An old fuddy duddy

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Suzanne

I’m still crabby about yesterday afternoon’s basketball experience, so I probably shouldn’t be posting, but I need to rant.

When my boys were younger and we’d be in public, I was often reminded that even though they were driving ME crazy, most everyone else thought they were being cute — like when they’d talk in church or something.

And now that I’m older, most of the time I do find other people’s kids cute as opposed to obnoxious, but wow, I was not impressed with the people I was forced to sit with at the basketball game yesterday.

I’m talking about little kids (2 to 4 year olds) who were all over my personal space. Some of it was cute, the little guy with freckles that kept peeking at me and looking into my knitting bag. But the one that was behind that kept bashing into me? And standing on my stuff? Or the one that grabbed the boys’ basketball and wandered off to play with it?

Or the ones climbing up and down and up and down???

TELLING your kid to “Knock it off” and then ignoring them does NOT get them to stop what they are doing. They are ignoring YOU. And they are completely and totally bored with having to sit in those hard bleachers for 2 hours with nothing to do but stand on top of me. OH, and all of the sugar you are feeding them from the concession stand isn’t helping anything, either.

I guess I’ve never had to deal with younger siblings being dragged to the older kids’ sporting events, but I’m pretty sure that if we had other kids, they would NOT be allowed to act they way all of these youngsters were acting.

Or maybe I’m just turning to a wicked old witch who should just stay home and knit.

Joe, Quilting

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Suzanne

In case you can’t tell, that look says “You are not seriously going to take my picture, are you?”

That looks says “Hey, a guy can’t quilt an entire quilt at one go. He needs to take a break, stretch his finger muscles out, before he can give the rest of the quilt his full attention.”

That quiltings says “Joe 09″ — because all artists have to sign their work.

Joe’s meandering doesn’t show up very well in photos, I’ll try to take some other shots in better light.

I bought this as a kit last year, with a certain young male relative in mind.

I showed Joe the picture of the quilt and asked if he’d be OK with it as his quilt show entry. He contemplated it a bit, and then said “Colin likes construction stuff, right?”

(Colin is his 3 year old cousin, the one I had in mind…but I didn’t tell Joe that…).

Joe informed me that he would like to quilt it, and that when it was done wiht it’s trip to New Hampshire, we should give it to Colin for his birthday.

I think I might be winning the battle to turn them into civilized human beings.

Just remind me of that the next time they giggle hysterically over their bodily noises.

Lists

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Suzanne

I’ve gotten some great responses about list-making. I’m still processing how I’m going to add the list-making habit to my repertoire. The photo-taking habit seems to be going well, so I ought to be able to add something.

I used random.org to tell me that commenter number 7 is the lucky recipient of my extra postcard — Kathy W, that’s you! I’ll send you an e-mail, I need your mailing address.

I just got back from watching 4th graders play basketball. We thought it was going to just be a scrimmage, maybe 2 half-court games at once, short games, etc. Oh no. Full court, 40 minute games. I sat through half of one game (of two teams that weren’t my own), and then watched my guys play back to back games.

And then I left. They have a break, then will play a 3rd game. I could not sit for another 1.5 hours in the bleachers knitting, surrounded by little kids who were invading my personal space.

It’s left me very crabby, and I shouldn’t post much when I’m so crabby, so I’ll babble at you later.

Meandering in Space

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Suzanne

(This is a repeat for readers who are members of MQResource, but I HAD to share this here, too.)

From Will Earley, Age 9, as told by his mother.

A couple of weeks ago, my Mom asked me if I would like to enter a quilt into this quilt show she goes to in April. After she told me what the prizes were, I agreed that I might like to do a quilt.

She showed me the astronaut fabric and asked if I would like my quilt to be made out of it. She pieced it, and then told me Fridaythat it was ready to be quilted. She had picked out this girly fabric for the back, but we found something I liked better at the shop. It’s kind of like Army camouflage, all pixelated, but in black instead of green. (**Swear to God, He said something about it being pixelated.)

She pinned everything on for me, and helped me get started. We practiced quilting Friday after school, and I decided to just do a meander on my quilt.

After we ate dinner on Saturday we went to the shop to quilt.

Obnoxiously, she took a bunch of pictures of me.

And took lots of pictures of the quilt while I was quilting it.

Every time we rolled the quilt forward she made me get down and look at the back. I think she wishes she could get down there so easily.

After it was done, she made me unpin it myself.

Every time we rolled, I drew a line with chalk that would show me how far I could get to the front rollers before I ran out of room. It really helped me not meander myself into a corner. I figured out that the lint brush Mom uses will brush the chalk marks off.

She finished Joe’s quilt last night, and in a little bit, she’s going to drag him to the shop so they can get his quilt quilted today, too. She still has to bind both quilts and I’m sure I’ll bug her until that’s done and the entries are submitted.

Making lists

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Suzanne

I have never been a very good listmaker.

Well, I can make the list, but I usually lose the list in about 5 minutes.

My list(s) tend to be virtual lists, which isn’t always a good thing, becuase I have a tendency to forget things in about 5 minutes.

I’ve reached my limit, though, and I’ve just made myself a list of things that are going on. My struggle is with how detailed to make the list. Currently, the list has 25 items on it. Some of those are pretty simple, one or 2 steps and the task will be done.

Others, though, could be expanded to lists of their own with about 25 things on each list.

I have to watch the temptation to add tasks to the list purely for the sake of being able to cross things off. Stuff like: take a shower. Eat breakfast. Brush teeth. Go to bed.

Lately, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants, working on whatever happens to bring itself to my attention, or seems the most interesting or…

Sometimes I can hyper-focus on a project, but most of the time, my attention span is pretty short, and I need to work a little bit on a lot of things. I’m going to try, though, to see if I can stick to a list. A list that will have variety to keep Easily Distracted Girl happy, but yet help her get some tangible progress made on all of these different things that keep distracting her.

So here’s what I want to know from all of you: what are your tips for making/using your lists?? Technology? Paper and pencil? What goes on your lists? Do you have lots of lists? Or do you struggle like me with lists? Tell me about it!

Everybody who posts a response (before Sunday at 5PM) will be entered in a drawing to win a handmade fiber postcard. I’d show you a picture, but I haven’t made it yet. Well, it depends on who the winner is: if the winner is participating in the MQResource Aesop fable postcard swap, I’ll make you a NEW postcard. If you aren’t, you’ll get a postcard depicting an Aesop fable, because I can’t count and I made an extra one. I can’t show you the picture, yet, though, because I haven’t mailed them yet.

edited at 5PM Sunday: the drawing is closed, but if you still have list ideas, please post and let me know!