! I love The Drawn Thread for doing fun-to-stitch designs, and Moss Creek and Jackie du Plessis for clever finishing.

12) Least Favorite Designer
Well, I'm not sure, since I probably pass over their designs, I wouldn't have internalized the names!

13) Will you/would you support a designer whose personal beliefs offended / angered you?
I agree with Bonnie that it would depend on the magnitude of the issue. In general, I probably wouldn't even know the designer's personal beliefs unless they named their company "I Kick Puppies Designs" or something!

14) Do you have a lamp especially made for needleworkers/crafters?
Yes, though I rarely use it.

15) What brand of stitching lamp do you have/prefer ?
I have an Ott light, but I prefer good ol' sunlight. =)

16) What kind of environment best suits you when you are stitching?
Quiet and sunlight is optimal, but I usually stitch in front of the TV.

17) Have you stitched any design more then once?
Good heavens, I don't think so. I may have stitched an ornament twice at some point, though.

18) Favorite design you have stitched and finished?
I really like Chatelaine's Snowflake Nativity (at least, the part I stitched). It's so sparkly!

I also really love the Anniversary Sampler I made for my parents, too (click for bigger):

But maybe my favorite stitched thing wasn't really a "design" and it wasn't just stitched by me. Three friends and I did a round robin, where we each designed at least one band for the others' samplers...and they were all unique.

You can click the link to read all about it and see closeups of all four RRs.

19) Least favorite design you've stitched and finished?
That would be this mouse I did for my sister because she was going to make a quilt for my niece. This quilt was never made. And that is all I will say about that.

20) Last, but not least, what's your longest running WIP?
Hum. This depends on what your definition of Work in Progress is, technically. And while I'm all for overly technical discussions, let's just say it's the oldest existing piece of fabric with stitches on it that isn't finished. And that would be Magical Night, started in the last millennium. =)

The Geekend That Was, 11/24

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Thank you for all the SQUEEs about my lil' blue bug! =)

 

How many of you saw Catching Fire over the weekend?

And how many of you want to knit EVERY SINGLE COWL Katniss had on?? It was fun to see all the Atlanta locations in the movie. Amazing that beach was here and not in Hawaii!

As we were leaving the theater, there was a table set up with some Hobbit swag, and I scored this great T-shirt:

 

AND passes to an advance screening on the 10th! Of course, there are disclaimers all over the place about how they give out more passes than there are available seats, so things may turn out...poorly. But who's not up for a good fiasco once in a while??

I felt well enough to do a little work on my hardanger ornament. I am very out of practice, I can tell you that!

 

I still have hope of getting it done by next month.

I've also been working on a pair of the Cookie A Sock Club socks.

 

Sign-ups are open for next year, but I'm waffling on whether or not I want to sign up again. I definitely WANT to sign up; I love trying new yarns and the patterns are awesome. But I have so much backlog, I feel a little guilty.

And finally, the last cookie for this month is Orange Hazelnut Biscotti.

 

I've never made biscotti before. The two loaves weren't exactly the same size, so I ended up with one that was underdone. I should have put it back in, but I was in a hurry to leave for choir. Well, most of them turned out pretty good, anyway.

 

I'm not a huge fan of crunchy cookies, but these are good once you dunk 'em. =)

JiffNotes
I felt well enough to get off the couch for a couple hours. Hooray!

Stumpwork and Stitching Questions

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I did promise some stitching pictures, didn't I? I did a little bit on my stumpwork piece...it's going to be slow going, but it will be awesome once it's done.

 

Since the light was (marginally) better, I also took a couple closeups to show how dimensional this really is:

 

And I couldn't resist a closeup of the cute little bug.

 

Can I get a SQUEEEE!? Ahem. Sorry.

Bonnie posed some stitching questions she'd gotten off of facecrook, and I decided I'd answer them here rather than blow up her comment feed. =) If you feel like answering them, I'd love to hear your answers, and you can feel free to write world's longest comment or link me to your own blog post. I think there's a part two coming tomorrow.

1. Which fabric do you most prefer?
   Evenweave is lovely to stitch on, but I prefer how linen looks, so I usually go for the linen. Hopefully I'll spend longer looking at a piece than stitching it. =)
2. What is your favorite fabric count?
   32
3. What colour fabric do you most enjoy stitching on?
   In the colder months when there's less sunlight, lighter colors. Otherwise, pretty much any color is great!
4. What is your favorite fibre?
   Belle Soie...the colors, the way it feels while stitching, and the evenness of the resulting stitches are awesome. Other favorite silks are Hand Dyed Fibers, Au Ver A Soie, Waterlilies and Gloriana. I also really like flower thread or any fiber that lets me stitch with one ply at a time!
5. How many of the 450 DMC Colours do you own?
   No idea. I don't try to keep a full set. It makes stash diving more fun as I never can pull everything I need. =p
6. Of your last 5 projects -- how many used DMC/Anchor as the main floss?
   It depends what you mean by "last 5"...last 5 stitched on would be
   Hardanger Ornament (charted for DMC, but I used Hand Dyed Fibers and whatever pearl cotton I had...it may have been DMC, but it may just as easily been Anchor)
   Stumpwork Floral (no DMC at all! AVAS and Cifonda and some other exotic fibers)
   Heirloom Christmas Sampler (no DMC...all silks!)
   Toccata (no DMC!)
   Sapphire Star (one DMC floss and some pearl cotton, mostly Rainbow Gallery)
7. Of the last 5 projects, if you didn't use DMC/ANCHOR -- what did you use?
   See above...
8. What needles do you prefer?
   BOHIN! If you haven't used these, they aren't the "prettiest" as far as the eye shape, but they go through fabric like BUTTAH!
9. What is the UGLIEST design you've encountered?
   This question won't make me any friends here. =) Actually, I can't think of any ugly ones, per-se, but I can think of a number of ALARMING ones I've seen.
10. What is the most BEAUTIFUL design you've encountered?
    Oh boy...there are a ton of these...I think the last one that knocked my socks off, that I don't already own, is Red by Mirabilia. I love most of the Chatelaine mandalas, too, and nearly every Teresa Wentzler. There are several needlepoint designs that fall into this category as well...I love the Threadles designs!

JiffNotes
Look! Actual stitching not as part of Theme-a-licious update! It's a Christmas miracle! (Too soon?)

NaBloNoAtAlMo

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That's National Blog Not At All Month, which is what I seem to have been following for the past few months. We all know I went to London (and Oxford) for two weeks at the end of August and beginning of September (ooo, look at megalomaniacal me, thinking you all keep up with what I'm doing)--and still haven't bothered to post pictures--muttered something about work being bad--went to a Jane Nicholas class--and made more mutterings about work being bad. That has really been what's been keeping me away from the computer--work, and also this:

 

You are looking at the innards of my Kindle Touch. Its battery died sometime in...September? October? Anyway, I replaced the battery, but in doing so, I knocked a cable loose, which caused it to freeze up randomly. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, so I spent about three weeks figuring out how to "debrick" it (i.e., turn it from a paperweight back into a useful device), running the operator diagnostics on it, and finally taking the entire thing apart in a last-ditch attempt to make it useable before selling it for parts. Well, when I watched the video on taking it apart, I realized how loose the connection is on the cable that's right by the battery, so I fixed it. By this time, of course, I'd already ordered a new Paperwhite. So now Michael has a trusty Kindle of his own. =)

So: Work. Pretty much right when I got back, I was thrust into a project that required all my time and then some. For three weeks in October, the project team was sequestered in a room together and they brought in lunch for us. This culminated with a go-live where we were all up until 2am (fortunately, I was working from home that day). The go-live went off without a hitch! The upside to being holed up in a room all that time was that it protected me from the company's new "noise masking" system. Basically, there's now a constant, loud hiss coming from the ceiling (brown noise, not white noise, if you're interested). IT DRIVES ME INSANE. It was not as loud in the room we were in, but now that I'm back "in the wild," well...let's just say I may not be around there too much longer.

This kind of work stress meant that when I got any free time, I wanted to be outside, away from the computer!! We went to a somewhat cool, somewhat pretentious outdoor art night...

 

...where people danced in urban spaces...

 
tiny dancers are tiny

...became part of the show...

 

...and made artistic statements...

 

This last one was my favorite, actually. It was about people with dementia. The artist would paint with water on the black board, and then sit back down as the memory he'd written faded away. He wouldn't get up again until it was completely gone. I thought it was good art that made you think...unlike the giant milkshake fountain (water colored white) that was supposed to be a commentary on our super-size-me culture. It was just...ugly and uninteresting.

We visited the Botanical Gardens, where the Imaginary Worlds exhibit looked very different from when things were first planted. Earth spirit's hair is grown in...

 

...the bunnies hide in tall grass...

 

...and the frogs have mohawks!

 

We went on a couple hikes. We had gone to Sweetwater Creek State Park, which takes you along Sweetwater Creek...

 

...and by the ruins of a textile mill burned in the Civil War.

 

We took a little picnic lunch...

 

...climbed on the rocks...

 

...and admired the wildlife.

 

When this lovely fella took off, I laughed at all the people with their camera phones capturing blurred dots, because...

 

...zoom lens and adjustable shutter speed FTW!!

The next "hike" was really more of a walk. For some reason we thought we'd be able to drive up somewhere to see pretty leaves the day after my project went live...bwahahaha!! I slept until 11am! So we just went up to walk by the Chattahoochee River near Akers Mill. Stalker heron followed me there.

 

This was a very pretty walk; lots of great moss!

 

I did manage to stitch a little on Friday on my stumpwork piece, but the rest of the weekend I was laid up on the couch. At first I thought I was fighting off a sinus infection, but this feels different. Flu? Random cold? Who knows?! Oh, it's just nonstop excitement here, let me tell you! At least it was a great excuse to watch lots of special features off The Hobbit Blu-Ray. =) Stitching pictures soon!

JiffNotes
I came, I overworked, I got sick. So did my Kindle, but it's better now. Also: Nature!