Do you really want to know where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing since I last sat down to join you in a cup of coffee/tea/etc.? Or shall I gloss over most of it as being, honestly, rather uninteresting?
I’ve been working on my cummings sampler. As mentioned, this is one of my designs and it needed a little bit of tweaking (the text wasn’t in the right alignment). I’ve charted this as a two-color design, but it could easily go either way – a monochromatic or different colors for every leaf. When I read this poem, these are the colors that I see. The brown is pretty unsurprising for anyone who’s been reading my blog. 
The black is a find, really. This is Kona Coffee, one of the limited editions included in the GAST Colors of America packs. I wish I had skeins and skeins of this, as it is exactly the black I want for text! I’m stitching it on 32 ct Vintage Country Cream that I bought during Mary Kathryn’s latest fabric sale.
I also broke down and joined the Me, Myself and I neighborhood SAL. Okay, I’m insane. But seriously, it is such a cool idea and I had so many ideas for our original NRR that I didn’t use …. I’m not really very good at withstanding temptation if it’s waved in my face more than once or twice.
And I guess that would about wrap up the report of my recent stitching-related activities. (Obviously I still haven’t found much stitching time! LOL!) On the domestic front, the kids are loving school. Max has begun both volleyball and swimming now. Nicky is set to join the Cub Scouts as soon as they get a few organizational matters settled – and Niek may be his troop leader! Rowen is impatiently asking when dance classes begin. All three kids are incredibly busy with friends, as well, and most afternoons I feel like I’m either a taxi driver or running an unregistered daycare. LOL. I grumble, but I love it. I always hoped my kids would feel good about having friends over, and that they’d be brave enough to go to the houses of their friends. 
Here’s a picture from earlier this week, when one of Rowen’s best friends came over to play. Adorable, aren’t they? (You’d never believe the wreck they made of the house in less than two hours!)
I’ve also been reading, but I’m like a binge-reader. Sometimes I just read and read and read, and if you ask me afterward just exactly what I read, I can’t for the life of me remember. At this moment, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami is next to me. It’s a collection of short stories, and up till now I’d only read his novels. But I’m so into this volume of stories that I simply must have more. Soon! I’ve also read the wonderful novels that the generous and delightful Deb sent me: The Year of Fog (M. Richmond) and Skylight Confessions (A. Hoffman). They blew me away. The Year of Fog had me chewing my fingernails … would they find Emily? It was such a delicate, personal glimpse into people’s lives. Skylight Confessions actually made me cry. I wanted to bring all the characters home with me and try to help them out. I shared that book along, as Nic mentioned how badly she’d wanted to read it. I started Confusion (N. Stephenson) but was just not up to the vast array of characters and stories that were pressing against me. I couldn’t find anything to hang on to, if that makes sense. I’ll try it again another time. When I went to the library today, I also picked up Oracle Night (P. Auster) and Isaac Asimov’s Utiopia (R. MacBride Allen) as well as Tales From Watership Down (R. Adams). I got the last one to read aloud to Max at night and we started tonight with “The Sense of Smell”. The stories are bit too long to comfortably read aloud (I was quite hoarse by page 30) but Max said he enjoyed it, so ….
On the work front, my return to the office was delayed by a week because Niek really had to be there himself. We’re ’sharing’ – the day that I work, he stays home; the other four days that he works, I stay home. But I have begun developing those writing plans I mentioned a little while ago. One of the two non-technical leads panned out and I will be writing a small monthly column for an holistic health/new age ezine. Still waiting to hear on the other lead …. I’ve discovered there are also a lot of one-off freelance writing gigs I could jump in on, but I just don’t have the kind of time required to trawl through what’s available and what’s suitable. Still, it’s been really great to see that there is stuff out there beyond tech writing.
And now, gentle reader, I’ll let you get back to real life. Thank you ever so much for spending part of your day here with me.
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Don’t forget to sign up for the drawing for An American Landscape! I’ll draw a name at random tomorrow!
Next up, by the same author (I checked out the only two books the local library has by him) is The White Road.
