Midsummer Night Musings

Hello all, this is just a post to pass the time as I cough up a lung. My husband and I have been sick for two weeks. Just as we start to feel better, the virus morphs and we get one of the symptoms back, drippy throat, cough, earache, you name it, this virus is cruel. Last night I started up with the drippy throat and cough again.  So rather than lie in bed and cough, here I am.

I haven't blogged in so long, almost five years of a post here and there but from what I understand Facebook is the new place for stitchers to meet and post. I haven't gotten around to doing that in my own name. I currently have 20 or so friends on FB but under the name of my daughter's stuffed sheep. Yes, we are a strange family. I never wanted my own FB until the kids went away to college, so I took over the sheep's in order to keep up with the kids. She's now baaaaahhhhing that she wants it back. She doesn't like the direction her page has gone. So there will be important decisions made in the future. Here she is with Maggie.  Maggie is smiling but Francine is pretending to ignore me:

Speaking of, my kids, both live in Seattle now. My daughter graduates with her Master's degree next month, yea Maggie! Here she is at Christmas making her first glazed ham. Yea Maggie again! I didn't have to cook!

Good grief, could we possibly have more peanut butter in the background? I swear it's not mine, my husband has an addiction. From what I understand, it's a familial thing. Oh, and notice the big pot on the stove. I bought that set in 1976 and they are still as good as new. No, not because I rarely cook, just nice quality.

And here is my son who is loving Seattle:

He is working freelance as an artist. Now that I am back to designing, I wish he were home as he can pixelate anything I ask him to do. He recently created for me a Downton Abbey type house that I hope to use in a future sampler.

So, these were taken at Christmas, it was lovely having them home, we hadn't seen Nick in a year and last saw Maggie when she was here with her boyfriend at the end of June.

I have been reading a lot of thrifting/junking blogs lately. Like I said, I can't seem to get back into the needlework blogs, has everyone left for Facebook? And the boards seem to be nothing of interest these days.

So who loves thrift stores? I have become addicted, we have quite a few good ones in town.  I will show you one of my sicknesses:

SEAM BINDING!

And this isn't all of it!!! One day I decided to sort by color and threw a big purple blanket on the floor and started sorting. Took forever! I think I have over 300 packages. I LOVE seam binding! Sorry, already said that. Or did I? Nyquil haze.... Not bias tape, not cording but seam binding. Though I love a good package of vintage rick rack too.

And ELVES! I finally acquired so many that this year I put them on the bench usually reserved for my snowmen at Christmas.

My sister thinks they are absolutely creepy. So I love to send her close-up photos via text:

That's Leonard on the left and this year I found Little Leonard, shown on the right. He looks the same size but is about 3/4 the size of Big Leonard who thinks he is the leader of the elves.

I can a wee bit see why my sister thinks they are creepy but don't tell THEM that. They already have it in for her and I don't want to be on their naughty list too. Their feet are felt and I'd never hear them sneaking into my room at night. This guy has crazy eyes so who knows what he might do. Geez, one of them got heavy handed with the lipstick didn't he (she?).

But as I said, I love them. My first elf is one of the glittery gold ones in the middle of that bench. I received it in 1962 from my friend Nancy Edson. I guess you always remember the name of the person who gave you something special because Nancy moved away after third grade and I never saw her again. I remember she made a big scrapbook of newspaper clippings when President Kennedy was assassinated and her Dad had a darkroom for photography.  But the scrapbook? I guess we were about 8 and she is cutting and pasting articles? That girl was waaaaayy ahead of me! All I remember is being upset that the TV shows were pre-empted for the funeral coverage. I also stole the one and only thing in my life from her. Remember Betsy McCall?

There was one issue of the magazine where Betsy had a baby sister. Nancy had cut it out and left it on her dresser and my sneaky, thieving self grabbed it and took it home with me. I thought it was the cutest thing EVER. But oh the guilt! The remorse! Not enough remorse to admit I took it and give it back. Hey, I was 7! The guilt I felt made me throw that darn thing in the garbage after a day of hiding it at the bottom of a drawer in my bedroom. I never did play with it and  I often wondered if she missed it.

Well, I digress. I recently sent my sister this photo:

 She finally admitted that THIS put the elves into perspective for her. I was so happy to find something she could admit was freakier than my sweet elves.

But before I go, look what I found a few visits ago at the thrift store for $1! FOUR huge rolls of vintage seam binding! Swoon....

Later ladies....