WOW and then some
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Look what Margaret, my friend, fellow stitcher and fellow needlepoint blogger has done. Below is Margaret’s picture from her blog. She was waiting to send it until I was moved & settled.
She also says some very nice things about me in her latest blog at
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/
I am amazed, I have to admit, when I assembled this I had no idea it would be so spectacular. Much of that goes to Margaret and her skill as a stitcher.
She had never stitched a Bargello before. I sent her a 14 mesh canvas with an *establishing line* stitched on it, which also gave her the width dimenions. I sent her a graph of the pattern which I did with my wonderful new MacStitch program.
I sent her the threads, told her what order to use them (that was easy) and sent her one of my silly little Bargello Beginner pamphlets that I wrote.
This is what she did with it.
This is an adaptation of Elsa Williams Adaptation of the classic Aurora Borealis Bargello design. I found this in my copy of the book “Bargello by Elsa Williams” on (another link coming up) NewNeedlepoint.com.
I have this book in both Gift Quality and a more used copy for much less money
I have to say here (and not for the first time) that I owe more than I can say to the
wonderful people who stitch for me. Margaret & Dr. Denise are gifts from the universe to me, as far as I am concerned.
I am reading away on the D. Bonavia Hunt 1913 Pride & Prejudice sequel, The Shades of Pemberly. I am enjoying it. It comes closer to Jane Austen’s tone and outlook than any of the others I ever read. Still, sort of close is not Jane Austen.
I am home finally. The landscapers/gardeners are working as we speak, clearing out the massive overgrown shrubs (that my tenants did not prune or take care of and the guy I hired to keep them pruned and cared for obviously did not do anything).
In Florida, where most everything grows so fast, the trick is to keep stuff pruned to the size that is best for the landscape. If you let it go you have a messy jungle, which is what I came home to.
They removed 2 trees, a massively overgrown bouganvilla vine, maybe 10 foxtail ferns that had grown out of control and un-numbered ornamental grasses that used to be used as screen for the utility box and 2 air conditioning units around the house.
In the back we lost the large white bird of paradise and all the Halconias to the cold. I replaced them with a palm that had grown to big for inside the pool patio and 2 red leaf banana trees.
This is the last of the undone, out of control messes associated with this move.
We have covered many of the holes in the walls with our pictures. The others will be filled when K has time.
The carpets are cleaned and the books and DVD arranged as they should be (in perfect marianne order, of course).
We saved the horribly overgrown yellow standard hibiscus in the front and added some more smaller ones around the utility box in the front. We also did a massive prune on the amazing deep pink Bouganvilla tree next to the bench in front.
Keith hacked it and got back it’s lovely shape, leaning over the bench. I will continue to train it that way. It still has frost damage, that will be pruned off slowly
The small plants around the rock are Begonia. The small shrubs around the triple Foxtail Palm tree are azaleas. There is an amazing red cactus next to the Mahogany tree and the spiky plants are Agave.
The entrance to the house had the huge overgrown hibiscus plus another huge overgrown tree, that used to be a small ornamental. They both had the walkway almost blocked.
I pruned down the Dracena, removed the 2nd tree and replaced it with an amazing pale pink Bouganvilla. It is trained around a piece of curved steel pipe. I will have to keep it well pruned to keep it’s shape. I did not really want another Bouganvilla but I fell in love with this at the nursery. I am a fool for flowers.
I added a Bromeliad and planted the triple Pony Tail palm next to it.
The Pony Tail has been in a huge pot but it overwhelmed everything else so we planted it.
The birds were here when we bought the house, They left us the receipt from when they had been bought, they were pretty expensive. I would not have bought them myself but they are here so I use them.
They are really fountains, if I wanted to do a “water feature” in the landscape, they could be hooked up to spout water.
We saved the roots and a few feet of branches of the yellow Bouganvilla vine that had overgrown to the right of the garage door. These nice guys planted it in a big pot on the patio for me. I am going to try to train it into a shape.
We planted a topiary ornamental upright shrub there instead and some Florida hardy shrub roses.
These are the nicest guys working here, I had to stop them from doing everything for me. I insisted I could do some of the pruning myself. I am not sure they believed me until they saw me do it.
So, I am finally home. Yes, I know I am crazy, Yes, I know I am obsessive and a fuss-budget and a pain in the ass.
But I still maintain it is us pains in the ass who make beautiful things. Ok, maybe not just us but still……
It feels like home again, all my *ducks* are in a nice row and I can relax.
Jack The Cat
I have nothing to say of interest to anybody. I have been finishing the unpacking and the settling in, making all those phone calls & appointments necessary (reset the alarm system, service the hvac system, credit cards & accounts).
Then my son arrived for a visit and to get the stuff from his storage room down here sorted and moved to his new apartment in Boston. The apartment, in Boston’s North End is a 1 bedroom but tiny, like all downtown single guy apartments (except the rich guys, of course). He had to go through everything and decide what would fit, what he wanted to keep that would not fit and what to toss.
Guess where the stuff he wants to keep but does not have room for wound up?
Ta Da! my garage (ouch). My parents are thrilled to have us back and I can see we have returned in *good time*. They need some help, sometimes. It absolutely infuriates Keith to see the way some of the service people in South Florida try to take advantage or scam the older people.
This has happened to my folks a few times, trying to charge them ridiculous fees for work around their house. Too bad for them my mother is still sharp and ruthless. She is a joy to watch.
I once watched her get me a sale price on a Dolce & Gabanna bag at Bloomingdales, it was not due to go on sale until the next week but they sold it to me then for the coming sale price. It was wonderful to see her do. (the bag fell apart after 3 weeks, is that Karma or what? I made Bloomies give me a full refund)
I thought I would make up for the fact I have not even listed the 30+ new books yet by showing you some pictures.
Here is Jack in his glory on the pool patio
To the left is my Ty plant, you can see what great care my tenants took of it. I dug it out of the palm tress to the side of the screen enclosure. It has some kind of fungus, it may not survivie and don’t you love the moldy pot.
I promise you it did not look like that when I left.
Next is a picture of my pool. The plants down that end have already been cleaned up and *re-furbished* by me (you should see my poor hands)
Next is Jack The Cat lounging in the sun. He is so happy to be back here. He remembers it and has already staked his claim as Emperor and Lord of the Lizards.
That is a picture of a happy cat.
The last picture is my Valentine’s day roses. 2 dozen from K. One dozen red for passion and 1 dozen white for friendship. That is lovely and romantic but before you praise him too highly you need to know he went to get them after he recieved a box of 64 Godiva Truffles from me, in the mail, Saturday (as in the day before V day).
The pictures are my son in 6th grade and me & K dancing. The chest and mirror are pieces I inherited from my grandfather.
I promise, I will try to get the *habit* of writing this blog back. I have enjoyed doing this tonight and I a not so exhausted anymore….not quite anyway.
This last move really took it out of me.
I am reading an interesting book. it is one of those Pride & Prejudice sequels but quite unlike most of them. This is the 2nd one ever written. It is by D. A. Bonavia-Hunt and was first published in 1913.
This is not P & P soft porn (which is hard to take) or some ridiculous outcropping of ideas, this is an interesting and well written book. It ranks with the best of them.
It was Janet Perry who got me started reading these, this time. When I mentioned the crummy ones I had read, she steered me to some good ones and got me going again.
I found this amazon.com review that mentioned a few authors (of course out of print) who might be “up there” with Georgette Heyer. I have had to order the books used and I am just beginning to receive them, I will keep you posted.
TV, hmmm movies…..well, now don’t laugh. I bought the first 4 seasons of the old Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. I am having a blast with them.
hanging pictures
Ok, I am all unpacked including a feat worthy of Hercules, the garage with ALL Keith’s junk (every guy needs an air-compressor taller then I am and a tool for anything and everything that might, could possibly happen or break)
I am almost finished hanging my pictures, so now I feel like I am *home*.
My tenants belong in the special hell they put people who need to put major wall anchors behind every single thing they hang. I have uncounted large holes all over my walls, some in some very odd spots.
It is going to take us some serious patching and touching up to fill them all.
More grousing, the Mrs. of my tenant couple swore to me she would take care of my large potted pool patio plants in return for my leaving her the wrought iron bench and plants at my front door and some of my patio furniture.
She fulfilled this promise moving the plants all outside the pool patio and shoving them in some very thick and tall palm shrubs surrounding the pool.
Many of them did not survive and those that did are not in great shape. I know these are minor details next to paying the rent etc but….I can’t help feeling this way.
I have done zero NewNeedlepoint.com work. I have 30+ plus new books to list and stitching to do on the *cubes* Bargello I am working on.
But the sad truth is I am so tired I don’t feel like doing anything. It has hit me hard that I am not so young anymore. We have moved 3 times in the last 18 months and this last time was a killer.
So, what else am I doing? Not much. I am not watching many movies, mostly I am finishing this move and reading.
I am reading an *off my beaten path* book right now. It is The Green Man by the famous and very erudite writer Kingsley Amis (the father of the famous Martin Amis).
It is a ghost story, but so very different. In the 70’s the BBC made a movie of the novel, which is only available in VHS (yes, I have it). The BBC production stays close to the story, which is amazing enough. It stars Albert Finney as Maurice Allingham and he is very Maurice Allingham. I wish they made more movies like this.
Anyway, I always prefer to read the book first but that is a done deal here. There is, of course, much more depth to the book than the movie but BBC does do it “proud” if you know what I mean.
There is a wonderful bit where Maurice “moves heaven & earth” to get his wife and his mistress into a three-some with him. He plans and plots and finally it happens but instead of his fantasy, both of them focused on him, they are not interested in him at all. He pours them champagne and makes a graceful exit. It is his perfect karmic reward.
I am waiting for the NewNeedlepoint.com spark to come back and once again obsess me. I need to get on with my life, my regular life that is not packing or unpacking, arranging or unarranging.
My son, the chef, is coming down to Florida to say with us for a week. It is not entirely to see his beloved parents. His stuff is still in storage down here, he has an apartment now in the very chic North End of Boston and wants to move his stuff.
Still, the meeting with the movers will only take a few hours and he is staying a week. He is looking forward to some (relatively) warm weather and to driving my Dad’s Jaguar XK8 sports car while he is here. (my Dad rarely drives it anymore, at 86 he can’t easily get in & out of it. The car is the plaything of his grandchildren who visit)
So, I know this is a pitiful excuse for a needlepoint blog. I think I need (another) nap.
How can I possibly be this tired & sore, in my mind and heart I am still 15.
I’m Back
Wednesday February 10th 2010, 12:17 am
Filed under:
Uncategorized Ok, here I am again. After a nightmare move I am home and glad to be. The move was a disaster. In case anyone wants to hear this, the following is my latest moving adventure.
(if you are not interested, skip ahead).
I hired this moving company that had no complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau (that is a biggie in FL, some have many).
We agreed on 3 men & 2 trucks (their trucks were not semis) and a reasonable price.
On the morning of the move they showed up with 2 men and 1 truck. I took one look at the truck and said all my stuff would not fit.
Oh no, they said. We are expert loaders. It will fit.
Now, you know I have moved a lot. I know how much space my stuff takes up in a truck very well.
Well these guys started taking my stuff apart. I did not see what they were doing, at first. I was busy filling the wardrobe boxes they brought us to use (not nearly enough).
They took apart things that should not have been ever taken apart. They left screws and parts on the floor after taking them apart, that I found when vacuuming (and added to the *parts box*).
I was having a fit. I kept insisting the stuff would not fit. They kept swearing it would and Keith took their side. He said that we hired *professionals* and that they knew their business and to let them do it.
MEN!
So, this went on all day. They piled my stuff as high as the truck’s roof, things on top of things. Forget fragile, as if they cared.
I am so glad K & I took my really delicate things over to my folks house in the weeks before the move.
So, finally it is 5pm. They have 1 foot of floor space left along the back of the truck. My stuff is jammed in, all dissembled and piled high.
I went outside and said, “what now? ” AND THE ******* MOVER SAID, THERE IS NOT MUCH LEFT, WE WILL FIT IT IN.
That is when I freaked out. I walked them through the house & garage and showed them how much was left. Finally the other mover said I was right, there was too much.
They came up with this *brilliant plan*. They would drive it all over to my house that night and unload, instead of waiting till the next morning to unload, then come back for more. We would not be there for the 2nd load, we would be at our own house on the other coast. They would empty and close up the house for us.
That was not possible, My own house is in a gated community, they could not come in to unload until 8am.
So, they met us at 8 am & unloaded. I told them Keith would put back together everything they took apart ( I did not say and do a better job) and to head back.
They did, & loaded the rest. ( I was nervous the landlord would come in & see that stuff left and claim it as “abandoned” as was his right in the lease. I told him we would be out by the 2nd.)
Then they unloaded the rest on Thursday morning. I was not there for the final loading, I cleaned the house as they emptied rooms but I was not there to finish plus they left the 3 dozen donuts on the counter to rot (K HAD to buy them for them. They maybe ate 3, K ate a dozen, I resisted but it was not easy)
It is a good thing I was not going to get a deposit refund from the landlord. I would not have been paid it.
So, let’s see. This was Tuesday. Wednesday Afternoon my parents decided they would *drop in* to see how it was going. I called them back hysterical and asked them to wait.
Our mail forwarding is not working, I used the on-line system for the first time about 4 days before the move. They were still delivering mail to my rented house they day we left.
The local postmaster helped and put an emergency stop on the deliveries. They will include the held mail in the forward, which will start in 10 business days (on line delay) after I submitted the change, instead of right away if I had just done it the old way.
I have unpacked, there is a lot of small damage to my stuff. Dents and scratches, nothing I can file a claim about, yet.
Wow, so back to NewNeedlepoint.com. I took delivery of lots of new books during the move (I had them sent to my folks house).
When I finally settle down, I have 30+ books to list.
I am tired, the whole process was difficult and it should not have been.
Ms. Obsessive (me) was all packed, organized and ready for the movers, this should have gone well.
I have put nn.com away in my new “office”. It is the guest room, my house has more square feet of room in it than the rental houses did but less rooms. The guest room is smaller then either of my rental house offices was but thanks to California Closets and my own organizational abilities (toot toot) it all fits in and works.
I am a huge believer in *fitted* closets. I think every dollar used to do this kind of work is money well spent.
I have a huge DVD movie collection ( superior chick flicks and amazing classic movies) that was a real pain to store. I also had a angled blank wall in one of the master bedroom closets.
I got the closet guys and told him what I wanted.
He said “no way”. I showed him how 5 inch wide shelves, exactly fitted to DVDs or paperback books would indeed fit on the wall with room for the door to swing all the way open. I also added a tower of drawers and deep shelves behind the closet door where there had just been one lonely rack for hanging clothes.
Now my whole DVD collection is floor to ceiling in my closet and taking up no room where anything else could be hung.
So, tonight’s blog is basically about what a organizational and planning genius I am. I know this is fairly unbearable but I deserve it, after what I have been through.
So, indulge me, I will be over this soon enough (like tomorrow, when faced with the day’s disaster de jour)
Good To Go
OK, I am 98% packed. The last things are the things we need until the last minute we live here.
I did this mostly myself. Keith was pretty much useless. He stopped working a week ago yesterday but mostly all he did this week was sit and play games on Facesbook (farmville & mafia wars) or run errands for me.
Today, I (verbally) kicked butt and made him finish packing the kitchen with me. I am not sorry to be leaving Apollo Beach/Tampa. I was out-of-place here, and *they* made sure I knew it.
People always asked me if I was from England (I speak nicely, enunciate, know a lot of words that are mostly useless). I would tell them “No, I’m from Boston”. It might as well have been England.
There are many definitions, many and varied types of behavior that get a woman considered a *bitch*. Around here, not dressing, talking, thinking and doing business the customary and usual way is enough to earn one the title.
I recently saw a picture of the author Jackie Collins (not one of my favorites but I have a healthy respect for accomplishment) in a short interview in Vanity Fair magazine. She was wearing a belt with the word “bitch” spelled out in diamonds on the buckle. It worked for me.
It is amazing to me that areas of Florida can be so very different from each other. On the east coast of Florida I am unremarkable, to the extreme. Here, not so.
Oh well. I am going home.
I have been on Facebook some today, it is not a place I spend a lot of time. I go there to keep in touch with Keith’s family (who are all there in all their glory) and to market NewNeedlepoint.com.
Most of my “friends” there are either family or in the on-line needlepoint community. I respond yes to most friend requests and suggestions from within the needlepointers.
There were 2 of them who were particularly pesky however. One, Wendy Stevens, who I don’t know except on facebook would send me suggestions of people I should “friend” quite often. Oddly, they were people who had few friends already and none within my “facebook communities”. These were mostly harmless.
Then there is Gloria Vaughn Morgan. I have no idea who or what she is but almost daily I would get these emails through the facebook system from her, telling me to join this group, join that group, become a “fan” of this or that.
They were endless. I began, however foolishly, to resent what I started thinking of a “cyber pushiness” or even “cyber bullying”.
Some were harmless, some were outside my “areas”. I had a whole week of repeated requests to join an Embroidery Group (and me a hard core needlepointer).
So, this evening, after packing, packing, packing I sat down here to check my email and there she was again, with another group.
I sent her a message through facebook asking her why she was doing this. I told her that I, like her, was more then capable of making my own “group” decisions without her guidance.
Ohhhh, she de-friended me. I am devastated!
What else. I sold more books this past week and I sold the Laurel Burch Butterfly Dogs canvas alone today.
The canvases and kits are packed but accessible, I will ship it Monday.
My web site checkout process messed up AGAIN with this order.
Remember how it did not collect International Shipping from the customer in Australia?
Today it collected $15.00 international Shipping from a customer in Arizona (last time I checked they were still in the USA).
I have an email in to poor put-upon Zac about this but I will not be back on-line until Thursday.
Want to put some money on how much I have unpacked between Wednesday morning (when our stuff get unloaded) and Thursday between 8 and 11am when the Comcast guy is expected?
Anyone?
I thought not.
Want to hear something nice? Jack the Cat is not welcome to spend the night Tuesday night at my mother’s house. He is not a good traveler (understatement alert) and she is concerned he will have a puke-a-thon on her carpets (the only woman in S. Florida with wall to wall carpet in the entire house). I can’t blame her on this one.
So, Jack was going to spend the night at our own house, but empty of furniture. I was going to bring his binkie and his food bowls and such but still. I was concerned he would be traumatized by the long ride and then being alone in an empty house all night.
He is a people cat, I doubt he knows he is a cat, really, except that he knows he is superior to us but must ask us cretins for food, to get it.
So Keith is going to drop me at my mother’s and go back and spend the night with Jack the Cat in the empty house. He is going to make a nest for them in quilts, on the bedroom carpet. (I do not have wall to wall in my whole house).
Isn’t that nice of Keith?
boxed in
Anything I might need is in a box already. No matter what I think of doing, it is already packed. I am getting close.
I am at the last of the 2nd (intermediate) layer of packing. That is the stuff you use, just not every day. The last (crucial) layer will be packed Sunday & Monday (or Saturday & Monday, see below).
I am seriously thinking of going to a nice hotel Sunday night. Take the day off Sunday, driving somewhere nice and spending the night at a hotel.
It has become impossible to relax here. I woke at 4am this morning and started working, changing addresses on-line. I can’t use the tape gun when Keith is asleep, it wakes him up.
Getting back to needlepoint, however briefly, I heard something amazing this week. The nice lady at Comcast who helped me set up my internet access, phone and cable TV was named Yasmin (I keep running into these lovely names, they makes me dislike being named clunky ole “marianne”).
Anyway Yasmin gave me a wonderful and easy phone number. I told her I was old & stupid and needed an easy phone number (I have used that line before). When she stopped laughing she gave me a pip of a number. She asked what my internet business was, I told her (briefly). Yasmin told me there is a lady in her office who does needlepoint. She takes a plain canvas and stitches it without any pattern, graph or design either on the canvas or on paper.
At first I thought she was talking about Bargello Needlepoint or TrianglePoint or something like that.
I asked her where the canvases graphic designs or “pictures”? She said pictures. Someone out there is stitching detailed pictures on bare canvas with no direction or pre-plan.
I think that is amazing. I can’t even imagine being able to do that, beyond a graphic of some sort. I wish I knew who she was.
Something odd is happening to me as I pack. It somehow seems as if I don’t have quite as much stuff as I did when I moved here 6 months ago. Less than when I first moved to Apollo Beach in November 2008.
How can this be? The biggest room so far has been my office, by far.
It eclipses all my books or my closet (a biggie, that). I have 17 boxes of *office* plus 4 *mini-wardrobe* boxes with my drawn & painted canvases hung up in them with the bags of threads in the bottom, each marked which canvas it belongs to.
In my original move here, I forgot to mark the kit bags with which canvas it went with. Placing them was a hard task, when I unpacked.
I did not know I was getting these *mini wardrobe boxes*. The mover is lending me wardrobe boxes for our clothes and mattress boxes for the mattresses. They seem to be nice guys…so far.
I bought my boxes from Home Depot instead of the UPS store this time. The 4 *mini wardrobes* were part of the set. They cost a lot less but now I know why.
They are all recycled paper, which is good, but they do not seem to be well made. I distrust the side seams, I have taped these seams on any box packed with anything heavy.
I bought the XL packing kit, it came with a good number of boxes, a pitiful amount of bubble wrap and a few slabs of paper (to wrap stuff in) plus nasty tape I can break just by pulling on it.
While I do not recommend moving to anyone, if you do, don’t buy the Home Depot packing kit.
So, where shall we go Sunday & Sunday night? St Augustine is too far, I work hard to avoid Orlando and the theme parks. Key West is way too far.
There is the Seminole Casino & their great hotel but It is dangerous to stay there too long. A few hours & $50.00. sure but overnight and my wallet?
YIKES, maybe not.
I wonder how far Amelia Island is? Someone told me it was sort of a kind of pseudo Key West.
I wonder.
International Shipping Redux
I forgot to tell you the final settlement of my International Shipping Dilemma.
After I recovered from the shock of one book to Australia costing $19.00 I knew I had to make sweeping changes. (still? again?)
So, Now all the Needlepoint Stuff on NewNeedlepoint.com is a $15.00 flat fee to ship internationally. No matter how much you order, $15.00.
There was no way Zac & I could figure out to separate some of the small tools, so if you order 1 Bent Tip Needle Laying Tool it will cost $15.00 to ship internationally. I figure that is enough of a deterrent.
Then again, if you order the Bent Tip Needle Laying Tool with a DMC color card and a Needlepoint Kit, it is still $15.00.
I hope this works out Ok.
Then Zac & I were faced with the book dilemma. We can’t do a flat fee. If it was based on shipping 1 book it would be unfair to me if someone ordered more then 1.
If it was based on more then 1 book, it would be unfair to someone who bought just 1.
Then Zac (my wonderful Tech) suggested we do it by the number of books bought. Incredulous, I asked if we could do that. Yes, we can.
Now it is $12.00 per book to ship internationally. This will be to low if it is Australia, too high if it is Canada (maybe) but in the end it will balance out (I hope).
So, are you as bored by International Shipping as I am?
The packing goes on. I sent Keith to pack the guest room today. He packed 1 box of DVDs and he did it wrong.
moving hint from marianne the Packing Queen. “It is bad to over fill the boxes, then the movers can’t safely stack them on the dollys for the trips to the truck and back.”
“Boxes fall when they are not stacked well and things get broken”.
Anyway, that was all he packed today (and I have to re-pack it)
It’s OK. I can do this.
The Tape Gun & Me
I am a good Doo-Bee (anyone besides me old enough to remember Romper Room on TV with Miss Jean?).
I paid bills this morning. Good Dog. I packed all my wools and my #8 floss in 5, 18 X 18 X 25 inch boxes (with 4 colors left over) I sold another book.
A needlepoint Gallery of Patterns From the Past by Phyllis Kluge
I am selling a lot of books, my huge new order is waiting for me at my folks house on the other coast.
I packed the contents of the shelves in my office. My cookbooks (I am a terrible cook), all my own Needlepoint and Bargello Books (2.5 12 X 12 X 16 boxes all by themselves) and most of all the other stuff from the shelves. The total for just the book shelves in just my office is 6, 12 X 12 X 16 inch boxes.
I have a set of 2 big sort of Mission Style natural cherry wood glass front bookcases in my living room (the room that is hardly ever used, a wasted space IMO but my mother maintains a major, industrial strength Jones about how everyone has to have a formal LR).
Keith packed 10, 12 X 12 X 16 inch boxes of books from there (and not much else, so far).
I am nuts. I can prove this to you by telling you I wash everything from my kitchen before I pack it. I will wash it again when I unpack it. I am nuts.
1 still have the 24 drawers of 10 boxes per drawer (a box is 12 skeins but most of the slots have more then 10 shoved in them) of the DMC #5 to pack.
If there was a Tape Gun Competition I would win. I am The Master Taper.
Off and on all day I read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I began it last night but only got 2 chapters in before I fell asleep.
I read and read today. Anytime I took a break I read. I read it at breakfast, at lunch. I finished packing at about 4pm. I read it until 9.00P when I finished it.
It is a excellent book. I have to admit, it dragged a bit in the middle but it picked up it’s pace again and I read on.
The amazing thing about this book is it is all true. It happened to Jeannette Walls and her family. It is believable, no matter how far it went, I could see how it can have been.
It struck me (like a freight train) that I have more then a little of Rose Mary Walls, the mother, in me. She is not a villain, there is no real bad guy in the book, not really.
She has written another book, recently published (The Glass Castle is several years old, I actually found it reading the review for this new one).
It is called Half Broke Horses. She calls it a True-Life Novel. The book is about her grandmother’s life, her mother’s mother. She sounds like a real pip (for lack of a better word).
Tomorrow I take another stab at establishing the utilities at home. I am at “point non plus” on this. I must get this done and I can’t let anyone stop me, even if she is named Maybelline.
It is my current wish (or wishes) that my excellent customers would buy more then my excellent books on NewNeedlepoint.com (HA! bet you thought I wouldn’t get the link in) and that I never have to move again.
Stitch Books & Blather
I am packing, packing, packing. I did not leave the kitchen for last, so that I will be up the whole night before the move finishing it, like last time.
It is going well. Keith is a help but I can’t let him pack anything that requires more then putting in a box. He packs the way most men do the dishes, do the absolute minimum and never think to wipe down the counters, clean out the sink or rinse & squeeze the sponge. Still, it is easier then doing it all by myself.
I am expecting the New Stirling Tote bags and accessories any moment. They are being delivered to my folks house. (smart of me, I have my moments).
I need to go through all my canvases to see which of them might fit into the the openings of the things I have ordered.
These items are all made of Leather. I have the large tote bags coming, a wallet, several checkbook covers, an accessory case and key fobs. I know I have nothing to fit the wallet, check book covers or key fobs.
We are not packing the plain canvases & paints till last, Keith hopes to do a few this week, when I am not slave driving him to pack.
Dr Denise, my intrepid and wonderful stitcher friend is stitching my Ballet Bear canvas. That is the one with the wonderful bear in a tutu dancing with a quote from Katherine Hepburn ” If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun”
I asked her to use some fancy stitches on him, I want to do a stitch guide for him, but she did not want to choose them herself. I sent her some printouts from the Stitch-opedia web site and a book of stitches.
I wanted to send her something, I am so grateful for the work she is doing for me. She says she is enjoying herself stitching. Anything I offer her she refuses, so I just sent this without asking.
.
I sent her my copy of Hope Hanley’s 101 Needlepoint Stitches and How To Use Them.
This got me thinking about the basic Needlepoint Stitch Books out there so I thought I would, in my own warped and opinionated way, review them.
There are many wonderful needlepoint stitch books out there. My first ever was Lucinda Ganderton’s Stitch Sampler. It has just a few basic needlepoint stitches, most of the book is embroidery stitches, but they are all clear and easy to learn. This book is still in print, which is why I do not sell it on NewNeedlepoint.com (had to get the link in here somewhere)
I am not critiquing the educational value of these books, just the stitches shown, how *user friendly* they are etc. If I was doing teaching books, it would be all about The New York Times Book of Needlepoint by Elaine Salter.
I am also not doing Bargello books…yet. Tonight is needlepoint.
Hope Hanley’s book was my second. It is not the biggest, and sometimes the stitch directions can be a little confusing but it is , overall, a great book with the added advantage of showing each stitch stitched. The pictures of the stitched stitches in Ms Hanley’s book are quite clear. This makes it much easier to choose a stitch to stitch.
Next up are the 2 other “classics”. Jo Ippolito Christian’s book, The Needlepoint Book which is subtitled A Complete Update of the Classic Guide, is not a book I use. I find it difficult to “get around” in it, the stitches hard to follow and her instructions not always clear. Still, it is a famous and indeed a classic book so I will not diss it. Since most people like this book the problem here could be me.
I will however say “poo” to The Complete Needlepoint Guide 400+ Needlepoint Stitches by Susan Sturgeon-Roberts. It is, to me anyway, a useless book. The pictures are dark, there is no picture of the stitches stitched. The charts are not very clear. There are so many much better needlepoint stitch books out there.
I am not familiar with either The Needlepoint Book:303 stitches with patterns & prijects by James T. Long and Lynn Lucas Jones or Susan Higgenson’s Needlepoint Stitches: 52 Stitches Explained and Illustrated (good name for a book however), so I will not mention them.
Now, we are getting into books I sell on my web site. I am not promoting them because I sell them. I sell them because they are good and useful books.
My forte is hard-to-find books, after all.
Carolyn Ambuter’s Complete Book of Needlepoint says it is the “most comprehensive, easiest to use dictionary of stitches ever complied” and I will not argue with her. It is a big book with heavy paper covers and a spiral binding which always makes a book easier to use. You open it to a page and it stays open. I like that.
The instruction part of the books is good. It includes an important page on Shading & Blending. few books mention that hard to learn topic.
There are color pictures of the stitches used in pillows and such salted all through the book.
She divides the stitches in to types. The first section is Slanting Stitches. There are 29 of them.
Side note, I often find it confusing to find the stitch I want in a stitch book, they seem to be there in a random order or maybe the order is beyond me, that is possible. Putting the stitches in these categories makes them easier to find.
Next is Straight Stitches. There are 10 of them. Then Cross Stitches, 14 of them. Then Tied and Looped Stitches. 12 of them, I did not realize there were so many Tied and Looped Stitches.
The book finishes with an Alphabet Sampler, with each letter graphed out using Parisian Stitch, Scottish Stitch and Shell Stitch. Each is shown stitched in full color.
The book goes into lots of detail, it has hints, ideas and even a few projects.
These 65 stitches take 92 pages to show and describe. They are indeed clear & complete.
The Book of Needlepoint Stitches by Susan Higgenson is a small English hard cover book. I do not know if it has any relation to the American version of Susan Higgenson’s Needlepoint Stitches book mentioned above.
I bought this to sell on NewNeedlepoint.com but snagged it for myself. It is terrific. and the right size to slip into my needlepoint tote bag de jour, to take anywhere with me.
I am trying to get another to sell.
The last book I am talking about tonight is Mary Rhodes Dictionary of Canvas Work Stitches.
This is another needlepoint book that was published in England. This book is the Larousse Gastronomique of Needlepoint Books. These are not your everyday stitches. This is a book for the most experienced and able stitchers.
These are stitches here I have never even heard of and would never (ever) try. The are advanced and then some.
Gate Stitch
Ghiordes Knot
Indian Stitch
Interlocking Leaf
Cross Plus Two
Cornered Chain
Coral Knot
Italian Two Sided
Lattice Square-Twisted
Quodlibet
Rhodes Half Half-Drop (I am not kidding)
Rococco Square
Rose & Rose Overlapped
Wheatsheaf
Woven Eye
These are just some as I leafed through the book. There are some “regular* stitches in among these but this book is amazing.
There is a picture of Ms. Rhodes on the back dust cover of this book. She looks like she know her stuff.
So, this encompasses my limited knowledge of Needlepoint Stitch Books.
I am curious now about the Susuan Higgenson Book, the current US version. I think I will order it after I move. In the name of research, of course, not acquisitive mania, not me.
I have probably mentioned before I get the New York Times delivered here every day. It took me many months and the help of a supervisor in the Home Delivery Dept at the NY Times to get me this paper and I pay an obscene amount for it.
It seems no one else in Apollo Beach (or Ruskin either, we share a zip code with them) takes this paper. Needless to say, I tip my delivery person lavishly.
The local paper is scary. It is almost as if they were kidding, publishing a newspaper this narrow, biased and foolish, but they are not.
Please understand, I am no intellectual. I am moderately smart and medium aware but the Tampa Tribune? Oh my.
I keep and read the book review section. I took a break from my Georgette Heyer and Barbara Pym reading hole (or maybe I should call it a reading valley) I think I was stopped short by finishing Georgette Heyer’s A Civil Contract, which is my #2 favorite. I have read it umpteen times still…….
So got a copy of a book I saw reviewed in the Times book section. It is called Glass Castles by Jeanette Walls.
It is not fiction, the currently popular genre of books is memoirs. She describes being raised by her *free spirit* parents. I am only on the second chapter but so far, I am riveted.
I was a young adult in the 60’s & 70’s. I knew many people who raised their children in *alternative* ways. There were many ways to be different, may alternative choices. (I suppose there still are but somehow it seems different now)
I have wondered how it was for these kids, how they turned out.
It may be that Jeanette Walls experience was extreme, then again maybe not.
We watched the movie The Invention of Lying last night. It was great. It was funny, it was topical and it said something (as opposed to the many movies that say absolutely nothing as loud or as lavish as they can).
I recommend it. It is just out on Request/Pay-Per-View. In fact I triple recommend it. Maybe even quadruple.
Reality
I am not much into New Years resolutions. My only one is to try to live more in reality this year and less in marianneland.
marianneland is a lovely place to live, everything there is as it should be and things always turnout for the best. Even if they seem to be troublesome or difficult, in the end they are better or best.
Keith invented marianneland years ago. I told him I did not mind living in New England, that I did not mind the cold (actually, that is true. I used to walk outdoors year round, as long as the ground was not icy) as much as I dislike the heat (7 months a year here are too hot to walk outdoors, I wilt and fall over like a dead flower).
He said living in the northeast was easy for me, since I live in marianneland, where if it is bad out I do not have to go ut and if I am cold I turn up the heat.
So, I have been beating him up with marianneland ever since. It always makes us laugh.
I have been unrealistic about NewNeedlepoint.com.
I expected too much, too soon. A former friend once told me I was “inappropriate and I expected too much”. She meant it to hurt me, I have since made it my motto.
One of the things that has been brought home to me is how unrealistic my entire view of the world is. I suppose I do not live in the same reality as most people. I can’t really explain why or how this is. No one reading this blog wants to read THAT much reality from me, I am sure of this.
So, into another year. I am going to offer international shipping. it is going to cost more. It is going to cost what it costs me.
It ended up costing me $19.00 to ship 1 book to Australia.
I am going to continue offering free shipping, I am going to sweat out how long it may take for some of the more expensive canvases and kits to sell.
That is reality. I do not want to become a cut-rate needlepoint store or only buy canvases for re-sell below a certain price point. That is not me or what I want NewNeedlepoint to be.
So, what can I tell you? Things on my web site are priced to sell at a profit, but well below the accepted 100% profit.
AWK, enough of this stuff. I have moving stories for you.
The tape gun is one of the finest tools ever invented. I give it a 5 out of 5 possible stars. I am a whizz with a tape gun.
I spent yesterday dealing with turning utilities off here and on there. This is time consuming and often frustrating.
I remind myself that it is real people on the other end of each call. I find if I can get them laughing, it goes very well.
One lady at Comcast was named Maybelline. When she said it at the beginning of the call, I could not believe it. I interrupted her “script” and asked her if I heard right. She said yes, I said her parents must be music fans and told her how much I liked her name. And I do, very much.
Many of these utility changes I can’t do until my tenants make the *turn off* arrangements. I hope they are not last minute people. That will drive me nuts, major nuts.
I have discovered no matter how much bubble wrap you buy, it is not enough and Jack The Cat does not find it amusing when I step on the bubbles to make them *pop*.
I just placed a huge new book order. Some replacements and some completely new. I keep finding these books. All I see is the title and author’s name when I order them but some of them sound just wonderful.
Those will probably be the worst and the not so special sounding books will be the terrific ones. (that would be typical of marianneland)
I have some really new, news. Patt, of Patt & Lee Designs just came back from the big TNNA show in Long Beach, California talking about the “hit of the show”, these great Stirling Tote bags and accessories.
They are designed so you can stitch almost any needlepoint (or cross stitch or embroidery) design you like on something sized to fit in the slot.
The bags are called *Self Finishing*. Each item has a self-stick board that you attach you needlework too and put it into the slot on the bag.
These can be changed, as well. I jumped on it and found the distributor, placed an order. I ordered tote bags, accessory kits, key chains, wallets & wallet covers.
I got these pictures from the Stirling Web Site
I should have them very soon, I will list them as soon as I move & unpack.
I bet I list them well before I am all unpacked.
Back to packing.