The 'bent Needle

...of the so called "Drunken Santa". See? I TOLD you I would post a pic... And, I finally figured out -with an almost audible forehead slap- why come for I wasn't able to get this pic off of the camera: I forgot that I have to turn the camera on in order to get a pic off of it. Grrr... Oh well, I guess I need to remember and relearn somehow or the other.


Please excuse the apparent brightness of the pic. I am stitching with white floss on a light colored fabric and, as I am sure you might guess, it isn't the easiest thing to see; not even for me and I am the one doing the stitching. Well... It seemed like a good idea to stitch a pattern that Lili sent me on a piece of the fabric that she sent me too. That and the fact that I sooo love the 'fiddler cloth' -I think that is what you call it- type fabric. (Please correct me if I am wrong, Lili.)

I would have posted this sooner -once I remembered how to get the pic, of course- but have been too busy figuring out how best to take pics with my new cam (distances of more than a meter, that is the key) as well as doing the GiftMess thing with Kim's folks. It has been a good, albiet long, day todagh, The Project that Gary Schneider is working on is an inspiration, let me tell ya! (106,000 stitches on 26ct linen... YIKES!) "Someday... But not today..." I heard that in the movie "The Gladiator" starring Russell Crowe. Good flick.

And lastly, I just want to once again assure you all that I have not forgotten about The Red Bicycle. I just happened to set the preprations aside in order to do the Santa, that's all... ;-) My plan/goal is to start on it after the beginning of 2006. That way, I will have a good idea as to how many monthes it will take me to get it done. Befoer summer, I hope... jk

Okay... I have typed up too much space as it is with this post so I am going to go and let someone else hog the 'net for a while. Special thanks to Kim's mom for allowing me to use her computer to post this post. (Take a much deserved bow, Mom In Law...) Now, off to look at other stuff and maybe just maybe go to sleep too.

Chat with all and sundry soon if not sooner!

...I am going to try and make this post one more time. If it doesn't pan out, I am just going to not post under this title...

Anyway... yesterday I was able to leave work an hour early (something of a GiftMess gift from one of the Big Bosses). I decided to take my father some chilli that I had made for our GiftMess Food Day. Once I had left it there, I decided that on my way out of town I would look up the new location of my friend's massage school. Needless to say, I was amazed that it was in the location that it was in! (I am familiar with the area.) But that wasn't the half of it! Once I got inside and spoke with the receptionist, I was surprised to see MY COUSIN! Major shocker, there folks. It turned out that cuz was in the early stages of the program. Good job, cuz!

After the 'reunion', I was shown around the rest of the New Place for the School. Remember how I said that I was amazed at the location? Well, that wasn't the half of it. THIS NEW LOCATION IS HUGE... Well, relatively speaking of course. It is at least twice as big -maybe more- in size from the previous location. And spacious? OMG!!! Suffice it to say that I think P made out like a bandit with this place. Ask Kim: if I can't find words to describe something, I AM IMPRESSED! Whoa...

Ahem... Sorry... I got a little bit emotional there. Won't happen again. (I hope...)

Okay... Enough of that. Back to stitching stuff. Well... Maybe not. I am afraid to say that the nifty camera that Kim got for me for GiftMess is not necessarily made for close up pic taking. In fact, the owner's manual says that the best pics occur when the pic taker is about 3 feet (1 meter for my International Fans) away from the thing to be pictured. ...orsomethinglikethat... ;-) I can say that I do -finally- have a picture of the Santa. Unfortunately, it is currently being held captive in the other camera. Darn it. And I was sooo wanting to show Lili my progress on it too. However... If I can find a way to pry the pic out, I will make a point of posting it. HONEST! REALLY!! FOR TRUE TOO!!! (you believe me, right?!?) Keep you fingers crossed, folks. ;-)

Did you hear that? That thunking noise you just heard was the sound of my word bucket hitting the floor after running empty. (2 hours of working on a post can do that...) Anyway... I will let you all get back to whatever you were doing before you started reading this post and I am going to go to bed. Long weekend coming up and I may need my energy reserves to keep ahead of Kim and her kin. Just kidding... I enjoy going to their house. VERY relaxing...

Okay, see you next time.
Happy stitchy and happy holidays too!

...I just post like I am. ;-p

Sorry for the apparent lack of posting motivation, but things have been VERY busy at work and by the time I have been getting home I am in almost no frame of mind to do... well... just about anything. But fear not! The big chunks of work are all done now and I should be able to concentrate on the more impoertant things: like stitching and posting! (Not that I post or stitch at work... well... maybe on my breaks and lunch...) I am making good progress on Santa though and should be able to post a pic in the next day or so. Of course, I will have to post a pic: it will give me a chance to try out the new camera that Kim got me for GiftMess. (Nothing fancy, but just enough to take post pics.)

But first... I better go and start the long drive to the end of the day. I will do my bestest to get some pics to you all tonight. Until then, happy stitchy and be safe!

(...one of these days, I will learn to keep my mouth shut...)

I just want to go on record and say that I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE IN THE ARMED FORCES FIGHTING AGAINST TERRORISM. I know folks who are or were in the military and I really appreciate the sacrifices that they make. I fully realise that they are over there doing a job so that I can do what I do; like have my own opinion.

In other news: I have decided to put my wolf project on hold for the time being. (It just isn't doing anything for me, for some reason...) Therefore, I have decided to do a quick little project that Lili sent Kim and I lately. (Remember the 'Drunken Santa', Lili?) She also sent us some more fabric so that is what Santa is going onto. It should look really nice once it is done. Thanks again, Lili! (Progress pictures to follow...)

Is it that time already?!? Looks like I better get a move on so that Kim and I can go do GiftMess (Christmas, in most parts of the world) with my father. Have a good day and I will get all chatty with y' all later on!

:-)

Per a comment in my response to lilli, I thought I would make a post in regards to what it is like to be a guy who cross stitches.

Well, what can I say? After the initial worry that I would be kicked out of The Guy's Club (not that I was much of a member to begin with), it wasn't all that bad. ;-) But seriously, it wasn't really that much of a stretch for me; once I decided to give it a try.

I have always been what some might call an 'artsy type' of person, although I will be the first to admit that I am not a practicing artsy. Umm... yeah... somethinglikethat... Anyway, I was one of those folks who did fairly well in art class while in school. I have a fairly active imagination that has been relatively inactive of late.

Enter my darling wife Kim. (Take a bow, sweetie...) About 2 years ago, she got back into cross stitching after a long hiatus. As I watched her stitch her projects, I became increasingly curious about this cross stitching thing. Needles to say, my curiosity got the better of me.

So one day when I was at Wal-Mart I happend to walk through the 'crafting supplies' section and saw that they had these inexpensive (less than $2.oo U.S.) small cross stitch projects. "Oh, what the heck..." I thought and bought My First Cross Stitch Project! It was a simple smiley face design (I like smiley faces!) that took me about a week to finish. You have to keep in mind that I was just starting out and was rather nervous about doing it 'the right way'. (I tend to be a perfectionist too, BTW...) It turned out pretty good and now adornes our refrigerator as a fridge magnet.

Since then, I have made many other projects and have been stitching happily ever since. Okay that has not always been true (look at the 'Newton's Law' project) but for the most part it has been pretty fun.

And believe it or not, I actually have a fair sized stash of my own. Without actually counting them, I can safely say that I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 dozen+ patterns that are 'mine'; or at least mine in the sense that I picked them out or asked Kim to get them for me. FYI: about half of them are small like the smiley face mentioned above. The other half are bigger, more complicated projects like the Calla Lillies that I just finished for Kim, as well as the soon to be started 'The Red Bicycle'. (I am itching to be stitching that, sotospeak...)

Well faithful readers, I am afraid that my wealth (overabundance?) of words has finally run out. That -coupled with the fact that it is now 10:00 p.m. CDT- means that I better shut The Machine here down and call it a night. I PROMISE that I will be starting on the red bike soon. REALLY! Honest and for true too. ;-)

Until then, keep your stitches crossed and your smiles smiling!

P.S.: Feel free to send me a note if there is anything else you might be curious about and I will be happy to reply. :-)

(With all due respects to Sally Fields, I just couldn't resist...)
WOW! That is about all I can really say. I didn't think that this blog thing would take off like it has (not that it has gone very far yet...) or have quite as many viewers as it has had! Totally and completely amazed. Thanks to all and everyone who has wandered by for a look see.

I still haven't gotten started on The Red Bicycle, but I am getting closer to starting. (Honest! Really!) Things are a little bit busy here, what with the holidays and the HUGE work load at work (...we are in our Busy Period and the machine I run has been acting up...) so I haven't taken much time to stitch. Yes, I do tend to have periods of laziness in my stitching life... ;-)

And now for a quick rant:
As I am sure all of you out there know, the U.S. has been over in Iraq fighting George's Dirty Little War (aka The Irag Conflict). Personally, I think it has been a bad idea since before the start but there is little that I can do but rant about it. Don't get me wrong. I am all for ousting dastardly dictators and bringing democracy to those with out it. But I still think that the whole Iraq thing was just a way for G.W. to make himself look good...

So needless to say, I was all "About damn time!" when I saw the following story on the Yahoo! news this a.m.:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

Basically, George admits that he (excuse me, we the U.S.) may have gone in there with bad intelligence. (That opens up a whole other rant and heckle, but I will leave that alone for a while...) Anyway... I just had to get that off my chest.

Well, the morning is slipping away from me so I better sign off for now. (Gotta go do that work thing after all...) Everybody have a good and safe day and I will chat at you all later!

:-)

LONG, LONG AGO

IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY ...


(...well, it wasn't that long ago and it was actually in the stash basket...)


Okay, so I am not George Lucas. But I really admire the way he can stitch together a tapestry of characters, places, and events into something like his Star Wars saga. And the fact that he has been working on it for nearly 30 years, is a true testament to perserverence!


So what does that have to do with red bikes, diaries, and stitching? Not much, really. But it seemed like a good transition from the Star Wars opening credits idea I had for the beginning of this post to the beginning of my chatting about My Next Big Project...

I think I may be getting the hang of this blog stuff. Or at least I am getting a bit of a handle on it... (Thanks muches and bunches go to my loving wife for the help with it all too!)

Anyway... I (finally) managed to find the blog that I have listed in my links tonight. It pertains to 2 things that I like to do but haven't done as much of as I would have liked to recently: bike touring and photography. I must say that I am more encouraged to ride this upcoming season after having seen Robert's pictures and I may even get into the habit of taking pics of the rides too. That is the plan at least. We will see what happens...)

Well, it is getting late -for me at least- so I better cut this short. I am hoping to get a post up in the next day or so to show my stitching stuff too, so be on the look out for that. Watch this space for the upcoming "The Red Bike Diaries" within the next couple of weeks or so too! (Trust me, it will make some sort of sense eventually...)

Until next time, keep your wheels true and your stitches crossed.
...orsomethinglikethat...

...I can. Post, that is. ;-) Just being a little bored here. Hope you are staying warm and toasty there!
Catch you later...

gC

...the blog was void and without form. ...orsomethinglikethat...

Anyway... welcome to my blog! I am planning on using this as a journal of not only my cross stitching but -hopefully- for my bicycling as well. Wish me luck.

But now, it is time to stop setting up and start getting ready for bed. Busy day tomorrow and all. Thanks for stopping by and see you next time I get a case of the ramblings!