hand eye crafts

Did April just SCREAM by for anybody else?  Man, oh man.

I knew somebody would come through on the Sade reference;  thank you, Twinster! There was a question about me continuing with the bulky snood.  I will.  It can't eat up too much time, big needles and all. On the other end of the needle spectrum, needlepoint. I've needlepointed off and on since middle school.  This was a gift, and came with the lady and the spoon already petit-pointed.  (It's the logo and design from the "Main Course" album.)  When it was finished, I made it into this pillow. Cross-stitch-wise: Scandinavian [Christmas?] horses. I can make pretty good progress on things as long as there aren't any, um, interruptions. It's apparently imperative that I know that his nap is over.

 All this sorting through and thinning out took me to a forgotten kit. The pattern is "Snood Operator," (You're humming  the Sade song, aren't you? Yeah, me, too. )  It's going to be big enough to wear as s snood, but I'm thinking of it as strictly a cowl. Bulky yarn is a favorite of mine, but I don't work with it often.  It's much too expensive, first of all, and knitting with jumbo needles is uncomfortable for me, second.  These are size 19, and no fun for me.  Sure, projects wrap up quickly when you use them, but I find them super awkward.

Sticking with the equine theme begun yesterday, this from AP --- mother and child, feral horses in Germany: The parents among us can easily imagine what Mama (watching what's happening in front of them with her right eye) is saying: "Don't be rude to these nice people;  smile!"

So, how many of us were up at 4:30 AM cutting out pictures of Secretariat --- show of hands? Oh.  Just me, then? I came across an old Secretariat calendar during my Box Purge, and couldn't let some of the photos go.  Secretariat sitting ?  Necessary.  Secretariat in snow?  Ultra, mega, super necessary.  This is the first time in a long time that Whatever Keeps Me Awake kept me awake.  But here I was, watching the second episode of the latest season of "Yellowjackets," trimming pictures, and wondering what to knit next.   The CPTSD work continues. There are actually two books I'm working through, meaning there are notes everywhere.  I'll have to funnel all of them down to take into therapy Wednesday.

We teachers love workbooks.  Some students do, too --- I remember phonics workbooks in elementary school got me so excited.  Them and handwriting tablets.  😊 ANYway, I have another workbook now. It's daunting, starting to pick parts of your life apart when there are 65 years of it to go through.  But, as my therapist says, you don't get to problems until you're capable of dealing with them.  This is where I am right now.

Happy TNT! When you have children, the cross-stitch projects you find yourself called upon to do involve character work.  Not the theater/acting kind.  This kind: Making Care Bears for my children led, inexorably, to me making a Brave Heart Lion for myself. These guys have been around this house for close to 30 years.  Truth be told, one or both of my children might still be actively involved in the TMNT fandom. "Cowabunga" sort of sums it all up.

 Missing Madeleine extra today. Don't know why;  I just am.

I came across these pieces the other day.  Done by my mother, of course. I always, always loved this, and wonder if she was holding it to give me one birthday or Christmas.  For you eagle-eyed stitchers: the polka dots on the little girl's outfit are white beads. This is the Bible passage I read before Mama's burial.  I had told her years before she died that that's what I was going to do.  Whether she had already made this, or did it and left it for me to find --- which was very her --- I don't know.

I'm  restless .  Nothing suits me.  Can't find a book that interests me.  My current knitting projects bore  me.  Cross-stitch is going badly.  There are only two more boxes left in the garage for me to go through.  Very aggravating.

 For part of this afternoon, I sat in my father's recliner knitting and listening (simultaneously) to Briton's  latest podcast episode  and Tap chewing on a beef rib bone.  It was nice. This came during a break from unpacking another box.  There are many things I'd like to share with people, but don't want it to turn into, "Have mercy, Kim.  We don't care about the baby shoes or the copies of "Rolling Stone" or the game you loved when you were 8." Too bad! Yoda candy dispenser.  (With hearth Yoda visible over my thumb.) Sam Elliott "The Golden Compass" figure.  I don't have a lot of action figures, but the ones I do have are prime.

 Therapy Day.  If any of you are, or have been, in therapy, you know that some sessions are better, deeper, more solid than others.  Today was a deep and solid session, and one I need to carry with me.

This afternoon, I was sorting through my nail polish, throwing away ones that had thickened.  It meant fewer bottles, and I thought, I can put these in something smaller --- maybe a box.  "I wonder if I've got one."   Boxes, boxes everywhere, and none are small enough. Most of the boxes are in the kitchen, but I have to be careful where I put them.  Riley has grown accustomed to a certain route through the kitchen, and new boxes have to be placed outside of it.