The Letter H

is finished!

I thought I would have it done last night, but was "proofreading" it and saw an open space that looked wierd, and realized I had missed an area (which I expected, due to the way this is designed), so I got up this morning and finished it. It feels FANTASTIC. Of course, it still needs to be transformed into a biscornu, but I'm going to put it aside for now. I have three pressing projects: a bookmark for an exchange that I have been procrastinating about, a quilt square, and the Pollyanna Pickering pandas (say that fast, LOL). The bookmark is due on the 1st, the quilt square the 30th, and the pandas for the fair, but we have to frame those, and that may take some doing.

The pandas are intimidating me, I have to say. I am using the book Mother and Baby Animal Cross Stitch, by Pollyanna Pickering. It is a beautiful book, with lovely wild animal charts. However, the charts are full color, and not every color uses a symbol. As much as I hate to admit it, my eyes don't work as well as they used to, and I need symbols. It's bad enough to tell filled in arrow from hollow arrow, but puce brown square from light puce square is asking a lot. I'm not going to give up on this project, though. I want it done for the fair, it's a very sweet picture, and I know I can do it. It's a challenge though. I just hope that the other charts are better, because I do love the book. A lot.

Friday night, I treated myself by going to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for a visit to Hobby Lobby. I was looking for bird cages, and figured they were a good place to look. And it was a nice evening for a 50 mile drive, LOL. I went through Gettysburg; the store is 20 miles away right on Rte. 30, so it wasn't too bad. They didn't have what I wanted, but I did find a patriotic sailboat for my 4th of July collection and a large paper hatbox, woo hoo! The HL doesn't have a lot of stitching supplies, I was disappointed, but they do have nice decorative stuff and their craft supplies seemed a little better. And the staff was super-friendly. I appreciated that.And, driving back, I came down through the battlefield at Gettysburg, which takes on such an other-worldly quality at dusk. I always feel compelled to watch for spirits, but maybe, after all this time, they're quiet now. And, oh my goodness, the ghost tours! There had to be at least 5 tour outfits. Crazy! But I did decide that I am asking HTB to take one of the tours when we get back from our honeymoon. After all, we will be spending most of the month in wedding mode. When we get back, Halloween will be that week, and, sucker for Halloween that I am, I need to have something ghostly happen!

The weekend itself went pretty well. We met with a florist on Saturday. I like her. She had lovely ideas, and didn't make me feel like an idiot for being a bit unclear about what I wanted. We discussed calla lilies in terra cottas, with roses, and she found a way to work in white hydrangeas, with HTB in a coordinating boutonniere. She even had a solution for the flower girl's flowers, since she can't toss them. My flower girl will carry a kissing ball coordinating to my bouquet. I told the flower girl the plan; she didn't like it, but (and please don't read this as me being an ogre) I realized I am not willing to appease an 8-year-old. She will get a pretty thing that she can use. And that's it! The florist is also helping us find birdcages. I did find 3 at Homegoods, but we need more.

Yesterday was pretty laid back. Lunch with my dad, dinner with HTB's dad. I even gave Robbie a Father's Day present; just because he doesn't know where his offspring are doesn't mean he's not a father, so he got a toy. He must have told Chancey to back off of it because she didn't bother it. He should at least get to play with his toy one day, right?