The Poinsettia Adventure

Saturday was a day to attempt to wrap up this Christmas shopping stuff, because I'm already avoiding going anywhere near the vicinity of the mall (the traffic is just terrible), and soon it will be time to avoid any type of shopping altogether. There was also a possibility that we would be hosting a Christmas shin-dig at our house the next weekend, so some enhancements to the holiday decor were in order, namely poinsettias. So, after a successful trip to the Barnes & Nobles (book for Mom), and the local golf shop (shirt for Dad), I was meandering the back roads (mall avoidance) heading for home, and remembered that I would be passing the local Lowe's, which was the one place that I hadn't check the prices of poinsettias yet. I pop in, not even picking up a cart, when what do I find? Two racks full of poinsettias that have been deeply discounted! The lady putting on the new prices says they've just been man-handled a bit too much to sell for full price. I start to pick up a couple, then realize that at this price, I need a cart. Grabbing a nearby cart, I start to scour the rack for the best of the poinsettias. Now some of them are a bit like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree - in need of a little love. But some of them still look really good, and cluster several together, and they look great. In the end, I made off with 18 plants! Here they are in the house:
While checking out how much water to give them to best bring them back up to snuff, I discovered that contrary to popular wisdom, poinsettias are not poisonous, at least not unless a small child decides to make a full meal of one. The cat hasn't decided to chew on the plants at all, though, so that's relief on both fronts. She does love all of the bags that the Christmas presents come in, especially the paper bags since they make wonderful places to hide in. The best place to sit while I'm wrapping presents is on the couch behind me on top of the tissue paper and the labels. Presents themselves are a nuisance to her, though as they have taken up most of the space under the tree which used to be her domain. Christmas wrapping is almost done, Christmas card labels have been started (I know, I'm copping out this year by not hand-writing them, but it may be the only way they get done), out-of-town gift still need to be mailed, and stitched ornaments still need to be sewed!

Segway into stitching news: Somehow the sewing of ornaments just keeps getting put off. Maybe it is the need to get out the sewing machine, measure fabric and all that. Maybe it is the somewhat large mess that will ensue. I think I just need to declare a day when it will get done and do it. In other stitching news, I felt really bad because I made one of my model stitchers frog some of her work. It wasn't any fault of hers, the stitching was really good, but when she sent me the updated picture (which I really appreciated), I just ended up not liking the colors I had picked for a certain area. So it was all my fault, but that is the way the design process works. The Coliseum in my "When in Rome" design was almost fully stitch when I frogged almost the whole thing because the colors weren't working right. I also did a large portion of the sky over on that design until I settled on what worked. Of course, I stitched that model myself, so it was a bit easier to tell myself to pull it all out. Luckily, it is not a large section that she has to change, and she's been a fast stitcher so far. On the design I'm stitching on, I've been working on the background since I'm waiting for my grey silk to come in. I'm using a different type of silk thread in part of the background, Soie de Paris. It is a stranded silk, but it has a different feel and luster than the Soie d'Alger threads. I had to do some experimentation to see if I wanted to use one strand or two (I went with two). I'm also using the Accentuate metallic thread, which is kindof like a blending filament, but I can stitch with two strands of it, so it is almost like floss. Very interesting effects.