New Love

My new love are the designs of Alessandra Adelaide. She designs needlework and her designs are so fanciful and elegant. I'm in love. Unfortunately, her designs are kind of pricy, and most of the ones I love are $15 to $21 for one design. Here's just a taste of her work:

You can go to her website by clicking on the title of this post. Also, her designs are sold in stores or through several online venues, such as yarntree.com. If you have stitched one of her designs or own one or just want to gush about how amazing they are, post away!

Exercise Week 4

Sep 6-12

Yoga - 9/8, 9/9, 9/10
Veggies at lunch - 9/8
Limit junk drinks - 9/6, 9/7, 9/8

Exercise Guild - Week 3

I should probably just title this "Exercise" from now on, since so far I am the only one tracking my exercise this way. If you would like to start, just comment with your personal goal for the week and then let me know how you do over the course of the week and I will post your results in the main post on this subject.

Here are my goals:

Yoga 2x/1hr 8/30, 9/1 and 20 min. on 9/4
Walk 5x/20 min.
Eat veggies at lunch 8/31, 9/1
Limit junk drinks 8/30, 8/31, 9/1

The Beach

I like the idea of setting a goal to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. This relates to a lot of goals I have for my life, including physical health, saving money for a long-term goal, and planning to do something fun with people. So, what is the best beach to set this goal for? Give me a few options, but keep them as inexpensive as possible. Just affording a trip period will be about what I'll be able to manage. Imagining that I had the perfect everything for the trip, including enough money, I think I would really love to go the south of France, Italy, Spain, somewhere like that. But I think that requires an awful lot more planning and money and it's harder to get other people to do the same to go on a trip like that with you. But if you say, I'm going to California, wanna come? I think it's easier to find people to go with you. So let me hear your suggestions of where I should plan to go.

Exercise Guild - Week 2

If you want to track your exercise with me, reply to this post with your goals and I will post them. Then reply either each day or however often you wish, and I will put your progress next to your goal. I am now in week 2 of tracking my exercise this way again and it is also week two of my rededication to eat better and exercise more. I'm doing better than I was before I was tracking my progress, but I would still like to improve even more this week. Last week was stressful and I hope that through exercise and a better diet, I can deal with stress better this week.

My goals:
Go to yoga class (1hr twice a week) 8/23
Go for a walk (around 20 minutes) 8/22, 8/24
Eat veggies at lunch 8/25 2 baby carrots, but I'm counting it!
Limit junk drinks 8/22, 8/24, 8/25 amazingly, I've been doing well on this

The Holy Grail

of cross-stitching, that is. Well, for a freak like me who collects cross-stitch patterns, I suppose. I found a website, crossstitchers.com, that has back issues of a ton of different cross stitch magazines. Ay yay yay! I could go crazy here. I had no idea there were so many magazines on the subject I had never seen, and therefore, have not yet begun to collect, let alone stitch. Sigh. I'm afraid none of you out there share this passion. But it was wonderful. Comparable to when Coldplay came to the back of the auditorium not far from where we were and did about 3 songs acoustically. Here are just 7 of the magazines I'd like to have for my own:

Ancestor of the Day

Reminiscent of my old "Coldplay Song of the Day" posts, this new feature on my blog will highlight one of my ancestors. It's a great way for you to get to know too much about my history (and possibly yours) but in an enjoyable way, not a tmi sort of way.

Today's Ancestor: Catherine Wingerter, my 4th great grandmother on my mother's mother's mother's side.

Wingerter was Catherine's married name and since she immigrated to the US from Bavaria, her name was probably originally Catharina and not Catherine. In Bavaria she left her deceased husband Peter Wingerter. She crossed the ocean on a sailboat and the trip took 40 weeks, according to her great-granddaughter Ada May Wingerter Jenkins. She came here with her 2 children: John and Mary A. Wingerter. They came to this country so that John (originally Johannes) could escape serving the mandatory time in the military. They arrived in the 1830s (loss of my genealogy files to a computer virus means that I don't have this at my fingertips this minute) and Catherine is listed on the 1850 census with her son John, his wife Barbara Dellit, and their infant son David. However, I have not found any information on what happened to Catherine after this. Whether or not she died before John and Barbara moved west to Ohio or sometime after that or if she remarried, I do not know. I don't know her parents' names or her own maiden name, the town she was born in or the date of her marriage. There's a lot I don't know about her, I suppose. But hopefully now you feel that you know more than you knew before reading this post. I think Catherine would love for you to get to know her more. If you do, please send along the information to me!

I am bringing back the Exercise Guild

If you want to track your diet and exercise with me, just post a reply to the Exercise Guild post and I will update your info. Start off by stating your goals and then either each day or each week, let me know how you did and we will track it here on this blog. I am putting the date I do each goal next to that goal. I'm starting a yoga class tomorrow, so I am rededicated to exercising often and figure I may as well try to improve my diet, too.

Dellitt's Goals:
*Exercise 20 min/day 8/16 , 8/18
(yoga, walk w/ Mom
& Dad min. of 2x/week)
*Eat veggies for lunch 8/16, 8/17, 8/18, 8/21
*Limit sodas/junk drinks 8/21

Once you reply with your goals, I will put them in the body of the post.

Happy huffing and puffing!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever wonder how chocolate chip cookies came to be? They seem to me to be one of the greatest inventions of civilization. And they were invented by a woman. Ruth Wakefield wanted to make chocolate drop cookies (who's even heard of those) and did not have enough chocolate. And lo, she broke a candy bar into chunks and thus created that end to which all existence strives: the chocolate chip cookie. Have you had a warm one lately?

And let us record for posterity that a chocolate chip cookie is best appreciated followed by a glass of milk. Real milk, not soy milk, not reconstituted milk, not fat free milk, but milk with fat the way god intended it. Cold. Ideally while you are wearing a soft sweater, but soft slippers will suffice.

Banewreaker

This is the name of the book I'm currently reading. It's by Jacqueline Carey and is a fantasy novel. I was reading it last year but I can't remember if I finished it (I think I did not, but almost) so I found a place where I felt I remembered basically all that had happened up to that point and began reading it again. It's a fun story and very well written and I'm very interested and even attached to several characters and their storylines. So I'm sad that there's only one other book after this one.

It's interesting what keeps us intrigued in a book and I wonder what that is. Because another fantasy book I started about a year and a half ago I have never gotten very into, and there happen to be quite a few books after this one and they've made a tv series on it and each of those books are a lot bigger than this one (they are the books that Terry Goodkind wrote, the first is Wizard's First Rule, but I have never gotten very far in it).

And then there are the books that are so powerful and moving and completely capture you. Not just your fanciful imagination, but your very soul. Like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Now there is a book worth risking running into a burning building for. It is my all-time favorite book, I think. I think it helps that when I was a kid, maybe 9 or so, they had The Hunchback of Notre Dame on t.v. Maybe it was a mini-series or something, but it impacted me quite a bit (never mind all the 7-up commercials with Quasimodo being lashed and mocked in the town on the little revolving platform with Esmeralda giving him a soda when he begs for water). The t.v. show had a quite an impact, but then reading the actual book, wow! Such a great expose, so to speak, on hypocrisy, sin, and redemption, and of course, beauty and love.

I'd love to hear about books that fit into each of these categories for you (the book you started but didn't finish but it has called to you, the one you just keep ignoring because it doesn't call to you, and the one that lives and breathes inside you).

Beautiful Watercolors

I came across some incredibly beautiful watercolors online. Follow this link. They are flowers and frogs. My favorites are Plumeria Series VI and Red Eyed Show Frog, though I was drawn to the site by Violet Iris.

You'll notice her site is a couple of years old, so I wonder if she sold all the paintings she had to take to the art fair? She had a place to contact her but no guestbook or way to leave comments, which is too bad.

I encourage you to visit her site. I think the internet is a great way for us to support people's talents and endeavors to make our world and life more beautiful.

Feeling Empowered

So, I might not have said this a few days ago, or even last night. However, today this is how I feel. And it might seem quite opposite to go about it this way, but part of feeling this has been to list all the problems I want to fix in my life. Instead of just listing the problem (which I had no trouble coming up with 5 pages worth), I am also writing down the solutions I think exist, the obstacles I believe are keeping me from getting the solution or would keep me from it, AND (this is the empowered part) how to overcome those obstacles. Of course, I have done step 1. That took a while. And I am going to do the other three steps, no fears about that. I want to share this process with you, so I will start by posting one problem I put on my list and then once I have the other three steps done for it, I'll post those.

It's interesting, I attribute this feeling to a) the fact that I have exercised for 4 days straight (today I did not, but I felt this was more important today) and b) to feeling that a lot of the world is illusion and identifying it as such. For this ability to see much of the world as illusion (and it is increasing exponentially from day to day) I credit the disappointing eye-opener that was the series finale of Lost. Nothing in my life (and that's saying a lot) has done more to help me see how much of the modern world is one big shell game than that ending. And, as a prayer for the rest of humanity, may you have such blessed results from such undeserving sources also. May all dried-up riverbeds provide you with the spring of life that is escaping whatever shackles you.

Oh, so one of my problems I wrote down is my diet. I'll post the solutions, obstacles, and ways to overcome those in my next post. Feel free to post something you feel empowered to change.

Craft Fanatic

I'll have to take some pictures of the different craft projects I'm working on as well as the ones I want to start. It's rather like a kid in a toy store. No sooner do I start one project then another catches my eye and then I think of something else, etc. I'll never do all the things I want, or probably even all the things I've started. But I LOVE thinking I will (I'm more of a dreamer than a doer). So although I have been known to be a great collector of cross stitch patterns, books, and magazines, I have lately been acquiring more books on various crafts. I've starting looking for them in secondhand stores and yard sales where I can get them much more cheaply than I used to (I still cave and buy brand new ones, though not being able to locate my debit card tonight prevented such a purchase). Although I am lately completely disgusted with consumer society (and actually, a lot of things in modern society that go with the whole "let's control how you think and feel about stuff, but make it seem benign, like what you consider a funny joke or the right brand of paint to buy", such as believing that you need to stay abreast of national, regional, and international politics and trends or that the best music is not what's being played on your neighbor's piano), I am still completely, hopelessly, heartsick for and devoted to all things craft. Though you could sway me away from thinking I need to go to the mall scrapbooking store or chain craft store to get ideas or supplies, as I am liking the idea of libraries, thrift stores and yard sales, internet and people you know as my sources. For instance, in one old craft book, there are instructions on how to make things out of pewter. Seriously. That seemed really cool (though somewhat dangerous as you need one of the most powerful acids out there for this). Or constructing a small wooden cradle. Or making your own stuffed toys Well, there were all kinds of crafts and lots of great ideas, so I think I may start posting stuff from my finds as well current loves and passions and projects here.

For now, a Lust List:

a sewing machine (yep, I do not own one)
my own quilt frames
a stand for cross stitch frames
a nice big strong quilting hoop
more binders for storing the magazines I buy
a strong wooden bookcase for housing all those heavy binders
the clever and cute little embroidery scissors in some fanciful shape
a leather thimble
Gingher scissors
a workspace (like the modular wooden pieces you can buy at Roberts)
a Cricut or Sizzix or something on those lines
a nice large pan for baking cakes
a book on decorating cakes
simple patterns for sewing things for babies and toddlers (since I could donate these to needy people in the program at my work) or for making some simple household things (like blinds or curtains, or those things that block the cold out at the bottom of the door)

That should do for now. Feel free to post anything this inspires you to think of, wonder about, etc. Pictures of your current craft projects or any cool things you have acquired are welcome (and of course, you retain the right to your pictures, I don't try to usurp that the way other websites would - well, you know, large corporate types).

People of the World, Unite!

I would just like to make a call to all of the good people of the world to unite to outwit, outplay, and outlast all of the scumbags out there. I think that essentially, if you want a good world you have to look out for each other. I'd love it if people posted some ways they feel we can look out for each other. I will post one and hopefully that will get the ball rolling.

When you know that certain activities or things you do make someone overjoyed and they really look forward to doing that, invite them to do this with you. For instance, after a long hiatus, I took the dog with me on my walk tonight. I think she really enjoyed it and it sparked up her life a little and it was good for me too. I felt better about who I had been for that time that I had her walk with me.

What is something you think we can do to look out for each other?

Real Life Heroes

So I just watched (most) of the movie Behind Enemy Lines. Which seems to be inspired by the real life experience of Captain Scott O'Grady who was shot down over Bosnia back during the
war there in the 90's (June 2, 1995, actually). I'm sure I annoyed the people watching the movie with me because I was constantly comparing what the movie portrayed with what I remembered about this man's story (we both had plenty of it wrong). But I did remember his name was Scott and he had dark hair and he survived on muddy water and bugs and plants and that was about it and so when they rescued him, he looked like someone who has been surviving on that regimen. So I just wanted to post a picture of the guy who did this remarkable thing 15 years ago because I remember at the time I was so moved by his experience. We didn't expect the pilot who had been shot down to come out alive and when he did it was amazing.

Exercise Guild Resurrected

So, I've recently been having more success with my exercise goals and I want to be sure to keep up this new habit. I thought I would bring back the Exercise Guild that I did last year for a while where we can track a couple of health-related goals. You can click on this link to go to a weekly chart for recording your progress on any goals you want to make. Anyone can edit the chart so you can just put a slash mark or X or whatever mark you want to indicate if you did your goal that day and then be sure to save the document. With nice weather I think it is a bit easier to get in the habit of healthy living and if we are consistent with it, maybe when cold weather comes it will be easier to not let those habits get lost. If you want to add a line to the chart go to the last space in the chart and hit "tab", it should create a new row.

What are you putting off?

Is there something in life you have denied yourself? Do you have at least 5-10 reasons why you should not have that thing in life now? I have. And I decided today (I know, still have to put it into practice) that I should stop doing that. Not going camping, for instance. Really, what are your reasons for that? (um, easily five: I get winded so easily and just putting up a tent is a bit of work, expense, distance, outdoor plumbing, just getting ready takes time, especially for me, and cleaning up afterwards usually takes even more work) No more! I am going to go camping, even if only once, and I am damn well going to one of the places I've always wanted to go, but never let myself take the time to do that (the Uintas, the Henrys, LaSalles, Tushars, Boulder Mtn, Escalante Mtn, far southeastern Utah, San Rafael Swell - yes, Andy, a better place than we found on our last outing there, Capitol Reef, uh, well, near there but where it costs nada to camp). You get the picture. Actually, I'd probably be fine to just go up in the mountains right here, but I have to find where.

That's just one example. It is my new goal in life, and I think it is in keeping with my New Year's Resolution for the year (treat myself better).

So, is there anything you've always wanted out of life and denied it to yourself? (if you're a Wilson, possibly even a Lockhart, it is part genetic and part environmental and almost unavoidable, think pioneers living in Escalante or poor ranchers during the Depression or a stern someone with no teeth looking at you from a tintype photograph thinking at you "don't ever put yourself first" and you can see why).

As they say in Dead Poets' Society (and it comes from rather ancient dead poets before them) Carpe Diem. Seize the Day (also known as "gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old times are still a flyin. And that same rose that flowers today tomorrow will be a dyin.).

Lost

I had this fabulous post that explored the seven possible layers of meaning of the Lighthouse that Jack and Hurley go to in this new season of Lost. But then blogger went and ate it and I hadn't saved it, I guess.

So instead, I will just post what I found out about the name Sayyid. It is arabic and means "lord". It was an honorary title given to the descendants of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet. Jarrah means "vessel".

Survivor

I am now catching up on the new season of Survivor and I've now watched the first three episodes. It's a very intense season because all of the people have such strong personalities. There aren't any people who fade into the background. The closest to that would be Courtney and Amanda. I've been pretty disappointed in the choices the Heroes have made (they got rid of Sugar and Stephenie, the two people I was rooting for the most. Now the one on their tribe I'm rooting for is Candice and I'm worried they'll get rid of her next). The way they've been treating the women on their tribe is nothing to crow about and does not really make them look like Heroes. The player I most want out of the game at this point is James. I see nothing to admire about the guy. And for all the griping about Parvati's flirting on the Villains tribe, at least she has a nice personality. And she makes no secret that flirting is her gameplan, at least. I remember it aggravating the hell out of me in her first season. But she's an awesome player, I think. Though, suprisingly, Boston Rob is the guy I'm rooting for on the Villains tribe. Even though he may have behaved like a Villain in past seasons, he's one of the few players to be playing like a hero right now. So, I'm rooting for Candice, then probably Amanda (I really like her personality). I'm just about 100% a personality person, but the ones who get rid of people for crying or just being a woman or older or whatever, not happy with. And the ones who bully and are mean or rude or cruel or play too dirty (a little bit is ok - hide Rob's hat, but not the machete, push someone hard off the platform, but don't rip her bra off). It's an awesome season and I encourage you to tune into the 2 hr premiere. It's pretty damn good.

Oh, if you had picked the two tribes, who would be your choices for each tribe (Heroes and Villains, ten on each)? For the villains, I didn't put people who might have done villainous stuff or be seen as villains if I actually rather like them (like Parvati). These are the people I would NEVER want to win a million dollars. The heroes are the people I would most root for to win the million.

Mine would be like this (those in the current season are bolded, the season they debuted in after their name):

Heroes

Sugar (Gabon)

Stephenie (Palau)
Ian (Palau)
Bob (Gabon)
Ozzy (Cook Islands)
Amanda (China)
Matty (Gabon)
Sierra (Tocantins)

Yul (Cook Islands)
Marisa (Samoa)

Villains

Corinne (Gabon)

Randy (Gabon)

Tyson (Tocantins)

Coach (Tocantins)

Dave (Samoa)

Russell (Samoa)

Brett (Samoa)

Shane (Exile Island)

Joel (Micronesia)

Ben (Samoa)

I had a much easier time coming up with too many heroes and not enough villains. I guess that speaks well for the world and Survivor, despite its rep.

Pink Martini

This is a great music group I discovered a few months ago. They play vintage music, so if you like music that sounds like it is from the 1940s or around that time, they would be a good group to check out. I've put a youtube video here so you can hear one of their songs. It would be fun to go to one of their concerts.

Nursery Rhyme Book

This is a classic version of all the old favorite Mother Goose rhymes in English. It's the book we had growing up and Mom used to tell us all the different rhymes in this book. I love it because it has so many nursery rhymes, I have not found another book with as many as this one has. Plenty of newer books have fancier illustrations and this one has limited ones in color, but plenty of black and white small illustrations next to the different rhymes. But, it is out of print. So sad.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to compile my own version of a nursery rhyme book, just to have for myself. You know, using scrapbook stuff and printing off classic paintings or prints for the different rhymes. I want to have a nursery rhyme book that has all the rhymes and with the wording I am used to with all my favorite depictions of the rhymes. I'm also going to have a Spanish section, I think, with all the rhymes and songs I've collected at my job to take to the families I visit, and maybe even a few from other languages (Brahm's lullaby - the German words, Frere Jacques, etc). Oh, the other thing that I like is when there are instructions on how to play the games that go with the rhymes or songs or the actions you are supposed to do. And maybe even a place for FYI type stuff (like that Hey Diddle Diddle refers to the constellations in the sky when farmers were supposed to plant and it's really quite old, or that eeny, meeny, miny, and moe are possibly ancient Celtic counting words). It will be THE single most fantastic nursery rhyme book EVER!

What three rhymes or songs would you want to save if humanity only got to keep three (think apocalyptic destruction and only 3 remain in any form, oral or written)?

I would like "Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" (one of my all-time favorites), Sing a Song of Sixpence, and then probably The House that Jack Built (but I keep changing my 3rd choice!). or for shorter more well known rhymes, Jack and Jill, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Humpty Dumpty.

Finding Yourself

Well, I guess since I have mainly two to four people who read this, it's ok if I share something a little more personal than what I would post on say, Facebook.

Last week I had one of those days or couple of days that are really inspirational/life-changing, or feel like you are changing your life. In a lot of ways I am the same person I was before that, but what was most meaningful to me was that I started to feel about myself the way I used to feel a very long time ago, say, when I was 18 or 19 years old. I felt very empowered and confident and happy and optimistic and even a tad idealistic. It was amazing for me to start to recognize myself again. Or the part of me that I have missed for the last 17 years (yes, I know, almost half of my life).

So raise your glass (Martinellis or otherwise) and cheer. And if you feel that you have lost some part of yourself, or even all, that you wish you could get back, I for one will be cheering for you to find that, too.

What will a dog eat?

It's an interesting question and a fun one to test from time to time. Will she eat banana? Without question. Cauliflower? Loves it. Peanuts and popcorn and dry cereal? Like nobody's business. Lettuce, not for a million bucks. Carrots. Huh uh. Ice cream and popsicles. Absolutely.

Suggest 3 or 4 foods that you think the dog (Katie) will eat (or won't, say which you think). I'll test the theory and let you know (you'd be surprised how fun it is to see just what a dog will eat and won't).