Friday, February 29, 2008

Education

I took a few days off, but thats allowed right? I have just been drained. Each time I sit down to write or work on something my mind goes blank and I end up needing another snooze. The weather has been up and down though and I seem to feel worse when that happens. My body may be needing extra rest this week but my Mind is whirling all over the place. I've been trying to work on my embroidery a little every day in the afternoon. It does take me awhile so Its helpful to have something on the old tube. I felt like I had been watching a lot of nonsense just to have something on, so I decided to try to watch all those documentaries I had been putting off. (the husband finds and saves them for me) I always love them when I do watch them, they make me do more research which is the point I guess. After seeing it win best documentary at the Oscars I had to check Taxi to the dark side out. This time in history is so confusing. I think it is important to see all sides of issues. But whatever side you are on this story will make you sit back and think, maybe even enrage. Sometimes thats a good thing I think. I just hate feeling so helpless in the position and actions of a country you believe in.
The next one was fascinating. "Guns, Germs and Steel". It is the theory of scientist Jared Diamond that those 3 things have determined the life and death of civilizations throughout history. Its 3 parts and extremely interesting. If it pops up on PBS, give it a go. It really made a lot of sense.

Ok last one, Ken Burns "The War". Now this is an 8 part series I think and I only watched the last one but if that is any indication of the others it is well worth it. It is so easy to forget the past and not try to understand it, but this war was only 60 years ago. Just 60! Most of the men in the film can only recently even talk about what they saw and experienced over in Europe and the Pacific. In order for them to lead semi-normal lives they had to put it out of their minds. That is how it was with my grandpas, but It had to have changed them forever. Learning about where my G-pa served and the situations he was in has really helped me understand partly why he was how he was. He could hardly ever talk about. My father lived in the tropics for awhile when he was younger. When he came home and opened his suitcase the tropical smells made my g-pa sick. Just smelling it. The husband is getting me the rest which I will have to watch little by little. I tend to take things to heart and get emotional, but I think it is so important to learn and try to understand. So ends my movie review of the day.

My mumsy is my best friend. Once I moved away from home, we started talking a lot and I got to know her as a person, not just a mom. She is simply amazing. She has so much charity in her heart. Well since we live 3000 miles apart, we have to be creative about how we spend our best friend time together. Sometimes we pick a meal for us both to cook, so its like we are eating together. Shopping online is the big one though, thanks to the wonderful World Wide Web. On Wed, we did a big dress shop. I usually have a horrible time finding dresses I like and would wear, but this time I found a jackpot. Mom gets a lot of her stuff from Coldwater Creek. She usually shows it to me first. So we were looking and I hit upon their spring dress line. Amazing! The dresses look very vintagy, which I love. There is one that I keep going back to. I don't know why I love it so, not my usual type but the colors are simply lovely. I'm going to have to check every day until it goes on sale the pray they have my size. I just cant get enough of it. I tried to copy it here but it just showed up blank so I will have to link to it here. If you look at it close you can see little copper sequins sewn in. My second love is here. It reminds me of something my great grandma used to wear. Check them all out, some really great ones.

Since I haven't done much the last few days I have had to live through the craftiness of others. I just love reading Lisa's blog, Dorky Homemade Quilts. She just cracks me up. On her latest post she has a video of her machine quilting and it is unreal. Her quilts are beautiful. I also found this other craft gem, Pandora's Button Box. If you scroll down on this link you will see the greatest dolls. I just love them, so very unique. She took a much needed break in Feb it seems, but is now back. I hope things work out ok, she seems like a very special lady.

One thing I did manage is to make the soup I posted about. It turned out great. I will get a picture of it and put it up later I hope. The other night I looked outside and a little snow storm had appeared. The snow had no foot prints and because of the wind they would dissappear soon after they were made. I got all bundled up to go out. By the time I did, one lone set had appeared in the middle of the street. It was still beautiful. Have a good night , and may your dreams not be scary.

3 comments:

Cathy {tinniegirl} said...

Hi Stacy

I found your link over at Meet Me at Mikes. I thought I would say Hi. I have just started a blog myself so I can totally relate to those nervous feelings of putting yourself out there. I think I have travelled a similar path, recently discovering the incredible world of crafty women who are blogging their hearts out. I just had to join in.

Anyway I enjoyed reading your site and looking at the different craft you are working on. I haven't done any embroidery since I was a child. Can you recommend any good resources to get me started again? I wouldn't mind adding embroidery to my basket of tricks, and my current projects.

I'm off to do some of my patchwork that I haven't touched in a while.

Cheers
Cathy

Cathy {tinniegirl} said...

Hi again Stacy

Thanks for your lovely message on my blog. I was so excited when I logged on and saw that somebody other than my partner had left me a message. I am torn between enjoying the safety that comes with nobody looking at my blog and the huge excitement I feel when somebody does. You made my day.

I am new to patchwork also so I don't know that I can give you too many tips. However, I will be more than happy to share what little I know. I will try and post some photos of the quilt I am working on in the next couple of days.

Thanks too for your lovely comment about my flower canvas. It's one of those projects that has been sitting around for a while and I just can't seem to work out how to get it moving. I have come to realise that often with such things you just have to let them stew until the next move becomes apparent. I would love to see some photos on your blog when you do something with your idea - it might be just the inspiration I need.

My e-mail address if you want to get in touch is cathkirwan(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au I would love to talk more about craft, cooking and all those good things. I would have e-mailed you but couldn't find your e-mail address on your blog.

Talk soon
Cathy

Nettie said...

I used to live in Somerville--eons ago, so it's fun to picture the setting where you're writing. Have heard great things about Guns, Germs and Steel. Definitely on my list and i know what you mean about how demoralizing it can be to read/think about much of what our government is up to. Living in Europe makes you even more aware of how we appear to the outside world.

Nice to find your blog.