Working my fingers to the bone

  I've been stitching like a crazy fool but mostly on the piece that no one can see until the end of the month!! I am loving it and am going to have a hard time giving it up but I think the recipient will be pleased with it.  It's a lot of work but will be well worth it in the end!
  I took a break from the mystery piece for a couple of days and worked for a while on Frances Pool.  I had stitch group at my house on Wednesday and was shocked and amazed at how little I got accomplished stitching-wise during that period.  We start at 10 am and continued until 3 pm and I only got the tail of the bird in! (Of course the fact that we had someone visiting so we had to take the sampler tour of the whole house. And that we also had to have show and tell with all of my WIPs of which there are a mighty many didn't help with the whole time thing!!)  So I continued to work on it for the next couple of days and managed to make some progress.  Here is where I am now...

I have fiddled with the colors a little more to suit my fancy but I am just to the point now that repro or not, I have the like the darned thing when its done!!
   I also got Ann Grimshaw back from the framers this week.  I love it, the framer loves it, my stitch group ladies love it, I think we have a consensus.  We all love it!!!  We all agree it is the wide black frame with the dental molding that really makes it pop. And everyone agrees she needs to be showcased somewhere that I will be able to see her ALL THE TIME, especially while I stitch.

I haven't decided where to hang it yet so right now it is propped up against the wall on the table in the corner of my dining room.
  I actually have several pieces that are framed and need to be hung but since I totally stink at arranging the pictures on the wall, I usually wait a really long time to get it done and then just have my friends help me do it.   Tommye is supposed to be coming to visit in June and I may just wait for her to help me.   I put her to work at this task last time she visited and she did a really good job.
  Well I better get back to work if I want to get that piece finished on time!  Laura