2017 STITCHING PLANS

I have joined two stitching groups for 2017.  One is Year of Starts 2017 where I will start a new project on the 17th day of each month which shouldn't be a problem since I have also joined Stitch From Stash 2017.  I have set a budget of $25 per month for stitching needs.  If I don't use that $25 it can be carried forward to the next month.  With a little luck (and determination) I should have $100 to use at the time of the Stitchville Retreat.

I have been going through my stash and pulling out all the projects I already have kitted or partially kitted.  I don't think I'll have any problems finding a new project to start on the 17th of each month and anticipate the only purchasing I'll need to do is for fibers I run out of. These are the projects I have fully kitted:

1. Letters from Nora, Letter E - by Nora Corbett
2. Letters from Nora, Letter S - by Nora Corbett
3. Happy Halloween 2012 (freebie) - Kit & Bixby
4. Roses are Red (freebie) - Primitive Traditions
5. Evergreen Santa - Silver Needle Secret Needle Night
6. Corsetto - Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks
7. Excursion #2 Vierlande - Amy Mitten Designs
8. Excursion #3 Friesland - Amy Mitten Designs
9. Excursion #4 England - Amy Mitten Designs
10. Excursion #5 Russia - Amy Mitten Designs
11. Excursion #6 Mexico - Amy Mitten Designs
12. All Year Square - Betsy Morgan
13. The Grape Season - Exemplars From the Heart
14. Snowberry Alphabet - The Victoria Sampler
15. Sally Johnson Old Sturbridge Museum Collection - Old Willow Stitchery
16. Wisteria - Nora Corbett
17. Autumn Blooms - The Cricket Collection
18. Autumn Queen - Mirabilia
19. Vintage Valentines - Pine Mountain
20. A Sizzling Sunflower - Silver Needle Secret Needle Night
21. It's Berry Time - Blackbird Designs
22. Ode to Mary Needleroll - Dames of the Needle
23. Chirpy (since...) - Barbara Ana Designs
24. Random Threads - Erica Michaels
25. Gather Friends Close Part 1:  Gather - Hands on Design
26. Fraktur Friends - Plum Street Samplers
27. Pumpkin House at Frightmare House - Just Nan

I think I'm all set for my 2017 stitching!

I'm Not So Arrogant

....as to think my city is the best city in the state or my state is the best state in the United States or that the United States is the best country in the world.  Every city and every state and every country is "the best" is someone's eyes.  They all have faults and problems; they all have thing to be proud of.  It's all about the people in those cities, states and countries and what is in their hearts.   Governments can be bought and corrupted.  Only the people represent the goodness of their city, state, and/or country.

Why Should People on Public Assistance be Drug Tested?

It upsets me when people preach that all people receiving public assistance should be drug tested before they can receive help. They seem to be assuming that everyone who needs public assistance is a down-and-out druggie who refuses to work and just wants the money for more drugs.  My father left our family when I was approximately 6 years old and went to CA.  To my knowledge, he never provided my mother with a cent.  I know how that abandonment affected me, but that's another story.  My mother was left with three kids, aged 6, 5 and an infant.  She was young, had only a high school education, and lived in a community with very few job opportunities.  Her parents helped as they were able, but she had to accept public assistance in order to feed her children.  Should she have been drug tested and treated as a criminal because she wanted to put food in her children's mouths?  

It's Time to Stop the Hate

It's time to stop all the hate in this country and learn to compromise and accept others.  God made each and every person in this country and loves each and every one of us just the same.  We are ALL made in his image.  God doesn't discriminate because of the color of one's skin or whether a person has straight or curly hair.  He doesn't discriminate because one is fat or thin, whether one is gay or straight, whether one is old or young, whether one is athletic or disabled, whether one wears a 3-piece suit or a hoodie.  God loves each of his children and wants them all to treat others as they want to be treated themselves.  I used to teach my Sunday School classes that, just like a box of crayons, God liked to color and he made people in all kinds of colors.  Has anyone ever criticized a child for coloring a cow blue just because that child likes blue?  So why do people criticize God for making people different colors?  God gave us all voices to sign and musical languages to sign in.  God likes variety.  He gave us different religions so humanity can celebrate his goodness and love in different ways.  None of them are wrong...and not one of them is more "right" than the other.  It's the human part that gets in the way of understanding and appreciating the gifts God created.  Like a box of crayons...we are all the same but different.  Yes, it's time to stop the hate and learn to appreciate the colors of the rainbow.

The end of civil America

I am very saddened by what I am seeing in American society these days.  Greed and hatred and angry is everywhere.   A handful of very greedy, rich, white men are trying to buy our country so they can run it as their own country, so they can control society in general like they control the men and women who slave away for them earning minimum wage, so they can claim all the money in the country for themselves without providing for anyone else.  They don't care who they hurt in their power grab.  They are encouraging discrimination and attempting to set people against each other...conquer and divide.  What I don't understand is how people can defend these horrendous, evil men.  The people who will be hurt the most are the people who are fighting the hardest to enable the spawns of Satan.  

I go to bed many nights in tears just thinking about the country I grew up in and how, as a child, we could wander our whole neighborhood during a summer day...from morning to night...without fear.  Where neighbors all knew each other and all kept an eye on all the children.  Where we were taught to share and to say please and thank you.  We believed the golden rule and treated others as we all wanted to be treated.  We may not have been rich, but we always had everything we needed.  Where has that world gone?  I'm sad and very frightened.

What to do with myself?

I have come to the realization that I am just not happy right now. There is nothing in my life that excites me...nothing to look forward to. I don't know how to find what it is that would make me feel alive again. Right now I feel like I'm watching life pass me by ... Like I'm just biding my time. What to do? What to do?

Imagine......

Imagine a place where all the public schools have been closed and only the children of the wealthy are entitled to an education....a place where all the forests have been chopped down...a place where water does not have to be disinfected while at the same time the lakes and rivers have been polluted by toxic waste and chemicals being dumped by corporations in their gutting of the land....where electricity, water, and heat are controlled by corporations who can charge what they want for services and who can discriminate against those not able to afford them....a place where jobs don't exist other than cleaning the toilets of the wealthy or bussing their tables....a place where small business have had to close their doors because no one has any money to buy their goods or services.

Welcome to Wisconsin...Ohio....New Jersey....

Welcome to the United States as the Republicans envision it.