I feel for you Janet. I remember when I had "only weekends" to work in my garden. I'm telling you, it wasn't in nearly as good shape then as it is now, since I don't work an outside job anymore. I spend all the time I can in my garden, but now that my baby has turned 13, her extra curricular activites keeps me on the road way more than I'd like to be!! :) I still find the time to devote myself to my gardens almost daily, however! Fall shipments of dl's have begun arriving, so I've been planting them, as well as digging and dividing existing clumps. Still transplanting this years crop of seedlings too. Got a few more flats left to do. Also, cleaning out and redoing a large existing bed in my front garden. It's been years since it was planted, so you can imagine how over grown everything was. I'm taking out lots of "junk" and making room for, what else, daylilies!! We've had some good rains the past few weeks, finally, so my dl's are looking wonderful again. So green, and healthy instead of wilted and dry as they were during our long dry summer. Well, I'm off to the garden again. Happy Fall Ya'll, Jan

Mountain Harmony has plastic canvas patterns for all sports teams (free) that can easily be used for cross stitch. Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain Harmony

You might want to post your question in the "sewing forum" and see if anyone there can help you. Sorry I don't have an answer for you.

Lady, I think you took what I said a little far. I'm not saying you are insensitive. I'm saying that was an insensitive thing to have done. Your stepson is not selfish, that was a selfish thing he did. If you put a label on him, one could turn right around and put a label on you. A "typical" selfish thing for a teenager to do is to not think of others and how their actions might affect others. A "typical" SM thing to do is to be insensitive about a child's birthparent. You are not inherently insensitive just because you did an insensitive thing (nor are you alone!! :) and he is not inherently selfish because he did a selfish thing. Do you see where I am going? Yes, stepchildren are oversensitive about a stepparents role and how they perceive us. Many of us are. Because we want to be protected by our parents, and we are protective of our parents. Believe me, it hurts a lot worse to overhear something bad about ourselves from someone with "mother" in their name (and he shouldn't have been listening to you two, but, hey, that's what kids do, right?) than it does from other people. I have had only one legal stepmother, and she had nothing to do with raising me. But I have had many pseudo-stepparents, one long term relationship that lasted from age 6 until adulthood, and several in-between on the other side. Unless a stepparent is there from day one and the birth parent never comes back, there will always be the question of "do they love me" and "is it unconditional" etc. And I empathize with you not having a second alone to discuss things with your husband. But he's 16, right? Perhaps you could leave him alone in the house and take a walk around the block next time? We all judge other adults in our lives. Most adults would feel bad if they overheard someone saying that about them. Imagine you saying this to your husband: "Your sister is so selfish, she is just like your mother!" Now imagine your SIL or MIL overhearing it. "GENETICS play a HUGE part in a child's overall makeup. And I, being the fairly blunt person that I am, see nothing wrong with having a child or young adult take a nice long look at themselves in order to see what needs to be improved, sharpened, strengthened or what not... Self-awareness is our friend!" Lonepiper, I agree, but I think telling a person to their face that their behavior does not work is far better than saying derogatory things about them where they could possibly overhear.