I won! I won! I won!

I generally consider myself rather unlucky when it comes to contests and such. Imagine my surprise, joy and all around giddiness when I was informed that I won the blog candy offered at The Sparklie Things Blog (don't you just *LOVE* that blog name???) last week. It looks as if there are some amazingly yummy threads coming my way. I feel so blessed. Now I need to decide just how I'm going to pass on my good fortune as I can't just keep this to myself. Keep checking this space, you never know what I'm going to come up with! :-)



My spot of good fortune came at just the right time as between still not feeling well (I think I'm actually going another round with this wretched cold!) and other stresses I've been quite down for the last little while. Both my little darlings are causing me no small amount of stress as of late, but it's neither of their faults - it's just life. My oldest DS is getting ready to go off to middle school next fall. It should be a simple process, but sadly for him it's not. Cameron has been classed as gifted (don't read too much into that, it's only Grade 5!) and as a result he has to go through this long, involved, STUPID process to determine what middle school he'll be attending next year. It's causing me no small amount of stress as I'm continually jumping through hoops to make sure he'll get into a school with a contained gifted program and neither his current school nor his school board is being helpful at all! With a bit of luck though the whole thing will be resolved at the next meeting I attend on May 31. I was happy when Cameron was classed as gifted, but now I'm not so sure about the whole thing.... *sigh* Oh well!


My little Bryce has come out with his own set of difficulties too. He's been struggling a little bit in school - nothing hugely major, but the school felt we should have it checked out by a professional. So, one psychoeducational assessment later and it turns out that Bryce has Inattentive ADD with the added bonus of a writing disability. It explains a lot of his difficulties in school, but I'm still unsure of what impact this will have on the rest of his schooling. The upshot of the assessment is that he is considered to be at the high end of average intelligence - almost gifted in fact. It explains why he's been able to cope as well as he has up until now, but as academic demands increase, he may struggle more. So, now we know. Next up is figuring out what comes next!

So, that's why the stitching is suffering slightly. The models are still receiving attention, but not nearly as much as I'd like. I haven't really picked up much else, although for my birthday weekend I did finally relent and let myself start a project that has been waiting for me for at least 5 or maybe 6 years - L&L's Nantucket Rose. I haven't got much done on it yet, so no point posting a progress picture and it's not going to get much needle time until the models get done - they're my top priority. But it was a nice birthday treat to myself to start a project that has called me for years.

And it's SBQ time!

Today's SBQ was suggested by Ish (http://ishsuth.wordpress.com/) and is:

How do you choose a project for an exchange? Do you pick solely onwhat you know of the taste of the recipient or are there other reasonsyou pick the piece you do?

The permalink to this post is: http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2007/05/sbq-exchange-choices/

Well, I'm participating in my first exchange ever, so I don't think I'll have a great answer to this one.... I'm just about to mail out my first exchange which is a Dragon Dreams exchange over at the Rotation Stitchers BB. Since the exchange is designer-specific, it was relatively easy to pick a project to stitch. I have to admit though that I had my finishing idea first and then chose the right design to fit the finishing. When I can post pictures that'll make more sense, really!

If I participate in another exchange then I would likely do my utmost to get a feel for what things my recipient likes and attempt to give them something they would like, even if it wasn't my taste.

Finally, here's a little picture of me with my boys with the birthday cake that they baked for me:

And yes, I'm grimacing in the picture. I was feeling quite awful at the time and really didn't want my picture taken, but DH insisted. At least the boys look cute (Bryce is at the front & Cameron at the back)! :-)

Anyway, I think I'll treat myself to some flower shopping for the garden - it's time to get a few baskets done!