New (updated) Blog

Hi to everyone. I'm Bonnie - a married mother of 3, grandmother to 6 and a hubby who is a great person who unfortunately is sick. The two oldest of my children are living in NC, and SC respectively, and the youngest daughter still lives at home and helps me with taking care of my hubby.

The name of my blog came about because that is my new profession. I had worked in MD's offices for almost my entire life, starting at age l4 working as a Candy Striper volunteer at a local hospital. Loved the medical life, but alas, never went to nursing school, but I did learn almost as much as a nurse knows by working for different MD's. Then I lost my job in 2001 and decided to open a cross stitch shop. When that closed I had to find some kind of a job that would pay the health insurance. I now drive a school bus for the district I live in, and drive a small bus for either the special needs children or the private school students. I absolutely love it and can't think of anything else I'd rather do. I also work in the summer driving the bus for the recreation department.

If you know me, you know that I also have a business, cross stitching and cross stitch items of course, called The Painted Giraffe Stitchery, www.paintedgiraffestitchery.com. I also answer to Buzyladee@aol.com.

I love to stitch, and have been doing this since I was about 6 or 7 - learning from my mother who did beautiful embroidery, but didn't crochet or knit until later on in life, and by then I wasn't interested in learning those creative outlets, but now I wish I had learned. BUT I do love the stitching.

In the days to come, I'll take some pictures and hopefully be able to get them to make some sense of what my stitching is like. I am quite eclectic in my stitching, as sometimes a Lizzie Kate will hit me, and then a Prairie Schooler, and I've just recently found Prairie Grove Peddler and then who knows. I love the thoughts of the needle going through the material and me making something of nothing but a pattern and some material/floss in front of me. I almost never choose the material that the designers use for their patterns, and I use lots of different flosses. I think stitching should be unique, and mine certainly are most of the time. LOL

I have a very dear friend, Barb Cooley from Plum Pudding Needleart - www.plumpuddingneedleart.com who is a mentor to me with this darn computer, so once she and I 'sit down in front of the computer together' even though I'll be here in Spencerport and she'll be in Tolland, maybe we can figure things out. I'd love to be able to change things around once in a while. She also designs some really great charts that I've had the pleasure of stitching, even doing one model for her. Wish I stitched faster, I'd do all of her models, but I tend to stray too much. LOL

So, saying all of that, I guess I'm done for now. Be happy everyone, and remember to pick up your needle at least once a day even if it's only to put in a few stitches.