Randomness Con't...

*The minute you think of treating yourself to a mani/pedi, you break a nail to the quick. Oww! Instant savings though. No mani/pedi for me...at least not right now.

*I hope the teen that practically ran me off the road learns how to merge soon. You can keep your hands at 10 and 2 but that doesn't mean you're a safe driver.

*Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

*Spending time with stitchy friends is rejuvenating.

*I've decided to "let things go" and I feel better for it. I guess they call this "acceptance". Now, how do you change 30+ years of pessimism and negative thinking?

*Mind over mood, mind over mood. SERENITY NOW! Oops, I slipped a bit of Seinfeld in. Serenity Now, Serenity Now! Costanza/Stiller could always make me laugh.

*Should I rent that cottage in the woods for my birthday weekend? It's a long way off but peace, quiet, beach, trees sounds nice. Maybe I'll meet a lumberjack and he'll sweep me off my feet. I hope there aren't any wolf spiders in those woods. Spiders are scary!

*I'm wearing contacts today. First time in 4 months all because I managed to get a blemish where the nosepad of my glasses sits. Ouch! Guess this allows me branch out a bit and see the world through different lenses.

What else...hmmm. Oh yea, I've been meaning to write about this book I read. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I had picked it up from the library and something about it caught my attention. I grabbed it as an afterthought.
I tend to like books that have a bit of a historical twist and can be set back in time. This book is fantastic and if you like books with historical twists, set back in time and in different countries...you should check this one out. It does have flashbacks and different narratives which some people may think is annoying but I was able to keep it all straight and enjoyed it. I am a very slow reader now and the book at about 650 pages took me a week to read. That was fast for me! I didn't want to put it down! The story flashes back between Australia and England. I enjoyed it so much that I went back to the library and took the author's other two books out on loan. I haven't started those yet.

Right now, I'm in the middle of reading Olive Kitteridge.
It's a collection of short stories revolving around Olive in a small coastal Maine town. It's enjoyable with bits of sadness.

My stitching get together on Saturday was fun. I had a good time hanging out with the ladies and getting to know everyone a little better. I was serious about stitching though so I did my best to stay focused on my Mary. She's coming along. I still have 1 more motif to stitch in Part 4 and I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to finish it up tonight. Tomorrow will be my one week mark from the last post but I have dinner plans in the city which means no stitching or blogging tomorrow. But if I don't finish it tonight, I have another stitchy get together on Saturday and I know I will definitely finish then so I'll be back with a Mary Part 4 finish photo soon!

**sidenote: I do live pretty caffeinated because otherwise I'd be comatose and sleeping. I don't do mornings well at all. The caffeine brings about lots of random thoughts hence the recent posts. :)

Until next time...

Tuesdays Are My Stitchy Night

I have lost my stitching mojo. I haven't picked up a needle in over two weeks and there are times when I feel that this current state of affairs is odd and that I should try but I haven't had a desire to stitch at all. Things have been particularly stressful lately and whereas stitching usually brings me comfort, I feel quite down about my border mistake on the Snappers. I won't give up though! I just got my order of Dried Thyme GAST from Needlecraft Corner yesterday so there will be some progress or frogging happening on that shortly. Stay tuned!

But I will show you what I've been up to and it's been making things less stressful. Reading!! I used to be a voracious reader. One book in a single evening. I loved it! But then I found stitching again and I would usually stitch and watch tv over reading. Now I am a slow reader and a book takes me forever! *sigh* But I have a couple of reads under my belt now. First is Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs. Being a Top Chef fanatic, I thought it would be cool to read this book based on a tv cooking show celebrity chef. It was a good read. Lots of characters but not so many you get all confused. Light and fluffy...no heavy thinking.
A while ago, during my knitting phase, I read the A Friday Night Knitting Club also by Kate Jacobs. I remember it being a really good book and it ipitomized the whole essense of a knitting club...the need to connect with other women who loved the same thing but had different lives. I read that book voraciously and loved it despite it requiring much kleenex. I figured I would read the sequel, Knit Two. This was a good book as well but not as good as A Friday Night Knitting Club.
Now this next book has a long history with me. I have been trying to read The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory for months. Yep, months! I checked it out 6 times (I should be ashamed to admit this but I am not...obviously) last year. The problem would be that I would go to the library and find a ton of books I wanted to read, check them all out and then read one or two very slowly and then I would never get around to reading it. Towards the end of the year, I had read 80 pages before having to return it before the holiday rush as there was no way I could get back to the book. Before *the boy* got hurt, we went to the library and I checked out these three books. He asked why I was checking out The Other Boleyn Girl again and I had to explain I had not finished it. Well, I've now reached my allotment of three check outs on this book again and I am only on page 240...of 667. This does not mean it's a bad book. It's quite good and well-written...I only just picked it up to actually read again over the weekend but the book is due back today. I know the library has more copies of this book so I will be returning my copy and checking out another so I can continue the story of King Henry, Anne and Mary.
I had mentioned that there was good things that happened last Thursday...despite how bad that day was, there were a couple of bright spots. I decided to take the day off from work so I could go to the Artistic Luxury: Fabrege, Tiffany, Lalique exhibit at the Legion of Honor. Despite it being a Thursday morning, the parking lot was full! But after doing a round about, I found a great spot. I am always amazed at the view from the museum so I took a couple of snaps.

Sea, mountains, trees and puffy white clouds

A far-off cityscape and more puffy clouds

And the Legion of Honor museum on a gorgeous day

I had planned on taking loads of pictures of the exhibit but photography was not allowed. The pieces were amazing! Jaw-dropping amazing...like how in the world were these pieces even created!? The detail in all of the pieces were beyond comprehension. I could have stood there gazing at fabrege eggs, art nouveau jewelry and glass pieces all the day. It was well worth the trip and the exhibit fee to see and I was happy I took a day off to go see it. Since the pieces on display are small, people crowd around very close making it hard to see and necessary to wait for people to get their fill before they move on so you can get a close-up view as well. It was a great way to fill the morning. I then had to move on to take *the boy* to the doctor and you all know how that went. But we were able to get a table for dinner at Absinthe. This is one of my favorite places...more the bar than the restaurant and the executive chef is Jamie Lauren of the last Top Chef season. There were no Jamie sightings but we had a fun time for dinner. Lots of cocktails, small plates and laughs. It was a nice evening...despite everything else.

The weekend was a grooming weekend for *the boy*. He desperately needed a haircut and some new clothes so I dragged him to the mall and made him try on clothes. He probably thought I was a fashion nazi but he said later that he was happy with all his purchases so that's most important. Overall, it was a nice weekend. I brought *the boy* to come out and stay with me for the weekend after that whole hoopla about the rent. He managed to get up all the stairs and we watched lots of videos and ordered in pizza. Pretty mellow weekend despite the driving. Be careful out there driving. People drive like maniacs! Over the weekend, someone drove into a group of Girl Scouts trying to sell cookies in front of a grocery store in my neighborhood!

Today is supposed to be stitchy Tuesday but I doubt stitching will happen. I see reading, video watching and dishes in my immediate future. But I do have a stitchy deadline coming up. I've decided to take the entire weekend to myself so I think that time will be best spent lounging in pajamas, watching tv and stitching. I will find my stitching mojo if it kills me!

I hope everyone in blogland had a nice weekend too...

Until next time...