Waiting & Starting...

Hola mes amiga(o)s!

Well, my head is still spinning from tonight's LOST episode, so the "this will be my blogging night" plan may not have been the wisest decision, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Consider yourselves warned, though... I may be typing jibberish by the end of the post!

First, thank you all SO much for your kind words re: my room (and my finish)!! They were all so encouraging!! I really love my little nook, and am so glad you all do as well. If there were room for everyone, I would be setting up a stitching party, stat! Glenna, if I weren't afraid of hosing up your walls, I'd gladly dress up in my "paint fairy" clothes and pay you a visit. ;) It is the only room in the house where I can be ultra feminine, and so I decided to embrace it whole hog. Well... really, I wouldn't want my entire house to be ultra feminine and romantic in style, but one room gives me enough room to play to get it out of my system, and keep the rest of the house safe from frills and furbelows, lol! I can't wait until Leah is a bit older! Then we'll get to play "super girly" in her room, too (minus the princesses)... uh... hopefully!

She was definitely born with her mama's yen for decorating... she adores it already. I find bits of ribbon, rocks, pieces of silk flowers, My Little Pony Memory game cards, random sticky items on the walls, (etc., etc., etc.) allll the time. It's absolutely adorable (well, except the sticky styrofoam pieces on the walls... any ideas how to get it all off w/o ruining the paint and walls?). I'll ask her "Hey Leah, how did such and such get here?" And she'll go into this long drawn out (at times HI-larious, but always cute) explanation of how it makes whatever spot look prettier. Apparently, she doesn't think mama has much decorating sense, because the things that are most often "decorated" are spots where I've got a vignette set up... if there's nothing sparkly, pink, or otherwise girlified it must be improved upon, lol! I'll take some pics and post some time.

See, told ya! I think my name tonight will be Ms. Tangent... I shall attempt to control myself. Here goes... attempt #1 to remain "on topic".

OK, so the plan was to visit my LNS on Saturday to pick up the items I requested from Market (well... I asked them to get a few things, and I ordered online for a few others) (one of which being PSS's The Queen's Sampler) kit up the two PSS charts, head home, and get stitching... yeah... not so much. By the time my LNS ladies got to the PSS display, it was all gone. So, it's on order. Thus, I find myself checking gmail about 100 times per day looking for the ship notification of half my purchases, and gazing longingly at my phone, checking it for missed calls, sighing forlornly as I wait to hear that the other half of my stash enhancement has arrived at my LNS. Ah well. Stay tuned for the stash enhancement post!

Since I didn't get to get going on (or even get my hands on) The Queen's Sampler, I pulled this out of the kitted up and ready to be stitched stash:

It is Examplar Dames Design Co's The Blessing, and here is the model photo:

Isn't she lovely (great... now I have that Stevie Wonder song playing on a never ending loop inside my brain)?? I've been wanting to start her for a while now, but kept putting other things ahead of her - I have no idea why, because I really love this. The only thing I'm a tad disappointed in is the leaves on the tree... the chart calls for WDW Noel, but the model photo color looks nothing like Noel. As a whole, the rest of the model photo colors look pretty true to life, so I'm wondering if it was originally charted to use a variegated thread that no longer exists and so the chart got changed but not the model? Meh, whatever... I still love it. :) I'm stitching it on 40ct LL Vintage Light Examplar with the called for WDW threads.

I started it late Saturday night (after a fabulous day w/ my DD), and have worked on it at lunch both days this week. Not tremendous progress, but I'm pretty happy with where I am. Especially considering the "condition" that has struck me recently (and, I might add, has shown no proclivity toward mercy)... Sudden Onset Stitchy Narcolepsy. I actually think it's the chair, b/c the same thing used to happen to me when I'd rock Leah to sleep in it - I would crash (and crash hard) in the chair, so much so that all I could do once I got up from it was to stumble (and hope I didn't fall down on the way) into my bed and fall straight back into a deep sleep. The more I think about it... it used to happen to my DH as well.... Ooooh, here's a theory: Maybe someone prayed over it before it shipped... something along the lines of "Lord, please bestow a peaceful and rapid descent into sleep for all those who use this glider." Yeah... that would pretty much cover what's been happening, lol!!

A couple of you asked about my audio book selections... well, here goes (Disclaimer: I'll try my very best to be brief... but once I get going on books and all things related to them, I have a hard time stopping.):

I must admit that in choosing audiobooks I don't typically go for the "high brow" "real" literature. No, not at all. I go for what some might call "trash lit". I prefer to call it fun, light reading. A few of my particular favorites are: Karen Marie Moning (I actually have all of these loaded on my iPod)... I really do love her stories (esp. the Fever Series!!), and I like the guy that narrates most of them - Phil Gigante (more on narrators in a minute); Mary Balogh, Stephanie Laurens (mostly her earlier stuff, though), Lauren Willig, Lisa Kleypas, Judith McNaught (when they aren't abridged), and Julia Quinn. I will also listen to others as they strike my fancy while I browse the library shelves. But typically, just very light stuff where not a lot of thought is required. If I want to read something more mentally hefty, I tend to actually pick up the book and read it. #1 I read much more quickly than the narrators = less time taken away from other things, and #2 if the book requires mental muscle I can't divide my brain sufficiently to stitch and listen at the same time.

Now my thoughts on narrators (I think it was Berit that mentioned this?) - I tend to prefer male narrators over the females. I think the main reason is that they seem to manage female voices far more believably than woman narrators manage male voices. That said, if I like the story enough, I can get past most performance flaws. There is one, though, that if present I simply cannot get past. And that is pacing. If the narrator is too slow I cannot listen. I have stopped listening to a few stories b/c of this - one was an absolutely wonderful book, but I juuusttt... coooouuldnnnn'ttt.... ttttoooolllleeeerrrate (you get the picture) how slowly the guy was reading. I have two favorite (and one that I cringe whenever I see her name on a title) readers: Phil Gigante, and Jenny Sterlin (she read all of the Laurie R. King Sherlock & Mary Russell books [well... all the ones I listened to] - that's a really great series, btw. very very well written, I thought). My least favorite? Ann Flosnik. Ugh. Like nails on chalk board. However... she narrates all the books in the series I'm listening to right now, and I'm able to involve myself enough in the story to somewhat ignore her voice. Anyway, blah blah blah... someone stop me, please!! :) Do you all have any favorite audio books and/ or narrators? I'm always up for recommendations!!

Well, folks, that's it for tonight! As always, thanks for taking the time to read, and comment. I savor each and every one. :)

Have a great week!
Robin