Well, after distracting myself with the Christmas blackwork I've been working on my Roman mosaic piece again. It's such a daunting project. I'm thinking about doing the teal background in half-stitches to save some time and thread, not to mention my hands.I really love the way it's turning out though. Granted, working from a mosaic makes it easier and makes it easy to be pleased with the result since it's similar in style to the original. Still, I am beyond chuffed with myself at how lovely the left rag bundle is. The colors are perfect and after I finish the scarfy bit I can move on to the butterfly and the wheel. I'm trying to work from left to right for some reason I can't remember.
This is a good time for needlework because it is a strange Christmas for me and I like the distraction. I didn't grow up with any real religion, I assumed Christians viewed the Bible and God the same way we viewed Greek mythology in school. Still, Christmas was always such a big, wonderful thing in our house. I assumed a lot of things as a child that I never asked anyone about. When you have four older siblings and a dad who often give you random silly answers like Calvin's dad in Calvin and Hobbes then I think it inhibits your question-asking drive.
So I assumed things, like that sit-coms were real families being recorded and that all families are recorded and turned into sit-coms in other countries and beamed out to space. I'm fairly certain that belief was re-enforced by a particular episode of ALF (which is STILL a totally awesome show).
Anyway, this Christmas day will be different because my mom works all day (and I mean ALL day 4:30 am to 5 pm). I didn't want to leave her alone so I'm staying here. Hopefully my dad will come spend Christmas day with me and then we can go up to my sister's house or she can come down here. It's strange though. My mom works for an airline, so if it's snowy she'll have to stay late. The best possible circumstance is getting to see her for an hour or two after she finishes work.
I've never not been with my family on Christmas day. Being at this point twenty-five years old it may be fairly impressive that I've always gotten to be with my mom and sister on Christmas day, other people are away at school or whatnot. Luckily I just received my whiskey stones (so you can drink chilled whiskey without watering it down) and I have some very fine wheat whiskey that my aunt and uncle sent me.
Also luckily, I have needlework, the ultimate distraction.
I love the stitching! It's a great piece, and I'll be excited to see the finished work! I found your blog from a Flickr post of the Unhinge My Jaw piece. It's great!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about not having a bunch of family around for Christmas. I'm lucky, I'm 30 and have 6 brothers and sisters. Our gigantic Christmas day has dwindled smaller and smaller. I've got my hubby and kids now, and we'll start our own traditions, but it's really hard to see the old ones go.
Enjoy the whiskey!!
Thanks for checking out my blog, Traci!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of siblings! I have four older brothers and sisters, all of whom are married and three of whom have kids. My sister is the only one who lives close enough for me to visit (I'm not able to travel far).
It's so lovely to create new traditions, but I guess it feels like I don't have that option, since I'm not married while everyone else is. I'm going to be working on an advent calendar over next year, with the fronts done in cross-stitch and blackwork and such.