Diary of a Mad Cross-stitcher

Current endeavor "We Love Tea...My Friends And Me."

Red Reading glasses are my new friends since turning forty.

Close up of Teacup.

Past work hanging in the Queen's Room
"Tea Time" with different types of tea in background.


Close up of teapot and tea types.
Irish Breakfast, Raspberry, Honey, Earl Grey....


Upclose teacups hanging from hooks.

Another picture hanging in the Queen's Room.
"Teacups with Flowers"
this one took me forever because it has gold thread in
the cross-stitch.

Close up of flowers in teacup.

Closeup of flowers in teacup.

"A Spot For Tea" sign upfront by register.


" Stacked Teacups" in main dining room
at A Spot For Tea.

Closeup of stacked creamer and cups.

This is how I de-stress, one stitch at a time.

For almost two decades, I have been stitching.

My first project is hanging in the guest room at my mom's house. "Flowers and Ribbons". I made so many errors, lots of knots (a good cross-sticher's back is as pretty as the front). My sister-in-law Gretchen in Buffalo, New York, really got me passionate about this hobby. I come from a large family of women who have always been busy with their hands...quilting, crocheting, needlepoint. I don't ever remember my grandmother, Noma Nease, sitting in her rocker by the little heater stove without doing something with her hands. She use to say "Idle hands are the devil's workshop."

What I love about cross-stiching it is creative, meditative and centering. When my hands settle down to a rhythm, the creative spirit can soar. I've come to see why something so old fashioned has endured through the high tech craze of this speeding world. I am defined as a "Type-A, hectic, achiever, tearoom owner wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, mentor and employer". I am constantly playing one nurturing role or another. I love stitching because it nurtures me and my spirit. It's quiet, and it offers me an escape or a mini mediation before I go to sleep. And I feel blessed that I can both enjoy a successful business that I love and relish some timeless, feminine, hearth-bound tradition.

In fact, I sit in a red rocking chair on one side of the fireplace and my sweet husband, Eric sits in the green leather chair on the other side facing the tv with some sporting event going on.

My son, Benjamin said to me, "Mom, I love it when you stitch." I asked him why and he said it made him feel safe with me sitting there. I really understood that because sitting by the fireplace stitching makes me feel so cozy and peaceful and reflective.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Whatever your hand finds to do,
verily do it with all your might."