Cool View

The other night I heard on the news that Venus and Jupiter were stacked up on the crescent moon.  I thought it would be really cool if I could get a picture of it.  Now it's not the best picture in the world but I thought it was neat.  So I'm sharing it with you all.  Jupiter is the little white dot on the top of the picture and Venus is right above the moon.  They're supposed to stay close until about the middle of March.  You can probably check the western sky in your area and see them for yourself.  It's quite a display.

Never Second Guess Yourself

Now I know I've been complaining a lot lately about Quaker Gone Tropic.  And now I finally realized why.  When I originally kitted this up, I had a whole 'nother thread picked out for the large motif at the top.  It was a beautiful bright orange.  I thought it would be perfect for something with the word tropic in its name.  But when I saw what others in the SAL had planned, I decided to tone things done a bit.  Well, frankly, this is a lovely color, but in mind's eye, it's rather boring.  I decided I needed a color to pop so I traded in the green for one that is almost florescent in tone.  I'm much happier with the green but now I'm very dissatisfied with the color of the large motif.  I would have liked the orange so much better.  I always tell my customers that your first instinct is probably the right one. Why didn't I listen to myself?  I certainly don't plan on ripping the motif out (AGAIN!) so it's gonna stay just the way it is.  The moral of this tale is never try to second guess yourself.  Most of the time you'll probably get it wrong.

The Project of Doom

Okay, I am now officially convinced that Quaker Gone Tropic is doomed.  I know a lot of you don't believe in that kind of thing and I normally don't either.  But I have frogged so much of this design that I was initially ready to chuck it out the window.  Then I got into a rhythm and haven't had to frog in a while.  I thought all my problems were over.  Until last night when I noticed a mark on the fabric.  Okay, it was 2 black marks on the fabric. I have on idea where they came from.  It's covered in plastic when I'm not stitching on it.  Yes, the cat slept on it once but I'm pretty sure she didn't leave the marks.  So here I am with 2 dirty marks on the fabric and no idea if they will come out when I wash it.  Stitches and Spice fabric should be washable so I lucked out there.  It's also fortunate that they are on the back side of the fabric way at the bottom of it.  So when it's framed, the marks should be covered with a mat.  I'm becoming more and more convinced that this project is doomed.

Happy Birthday Arizona!

Okay, I know a lot of people are down on Arizona lately.  They don't like our politics, our weather, our governor.  She might be a little crazy but I don't know of too many other people who have the guts to wave their finger in our president's face.  One thing I know for sure, she does love this state   I also love this state. It's been my home for 18 years now.  Sure, it get hot here in the summer, real hot.  But I don't have to go shovel snow in the middle of January.  We have gorgeous blooming cacti in the winter and fabulous sunsets (that can be attributed to our pollution but they're still gorgeous).  We have the longest, most beautiful ditch in the world.  It's called the Grand Canyon.  We have mountains in the north and deserts in the south.  We have dust storms unlike anywhere else in the world except the Sahara.  We have Valley Fever thanks to those storms.  Just like people, there's both good and bad here.  But I think the good far outweighs the bad.  I, for one, am very thankful I live here.  So I want to wish this grand, glorious paradox of a state a very happy birthday.  May the next 100 years be even brighter!

To Get The Best Seat in the House

move the cat.  Now I don't know if this is the best seat for humans but Squeak certainly liked it.  I fully intended to stitch on Quaker Gone Tropic last night while watching the Grammy Awards.  I figured I could get at least a couple hours of stitching done.  But Squeak had decided that for the time being this was her seat and nothing I could do or say was going to move her.  It really didn't hurt anything.  I always stitch in the ditch so when I pulled the bottom part up over the top, the back of the work was on top.  Then that was covered with the plastic bag that holds the rest of my supplies for the project.  So I didn't have the heart to move her when she was so comfortable.  Besides I got lots of snuggle time with her later so it was all good.