Ok, I am embarassed!

Have you ever created something that you are not completely proud about, but you did it and you might as well prove that you can complete projects even if they don't totally speak to who you are or what or how you want to represent yourself. So have a good laugh.

Ok, so now that you have laughed yourself off your computer task chair, are you finished yet? No? Ok, I will wait a moment longer...

Alright. I made it for my dad, because I thought he liked stuff like that, though i must admit that I never really asked him, I assumed he enjoyed this sort of thing. I look at it and I am mortified that I made it. My dad died in 2001 of ALS, and about a week before he passed away my sister and I went out to his place for a weeks holiday to spend some time with him. We were up one night and I asked him if he wanted to watch Ben Hur with me. Now just so you have some background here, I had watched this movie about 7 to 10 times over the years with my dad. I had assumed all these years that he loved the movie, I enjoyed the movie, but I really thought that it was one of my dad's all time favourites. So when I asked him if he would like to watch it again, he said, "only if you really want to" to which I responded, "of course, I want to watch your all time favourite movie with you, who knows when we will be able to get to do it again" and he said (and I have to say I am still perplexed to this day) "well I never really much cared for it, I watched it because I thought it was your favourite" after I picked my jaw up off the floor, we both had a great laugh. We didn't watch Ben Hur that week, now I wish we had.

So, this Chief head with full headdress and wolf, may actually have been something along the same lines. My father may have feigned interest because he loved me. It's funny that. Anyways, I made it for him, a project I completed out of love for someone rather than love for the task at hand. That piece now graces my bedroom wall, for the same reasons; love for a small girls' hero. Sometimes I wince when I look at it for its content, then I think of how he hung it in a place of honour when I gave it to him, and a pang of guilt courses its way through me when I realize I have hidden it from the eyes of most. So, here is to you dad, a project I completed and gave to you.

Some of you may actually be interested in what it is. It is a piece of canvas with a print on it, the headdress, and medallion are crewel stitched with yarn. The medallion and the headband portion of the headdress are actually a zillion little french knots. The workmanship is actually ok, I think that I did a great job on it. I have another one of these projects that I purchased but never actually started, it has birds in it in a flower garden. Perhaps one day I will pull it out.... or perhaps not. :)