Ann The Gran Community

My husband and I have a small promotional products business. He wanted to add Embroidery so he could do hats. I found out how much I love it, and now I'm hooked and don't want to do anything else! I've had two very different lives. First I was a stay at home "granola" mom in the woods of New Hampshire and later in Washington. I had a small farm with chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, and a huge garden and orchard. I did lots of canning, sewing, weaving, etc., whille raising my two children. Then after my divorce I started working at Boeing, and finally had to let the "farm" go. I still live here, but have only one cat and one dog, the orchard is overgrown and the garden is gone. Later I remarried a wonderful man, kept working at Boeing, and became a grandma! Now, I've come full circle, and am getting back into the home things again. But, as I realize I'm not as young as I used to be, and things take a lot longer to do, I've pared back on the "farm" stuff! I recently retired from Boeing, where I worked first as a technical illustrator, and later as a technical designer. Now I have more time for my projects, but they seem to accumulate faster than I can keep up! I have SO MANY things I want to do! I have two adult children - a boy and a girl. My daughter has a 4-year old daughter who spends a lot of time with me. She always wants to spend our day "sewing", which is both sewing and embroidering. She loves to push all the controls, and especially the start button. She knows all the steps to get the embroidery done! She never seems to tire of it so I'm hoping I have an "apprectice" in her! She's a great little artist already, and is very astute in her color choices - she know what she wants! My avatar is a picture of our year-old Golden Retriever named Mojo. He keeps me busy as well! We're lucky that we live where he can run, but he prefers to stay underfoot most of the time! We also spend a lot of time camping. We mostly camp locally (Washington), and have several other couples that we usually go with. The guys fish while we women cook and clean! Not really! We also like to fish, and when not fishing, cooking and cleaning, we have our handwork like knitting, sewing, ect. I started a toothbrush rug this summer, but it might not get finished 'til next summer! But it gives me something to do while in camp besides watching the cook fire and the dogs! Life seems so simple when pared down to those few things we do when camping! I wish I could find a way to simplify my life at home, but I'm my own worst enemy what with all my creative pursuits!! From what I've read here at ATG I'm not alone in the many ways our creative muse pulls us! I feel connected to all the others of you who are engaging in similar things. What a great way to connect in this age of technology! I never imagined that these "simple" arts would be so dependant on the computer!! What strange bedfellows they make! So - happy creating to all of you kindred spirits out there! -Pat