cross stitch – mud&string

I’ll take the latter, thank you very much. 🙂

When I was a worker bee, I published a post three times a week on average, usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since retirement, I MIGHT get a blog post in once a week or so, all the while making promises to myself that “next week I’m getting back to three times a week”. Now, if you are a regular reader, you know that three posts a week has yet to happen.

Why was I a more productive blogger back then when I worked 40 hours a week than I currently am as a happy retiree? Seems counterintuitive (am I using that word correctly?) doesn’t it?

I think I know the answer. I’m still working, but at knitting, working with clay, throwing pots, doing a bit of sewing, painting a bit and having a go at whatever catches my curiosity at any particular time.

All this leads to full happy days and these full happy days tend to squeeze out my blogging time.

So, I’m cutting myself some slack and instead of beating myself up for what I haven’t done, from now on my goal is one post a week and actually enjoying sharing thoughts and projects.

This is what I’ve been working on this past week –

I started these yesterday. Sadly, this photo doesn’t do this yarn justice and doesn’t show off its sparkle.

I rediscovered my love for counted cross stitch, which has been back burnered for about 20 years and went all in with this gargantuan project.

I can tell how long I’ve been away from cross stitch by just how much my close vision has gone downhill. My new bifocals are supposed to arrive today and none too soon. I expect they’ll make a HUGE difference! 🤓

Cookie A’s Pomatomus Socks are off my needles!

These make me particularly proud since this pattern has defeated me at least three times in the past. Yay me!!!!

Details on all these projects can be found here, and here.

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability. Harry F. Banks.

FINDS

When my dad died last July, I had the task of going through my childhood home and deciding what to keep and what to let go. Someone wisely told me that if I had any doubts about something, I needed to keep it and decide what to do with it at another time. I’m so glad that I listened to that advice (for once) and hung on to a lot of stuff that when I was in the moment, stressed, tired, overwhelmed and sad, I wanted to just get rid of, to have this job over and done with. Again, I’m so grateful I listened and here’s why:

Since I’ve been on leave from work, I made a pact with myself to go through at least one box a day, taking my time and really thinking about what I needed to do. Again, when in the moment, I hated every bit of the stuff I had to deal with and didn’t care if I never saw it again; giving myself some time and space, with a small, doable goal, made all the difference in the world. I rediscovered several framed needleworks, crewel, cross stitch and needlepoint, crocheted afghans, bedspreads and tablecloths and wonder of wonders, the cowgirl outfit my grandma sent me one year (can’t remember if it was Christmas or my birthday) that I was absolutely wild for. It’s been folded up in a drawer for I don’t know how many years, I think I was around five or six when she sent it and I’m on the downhill side of 55 now. You do the math. It’s in amazing shape, except for creases and wrinkles, and is unfaded, a bright turquoise with white fringe and still shiny, sequined butterflies. Now I have dreams of my grands wearing it and that makes me happy and misty eyed, with a little bit of nostalgia and feeling old mixed in. Lesson learned: Second looks sometimes reveal treasures, you never know.