Weekend

I am sorry for being so scattered last week. I received a beautiful gift on Monday night that I haven't even taken pictures of yet, but Monday was the last day at my job, and I am still working at setting a new routine.

I am loving how the Holland Springtime Mandala is turning out. There are so many wonderful details in this piece. This is how far I got on Thursday:



I did not notice while I was stitching that the brown on the right side of the picture is piers for a bridge. The railings and lift mechanism of the bridge are done in long stitches that will be one of the last things I do on this project (probably even after the beads).

This is how far I got on Friday. All the picture stitching is done, and some weedy looking plants have sprouted along the top.

I love the lit windows in the little house, and how the light reflects (with metallic stitches) on the water outside. I also like the fat cattails. They look even better in person.



Once I reached this point, I had a distraction. On Saturday we were here:



It is outside of Cabela's in Indiana. But I wanted you to look at the posers at the base of the statue:



It was not a nice day, weather-wise, but we had a lot of fun, nevertheless. This was after breakfast, and we still had to make it to a couple more stores, but it was entertaining. We had to pick up a couple of birthday presents for DD1, which is always fun, and then we got to give them to her on Sunday, which is even more fun. So you can understand that I did not get as much stitching done as the previous couple of days.

The flowers on top don't quite look like tulips yet, but they have a little bit of color, and the onion frame is filled in as well.



As soon as I finish this section, I am going to put it down and do a couple of other things: a temari, or two, a little notebook cover that was a guild project last month, and I want to finish my Quaker turtles. I have all the supplies for that, but always felt I didn't have the time; now I've got nothing but time! I also bought some supplies for a flower pouch/purse, and I want to play with those, and that is leading me to some intriguing thoughts about my HEG summer project...

I will be back later today (or early tomorrow) with pictures of my wonderful belated birthday present!