Summer is Almost Over!

I always feel a little depressed at the end of summer, and I'm really feeling a little bummed this year. I spent the summer with my mother while she was recovering from her surgery and missed sitting in the backyard and doing the gardening. The condition of our garden is truly sad. I'm also bummed over the fact that I didn't get more done in August for the Flower of the Month SAL, hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair. This is the first month this year I did not spend my planned two weeks working on the SAL. I spent the first two weeks of the month finishing my Woodland Rabbit. Admittedly, that actually made me very happy, but then the end of summer blues started to hit.



I started working on Lily of the Valley which is my least favorite of the flowers. To make it more enjoyable I decided to use an orange fabric I got through a fabric of the month club, and I'm working it 2 over 1, which I have become absolutely addicted to. But still I have an issue with Lily of the Valleys. It goes back to my first gardening experience in my life. When we bought our house nine years ago, we did a little relandscaping on one small section of the front lawn. We dug everything up and planted new decorative grasses. I had lived my whole life in an apartment, so this was my first gardening project and I was very excited and proud. Well, suddenly all of these plants start coming up, right in the middle of our grassws! I was hysterical! It was Lily of the Valley. It took us an entire weekend, digging down at least 8 inches to get rid of all the roots. And for three years after that, in spring we would still get a few popping up that we had to dig out before they took over again. After one week the cross stitch version is coming out rather nicely though and I hope to have it finished in September, as I am going to dedicate three weeks to the FOTM this month.

After only one week working on the Lily of the Valley I was told that the baby who was due in September had arrived, so I had to finish the Ten Tiny Toes Birth Announcement. It only took me one week to finish, and I think my stitching on this piece is the most consistent of anything I have made so far. I also loved working over two and working on colored fabric instead of white. This piece, as small and simple as it is, really took my stitching to a whole new level.


And Lobo keeps moving along, slowly but surely. I am close to finishing the first row of pages, and finally the ears are complete.

So for the month of September, the first three weeks are being dedicated to the FOTM SAL and the last week will move to another birth announcement that I want to have completed for that baby's first birthday in July of 2016. The last week of the month I am going to start a new project, but more on that next month if all goes according to plans.