Making Slow Progress

The embroidery is not going well :(

A trapped or pinched nerve somewhere in my body is playing havoc with my fingers. They are tingly and feel numb, occasionally cold, and it's hard to grip anything for long, so I have had to embroider in short bursts only.  I have experimented with holding the embroidery hoop in different ways, but there is only one way to hold a needle!  It's more frustrating than anything else, because I really want to get this project finished and framed. If anyone is reading this and knows of a clever notion to address this problem please let me know.

It's also affecting other areas of my life.  The other week I couldn't get the lid off a jar of coffee, so I ended up drinking tea for a few days.  I hate being this helpless, so am pretending that I have purposefully switched to drinking tea as part of some New Year resolution to ease off on the daily full strength caffeine intake!

On a more positive note I remembered batteries for the camera, so will upload embroidery pics later.

Embroidery Project: Daisies

This may get emotional but if it does, then that's fine. I'm OK with that ...

My Mum passed away recently.  So recently in fact that I can still smell her in her house. She smells of Red Door perfume and Max Factor pressed powder and I think it's a comforting smell. It was during a visit from my Brother, while we were trying to find some legal documents, that we discovered a short poem in her safe.  No, the legal documents were not there (as one might have hoped), but this poem was.  It was a piece attributed to a lady called Nadine Stair and it is simply called 'I'd Pick More Daisies'

Now it turns out that this is a favourite piece of my Brother and he was quite taken aback to find it in Mum's safe. He read it at her funeral service and how he got through it is a mystery to me. As read by him it became profoundly clear that these words were a good edict by which to live.  I have taken them to heart and intend to make the most of the rest of my life, picking more daisies.

So how does this fit in with an embroidery project?  Well my Brother and his wife have decided to move house.  They are moving to a part of the country where they have long wanted to live and have taken the plunge and only gone and exchanged contracts!  They are ferrying furniture and soft furnishings and commencing the process of making someone else's house their home.  And I wanted to make them something to put in it.

I thought that something with daisies on would be fitting.  To remind them both that life is short and we go round once only, so we had better make the most of it, so I am stitching a daisy picture in counted cross stitch.

I have chosen a circular design and am about a third of the way through. I'll try to post a pic when I have remembered to buy new batteries for my camera!  It's a design I have stitched before, but not as white daisies and I have to say that had I stopped for a moment I probably would have chosen a dark linen on which to stitch, as stitching white on cream is doing my head in! But they look nice when the backstitch has been done.

Anyway, for those who may not be familiar with the piece, here it is below ...

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. 

I would make more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of those people who live prophylactically and sanely and sensibly, hour after hour, day after day. 

Oh, I have had my moments and, if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day. I have been one of these people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things and travel lighter than I have.

If I had to live my life over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I wouldn't make such good grades, except by accident. I would ride more merry-go-rounds.

I'd pick more daisies.

First Blog

OK so I decided to join the blogging masses and now find myself with this space on t'internet with which to fill.

What to blog about? How much of my life do I want to put up here for people to read, judge, eventually discard?

Let's start gently, say with a hobby and take it from there. Let's see how this evolves ....