I don't know what came over me

Yesterday I cracked open a cross-stitching kit. I blame my friend Kathy for this purchase - crafty catalogues are evil, I tell you!

The kit is called Paris Market. Here's the scene:

I think it's pretty. I love the buildings and the flowers and the colours. Who wouldn't want to hang out here for an afternoon? And you know what the best part is? Pre-sorted thread! Holy moley!!! Back in my day, we had to sort our OWN thread, thankyouverymuch. This sure made starting a lot easier. I will have to decide whether to put the thread on cardboard spools or to leave it as is. I am envisioning a gigantic tangled mess of thread after carting the kit around for a few months if it remains in its current unspooled state.

When I bought it I managed to use a 40% off coupon at Michaels to get the kit (pay full price??? are you kidding me???). So it's been sitting in the office (what, you don't store sewing supplies in your office?) for, um, a little while year or so. And I told myself I'd do it in that mythical time period "when I finish my thesis."

But yesterday, sick and tired of browsing the web, sorting through digital photos, sending people e-mails, and waiting and waiting for my (boring) friends to post things on Facebook, I grabbed the kit, swooned again over the scene, found my embroidery scissors, miraculously managed to find an embroidery hoop, taped the perimeter of the fabric, found the middle of the fabric, stabbed myself in the finger while marking the middle, and chose which colour to start with (pink).

I managed 19 crosses before Kid 2 started fussing and I went to bed.