A July Update

Well, what an eventful week! The quarter ended at work, and as far as I know, no blood was shed :) The QA guy was in a bit of a panic, but considering the coffee intake, that's to be expected. Other than him, it was pretty quiet from my perspective, for a change :) We had Friday off, in observance of Independence Day, and boy did I need it - the last few weeks wore my wittle brain down to a nub! But, as luck would have it, I spent all of Friday sick in bed. I just got back from the doctor, and he couldn't find any reason for me to have vertigo for 24 hours and then back to normal - so no apparent ear problems, at least, though could have been viral. But the rest of the weekend, aside from being knocked on my butt going down the hill with the Stupid Dog, and the resultant sore spots, was a good one. DH spent the weekend rebuilding the front porch & steps - one of the deck boards fell apart at a knot, so he went ahead and replaced all of them. Then decided to do the steps, too. Which then needed new risers (they were almost shot the last time we replaced the steps, but we made them hold a while longer). Then he decided to do the uprights and the handrails, too. Not sure how many trips to Home Depot it was - at least 3, one of which I went on. Now, we just need to find the paint that the rest of the porch & trim is done in, see if there's enough, if it's any good, and get some paint on parts of it:
Nice and sturdy again, and ought to be good for another 15 years, I would guess :) Depends on how much the left side continues to settle, since it's all downhill from there :)

In other news, my first RR piece, Lavender Path, came back to me last week!!! WOW, is it gorgeous!! Everyone did such a great job on it!! And I have a frame on order for it already - we'll see if the mats I picked are the same color as they appear onscreen when it gets here - geez I hope so, because if not, I'll have to go to plan B - Hobby Lobby custom mat, on sale :) I'll post a pic as soon as i get it in the frame, of course :) In the meantime, I have the 2nd one, Moonlit Orchid, ready to ship out to Paula when it's time to shuffle again.

As for my stitching for the week, well, I jammed on my Halloween lunch project last week -though I did cheat and work on it at the doctor's office Thursday while the boys were getting their physicals :) I should have it done this week - could actually probably finish it in an hour or two if I put it on my stand and put a weensy bit of effort into it, but I'm not in a rush :) For a change.
I don't know if this will be an ornie, or a pinkeep. Who knows, maybe I'll have to do it again and make one of each. Nah, probably not :)

My main project for the week was English Garden Sampler, and though I didn't get as far as I hoped - as usual - I did get some progress in it, and got some of the dreaded bs done :) Missing all of Friday being sick really cut into my progress plans though - I had envisioned stitching into the wee hours Friday night, having slept in Friday morning - but alas, it was not to be - and I didn't get to work on MMM03 during the day, or my bead stuffs, either. Here are the overall and a detail:

On Saturday, after being outside with dogs and porch-building all day, when I finally got to sit down to stitch, I wasn't really in the mood for EGS, so finally decided to work on Chat Noir a bit - which turned into part of Sunday, too. Page one is about 4/5 done now, and I have a good start on Page two. Pages 4 & 5 are almost all Chat, though really, as many colors as are in there besides the black, I don't expect they will be any quicker than these first three - though maybe :). Here he is so far:
The previous photo is hosed at the moment (thanks, Multiply upgrade), so I will have to fix that so you can see the difference.

This week, back to Knotgarden, as well as getting some RR work done. Natalie will be in Atlanta this week, attending a conference, so we have plans to meet on Friday afternoon when she gets done, and maybe make up it to a LNS I've never been to, Abecedarius - which doesn't have a website; what's up with that? Depending on what time she's done - Friday traffic SUCKS in this town, and this shop is in the heart of the worst of it - hopefully we'll make it up there. If not, at least we'll get a bite to eat, and more importantly, have show & tell :) Maybe I'll even manage a picture or two, since I spaced the camera when I met Dr. Stephanie in May 8) Check back over the weekend to see if I defeat the CRS or not :)

Until then, happy stitching, everyone!