Because 2 days is never enough.

I’m in Pittsburgh for work these past few days and I brought several Ziploc bags full of crafting activities along with me. I’m sure my TSA scanner thought I was a kindergarten teacher or the mother of a small child or possibly recognized me as the craft dork I am. When I got here on Friday, Jake guided me around town and earned hero status when he helped me find a thimble to save my aching fingers and a mini-pair of scissors, as I couldn’t carry mine on the plane.

As I sit here on my hotel bed embroidering, I am reminded of my first time. Maybe six years old, I was harumphing about the house complaining that I was bored, that I had read all my books and had nothing to do. My mom is a firm believer that only boring people get bored and she told me as much. Her solution was to pull out some heavy white cloth, an emboridery hoop, thread and needle. My dad drew a picture of a Holly Hobby type girl with a big bonnet holding a watering can over a little flower. After my mom showed me what to do, I sat on the warm conrete steps at the side of the house while my mom hung laundry on the line and my dad worked in the garden. The end result was very sweet.

But this is where it gets muddled. Looking at the uneven and unexpected results of my recent forays into embroidery, I wonder if this memory is accurate. Was I actually better at embroidery as a six year old than I am in my 30’s? Was my masterpiece, “little girl with watering can” actually, well, …bad? Did my mom do most of it for me? Did I make this whole episode up?

As my mom doesn’t bother to read this blog, I guess we’ll never know. I’ll have to focus on the future, not the past. Here’s the leaf design I made in Pittsburgh.