Elevensies

Anna over at Stitch Bitch posted these 11 questions, and since I have no stitching to share, I figured I'd make you all read my answers.

How many cross-stitch patterns do you own? (Insert evil cackle)
Oh, VERY funny.  Let's see.  I know my pattern database (hey, I'm a librarian -- of course I have things *mostly* organized!) has about 225 entries...but more than a few of those entries are for pamphlets with more than one pattern in them.  I also have about 1000 files in my "Freebie" thumb drive.  And then there is my full run of The Gift of Stitching and random issues of various other magazines, all my bound books, and a smattering of kits and chartpacks. 

Hmmm.  Is "lots" an answer???  LOL

What's your ideal stitching retreat?
A weekend in a solitary cabin in the Adirondacks with a lovely porch.  In the morning I'd sit on the porch - which would provide a bit of shade, of course - on a warm autumn day, sip some coffee with a ridiculous amount of flavored creamer in it, admire the gorgeous foliage on the mountainsides, listen to my "Wandering Gypsy Ren-Faire" Pandora station, and stitch my heart out.  By afternoon I might have burnt out a bit, so maybe I'd go exploring and have a sandwich on crusty homemade bread for lunch.  Then back to stitching.  For dinner I'd head out to a local restaurant or hole-in-the-wall diner and try some unique and local.  Back to the cabin, where I might stitch a teeny bit more before hopping into the jacuzzi tub with a good book.

Have you been or does it only exist in your head?
Only in my head.  I have been to Celebration of Needlework in NH three times now, and while that is nice for learning, shopping, and the camaraderie of other stitchers, this mom of a 2-year old would loooove a weekend of no schedules, no demands, and pretty leaves and flavored coffee.  :D

What are your favorite stitching tutorials? (Link please!)
I am always on the hunt for finishing tutorials, but I'm (in)famous for finding a finished product I like, reading the instructions, and then doing it my own way.  LOL  I do like some of Vonna's tips and tricks, though) - http://tts-learntofinish.blogspot.com/
I don't really have any favorite tutorials for actual stitching -- if I come across a stitch I'm unfamiliar with, I tend to rely on the pattern and the instructions that are usually included.  I like the diagrams provided by The Sweetheart Tree.  Cynthia Zittel (The Drawn Thread) also has nice stitch illustrations in her charts.

What is the smallest count fabric you've ever used?
I'm not a fan of tiny-count fabric.  I've used some 32-count, and that wasn't TOO bad, but not my favorite, either.  I have a project from Keslyn's (from a class I took at Celebration of Needlework) that uses 36-count, and while I did learn a lot in the class, the fabric still intimidates me.

What's your secret to keeping cool? (No really, what? It's going to be 102 tomorrow.)
I stay in my basement craft room with the dehumidifier running for as long as possible in the evening, while DH cranks up the little wall-unit A/C upstairs in the living room.

Have you found any cute crafts to use up leftover/unused floss from kits or other floss unsuitable for actual stitching?
Sadly, no.

Starting or finishing? (Not finish-finishing obviously.)
Ummm......yes?  I love the IDEA of starting new projects, but sometimes the whole process of picking fabric/pulling floss/getting started gets overwhelming.  Finishing makes me happy, because it feels like I've "used up" something from that giant pile of patterns!

Favorite DMC color?
I don't discriminate.  Although I think some of the bright oranges, greens and yellows are a weird.  (Until I see them stitched in an appropriate context!)

What other hobbies are undertaken in your household? (roommate, spouse, children, pets...)
I kind of dabble in scrapbooking and sewing.  Oh, and dollhouses.  DH plays video games (argh, I hate that and want him to have other hobbies, but he isn't interested).  Kidlet is 2, so her hobbies include destroying things and preventing the grown-ups in the house from pursuing their own hobbies.  Our dog sleeps.  The cat is mostly just angry.  Can righteous indignation be a hobby?

Do you ever make those recipes you tear out of magazines and stack in your kitchen?
I can rarely bring myself to tear the recipe out, so I have a stack of magazines (mostly Taste of Home and Cooking for 2).  Every now and again I take a few to Job #2 with me and pick out some things to try.  Of course, if they are good I'll inevitably forget to mark them or copy them into my little collection of "repeaters," so when I want to try them again I have to start the hunt all over.....

They might know me there...

A meme borrowed from Lee.  A list of the needlework shops I've visited - excluding chain stores like Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics, online shops, and places I've browsed on the shop floor at Celebrations.

In PA:
Stitchin' Stuff in Erie

In NY:
Expressions in Needleart in Canandaigua
The Village Sampler in Big Flats
a store somewhere near Buffalo that went out of business in 2006

And that's it.  I always check the yellow pages when we travel, in hopes of finding a little shop somewhere, but alas.  No luck yet......

ABCs of me, and questions of scale

First, borrowed from Dani and other bloggers...
A - Age: 34, and like Dani, I often get mistaken for being in my mid 20's
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: can I say all of 'em?? LOL
D - Dog's name: Lily
E - Essential start of the day item: insulin and thyroid meds (glamorous, I know)
F - Favorite color: blue, or maybe purple....especially rich jewel tones
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'6"
I - Instruments you play: oboe
J - Job: librarian
K - Kids: 1 daughter who will be 1 in March
L - Living arrangements: me, DH and DD plus one dog and a cat in a little 3-bedroom ranch in town. "Town" = population of around 30,000.
M - Music you love: Rock and folk, especially Irish-influenced stuff. Love Great Big Sea, Barenaked Ladies, and 80s-90s rock.
N - Nicknames: I don't really have any
O - Overnight hospital stay at hospital: giving birth
P - Pet Peeve: when I go to the grocery store for one specific item, and that is the one thing that is out of stock.
Q - Quote from a movie: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas." (I know, I know, Kevin Costner was an atrocious Robin Hood....but Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham has some wonderful lines!)
R - Right handed or left: Left
S - Siblings: one younger sister
T - Time you wake up: 6:00 am-ish
U - Underwear: yeah I wear it
V - Vegetable you dislike: brussel sprouts
W - Workout Style: currently, mostly walking or running. I used to swim regularly, too, but the only lap pool in the area is tough to get to now with the baby and everything.
X - X-rays you've had: dental, right foot/ankle, brain (MRI)
Y - Yummy food you make: I'm becoming a pretty decent cook if I do say so myself -- I make a tasty spinach lasagna, crock-pot beans and beef, a broccoli-cheese casserole DH loves, and I "invented" a low-sugar banana strawberry dessert that is a hit at our staff luncheons!
Z - The best place to visit: new places. I love an adventure!

Now, on to a stitching dilemma. I'm currently hunting for an appropriate reindeer pattern for the HOE exchange, and getting frustrated. Many of the designs I'm finding are.....odd. That goofy cartoon one of a reindeer eating a candy cane from one of my JCS issues? Blah! LOL Or not ones that I think will appeal to my partner, based on digging around in his (or her!) blog. Or they are ones that I've seen stitched many times, and I just want to be original. I DO have one that I've started, but I'm afraid it is going to be too big to qualify as an ornament when it is finished. However, my idea of what is "ornament"-sized may be a bit skewed, because I haven't had a full-size tree in years! So, do you think a 4-5 inch square is too big for YOUR tree??

Your mama don't dance, but she does the iPod shuffle.

I saw this on Whiz's blog, and decided to steal it. What the hey, I've shared my wacky movie taste with y'all, I might as well give you a peek into my musical mish-mash, right? So here goes. (Like Whiz, I did skip the instrumentals.)

Step 1: Put your iPod or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the 1st line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. And it doesn't have to be perfect if you can't understand the lyrics word for word.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1) "What will be left when I've drawn my last breath"
2) "You got the look of a howlin' wolf...I like it"
3) "Here I go again, my heart's on the line"
4) "I thought of you the other day/how worlds of change led us astray"
5) "[song title] beneath the pale moon light"
6) "She was a fast machine" - You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC - Karen knew this one
7) "Oh, the power to be strong"
8) "I don't know what they're talking about"
9) "[song title] girls rock your boys" - Cum On Feel the Noize by Quiet Riot - Karen got it
10) "When I look into your eyes, I can see a love restrained" - November Rain by Guns 'N Roses - another for Karen
11) "Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight" - As Long As You're Mine from the musical Wicked - Jenn (sewunicorn) got it
12) "I'm a rolling thunder, a pouring rain" - Hell's Bells by AC/DC - Karen got it first, sabine also knew it
13) "He's a very smart prince...he's a prince who prepares"
14) "'Lay me in a cushioned chair, Carry me, ye four"
15) "Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends" - Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks - real live woman (sorry, I don't know your name!) got it
16) "Was it the pull of the moon now baby that led you to my door" - If I Fall (You're Going Down With Me) by the Dixie Chicks - another for real live woman
17) "Lonely sidewalks, silent night... bring the evening, deep inside"
18) "She's got a smile that it seems to me reminds me of childhood memories" - Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns 'N Roses - another for Jenn
19) "O [song title] , you shine where you stand"
20) "Whatever happened to my part/it was exciting at the start" - Diva's Lament from the muscial Spamalot - Jenn got it
21) "Bathe me in the waters of the Lagan, of the Boyne"
22) "She had trailer park charm" - Redneck Love Gone Bad by Diamond Rio - one more for real live woman.
23) "I wasn't looking for a lifetime with you"
24) "When you were young and your heart was an open book" - Live and Let Die (I have what DH describes as the "butchered" version by GNR - teehee) - Jenn got it first, but Karen got the group right!
25) "[song title] When the wind is howling through your window pane it's not the only pain of the night"
26) "She's a [song title]"
27) "[alternate song title] time to close your eyes"
28) "We'll be singing when we're winning"
29) "Revvin' up your engine listen to her howlin' roar"
30) "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" - Seasons of Love from the musical Rent - one more for Jenn!

A few notes:
- if the song title was on the first line, I used [song title] in its place. (Duh.)
- there are some folksongs in there, along with some tunes that have been covered by various artists. Bonus kudos to you if you guess the EXACT tune from my iPod, but just the song title is fine in those cases as well.
- good luck, I'm all over the musical spectrum...."eclectic" is putting it kindly....

I Couldn't Resist the Movie Meme

After seeing this in both Whiz's and Suz's blogs, I just had to play.

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb (or IMSDb) search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

1) What do you do when the thing you most wanted, so perfect, just comes? Annette got this one - "The Red Violin." This movie sometimes gets mixed reviews, but I love it...if only because the music is wonderful to stitch by!

2) This whole office is not Feng Shui. All the desks are facing evil. Yay Karen! (It is "Never Been Kissed" -- I saw myself in this movie for such a long time.)

3) Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. Jenn (sewunicorn) gets the point for "Serenity." Oh, Cap'n Tightpants...you can stop by my house any time...

4) And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy any more. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.

5) I play hockey and I fornicate, 'cause those are the two most fun things to do in cold weather.

6) There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost... the ship has sailed and only a fool would continue. Truth is... I've always been a fool.

7) All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? 1 point to Suz for "Life of Brian." Ah, memories of high school, where my Latin teacher had us watch this movie for the Latin grammar lesson...

8) What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway.

9) That's the great thing about plankton. It pretty much keeps to itself.

10) Yeah, um, about that... I've decided to devote my life to Satan instead. Thanks though! "Saved!" -- Lisa in WA knew this one.

11) Thank God for the model trains, you know? If they didn't have the model trains they wouldn't have gotten the idea for the big trains.

12) The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect. Wow, a bonus point to bronzemom for not only getting the movie ("LOTR: The Two Towers"), but the characters, too!

13) It doesn't really take a Muse to inspire horny retards to empty their wallets. And another point to Suz for "Dogma."

14) Oh God, I pierced the toast! Teresa knew that was from "The Birdcage".

15) Never fall in love with a woman who sells herself. It always ends bad.

I'm sure there's more, and a couple of those are probably pretty easy for some of you, but they were some of the first ones I thought of (or stumbled upon while skimming my Netflix account - what can I say, I've seen a LOT of movies).