Holy Cow! It's Been Nearly A Month

   Every time I post I promised myself I am going to get better about the frequency of my posts.  I don't know exactly when or why I turned into such a slacker but there it is, I'm a slacker.  Seems that I don't want to do anything that interferes with my stitching time.  I have to cook and clean and do all those other necessary household chores but I don't like giving up precious stitching time to anything I don't absolutely HAVE to do.  Stitching is so much more fun!
   That being said,  I haven't had as much time to stitch lately as I would like. Before I left for Atlanta we discovered that one of our cats was suffering from kidney disease.  This was quite distressing since our other cat had also been diagnosed with kidney disease the year before.  The vet had no explanation for how they would both have it since they are not related but that was the situation.  One of the things my husband was dealing with while I was gone were his daily fluid treatments.  Kind of explains why he didn't have time for housework!
    After my return from Atlanta,  we evaluated his condition again and found no improvement.  As heartbreaking as it was, it was decided that the only thing to do was put him to sleep.  He was such a sweet little man with a fantastic personality and he is missed so much every day.
  The stress and sadness of this decision put the stitching into overdrive.  I started several projects but didn't make a lot of progress on them.  First is Jane Tindall by Needlework Press.

40 ct. Lakeside Pearled barley
w/ DMC

She's a big girl but the top part of it should go pretty quickly.  It will be a 70th birthday gift for one of my stitch group friends when I get her done.  Hope I can blast it out in time with all the other things I have obligated to this year!
    I also made a feeble start on Louisa B. Snow, a reproduction by Little House.  I have had it kitted for quite some time and thought it was about time to get to work on her.  She will also be a birthday gift for a friend this year.  It will be a tough hand-off since I really love those roses!

40 ct. Lakeside Light Exemplar
w/hand dyed cotton

      I thought I would have that last week of the month to regroup.  Turned out we had to move the EGA board meeting up a week due to the unavailability of some key players which meant the newsletter also had to go out a week early. (If I haven't mentioned it before, I am our chapter's newsletter editor.)  That was just about the whole week gone.  I did manage a bit of stitching during that time and I worked most of  the section with the big steer in amongst all the madness.

All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana
called for linen and threads

   Then, I had the next week to prep for out spring beach trip. The Hubs was working on a project again (of course) so most of the grunt work fell to me.  I was pretty much okay with that since I usually just sit and stitch the whole time we are at the beach.   We invited his cousin and his wife to go with us this time and I didn't get as much time to stitch as usual.  They had never been to the Outer Banks before so we did a lot of touristy things with them.  It turned out to be a lot of fun since we hadn't done a lot of those things in quite a while.
  Of course, we had to tour the lighthouse.  The Hubs and his cousin went all the way to the top.  The wife and I watched from below and got some good pics!

We were sitting on a bench and got this one through the trees.

   

The Hubs taught me how to edit my pics
on my phone to get this great picture.
I was not this close when I took it!

It looked like they had painted it recently so my pic came out really well.  There were a lot of people there for this early in the season too.
   We also made the trip to Ocracoke which is now a long and sometimes arduous journey.  We lived on Hatteras Island in the late 70s/early 80s.  At that time, the trip across on the ferry took about 35 minutes.  With the changes to the topography from storms and shifting sands (that all the dredging they can do doesn't seem to be able to overcome) the trip is now roughly double that time.  You also run the risk of having the ferry run aground and being stuck in the middle of the sound.  This has happened several times recently.  The Coast Guard has come to the rescue and taken passengers to shore but that still leaves your car on the ferry until the tide rises enough to release it.  This didn't happen to us but I guess it would have made a good adventure story if it had!!
    We did get to see the wild ponies while we were there though.  It was on the bucket list of  The Cousin's Wife. She was a little disappointed that they were in a pen but we explained to her that if they were not, she probably wouldn't have been able to see them!

It rained the whole week before we got there.
The pasture isn't usually that wet.

  As for stitching,  I finished up the rest of what is done on All Creatures and then I pulled something out of the bag that hadn't seen the light of day since last summer.  Plum Street's Liberty Inn got some love and I wasn't able to put it down until it was finished.  Love it so much but it is destined to become a shop model as soon as I can get it framed.

36 ct. Lakeside Vintage Maple Sugar
w/most of the colors changed

I made a lot of color changes so I guess this one is truly mine!!  I finished it up last night and I confess that my dickering with the colors made it take longer than it should.  I ripped and changed several of the colors, several times before I got them the way I wanted them.
  Last, but certainly not least, I received this cutie in the mail from a very dear friend for my birthday.

Plum Street's Red Cottage

I know, I know, its not my birthday.  But we stitch for each other's birthdays every year and her life has been so full of crazy of late that we are continuing the celebration now.  Just love it!  A trip to the framer is definitely in order.
   So, that's where things lie for now. Too many projects and too little time.  Of course,  I plan to start 2 new SALs this weekend and have lots of new projects waiting in the wings.  Stay tuned!

Hope you're enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura