The Last Update of July

Hard to believe July is almost over already! Kids go back to school in 2 weeks - and I am not ready; they have paper, that's it. No clothes, no bookbags - though the big one has new flip flops (the preferred shoe of high schoolers here) and the little one got new shoes a month ago, if he can find them. Little Kid is not too big of a deal, since he wears uniforms to school, and hasn't outgrown his shorts - just needs t-shirts and the under stuff, since he'll wear shorts into November. Big Kid has nothing he can wear, and can't wear DH's stuff now, either, so he'll be the big expense this year. Here's a pic of his new school:
New high school, our middle school gets to shift over to the old high school, and then one of the other middle schools is going to our old middle school while theirs is being renovated. This new school is 500 yards from our house - not sure if that's good or bad, yet....

On to the stitching bits :) Last week, my main focus was Lady & Unicorn, but I didn't get a whole lot of time in on it - got stuck at a soccer meeting Monday until almost 10:00, then had to work a concession stand at the Georgia Dome Wednesday, as a fund raiser for hs soccer, for the World Football Challenge game between AC Milan & Club America. I saw about 2 minutes of the game, including Milan's only goal, from our 3rd level spot. I don't ever want another hot dog as long as I live - yuck! But we thought we'd be okay, as we were to the car by 10; didn't get home until almost midnight, thanks to 50,000 people at this event at the Dome, Braves were also in town, and oh, yeah, I-85 Northbound down to 2 lanes. So I was exhausted on Thursday and couldn't even think about L&U that night. Wasn't much better on Friday, so didn't work on it then, either, but tried to make up some ground on Saturday & Sunday. I didn't finish the top row of pages, understandable, I guess - I am pretty sure I would have, if my schedule hadn't been so disrupted. Here's the overall & detail:

I took out the orange horizontal thread marking the bottom of the page - I crossed it a few times, and it was in my way. But you can get kind of an idea what's left; assuming next time is more normal, I ought to be able to knock out the last of this row...

I received Nancy's RR in the mail Thursday - the piece from Shawn, and the Mill Hill kit for my square from Nancy. She gave me the Needlework Shop to do :) She says that I have been an inspiration to her with some of the color choices I have made, and thought the needlework shop fit me best :) Thursday, when I was dragging butt from our late night the night before, I decided to put some stitches in on Shawn's square that she didn't get finished, as mine wasn't ready to go yet - wayyyy tooo tired to try to sort threads :) Here's where Shawn's is now:I can't tell you exactly where Shawn left off and I picked up - it's all too fuzzy now.... And then, Friday I was still tired and knew if I tried working on L&U, it would end up being an hour or two of me staring dumbly at it, so I kept on with Nancy's RR, and got a start on my square:
Doesn't really look like anything yet, huh? Well, hopefully I can finish this one up in the next weeks, and if not finish Shawn & Lyne's, at least get them closer.... I'll be adding a personalized name to my shop, of course - don't know what yet, but something that ought to be recognized as mine :) Here's a shot of the whole piece as of right now.

Also in the mail Thursday, along with Nancy's RR bits, was an envelope from Natalie. Hmmmm, wasn't expecting anything from her - what could it be? I ripped into it right away, of course, and inside was her chart for Watergarden that she finished for her parents not too long ago, and the beads to go with!!!! She knew that I really loved that design, so she sent it to me!!! It really will be a wonderful companion to Knotgarden, since they both have those gates on all four sides :) Thank you Natalie!! I keep taking it out and looking at it :)

Lastly for this update, since I had to repack my travel bag with all new projects, once I finally got D is for Dog done last week, I started an old chart, Iris by Green Apple Designs. I did quite a bit over lunches during the week, and took it to my stitching group on Saturday. I am kind of wondering how much some of the DMC colors have changed since 1986 when the chart was printed - some of them look a little of so far, but I'm going to trust that they will all work out in the end :) I think I'm doing this on a piece of my good old 28ct evenweave - I don't think it's 32...? Anyway, here's a week's work on it:
This is the center flower, and it's only about half filled in; the left one is completely filled in, and the right one is almost completely done in outline - I think this will be really pretty when it is done - and it's quick, so I can move on to other travel projects :) Everyone in my group loved the Debbie Draper cats that are kitted, too - I definitely think the group is predominantly cat people...

This week, Back to Part 5 of MTM - I WILL get the last corner done, so help me! Though I am again going to be interrupted by soccer - Big Kid has a game in NC on Wednesday, that was rescheduled from June, and since I had planned to go up to see family then, I made arrangements to still go this time, though only overnight Tuesday, as Little Kid has school orientation Thursday, so we will head back home right after the game. But I now have Thursday morning free, so if I can get my dead butt out of bed, I can hopefully get caught up on what I lose to traveling Tuesday & Wednesday :) We shall see....Finally got some pics of the red headed woodpeckers that are all over our woods - still not close enough for my zoom to figure it out, but hey, better than nothing....