That was the browser window I was writing my entry in.
My own damn fault.
Oh, well.
Anyhow, this is the entry in which I confess my addiction. This may seem silly to some of you, but to those of you who know me, you know that I am helplessly addicted.
To...
Cross-stitch.
Sad, I know. But I have a very artistic temperament, without the artistic ability. My mother can draw and paint, Dad's got the same ability, and my sister's ability to make lovely works of ceramic make me green with jealousy.
When I was eight years old, my mother taught me to stitch. It was a very simple thing, a red tulip with a blue border round it, and on the bottom I stitched my dad's birthdate. He still has it, hanging in his home office. It makes me smile every time I see it. :o)
Short digression -- you know that song, "Heard It In a Love Song"? I can't remember who it's by, but I know it gets categorized into southern rock. When I was little, up until I bought the "Go South!" CD a few months back, I thought it was "Purty Little Love Song."
The words make more sense now that I know it's: "Heard it in a love song.... can't be wrong..."
Ahem.
I've been spending a lot of time on the internet lately going to "Karyl porn sites." Karyl porn is the kind of stuff that gets me going, particularly cross-stitch. (Kurt porn is similar, but keeps to scientific subjects like space weather, Hubble telescope shots, and anything having to do with Navy vessels.) Last night I was looking up free patterns until 1am.
I found this gorgeous one 
a while ago, and can't wait to stitch it up. It's really big, size-wise, but since each of the fifty squares are rather simplistic, it stitches up quickly. I'm just using up all my ink printing all fifty charts off the net.
I also found a forum on About dot com for cross-stitchers, and left a suggestion in response to someone's question. That got me into reading everyone's posting, and I realized that I am awfully young for this addiction. I've been stitching for fifteen years (yes, that makes me twenty-three), and most of the women (it's mostly a women's craft, although there are men who participate) are talking about teaching their kids and grandkids to stitch.
My other oddity is I've never designed a chart on my own. I can't draw, as I've already mentioned, and I don't have creativity to the point where I could even put together something in order to stitch it. If I did design a chart, it'd probably involve taking an image I like and sticking it into a stitching program and coming up with a chart that way. Not terribly original, but it works. I found a lady's site last night who took a lot of Thomas Kinkade's work and made charts from them by using a stitching program. Now she sells them.
I am now realizing that along with many other addictions I can get my fix free of charge on the internet. And the women in the About dot com forum know they're enabling those of us with this kind of addiction. :o)
My friends and family will probably have to do an intervention soon, for my own good!!
But I enjoy it so much. It keeps me out of trouble, and I don't like to just sit and watch tv mindlessly. Stitching gives me something to do as I sit and watch, and I don't feel like I'm wasting my time. I have finished six small projects for people's Christmas presents in the last few weeks, and even gotten a chance to work with DMC's new rayon floss. It can be a pain, but it's worth it for the finished look.
Most of my projects I don't even keep for myself. The last big project I finished for someone took me over four months, working four hours a night on it. Every night. After work. It's a wedding sampler for my friend Michelle, and it's FINALLY complete. It took so long because in the middle is a wreath of many colors. I'd stitch only one or two stitches before having to switch colors. And that, my friend, is quite time-consuming.
I have also made a sampler for my best friend that says that the path to a friend's house is never long (she just moved very far away), a wedding sampler for my sister, a welcome sign for my mother's new house, a warning for an attack kitty for my grandparents, and a prayer for my stepmother that she lost somewhere along the line. Last time I saw it, it was in a bunch under her bed, and that was three or four years ago. I have made an Elmo playing soccer for my ex-boyfriend, a rose in a glass vase on black Aida for my mother, a pegasus on black for my stepdad, and an anniversary sampler for my in-laws' thirtieth wedding anniversary last year.
So to thank me, my mother-in-law made me a wedding sampler with a wreath of pansies (so pretty!!) with Kurt's and my names on it with our wedding date. I think that's the only thing I have that I haven't made myself! :o)
So you see, I am really addicted.
But there's so much worse things in the world to be addicted to!!! :o)