Can you believe we’re almost to the half way point of June? I can’t. I’m still having trouble believing it’s not May anymore. I’m having this problem of being simultaneously busy and feeling like I have nothing to do. It’s a terrible place to be stuck. I also found out that the person I interviewed with at the store which shall not be named who told me to put in my two weeks notice (not that I need to as I don’t have job currently) really shouldn’t have said that because the job isn’t technically available yet. So, four interviews later and I’m still not sure where I stand and getting a lot of “we like you and would love to follow up soon…” I’m going to take that as encouragement. I guess…
We’re having a dreary day here in the Midwest and all I want to do is cross-stitch and watch Stephen King movies. Maybe I will. Anyway, the wedding announcement cross stitch is almost finished!
The almost complete pattern!
As you can see it looks very nice. I love this pattern, and it could be so easily modified to fit any wedding theme. It only used about five different colors and that’s not too many to switch around and fit a particular color palate.
The third tier with back-stitch detailing
Here’s a close up of the completed third tier (or base tier) since it hasn’t had the detailing added to it in the first picture. The roses look so cute, almost like cartoon roses (in a good way). And you can see how detailed it looks, yet the pattern is such an easy stitch. This is what I love about cross-stitching! All finished this piece will be about 8×10 when framed which makes it a good table size wedding reminder without being so large it takes up half a wall. When I’m giving xstitch as a gift I always try to keep them on the smaller side so people don’t feel overwhelmed with feelings of “where the hell do I put this”.
All that’s left is to finish the actual announcement part under the cake and finish it off. Not too long now!
I also wanted to share something with you that I read over the weekend. I have a subscription to “O” magazine (by Oprah Winfrey) because it’s only $12 a year and surprisingly inspirational. Well, this month’s issue was all about books, writing books, reading books, favorite books, and summer must reads. That in itself made it a fantastic issue and my reading list has grown by about 11 fabulous books. There was also a short article I read that I felt applied to my life remarkably (and if it struck a chord with me it probably will with you too). It’s fairly short, so I thought I’d copy it here so you all can read it for yourselves.
Q: I have an idea, and even some talent or training, but every time I sit down to do something about it, all I can hear is a sniveling, critical, who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are voice in my head. How can I get past that?
A: Freezing when you sit down to work by yourself is the same thing as freezing in front of an audience. In both cases you’re stymied by the fear of what people will think of you. The only difference is that here, the audience is in your head – a hypothetical group of people who will judge your output in the future. How can an imaginary audience have such a paralyzing effect? The answer is that deep down you feel you have to be perfect to win their validation. That’s impossible. In fact, there’s a strange truth about human creativity: The most creative part of you is also the most imperfect. This imperfect part of you is what we call the Shadow; and you shouldn’t freeze it out of the creative process, you should invite it back in. This requires you to accept the worst – in whatever form it comes out: Write the worst sentence, paint the worst portrait, play as offkey as you can. Once you do this, the Shadow feels accepted – and creativity will then take over. For most people, this is pretty counter-intuitive, but here’s the truth: A real creative process isn’t immediately gratifying. It’s frustrating, mysterious, and uncertain. –Phil Stutz and Barry Michaels via “O” magazine.
