Blog Hop #4: Society Assumes

Hooray, another blogging prompt~ This one is quite a sensitive topic for me as I find myself on the other side of the spectrum. Without further ado, the question:

• Do you experience this same assumption from society in general that just because you’re being crafty you're also driven by some unseen force to be in constant 1950s housewife mode? And then... Who actually does the cooking and the cleaning in the household? I’d also really like to hear some words from the men in the crowd who stitch on this topic. What sort of societal reactions do you get and what ridiculously wrong assumptions do people make towards you when they see you working on needlework?

Well, I'm weird. I am a housewife, but as one that is under 30 years old, I find a lot of pressure, disbelief, and/or ridicule for my choice. "Don't you get bored; what do you do all day?" "You're so lucky, you just get to sit around all day!" The snide hints that I'm unable to do anything else with my life. It's incredibly frustrating and painful. "Just do what makes you happy" only applies if other people are happy with your choices.

As for who cooks and cleans, well, I do everything~ I like to cook and as cliché as it sounds, I love having supper ready when B gets home from work (though it's hard to get the timing right as he'll come home at a different time every day). I like that he can come home from work, eat food, and then vegetate the rest of the evening (as do I). I also do the yard work which includes all the lawn mowing (love to do that) and gardening. The only thing that's "his" domain is car maintenance. Obviously if there's something beyond my physical ability (hey, I can't move all the furniture by myself), he'll help out. I try to keep the house sparkling and as we don't have kids (do the crazy cats count?), I might have it quite a bit easier than others, but that still doesn't mean I sit around and do nothing. There is ALWAYS something to be done around the house, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed a break! And if that break involves stitching, so much the better!

I'm certainly no 50's housewife though. Can you imagine the dress and heels? I'd faceplant all over the house while being strangled by pearls, haha! I have gotten some strange looks from B when he comes home from lunch and I'm in horribly dirty work clothes which are anything but glamorous. I'm much too practical to wear clothes to look nice while scrubbing floors and whatnot. I need to be able to move comfy as I'm wriggling all over the house. :D

Perhaps because my other interests include video games, computers, etc., I haven't encountered too many "old lady hobby" dissenters for my crafting desires. I can be a crafter, just not a housewife.

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S.E.X. Update!

I apologize for the radio silence; near the start of the month we had a trip to Chicago for an extended weekend of family and dinosaurs! We had a lot of fun in the Windy City (I didn't find it windy, how sad~) with going to the awesome Field Museum, eating epic pizza, and finding a Jamba Juice near our hotel.

If I had planned it better, I would have inquired about nifty needlework/craft shops up there as I was completely unfamiliar with Chicagoland. Despite my unfamiliarity, we managed to find a number of Goodwill stores up there, and they yielded a number of exciting finds for my Stash Enhancement eXperience!

Because the phone pics load up so tiny with the app, I'll list what I dug up! :D

I managed to find some white hardanger (12" x 18") for $1 and that is what I use for the Final Fantasy stitches! Next is a piece of ivory 11 count Aida (also 12" x 18") f or 50 cents. I haven't a clue what I'll use it for, but hey, 50 cents! Next is a sheet of navy blue 14 count AidaPlus (9" x 12"), something I've never heard of before. It appears to be regular Aida with interfacing on the back. It's quite nifty but I need to think of a suitable project for it. Lastly, I picked up two small kits, both Christmas decorations. One is a cute Santa crewel kit with a plethora of French knots, and the other is a little kitty under a Christmas tree.

Goodies from Goodwill~

While I had fun with the needlework supplies, I also managed to enhance my "everyday" plate set! I love the Spring Blossom pattern from Corelle and I'm working on acquiring service for eight. I found the large and medium sized plates, and already had the saucers. It seems impossible to find the bowls and dessert plates! Maybe one day! I also found two Farberware saucepan that match the lonely one I picked up at a yard sale a couple of years ago. I love that saucepan so finding the others was squee-inducing! :D

Well, that's all for today's rambles.  I have the next blog hop prompt addressed but I have to wait for the weekend to post it correctly. Too much extra coding necessary to post from the phone. Until then! :D

My new old plates!

Edited June 24, 2012!

Blog Hop #3: Setting Goals

I found this nifty blogging prompt from Julie's blog and Heaven knows I need more to ramble about, ahaha. Here is the current prompt (can I go back and do the other ones too?!):

• Do you set stitching goals for yourself and how do you plan them out? (Weekly, monthly, annually?) What are your current stitching goals (if you don’t mind sharing)?
  
  
• In addition to setting goals for yourself, do you have a special reward that you reserve for when you reach a stitching goal?

Hmm, do I set goals? I suppose in a rudimentary sort of way, I do a daily sort of goal. I'm quite content with my goal being "finish this piece" before starting a new one. I've found that's rather... odd in the stitching world, ahaha (I have only two on-going projects and one is back on UFO status). I don't know if that contributes or alleviates my random stitching blahs. In my current piece (FFVII), I'll try to get a "section" done. Usually that means a single color filled in or a whole letter fully stitched. I do tend to make yearly goals although they're a bit more like "let me see, I think this and this and maybe that would be nice to accomplish but things usually happen so I won't get my panties in a knot if things don't work out." I might be a little lackadaisical. :)

I don't reward myself for completion because I've honestly never thought about rewarding myself for any goal! Maybe if I started bribing myself with Skittles for successes, things would explode with stitches.

My train of thought derailed as I thought about this. It made me realize that out of all the things I've ever stitched (apart from tiny kits), only ONE piece was ever framed. All the rest are neatly rolled up in scrap fabric and stored away! I think a new goal needs to be "get those things framed and displayed, you silly hobo!" Don't you agree?

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop: Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

FFVII Update & Giveaway Link!

Hello, happy fun magical stitchers~ I hope y'all are ready for a nice, relaxing weekend in your respective corners of the world! We finally, finally got rain here, and I swear, the corn fields have grown a foot since yesterday because of it! They're lovely, blowing in the breezy breeze that's roaring today!

Not much happened on the stitchy front for me this week. Memorial weekend was long and filled with rainbow cake (let's just say I'm a neater stitcher, lol) and general laziness. Then there was my birthday so I was suitably spoiled, ahaha. I did manage to get a letter done.

FIN... not quite.

Another thing! Go follow Melissa's blog, St. John's Stitcher, and enter her lovely giveaway! I do hope that link works; it may direct you to the mobile version of her site. If it does, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on "view web version" and that should take you to familiar territory! When I edited the post, I fixed the link to link to the non-mobile version of her site! I thought I'd just strike the old text on the chance someone finds the info useful (it applies to all blogger blogs as far as I know).

Speaking of mobile versions, I want to thank y'all for having that enabled on your blogs! I wish Blogger had a more mobile-friendly posting system, and I really, really wish their reader would get its act together! So many blogs don't show up on my list until days (or even a week+) later. I'm not ignoring you, I promise! I can't even load the non-mobile dashboard page to click manually on everyone's blog. Am I the only lucky one having this issue? If not, how did you work around it? Maybe I can make a separate page on my blog with everyone linked...

Oh, country living. :) As always, this post will be cleaned up over the weekend with RealInternet access. Edited June 02.