Keebles World

How can a weekend after a holiday be so short? It's not like I spent the entire weekend sleeping, on the contrary, I spent most of it stitching and watching my newest TV obsession, Bones. At least I got to make up for my lack of stitching during the week. I might be able to finish this row before the end of the year after all. I left off here: and I finished off here tonight: Finishing off Maleficent's face was both satisfying and sad...it was nice to see her appear but I also know that the most exciting stitching parts are over with now and it's all just finishing up the project. It kind of takes the fun out of it when the good parts are over with, especially when you're not even halfway done. Oh well, that's the price we pay, right?

If anyone cares to join me, please feel free to...just remember to paste a link to your post in my comments below so I don't miss your post! I had to shorten the title for space reasons, but this week's topic deals with my top 5 vacation destinations which I've never been to, but hope to get to before I die. #1: UK - SPECIFICALLY ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND I've been an Anglophile long before I was even old enough to pronounce the word, let alone spell it. Even as a small tyke, I used to tell my mother all the time that "I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque" when I was a soul looking for a baby to inhabit (and yes, I actually spoke that way as a kid, most kids would just claim they must have been adopted). I've NEVER felt like I belong in this region or to 98% of my family. But for someone who hates their surroundings, I've somehow managed to spend my entire life sabotaging myself so that I'm stuck here...but that's a story for a...

I think I knew before I wrote last week's Bucket List Friday that this week would be along the same lines. My sister and I have been having several conversations about a possible March Disney World trip, so that was more prominent in my mind, than this week's topic: NEVER VISITED VACATIONS DESTINATIONS TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE I know it's a bit long, but I couldn't figure out how to shorten it (so, if anyone has any ideas, let me know). My list for this is a lot more ambitious than my repeat visiting list, although still probably pretty tame by everyone else's standards. I could die happy just going to Disney World every single year, but there are some places in the world that I would like to see, at least one day. For anyone who wants to join in, please feel free to! Just remember to limit your picks to 5, but other than that, be as wordy or as brief as you want! And remember to link your post in the comments section of my Friday Bucket List post so I can ...

It's Top 10 Tuesday time again and this one is personal because this one was my suggestion! So, check out Kate's and Tiff's blogs too. Neither one of them strikes me as the "dark" type, so I'm curious to see what they consider depressing. To be honest, I don't really consider a single song on my list "depressing" per se...it is just "how I roll". Oh, and sorry about the "old" nature of this music...I literally haven't listened to the radio seriously in about 10 years. I never thought I'd reach that age when you can't stand the music of the youth, but I peaked a long time ago. About the only new music I get nowadays is new stuff from my favorite bands. Maybe it was because I wasn't the happiest of children that this type of music appealed to me, but whatever the reason, I still love all these songs to this day. Looking back, I think it was just because it takes a lot of effort to make me feel anythin...

Despite an incredibly busy work week, I did manage a bit of work on Maleficent. I left off here: and finished here tonight: I'm getting to a point where it's pretty boring stitching, even with the appearance of Maleficent. I've done about 20 colors, and you can barely tell it's more than three and it's extremely frustrating. Next week will be even harder to make progress because work will be crazy and I'll be pulling double shifts. But at least there is a holiday in the middle...pretty much the only purpose holidays serve for me is extra stitching time and for that I'm thankful. It could be worse, I could be forced to spend time with family and eat foods I hate. On the home front, the hippie: is no more: Granted, he might now be a drowned rat, but once he's dry, he's going to be the cutest dog in the park!

If anyone cares to join me, please feel free to! I would be really interested to hear where other people have been and why they'd like to go back. Just remember to paste a link to your post in my comments below so I don't miss your post! It probably seems like I only ever go to Disney World, and in the past 20 or so years that's pretty much been the case, but it wasn't always so. Even after that first Disney trip and my declaration at age 10 that I would NEVER go on another family vacation, opportunities to travel with other family members always presented themselves. Throughout my life I've been most places eastward from Canada to Maine down to the Florida Keys to Mexico and everywhere in between thanks to my extended family. I haven't been westward much except for three (rather horrible) trips to Texas, church camp in New Mexico and my most recent jaunt to the original House of Mouse Land. Westward is where my mind tends to wander when I think of futur...

Please feel free to snag the icon above...it was just a quickie and I might change it later (which is why I haven't perma-linked it yet). I'm going to try to make it a habit to post the upcoming topic for Bucket List Friday on Wednesday so that anyone who wants to join me can have time to organize a list. Just remember to limit your list to five items but feel free to be as wordy or brief as you please. If you want to add pictures and/or videos, then all the better! If you will link to your post in my Friday Bucket List post comment section, I'll make sure to visit every blog participating. I had quite a few people last week say that they had favorite bands they would like to see but that their bands were either no longer together or had dead members. My view on that is never say never...I never thought I'd be able to see Duran Duran together as the original five after 1984, but I got that chance again in Louisville in 2009 (after a failed attempt in Mississippi...

It's Top 10 Tuesday time again! It's also that time of year when Thanksgiving and Christmas subjects come up, so I'm going to try not to be "holiday negative" like I usually am, but I would still suggest reading both Kate's and Tiff's blogs because they both actually quite like this time of year whereas I never have. Oh, and this list is probably going to be more material than anything but it's an Asper thing, we attach more emotion to things than to people, so please don't judge. #1: BAM BAM I had never thought to adopt a dog before, especially since I preferred Shih Tzu's and it's hard to find full breeds on adoption websites, but it didn't stop me from trying. I was denied by two separate agencies because I didn't have a yard. I don't think either read my application, just sent me a canned denial letter (and one took over four months to do so). Both my other boys had come from a pet store and, although they both ...

First, I'm late (again) on my ORT jar pic. I didn't buy a bunch of stuff at Disneyland, but the few things I did buy were really exciting, none more so than the Disneyland Haunted Mansion hearse...now I have a matching set! Is it weird that I'm so excited over having matching hearses? Probably so, but I wear my weird badge stapled to my forehead, so it's not shocking. Last week I set a goal for myself...to finish row 2 on Alice and the B's. Thankfully, about mid-day Saturday, I managed to accomplish it, confetti be damned! I left off here: finished the row here at 361.42 hrs (which bothers me a bit because I have six more rows...this project is going to take a lifetime to finish!): And the full two rows: I even managed to do a bit more Saturday night: But I also promised myself that when I finished the row, I would go back to Maleficent, which I did on Sunday. I left her off here back on July 1st at the row finish: I had a rough day concentrating,...

Due to a certain conversation at work, I've decided to start a new blog series called Bucket List Fridays. Basically, I'll be picking a subject a week (and ideas are encouraged and welcomed) and listing my top 5 bucket list items for that subject. I will try to forgo my usual 1000 word essay on the who's and why's and just stick to the list, but I can't promise anything! Oh, and please feel free to join me because I'd love to hear other people's views on the same topics. This week's topic is concerts, more specifically, who are my top 5 bands to see in concert. I haven't been to a lot of concerts in my life, and I've seen Duran 13 times (which is about three times as much as all my other concerts put together), but there are still bands and/or singers who I'd like to see before I die (although the odds are extremely unlikely). #1: DURAN DURAN This will always be #1...no matter how many times I see them, it's NEVER enough. #2...

For years I've been threatening to join a stitch/stash blogging challenge, but I always manage to miss the sign up times. Since Stitch from Stash (the one I REALLY wanted to join) is closing down, can anyone recommend any good stitchy challenges? I'm not interested in the crazy types...I may be crazy, but not THAT crazy and I don't do well with tons of WIPs, but more of the 'finishing current projects' or a 'moderate new stash start' type of challenge. I already do the IHSW and the TUSAL challenges, but I need a good continuous focus-type challenge as I tend to need motivation sometimes (well, except for close to vacation time when I don't stitch at all). I've tried the whole 'I'll just motivate myself and post my own progress' type challenges, but that usually lasts all of one or two months. I know a lot of people do challenges on Facebook, but my world is a Facebook-free zone and I'm not intending on going back there (which re...

This week's Top 10 Tuesday is a bit of a branch-off of last week's subject, but I'm still excited to see where this takes me. I almost missed today's due to work responsibilities, so sorry it's late. Make sure to drop by Kate's and Tiff's to see what they left behind on their islands. #1: MYSELF The more I thought about last week's subject , the more I started craving desert island quietness, so I vote to leave me and all my top 10 items from last week on a desert island. But, the following 9 items cannot be on the island with me, it's an either/or scenario. #2: ANNOYING PEOPLE For me, this would be an EXTREMELY long list, but anyone who get's on my nerves either has to live permanently on an island, or serve "time" on one. #3: BUGS You probably guessed this one was coming. I know that bugs serve an important function in our ecology, but surely there has got to be another way to handle such matters versus creepy, craw...

I did stitch this week, but it doesn't look like much progress because of all the confetti. I left off here: And finished up here this afternoon: Guess a heavily confetti'ed area wasn't the best place to get back into stitching, huh? I'll get through it, it just might take me a while. As far as my stash goes, here's what it looks like on the weird metal shelf: Made even weirder because it's in my bedroom: I keep my thread in DMC numerical order in these boxes (with room to grow): my scroll rods are in two separate locations from little: to big: My material (that isn't in with the big scroll rods) is kept in these boxes: I keep my kits in these boxes: and my patterns in binders with magazines holding them up: Spare little supplies I keep in these drawers, but they aren't very effective. You also might notice the finished stitches just sitting there gathering dust...I haven't been on top of things lately: And, of course, the ...

My friend Kate over at The Suddenly Kate Show has started a new adventure to get out there and meet someone. That's something I gave up on a long time ago, but I really admire her spirit and desire to find someone to spend the rest of her life with, and she's gotten me to think a lot about my situation. Ever since my divorce about 18 years ago (wow, that seems like forever ago when I type it out like that), I've used male friends as romantic substitutes. You can go out with them, go to eat, see a movie, shop, whatever, without all the emotional attachment that comes with relationships (or, even better, the intimacies). It's been the perfect solution/excuse for me for years. And the more I think about it, I did the same thing before my ex-husband even came into the picture. I always preferred the company of male friends versus female, my first best friend was a boy and, although we did spend time as boyfriend/girlfriend, it was a one-sided relationship because...

Both of my favorite bands, Duran Duran and Take That, put out their new videos this past week (finally D2...what took you so long?). It's a weird situation for me because, despite my long-lived, deep-seated love for Duran, Take That hold a pretty big place in my heart as well, so objectively it's hard to examine both videos with open and unprejudiced eyes. Since I saw Duran's first, let's start with them. There are several aspects about the video that I do like...the black and white (which Duran do very well), the simplicity of it, and it fits the song, which I've really grown to absolutely adore. But, at the same time, Simon's weird decision to avoid looking at the camera is just odd, he's usually doing nothing but looking at the camera. I do have to admit though, despite his age, that man's still got it! But anyway, judge for yourself. Now on to Take That's video. From just a visual standpoint, I found the video fun and cute in places, b...

It's Top 10 Tuesday time again! You guys have no idea how good normalcy feels right now! Be sure to check out Kate's and Tiff's for their take on this week's subject. I have actually given the idea of living in a deserted island quite a lot of thought, probably because I have severe hermitting tendencies and could live quite happily without human interaction for some time (that and I probably watched too much Swiss Family Robinson as a kid). My ideal world would be devoid of people, but obviously that's impossible, especially since I'm also a Disney nut and the parks tend to stay at max capacity now. But without further ado, let's get started! #1: BAM Obviously, I wouldn't ever go anywhere without my little bamkin. He's a mess, but I couldn't live without him and I'm pretty sure he feels the same (or at least I hope he does). Here he is sleeping in his "Egyptian mummy mode": #2: MUSIC I'm not entirely sure ho...

Well, not much because it's hard to get back into it after a three-month hiatus, but I did get some done on Alice and the B's. I'd forgotten what a pain it is for a dominant leftie to stitch on the far right side of the panel! But anyway, I left off here back in August: and made it here last night: Not much done, but I'm still happy to be back doing what I love! This was the first Disney hiatus that my stitching mojo stayed strong through the entire break and I really wanted to be stitching instead of trip planning (maybe that should have been my first omen, but I'm determined not to dwell on the trip that was). Usually it takes me forever to get back into stitching after a break and then I stitch like mad for months, forcing myself to stop once again and work on Disney pictures around Feb/March. I'm also having a strong desire to reorganize my stitch stuff. I never heard from Kate how her matchbox thread storage worked out and I'm really curious....

For the most part, the trip was a wonderful experience and I'm glad I got to go, at least once in my life. Hopefully, I will be able to go back again, but maybe in several years and more-so on my own terms. The ugliest part of the trip was the dreaded LA Bus Tour that I had been terrified to death of. Overall, it ended up OK, but the one part I was dreading the most, the Hollywood Blvd stop was way worse than I was expecting. I was expecting the homeless people everywhere, but I wasn't expecting the life-sucking vibe associated with them. I was expecting the pan-handlers, but I wasn't expecting them to actually physically touch me! I was even expecting the crowds, but I wasn't expecting the cattle-herding we were subjected to. Basically, once I managed to get myself in a store, I stayed there until it was time for the bus to come back because I couldn't face going outside again. That ranks with one of the top 10 worst experiences ever for me and if I never ...