Where is the time going?

Wow, time has just been flying by. I feel like I blinked on July 1st and its almost August. Apparently, I totally missed last week :-( What the heck!

Anyway, I can happily report that I have finished my 12 Days of Christmas.

I am really happy with how it came out. And I'm looking forward to the temperatures going down, and my being able to start practicing with the sewing machine. Right as I finished, our temperatures (and humidity) skyrocketed. The sewing machine is in a non-airconditioned room, so it will have to cool off before I can start on that in earnest.

I finished mid-week and I decided to make a birthday card.

I really enjoyed making the Happy New Home card I made a few weeks ago, and now I am just obsessed with making cards! So, I decided to spend a week working on two more.

Also spent a bunch of time trying to find a good place to get aperture cards for finishing the cards off. So far I have only found Craft Creations with a nice selection. Would love someplace in the US, just to save on shipping, but it seems the US does not do crafts. Sad... Looked around Michael's yesterday considering the option of actually making the cards out of card stock... But I'm not sure I'm crafty, nor creative, enough for that. But hey, last year at this time I never would have been planning on sewing a pillow.

If you have any ideas for card making, or good online tutorials, please pass them along.

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Need A Finish - Need Something Happy

This week has been really difficult. So many horrible things happening. So much hatred. It makes me so sad. It makes me so confused. I just don't understand and it causes me so much heartache. I almost feel guilty posting about my stitching, but my stitching is practically the only thing that is making me happy.

And even my stitching is letting me down. The finish of my 12 Days of Christmas still alludes me. The trains are still very crowded, not providing me the opportunity to stitch on the way to work, and this week, train delays even wiped out my train stitching on the way home. Work has been crazy so although I got a little stitching done in the morning before starting work, I have not had time to take a full lunch so there has been no lunchtime stitching.

So, although I was able to finish the Eleventh Day...

a project finish still eludes me. I'm about halfway done with the Twelfth Day, so I feel confident that I can finish the day and the project this week. I've really enjoyed this project, but it's time for a finish.

Once I do finish this, I want to get back to the Faces of Joan Elliott SAL and finish that. Then I need to decide what's next. Definitely want to make some more cards. I really love the Happy New Home one I made and I really started to like the idea of giving homemade cards.

But for right now I just need to finish the 12 Days. Wish me luck!

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To Hear A Mockingbird

When we first moved into our house, there was a bird that would sit at the top of the utility pole right outside our backyard and sing all day. The fascinating thing was that he sang all different songs - one right after the other. I was just about to ask my coworker what kind of bird sings all different bird songs when I realized I was being an idiot, it's a mockingbird! I remember my mother actually saying that she was about to ask if I had some sort of a recording playing, before she realized it had to be a mockingbird. Hey, we were from Queens - what did we know about mockingbirds!?

That bird blessed that utility pole for the first three years and then suddenly was gone. I felt so sad and missed the constant songs. I kept hoping another mockingbird would decide that pole was the best place to go through his repertoire. I saw mockingbirds flying around the neighborhood, heard them occasionally in the distance, but until a few weeks ago none were close enough to really enjoy. Finally, one has decided to set up his studio nearby. He's not on our utility pole, in fact I'm not sure where he is, but he is close enough that I can enjoy his singing most of the day. It makes me smile.

While I've been listening to the mockingbird, I've been plugging away at The 12 Days of Christmas. Had another week that did not result in as much progress as I had hoped, but I did make progress. I finally finished the tenth day on Tuesday night. I didn't have time to get a picture when I removed it from the Q Snap, so I can't show the completion of Day 10, but here is where I got to on Day 11 so far.

Since the plan for the rest of the long weekend is sitting in the backyard (listening to the birds) and relaxing, I'm hoping to be near the end of the eleventh day by the end of the weekend. And I am just going to keep plugging away at it until done. Time to get this project from the WIP list to the 2016 Finish list.

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