A Rainy Day in Nod

 A positively gloomy, dreary, kind of rainy day in Nod.

And cold.

(Have I mentioned Nod is COLD?!)

There is nothing I have to do that I want to do so

I am procrastinating...

...and looking out windows with Rajah Roo.

In furtherance of my procrastination, I decided I would try to make myself feel less guilty by posting some things I have finally finished.

It's been a while...in many ways and for many reasons - some I stitched so long ago, I would not choose to stitch them now....that's long.

With one exception, I believe these all have been posted previously, but they were not "finally/fully" finished.

{"Winter Woods"...a design by Chessie & Me}

{"Witch Miltida"...a design by Joyce Reed...stitched eons ago...not 1887, but close.}

{"Nantucket Whaling Co."...a design by The Primitive Hare}

{"With Liberty and Justice for All"...a (free) design by Primitive Betty's...again, stitched long, long, time ago, but just fully finished}

I also finally finished hooking "Welcome Cats."

This was almost worse than giving birth, but the "reward" at the end not even close.  I do not wish to bore everyone with the saga of this rug again but, since it is not likely to ever be bound and fully finished, I will tell a brief summary and, hopefully, be done with it. (Hence, why it counts as a "finish.")

This rug is based on an antique rug and I had wanted to hook it from the very first time I saw it.

{Photo of a photo of the original antique}

  I finally located the pattern online and the nightmare journey began.

This was 10+ years ago if not more.... I was still working and had little time to hook...and I am a SLOOOW hooker.

Then WWR ("When We Remodeled") started and the rug was packed away...far, far, away.

I pulled it out years later, after the dust of WWR (somewhat) settled and was completely at a loss as to where to begin again.  It had been put away hurriedly (part of the legacy of WWR) and I had not marked which wool was intended for what.

So, it was, again, exiled to a dark, dark, place.

I finally pulled it out again this past year and was determined to finish it, but even more problems surfaced.

I had wanted to do a somewhat faithful reproduction to the original (because that was what I fell in love with) although I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a purist like Saundra (Woodland Junction is. As I started the second cat, however, I realized the pattern I purchased was far from true to the original. (I'll spare you pointing out the details.)

And, even more troubling, my hooking technique had changed considerably since I started it (and not for the better) so it began to look like two different people had hooked it.

With much muttering, I muddled through and finally finished the hooking....only to realize that, while the color plan probably is closer to the original than any reproductions I had seen, I actually now prefer the warmer, richer, colors of the reproductions of which I had seen so many.

So, I am sorely disappointed...in my inability to pick up on the pattern "issues" sooner, my color choices and, more importantly, my hooking.

About the only things I do like about it are the left cat's "snaggletooth"...

...and the "ghost ball" between the two cats (which is barely visible on the photo I had of the antique and completely MIA from the pattern I purchased, and which I rehooked thrice):

In any event, hopefully, that's the last you'll see or hear of it.

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I realize this post is insufferably long already, but I am running far behind on my book "reports" (or have I spent to much time reading?? Don't answer that.)

Anyway, this is another thing I am "finished" with:

It is another historical fiction based on actual events during WWII and if you follow that history at all, you have likely read or seen a version of the story: A woman becomes pregnant while incarcerated in Auschwitz. 

It was ok...I didn't necessarily dislike it and it kept my attention, but I'm finished with this genre for a while.  I think I am more than satiated with the time period and subject matter at this particular point in time.  After a while, the story lines begin to blur and I'm just finished.

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Finally, but not leastly, tomorrow is the 21st anniversary of the day our country lost what was left of its innocence.

We will never forget.

PS... To my blog pals from the UK and the realms: My deepest condolences on the loss of your beloved Queen.  What a remarkable woman she was.

It's That Strange Time of Year....

It's that strange time of year...

 

...when tantalizing wisps of warmer air whisper to the frozen ground that it's time to go and eerie fog settles like tears....

...when sudden snow squalls can't silence the song of the spring birds as they feast on berries of bittersweet....

It's that strange time of year when, each and EVERY morning, some of us still think we have been gypped out of an hour of sleep thanks to "daylight saving time"....

 ...and we be none too happy about it....

And it's that strange time of year when the calendar, without fanfare or ceremony, flips on another year of my life....

I always feel "untethered" in this "twixt" time.  Like Mother Nature who does not quite know if it should be winter or spring, I do not quite know what it is I want to do.

Hooking? Maybe.

Stitching?? Maybe.

More likely just cursing daylight saving time AGAIN because I am not tired at the time the clock says I really need to go to bed. (So, yes, I really feel cheated out of two hours of sleep every day....the clock says it's an hour later than it should be when I get up and it says it's an hour later than it should be when I go to bed. My head is a scary place most days.)

In other words, I have gotten little to nothing of anything done.

I put aside my large(r) Noel Sampler I had been off and on stitching on (more off than on) and worked on a teeny little piece called "Winter Woods" by Chessie & Me.  The stitching is almost done except for another large snowflake and then nun stitching on the sides.

My hook I have picked up not at all.

It is windy and cold, with spurts of flurries coming from the lifelessly gray sky.  I'm off to see if I can revive Hepzibah (my sourdough starter) so I can make sourdough cinnamon cranberry bread.

I hope there is a corner of each of your worlds where you can find some peace and hope in  these troubling times.

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Recently read:

If you haven't figured it out yet, one of my favorite genres of books is historical fiction: Two of my particularly favorite time periods are, of course, 17th century Salem and World War II.  The downfall is that many of the plots tend to follow a very predictable path and one story becomes unremarkably similar to others.

In some regard, this can be said of this book, but it was relatively fresh to the market and I couldn't resist.

 It is the story Jewish mother and daughter who flee from the war raging in Poland and go into hiding in a neighboring barn.  Above that, it is the story of the bond between a mother and a daughter and of the precious gifts of imagination and music.

While I, at one point, took violin lessons (another surprising piece of trivia I bet you didn't know), the music detail in this book was a bit much for my taste.  (Kinda like The Book of Two Ways mentioned a few posts back may have been to much "Egyptology" for some....)  Despite that, I enjoyed it. (But hey, if you haven't figured it out by now, I really enjoy most all books.)  It is not one that will earn a rank among my favorites, but that's a very selective list.    

  

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