Free Spirit?

Today I was talking to someone who probably doesn't know me all that well even though we do work together. This person made a comment that has me thinking. They called me a free spirit. Actually what they said was, "I think of you as a free spirit." Like I said, we work together, and honestly I'm not sure what it is about me at work that would have anyone thinking "free spirit". Is it because I'm a contractor/consultant? Is it because on my Facebook page I have listed all the countries I've visited, the books I've read. Is it the comments about the things I do? Because honestly I've never been called a "free spirit" and for whatever reason this has me really stumped, or thinking or something.

Lately I haven't been feeling all that interesting. I mean, really, let's see I work, I go sing at church and do some other stuff there, I read, I knit some and stitch even less. That's it. See, boring. REALLY boring. And then today, "I think of you as a free spirit." Huh? So, what makes someone a free spirit? Is it doing what they want at the drop of a hat? Is it doing things their own way, not conforming to what other's expect of them? Is it selling all their belongings and backpacking through Europe while writing a really great novel? What is it?

So, ya'll tell me? What makes someone a free spirit in your mind?

Oh, and I promise I'll try and get part deux of my travel adventures up tomorrow. That way I can blog about my trip this weekend when I come home without having to wait too long...at least I hope I can!

Who knew you're name could tell you this?

You Are Submissive Sexy

You are sexy because you are sensitive. You feel deeply. You're the type of person who loves being seduced and pursued. You're too passive to ever take the lead, but you don't mind waiting for someone to notice you. And once someone is chasing you, you love every moment until you are caught. Everything inside your head gets a little intense at times. You can get a bit overwhelmed in the bedroom. Your senses are very sharp. You are easily stimulated and turned on.

What's Sexy About Your Name?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

Well now isn't that interesting? 

When is a wink a wink?

Ever had someone wink at you and wonder what they mean by it? I've had it happen to me a couple of times in the past few days. Interestingly by the same person. Which started me wondering. When is a wink...a wink?

I realize I'm a fairly friendly person, so sometimes people talk to me and tell me things that they wouldn't tell someone else. Apparently I also give off the aura of trustworthiness, which I am, but still does everyone have tot ell me things that they don't want anyone else to know? But what's up with the wink(s)?

I had good intentions

No, really I did, but the day got away from me. Actually, the last 3 days I've had good intentions but things just got in my way. I do have a couple of items to bring up before it's Sunday and I've missed another day of blogging.

1. I did manage to finish the tea cozy for class today. That's part of why I haven't blogged. No pictures yet. I need a smaller tea pot. I've been looking, but tomorrow I'm just going to get one. Then there will be pictures.

2. I managed to hook up the new printer. That's good. I can even get the Mac to print on it. That's good too. However, (and you knew there was a however didn't you?) I can't seem to get the PC that's on the network to recognize and print to the printer. I'll try again when I have more patience. Tonight was not that night.

3. I'm still loving the mobius scarf!

4. Myron Rolle, a FSU football player and amazing scholar, was named a Rhodes Scholar tonight! As a fellow 'Nole I'm so excited that this dream of his has come true. If you want to know more about this young man, who I feel has so much to offer our world, read this article.

5. I really do need to finish my "Mrs. Beeton meets Brown" fingerless mitts.
This cold weather so early in the season, combined with the fact that I seem to have developed pains in my hands that I didn't have last year, means I need something to keep my fingers warm at work and in my office.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their current reads. I love hearing what other people are reading and enjoying. We'll have to do that again some time. Until tomorrow...which has become today (Sunday)...

Being single = busy too

I'm always amazed when people assume that because I'm not married and I don't have children I must have LOADS of time on my hands. That is about the furthest thing from the truth. I don't think I'm alone in this. Most, if not all of my single friends are busy as well. I realize that most of my time is spent with church stuff, but still, even I think my schedule is a bit ridiculous at times.

Both last week and this week I have something to do every weeknight, including this Friday if I decide to go to Knit-Night. Not to mention Saturday I'm teaching a class that I'm not ready for yet. I so need a couple of nights at home to get it all finished. But, that's not going to happen so I'll just work on it as I can and in the words of the wonderful Tim Gunn "make it work".

Oh, and because I'm so busy, this is it tonight. I'm so tired I can't think of anything else to say. Which just proves that single girls/women aren't always full of plithy and fun things to read.

Keywords

I took a look today to see what kinds of searches people have done that landed them here. Mine are no where as entertaining as my DF Heather's, but still one or two are interesting.

First it seems that there are a few people trying to find out about "cubie", or as it's really called "All Year Squared" by Betsy Morgan. If you're here for that you can read about it here, or see better pictures here.

At least one person wanted information on "Patrick's Wood/Sherri Jones" classes. In case you're still wondering, I love Sherri's classes and her designs and I highly recommend you take a class from her if you have the opportunity. And no, I haven't finished any of the pieces from classes I've taken with her.

Then there were a few about certain yarns. The 2 most curious were "big daddy sock doll", "Spirit of Cross Stitch festivals" and "needles in candy". The first one I'm stumped by. I do call my father "Big Daddy" on occasion, but I don't think I've put his name and "sock doll" together. Although, I have mentioned the socks I'm knitting Big Daddy, so maybe that's it.

The "needles in candy" was a big hit around Halloween. Sorry folks, this is relatively a non-kid zone so no discussions on how to keep your young 'uns from eating candy spiked with needles or something equally as atrocious.

Finally Spirit of Cross Stitch. In case you were wondering, there hasn't been one in years. It's really a shame too, because they were fun and you had such wonderful teachers and for those who didn't have a local shop, a great place to shop for supplies. I'm not sure I miss the long days of rushing from one class to another because I didn't have enough sense to realize I was overbooking myself, but I do miss the fun and the atmosphere. Plus, without Spirit, I would never have met the aforementioned Heather.

To those who are more regular readers, thanks for sticking with me when I haven't been such a good blogger at times. For those who are new, welcome! Hope you enjoy your visit and that you'll come back again.

I don't like storms!

I've never been one of those people who likes thunder storms. I am afraid of lightening and would rather curl up under the covers when there's a storm then do much of anything else. Plus they tend to bring on a headache. So the last couple of weeks haven't been nice to me. So to top it all off today there's yet another storm, full of lightening and thunder and of course I need to get a shower so I can be someplace around 4, but with the weather I'm scared to take it. Really, can't I catch a break people?

On the stitching front I still don't have a picture of the ornament, sorry folks.

Well, I'm off today to make sure I know what to do at my LYS while the owner is away and she's leaving me partly in charge. What fun! If you're in town stop by and see me Fri. or Sat. morning!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone had a safe day and will have an even safer weekend. I spent the morning planting some flowers I bought yesterday. (Sorry, no picture yet.) Spent the evening watching cars go fast in an oval and typing up some patterns I'm going to be teaching this month.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching and then back home to get ready to watch the race in Daytona. I still think of it as the Firecracker 400, guess that shows my age.

I'm working on posts about the wedding. I promise I'll get back to them soon. I've also been stitching. Got to get those ornaments stitched!

Lastly, thanks to all who are serving in our armed forced and for all who have served. I think I've mentioned before that my family seems to be a Navy family. My oldest nephew is active duty and I think he's headed off for Embassy duty soon. To all who serve, all who have served and all who have lost a family member while serving "thank you" doesn't seem like enough. However, that and my prayers are all I can offer. So "Thank You".

Happy 4th of July weekend! Stay safe everyone.

A funny thing happened...

in front of the church tonight. Let me set the scene. I had just finished a fairly uneventful meeting of our church's Staff Parish Relations committee. I like uneventful meetings as I'm currently the chair and uneventful means things aren't all that bad. But, back to the story.

Our church sits on Main Street. Of course in our town Main Street is no longer the main thoroughfare, that has long since moved to the 4 lane state road about a block away from where our 184 year old church sits. However, Main Street leads to the public boat ramp, and in these parts and in this kind of weather that means Main Street gets a fair amount of traffic. Like all good Methodists there's always a few folks who want to chat after a meeting. I'm fairly sure this is true of other denominations as well, but I could be wrong. Tonight it was just myself, our Pastor and another lovely lady we'll call Brenda, mainly because that's her name and I'm not good at making names up for people. Brenda and I were standing on the sidewalk talking about something when this nice large pickup truck, a Chevy I believe, went by with a nice boat attached. As he pulled up next to where we were I heard what almost sounded like a cat-call, you know a whistle, like construction workers are accused of making only this wasn't human, it was electronic. That's right, it was a horn of some sort on this guy's truck. I was speechless for about 2 seconds and then turned to Brenda and said, "That must have been for you." To which she replied, "I think not!" I love Brenda, I've known her since I was in high school. She's a lovely woman and by no means "elderly", but she's seen the half century mark and moved past it I'm sure since she has kids a few years younger then me. We both laughed and finished our chat and got in respective vehicles to go home.

Why am I telling you this? Mainly because as I was driving off I realized that only in small town America could something like that happen. Plus it put me in mind of the famous phrase made popular by Jeff Foxworthy. You know..."You might be a redneck if..." you toot your cat-call horn at a girl standing in front of the Methodist church after you've been fishing on the creek.

Yep, only in small town USA!

I'm a bad blogger!

Seriously, I know I am because I haven't posted anything in over a week. That's pathetic. And to be honest, I probably have stuff to post, but no pictures to go with the, at least not right now. So, here's a quick update in case you were wondering what's been happening in my life.

1. No, I still don't have a new job, but thanks for caring enough to ask. And yes, I'm still looking.
2. Mom & Dad made it back from my their vacation. They had a great time and enjoyed spending time with family. I've been promised a visit to my cousin Ronnie's house near Emory, VA if we get to go back in August, as well as a trip up to White Top Mt. where my father was born.
3. I'm scheduled to teach more classes then ever at my LYS in the next two months. Hopefully people will sign up for them. Apparently someone already has for a couple of them so that's good news.
   
4. I finished my cropped cardigan and need to block it. Thankfully it fits and looks pretty darned cute on me. (Picture forthcoming when Kathe gets back from her trip and can download and send me a copy of the picture she took of it last week.)
5. Today mom & I took all the Formica off the backsplash and from around the window in the kitchen. Now we know what we have to work with and can go find tile to put up in it's place.
6. I need to stitch my ornaments for the upcoming ornament exchange, but I haven't even started. Even worse, I don't think I stitched a single thing last month. That's sad. Stitching has taken a back seat to getting ready for knitting and crochet classes, but still, there must be time for everything!
7. Yes, I did get my room cleaned. I'm still sorting through some drawers and things like that, but the hard stuff is done!

So, that about does it for today. I'm going to try and do better and blog on a more regular basis. But please bear with me. Oh, and if you read this and I normally read and comment on your blog, know that I'm also woefully behind on that as well. Right now my reader says I have 855 entries to read. Needless to say I probably won't read all of those, but I will be reading some. It seems I've needed some time away from the computer. But I'm still around, lurking and reading!

Random notes

1. Thanks for all the nice comments about the tree.

2. Heather, the Swedish Star ornament is not from you. I acquired that one year at our church's Fall Bazaar. I believe that was made by the very dear Mrs. Howard, who has since passed away. (She was a fascinating woman who had been a journalist back when a woman journalist was rare indeed. She always used the Italian pronunciation of my name which is much more lyrical then how most everyone else says is. I miss her very much.)

3. I'm so glad at least 1 other person is going to start decorating. (Mindi I want to see pictures of your decorations too.)

4. I'm not sure why people see my pictures and think I do good finishing work. I do passable finishing work. The cube actually has some problems, like the bottom is kind of rounded. I've apparently overstuffed it. I don't care, there's no way on this side of heaven that I'm taking it apart and changing it in any way. It's done, I figure after some time the batting will settle and the bottom will become less rounded.

5. My family has great stories and they need to be written down. Apparently my mom, her sister and some cousin's gathered at my aunt's house when mom & dad were in WV. Also apparently they got to talking about growing up in a little "town" (and I use that word very loosely) in the same state. Understand, my mother was born in a coal camp and lived in the same house until her father died in WW2. They then moved less then 10 miles to Allen Junction. You won't find it on a map, at least I doubt you will. It's small, but things happened there. Things like people playing pianos and singing songs while houses burned. (Oh yeah, there was alcohol involved with this.) They also have stories about visiting their grandmother's sisters back in VA. These are the stories that need to be written down and I think I should do it. They would make you laugh and cry and then laugh some more. (Don't even get me started about the wake where they laid the dead man on the top of the bar and he raised up during the festivities.)

6. When you want to find something, it will remain hidden. (This is just a given. Probably part of Murphy's Law.)

7. Apparently I make someone smile. (BTW, this is my first blog award. How cool is that?)

Or at least I make Heather smile (which is good since she always makes me smile!) So now I have to give this to 10 other bloggers who make me smile. I have to admit, this was kind of hard. There are a lot of blogs out there that make me smile for any number of reasons, but here goes. In no particular order (as they say on DWTS)...

* Knit Kimber Knit - mainly because she has a dog named Snoopy and she puts up such great Mike Rowe pictures.

* Yarntender - she just rocks and she taught me to knit!

* Knitting for Amazons! - anyone who admits to having a WIP named "The Dead Bride" is ok with me.

* Contemplaing my needle and thread - what finishes, what great stitching!

* What's Up with Wyora? - Mindi's logic is always worth a smile or 2.

* Karoline's Corner - well lately because she's having a little alien of her own and that's just way cool.

* Not A Beginning Knitter Anymore - Ok, she doesn't post often (cough, cough) but when she does watch out.

* How Raven Lit the World - pretty yarn always brings a smile!

* Notes from Carol's Stitching Nest - another occasional poster, but she always has such beautiful finishes that are inspiring.

* Blog A Go-Go - I adored her 1st book and wait anxiously for her 2nd (which should be coming soon!). Until that happens I smile to see "in which" way things will develop on her blog.

That's 10, I didn't duplicate any of Heather's entries, so you should check out her list as well. There's a few on there I get a smile or 2 from on any given day.

8. Have I mentioned that I am a huge Jane Austen fan? I actually kicked around the idea of getting my Master's in English Lit because of the Jane. (I like to think a very horrid spell of mono. derailed my quest, and it probably didn't help, but in all actuality I wanted to make a paycheck so I could pay off my student loans and used the mono. as a handy excuse.) But I digress...Jane Austen is wonderful because when you read her books you either see yourself, or friends and relatives, or all three at the same time. That's why this quiz was interesting to me. If it is to you, then see what it says about you. As for me, it seems that I'm the most like the following character...

Take the Quiz here!

Interesting huh?

9. I found another sign that Christmas is upon us. Publix (that's my favorite grocery store for those in other countries or parts of the U.S.) finally has Egg Nog ice cream in stock, their brand. The yummy goodness came home with me tonight. It's ok, I have it on excellent authority that there is only so much Egg Nog available each year, so you have to drink (and in this case eat) what you can before it becomes extinct again. (This also goes for mincemeat and home made rum balls. The latter can get you in more trouble though so you do have to be a bit careful with them.)

That's it. My random-ness is tired and craves some sleep.