Valentine's Day, a little early

I made this valentine to share with the Red Hat Society ladies in Phoenix, Arizona this coming week. The white outlines make red hearts, which is very appropriate for the day.



Of course, these pictures are too close up; you can see every flaw in my work.



I hope to post while we are on vacation, but I do not know how much stitching will be going on.

Snow days/Sick days

Well, we have had another storm that will be added to the list of legendary storms in the Chicago-land area, to go along with the storms in 1967, 1979, 1999, and now 2011. We had 18 to 20 inches in one day, and yesterday nothing was moving.

Poor Jake had to go out to do his business in the snow. This is while it was still storming. You can see the unhappy look on his face; he was not quite sure how he was going to get back up the steps.



The only good thing about so much snow is how light it is in the house today. The sun is out, and looks wonderful against the snow. You can see the tracks Jake left.



DH worked outside for 4 hours yesterday, shoveling, and snow-blowing. He did the alley behind our garage in that time, but the alley is still not passable for a vehicle. (Several vehicles were stuck there yesterday, including a 4-wheel drive truck!) So I am stuck at home for a second day. I did not go out to help with the snow at all yesterday, because I am not feeling well; I feel a little guilty about it, but not too bad! If I had felt better, I would be out shoveling in the alley, and would have gotten to work, but as it is.... There are not too many people at work yet today, so all in all, I think I picked the right couple of days to be sick.

This is my progress on HSTS. Part 4 consists of the lozenges on all four sides of the central medallion, and part 5 is the filling of the first lozenge. I only did the "north" lozenge, call it being done with 4A. Almost all the cross stitches are done in part 5, there are a few long stitches in greens and blacks for grass, and a couple of rice stitches in the border.



You can see that I resolved my missing color dilema. I found my original shopping list for the colors, and remembered how and where I shopped for them. That also lead me to recall that I was not happy with the color spread for the pink tulip colors... and for my substitution. I am very pleased with the way it turned out... not so pleased with having to unstitch the incorrect portions on the first two I did.



I promised myself that I would put this away now until after vacation. I am really surprised by how hard it has been to leave it alone. But I already have something to show you tomorrow!

Stay warm and safe!

Flower Power

We spent the evening with J and C on Saturday. It was wonderful to spend time with them, to get to know their cats Eero and Sidera (sp?), and to pick up my framed Flower Power.

Here it is!



It is huge! and gorgeous. The only problem is, most of the time it is lit from the side, and the linen is not perfectly smooth. I am trying to decide if I can be happy with the way the linen is stretched or not. Sometimes I can't even see the wrinkles, and sometimes they are all I see.

I don't think I am happy.