Get Real People

Hmmm. Today, I'm gonna talk about two things. Well, that's the game plan right now anyway, but you all know I do tend to ramble at times, often going way off-course in the process too. I'll try to uphold my end of the bargain though and keep this to two things.

First, some business matters. Not just one, but two of my blogger buddies have given me an award. Lo and behold, they both gave me the same award too! How cool is that? Well, I think it's super-cool -really, I do -and I'm gonna show this award to you and also gonna pass it along to some other bloggers then after that.

Here's the award I received from Michelle -that Surly Writer -and also from Sweetie of Sweetie's World, The Real People, Real Blogs Award given to bloggers who keep their posts real..

The rules say I am supposed to pass this on to seven bloggers who keep their blogs "real." This is the hard part for me as with close to 200 blogs on my reader, how the heck do I select a mere seven bloggers to give this award to. (Sorry about the dangling participle there but sometimes, I think you just can't avoid those things. My sincere apologies there to some teachers in my past -Miss Strickland, Miss Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. London, Mr. Forney and Mr. Tutokie -all who labored long and hard to try to impress me never to end a sentence like that but I still do it anyway, or so it seems.)

After a lot of thought here, I have decided I am passing this award on to several bloggers who are and have been around, on my favorites list but some of these folks do not do the awards thing. Their blogs are all crisp and clean-cut -neat and tidy -and that's fine with me too, as I don't read their blog to see all the awards lined up but rather because they write some mighty fine posts, good words -very good words, as a matter of fact -and I enjoy reading their "stuff" -a lot! So please, check out these bloggers, stop and say "Howdy" to them too in their comments section and by all means, tell them I sent you by way of giving them this award. Actually, since I think all of you on my favorites list are "Real People" and write pretty darned "Real" blogs too, feel free to abscond with this award and use it to call out bloggers who you think are real too!

So, here's my "go to and read" list then -Real People, Real Bloggers -for today.

Keith at Ten Years Running Blind

Debo Blue at A Blue State of Mind

David at Authorblog

James at Burnettiquette

Sandi McBride at Holding Patterns

Amy at Live, Learn, Knit

Jocelyn at O Mighty Crisis

Dr. Sardonicus at Pole Hill Sanitorium

Dave at Rather Than Working

The Curmudgeon at Second Effort

Jim at Suldog

Terri at Terri Terri Quite Contrary

Shelley at This Eclectic Life

Travis at Trav's Thoughts

and Patois at Whee! All The Way Home

Ok, that's fifteen bloggers I'm out and out telling you to go check their stuff and betting too that you'll find some really terrific, enjoyable reading at each place too. I listed that many bloggers because I got this award from two different bloggers, so seven times two, plus one for good measure! And while you're at it, check out any of the other bloggers listed under my "favorites" as you're sure to find lots of great stuff there -enough to keep you busy reading for a month of Sundays, at the very least!

And now, moving on to my second topic of the day and the reason I titled this post the way I did -should actually have made the title, "Get Real, People!" as a way to emphasize there's something brewing that I'm not too happy about today and in order for me to get it off my chest, I'm gonna do a little bit of a rant here!

You all know I've been embroidering away -practically whittling my often stiff little fingers right down to the bone -since mid-August. I've done tablecloths, table toppers, table runners, pillow cases, dresser scarves and doilies, all intended to be Christmas gifts -or at least the majority of them will be used as such.

Yesterday, I completed another dresser scarve and also, got a package in the mail from my favorite place (ranks right up there along with Barnes and Noble for m online shopping business) - Herrschnerrs. I received two 50x50 Christmas themed tablecloths, and a bunch of embroidery floss.

Unfortunately, two "packets" of floss -already cut and sorted, packaged up for me -are meant to be used on a pillow case set called "Pansy Garden." Through what probably is my not-so-excellent vision, I apparently ordered two of the thread kits for those pillow cases whereas I had intended to order two sets of the pillow cases called "Pansy Garden." What sucks though is that I went to the Herrschnerrs site and searched for that particular pillow case set, only to find it is no longer shown on their site! Apparently it was discontinued. So now, I have these two packets of embroidery floss, all packed up specifically for those pillow cases but don't have, can't get, the darned pillow cases now! Just a minor bit of frustration there, ya know.

Now, to the rest of my rant, I do have to go off a bit here in a related direction -of sorts, anyway.

I have a stash of embroidery floss (as well as a fabric stash and a yarn stash and a book stash too). It's a necessity I think for anyone who enjoys doing embroidery work to have a stash of lots and lots of skeins of the various colors one has to select and work with in doing this craft.

The floss company -DMC -whose product I generally use has a color chart of 454 different colors one can choose from when doing an embroidery project. I had a smallish stash when I started this embroidery stuff but it has grown considerably just since August.

First, I ordered a packet of DMC floss through Herrschnerrs that contained 100 different colors of floss. Then, through some e-mail exchanges with a distant cousin (who I have never met) out in California, I ended up the recipent of a packet of more embroidery floss -about 150-200 skeis -that had been purchased by my cousin's daughter when she was doing a lot of embroidery work. But, since she has since quit doing embroidery and felt she no longer needed this floss, she bequeathed it all on me! Wow! My stash just grew that day by leaps and bounds.

In the package I received yesterday, I had also ordered several skeins of floss -colors I had seen listed on the color codings for some projects waiting in the wings for me to start but which weren't among the 300 plus colors I already had on hand. Jump my accumulation number then up to about 400 skeins of floss.

So, last night as I was sifting through the assorted colors, trying to find those coordinates recommended for use in the two new tablecloths I received yesterday and which I am chomping at the bit now to get started on too, of the almost 20 different colors recommended between these two tablecloths, wouldn't you just know it but only three of the colors they named do I have in my lovely stash!

I am not going to order more floss right now. Gonna go through and try to figure which colors I have, in what I estimate will be an adequate number of each color, so I can get started on at least one of these pieces today!

But, really folks, how man different shadings of green, red, blue, gold or yellow or brown, etc., do we really HAVE to have, that we HAVE to try to select from? I have problems choosing one color from a selection of four or five maybe, when purchasing a sweater but now, there are upteen different shades of every color under the sun, or so it seems, and I have to try to figure out from the name of the color given, which ones to use out of my stash! It's almost enough to push me right over the proverbial edge to insanity!

But the thing that really irks me is that on these two tablecloth patterns, neither one gives the recommended quantity of floss needed for each different color which really does very much irritate me! What if I pick three different shades of green to use -skeins I have say four skeins of said color but it turns out I really will need 6 skeins of a certain shade but can't find it in any of the craft stores near here nor online or if I do find it online, it will take roughl a week of my valuable time to arrive here for me to complete my project. And what if that color's dye lot isn't quite the same as what I was using too?

Boy, the issue this presents to me is one that both worries me and also, really ticks me off too!

These manufacturers are messing with my timetable, my obsession at the moment and risking getting me angry enough that I will lose interest if I can't get an item completed in the amount of time I have alloted to do these projects now.

That's my gripe for the day. Probably means nothing in the general scheme of things to most people reading this but to me, well heck, it's a life or death matter, ya know!

A matter of expediency, folks.

So, to those manufacturers of these items, Get Real, People and at least tell me how many skeins of each color you recommend I will need to do each project, will ya?

Now, off to comparing my colors to the names to the color chart for closeness of shadings!