That's What She Said!

While I was in sick-and-unconnected mode (which is the negative way of looking at what can be referred to positively as: learn-to-be-my-own-beloved mode) I spent a decent amount of time crafting.

There's the sock that I've nearly completed (I'm on the toe now! - which is amazing). I wrote a post called Further Domestic Disasters about this guy's mate (the sock) when I started him back in August of 2009. The mate took a year to complete - while this guy has taken only a couple weeks!

There were envelopes and paper decorations and the beginnings of a ?fabric thing? that tells a story (and that I have no name, or decent description for)...

and there's the counted cross stitch wall hanging.

The counted cross stitch wall hanging is pictured (partially pictured) above. I started it long ago! Long, long ago. When I had either a wholly different, more naive and innocent worldview - or a bout of poor taste.

You can't see all of it yet, but the completed wall hanging will say:

Come and share
a Pot of Tea
My hearth is warm and
my friendship's free

and when it's done there will be a sugar and creamer evident - at about the place where I last stopped stitching - each holding a cute bunny. And then some more vines, a bee skep - and it's finished off with a heart (of cross stitched vines).

Anyway, nowadays I like things with a little edge. Like Julie Jackson's cross stitching - which I first saw when a friend sent me a calendar a few years ago. Julie Jackson's Subversive Cross Stitch patterns have sayings like (among loads of others): kiss my ass, SHUT THE FUCK UP, WTF! and Shut Your Whore Mouth).

Now that's cross stitching! Great present ideas, right?

So I was showing Slightly-Brit the tea and bunnies wall hanging - and whining about how un-edgy it was. And I got wondering about it - how could I redeem this wall hanging? I'd put too much time into it to just toss it.

Maybe I could put quote marks around the words hearth and friendship?

Then it'd read: My "hearth" is warm and my "friendship" is free. Hahaha!

But that seemed too ?? too something, not enough something else...

Slightly-Brit said that it was a bit edgy already - noting the rabbits sqautting in the sugar bowl and creamer. She said she doubted she'd take tea in that kitchen because of the possibilities.

I agreed, but still - I wanted something else. And then it came to me like a lightning strike. The dreaded "That's what she said!" that Manchild regales us with at least twice in every conversation.

"That's what she said!" turns any remark into a euphemism, something questionable.

So there you go -- I'm adding TWSS (just the initials - which Manchild often adds to notes he sends) to the bottom of my just-a-bit-too-sweet (twee) wall hanging.