Sometimes You Can’t Say NO

You know how sometimes you say you’re not going to do something and then things happen and then happen again and you feel like you can no longer say no? Well .. that’s what happened to me this morning . . twice. Maybe I’m just being weak or maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong crowd but . . it’s ok! It’s probably because my brain is rattled from all the sawing and hammering going on right outside my window. I can’t believe how calm Rita is being through all this . . I’m not complaining!

I said I wasn’t going to buy any more charts but I do think I said, or maybe I meant to say .. if I really like it, I’m going to buy it. Twice this morning I ordered new charts. I don’t feel bad about it. It wasn’t like I just clicked on them and made a spur of the moment purchase. I really thought this through.

G. Leger by Reflets de Soie

Sheri from Colorado Cross Stitcher stitched this a while back. Hers was the first one I ever saw and I thought it was so beautiful. I almost ordered it when I saw her working on it. Then I almost ordered it again when Sheri showed hers finished and framed but I kept thinking it’s just “fancy” and we aren’t fancy. A cross stitched barn with cows around it fits us better.

Last week, a reader, Peggy, sent me a picture of a stack of charts she had ordered and there it was again. I told her the same thing . . I love G. Leger but it’s too fancy for us. I think she told me something like “We aren’t fancy either but I love it.” I kept thinking about it and then another friend started stitching it last week and this morning, for some reason, when I woke up, I was thinking about this chart so I said . . heck with not buying charts .. I’m ordering it.

One thing that kinda bothered me is that on the chart front, some of the floss colors get lost. Denise and I were talking a day or so ago about how we don’t like to stitch if it isn’t going to show up. To each his own and if that’s fine with others, I surely have no say in it. But it kinda bothers me when I can see the A, the B, the C, then the D looks like there’s just a missing space til you get up to it. Maybe back in the old days, they used what they had (oh, goodness . . doesn’t that sound pompous!) I don’t mean that like it may sound. I mean it like . . they didn’t have all the options we have today. I remember my grandma making herself a blouse and putting two different types of buttons on it because that’s all she had. She saved all the buttons of my grandpa’s old shirts and her old shirts and if she needed 6 buttons and had 4 of one kind and 2 of a similar kind, she used them. Chances are, most of us wouldn’t do that today. Anyway . . that’s what I meant.

So . . bottom line . . I ordered G. Leger and asked Victoria Clayton if she would make me up a silk packet. I told her I’d send her the floss numbers when I get the chart and I’d let her know which colors I want to be a little darker. She’s so easy to work with!

I’m not adding a link for this chart because so many places I usually buy from are out of it and the places I found it are either slow shippers or their prices are more than what I’m willing to pay. Colorado Cross Stitcher and 123 Stitch will get more in, I would imagine.

Elizabeth Eyles, 1799

The other day I saw Elizabeth Eyles . . maybe on Instagram. I can’t remember where I saw it. I love that bird. He is so quirky with his weird feathers. I like the angels floating around the border but I convinced myself I’d never stitch it so I didn’t order it.

Last night, while listening to Saltbox Stitcher’s youtube, she mentioned a stitch along starting January 1. I again looked at the chart, decided that my track record on stitch alongs is so bad that I’m never doing another one, and moved on.

This morning Vince was waiting for his friend to come get him and I was in the middle of doing chores – waiting for him to leave so I could vacuum. I clicked on Facebook and there was a note from Victoria Clayton about a floss color dyed that she would send to anyone who had ordered a certain packet, which I had ordered. I wrote her and told her that I would love it and I had ordered that packet but don’t send it yet because I wanted to see what new packets she had in and I might order others. When I was looking at the packets of floss she had for certain charts, there again was Elizabeth Eyles. I looked at it and came closer to ordering it but didn’t.

After vacuuming was done, I sat down to stitch and was watching Prims on Greenway and she mentioned the SAL with Elizabeth Eyles. That was enough. I ordered the chart, then went back to Victoria Clayton and ordered the floss packet for it.

Chances of me keeping up with a SAL are slim to none but I’ll probably start off with them on January 1.