Mid-afternoon and dark moon blues

Once again, I have demonstrated my ability to record the lunor cycles according to my mood. Yesterday was a pretty ok day. Work was productive, and it was gorgeous outside. As I returned to the office from lunch, I almost went into a total tearburst. No reason - just felt down. My blood-sugar was fine, as I had just eaten. Everything in my life is great. So whasssap? Ah yes... the classic phenomenon - I checked the lunar cycle, and low n' behold we were on a new moon. This one hit me quite by sudden, and quite hard. But wait, the symptoms get freakier. All afternoon, while I was quite stuffed, I wanted chocolate... CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE! And once I got back in the door at home, I set to work making dinner. I wasn't sure what to make, but one thing was certain - it all needed salt. EVERYTHING must be salty!

Now note, I typically do not have a sweet-tooth. Also, I almost never cook with salt.

If I were a woman, I would swear this was PMS. But once again, I defy the stereotype by displaying the symptoms in my own Pagan-male version of Post-Moon-Syndrome.

So after a very anxious and stressed-sleep last night, I awoke this morning determined to turn this mood around. So with the help of fathers-little-helper (a nice dose of Valerian), I am actually on a bit of an upswing. THANK THE GODS! When I get like this, I don't even like myself - I can't imagine anybody else wanting to be around me.

>noon de-stress

Ahhhhh.... a lunch break of de-angstifying myself. (De-angstifying? Is that a word? Oh who cares... you know what I mean!)

The weather outside right now is just stellar. It is perfectly sunny, with a light breeze in the mid-70's. Having picked up a baguette from Starbucks, I sat out in my Jeep and spent my break stitching away on my new Italian Renn. sleeve. I probably won't be done with this project for at least 6 months or so, but when it is done, it should look pretty darned spiff (I hope!)

There is something really relaxing about needlework. Of course, I find that ironic. I remember WAAAAY back years ago when I first tried embroidery. It made my blood boil. I just couldn't make things work, the thread kept knotting, and it was just a nightmare. Nowadays, I have a steady control over the needle, and things just flow gorgeously.

The big challenge on this project is the size. Typically, I am a very tense embroiderer (made so because I am a tense person). As a result, my stitching is very dense, very tight, and it warps the fabric. Normally, I embroider my pieces on a neutral background held in place in a drum-tight frame. Not so on this project. I am embroidering directly on the final velvet ground of a sleeve. Not only can I NOT embroider too tightly, as the fabric will pucker, but I cannot put the fabric tightly in a frame. This is unexplored territory for me. So far so good, but it is early yet.

On the plus side, I have identified another area of cross-medium art application. (What the F*#%$ did I just say?) Long story short, in the past whenever I have *shaded* an area in a design, I have always either varied the stitches or the directional technique to create a play of light. I have never shaded using different colors because, frankly, I just didn't get it. Well, thanks to the illumination pieces that I have been working on lately, I think I have a better grasp of shading, and how it works. I have used what I have learned by painting in my stitching. And so far, so good! I'm pretty pleased thus far. But I have a long, long, long way to go.

Well, it isn't about the destination - it is about the journey.